Chapter 33: Offspring
When he woke up Shizuo was already gone.
Dresses and skirts brushed across the carpet in the hallway, sending the tiniest specks of dust into the sunlit air. Patterns of magic swirls reflected in the sunlight and Izaya forced himself to look away and straight ahead.
They were walking down the aisle of the castle and heading to the training grounds.
HIs maids had happily awaited him as soon as he woke from his sleep- which was somewhere along midday he suspected. Considering their delighted faces and hidden grins he knew exactly what had been on their minds even without asking.
Slight guilt befell Izaya as he tried to recall the exact moment he had dozed off without any shame.
The king had been in the midst of talking. Something about his intentions with the kingdom now that he was the one to rule. A dim memory of Shizuo calling his name packed in a question lingered in his mind and only tripled the guilt. That man had been combing the lands to find his sisters and Izaya didn't even find the willpower to keep awake to listen to what he had to say.
It was frustrating him as much as it was hurting his pride.
"Right, my lady?" Inattentive as he had been the day before this afternoon seemed to be of a similar nature as he realized he had not been paying attention to the maids at all.
A quick smile drew upon his features as he inaudibly sighed at his own incompetence. It was high time he got a grip on himself. "Come again?"
The smiles and giggles were only enhanced by his minor slip up as the maids' minds had long steered towards a different topic.
"We were talking about your future children, my lady," Mika announced, seeming particularly pleased with herself.
Ah.
Right.
This was the number one topic on these girls' minds- and the one he wanted to avoid the most.
The king had just married. This was what they would call the honeymoon phase. Loving each other or not they were expected to fulfill their duties- and lest there be no offspring until a few months after, rumors of a more insulting kind were sure to arise.
It was funny, really, the only real duty a king's wife had to fulfill was providing an offspring and remaining at the castle to raise the successor. Preferably a boy and potential heir of course- and now despite all his wits and his nailed pretense of being a woman there was just no way to go around that.
So all in all despite having done everything in his power to not burden the king further, he himself was a burden nonetheless as he was robbing Shizuo not only of the chance to lead a happy life with an actual wife but also his future.
A family.
Bitterness drowned his throat as he slowed his walk. Unfavoured memories crept their way to his conscience as he remembered the disappointed gaze his father showed when his sisters were born. His mother's expression when she realized she had failed to give what her husband demanded despite giving life to such beautiful and gentle girls.
Her expression when he left- how pale she had been from the exhaustion of giving birth alone, and then…
Choking up Izaya felt the familiar drowning emotion of rage combined with frustration in his chest. That bastard could have stayed at least. He could have stayed to spend the last moments of her life with her. But he had been too busy with his own selfish desires to realize what he was about to lose.
Sometimes Izaya found himself thinking he understood why his father had turned out the way he did after that. If he owned even a shred of humane conscience then he hoped the guilt of that night would drive him insane for the rest of his pathetic life.
Sunlight blinded Izaya for a moment as the harsh breeze of frozen air hit their bodies from the side.
They had entered the castle grounds, the garden leading to the training grounds. Spring was the season dominating the time and for once it didn't present them with rain, but sunshine and despite the cold wind Izaya couldn't help but appreciate the weather.
"My lady, are you cold?" Mika was the first to ask as she quickly scurried over.
Izaya was wearing a dress they had prepared beforehand. A dark but vivid green coupled with the finest streaks of gold were accentuating every curve of his body, from the bottom of his knuckles to the rim of his chest.
He was glad for the choice as it was neither too revealing nor too heavy on his skin. Pearls of white sparkled around his neck and another set placed at his ears glittered in the sunlight as he shook his head. "I'm fine."
Relieved smiles and the faint sounds of metal hitting metal filled the air and Izaya continued his stride towards their goal.
Sweat, dirt and heaps of testosterone entered their vision as they reached the actual practice area.
Izaya had seen the knights on only two occasions so far. When he first arrived at the castle from when Shizuo returned from his campaign, and at the wedding.
There was a third as well, the night he was abducted. Shizuo had saved him and ordered his knights to take care of the rest, but he could hardly call that a decent meeting.
Sitting on the ground half of the knights were watching the fighting pair in awe. A red haired knight wearing a beard of the same bright color and massive stature was wearing a bold expression as he approached his counterpart with a smile.
"You are wide open king!" he announced confidently and charged forward. Shizuo merely smiled for a moment before stepping forth as well. The longsword Izaya had seen him carry upon his return was spinning easily in his hand as if it weighed nothing but a feather. The knights expression faltered-
His sword had been about to hit Shizuo`s protected shoulder indicating a clear hit and his final victory.
But the blade in Shizuo's hands was much faster than his own strike.
Screeching sounds scattered on the ground as the edge of the blade raced across the knight's and forced it from his palm.
The whirring sound of metal rotating in the air filled the brief silence before the knight found himself tugged forward, on his back and a blade pointed to his neck as his own blade fell to the ground somewhere to the right.
Grunts of surprise and excitement rowed through the present crowd.
"You really need to check your confidence if an opening is all you think you need to defeat me, Craigh," Shizuo laughed, and with that he withdrew the deadly weapon and extended his hand.
A snort paired with a defeated smile followed as Craigh took it.
"Efficient as always, but did you really have to knock me down?" The knights chuckled and the king smiled.
"I doubt a single fall could even do as much as scratch your ego."
Armor clacked and the chain mail clattered as the heavy man was pulled to his feet. "Damn right!" he laughed and somehow Izaya couldn't help but snort himself at the scene unfolding.
It was soothing. The training fields that were supposed to serve nothing but practice for future fights and deadly campaigns seemed awfully peaceful contrary to what Izaya had expected. Of course that didn't diminish Shizuo's skills in the slightest.
The way he moved was amazing.
Izaya had never seen a real fighter in action.
Sure, Shizuo had saved him from those abductors, but all of that had happened in a flash and mostly unarmed against a knight in armor they had not even provided a shred of resistance. But the knight called Craigh seemed to share at least a similar level of skill, which only made the king seem that much more experienced seeing as he had defeated him with ease.
It was kinda mesmerizing.
Izaya could envision Shizuo killing countless of enemies with ease- a thought that should bring fear or engrossment but somehow it only triggered a sense of safety.
Eyes suddenly met his own as one of the knights pointed towards Izaya, diverting Shizuo's attention to his new visitor.
Surprise followed by an amused expression flashed across his face before he chuckled. "Wanna join?" He had addressed Izaya of course. And somehow, considering that Shizuo knew he was a man, but also knew he was pretending to be a woman, the question proved to be funnier than probably intended as Izaya quickly suppressed a laugh.
"I doubt this is an activity fitting for a lady" he quickly answered as the maids looked back and forth between their newest topic of gossip with greatest interest and hidden smiles.
"Who would be suitable?" Shizuo asked and pointed at his knights who did all but flinch at the prospect of having to go up next against their undefeated leader.
Mika was faster than Izaya to come up with an answer and grinned behind her hand.
"Your future son perhaps."
Giggles filled the row of ladies and the knights grinned with a set of more indecent thoughts as they whistled.
It was a scenery that should have seemed nothing but peaceful and kind, maybe tinged with a spot of embarrassment- … yet all Izaya felt was guilt as his smiling expression fell.
"I'm sure the two of you will be blessed with an amazing child," Clairence agreed with a fair amount of objectivity, only burdening the weight on Izaya's mind further.
Laughter followed and more of the dimmed comments followed, but Izaya chose to ignore them as his gaze went anywhere but Shizuo.
He felt out of place.
Especially in front of the king. A king who probably realized right about now what Izaya was robbing him of.
He didn't want to see it. The look on the king's face. It might have been a forced smile, might have been a stoic expression. Maybe even a glare of realization. Nothing he showed was anything Izaya wanted to know.
"Would you leave us alone for a moment?" It was Shizuo's voice that asked and the chattering maids quickly silenced themselves.
"I apologize, did we offend you in any way?" Mika quickly spoke and Izaya raised his head.
Ah.
Now he saw it.
So Shizuo had chosen a smile.
Gentle and all forgiving. "You didn't, but I believe we can't practice enough for our future son, right dear?" The words were obviously chosen carefully to make the maids disappear without causing any suspicion, and yet they felt like an arrow to Izaya's chest considering their voidless meaning.
Stupefied and blushing the maids had expected anything but such a direct approach and they quickly bowed before making their leave.
"On our way, my king-"
Shizuo snorted. He didn't really mean to make them uncomfortable, but it was amusing to watch them nonetheless.
A quick glance was cast to his knights and he nodded towards the stalls.
"Break is over. Three more sets of these. Two by two you know how it goes," he announced, and the knight did as ordered as they pulled themselves to their feet.
"You are really working us like horses," Craigh complained and a smaller knight that had been helping in adjusting his armor quickly brought his hand forth in a quick flick against his chest plate.
"Enough. If you have enough energy to run your mouth you should practice instead." His face was playful but the words held with intention. The impression he gave was one of a serious knight, upright and always out to do just what's right. Black hair slightly longer on one side than the other brushed playfully across his own shoulder plate as he scolded the guy, despite being shorter by two heads.
A pout was shown and Craigh sighed amused. "Chester, you are just as evil, you know?"
"Dedication is the word you are looking for." A quick shove was given and Craigh tumbled for a second before catching himself with ridiculous moves. Laughter followed and Shizuo did as well.
These guys.
Turning his head he glanced at Izaya. He expected him to join the laughter or hide one as he was still pretending to be a refined lady.
But he didn't. His expression was awfully serious, if not even dark. It caused Shizuo to hesitate as his smile dropped just a bit.
"What? Don't tell me you didn't get my joke?" he whispered, referring to what he had told the maids.
Izaya flinched, yet his expression remained- "No I did. It's just…" …or did it grow worse?
Something was definitely off and Shizuo's smile vanished.
Eyes scanned their surroundings and Shizuo noticed pleased that his knights were too immersed in their training to pay them any attention.
A step was taken forward and his hand gently nudged Izaya's back to the left.
"Follow me."
Startled by the low whisper, Izaya glanced at Shizuo before doing as told. An old wooden door that definitely needed some sort of maintenance check was pried open. Dust along with spiderwebs came down and Shizuo quickly brought his hand forth to get rid of the filth. A staircase was twisting its way upwards and the king continued his stride with Izaya closely following.
It must have been some sort of watchtower at some point. The stairs seemed almost endless and Izaya's fingers brushed across small holes in between the moss covered cobbles making the walls.
They were cold and wet, but perfect to check all sides equally.
Two thumping sounds of Shizuo hitting what seemed to be the opening of the tower followed and light streamed down as Izaya found himself gazing at the sun.
Armor clanked and Shizuo's sword shortly hit the border as he emerged onto the platform.
Offering his hand Izaya took it quickly and Shizuo pulled him up.
It was a watchtower after all.
Left and right, back and front it served an astounding view of the entire valley. The castle seemed laughing small compared to the mountains encasing the landscape. Izaya could see the folks in the nearby town busily trading and moving around to work.
He could see the garden too. Behind the castle.
He had never really visited, only seen it from above, but now looking at it from here the servants seemed to be exerting quite the effort to keep it in mesmerizing patterns and untarnished condition.
The rough sound of metal hitting the ground diverted Izaya's attention from their surroundings and he looked at Shizuo who had taken off part of his breast plate.
A beige linen shirt held together by brown leather bindings was revealed as he sat down at the excuse of a battlement. Its walls were laughably small, barely serving as a backrest even. They had probably been attacked and destroyed at some point as the top of the tower seemed quite damaged in general.
"Now do tell." Shizuo suddenly said and Izaya flinched.
"What is it that makes your face look like that?"
to be continued
YOOO xD Sorry for taking ages to update xD View it as a small break on this story hahahaha That break is now over and I will continue to update weekly again from now on xD So much drama is to come, so much slowly burning love, worry and brilliant fights xD
Ahem, but without spoilering any further, see you next Saturday! xD
