A/N 31/10/2020:
Hey hey hey! ^^
Welcome to my first attempt to participate in a 'week of' challenge :p
Because of the speed with which I wrote this, I didn't have enough time to send this story to my lovely beta - so my utmost apologies if there's, like, 10.000 mistakes in here.
I tried my best!
Some random tips I used while writing this (in case the different terms confuse people):
• All members of the Royal Family should be addressed "His/Her Royal Highness" while the reigning King or Queen should be addressed with "Your Majesty"
• Dukes and Duchesses should be addressed with "Your Grace" – while their sons should be addressed with "Lord"
Emmelie Autumn - Misery Loves Company
"You're not a prince
You're not a friend
You're just a child
And in the end
You're one more selfish lover"
Autumn.
"This way, my Lord."
At just five years old, these are the words that get branded into Eita's young brain as his Governess enters the room seemingly alone, and changes his world forever.
"Tai-nii?" the governess' skirt asks hesitantly, and Semi frowns at it. Skirts generally don't talk much, he's learned.
"I'll go fetch your bother in a moment, Shirabu-san, don't worry."
Kiyoko steps aside, and from behind her billowing skirt comes a small, brown-haired boy, clearly older than Tsutomu, but younger than Eita. He looks around the room from within the doorway, hiccupping nervously as Kiyoko gently coaxes him towards the princes who are playing inside.
"Your Highness," she nods, scanning the room until she finds Tsutomu, who is playing hide and seek with his favourite Governess by covering his head with the curtains and giggling madly whenever she acts as if he has turned invisible. Kiyoko seems to think that Tsutomu can do without an introduction, because her dark eyes fix themselves solely on Eita as she says: "This is Lord Shirabu Kenjirou, one of Duke Shirabu's sons. The duke has come to the capital to discuss business with your parents. So Lord Kenjirou and Lord Taichi will be able to play with you and your brother for the next couple of days. Isn't that exciting?"
Eita nods quietly, contemplating the boy still holding on to Kiyoko-san's skirt. He is dragging a bunny plushy behind him, the tip of one long ear clenched tightly into his little fist.
"You boys can play here together. Yachi-san will watch over you. I'll come back the moment Lord Taichi has woken up, is that alright?"
Guessing by Shirabu's slightly panicked expression, that isn't alright at all, but he doesn't say anything and so Kiyoko leaves him behind with a soft smile, the door clicking shut behind her.
Eita stares at his new playmate. Their silence makes Tsutomu's and Yachi's laughter appear to echo around the room even louder than before.
Things like this are always easier when his papa is with him – but as royal consort, Tendou Satori claims that he 'can't leave Eita's dad to do all of the important work by himself'. Eita thinks making friends is 'very important business' too – or at least that's what Satori usually says, but seeing as his father is unable to help him right now, he'll have to make due on his own.
"I'm Eita," he says, pointing at himself. Shirabu nods, causing his sleek brown bangs to fall in front of his eyes.
"I know."
He's quiet – not at all like Eita or 'tomu, and it leaves the prince at a loss how to react.
"I like your rabbit," Eita tries again. He wonders if Kenjirou will want to play with his trainset with him. He thinks the other boy most likely will; it's a very pretty train after all.
"His name is Binky," Shirabu says proudly.
The sudden silence in the room is the only warning Eita gets before his brother runs into his back at full speed.
"Rabbits aren't green!" his voice squeals in Semi's left ear, causing the prince to frown angrily at the interruption as he pushes his little brother backwards, causing Tsutomu to fall on his butt. Eita quickly checks whether Yachi-san saw what happened, but she is currently picking up one of Tsutomu's fairy tale books and hasn't noticed anything. And since Tsutomu doesn't start wailing, Eita seems to be in the clear.
When he looks back at the boy called Kenjirou, he is met with tear-filled eyes. Kenjirou is rapidly plucking at the small blue vest around Binky's body, a tremble in his lips as he looks down at his toy. Even though he's nearly crying, there is still a clear stubbornness in his voice as he says: "My bunny is the best bunny. So they can be green!"
Eita thinks he makes a pretty good point.
"See!" the little Lord says insistently, holding out his rabbit towards Tsutomu as if that proves anything. "Uncle Yama got it from me, from… With the boat! He wouldn't have given it to me wrong!" Despite his defensive behaviour, tears are still shining in Shirabu's eyes. The sight causes Eita to pout angrily, rounding on Tsutomu as well. Now that he finally has gotten someone new to play with, he doesn't want Kenjirou to cry. When Tsutomu cries, he usually stops when Eita gives him a hug, but with this new boy that might not work.
"Bunnies can be green, 'tomu! Benkei told me so himself!"
In truth, his daddy's personal guard hadn't told him any such thing, but Tsutomu's respect for Sir Ohira Reon is as great as can be, and as expected it shuts him up at once.
"Oh, and this is Tsutomu, by the way. But I think he'll let you call him 'tomu as well, if you want," Eita tells Shirabu.
Satisfied with the Benkei explanation, Tsutomu has turned his back on them. He reaches for the wooden horse that was lying next to the train set, making galloping noises as he starts moving it across the floor. Eita keeps in a huff at the sight of his little brother stealing his train conductor, but he decides to settle for the chicken instead. It'll have to do.
Determined, he grabs one of the train cars, presenting it to Kenjirou. The young Lord looks Eita in the eye for a moment before taking him up on his unspoken offer, putting his rabbit down next to him as he bends forwards to inspect the other toys scattered around the railroad. He doesn't even get scared when Yachi-san joins them a minute later.
"You are going to be my best friend!" Eita states with all the authority a 5-year-old crown prince can muster.
And that is that.
To Eita's delight, it turns out that Duke Shirabu has taken over the official duties which his mother used to perform when she was still in charge. This results in the Duke traveling from and to the capital at least twice each month, leaving his estate near the Aoba Johsai border under the control of his mother – which means he can bring his family with him most of the time. This eventually turns into a habitual thing, causing Kenjirou and Taichi to spend approximately half of every month at the palace with the princes.
"Too slow, Kenji!"
The leaves crunch underneath their boots as they run, bright colours covering the trees around them. They have both left their brothers behind at the entrance of the gardens – Tsutomu too tired to play and Taichi uninterested in 'another one of their dumb competitions' as he called it.
At age ten, Eita measures half a head taller than Kenjirou; his long legs the main reason he's been able to outrun his friend for as long as he has. In the end, looking behind him to see how far the other boy lags behind is his undoing.
Well, technically speaking the tree root is.
Eita crashes into the ground with a harsh thud, the speed of his fall punching the air out of his lungs as he sends brightly coloured leaves flying up all around him. The smallest of the Shirabu brothers catches up with him before he is done coughing, reaching out a slender hand for Eita to take and drag him back onto his feet.
Kenjirou's face is red and his beret has slipped too far on the left side of his head; courtesy of all the running. He's panting as he says: "guess I was able to catch up with you after all, huh, Semisemi?"
"Stop," Eita groans, "you sound like my father when you call me that."
"Well. Y'should've thought about that before the game then," Shirabu laughs.
"Have some respect, brat!" Eita says haughtily, a grin betraying his stern tone.
"You are literally not even a year older than me! And I'm supposed to call you that. Dad says I can't keep calling you by your first name, so I guess this is practice."
"Just 'Semi' will suffice, I think."
"Do you even know what that word means?"
"… Yes…"
Shirabu looks at him critically, but Semi does what he does best and ignores it. "Anyway, if you're going to call me 'Semisemi', then you might as well call me 'Eita'."
"Just 'Semi' then," Shirabu concedes, kicking some leaves out of the way as they start to make their way back to the palace. "Hey… Why is it that you have a different surname than your dads?"
"I don't?" Eita says perplexed. "It's simply the only title I can use right now. 'tomu and I become Dukes when we turn 10. I got the Semi mountains, and I think he's going to get the land surrounding Goshiki Falls, but I don't know if that's what they decided for sure yet. I think they only do it so people stop using our first names, or something. Dunno, I don't really see the point."
Shirabu hums, looking up to watch some of the leaves struggling against the wind, trying to keep holding on to the small branches they're attached to. "It just sounds like a lot of trouble, is all I'm saying."
Semi shrugs, unbothered by it all. He stoops forward a little and lowers his voice, reenacting their main teacher's grumpy tone as he says: "you'll get your full name and title when you become of age, Your Highness, now sit down and count to a 20 million in French."
Shirabu laughs. "Washijou-sama better not hear you acting like him if you want to reach that age. He just might let you copy that whole book about the noble families as punishment."
The thought makes Eita laugh as well. "It's only 10 more years. I think I can make it. Like any of it matters when most people keep calling me 'Your Highness' instead. But maybe you're right; I think that would be one of the worst things he could do to me. None of those names ever stick in my head – can't they just use numbers instead of names or something? It's just so boring. Anyway, if they make me look at that book again I'm gonna go grey."
"… Right," Kenjirou says sarcastically, pointedly staring up at some of the dark grey locks of hair sticking out from underneath Semi's cap.
They fall back into silence once they reach the stairs leading up to the main hall. There they find Taichi, who is predictably stuck with his nose in one of the books his mother gave him. Tsutomu, however, is nowhere to be found. The Brunette doesn't even look up when they ask him where the prince has gone, merely pointing vaguely to the right before lowering his hand again so he can turn the next page.
They eventually find Tsutomu in the grand gallery, where he's holding a mock wedding with one of the kitchen maids' daughters. They are copying the poses Semi's parents are doing on the large painting behind them, which was made for their marriage, and Shirabu and Semi quickly leave when Tsutomu shouts angrily at them for insulting his 'bride's wedding dress', which is clearly one of her mother's underskirts that she synched with a flowery belt.
It only feels safe to laugh out loud when they turn the corner, at a safe distance from Tsutomu's sensitive soul.
"I think the blanket was supposed to be his cape," Shirabu says amusedly, "it was a nice match with her paper tiara. You should steal his idea and do that for your own wedding – maybe that would make it a little more interesting to have to sit through."
The thought makes Semi pause. He stops walking, staring up at the painting on his left, where his dad looks down at them with a thoughtful expression, fully decked out in his ceremonial outfit as he leans back against his throne.
"I don't want to marry," he says decidedly. "And if they force me to, I'll just choose you! We can become friend-kings together!"
He looks at Shirabu, suddenly overtaken with excitement at the idea of this possible escape out of a situation he's never found all that interesting, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it forever.
"You can just come and live with me, in the castle! I'll even give you a paper crown, just like hers, if you want," he says with a teasing head tilt towards the girl they left behind with Tsutomu.
What he doesn't expect is for Kenjirou to start laughing. "Yeah, and you'd also give me a pretty bouquet with pink flowers, probably."
Semi frowns at his friend's tone before looking back up at the painting. "I don't know if there are many flowers blooming at this time of year, but I could try to find some of the last ones breaking through before winter. I don't know why you'd need flowers, though? I've never given you flowers before? But dad gives them to papa sometimes, so maybe it's just a marriage thing…"
He turns to look behind him when Shirabu doesn't answer. "Don't you understand? That way we can be together forever!"
Kenjirou is frowning slightly, his gaze pointed somewhere around Semi's left knee. He keeps pulling at the end of his sleeves, a nervous habit he never grew out of, even if the green bunny it used to happen to is now confined to the young Lord's bedroom.
"I don't think I could do that. Nana told me that I should marry for love – just like my father did, and she before him. She says 'I'll already have to listen to other people for the rest of my days', and that 'that's something you should choose for yourself'."
Eita blinks rapidly, stunned by the reply.
"I want to marry when I'm big," Shirabu continues, unaware of the growing agitation on the crown prince's face, "but I'm going to do that with someone I love a lot, and who loves me a lot too, I think. So I can't friend-marry you. Sorry."
He looks up, right after finishing his speech, causing Semi to have to school his features rather quickly. He's not quite sure if he succeeded in time.
"But it doesn't need to be me, right? You could still friend-marry someone else? That's nice too, right?"
Semi grimaces at the thought. "I suppose…"
'Does it need to be Kenjirou? Yes and no.'
He doesn't wish to marry Kenjirou's twin brother, Taichi, at all. He may be quiet and nice in general, but they'd get into arguments way too often. Marquess Aone's son is too quiet, and young earl Sakusa Kiyoomi has gotten even more grouchy after he lost his father. Semi always gets mad when he is around, (even though he feels a little bad for him), and Sakusa doesn't even talk to him! He just stares, judgingly. From thinking about Sakusa, Eita's mind automatically moves on to the only other pair of twins he knows. Especially the loud, blond one – who is almost as infuriating as Kiyoomi, especially when those two are together. He supposes the brother would be kind of okay, but Semi doesn't think he could marry someone if he can't understand a word of what they're saying. Besides, all he really knows about Osamu's interests is that they roughly like the same food – and he doesn't think that his papa would recommend that as a good basis for marriage. But there's still time. Kenjirou is even younger than Eita is – maybe he'll change his mind when he's older.
There is no way two people could grow closer than the two of them, right? So marrying someone else would simply be illogical at that point.
He nods to himself, pleased with the outcome of his mental debate.
"You don't have to decide right now, you know? Maybe you'll want to friend-marry in the future after all? You can't know for sure!"
Shirabu smiles at him weakly, clearly unconvinced.
"Maybe," he mutters. "Maybe so."
A/N: Hey hey hey! ^^
This chapter was short & sweet to start things off!
Some things I still wanted to mention:
1. Uncle Yama = Yamagata, of course
2. I /died/ when I found the 'taichi' and 'nii-chan' combo - 'Tai-nii' just is MEANT TO BE!
3. #greenbinky = best binky
(Not that I have a preference for green or something, but my brain just went: 'MAKE THE RABBIT GREEN, SIS', so I did :p)
Stan the wonderful woman who inspired me to write this: Possumel. You can check her out on Tumblr & Twitter
I also want to tell you guys that I just finished writing another 30k fic! :D
I still need to reread it before sending it to my beta, but I'm supposed to start posting it at the end of 2020. ^^
Please let me know what you thought about this chapter if you have the time; it makes me really happy! ^^
I wish you all a great week! Please stay safe!