I've found that I can't just keep saying, "Oh, I'm working on it; I promise!" about all of my in-progress stories, so here's the beginning of one I've been saving up for a while...
One Trick Pony
Fandom: Bleach
Teaser: "I looked over at my personal aid, who was bowing deeply just inside the doorway.
'Yes?'
He rose at my acknowledgement. Honestly, if I'd simply ignored him, he still would have stayed in that deep bow until I acknowledged him –even if it was a week later."
Inspiration: …I really have no idea what made me want to write this! It provides a nice change of pace from my Bleach stripper-fic problem, though, haha…
If I have to blame something, I think this could have been inspired by a fan-fiction called "The Prince and the Rebel" by ArtemisMS... I enjoy it so much each time I read it!
Rating: M, because… well, because Ichigo's in it, okay? lol
Warnings:
-Secrets
-Sensuality
-Prostitution
-Bureaucrats/Politics
-Negligence
-Assassination attempts
-Dancing
-Some mentions of abuse
-Violence
-…anything else that crops up…
Main Pairing: Byakuya Kuchki/Ichigo Kurosaki
Minor Pairings:
-(percieved) Byakuya Kuchiki/Hisana Kuchiki
-(onesided) Rukia Kuchiki/Renji Abarai
-(sexual) Renji Abarai/"Strawbery"
-Kaien Shiba/Rukia Kuchiki
-(past) Kaien Shiba/Miyako Shiba
-(past) Isshin Shiba/Misaki Kurosaki
-Toshiro Hitsugaya/Rangiku Matsumoto
-(past, onesided) Ichigo Kurosaki/Zangetsu (Mikaido) [More Tensa Zangetsu in appearance…]
-(onesided) Nemu Kurotsuchi/"Strawberry"
-Yoruichi Shihōin/Kisuke Urahara
-Isshin Shiba/Ryūken Ishida
Setting: AU! In a far-away kingdom called Nigotta where Byakuya is the crown prince; also in the neighboring country Kõsei, where Toshiro is the crown prince.
POV: Renji, who watches over the crown prince; Byakuya, who is the crown prince; Ichigo, who would be the consort to the crown prince; Rukia, who is the crown prince's sister; Kaien, who guards the princess. First person from all of them.
Summary: The Kōketsuna Prince, Byakuya, is the crown prince of the small kingdom of Nigotta. He is, by far, too serious for his youthfulness. But when he comes of age, his personal aid drags him to the red-light district, sighting that he had the perfect gift for the chaste prince. He introduces him to the most prestigious prostitute in the kingdom: an orange-haired boy not much older than the prince himself.
The prince spends one night with the boy, then invites the boy to come and live as his personal servant in the palace, leaving the public to speculate about the next three months, which they spend most of together. No one is more surprised than Princess Rukia when her brother makes the boy -who he now calls Ichigo- his personal bodyguard. Who wants the prince dead and what in the name of all things holy and unholy possessed him to make him believe that a boy whose only known talent involved his mouth could protect him from them -let alone, protect him at all?
Additional ANs: This story… the plot promises an epic, not a short story, for which I apologize profusely. The last thing I need is a legitimate excuse to drag a story out like this. The plot line of this one, however, lends it length. I can't make it short and tie it up with a bow without rushing things and surrendering some of the elements that were to characterize this piece.
So please: wait on this story. From what my muses tell me, it will be worth it.
Oh, and in case you wondered:
The kingdom this takes place in is called Nigotta (濁った), which means "murky". The neighboring kingdom is Kōsei (公正) which means "justice". Byakuya's title, Kōketsuna (高潔な) roughly means "virtuous or honorable". The club Kisuke Urahara runs is called Amai Kisu! (甘いキス!) which means "Sweet Kiss!".The capital city of Nigotta is called Kakoku (過酷) which means "severity". When anyone is addressed as or referred to as Ōji (王子), that means "prince". If my translations are wrong, blame Google Translate :P
Universe: "One Trick Pony" 'verse. This story named and originated this universe. This story takes place about a year or so after "One More Night – SIDE A" (and SIDE B).
Renji:
Anyone could tell you that there was something odd about the prince. Most of them would even take the time to debate with you over whether or not it was a good thing that he was the way he was. Those of us who have actually had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the crown prince all agreed that his seriousness would mean good things for our country, especially on the heels of his parents' frivolousness. Still, most people –even those who had met him– wouldn't even hazard a guess as to why he was so different.
What set me apart from those people is that I had more than just a notion as to the answer to the question that plagued the kingdom.
Byakuya, the Kōketsuna Prince, had old eyes. He'd simply seen too much darkness despite his mere seventeen years. It could probably be blamed –at least in part– on his upbringing: his parents, who didn't care about him once they had their male heir, who left him to be reared by various callous nannies, tutors, and aids. Or maybe part of it should be blamed on the death of the beautiful Hisana, his young wife of three short years, who had passed away suddenly despite her valiant struggle against the illness she had been fighting as long as I'd known her.
As she left this world, she took his elusive smile with her. Even before then, Prince Byakuya had always been a very serious child. His posture was impeccable, his mannerisms perfect, and his speech precise, but he'd never smiled or played as much as any other boy I'd ever met. I'd hoped that when Hisana became his bride when he was thirteen that she would bring out his smile more and help him open up more, but since her death, he'd become even more stiff and distant from everyone, even from his younger sister, Princess Rukia.
I'd been with the prince his entire life. I was his personal aid, assigned to him on the day of his birth. Perhaps that was why I was always so concerned about him: I had practically raised him. However, the truth was that while he trusted me more than the others –perhaps because I'd been there to change his diapers, play with him when he was young, and answer his awkward teenage questions, rather than in spite of those facts– he still did not completely trust me, nor did he always take me into his confidence.
However, I was still privy to certain information that most people never knew –things like the fact that despite the three-year marriage, the shared chambers, and the shared bed, Hisana and Byakuya both remained chaste even up to her death. The commoner bride of the crown prince had also become very close to me, and she shared other tidbits of personal information about the prince because I was one of the only people who knew enough about her husband to understand. In fact, I'd been the one to suggest to Byakuya that he smear blood on the sheets to not shame his wife to his kingdom. Very few people knew enough of the prince to know that his tastes didn't run toward the fairer sex, and that would be a disastrous fact to become widely known: the people would panic and worry about the fate of the throne, and that was leaving off the stigma that came with being gay. In fact, I believed that even Princess Rukia was still in the dark about her brother's sexuality, and she would be enraged if she knew how long she had been kept in the dark.
Tomorrow, Prince Byakuya would become of age.
Shopping for the crown prince would be a difficult task for even me. The big question is always, 'What do you get the man who has everything?' Any special occasion –birthdays, Christmas, other decadent affairs of state– just served to increase his amount of 'everything'. I was curious to see the variety of gifts that would arrive at the palace tomorrow, because even the lower classes loved the Kōketsuna Prince.
Luckily for me, I already knew the perfect gift for the chaste prince, and I had taken pains to arrange for it to be properly prepared and waiting for him. Now, if only I could arrange a way to whisk the prince out of his gilded cage for a night so he could enjoy it.
In the famous words of Brendon Urie,"And I believe this may call for a proper introduction, and well don't you see, I'm the narrator, and this is just the prologue?"
I couldn't resist.
Hope the prologue does its job and pulls you in!
Let me know what you like, what you hate, who you want to hear from next... ect. al. :P
Ever at your pleasure,
~Sins~
743 words - Prologue