Anime Oneshots

Rin Matsuoka (Free!)

"Now get in your ride," you ushered on, inwardly pleased to have the little personal touch noticed. "Go ahead now. Oh, and remember," you were closing the carriage's door already. "Exactly at midnight the spell will vanish, so better get out of there by then."

"Midnight," she nodded lightly. "I'll remember. Thank you for everything. Bye," she waved at you and the carriage rode out fast, making it so she would arrive at the ball with plenty of time for dancing and socialising and raiding the open buffet.

You tucked your wand away into your boot again and spread out your wings. There was no way you could let her go alone to the vultures, but you also couldn't let her know you were watching. There always was some sort of catch to it.

You worked your wings to their best extent and got to the ball befor Cinderella. With another nifty spell you made yourself look like one of the dandy quests, yet still keeping your clothes in their original dark tones. Someone in this ball should be stylish, after all.

You blended in with the quests as well as you could, which meant that after raiding the buffet table, you hid behind one of the curtains and looked at the dancers while munching on a profiterole. As on a que, doorman announced contessa Ella's arrival and in walked your pretty little masterpiece, smelling a little like raw pumpkin but still looking rather fabulous.

You sighed to yourself and looked around. Quests of the ball were whispering by themselves, trying to figure out who was the mysterious contessa, who was now gliding over the dance floor with one of the lovely young counts. You had fulfilled her wish, you thought to yourself. She had asked for a pretty dress and a night out, to break the routine of housework.

But you wanted more.

You wanted the fairy tale happy ending. You wanted the girl to get married to a prince and live happily ever after. That was your job, sole mission. To be the pupeteer. So, instead of reminding yourself that this was definitely what Ella had asked for; you went on a search for the sucker - I mean lovely Prince- for whom this ball was thrown to.

You did find him rather fast. The years and years of schooling had made princes rather predictable, so you thought. When you had seen one crown-wearing prettyboy, you had seen them all. So, as expected , the Prince was playing a good host and dancing with one of the girls. In fact, you noted it was one of Ellas stepsisters. Good for that girl, you thought to yourself.

Neither of the stepsisters were ugly, to that matter. They were quite usual looking girls, with round pleasant faces and eyes that were little too big for their faces. They also had all their teeth, which you considered a big plus. Just ordinary. And neither of them was absorbed with their looks, as their mother was. They did look into a mirror once in a while; but only enough to make sure they were neat and tidy.

Both of them were scientists, which meant the spent day after day with their noses buried in thick, boring looking books and conducting experiments under no watchful eye. They were both good at what they did, and their mother was proud of their achievements, although she never ceased trying to push them to dress better or wear more make up. In fact, she was so proud of their work whenever they came home from university she let them do whatever they wanted and never made them do any work around the house.

It was rather unfair of them but as they were rarely home now and always working, you couldn't blame only them. It was the step-mother who was the main villain here and the onky thing you could blame the sisters was not noticing Cinderella when they were home.

You chewed on your lower lip, rethinking your plan. You didn't want to ruin the party for any of the sisters, so you should probably leave the whole thing alone anyways. You turned around, confident in your decision not to meddle anymore, but still wanting to stay until the end of the party. Someone had to make sure Ella didn't forget about going home at right time.