Please, snow prince, let me be your knight!

PROLOGUE

Heruse's life had been nothing but a series of misfortune and horrible events: from his right leg being permanently scarred by the academy's feared Death Zone (comic how now they were on the same team, fighting for a common goal which was defending other schools, instead of permanently dismantling their soccer club for a reason that he couldn't even comprehend), to his big brother getting exploited by the so called 'commander' for the Football Frontier finals, only to force the goddess of victory to smile at him to feed his own insurmountable ego. After those tragic events, Afuro had been brought to one of Tokyo's psychiatric wards, one that covered the expenses of his (rather dysfunctional) household. Heruse still remembered the days at the orphanage in Korea, when he saw that blonde, beautiful child that then he'd have the honor to call his 'brother', smiling at him from outside the building's window, and showing him new tricks with that soccer ball— if he was playing, it was thanks to him, his smile, which progressively became emotionless the more they grew up together, his kind words, which became more confusing and mysterious the more time passed. The realization that the Afuro Terumi he knew was long gone, and that he only had an idealized version of him, hurt— but he had promised him that, by the time he would've gotten better, they'd have lived 'amongst the Gods', he wasn't sure what that fully meant, but, certainly that things would've gotten progressively better. But they weren't! He felt so lost, now that he was so far away from home in the cold land that Hokkaido was, left to deal with feelings that for someone his age, were still unknown: was it love, or admiration? And if it was admiration, why did he feel goosebumps everytime that cold breeze gently moved his grey-ish hair, that reminded him of snow, his small smile, warmer than the sun itself? His persona was based off Perseus, an hero from greek mythology, did he perhaps, in ancient Greece, feel this way too towards another boy, was it fate, did Afuro predict that, which is why he directed him towards that myth? The child took a deep breath, put his beige sweater on to don't freeze, and walked outside the academy's bus.

...

The stars were so beautiful tonight, apparently in Hokkaido, northern lights weren't as rare as previously thought, however, he hadn't been blessed with such an amazing view; but he was still relaxed, lying down on the bus' rooftop. His quiet was interrupted by the sound of someone climbing the stairs to get on top, and he gasped when he saw him, his current captain, Kidou Yuuto himself, smiling confidently at him, his eyes were, as always, concealed by those 'funny goggles', so he couldn't fully read his expression, unfortunately.

"K-Kidou!" The captain chuckled at his apprentice's surprise to see him there; he removed his red cape, and wrapped it around the smaller kid's shoulders, so that he'd be warmer: he had made a promise after all, which was to keep him safe— and he was never going to admit it, but he had also gotten a tad attached to that little pest, almost as if he was his own son. "You woke me up, and I had the feeling something was wrong. Everyone comes here when they have to think, after all."

That was true, Endou and Sakuma usually did it, these were tough times for everyone, after all. Who could've ever imagined that they'd find themselves fight against otherworldly creatures? He nervously gripped on his sweater as he murmured an almost imperceptible 'oh...', his blue eyes, crystal clear like the ocean, looking away when the captain sat down next to him. "What's bothering you, Heruse? You seem lost." He wouldn't have gotten away with a small lie, so even bothering to come up with one was going to be useless.

"I seem lost because I am lost!" Out of frustration, he raised his voice a bit, and then paused to make sure that nobody heard him, he wanted these things to stay between him and his leader. After a few seconds of silence, Heruse started speaking again. "Everything is just...so confusing, and now that Afuro isn't here, I don't know what to do anymore." Kidou chuckled again, which left Heruse with a weird sense of dissatisfaction, was he here to just treat him like a toddler instead of giving him actual advice? He was soon proved wrong.

"I understand that feeling," Kidou started. "when the commander abandoned Royal Academy, I felt the same way. Lost and, confused." Heruse finally looked at him, mumbling a 'really...?', which the captain heard, and replied with a small nod.

"After everything I had done for Kageyama, all the clubs I destroyed for his own evil purposes, I couldn't trust myself anymore. However...Things changed, when I found my light, Endou Mamoru." Of course he was talking about Endou Mamoru, and Heruse couldn't help but roll his eyes a little, those two were so sappy at times, he was almost jealous. "I may not have fully gotten rid of the commander's evil influence, but, I learnt something important thanks to Endou, which is, you can't trust others if you don't trust yourself. It's good to have a reference point, but depending on it isn't."

"I am...dependent on Afuro...?" Heruse was still the youngest of the team, and had a lot to learn, but that didn't necessarily mean that he wasn't able to comprehend what others meant to communicate him. That sentence seemed more like a question he asked to himself rather than Kidou, because after all, only him knew the answer; his parents had abandoned him in that orphanage when he was just a baby, his childhood had been spent in complete loneliness, until as mentioned, he met his now brother, who offered him a place to stay: their mother had always been very absent from their lives, and their dad died months later due to a sudden illness, so basically, Afuro also acted as a father towards him. He trusted him so much, that in the end, without even noticing, he entrusted him with his own life— the other kid was everything he knew, after all, the only hint of family he ever had.

"It's going to be hard to become independent, but it's not impossible. This being put aside, I can tell that you still have a lot on your mind, lately, what's bothering you?"

At the very thought of telling him about his crush on the person he called the 'snow prince', Heruse blushed from cheek to toe, biting his lower lip as a gesture to express his nervousness. "I...Um..." Kidou put his hand on his shoulder as if to tell him to take his time, and that he didn't have to speak if he didn't want to, he already had a vague idea about what this was about, after all. "Will you make fun of me or tell my brother...Or- or...This person I'm going to talk about?" When Kidou smiled softly at him and replied with an 'of course not', he felt a bit- no, a tad relieved. He took a deep breath, and then started speaking.

"I have a crush on...On another boy. No, he's not just a boy, he's— he's a prince! The most beautiful and sweet prince I ever saw. He's a very talented defender, and can also play as a forward. He's simply so...Amazing in every small thing he does." He sighed. "It's useless to keep hiding it, isn't it? I like Fubuki Shirō, okay?!"

"And you feel frustrated because you don't have the courage to ask him out?" 'Yes!' Heruse couldn't help but exclaim as Kidou made him that question, with his eyes shut out of embarassment, he just couldn't bring himself to stare at the other as he confessed his feelings for that ace striker.

"The worst thing he can say is 'no', am I wrong? Tomorrow is Valentines' Day, I suggest you attempt to ask him out and see how it goes. Hokkaido is small, but there are a lot of nice, chivalrous places that I'm sure, are of his interest. You could ask Sakuma or my sister, they both know everything about everyone, after all." In retrospective, it felt a bit creepy to say that, but it was true. After their first encounter with Gemini Storm, Sakuma had been left injured, but their coach said that his abilities could still be useful for the team, considering that a lot of research to know about their whereabouts was needed to plan an effective counter-attack, not to mention, that they were still on the search for players that could make the team perfect, as Sakuma himself liked to call it, 'alien-proof.' So, he basically took to heart his new job as a manager (back at Royal Academy, he even behaved like one while being a forward, proof that the kid truly enjoyed researching and have a extensive knowledge when it came to football), and teamed up with Haruna to be the team's most important and reliable information sources. Not to mention that, Sakuma had a boyfriend too, Kazemaru, who was also in the team, so he had trice the help he could get. Something, however, had piqued Heruse's attentions, which was an adjective his captain used to describe the places where he could bring Fubuki, 'chivalrous'.

He murmured the word, and Kidou couldn't help but chuckle again, giving him a friendly nudge. "If he's a prince, I guess you're his knight." And then, laughed when the poor kid, completely red in the face (he looked like a little tomato!), hid in his cape, telling him to shut up.

They both spent the quiet night there, until eventually, Heruse fell asleep, all cuddled up in Kidou's scarlet cape. The older boy wrapped his arms around him so that he could pick him up, and carried him back into the bus, lowering a seat to make him lie down, so that he could sleep comfortably, lulled in all the warmth he was wrapped into.