I have no excuse...

With any further ado, the second chapter of TDOOH.

Enjoy!

We're in 184… in the great Empire of E… The previous Emperor, her Majesty Evrard just died during his 37th year of reign, leaving the country with four children: three daughters and a son, too young to be placed on the throne. A regency had to be named to lead the Empire until the majority of the male inheritor.

Though the kid hadn't been the only potential successor; the heir of an allied kingdom and the first daughter's husband was also a candidate, but the regency would never allow a man from another bloodline to lead the Empire. Touma (that was his name) was rejected with no more explanation. No need to say that that action irremediably affected the relation between the two countries. Reprisals were sworn to be taken, the first princess almost repudiated, and in spite of everything the Empire (more exactly the Regency) didn't even blink.

However the horror they knew when they understood that Shogo would never become tenth as brilliant as his father, the horror they knew was nameless. When he was younger, they thought that his strange personality would change with time. But when he got in his mid-twenties, one had to admit that Shogo's odd behaving – his constantly isolating from the others and most particularly his obvious loathing to anything related to the crown – had nothing to do anymore with youth's fatuousness.

But what was truly feared was the fact that a weak chief was giving an aura of weakness to the entire country. They had to remediate to that, by all means. So, they thought, what can give back to a kingdom its credit and splendor? That is, a strong alliance through marriage, and, why not, a new male inheritor at the end of all this. Shogo was a lost cause, a flaw. They had to rebuild the Empire's strength with a new leader, one that would easily let himself being modeled as their figurehead. War was also a solution, but too much expensive, and the people was starting to show discontent seeing their taxes raising every month.

The recent truce with the realm of P… gave them the best opportunity to get rid of their burden by giving him a princess to marry. The preparative was done the fastest possible, all the paperwork and discutaillerie expedited in one week – so fast that the princess herself didn't even have her word to say.

Anyway, what would have she said? The Realm of P… was poor, that didn't matter. The Empire was rich. So rich they didn't know anymore what to do with their fortunes. The Realm's people didn't accept that alliance imposed to them with an enemy country. That didn't matter. The Empire had an army to suppress thousands of insurrections, if any. And on top of everything, they were putting an end to the skirmishes that had persisted for almost fifteen years at the north frontier.

"So technically it's a win-win deal, isn't it?" Makishima concluded his peroration, a kind and false smile stretching his thin lips while waving a hand to the populace waiting for them in the streets and on their houses' balcony. Akane, who was sitting next to him in the luxurious coach, didn't rise her eyes once, nor to her fiancé, nor to the crowd which was calling happily at her name, perfectly still since the ride began. Right from the start, Kougami (he had been sitting on the front bench the whole time, his back facing the young couple) knew she would do so. All she did was to crease her dress and frown.

"And we can't help it. It is and will always be the same for us. We will have people to tell us what to do, what to say, how to behave with other people and even within ourselves. We were born only for that purpose, to serve the behoof of the kingdom."

"If you don't like it why don't you just quit it?" Shinya asked frankly. "You're a prince, once, and moreover an adult. Stop whining for such futilities and do something of your life."

Shogo stopped smiling and sighed. "You're talking just like the old men that had raised me, that's boring. And is there really nothing else to but this?" The white haired man emphasized his thought by smiling fondly at two kids who just called his name. "I'd rather stay in the castle and read something."

"This has nothing to do with me so don't complain." Kougami retorted. "It's only half of today's schedule. Tonight we also have a welcome party ("Another one" Makishima muttered) for all the foreign notables who are going to be present at the wedding."

Makishima Shogo sighed deeper, this time with a sad expression – at least his kind of sad expression, one more akin to condescension. "We've just had a party yesterday. How long are we planning on spending the taxpayer's money in useless protocol?"

"Well, at least two weeks. Your family kind of have a taste in display."

"No wonder why some people hate upper classes. Oh, my. Is the Inspector one of them?" Makishima smirked in that special way that could draw tickling in Kougami's fists.

"Unfortunately no. I prefer keep my head on my shoulders, if possible."

"That's a pretty sensible answer."

"Good. Now here you are." Shinya held a thin, bind book out to the white haired prince. The latter, after reading quickly the content, sent an inquiring glance to the dark haired man.

"What is that?"

"Just a list of people who are attending tonight's festivity."

"And what am I supposed to do with that?"

"Isn't that obvious? Remember their names." Shogo frowned seriously. Kougami didn't pay much attention to it. "Learn their names by heart by tonight. You should at least be able to recognize who is congratulating you for the next two weeks."

"Oh."

That task didn't seem to delight the prince, not because he couldn't do it – something as trivial was nothing for him – but precisely because he would have to use his brain cells for such a trivial chore.

"This is utterly futile."

"Isn't it. Now give it your best."

The coach's speed rose a little, leaving the applauding and loud crowd behind. That day's popular show was over.

Parties at the court were always boring, tiresome, vain and again, boring. Shogo had to show up at them since the day he's been conscious of his surroundings – many, many years ago, an eternity, it seemed. That was and would always be the same pattern: come in by this door, don't frown at the light in the ball room, smile gently and wave a hand at the aristocrats, move slowly, don't rush, never break eye-contact with those who are lower than you, go down the stairs (because, for his entry, they always place him higher that his inferiors), go down the stairs separating you from them and their hypocritical lies and their sickly sweet perfumes. Now bear it. You can always say, after saluting the whole mass of vampires, that you're not feeling well, and go back to your room.

Still, after four hours of entertaining the presumptuous cattle, Shogo's eyes are starting to tickle. He has an irrepressible desire to yawn and go to sleep, but he isn't allowed to leave his podium. His case reminds him of one of a criminal waiting for the gibbet's rope to tighten, deadly, on his throat: an entire village of bumpkins is watching at him, of course he can make no move but just wait, wait, wait.

He can remember it: back then, he was eight. Years later, nothing in particular did actually changed; so Makishima was pondering in the bathtub of his gigantic, personal bathroom. His head was half hidden in the water, only the snowy mane and two pallid knees showing up. The young man liked the time he was losing leisurely in that room made of gold and silver, doing nothing but paddling in the foam and the giant bubbles, thinking idly about things and others. There he had to please no one… Until someone knocked on the door.

Shogo scowled a bit, but finally sat up, his movements causing wrinkles in the hot water, first because of his emerging, second because of the little drop of water falling from his skinny torso and dampened hair. He was half out of the water, but however said nothing. Another knock, more brutal, resounded.

"Come in." Makishima said casually while brushing his hair back.

"How long are you going to stay here?" Shinya burst the door open and strolled boldly in the bathroom. At his authoritarian tone, the white haired man easily guessed that the dark haired man was angry. Very angry.

"Why are you asking-"

"It's been two hours!"

"So what's the matter?" He leaned on the edge. "The party isn't beginning before ten. There's still plenty time."

And he didn't want to get out of the water. The air was cold on his wet skin and his hair kept on sticking on his face. Shogo brushed his bangs aside. It didn't seem to excessively bother him to have the Inspector so close to him when he was fully naked in the water.

"That's not the point. I've been waiting outside for two damn hours!" Kougami burst.

"I told you to wait here with me. You're the one who insisted on staying out." Makishima smiled brightly. " 'I can resist anything but temptation', am I wrong?"

To that, Kougami only glowered and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyway you should get out now and ask for-… Makishima!"

Said man was gone back under the water. Kougami's words fell into deaf ears, and the Inspector didn't like it at all.

"Makishima, get out from there!" Shinya leant on the tub before yelling at Shogo (who, obviously, could hear nothing of it). "I'm fed up of enduring your whims, damn it! I'm your goddamn bodyguard, not your hellish babysitter!"

Splash.

That was the sound of the foaming water splashing on Kougami's face. The sound of the water Makishima splashed on Kougami's face.

"What the hell?"

Makishima half emerged his head from the tub, enough to see the Inspector's fuming at him, hair and shirt soaked wet. He bubbled. It had the result to anger the dark haired man even more.

"At least if you want to laugh at me, don't hide in the water."

Shogo arose with his usual grin. "This is called teaching patience."

"How?"

"In the fastest way. And it's funny, too. Now if you have no more complaint…" He silenced and eyed at Shinya's hand.

"What? Something's wrong?" The latter asked when he saw the white haired man quieten.

"What's in your hand?" Makishima kept on staring at the Inspector's hand. Actually, Kougami was holding a small white box.

"Oh, this? A girl gave it to me earlier. She said I'd need them until you're over with your bath."

In the box, there were chocolates; many succulent, rich assortments of it.

"Can you give me one?" Shogo pointed at the box. Kougami held it out to him, though Makishima didn't take the packet. He just stared at the dark haired man as if he didn't understand what the Inspector was expecting from him.

"Now what?" Shinya had no more patience left. That man was driving him crazy, he was clearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To his question, Shogo answered by closing his eyes and opening slightly his mouth. "Hey, you must be kidding me." Shinya cursed in his inner self, but at last complied and sat on the edge of the bathtub. "I can't believe I'm really doing this. You better get out after that."

"M-mh." Shogo agreed and waited for Shinya to put the snail-like chocolate on his tongue. It tasted sweet and a bit salty in the end, maybe because of the butter in its core, Makishima pondered. The candy quickly melted in his mouth; too quickly, he thought. The white haired man opened his eyes and smiled at Kougami. "Another one-"

"Get lost."

"I told you that it would be boring, deadly boring." Shogo sipped at a cup of wine. Leaning on a marble column in a remote corner, Kougami standing beside him, he was watching at the party attenders. They seemed to pretty enjoy themselves. Shinya yawned.

"It could have been worse." The dark haired man said with a bored expression. Unlike Makishima he wasn't trying to hide his boredom. "At least you only have to watch."

The prince glimpsed at few groups of men practically glaring at him, some placidly, some more dangerously. "I'd rather leave now. It gives an awful stench, of conspiracy and betrayal."

"Let the dogs bark after the carriage. I'm here for that purpose, aren't I?"

Shogo smiled happily at him. "I'm thankful for this."

The dark haired man scowled. "Tsk. I need a smoke."

Makishima laughed lightly, one hand covering his graceful lips. He was starting to appreciate being with Kougami. When they first told him about his new bodyguard, he accepted it coldly. Since his childhood, he already had many of them. Younger, he clearly remembered walking in a long, white corridor with two guards in front of him. Shogo couldn't recall their faces; for him, they were just two dark pillars constantly standing by his sides, quiet, shadowy, threatening pillars which he would never get rid of. Someone or another, it would change nothing.

Kougami Shinya was different. He was putting so little effort hiding his antipathy toward his job and the prince that it was almost comic. Talking with him was fun; or more exactly, teasing him was.

"In any case shouldn't you be with your wife?" He asked out of the blue.

"We're not married yet. She's not my wife." There was some kind of firmness in Makishima's voice when he said that. As if he just spoke an unchangeable truth.

Kougami shrugged. "It comes to the same thing."

"However, it's quite sad. I can sympathize with her fate." Kougami questioningly rose an eyebrow. "There's something fairly strange I noticed about human beings. Men, after one life of killing, robbing, thieving, destroying and wrecking, are brought to the prison you call justice only after weeks, months, sometimes years of manhunt, chasing and tracking down. On the contrary, women are surrendering docilely, most of time without even rising their voice, and quickly, just like tamed circus beasts, to their own prison, whether it's called the housewife life or the cloister."

"Are you talking seriously?" There was a hint of mockery in Kougami's voice. "Aren't you in the same case as her? It's even worse since you're a man."

"That's hurtful."

Kougami heaved a sigh, one with more annoyance than before. "Okay. It's getting really irritating. Hey, Makishima" This is something he liked too, Kougami's outspokenness. "Let's get out."

Shogo accepted that half-order, half-request appreciatively. They both crossed the thick and swarming crowd, the white haired man on the lead. Smiles and bows were met on his way, ladies with their suggestive looks, lords with their withered praises. The prince took a deep breath when they finally reached the flower garden. He shivered a little when a chilly wind made contact with his neck, where wet locks still were sticking on. He traversed a wooden patio crawling with copses, flowerbeds and plaster sculptures. He sat on a bench opposite a huge fountain. Next to him the Inspector lit up a cigarette. Soon a soft and bitter scent of nicotine was invading the air. 'Kougami's scent.' Shogo processed.

"Ah." The Inspector suddenly said. "You don't mind?" He showed the stick between his lips.

Shogo made a move with his right hand (the other was sustaining his weight on the bench's armchair), as to say 'Please do' before crossing his legs. "So this is the first time you're attending a high society gathering, isn't this? Your impression?"

"Nothing in particular. I'd say I'm not the kind of man to reason starting from clichés, but yet I have to admit it. Noblemen party is the worst kind of torture one can chose to inflict to themselves.

"Well, I won't contradict you." The prince closed his eyes and hummed at the cigarette's smoke. "But about this no one can help. It is, it has been, and it will always how court is working. A theatre… No. That comparison is by far more too unfair to theatre. At least actors' play is more convincing than the falseness whirling within those walls. Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue in here."

"After Wilde, now quoting Dom Juan?" Shinya huffed. "It just shows how much you're more wicked than what I firstly believe."

"Right. What a terrible thing to be a great lord yet a wicked man."

"I didn't say you're a great lord either."

A rustle resounded from a nearby shrub. Maybe birds or squirrels. Shinya stared at it few seconds but then brought his attention back to the greyish cloud above his head. "The concept of aristocracy itself is obsolete, condemn to perish. How can they actually keep on thinking that people would eternally put them on pedestals and fear their names just because of some blood issues? That's so stupid."

Kougami was talking indifferently. Apparently the subject wasn't interesting him more than that. "Damn. Isn't that goddamn party over yet?" 'I want to go to sleep' He wanted to say, but avoided to. He didn't want that weird guy to suggest him anything creepy again…

"Still two or three hours to go. Inspector Kougami," Shogo unexpectedly raised from his seat and slowly walked to the other side of the garden. It somewhat startled the dark haired man: it was the first time Makishima was speaking to him in such a formal way. And more importantly there was that absent glance the white haired man was casting to some lost point in the dark. He hadn't seen it since the day they met. "Have you ever seen a kill? Not yet? That surprises me, I thought in the army… Anyway I was five years old when my father showed me one of them. It was a summer day, I can easily recall it. We were in the castle's woods. It smelled of… pine and grass. The trees' leaves were wet from the previous day's storm, droplets still were falling on my forehead from time to time."

While talking, Makishima wandered imperturbably near the groves where there have been the rustling. He absentmindedly grasped at a branch. "We would often have a ride together back then. That day only had been different. Soldiers had caught a burglar and brought him to the Emperor. The man had stolen a necklace and tried to run away, in vain. What a pitiful form, I said to myself, that grown up man kneeling, crying, begging for mercy. And then the Emperor said something that disturbed me. He said: 'Death is the same thing as pardon' "

What happened next, Kougami kind of predicted it. Well, that was mainly why he had been hired: things like a suicidal fanatic jumping out from nowhere and trying to stab the prince with a knife, like now. In point of fact there were two aggressors: the first one, Kougami easily succeeded in pinning him on the ground; the second appeared right after the first one. The second intruder, seeing that his friend was already busying the dark haired man, tried to attack the prince. What he didn't see coming was the said man, as he tried to stab him, violently twisting his wrist and immobilizing with a simple choke. A kick from the white haired man broke the trapped one's leg. He fell on his knees.

"Hey, hey, hey." Shinya grinned viciously at the first aggressor. "Isn't your plan a bit botched up, bro? Now, answer: who send you here…"

However, it was difficult to keep them still: bulging eyes and out of breath, they both looked as if they were drugged. The first fanatic, with a roar, released himself by almost breaking the Inspector's chin above his head. He ran like a madman to Makishima. The latter, though, didn't flicker, not once. Breaking the second intruder's neck (he had to do it in a fraction of second), he quickly took his knife, slightly threw himself back and readied his arm to slit the other's throat open…

When a gunshot resonated. It was from Kougami's gun.

The first attacker fell on the ground, his thigh bleeding like hell, but still conscious.

"Bloody fanatics… Are you hurt anywhere?" The Inspector asked Shogo whilst walking to him. He didn't answer; his eyes couldn't detach themselves from the man bleeding at his feet.

"That was an odd feeling I got that day." The white haired man finally stated. "It was like a thrill, but also frightening, in the same way as they put the knife under my throat instead of the thief's, that a human life was about to be taken so easily."

As he said that he went down on his knees and lowered the sharp blade on the injured man's neck, ready to cut the carotid. If Kougami hadn't stopped him, the poor man would have ended either amputate or paralytic.

"You don't have to do that." Shinya fiercely withdrew the knife from Shogo's hand and grunted. "Geez, something must be really wrong in your head…"

Quickly, Kougami took care of the left dissident. Fortunately, some guards, surely alerted by the shot, came to reinforce the Inspector's side. Makishima, more sulking than frowning, got up and, with a wave of his hand, last one of the day, as to say good night, left the Inspector for his apartments.

Review please! It makes me want to write more!