Faded Amber Dreams
Chapter 2
Previously in time
The day had been a bright one and the occupants of the palace of Sohma were expecting a guest. Three rooms had been previously prepared for the guest and her personal protectors, each room was side by side and extravagantly decorated to suit them.
Soon a carriage arrived outside the palace and a beautiful girl stepped out. Her hair shimmering brown her eyes as well the same. She wore a smile across her face and a gorgeous gown that barley touched the floor it was trimmed with gold and it's color was white, she also wore ribbons in her hair and gloves on her hands. After her departure from the carriage two other girls stepped out. One was wearing black and dark purple robes with ebony hair trailing past her shoulders down her back, she also carried a staff that had a gold dragon embedded in the beautifully polished wood, which spiraled along the entire staff with it's head resting at its start and tail at the end with an odd flame that changed colors and emitted from the dragons mouth. The other girl was a tall blonde and was wearing black slacks for lack of a better word and a white shirt with buttons that laced up, with her hair also cascading down her shoulders, but still not as long as the other two. Just as soon as the carriage had arrived, so had two of the palace dwellers came to greet them.
"Princess Tohru how wonderful it is to see you again and how has your mother been?"
"It's great to see you Yuki, you too Kyo" said Tohru.
"Whatever."
"And as for mother she could be better considering our county is at war."
"So I've heard," said Yuki.
"I wanted to stay, but mother really wanted me out of harms way."
"It's only because she loves you to pieces and wants nothing more than for you to be safe," stated Kyo now eyeing the staff the sorceress had in her hands.
"For once I'd have to agree with him princess, to your mother you are what is most important, now lets see you all to your rooms I'm more than positive you'd like to relax before lunch is served," said Yuki leading their way into the castle.
"Thank you both very much I'm very grateful to have friends like you who care so much to take me in on such short notice," said Tohru smiling as she followed.
"Trust me it's nothing but an honor for us to have you here as our guest," said Yuki as all five teens entered the castle.
In the dark chambers of his highness Akito the door opens after being knocked on as not to interrupt his highness in what ever he does.
"Has our guest arrived yet?" asked a dark silhouette sitting in the corner of the room in the far right.
"Yes your highness and she has also brought with her a body guard and sorceress," said the guard.
"I see, lets see to it that our guests are made quite comfortable. Hopefully their stay will be a short one, there is only so much I can take with unwanted guests," said Akito.
"Of course your highness, I'll see to it," and the guy left.
As soon as the guard had closed the huge door Akito looked outside his window at the palace garden. On most days the occupants of the house would usually be outside or in the library, but since princes Tohru was here everything seemed to be focused on her, while everything else seemed to be quite and empty.
"Hn, things should be quite interesting now that princes Tohru has arrived," Akito got up and left his seat on the windowsill and left the chambers.
As Akito made his way down the palace halls he heard voices and stopped to listen.
"Come on Kyo will you just hurry up and go."
"Hell no!"
"Akito is going to get upset he did say he wanted everyone to go."
"Like I give a damn what Akito wants."
"Have it your way, I'll just get Yuki to come up here and drag you to lunch unconscious."
"You think that damn rat scares me!"
"No, but I know you wont like it if everyone sees him go down with a smug smile followed by me dragging your corpse to the table."
"Whatever lets go," said Kyo irritably.
Akito continued down the hall as if he heard nothing, mulling the whole conversation over in his mind, well if Kyo didn't care about what he wanted then he'll soon regret it, just as soon as Tohru was gone everything would be back to normal and he'll have to personally discipline his very disobedient relatives.
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Everyone was sitting at the table, Akito sat at the head with Yuki at his right and Tohru at his left. Akito decided to make conversation as it was quite at the table, and he knew if he wasn't there everyone would be talking laughing basically having a good time, he didn't like the thought of that at all.
"So princess Tohru how rages the war on your mothers kingdom, I hope well?" asked Akito in an all too claming voice that slightly unnerved everyone at the table.
"Well...I guess good, the last Hana checked," replied Tohru.
"Lets hope it stays so," said Akito taking a fork and knife in his hands and started eating his meal while some of the people blinked shocked at how Akito was acting and others just ate and whispered to each other.
Two shadows turned from the dinning hall and headed down the long corridor of the palace which was decorated to suit the mood that seemed to hang around the palace grounds dark and gloomy like there was some kind of hidden tension. Both people turned a corner to where the stair case lead outside atop the palace so as to get a nice view of the land and to speak in private because if someone were to hear some of the dialogue between these two they might be in trouble with the king. As both shadows came into the heat of the sun you could now tell who they were, Tohru's personal guards and lifetime friends Hana and Uo.
"You know there's something I don't like about his highness," stated the sorceress with long ebony flowing hair also known as Hana to only her close friends, which consisted of Uo and Tohru, as she walked slowly to the edge of the palace so that she was leaning on the ledge.
"I agree, he gives off this unwelcome vibe, you know?" said Uo now standing next to Hana who had placed her staff against the ledge so that it was leaning on it as well and to make sure it wasn't going to burn anything but that was most unlikely to happen since she recently cast a spell to prevent that from happening a second time, the first time was just a mere accident that wont be repeated.
"I don't fall for his act one bit, he may pretend to be nice but..."
"I know, but as long as he doesn't try anything all we can do is trust him."
"For the time being."
"Exactly!"
"Oh Hana, Uo, here you are I've been looking for you both, I just thought I should tell you I'd be walking in the gardens for a while so if you want to, you can go and relax, I hear the baths are nice," came Tohru's sunny voice just as bright to out match the sun itself.
"We'll do that," said Uo smiling.
"Yes we'll do that, but you just be safe ok?" said Hana as she started to leave, but not before picking up her staff, as it came into contact with her hand the flame on it got brighter and turned from a reddish-orange color to an indigo-aqua color.
"Are you sure you don't want company?" asked Uo before she made her way down the stairs.
"Uo, don't worry there are plenty of guards around, I'm more than positive I'll be safe."
"Ok have it your way," then Uo made haste to the bottom of the stairs heading for the baths.
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As Tohru walked the steps down to the hall she passed a few of the guards whispering to each other. It wasn't her intention to eavesdrop, but she did catch a few words here and there. Something about informing Akito and also something about not being able to find Yuki at all anywhere in the palace grounds, which pretty much, seemed like impossible.
Finally she was at the gardens, it was gorgeous the sun was bright and the wind blew freely within the palace grounds and the air was crisp and clean with the sweet scent of flowers. Garden always reminded her of home for some reason, maybe it was because her mother always kept flowers in the palace. Suddenly she was distracted from her mental musing with the distinct sound of swords clanking against another.
"You know Kyo, for someone who's older than me, you'd think you'd be better at this."
"You're one to talk you stupid cow, your swordsmanship sucks!"
"My ass! Yours is much worse, plus your stance if off!"
"No it's not!"
"Fist blood, I win!"
"Damnit you cheated!" that's when a sword came flying in the direction in which Tohru was standing, it was at this time she did the only thing she could think of, close her eyes tight then...
"Oh no!" lucky for her it only landed an inch away from her, both boys stopped their arguing once they heard a scream only to find a sword stuck in a tree trunk.
"You know if Yuki saw this he'd freak," said Haru in a familiar voice as he pulled the sword out of the wounded tree.
"What the hells wrong with you?" yelled Kyo glaring at Haru.
"I don't know what your talking about you're the one who got mad and threw your sword at her, really what kind of man are you? You haven't even apologized yet," smirked Haru.
"No don't worry I'm fine!" said Tohru finally managing to speak.
"You sure you're not hurt because if you are I wouldn't mind playing doctor for you," said Haru in a suggestive manner.
"You pervert!" Kyo quickly hit Haru upside the head, poor thing was sent to the ground.
"Oh no Hatsuharu!" Tohru automatically kneeled down to help Haru up "are you ok?"
"I'm fine, but my head hurts a bit," responded Haru holding his head.
"I think maybe you should go see Hatori just in case," stated Tohru with a worried expression on her face "and I'll go with you too."
"No that's ok, I can make it on my own," said Haru walking off in the wrong direction both Kyo and Tohru shared a worried expression.
"So Kyo, that was really neat how you swung your sword and all," commented Tohru as she tried to make up conversation with the aggressive orange haired boy.
"Swung my sword, what the hell was that! I don't swing my sword around, I perform very complicated moves to fool my opponent."
"I guess it didn't work that well did it," Tohru's eyes went wide as she realized what she just said for a second she thought Kyo didn't hear it, but from the look of it, it wasn't likely, "I'm sorry what I meant was that since Haru beat you it didn't work oh no wait umm...well what I meant to say was..."
"That's enough already I get your point, anyway I should go help Haru find Hatori before no one can find him."
"Kyo, please tell me if I made you upset I didn't mean to, but if I did I'm sorry," Kyo turned to look at Tohru for a second then smiled at her.
"You worry too much, just relax I'm not mad, ok?"
"Ok," said Tohru relieved as she watched Kyo disappear behind a bush of roses.
Kyo turned the corner of the roses only to find Haru looking at some sunflowers picking off all the petals from the defenseless plant.
"What the hell are you doing over there!" yelled Kyo as Haru looked up from his mode of interest.
"Do me a favor pick the last few petals for me," Kyo looked at him strangely for a second then started to rid the flower of its few remaining petals than glanced up at Haru's face and noticed the small smile play across it, then Haru locked eyes with Kyo, for a moment he thought he heard Haru whispered 'he loves me' which caused him to arch an eyebrow.
"Kyo, do you like me?"
"Where the hell did that come from!" asked Kyo.
"Well you see a few nights ago you were practicing in the fencing room and I was thirsty so I thought I'd go to the kitchen for some water, but ended up getting lost and found myself standing next to the fencing room instead, well any ways I heard you talking to yourself I guess because I didn't hear anyone else with you, but I heard you say a few things. I wasn't sure you were serious about it and I was just wondering if that's how you really feel about me?"
Crap crap crap Haru wasn't suppose to hear that, hell no one was. He was just thinking out loud, but now here he was being asked if it was true or not. How was he suppose to answer that, like he really knew what it was he was saying. All he was really doing was letting off some steam from when Yuki beat him in a fight earlier and somewhere in the middle of his pretending to stab Yuki he felt the need to bitch about things, which lead to a five minute monologue involving everyone he knew and what he thought about that person in general, but what he said about Haru well he did find the other boy attractive...wait no what was he saying he knew it was a bad idea, but it felt so good sharing what he felt with the wind and silence he thought they could keep it secret, but how was he to know the subject that he was talking about stood just outside the room.
"Look, what I said forget it, I wasn't in my right mind that night," said Kyo walking off.
"You damn coward!" yelled Haru for once.
"Hey who the hell you calling a coward!"
"You because you're too damn scared to even let yourself know how you feel."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," responded Kyo as he turned to leave.
"Just like a cat to run off the second something barks at it," remarked Haru crossing his arms over his chest and looking to his left not even aware of the fact Kyo turned back around to face him.
"Fuck you I'm no coward!" yelled Kyo as he quickly turned Haru's head to face him and just as quickly kissed him. It was extremely awkward at first but after a minute passed it got much better, well at least to Haru that is.
"Kyo, Hatsuharu is that you arguing again I thought you were going to see Hatori?" asked Tohru's voice not so far away.
Kyo opened his eyes then came to his sense, what the hell was he thinking doing something like that in broad daylight no less, he swore he seriously hadn't been in his right mind since his last fight with Yuki, maybe temporary involuntary actions and attractions to the same sex, but if that was so then wouldn't he...Yuki definitely killed some brain cells in that fight.
Haru just stood there blinking as Kyo went into a daze and wandered off toward the palace. Well if there was one thing he had to say about Kyo's skill in lip locking, it might have been like swimming, at first he seemed to be drowning but in the end he turned out to be a great swimmer.
Meanwhile both boys failed to notice they were being watched from one of the palace towers that lay high set in the sky. The person only smiled as the scene played on for a minute longer, only to be broken by the voice of Tohru.
In the palace Kyo wondered the halls for a while touching the walls to his left and continued to think about what he just did, of all the things to do to happen why the hell was it that! Why couldn't he just tell Haru that what he said was just his mouth rambling on? Not that what he said wasn't sincere, but he wasn't quite sure what he felt; he and Haru had been spending a lot of time together whether it be swords play, reading, or just plain talking. That was something he didn't do with anyone, but recently he knew something had changed he just thought that their bond as cousins was just getting stronger, but after what he said it couldn't be true maybe he did love Haru... somehow he ended up in the library. So he decided it was best if he just sit down before he hurt himself and someone saw, like that damn rat. He picked up a book and skimmed through the pages.
"Umm..."he squinted his eyes at the letters, it seemed to be written in Latin, but he read it in his native tongue "Lustful Dreams of the Innocent?" he immediately threw the book back on the table he picked it up from.
"Kyo I hope you don't think nobody saw that display of affection between you and Haru earlier because if so you've got to be dense...thinking no one would tell Akito," Kyo had yet to turn around but he knew exactly who it was.
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