Chapter Text
Langa stares at Ainosuke’s back as he walks away. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’s aware that this is a problem problem. Ainosuke essentially has a guaranteed stay in Okinawa and the power of nobility in Montreal at his fingertips. This will have a ripple effect on everyone, not just Langa.
But at the same time, he’s marrying Langa. Not yet, but he’s disregarded Langa’s consent to court and is completely allowed to marry him without anyone else’s interference now. There are no more rules dictating what Ainosuke can and can’t do, nothing left to protect Langa from this man. He’s done what he can, and none of it has kept him safe. None of it has kept his country out of Ainosuke’s hands.
In theory, Langa should have a level of control in the situation. Courting is not meant to be surrendering himself to Ainosuke’s whims. In practice, however, it is considered “private matters” and no one can butt in and stop him. Ainosuke already has all the privileges he wants out of the situation, and will no doubt find a way to keep Langa trapped. If one were to be in his shoes, they could make the comparison that he has just knocked the queen off the chess board, and checkmate is in sight.
Except Langa is the one on the other end of the board, wondering how the hell he’s going to turn this around. Waiting to be claimed like the pawns discarded to the side.
The first one who knows is his mother. She holds him like she used to when he was little as he weeps quiet tears into her lovely dress. Langa is not a crier usually, only when Oliver died, but Nanako’s shoulder goes slightly damp. She rubs circles on his back and Langa’s reminded of the way his dad used to pet his hair in tandem when he was younger. Maybe that’s why he’s crying instead.
“We won’t let him get to you, love. I promise. He can’t marry you.” Nanako whispers into his hair.
“You don’t know that,” He says quietly,
“I know we don’t. But we’ll make sure of it eventually.” She kisses the top of his head, “I’m not a mother and a queen for nothing.”
“What if he really does marry me? We both know he’d find a way,”
“Well, if he does in this impossible scenario, then I’d just change the rules so he can’t anymore.”
“You can’t do that, Mom,” Langa says, but he knows he’s almost smiling anyway
“I would. Never underestimate the power of a mother’s love. Those crotchety old men can’t stop me,” Nanako says, smiling. Langa laughs a small, quiet laugh. “I’d fire them all and change the rules the second we get back to Montreal. I don’t care that the public would never trust me again, I’d do it for you.”
“Really..?”
“Of course.” She says, lovingly pushing Langa’s hair out of the way to look at him. Her hazel eyes shine with care. “But we won’t have to. We’ll sort it out here, and then we can go home and never have to think about him again. I will find a solution with the queen.”
“I don’t want to have to think about him again.”
“I know, sweetheart. I know.” Her voice is soft, so soft. Langa is struck with the distant memory of lullabies when he was a baby. “Just a little longer. Don’t feel like you have to talk to him at all. If he wants to corner you, come to me and I’ll make up an excuse, or play along with whatever you think of. I’ll keep you safe, love.”
Langa swallows, he can do that. He wants to have a plan. He wants to have insurance so that he doesn’t just feel like he’s falling off the deep end every time he has to interact with Ainosuke. Because Ainosuke will corner him. The man will do everything to get Langa under his thumb and agreeing to something he doesn’t want to. Langa’s only protection left is himself and his mother. But one more person counts for something.
“Okay, Mom.”
“You alright now? There’s some paperwork I need to do and letters to send.” She says sympathetically, “You can stay here if you want, but it’ll be very boring.”
“I’m okay now.”
“I’ll have dinner with you later?”
“Alright.”
***
Langa supposes he should tell Reki, but he wants to sleep first, he wants to not think about anything. He goes to bed early, contemplating about how he will break the news. He ends up sleeping a wonderful twelve hours. The world is no better when he wakes back up, but at the very least, Langa didn’t have to deal with it.
He’s wandering around the Kyan’s home, looking to find Reki to break the horrible, horrible news, but is fresh out of luck when he runs back into Ainosuke. Langa’s only in his pajamas when he bumps into the man, splashing hot tea onto his immaculate robes. Though Langa is much more disappointed about a waste of good tea than he is about any aspect of Ainosuke’s health.
“Ah, Langa, my dear. How lovely to see you.” Ainosuke is only a head taller than Langa, yet when he looks up the older man, Ainosuke feels imposing and untouchable up there.
“Don’t call me that.” Is all Langa can say, his mind foggy with sleep and numbed anxiety.
“My bad, must be moving too fast.” Ainosuke gives him such an uncomfortable smile. No look that man ever has on his face is reassuring. It’s like he just isn’t wired to be genuine. “We’ll be married eventually though, so I suggest you get used to it.” He chuckles like they’re sharing a joke, instead of pushing Langa’s boundaries to the edge.
“No we won’t. I don’t want to marry you.”
Ainosuke laughs. He laughs and Langa feels both nauseous and angry. “Oh love, of course we’re going to be married. That’s what courtship means, isn’t it?”
“I don’t want to court you! I want you to go away,” Langa pleads. He hates this, he hates this, he hates this.
“Sweetheart, don’t struggle. You’ll learn to love it eventually.” Ainosuke smiles his sick, sick smile. His teeth gleam a blinding white that makes the rest of him even faker. “I promise you, we’ll have a fantastic marriage. Your kingdom and your mother will be in only the safest hands in the future.”
Langa freezes. His mother. If Ainosuke really does marry him, he will also have proximity to Nanako. He will have power over Nanako when she inevitably passes the throne to Langa. She is queen now, but one day she won’t be. She may be steady and untouchable in Langa’s eyes as his mother, but to Ainosuke, she must be just a vessel to pass the throne down. Down to Ainosuke, if they really will be together.
“We won’t. We’re not going to marry, Shindo.” Langa covers his fear with resolve. “You won’t get the throne. Not through me, and not by any other means either.”
Ainosuke’s expression waivers. Langa can see his eye twitch in annoyance, and he doesn’t know whether to be pleased of himself or afraid. “You think this is for the throne? Who says I am not just enraptured by you, Prince Langa? You are quite beautiful, you know.” The older man keeps the sickly sweetness in his voice regardless, and in this moment, Langa would rather be the ugliest person in the world than stomach another compliment from someone like Ainosuke.
“I’m leaving now, Mr Shindo.” Is what Langa manages to say, “You aren’t going to follow me.”
When he turns tail and walks off, Ainosuke doesn’t follow suit, thank god.
***
The interaction definitely leaves Langa frazzled a bit. It feels like he has too many thoughts at once, and yet, he is processing nothing at all. Somewhere in between the worry about his mother, Langa stops to be vaguely disappointed that his tea has gone cold. Ainosuke really isn’t good for anything at all, is he?
Langa comes to what he hopes is a reasonable conclusion at the end of his thinking. That being that Nanako is an adult queen who can handle herself, and Ainosuke is just awful and wants to get under his skin. Honestly, he thinks he might be pretty spot-on with that one. He’ll still tell his mother, of course, but Langa’s not fooling anyone if he thinks he can somehow protect her. He’d like to just get out of this not married to a creep, if that’s not too much to ask.
Really though, Langa hates this. So much. It absolutely disgusts him to have to look into the predatory eyes of a man a decade older than him and know that they could be married if he doesn’t figure out something soon. It’s terrifying, and yet this is the worst possible time for fear. Langa wants to detach himself from the ugly feelings, he wants to distance himself from it all like he did when Oliver died, but he can’t. He can’t passively experience his life, moving through the motions like a ghost, he has to be a part of this. It won’t go away unless he makes it go away.
He will, he’ll solve it somehow, but later. Right now, the sun is moving into the sky slowly and Langa wants to find his boyfriend. He wanted to have breakfast together before he got… interrupted by Ainosuke. Langa bets it wouldn’t take too much convincing to get Reki to let him crawl into bed and they’d have one of the staff bring it to them. Maybe if he’s lucky, it’ll be that nice blond girl around their age, Aiko, who always seems to know exactly what’s going on between the princes and sneaks them extra desserts even when Masae says no.
When Langa pushes open Reki’s bedroom door, he sees exactly what he expected to. The curtains messily closed, a sliver of sunlight escaping onto the floor with all Reki’s scattered things. A collection of both his and Langa’s teacups, the ones he promised he would take down to the kitchen last night even though Langa knew he probably wouldn’t anyway. A fluffy halo of red hair that glows in the small sunlight, the only part of Reki visible under the piles of blankets.
Langa cracks a smile, it’s so endearing. He slides into the bed quietly, enjoying the warmth trapped under the covers and radiating from Reki. It’s meant to be quiet and subtle, the way he tucks an arm over Reki’s waist and nestles his face into the redhead’s shoulder, but Reki stirs anyway.
“Wha- Langa? I thought you were in your room last night?” His voice is heavy with sleep, and Langa will never get tired of hearing it.
“Was. I wanted to have breakfast with you, but you looked warm.” Langa buries his face into the crook of Reki’s neck as he laughs softly. It’s croaky and quiet but such a pretty sound. For the millionth time, Langa wishes he could stay here forever and never have to face Ainosuke again.
“We can still do that, y’know.” There’s a hand in Langa’s hair, petting it slowly and gently. “’N’ wait for a maid or somethin’. They usually come to get me awake.”
“Please,” Langa tilts his head upwards to press a thank-you kiss to Reki’s jaw, revelling in how easy it is to do so. Sometimes he wonders if this is something he’ll ever get used to, the simplicity of kissing the boy he loves. His boy.
It takes a few hours tucked under the covers with Reki before someone comes in to check on them. The door creaks open, and Langa blinks the sleep out of his eyes to spot the shiny blond hair of the housemaid. Oh, good. They really didn’t think about being seen sleeping in the same bed.
“Hello, Your Highness. Don’t suppose you have Reki Kyan hiding under those blankets, preferably still alive?” Aiko asks, a friendly tone to her voice.
“Oh, yeah.” Langa pulls back the blanket a bit to reveal Reki still asleep with his head on Langa’s chest.
“Alright, thanks. I’m going to assume you don’t need me to get him up, then.” She smiles knowingly. “It’s quite late in the morning, do you want me to bring up breakfast?”
“That would be nice, thanks.”
The housemaid closes the door without a word, and Langa listens to the thudding of her shoes get quieter. He wonders if she ever tells the other housemaids, or the staff. “Oh I saw the princes together again this morning, cuddled up in bed.” “Again? Does Her Majesty even know?” Langa knows that his house staff back in Montreal gossiped constantly – he used to let them dote on him as a kid to get hot cocoa and eavesdrop.
When the distant sound of porcelain clattering appears, Langa wakes Reki gently. The way he presses his face further into Langa’s chest and slings his arms up to hug his neck has Langa melting, it’s so cute. Maybe he should be trying harder, but Langa just kisses the crown of his head with a soft smile.
“C’mon, breakfast is on its way. I can’t eat if you don’t move.” He says, failing to sound annoyed despite his words.
“Mmph,” Is what Reki replies with, before lifting his head and looking at Langa with groggy eyes. “What’re we eating?” Shit, he’s pretty. Too pretty to be waking up for the second time this morning after going to bed at what Langa knows was an absolutely obscene time last night. It’s unfair.
“I dunno, actually. But Aiko’s bringing it soon.”
Reki gives him a smile and presses a lazy kiss to Langa’s lips. “Aiko always gets it right, it’s gonna be good food.” And then because Langa has no self-restraint, he kisses Reki back. It’s soft but definitely not short, Langa isn’t nearly strong enough for that. Reki’s lips are soft and he tastes of sleep, and it’s so good like it always is. It’s good because it’s Reki, and Reki is special in a way that goes far beyond just how nice his mouth is.
There’s a knock on the door, and they hastily pull themselves apart before Reki calls for Aiko to come back in. She pushes it open carefully, balancing a truly ridiculous tray of food on her arm that has Langa’s mouth watering. Aiko walks with ease, carrying a number of plates with every kind of breakfast food conceivable on them. Langa’s (already pretty decent) respect for her goes up tenfold.
“Alright, I got breakfast for you two.” She says, setting down the plates for them, “When you’re done, you gotta take ‘em back yourself though. I only have a morning shift today, I won’t be back up to collect them in an hour like usual.”
“Oh my god Aiko, have I ever told you that you’re my favourite out of our staff?” Reki says, staring at the piles of food.
Aiko snorts. “No, but you could always stand to make the point a little bit clearer by giving me a pay rise.”
Halfway through a mouthful, Reki makes finger guns at her. “Will do.”
“Really?” She raises her eyebrows, an incredulous smile on her face.
“Yeah, I don’t see why not. It’s not like we’re gonna run out of money here.”
“Well, I guess it’s only returning the favour that I don’t mention anything about this then?” Aiko waves a hand at them, tucked together in bed.
“You were going to say something?” Langa asks.
She laughs good-naturedly. “Nah I wouldn’t, it’s not my business. Besides, you two are kinda cute together anyway.”
“Oh.”
Aiko laughs again, making her way out of the room. “Okay, I’ll be back tomorrow for the evening shift. Don’t forget about that pay rise, Your Highness,” She winks just before closing the door and leaving.
Langa settles back into bed properly and revels in the feeling of stuffing food in his mouth. The last few days have been such a mess that he’s not been eating the way he usually does. Things have been getting in the way of what would most times be scheduled meals. And besides, Reki is right, Aiko sure knows what she’s doing. Everything is still deliciously warm. The pastry and the breads are soft and crispy as they should be, and the fillings are the perfect balance of sweet and spiced like they always are in Okinawa. When Langa goes home, he’s going to miss the way everything here tastes of so much. The flavours are hard to pinpoint, and yet so skillfully paired together every time. Maybe it’s because Langa’s eating the food of a professional chef good enough for royalty, but there’s something so special about all of the food in Okinawa. He doesn’t want to leave it behind at the end of all this.
Actually, he is dismayed to find that he doesn’t want to leave any of this behind. Not the sunny streets, not the kind culture of the people here, not the open winding architecture of the city, not the beautiful food, and not the family he’s found in the Kyans. Not Reki. Langa will have to leave anyway, it has always been an inevitability, but he doesn’t want to anymore. Of course he doesn’t want to leave his mother, of course he misses the familiarity of his snowy homeland, but he doesn’t feel the ache to return anymore. Going home doesn’t feel worth the loss of everything Okinawa is to him now. It’s a heavy feeling to realise, and it weighs on Langa in a way he doesn’t expect.
***
When the food is long gone, the room is dead quiet. They’re both completely awake, but by now they usually would’ve gotten up. There’s an air of uncertainty, and Langa doesn’t like it. Reki has his head on Langa’s chest, arms wrapped around his waist, but there’s something distant in those amber eyes that has Langa worried.
“Reki, you okay?”
“Hm?” There’s an unexpected sadness to his voice that makes Langa’s heart twist. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Uncomfortable quiet settles for only a few seconds before Langa is compelled to ask again. “Are you sure you’re alright, Reki?”
“Of course, why do you ask?”
“It’s just that something changed so quickly.”
Another stretch of silence, a tension in the air that Langa is not used to with Reki. There’s definitely something wrong, or else Reki would laugh, or make a joke, or pull them both out of bed to deflect the statement.
Langa,” Reki’s voice is so quiet, barely a whisper. It drips with vulnerability. “Do you ever wonder if this is futile?”
“This?”
“Y’know… us.” Reki doesn’t look him in the eyes. “I know we’re together and stuff, but we exist on opposite sides of the world.”
“You’re breaking up with me?”
“No, no! You like, live in my house I wouldn’t do that.”
“You’re only not breaking up with me because it would be awkward?”
Reki sighs, tired and deep, and clutches Langa’s shirt tightly. “Of course not, I like you too much for that Langa. I probably wouldn’t break up with you even if it was gonna kill me.”
“Oh.”
“It’s just, you were always going to go home.” The quiet hesitation in his voice is killing Langa. He doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t know how to comfort because in a way, Reki is right. Langa would be lying if he said he never lay awake thinking about what it’s going to be like, breaking the news to Reki that he can’t stay in Okinawa. “You were always going to have to leave. We both- we both knew it.”
“I know. I don’t want to go either…” Langa says, holding onto Reki tight as if it would keep him here forever. “There’s just so much going on, I never thought too hard about talking about it. I wanted to be naïve, it was easier. I’m sorry.”
“It’s… okay, I guess.” Reki smiles in the most heartbreaking way, his lips wobbling and voice cracking in such a manner that has Langa crumbling at the seams. “I would do it again every time, you know, even if you have to go home at the end of it all.”
“It’s not the end, Reki. You know I’d write to you. I’d do it every day.”
“I know, Langa, I know you would. But what for? There’s all this, shit, with Ainosuke, and then you’d just go home and I don’t know if I’d ever get to see you again.”
Langa doesn’t cry. Not now, and not in general, but Reki’s eyes are glassy and something is burning behind Langa’s own. “Why do you think it’s the end? I’d visit, I’d find a way to change something. We have so much power, we could make it work.”
“It’s just- I do want this to work, Langa, I really really do. You mean the world to me, but it won’t be long before you forget. It would be one missed letter, and then just once a week, and then only once a month, and then you’d stop writing altogether. That’s just… how these things work.” There’s something to his voice, a resigned sadness that Langa doesn’t like. It hurts. An acceptance before he’s ever even gone, that Langa would leave him behind.
“What? It wouldn’t be like that,” Langa pleads. He doesn’t know why Reki is so insistent, so sure that they won’t be enough to make the distance.
“Of course would, Langa! It would be so much effort, to write every day, every week. To change things. Would I really be worth it?”
“I don’t know why you think you’re not!” They’re not shouting, but anyone could hear the desperation.
Langa doesn’t completely catch the next bit, hissed quietly under Reki’s breath, but he puts together the pieces. “Because my father never did,”
Reki doesn’t look him in the eye.
“Is that why you think I’ll disappear? I’ll just vanish, never to visit again.” Langa remembers all the family dinners in the beautiful, formal, dining room with a seat always left empty, even though the chair stays. The expensive elaborate ball to commemorate Reki’s eighteenth birthday, and no father to show. All those moments where Reki has been the one to step up and join his mother in her duties where her husband should.
“… Yes.” A quiet resignation. “He always said he would come back for my birthdays, or the twins, the holidays. I don’t even know where he is right now.”
“I wouldn’t do that, Reki.”
“He just made it look so- so easy, to forget me!” Reki grips at Langa’s shirt, burying his face into it. “He kept promising to visit, but there were so many excuses. It was too much effort, it took to long and he had stuff to get back too, he was ‘helping our country’.”
“That’s all bullshit. I wrote to my mom every week, she travelled here as soon as she could.” Langa insists. “I would do the same for you. I would.”
“God, I know. I don’t even know why I’m saying this. Of course you’re nothing like him, you’re so much better than him Langa.”
Langa strokes his hair gently, letting the tension between them fade away. It takes a few minutes, but soon Reki’s chest stops heaving and the ragged sounds of his breathing quiet into gentler breaths. Reki rolls around to look up at Langa, regret in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that to you Langa. You aren’t my dad. My dad is a lot more shit than you are, actually.” He says it with enough seriousness that it makes Langa laugh. “Hey! You aren’t allowed to laugh at my apologising, I’m trying here dude.”
“No, I’m not-” Langa can’t help laughing again, and now Reki’s also cracking a wide smile. “I’m not laughing at you, I swear. I appreciate your apology.”
Now they’re both giggling at nothing in particular. “Okay, okay. But I am sorry.”
“I know. And you know that we’d be okay, right? I’m not going to leave you behind when I have to go.” Langa says.
Reki lets out a bittersweet sigh and smiles at him. “Yeah. We’ll figure it out. And if you don’t write to me, I will personally go over to Montreal in my free time to yell at you.”
***
It’s in the late hours of the evening that they return to Reki’s bed together, content in a way they weren’t before.
“Hey Langa?” Reki’s voice is just as warm as the blankets they are cuddled under.
“Mm?”
“I didn’t tell you earlier, but I love you.”
“I love you too. Like nothing else in the world, Reki.”