Last Nickname

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Kouha, you're yelling too loud."

"WHYYYYYYYYYYY?"

"Please calm down brother, everyone will hear you."

"IIIIIIIIIIIII DDDOOOOONNNNNNNNN'TTTTTTTT CCCCCCAAAAAARRRRRREEEEEEEEE!"

Kouen sighed as his brother tried to get his even younger brother to let go of his cousin's suitcase. Poor Hakuei who had been trying to bring her bag over to the ship had been tackled by Kouha before she reached it. Koumei and Hakuryuu hurried over to the two of them fighting over her bag and did their best to try and take it back. Kouen and Kougyoku came over just to watch the show. A few of the generals were also watching, Sharkkon, Jafar, Pisti and Yamu. The others were either not there, or doing their best to ignore the situation. "Kouha, you're going to break your sister's bag! Just let go!"

"NO! No, no, no, no! She can't leave, it's not too late! One-saan, please don't go!" Hakuei sighed. They already had that conversation.

"Kouha, I'm leaving now. And it's not forever, I get to see you again. Sinbad even said you can come visit in a few months if you want." After who knew how many attacks, Sinbad had finally agreed to let Kouha come to their country. Not for very long though, or else Sindria would lose their king.

"But why? I thought that you weren't ready! Can't you wait a little bit at least? Please?" at his words a few of them looked at each other. They were probably thinking the same thing as he was. Hakuei didn't know what to say, until Hakuryuu was able to snatch the bag back from him. "Hey!"

"You're going to break whatever my sister has in here." After checking to make sure everything was in one piece he handed it back to her. "I think everything's alright. Some of your papers look like they are out of order though." With a shrug Hakuei took the bag back. She could organize them later.

"That's a small price to pay for the whole bag I suppose." Now that the fight was over, the four generals in the background started getting bored. They walked off except for Jafar who headed over to Lady Hakuei.

"I think we are heading to Sindria now. Do you have everything?" Hakuei nodded.

"Yes, I think so. If you don't mind, I'd like to say goodbye to my family." Jafar nodded as well and hurried over to the boat to give the family their privacy. Ignoring a whining Kouha she turned back to all her siblings. Clearing her throat she prepared to give a big goodbye speech and tell them she was going to be alright. "Well, I guess this is goodbye. For a while at least."

"NOOOOO! DON'T GOOO!"

"I'm going to miss you all,"

"ONE-SAAAANN!"

"And-Kouha, no one can hear me with you yelling like that! Please settle down!" Kouha decided to quiet down, at least so that he could hear what she was trying to say. "Thank you. Anyway, I'm going to miss you all,"

"Oh we'll miss you to Hakuei-san!" interrupted again, Kougyoku ran over and hugged Hakuei so tight she thought she wouldn't live long enough to get to the boat. "Don't worry, I promise to write to you whenever I can!"

"T-thanks," she squeezed out. "A-anyway, if you need anything,"

"We can send for you. Don't worry about us Hakuei, we'll be fine," Koumei told her gently, though a little out of breath after the fight he had with his little brother.

"I know, but just in case. The kouga people will be loyal to you,"

"But they will also be loyal to Sindria now, we understand. Half are staying here while the other half are going with you for the sake of the treaty," Kouen informed her, even though she already knew that.

"That's great, thank you. And make sure,"

"They get to keep their culture and rights and they won't have to kill anyone just like you promised them," Hakuryuu said. "We have gone over this many times Hakuei, they will be alright."

That was when she decided to give up on her emotional speech.

"I'm going to miss all of you," she gave in, hugging Kougyoku back. Kouha ran over and hugged her from behind, nearly chocking the life out of her. "E-even you Kouha."

"Well of course you're going to miss me! I'm your favourite cousin!" she didn't bother to try and correct him. Instead she just hugged him back. Koumei watched the scene with a worried expression. As she moved on to give her goodbyes to her brother, he moved over to his brother.

"Kouen…are we sure we want to do this? Marry Hakuei off to Sinbad?" Kouen turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"It was your idea wasn't it? Besides, our country wouldn't allow the treaty without a marriage, you know that." He shook his head, still debating.

"But now I'm not too sure about this. We're giving away a dungeon capturer and one of our most powerful generals. Not to mention the kouga tribe with her and one of the closest ones to the magi Aladdin." …and he was saying this now? Kouen sighed, knowing that it wouldn't matter. He already knew the risks of Hakuei going to Sindria. But they were equal to the benefits that they would get, a treaty with one of the most powerful countries in the known world. An excuse to finally get rid of slavery in his country, which he hated. Someone to make sure that Sindria never outstepped their boundaries and didn't attack their country. Not to mention he was sending his cousin somewhere he knew that she would be safe and respected, something she didn't necessarily have in the Kou Empire. He hoped he would be able to do the same for Kougyoku, but for now, one was better than none.

"…And what is it that you really want to say?" Koumei tried to deny it, but was pushed down by Kouen's glare. He gave in and admitted it.

"Fine. I'm worried about our cousin, alright? She might not be ready to move, and with Sinbad no less. I know that she…gets along with him, but for how much longer? Will she," Kouen quickly was able to silence his brother's worries.

"We both know Hakuei better than to think that this could be a temporary thing. As for if she's ready…I guess we just have to trust her don't we." His brother could find no comeback to his words, so he pulled back to try and take his words to heart.

"Hey, Hakuei!" the group turned to see Sinbad walking over to them. He waved, and Kouen waved back. At the sight of him Hakuei's eyes widened and her cheeks turned pink.

"Oh, king Sinbad. Hello," she greeted him, unable to look him in the eye. The two of them hadn't discussed what had happened only a day ago. She was too busy talking trying to distract herself, then talking to Kouen and Seisyuun. When they were packing the boat Sinbad hadn't mentioned it, and Hakuei was not inclined to bring up her embarrassing trust problems. Even if her best friend recommended it, it was only a recommendation.

"King Sinbad," Kouen greeted him in his normal monotone voice. "Are you going to be departing soon?" Sinbad nodded, walking over to Hakuei's side.

"As soon as we get everything on board." He turned to Hakuei and frowned. "Hey, where's the bag you were carrying?" Everyone pointed at Kouha who had taken the bag back in the commotion. "Oh."

"YOU STUPID KING! LET MY SISTER STAY OR I SWEAR I'LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH AND THROW YOU IN A VOLCANO." Koumei did his best to shush him but to no avail. Sinbad barely shivered at his threat, used to him acting like that by now.

"I take it he's still not very fond of me," he whispered in Hakuei's ear. She shook her head, watching her bag worried that it really wouldn't make it to the boat. She left her favourite pair of sowing needles in it. Looking back he saw Jafar and Masrur waving at him. It was time to go.

"It looks like it is time for us to depart."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Kouha, stop it!" Hakuei scolded her younger brother. Sinbad and Kouha had a glaring contest while Hakuryuu snatched the bag back and gave it to his sister. No matter what Hakuei said, he knew he was going to regret allowing Kouha to come visit his country.

"It looks like it is," Kouen agreed, and he turned his attention to his sister. He held out his hand, since he didn't want to give a hug goodbye. Even now, he was against the hugging. Hakuei smiled and shook his hand firmly, and he told her, "Take care of yourself." Koumei also walked forward. He was about to simply offer her his hand, but thought against it and followed his younger sibling's examples and gave her a hug. Neither of them said anything, but they hugged each other for longer than either of them expected.

Koumei turned to Sinbad, not as relaxed as he was with his cousin. "You'll take care of her, right?" Sinbad didn't flinch, his smile permanently plastered on his face. Hakuei on the other hand started to panic.

"D-don't worry Koumei, I'll be fine! You know I can take care of myself," But Sinbad interrupted her before she could continue.

"Yes she can," he reached over and twined his fingers through hers, pulling her next to him. "But I'll make sure that love here is alright. Don't worry about a thing." Though she blushed at Sinbad holding her hand in front of her family, she hurried to use his words to her advantage.

"See? I'm going to be fine, please don't worry," she stopped. That wasn't right, she thought. He said something different. It was hard to notice since she was distracted by him taking her hand, but she did. "Wait…Sinbad?" Kouen and Koumei noticed how informally she addressed him, but decided it was a good thing and didn't comment.

"Yes?"

"Wh…what did you just call me?" at her question he brightened.

"I called you love. It's your new nickname," he stated, with no indecision in his voice. Nothing she could say would change his mind. But just in case, he decided to ask, "Don't you like it?"

"I…" she thought about it. Love. As a nickname. She had heard others call people love. Olba called Toto love a few times. The nickname was…for the first time, it was fine. Heck. Compared to the other ones he had considered it was the best thing that she had ever heard. But still. "Why that nickname?"

"Cause I love you."

"….."

"Cousin Hakuei, your face is turning red."

"Kouen, sh!" Even Kouen couldn't help but to laugh a little at his cousin's embarrassment.

"AWW!" Kougyoku cooed at the scene. "That's so cute!" as the only other girl in the group she felt that it was her duty to point that little detail out. All it did was make Hakuei even more embarrassed.

"K-Kougyoku!"

"Oh come on Hakuei! Even you have to admit that's so romantic!" No I don't, she tried to convince herself. But she was right, even she had to agree. All the while Hakuryuu was smiling to himself, remembering the talk he had with Sinbad earlier. He remembered when he had said that Hakuei would start blushing if he even mentioned love. I knew it, he thought smugly to himself, the cocky smile on his face confusing the people around him.

"I…what made you choose that nickname Sinbad?" she hurried to ask, hoping it would distract Kougyoku enough to make her drop the subject. Sinbad turned to her quickly, excited to explain his reasoning. It had taken him a long time to figure out, when it should have been so simple.

"It was when I was talking to Dorji." Oh. Right. She was still mad at him about that.

"Love?" Sinbad hesitated when a dark gloom surrounded her. The rest of her family took a cautious step back, and Sinbad tried but forgot that he was still holding her hand.

"Go on," she growled at him, and gulped silently. Turning to her family for help Hakuryuu and Kouen urged him to keep talking. Before she destroyed something. Or him.

"Uh…and he was saying that the Kouga tribe got a nickname for you out of a story. So I thought I would try that." Her anger didn't die down so he kept talking, trying to appease her. "At first I didn't know what to say. Most of our stories I couldn't think of many nicknames. I thought of bookworm for when we spent 8 hours doing nothing but talking about stories. Or fishy for when we took all the fish out of that sea a while ago,"

"You did WHAT?" Kouen glowered. "Is this something I should know about?" Sinbad waved him off.

"But fishy is bad. I tried sleeping beauty for when you slept for three days straight, but that was too long. I almost called you pinky for when you accidentally broke all of Kougyoku's pink makeup in her room."

"You told me that was Judal! I didn't talk to him for a week after that!" great. Now Kougyoku and Kouen were mad at them to.

"ANYWAY," Sinbad brought them back to the topic at hand. "None of those nicknames sounded good. So I settled on that love."

"Why?" Koumei asked, confused at how those nicknames and stories had somehow brought him back to that one. Hakuei glared at him for interrupting but Sinbad answered his question.

"Because it's the one with the longest and the best story to it."

"And that is?" Kouha asked impatiently, wondering why her cousin and siblings hadn't tried to kill him yet. He was waiting to help, his djinn equip at the ready. Unlike the others, he didn't need a reason. It was taking all his strength not to try and kill him right now.

"Because like I said, I love her. And she's the first girl I've ever loved, and most likely the last. It's a story that started since I first met her, and it's still going. I thought it was a perfect name, right love?" luckily for him, the flames had died down. Now she was standing there staring at Sinbad, at a complete loss for what to say. Sinbad seemed to understand, so he gave her a quick kiss on the scar on her chin to get her attention. "Right love?"

"R-right," she muttered, to surprised to be embarrassed that he just kissed her in front of her family. Sinbad laughed and tickled her chin a bit.

"Not to mention that your cheeks get a little pink every time I call you that love," Sinbad teased, making her blush even more.

"S-Sinbad, that tickles! And that's not funny, you know I hate to blush!" All that did was make him laugh and try to tickle her more. She was so focused on trying to get Sinbad to stop she didn't pay attention to her families reactions behind her. Even Kougyoku adoring the scene in front of them didn't get her attention. Hakuryuu was feeling slightly awkward, but he swallowed his pride and tried to feel happy for his sister. Kouen turned to Koumei and gave him a look that said, does that make you feel better? Koumei smiled back at him, pleased that she was going to be alright. They all were able to agree that Hakuei was going to be fine.

Kouha still didn't like him though.

"Wha-Kouha, come back here with my bag!"

"NEVERRRRRRRR!"

The end! Thank you all for reading and leaving the awesome reviews! They really helped encourage me, and I can't thank you all enough! I hope you all enjoyed it, thank you again! oh, and happy halloween