The real Prince

New time

'It must have been 10 days already...', Shirayuki thought, even though she knew that the moon was just shining again for the first time since the night it had happened. Here in this bare, sprawling room, however, every second like ages. The watch Zen had given her ticked loudly and the sound echoed in her ears.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Zen, Zen with his beautiful white hair and his dear blue eyes... For some reason, she felt uncomfortable thinking about him. She blamed it on the fact that she hadn't slept since the night before the trip except for the two hours before her rude awakening last night. Also, by now it had been 30 hours since she had last eaten anything. Slowly, she was at the end of her rope.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock.

Shirayuki sank down on the floor, leaned her back against the ice-cold wall and closed her eyes. The blood in her ears rushed uncomfortably loud. The clock seemed to tick even louder now.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

She could almost hear Obi's deep voice. "Stay awake, young miss. I'll be there soon." She smiled. It was as if he was speaking softly into her ear and she got goosebumps. Obi... For the second time that day, her thoughts drifted to Obi. He was always there for her, she could always rely on him, he was always by her side. He would save her.

Tick tock.

She dozed off into a half-sleep. Images appeared before her eyes and they were all images of Obi. Obi, running through the garden with her. Obi catching her when she fell. Obi helping her gather herbs and following her explanations with interest, asking attentive questions... The way he looked at her... Obi's eyes... His shiny black hair... The tingling feeling on her skin when their hands accidentally touched ... "My miss"... Obi....

Tick-

CRACK

"MY MISS!" Obi's heart flipped over in fear when he saw Shirayuki lying on the stony ground. He ran to her. "My little miss..." he murmured as he gently brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Obiii...", Shirayuki whispered in her sleep. 'She's unharmed,' Obi thought, and his heart lightened a little. Carefully, he put one arm under her head and one under her legs, then lifted her up with all gentleness. "I'm dreaming," Shirayuki breathed, her eyes still closed. "No, my miss, my princess, I'm here, I'm right here. Everything will be all right, we're all here. We'll take you home." Shirayuki smiled. "You're here..." Somewhat concerned, Obi looked over at Mitsuhide and Zen, who were still standing in the doorway, Zen with Popo on his shoulder who was contentedly holding the orange hair ornament in his beak. Zen, however, didn't seem bothered by the fact that Shirayuki didn't mention him at all and that Obi's presence alone seemed to matter to her. 'Or he's not letting it show,' Obi thought. He dissipated the thought, it didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered now was getting Shirayuki home safely.

While Obi made sure that Shirayuki got enough water and - as she was more conscious again - ate at least a little something, Zen and Mitsuhide had organized a carriage. They had tacitly agreed that the two of them would ride the horse alongside the carriage, while he stayed with the Miss in the carriage and watched over her.

All the way in the carriage they did not talk to each other. Obi looked out the window and watched the young mistress out of the corner of his eye, but she seemed fine. She was no longer dozing off but was awake and seemed to have gotten over the shock - he wasn't surprised, she was so strong... Instead, she gazed at him the entire time, which sent a shiver down Obi's spine and which was why he avoided looking her in the eye. Had she perhaps still been awake enough in the tower to be able to guess from his behavior what he felt for her...? There was no question that the other two had noticed this and he secretly wondered how Zen had been able to remain so calm. Although, Obi remembered, he had already acted strangely on the way to the tower when they were chasing the bird, anyway - and so had Mitsuhide. 'Weird,' he thought, and he couldn't shake the feeling that it had something to do with what he had disturbed them with earlier - whatever that had been. He looked over at them through the carriage window; they were riding side by side, apparently talking.

Zen kept his eyes fixed on his horse's neck, but he couldn't stop a pleasant shiver from running down his spine and his cheeks from turning pinkish-red. Had he understood his bodyguard correctly just now? Was he allowed to understand him correctly...? "You... so you're... not in love with Kiki?", Zen asked and immediately regretted it because the first question that had come to his mind was this one. Mitsuhide, however, didn't seem to mind; on the contrary, he looked like he was seriously thinking. "No," he said slowly, "I'm not. I used to think I was, but that was a long time ago. At some point, though, I realized that I really like Kiki a lot, but somehow it just didn't feel the way I thought it would. I tried to force moments, tested things out, like randomly taking her hand and stuff like that, but it just didn't feel right. I knew then that something was different. But I didn't really understand it all until... Well, until..." He faltered and blushed. "When it felt different with me?", Zen asked cautiously. Mitsuhide nodded. "That's when everything suddenly made sense. That I could never imagine not spending my life by your side - only that I had always thought that this was out of sheer loyalty to you and my duty to protect you. I hope you don't hold it against me that that's not the only reason," Mitsuhide murmured sheepishly. "I always want to protect you, I always want you to be okay, I... I... I love you, Zen."

Zen had no control over himself now, his mouth was open and the reins slipped from his hand. Before he could grasp them again, his horse made a sudden movement and he was thrown out of the saddle ungently. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the collision but instead, he felt strong arms catching him firmly. Slowly, he blinked and looked into the worried eyes of his friend, his bodyguard, who had been there for him in every situation so far and had not left his side for a moment. His gaze wandered to his lips. A friend... For a long time, Zen had thought that this was all Mitsuhide was to him. But... Before he could change his mind, he pulled the tall, strong man with turquoise hair towards him and kissed him. Mitsuhide, however, after a moment of shock, pushed Zen away slightly and looked at him with wide eyes and flaming red cheeks. "Wait, wait Zen - I need to know first, so - does that mean you... you love me too?" Zen laughed softly. "Baka..." he murmured lovingly, smiling softly as he kissed him again.
Suddenly he became uncomfortably aware of where they were and that directly behind them was the... carriage. Numbly, he turned towards Obi, whose black hair he could see through the window. He stepped closer to be able to observe his face, but his expression was unfathomable to him. Slowly but surely, his patience ran out and he growled, "Obi! If you're just going to sit there like a creepy stalker - what do you have to say about all this?" He waited, but Obi didn't budge. Zen thought he was frozen in shock, but then, to his surprise, Obi grinned cheekily and said, "You can always count on Mitsuhide!"