BEAUTY AND THE BO

ONE

Yashiro Yukihito was not having a good day, despite it being only half-past eleven in the morning. It felt as though he had been awake for an age.

First, the Crown Prince only had half a slice of bread, three cups of steaming black coffee and none of the sausages the proprietor had assured them were the finest in this town. He had coaxed and threatened and nagged for His Imperial Highness to eat more, but all to no avail. The Empress would have his head when they returned, at the miniscule rate her son was eating. And now, this!

"Your I- Kuo-" The glare triggered by his honest mistake had the hair on his head sizzling. He could feel it! Nevertheless, he forged on. This was crucial to the happiness of the Emperor and Empress, and Yashiro was not a man who shirked his obligations. He owed it to them, and also the Archduke Takarada Lory, but that was a story for another day. He would do this. He could not fail. He must not fail. "I mean, Ren. Yes, Ren. Don't you think it's time to return to the pal-"

Another glare, more venomous than the last, and this time Yashiro swore he could practically hear his skin frying. Retreat, his brain screamed, while his heart urged him to continue, for it was his duty. He took a deep breath. "To, um, You-Know-Where! Don't you think it's time to return to You-Know-Where?"

The glare subsided, only to be replaced by a beatific smile that had Yashiro flinching at the first glimpse of even, white teeth, his previous bravado already forgotten. "Whoa," he cried, arms wind-milling as his reflexive action carried his lanky body halfway over the railing that they were leaning on. He caught a bird's eye view of the busy Main Street below him before a hand upon his upper arm saved him from a rather gruesome fate.

"Why, Yukihito," Hizuri Kuon's casual tone was belied by the too-tight grip he had on the other man's bicep. "I don't know what you're talking about."

And with that, Yashiro gave up on his daily attempt to persuade the Crown Prince to return to the Imperial Palace. Oh well. At least he tried. He even braved the Glare and the Smile. Clearing his throat, he searched for a less volatile conversation topic, while breathing a mental sigh of relief as Kuo-no, Ren, unclenched his fist from around Yashiro's arm with deliberate slowness.

Keep talking about my return and you'll feel this around your neck until you feel nothing at all, the gesture promised. Yashiro gulped. He was loyal to the Emperor, but not that loyal.

"Ah, so R-Ren, are we going to look for... What we came to look for, today?" He could see that Kuo- Ren- damnation, he would call the man whatever he wanted in his own head, royal whims bedamned! Kuon, yes, Kuon it was; he could see Kuon turning abruptly to face him, from the corner of his eye. He kept his gaze on the bustling street below them with steadfast doggedness. No way was he making eye contact again. Too risky; his heart could not take the stress. The Crown Prince's smiles were lethal to him, and not in the good way they affect the ladies-in-waiting back at court, either. No, usually they left Yashiro with an almost all-consuming urge to perform immediate suicide. Anything to get away from all the repressed anger barely contained beneath that eerily complacent smile.

And the amount of anger getting repressed was getting exponentially large ever since That Incident nearly a year ago. Not for the first time, he cursed the fact that they in their disbelief, had allowed the witch to get away after casting the curse. Pun not intended.

"Why the sudden interest in our itinerary, Yukihito?"

"Well, that is, ahem," he edged; he could not very well say that he wanted to know Kuon's progress so that he would at least have an estimate of their return date, could he? But the envoy pigeons that the Emperor used for his letters were getting pesky. That one from yesterday almost took his eye out when he sneaked down to the barn to send his daily report. Who knew pigeons were so energetic? They usually just waddled about looking all... pigeon-y back at the palace.

"Yukihito?" He shivered involuntarily at the overly saccharine tone."Ah, I'm sorry, R-Ren, I was thinking- Heh, I was thinking, if you aren't going to take a look around... Places today, I'll pay a visit to the Darumaya inn. Miss Kyoko told me that the chef has a fish special for lunch." He only realised what he said when the words flew out of his mouth, and brought his teeth together with an audible snap. It was too late though. The slight stiffening of Kuon's spine was testament to that.

Stupid, stupid! He cursed himself. In trying to evade the landmine before him, he had stepped backwards without looking; into another landmine, one even more liable to blow at the slightest touch.

Thus, it was an understatement to label the emotion he felt as surprise, when Kuon, instead of flaying him alive with verbal barbs, turned and sat back at the table they had both vacated not long after breakfast, in favour of standing at the railing to chat. It was even more astonishing when the Crown Prince propped his chin up on a fist carelessly, all of his customary grace having seemingly deserted him. The words that came out from his mouth, however, were anything but. "Since when were you on such intimate terms with Miss Mogami, Yukihito?"

Danger! Danger! Alert! Alert! Beware! Back away slowly with both hands raised in the air! Danger! Alert! Yashiro gulped and stammered, "Ah, n-not intimate p-p-p-precisely, it's just t-that she t-told me that s-since she is y-younger than me, it f-feels weird when I call her M-miss M-Mogami. S-she insisted that I called her M-miss K-Kyoko."

Kuon raised a lazy eyebrow. "I didn't hear her say that to you that last time, when we ah, bumped her."

Yashiro was sorry that he did not think to leave a formal will before they left the palace. Death was breathing hotly down his neck, panting with vulgar excitement at the thought of fresh blood. "I-I went there a few days ago, again, to ask if there w-was any way w-we could offer r-recompense."

"Oh." The chair opposite him flew backwards with a screech, and Yashiro squeezed his eyes shut and starting praying for a swift and painless death. Normally, he would not call himself a coward, but when it came to the Crown Prince-

"Are you planning on napping in your seat, Yukihito?" He looked up with no little surprise to see Kuon looming over him and grinning in wicked amusement. "I thought we were going to the Darumaya? But of course, the breakfast was pretty heavy. If you'd rather nap-"

"Ah, yes, I mean, no, of c-course. Let's go." He nodded and hurried after the other, whose long legs were already carrying him away.

Normally Kuon would not say he was a cruel man, but sometimes it was just so fun to tease -not torment- Yukihito, and watch the normally unflappable man quake and quiver in his neatly tied boots. He forced back a chuckle and schooled his face into a neutral mask to further unnerve the shorter man beside him. Yukihito was most jumpy when he could not read Kuon's moods.

Mogami Kyoko. He sighed at the thought of her. He seemed to get into the girl, no, the young woman's black books effortlessly now. How different it was, how different they were, compared to years ago. Then he seemed to be able to get her to smile while hardly trying. And now? Well, he was trying now, but all he seemed to earn were scowls and reprimands.

She was adorable when enraged though, he mused. The chubby face with its promise of beauty had matured, slimmed into a delicate almond shape. The hair that he remembered as being contained in messy little pig tails had lengthened. She had it pinned up the two times they met recently, but he would guess that they fell to her elbows when left unbound. Even the tubby little body had grown; she came up to his shoulder now, instead of merely to his waist like all those years ago. Her hands were no longer the tiny, soft hands of a child, slipping easily into his. The one time he had held her hand, her un-gloved hand last week to help her up, he discovered that she had calluses lining her palm. They were the hands of a hardworking girl. Only her golden eyes remained the same, but instead of crinkling up in pleasure at the sight of him, they either widened in maidenly outrage or narrowed in righteous displeasure.

He wanted to see them smile at him again, those clear amber eyes. He wanted to hold her hand in his, for real, like how they did when-

"You!" The irate screech brought him out from his contemplations, and Kuon realised with a start that the object of his reverie was standing right before him, golden eyes slitting in fury. He tore his gaze away from hers to meet Yashiro's. His aide's eyes were wide with panic, and Kuon noted absently the sign next to the other man proclaimed in proud cursive script, "The Darumaya". They had reached their destination without him realising; trapped so deeply in his thoughts that he was.

"What the hell are you doing here? Come to laugh at me again?" He turned back to assure her that he meant no harm, to explain to her that he was laughing at his stupidly immature thoughts that time on the street, not at her, never at her. But he froze with words stillborn in his throat at the sensation of metallic coldness. Blinking, he directed his gaze very carefully back at her. She was a goddess, wrath personified. And her instrument for smiting ignorant mortals appeared to be the very shiny, very large and very sharp knife bumping gently against his nose.

Uh oh.

A/N: First official chapter. Spring finals are over, and I have three weeks to take a breather and write more fanfiction before summer school start. Curses. Let's hope I'm diligent in maintain a writing streak. Please review and let me know what you think of this; reviews are the Energon to my Autobot, the sunlight to my plant, and /inserts other geeky analogies here. To all those who put this on Alert but don't review, I'm watching you. Heheh.

Also, I'm working on Someone Like You as well, it's just that it's coming slower because I have to force myself to see Sho-baka as an actual person rather than a bashing object. Need betas and cold readers for both this and that. If you're interested, please email me at xuewentohatgmaildotcom. Cheers.