Chapter three is here!
It was after dinner, Kirihara was just about to go back to his room when he noticed Sengoku waiting by the door for him. He wondered what the older man had wanted with him and Sengoku told him that he just came by to say good night. Although Kirihara had thought Sengoku was a total weirdo for that, he thanked the man.
Kirihara entered his room and looked the teddy bear, humph. Niou would never do anything nice like what Sengoku does! Then Kirihara wondered why he was thinking about Niou. Niou is jerk! All he cared about was Yagyuu! Whoever that guy is, Kirihara's glad it's not him Niou's chasing after.
The boy had changed into his nightclothes and was about to go to bed. He yawned. Perhaps he should sleep now. He snuggled into the cold covers on his large bed. With Teddy in his arms, the seventeen year old drifted to sleep…
It was the following morning. Jackal had kindly woke him up to tell him Sanada had asked for him.
The princess stretched and went to the bathroom to change. This time, he wore a blue no-sleeves shirt and long (still) black pants. He didn't brush his hair, the boy just ran his fingers in it a few times and ran out his door.
When he had gone to see Sanada, he noticed Niou standing next to him. He scowled, "If this is something about marriage, I'd hate to say it but I'm not of age to marry. I'm only seventeen."
Yanagi stepped in, "Ah, yes. That's why we arranged the marriage after your birthday. It's on September, correct? We will have the marriage a few weeks after September. You have a month to get along, use it wisely," The man said.
Kirihara huffed, "I'm not marrying anyone like HIM!" He pointed to Niou, who gave Kirihara an annoyed look.
"Listen, brat. I'm not liking you at all, you tried to sneak a peek at me yesterday," Niou stated. "You're such a pervert."
The younger boy had gotten red, "S-shut up! That was on accident!! I was exploring and—"
"You explore people's backyards?" Niou asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I WAS CURIOUS!"
There was a chuckle, "Ahh… you guys are acting like a married couple already," a voice said.
The two turned towards Sanada's direction. Kirihara's eyes sparkled, "Yukimura-buchou!!" he cried joyfully.
"Yukimura…" Niou looked at Yukimura, "Why are you here? I thought you went on a trip…"
Yukimura smiled, "I came back, because I got bored."
"That's… an unreasonable reason…" Niou muttered.
"Mura-buchou!!" Kirihara cried, "I demand that you tell me why you're here and why I'm marrying a jerk!!"
"Ahh… Akaya, you look nice, I haven't seen you for a while, have I?"
"Just answer me!!"
"Well… I don't know what you mean by why you're marrying jerk."
Kirihara jabbed a finger at Niou, "HIM! He's the jerk!! I don't like him!"
"Well you don't have to marry him…" Yukimura said softly.
The younger boy twitched, "But… SANADA-SAN TOLD ME I'M SUPPOSED TO MARRY THAT GUY!!!"
Yukimura looked at Sanada, "Did he?"
Sanada groaned and gestured to Yanagi.
"Actually, I said we had an agreement a long time ago, I didn't say you have to marry Niou…" Yanagi commented. "I said you have to marry."
"WHAT KINDA AGREEMENT WAS THAT?!?!" Kirihara shouted. "I THOUGHT YOU SAID SOMETHING ABOUT ARMY RESOURCES!!"
Yukimura sighed, "Akaya… how about this, I will let you marry whoever you want, but you have to marry at after your birthday?"
"WHY DO I HAVE TO MARRY?!" Kirihara yelled.
"Haven't your mother told you about your family?"
"…Told me what?"
"Almost everyone knows about the Kirihara family…" Yukimura trailed off, "You mean no one told you?"
Kirihara thought real long and hard. Did he know? Hmm… maybe it was one of those days where he was sleeping during his mother's long preach… Yeah… probably it, he probably slept past it. "…No," He replied.
Niou yawned, "Almost everyone knows that the Kirihara family had a special trait…"
"Which is…?"
"You can give birth, DUH," Niou said as if it were the most normal thing to say.
Kirihara stared at Niou for a second. Two seconds… Three seconds… then…
THUNK.Yukimura sighed, "Jackal, can you please take Akaya back to his room?"
Jackal sighed and pulled (note: dragged) the unconscious Kirihara to his room.
"Ah, Niou… you already know," Yukimura said.
"Yeah, word spreads around fast," Niou curtly replied.
"Are you still lovesick about Yagyuu?"
Niou's face almost went red. It was a bit pink. "Uh… Yes…" He murmured.
"Well, I'm glad to say that Hyoutei's Atobe is coming with Oshitari and others…" Yukimura said.
"That means I get a chance to get Yagyuu back…" Niou said.
Yukimura only smiled.
"Ow… why does my head hurt?" Kirihara moaned.
"Because you fell down from surprise," Jackal replied.
"Oh…" Kirihara muttered. "I remember…"
Suddenly, the door opened. "Is Kirihara-kun ok?" Sengoku asked.
"Sengoku-san…" Kirihara said absentmindedly. "How are you?"
"Well, he didn't kill his memory!" Sengoku said cheerfully.
"Isn't he acting usually calm? I mean, he just fainted and woke up without screaming like a crazed lunatic," commented Jackal.
Kirihara blinked.
A second passed. Two seconds. Three—
"YOU'RE RIGHT!" Kirihara suddenly exclaimed. He jumped outta his bed and started running around, "GAHHHH!!! GAHHHHH!!! IT'T NOT REAL!!! I'M POSITIVE THAT IT'S NOT RIGHT!!!"
"…Well… he's panicking…" Jackal muttered, "But I think I liked it better when he was calm…" He sighed and shook his head in defeat. "I'm going to tell Sanada he's ok…"
Sengoku just sat down by the bed and watched Kirihara spazz like an idiot. He couldn't say he was actually enjoying watching Kirihara panic… ok, maybe he was. Seeing Kirihara act like an idiot is funny.
"AHHHH!!!" Also watching Kirihara trip over a chair if funny too! Hey! Just because Sengoku is a nice person, doesn't mean he's mean sometimes.
Sengoku had almost forgotten Kirihara and started to chuckle to himself.
"IT'S NOT FUNNY!!!" Kirihara cried, giving Sengoku his pouty face.
"Ah, ah, sorry…" Sengoku said, helping Kirihara up.
"You're mean…" Kirihara grumbled, brushing the imaginary dust off his clothes.
"Shouldn't you go back to Sanada-san and the others?"
"Don't wanna… They're mean too. Mou… can I find a way to get outta here?" Kirihara questioned.
"Sure, go marry me and we can get outta here," Sengoku replied.
"But I don't wanna get married!" Kirihara protested.
Sengoku shrugged, "I don't know another way then… maybe sneak out, but you're gonna be found a few days later, I'll be sure to that." He opened the door and left.
"Sneak out, eh?" Kirihara murmured to himself. "Maybe I just will…"
Niou walked out the door with a grin, "I get to see Yagyuu… Hehehe… I'll make sure I get him back soon…" He said to himself.
Marui was strolling along behind the rat-tail boy, "Oi, Oi… you're ditching me."
Niou stopped and turned to Marui, "You do know that I'm probably gonna sell you off later once I get Yagyuu, right?"
"That is, if you get Yagyuu," Marui replied, yawning. "Can we get something to eat now? I'm starved."
"I don't even know why I'm feeding you… You're eating me outta house and home anyways…" Niou muttered.
"Stop making me sound like a bother," Marui said.
"You are a bother, Marui," Niou said. "I wonder how much you would cost if I sold you… Hmm…"
"Hey, if Yagyuu ditches you after you sell me, I would be laughing my butt off," Marui proclaimed. "Because then you have to work like a housewife…haha."
Niou shot the red-haired boy a glare and walked on, muttering to himself about his evil little plan to get a certain gentleman back.
Marui pouted once he realized that he was being ditched, so he ran further ahead to his evil little master (well, of course, he would never call anyone his master because he's a genius, and to him, genius's don't go around calling others their master).
"I wonder if we would have anything to eat tonight…" Marui said to himself after he had caught up. "After all, no one bothers to buy the groceries…" The red head sighed, "Why couldn't I be serving a rich noble…"
Somewhere out there, some rich noble had a strange feeling to get a maid/servant/man-slave/whatever.
It had been a few weeks, Niou and Kirihara didn't bother talking to each other. Neither of them even wanted to talk to each other. Well, the reasons they had were different. Niou was taking his time thinking about what to do when Yagyuu arrives, and Kirihara was thinking about his birthday and avoiding Niou.
"Kirihara-kun," Sengoku announced happily, "In a week, it's going to be your birthday, what would you want?" The older man somehow knew whatever Kirihara wanted; it would just make a giant hole in his wallet… Maybe it was a good thing to be rich after all…
Kirihara hadn't thought about what he wanted for his birthday, he was actually planning his escape on that very night. "Uh… I dunno, just get whatever you want," He replied.
He had planned his night to be like this: first, everyone would be too busy celebrating the princess's birthday to actually realize he had gone, so the boy had planned to slip away silently to his room to get the small bag he had packed. Then, he would find that little boy (what was his name? Taichi was it? Well, he knows Sengoku well) in the stables to get a horse Taichi had made ready for him. How he managed to pull the other boy into this plan? It wasn't hard, knowing Sengoku had its good points, but the bad point was that Kirihara didn't know if he could trust Taichi, the boy seemed to be startled quickly. The princess-boy had thought out the possibilities, what if the Taichi-kid tells on him before he leaves? And after he leaves? Would the boy tell Sengoku? Yukimura? And last but not least, would he tell Niou?
Niou, now how did he come up with that wild idea? Even if Taichi had told Niou, the other man would probably not care. He's probably too lovesick to care.
His final part of the plan was to ride to a distant country… Perhaps famed Seigaku? He had heard Tezuka, the ruler, was very strong. Kirihara grinned. Perhaps he can have a fight with the famed man. But then again, being found in Seigaku would be very obvious… Maybe Fudomine? They aren't very well known.
Well, he can cross out Yamabuki, those guys know Sengoku, and if Sengoku went back home, who knows how Kirihara can leave.
Oh! Maybe he can go to Rokkaku? They're near the ocean, which would be pretty cool. Kirihara had never been to the ocean before. But then again, they are good friends with Seigaku, and Seigaku can tell Rikkaidai where he had gone…
He had one final idea:
St. Rudolph.
The princess had heard many stories about Rudolph. He had heard about the famed Mizuki, the man who had seduced Fuji Yuuta, Fuji Syuusuke's little brother, into his grasps. Kirihara had thought it was a bad idea (since he's a guy and all) but Rikkai would never search Rudolph. He can live there in perfect peace!!
"St. Rudolph it is…" Kirihara murmured to himself after he had left Sengoku.
Meanwhile, a certain trickster had been walking back and forth near the castle for some time now. Marui was sitting on a stair, watching the other man pace. He was getting annoyed, "Oi Niou, stop walking around, it's annoying."
Niou didn't stop, "Yagyuu should have been here by now."
"Maybe they came in late?" Marui said, trying oh so hard to be energetic about it. "I heard that there was some monsters by the road to Hyoutei. Maybe they took the long way here, ever thought of that?"
"Stop being such a smart-aleck," Niou remarked. "Especially since you're the one who complains so much."
Marui scowled in annoyance and ignored the other man. He looked ahead. Nothing. Nothing but a few people traveling to and from the castle. What were they again? Oh yeah, the messengers.
Suddenly, he saw a few people, "Oi Niou," He announced, calling Niou to attention. "Isn't that Hyoutei's Atobe?"
"Weird that Atobe decided to come instead of other people…" Marui had added.
Niou looked, and indeed there was Atobe and his little crew walking oh-so glamorously down the road to the castle.
"He's probably here to see Sanada," Niou proclaimed. "Heard they send letters to each other…"
Marui chuckled, "PTH, seriously? That old man and this um, strange guy? Ha, that's a joke."
"No seriously, I heard it from Yanagi himself."
"…That's just creepy."
Niou smirked, the Hyoutei crew had arrived, and pretty soon, Yagyuu would be his again…
TBC…Remember guys! This is still a fairy tale!! There are monsters and fairies!! And sorry for the late update!!
Comments would be nice. If you have an idea for what pairing Kirihara should be with, feel free to tell me. Well, it would be better if you voted for NiouKiri or SenKiri (but if you don't like either, you can vote for other pairings like NiouYagyuu or HaruMaru).