The Boy On the Throne And The Boy In The Grass
Kaoru is a proud boy. He is the smartest child in town, the best example of high class and rank. Within moments, he can charm people's socks off with only a few words and a kind smile. He is a very civil, calm, and collected child, especially for his age. (He knows, because he has been told it many times.) Which makes a special midafternoon event even more strange than it should be.
Today Kaoru will probably look back at this event with other eyes, but at the moment he was outraged.
At the time, Kaoru is even scandalized, eyes wide and face flushed a delicate red. His fingers are shaking with surprise, and he has stopped, paralyzed still in the middle of the market road with people and horses bustling past him, all because of a single person.
There's something almost alerting about the way he's lounging on the grass, fingers digging into the grass to find the dirt beneath. If Kaoru had thought about the situation more carefully, it probably wouldn't seem so shocking, seeing a Gypsy boy lying on the green grass, but it was, for some reason.
He get himself together, blinking furiously. It's not like Gypsies are a rare sight in town, but this particular one seemed strangely alerting. Maybe the hair... the same color as his own - although his was finely combed to an auburn brown, and the boys hair was messy and dark with dirt.
And there was something else about him... his feet, which were bare and resting on the grass with strands clenched between tanned toes.
As if he could feel Kaoru's stare he sits up. A wide smile stretch on his face, cracking the skin of his mouth. "Hey there!"
And Kaoru, polite, well-mannered Kaoru, says without thinking, "What are you doing?" He immediately gets flustered by his own question and looks away. The gypsy tilts his head slightly in confusion.
"What do you mean?" the boy asks, sitting up, shirt wrinkled and stained by the grass beneath him.
Kaoru took a moment to look at him, he actually had similar features to himself in the face. But then again, his face was filled with scars, dirt and other indecent things from the road, which made the huge difference. He was much tanner than Kaoru too, and his hair was also messy, jumping out in all places, and his clothes... pffft... don't even get Kaoru started on the clothes.
"You! You're…," he sputters for a bit, waving his hands up and down at the gypsy boy. "You're indecent! You're practically undressed!"
Golden eyes blink at him, their owner glancing down at himself. "Um. My shirt's unbuttoned." After a few seconds he adds, "And I'm not wearing shoes. But... How am I undressed? I still have my pants on." He stands, brushes himself off, checks himself over one more time, just to be sure. A bracelet on his ankle chimes elegantly with his movements, light and innocent. The gypsy's clothes are, Kaoru notices, thin and see-through and in patches.
Suddenly realizing that he never responded, Kaoru quickly snaps out, "Well, you should be wearing shoes!"
The brown-haired boy only smiles and shrugs. "Shoes 're over-rated." Kaoru almost wince by the sound of the slum dialect in his voice.
Inside the city, a huge bell begins chiming loudly. Kaoru whips around on his heel, not even bothering to explain himself to the strange person in the grass and wanders back inside the city limits before the gates close, calling back over his shoulder, "You should be wearing them anyway."
He barely hears the boy yell back "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow" over the chattering and yammering of the crowd.
His mama asked him what he had been doing out in town today when they sat at the huge dinner table, and all he could answer was "taking a walk": because what would his parents say about the boy in the grass? His decent parents, who was a pearl to society... people with shoes.
Laying in his rooms at night, he fumes quietly over the indecency of the Gypsy boy, arrogantly and idiotically presuming that he would be back the next day. His last thoughts before slumber are of the sunlit road, and the sight of bare hands and feet digging into the ground like the roots of a tree wanting to grow tall.
"Knew you'd be back."
"Do be quiet!" Kaoru snaps, his hands fisting in the fabric of his coat sleeves where they are hidden from view. He glares at the brown-haired boy, who is sprawled on the ground again, skin bare on his feet, reaching for the sunlight shining from above him.
"Still no shoes, I see," Kaoru says snidely, sniffing and looking away.
The boy shrugs, a common and vulgar gesture that makes it completely clear how much he cares for appearances. Any of the upper class folk know better than to shrug. "I still don't like 'em. Why should I wear 'em if I don't like 'em?"
Again with the accent.
Kaoru doesn't have an answer for him, and he hides it by sniffing haughtily, turning his nose up. The boy grins a little by this, and Kaoru glares daggers at him.
"Don't you have any fun?"
Blinking, Kaoru only tilts his head at the Gypsy. "Wh-what do you mean? I am a nobleman's son. I have…" he swallows, throat inexplicably heavy. "Duties."
The other teen sighs, sitting up with a chime of his anklet. "That's sorta not my point. I have 'duties' too. Don't you dare snort at me, it's true! I hafta brush down the horses and help Ma with food every night! But I still have fun!"
"You lie about all day in the sun. I doubt your duties are that intensive."
He gets a raised eyebrow for that remark. "You've ne'er fed, brushed, and watered fifty horses, have you?" The Gypsy boy finally stands up, slapping dirt off his pants. He straightens with a huff, smile glinting in the tan skin of his face. "So, are you free right now?"
Taken aback, Kaoru can't think of a response. "What do you mean?" he asks after a few beats of quiet.
"I mean 'are you free'. To go places. I have somethin' I wanna show you."
The two boys stare at each other. Kaoru opens his mouth to agree, but stops when a familiar sound echo around him. The bell. Kaoru turns towards the gate, suddenly unwilling to follow its urging to go inside. "…Your feet are going to get hurt if you don't put shoes on," he mutters.
Shrugging again, the boy replies, "I'll take my chances. Go home, I'll see you tomorrow."
Kaoru opens his mouth again to say something, but the bell rings again and the guards are calling for everyone to get inside the city gates, so he turns and runs back to the city, the echo of his soft and fashionable leather boots slapping against cobblestone ringing in his ears.
It takes three weeks before Kaoru notices that he's been heading outside the gates every day for no other reason than to talk to the Gypsy boy.
In that span of time, he's learned the boy's name: Hikaru, and he can spell it too, scratching harsh letters out in the dirt. He has learned what his favorite color is: blue, since it's like the ocean, and the sky and is 'full of wind', whatever that means. And how he takes his tea: which is to say, not at all. Hikaru doesn't drink tea. He prefers milk.
Hikaru dances, and the anklet is there to provide music when he chooses to, arms and legs loose and flowing, all never stopping motions. Watching him dance for the first time nearly send Kaoru running back into the city, embarrassed and mortified beyond all belief. So much skin, so much movement, and so unrefined!
Kaoru also learns that Hikaru never wears shoes. His feet are tough and calloused and covered in dirt and he sometimes gets scratches or hurt his toes, but he never puts shoes on. Stupid.
It drives Kaoru insane. He can't figure it out.
So eventually Kaoru walks -gently and mannerly, of course- out to see Hikaru past the city gates one afternoon, stops in front of him, taps his foot delicately and demands, "Why don't you ever wear shoes, Hikaru?"
Lounging on the grass, as usual, Hikaru only rolls to his side, grinning up at the young nobleman. "They're expensive, so we don't get any. Besides," and he sits up, strands of messy hair falling into his eyes, "my feet 're tough enough to be shoes on their own. Unlike yours, Sir Lady-feet!"
"I do not have 'Lady-Feet'!" Kaoru stamps his foot on the ground, his lips forming a pout.
Hikaru only laughs at him, patting the grass beside him. "C'mon and sit down already, Kao. Stop foolin' around. Besides. Shoes are like freedom. Either you don't have shoes and you're free, or you have them, and you're not."
Ignoring that remark, plus the unwanted nickname, Kaoru lightly brushes off his coat before stepping off the road as Hikaru lies back on the grass.
"Why do you never wear shoes? I mean, really, because I know you're lying to me," Kaoru asks curiously, crouching on the ground shyly next to Hikaru. He wanted to sit on his coat, but it was a gift from his mama, and he don't want to get it dirty.
The older boy shrugs, smiling up at the sun. "I think they're wrong. That's my opinion."
Tilting his head, Kaoru scoffs. "Shoes are shoes. They don't have opinions to be wrong about. You wear them to keep your feet safe, nothing more."
"Kao, I'm one of the Hitachiins, my people are know as gypsies and some people e'en calls us theifs. Safe isn't really an option for me, and besides, you're missing my point. I think there's somethin' wrong with people wearing shoes." Hikaru sighs and shakes his head, smile still on his lips.
"Why would it be... wrong?"
"Humans are weird, don't you think?" Kaoru is taken aback by the sudden question, but Hikaru just continues. "We have walls to keep the weather from harming us; we wear clothes to keep the air from touching us. We put glass over our eyes to get better eyesight, and wear shoes to never be able to touch the earth beneath us. Yeah, I think there's something wrong with that." He wiggles his bare toes in the dirt, continuing with, "So, uh, enough of that. Why don't we play a game?"
"A... Game?" Kaoru asks.
"Yes, you have to not wear shoes for a whole day." Hikaru said with a grin widening on his face.
Kaoru blinks, shocked. "You…" he swallows. "You want me to not wear shoes?"
"Yeah. Is that a problem?" Hikaru questioned, propping himself up on his elbows, eyes teasing and laughing. Kaoru felt his pride getting threatened and lifted his chest.
"N-no, of course not!" Kaoru insists, his face warming as a flush run across his skin. "I can do it!"
Flopping back on the ground, Hikaru grins satisfied up at the sky. "Good."
So Kaoru does.
He wears shoes in the morning, when he knows his father can catch him around the house, but the second he leaves the house, he secretly toes his boots off and sets them under a bush by the door. The pavement is smooth and cool under his feet, and he close his eyes briefly at the sensation before tip-toeing off into the city. He flexes his toes on the sun-warm stones.
He walks everywhere he can think of. To the city library, where the padding of his feet is almost silent compared to the tapping noise they usually make; to the market, where Kaoru quickly learns to watch other people's movements, because having your foot stepped on hurts and he has to bite back tears when a guard accidentally cross his way.
"Oh, I'm sorry, sir," the guard says stunned when Kaoru exclaim a groan in pain. The young boy shakes his head.
"No, it's fine. I was careless," Kaoru hurried to say, walking fast around the guard. The large man furrow his eyebrow when his eyes trail down Kaoru's leg, to his feet.
"Sire, can I question why your feet are not covered?" he said carefully. Kaoru stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back around to face the confused adult. He had never been in a loose of words before, he had always been able to talk himself out of any situation, but right now... he was dumbstruck.
"Well..." he began, shifting on the hot rocks. "I wanted to feel the city."
"You-" the guard began, blinking in surprise. Kaoru hurried to bow quickly and hurry off before he could ask further questions.
By midmorning, his feet were killing him. They seem to be on fire with the amount of pain they were in.
Finding a secluded stone bench, Kaoru limps over and sits down. He crosses his legs and examines the undersides of his feet, whining softly when he finds the beginnings of no fewer than five blisters, all painful. He dust a few sharp rocks out of his feet before (very) slowly setting them down on the cool grass. Kaoru sighs as the moisture soothes his feet, a welcome the opposite temperature from the heating stones of the city.
But he has to keep moving. He promised Hikaru that he would.
He considers breaking that promise when one (and then all) of his blisters bursts, but he doesn't. Kaoru is, after all, a nobleman. Highest of his class. Bound by honor.
By the end of it, Kaoru wants to kill Hikaru. Pained, Kaoru staggers to the gates, ready to see Hikaru and get his shoes back on. But this appears to be the one day where he can't find the Gypsy on the outskirts of the city, so he contents himself with sitting down outside the gates and prodding gently at his blistered and aching feet.
"Kao! How's your day been?"
Kaoru's head snaps up at the sound of that familiar ringing voice, and he almost has to physically restrain himself from standing up strangling Hikaru, because his feet are in pain.
After he takes a deep breath, the young boy hisses out, "My feet hurts. A lot."
Hikaru tilts his head sympathetically, hissing in a pitiful breath as he examines Kaoru's worn and ripped feet from his standing position.
"I think they're bleeding," Kaoru adds sullenly a few seconds later. "And they really, really hurt."
"Well of course your feet hurt, Kao. Freedom has its pain too. There's less protection from harm." Hikaru smiles at him almost sadly, his golden eyes soft and compassionate. Suddenly Kaoru knows that there is something there, that he needs to pay attention to. Because when he makes that expression something clicks inside Kaoru's head. He narrows his eyes and really look at Hikaru.
His tan face had gotten another scar, and it looked like it had just stopped bleeding. Kaoru wondered how it had happened, but Hikaru quickly got his attention to another place.
After a brief moment, the gypsy hoists one of his feet up with a tinkle from the ring of gold around his ankle, showing horror filled sight underside to Kaoru. "But you know what?" Kaoru takes his eyes off his face and turn them to his feet.
Kaoru responds absently as his fingers curiously explore Hikaru's soles. "What?"
"It doesn't last forever. You get used to it, you know. Get new defenses. And in the end…" Hikaru trails off, eyes lost in thought. After a few moments, Kaoru pokes him in the foot.
"In the end what?"
Hikaru shakes himself, smiling at the younger boy. "In the end, you're still free. Now," he offers his hand to Kaoru. "Are you finally ready to come with me?"
"But where are we going?" Kaoru asks for what has to be the hundredth time, but Hikaru still only chuckles and leads the way.
"Not too much further now," the Gypsy calls over his shoulder. Kaoru follows him in silence for a moment, but then he begins to ask what had been lingering in his mind for a while.
"Hikaru, what happened to your face?" he said, barely audiable. The gypsy shrugged without turning.
"Well, gypsies are not exactly welcome in the city," he begins, his face darkening slightly by the memory, making Kaoru silent as he listened. "I was takin' my younger cousin inside the walls for bread, but the owner said he wouldn't waste food on her, even-though we had the money to pay. She's nine and was starvin'. I got defensive, and started arguin' with him, so he called the guards who scratched me with his sword. I was lucky to dodge or ma head would be on the ground right now."
"But he did not kill you." Kaoru stated, making Hikaru huff.
"He would've, if I hadn't given him all our money," the gypsy spit out, detest lingering in the edge of his voice. "But all that doesn't matter. Bread is eaten, money is spend, but... what really got me furious was that..." Hikaru stopped himself and looked at Kaoru, his eyes softening. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice."
"No harm," Kaoru insists, not able to hide his curiosity. "But what was it that got you mad?"
Hikaru eyed him for a moment. "He touched my cousin, he slapped her."
Kaoru nodded in understanding. "I will talk to him."
Hikaru let out a stunned laugh and hurried to shake his head. "No, you won't. Because you keep me a secret. You don't want to hurt your pride like that."
"W-well.." Kaoru whispered at a loss if words.
Hikaru gave Kaoru a small smile, brushing a branch out of the way with a satisfied huff and gestures Kaoru into a small clearing with a grand gesture. "See? Here it is."
Kaoru steps after him with a small gasp. Hikaru had leaded him trough a small passage of bushes. Something you wouldn't go through unless you knew what was on the other side.
There is song and noise all around him. A tinkling, bubbling stream provides a constant running commentary that is punctuated by the whines and calls of birds whistling by. The grass seems greener around the glittering water and Kaoru suspect that someone have put some kind magic into the pure liquids. The leaves around them are in decadent greens and browns, and the flowers are in orange, falling from the trees like dancers, spinning and settling and... it was just... beautiful. Slowly, Kaoru spins in a circle, taking it all in. He stops when he is looking at Hikaru's face again, eyes wide.
Hikaru's smile is soft. "Lie down. Lie down and let the wind and earth take you."
And Kaoru wordlessly sinks to the ground, totally forgetting about his expensive clothes, spreading out his hands and his sore, aching feet and digging in with clumsy movements into the ground, imitating something he has seen Hikaru do for countless days. The earth is soft and moist under his hands, seeping in between his fingers, and god, it felt wonderful. He didn't expect this to feel good, he had thought he would feel dirty and disgusting and... and it didn't...
He finally understands how Hikaru seems to be such a "part of the earth". Not just standing on its surface, but being near it, to feel it in your hands.
He closes his eyes, takes a huge deep breath. The world could melt away here, between inhales of warm, damp earth smells and exhales of sunlight and wind. A tickling sensation prickles on his hand, and he opens his eyes again, looking down to see-
-possibly the biggest spider he has ever seen. Right there. On his hand.
Kaoru screams out in shock, shaking his hand madly to get the damn thing off of him, jumping into a sitting position and scooting around the clearing that Hikaru led him too. Shaking once he manages to get it off, Kaoru holds his hand close to his chest. His breathing is rough and stuttered and his eyes are wide as he stares, looking around nervously for the return of the massive, killer spider. But is instead altered by a loud outburst of laughter.
Across the clearing, Hikaru is clutching at his stomach like a mad man. "Your face," Hikaru spats in cramps, giggling helplessly, "Oh dear nobleman, you'd think you've never seen a spider before!" Kaoru flushed red.
Huffily, he starts to reply, "Well, not one that bi-"
"And then you just, hahahah, threw it straight- oh god, across the clearing!" Hikaru howls, rocking back and forth as he have another fit of laughter. His outburst blending with the waterfall laughter cascading around the forest. Kaoru fell his lips start twitching into a smile, and he covers it with his hand. Their laughter mingles with the late afternoon sunlight, streaming in through the leaves above.
And he wondered. When had he started laughing at his pride? ... well, it felt good.
For that one summer, the world seemed… perfect. Kaoru meet Hikaru every day outside the walls of the city and they ran around together in the forest. Kaoru never met another monstrous spider again, so he never had to worry about mockery for that.
One day, after another memorable day in the woods, the bells rung for him to go back home and Hikaru walked him to the gates and says good-bye. Kaoru was a little surprised that he walked with him, he normally kept his distance.
It was not how he usually said goodbye either. Somehow his voice seemed more distant when he uttered the words.
So Kaoru is understandably alarmed when he comes to the city's gate one afternoon to find… caravans. Wagons upon wagons gearing up to leave, and so many horses. And in the middle of it all, a gangly streak of brown hair, is Hikaru, darting back and forth between different wagons to help with everything.
"H-Hikaru?" he question's softly, almost unheard across all of the chattering around him, but it is like a string is pulled.
Immediately, Hikaru's head swings up and he locks eyes with Kaoru. He runs forward, all lanky motion and awkward elbows dodging through the mess of Gypsies, his ever-present anklet chiming away. Stuttering to a stop in front of Kaoru, he grins, waving a little.
"My troop's 're heading off," he explains, gesturing over his shoulder at a large caravan of wagons. "I just wanted to say properly goodbye before we left. So they stayed a little longer, for me."
"Y-you're leaving?" Kaoru asks, stunned. Somehow, the thought that Hikaru can leave, will leave, is completely foreign to him, unheard of. "B-but, you're… you can't!"
The tanner teen tilts his head, curious. "Why not? I have to follow the troop."
Kaoru sputters for a moment while he tries to think of an answer. "I… You… You just can't! You're like my brother." the young boy insists, hands fisting inside his jacket sleeves, nails digging deep into his palms. As on cue his feet aches in his boots, like they have been forever marked by the day he hadn't worn shoes.
With a sigh, Hikaru shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Kao, but I have to go with them. I have no place here." He looks over his shoulder at the shifting, colorful mass of Hitachiins and bites his lip. "Look, I can't stay long. I have to help my family get ready to go."
Kaoru does not sniffle, he does not, because tears certainly aren't gathering at the corners of his eyes, and if he raises a hand to brush something away, it's because he has an itch under his eyes. But even though that definitely is the truth, Hikaru still widen his eyes in sadness.
"Aw, Kaoru, don't cry…" Hikaru starts, lifting his hand slightly like he's going to put it on Kaoru's shoulder. But suddenly someone calls for Hikaru behind them and the teen turns instinctively towards the voice. Kaoru takes the short time to square his shoulders and bites hard on the inside of his cheek, trying to quell the tears in his eyes.
There is a great rumbling as the caravans begins to move, and Hikaru hisses out a word that Kaoru would get a hard slap across the face for repeating. He wavers for a second. Then, his face turning a bright red, Hikaru whips around to face Kaoru again. Leaning over, the tan boy swoops down to press a fast kiss to the side of Kaoru's face.
Shocked, Kaoru's only thought is "I hadn't realized he was that much taller than me."
Pressing one hand to his cheek, Kaoru stares at Hikaru with wide eyes. Hikaru turns even redder and leans over quickly, fiddling something by his foot. "Stop looking so sad, Kao. I have to go with the family, you know that. Besides," and he stands up quickly, pressing something warm into Kaoru's stunned palms. "It's not like you won't ever see me again."
"I…. I won't?" Kaoru asks, still shaken and warm, his pulse pounding in his ears.
Hikaru rolls his eyes, beginning to jog off. "Well duh, of course not. I'm coming back here next summer, like we always have." He speeds up, calling over his shoulders, "Don't forget about me! Don't wear shoes!"
Heart clenching hard in his chest, Kaoru yells back, "Wear shoes during the winter! Even your feet can't stand up to the cold!"
But Hikaru only waves behind him before he hops easily onto the back of one of the wagons, earning himself a slap for being late to leave. Kaoru's hands tighten. Feeling metal squeezing between his fingers, he glances down to see Hikaru's golden anklet curled in his palm. Kaoru pivots and slowly begins meandering his way back to the city, cradling the piece of metal close to him as though it were made of all the precious materials in the world.
The wind picks up down the road, and it smells of sunshine and travel.
Kaoru's thoughts that night as he tries to sleep are filled with the thought of the road, of good soil beneath bare feet, of laughing golden eyes, of an endless blue sky that is "full of wind".
A/N: I don't know if I'll add another chapter. xD I might, but then again, it's a pretty final ending. Did ya like Gypsy Hika? : D I thought I would upload a nice story on my birthday, so this is what ya get. ^^
Please review.