A/N: I know I still have other stories to finish but I just have to take this out of my mind! It's an Alternate Universe kind of story and I was planning on using Kirihara as the knight but I figured that RyoSakuKin triangle needs more love~ Sorry if the characters are OOC and don't forget to RxR~
Disclaimer applies.
Silent Love
Chapter One: Locket
21 year old Ryuzaki Sakuno meekly stood in the middle of the living room of a large mansion. She nervously looked around admiring the beautiful but expensive decorations and paintings.
'Is it alright for me to be here? This place is so grand for a mere commoner like me.' Sakuno bowed down and thought.
The doors opened revealing a beautiful brown haired woman wearing an expensive dress with a kind of good looking man who was wearing another expensive tuxedo. Sakuno figured that these two were the king and queen of this kingdom and she instantly bowed out of respect.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you. I'm Echizen Rinko and this is my husband, Echizen Nanjiroh. You're Ryuzaki Sakuno am I correct?" Rinko asked with a pleasant smile on her face that made Sakuno have a fuzzy feeling in her chest. Sakuno nodded answering her and Rinko added, "You're so cute and has such good manners. Okay then, you're hired as a maid in this house from now on."
Sakuno brightened up as she was accepted by the queen herself and bowed a lot of times with a bright smile on her face. This was her way of expressing her thanks. The king and queen seemed to understand her and walked out of the room.
Another maid came towards Sakuno and introduced herself as Tomoka. She then started to explain the rules of the mansion and the works they would be doing.
~xoxoxoxo~
"Why did you instantly hired that girl without knowing her skills?" Nanjiroh asked his wife while leaning his head backwards with his arms as support.
"She seems like a nice girl. Besides, we already researched on her background and she's not anyone suspicious." Rinko answered, still with a smile on her face. Nanjiroh looked at her suspiciously.
"I'm sure that's not the only reason."
"Right. I just feel so sorry for the girl. When I saw her sitting outside our gates wearing those dirty clothes, I just can't help but lend a hand." Rinko explained while having a hand on her cheek, "Besides, our son needs a new playmate." For some reason, Rinko's nice face turned into a sadistic one that Nanjiroh can't help but back away from his own wife.
~xoxoxoxo~
Back with Sakuno and Tomoka who just finished talking about the rules,
"So, do you get it now?" Tomoka asked. Sakuno nodded but then Tomoka shouted, "Ah! That's no good! You should learn how to say 'Yes ma'am' instead of just nodding your head." Sakuno sweatdropped.
'Even though she's shouting, she doesn't look angry at me. Thank goodness.' Sakuno thought after she observed Tomoka's actions.
Sakuno slowly reached out to Tomoka's hand and Tomoka looked at her hand curiously. Sakuno then opened Tomoka's hand and with her right index finger, she wrote words in Tomoka's palm.
I can't speak.
Tomoka instantly looked at Sakuno's face, her curiosity over her growing by the minute.
"You can't speak?" Tomoka asked again to make sure and Sakuno just nodded, "How?" Tomoka instantly covered her mouth with her hands as she noticed Sakuno look away sadly.
"I'm sorry. I was too insensitive of your feelings." Tomoka apologized and Sakuno just smiled at her understanding, "But if you have any problems, you can always come to me! I'll help you in any way I can!" Tomoka exclaimed while pounding her chest with her right hand.
Sakuno nodded happily, grateful for having a new kind friend like her. Maybe someday, she can tell Tomoka the reason for her silence.
~xoxoxoxo~
The next morning, Sakuno happily skipped towards the kitchen in order to prepare breakfast for the royalties. She has her eyes closed so she didn't notice the young man sleeping in the middle of the hallway and that lead to her tripping on the young man.
'It hurts.' Sakuno thought as she rubbed her head. She was still lying on the ground and when she looked behind, her legs were resting on top of the young man. Sakuno instantly corrected her position, kneeling on the floor facing the young man. The young man has messy red hair and when he opened his eyes upon realizing that he was just tripped on, Sakuno observed the color of his eyes are like topaz or maybe it was hazel.
"Who are you? I've never seen you before." The young man blinked at Sakuno and Sakuno instantly blushed as she realized that she was just a maid in this house and this person might be an important figure in this mansion. Sakuno bowed a lot of times to the young man trying to express an apology.
Unfortunately, the young man seems to be either stupid or just plain clueless to know that and just confusedly looked at Sakuno. Sakuno stopped bowing after noticing the young man doesn't seem to understand. She bit her lip thinking of ways to explain. She just can't grab somebody's hand like that since the young man must be important and would only be disturbed by the fact that a stranger and only a maid would hold his hand.
Due to her luck whatsoever, Tomoka passed by to save the day!
"Tooyama-sama, this is the new maid Ryuzaki Sakuno. She kind of have a problem speaking and earlier just now, she was trying to apologize to you." Tomoka explained to the young man whom she called 'Tooyama'.
"Oh! I see! I'm Tooyama Kintarou, a knight in this mansion! Yoroshuu! Yoroshuu!" Kintarou greeted happily, suddenly grabbing Sakuno's hands and shook them up and down, like a handshake only that it's overly exaggerated. Sakuno blinked and sweatdropped at the sudden change of attitude of the young man but gently smiled as she thought that Kintarou seems to be a nice guy.
"But why can't you speak? Did something happen to you or you were just born unable to speak?" Kintarou asked innocently, not intending to hurt Sakuno's feelings. Tomoka smacked Kintarou's head and Kintarou yelped as he rubbed on the aching spot.
"We'll be continuing with our work now. Also please avoid sleeping anywhere you like." Tomoka scolded. Sakuno looked back at Kintarou wondering if he was okay and at the same time amazed at Tomoka for smacking a person with a higher status than her.
~xoxoxoxo~
"That guy just now can always be found sleeping anywhere. Even if we always remind him not to, he just doesn't listen." Tomoka sighed. Sakuno held Tomoka's hands and wrote some words on it.
But he seems like a nice guy.
Tomoka smiled upon learning the fact that Sakuno was opening up to her.
"Yeah he is nice but not only him, everyone here is nice. Well, except for the other maids though." Tomoka said but once she said the words 'other maids', she had this angry face on, "Everyone in the higher status treats you equally so feel free to grab their hands and explain your situation." Tomoka assured Sakuno.
Sakuno smiled brightly as she was very grateful to be sent in a nice place like this where no discrimination happens.
~xoxoxoxo~
Another young man was walking down the same hallway that the meeting between Kintarou and Sakuno happened but stopped as something caught his eye. He went towards that something and picked it up. It was a locket and when she opened it, he saw a picture of an old woman with a child beside her and they were both smiling so happily.
The young man tilted his head not knowing whom it belongs to and just placed it in his pocket for safety measures and continued walking down the hallway.
~xoxoxoxo~
Sakuno frantically looked around the whole mansion looking for something she lost. It was the locket given to her by her grandmother with their picture in it. It was very important to her and it's the only memory she has of her grandmother right now.
Tears formed in her eyes as she find it hard to search the whole mansion for a small thing like a locket. There were so many places to search in and she was losing hope. She hiccuped with no sound as she freely let her tears fall since nobody was there to see anyway. She sat on the ground leaning her back on the wall of the hallway and hugging her knees hiding her tear stricken face. She cried silently as her mind was filled with memories of her grandmother.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps of someone and slightly moved her head to the side to peek at the person going near her. She wished it was Tomoka since she feels that she can tell anything to her even if they just met. But to her disappointment, it was a guy she never saw before. She instantly stood up and rubbed her eyes using her arm to get rid of the tears just as the man approached her.
But the tears won't stop falling even if she tried so hard to stop it. The young man stopped in front of her wondering what the heck was wrong with this girl. Sakuno looked up while her arms covered her eyes thinking that it would stop the tears but it still wouldn't. Sakuno felt so embarrassed to be seen by a stranger in her pathetic state and returned to her position earlier by the wall, hugging her knees.
To Sakuno's surprise, she felt the young man sit beside her but she still didn't dare look at him. Sakuno's thoughts of her grandmother were now forgotten as it was switched by thoughts of the young man's strange behavior. Sakuno waited for the guy beside her to speak but he didn't and that only made Sakuno more confused.
Finally, after calming down a bit, she slowly peeked beside her and saw the guy sitting beside her. He was staring straight ahead with a stoic expression. Now that she saw the guy up close, she observed that the guy was a good looking one with black hair and greenish highlights. His eyes have a nice shade of hazel. Her observation was cut off when the guy looked at her.
Seeing his face fully, Sakuno blushed as she saw that the guy is even more handsome. Sakuno remembered what Tomoka said to her at that moment,
"Feel free to grab their hands and explain your situation." Tomoka's words echoed in her mind as she hesitated if she should do it.
In the end, she quickly grabbed the guy's hand and the guy's reaction looked shock but calmed down when Sakuno wrote the words,
Thank you for being by my side.
The guy confusedly looked at her, "Why were you crying earlier? Also, are you new here?"
Sakuno nodded and wrote another sentence on his palm with a sad look on her face,
I'm a new maid here. I just lost something very important to me.
"I see. Can't you talk?" The guy asked again and Sakuno nodded, "Hn." The guy looked straight ahead again, seemingly observing the garden view in front. Sakuno scrutinized his face for awhile before grabbing his hand again and wrote,
Your name? I'm Ryuzaki Sakuno.
The guy looked back at Sakuno and he answered, "Echizen Ryoma."
'Echizen? I heard that before... AHH! It was the surname of the king and queen! That means, he must be the prince!' Sakuno made a shocked expression that made Ryoma wonder. Suddenly, Sakuno stood up and bowed low at Ryoma, trying to express her apology for her rudeness.
"So you must have realized that I'm the prince here? But I don't really want to be recognized like that." Ryoma coldly said as he stood up and rubbed the dust off his shorts. Being a prince, it makes you wonder why he would wear such common clothes. Ryoma walked away but suddenly stopped as a thought came to his mind.
'Lost something important?' Ryoma reached for his pocket and took out the locket that he picked up earlier, 'Is this hers?'
Ryoma looked back and saw that Sakuno didn't move an inch from her position and was just looking at him with a curious expression. Sakuno flinched as she noticed Ryoma walking back towards her. Ryoma grabbed Sakuno's hand that made Sakuno blush and there he placed the locket.
Sakuno widened her eyes and tears of joy fell from them. Ryoma slightly panicked thinking that it's not the thing she was looking for but when he was about to take the locket, Sakuno hugged Ryoma.
"Wha-?" Ryoma widened his eyes as this lowly maid dare to hug him. But he doesn't really mind though. Sakuno doesn't seem to be the type of person to flirt with him like what the other maids do. Ryoma was about to pat her head but Sakuno realized what she was doing and instantly backed away from Ryoma while having a blush on her face out of embarrassment.
Sakuno bowed her head lots of times then grabbed Ryoma's hand as she wrote,
I'm sorry, I'm just really happy that you found it. I thought I lost it forever.
Ryoma blinked at her and then slightly smiled at her sudden change of attitude compared to before. Sakuno blushed even more when she saw the small smile that spread on his handsome face.
"Glad that you're okay. See ya." Ryoma walked away waving his right hand. Sakuno looked at his back blushing with a gentle expression on her face.
'I read in shoujo mangas that princes are always stuck-up, rude, snob, arrogant and any other bad trait but he's not like that at all.' Sakuno thought.
~xoxoxoxo~
"Stop sleeping anywhere you like! Do you know that you're blocking the way?" Ryoma shouted scolding Kintarou by serving him twist serves. Because earlier when Ryoma turned around the corner, he tripped on a sleeping Kintarou and he didn't see him since Kintarou was covered by the wall.
Kintarou ran away from the enraged Ryoma, dodging his serves along the way.
"You're like the princes in shoujo mangas! So evil and sadistic and arrogant and any other bad trait!" Kintarou cried comically.
"Why are you even reading mangas for girls?" Ryoma sweatdropped and finally hit Kintarou successfully that made Kintarou fall flat on the ground.
"You're a devil." Kintarou muttered before fainting.
Well, it seems that Sakuno and Kintarou have different views on Ryoma.
End of Chapter