Always by Your Side: Chapter 6
An Akagami no Shirayuki-hime (Snow White with the Red Hair) Fanfic
Technically, Obi has his own room in the palace. He’s sure the servants are well aware that he never uses it and that they’ve shared that information with the prince.
He’s just as sure that the prince has no idea where he actually spends his nights.
“Obi.” Shirayuki pokes his chest. He bats her hand away. “Obi!” Another poke.
He groans and pulls the covers up to cover his face. He’s not made for early mornings. He’s a nocturnal beast, made for slinking around the night. Unfortunately everyone around him likes to ignore this fact.
“We’re supposed to meet Zen, remember?” The bed shifts as she slides off.
He lifts the covers off his face. “What if I don’t want to?”
She turns around and grins at him over her shoulder. “I know that’s a lie.”
He grits his teeth because she’s right and he refuses to admit it. He just hopes she’ll never tell Kazuki. He’d never live it down.
Reluctantly, he sits up and grabs his shirt off the chair by the bed. He gets too hot at night to sleep with it on, and though he used to worry it would make her uncomfortable, she’s never asked him to leave it on.
He looks up just in time to see her slip behind her dressing screen with one of her nice dresses. He chokes on air.
“Miss,” he splutters. “You could just ask me to leave.”
“You don’t have to. It’s fine.”
It is not fine, but arguing with her won’t help. She slings her nightgown over the top of the dressing screen and he jerks his gaze up to the ceiling, digging his fingers into the sheets and trying to find something else to think about.
“It’s been a while,” he says finally. “Since we went to a festival, I mean.”
“I know,” she chirps, far too chipper for this early in the morning. “I’m excited to see how different they are in Clarines.”
“Probably not much. Different foods maybe. Different styles of music, but . . .” he shrugs. Festivals are pretty universal things from what he’s seen.
She leans out from behind the screen just so he can see her unimpressed stare. “You don’t have to ruin the fun.” He grins.
She comes out a moment later and pulls on her hood, which lights a flare of annoyance in him. She hadn’t needed it with the Lions, where her hair had quickly lost its novelty, but when she’d finally convinced her father to let them move back to the pub . . .
Well, Prince Raj wasn’t the first person to think he was entitled to more than she was willing to give.
He stands up, ready to follow her out, then stops as he remembers the important part of what his master said to him last night. “Oh, uh, you’re not supposed to know we’re going to the festival.”
Her lips purse slightly, speaking her annoyance louder than she would ever dare say it, then her expression evens out into a smile. “Alright then.” She opens the door, then stops, her breath coming out in the tiniest squeak. He’s already on her heels, so he doesn’t have a chance to move.
“Shirayuki! Good morning. I was hoping—“ The prince cuts off when his eyes meet Obi’s over her head. “Obi! What are you—“
“He, uh, came to get me,” Shirayuki says. Her voice comes out too high and fast, but the prince doesn’t notice. “He said you have a surprise for me.”
The prince relaxes slightly, though suspicion lingers on his face. “But how did you get in?”
It’s an innocent enough question, but Shirayuki either misses the implication, or doesn’t think it matters. “He came in through the window.”
The prince’s expression darkens, and he thumps Obi on the head. “You have no sense sometimes.”
That’s rich coming from a prince who decided to bring home the girl he found on the side of the road and just expected everything to magically work out. He knows when to keep his mouth shut, though. Usually.
“Begin!”
The crowd roars as Obi ducks his opponent’s slicing hand. She shouldn’t have been surprised he disappeared. He’s been looking for a fight for weeks. She just hopes he can work it out of his system in this competition instead of—
“Wow, where did he learn that?” Zen asks, leaning beside her. She hums because it’s better than lying.
Obi’s kick meets his opponent’s shoulder, and the crowd gives a cheer. She cheers along with them, though she’s careful not to use a name—any name. She knows better in front of strangers.
“Are you enjoying this?” Kiki asks, a smile in her voice. Shirayuki nods without taking her eyes off Obi.
It’s almost unfair how quickly he beats the other man. She doubts he’ll be allowed to enter again. He has a habit of winning competitions like this—and a habit of being discouraged from coming back.
Kiki hums thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t have thought this would be the kind of thing you enjoy.”
Shirayuki turns now, to face her. She doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but whatever it is, she doesn’t like it, like there’s something wrong about her being here, like there’s something wrong with the way she used to live—
“Miss!” Obi comes running up, saving her from making any sort of answer. “Did you see?”
She loves it when he smiles like this. Boyishly, pleased, and proud in a way that doesn’t come naturally to him. She can’t help but smile back. “Yes.” Her voice comes out breathless, and she forces herself to pause before continuing. “You won?”
His smile slants into something more like his usual cocky smirk. “I always do.”
“That was very impressive, Obi,” Mitsuhide says, coming up behind her.
Obi’s gaze slides over to him. “Want to try a match sometime?”
“Sure!”
Obi takes a few steps past her, presumably to follow Mitsuhide, then stops and spins on his heel. “Oh, Miss, I almost forgot.” The words spill together in one breath, revealing his lie. “I have something for you.”
“Oh?” The prize was definitely a bag of money. She’s sure of that, and he wasn’t gone long, so what—“
He steps close, and her back thuds against the wall as she skips back a step. He pushes back her hood and panic flares for just an instant until she realizes he’s carefully placed himself to block her from view.
Like magic, a hairpin materializes in his fingers, gleaming silver in the sun. A bright bead swings from it as he moves. “It’s from a foreign country. I got it from that guy in the fight.”
His fingers skim over her ear as he slides it into her hair, and her mouth goes dry. “There,” he breathes, too low for anyone else to hear. Then he raises his voice. “You can show it to Master and tell him this is something girls like.”
He winks, and oh, it’s not fair how he can tease in a situation like this, while she’s just left floundering.
His hand falls away, but he doesn’t step back, and it would be so easy just to lift on her toes, to close that little bit of distance between them and press her lips to his skin—
“Obi, stop bothering her,” Zen calls, and she ducks away before she can do anything . . . unwise. She’s grateful the other three have already moved so far ahead. Hopefully her hurry to catch up will explain her flush and pounding heart.
She feels him behind her. “Am I bothering you, Miss?” His breath ghosts over her cheek with his whisper. Her breath catches as she draws up short. He certainly is, though not in the way Zen thinks.
She feels a light pressure at the base of her skull, and for a second, she thinks he poked her, then he drags his knuckle down, tracing the length of her spine. She shivers, despite the warmth of the day.
Slowly, she turns to meet his gaze, and oh that’s a mistake. He’s laughing at her, with that infuriating smirk, and if they didn’t have an audience, she’d—she’d—
Well, she’d give him something else to do with his mouth.
She whirls around and marches off, letting out a frustrated huff as she goes because that is a big, fat lie. Even if there was no one else around, she knows she’d never dare to be so . . . so . . . forward, even with him.
“Miss?” He sounds uncertain now, but her heart still skips at the sound of his voice. “Are you alright?”
She pulls her hood further down, hoping it covers her flaming face, and hunches her shoulders. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“But—“
“Shirayuki!” Zen calls from somewhere ahead of them in the crowd.
“Coming,” she shouts, and, eager for the distraction, she runs.
Shirayuki isn’t clumsy. She was one of the fastest runners in her village, and she can fight well enough. (She could fight better if she’d let Obi practice with her more often as he always suggests, but she’s busy.) Her coordination is not the problem. As her Opa always said, her feet are planted firmly on the ground—her mind is just too far in the clouds to remember that.
Obi, on the other hand, is graceful in a way she could never hope to achieve, and always so aware of himself and his surroundings to give him perfect control of his body.
“You didn’t tell me.”
Like right now, as, despite never touching her or anything in the pharmacy, he manages to be in the way wherever she turns so she can’t possibly forget his frustration for even a second.
She sighs. She had known this was coming as soon as Zen asked if she would be willing to talk to Mihaya. The counter digs into her back, and she glances to the side, wondering if there’s any way to get to the table without pushing past him. She’d rather not spill nettle leaves on both of them.
“I didn’t think it mattered. I was fine.”
“You were kidnapped, and you didn’t think it mattered?” His eyes spark like flint, and she’s sure the only reason he’s here is because Zen forbade him from speaking to Mihaya.
She tries to step around him, but he’s just close enough to the storage cabinet to keep her from passing. It’s not fair. “I had it handled.”
“Is that so?” One day, she’ll be able to follow his changes in tone without getting whiplash. The anger is still there, simmering and waiting for it’s target, but the annoyance takes a different shape. “Master must have meant a different damsel in distress then.”
“I—“ She feels like she’s been slapped, but not by Obi.”
“Um,” says a quiet voice by Obi’s elbow, but she shakes her head and leans forward. If he’s going to crowd her space, she can return the favor. “I did have it handled.” He should know that. He’s seen her get out of worse situations. “And this—“ She jabs his chest with her finger, “is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“I’m your bodyguard, I’m supposed to know when people try to hurt you!”
“You’re not my bodyguard, you’re my friend—“
“Even more reason—“
“Do you have to do this here?” It’s nowhere near a shout, more a breathless sort of rush, but it’s the most emotion either of them have heard from Ryuu before, and they both stop to stare at him. Shirayuki’s eyes lift to see Garrack, who has been sitting silently at her desk all day. Even she looks shocked by Rye’s outburst.
Ryuu cringes at their stares and drops his gaze to his feet. “I mean, um, patients. Are waiting. And I need . . .” He gestures helplessly at the supply drawers behind Shirayuki.
“Oh, sorry.” Obi steps aside, and Shirayuki takes the opportunity to flee to the table. As Ryuu searches for the herbs he needs, Obi reaches over and ruffles his hair. “Next time, just tell us to shut up. You’re probably tired of listening to us argue, huh?”
“It’s not that,” Ryuu mumbles to the drawers. “Just next time, maybe you could argue in your room instead?”
Obi goes rigid for some reason Shirayuki doesn’t understand. At least, not until Garrak props her chin in her hands and leans forward to ask, far too innocently, “Ryuu, don’t you mean their rooms?”
Oh.
Oh no.
Ryuu turns around and blinks owlishly at her several times before saying, “Yes, that’s what I meant.”
“You are rather popular.” Two long, pale fingers display an unfolded letter. The slate blue ribbon hanging off it ends in a gold seal circled by two dragons. She’s only been to Tanbarun’s capital once, but she still knows the pattern well.
Shirayuki bunches her skirts in her hands. She doesn’t know why Prince Izana summoned her, but it makes her nervous. “What do you mean?”
He smiles, a jagged sort of line that displays no amusement. “Your king requests your presence.”
Her heart thunders in her ears.
Is she too late? King Shenezard’s illness was supposed to be slow, but if it caught up with him, if Raj is already her king . . .
“His son wishes to see you.”
She can breathe again.
Raj may already be the effective ruler of Tanbarun, but if Clarines had even an inkling of the king’s current state, of course she would have heard something.
But that’s not what she needs to worry about now. “Why?”
“I’m sure I don’t know.” The first prince’s face is politely blank, but his tone masks a thousand accusations, some too close to the truth for comfort, and she swallows. She wishes for Obi. She—she can’t do this alone.
She doesn’t know what Prince Izana reads in her expression, but he settles back into his chair, content. “I’ve told him yes.”
“What?” She doesn’t shriek, but it’s a near thing. “But—but I can’t—“ She licks her lips. “Prince Raj . . .”
He raises his eyebrows, innocent as a convicted murder. “I should think you would be happy to return home.”
Home is the mountains with her father, or the pharmacy Raj kicked her out of. She’d never even seen the palace before Zen was poisoned. “I—I don’t—“
“Besides,” he drawls, “there’s the boy to consider.”
She stares. The only boy she can think of is Ryuu, but what he has to do with this . . .
“The boy searching for you, I mean. The one the former Lord Sisk’s son was gracious enough to inform us of.”
Right. Kazuki, who is apparently desperate enough to talk to her to mention her to strangers. They hadn’t been able to get a message to him yet. She shivers, and Izana smiles, misinterpreting her fear.
“Under the circumstances,” he continues, “it would be much safer for you to be elsewhere. I’m sure my brother would agree.”
They both know that’s a lie.
Obi is all too familiar with debts, and as much as Shirayuki insists he doesn’t owe her father anything, he knows it’s not true. He loved her grandparents, but in the mountains with the Lions is the closest he’s ever had to a home, which was why when Mukaze asked him for a favor, he agreed without hesitation.
But if he’d known how involved Shirayuki would become, he would have said no. He’s sure Mukaze wouldn’t have blamed him one bit.
The door clicks shut behind him, but she makes no move. Just sits on the edge of the unfamiliar bed, staring down at her bare feet on the rug.
“No,” he says. “You’re not going.”
She flinches. “I don’t think I have a choice.”
“Of course you do. We’ll leave. Ten minutes and we can be gone—“
Now she looks up. “And what happens then? They’ll think we’ve gone to Tanbarun, and they may not suspect the truth, but they’ll suspect something, and—and—“ Her shoulders hunch and her hair falls into her face. “I can’t be the cause of a war.”
“Shirayuki—“
“I’m going,” she says firmly. “You can’t stop me.”
He sinks into the chair against the wall as his breath slips out. He drags his hand down her face. “Fine,” he manages, “but I’m going with you.”
She raises her chin as she always does before she proves someone wrong, but he hears her voice tremble as she says, “You better.”