(Fic) Reign - Chapter Two
Title: Reign
Chapter: Two
Rating: PG-13 (still 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::..
..:11:..
Silken dresses draped fittingly over well-endowed women, finely woven jackets and cloaks hang around the men, and the large room that is filled with mingling upperclass socialites is strangely warm, especially when one looks out the high windows and sees the thick billows of wet snow slapping against the glass panes. A long, mahogany table with thin engravings laced with gold paint forms an open box around the outer rim of the room and is laden with food. High-backed chairs are aligned along the side of the table farthest from the large double doors, and only the most elite of the elite are seated there (on the King’s right and left hand side). But by now, most of the chairs are empty, as are most of the fine wine bottles as adults - buzzing with the heat of the indoors and slight alcohol - intermingle on the open tiled floor.
This was a fun, normal event, and only held twice a year. To an adult, maybe. But to a child, events such as these, he was more often than not one of the only children (it seemed the elegant and wealthy were not concerned with having kids - the all-over magic of Celes Country kept them from aging for long enough to allow the procrastination to be acceptable) and he often found himself tired before people were going to leave, giving him the option to either draw attention to his leaving or fall asleep in his own glass.
So there he was, long and slender fingers tapping on the small space between his fine china plate and half-empty glass of allowed wine (he preferred it to the food here; it was much more delicious than any solid nourishment here), resting his elbow on the table and cradling his his cheek in his upturned palm. He was not usually an anxious child, nor irritable, but it was the elongated moments that seem to draw out forever like these that made even the most mature and weathered sides of Fai regress into that of and eleven year old. Oh, how he longed for a distraction.
Casually, his eyes averted from the self-playing musical instruments and to the high windows. All he can see through the panes is the warped visions of the outer night sky, marred with flecks of melted snowflakes, and he smiles. Just a little bit.
Wind nor weather deterred, he knew that any and all palace guards were outside, or somewhere close to a door. There was no real threat to Celes, or the castle, but it was expected of them when the higher Ashura of the surrounding lands gathered in one place for evening entertainment. And that meant that the blond “prince”’s favorite guard-in-training was also outside, possibly freezing, just to uphold Celes’ noble image. How valiant.
“Fai-kun?” asked a girlish voice, and the child turned to see possible one of the only people even close to his age (this princess was nine) standing beside his chair. He favored her with a smile.
“Oh, hello, Sakura-chan.”
She smiled back. “Fai-kun,” she stated matter-of-factly, “My parents are drunk.”
He continued to smile, not even turning his head to look at the crowd as he observed, “Most of them are, by now.”
“Does Celes have a library?” Sakura asked, her arms wrapped protectively around a sleeping white creature with a blue jewel embedded in its forehead (Fai had seen one of these before - it had been black, with a red jewel, and had been a gift to Ashura from the Dimensional Witch) but he liked this one better; it was just cuter.
“Of course,” the blond assured. “It has four, actually.”
“Can we go see one?”
He smiled a knowing smile. Princess Sakura had come from the Clow Country, where things were known and fabled for being real one second and gone the next. Everything from people to memories were subject to the winds of chance, should destiny choose to unravel the threads of time. Perhaps, this time, the Clow Country books had disappeared. Fai nodded. “Of course.”
Together, the two slipped from the large room, into the considerably colder and darker passageway, and tread the halls quietly, alert for any trace of a person, hypersensitive of being caught, even if they were doing nothing really wrong.
Wooden door after wooden door was passed, and eventually, as they got closer and closer to the front of the castle (and the only library that guests and the country’s underlings had access to within the stone walls), the small hints of other people’s conversations began to drift toward them - these words hushed, and forcedly quiet, and young, and...
“Kuro-poi!” Fai exclaimed as he and Princess Sakura rounded the last corner that opened up onto the last stretch of hall (the library’s ceiling-high doors were a little to their immediate left, and the indoor sentry was sum thirty feet from that).
The boys at the other end of the hall jumped (Kurogane, Syaoran, and two more that looked like brothers) and spun to face them, pointing their faux weapons made of wood at the intruders.
“Oh, oh,” Fai glossed over, holding up both hands in a sign of surrender as he strolled confidently toward the group, Sakura trailing behind him hesitantly. “We haven’t done anything; we just came to visit the library.”
Defensive stances dropping a bit, one of the two brothers looked pointedly at Syaoran. “Is that your Prince?” The brown-haired boy nodded, and the stranger (who looked to be at least fifteen) looked to Fai again. “I thought all the aristocracy’s children were supposed to attend those parties until their parents left.”
The other snorted a bit, in general agreement.
“Aw, but we got bored,” Fai said in a tone that was neither whine nor sensible reasoning. “Plus, the bonus of being social aristocracy’s children is being able to do whatever we like without being bound by restrictions. Isn’t that right, Kuro-poi?”
Syaoran managed to turn his laugh into a cough, but the other two (who, Fai just realized, were dressed in long dark cloaks and black clothing underneath, and had the strangest yellow eyes...) didn’t appear to even try to hide their scathing chuckles. Even under his tanned skin, the blond could see Kurogane’s ears turn the faintest shade of pink.
“Aww, Kurgie-chii is embarrassed,” Fai continued with his taunting, much to everyone’s (save the target of such teasing) amusement.
“Shuddup!” Kurogane snapped harshly as Sakura’s titters joined the other’s laughter. “I am not!”
“You’re face is all flushed, and you’re getting mad~”
“Anyone would get mad with you around!”
“Oh, so cold!”
“I -” the young warrior opened his mouth to continue the rally, but seemed to think better of it and leaned away, attempting to force his face to return to normal. Crossing his arm, Kurogane carefully averted his crimson red eyes and allowed his wooden sword to bounce against his thigh.
“Aw, come on, Kuro-cutie~” the young mage coaxed, sidling past the three guards in training and poking the tallest among them in the slowly developing bicep. “I didn’t mean anything.”
Kurogane doesn’t answer. Fai feels himself wilt - just a bit- but knows that two can play at that game, and turns to introduce himself to the two strangers he does not know (they turn out to indeed be brothers, twins even, named Subaru and Kamui), not acknowledging the other again unless slipping his various nicknames into their conversations. And finally, after the extensive and entirely new name, ‘Kuro-woof-bark-poi’, the warrior snapped and turned to cuff the mage upside the head.
Fai whimpered, and wailed, and whined, but smiled at having garnered a reaction.
Chapter: Two
Rating: PG-13 (still 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::..
..:11:..
Silken dresses draped fittingly over well-endowed women, finely woven jackets and cloaks hang around the men, and the large room that is filled with mingling upperclass socialites is strangely warm, especially when one looks out the high windows and sees the thick billows of wet snow slapping against the glass panes. A long, mahogany table with thin engravings laced with gold paint forms an open box around the outer rim of the room and is laden with food. High-backed chairs are aligned along the side of the table farthest from the large double doors, and only the most elite of the elite are seated there (on the King’s right and left hand side). But by now, most of the chairs are empty, as are most of the fine wine bottles as adults - buzzing with the heat of the indoors and slight alcohol - intermingle on the open tiled floor.
This was a fun, normal event, and only held twice a year. To an adult, maybe. But to a child, events such as these, he was more often than not one of the only children (it seemed the elegant and wealthy were not concerned with having kids - the all-over magic of Celes Country kept them from aging for long enough to allow the procrastination to be acceptable) and he often found himself tired before people were going to leave, giving him the option to either draw attention to his leaving or fall asleep in his own glass.
So there he was, long and slender fingers tapping on the small space between his fine china plate and half-empty glass of allowed wine (he preferred it to the food here; it was much more delicious than any solid nourishment here), resting his elbow on the table and cradling his his cheek in his upturned palm. He was not usually an anxious child, nor irritable, but it was the elongated moments that seem to draw out forever like these that made even the most mature and weathered sides of Fai regress into that of and eleven year old. Oh, how he longed for a distraction.
Casually, his eyes averted from the self-playing musical instruments and to the high windows. All he can see through the panes is the warped visions of the outer night sky, marred with flecks of melted snowflakes, and he smiles. Just a little bit.
Wind nor weather deterred, he knew that any and all palace guards were outside, or somewhere close to a door. There was no real threat to Celes, or the castle, but it was expected of them when the higher Ashura of the surrounding lands gathered in one place for evening entertainment. And that meant that the blond “prince”’s favorite guard-in-training was also outside, possibly freezing, just to uphold Celes’ noble image. How valiant.
“Fai-kun?” asked a girlish voice, and the child turned to see possible one of the only people even close to his age (this princess was nine) standing beside his chair. He favored her with a smile.
“Oh, hello, Sakura-chan.”
She smiled back. “Fai-kun,” she stated matter-of-factly, “My parents are drunk.”
He continued to smile, not even turning his head to look at the crowd as he observed, “Most of them are, by now.”
“Does Celes have a library?” Sakura asked, her arms wrapped protectively around a sleeping white creature with a blue jewel embedded in its forehead (Fai had seen one of these before - it had been black, with a red jewel, and had been a gift to Ashura from the Dimensional Witch) but he liked this one better; it was just cuter.
“Of course,” the blond assured. “It has four, actually.”
“Can we go see one?”
He smiled a knowing smile. Princess Sakura had come from the Clow Country, where things were known and fabled for being real one second and gone the next. Everything from people to memories were subject to the winds of chance, should destiny choose to unravel the threads of time. Perhaps, this time, the Clow Country books had disappeared. Fai nodded. “Of course.”
Together, the two slipped from the large room, into the considerably colder and darker passageway, and tread the halls quietly, alert for any trace of a person, hypersensitive of being caught, even if they were doing nothing really wrong.
Wooden door after wooden door was passed, and eventually, as they got closer and closer to the front of the castle (and the only library that guests and the country’s underlings had access to within the stone walls), the small hints of other people’s conversations began to drift toward them - these words hushed, and forcedly quiet, and young, and...
“Kuro-poi!” Fai exclaimed as he and Princess Sakura rounded the last corner that opened up onto the last stretch of hall (the library’s ceiling-high doors were a little to their immediate left, and the indoor sentry was sum thirty feet from that).
The boys at the other end of the hall jumped (Kurogane, Syaoran, and two more that looked like brothers) and spun to face them, pointing their faux weapons made of wood at the intruders.
“Oh, oh,” Fai glossed over, holding up both hands in a sign of surrender as he strolled confidently toward the group, Sakura trailing behind him hesitantly. “We haven’t done anything; we just came to visit the library.”
Defensive stances dropping a bit, one of the two brothers looked pointedly at Syaoran. “Is that your Prince?” The brown-haired boy nodded, and the stranger (who looked to be at least fifteen) looked to Fai again. “I thought all the aristocracy’s children were supposed to attend those parties until their parents left.”
The other snorted a bit, in general agreement.
“Aw, but we got bored,” Fai said in a tone that was neither whine nor sensible reasoning. “Plus, the bonus of being social aristocracy’s children is being able to do whatever we like without being bound by restrictions. Isn’t that right, Kuro-poi?”
Syaoran managed to turn his laugh into a cough, but the other two (who, Fai just realized, were dressed in long dark cloaks and black clothing underneath, and had the strangest yellow eyes...) didn’t appear to even try to hide their scathing chuckles. Even under his tanned skin, the blond could see Kurogane’s ears turn the faintest shade of pink.
“Aww, Kurgie-chii is embarrassed,” Fai continued with his taunting, much to everyone’s (save the target of such teasing) amusement.
“Shuddup!” Kurogane snapped harshly as Sakura’s titters joined the other’s laughter. “I am not!”
“You’re face is all flushed, and you’re getting mad~”
“Anyone would get mad with you around!”
“Oh, so cold!”
“I -” the young warrior opened his mouth to continue the rally, but seemed to think better of it and leaned away, attempting to force his face to return to normal. Crossing his arm, Kurogane carefully averted his crimson red eyes and allowed his wooden sword to bounce against his thigh.
“Aw, come on, Kuro-cutie~” the young mage coaxed, sidling past the three guards in training and poking the tallest among them in the slowly developing bicep. “I didn’t mean anything.”
Kurogane doesn’t answer. Fai feels himself wilt - just a bit- but knows that two can play at that game, and turns to introduce himself to the two strangers he does not know (they turn out to indeed be brothers, twins even, named Subaru and Kamui), not acknowledging the other again unless slipping his various nicknames into their conversations. And finally, after the extensive and entirely new name, ‘Kuro-woof-bark-poi’, the warrior snapped and turned to cuff the mage upside the head.
Fai whimpered, and wailed, and whined, but smiled at having garnered a reaction.