PENUMBRA // Tamaki Amajiki x Reader Royal AU

Chapter 15

When I arrived back at district 2, the monks were the same as always. Every face, every conversation, every routine was exactly the same. They had not noticed anything. I did not really expect them to notice, I was quite skilled in hiding my activities, but I still had some irrational fear circulating in my mind.

This irrational fear was why I failed to visit the prince that afternoon during my free time; I thought it best to tread carefully that day given my escapade. However, the next day, during morning free time, I was back in the woods, removing my appearance spells and transporting myself to the prince's tower.

"I waited up for you." The young man sat on the chair by the window, in the same position I found him when I first met him, except this time he seemed less... hopeless. It was not as though there was some glint in his eye, a spring in his step, and an eagerness to cooperate but the atmosphere around him was less desperate for a release.

"You waited up all night for me?" By the dark areas under his eyes he was clearly telling the truth but where did the sudden change in attitude emerge from. He just nodded. "Why?" He remained silent.

"Well you are awake and waiting so does that mean you are willing to cooperate?" I smiled. I genuinely smiled. I was not expecting this much from him this early. He seemed to ponder my question before barely whispering, "I think so."

Taking a step towards the prince I raised my hands warily, "You have not told anyone about me, have you?" He shook his head. For some reason, this time I fully believed him.

With a flick of my wrist, I 'borrowed' a chair from the academy's library and sat a few metres opposite prince Amijiki. "I am going to ask you some questions today and I need you to answer them. I do not think I can progress properly without knowing the  answers to them."

He stared out the window. "How was your education as a child, did you have many tutors?" The young man moved his gaze to the ground, "I didn't..."

"You did not have many tutors? What about history, did you ever get taught the history of your kingdom?" He fiddled with his chewed-up nail, "I-I... had no tutors."

"None at all? But what about reading and writing, do you not know basic arithmetic?" This seemed unfortunate, I thought he might know something about the past, or at least offer a perspective on it. "The k-king's advisors taught me the basics but..."

The prince trailed off leaving me hanging onto his words, "Go on." He squeezed his eyes shut and bunched his trousers into his fists, "Why do you care?" The words left his mouth hurriedly, like it pained him to speak them.

"I told you these are need to know questions. Why can you not tell me?" I suppose if he did not have a history teacher then whether or not he had other teachers did not truly matter, nevertheless I was still interested. "I... No."

After a little longer of my prying he eventually went silent and I thought it best to retire for the morning and try again in the afternoon. I thought I had maybe brought out a repressed memory as he refused to indulge me at all later on.

It was the next morning that I became worried as he was not in the tower at all, I could not even sense his presence anywhere in the castle. He did not even have a reason to leave his room, never mind the castle.

Nor was he there that afternoon, or the afternoon after that. I was really worried now. If something had happened to the prince surely the whole kingdom would be in mourning and the monks would have told me but then again, the king did not seem most fond of him and maybe he would keep it a secret. What else could have happened? If he was just sick he would be in his room, would he not, or would he be taken to an infirmary.

Needless to say, my concern was heightening by the day, yet I continued to show up in his tower waiting, waiting for any sign of him. Feeling through the whole castle, and eventually the whole kingdom for his presence and coming up with nothing.

With little hope left, three days after his disappearance, I appeared in his tower that morning and there the prince was, sat on his bed as if he had never left. "Prince Amijiki?"

He quickly turned to look at me, then back at the floor. "Where have you been? All this time you have been missing? What happened to you?" I rushed over to his bed and grabbed one of the four posters to steady myself. "I visited your tower every day waiting for you but you were never there."

"...I-I" he croaked out and with the rise of his shoulders and the slight movement of his hair, I saw dark bruises lining his cheekbone and throat. "Are you... okay?" He turned away from me.

"I can heal you." He did not move so with hesitation, I slowly put my hand out, "This is something I can actually fix with sorcery." With a swish of my hand the bruises should have disappeared. "Prince Amijki?"

The prince's whole body seemed to relax and he began to pull up his sleeve, I did not know what his forearm looked like before but now the skin was clear of any injury, besides maybe his arm being too skinny. He let out a sigh, "... Thank you." and pulled down his sleeve.

"So... are you going to tell me what happened?" He did not move. "Maybe where you have been?" Prince Amijiki let out a shaky breath but refrained from saying anything. "Have you got NOTHING to say?" All my worry from the past few days began to swell into anger as I backed away from the silent prince.

"THREE days you were gone. THREE days I spent worrying about you, fearing the worst." I started pacing back and fourth across the room, not noticing whether or not the prince was actually listening or not, "Each day was the same, I showed up in the morning, clung onto the hope that you would be here in the afternoon, showed up in the afternoon only for you to still be gone, and I would give into despair over your life."

"All the while I could not do ANYTHING about it. I was completely helpless. I did not know what to do but check on you everyday and I probably could have kept doing that for the rest of my life because this is all I have left. I will never be able to move onto anything else until I have completed my work here. YOU are all I have left."

Tears, unnoticed, sprang to my eyes but disappeared as fast as they appeared. With nothing left to say, I glanced at the prince, surprised to find him staring back at me, crying silently himself, "I think... I can tell you... just not now." He whispered, if i did not have such great hearing I would not have been able to make out what he said.

This did not satisfy me, I was still furious and wanted to release my rage on him, question him some more, berate him and humiliate him. A few weeks ago I would have done that without question but now I made my peace and forced myself to be satisfied, "Would it be better if I left and allowed you to pull yourself together?" He nodded softly, now staring at the ground below me.

Without hesitation, I left and like always, found myself back in the forest. Sensing that there were no monks nearby, I could not help myself, and let out exactly 3 sobs before I regained control and evaporated the tears from my skin, feeling like I had finally pushed away the fear that had been consuming me recently.