Memories Like Stars: Chapter 1
An Akagami no Shirayuki-hime (Snow White with the Red Hair) Fanfic
Obi wakes in an unfamiliar bed. An instant later, he realizes his head is pounding.
This is . . . not good. He doesn’t usually sleep in a bed at all, and to wake up in one, injured, with no memory of how he got there is dangerous.
He keeps his eyes closed for a minute, listening. Someone else is in the room with him, breathing steadily. Probably asleep. He can’t hear anything else.
He tries to turn, but something tightens around his chest, constricting his movements. He opens his eyes and sees Shirayuki sitting in a chair beside the bed. As he suspected, she’s asleep.
He still doesn’t remember how he got to the pharmacy, or why everything hurts, but he touches the thing around his chest and realizes it’s a bandage, which provides some relief.
He lays back, and the bed creaks. Shirayuki’s eyes fly open, and relief washes across her face. “You’re awake! You scared me!”
He grimaces, but can’t keep it from turning into a smile. He’s still not used to having someone want to take care of him, and he plans to enjoy it as long as he can. “Sorry.”
She shakes her head as she stands up, and he’s sure he’ll get a scolding later for whatever led to this, but for now she seems content to check that he hasn’t bled through his bandages. “Does anything still hurt?”
He shrugs and tries to force back a wince. “Not too bad.”
She stops what she’s doing for some reason he doesn’t understand and meets his gaze. Her lips press into a thin line at whatever she sees in his face She whirls around, searches for a jar, and shakes a few strips of what looks like pale green bark into her palm. “Chew these.”
He picks them up, inspecting them. He’s not sure what they are. She’s never given him these before. “What are they?”
“Just chew them.” Her tone leaves no room for argument. He tosses them in his mouth, wincing at the bitter taste that floods it when he chews.
“Wow. This is disgusting.” She snorts and turns away to put the jar back. “You must be mad at me if you’re trying to poison me already, Miss.”
She freezes, arm still stretched to reach the shelf. “What—what did you say?”
He blinks a couple times. “Uh . . . I was only joking about the poison.” She’s certainly had enough chances to actually poison him if she wanted.
“No.” She grips the counter, like she’s trying to hold herself up. “Not that. What—“ She cuts herself off, then starts muttering to herself. “Concussion. I should have checked for a concussion.”
With how his head is pounding, it’s entirely possible he does have one. It’s also worrying that he doesn’t remember the trip back to Wistal. He won’t say any of that though. Instead he laughs. “You don’t have to worry about me, Miss.” He’ll get over it, just as he always does.
She’s still turned away from him, but where her hair is pulled back, he can see her face grow white. He’s starting to wonder if she should be the patient here. “Obi?” Her voice is low, and a stranger might think it calm, but he can hear her panic threatening to break through. “How did you get injured?”
He swallows and nearly chokes on a piece of bark. He had been hoping he could cover up the lapse in his memory until it came back. He reaches up to rub his shoulder, then winces when a sharp pain in his chest reminds him that moving is a bad idea. “Memory’s, uh, still a little fuzzy on that part.”
Her hands clench tighter on the counter. “Uh, Miss, maybe you should sit—“
She whirls around. “Stop! Just—just stop!” His mouth clicks shut, and her eyes widen as if she hadn’t realized she was yelling at him until she stopped. “I’m sorry, I—“
He’s never seen her like this. So uncertain and . . . lost. He doesn’t know what to do.
“What’s the last thing you remember?” She asks.
It hurts to think, but he tries. “Traveling, I think?” Her shoulders relax a bit, and relief spreads across her face. The right answer, then. Good. “To see Prince Raj.”
The last of the blood drains from her face, and she sways. “Miss!” He tries to get up, but he’s not sure his legs will support him right now, much less both of them. Thankfully, at his shout, his master comes running in. His eyes widen as he stares between them both, but he catches Shirayuki around the shoulders and supports her.
“What happened?” Zen asks. Obi wants to know the same thing.
“I think,” Shirayuki stammers, but her voice catches before she can continue. “I think your head injury did more damage than we thought.”
Ice grips him. “What do you mean?”
She takes a deep, steadying breath before continuing. “That trip to Tanbarun was nearly ten years ago.”
Zen leads Shirayuki outside, which is probably for the best. Obi needs space to think.
Ten years.
Shirayuki said it’s been ten years, and she’s never lied to him, so he has to believe it. But he hadn’t planned to stay even ten more weeks, so what the hell is he still doing here? And why can’t he remember any of it?
He’s not used to feeling disoriented and off-balance. Information is what keeps him alive, and now, without it, he can feel fear pressing in on every side, threatening to overwhelm him in a way it hasn’t done since he was a child.
An uneven, thumping sort of knock sounds lightly on his door, and his heart stutters. He glances around and spots his shirt and belt lying on the counter. The belt is unfamiliar, but he finds the knife tucked into it easily enough and hides his hand in the blankets.
“Come in.”His voice comes out hoarse, and he coughs before repeating himself a little louder.
The silences stretches for a beat, and then the handle starts to turn, slips, then turns again.A small, dark head peeks around.An equally small hand reaches around to grab the handle on this side of the door.
Before the kid can see it, Obi slides the knife under his pillow. He’s not sure what such a small child is doing wandering around the pharmacy, but since he’s still not sure why he’s in the pharmacy, he probably shouldn’t judge.
The kid bends his knees so he’s half-hanging from both sides of the door handle, which doesn’t seem like a good idea. They’re probably not meant to support so much weight.
“You said to come in,” the boy says, and something about the defensive tone sets off alarm bells in Obi’s head. There’s clearly something in the context there that he doesn’t understand.
“Oh, um, I guess I did.”
The kid takes that as a further invitation, dropping the door handles and running full-tilt into the pharmacy bed. He crashes into it, and drops his chin on the mattress. “Mommy said you got hurt.”
News travels fast. He smiles and spreads his hands, forcing back a wince when the movement tugs on the wound at his chest. “Looks like I’m better now.”
The kid beams, and Obi’s breath stutters for reasons that have nothing to do with the pain. He wants to know why this kid even knows him, but he can’t ask. He does’t want to upset him. It’s not his fault Obi got himself too hurt to bounce back from this time.
“I found some-fing,” the boys says, as he tries to climb up on the bed. He gets almost all the way up, then starts to slide. Obi catches his arm and pulls him back up, before it occurs to him that he should probably send the boy away. Garrak probably wouldn’t approve of the boy’s shoes on her beds.
The boys squirms up the bed until his head reaches Obi’s shoulder. He lays on his belly and stares up at Obi as he reaches into his pocket and pulls something out, squeezed tightly in his fist. “Open your hand,” he insists.
Suspiciously, Obi uncurls his fingers and holds his hand flat on the bed. The boys scooches down a few inches so he can deposit whatever he’s holding into Obi’s hand. He pulls his hand closer to his face to get a better look at the small object and finds a small, green insect.
“It’s dead,” the boy says, with all the solemnity the pronouncement deserves.“I found it, and I wanted to keep it, but it didn’t move, and I thought it was dead, so I found a stick and poked it, but it didn’t move again—“ His high-pitched explanation cuts off so he can take a breath. “So I’m gonna keep it, okay?”
“Oh. That’s, uh, that’s very cool.” Obi tries to hand the beetle back, but the boy sits up and climbs over him. Obi gasps as the kid’s foot hits his stomach none too gently. The kids stands up on Obi’s other side, pointing out the window behind him.
“I found him over there.”
“Yoshio! What are you doing!”
The boy whips around and nearly falls over, but Obi catches him just before glancing up to see the intruder.
It takes a moment for him to recognize Kihal under the flowing layers of silky fabrics that make up her dress. Her long hair is pulled back into an elegant updo, and it just feels wrong for him to see her like this. Then she takes a step forward and he realizes she’s not wearing a dress at all. What he took for a skirt is actually a long, loose pair of trousers. And that feels just a little more doable.
Her hands plant on her hips. “You know you’re not supposed to be in here!”
The boy shrinks under her glare. “He said it was okay.” Oh. That’s what he was missing.
Kihal’s gaze flicks to Obi’s, and he panics, trying frantically to figure out how to explain the mistake, but to his surprise, her expression softens slightly when she looks at him.
“Nope. You don’t get to blame this on him.” She points out the door. “Now shoo, you little rascal.” Yoshio clambers off the bed and skitters away without another word.
Shirayuki comes in shortly after, carrying a strange-smelling tonic in a bottle. Now that he’s paying more attention, he can see the signs of the time passed. Her hair is longer, pinned up into a bun. Her face older and more firm. The familiar stark white pharmacy coat hangs crooked as a result of a missed button and the fact that it clearly wasn’t made for her. Her old one was probably retired years ago, and he’s sure a princess usually has no need to go into a pharmacy.
She holds out the bottle. “Garrak suggested you try this. For your head, I mean.”
Obi takes it, but makes a face when it’s gets too close. “Do I have to?”
“Yes.”
He screws up his face, but gulps it down in a couple sips. It tastes just as bad as he thought.
Just in time to watch his humiliation, a couple guards run into the room, relaxing when they spot the two women. “Your highness,” one sighs, and Obi can’t help but smirk. He’s sure they have plenty of trouble keeping up with his miss.
Shirayuki pays them no attention, which seems strange. Kihal, however, sighs and turns to them. “I told you you don’t have to come with me. It’s the pharmacy for goodness’s sake! It’s probably the safest place here!”
The guards don’t look at all apologetic as they turn to guard the door.
“Wait, your highness?” Kihal and Shirayuki both turn to look at him. “Since when are you royalty?”
The two women exchange a glance, and he pushes down a spike of irritation. Usually he’s the one communicating with Shirayuki like that. Kihal raises her eyebrows, and Shirayuki gives a slight nod before turning away and pretending to organize the jars on the shelf beside him.
“Since Zen and I got married two years ago,” Kihal says.
No.
No, that—
It doesn’t make sense.
“You… you…” there’s something wrong with his tongue. He can’t get it to move properly. It must be whatever was in that thing Garrak gave him. “But—“ He turns back to look at Shirayuki, who is carefully looking away from everyone.
Kihal glances back at the guards. “Maybe I should, uh…” She tugs on her lacy belt. “I’ll come back later.”
He’s grateful when she disappears. He has questions and needs answers and he doubts any of it will be polite. “Miss!”
She flinches. “Obi, it’s fine. Zen and I had already gone our separate ways long before—“
He doesn’t believe her. “Fine” is just her way of saying “stop asking” and right now he can’t stop asking. “He said he would marry you! What happened to all those promises? How could he—“
She spins around, and he can’t read her face. “I didn’t want those promises anymore. We were both—we are both different people and it wouldn’t have worked out between us.”
It doesn’t make sense. After everything she did to stay by his side… “but if you wanted him—“
“I didn’t. I don’t,” she assures him, but he hears how her voice breaks.
“—he should have stayed!” He should have fought.
“I left, Obi. I was the one who broke it off.”
He drags his hand through his hair. “Well he shouldn’t have—“
She pushes off the counter as she says, “I left because I wanted to marry you!” She freezes, and her hand claps over her mouth.
Next chapter coming soon!