Ambivalence

~A Collection of Oneshots~

Summary: When IV was suddenly appointed as the 'temporary' King and Rio was desperately trying to avoid an undesirable arranged marriage, the two decided to get into Marriage-by-Politic scheme. What was once more of a daredevil slowly turns into a roller-coaster of messed-up relationship; both their own and their countries. A collection of oneshots set in Kingdom-AU, focuses mostly on Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal's IV (Thomas Arclight) and Rio in their ambivalent relationships.

Author's note: first of all, this is my second fic and I still can't believe it myself! IV and Rio may be the first anime characters that woke up both my drawing and writing muse—so much that I felt the need to write this before I turn delusional, LOL, JK, I already am delusional. Indeed, I've written past-AU oneshots in my other fic, "Scar", set in their past-life kind of thing (with reference from the original storyline), but this one is more like a full-AU kind of thing. This fic is inspired from several fics, namely; "Of Sparrows and Princes" fic by sllebswap (can be found in my fav story section), a fic of BelHaru pairing from KHR, DG (Draco x Ginny) fics titled "Contractual Obligations" by gidge_8, "Hesperides' Apple" by ogygiasylph, and "Silence" by serinah (can be found in my fav sections of FIA page). And since 'Hesperides' Apple' was inspired from the story of Hades and Persephone, this story is, arguably, has little elements from the myth too, LOL. :p

Warning: This fanfic is specifically themed romance for an obvious reason. This IS the super-cheesy romance flicks for hopeless romantics like meh. Even though it is set in a fantasy setting, I honestly have no idea on how to write a proper fantasy novel that I always ended up writing drama set in fantasy setting, seriously. So, this fic is prolly going to focus solely on the two main characters and their relationship with only a slight mention of political problem every here and there. Other thing to note is that this fic is a bit darker, with heavy romance undertone. There are several mature contents like sexual-intercourse, maybe even in a non-consensual way, and a few mentions of nudity and blood—among other things. You have been warned. M-rated chapter will be marked at the start, so you can avoid it if you don't want to read it, with the risk of losing some major plot point :p. Oh, and also, this fic consists of several oneshots that loosely connected to each other written in chronological order (mostly, but maybe not all of it). If you're confused reading it, that's probably my fault for popping out random incoherent ideas in the first place. Now, you have been warned, twice.

P.S. To avoid confusion, let this humble writer clarify that IV's actually just an alias, and it's literally read 'four', after Roman numeral. His real name is Thomas Arclight. His brothers are III (Three/ Michael A.), and V (Vee/Christopher A.), I'll go with that for most part of this story. Their real names might be used some times for dramatic effect. Any other names used in this story are from the original anime series, not the dub.

Do I have to do this at the start of every fanfic? Hell, yes I do. I get anxious easily. The cover was drawn by me, but I kinda messed the title font since I'm just that suck at designing book cover. Cough… ahem. Okay, let's just start!

Chapter 1: Scar

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own YGO Zexal, heck, I don't even own the general concept of cheesy-romance flicks. So, shut up and just read if you want. XOXO

It was hot.

The marketplace was bustling with activities; selling, buying, talking, yelling, not much different than that in his city except for strong fishy smell—literally speaking—and the blazing sun hanging right above their head. How could anyone walk down an open street under the scorching sunray and even some stayed there to sell things for almost half a day?

The climate surely had taken him by surprise at first, but he had a lot more pressing matters to worry other than the heat. He pulled up the hood of his cloak to cover his maroon red and golden lock that was easily spotted among the crowds. Not that there wasn't anyone else with similar coloring than him, but the unruly, spiky end was what gave it away. He just needed to keep a low profile for a three to five more days, and then he was free.

Ha, they hadn't even realized that he had been with them all along the cruise to this land, what a bunch of nincompoop, he mentally laughed as he waded through sea of people, making his way to nowhere in particular. It was his first time being in the United Land of Poseidon and there was still a lot to take in to fill his time.

The people didn't speak that much different language than he did back home, probably a slight hint of accent every here and there, but nothing that would hinder his attempt at conversation with the locals. Of course they knew almost instantly that he wasn't locals and even some had guessed right that he had come with the people from 'up the mountains'—or so they called his people. But they didn't prod him as to why he wasn't with the rest of the crew or why did he choose to spend his first night at some rundown pub inn instead of their own ship.

Must be nice being in a time of peace, huh? He mused. Not that he was complaining about this situation, but due to his upbringing, he couldn't help but to watch too many unnecessary details to prepare should something happened out of his prediction. But then again, he hadn't planned this at all when he decided that it was his chance to get away from that stuck-up kingdom. So, he was in a rather contradicting situation right now.

He brought some money, enough to last him a good few weeks, but he couldn't rely on it to last forever, and bringing too much of it would attract too much attention anyway. But now he had to think of something to make sure he could continue on with this journey. Maybe he should try to find some job, and first, he needed to look around to get the hang of things around here.

With that being said, he talked some more with the locals about mundane things at first, then escalated into a stealth interrogation while having lunch. After he was done, he went out to the street again, which looked visibly more spacious than a few hours earlier, probably because most of the people had gone back to attend to their routines.

Now, what should he do?

The red-and-gold haired young man hadn't realize it at first, but now that he had nothing in particular to do, he felt like he had too many spare times on his hands that he wasn't sure what to do next. If he asked too many questions to people, it would only make him look suspicious, and he couldn't draw attention any more than he had. Maybe he should've brought more men to accompany him, but that would ruin the 'sneaking' part. Besides, he was never good at working as a team and more people would mean more unpredictable moves in his otherwise stealthy plan.

But the more he thought about it in his newfound spare times, the more he realized that he wasn't a good planner either. Maybe this was why he always lost to his brothers and father when it came to chess. No, he had known that long before, he just didn't know how much it would impact the decision-making part of his brain. As much as he didn't like things his father had made him do, he couldn't deny that it did him many good if he could just put his head into it.

Unfortunately he couldn't. Not most of the time, at least.

Well, isn't now the time? He thought dryly, knowing that some things just couldn't be found when one needed it the most. In this case, it was his lack of training. It hadn't seeped deep enough into his marrow for him to make a split second decision with such quality. If his brother knew about it, he would definitely never hear the end of it.

The young man sighed dejectedly as he admitted his defeat silently. Nobody should know about it and his initial plan now had shifted into that of sneaking back into the ship to go back to his home country and rethink his whole plan. There were only a few more details he needed to watch out for, and more importantly…

"Why aren't you with the other men?" a voice asked—a girl's voice—that he snapped out of his train of thought to look for the one asking. For all he knew, it might not have been directed to him, but he just had to make sure since the question was too spot on.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Rio-sama. I have a special errand from the King," the man in question answered, looking rather flustered. He recognized that reaction; that particular man had been assigned something important in which he wasn't able to openly explain. He wondered if the 'special assignment' was to tail some mysterious character trying to blend into the crowd. Maybe it was him?

No, he was sure he had been really careful since he arrived, he'd know if he was being followed. His brother had been doing that whenever he tried to wander off where he shouldn't be, so he had confidence that he couldn't be that easily caught off guard. Although there were also reasons that this was different surroundings than the one he used to and therefore dulled his senses. Besides, judging from the obvious mistake he had made (still wearing his uniform), it looked like the assignment was a recent development, most likely issued not long ago in a hurry—this morning, perhaps? But that still didn't mean he wasn't the one being tailed, he was this close to them, after all.

The girl seemed to understand the unspoken meaning behind it and said, "Oh, if it's a special assignment, make sure you don't wander around in your uniform. It's drawing too much attention. Uniforms are only for those moving in group," she stated with low voice, just loud enough for a handful of people around her to hear, but with his now-heightened senses, he could hear them loud and clear.

Now, this was bad. The soldier was another thing, but she was clearly of some importance by the way she was talking and how the soldier talked to her. He had to stay away from such character…

His thought was cut short when someone bumped his shoulder rather hard that he was being shoved aside in his dumbfounded state. There was an incoherent shouting, followed by a series of frightened screams. He looked back, trying to find what had caused such uproar when his eyes were met with something glinting under the sunlight.

Almost reflexively, he reached out to the hand holding the sharp object and shoved the cloaked figure away from the crowd. Whoever that was would definitely cause damage to people. It wasn't as if it was his business, but his reflex reacted anyway. Maybe it was the fact that he was really that close to being wounded, so it was merely self-defense. Nevertheless, he already had his (or maybe her?) hand and all he needed to do was to pin the mysterious figure down to the ground and let the mob take care of the rest.

What he didn't take into account was the possibility that the perpetrator might still have hidden weapon in their free hand, which was now being lashed out and would soon crash into the side of his face hadn't he dodged it. He pulled his head back just quick enough for the blade's tip not to cause any fatal damage but he could still feel it grazed against his cheek as he backed away.

The mysterious figure leaped out to their feet and pounced on him once again for good measure, and once more, he had to dodge by a hair breadth. The blade (he presumed a small knife of some sort) sliced lightly through his skin but he didn't back away this time; he flung his upper body at the figure and threw his fists towards its hooded face. There was no time for subtlety, the hell with this rascal, he thought as the figure fell on the ground and he proceeded to kneel beside them to deliver another series of punches.

The crowd gasped; some of them tried to pull him away from the culprit and seeing that his initial plan to make use of the mob had succeeded, he let himself being hauled away. He had prepared himself to be interrogated and all that, but he was taken aback when he heard a familiar voice asking, "Are you okay? You're bleeding!"

Shit, the girl! He cursed mentally and immediately covered the bloodied right side of his wounded face. It wasn't that big deal of a slice wound, but he couldn't afford to be found out. If the girl was who he had suspected, she would, most likely, report him to the higher ups.

"I'm fine," he said gruffly, averted his glance as to not meet her eyes, all the while looking around for an opening to escape.

"I don't know if I can do much, but let me heal—" the girl started to offer but he cut her short.

"I'm fine," he reiterated and stood back to his feet. He had to get away from here while the crowd was still busy.

The girl called when he started to walk away, but he ignored it and made his way through sea of people. The ruckus had caused quite a spectacle that many people were now flocking around it. Before long, he finally strayed away from the throng and wasted no time reaching the nearest alleyway.

After he was safe and alone (not exactly alone, of course, but with considerably less people around), he lowered his palm only to find out that it was drenched in blood. He hadn't expected the wound to be that bloody. Maybe he should've let her heal the wound first. Even if he managed to get some healing back home, it'd be too late by then. Healing would only be effective while the wound was still fresh, any later than that would only speed up the recovery, but would not fully zip the wound. Besides, there would definitely be questions as to how he got it in the first place later when he got back home.

Oh, it was too late to think about it now anyway. The least he could do now was to stay hidden until it was time to go home; easier said than done now that he had something to be identified with. He should change place, anywhere around the castle was fine, as long as he wouldn't miss the ship's departure.

And then, he would rethink another escape plan.

Word Count: 1,955

Prologue up, but I decided to mark it as 'Chapter 1', so that I won't mess the chapter naming. Reviews are always welcome! And 'Scar' isn't abandoned! I merely have no idea what to write next for the time being, lol. Meanwhile, I've written this fic for quite some times now and just decided to publish it recently. So, it's prolly going to be updated regularly until I run out of stock :p

P.S. Yes, I once published this story and deleted it because I thought I'd rewrite the premise. I did rewrite it, mostly IV's characterization in later chapter, but not for this one (only a slight grammar and summary edit). So, if any of you have read the initial published work, this chapter isn't going to be much different, XD