A/N: Alright, I've been away for god knows how long, and a sorry most likely won't cut it- just gonna say life is currently in the way now and it was before as well, having to deal with a stockpile of homework, exams and game jams! In fact, I'm currently in one right now haha. Mushy life story aside, I decided to sidetrack myself with this one-shot because Iori is my absolute fave and he deserves the spotlight in a fanfic once in a while. If ya'll are Iori fans you guys can guess what fics are going to be made more often xD
The story Kaname read to Iori is taken from Rev. Alex Willis RN. Also, just note that this is set eight years ago, so basically Kaname is 19 years old while Iori is 10 years old.
A Faithful Knight
Kaname held the small book in his right palm tightly, a grin plastered on his face as he eagerly walked down the hallway of the third floor to Iori's room; he simply adored how adorable the boy's reactions were when he read him bedtime stories, particularly fairy tales, as those were his favorites and always requested to have them be read by him specifically. The blond-haired man chuckled to himself lightly, reminiscing the memories of how Iori would make quiet comments about how he didn't like some of the characters' actions in the stories, and cheered when he reached the happy ending of when everyone is all happy together, the evil is slain and peace is brought once again to the wonderful world of fantasy.
Oh how Kaname wished he could just live in those moments forever; his little brother's smile was like a happy ending to his occasionally sad day after university or his part-time job, something in which he's always cherished.
Before he got too lost in his thoughts, he snapped himself back to reality and took a turn to the left, standing in front of Iori's room; he gently knocked on the door.
"Come in." Came the boy's voice.
Kaname opened the door slightly, only letting his head through as he looked at Iori whom was sitting with his legs stretched out on his bright yellow bed, his blanket covering the lower half of his body, and a mini encyclopedia of flowers sitting atop his lap.
"Here's your favorite Kaname-niisan~!" He proudly exclaimed, the tiny silver-haired boy grew ecstatic at the sound of his proclamation, as if Santa Claus had come over with a million presents for him.
"Niisan!" Iori's eyes were gleaming at the sight of his older brother, a smile that stretched from end to end formed on his lips.
Kaname proceeded to walk into the room, engulfing his little brother in a monster hug in the process; the latter returning the warm embrace.
"Oof!" The elder brother exclaimed, chuckling a bit. "You're getting bigger now, aren't you?" He ruffled up the boy's hair a little, making him giggle in response.
"It seems I am; maybe when I grow even older I can be tall enough to place a sunflower behind your ear without niisan having to bend down!"
Kaname's heart fluttered, looking into his little brother's glittering eyes filled with such childish innocence. It made him almost want to cringe at how adorable this child was; he didn't even think it was possible for such a kid to ever exist; now he knew what Masaomi felt when he saw Wataru for the first time in the hospital.
"Mhmhm, one day, but I like bending down to Io's height to see his smile!" Kaname's grin widened as those very words come right out of his mouth. Meanwhile, his brother was trying to hide his pink cheeks, being all shy yet at the same time charming; a trademark that runs in the family. Sort of.
"Aww, look at those rosy plums! You look so much more cuter like this!" He began to gently pinch said cheeks, causing Iori's hands to slip away from them and grab Kaname's wrists in instinct.
"Kaname-niisaaaaan! Stop iiiit!" the tiny boy half-whined and half-snorted while trying to pry his big brother's large hands off of him.
"Say the magic words if you want the pinching monster to stop!" It became pretty clear his grip was far stronger than what the boy could handle, but Iori refused to give up his dignity.
"But niisan! There's no point in saying it!" He huffed out; this only made Kaname's genuine smile twist into a smirk as he tightened his grasp on the poor child's cheeks. At this point, he couldn't stand the second-hand embarrassment and dull pain anymore, so he didn't have much choice.
"Mmm..." Iori pursed his lips, looking down onto his quilted train sheets. "Fine…Please, Kaname-niisan…~?" He put on his supposedly best smile, one that could melt anyone's hearts away and render them vulnerable.
It was pretty obvious Kaname became one of those victims, but he did his best to not let it show.
"See, was it that hard?" Kaname's expression softened, but still had no remorse for teasing his younger brother, rather, he was reveling in his success, while the latter was rubbing his cheeks, not daring to look straight into his big brother's eyes.
"Aah, that look on your face," Kaname began, "I might have gone a bit too far, haven't I?" he gently stroked Iori's hair, earning an expression that confirmed his statement.
"Mmhmhm, I really should get rid of that bad habit of mine, shouldn't I? I'm sure you don't like being treated as Wata-chan; I know I don't when Masa-nii tries to comfort me." Iori looked up at him, tilting his tiny little head. Kaname simply smiled at the boy, knowing he could feel both sides of the coin.
"Then why do you tease me so often?" Iori bluntly asked, staring deeply into his brother's eyes. Kaname softly chuckled awkwardly; it wasn't really a big deal but he didn't imagine himself to be doing these things for such a reason, especially considering how his other younger brothers weren't as close to him as Iori was.
"…I just can't resist, you're like the adorable little brother I never had." Kaname then involuntarily started patting Iori's head gently.
"But we have other brothers?" The boy tilted his head towards the opposite direction, blinking in curiosity. Kaname's hand slipped.
"I mean, you're the only one that actually likes talking to me," An unusually sheepish tone came out of the elder brother, "The one that comes up to me and asks things like 'How should I thank my teacher?' or 'What should I say to this girl?'." He smiled fondly at the reminiscence, sympathizing with Iori's naïveté.
"…No one else asks those questions either?" His little brother looked down onto the floor, lowering his eyebrows, his hazel orbs tinged with a hint of melancholy in them. Kaname's smile faded, now guilt welling up in his heart.
"I, well," He clearly had trouble finding a way to word it without ending up making Iori feeling worse, but he didn't want to sugarcoat it either; he just didn't like the idea of hiding things he believed people around him needed to know.
"You know," And then he found his momentum, "All of our brothers ask different things from others, and some are more attached to one than the other- like Nacchan and Suba-chan." Iori's eyes lit up again, now facing his brother. "It's just that the both of us have different problems and questions about things we don't understand; that's what makes our bond special, and why some others can't understand us, or the other way around."
The boy blinked for a few seconds in thought, and gave a small, but genuine smile towards his brother.
"…Kaname-niisan always knows what is best, huh." Kaname began to beam up again; as long as his little brother was happy, so was he.
"Ahaha, that's exactly why I'm the Kaname-niisan, right?" He gave a playful wink, causing Iori to giggle slightly at his humorous antic.
"Now, how about get on with the bed time story, hm? We don't want to see you sleeping too late, after all." Kaname grabbed the picture book that was somehow shoved over to the edge of the bed, and waved it over with a cheeky grin. The boy instantly grew ecstatic, and headed over to his pillows to be wrapped up comfortably in his night sky blanket.
"Which fairy tale are you going to read about this time, nii-san?" Iori gazed intently into Kaname's eyes that were peering down on the hard cover of the book.
"It's something different from the other ones I've read- neither the classic Cinderella nor Japanese folklore of Momotaro." The blonde brother kept up with his grin. "It's called: The Princess and the Most Faithful Knight."
Iori blinked twice.
"…That sounds rather dull for a fantasy story." He remarked.
"Well," Kaname began to flip open the hard cover, "You'd be surprised at how this story ends."
Iori looked towards Kaname's smirking face, a hint of curiosity glinted in his amber orbs. The latter returned his gaze to the book in his lap, and began to clear his throat as if he were to make an important speech.
"Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. Her beauty was spoken of throughout the lands." His voice was loud and clear, shifting tones in between words for dramatic effect.
"Poets wrote books filled to the brim with sonnets and limericks devoted to her beauty. Artists filled entire galleries with paintings and sculptures trying desperately to capture her near perfect form. Her beauty was surpassed only by her wisdom. Her father, the king, had raised her to be a fair just, ruler and over time her only concern became the happiness and safety of her subjects." Iori was now staring at the picture book his brother was reading aloud; albeit doesn't seem too invested in the story.
"One fateful day," Kaname raised his voice. "A charming prince came to town. He had come to woo the princess and woo he did. They spent hours together. Hours became days. Days became weeks and the beautiful princess began to fall in love with the charming prince. Their love was spoken of throughout the kingdom." Iori yawned a little, meanwhile Kaname smiled.
"One day, the charming prince took the beautiful princess to a shady meadow at the edge of the deep woods. He began to tell her how much he loved her. He said if she loved him, she would go into the deep wood and pick him the rarest flower in the world: the scarlet rose. The princess agreed out of pure devotion to the charming prince and went into the deep wood in search of the scarlet rose. The sun began to set and just when all seemed lost she happened upon the rose. She reached for the beautiful bloom but, at the very touch of the thorns, the beautiful princess fell into a deep sleep. The charming prince then appeared." The small boy sighed; perhaps even rolling his eyes.
"He stood over her body and smiled." Kaname's voice started to deepen, and suddenly Iori's eyes widened and he straightened his head.
"It had been his plan all along. He then stole all the princess' riches and stole away. He had a maiden waiting for him in another kingdom and he left the beautiful princess alone in the deep woods." Iori made a faint gasp; Kaname was amused at the sight.
"The king sent out search parties but to no avail. Months passed until, one day while hunting, the king happened upon a beautiful woman covered in vines. It was his daughter. He tried to wake her but try as he might she would not stir from her deep sleep." Kaname took on a somber tone, and so did Iori's expression.
"The king lamented over his beautiful daughter, taken from him in the prime of life. He called his advisors to him who took the beautiful princess back to the castle. They laid her down in her bed chamber and pondered what to do. His advisors studied her sleep and found that the cause was the poison of the scarlet rose. When they informed the king he begged them to give her an antidote but no such antidote existed. They tried every potion in the kingdom to rouse her but none would wake the beautiful princess. The king's advisors came to him and told him that all they could do was wait for the poison to run its course." Iori shifted uncomfortably in his sheets, now looking at the floor.
"The king, enraged, searched the kingdom for the cause of his daughter's sleep. He found nothing until he heard word from another kingdom of a young prince whose fortune arose seemingly from nowhere. This was the charming prince that had betrayed her." Iori began to lift his head up a bit, rage also building up inside of him.
"The king, then, issued a decree that, from that day forward, should a man wish for his daughter's hand that man must wait at the kingdom for her to awaken. Men from across the world came to wait for the hand of the maiden of incomparable beauty. The suitors lined the streets of the kingdom. Each trying to prove his worth and so it was." Kaname's tone lifted up, but Iori rather had a scowl on his face, disappointed that the king didn't avenge his daughter's demise.
"But as the years went by the stories of the princess' beauty faded from record and the art made in her image was lost. And slowly men began to grow weary of waiting believing that the beautiful princess would never awaken. One by one they left the kingdom. Days turned to months turned to years until the streets, once lined with suitors lie barren. All the suitors had left the beautiful princess." Iori began to whimper a bit, causing Kaname to involuntarily move closer to his little brother and pat his back.
"Save for one." Iori's eyes regained its shine, gasping in surprise.
"A lone knight remained. Knelt at her bedside, he had not budged from the moment he arrived. His armor, heavy with rust, he waited on." Iori began to crawl over to Kaname, holding onto his shoulder as he peeked into the current page; a picture of the knight in rusted armor that knelt by the sleeping beauty's canopy bed.
"But what if she truly never awakens?" Iori asked.
"Hmm." Kaname thought aloud. "I'd like to think this very loyal knight would never budge from his position; if his love for her was real, then he'd do anything to be by her side."
Iori hummed quietly, tilting his head as he pondered at the response his brother gave; true love. So this is what those fairy tales had always stressed about this entire time, and that's where the princess' and the prince's happiness stemmed from- their relationship thrived because of their love for one another, they would forever live happily ever after because of true love.
Is that why he's almost never on the same wavelength with anyone else aside from Kaname? That he didn't share mutual love with anyone else? That sounded plausible, but the thought itself made him feel gloomy. Maybe he just needed someone else whom loved him for what he is, someone he was destined to be with; a soulmate.
Yeah, that sounds nice, he thought.
Out of the blue, he was taken out of his contemplating self as Kaname patted his head, noticing how Iori was brooding yet again. He then continued on to read.
"Time passed until one fateful day the princess finally awoke." Iori moved his head forward, now intently staring at the page where the princess miraculously stood upright from her pink sheets.
"When she opened her eyes, only one knelt before her: the most faithful knight. As he looked in her newly opened eyes, he spoke of what had transpired: The poison, the king's decree, and how he'd waited for her." Kaname spoke in the most dramatic fashion possible, emphasizing particularly the list of events that the princess had experienced.
"But then the most faithful knight said something that surprised her. He spoke of how he had always loved her from afar. He said he had become a knight in hopes of one day serving her in her court. The beautiful princess was moved to tears. She called in her father who was elated to see his daughter in full spirits yet again. Out of his joy, he promised her anything she desired. She said she wished for only one thing: the faithful knight to join her in her court. But not as a knight, but as her husband." Then Kaname softened his tone, and slowed down the words that came out of his mouth that were following the written sentences printed onto the page.
"They were married the next day and the kingdom rejoiced. And for years to come the kingdom would tell the tale of the beautiful princess and the most faithful knight. The end." And the very reaction Kaname had anticipated from Iori arose, as he smiled gleefully at his adorable younger brother that beamed brighter than the sun, cheering at the happy ending the well-deserved couple achieved.
"So, what do you think of the story overall?" Kaname patiently waited, closing the book in hand.
"It was one of the most beautifully written fairy tales- no wait, stories I've ever heard of in my entire life." Iori kept his joyful mood up. His older brother chuckled at this response.
"I'm glad you liked it after all." Kaname then stood up, and turned to tuck Iori back into bed. They exchanged their good nights and sweet dreams, a soft kiss on the forehead and Kaname proceeded to turn off the lights, when all of a sudden Iori spoke up.
"Kaname-niisan." He started.
"Hm? What is it, Io?" Kaname asked, genuinely surprised.
"…Do you think I can become like that faithful knight someday?"
Kaname was taken aback slightly; Iori never really thought of any of the characters in the stories he's read so far as actual role models, let alone even wanting to follow in their footsteps.
But the tone of his voice sounded almost desperate, as if he felt like it was a change for the better. That sunk into Kaname's heart, but he smiled warmly nonetheless.
"Of course- all you need is hard work and a little luck to find the person that's made just for you. I'm sure they're waiting out there somewhere for you as well."
Iori sighed in relief. "Thank you, Kaname-niisan."
Kaname couldn't help but widen his already sweet smile. "Anything for my little Io." He pressed the switch off and slowly closed the door, watching Iori turn his body over to the side of the bed.
Oh how he wished this beautiful, blossoming relationship could continue on for the rest of eternity.
A/N: Woo! Finally got this out of my system haha; this is just based on a headcanon of mine since Iori's so fixated on love being the solution to everything and is extremely naïve he'd have a fondness for fairytales, considering they have a common ending to them most of the time. And also saw the influx of Masaomi fics (gotta love seeing the bby getting some love haha) so how about sprucing things up a bit with an Iori backstory? xD
…And for some reason I have yet another idea for an Iori fic, but it's an Ema x Iori one that's set in an interestingly different AU- I even already made a short drabble already fff. I'm not usually one to do romance but I feel like it could work out somehow xD Maybe it's something you guys are more interested in? Who knows.
Oh! And one more thing; for those still into brocon and wanna share their love for the sweet brothers, I made a discord server just for that! Come and click on the link in my profile and you'll be set~ (Unless you've never had a discord account before, in which case because of the security measures I put on it may take a while before you may enter.)
Any review or like will be appreciated, thanks for reading!