TBD

Chapter 1

       It was New Year's Day and all was bustling within the mansion of the Tachibana household. Itsuki could hear the noise from beyond his closed bedroom door, but chose to ignore it. The thirteen year old boy sat cross legged in bed, still in his pajamas as he looked through a book in his hands. He turned the page and paused to look at a picture of a castle, running his finger down the middle of the image, trying to visualize the floor plan of a palace from an image some chapters back with the one he was looking at. He had borrowed the book from the city library to learn more about castles and palaces, and so far, the guidebook had served him well. He'd explored the old castle ruins just outside of the city, but without the majority of their basic structural parts, he hadn't been able to gain much of an idea of how it had looked, and almost nothing was known about the ruins, so he'd been quickly discouraged from continuing to wonder about it. Itsuki dreamed of building places as magnificent as The Forbidden City, but it was hard to keep that spark when no one even knew about something as insignificant as the ruins outside the city limits, and his mother disapproved so openly of his passion. Itsuki quickly put the book away however, as footsteps approached his room. 

     There was a brisk knock on his door, and then it opened, and his mother hurried in. "Itsuki! Get up, you lazy boy, its New Years! You are NOT being a hermit on New Years." She waved her arm at him, already in her evening dress for the days festivities. Her long Auburn hair was tucked into a perfect twist against her head, as it always was. "Family will be here shortly and you must be present and POLITE. No backtalk or impoliteness. Now scoot!" Itsuki jumped out of bed and began unbuttoning his top. "Yes, Mother. Sorry." He bowed his head quickly as he opened his closet to find clothes. His mother huffed and left, closing his door behind her. Itsuki sighed and dropped his top to the floor, before snagging a dress top from a hanger and beginning to put it on. When he was sufficiently dressed and decent, he went out of his room and hurried down the stairs to greet their first guest, his grandma. She was extravagantly dressed as usual, exclaiming loudly over Itsuki's sister Amaya's ever growing beauty. "Goodness, child, you are getting more beautiful by the day!!" She crooned, kissing Amaya's cheeks and forehead. Itsuki reached the bottom of the staircase and was immediately noticed by his grandma as well. "Itsuki, good to see you being slightly more social for once. I wonder how much you were bribed with!" She laughed, patting his cheek once. Itsuki sighed internally at his Grandmothers comment, her dislike of him had never been completely hidden, but he smiled politely anyway. "Hello, Oba-Chan" He responded in greeting. She nodded at him in acknowledgment and quickly turned her attention to his mother, embracing her, and then she, Amaya and Mother went into the kitchen, and the closing door soon brought about semi quiet. Itsuki shook his head slightly, and went to greet his father, who was in his study, reading the newspaper. He and his grandma had never gotten along, she was mother's mother, and not his, and she had never approved of him after her initial choice for her daughter had fallen through. Being gentle and typically non-combative, rather than hear her scold and his wife fret, he simply stayed out of the way as much as possible when she came to visit. His father looked up as he knocked slightly on the study's glass doors, and smiled as Itsuki entered. "Hello, Itsuki. Is the Devil Woman with your Momma? I heard her entrance, its impossible to miss her noise." He asked, folding his paper slightly to see Itsuki. The boy nodded. "Yes, they're in the kitchen." Just as he had finished speaking, the doorbell rang again and Itsuki sighed heavily, and went out to greet family like his mother had ordered. 

     Many relatives later, there were finally no more aunts and uncles and cousins to greet and Itsuki could finally relax a bit, able to slink to a corner and feign interest in the stories of youth one of his aunts was telling in the sitting room while he waited for dinner to be called or his father to emerge from the study where he was hiding from his Grandmother's inevitable rant about how he would never be good enough for her daughter, whichever came first. Glancing around, he was able to see his sister across the room, sitting in a chair with a cup of punch while a group of their other aunties crooned over her and quietly debated over who's kid was better amongst themselves. He didn't even try to call out to her though. Amaya, as much as he did love his sister, did not have much in common with him and tended to follow in their mother's footsteps, clinging to her skirts and being sweet and obedient while Itsuki preferred to be alone researching, exploring outside of the city or sitting in his father's office while he worked and watching, sometimes being allowed to sit on his father's lap and help him with documents. Those moments with his father were his favorite, even though people said his father had a boring job, that he owned a dull company, Itsuki found it fascinating. It wasn't quite architecture, but as far as Itsuki was concerned, deciding on and raising buildings was close enough to catch his attention.

     He was drawn from his wandering thoughts by his mother's voice calling them all to dinner, rising from the chair he had sank into and following the flow of relatives to the dining room where he could already hear his grandmother yelling at his father. Entering the brightly lit hall, Itsuki looked around at the typical New Years decorations, as his feet automatically led him to his usual place between his father and his sister. Bright red streamers had been affixed from the chandelier and attached to the walls in elegant waves, gold colored giltter and various other golden decorative party decor was placed tastefully across the long table, and a shimmering maroon tablecloth was draped where it was typically just white cotton. It was obvious that as usual his mother had gone above and beyond with decor, and as much as Itsuki did like the way it looked, he pitied the staff that would have to do the cleanup, already anticipating the glitter he'd find in random places for at least a month later. Sitting down, he was soon joined by his slightly harried father and angelic as usual sister, and finally, as the rest of the family found their places and got their fill of oohing over the decor, the meal could begin. 

     An hour later, the meal was finally over and relatives dispersed, and Itsuki could finally mostly disappear from the crowd. After dinner party time was usually the adults drinking, gossiping, and showing off their kids and aside from the obligatory music performance both Tachibana siblings would eventually be required to do whenever their mother got around to her turn to attempt to one up the others, they were both free to do as they liked, along with the other children at the event. Looking around as the other kids dispersed to entertain themselves or heed their parents call, Itsuki chose to go sit by his father, getting comfortable in a chair nearby and finally picking up a travel magazine to try to entertain himself. Flipping through it, he mainly looked at the pictures, sharp gaze examining each image he saw until his mother's voice once again cut through the noise and, with a quiet long suffering sigh directed towards his sympathetic father, peeled himself off the chair again and made his way to the piano. 

     Settling himself on the bench, he glanced back towards the expectant adults and his mother before turning his head back to the music and beginning to play. Pachelbel's Canon in D drifted through the room under careful, expert hands, as Itsuki tuned out the adults whispering about how it was a shame he was too buried in his books to truly be as perfect as his sister and simply focused on the music he'd been taught. Children of the powerful Tachibana Family, afterall, had to be the pinnacle of perfect gentlemen and ladies, and he wasn't about to be the reason his family was shamed. Finishing his song, Itsuki stood from the piano and finally, albeit somewhat spitefully, executed a perfect, gentlemanly bow towards the gathered relatives and promptly left the room. 

     Itsuki reemerged at nearly midnight for the final event of the night, making his way to the upper balcony where the family had gathered and finding a place at the front, leaned over the balustrade and looked out at the inky night sky. Despite the others around him, his fathers hand on his shoulder, the feeling of one of his aunts half pressed into his side as she made room for her daughter to reach the front, and his usual reclusiveness, it felt peaceful. A cool breeze ruffled his hair, the night was cool but not cold, and the future was bright. As colors danced across the sky, brilliant fireworks of all kinds exploding into beautiful displays, he made a silent wish that life as he had it would stay the same.