[Multi-chapter] Oretachi no chikara (2/??)
Title: Oretachi no chikara (Our power)
Author: syunikiss1990
Beta & Plot Bunny: yuuki_saya <-- Our precious beta-reader~!
Pairing: Sho, Nino
Genre: Fantasy, AU, Romance
Rating: NC-17 (This chapter PG-13)
Disclaimer: We don't own them. We don't have that much money...
Summary: Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall.
MASTERPOST
On the other side of the same wall, a man was looking at it too, but with complete other feelings. Every time that man felt himself tensing up or unable to rest, he would look at that particular wall. Somehow it made him calm down as it was giving him him some kind of secure feeling he couldn’t really place, but he had done this for years now and it didn’t really matter to him why it would give him this feeling.
Sakurai Sho always had a double feeling about the people on the other side of that wall. On one hand he really didn't know how to think about them, but on the other hand he had always learned the people over there couldn't be trusted. Some accidents had happened over the years and his suspicions to the poor people had grown. He wouldn't really say out loud that he hated them because he never really met one and his mind would tell him you can't hate people you have never met, but somewhere inside his heart he hated them. He had always told himself there had to be a reason for him to hate them, and a couple of years ago he had found one. Therefore he was grateful the wall had been build long ago, it just made him feel safer and he was glad he only had to see some of them in the executions or floggings there were when one of them was caught inside this district.
His mother used to tell his all sorts of stories about the wall and the people behind it when he was younger. Every night before he went to bed he would listen to her reading out off a book. The book contained stories every young child would listen to in the rich district, stories which were made to tell them in a fairytale like setting about the evil people of the poor district. But unfortunately his mother had died when he was only 5 years old of a disease no one could cure. As his father never had time to read the book for him, he had learn to read well and fast at a pretty young age, to keep on reading the stories before he went to bed. The stories had always held a special place in his heart, would make him remember of his mother.
Even though everyone seemed to see him that way, Sakurai had never thought of himself as someone big or important. True, he was the son of the president of the City Council but he didn't really think of that as something big. But that didn't mean he didn't like the privileges that came with the position. Even though he hated to really admit it, he did like the royal life he was living and wouldn't want it to be different. Always having enough energy inside the house to do whatever he liked at the time he wanted to and having the best and most luxurious food had made him spoiled and he knew it, but he didn’t want it to be any different.
One of the privileges he really liked was having the best teachers to learn him anything he wanted. He was always trying to find new things to learn, but he had the habit to lose interest in the thing one they became pretty clear to him, even if it were only the basics. He had a wide knowledge of many things, but it never went to deep. Teachers came and go with the seasons, trying to hold his interest, but failed every time. Sometimes his interest would last longer, one time it lasted for almost two years before he lost his interest, but in the end he always moved on. But he didn't want it any other way. In his eyes knowing many different things was better than to know only one thing really good.
Just like the weather was growing colder every day outside, he started to feel like he had frozen down on the last subject he had been studying on. He knew for himself that the best way to get this cold out of him, was looking for something new, something interesting that could make his blood boil. Sighing he turned away from the window to go back to his desk for further research on something that had taken his interest. Just when he wanted to sit down again at his desk to continue his work, he heard the door opening. When he looked up the saw the familiar small figure of his best friend.
"Ah Ninomiya, please come in" Sakurai smiled and pointed to the sofa, inviting the man to sit down. But the smaller man shook his head and kindly refused the offer.
"Your father has send me to ask if you will be coming to the Council today" Sakurai's smile disappeared from his face. Ninomiya Kazunari had been Sakurai's friend since they were both very young. Even though Ninomiya was more than a year younger, they didn’t feel any different in age between them. When they were still younger, Sakurai would be at Ninomiya's home a lot since his father would always be busy with the City Council. Sakurai and Ninomiya's mother had always been together since they were young and when Sakurai's mother had died Ninomiya's mother had felt so sorry for the little boy she would always treat him like her son too. Because of that men felt as close as brothers would be.
Even though Ninomiya was in his late twenties he still looked like a teenager, or at least like someone who had just past the 20. But Sakurai knew better than to be fooled by the looks of his friend. His eyes always had a certain determination which president's son admired, but feared at the same time, seeing the past of the man. That same determination had made the small man vice-president of the City Council not so long ago, even though he was still quite young for such a high position. Sakurai knew he would have been a great president too, but that would probably never happen.
Being a presidents son was more like being the son of a king or empire. Most of the people around him expected Sakurai to take over this position from his father after the man would get too old to do his job. Just like Sakurai's father had taken over from his father and that line goes back for as long as people could remember. Even though everyone claimed that the district of the city was ruled with democracy, Sakurai knew better than that. It’s easy to make people believe something they want to believe.
“Sakurai?” Ninomiya’s voice snapped Sakurai out of his thoughts. He smiled weakly and slowly shook his head.
“I’m sorry. Please tell my father I won’t be there today, I have something important which I need to finish” Ninomiya sighed deeply. Sakurai gave him an apologetic smile, knowing why the frown appeared on Ninomiya’s face. His father was getting old and he kept on pushing Sakurai to go to the Council meetings with him more and more these days. He certainly wouldn’t be happy with the third time in a row Sakurai had refused to go with him, always finding some weak excuse to do so. Not to long ago Sakurai and his father had a discussion on this matter, with the president wanting his son to let go of his ‘childish’ hobbies and finally focus on one thing. And that one thing was, of course, focussing about how Sakurai could become a respectable leader. In his fathers eyes his son could never become one if he couldn’t even decide were his interests lay.
“He won’t be happy to hear that answer again. Are you sure you can’t come?” Ninomiya tried, but he knew Sakurai well enough that even if he begged the older man wouldn’t come with him. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he was scared of the reaction of the president and Sakurai knew pretty well why. The head of the City Council was also know for his bad temper and a lot of people feared him because of that. This temper was one of the things Sakurai had in common with his father and one of the main reasons why they seemed to get into fights with each other so much, but thanks to Ninomiya, Sakurai had learned to control it, or at least a little. As the two of them particularly grew up together, Ninomiya had learned to counter Sakurai's angriness with snarky remarks which at first always seemed to make the angry boy even angrier, but in the end the calm, realistic way Ninomiya dealt with it, Sakurai would calm down. After many years older man finally seemed to have taken control of his temper and he was Ninomiya deeply grateful for it.
"Sakurai? Is anything wrong? You seem to be a bit spaced out today" Ninomiya asked worriedly. Asked man shook his head.
"I'm fine. I just have this weird feeling I can't really seem to put my finger on." He could see by the look in Ninomiya's eyes that the man didn't fully believe him, but he was glad the younger man didn't get the chance ask further as they heard someone knocking on the door. Ninomiya who was still standing close to it opened the door, revealing the assistant of the president.
"Ninomiya-sama, Sakurai-taicho wants to leave or else he says you will be late for the Council." The man bowed in front of them and turned around, knowing Ninomiya would follow him. For the last time Ninomiya looked at Sakurai with a questioning look.
"I'm sorry Ninomiya, I promise I'll come next time" Sakurai smiled weakly again, trying to convince the other man. Ninomiya nodded and left the room.
"And you never break a promise right?" Just before the door closed behind the other man, Sakurai could see the feint smile on his face and he knew he had to keep his promise for the next time, even if that meant Ninomiya would have to forcefully drag him to the Council. Sighing Sakurai turned back to his desk, sitting down behind it. He looked at the book in front of him which was opened at a picture of the big wall. He came across this book when he was searching for something new and this particular one had taken his interest. It was a children’s book, written quite a long time ago, with fairytale like stories, the book his mother used to read for him. The story about how the big wall had formed inside their city had taken his interest again and while he had looked at the picture he had started to wonder for himself how it really happened. He thought of himself to be smart enough to know this couldn't possibly be the real way how it had happened and wondered if there would be someone that could tell his how it did.
While he was reading the story again it was slowly starting to grow dark outside. After some time he started to feel tired and decided to call it a day. He made a mental note to himself to ask his father tomorrow if he knew someone who could tell him more about this matter. He would try to convince the man that this would be of use to him when he would become the president of the City Council, since the wall always was and always would be a big deal to the people inside the city. Sighing he stood up and walked back to the window to stare at the wall again.