KING ┊ Rui x Tsukasa ┊ Royalty AU.

17 || Best of friends

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"E-EMU...?"

There emerged another short girl from the darkness, in the far distance.

"NENE!!!!" Emu shrieked in joy and ran towards Nene, jumping on her and giving her a huge hug. "What're you doing here?? Are you also friends with the prince??"

Nene nodded her head, "Y-Yes. I just wanted to pop by." She turned to Rui and gave him a wave.

Rui smiled, "Hello, Nene."

I, of course, was still confused as hell as to how Emu knows Nene. Well, it really is a small world we live in.

I looked at both Nene and Emu, "Emu? You know Nene?" She blew a raspberry and gave me a shrug.

"Of course I know Nene silly, her family saved our little candy store from bank-rupt-cy... or whatever that word means." Emu shrieked again, but much more louder. "My papa says that we owe the Kusanagis everything!"

Nene blushed a little, "E-Everything??"

Emu smiled, "Yep! Everything!"

Rui looked at Nene, "Does your mother know that you're out?"

Nene sighed, "...No..."

Emu screeched, "YOU RAN AWAY?!"

"W-What?! Well... kind of..." Nene tried to hide her tears with her sleeve, "Ever since my father... you know... I don't feel at home anymore." Emu looked at Nene and frowned.

"Oh... I forgot that your father-" Emu got interrupted as Nene shoved her face in Emu's arms.

Emu blushed, "O-Oh! Nene... hehe."

"Hm? What makes you so smug all of a sudden?" I asked Emu.

She laughed, "It's just that Nene's so cute sometimes!" Nene backed away from Emu and fell on the ground. "Wha- Nene?? Are you alright??"

Nene tried to hide her blushing from behind her hair. Rui burst into laughter and so did I.

"You two must be very great friends." Rui took my hand and everybody stood up. "C'mon, the sun's rising. Let's go back into the castle." We all walked back through the gates, into the castle. This time, Rui decided to push open the door with ease. Nene's jaw dropped until Emu grabbed her hand and ran inside.

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Inside the castle.

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"Ah-! I see you returned with friends, Tsukasa-senpai." Toya was dusting the floorboards until he spotted the four of us entering. "Would you like to have early breakfast?"

"But it's 4am." Nene looked at Toya in confusion.

Toya smiled, "Depends if you all are hungry or not. So, whaddya say?" He looked at us individually, and we all nodded. Toya led us all to the dining hall.

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Dining hall.

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"WAAAA! I can smell something delicious!!" Emu shrieked and zoomed past the dining table, admiring the decorations on the wall.

Rui snickered, "Well she seems excited."

Rui then noticed that I was too busy admiring the sunrise outside. He walked over to the window and stood beside me.

"Rui, do you think that my father is a bad guy?" I looked him in the eye.

He gave me a warm hug, "Well I think, that-" Rui got interrupted by Emu as she yelled at us to come eat.

"...We'll continue this little chat later. For now, let's fill our bellies." He smiled and grabbed my hand. We both walked to the dining table and took a seat.

Once all of us four were seated at the table, Toya gave us a plate each, containing some sort of snack. Nene looked at it in disgust.

"W-What is this..." She gagged.

Rui sighed, "You felt the same way about the croissant, Nene. What do you like?"

Nene gave Rui a little smile. "I like grapefruit."

"Well you can't have grapefruit all the time..." I exclaimed.

Nene gave me a mad look. "You can't stop me from enjoying grapefruit, you idiot."

I was rather offended by her choice of words. Before I could grab her plate, Toya sat down with us.

"So, who's your new friend?" He turned his head to look at Emu.

"Hi! My name is Emu Otori! How about you?" Emu's eyes sparkled.

Toya giggled, "My name is Toya Aoyagi. You seem friendly and outgoing."

Emu laughed, "Why thank you, Toya!" Before we all knew it, they had already engaged in quite a conversation. Rui listened in and laughed every now and then, and Nene just dozed off.

I decided to join in. "So, the Shinonomes are visiting us once again."

Toya blushed, "O-Oh, really...?" Rui laughed.

"Yep. They heard about what my father did and they decided to pop by. They're coming over for dinner tonight." I smiled at Toya.

Toya stood up and ran to the kitchen. "That means I have to prepare something amazing! Something that Akito would like... wait! I can't forget about miss Ena too!"

We all looked at each other and burst into laughter as Toya panicked.

"Hmm... do you guys think that Toya likes Akito?" Rui asked.

Nene's eyes widened. "As in a crush?"

Rui nodded his head yes.

Emu lifted her chin with her hand. "Hm... I could imagine them together!"

"Wait- You've met the Shinonomes before?!" I gasped.

"Yep! My papa was great friends with Akito once!" Emu sighed, "He WAS great friends with Akito until he stopped visiting our store :("

"Oh." I frowned. Emu frowned too.

Rui got a little mad. "Hey-! Don't try to change the subject..."

"O-Oh, right. Well... I believe Akito has a crush on Toya. I can't see Toya liking Akito though." I answered Rui's question.

He laughed. "You're just blind, Tsukasa-kun."

"W-WHAT?! ME?? BLIND?? NO..." I got flustered.

"Toya clearly likes Akito-" A shiver went down Rui's spine as he noticed Toya death staring him from across the kitchen window.

Huh. Scary.