Chapter Text
[Late September in Versailles - 1787]
“He must have an affair with the queen”
“I agree! He isn’t even married! At the age of thirty four, that’s absurd”
“His works are also against France, he is definetly one of the archienne’s lovers”
The knight kept hearing the whispers from guests all over the court while guarding the Queen in the latest ball that she was appearing with less frequency. She was ignoring most of the gossip, but her knight was starting to get more and more angry by the minute. He knew that all of the madams were wrong and the fact that he couldn’t defend the queen or her supposed lover was driving him crazy.
“My queen, you should get this madams out of the court, you have the power to do so, if desired.” He suggested as politely as he could when he was taking her back to her beloved Petit Trianon, a little palace owned by her and where she usually slept, even though it was a norm that she should sleep on the great Palace of Versailles, where the king lived.
“Monsieur Sakamoto, it is fine, I’m used to gossip at this point in my life.” She said as she waved and smiled for a few other nobles that were walking close by.
“Yes, my queen, but not Monsieur Kitagawa.”
“That is true...” The queen said slowly and with hesitation. Knowing her, Monsieur Sakamoto imagined she was absorbing the situation. What the madams said and how it could inflict Monsieur Kitagawa. “His newest painting, how do you think they will react, the french people?”
Kitagawa’s latest piece of art was magnificent. It was the Queen with her lovely children, but his paintings were always beautiful, nothing had changed about his talent of portraying them - maybe he improved actually, but Sakamoto wouldn’t be able to see the different kind of techniques. - But what he was sure is that not even an art made from an angel would appease the common folk at this point at time.
“Honestly, people probably won’t like it.”
“I see...” Again, another sentence said slowly and with hesitation.
They were in front of the door of the Petit Trianon, Sakamoto opening it so his Highness could enter, but she didn’t do it.
“Monsieur Sakamoto?” He could see how tense she was, trying to calm down by twisting her gloves.
“Yes, my Queen?”
“Do you think this recent... riot, will end soon?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I appreciate your honesty.” They stayed in silence, the Queen now biting her thumb, making the knight feel more uneasy than before. It was so unnatural for Sakamoto to see someone who was so lively a few years ago, - hell, even a few months ago - be so nervous nowadays, so afraid. “Please, Monsieur Sakamoto. By tomorrow morning, leave France with Monsieur Kitagawa.”
The knight blinked in confusion.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Maybe go to Austria with him.” She nodded her head weakly. “I’ll be fine, we have allies to help us. But... He deserves to paint more. I trust you to protect him.”
“Ann, you can’t possibly be saying that seriously!” The Monsieur was clearly mad, dropping all signs of formality that they were supposed to share on a daily basis.
“Ryuji, do you think I like what I’m ordering you to do? If the riots continue to get any worse, I’ll have to send more of my friends away! Madam Shiho, Futaba, Haru and Makoto...” Her cheeks were red and her eyes were starting to get teary. Ryuji sighed, taking of his hat and running his fingers on his short blond hair, frustrated.
“What about you and the kids? And the king?”
“Like I said, we have allies from all over Europe, we’ll be fine. My friends, they are the ones in real danger. Especially the ones who are not royalty… I’m sure you’ll protect Yusuke, right?” The man was still clearly opposed to this command, but was starting to get the full picture. “Please?”
He sighed once again, defeated.
“Yes, your highness.” She smiles softly and hugs her knight tightly. “I’ll miss you.” Ryuji said and he could feel the queen’s body shaking. After what felt it was just a few seconds, the hug ends. She enters her little palace still smiling, leaving her loyal knight outside.
———————————
[On the road – 1787]
It was just an hour into the travel and both Messieurs were silent, Kitagawa was looking through the small window of the carriage and Sakamoto was tipping his feet on the wooden floor, extremely bored. The view changed a bit, a lot more trees and the sky was clouded, but they were still in French territory. Probably they would be in Austria ground in about a week if they got lucky with the weather.
The only reason for Sakamoto to be quiet at the moment was that he knew the painter was thinking of his next project. Maybe the change of place would still inspire him to paint more, expand his horizons? At least that’s what the knight was hoping for. Since the idea of going to live away from their home country didn’t please neither of them. But still, something felt wrong. He knew Kitagawa didn’t like the situation, but he followed the orders anyway, without arguing or showing anger. He only showed sadness. And that bothered Ryuji, a lot.
“Monsieur Sakamoto...” The voice of the painter called the knight attention.
“You can call me by my first name, we don’t need all this formality anymore.” He smiled, but Kitagawa didn’t.
“Alright. Monsieur Ryuji, do you know when we are going to make a stop?”
“Maybe in a few hours so we can have lunch and in the night when we arrive in Compiègne. Do you need to take a piss or something?”
“No, it’s just that I wanted to see the nature in first hand.”
“But why?”
“I want to reflect in the open air, paint a little bit, maybe.”
“You know you can’t paint in the woods, our stops will be short.”
“I see...” He seemed disappointed, but didn’t question it any further.
“Hey, but don’t worry! When we arrive in Vienna, you’ll have plenty time to paint whatever you want.”
“Thank you for your concern, Ryuji” He still wasn’t used to call him without formality, hesitating a little and being awkward, but the effort made the knight happy.
“No problem. Hey, you should sleep a little, you must be tired.”
“What about you?”
“I’m used to this, it’s my job to keep an eye out.”
And again, silence, but Yusuke finally fell asleep a few minutes later.
———————————
[Versailles – 1783]
It was the first time Ryuji saw the queen so genuinely happy with a portrait of her. Up until that point, her portraits were always showing her as… well, the archduchess of France. But since she started going away from her duties and started wearing more like a mongrel, she contracted someone with a more humble background, a painter from Paris who had no family member. That painter, was Yusuke Kitagawa. He was quiet and had a stern expression, very slim, had long jet-black hair and wore weird, long pants.
“Oh, dear!” She smiled widely when saw the result of her painting. “It’s perfect! Don’t you think, Monsieur Sakamoto?”
Ryuji approximated to the canvas, kind of surprised of how quickly he finished the sketch of the painting, Ann in her favorite chemise, with a rose on her hand, giving a light smile, very subtle compared to the real smile on Ann’s face, but it was identical to her social smile.
“You’re very talented, Monsieur.” Ryuji said and for the first time the painter was smiling back.
“Yes! He is! Monsieur Kitagawa, would you like to be my official painter?”
Kitagawa was so in shock that he almost dropped his brush on the ground.
“Your official painter?”
“Of course! With someone so talented as you, you should have your art get showed to everyone in France!”
“But, your highness, I didn’t go to art school, they rejected me. You should get a real professional to occupy this job. But it was an honor to paint this for you.”
“You were rejected?! That’s impossible…”
“I’m afraid it is very much possible…”
“Well then, it’s decided. I’ll send a letter of recommendation to the Académie Royale.”
“A… Are you sure?”
“Yes, Monsieur. I will do that now, actually.” She said as she was walking towards the door, to get paper and ink. When the door closed, the knight looked at the painter and saw that he had tears in his eyes and his lip was quivering.
“Hey…” Ryuji got his handkerchief out of his pocket and give it to Kitagawa. “Are you okay, Monsieur?”
“Yes… Yes I am.” He answered. “I am just… so grateful. Thank you…”
“Well, the queen will be very happy to hear this.”
But the painter didn’t seem to be listening anymore, he was just smiling to himself.