Tortoise and Fox [BL]

4.12

Jun Mizuhara.

"Jun!"

Minato's face lit up as Jun appeared out of the maze of tunnels, stopping right beneath the entranceway covering of the tavern. He took Jun's hand the moment it was in reach, before pulling him out and down the street.

"I've already talked to some of the people that live nearby—and today is the day for the rain, which means... we get to explore undeterred."

"Right."

Jun followed the hand folded into his, following the arm, to the bouncing, coiled hair. His taut expression softened, as he let Jun whisk him away into the drizzling city. He rubbed his thumb over the satin glove in his pocket.

Minato was especially sweet on Jun today. Everything he wanted to do, it had to be with Jun.

"There's so much to do, and once it stops raining, it won't be the same," he exclaimed, as he followed several children to ink the creeks of rainwater with colorful ground plant powders. Minato held the brush, insistent that Jun put his hand on it too. They squatted together, watching the bright pastels slink through the crooked roads that twisted down. Jun watched his profile with a little smile, before uncomfortably pulling at his bandana. The damp cloth stuck to his neck tightly, as if trying to expose what was underneath.

Would Minato act the same if he knew...?

Minato watched Jun's expression look off in the distance, hand unresponsive to his playful squeezing. He thanked the kids and pulled Jun up.

"What's wrong," Minato coaxed with a smile. "Finally growing tired of me?"

Jun's eyes widened, "No—you're the person I could never tire being with."

Minato put hands over his face, covering the silly grin crossing his face.

"You say more and more embarrassing things by the day. Before long it'll even be a hand in union."

Both sides stopped walking through the stairwell as the words fell off Minato's tongue. The muted patter of rain against the stony roof above them echoed. Minato looked away, face growing a faint hue of red. Jun watched as Minato played with his hand, wiggling each finger back and forth as if they were switches that could do something. A soft silence settled on their shoulders, the humidity before rain.

The tiny droplets of mist caught onto Minato's brow. The dimpled freckles atop Minato's cheeks, rising with his easily delighted lips. The hand flitting around his. Jun wanted to kiss it all.

Minato spoke, so casually it was as if he were commenting on the rain out past the archway.

"Jun."

"Yes?"

"I have to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I'm the first prince of Nanjie, Minato Hirawa. I arrived early to tour the kingdom—and I thought there would be no harm in keeping to myself. But then, I met you. And I'll be leaving soon, so I hoped to tell you."

The rain filled the brief silence up to Jun's quiet response. "I knew already. I knew because we already met. You as Prince Hirawa. And I... as Princess Xinyi."

"You're... Princess Xinyi?"

Jun's heart tightened in his throat. He didn't know what Minato's words meant. Disappointed? Betrayed? Overjoyed? They echoed through his mind dizzily, mixing with the overpowering slurry of rainfall.

"...I am."

Jun was not.

"Oh, I understand now."

Understand what?

"Jun Mizuhara is just a false name you went by."

"It isn't. I am... I—" Jun's trembling voice was drowned out by the downpour.

"The disguise you use to experience life in the kingdom."

A disguise–was it all an act? It would be so easy to admit yes, Jun was just Princess Xinyi all along. The existence of Jun Mizuhara was a trick of the mind. An illusion to run away from reality as a princess. Everything Jun had believed–the emotions he'd experienced for Minato as Jun–were just part of that delusion.

He was Princess Xinyi all along.

He was...

"Princess?"

Jun flinched, the singular word stinging beneath his wet clothes. He jerked his hand away, backing up the stairs. The rain touched his back, soaking it down to the bumps of his spine.

Minato pressed his lips together once he saw the adverse reaction. He thought he understood everything in an instant, but now... he wasn't sure what was going on. He stepped up a stair, only for Jun to back away up threefold.

"Don't call me that," he whispered, lip trembling. "I'm not... I wasn't..."

Thunder boomed over Jun's words. Minato strained his ears, but shook his head, "Princess, I can't hear what you're trying to—Jun!"

Jun bolted away, deep splashed echoing past the corner. Thunder cracked above like a deafening whip. Water drenched Minato as he raced through the maze of stairs and tunnels, only able to glimpse a wave of turquoise. Without Jun... without Princess Xinyi to guide him, the stone archways seemed as if they were twisting and turning—tunnels grew long and every direction was made of monotonous infinity.

Minato stumbled out onto an unfamiliar plaza. Water soaked his heels, rubbing them raw against his sandals. His hair grew heavy with moisture and tugged on his nape with every heaving, icy breath. There were stairwells extending beyond him—and the only turquoise was the muddied cloth beside it.

The rain stung like pelting ice, leaving permanent chills running down Minato's arm as he picked up the fabric. Pain crept at his chest as he unfurled the dirty glove—the glove that he had given Jun earlier. Minato crouched down for a long while, clutching the glove tight to his forehead matted with messy curls. He inhaled with a shuddering breath, then made his way back to the royal carriage waiting for him by the tavern.

He didn't know his way around the kingdom like Princess Xinyi did. He didn't know why Princess Xinyi ran away. Why... she would now reject him.

But he did know... she was in some sort of pain.

The moment Minato returned, he asked to be escorted to Princess Xinyi's bedchambers to request an audience.

"Princess Xinyi!"

Minato knocked on her door. "Princess Xinyi, are you in there?"

No one responded. Minato knocked again, louder. He called her name again. It rang emptily in the hall.

"Prince Hirawa?"

Minato turned to find the Caller approaching him. Although Minato formally bowed, the twisting of his hand against his collar leaked his endless anxiousness. Water dripped from his clothes—he ignored any insistence from the palace servants to change.

"I was looking for Princess Xinyi—I, she... left me while out in the kingdom. Would you know where she might be? I'm unfamiliar with the manor grounds, but I know she must have returned here."

The Caller looked at him seriously, "I don't know where the princess is."

"You looked close with her back at the banquet. Surely you'd have an idea or—"

"Prince," he cut off, "who are you looking for? You'll have a better idea once you consider that question. Jun once told me that... names give a person humanity."

Minato went silent, and the Caller nodded to him, bidding him farewell. Minato rubbed his brows. Who was he looking for?

Jun Mizuhara's strikingly suave lead as they danced. Jun Mizuhara's hoarse laugh over little nothings. Jun Mizuhara's bright, intensely alluring confidence as he bartered with merchants and played gently with kids.

Jun Mizuhara.

Princess Xinyi was still... Jun Mizuhara.