Shuichi stayed exactly where he was, trying very hard not to be seen. A few extras from the parade were still trickling through the main hall to leave the palace, and the guards were on high alert to prevent any trouble. Directly in front of the plant that he was hiding behind, Tatsuha was pacing erratically. Shuichi was waiting for the perfect moment to escape, and couldn't stand the thought of missing out on the proceedings in the throne room.
He pondered a few evasive tactics, but couldn't decide on which one would work the best. Tatsuha was still pacing, and everyone once in a while he would glance up to make sure that the exiting extras were behaving themselves. Shuichi sighed in frustration; this was not going to be easy. After a few more minutes of uneasy twitching and watching the last extras leave, Shuichi was struck with a brilliant idea. Before giving himself time to think it over, he clamped a hand over his eyes and jumped out from behind the plant, causing a few of the guards to shriek and hide behind the others for protection.
"Umm, your majesty?" Tatsuha asked slowly, having been taken by surprise.
"I can't see you, you can't see me!" Shuichi said brightly. He tightened the hand over his eyes and put the other one out in front of him, searching for the door to the throne room.
"Yes, I can, Prince." Tatsuha answered back, crossing his arms and tapping his foot. He was a little irked that someone as stupid as Shuichi had managed to hide from his guards for so long. Not to mention the girlish shrieks he had drawn from them with his antics.
"Lies." Shuichi said back in a matter-of-fact tone. He started to wander around the main hall, with his eyes still covered, bumping off of walls and guards alike. A few tried to guide him in the right direction, but he still couldn't find the door to the throne room.
"Listen, majesty, we can obvious-" Tatsuha started to say, but he was cut off by Shuichi.
"Heh, he's so stupid, thinks he can see me…" Shuichi muttered to himself, starting to walk faster in hopes of finding the throne room.
"We can hear you too, you know." Tatsuha said. He was starting to lose his patience, but he knew that he couldn't harm the Prince in any way. He walked towards Shuichi in an attempt to corral him and lead him to the throne room, but due to the fact that Shuichi was now running around the main hall in panicked circles, he had a hard time.
"Cannot!" Shuichi yelled at Tatsuha as he continued to run around the main hall. One of his circles brought him close to the throne room door and he could catch bits and pieces of the conversation transpiring within. He slammed on the brakes, removed his hand, and skidded over to the door.
"I'm so flattered that you're willing to accept my master into your beautiful palace, he's just beside himself with gratitude." A man's voice said on the other side of the door. "My name is K, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have."
"Why, of course K. We're always glad to play host to people of your master's caliber." Mika answered with a polite smile, eying the finery that K and Ryuichi were wearing. She glanced over K's shoulder, trying to see where the Prince was, but she couldn't find him.
"And such a kind Sultana. Your people must adore you, milady." K said to Mika, bowing his head. He was really laying on the charm, hoping that he could make this work. "My master's people adore him as well, he's a wonderful politician."
Shuichi had practically stopped breathing, trying to catch every bit of conversation going on behind the door. Tatsuha and the guards had backed off, seeing as their last attempt to pry Shuichi away from the door had ended in some bloodshed. One of the guards behind Tatsuha was nursing a bite wound on his finger.
"Thank you, they are very happy. He's a politician, eh?" Mika asked, thinking of Shuichi's abysmal leadership skills.
"Yes, he is. He's been in charge of affairs of state for the last few years and he's always been keen to help his father with running the city." K answered, completely unaware that Yuki wasn't anywhere in sight.
Behind his pillar, Yuki was trying everything he could think of to keep from snickering. K looked like an idiot and that Sultana seemed bloodthirsty. Yuki had no idea how he was supposed to live up to everything K was saying, and he still hadn't caught sight of Shuichi. Prince Nakano was on the other side of the large room, looking a bit concerned. Yuki was happy to be the one to throw off his plans as he still held a grudge against the other prince.
"Do you travel often? Is your master well-versed in other cultures?" Mika asked, again thinking about Shuichi's complete lack of leadership ability.
"Yes, yes, he's a very worldly prince, travels everywhere." The voice said. "We always travel in style, parade and all."
"Really now?" Mika responded, and Shuichi noted the greedy quality to her voice. Mika again looked around the room for the elusive Prince Eiri, but he was nowhere in sight. K hadn't seemed to notice yet, and Mika wondered if the short man with the stuffed rabbit was the prince. She gulped, hoping that he wasn't, and smiled her best smile at K.
"Of course, Sultana." The man's voice responded suavely. K still hadn't bothered to look for Yuki and assumed that he was either still gagged on the elephant or being his moody self and staying quiet.
"Excellent. My son is definitely one for the…outrageous. He'll be pleased with your prince, I think." Mika answered, and Shuichi had to bite his hand to keep from making any angry noises. Mika looked at Ryuichi again and noticed that he was chewing on the stuffed rabbit's ear. She shuddered, but pressed on. If not Nakano, then this prince would have to do, no matter what.
"Perfect, perfect, the Prince is quite the catch. I'm sure he'll be very pleased with your son, Sultana. Don't you think so, Ryuichi?" The man's voice said again.
"Mmm hmm!" Ryuichi said, his mouth full of Kuma's ear. Shuichi didn't recognize the voice, and had no one to attribute it to.
"Then let's set the match, if you're so sure." Mika answered. Shuichi could just see her smug grin. She was beyond relieved that the bunny freak wasn't the prince. She didn't know if she'd be able to handle two idiots, and she didn't know when she and Tohma would be leaving. Convinced that this Ryuichi wasn't the prince, she resumed her search but still couldn't find the elusive visitor.
"Al-alright…" the voice stuttered, and Shuichi guessed the man was taken aback by the forwardness of Mika. "So, where is this prince of yours, your son?"
Before Mika could answer the man, Shuichi took a step back, and before Tatsuha could stop him, threw open the doors to the throne room with a loud bang. He was practically frothing at the mouth and was shaking slightly. Mika gasped when she saw him, and the man beside her gulped and took a step back.
"I'm…right…here…" Shuichi answered, his voice haggard with rage.
"Oh…good…" Mika replied, not sure of how to handle the furious and twitching Shuichi.
"How dare you…" Shuichi said, still shaking. "I can't believe this…first you try to make me marry him…" Shuichi continued, gesturing towards Hiro.
"It's for your own good." Mika returned haughtily, wanting to silence Shuichi so that he didn't scare off the newcomer.
"And now you're trying to make me marry this twit?" Shuichi plowed on, completely ignoring Mika and gesturing this time towards Ryuichi.
"Wait a minute, he's not-" Mika started to say before she was cut off by Shuichi. He was clearly mistaken about the identity of the prince.
"NO! I WON'T! I'm so sick of you trying to run my life!" Shuichi said, waving his arms and pacing manically. "Come on, Mika, this guy is terrible! He led his own parade!" towards Ryuichi, "How arrogant can you be?"
"You're not very nice…" Ryuichi said, cuddling Kuma to himself.
"You're kidding me right?" Shuichi said, ceasing his pacing and crossing his arms defiantly. "I'm not marrying that."
"Yep, you were right. He's quite the kid." K said, clapping Mika on the back and smiling widely. He thought about stopping Shuichi's tirade with the truth, but the mischievous side of him simply wouldn't allow it.
"K! Make him stop! He's being mean!" Ryuichi squalled, completely taken aback by Shuichi's verbal attacks. Glancing over at Shuichi and seeing the anger and written across his face, Ryuichi burst into tears and hugged Kuma harder.
"You're despicable! You jerk! I can't believe you thought you'd get me!" Shuichi snarled, working himself into a rage.
"Just calm down…" Hiro said, stepping in from the sidelines to wrangle Shuichi before he did anything drastic. "Shuichi…"
"Don't! DON'T! Get away from me!" Shuichi yelled, shoving Hiro away and advancing on Ryuichi. He was in mid-lunge when Hiro grabbed him around his waist and hauled him back towards the door to the throne room. "PUT ME DOWN! I HAVE TO MURDERIZE HIM!"
"Murderize? Shuichi, stop, you're not going to kill him." Hiro said softly, whispering into Shuichi's ear.
"Don't tell me what to do, Hiroshi." Shuichi said slowly, deathly serious.
"Then stop acting like a child." Hiro returned, keeping his hold on Shuichi's waist.
Shuichi twisted himself around to face Hiro and gave him his best glare. In his hiding place, Yuki was impressed, and slightly jealous; that was one hell of a look.
"Let go of me. Now." Shuichi hissed, continuing to glare.
"No can do." Hiroshi stated brightly, with a smile. He forcibly turned Shuichi around and draped his arms over the younger's shoulders, clasping his hands over his chest. Then, more quietly to Shuichi, "This is for the best, the Sultana looks mortified."
"I don't care what she looks like!" Shuichi spat, trying, and failing, to get away from Hiro. "I won't be pawned off like this!"
"I'm so sorry about him…" Mika said to K, touching him lightly on the arm. "I hope this won't change your mind…"
"Of course not!" K said with a smile. "My prince is up to a…challenge."
"I'M NOT A CHALLENGE!" Shuichi screamed, stamping on Hiro's feet in an attempt to get loose.
"Obviously." K returned, inclining his head slightly. He couldn't really understand why Yuki liked the kid so much, though. Shuichi was acting like a hyped-up Ryuichi on steroids.
"Where exactly is this prince of yours?" Mika asked, stepping into K's line of sight to prevent any further exchanges with Shuichi.
"Why, he's right over-" K started to say, turning around to drag Yuki forward. Upon realizing that he was gone for the first time, he called over the Rug Man and told it to search the elephant. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere, milady."
"Let's hope." Mika returned, telling herself that she was going to kill her stepson if he'd chased off another one. She still couldn't believe that Prince Nakano had lasted as long as he had.
"Well where is he then?" K asked the rug, who had just reported back, in a frustrated tone. "It was YOUR job to watch him!"
"He's babysat by a flying piece of carpet?" Mika asked, beginning to be skeptical. "Really?"
"He's a wily one…" K answered with a smile, running his hand through his hair. He hadn't expected that Yuki would escape, especially not under the rug's watchful eye.
"Where'd Yuki go?" Ryuichi asked as he scampered up to K and tugged on his sleeve. He had temporarily forgotten Shuichi's desire to destroy him and was focused on finding his comrade. "Where'd he go K?"
"I don't know…" K said, brushing Ryuichi off and trying to focus. To Mika, "I'm so sorry about this, if you'll excuse me, we'll find him."
"It's not a problem." Mika answered, trying to be polite. To pass the time, she walked over to Tohma and Caspian who had, thankfully, stayed quiet for the length of the proceedings. When she reached them, she noticed that Tohma had his head cocked to the side and was staring intently at the shorter of the two attendants.
"He looks so familiar…" Tohma said, wishing he could remember where he'd seen him. On his shoulder, Caspian snickered to himself. Tohma had unbound his beak prior the parade, but he was choosing to stay quiet to torment his owner. It was obvious to him that the shorter one was one of the street rats that Tohma was supposed to have killed at the cave.
"Snap out of it." Mika said, smacking Tohma's head into its normal position.
"Yes ma'am." Tohma replied, rubbing the spot where she'd clocked him. "What's happenin'?"
Mika never answered Tohma and merely stared him down until he ceased his meaningless banter. She stayed quiet while K and Ryuichi searched for Prince Eiri.
On the other side of the throne room, K was frantically searching for his missing charge. The plan was unraveling, and he couldn't believe that Yuki was dooming himself like this. Sure, he had wished for money and not for the title, but this was his one chance to steal Shuichi away from the other dude. The Sultana had practically handed her step-son over on a silver platter with a "FREE" sign taped to his forehead.
He thought about searching behind the throne and pillars, but he didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of the Sultana; things were going too well at this point. He sighed and motioned the rug forward. After all, it had been in charge of watching over Yuki, surely it would know something.
"When was the last time you saw him?" K asked the rug quietly.
In response, the rug shrugged what would have been its shoulders were it human and started to fidget around. Behind K, Ryuichi was contently playing with Kumagoro, completely oblivious to the snarls coming from Shuichi.
"What do you mean, you don't know?" K asked, waving his arms for a second and then regaining his composure. "This is unacceptable!"
"What's going on? Did you find him yet K?" Ryuichi asked, shuffling over to K. "Where's Yuki?"
"I don't know, Ryuichi, give me a second." K spat back, trying to figure out what to do. For all he knew, Yuki could be loose in the city.
"Kuma will find him!" Ryuichi sang out, causing Mika to glance over at them. Still being restrained by Hiro, Shuichi stopped snarling and let his mouth fall open, blown away by the behavior of this supposed prince.
"No he won't. Not this time. Stay put." K ordered, trying to keep a lid on things. It was bad enough that Yuki had made a fool out of him by escaping; he really didn't need Ryuichi to make things worse. "I'll figure this one out, thanks anyway."
"Ahh, but Kuma – " Ryuichi started to whine, before K clamped a hand over his mouth and shushed him.
"Ryuichi. Quiet." K said, removing his hand and turning his attention back to the rug. "Do you at least know if he made it through the palace gates?"
The rug decided not to make things easy on K. Instead of merely telling him the answer, the rug started to gesture wildly. It remembered seeing Yuki before K put on his overtly feminine clothes, and tried to bring this across in his gestures. In an attempt to illustrate K's triumphant entrance into the world of drag, the rug danced around and grabbed at K's shirt and ponytail.
"Stop that!" K said angrily, suddenly wishing he didn't have to deal with this anymore. Next to K, Ryuichi smiled and clapped his hands in response to the Rug Man's little show, but knew enough to keep his mouth shut just this once. "Use words, man!"
The rug mimicked a sigh and explained to K that Yuki had definitely not made it through the gates. The rug had noticed when he curled up to avoid K's fireworks but hadn't found the right moment to tell K. It really didn't want to get shot.
"He's been missing since then?" K asked no one in particular, dumbfounded that Yuki had been missing for that long.
"He didn't see your show, K?" Ryuichi asked, tears starting to well up in his eyes. "He…he…HE MISSED MY SONG!"
"Shh! Dammit, Ryuichi, shut up!" K said, trying to shush Ryuichi again and failing abysmally. "He heard the first part!"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! YUKI MISSED MY SONG!" Ryuichi shrieked, falling to his knees and throwing his hands in the air, Kuma still clutched in one of them. From his hiding place, Yuki groaned quietly. If Ryuichi ever found him, he'd be dead. He may forgive the insults, but he'd never forgive him for missing one of his shows. Yuki gulped, and flattened himself against the pillar, hoping no one had noticed him. Shuichi heard Ryuichi yell, but the name that issued from him didn't ring any bells in the youth's head.
Mika trotted with dignity across the room, drawn by Ryuichi's echoing outburst. Shuichi had again fallen silent, and even Hiro's grip had relaxed a bit. Outside, Tatsuha's guards had to hold him back to keep him from running in and tackling Ryuichi in an outburst of love.
"Is everything…OK?" Mika asked, trying to be polite in the face of this disaster. Ryuichi was turning her gorgeous marble floor into a pond.
"Of course, Milady. He's very emotional…very attached to his master." K answered, trying to redirect Mika's attention. "Unfortunately, our prince has an eye for shopping and seems to have slipped off to your glorious marketplace…"
"Ah, it is a nice place…" Mika replied, unsure of what to do.
"I hate to ask this, but may I take leave of you to search for him? As I said, I just hate to – " K said to Mika, clasping his hands behind his back and bowing his head slightly.
"Umm…" Mika stuttered, not entirely sure of how to answer him. This was highly unusual, not to mention entirely improper.
"MY SONG!" Ryuichi wailed, still on the floor. His tears were forming a larger puddle, and K had to move away to avoid getting his shoes wet.
Across the room, Shuichi was again trying to break free. He had attempted to use Hiro's distraction to his advantage, but it hadn't worked so far. He tried to push off of Hiro's legs to break his grip and had no luck. Shuichi groaned in frustration and started to beat Hiro ferociously. When this failed him too, he sank his teeth into Hiro's arm, and again got nothing for his efforts. Hiro was unflinching even in the face of Shuichi's fangs.
"Shuichi, please, I'm just trying to help…" Hiro said, not bothering to lower his voice this time. To the left, Yuki moved a bit behind his pillar, a bit upset by Hiro's behavior. He didn't care to share.
"I don't need your help!" Shuichi said, curling his knees up to his chest and then striking out at Hiro with all of his strength. When his feet slammed into Hiro's knees, it brought the older prince down and Shuichi leapt free with a shout of "Victory!". Yuki couldn't keep the smile off of his face, though it was fleeting.
"You didn't…have…to do that…" Hiro said, the pain apparent in his voice. "I would have let you go eventually…"
"Whatever." Shuichi said, huffing. Yuki smiled again, pleasantly amused by his midnight cohort. Still worried about Ryuichi noticing him, he jumped back behind the pillar. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Hiro asked, slowly pulling himself off of the floor. He massaged his knees for a few seconds and looked up. "Where?"
"Over there." Shuichi answered, earlier rage forgotten, pointing to the left side of the throne room. "I swear I saw something…"
"Shit…" Yuki whispered to himself. He could hear Shuichi, and it panicked him. This was not how he wanted this to pan out.
Mika and K had moved in front of the throne, wanting to avoid the torrents of tears that were issuing from Ryuichi.
"Once you find your master, secure him, and I'll arrange a formal audience for you tomorrow. I trust that will work?" Mika finally answered K, having decided on a course of action.
"Of course, thank you for being so understanding." K said, bowing to the Sultana and walking over to where Ryuichi was still wailing and now melting into the floor along with his tears.
"Anytime." Mika returned to K's retreating back. She sighed, and scanned the room for Shuichi. She needed to talk to him about acting his age in front of important company. Before she could reach him, however, he darted off to the side of the room and starting looking behind the pillars. She sighed again, but then reminded herself that at least Tohma and his feathered accomplice were still staying quiet.
"What is he doing exactly?" Mika asked Hiro, sliding up behind him.
"I'm not sure, milady. He's convinced he saw something over there." Hiro answered, hiding his smile from the Sultana.
On the left side of the room, Yuki had no idea what to do. Shuichi was on him like a bloodhound, trying to figure out where he was. As Shuichi moved through the pillars, Yuki moved as well, trying desperately to avoid him. Suddenly, he lost sight of Shuichi and couldn't hear any footsteps. Unsure of what to do next, he moved away from his current pillar in order to move to the next one. Instead of stealthily sneaking to his next spot, he ran face first into Shuichi.
"EEK!" Shuichi screamed, slapping Yuki and jumping back three feet.
"Just breathe…" Yuki said quietly, moving his hands in a shushing motion. He didn't want anyone else to catch on. "Please be quiet…
"What the hell…" Shuichi whispered, immediately calming down after taking a good look at his assaulter. "GHOST!"
"What's going on? You OK?" Hiro shouted across the room in response to Shuichi's scream.
"It's a haunting!" Shuichi shrieked, jumping back again.
"Shuichi?" Hiro called, unable to understand Shuichi's insane screaming. "Are you OK?"
"I…I…" Shuichi stuttered, completely freaked out by the sudden appearance of Yuki. Not wanting to alarm Hiro or get in more trouble with Mika, he answered Hiro. "I'm fine…"
"Alright." Hiro replied, not continuing to investigate due to the fact that he didn't want to seem overly concerned in front of the Sultana.
Shuichi was quiet for a few minutes. In front of him, Yuki stood still as well, not sure of what to do next. Shuichi's silence was surprising, and not at all expected after his earlier yelling. He swallowed, and stared back at Shuichi, waiting for the kid to make another move.
"You're…not real…" Shuichi finally said, his thoughts slowing his speech. "You're dead."
"No, I'm real." Yuki said, crossing his arms. He couldn't believe that was what Shuichi had to say after all of that build-up. And last time he checked, his definitely wasn't dead.
"No…you're not. I'm not going to talk to you…" Shuichi said, backing up and turning to face the main part of the throne room. To himself, "If I ignore it, it'll go away…"
"It? Excuse me?" Yuki said in a hiss, not wanting to be overheard and feeling pretty neglected.
"Nope. You're just a figure of my imagination."
"You mean figment."
Shuichi didn't answer Yuki and quickly walked back towards the rest of the group. Before he reached them, he caught sight of Ryuichi again and all of his earlier anger came rushing back. Behind him, Yuki stepped out from behind the pillars, but everyone was too busy being distracted by Ryuichi's latest emotional explosion.
"YUKI DOESN'T LOVE ME!" Ryuichi shrieked from his spot on the floor, completely oblivious to K's attempts to shut him up. Yuki took another step out from his previous hiding place, wanting to get a closer look at Shuichi. At this point, Ryuichi was bound to find him eventually.
"Knock it off." Shuichi said, starting to get annoyed by Ryuichi again. He looked over his shoulder to see if the ghost was gone, and was disappointed; Yuki was leaning against the pillar in plain sight with his arms crossed. The rest of the group still hadn't noticed him.
"Yeah, you should be ashamed of yourself." Hiro told Ryuichi, stepping in front of Shuichi to prevent another attack. "You call yourself a prince?"
"Nakano, he's not-" Mika started to say, but Ryuichi's loud crying cut her off.
"I'M NOTA PRINCE!" Ryuichi wailed desperately, still very hurt that Yuki hadn't bothered to stick around for his grand finale.
"That's right, you're not. If you were, you'd have some manners. You can't just burst in and demand to be a suitor, there are measures you have to take." Hiro continued, crossing his arms and staring Ryuichi down. This would make Shuichi like him a lot more, and the Sultana seemed to admire assertiveness. Still, he really hated having to be an ass.
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" Ryuichi cried, standing up and holding Kumagoro in front of him. He looked up at Hiro, but instead of seeing the angry princes and the Sultana, he saw Yuki leaning against a pillar. "YUKI!"
"Enough about him, take responsibility for your own actions." Hiro said, trying to get Ryuichi's attention again.
Next to Ryuichi, K was trying his hardest to keep from cracking up. He had thought about stepping in on Ryuichi's behalf, but he hadn't found the right opportunity. And besides, this was pretty hilarious.
When Ryuichi called out Yuki's name in that tone, however, he snapped to attention and scanned the throne room. Sure enough, there was Yuki. He started towards him, but Ryuichi latched on to his leg and prevented him from going any farther.
"DON'T LEAVE ME!" Ryuichi cried out, scared of what Hiro and Shuichi might do to Kumagoro and himself if K left.
"Jeez…" Shuichi said, rolling his eyes.
"HE'S THE ONE IN CHARGE!" Ryuichi cried out before dissolving into another fit of tears, still wrapped around K's leg. With a free hand, he pointed straight at Yuki.
Shuichi and Hiro looked over their shoulders, and Mika sighed and looked as well. Shuichi gasped, and muttered something about the 'damn ghost' and Hiro tried to remember if they'd ever met. K jogged over to Yuki, thankful that he'd finally shown up.
"What the hell was that?" K whispered to Yuki when he reached him. He flashed Mika a big smile and started dragging Yuki over to the group. "You almost ruined everything!"
"Whatever." Yuki answered, trying to avoid Shuichi's eyes.
"Stop being a jerk, you're Prince Eiri, not Yuki the Pain." K chided him, hoping that he wouldn't cause anymore problems.
"Alright, alright, I got it."
"Do you?"
Before Yuki could throw out a snarky response, the duo reached the rest of the group.
"This is Prince Eiri." K announced brightly, nudging Yuki in the ribs to get him to step forward.
Yuki walked up to the group with a glare over his shoulder at K and inclined his head to Mika and the other two princes. He disliked Nakano, could barely keep his hands off of Shuichi, and had heard terrible things about the Sultana, but if was going to play the role of a Prince he had to be nice.
"Nice to meet you, milady." Yuki said, switching over to his charmer side and casting a sideways smirk at K. "I'm sorry I was delayed."
"That's not a problem, I was…entertained by your retainers." Mika answered, pleased with the new prince.
"Have we met before?" Hiro asked Yuki, shaking his hand. "I'm Prince Nakano."
"Prince Eiri, it's nice to meet you as well. No, I don't believe so."
"Really? Have you ever visited our marketplace?" Hiro pressed, thinking back to the day he'd arrived. A mouthy street rat had verbally abused him and his guard and had resembled this Prince Eiri quite a bit.
"Sadly, no." Yuki answered, trying to shut Nakano up so he wouldn't ruin everything. He had to maintain his alias for this to work.
Hiro smiled, and dropped the issue. He couldn't imagine that a street rat would've made it this far anyway.
Yuki turned away from Hiro, wanting to go step further to eliminate the possibility of Hiro blowing his cover.
"In any case, I'm very pleased that you could finally join us." Mika cut in, lightly touching Yuki's arm to get his attention. She smiled at Yuki and grabbed Shuichi to drag him into the conversation. In a quiet voice to her stepson, "Get over here and behave."
Shuichi sent Hiro a look over his shoulder and sullenly walked over to Mika, K, and Yuki. Ryuichi was quietly sitting on the floor with Kumagoro in front of the throne. His tears had subsided, but he was still pouting about Yuki missing his performance.
"Need something?" Shuichi asked Mika with his eyebrows raised. He shot Yuki his best glare, causing the latter to take a step back.
"Prince Eiri, meet my son, Shuichi." Mika said grandly, giving Shuichi a warning look. "I apologize about his behavior tonight, he…he…." Mika stumbled suddenly, unable to think of an adequate excuse to explain away the problem child.
"It's fine, really. I'm up for anything." Yuki said, trying to ruffle Shuichi's feathers a bit. He was funny when he was mad. So much anger in such a small space.
"Yes, he's quite the diplomat, knows how to work with a mix of individuals." K chimed in, wanting to continue his Prince-Eiri-is-Amazing spiel.
"K, knock it off." Yuki hissed to K, slightly embarrassed and very annoyed.
"He's just a little bit shy." K said, clapping Yuki on the back harder than normal. "But believe me, once you get to know him, you'll love him just like I do."
"I highly doubt that." Shuichi said, narrowing his eyes.
"You're not even going to give me a chance?" Yuki said, his voice much more playful than usual.
"Why would I do something like that? You've done nothing to deserve one." Shuichi returned, surprisingly articulate in his enraged state.
"Because he has an elephant!" Ryuichi chimed in from his spot before Yuki could give Shuichi an answer. "It's really big!"
"Already have one of those." Shuichi said smugly, thinking of Cinda.
"And now you have two!" K said, his largest smile yet in place.
Mika smiled nervously, not wanting to seem under-enthusiastic. She was starting to think K was a little bit unhinged, but this Eiri fellow seemed perfect. He'd be able to control the city without her around, once she and Tohma disappeared for good, and he'd be able to keep Shuichi from making a complete idiot of himself. Prince Nakano on the other hand wanted to return to his palace with Shuichi. She had committed to making this work somehow, but now that a simpler solution had presented itself, she felt inclined to take the easy way out. She was glad that their only contract had been a verbal one, one that would be easily broken. After she snared Prince Eiri, she'd find a way to get rid of Nakano, and seal the fate of her insane stepson.
She reassured herself of this, and made her decision. Prince Nakano was out, Prince Eiri was in.
Wow. So I didn't work on this for quite a bit, and then it suddenly came spewing out one night. Craaazy stuff. In other news, some brand new pictures of Caspo are up on Photobucket. Yeah…not much else goin' on…I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish the rest of Chapter 13 by the end of the weekend, but I'm also starting my Dante coat this weekend, so who knows. I'll try real hard, Part B is almost halfway done. Peace out peeps.
-Amaya
Ooo, ooo! I remembered! I was proof reading the first couple chapters and decided that I hated Yuki and Shu's first meeting so I revamped it and made it better…in my opinion at least…Caspian seemed to enjoy it, but I don't always trust his taste level. Basically, I've updated Chapter 3. That was the gist of this last little blurb.
New Caspian pictures: .com/albums/r32/raitaamaya/Caspian/