Chapter 5
For the rest of the day Erina and his stepbrothers kept Misaki as busy as possible. Gave him ragged clothes and demanded all kinds of things from him. He had to help with their not so stylish clothes, restyle their hair, get various jewerly and other accessories, dig out many shoes and slippers and also make adjustments to the clothes if necessary. All of that so Erina and Mizuki and Sumi would look their finest for the ball. He had to do his usual chores after that and as the night came he was very tired.
Finally Erina dismissed him from his work and Misaki made his way to the kitchen which had been his "bedroom" for the years since father died. The sight of his thin mat on the cold kithcen floor beside the fireplace never looked inviting. But he couldn't give in. He had work to do for his own clothes for the ball.
He hurried to work, cutting away excess fabric from the waist, opening seams and re-sewing the whole thing back together. He finished refitting the dress at two in the morning. He was so sore, tired, he couldn't even crawl to his mat to sleep. He curled up to the cold bare floor by the chest and clutched to his mother's old dress in his hand. And dreaming about the handsome silver haired man he met at the village. His soft and safe hands around him protecting him.
Akihiko woke to a brlliant sunrise that shone through his windows. He got up from his four poster bed and walked to his balcony in his nightclothes. It was really early. A gold light shone at the horizon and illumintaed the beautiful green forests around the village far away from the castle. The greeness of the forests reminded him of the cute boy's eyes he met yesterday.
All day yesterday his thoughts were full of that beautiful brunette. He didn't know his name unfortunately. Nothing couldn't take him out of his mind. Even his dreams were full of him and only him. His sweet green eyes, soft lips and skin and all that innocence.
He had just met him yesterday. It was more than likely he wouldn't see that boy again. Unless…
Akihiko's head snapped up. Hadn't his father ordered every eligible youth to attend to the ball? The ball was tomorrow night. Wasn't there a good chance that his mystery little boy would be there?
Happy and feeling much better now Akihiko returned to his suite to dress up. Now he wore his usual expensive and white uniform and walked along the hall to the big grand ballroom where maids and valets were already working, hanging swags of silk and chaplets of flowers along the high walls.
"Your highness. You're up early." Was heard from behind him. There stood his friend Hiroki.
"Ugh don't call me that Hiroki. It's weird", he said with a face of disgust.
His friend snickered. "You seem to feel a lot better from yesterday", Hiroki commented. "Any particular reason?"
Akihiko didn't want show his silly smile when he thought about the boy of his dreams. He shrugged.
"Where were you yesterday afternoon?" Akihiko span around and gave a questoning look for Hiroki who looked back with an amused look on his face.
"Nowhere in particular."
"I came to your room around two o'clock and you weren't there. I searched the entire castle and the gardens too and you where nowhere. Seriously where were you? You can tell me."
"I was in the village."
"Village?!" Shouted Hiroki. Maids and other decorators sent odd looks to Hiroki and the prince beside him. Hiroki sent a glare in return and they were back to work.
"Well..." He started. He did want to tell the truth to Hiroki. "It's strange that I'm the soon to be king and I haven't really been outside of the castle. If I'm going to rule this kingdom and its people some day, but have no idea what their daily life is like and..."
Hiroki nodded understanding a small smile on his lips. "Well what was it like?"
"Very relaxing. Like my eyes had opened first time all over again. People treated me like a normal, another person, like I was as same as them."
Hiroki listened but narrowed his eyes. "I believe you, I do." He said. "That when you said really liked being outside of the castle. Tell me the real reason why you were outside."
Akihiko sighed.
"Well you remember when I told you that I thought that anyone couldn't love me for who I really am inside if they knew I was the heir to the throne, the crown prince."
Hiroki nodded, he remembered clearly. And he realized before Akihiko could continue. "You met someone, didn't you?" He asked excited.
For the first time Akihiko showed his rare smile. "Yes I did."
"Really, who, tell me", Hiroki inquired more.
"I didn't get their name", ignoring Hiroki's shocked cough he continued, "I saved them from one the dissoluted men who tried to take them by force. Clearly they didn't want to so I helped them." A tiny dreamily and loving smile grew on his face. "They were so enchanting, so shy and innocent. I helped them to pick up their things and comforted them by holding their small hand in mine. They had to go back somewhere and we said our goodbyes to each other."
"Did you see where they went?" Hiroki asked.
Akihiko shook his head. A collision and few words doesn't really amount to a releationship.
"Akihiko! This is the first time you have shown any kind of interest in anyone!"
"Interest? I can't get them out of my mind. And I don't know if I see them again."
"There's the ball", reminded Hiroki. "Everyone in the whole kingdom will be there. Surely will they too."
"You're right. But I wonder..."
"Wait hold on. You appointed your infatuation as them."
Akihiko stayed silent.
"Akihiko tell me."
"They're male."
"I knew it!"
"You don't mind? That the lover of my dreams is a male?"
"Of course not! What do you take me for? I'm your long time childhood friend!" Said Hiroki reassuring.
"I wonder if he will be in town again today." Akihiko gave Hiroki a look with his lavender eyes.
Hiroki gave a questoning look.
"I want you to come with me. You know the names of everyone in the village, right? So you might know who the boy is."
"But..." Hiroki thought about it. King won't be happy at all. "Argh, alright. Just because it's for your love." Hiroki gave up.
Misaki accidentally woke later than usually. After an hour of scolding of his stepfamily, tired little boy was allowed to go to do his usual chores. As he was walking past the stepbrothers' room he heard Sumi and Mizuki ranting around.
"I hate this suit!" Shouted Mizuki angrily.
Misaki approached the door and listened through the door.
"You liked it when you got it!" Growled Erina.
"I hate it now! Why can't we have our wardrobes refressed like everyone else does?! I can't show up with this in the puplic."
"We can't afford something like that!" Erina yelled making the boys flinch.
"But soon that will change. Once one of you gets to be the spouse of the prince. We'll be able to afford full new wardrobes everyday!"
Sumi smiled up "Oh yes. We'll have all kind of jewerly!"
"And we can have chocolate and other luxury for every meal!"
"But not every meal. You wouldn't want to lose your figures, would you?"
Boys frowned. Erina was very strict about their clothes and eating since ever. They were rarely allowed to eat any kind of sweets and she usually decided their clothes and..well everything. That made Misaki pity them a little.
"I promise we'll see new ones as soon as we can. You have to make the best impression you can on the prince tomorrow night and if you mess this up you'll be wearing nothing but sacks like poor guttersnipes!" The boys nodded and looked a little scared. They knew that mother would carry her threat.
The boys threw out some of their old clothes which they thought they were hideous. Misaki was told to throw them out. But instead of taking them out, he took two of them to the kitchen. He decided to scrap the remaining outfits for some of their material and use them to his own dress. They wouldn't mind since they wanted to burn and throw them out.
Hello! How is this story going so far? Someone rewiewed about Haruhiko not showing up and the royal family consist just Usagi and his fahter Fuyuhiko. I'll think about him showing up at some point in the story maybe as a twist but I'll see where this goes. Then there's Hiroki and Nowaki which I really want to develop more. The plot is really cheesy and little same as the original disney fairytale. Few changes, and the end might be suprising(Haruhiko showing up). Also Junoju Romatica doesn't have much female characters and the stepmother is OC of mine or something like that.
Characters might be...I mean are little OOC but hopefully that doesn't matter. This is one of my first time me writing anywhere in internet and I wanted to start with something cute and really cheesy and hear what you think so far. I love Junjou Romantica and also Sekaiichi Hatsukoi and I always think the characters of them in different wordls and what would they be like.
And sorry. There might be grammar mistakes and other. English is not my mother language, but I try my best.
To be continued...