The Brilliant Royal Divorce Plan Chapter 58
A.N.... Here is an extra long chappie in celebration of the announcement of KAT-TUN's new show!!!!!!
“But Ueda Tatsuya IS the king of Hokkaido now!” Chinen sighed, “Can’t we just trust him to get things on the straight path? We could never have predicted he is the lost son of consort Ootori and we could not predict that Mimura Yuri is now getting married to Taguchi Junnosuke. What we CAN predict now is that Taguchi Junnosuke will be returning to Honshu after he gets married so we need to tidy things up and welcome him back!”
Ryosuke sat in silence, twirling a strand of his own hair around his fingers.
“Say Chinen,” he smiled eerily, “what if I don’t want to give Honshu back?”
“Then you are crazy,” Chinen replied honestly, “I will not go against you but please consider your limits Your Majesty-
“The possibilities are endless Chinen,” Ryosuke put his hands together into a scheming pyramid and grinned again, “imagine what we could do with such a large country… I have the ability to make the people happy - they’re better off with me than with Taguchi Junnosuke!”
“As you wish Ryosuke-sama,” Chinen frowned.
[Hokkaido’s Capital, Sapporo]
“Well that was surprisingly easy,” Junno admired the bustling crowds, “to think that the trapdoor would lead us right into a temple festival…”
“Life works like that sometimes,” Ueda could hardly contain the excitement in his voice as he darted around, eyes wide at all the weird and wonderful things he’s only ever read about in books.
Junno smiled warmly at the sight of his love.
I forget sometimes… He’s been locked up in that Tegoshi mansion for his entire life… then married me in the palace then went straight to the Hokkaido palace. He’s still a child.
Forcing a wide grin on his face, Junno leapt up to the smaller man and took his hand.
Surprised at the sudden intimate contact, Ueda blushed like a young girl and hid his face behind his bangs. “W-what should we do now?”
“I want to go goldfish scooping but for the time being can you just agree to one selfish little plead of mine?” Junno batted his eyelashes and snuggled into the crook of Ueda’s neck. In public.
Ueda ruffled his hair in response. “How could I refuse?”
Half an hour later, Ueda stood, face set in an irritated scowl, outside a kimono shop.
“Junno when I said I’d agree, I didn’t expect you to trade my royal, gold-embroidered kimono for drag.”
“But you look so much prettier this way don’t you think?” Junno eyed his lover up and down, “White really suits you!”
”I’m dressed like a girl,” Ueda pointed out the obvious, “you have this fetish?”
“…no,” Junno suddenly pulled him into a suffocating hug in the middle of the street, “I just want us to go back to before, even if it’s just for tonight…”
I know Junno… I know.
“Even if I tell you that I killed those assassins back in Osaka?” Ueda whispered sadly, “Or if I remind you I’m of Hokkaido blood? Or I’m the cause of all your misfortune for the past 6 months? That because of me your body is riddled with scars-
“For a genius you’re surprisingly thick,” Junno cut off his sentence by putting an index finger to those perfectly formed lips, “do you think anyone in this world could regret falling in love with you? If I only say one sane thing in my entire life, let this be it. I love you. I don’t care what name you carry or what gender you appear to be. Everything about you could be a lie for all I care but the beautiful person standing in front of me right now is the one I love. He’s not a lie. I can feel his warmth on my fingertips and that’s all I need.”
“I… am so dirty,” Ueda finally found the word, only to have Junno recoil in horror.
“Don’t you EVER say that about yourself Tat-chan!” he tightened his hug, “Or I’ll cry…”
Ueda burst out laughing in the middle of a busy road illuminated by lanterns. Passerby dodged around them, eyeing the couple with both interest and envy.
Out of all the romantic things Junno could have said, he seriously threatened Ueda with tears. On the verge of crying due to excessive laughter himself, Ueda doubled over and just let the pure happiness of being around Junno take its form in sounds from his mouth.
When Ueda finally calmed down, he led Junno by the hand into crowd of people, following some until the cobbled streets led them to a maze of vendors.
A festival to the local river god was underway.
[Hokkaido Palace]
“Jin can you be a darling and get the door?” Kame was trying to get Ryo to drink herbal tea and the older man would not co-operate at all. Such a time was not good for knocking on their door.
“Why is it that every time this idiot injures himself, you take care of him like your life depends on it and make me get the door?” Jin complained and got up off his cushion.
Well, Jin had always been rather sharp - he just didn’t know it himself.
“Who do you think it is this time?” Ryo asked, pushing the spoonful of herb water away.
“Another ex-lover?” Kame replied bitterly and fairly shoved the spoon down Ryo’s throat.
“HOW DID YOU TWO GET IN HERE?!?!” came Jin’s yell from outside.
Tegoshi and Nakamaru, both dressed in palace guard uniform, were shepherded into Jin, Kame and Ryo’s shared room by an overly wary Uchi. Stiffly sitting down in crouching positions on the tatami, everyone tried their best to ignore Ryo’s incoherent spluttering. Kame simply sat dead still, jaw dropped to the ground. He never would have guessed that Tegoshi could get Maru inside the palace willingly. He had obviously underestimated the outwardly cute man.
Ryo’s spluttering stopped. He started crying instead. What started off as small, silent sobs turned into a mess of tears and badly placed words that sounded something along the lines of ‘Tesshi let’s just go home…. This is too stressful on everyone’.
Face set in stone, Tegoshi walked slowly up to Ryo’s futon and pushed him back down into a lying position gently. He turned to everyone else with a pleading look, “Can we have some time alone please?”
“Do we have a choice?” Maru sighed, “and Kame, I need the full story on what happened here in the past few months. In case you haven’t noticed, this is completely out of control!”
Once everyone apart from Ryo and Tegoshi had stepped outside, Maru grabbed Jin’s collar with one hand and Kame’s with another. “Where the FUCK is Junno and Tat-chan?!” he whispered dangerously, “I’m at the brink of my sanity guys. I stay awake in bed every night since you left and now I’m finally here, and my emperor and his boyfriend or whatever aren’t around. Do you know how utterly BAD that is?! Yamada Ryosuke probably wants us all DEAD.”
“Nakamaru-san please calm down,” Kame wrenched his hand away, “why don’t you catch a nap right now? Being in this blood-shot state isn’t helping us. And no, I don’t know where they’ve gone and I don’t want to. I trust in Tat-chan and his choices.”
“I don’t,” Jin said quite plainly, “nobody could stay sane after having all that happen to him… If I were him, I would just grab Junno and run for the hills.”
“In which case we are in trouble,” Uchi started to hyperventilate, “Hokkaido can’t not have a king!”
“What’s the point of arguing here?” Kame stretched lazily, “We’ll never find them anyway. I vote we leave them be until they come back. Tat-chan is responsible and he will not leave us all in danger ne? Now, how about we get a cup of tea and-
“Kame you’re being weird,” Jin stared at his lover of sorts, “last time they ran off and you didn’t care, you knew Tat-chan’s secret. What’s up this time?” He just could not read what the younger boy thought. Ever since he started to work as Ueda’s bodyguard, he was overprotective and loose in all the wrong times.
Not replying, Kame hid his watering eyes and ran towards the small garden in a bid to hide himself. Jin followed with frightening speed.
It was just Nakamaru and Uchi left.
The awkwardness in the air failed to lift as the two men shifted on their feet, wondering what to say next.
“Umm,” Uchi ran out of ideas.
Okay Uchi… Comment on an appealing feature of his…. Three… Two…One.
“I like your nose,” he finally managed to splutter.
The atmosphere froze over instantly and shattered on the ground.
“Indeed,” Nakamaru’s left eye started twitching, “I get that a lot.”
[Sapporo]
“Candy apples! Get your candy apples here!!” A vendor yelled merrily from his stall.
Junno’s lit up at the very mention of ‘candy’. “Two please!” he dragged Ueda by the hand to the stall and grinned like a child at the sight of shiny, round fruits smothered in solid sugar on sticks. So excited to get his apples, Junno did not even bother to ask for the price and dug out the loosest change he had with his - a lump of gold the size of a large grape.
The vendor’s jaw dropped to the ground.
“Junno!” Ueda scolded lightly, “you can’t expect him to be able to give change for that!” In saying so, as if to prove a point, Ueda also took out the loosest change he had - a lump of silver the same size.
The vendor shot the two rich men (one supposedly a girl) an amused look instead of being offended. “I can’t give change for that either. Say, is it your first time coming to a commoner’s festival? We work in silver coins... That silver teal could feed my whole family for three months young lady,” the old man kindly pointed to a pawnshop down the road, “you can get spare change from there.”
This place is very different from Honshu… Ueda stood still for a moment in thought. Even in Honshu a silver teal of this quality would be a large sum of money but not so far as for a booming street vendor on festival day to not be able to give change for… The rich/poor gap here must be rather large.
“Umm… Can I ask you a question oji-san?” Ueda asked timidly in his best good-girl voice.
The old man’s smile lines wrinkled good-naturedly, “Anything for such a pretty one.”
“Are the common people of Hokkaido happy?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Ueda pointed to the festival full of bustling people and laughing children, “you’ve lived through the years and seen the seasons go by, do you think anything’s changed for the better? What does the average person think of the beaucracy and the royal family-
“Tat-chan~” Junno whined, “we’re on holiday remember?”
He was ignored.
“Haha you ask such deep questions for a girl ojou-san,” the old man chuckled, “you must be getting married to one of those young nobles in court eh?” He looked at Junno with a glint in his wise eyes. “Let me tell you this - Hokkaido used to be a very poor country, and maybe compared to others, we still are. But since Takuya-sama came into rule, our lives have been getting easier day by day. The man has opened up trade channels for us commoners and now can buy better farm tools, sell our cattle, the people in the north can even sell their ice to other countries for a good price! The nobles are another story because there is still a little bit of corruption, but Takuya-sama is doing his best and we respect him - why sometimes he even goes for strolls outside the palace! He might even be at this very festival!”
“Not possible,” Junno absent-mindedly mumbled, “He’s already- OOOOWWW!!!”
Ueda had stepped on his foot.
“Thank you,” Ueda bowed politely, took two apples from the stall and put down the silver lump, “Keep the change. But if I feel like another apple, can I come back and get another one?”
The pair walked silently along the brightly lit path. Chomping on their apples hand in hand, they basked in each other’s presence. Ueda looked down thoughtfully at his own apple’s juicy white flesh.
“Ne Junno?” He smiled warmly, “We’ve come a long way haven’t we?”
“Last time we were out in the real world together, you didn’t even know what an apple looked like,” Junno chuckled, “but you’re just as cute.”
“Don’t call me cute!” Ueda blushed, “Okay I’m cute, but I mean don’t you think we’ve gone in a huge circle and come back to square one, just completely different people?”
He did not elaborate, but he was right. From the fateful day in Osaka when they snuck out of the royal stopover to explore the city, they pair had changed considerably. Sneaking out of the Hokkaido palace to explore this very different city had brought them in a full circle of fate. The Taguchi Junnosuke who had no desires had learned to kill in jealousy. The Ueda Tatsuya who knew nothing of the world beyond walls had learned to manipulate politics. They had both learned to love. Both had long lost their innocence. Now the place they snuck out of was Ueda’s kingdom, Junno was the one being forced to marry by someone he cared about and they were still eating apples on the street. At least that part had not changed.
Was it all worth it?
“We’re not completely different people Tat-chan,” Junno turned around with a small piece of candy on the corner of his mouth, “If I can still declare without a single doubt that I love you, you must still be the same person!”
You’re right Junno… you’re still the same smiley, hyperactive genius emperor and I’m still the clueless one dressed as a girl. But we both have so much more blood on our hands than what we started off as.
He leant in and licked the bit of candy from Junno’s lips. Eyes widening, Junno’s heart thumped from his ribcage till he was sure Ueda could actually hear it. He felt like he could melt from that one teasing gesture.
“Maybe you’re right,” Ueda drew his face close to his love’s, “maybe the huge circle we went in hasn’t changed a thing apart from reverse our roles. Does that mean this time, I am to lose you instead?”
As if on cue, a man riding an excessively fast horse cut through the festival grounds, sending people ducking for cover. Caught in the tsunami of bodies, Ueda and Junno were tossed in opposite directions, much like last time with the bull.
Ueda was on the verge of tears as he saw Junno’s figure fade away further and further.
I was joking… he prayed to an invisible God… Please no… I don’t want to lose him!!! I DON’T WANT TO-
A strong hand reached through the crowd and forcefully tugged him so hard his feet lifted off the ground towards the owner of said hand. Ueda let out a surprised shriek as he and the person who grabbed him landed in a haphazard heap on the ground.
“Ouch,” Junno groaned from underneath him, smile lopsided with a bit of pain, “Have you put on weight?”
“I AM NOT FAT!!” Ueda felt a surge of warmth rise up to his cheeks as he struggled to get off Junno in fear of hurting him but was held in place instead.
“Well, that answers a lot of questions - me being able to reach you in time, that is,” Junno grinned triumphantly, “We may have changed but I’m stronger now. I can reach out, grab you and pull you back. I will NEVER lose you to anyone again!”
Too late Junno… Ueda choked back tears. You won’t be losing me… I’ll be losing you in three days.
“Of course,” he lied, “we’ll be together forever ne?” Forcing a smile that ended up like a grimace on his beautiful face, Ueda got up off Junno and reach down to help the taller man up.
“Then can we just leave Hokkaido?” Junno said quietly.
Ueda’s legs gave out at the suggestion and he sat uselessly on the cobbles, the crowds of people a blur in his mind.
I knew it. He wanted this all along… I wanted this all along.
But I can’t.
“I…can’t,” Ueda gathered the last of his strength to say. He tasted something salty.
The tears didn’t even bother him as he simply sat there, drenched in the reality of their situation. The ‘we will be together forever’ from before sounded ridiculously fiction.
Junno didn’t bother to argue. It was his last ditch attempt at convincing Ueda’s delusional side - and at the end he couldn’t even convince his own.
Their spontaneous trip to town ended there. Apples left on the road long forgotten, the pair of impossible lovers gripped each other’s hands like a lifeline and slowly made their way back to the palace via a proper road. The night grew darker and darker as they furthered from the bustle of the city.
Even the owls stopped hooting.
Some hours of silent walking later, the blindingly white palace came into view on the horizon, even in the dark.
Fear suddenly crept up Ueda’s spine like a furry spider. Reality crashed on him. it was all very well being responsible, righteous and royal - but could he really survive for the rest of his life without Junno?
No, the question was, how long would he survive without Junno?
Sensing Ueda’s hands beginning to tremble, Juno squeezed a bit harder.
“Junno?” Ueda’s bottom lip quivered, “Does the offer of eloping still stand?” He forced a half-serious half-smile.
“Even if I said yes, you’d feel guilty for the rest of your life right?” Junno’s normally innocent smile looked beyond his years, “I didn’t want you to ask the old man that question because I knew if he answered, you’d stay here forever as king…”
“…But I really want to be with you…” Ueda felt like his knees were about to give out at Junno’s deep eyes.
“I know Tat-chan, I know.” The emperor got down on one knee, holding Ueda’s right hand. “I shouldn’t have to tell you how much I love you,” he placed a lingering kiss on the back of the smaller man’s fair hand, “but I will. I love you. I will love only you. However, right now I am going to pretend that Hokkaido needs you perhaps more than I do. Go Tatsuya, be their king.”
A lone drop of tear fell on his nose from above.
“…Why can royalty not be free to love?” Ueda knelt down beside Junno, tears streaming down his face.
“Royalty are free to love Tat-chan,” Junno gripped Ueda’s hand so hard it was close to breaking, “but rulers of enemy countries aren’t. I can only promise to you that I will never love anyone in my life again-
“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!” Ueda couldn’t even register that it was him being so pathetic, “…not good enough. I want you… I want the Taguchi Junnosuke who doesn’t care about the consequences!”
“I’m not strong enough Tat-chan,” Junno wiped a tear from his face, “I can’t. Not again.”
“We can help each other through-
“We can’t keep running away from reality anymore Tat-chan!” Junno was begging for Ueda to stop tempting him. He was about to break. “The reality is, if I don’t do get married, we are ALL going to die here!”
“BUT THE REALITY IS THAT I LOVE YOU!!!!!” was the latter’s ace card.
“… tell me Tatsuya, which one is more real?”
“…Then can I ask you one last question?” Ueda stood up slowly, eyes hazed from crying.
He took the silence as a yes.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes.”
“If I came to you in fifty years, when I am no longer considered beautiful, will you still love me?”
“If you came to me in two thousand years, a completely different person who can’t even remember me from this life, I will still love you with the same feelings I stand here with today.”
So-called empty words have never made Ueda so happy in his life.
“I’ll take your word. Let’s go Junno,” Ueda sighed, “you have a wedding to attend to.”
A.N... Junno you sweet little thing *glomps* Comments loved!!!
“But Ueda Tatsuya IS the king of Hokkaido now!” Chinen sighed, “Can’t we just trust him to get things on the straight path? We could never have predicted he is the lost son of consort Ootori and we could not predict that Mimura Yuri is now getting married to Taguchi Junnosuke. What we CAN predict now is that Taguchi Junnosuke will be returning to Honshu after he gets married so we need to tidy things up and welcome him back!”
Ryosuke sat in silence, twirling a strand of his own hair around his fingers.
“Say Chinen,” he smiled eerily, “what if I don’t want to give Honshu back?”
“Then you are crazy,” Chinen replied honestly, “I will not go against you but please consider your limits Your Majesty-
“The possibilities are endless Chinen,” Ryosuke put his hands together into a scheming pyramid and grinned again, “imagine what we could do with such a large country… I have the ability to make the people happy - they’re better off with me than with Taguchi Junnosuke!”
“As you wish Ryosuke-sama,” Chinen frowned.
[Hokkaido’s Capital, Sapporo]
“Well that was surprisingly easy,” Junno admired the bustling crowds, “to think that the trapdoor would lead us right into a temple festival…”
“Life works like that sometimes,” Ueda could hardly contain the excitement in his voice as he darted around, eyes wide at all the weird and wonderful things he’s only ever read about in books.
Junno smiled warmly at the sight of his love.
I forget sometimes… He’s been locked up in that Tegoshi mansion for his entire life… then married me in the palace then went straight to the Hokkaido palace. He’s still a child.
Forcing a wide grin on his face, Junno leapt up to the smaller man and took his hand.
Surprised at the sudden intimate contact, Ueda blushed like a young girl and hid his face behind his bangs. “W-what should we do now?”
“I want to go goldfish scooping but for the time being can you just agree to one selfish little plead of mine?” Junno batted his eyelashes and snuggled into the crook of Ueda’s neck. In public.
Ueda ruffled his hair in response. “How could I refuse?”
Half an hour later, Ueda stood, face set in an irritated scowl, outside a kimono shop.
“Junno when I said I’d agree, I didn’t expect you to trade my royal, gold-embroidered kimono for drag.”
“But you look so much prettier this way don’t you think?” Junno eyed his lover up and down, “White really suits you!”
”I’m dressed like a girl,” Ueda pointed out the obvious, “you have this fetish?”
“…no,” Junno suddenly pulled him into a suffocating hug in the middle of the street, “I just want us to go back to before, even if it’s just for tonight…”
I know Junno… I know.
“Even if I tell you that I killed those assassins back in Osaka?” Ueda whispered sadly, “Or if I remind you I’m of Hokkaido blood? Or I’m the cause of all your misfortune for the past 6 months? That because of me your body is riddled with scars-
“For a genius you’re surprisingly thick,” Junno cut off his sentence by putting an index finger to those perfectly formed lips, “do you think anyone in this world could regret falling in love with you? If I only say one sane thing in my entire life, let this be it. I love you. I don’t care what name you carry or what gender you appear to be. Everything about you could be a lie for all I care but the beautiful person standing in front of me right now is the one I love. He’s not a lie. I can feel his warmth on my fingertips and that’s all I need.”
“I… am so dirty,” Ueda finally found the word, only to have Junno recoil in horror.
“Don’t you EVER say that about yourself Tat-chan!” he tightened his hug, “Or I’ll cry…”
Ueda burst out laughing in the middle of a busy road illuminated by lanterns. Passerby dodged around them, eyeing the couple with both interest and envy.
Out of all the romantic things Junno could have said, he seriously threatened Ueda with tears. On the verge of crying due to excessive laughter himself, Ueda doubled over and just let the pure happiness of being around Junno take its form in sounds from his mouth.
When Ueda finally calmed down, he led Junno by the hand into crowd of people, following some until the cobbled streets led them to a maze of vendors.
A festival to the local river god was underway.
[Hokkaido Palace]
“Jin can you be a darling and get the door?” Kame was trying to get Ryo to drink herbal tea and the older man would not co-operate at all. Such a time was not good for knocking on their door.
“Why is it that every time this idiot injures himself, you take care of him like your life depends on it and make me get the door?” Jin complained and got up off his cushion.
Well, Jin had always been rather sharp - he just didn’t know it himself.
“Who do you think it is this time?” Ryo asked, pushing the spoonful of herb water away.
“Another ex-lover?” Kame replied bitterly and fairly shoved the spoon down Ryo’s throat.
“HOW DID YOU TWO GET IN HERE?!?!” came Jin’s yell from outside.
Tegoshi and Nakamaru, both dressed in palace guard uniform, were shepherded into Jin, Kame and Ryo’s shared room by an overly wary Uchi. Stiffly sitting down in crouching positions on the tatami, everyone tried their best to ignore Ryo’s incoherent spluttering. Kame simply sat dead still, jaw dropped to the ground. He never would have guessed that Tegoshi could get Maru inside the palace willingly. He had obviously underestimated the outwardly cute man.
Ryo’s spluttering stopped. He started crying instead. What started off as small, silent sobs turned into a mess of tears and badly placed words that sounded something along the lines of ‘Tesshi let’s just go home…. This is too stressful on everyone’.
Face set in stone, Tegoshi walked slowly up to Ryo’s futon and pushed him back down into a lying position gently. He turned to everyone else with a pleading look, “Can we have some time alone please?”
“Do we have a choice?” Maru sighed, “and Kame, I need the full story on what happened here in the past few months. In case you haven’t noticed, this is completely out of control!”
Once everyone apart from Ryo and Tegoshi had stepped outside, Maru grabbed Jin’s collar with one hand and Kame’s with another. “Where the FUCK is Junno and Tat-chan?!” he whispered dangerously, “I’m at the brink of my sanity guys. I stay awake in bed every night since you left and now I’m finally here, and my emperor and his boyfriend or whatever aren’t around. Do you know how utterly BAD that is?! Yamada Ryosuke probably wants us all DEAD.”
“Nakamaru-san please calm down,” Kame wrenched his hand away, “why don’t you catch a nap right now? Being in this blood-shot state isn’t helping us. And no, I don’t know where they’ve gone and I don’t want to. I trust in Tat-chan and his choices.”
“I don’t,” Jin said quite plainly, “nobody could stay sane after having all that happen to him… If I were him, I would just grab Junno and run for the hills.”
“In which case we are in trouble,” Uchi started to hyperventilate, “Hokkaido can’t not have a king!”
“What’s the point of arguing here?” Kame stretched lazily, “We’ll never find them anyway. I vote we leave them be until they come back. Tat-chan is responsible and he will not leave us all in danger ne? Now, how about we get a cup of tea and-
“Kame you’re being weird,” Jin stared at his lover of sorts, “last time they ran off and you didn’t care, you knew Tat-chan’s secret. What’s up this time?” He just could not read what the younger boy thought. Ever since he started to work as Ueda’s bodyguard, he was overprotective and loose in all the wrong times.
Not replying, Kame hid his watering eyes and ran towards the small garden in a bid to hide himself. Jin followed with frightening speed.
It was just Nakamaru and Uchi left.
The awkwardness in the air failed to lift as the two men shifted on their feet, wondering what to say next.
“Umm,” Uchi ran out of ideas.
Okay Uchi… Comment on an appealing feature of his…. Three… Two…One.
“I like your nose,” he finally managed to splutter.
The atmosphere froze over instantly and shattered on the ground.
“Indeed,” Nakamaru’s left eye started twitching, “I get that a lot.”
[Sapporo]
“Candy apples! Get your candy apples here!!” A vendor yelled merrily from his stall.
Junno’s lit up at the very mention of ‘candy’. “Two please!” he dragged Ueda by the hand to the stall and grinned like a child at the sight of shiny, round fruits smothered in solid sugar on sticks. So excited to get his apples, Junno did not even bother to ask for the price and dug out the loosest change he had with his - a lump of gold the size of a large grape.
The vendor’s jaw dropped to the ground.
“Junno!” Ueda scolded lightly, “you can’t expect him to be able to give change for that!” In saying so, as if to prove a point, Ueda also took out the loosest change he had - a lump of silver the same size.
The vendor shot the two rich men (one supposedly a girl) an amused look instead of being offended. “I can’t give change for that either. Say, is it your first time coming to a commoner’s festival? We work in silver coins... That silver teal could feed my whole family for three months young lady,” the old man kindly pointed to a pawnshop down the road, “you can get spare change from there.”
This place is very different from Honshu… Ueda stood still for a moment in thought. Even in Honshu a silver teal of this quality would be a large sum of money but not so far as for a booming street vendor on festival day to not be able to give change for… The rich/poor gap here must be rather large.
“Umm… Can I ask you a question oji-san?” Ueda asked timidly in his best good-girl voice.
The old man’s smile lines wrinkled good-naturedly, “Anything for such a pretty one.”
“Are the common people of Hokkaido happy?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Ueda pointed to the festival full of bustling people and laughing children, “you’ve lived through the years and seen the seasons go by, do you think anything’s changed for the better? What does the average person think of the beaucracy and the royal family-
“Tat-chan~” Junno whined, “we’re on holiday remember?”
He was ignored.
“Haha you ask such deep questions for a girl ojou-san,” the old man chuckled, “you must be getting married to one of those young nobles in court eh?” He looked at Junno with a glint in his wise eyes. “Let me tell you this - Hokkaido used to be a very poor country, and maybe compared to others, we still are. But since Takuya-sama came into rule, our lives have been getting easier day by day. The man has opened up trade channels for us commoners and now can buy better farm tools, sell our cattle, the people in the north can even sell their ice to other countries for a good price! The nobles are another story because there is still a little bit of corruption, but Takuya-sama is doing his best and we respect him - why sometimes he even goes for strolls outside the palace! He might even be at this very festival!”
“Not possible,” Junno absent-mindedly mumbled, “He’s already- OOOOWWW!!!”
Ueda had stepped on his foot.
“Thank you,” Ueda bowed politely, took two apples from the stall and put down the silver lump, “Keep the change. But if I feel like another apple, can I come back and get another one?”
The pair walked silently along the brightly lit path. Chomping on their apples hand in hand, they basked in each other’s presence. Ueda looked down thoughtfully at his own apple’s juicy white flesh.
“Ne Junno?” He smiled warmly, “We’ve come a long way haven’t we?”
“Last time we were out in the real world together, you didn’t even know what an apple looked like,” Junno chuckled, “but you’re just as cute.”
“Don’t call me cute!” Ueda blushed, “Okay I’m cute, but I mean don’t you think we’ve gone in a huge circle and come back to square one, just completely different people?”
He did not elaborate, but he was right. From the fateful day in Osaka when they snuck out of the royal stopover to explore the city, they pair had changed considerably. Sneaking out of the Hokkaido palace to explore this very different city had brought them in a full circle of fate. The Taguchi Junnosuke who had no desires had learned to kill in jealousy. The Ueda Tatsuya who knew nothing of the world beyond walls had learned to manipulate politics. They had both learned to love. Both had long lost their innocence. Now the place they snuck out of was Ueda’s kingdom, Junno was the one being forced to marry by someone he cared about and they were still eating apples on the street. At least that part had not changed.
Was it all worth it?
“We’re not completely different people Tat-chan,” Junno turned around with a small piece of candy on the corner of his mouth, “If I can still declare without a single doubt that I love you, you must still be the same person!”
You’re right Junno… you’re still the same smiley, hyperactive genius emperor and I’m still the clueless one dressed as a girl. But we both have so much more blood on our hands than what we started off as.
He leant in and licked the bit of candy from Junno’s lips. Eyes widening, Junno’s heart thumped from his ribcage till he was sure Ueda could actually hear it. He felt like he could melt from that one teasing gesture.
“Maybe you’re right,” Ueda drew his face close to his love’s, “maybe the huge circle we went in hasn’t changed a thing apart from reverse our roles. Does that mean this time, I am to lose you instead?”
As if on cue, a man riding an excessively fast horse cut through the festival grounds, sending people ducking for cover. Caught in the tsunami of bodies, Ueda and Junno were tossed in opposite directions, much like last time with the bull.
Ueda was on the verge of tears as he saw Junno’s figure fade away further and further.
I was joking… he prayed to an invisible God… Please no… I don’t want to lose him!!! I DON’T WANT TO-
A strong hand reached through the crowd and forcefully tugged him so hard his feet lifted off the ground towards the owner of said hand. Ueda let out a surprised shriek as he and the person who grabbed him landed in a haphazard heap on the ground.
“Ouch,” Junno groaned from underneath him, smile lopsided with a bit of pain, “Have you put on weight?”
“I AM NOT FAT!!” Ueda felt a surge of warmth rise up to his cheeks as he struggled to get off Junno in fear of hurting him but was held in place instead.
“Well, that answers a lot of questions - me being able to reach you in time, that is,” Junno grinned triumphantly, “We may have changed but I’m stronger now. I can reach out, grab you and pull you back. I will NEVER lose you to anyone again!”
Too late Junno… Ueda choked back tears. You won’t be losing me… I’ll be losing you in three days.
“Of course,” he lied, “we’ll be together forever ne?” Forcing a smile that ended up like a grimace on his beautiful face, Ueda got up off Junno and reach down to help the taller man up.
“Then can we just leave Hokkaido?” Junno said quietly.
Ueda’s legs gave out at the suggestion and he sat uselessly on the cobbles, the crowds of people a blur in his mind.
I knew it. He wanted this all along… I wanted this all along.
But I can’t.
“I…can’t,” Ueda gathered the last of his strength to say. He tasted something salty.
The tears didn’t even bother him as he simply sat there, drenched in the reality of their situation. The ‘we will be together forever’ from before sounded ridiculously fiction.
Junno didn’t bother to argue. It was his last ditch attempt at convincing Ueda’s delusional side - and at the end he couldn’t even convince his own.
Their spontaneous trip to town ended there. Apples left on the road long forgotten, the pair of impossible lovers gripped each other’s hands like a lifeline and slowly made their way back to the palace via a proper road. The night grew darker and darker as they furthered from the bustle of the city.
Even the owls stopped hooting.
Some hours of silent walking later, the blindingly white palace came into view on the horizon, even in the dark.
Fear suddenly crept up Ueda’s spine like a furry spider. Reality crashed on him. it was all very well being responsible, righteous and royal - but could he really survive for the rest of his life without Junno?
No, the question was, how long would he survive without Junno?
Sensing Ueda’s hands beginning to tremble, Juno squeezed a bit harder.
“Junno?” Ueda’s bottom lip quivered, “Does the offer of eloping still stand?” He forced a half-serious half-smile.
“Even if I said yes, you’d feel guilty for the rest of your life right?” Junno’s normally innocent smile looked beyond his years, “I didn’t want you to ask the old man that question because I knew if he answered, you’d stay here forever as king…”
“…But I really want to be with you…” Ueda felt like his knees were about to give out at Junno’s deep eyes.
“I know Tat-chan, I know.” The emperor got down on one knee, holding Ueda’s right hand. “I shouldn’t have to tell you how much I love you,” he placed a lingering kiss on the back of the smaller man’s fair hand, “but I will. I love you. I will love only you. However, right now I am going to pretend that Hokkaido needs you perhaps more than I do. Go Tatsuya, be their king.”
A lone drop of tear fell on his nose from above.
“…Why can royalty not be free to love?” Ueda knelt down beside Junno, tears streaming down his face.
“Royalty are free to love Tat-chan,” Junno gripped Ueda’s hand so hard it was close to breaking, “but rulers of enemy countries aren’t. I can only promise to you that I will never love anyone in my life again-
“THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!” Ueda couldn’t even register that it was him being so pathetic, “…not good enough. I want you… I want the Taguchi Junnosuke who doesn’t care about the consequences!”
“I’m not strong enough Tat-chan,” Junno wiped a tear from his face, “I can’t. Not again.”
“We can help each other through-
“We can’t keep running away from reality anymore Tat-chan!” Junno was begging for Ueda to stop tempting him. He was about to break. “The reality is, if I don’t do get married, we are ALL going to die here!”
“BUT THE REALITY IS THAT I LOVE YOU!!!!!” was the latter’s ace card.
“… tell me Tatsuya, which one is more real?”
“…Then can I ask you one last question?” Ueda stood up slowly, eyes hazed from crying.
He took the silence as a yes.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes.”
“If I came to you in fifty years, when I am no longer considered beautiful, will you still love me?”
“If you came to me in two thousand years, a completely different person who can’t even remember me from this life, I will still love you with the same feelings I stand here with today.”
So-called empty words have never made Ueda so happy in his life.
“I’ll take your word. Let’s go Junno,” Ueda sighed, “you have a wedding to attend to.”
A.N... Junno you sweet little thing *glomps* Comments loved!!!