the prince and the pauper ; kubokai royalty au

11 ¬ oxygen ¬

"Wh- why..?"

"I said don't question it! Just hold on a minute."

Shun grabbed the basket from the tree and folded the blanket out onto the floor, running from each corner to try and straighten it out. They were sat adjacent to a river stream that had a little brick bridge across it, surrounded by sunlit trees that blew gently with the summer draft. It really was a pretty spot.

"Okay, okay, now open them."

Aren did just this, and opened his eyes, to see the little picnic set up in front of him.

"Shun..I- Did you do this?" He sounded surprised, but it was hard to tell if that was a good thing by his tone.

"Mhm! Well, actually.. I did need some help with the food at first, but it was mostly me." Shun said sheepishly, rummaging around the basket and putting food out on the blanket. He looked up at Aren, who's mouth hung open a little, and his eyes looked glassy. "Aren.. are you okay?"

"Oh, y-yeah. I'm fine, it's just.." He laughed and looked away, his voice lowering. "Sorry, this sounds really stupid. But nobody has ever done something like this before for me."

"Aren.." Shun was once again reminded of their differences in upbringing. His voice softened. "It's okay. Look, come here, i'll show you what I brought." 

Aren nodded gratefully, and sat on the blanket beside him. Shun explained all of the sweets he had packed excitedly, going into particular detail about his struggle with the sandwiches. Aren listened, looking fondly at Shun's face as he did this, smiling. He looked so .. so cute, his eyes widening as he reminisced about the taste of the marzipan candies he used to eat when he was younger. 

"And so ..yeah! That's about all of it. Don't be shy or anything, just eat whatever of it that you want. I packed it for you anyway." Shun said, finishing off his speech.  He took his own sandwich and bit into it. "Mmm, you know, for my first ever homemade sandwich, it's not so bad!" His speech was muffled by the bread in his mouth. 

Aren took a bite out of his own, and it did taste good. Really good. The ingredients were likely made up of the most luxurious produce that one could come about, considering this was the royal family. He savoured every bite, and it tasted better knowing Shun had made it for him, even when he said it was difficult.

"Welllll...do you like it?"

"Like it?! Shun, you have to understand that for about 5 years I lived off of nothing but watery oats and plain rice. This tastes amazing. Seriously, don't even laugh at me, but I think this is the best thing i've ever eaten."

"Really..?" Shun looked at him. Aren looked hungry, as if he hadn't eaten much for days. Maybe he hadn't. Shun didn't really have any idea of what the servants were served as meals.

Shun hated this. He hated how effortlessly easy he had it, and how Aren had no choice but to work hard every single day. But no, he wouldn't think about that now. Aren was off work, and it would be so unfair of him to start bringing the mood down.

He saw that Aren had his eyes set on the boxes of sweets across the blanket by Shun's side, particularly eyeing the colourful marzipan shapes. "Here, try one." He offered the box to him and Aren took one graciously. He looked at it in admiration for a minute, before taking a timid bite to taste test it, his eyes glistening.

"This..is so good?!" He exclaimed, before eating the rest of the candy in one swift mouthful. 

"The pink ones were always my favourite." Shun smiled at him, taking nibbles out of his own peice. "If you really like them, I can get some for you whenever."