Chapter Text
Ryuunosuke Akutagawa was never supposed to get caught. The Hunting Dogs were never supposed to follow the trail of noble blood he left behind. And he was most definitely never supposed to be escorted into the throne room of King Mori himself. The intricately carved columns glared at him almost jeeringly, as if they were mocking him for never being able to live a lifestyle like this. The golds, purples, and royal blues twisted into wallpaper patterns that were so disgustingly fancy, Akutagawa wanted to puke. If the king could afford to have pure gold crown molding, why couldn’t he ever afford to buy his sister something she truly deserved?
“Fuck.” he thought, going over every plan on his mind to get himself and his partner in crime, Chuuya Nakahara, out of the royal quarters where they so so clearly unwelcome. “I need to get out of here.”
Chuuya looked over to see Akutagawa visibly trapped inside of his thoughts, and with as much strength as he could use, (as it was pretty difficult to move your arms when they are tied behind your back) elbowed the man next to him in the ribs.
“Get out of your fucking head Akutagawa.” he reinforced, trying his best at tough-love encouragement, “It’s not like we haven’t been caught before.”
Akutagawa rolled his eyes in return. “Yes, but we have never been– oh wait, what was it? Brought towards the king?! ” he spat.
Maybe the two men had made a bad idea, deciding to take up illegal bounty hunter jobs, but doing nothing doesn’t pay the overly high bills Mori requested.
“Why hello there, it’s an honor to finally meet you.” a smiley voice sounded from the front of the room. A man with shoulder length black hair walked into the room. His purple eyes darted around expectantly. Then a realization flitted through the two delinquent men, that man, was King Mori. “I’m surprised only the two of you could pull off such an unruly stunt!”
Akutagawa scoffed. The King spoke like every other noble he had heard speak. Fake, sugary, peppered with hints of being blatantly condescending. Mori had smiled sweetly at the two, as if he didn’t care at all that a good chunk of his royal cabinet had been torn apart by these two men infront of him.
“I have a small favor to ask of you, hopefully such rebellious spirits can be useful for the small mission I would like you to go on!” Mori exclaimed, the smile still not leaving his face, making him almost look inhuman. Nobody Akutagawa had ever seen had a smile as unsettling as the one plastered across Mori’s face. Chuuya’s eyes glanced over at Akutagawa, trying to read the expression on his face. The two of them were confused.
“Why isn’t he upset?” echoed through both of the men’s minds. Akutagawa met Chuuya’s glance and tried to give a shrug. Chuuya was the first to speak up. He was falling impatient with silence that covered the exceedingly decorated room.
“Sir– Your Majesty, I’m afraid that I don’t understand what you’re asking of us,” he announced. Mori only gave a chuckle in response. Chuuya, a little angered with the lack of response, tried to repeat his previous statement. “Your Majesty, I do hope you’re not deciding to ignore me.” he asserted, trying to appear much less scared then he truly was. “I need to know this favor before I agree to anything.” Yet Chuuya still stood before the king, fuming at the silence he kept.
Repaying him from earlier, Akutagawa stepped on his foot sharply, trying to let Chuya realize that he was being ridiculous. The red-haired man snapped out of his anger and took a breath. Laughing at the eccentric pair before him, Mori finally spoke up.
“You don’t truly have a choice, Chuuya. You do something for me, I chose not to have the both of you publicly executed!” Mori said that with his ugly smile still present on his face. He locked eyes with Akutagwa, seemingly assessing him on the spot. “I’m sure the both of you have heard the name, Fukuzawa?” he hummed, locking eyes with both men, waiting for an answer. Akutagawa and Chuuya only exchanged confused looks.
“No, Your Majesty.” Chuuya replied.
“Hmm, well that’s unfortunate!” he laughed. “Fukuzawa is the king of the neighboring nation. We haven’t been on the best of terms recently. So, of course after he took away many of the goods his kingdom exports to this country, I decided I would… get back at him!”
Akutagawa truly thought the king was insane. No sane king would be so petty over losing a couple exports. No sane king would take random assassins from the streets and take them into his own castle. No sane king was anything like Mori Ougai.
“Dammit! What the hell are you asking us to do?!” Chuuya angrily questioned. “Can you be clear about anything in this situation?”
“Patience sir.” Mori demanded. His smile had completely left his face, making him look even more intimidating than before. “I want the both of you to go undercover. Chuuya, I have intel that says you’re better in social environments. I have an intelligence outpost disguised as a tavern. You will be staying there.” Chuuya reluctantly grumbled in agreement. Then Mori turned his attention to Akutagawa. “You, I will send you over as a new knight-in-training.” he smiled curtly. “Hopefully, if you do as you’re told you can rise quickly enough in the ranks to serve the prince.”
Akutagawa paused. Dumbfounded, he sighed and nodded.
“This will be torture. No way in hell do I want to be serving some stuck-up prince who knows the difference between a salad fork and a dessert fork.” Akutagawa thought bitterly.
“Wonderful! I’m glad I have such willing participants.” Mori smiled again. “Once you get to Fukuzawa’s kingdom I’ll have you both informed on what I truly need you to do.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Chuuya answered, having finally accepted his situation. Both men bowed before guards entered the room and escorted them out of the throne room.
“Right now public execution is sounding very appealing.” Akutagawa thought. He had heard of this prince before. Atsushi Nakajima, apparently he was shielded from the public until he turned 16. Two years ago the entire Tri-kingdom region was in complete turmoil when the heir to the Fukuzawa monarchy was revealed. Akutagawa couldn’t lie, from the regal portraits he’d seen of the man, he most definitely could see why so many princesses fawned after him. But that didn’t subtract from the fact that Akutagawa wanted nothing to do with prince Atsushi Nakajima. “I suppose karma has caught up with me. A sheltered prince will be the closest I get to hell while I live.”
Akutagawa truly was not looking forward to this interaction.