The Merman and the Prince

Chapter 29

"Close your mouth country boy," laughed Akashi.

We were walking hand in hand down the street, everyone but Midorima and Takao, who were guarding the ship, surrounding us. I had my long hair tied back and hidden under a hood. This wasn't a pirate town and Akashi didn't want to risk me so we decided to travel incognito. I didn't have enough eyes to see everything as I tried to look at every stall, every item around us. Even the people were a mixed breed. Richly dressed lords and ladies, bargaining merchants, normal people in their rough clothing and even pirates. I recognised one of them from a hunt we had been on and he winked at me before disappearing into the crowd, a woman in his arms. People with skin as pale as mine walked by and others who were as dark as night.

"There is just so much to see!"

Aomine laughed from beside me and reached over to pat my head.

"You're like a kid in a candy shop! It's like you haven't been to a market place before."

"I haven't, at least nothing this grand. Our market days and festivals were tiny affairs compared to this."

"Then we should make the most of it!"

We started at one end of the town and slowly worked our way through all the stalls. We tasted many unique foods, nibbling on them and picking out the ones we liked best. Murasakibara and Himuro would then move in to barter for a price and then take the ingredients onto the ship. I stopped the longest to look at some beautifully drawn maps and decided to grab some that were more detailed then the ones Akashi had in his cabin. As we ambled along the others came and went at their own pace but we were never alone. At least two of them were nearby at all times, keeping watch over us and the crowd but for the first time in months it felt like Akashi and I were alone. Before I would have been worried about the amount of money we were spending but I had seen Akashi's treasure room and helped him with balancing his books and knew he could afford to buy the entire town or an entire island with money left over. After lunch Kise dragged us over to a stall with different bolts of cloth. He went to a section and grabbed out two rolls. Both were silk, one was red the other blue.

"I want to make you kimonos for your wedding gift and this would be perfect. I am going to use silver thread on your Kurokocchi and gold on yours Akashicchi."

Seeing my confused look Akashi smiled and explained, "Ryota is one of the best tailors on the island, in fact one of the best I have seen. He makes all of his and Yuki's clothing and some for us as gifts."

"Really?"

Taking a closer look at the blondes' clothes even my untrained eye could see they were well made and his style had always been something I admired about him.

"We would be honoured Ryota."

He clapped his hands together in joy and turned his attention to the stall holder as we moved along. I stopped as a small jewellery stall caught my eye, or more importantly a ring. It was gold that wound around three times like a snake and imbedded in the gaps between the loops were red gems with gold streaks in it. I had never seen a gem like it.

"It's called a fire opal."

The woman had seen my interest and picked it up, the light causing the gold to streask to flash.

"Normally they come in more colours but this was cut from a lesser piece and only has the two colours. This one is more like a proper fire opal."

She picked up a necklace which had red, orange, pink and yellow in it but my eyes were glued to the ring.

"This one is perfect."

I reached for my belt to grab out my gold but Akashi grabbed my hand, stopping me and held out his own coin for the lady to take. She was confused that we wanted the lesser gem but I couldn't take my eyes off it. Taking the ring Akashi moved us into a small niche and slipped off my plain gold ring, replacing it with the fire opal one. It fit on my finger perfectly, like it was meant to be. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed the ring.