The Prince and The Oracle

Rated: T

Genre: Family

Disclaimer: I do not own Magi The Labyrinth of Magic. I also do not own the cover of this fanfic, it was made by an artist called Piece5 and taken from zerochan.

Kid

When I first met him I thought of how small he was.

He was said to be a magi, the greatest magician in the world and yet he was just a small child wearing oversize clothes, which made him looked even smaller than he already was.

The strange people that came with him appeared to be worshiping him though and even my aunt seemed to adore him very much.

I was still a bit doubtful but I couldn't think of a reason to protest.

Well, at least he seemed to get along famously with my little brother Kouha.

Peach

I was walking down the corridor on one cloudy afternoon when I saw him standing alone while looking out to the peach tree in the garden.

His wide red eyes looked curious and I couldn't help but to pick one of the peaches and offer another to him.

He beamed at me as his little hands took hold of the pink fruit from my own big and calloused one, before bringing it closer to his mouth to take a bite of it.

"It's sweet!" He exclaimed childishly, which made a smile appeared on my face.

We stayed there for a while as we were eating the peaches together. We were silent the whole time except for the occasional biting and munching of the peaches, and of course his delighted comments.

Once we were done he turned to me with the biggest grin I had ever seen on anyone and his voice resounded along the empty corridor as he stared at me excitedly.

"You're nice! What's your name?"

"Ren Kouen." I answered simply. "You're Judal, the oracle, right?"

"Yup, and I'm also a magi!" He said with an innocent sense of pride.

"Oh? You're pretty small for someone as great as a magi." I teased him, and it wasn't like I wasn't curious myself.

He pouted and I was just about to laugh at the cute scene when he suddenly stood up straight and raised his right hand in the air.

"But I really am a magi, watch this!"

A flow of black substance started to appear out of no where and gathered at the palm of his raised hand. It formed a black ball before long and just as it looked like it was about to explode, it vanished just as suddenly as it appeared.

"I usually kill the people who underestimated me with that." He turned to me with a smile. "But I won't, since you gave me those peaches!"

Switch

I didn't see that kid magi in the same way I had seen him before.

Playmate

"En, have you seen Judal-kun?"

I turned from Koumei to the voice of my little brother Kouha.

"No, I haven't."

"Shoot. I'm so bored today."

"What are you doing playing with him? He's the oracle, you know." Koumei said from beside me. "Why don't you play with someone else? Like Kougyoku for example?"

"Nah, she's a girl, and don't say Hakuryuu, because I don't like him." Kouha pouted before walking away. "Guess I have to look for him myself."

I watched the back of my little brother until he disappeared around the corner, shouting the Magi's name as he went, before turning back to Koumei.

"They're getting close to each other."

"Yeah, I don't really think that's a good idea..." Koumei sighed as he looked down to the floor. "But I guess Judal means no harm. What worries me is the people behind him."

'Means no harm, huh?' I found myself looking back fondly to the time with the peaches in the corridor when suddenly, Kougyoku burst out from behind one of the doors.

"Brother! Have you seen Judal-chan?"

"... No, I haven't."

"Ah! And I was so looking forward to playing with him again today!"

Koumei and I both looked at each other.

"You should accompany your younger siblings more." He said.

I gave him a look before taking Kougyoku's right hand and started walking towards the flower garden together.

Sullen

In some occasions after he had gone missing for some time, the kid magi would usually reappear with a sullen look on his face, and on those times, I would usually see him sitting alone near the peach tree in front of the corridor, munching on peaches quietly.

If it was someone else, I would usually ignore them but this was the magi and the Kou Empire's oracle we're talking about and I wanted to know what's inside of his little head.

"You're strong aren't you, Kouen." He said to me one day when I happened to walk up on him. "I hope you will become mine someday."

I stared at him for some time after he had said that, and after a few minutes more I raised my right hand and ruffled his already messy hair nonchalantly.

"Maybe after you get older, Judal."

He beamed at me again with those big red eyes of his and I truly wondered what those strange people had been teaching this poor innocent kid since childhood.

"Really? Yay! That's a promise!"

Kitten

Sometimes the kid magi reminded me of a kitten.

He liked to get his head pet, he nuzzled his friends when playing, his voice sounded like a mewling noise when he was stubbornly calling my name over and over, and his every little gestures appeared like a very naive little kitten to me.

Moreover, sometimes when he got really bored or when he was trying to get my attention, he would climb onto my lap and leisurely sat there, staring and waiting for my reaction for hours on end.

He would usually win in the end, and on one time he did, he asked me if he could sleep in my lap, because it was comfortable there.

Prank

"Have you ever got pranked by Judal and Kouha?" Koumei asked me out of the blue on one particularly warm summer morning.

"No, why?"

"Be careful then, those two are the spawns of the devil! If they got you, you will experienced hell like no other-..."

"Oh come on, you're exageratting." Kouha suddenly appeared behind Koumei with a grin on his face. "We only froze your whole room because we thought that you would get hot inside of that stuffy room of yours. We were really only taking care of your basic needs, Mei."

"Oh really? And what about that time when I woke up with my bed and myself floating high up in the sky? Was that also your way of 'taking care' of me, huh Kouha?" Koumei replied with enough sarcasm to anesthetize an elephant.

"Of course! That morning had such a nice breeze that we thought you would like to take a feel of it as close as you can. That's why I asked Judal-kun to levitate your whole bed to the spot where the wind flew the strongest!"

"Why you-...!"

"His magic is really extraordinary, isn't it?" I cut in before Koumei could get a hold of Kouha and strangled the boy to death. "I wonder what's it like to fight him one on one?"

"Would you like to try, En?" Kouha smiled widely while Koumei could only shake his head grimly. "I actually wonder why he's never targeted you before."

"... Maybe you can ask him that for me later."

"Huh? Why?"

"He doesn't want to admit it, but he's actually very curious about-..." I strangled Koumei to shut him up before he could even finish his sentences.

Warmth

"Hm? Why I never bully Kouen and only Koumei? Simple, it's because I like Kouen better, of course!"

Prickle

"So you don't like Koumei?"

"I've never said that. I like them both equally personality wise, but Kouen is stronger than Koumei. So I guess I would probably like Koumei better if he was stronger than Kouen!"

Promise

It was after I had just finished my duties as one of the Empire's Army General that I met Koumei and Kouha in front of the hot spring, looking like they had experienced heaven from behind the wooden door and back.

"Hey, have you both already finished?" I greeted them. "And I was looking for a company to spend the hot spring together tonight."

"Judal is still inside." Koumei said as he pointed to the door behind him.

"He is?"

"Yup, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Kouha said cheerfully, he always looked happy when the magi was around.

"It certainly is."

"Well, I guess we'll see you later then." Koumei said as he left together with Kouha, chatting animatedly as they went.

I went inside and undressed myself in the changing room. Once I was done, I went into the hot spring and as I was just entering I found a silhouette of a person with his back facing towards me, a person with messy hair tied in a single braid.

"Judal?" I called him and I could see him flinched at the sound of my voice.

I hadn't seen him for quite a while lately, and from what I could see then, he had certainly grown somewhat taller.

'Could it be that he's not a kid anymore by now?'

"Kouen?" I heard his voice, and it's certainly deeper than the usual. A flash of red eyes behind the steam convinced me that he was the same Judal though. "I see that you've gotten even stronger, to the point I can sense that you've already conquered your first dungeon."

"It happened about half a year ago." I provided. Somehow, Judal seemed a bit different then, and when he stepped closer towards me, I was surprised to see that he was a whole kinds of different.

He was taller, like I mentioned before, his face was older, like he was already a teen then, but it still had that boyish characteristic which always seemed to define him, and his body was lean and nicely built, but not as muscular as mine. I could see every nook and cranny, every dip and every curve of it from the distance he was standing from me right then and there.

"Is that so?" He smiled at me, but it was also a different kind of smile, it had changed into some kind of a smirk. "Then I guess it's time to fulfill your promise."

"My promise?"

"Yeah, the promise you made me when I was younger. You promised to become mine when I get older, right?" He pointed his right thumb at himself proudly. "Well, I have gotten older now!"

I recalled that promise I accidently made in the corridor and as I looked at him then, every part of him, I could see that he had certainly gotten older and that it's time to fulfill the promise I gave my own word to.

And then I thought to myself: It was really a good decision to make that promise in the first place after all.

The End

Omake:

Cat

"Hey, Kouen, that peach tree is still where it used to be, right? I want to go there and get some, or maybe we can go together later." Judal said as he sat on top of my lap, relaxing contently in that almost too short top he had decided to wear for a change.

"You haven't changed one bit, have you?" I chuckled fondly at him. "Although, you're more of a cat now than a kitten."

"Yeah, that because I've grown!" He grinned. "Wait, I don't remember of ever being compared to a kitten."

"That's because it was only in my mind."

"Oh." He pouted. "Pervert."

I laughed out loud at his straightforward remark and ruffled his hair affectionately just like how I used to in the past.

Sorry if I made Kouen to be a bit pervy in the end, but my excuse is that I'll be pervy too if I was in that kind of circumstances *blush*

Review please, you will make a girl very happy if you do!