5. One Shot (Ren Hakuryuu & Ren Kougyoku): Hakuryuu searches for a new playmate and finds Kougyoku. Together they take a bath and have a tea party afterwards.

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Playing alone never was fun, even less so, when there were others to play with around, but no one was really up to interact with one. Hakuryuu mostly played with his older sister Hakuei, but she often had other things to do. The other children at the palace were no fun to play with, since they only saw him as prince or at least their parents did and so they did behave strange around him. All he wanted was someone to enjoy his free time with. Adults also were no good as playmates, they had no imagination. They were so boring. However, he loved playing with his older brothers or his mother. Unfortunately, neither of them had much time for him, which he understood, but it still was saddening. When they got older Hakuei also got busier with other things. She had decided that she wanted to be a warrior in her father's army and therefore she did not only attend her "princess" lessons, but also trainings sessions of the soldiers. Consequently, Hakuryuu was left to himself more and more often. At first he just followed his sister, but he was just seen as a burden during training.
The only other child, and the only one that did not act differently around him, was Judar. A boy a bit older than Hakuryuu, with long black hair and red eyes. A strange fellow, so full of himself, which impressed Hakuryuu – but he would never admit that –, always mean to others and capable of using a scary, yet interesting power called magic. The scary adults around the boy called him a Magi, whatever that meant, but it seemed to be the name for someone important. Maybe that was the case and caused Judar to act normal around him, a prince, because they both were of high position? Well, whatever it was, Judar was actually nice to him and was a playmate that did not care about their upbringing. Sadly, Judar was the only one Hakuryuu could play with, but the boy was often traveling the world and when he was at the palace, he was surrendered by those masked priests. So, they had barely any time to play with each other. During the time they played together, however, he always had a lot of fun. Judar knew some nice magical tricks and had some great ideas for new games. Some of those games caused the adults to scold them, but that did not take out the fun in them. Yet Hakuryuu did not like getting scold, especially not by his mother. He was a good boy! On the other hand, he did not want Judar to see him as some boring crybaby. Hakuyuu and Hakuren did not seem to like Judar either. At first Hakuryuu had missed their looks and words, but somehow he figured it out and when he asked, why they dislike the other boy, they did not give a satisfying answer. Just because Judar was a bit rude and overconfident did not make him into a bad guy and Hakuryuu would not say that his friend – his only real friend at that – had a bad influence on him. Why were adults always so judgmental? Well, his older brothers were not around very often – he still loved them to no end, but it made him sad to see his friend and his brothers not getting along with each other all of a sudden – so it was easy to ignore their dislike of Judar. There had been a time, when Judar was pretty welcomed by Hakuren and Hakuyuu, but that changed all of a sudden.

Being at the palace while his siblings were out and Judar was traveling the world – Hakuryuu wished, he could also travel around, because it sounded like a lot of fun – meant Hakuryuu was on his own. His mother and sister were busy with their own things. Of course, Hakuei spent a lot of time with him, yet she had duties to attend to, despite being pretty young herself – the life of the first princess was not a piece of cake. So, when no one had time for him, Hakuryuu was wandering around the palace, which was so giant that it was easy to get lost. The hallways looked the same everywhere, which was not helpful in navigating oneself around. Servants were running around, but none of them paid much attention to the young prince, when he was exploring his own home. To a certain extent this was kind of nice, because no one would ask questions or tell him where he was allowed to go or not. His small height help as well, it was so easy to just overlook him – not that he normally would consider this to be a good thing, because usually people used it to make fun of him. One day he would be at least as tall as his big brother Hakuyuu! He would be a tall, handsome and smart man like Hakuyuu! Well, maybe not as tall, handsome and smart as Hakuyuu, but close to it! Big goals for someone so small. Yet it was the big dreams that kept one moving, right?

During his exploration, Hakuryuu came across a part of the palace that seemed abandoned. A few servants were here, but not as many as anywhere else. He wondered, who lived in this part. The libraries and studies were in a different corner of the palace, that's for sure! And the servants and guards had their sleeping quarters somewhere else, too. Was Judar's room around here? He was not at the palace right now, so there was no need for the servants to be here, besides maybe cleaning, so it was tidy when the Magi returned. Now that Hakuryuu thought about it, he never had been in Judar's room before and he had never shown his own room to other one. They were friends, so shouldn't they invite each other into their rooms and play there as well? As soon as the other one would be back, he would definitely take him to his room! But first things first: Where was he and who lived here, in case someone even lived here? Maybe it was just some kind of storage area?
Curious as he was, he looked into all the rooms, after knocking first of course. There was the possibility that someone was inside, and it would be rude to just enter into their private space without even knocking. However, all the rooms were empty, at least there were no people inside, but it appeared that people lived here, they were just not there right now – probably working.

In a room at the end of the hallway, he finally met someone. Well, it took a little look-around to find the small girl, who was hiding under a table. He slowly approached her, a bit anxious and nervous. Admittedly he never had been got with talking to others and making friends. Moreover, the girl looked desolated. Her hair was a mess and her clothes appeared somewhat dirty and a bit too big for her. Where was her mother? Or the maids? Shouldn't there be someone to take care of her? Of course, there was no reason to stick to a child all day long, but she seemed to be left alone for quite some time.
Hakuryuu assumed that she was his age, which would make her a perfect playmate.
"Hello", Hakuryuu tried to start a conversation.
His voice low. Neither did he wanted to scare her – she seemed not to have noticed his presence – nor was he loud when speaking to strangers in general. He was pretty shy in this regards, which was probably due to him being afraid of receiving a rejection from his conversation partner. Being rejected was painful and scary.
As he reached the table, he got down on his knees and crawled next to her, with enough space between them so she still had enough space for herself. Despite his "hello" the girl was so scared, when he appeared next to her, that she jumped up, bumped her had against the desk and crouched together, because of the pain in her head. She began to cry, which startled Hakuryuu. It hadn't been his intention to scar her or even make her cry. What should he do now? Seeing her crying made him want to cry as well.
What should he do?
What should he do?
What should he do?
Panic rose inside him and tears welled in his eyes.
"I am sorry! I am sorry! I am sorry!", he cried.
"Please don't cry. Please!", he begged her.

The crying of the two children was not overheard by a servant, who checked on them. Hakuryuu was brought to his mother, who patiently listen to what had happened. He felt so horrible! He made someone cry! Because of him someone was hurt!
Who was comforting the girl?

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Still feeling guilty for what he had done the other day, Hakuryuu took some of his toys and walked to the room of the nameless girl again. After what he had done, he needed to apologize to her. That was the least he could do! And who knows: Maybe they could make up with each other and then became playmates! All relationships had to start somewhere. This could be their start!
Knocking gently at the door, entering with a soft "hello" and slowly walking through the empty looking room, he searched for the girl of yesterday.
This time she was not crouching under a table, but was playing with her puppets in a room deeper in the inner. When she heard his footsteps, she turned around and froze for a second, just to run off in the next room and hide under another table. She was shaking. Was he that scary? Wasn't everyone make fun of him for being so small and cute and weak? How could one consider him scary? He did not want to be scary! He wanted to be friends with the girl. She seemed just as lonely as he was. Judar could also became a friend of hers. All of them could play together! Sounded great!
"Hello there, I am Hakuryuu. Ren Hakuryuu. I came to apologize for yesterday. It wasn't my intention to scary you. I am sorry!", he said hoping this would help.
He really wanted to get along with her.
"I brought some toys with me. Do you want to play?"
This time she did not back further away, but looked at him and the things in his hands. A slow nod was her answer.

Playing was awkward in the beginning, still after hours of doing so and changing the game from time to time, made things easier. He hadn't asked for her name, because there had been no reason and somehow, he was unsure how to ask her. A simple "What's your name" could have done the deal, yet it was so hard to say. They stopped around lunch time, because both of them were hungry. A servant came by to bring something to eat to the girl and was surprised to find the third prince with her.
After lunch it was time for a short nap and then more playtime. Yet, Hakuryuu had decided that there was something more important than games. For whatever reason his new playmate was left on her own for most of the time and one could see that. Her red hair was a mess, her clothes were rumpled, the room she lived in was dark, untidy and a bit smelly. So, a bath was needed! Taking a bath with a friend should be fun – could he already call her one after only a few hours knowing her? He did not even knew her name!
"Say, do you want to take bath? Afterwards we can make your hair and then play more!", Hakuryuu exclaimed enthusiastic.
Until now he never had been able to show his bath toys to others. He had a lot of them and playing alone with them was boring. The girl nodded again and so he took her by the hand and led her to his room. Right next to his room was the bathroom. A servant was ordered to take care of the children, so nothing bad happened. Not that those two would drown or got hurt. Hakuryuu did not like that, he was a big boy already and could wash himself without any help! There was no need for a supervisor. On the other hand that guy could make himself useful and bring them the toys and fitting clothes, because in all his enthusiasm Hakuryuu had forgotten to bring clothes with him. But this was a thought he only had after they were almost finished with bathing. In the end he was just a kid. Who could hold that against him? Playing with the bath toys was far more interesting and important than clothes!

After bathing, the two kids went to Hakuryuu's room. One of the many servants had brought them their clothes. However, Hakuryuu did not like that his new friend was wearing such shabby ones compared to his. It felt so wrong. So he demanded other clothes for her. His sister Hakuei must have some leftovers from the time she had been their age, right? So why not give them to the girl? No one would mind it, right?
And so, after the whole cloth matter was handled, it was time to do their hair! For that Hakuryuu and his new friend sat down on the ground and he offered her to comb her hair, which she accepted with another nod. She was not a talkative person. He did not mind it. Judar was loud, rude and rough, so the girl was a nice contrast to that.
Combing her hair was a bit difficult, because some parts of her long hair were matted. He didn't want to make her cry again, but it was impossible to get tangles out without it hurting. In the end, he was able to remove the tangles and he even got her name! She was Kougyoku, eighth princesses of the Kou Empire, so she was his cousin. Why had he never heard of her before? Well, considering that he barely knew anyone from his uncle's family, it was not that surprising. Kouen and Koumei were the only children from his uncle he knew about. The two older boys served beside Hakuyuu and Hakuren in the army. Kouen also sometimes talked with Hakuei about matters Hakuryuu did not understand. He himself also had a few encounters with Kouen, but he was too scared of his cousin and therefore tried to avoid contact with him, which caused some trouble and confusion. He felt bad for behaving like this, but he could not stop feeling extremely uncomfortable with the older one. It was a strange thought that Kougyoku and Kouen were related with each other. She looked so sweet, nothing like Kouen or Koumei. Maybe it was due to her being a girl? Or because she was not as tall and muscular as her oldest brother.

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"Hakuryuu, I want to play "tea party". Would you play it with me?", Kougyoku asked softly.
Her eyes were fixed on the ground before her.
"Um, yeah, sure. Let's play!"
Tea party did not sound exciting, but until now they had played what he had suggested, so it was only fair to let her decided what to play next. And maybe it would be more fun than he expected. Until now he had never played tea party.
"What do we have to do?"
A big smile appeared on her face! She looked so cute with it! Seeing her so happy made him happy as well.
With a curious expression Hakuryuu watched her, as Kougyoku set up one of the children's table in a side room of Hakuryuu's bedroom. Besides cups, plates and snakes she also brought stuffed animals with her. A servant brought the tea. The animals were the other guests, because a party needed more than just two invitees. A party was more fun with more people attending it, as long as it was not too crowded.
Hakuryuu added some of his stuffed animals to the group.

Having tea after lunch was nice and eating cookies was the best! Kougyoku tried to sound like one of those noble ladies that also attended those boring political parties, which were sometimes held in the palace – Hakuryuu had to attend those events more than once and they were horrible for a child. All this behaving well and looking perfect. It was really hard and there was no one to talk to or play with. And the adults talked about so complicated stuff with complicated words that Hakuryuu could not even repeat – less had he ever understood, what they had said.
However, all those complicated words were perfect for their tea party, despite both of them not being able to pronounce them correctly or understand them. It was a lot of fun. The stuffed animals were named with odd, yet funny sounding names. But the most important thing was the fact that they both were laughing a lot, while drinking good tasting tea and eating great tasting cookies.
Next time, when Judar was around, they needed to have a tea party again!