Akatsuki - Chapter Twenty-Three
Title: Akatsuki
Genre: AU/Fantasy
Rating : PG-13
Disclaimer: I made the poster from images I got from flickr, heavily influenced by an original, final fantasy/kingdom hearts/legend of Mana but the plot and characterization are my own hard work. The Idols are Johhnys but because they've engraved an irreplaceable position in my heart so I based my characters on them and yeah used their names...the end.
Summary: Two nations on the brink of war. A young King on a mission. Two brothers on a quest to preserve their ties. The bonds of friendship are pitted against the greed for power but the hidden strength lying dormant within the confines of a fragile heart has the ability to throw all asunder.
Chapter Twenty-Three - The Healer’s Pendant and the Abandoned Child
Yuto jerked awake from a disturbed sleep as the carriage came to a stop. He blinked wearily at Yuri who seemed to be rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The door opened and an anxious Hikaru gave them both a quick bow before reaching to gather the unconscious body of his friend. An equally worried Yuya helped to secure Kouta on Hikaru’s back.
“You all know each other really well it seems,” Yuri commented walking over to the three.
“We’re friends from our childhood,” Hikaru replied.
Yuto sighed.
He hadn’t known that. As a matter of fact he knew nothing about his guardian’s personal life. He knew the older boy was born in a village north of the capital of Akatsuki and he knew that he loved to study and that he loved him like a real brother, but besides that…nothing. Kouta had always spoiled him in every way possible. It had always been about the prince, like Kouta’s life revolved around him and nothing else.
It made him feel guilty and it made him scared…what if he never gets the chance to know him more? To see him married? To play with his children? To let him know just how much he meant to him…
“This place,” Keito began, taking his coat from Aoi. Yuto scanned the area and found himself staring at his surroundings in wonder. Against the backdrop of a dark green forest stood a cottage enclosed within its own grounds by a wired fence. On the right of the cottage was a greenhouse larger than the house and the front garden was laden with fruit-bearing plants.
Just as they stood taking in the view the front door opened and a teenage boy stepped out, followed closely by a younger girl.
“Can I help you?” asked the boy and then bowed as he recognized Yuri.
“Yo Shintaro! Is your dad home? We need to talk to him,” replied the King with a cheerful wave of the hand. The boy nodded with a smile and sent his little sister tottering back into the house.
“Please come in,” he added opening the door wide for them. The company made their way into the house, which was bigger than what it seemed from the outside.
Shintaro pulled out a mattress from a cupboard and laid it upon the floor before giving room for Hikaru to place Kouta upon it.
Yuto sat upon the sofa in the little living room, eyes upon the stove visible from where he sat. There was a pot on and the smell in the air coming from whatever was boiling was bitter and spicy. It made his eyes sting a little.
“Your Grace! Welcome to my humble home! How may I be of service?”
Yuri stood up to greet the cheerful looking man that had just descended the stairs. His eyes widened as he spotted Kouta.
“What happened to this young man?” he exclaimed proceeding to examine him. Yuto felt his heart sink as the man’s face became grave upon pulling down Kouta’s collar and spotting the mark.
“He went to Valian, and came across a group of people that did this to him, can you cure him?” he asked with a hint of desperation to his voice.
“There is no herb or medicine that can cure this curse, your friend has had the misfortune of running into a cult group that even the people of Valian fear and despise but can say nothing because the King protects them,”
“So…there is no cure?” Yuto chocked, swaying slightly as his knees wobbled. Keito gripped his shoulders to keep him steady.
The man looked thoughtful.
“There may be…it’s worth a try…Shintaro, get your brother,”
“There is something?” Yuto asked hopefully.
“My son, has a gift…he has healed wounds thought impossible, he may be able to help your friend,”
“Please…anything!”
The man nodded.
“Please assist me in getting him to the back room and then please wait out here, my daughter will get you all some ginger tea,”
“A gift huh?” Yuri mused aloud as the apothecary disappeared into the back room. Yuto’s eyes flicked upon the person descending the stairs and then immediately onto a large pendent with a black stone hanging from his neck. He blinked, something felt odd. The boy coming down the stairs avoided his gaze, although very obviously vary of the stare.
“Who is that?” he asked as the boy walked into the healing room without a backward glance.
“That’s Ryutaro, the eldest of his three children, a good kid but not at all social…I didn’t know he could heal though,” Yuri answered.
Yuto nodded and lapsed into silence, for some reason finding it hard to get that pendant out of his mind.
~*~
Ryosuke opened his eyes, body heavy and his head light. For the past few hours, he had been doing nothing but sleeping and waking up after strange nightmares that slipped his mind as soon as he was up. He wiped the last vestiges of tears that he didn’t realize he was shedding as he slept and sat up.
“You mumble some incomprehensible language in your sleep,”
He jumped as he spotted Queen Amaya on a seat near his bed, a book in hand. She smiled as he muttered a squeaky ‘sorry’ with a red face.
“Do you want to hear a story?” she asked moving over to his bed and placing herself gracefully upon the side.
He looked at her confused but nodded nonetheless.
“A kingdom once had a princess. She was full of life and beautiful, but impulsive and rather rash. Her father was very fond of her and he wanted the princess to be entrusted to a man he valued and thought highly of. There was such a man, but he was older and a widow with a child of his own. The king however, threw caution to the wind and declared the two engaged. The princess was distraught, not because her fiancé wasn’t a good man or that he already had a child, but because she had fallen for somebody else,”
“Somebody else?”
“Yes, a young man from another Kingdom whom she had met at a local festival,”
Ryosuke’s eyes widened and his interest increased.
“What then?”
“The man promised her everlasting love…marriage if she would return with him to his own Kingdom,”
“They eloped?”
“Well, yes they did…but they couldn’t leave the girl’s kingdom because the army was scouting the borders for the missing princess, so they settled at a small village and began to lead a happy life together,”
“So, they lived happily ever after?”
The lady shook her head with a smile.
“No, unfortunately….one year after the birth of their child, the King had found them. Enraged by the ordeal, he ordered for the man and his child to be executed. The princess, horrified for the fate of her beloved family, offered a trade. She would return and carry out her duties if her husband and son would be left alone. The King agreed to this and the princess returned to her castle, bitter and hateful but emotions masked behind silence and obedience. Her first marriage was broken off and she was then wed to her original fiancé, who was a duke and the son of the King’s best friend. Soon after she gave birth to her second child, but passed away soon after due to ill health. Her first husband, who had lingered in her Kingdom to be close to her even in thoughts, left with his son…swearing to never return again.”
“What happened to her second child?” Ryosuke asked. Amaya stared at the floor and he was surprised to see a tear.
“She hated that child. She said that it wasn’t love that brought him to be. She found him ugly and would scream if he was brought to her. I offered to take care of him, but she was against it. She instead secretly gave him away.”
“Wait, you offered? Are you telling me that this story is real?”
Amaya looked at him sadly.
“The princess was my older sister; and that child that she abandoned…was you.”
~*~
A/N: I'm kind of happy with this chapter. I'm curious though of what you guys got from it since I tried to be not to direct but I wanna know if you guys figured it out! So, let me know k? :P Music used is Morning Moon Tsubasa Chronicles OST Yuki Kajiura! Happuy Reading!