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“Azami-kun?”
A voice emerges through the silence of the night. Azami jolted a little bit and turned his head, by the door stood the summer prince, his supposed fiancé. He was in his sleepwear, just a simple shirt with a jacket over his shoulder. Azami relaxes his shoulder a bit after confirming the source of the voice.
“Still up?” Muku asks, rubbing his eyes a bit. He approaches the taller prince who was previously staring out the window. Azami turns his body around to face Muku.
“Yeah I just… can’t seem to sleep tonight.” He replies. Its late, he didn’t expect to see anyone in the halls at this hour. Muku stops in a slightly far distance from Azami. To be honest, he would be more comfortable if they stood closer, but he didn’t want to invade Azami’s space.
“Something in your mind?” Muku asks, since Azami seemed to be lost in thought before getting approached.
Yeah. You are.
To Muku’s surprise, Azami is the one who moves a step closer to him, letting him be closer and leaning on the large window next to them. There was silence between them now, the sounds of autumn crickets accompanying the breeze. Muku doesn’t look at Azami’s direction, he looks at the view from the window that displays dim lights from the town.
Azami decides he had enough of the silence.
“Do you think this will work out?”
Muku turns his head to the question. Pausing to think, then asking back.
“What do you mean?”
He hesitantly looks back at Muku, knowing that his question was a bit vague, then clarifies.
“Us.”
Normally, he’d stay quiet about his thoughts. But it’s been bothering his mind enough for him to want to hear an opinion from the person involved. Muku is silent, feeling that Azami still had more to say.
“In a lot of cases, it doesn’t work.” he continues.
”We weren’t paired for our sake... right? It’s for the country.” he says with the smallest hint of his voice wavering.
Azami averts his eyes once again.
“So, how would I know that this will work?” he finishes.
Muku expression had changed, he has been worried too. Worried that the prince won’t feel that way about him, worried that this really wasn’t what he wanted. He heard people say that Azami was against this arrangement, Azami himself even said so to his father when they first met back in the Summer Kingdom. Muku probably wasn’t supposed to hear those words, but he did.
Why would it be any different now than before? Of course he still doesn’t want this, just because they were starting to become friends doesn’t mean Azami now wants to marry a prince like him.
“Do you not believe it when I say I’m starting to like you?” Muku asks back, making eye contact with Azami.
“It’s a bit… hard to believe, yeah.” Azami answers honestly, recalling how its been the past years. It was difficult to believe anyone liked him or wanted to be his friend, let alone marry him. He isn’t familiar with people like Muku.
Muku felt his heart ache, He doesn’t want Azami to think that Muku is forcing himself to get close to him. He genuinely wanted to know Azami better, he’s been refusing to listen to what people had to say about him, and his feelings has only gotten stronger ever since he discovered Azami’s kind and thoughtful side.
He starts diverting his thoughts, maybe he’s the problem.
“I’m sorry. I know I’m a good for nothing prince-- and you probably think I’m just a weed in a radish field who was so irrelevant that the farmer forgot to pluck it out-“
“I didn’t say that—!?” Azami cuts him off by raising his voice a bit.
Have you SEEN yourself? Clearly ‘good for nothing prince’ fits me more than a hardworking prince like you…
It irritates Azami that Muku can’t see that about himself.
Muku tries his best to smile at Azami. Before anything of a fiancé, he wanted to be friends with Azami. The rest can be worried about later, he thought. But it isn’t easy to not think of it when the arranged marriage was how the two met in the first place.
He starts talking again,
“I know our circumstances… But I don’t want to force you, Azami-kun. If you don’t want this, then I-”
“I-I’m not saying I won’t love you.”
“Huh?” Muku blinks.
Azami’s cheeks start to warm. He really was becoming fond of Muku, he just isn’t familiar with such closeness, and he’s afraid of screwing it up.
Like I always do...
Despite what he said, he can’t help but hold onto the hope that Prince Muku likes him. Azami is still wondering if he can call his feelings love. He’d continue what he thought of saying, but finds it difficult to voice for now.
“Sorry, I guess we should go back to our rooms and try to get some sleep.” he says, turning to the other direction. Muku felt their distance grow when Azami started to walk away, he didn’t like it at all.
Before even realizing, Muku’s hands were already grabbing onto Azami’s wrists.
The action was taken on impulse, and surprised the both of them.
“D-Do we have to go back to our own rooms?” Muku asks hesitantly.
“What do you mean?” Azami asks back, a bit distracted by the hand holding onto him right now.
Muku didn’t know if this was okay to ask, but he might as well try now that he’s already at this point.
“Can I… go to yours instead?”
Azami blinks.
“Something you don’t like in yours? You could ask if you need something changed you know-“
“That’s not it- I meant… If you have trouble sleeping tonight, then maybe… I can accompany you?”
Once again, silence. Muku peeks up to Azami, his heart started to race. It took him quite some courage to ask, but there’s no turning back now.
“There’s only one bed you know.” Azami finally replies, as if what he said wasn’t obvious already. Muku nods, showing that he knows what he's saying.
“If that is what you’d like…”
Muku lets go of Azami’s hand and silently follows Azami to his room. It turned quiet, just two pairs of footsteps echoing through the halls. Azami opens his door and holds it open, letting Muku come in.
The room itself isn’t much different, maybe slightly larger, but it smells like Azami. Muku can feel his presence in there compared to the room he was assigned to sleep in. The furniture looked more… used. There were drawers with brushes and small containers, one was open. Azami closes the lid and places it where it belonged. It was clear that a person had been living in here, that this is where the Autumn Prince has been spending his days in the castle.
It’s nice to be in Azami’s space, and Muku is grateful Azami let him.
Azami walks to the bed and sits on it, making space for Muku. There’s plenty of space for even five or six people, and he had been using it alone. Muku was a bit hesitant, but Azami patted the pillow next to him, telling Muku to come there and that it’s okay.
Muku gets under the covers and lays his head on the pillow Azami put down for him.
“Is this okay?” he asks, still feeling a bit nervous. Azami lays down next to him too.
“Mhm.” Azami simply replied, pulling the covers up and making himself more comfortable. They laid there for a while, Muku still observing the environment around him. It felt warm here.
“…Azami-kun, I lied. There’s something I don’t like about my room.” Muku admits. Azami turns his head towards Muku, thinking he’s going to have to ask someone to have the problem fixed in the morning.
“What is it?” Azami asks.
Muku looks at the window, the moonlight peeks through the lace curtains, greeting the two from there.
“The atmosphere feels so different from Summer.” Muku continues.
”I still feel like an outsider here.”
Azami didn’t know what to say. That isn’t something that he can easily fix, is it?
“…I’m sorry.” he manages to say.
“and,” Muku wasn’t finished. “I don’t like that you’re not there with me.” he says as he made eye contact with Azami. Azami couldn’t help but blush after hearing that sentence. This is the Autumn Castle, he can’t make Muku’s room feel like his ‘home’, but he sure can fix that problem.
“Can I do this more often?” Muku asks, holding his hand out to offer to Azami.
This time, Azami is the one who places his hand on Muku’s.
“If you don’t mind sharing a room with me.” He replies, almost whispering.
Muku giggles and finally smiles, Azami finds it adorable.
“That’s silly… of course I wouldn’t mind.” He smiles. Muku is relieved that he’s allowed in here. He snuggles down a bit closer to Azami, and closes his eyes.
“G’night… Prince.” Muku whispers, kind of mumbling, already drifting away to sleep. Azami makes the slightest grip on Muku’s hands.
“Good night, Muku-san.”
Muku smiles as his eyes stays closed, finally feeling more comfortable with someone next to him. Azami on the other hand, still tense from this unfamiliar feeling. He can’t exactly recall the last time he slept with someone like this, most likely with his late mother long long ago. Now he’s here, radiating warmth even when sound asleep. The sounds of Muku’s steady breathing slowly relaxes Azami, he’s starting to feel at peace.
Just like that, his worries left his head and he can feel himself drifting to sleep.
_______________
Azami groans. His eyelids were still heavy, but the morning light was starting to be hard to ignore.
More importantly, he felt a weight on his shoulder. And chest.
And…. something fluffy? It smells nice…
He slowly opens his eyes, and sees the position that he is in.
Muku had somehow moved much much closer than when they drifted to sleep. Azami can’t move. Oh no. I guess he’s going to spend the rest of his life there, with Muku asleep on him. Great.
After looking around a bit for signs of any of the servants and confirming that they were still alone, he looks back at the sleeping prince. His breathing sounded peaceful, despite his beating heart going mad from this, he really didn’t want to interrupt the peace or wake Muku up.
He observes Muku’s sleeping figure for a while more, wondering if it would be okay to touch his hair…
Suddenly the door handle makes a noise, and before Azami even knew it, the door swung open.
“Prince, it’s already ti-”
Both the prince and the glasses man by the door froze. Muku still unmoving, unaware.
Yuki and Kumon peeks in. Why are THEY here too?
“My apologies. I’ll come back later.” Sakyo uncharacteristically bows and closes the door.
“KNOCK THE GODDAMN DOORー！！！”
As their footsteps became smaller, you can hear small whispers.
(So that's where Muku was…)
(I thought he vanished)
Azami’s yelling and sudden movement woke Muku up, obviously. Muku groans a bit and rubs his eyes.
“Nngh… Azami-kun?” He looks up.
“Ah- I’m sorry, did I wake you up? My bad for letting out such a loud voice…” Azami lays back down on the pillow and faces Muku.
“Mmh?” Muku was still half asleep, still rubbing his eyes.
“I’ll kill those guys later.” Azami says, blushing from embarrassment of being seen in such a position.
“Ah… It’s fine, they didn’t do it on purpose right? ...More importantly,”
Muku greets Azami with his warm smile, grabs Azami’s hands and giggles.
“Good morning.”
Muku’s soft expression made Azami’s heart flutter. Muku didn’t seem to care anymore. He’s half asleep, there is no space in his mind to be embarrassed. All he feels is happiness from waking up next to someone in the morning.
“Uh…. My hand….”
“Eheheー Azami-kun you’re blushing~ How cute...” Muku giggles even more, and instead grabs onto Azami’s hand even tighter.
“What… Don’t grin like that…” This isn’t healthy for my heart-
“From now on, I’ll be by your side every morning okay?”