Red Cape, Red Dress - Aoyagi Toya x Shiraishi An

CHAPTER 01 - Repeptitive Rhythm

The third son and prince of the Aoyagi family, Aoyagi Toya, had lived in solitude nearly his entire life.

As a child, he was taught the ways of a royal. He never wore anything that could make people question his status, never let his guard down, and never behaved boisterously or recklessly.

He began piano lessons from the ripe age of three years old, becoming fluent in the language of music before becoming advanced in his own spoken language. He would practice until his fingers screamed at him to stop—no, until he physically could not bring himself to move his fingers.

Toya's father, Aoyagi Harumichi, believed that this was the proper way to raise a royal. Toya had never played with other children his age, and all education was through private professors and mentors, never around other kids. The only exceptions were Tenma Tsukasa and Tenma Saki, and, of course, his older brothers. Tsukasa might as well have been an older brother, though.

Staring out from his balcony, Toya's long red cape flowed behind him and above his dark armor in the wind as he watched his troops train below him. His eyes were trained on two familiars: Tenma Tsukasa, now the General of the army, and Tenma Saki, a young knight and new to the ranks.

Swords clanked and loud laughter could be heard from Tsukasa, making Toya crack a slight resemblance of a smile.

Toya's black gloves gripped the balcony as his gray eyes scrutinized the scenery. Though it was sunny at the moment, dark rain clouds were looming over the mountains, threatening to ruin and wreck the sun's light. He looked up, blocking the sun from his eyes with a single hand. The spring equinox was quickly approaching, meaning that the plants would exit their dormant stage soon, Toya hoped. The kingdom was strict enough; they didn't need dead plants too.

"Toya."

Toya flinched, looking back into his room from the balcony. His father stood at the bedroom's entrance, hands tight behind his back, expression firm.

"Why aren't you practicing?" His father's tone seemed to constrict the fresh air around Toya, his breathing wavering.

"I presumed I had received free time today after my excess hours practicing and studying yesterday," Toya replied calmly,

maintaining a falsely indifferent composure.

"You presumed incorrect," his father's firm words left no gentleness for Toya to defend himself. "Continue practicing at once."

Toya opened his mouth, nearly daring to speak against his father, only to decide that the effort would be futile. "Yes, father."

His father spoke no more and left the room, not sparing even a glance towards his son.

Toya casted his eyes downwards, looking down at the knights once more before shutting the balcony doors and removing his gloves, returning to his piano.

*

"An, wait! I imagine your parents will be upset if you dirty your dress," A ginger knight ran after a princess, who was running through the gardens dressed in a flowing red gown. Her personal knight, of course, was much faster than her, but cared too much for the flowers to increase his speed.

"It'll be fine! My parents never get that angry!" An grinned. "I haven't been able to run like this in a while!"

"Yes, I know, but if only we could run in a flat terrain! You're going to squash the flowers!"

The revelation made An stop in her tracks, nearly tripping over a gardenia. "I thought I avoided them! Oh, no..." she looked back, realizing not much damage was done—other than a couple of previous gardenias being squashed.

Akito caught up to An and stopped. "I don't think you ruined too many flowers," he panted, "just a couple. The gardeners will replace them, though. I'm pretty sure Kohane would give your family a solid discount on flowers."

"Yeah," An sighed, shoulders deflating, "I should be more careful though." She brightened again, "want to play a game of chess with me?"

"Sorry, An, but Ken-heika requires that I complete more training," he smiled sheepishly, "but I'm sure you could practice your singing."

"Ah, fine, fine. Maybe next time. In case you're training with Arata-san, good luck." Her smile turned into a teasing grin. "Maybe you can ask Kohane to watch you train and impress her," she giggled mischievously.

Akito waved her off with his hand and walked over to the training grounds, where Kotaro was waving excitedly at him while Arata gave him a small (smug) smile.

Maybe her father wasn't too busy and could help her improve her singing. Or maybe her and her mother could simply hang out or play a game of chess. She was lucky to have so much freedom with her days—most of the time, anyway—and her parents refused to make her work more than three days straight. Her parents were busy, though...

The sun beamed down on the kingdom's garden and basked the castle in sunlight. An hummed to herself, walking back towards the castle.