(Fic) Reign - Chapter One
Title: Reign
Chapter: One
Rating: PG-13 (G for this chapter)
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Romance/Humor
Pairings or Characters: KuroFai in later chapters, Sakura, Syaoron, Ashura, Yuuko, Kamui, Subaru, Mokona
Challenge: None - one of those spurr of the moment fics.
Summary: At a young age, Kurogane woke up in the cold country of Celes with no memory and no name, only to be shipped off to the castle, where he was supposed to train to be a knight. That training included, but not limited to, dealing with the young (annoying, idiotic, moronic) Prince. AU
Author's Notes: I've been working on this...forever. And I still don't like the ending, but - hey~ At least I pre-wrote this all so updates should be regular and there's no chance of me, like, dying half way through writing this! Silver linings! Ehem..Anyway, un-beta'ed. Enjoy~!
..::Reign::..
..:8:..
“Are you new here?” a voice behind him asks behind him, and Kurogane stopped his frantic searching in the snow to turn around and peer up. He can’t really see - the warrior’s mask is too big and keeps falling over his eyes and twisting - but the crunching of boots moving around in his own snowy footprints alerts him to another person’s presence.
“What?”
“I asked ‘are you new here?’. Are you new in this world? Are you deaf now, too?” There was a little chuckle, and the brunette yanked up his mask by the lip covering his face.
“No!” he insisted, glaring at a pale blond child who looked about his age, dressed in powder blue coat with fluffy white hem, and who smiled slightly. Red eyes narrowed, and Kurogane made to stand up to show up this smiling twig just how much taller he was than him! That would show him!!
The snow was slippery, though. More so than it looked, and just as both feet were neatly planted underneath his body, the soles of his shoes hit a patch of icy turf and flew out from under him. Kurogane landed on his back with a muffled ‘thump’, and sat there, dazed, for a few seconds before the laughing started up again - not polite, hidden-behind-hand giggles, but full blown laughing.
“Haven’t you ever played in the snow?” the blond asked, bent over a bit and using his large blue eyes to take in the blossoming blush on the other boys face. “You don’t even have the right shoes on - you must not be from around here.”
“What’s that supposed to -”
“What’s your name?”
The boy blinked, unsure of how to handle being cut off by this twig of a kid. Biting back a scathing remark, the tanned child narrowed his eyes. “Kurogane.”
“That’s a funny name.” The child wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Long, too.”
“No it’s not!”
“I know!” The blond child held up a finger, covered by what looked like elbow-high white gloves. “I’ll call you Kuro-poi!”
“That’s not my name.”
“Kuro-pii?”
“No!”
“Kuro-chi?”
“No, none of these!”
“Kuro-woof?”
“Absolutely not!!!”
“Kuro-buro?”
“No nicknames!” He shouted, standing (without slipping this time) and holding up the wooden sword that the older court guards had sent him out into the snowy courtyard to practice stances with in a threatening manner and glowering. “I don’t like them. Besides, I don’t even know your name yet.”
The child grinned, his eyes closing as the corners of his mouth flicked upward. “Fai. Fai Flourite.”
Crimson eyes flared open and a tight-set snarl melted into an open gap. “You’re the king’s son?”
Fai’s smile seemed to falter for a moment. “...Yes?”
“You’re not supposed to answer a question with a question, dummy. Are you some kind of moron?”
“Tsk, tsk, Kuro-chi! That’s no way to talk with royalty.”
Kurogane rolled his eyes in a you-don’t-act-like-it way and glanced back at the snow. If he didn’t find the necklace he was supposed to ferry between his teachers...
“Are you looking for this?” Fai extended an arm (the other arm, also covered with a long glove) and, from his clenched fist dangled a long silver chain, the gold-encrusted dragon on the end causing the necklace to swing like a pendulum. Again, Kurogane’s mouth dropped.
“Give that to me!” he demanded, launching for the piece of jewelry and missing, ending up sprawled in the snow again.
“Naw, I don’t think I want to,” Fai grinned in a faux-ponder tone, making to pocket the chain and walk away.
“Wait, no - Flourite!” The blond paused, and Kurogane - familiar with various forms of childhood extortion - ground out, “What do you want?”
“...Why is your skin so dark?” Fai asked, still grinning as he withdrew his fingers from his pocket and spun the delicate silver chain around his fingers. “No one I know has skin like yours. Nor eyes. And you’re not from around here, obviously...If you can tell me why that, I’ll give this back to you...”
Kurogane ground his teeth, glaring up from his spot on the ground. Fai continued to smile, and after a fourteen second attempt at a stare-down, the brunette sighed, looking down with the puffing breath of exhalation. “You’re stupid. I don’t know where I came from.”
“How can you not know that?” Fai asked in a sing-song voice.
In all honesty, Kurogane couldn’t come up with an answer that he figured would entertain Fai enough to make the blond (Prince?) give him back the necklace. His story seemed rather...bland. One day, he just woke up on his back in a small darkly lit room. Upon getting up, he found various sets of new cloths in his size, and the family living there greeted him with familiarity, although when he asked their names, they had waved him off and said it didn’t matter. And then, two weeks after this, he was suddenly uprooted and packed off to become a ‘Court Guard’ under the careful supervision of the adult guards. He’d been there for three months, and had only spoken to three people with more than a casual greeting: Seishiro, his assigned teacher, Syaoran, his room mate, and now Fai - the apparent Prince he was sworn to protect.
“I just don’t know!” he insisted.
Fai seemed to consider this answer, ignoring the steady stare. The necklace was still in his hand, twisted around his fingers. A light wind blew loose snowflakes off of the high wall that surrounded the frozen courtyard with its icy fountain and dead trees, and the chain was buffeted, swinging once...twice...three times.
The pendant made a crunching sound as it fell in the snow, and Fai turned on his heels. Snatching up the gold pendant and clutching it to his chest before standing (all this time on his knees in the cold and mushy snow would give him a harsh cold, and then all his tasks would be just harder) and watching the retreating back.
“What, that’s it?!?” he bellowed after the blond - for some reason, this other boy was stupid enough in Kurogane’s eyes that it didn’t quite seem to stick that his word could have him put to death. Somehow, the boy didn’t seem to want to punish this new stranger, though. Perhaps it was the amusing reaction he could get, or the strange, no-holds-barred way that the brunette talked to him.
It made Fai smile. “Good answer, Kurgie-poo~!”
Chapter: One
Rating: PG-13 (G for this chapter)
Genre: Fantasy/Friendship/Romance/Humor
Pairings or Characters: KuroFai in later chapters, Sakura, Syaoron, Ashura, Yuuko, Kamui, Subaru, Mokona
Challenge: None - one of those spurr of the moment fics.
Summary: At a young age, Kurogane woke up in the cold country of Celes with no memory and no name, only to be shipped off to the castle, where he was supposed to train to be a knight. That training included, but not limited to, dealing with the young (annoying, idiotic, moronic) Prince. AU
Author's Notes: I've been working on this...forever. And I still don't like the ending, but - hey~ At least I pre-wrote this all so updates should be regular and there's no chance of me, like, dying half way through writing this! Silver linings! Ehem..Anyway, un-beta'ed. Enjoy~!
..::Reign::..
..:8:..
“Are you new here?” a voice behind him asks behind him, and Kurogane stopped his frantic searching in the snow to turn around and peer up. He can’t really see - the warrior’s mask is too big and keeps falling over his eyes and twisting - but the crunching of boots moving around in his own snowy footprints alerts him to another person’s presence.
“What?”
“I asked ‘are you new here?’. Are you new in this world? Are you deaf now, too?” There was a little chuckle, and the brunette yanked up his mask by the lip covering his face.
“No!” he insisted, glaring at a pale blond child who looked about his age, dressed in powder blue coat with fluffy white hem, and who smiled slightly. Red eyes narrowed, and Kurogane made to stand up to show up this smiling twig just how much taller he was than him! That would show him!!
The snow was slippery, though. More so than it looked, and just as both feet were neatly planted underneath his body, the soles of his shoes hit a patch of icy turf and flew out from under him. Kurogane landed on his back with a muffled ‘thump’, and sat there, dazed, for a few seconds before the laughing started up again - not polite, hidden-behind-hand giggles, but full blown laughing.
“Haven’t you ever played in the snow?” the blond asked, bent over a bit and using his large blue eyes to take in the blossoming blush on the other boys face. “You don’t even have the right shoes on - you must not be from around here.”
“What’s that supposed to -”
“What’s your name?”
The boy blinked, unsure of how to handle being cut off by this twig of a kid. Biting back a scathing remark, the tanned child narrowed his eyes. “Kurogane.”
“That’s a funny name.” The child wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Long, too.”
“No it’s not!”
“I know!” The blond child held up a finger, covered by what looked like elbow-high white gloves. “I’ll call you Kuro-poi!”
“That’s not my name.”
“Kuro-pii?”
“No!”
“Kuro-chi?”
“No, none of these!”
“Kuro-woof?”
“Absolutely not!!!”
“Kuro-buro?”
“No nicknames!” He shouted, standing (without slipping this time) and holding up the wooden sword that the older court guards had sent him out into the snowy courtyard to practice stances with in a threatening manner and glowering. “I don’t like them. Besides, I don’t even know your name yet.”
The child grinned, his eyes closing as the corners of his mouth flicked upward. “Fai. Fai Flourite.”
Crimson eyes flared open and a tight-set snarl melted into an open gap. “You’re the king’s son?”
Fai’s smile seemed to falter for a moment. “...Yes?”
“You’re not supposed to answer a question with a question, dummy. Are you some kind of moron?”
“Tsk, tsk, Kuro-chi! That’s no way to talk with royalty.”
Kurogane rolled his eyes in a you-don’t-act-like-it way and glanced back at the snow. If he didn’t find the necklace he was supposed to ferry between his teachers...
“Are you looking for this?” Fai extended an arm (the other arm, also covered with a long glove) and, from his clenched fist dangled a long silver chain, the gold-encrusted dragon on the end causing the necklace to swing like a pendulum. Again, Kurogane’s mouth dropped.
“Give that to me!” he demanded, launching for the piece of jewelry and missing, ending up sprawled in the snow again.
“Naw, I don’t think I want to,” Fai grinned in a faux-ponder tone, making to pocket the chain and walk away.
“Wait, no - Flourite!” The blond paused, and Kurogane - familiar with various forms of childhood extortion - ground out, “What do you want?”
“...Why is your skin so dark?” Fai asked, still grinning as he withdrew his fingers from his pocket and spun the delicate silver chain around his fingers. “No one I know has skin like yours. Nor eyes. And you’re not from around here, obviously...If you can tell me why that, I’ll give this back to you...”
Kurogane ground his teeth, glaring up from his spot on the ground. Fai continued to smile, and after a fourteen second attempt at a stare-down, the brunette sighed, looking down with the puffing breath of exhalation. “You’re stupid. I don’t know where I came from.”
“How can you not know that?” Fai asked in a sing-song voice.
In all honesty, Kurogane couldn’t come up with an answer that he figured would entertain Fai enough to make the blond (Prince?) give him back the necklace. His story seemed rather...bland. One day, he just woke up on his back in a small darkly lit room. Upon getting up, he found various sets of new cloths in his size, and the family living there greeted him with familiarity, although when he asked their names, they had waved him off and said it didn’t matter. And then, two weeks after this, he was suddenly uprooted and packed off to become a ‘Court Guard’ under the careful supervision of the adult guards. He’d been there for three months, and had only spoken to three people with more than a casual greeting: Seishiro, his assigned teacher, Syaoran, his room mate, and now Fai - the apparent Prince he was sworn to protect.
“I just don’t know!” he insisted.
Fai seemed to consider this answer, ignoring the steady stare. The necklace was still in his hand, twisted around his fingers. A light wind blew loose snowflakes off of the high wall that surrounded the frozen courtyard with its icy fountain and dead trees, and the chain was buffeted, swinging once...twice...three times.
The pendant made a crunching sound as it fell in the snow, and Fai turned on his heels. Snatching up the gold pendant and clutching it to his chest before standing (all this time on his knees in the cold and mushy snow would give him a harsh cold, and then all his tasks would be just harder) and watching the retreating back.
“What, that’s it?!?” he bellowed after the blond - for some reason, this other boy was stupid enough in Kurogane’s eyes that it didn’t quite seem to stick that his word could have him put to death. Somehow, the boy didn’t seem to want to punish this new stranger, though. Perhaps it was the amusing reaction he could get, or the strange, no-holds-barred way that the brunette talked to him.
It made Fai smile. “Good answer, Kurgie-poo~!”