Chapter Text
The cool evening breeze was cut by the shrubbery in the stone garden situated at the back side of the castle. The moon sat high in the sky in a waning crescent, shining bits of light below to aid the garden lanterns.
“So am I safe to assume that your father...I mean the king, has informed you about the new arrangement with Okura?” Tenn inquired as he slowly shut the wide stone door behind him. While Tenn had only just exited the stuffy walls of the castles, it looked like Gaku had been out for a while. He sat slouched on one of the benches, elbows on his knees and fingers tented. With his chin resting on his hands, he looked over the fencing to view the bustingly city of stone below.
“Yeah, how did you know?” He asked, straightening up and shifting his position to face his advisor. “And you don't need to speak so formally when there’s no one else around,” he reminded. The rules and expectations of his post were things Gaku was keenly aware of, but the knowledge of them made them no less suffocating, so he made a point in capitalizing on any moment he could converse in a less restrictive manner.
“I’d heard whispers of this arrangement in the halls and this is the spot you go to get away from your duties,” the young advisor began to explain his logic. “You’ve just been given the most important and demanding job a royal gets in their life, outside orchestrating war, so it seems obvious that you would come here. It’s one last moment of escape, of the familiar, before your life gets upended and everything changes.”
“Well you’re spot on. Sometimes I swear you know me better than I know myself,” he confirmed the younger’s hypothesis. “How did you get to be so perceptive? You can read people like a book,” Gaku said. “You grew up on the streets, didn’t you?”
Tenn nodded. “That’s precisely why I am as perceptive as you say, it was a condition of survival, equally now as it was then since it’s why I’m within the castle walls. Your father thought me useful and took me in. Even if I am just a tool in his mind, I’m grateful for what he’s done.”
“I wish I had your skill at this, it would make diplomacy so much easier if I knew how everyone at the table felt and what they were thinking.”
“It certainly does sound useful, but like all else it is a skill that must be trained. The conditions that foster such practice are far from pleasant,” Tenn confessed, face falling sullen as he fiddled with his thumbs.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Gaku apologized, noticing Kujo’s change in demeanor. “It must be disheartening, hearing me say I want to be like you while you only turned out like this so you could survive.”
“No, I know what you mean, I just had a bad memory that shocked me. You don’t need to apologize,” Tenn interjected, pinching the sin on his wrists a couple times each to ground himself back into the present.
“I still feel guilty though. I’m the one that triggered it,” Gaku rebuffed.
“A crown prince shouldn’t be apologizing to his servants,” Tenn snapped back, his voice seething.
“But any man worthy of his name apologizes when he’s made a mistake,” Gaku sought to put an end to the argument. “My being comes before my title, regardless of what everyone insists. I’m a man before a prince.”
There was a moment of silence, the air still heavy with tension.
“What was it you were saying earlier about why I come out here?” Gaku asked his company, not that he didn’t remember but rather wanting his junior to put everything together for himself.
“You come here as an escape from the expectations of your position, and I barged in and forced them back onto you,” Kujo’s voice fell.
“You don’t need to feel guilty, you’ve been conditioned just as much as I have, but you don’t have the protection of royal blood to rebel,” Gaku replied in a kinder tone. “You should look at this space the same way I do, a place where we’re just people. I’m not a prince, you’re not an advisor, we’re just equals. So, how are you feeling?”
“I…” Tenn choked up. “I’m doing well. No one’s really ever asked me that before, so thank you,” he responded.”One day your kindness will be your downfall, but for everyone’s sake I hope that time comes far, far later.”
“How do you mean?” The prince inquired, finding his advisor’s mumblings to be intriguing.
“May I speak earnestly?” Tenn asked for permission, still adjusting to the garden’s rule.
“We’re equals here, so speak your mind.”
“Hmm…” Tenn hummed under his breath, buying more time to compose his thoughts in the gentlest of manners. “Your kindness and disregard for decorum and procedural order would make it easy for bad actors to exploit you,” he settled on those words. “If that day where your honest nature gets the better of you must come to pass, I hope it does so in your sundown years. The world needs more rulers like you. Maybe then this wouldn’t even be a concern.”
“Is that a compliment I hear?” Gaku let out a chuckle. “It’s not very often I get any of those, let alone from you. Even if it was couched in a hypothetical of my fall from power.”
“I uh, should probably be going now. You came here to be alone and that should be respect,” Tenn sputtered in a flustered manner, getting up from his seat on the bench and quickly walking back to the castle’s entrance.
“You don’t have to leave for my sake, I told you you were fine,” Gaku said, turning his gaze to watch him leave.
“I know, but I still feel like I’m intruding,” he elaborated to the prince, hand on the door.
“Well I can’t tell you that your feelings are wrong,” Gaku muttered under his breath. Even if he didn’t understand why his younger felt such a way, it’s how he was feeling and Gaku would have to honor that.
“Before you go, were you traveling to Okura with us?” He changed the subject. “All of this is still new to me and I don’t know what you’ve heard. Probably more than I have been told if I’m being honest. My father likes to keep closed lips on political matters.”
“Your father’s not given me a directive, but if you wish for me to I will,” Tenn replied. “We’ll be leaving after two sleeps so you might want to study up on Okuran culture. After all, you are marrying into the family. Wouldn’t want to be an ignorant son-in-law, would you?” Tenn couldn’t help but jest. He didn’t get to do it very often, and this too may be his own last chance at a loosened demeanor.
“Would you…” Gaku trailed off before switching to a laugh. Tenn’s just trying to loosen the air with a joke so who would he be to chastise him for it. It felt like a jab friends would make at each other and that’s what Gaku wanted, right?
“You’re right, that would be rather unbecoming. If I am to be as kind as you say I am, I have work to do. Now do I start with culture or history?” Gaku thought out loud.
“I know a fair bit about Okuran customs and what books in the library discuss it. I’ll get clearance for accompanying you, so meet me in the library at noon and anticipate a long night. Okura is an island nation with a deep and rich history despite its relative infancy. I’ll arrange for the kitchen to deliver dinner to the south wing as well. Any suggestions?” Tenn offered his help while also making the task sound rather daunting.
Gaku never quite understood why he had to get clearance to review most of the material in the library, but whenever he pressed the issue with anyone who would listen, he never got very far, so he eventually stopped trying and relied on his advisor as an escort.
“Are you sure it’s going to take that long?” Gaku sought confirmation. Tenn nodded. “Order whatever you’d like for a meal then, I’m not picky. Consider it a thanks for your aid.”
“Chicken penne it is then,” Tenn commented, grip reaching back to the door. “And remember to pack,” he said before slipping between the crack of the stone exit.
Gaku’s plans to sleep in in the morning were now a speck of dust in the air, quickly blown away from sight.