the prince and the pauper ; kubokai royalty au

15 ¬ like a fool ¬

Aren walked to the servant's quarters briskly, his eyes down.  He was grateful for the fact that he had another morning off today -  there was nowhere he particularly needed to be, which was a relief considering how late it was when he woke up. And so he had hopes that he could slip unnoticeably inside, freshen up and prepare for the coming day, all whilst pretending nothing had happened at all.

Unfortunately, it was a Sunday morning, and many other servants had also chosen to allocate this as a day off as well as he had, so the room was far from empty when he walked in.

"Hey, where were you last night, huh?"

"When you didn't come back to bed, we were worried you got sacked or somethin'.."

"Yeah, what happened? Where did you sleep last night?"

Aren was met with a chorus of voices hurled at him from the second he stepped in the door. Other servants milled about in their day clothes, momentarily distracted from what they were doing to stare at him. He gulped nervously.

"It's..-" He didn't really know how to respond to them - he couldn't tell the truth, but there wasn't really any believable lie for this situation either. 

"It's a long story." he said briefly, and he wouldn't say anymore. He then tried to barge his way through a group of them to get through to the washroom, but was stopped. It was a man he hadn't spoken to before, and he appeared to be one of the eldest of them all, considering they were all young and fit to an extent. He stood infront of the entryway menacingly, and looked Aren up and down.

"You weren't doing anythin'..you weren't supposed to be doin', I hope?" he spoke in an unnerving tone, as if he knew something. Aren gripped his palms but he tried to keep a cool demeanor. 

"No, I just don't really want to talk about it, sorry." He tried hard to dismiss him and keep walking, but as he passed beside him, the man caught him by his shoulder and whispered sharply down his ear.

"You're a real idiot, you know? Don't think you're so special just because the prince has taken a liking to you. You need to watch yourself." With that, the man released his grip and let him go, walking off.  

Aren tried his best to ignore him, yet he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. The way he spoke unsettled him, and there was a pit in this middle of his stomach. He couldn't do any work to distract himself either, so he decided to leave the palace for the morning. He wasn't sure what he'd.. do exactly, as he'd never been in town before, but he needed to get out of here and clear his head.

So, he did just that; he left the palace through the back door and signed out in the guestbook without any problems- there was nobody really ever on duty here, so he didn't have to face any more confrontation than he had already.  His mind was spinning and he felt a headache coming on, so the fresh air felt nice as it hit against his skin. He breathed it in, his nerves calming as the palace faded further and further away into the distance whilst he walked. 

Once he was out onto the main street, he spotted a small sign toward the end of the road. Still quite unsure of where to go, he followed it, and he found himself walking down a shortcut path that led to a direct route towards the small village near Shun's castle.

And as he walked, he finally let himself think. About everything that had happened. The entire morning, he'd pushed his memories of last night to the back of his mind, not wanting to face them at all. But now, he took time to relive them in detail.

He thought about how he held Shun close, and remembered himself not wanting to let him go.
He thought about Shun falling asleep in his own arms, and how he had made him feel safe.
He thought about how good he felt in that moment. 

No, not even that moment. He thought about just how good it felt whenever Shun was there.

He wandered around the village, with no true intention of going anywhere, still thinking about him. He thought about what Hana had said, when she'd asked if there was anything going on between them. And, for a moment, he wondered if there was.

Where did he stand with Shun?

Aren had never thought of himself as someone who would fall in love, or anything like that. He'd never really shown romantic attraction to anybody before, he was too busy working to support his family and himself to even think about those sort of things. So this was definitely new, and Aren didn't even know what Shun was to him anymore. Were they still only just friends? Do friends.. really feel the way Aren feels around him?

He didn't know. He didn't know what these feelings meant, nor if Shun felt the same. Logically speaking, it was likely he didn't, I mean - it's ridiculous, surely? Aren isn't a beautiful rich maiden born from nobility, and is far from an appropriate suitor.

Yet he did know two things, though. One, is that he would do anything to hold Shun close again, and feel his body against his own, just one more time.
And two, him wanting to do so..is likely very illegal.  And at the very least could cost him his job. He didn't want to think about what the most severe punishment could be.

The walk left him feeling a lot more at ease, and it was assuring to have finally come to terms with his feelings, even if he wasn't completely ..overjoyed to discover that he had feelings for the Prince. Still, it made a lot of things clearer, even if he didn't understand his feelings at all.

But as he arrived back at the palace, and saw the gates looming closer, the pit in his stomach returned again.

And it was with good reason, too.
Because when Aren opened the back door, he was met with the head of court standing adjacently to him, with various other members of the palace court standing awkwardly beside him, their expressions unreadable.

"Aren Kuboyasu?"

 "Yes, sir?" he spoke quietly. This was not good, not good at all.

"You'll need to come with me. Now."

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