Misaki and his brother rode back to the castle in silence. Misaki wondered when he would see the boy again, presumably at the castle where he lived. They resided in the Kingdom of Emerald, where his brother had gone from prince to king in the wake of their parent's passing. Misaki was still young and in training to either take the kingdom himself or to be married off to the princess of another kingdom and become their king someday. The gaping age difference between Misaki and his brother caused a distance between them-sometimes it felt like his brother was trying too hard to be a parent, now that his brother was stuck raising him.
Back at the castle, Misaki went upstairs to study in his room, knowing one of his multiple tutors would be up shortly. Eventually, there was a knock on the door and as Misaki answered it he saw his elderly teacher standing there, and next to her was the boy from before. He was dressed in servant's clothes and holding what appeared to be a bundle of blankets and clothes in his arms. Misaki's eyes widened at the sight of him and he felt a sort of excitement rush through him. The boy looked down, avoiding Misaki's gaze.
"I've brought the new servant here as I was informed he would be assigned to you from now on," His teacher spoke in a shrill but authoritative voice. Misaki had no idea what she meant by this, but nodded anyway and opened the door to let the both of them in. The boy passed by him and started doing chore-like tasks, while Misaki sat down at the desk by the window in his room, waiting for his teacher to speak. She ignored the boy completely, but Misaki was distracted by him. Every so often his gaze would drift to him and then his teacher would say something to make him jump back into focus.
Eventually, she glanced at the clock, "Good heavens, is it that late already? We shall pick up here later, then. I'll leave you to it." She said as she left the room, closing the door behind her. Misaki jumped down from his seat on the desk and hopped onto his bed, where the boy was standing off to the side. He looked unsure of what he was supposed to do next. Misaki tilted his head quizzically, "You still never told me your name," He pointed out. The boy bit his lip and shrugged. "Do you have a name?" He asked, sometimes those in the boys' positions didn't have names, or had presumably forgotten their old names and went by whatever name they were assigned. Usually, there was no need for someone in his position to have a name at all.
The boy looked up at this and nodded vigorously. "Oh. Okay, then" Misaki said not sure how to respond to that, then, "Why don't you talk?" The boy flushed at this and simply shrugged. Misaki thought about this then figured maybe he couldn't talk, and if that was the case then he couldn't exactly say that he was unable to do so- right? "Well, I should call you something! Maybe...maybe if you wrote it down-?" He stood up and grabbed a pencil and paper from the desk, handing it to the boy. The boy's eyes widened in surprise. Misaki hesitated and looked down at the paper, then back at the boy, confused. Then it hit him, "Do you not know how to write?" Misaki asked quietly. The boy shook his head no, and Misaki lowered the paper in disappointment. He remembered how other servants also didn't know how to read or write-if he asked them for help with a word in a book or an assignment they simply shook their heads apologetically and hurried off as if they were afraid they would be reprimanded for not knowing such trivial things.
"Hmm…" Misaki thought, "I know how to read and write, I can teach you! Then you can write your name!" He grinned proudly at this genius solution. The boy gaped at him. "What?" Misaki asked, looking behind him to see what the boy was staring at but-nope, nothing. "Ohh, I know! You're amazed by how awesome I am!" He joked. The boy rolled his eyes, but then Misaki could see the boy's mind was racing as he was thinking about his offer. Before he could give the boy any time to answer, he jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed, "Ok! Here's this word...and these letters make this sound…..stop me when we get to what sounds like the first letter of your name…" He started writing out symbols on the paper, using his leg as support, and sounded out the letters he was writing…
It took a while. It took a loooong while. Eventually, he gathered the sounds that were familiar in the boy's name and wrote the letters that seemed to correspond to those noises. The boy's name was Akihiko, he learned-or something close to it, anyways. After spending so long on just his name, he figured it was the closest he was going to get out of him and from then on he would refer to the boy as such.
It had gotten dark outside, and Misaki realized he had missed dinner. They decided to pick up where they left off the next day, since Akihiko had been 'assigned' to him, (whatever that meant) he was sure he would have no problem seeing him again. "I'll walk you back," Misaki offered, even though he wasn't entirely sure where 'back' was. Akihiko looked at him, confused but shrugged and nodded anyway. Apparently, he had been given somewhere to stay in the amount of time that Misaki had not seen him before he had appeared earlier at his door.
Misaki was able to lead them out of the castle-that much he knew. But once outdoors, on the common grounds, he was lost. "Uh," he looked around, hoping Akihiko wouldn't notice that he had no idea where he was going. But Akihiko looked at Misaki, tilted his head, and pointed in a random direction as if to say, Isn't it this way?
"Oh right, yes of course! I knew that...'' Misaki nodded, his confidence brimming and they walked on. It was summer and the stillness of the warm summer air was surrounded by sounds of crickets and buzzing insects. There was a slight breeze that made the grass sway. The dark night sky was brightly lit with stars and the full moon, making it easy to see the road they walked along. A ways away there a few housing developments that leaned against each other. They looked shabby and rundown, some of the windows were boarded up with wooden planks and the doors sometimes swayed open when the breeze would pick up. The few people outside were clustered together in front of one of the doors and didn't acknowledge the two small children.
Akihiko stopped at development that was separated from the others that we're connecting to each other. For some reason, this one stood on its own, away from the others but not too far off, and it was smaller than the rest of them. He stopped outside the closed door and turned to Misaki, who stood there looking back-waiting to be invited inside. The two boys stared at each other awkwardly for a moment, before it finally became clear that he was not going to be shown inside today. "Uh," Misaki started and looked down at his feet, embarrassed and not sure what to say, "It's, uh-getting late...I should...head back now..." He laughed nervously as he retreated backward, and Akihiko nodded.
As he walked backward, his foot caught on something behind him and he stumbled back, falling over what appeared to be a log. Misaki sat there, dumbfounded. One of his legs was resting on top of the log and the rest of his body was on the ground, behind it. A deep crimson flush crept up his neck and into his face. Akihiko's eyes widened and he had actually run over as if to help. Akihiko stooped down next to Misaki as if to say, Are you ok? And looked at him as if he wanted to help but was unsure of how exactly he should.
"I'm fine, haha. Just tripped, is all…" Misaki ran a hand through the back of his head as he grinned up at Akihiko. He tried to stand up but almost lost his balance-causing him to grab onto Akihiko who helped him stand up straight. Misaki's hands lingered on Akihiko's shoulders as he got his bearings. Once he realized he was still touching him, he dropped his arms abruptly, his face reddening even further, and he felt his heart start to beat a little faster. "I uhh, th-thanks I uhh, should go," He managed to stutter out before turning around and running back to the castle grounds. He was determined not to look back.
Later, that night in his bed he stared at the ceiling. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop reliving that moment. He pulled the covers up over his head and groaned, while muttering to himself, "I'm...such an idiot…" Then he remembered touching Akihiko, and he felt his heart stammer once again. He brought his hand to his hammering chest, wondering what exactly it was that was causing his heart to be pounding so much. Was he really just that embarrassed? He had trouble sleeping through the rest of the night.