Really short one-shot inspired by the first hundred pages of Windows for the Crown Prince by Elizabeth Vining.
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When Akito was a child, he thought he was royalty. Given the way he grew up, it was an easy mistake for him to make: he had servants (maids), a palace (the Inside), and special treatment. Since he was the next Head of the House, he was allowed to witness formal ceremonies which were closed to everyone but a select few members of the Inside; in those ceremonies, his father would be addressed by titles such as the Jade Emperor and His Majesty. Naturally, this supported Akito's ideas and when he asked a maid if, since his father was the Jade Emperor, that meant he was the Crown Prince, the maid said yes, playing along with what she thought was a game.
So Crown Prince Akito knew from a young age that he was not like other children. Other children did not live in a beautiful palace surrounded by picturesque gardens. Other children did not have servants, hiding just on the other side of the shoji, ready to answer his every call. Other children did not have attendants (the older maids who clung to tradition), ever present and watching, to correct slips in princely behavior. Other children were not address as denka, Highness, by the well-meaning maids who wished to humor the child's play. Other children did not wear traditional clothing on a daily basis. Other children were not sequestered in their own little corner of the palace, away from their mothers and fathers. Other children were not left to the mercy of the servants, who would fill the children's heads with their own views, telling them about the Juunishi and how they only belonged to the Jade Emperor. Other children were never told that they were 'a child to be loved' and that everyone, especially the Juunishi, would love them.
Other children did not have their world shaped for them quite like the Crown Prince did.
By the time Akito was old enough to realize that he was indeed not royalty, it did not really make much of a difference. After all, he was still the Head of the House, still a child to be loved. He still had maids and his Juunishi. Kureno became his personal attendant and rarely left his side. And he was still sequestered in his little corner of the Inside, to rule over his small kingdom as he saw fit, tempered by what he had learned as a child, as the Crown Prince.
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Tell me what you think, please?