Shuuzou had been staying on the island of Midori for six weeks when he met Akashi Seijuurou.
His family had always traveled the Nijira Islands but this was his first time on Midori, and his first time living in a palace. It was weird, but the Midorima family combined the unusual attributes of being both royalty and the best physicians on the island, his dad told him, making them their own royal physicians and leaving them no time to do ordinary things like sleep or have a sense of humour.
In that case, Shuuzou didn't see why they'd stayed here six weeks with no plans in sight to leave. But the one time he said this out loud, his dad had laughed, then looked very tired and ruffled his hair and said, "Sorry, kiddo. But a little while longer, okay?"
After that, Shuuzou didn't ask when they were going to leave again. His dad always looked tired now, even when he was resting, even with the best food and sleep and medicine the Midorima family could provide. Shuuzou couldn't see that they were helping, but they were supposed to be the best physicians on the islands, the best physicians anywhere, so if they couldn't help, no one else could.
But Shuuzou wasn't thinking that far ahead yet.
What he was mostly thinking, as he wandered through the sprawling Midori palace gardens, was how bored he was.
It was a fine spring morning - the trees were turning green, and the flowers beginning to bud. In the distance, someone was playing the biwa; and next to a nearby fountain, a court astrologer, recognisable by the suns and moons embroidered on his kimono, was telling fortunes to to the lords and ladies that milled around him.
As far as Shuuzou could tell, everyone in the Midori palace only cared about music and medicine and reading the stars. There weren't many boys his age around, apart from Prince Shintarou, and the young prince was always busy with music and medicine and reading the stars himself. They'd met weeks ago, but they never seemed to have anything to say to each other beyond stilted small talk.
Shuuzou had no interest in star-reading - his dad thought it was a joke the Midori nobles had invented to amuse themselves - so he steered clear of the astrologer and his audience to head deeper into the garden. His path, picked at random, wound between hedges and past lily-padded ponds. Shuuzou passed through an arbour of sweet-smelling jasmine, then stopped, surprised, in front of a small pavilion.
Prince Shintarou was in the pavilion, sitting seiza in front of a wooden board, and there was another boy his age sitting opposite him. Suddenly curious, Shuuzou climbed the pavilion steps before he could think better of it..
Up close, he saw that they were playing chess. Prince Shintarou was playing black and had just moved his bishop. (Shuuzou wasn't any good at chess, but his dad had made him learn enough to recognise the pieces and some of the rules.)
It was the other boy's turn to make his move. Instead, he looked up. "You must be the Nijimura's son."
Shuuzou paused, unsettled by the intent stare. Most people never recognised a Nijimura on first sight, they spent most of their time looking too common. He wasn't even wearing the family crest, or dressed half as finely as Prince Shintarou.
"Am I mistaken?" asked the boy. He had red hair and eyes, which meant he was from the Aka Isles, and his clothes looked even more extravagant than Prince Shintarou's.
"No," Shuuzou answered. "I'm Nijimura Shuuzou."
"I'm Akashi Seijuurou," said the boy. Then he turned to Prince Shintarou. "Shall we stop the game here? It's my win anyhow."
Prince Shintarou narrowed his eyes, but nodded. His friend climbed to his feet and he followed.
"You're the crown prince of Aka," Shuuzou realised. He was terrible at his heraldry lessons, but he had at least heard of the Akashi family. And Aka was the island just west of Midori, so it must be easy for their royal family to come visit.
Prince Seijuurou inclined his head and said, "Yes. Shintarou, when you said the Nijimura was visiting Midori, you did not mention he was staying in the palace. I should have gone to greet him. Did my father know of this?"
Prince Shintarou looked uncomfortable, then stiffly recited, like an essay someone had made him memorise, "The Nijimura has made it clear this is a very private visit," he said. "He trusts in the Midorima's discretion and we would never betray that trust. There is no issue of court formalities, he is present in a purely private capacity."
The two boys stared at each other, and Shuuzou got the uncomfortable feeling he might be watching a small war in progress. A small war over his dad, and his apparently secret visit to the Midori palace that no one had bothered to mention or explain to him, and that Shuuzou might have ruined just by walking around and running into the wrong person.
Suddenly annoyed at everything and at the two boys in front of him most of all, he said, "Oi."
The two boys turned. Prince Shintarou looked like he might be offended at being addressed so informally, but Prince Seijuurou just looked curious.
"Don't bug my dad about this kind of stuff, he's got better things to do," Shuuzou informed them.
Prince Shintarou looked like he was really offended now. Shuuzou ignored him and scowled at Prince Seijuurou. The other boy returned the stare, unblinking, then said, "Of course I won't trouble the Nijimura if he's busy. Don't worry, the Akashi family's discretion is certainly equal to the Midorima's."
Shuuzou eyed him and decided that had to be good enough. "Alright," he said.
Prince Seijuurou said, "This is your first time in Midori, isn't it? Did Shintarou show you around?"
"I got the palace tour," Shuuzou said, shrugging.
Prince Seijuurou smiled, sidelong. "The palace tour doesn't show you the catacombs under the palace."
"Aren't those locked and sealed?" Shuuzou said. His palace guide had said as much, along with several ominous stories about the vengeful ghosts, dog-sized rats and rattling skeletons of ill-fated explorers that populated them.
"My friend found a map to the tunnels in the library yesterday. We're hoping to find an entrance in one of the wine cellars that we believe might still be in use."
"Seijuurou," Prince Shintarou said in horrified tones."Are you suggesting-"
Prince Seijuurou said, "Legend says that the Midori palace catacombs are the reason your great-grandfather was able to escape the palace during a coup, and later return to reclaim his rightful throne. Don't you think an understanding of their workings might be useful to you one day? Knowledge is always valuable."
Prince Shintarou spluttered.
Shuuzou thought about it, then said, "Sure, why not?" Underground tunnels sounded cool. Prince Seijuurou didn't seem to be as hung up on court etiquette as Prince Shintarou, and if he was from Aka, he probably wasn't obsessed with star-reading. That already made him the least boring person Shuuzou had met in weeks. "So where's your friend?" he added, since the mystery friend obviously wasn't the Midori prince.
"I'm here," a voice said from right beside Shuuzou, and he narrowly avoided leaping straight in the air with a yell.
"Ah, Tetsuya," Prince Seijuurou said and favoured the boy who'd appeared out of thin air with a smile. "Did you bring the map?"
The boy, with pale-blue hair and eyes that Shuuzou couldn't peg on any islands he knew of, nodded. "I have it here," he said, and pulled a slim folio, bound in leather, from his sleeve.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Shuuzou demanded. He could have sworn there were only three people in the pavilion a moment ago and it wasn't like he was that unobservant. Today was had just gone from boring to interesting and now straight into creepy, and it wasn't even lunch yet.
The boy blinked at him and said, "My apologies, I did not mean to startle you. But I was there the whole time."