I do not own the characters.

Love Triangle

Zen X Shirayuki X Obi

The day was in the deep afternoon. Obi was taking a cat nap in his usual tree by the herb garden. Shirayuki was monitoring her plants, which usually takes at least two hours. He wasn't worried about her getting kidnapped in the middle of the afternoon, he is a soft sleeper after all.

Obi cracked his eye open to find that the sun have already started to set and Shirayuki was nowhere to be seen. He swung up in sitting position and leaped off the tree, heading towards the castle when a soft voice called out. "Obi!" The guard turned around and his panicked expression instantly smoothed. Shirayuki was sitting next to the tree. He must have missed her in his quick sweep. She was underneath him. He didn't think she knew where his spot was.

"Mistress, what are you doing here so late?"

"Oh, I was done early today and I didn't want to wake you."

Obi chuckled. "I think we taught you too well in shadow training, I didn't hear you at all. I hope you weren't waiting long." He sobered when he saw her expression. "He tilted his head to the side in question.

She sighed and stood up. "Obi-kun, why have you been avoiding Zen?"

His eyes widened a fraction. If she didn't know her own lovers, she would have missed it.

"I'm not, he's just been busy; we've all been busy." Obi said with a charming smile.

She narrowed her eyes at him in return. "What has happened that I seemed to have missed? Did he say something rude to you or?"

He waved his hands in front of his face. "No- no, it's nothing like that. Zen has been nothing but spectacular. I'm just tired Miss.-" He paused when Shirayuki held his face between her hands.

She leaned in to give him a quick peck and then searched his eyes as if they would open up his thoughts to her. "I don't understand you anymore." She muttered. Then she turned around to walk off. Over her shoulder she yelled out "Come find me when you're ready to talk." He watched her walk away before following her a distance back to the castle.

The problem was Obi heard bad things about the prince within the castle. Rumors were going around about him and Zen. Fortunately, the soldiers were accepting the rumors with ease and with impasse, judgement free zone, but the other 75% of the castle… well. They think it's the worst kind of scandal.

It's not unfamiliar for him to be in the minority. Obi rubbed his dirty hands against the side of his pants.

Zen was currently off somewhere, trying to settle a kingdom from attacking a friendly Ally. Making Obi stay at home with Shirayuki instead of fighting by his side. Obi didn't take that lightly.

They fought that night Zen left: "She's not going to be in immediate danger and possibly death. You are. I should be protecting YOU, as YOUR knight." Obi yelled out. Which he became so bold over the many years since they fell in love. They were outside in the woods as Zen wanted to help patrol the perimeter with him.

Zen felt his heart pound through his chest. Mixed emotions flickered across his face. Finally, calmly, Zen replied in almost a whisper compared to Obi's outburst. "I want a place I can come home to. Please Obi, stay safe and protect what is dear to me. I promise I-"

Obi covered Zen's mouth with his own. I don't want to hear his promises. The heated kiss was pulled away as fast as he started it. Obi squeezed his hand. "You can't blame me for wanting to go to the battle front. It gets boring here without you."

Tonight, Obi was doing his nightly route before bed, the same one as usual. Stretching into the forest, he heard an echo from farther down the hill and went to investigate. He ran swiftly 45 minutes out before he saw a man sitting by a fire. Obi turned to leave when he felt something prick his neck. His hand shot up and pulled out a small dart. 'What the hell?' three shadows appeared next to him.

"Did we get him?" said a voice.

Obi felt his body turn into stone. He was paralyzed. "Yes, this is him. Good job Ruka." Obi tried to take a step forward and found he was falling over unable to protect himself from the fall. His arm took the brunt of the damage.

Three sets of feet came into his vision. The third voice called out. "You really think the Second Prince of Clarines wouuld want his toy back if we break it?" He said tauntingly. "I'm sure his wife Shirayuki-sama would thank us for getting rid of him."

"Go send the letter." Obi heard the second voice again before he was kicked hard in the stomach.

Shirayuki kept pacing from her room to outside onto the balcony. Obi wasn't in his room, and it was almost 3a.m. He never stays out late without telling her. Did she upset him that much? Push too hard that he doesn't even want to sleep in his own room that was connected to Zen's and Shirayuki's bedroom? He moved like lightning and was as quiet as a whisper. She hadn't slept without him in years. They always waited up for each other. Guilt was eating her up. She sat down and wrote a letter to Zen:

I can't sleep. I think I've done something terrible. Obi must be mad at me. I wanted him to trust in me like how he trusts you. I confronted him about his feelings and he shrugged it off. Now he won't even come to bed and he sleeps a lot during the day, more than usual. We miss you.

– Shirayuki

Then she tucked the letter into a tiny carrier for their messenger bird, and she sent it off into the night sky.

The next morning, Shirayuki found herself sleeping on the floor against the open door of their two bedrooms. Hoping to awaken to see Obi's face, but both beds looked untouched. She tried not to let the lonely feeling eat her up inside. He needs space. She thought as she got up to start her day. There was an ache in her heart that never seem to let up. She asked around for him and must have looked like an idiot when she would pause mid stride and look around, hoping to find a glance of his soft black hair or his fancy green uniform in the distance, only to be disappointed.

After her shift was over, a maid stopped by before her bath to hand her a letter. Did Zen reply already? Hopefully he would say something to soothe her heart ache. The bird shouldn't have reached him until later tonight, nonetheless respond. Then it wasn't a letter from him. Maybe someone else she knew?

Shirayuki ripped open the envelope and the first thing she noticed was the messy unfamiliar handwriting. The paper smelled of wet soil and written in dark coal. It smeared a little when she touched it. It read:

My lady Shirayuki,

I ask that you send us a reply if you havn't already noticed a certain trouble has been missing. We caught Sir Obi and wish to encounter a bounty for getting rid of him for you for $1,000,000 . If you wish him alive, the amount would have to multiply to $300,000,000. Please reply with the money by the second nightfall or else.

Shirayuki was a fast reader, since she's use to research all day. It's what she does for a living. She reached out to the maid with one hand. "Who sent you this?" Her voice was steady, calculating.

"The guard at the north gate milady."

Shirayuki ran out of the room and used the fastest escape route to the entrance gate. "Shouza! Who was the man that gave you this letter?" The startled guards turned to her in surprise.

"I don't know, he had red hair, a traveling clerk of sorts I suppose?" He said scratching at his chin.

"I need him back at the castle at once! Is there any way you could send him a reply or… where I could find him?"

The guards looked at each other and shrugged. "He'll be back in two days, I thought you knew him. He sounded friendly."

Then the other guard said, "He even talked about how he liked to fish and wanted to take you sometime."

Her brain was in over drive. Coal, wet dirt, fish, camp site near the river mine. "Get my horse ready! I'll be right back."

She ran to the pharmacy and started to throw things in a sack. Glow stone, healing herbs, poison, smoke bombs, dagger, bandages. Last she took one of the soldier's cloak with her that was hanging next to the door. It blends well in the dark and could hide her hair.

Zen is too far away for help, and my knight has been kidnapped. The soldiers here would take an hour or two to set up and by then it would be too late! The second moon it said. Two days? We don't take bribes from bandits. She scribbled on a piece of paper of her location before heading out.

At the gate she exchanged the horse's reigns for her scribbled note. "Where is Obi-kun, shouldn't he be with you?"

"Yeah, I'm meeting him there at that location. If for some reason we are unable to make our way home tonight, send out a search party. I'm counting on you Shouza!" She let the guard go back to work and hope she wasn't running into a trap. If Zen wasn't trying to simmer down an oncoming war right now, she would have wanted him here. If they had more guards to spare, she would have wanted them with her. You don't have to be a prince to save the day. She willed the horse to go faster, to follow the man who left fresh tracks in the dirt.

She pulled her horse off of the trail when she heard the laughing. Her thighs were numb and it was dark out. The first thing she did was start walking towards the camp. Her lovers' rules for a stake out: 1) Move carefully and quickly to a safe observation spot. 2) Maneuver around the premises to find and disable traps. 3) Target enemies one by one. 4) Surprise attack if all else fails.

Shirayuki was behind a big boulder, overlooking the camp. Two men were talking by the fire. There were two tents. However, she noticed there were three bags. Obi wouldn't bring his own sleeping bag. One of the men had a brown cloak and red hair; nothing like her hair, but like a deep auburn, almost brown. She frowned. She heard rustling in the bushes coming from her left. She ducked lower to observe a third guy leaning against a tree, watching them. He was listening to their conversation. Brown hair and an eye patch. Bandits. But where was… OBI! She over looked him, his body was so still on the grass, his back against the fire, away from her.

She digged through her bag to find her poisons and tonics. She got close enough to the tree man to blow hallucinate powder on the back of his neck. Soon, she noticed his eyes glazed over in a trance, his breathing evened out as if he was sleeping with his eyes open. She watched out for traps. Watching the natural lay of the forest. She moved closer to Obi but paused when one of the guys went into the tent.

She doesn't have much time. She crept low to the ground until she was a few feet away from Obi. His eyes popped open. He blinked a couple times. He couldn't believe it. Shirayuki held a finger to his lips to shush. Obi was big enough to block her from their view. "Are you hurt?" She said. He begin to smile.

She reached for his arm when he tensed. There was a long gash. She shoved a sweet energizer seed into his mouth as she inspected the dried blood on his arm. It was already healing without her help. Then she put a numbing cream on it. He looked at her in wonder. "I'm getting you out of here."

He grabbed her wrists and motioned for her to head back into the woods. "I'll be fine." She whispered as she took out the dagger and sliced at his bindings. "Can you move?" she whispered.

Before he could respond the guy at the fire started walking towards us. "You're going to make us rich, you know that? Uke bastard." said the guy. Shirayuki felt a light touch and realized Obi grabbed her dagger and flung it at the guys neck. His captor made no sound as he thumped to the ground.

The guy from the tent climbed out then, Shirayuki tossed a pepper grenade, making him blind. She threw her cloak over her and her lover at the last second for protection. Once she heard the third body fall, Obi lifted her up by her shoulders. She noticed in the fire light he looked horrible. Multiple black and blue spots covered his skin. She gasped.

"Don't cry, love." He grinned as he pushed a tear away from her face. He looked her over. "Are you ok? Are you hurt?" She shook her head. He was limping on his right leg. Shirayuki helped him towards her horse.

He stopped to look around. "What?" She said her heart pounding loudly in her chest.

"Where are the other soldiers that you brought?" He said puzzled.

Shirayuki blushed. "There isn't anyone else, I came alone." He looked at her and shook his head at her before climbing behind her on the horse.

When they got to the castle, she requested help to lift Obi to the infirmary room. Then she helped heal him while he slept. It was easier this way. It would help him heal faster.

she wrote a report after she was content that there wasn't much else she could do for him. When she finally finished her professional work. She sat down next to him in thought. Maybe this would show Obi that he could trust in her. She would do anything for her two handsome men. She loved them both equally, they are her life. She never wants to imagine what it would be like to live without one of them. Zen, please come home soon.

END