Hello all. What is this? A update on my story that is actually on time? Blasphemy! Anyhoo, I actually have a little bit to say before the chapter.
I've had a few questions about the timeline and Sailand arc, and how that fits into this. Firstly, this takes place about a year and a half to two years after Husky 'died' and I probably should of said it in the beginning, but the Sailand arc wont happen in this story. Now anyone sad that Keane doesn't meet Husky and the others, don't be. I won't say much, but don't worry. Surprises are surprises and some plots are too good to pass up (at least in my mind).
Well, that's all I have to say for now, except that I was planning out later parts of this story, and it's still super early, I mean, really, really early, but I think I might do a sequel for this. I'd ask for opinions on this, but like I said, it's still so early.
Well, enough of my little rant there, and on with the story.
Chapter 6 - Of Sparks and Fires
The rest of the week was as backbreaking as the beginning, but thank whatever god or gods may or may not be out there, he only had half his regular schedule on Sundays. Managing to finish all his classes by only one O'clock, the red head was in a rather good mood. Sure, the country wasn't exactly as pleasant as he felt right now, but he'd take any chance he could to just relax.
Seeing the entrances to the courtyard come into view he smiled to himself. He hadn't been in there for any other reason then training all this week, it would be nice to get some fresh air without having to gasp for it for once.
He caught sight of a few of the other princes gathered around someone, but decided to ignore it. He really didn't interact with any of them lately, except for Straton, that is. He wasn't even all that sure why, but being with the other boy kept him calmer after a frustrating day. They had picked up a routine since that day, Straton would meet him after class, they'd go to Keane's room and talk until the red head eventually fell asleep, Straton would bring him dinner and then after they ate he would leave. He liked it like that, having just the tiniest bit of relaxation to look forward to managing to keep him sane and working during his classes.
The red head came to a stop though when he noticed just who was surrounded. Straton, of course, who else would it be with his luck, and it seemed that Maxwell was at the center of it. And he thought he could catch a break…
"-need to learn your place! You think just because you can get in good with the Crown Prince you can drag yourself from the bottom, huh?" Maxwell yelled, quickly backed up by a choir of agreement from the other boys. Straton just shook his head though, looking around for a way out, a nearly dull expression on his face.
"Speak when we talk to you! What, you think you're better then us now?" the black haired boy asked, a very accusing, almost disgusted tone to his voice. It made Keane sick, mainly because one, Straton didn't think that, and two, he was anyway.
"Leave him alone," the red head called, managing to quickly get the majority of the boys' attention. Maxwell snorted at him as he walked up, and Keane had to forcefully keep himself from groaning. Please say he wasn't that obnoxious to Myrrah when he was around, he couldn't even fathom how he was ever friends with this kid.
"Yeah, and what are you going to do about it? You're not king yet," the black haired boy asked, earning a few laughs from the other princes. The thirteen year old couldn't figure out what was funny about that though. At least he had been creative when picking on Myrrah.
Keane smiled to himself and chucked, earning a few confused stares as he answered. "I don't need to do anything, he's already left," the others quickly spun around to see if what he said was true, and indeed, the spot where the blond boy had once stood was now empty, he having left while everyone had been concentrated on Keane. Keane wasn't angry about being 'ditched' or that Straton had 'run away,' the whole point of him coming over here was to get Straton out of harms way, and he understood that. He wasn't the strongest prince, that was for sure, and he'd even waved to the red head as he left. Apparently the simple little diversion trick was too much for most of the others to handle, staring gaping at the empty air.
Maxwell turned around and glared at Keane, his face red from embarrassment. "You arrogant little-" the older boy sighed, cutting him off before he could finish. He wasn't in the mood to be insulted today.
"Look, I don't want to hear it Max. If you have a problem with me, take it up with me, got it? Don't go messing with Straton just because of him being a target by association, alright. If you're not even brave enough to face anyone who's not weaker than you then you definitely don't ever deserve to be king," with that, Keane turned around to leave. That had ruined his good mood a bit, but if he left now then nothing else would happnen. Before he could though Maxwell started to yell.
"You don't deserve to be king either Keane! It was suppose to be Myrrah! Father didn't think you could do it and he was right! They only reason you have this position and not Myrrah is because you killed him!"
The red head was frozen in his step. That… that wasn't true. He- he hadn't killed Myrrah, it had been the silver haired boy's own choice! He wasn't the only one who'd picked on him. He wasn't the only one! It wasn't his fault! A spark inside him snapped, and he was on top of the other boy before he could even realize what he was doing.
He didn't do very much though, the second the remaining surrounding princes recovered from their shock they began to pull Keane off of the blindsided boy. He didn't struggle for very long against their grip, rationality slowly starting to seep back into his brain. The two boys who were tightly holding his arms slowly let go, and only then did he recognized them to be Augustus and Emmanuel.
Maxwell stared at him, a nearly lost look on his face as he tried to stop the bit of blood that was leaking from his nose before quickly turning on his heals and heading in the direct opposite direction from the red head. A few of the others followed him, the rest of the Princes quickly dispersing and running off in little groups, already whispering about what had just happened.
After they left, all Keane could do was stand frozen to his spot. It wasn't that fights were rare or anything, they weren't. The princes fought all the time. That had been different though, it had been… he didn't even know what it was, but it was all he could do to keep from shaking as Maxwell's words rang through his head. It wasn't true! It couldn't be. Shaking his head, Keane ran off in the direction of his room. He had to get away from the others. That had been low. He wasn't sure if he was talking about what Maxwell had said or the way he'd jumped him out of nowhere, though.
Reaching his room the red head looked up to see Straton standing by his door. He had a confused, almost concerned expression on his face as he looked Keane over and the older boy wondered just how shaken up he actually looked.
"Keane, what happened?" the blonde asked, and Keane took a deep breath to calm himself before attempting to explain. Maxwell was wrong, he knew he was, so there was no reason for him to be as freaked as he was. It wasn't true.
"I-" any other word he attempted to say afterwards was cut off by the sound of a loud horn resonating throughout the palace. The two princes quickly placed their hands over their ears in an attempt at buffering the blast. The horn was going between spouts of ear-drum breaking cries and slightly lower calls. During one of the slight breaks in the sound Stanton turned towards the red head.
"What's going on! ?" He still had to yell in order to be heard, and all Keane could do was shrug. He had no clue, it couldn't be because of his fight with Maxwell, could it? Of course not, fights happened all the time, he was just being paranoid now.
A couple of guards ran around the bend, heading right over to the two boys once they spotted them. Before either prince could attempt to ask for an explanation one of the guards shoved them into the nearest room available, which Keane was thankful was his own.
The sound was only slightly muffled inside, still able to get in very clearly from the windows. The second guard sprinted over to the window before sticking her head out and looking around, only causing more confusion for the two boys. Taking a deep breath, Keane turned towards the guard still closest to them and started to demand answers.
"What's going on here? ! What's this alarm for?" he asked, struggling to be heard over the horn. That was the only thing he could pin the sound to be, an alarm, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what for. They should probably have drills or something so that they didn't stand around covering their ears like idiots as they'd been doing.
"Fire, someone has alighted the bottom floor of the palace. Worry not though, we are quickly working to extinguish it, and you should be safe up here," the woman managed to say over the blasts. Keane tried to keep himself from acting as scared as he felt once he heard that, not wanting the guards to think of him as weak.
"If that's what's going on then go and make sure everyone else is okay too or help with fighting the fire! We wont leave here. That's an order!" the red head yelled, both to get his point across and just be heard. The two woman quickly glanced at each other before nodding towards Keane and leaving the room.
Once they'd left the thirteen year old sighed under his breath and turned away from the door. All they could do was wait here until they were given the OK that everything was safe again. He spotted Straton sitting in his usual chair, hands pressed tightly against his ears with his eyes closed. That sound was nearly painful, but at least it was distracting him from really thinking about what was going on. Someone set the palace on fire…
"Hey, are you okay?" he called to the younger boy, who nodded slightly in response. When would that noise stop already?
As if on cue, the blasts from the horn stopped firing. It was actually probably several horns from the shear volume, but that was besides the point. Keane rubbed his ears, trying to get the ringing resonating in them to stop. It was better then the horns though, that was for sure. Straton looked up as he slowly removed his hands from his head. The silence was almost too much now.
"That… was different," the blonde said finally, and Keane could only nod in agreement. Nothing like that had happened before. The closest was the riot outside of the palace a few months ago. A fire. Someone had tried to burn down the palace. Someone had tried to kill them all. Was the situation really that bad? The older boy almost wished the horns would come back, so that he couldn't think again.
"It… it was probably just a group of extremist… right?" Keane asked, Straton's only response was a shrug as he stood up to look out the window.
"Maybe, you'd know more about it then me," he said matter-of-factly. Keane nodded as he sat down on his bed, suddenly feeling much more exhausted then when he'd first finished his classes. He'd been in a good mood too, should of known everything was going to go wrong because of it. The red head sighed as he lowered his face into his hands. All of this was just terrible.
Straton turned back from the window at the sound, not having been able to see any smoke or sighs of fire anyway. It must not of been too big, probably on the other side of the palace as well. Seeing Keane he frowned to himself. Something else had happened right before all of this as well, although he still wasn't sure what.
"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, receiving a slightly confused stare from Keane as he lifted his head out of his hands.
"Yeah, you know I wasn't in the fire…" the red head trailed off, Straton shaking his head. That wasn't what he meant, of course he knew that.
"No, I mean with that this happened at all, and whatever Maxwell had done before it," the younger boy explained, and it took Keane a moment before actually nodding as the question sank in.
"Yeah, Maxwell was just being a jerk. It was nothing, and well… as long as no one was hurt, it'll be okay," the red head said finally. Straton nodded, although he didn't truly believe that was all that had happened, or that everything would be okay. People didn't riot in the streets or set fire to their leaders' homes for no reason, unless they were a pyromaniac, but he had a feeling that wasn't the case this time.
"Should we see what happened?" the blonde asked after a moment, but Keane shook his head. He didn't feel like moving yet, not to mention everyone else would probably be there trying to get a look at it. They'd just get shooed away.
"Nah, it might not be completely safe yet, and even if it was, everyone'll be trying to get a look, they'd just be trying to get us to leave," Keane said, and Straton had be admit he was probably right. "We shouldn't do anything until we're told it's okay," the red head mumbled, sounding much more subdued then usual.
Straton didn't blame him. He was unnerved, and when he grew up he could just leave, really. Probably become equivalent to some low ranking noble and live out his life in relative peace. Keane was the one that had to inherent the problems of the entire country, which were already starting to knock on his door rather violently, both figuratively and literally.
Whatever Maxwell had done when he was 'just being a jerk' was bothering him as well. The red head had been much paler the usual when he'd ran up to his room. He wasn't about to press it from him though, now was defiantly not the right time. He would speak to Maxwell about it, later though.
Ranks had never really mattered much to the blonde boy, much to his own mother's detest. He didn't care how much higher in the chain Keane and Maxwell were, if he wanted to speak to them as a friend, or call them out, in Maxwell's case, he would. It was just one person's opinion that made of the entire ranking system anyway, so it didn't really matter.
Even if that person was their father and the king of Sailand, he was still just one person. Keane was proving that fact right very clearly.
Yay, this chapter was kind of long, and stuff happened! Whoo! (Gratuitous use of exclamation points) Hope you all liked it, for some reason I feel like I've gotten over a hurdle. The unrest is quickly starting to escalate.
Well, please review. I'm actually a little surprised with the high number of reviews for the last chapter, but I figured, this story is so specific in it's fandom. I mean really, Keane? That kid from like two scenes of that manga that has more spam in it's fan fiction page then actual stories? If you're reading something about him, you must have been kind of looking for it.