“And something did happen,” S said softly, relating the story to Sheridon and Gideon. “Her uncle, as a birthday gift, hired that a**hole Dunstan to be her piano teacher. Back then, he was either an undergrad, or just fresh out of it, and double majoring-- music and art. And… well… we know how things went after that…”


“Don’t remind me,” Sheridon replied. Gideon nodded, frowning slightly.

“So,” Gideon said, “how do we get Amaterasu out of the cave?”

“Obviously, it’ll be harder now than it was when she was thirteen,” Sheridon mused to himself.



“Charise,” Gideon called out, “I just made some great tiramisu.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” Sheridon whispered.

“It should,” S replied. “Charise loves tiramisu.”


Charise called from upstairs, in response, “I don’t want any right now. S can bring some up to me later.”

The three men looked at each other in dismay. “So much for that idea,” Gideon muttered.



“Charise,” Sheridon called out, “we’re going to the ice cream parlor.”

“Yeah, the place that makes real Italian gelato and has tiramisu-flavored ice cream,” Gideon added.

“Fine, have fun!” Charise called from upstairs.

“Damn it,” Sheridon muttered. “I was sure that would work.”



A few hours passed, and the guys had vetoed every idea they could think of, on the grounds of each idea being too stupid, too weird, or just plain not likely to work.

“Why don’t you have a go at this problem, S?” Gideon said, poking S’s arm lightly. “I’m sure you could think of something.”

“You haven’t offered any suggestions yourself,” Sheridon added.


Gideon looked at S’s expression. “…You really are worried about Charise, aren’t you?” he said softly. S nodded and bit his lip.

“At least try to talk to her. You’re the only one she’ll let into her room,” Sheridon said.

“You can do it, S,” Gideon said. “Prove to her that you’re more of a man than that rich jerk! Show her that you love her!”

“All you can do is try, right?” Sheridon said.

S sighed. “You’re right,” he murmured, bowing his head. “I’ll see what I can do.”


He rose to his feet and slowly walked over to the stairs, an idea forming in his head. He walked up the stairs, noticing for the first time how much they creaked beneath his feet. He stood in front of Charise’s bedroom door.

“Charise?” he said softly.

“Yeah?” Charise replied. She had to have been leaning against the door to have heard him.

Impulsively, S pressed his lips to the wooden door, as though by doing so, it would transfer to Charise.

“What do you want?” Charise asked.

“Charise,” S said softly, “I’m going to tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who was blessed with everything a woman could ever want, except for one thing. She had a cruel and heartless mother who hated the princess. She envied the princess’s youth and beauty, and she hated the fact that the princess had many of the things she never did. One day, the princess’s mother-- I do not refer to her as a queen, as she is undeserving of that title-- was particularly cruel to her. She told the princess many hurtful lies.”


Here, S paused. Charise opened the door slowly and stared at him. “Then what?” she said.

S said softly, “And then a prince came and chased away the evil woman because he saw the princess for who she really was and knew that none of those lies were true.”

“How did he know?” Charise asked, turning away.

S took a step, moving closer to her. “He knew because he had known her for quite some time and because…”

Here, he hesitated. Do I dare tell her? he asked himself.

S took a deep breath and continued, “Because he loved her.”


Charise turned and looked at S, and then shut the door in his face. S jumped back, startled.

“Please tell me you made that up, S,” she said through the door, her voice shaky.

“…I didn’t,” S replied. “It’s the truth.”

He could hear her through the door, softly sobbing. “No,” Charise finally said. “No. It’ll just make things weird. You know I have a boyfriend.”

“I just--” S began.

“No, S,” she said, still sobbing, but more forcefully. “I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize our friendship.” Charise took a shuddery breath and then added, “Dunstan’s going to be here in a few minutes. Let him in when he gets here, okay?”

“Fine,” S said weakly, knowing he would have to fool himself into thinking he didn’t hear them…