Work Text:
A dull thunk echoed through the tea room, Ryoma’s cup coming to rest on the dark wood of the table. Feeling the last of the sharpness from the sake wash from his tongue, the High Prince of Hoshido pinches the bridge of his nose. The liquor is not the highest quality, but he could care less.
He’s not one to drink- not normally anyways, but today is different. After weeks and weeks of heartbreak and losses, a man is deserving of at least one cup, he thinks.
“M-Milord! Milord, they’ve taken Lady Azura!”
He still can’t believe it. A rogue squadron of Hoshidan forces had abducted her, only for the Nohrian army to swoop in and take her away. The thought that he hadn’t been able to protect her haunts him. He’s poured so many hours into trying to save her, yet no one would lend him their sympathies.
“We could try to-”
“Milord, please.” Yukimura cut in, tone flat and final. “This may be for the best. The Nohrians have their princess back, and perhaps that’ll satisfy them.” His eyes narrowed. “Least for now.”
Despite the mechanist’s clear stance, Ryoma was not about to give in. “I-!”
“Forget her!” Takumi spat. “She’s a Nohrian, for the gods’ sake! Let her rot with the rest of them! Did you forget what they did to Mother?!”
And then his worst fears became true. If he’s being honest with himself, a part of his mind wants to pretend this is all some terrible dream. But he knows he’d be deluding himself. Takumi’s words sting in his ears.
“I TOLD you. I told you she’d turn traitor one day, brother.”
Port Dia. Port Dia is supposedly where his younger brother had seen the songstress, backing the Nohrian’s defense of the area. Everytime his mind wanders to that fact, he can’t help but grind his jaw in frustration. It all had to be some terrible fluke, right? Right?
He dreads to hear Hinoka’s report upon her return. She was dispatched to the Sevenfold Sanctuary, the word being the Nohrian army’s advancement upon the city. He vividly remembers the look of shock and even horror at his sister’s accidental discovery of his feelings for the Nohrian princess. While she didn’t hold as deep a hatred as Takumi, she still held no great love for Azura. Not in the way Ryoma did, at least.
“Y-You-! You love her-! Oh gods, Ryoma! What-!?” Hinoka backed away, eyes wide. Confusion and rage battled within his sister’s gaze.
“She’s the enemy! How could you?!”
But how could he not?
Not when he’d loved her for so long.
Perhaps it was his smothering grief over his mother’s death, or his ramping anguish over all the events that have transpired, but his thoughts can’t help but wander to their time together despite his desperate attempts to suppress them.
“Wall..z?” The word didn’t fit right on the prince’s tongue. During this visit to Fort Jinya, the royal captive had taken to explaining one of her favorite pastimes with Hoshido’s heir.
“Waltz.” Azura corrected, a shy chuckle escaped her at Ryoma’s rough pronunciation.
The high prince felt himself flush briefly, cursing how easily he could get flustered by her. Then an idea hit him.
“Well…ah, how about you show me…?”
For a moment she goes quiet and Ryoma panics.
Oh, now you’ve messed this up you idio-
“I’d love to.”
After the pads of his fingers smooth over his eyelids, the prince opens his eyes, a long sigh escaping him. He can hear some commotion in the hall, signaling Hinoka’s return. The act of getting up from his seiza takes more effort than he’d like to admit, but his personal time was over. He’d have to don his battlefield presence, and leave behind his feelings, at least until he could return to the solitude of his own thoughts.
As he makes his way to the sliding door, one last thought enters his mind.
No matter what the gods had written for him, he’d love her. He always would.