His Other Half (KiriBaku)

Chapter 10

September 29, XX84
-Katsuki's Bedchambers-

        Eijiro.

        The name echoed through his head, bringing a soft smile to his face in the quiet dimness of the room. The feeling of a genuine smile was foreign to him, but it felt so wonderful.

        There was another wonderful feeling curled against his chest, and Eijiro tightened his arms around his prince. Katsuki had let him stay the night, let him sleep beside him, wrapped together in a mutual embrace, protecting one another.

        But more than that, Katsuki was going to let him compete.

        The Cour de Cour was similar to the arenas he was used to, but there were so many rules. If Eijiro remembered correctly--which was almost as accurate as playing darts blindfolded--the matches were set up as a series of games and events that cycled throughout the week, and they were constant. The competitors could choose whether or not to enter the day's games. They could compete as much as everyday or as little as once every few months. They could join at any point throughout the day, but once they had been knocked out, they were out until the following morning.

        At the end of everyday, there was a victor. Just one. If the games failed to whittle down the competitors, or if more decided to join near the end of the day, the day often concluded with a free-for-all royale. The last contestant standing had their name recorded on the victor's wall, with the hopes that their royal--in this case Prince Katsuki--might at least notice them.

        It was up to the royals themselves to pursue the competitors individually, and from what Eijiro gathered, the prince had put no effort into meeting with any of the competitors. But since the competition had gone on so long, it was inevitable that even Katsuki had learned a few of the competitors' names. Two years was an unusually long time, and since the cour de cour was always supposed to begin when the monarch hit eighteen, that made Katsuki the longest reigning bachelor heir in history, second only to some great-great-something-grandfather centuries ago, who didn't count because he had been in the middle of some decade-long war.

        The last Cour de Cour had lasted six months, the absolute minimum required amount of time.

        The winner had been King Masaru.

        Eijiro had always thought that the courtship of Queen Mitsuki and King Masaru was probably the most romantic possible outcome of the Cour de Cour. First off, Queen Mitsuki was probably the first monarch in a hundred years to demand that both men and women be allowed to compete for her hand--though this was later revealed in part to be because she wanted to disguise herself and fight and test her suitors herself, working systematically down their ranks, and most of the men failed the challenge.

        She reached King Masaru after two months, and he became the only one to last more than five minutes in their fight, and the only one to accept his defeat with grace and a good-natured smile, even upon learning days later that his opponent had been a woman, the princess herself. She took an immediate liking to him, and after another week, he was quickly named the Heir's Favorite.

        The Favorites were always discreet choosings, always unofficial, but the clever onlookers could always pick them out. The cour de cour had an unofficial ranking systems based off wins and losses, and the Favorites ranked among the highest. There were usually four, but during particularly fickle cours, it was always possible for there to be more. The People's Favorite was the contestant favored among the commoners and guilds, and was usually a commoner themselves. On the opposite end, the Court's Favorite was nearly always a noble, selected on the bias of good breeding and familial ties and all that rubbish. The Royal's Favorite tended to swing either way, and depending on the reigning monarch, teetered between best for the nation and best for their child.