estirise

Title: In A Shoebox
Author: EstiRose
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kiva
Spoilers: Pretty much series up to late 40s.
Rating: 8+
Summary: Memories are like photographs. Here are some fragments of Mio's life.
Word count: 1000

-I-

Mio has a very short tail in true form, so short she never really sees it, though she's looked in a mirror to try to find it. She's been trying to find it ever since she was a little girl, still dependent on her parents for feeding.

Now she's an adult, and she still doesn't see her tail. But she hunts on her own, and the humans she hunts don't care whether or not she has a tail. They're too busy running, screaming, like the food source they are.

Someday, before she dies, she hopes to see her own tail.

-II-

Her mother had taken her to the park one day because it was time for her to learn to hunt. She'd never known what it was like to do that, because Mother and Father always fed her the energy she needed to live. But now that she was ten, it was time to learn to feed for herself.

So Mio and her mother found a boy, a little older than her, and they followed him. When he was alone, her mother grabbed him, told Mio to strike.

Mio struck. Fed for herself for the first time. Her mother was proud.

-III-

Mio got to start new things quite often. She was on about her fifth job in a year, being too clumsy to work at any of them, and she had so many newspaper subscriptions, it wasn't funny.

But this time she fell in love for the first time. Wataru was human, potential prey, against Fangire Law. But she looked in his eyes, and she saw love. She saw understanding. She saw somebody like her. She was breaking the Rules, and the Queen would come for her. But she didn't care. Not at all.

Because she was in love with him.

-IV-

Fangire were indistinguishable from humans. That's why they could blend in, her parents had told her, being able to hunt their prey without their prey noticing. Fangire children learned human manners, human words, human customs, because they had to. But Mio knew that she was not human, not when her mother fed her life energy from a human she'd preyed upon.

Because Fangire were better, hunters, they had bigger restrictions too, her parents told her. You didn't make the humans able to fight back, and you didn't fall in love with them.

And then she fell in love with Wataru.

-V-

The shop is empty, waiting for new owners. Mio peeks in the door as movers take equipment out and in, wishing that it hadn't happened that way. She'd liked her new boss, who was patient and kind and could deal with her tripping over the floor. But he's dead, like most of the rest of the employees, a needless waste.

A needless waste because she ducked at the wrong moment. That weapon was meant for her, to kill her, because she refused to be Queen. Sure, her co-workers were human, but they didn't need to die. Not for her.

-VI-

Sometimes Mio thinks that her whole life consists of her dragging her way through things. Like if she keeps going, she'll eventually get there, though it often doesn't feel like it. That's how she feels about being Queen; she'll eventually get the idea, but it tires her out, makes her feel like she's not her.

She wishes she was not chosen for Queen. Wishes she wasn't Queen. She can barely serve a table - what business does she have enforcing the rules of the Fangire race?

It had to be somebody's cosmic joke for her to be Queen, because she's not.

-VII-

Mio takes a photograph out of her shoebox. Placing it in the album, she wonders if she'll have to buy another album soon, for her wedding photographs. She doesn't want to marry Taiga - really, really doesn't want to marry Taiga - but she doubts she has a choice in the matter. She is Queen, and he is King, and that's how things go.

She wanted to make an album with Wataru, but that's not possible. He's human and she shouldn't even love him. But she does, and she wishes they had a future together. But they don't. They don't.

Mio cries.

-VIII-

Mio has never been to the airport, never flown on an airplane. Her parents were never rich, and they never had reason to fly.

When Taiga talks to her about the future, he talks about trips. Spending time together. Flying to America and all those exotic places. Mio doesn't talk about how she's never flown, because she doesn't want to reveal how homely and simple she is to the Fangire King.

So when he talks about all the things they'll do together after they're married, she nods obediently and tries not to sound stupid. Because even she has her pride.

-IX-

She never understood why Taiga, her King, was so patient with her, why he was willing to stand up for her even when Bishop was ready to execute her as a traitor. But at long last she understands, at long last she knows that he loves her, and he's willing to forgive her anything, even betrayal.

Mio still loves Wataru and wishes he could be King, but she's beginning to understand how badly she misunderstood Taiga and how much she should be his Queen. He's willing to forgive her, and forget, and that's the greatest treasure that she could have.

-X-

When Mio was born, her father brought her mother a pregnant human to eat in celebration. It was tradition. And her mother said that she, too, would have a child, and her husband would bring her a pregnant woman too.

But as Mio lay on the ground after the blast, she knew that she would never be a mother, never be pregnant, never have her beloved's child. And as she stared up at Wataru as he cradled her gently, she hoped that he'd understand that. As her body fell apart, she cried for Wataru and the child they'd never have.