O.o o.O

Keita had never seen such a beautiful lady in his entire life. She sat on the riverbank, heavy skirts pulled up to reveal shapely calves encased in white stockings and delicate heeled shoes that were coloured the same pink as the trim on the white dress she wore. The tips of her shoes dipped into the water below the rock she perched on, but she didn’t seem to notice or care, if the faraway expression on her face was any indication.

Screwing up every ounce of courage in him, Keita approached the lady, footsteps hesitant and sounding too loud to his ears. He stopped to her left, and cleared his throat. “Um. H-Hello.”

The lady barely glanced over. “Hello.”

“Are you alone? Where are your companions?”

The lady scrunched up her nose momentarily. “Ditched them.”

“Oh.” Keita stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “If…if I may make an inquiry as to your ladyship’s name?”

The lady finally gave him a long look before throwing her head back in a laugh. “I don’t think so.”

“I assure you my intentions are sincere,” Keita insisted, taking a step closer.

The lady pursed her lips, frowning at him, gathering her billowing skirts to her as she struggled to stand up from her seat. Keita instinctively reached out a hand to help her, but she ignored his hand. “Good day, sir,” she said primly, steps light and quick as she hopped down from the bank onto the path that ran alongside it.

“My name’s Keita!” he yelled after her. “Tachibana Keita!”

She didn’t look back, but raised her arm in a wave. “Good bye!”

O.o o.O

“I don’t want to hear any more complaints from you,” Manami said sternly as Ryuichi scowled, the maid behind him carefully curling his hair into tight ringlets.

“This is stupid.”

“I said –”

“I know what you said. But this is still stupid. Stupid King Ryohei and his ‘I think Ryuichi looks better as a girl’ statement.” Ryuichi raised his voice to a twitter in parody of the King.

“The King said –”

“I know what the King said. But that doesn’t mean this isn’t stupid. I should cut off my hair and become a pirate. They’re promoting that thing they’re calling ‘democracy’. Pretty odd, if you ask me. Voting for the captain of the ship. Fun. I bet I’d win by sheer force of my powers of persuasion.”

“Your so-called ‘powers of persuasion’ did you absolutely no good when the King thought it’d be fun to dress you up as a girl.” Manami rapped on Ryuichi’s head sharply with her fan.

“Shut up,” Ryuichi said, and inspected his hair after the maid finished tying in the ribbons. “Now can I go play?”

“Play all you want, darling Ryuichi,” Manami said. “Just don’t forget you have to come back tonight to get ready for the state dinner.”

“Bleah,” Ryuichi said, sticking his tongue out as he pulled on his lace gloves. “I don’t care if the King’s second cousin twice removed is moving back to become Royal Advisor. All I care is that tonight the whole Court will see me dressed like a girl.”

“It’s not as if no one knows already,” sniffed Manami. “In fact, some Members of Parliament are following in a trend. I hear Lord Chancellor Eeteuk tried it himself at a meeting last week.”

“You know what? I just don’t get the MPs,” Ryuichi said. “Lord Ryeowook keeps asking me where I get my petticoats from. Doesn’t he know the only tailors worth going to are Tackey and Tsubasa? They make the frilliest ones, after all.”

“Right,” Manami said slowly, finding it exceedingly difficult to believe that Ryuichi was having as bad a time as he claimed.

“Anyway, I’m going to see Hiroki. I’ll be back later.” Ryuichi gave a quick wave and flounced out of the room.

Manami just sighed.

O.o o.O

“Hello,” Keita said, feeling as if the heavens were smiling down on him today as he came across the lady again, this time going in his opposite direction through the park.

“Oh, it’s you again,” the lady said, and sighed.

“How do you do?” Keita smiled even though the lady just looked bored.

“Look, I’m late. I’m supposed to go home now.”

“Oh, right, of course. I shouldn’t delay you. Would you allow me the honour of...accompanying you, perhaps?”

“I don’t think so,” she said curtly, and Keita’s smile dissolved.

“If I have done anything to offend your ladyship…”

“No, no,” she said, waving a hand at him. “I just…look, I need to go, okay? And stop calling me ‘your ladyship’. It’s weird.”

“But your ladyship is –”

“No, believe me, I am not.”

Keita knew he must have looked heartbroken because the lady sighed again.

“Look, it’s complicated, alright? But believe me, you don’t want to get to know me. In fact, it’s probably better for you if you stay far, far away from me. Or I swear I’ll stomp all over that sweet heart of yours you’re wearing on your sleeve.”

Keita looked down at himself. “But I’m not –”

“Oh my god, are you stupid or something? It’s a metaphor.”

“Oh. Right. Excuse me, I’m not used to…local sayings.”

“That’s fine. Look, I really need to go. You seem like a nice guy and all, but whatever you have on your mind, the answer is ‘no’, okay?”

Keita just stared forlornly as the lady decided to take a short cut and trample a few flower beds as she left.

O.o o.O

“Well,” Ryuichi said. “This is awkward.”

Keita just stared.

“I thought your name sounded familiar, but I never pay attention when Ryohei talks to me about government stuff.” Ryuichi took a huge drink from his champagne flute.

“You wouldn’t speak with me at dinner,” Keita said softly. “Would you speak with me now?”

“Well, what’s there to say, really?” Ryuichi frowned. “Not to mention, Ryohei was sitting between us. He would’ve heard everything. And believe me, if there’s ever a gossip in this kingdom, it’s the King himself.”

“Oh.” Keita fiddled with a cuff. “Does your lady – uh, excuse me, lordship still feel the same about me even now your secret is exposed?”

Ryuichi shrugged. “Isn’t the question rather if you still feel the same about me? And it was never a secret. Don’t make it sound so dirty. It’s not like I ever lied to you. I thought you were just some guy.”

“Your lordship is still captivating in every sense of the word,” Keita said, mouth set firmly and no trace of smile in his eyes. “I am still as enraptured and enamoured with you as when I first saw you.”

“Are you crazy or something? I’m a guy. A dude.”

“What’s a dood? Never mind,” Keita said, shaking his head. “I stand by my word.”

“And I stand by the fact that you don’t even know me. Are you saying your feelings for me go only as far as my looks? What a commitment,” Ryuichi said dryly, before downing the rest of his champagne and handing the glass to Keita, who took it automatically. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go throttle the King.”

O.o o.O

“Uh, Ryuichi?” Manami stopped just inside the entrance to Ryuichi’s study, an odd expression on her face.

“Yes?” He didn’t bother looking up from his book.

“You know you have a visitor downstairs?”

“Yeah,” he said flippantly, turning a page.

“You know he’s been here since eleven in the morning, right?”

“Yeah.” He yawned, fingers splayed wide in attempt to cover his mouth.

“Who on earth is he?”

“You don’t need to know. Believe me.” Ryuichi gave his sister a hard look. “Just leave him alone and he’ll go away eventually.”

“You’re not going to greet him?”

“No, believe me, he’d enjoy that way too much. Not going to give him the satisfaction.”

Manami opened her mouth to question when Ryuichi became such a sadist, but realised he had been one since birth, and so wisely closed her mouth and left to do her own thing.

Like maybe make conversation with Ryuichi’s guest downstairs and glean whatever information it is that Ryuichi is refusing to reveal.

O.o o.O

Ryuichi had no guests the next day, and he thought his point had been made, except not.

“I hate you,” Ryuichi said, shooting Manami a dark look the second she entered the dining room.

Manami just smiled. “Keita, don’t mind him, make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” Keita smiled, sitting down gracefully. “Your ladyship is most kind.”

Manami didn’t even bother hiding the smirk she threw at Ryuichi when she picked up her wine glass for a sip.

“You,” Ryuichi said, glaring at Keita. “You need to leave as soon as dinner is over, you understand?”

“Ryuichi, that is not how we treat guests,” Manami said, with the weary air of one that has repeated the lesson too many times. “I’ve invited Keita to stay for the next fortnight. King Ryohei agreed with me when I suggested that the greatest legal mind in the kingdom would be the ideal candidate to enlighten our friend here on the politics of this land.”

“He doesn’t need to stay over for that, does he? And why can’t Ryohei have someone else do it?”

“Because His Majesty wanted you to do it,” Manami said pointedly.

“I hate you,” Ryuichi said to Manami. “And you,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Keita. “No smiling.”

Keita tried not to, except it was hard when Ryuichi was pouting like a child.

O.o o.O

TBC!!!! (I suck at TBC’s, don’t I? Well, this is a double-shot for the V-Day/White Day holidays, so it should be alright…maybe. T-T)