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“Can you do anything to control the boy?”
Megumi can hear Ogi’s grating, annoyed voice carrying from the large meeting room and he just rolls his eyes, even though Naoya can clearly see him. Megumi could care less of what Ogi thinks of him on a normal day, let alone when he is particularly mad at the old man.
Across from him, Naoya shakes his head, his tone of voice mocking as the voices inside the room rise. “You’ve truly done it now, nephew. It is unfathomable how you manage to cause such chaos by simply existing.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t have arranged a marriage for me without consulting me first.” Megumi crosses his arms, glaring. He will not apologize for running away. It was only three weeks.
Three weeks he wishes he could live again or that he never returned from.
Naoya makes a face, a mix of scowling and disgust. “Spending time with that one has made you into a spoiled brat. It is almost unimaginable that you possess any true Zenin blood.”
“You can blame my parents for arranging it.” Megumi says that like it is a bad thing, but he is grateful his parents arranged it so he would spend each summer in the Gojo kingdom with his godfather, the king of the Gojo Kingdom. How this arrangement happened and how the Zenin royal family allowed it still remains a mystery to him considering he remembers that his father hated Gojo Satoru as if it was a profession.
Naoya gestures to the doors of the meeting room, sneering still. “Ogi has become so fed up with your misbehavior that he thought asking the King of the Gojo kingdom to do something was wise. Pathetic. He cannot even control one of the lowest ranked princes in our family.”
The sneer on Naoya’s face made it very plain and evident what he thought of Megumi’s rank within their family. Not that Megumi has ever spent much time thinking about how Naoya views him in the first place.
Megumi rolls his eyes again, mostly because he knows nothing bothered Naoya more than him acting indifferent about Naoya. “Perhaps you should give up on your short-lived career as a matchmaker, uncle.”
Naoya’s face twists into something that means he is about to say something insulting about Megumi’s mother when the doors open and Gojo flounces out of the meeting room.
As always, Gojo is entirely unbothered with royal customs and traditions. He is not even wearing the formal, royal clothing he is supposed to wear when attending meetings with other kingdoms. Instead, Gojo wears casual riding clothes which could almost make him appear not royal besides his very obvious white hair and strangely blue eyes.
“Ah!” Gojo beams at him, ignoring Naoya’s presence entirely as he walks up to Megumi. There is a teasing lilt to his voice. “If it isn’t the troublemaker himself, Megumi. Now, Megumi, is it true that you ran away for an entire month?”
Gojo looks at him from above the strange pair of dark glasses his long-time lover, Geto gifted him when they were younger. Megumi shrugs. “It was three weeks actually. I counted.”
Gojo shakes his head, disappointed. Ogi and the others look pleased by this but then Gojo says, in disbelief, “Megumi, you should’ve left for a whole month! I’m so disappointed in you. Did I teach you nothing in all my lessons and mentoring?”
“You!” Ogi points at Gojo and he starts to say something. But Gojo spins around, grinning. “Well, I shall take my godson for the summer. Hopefully, all of you drink yourselves to death before I see you again. Farewell!”
And he happily hurries down the hall, not at all image of what a king should be. And Megumi honestly, in the privacy of his mind, thinks that he prefers Gojo’s kind of royalty to what the Zenins try to force upon him. Megumi sends his family a look, a little smug if he is honest with himself, then follows behind Gojo.
When the Zenins can’t hear them anymore, Gojo looks at him. “Did you seriously run away?”
“I did,” Megumi says, not even slightly apologetic. He still did not apologize after Ogi lecutred him about ‘what would the commoners think’ if they saw him. “They arranged a marriage with Remi . They refused to listen to anything I said, so I took action.”
Gojo snorts, far too pleased by this. “With Remi? And they thought this would be a good match? Remi? Someone you detest for—what is it you said that one time?”
“Having no backbone or any sense of self?”
“Yes, that!” Gojo laughs again, shaking his head. “Ah, Suguru is never going to believe this. What did you even do during those three weeks? You could’ve come to my kingdom.”
Megumi stays silent, maybe too silent because Gojo looks at him and then starts staring at him with those weirdly vivid blue eyes. “Megumi. My godson. Are you blushing ?”
“No. I’m not.”
Gojo stops walking right beside their horses and he leans closer. “You are! Oh gods, what happened? You have to tell me everything!”
“No.” Megumi swings up onto his horse, ignoring Gojo now. “I traveled for three weeks. That’s all.”
Gojo quickly scrambles onto his own horse and follows behind Megumi. “You’re lying! You are lying to me right now! What happened? I demand to know.”
Megumi rides faster. “Nothing. Don’t you have something to ramble about Geto by now?”
“No, no, no. You’re not getting out of this conversation that easily.” Gojo rides up beside him now. “Something happened during those three weeks.”
“Absolutely nothing happened.”
Gojo pouts, as if he is not the king of an entire kingdom. “Are you waiting to tell Suguru and the girls everything? Is that what’s happening?”
Megumi keeps riding and tries not to think about the three weeks he spent traveling.
As soon as they arrive at the Gojo Palace, Megumi is also swarmed by Nanako and Mimiko. Of course, Gojo decides to make his life even harder by talking too much.
“Megumi is hiding something! Something he’s blushing about!”
And then Megumi is trying to convince Gojo, Mimiko, and Nanako that nothing happened during the three weeks.
“But with Remi?” Mimiko echoes after Megumi explains what happened with the arranged marriage as they walk through the palace. She makes a face. “I know the Zenins are stupid, but a marriage with Remi?’
“Besides the fact that Megumi has never once looked twice at a woman with any semblance of interest,” Nanako declares loudly and Megumi sighs. “Remi is a terrible match for Megumi. He needs someone who is kind and has a strong character, not that. Ugh, I remember meeting Remi at the last feast. Terrible person.”
Gojo is walking slightly ahead of them, nodding to everything that Nanako and Mimiko say. “Megumi, why won’t you tell us what happened? Because I don’t believe you that something didn’t happen, I know your expressions too well for you to lie to me.”
Megumi keeps walking. “It’s nothing.”
Nanako and Mimiko both join in this time to tell him he’s lying.
Megumi decides staying silent is better.
Until they arrive in the dining hall for dinner and then Gojo, Geto, Tsumiki, Nanoko, and Mimiko are all asking him what happened while he was gone for three weeks.
After a full hour of questioning, Megumi is sinking into his chair and wishing that he never told Gojo anything about this.
Tsumiki leans closer, laying a hand on his arm. “Megumi, why don’t you want to tell us? Did something happen?”
And when Tsumiki sounds legitimately upset, he can’t stop himself from answering.
“Fine. Okay. None of you are allowed to laugh at me.” And he swears, all of them eagerly lean forward as he mentally prepares himself for what he is about to tell them. “Alright, I did run away for three weeks, but I wasn’t entirely alone the whole time.”
Nanako, Mimiko, and Tsumiki all loudly gasp while Gojo stands up, slapping the table while shouting, “I knew it! Didn’t I say I knew it?”
Megumi sighs deeply and rubs at his forehead, he can already feel a headache developing because of their nonsense. “Please, just listen to what I’m saying first, please?”
“Fine, fine, fine,” Gojo sits back down, but he pulls his chair closer.
The girls grab on his arms. “Megumi, you have to tell us everything .”
Megumi was only a day away from the palace, when he realized he had no idea where he was or what he even planned to do while running away from the Zenins. Though of course, he would never tell the Zenins that. They already thought he was stupid or useless enough as it is.
The side road was peaceful and empty, which could be nice except for the fact that Megumi wanted to find someone. If only to ask for directions.
But Megumi is nothing if not stubborn, so he keeps walking even if he has no idea where he is heading. He walks for another two hours before deciding that he might need to stop in a town or city before he becomes too lost.
Megumi takes a turn down a new small road and comes to a very sudden stop.
There’s a boy his age, with pink hair, crouching at the side of the road and picking up a caterpillar.
Megumi finishes the story, “And we ended up traveling together for three weeks.”
Everyone is silent.
Nanako and Mimiko’s mouths are hanging open, while Gojo and Geto are making the same shocked expression. Tsumiki’s eyes are the size of their dinner plates.
Megumi crosses his arms and can feel his face steadily getting warmer and warmer the longer none of them respond. Suddenly, he wishes he could disappear into the shadows of his room where nobody could see or judge him. Why did he tell them everything?
Tsumiki’s voice is quiet and strained. “Oh my gods, did you fall in love?”
“No!” Megumi realizes he says it too quickly to be believable and he takes a deep breath. “No. I did not. That would be ridiculous.”
Gojo narrows his eyes, then glances at Geto then back to Megumi. “He had pink hair?”
“Yes?”
Gojo looks at Geto again and Megumi immediately does not like that. Now Geto asks, “What did you say his name was?”
“Yuuji? Why are you asking so many questions?”
Gojo stares intently at him, then breaks into a huge, secretive grin. “Oh, no reason! Don’t worry about it, my dearest godson.”
Now, Megumi absolutely does need to worry about it.
Gojo glances at him. “The Zenins have sent a fiftieth letter about the marriage.” He holds up the letter, sealed with the Zenin royal seal, probably written by Ogi or one of the other senior family members. This letter is five pages long. A complete waste of paper.
Megumi grabs it and tosses it into the fire. “I will not be marrying Remi.”
He watches as the letter burns up, just to be sure.
“Obviously not,” Gojo says, making a disgusted face. “But they are just going to keep trying to arrange marriages for you if you don’t choose someone. You know that.”
Megumi sighs and sits down. “I know. But there’s not…They wouldn’t listen to me anyway.”
Gojo nods in agreement, but he’s clearly thinking. He observes Megumi for a long moment. “Can I suggest something? And after you hear it, before you roll your eyes and walk away, just consider it.”
“Alright?” Megumi is already on guard. Gojo’s ideas usually led to more problems for him.
Gojo leans forward. “Alright, consider this. I arrange a marriage for you instead. If I suggest it and arrange it, the Zenins wouldn’t have much of a choice to say no considering that I’m stronger than all of them and I’m more of your family than they are anyways.”
Megumi stares. “You want to arrange a marriage for me?”
Gojo grins.
Megumi makes a face. “I don’t know if I would trust you with that. Why are you smiling?”
Gojo’s grin widens. “No reason at all, Megumi.”
“That is more worrying than anything else.”
“I am worried.” Megumi crosses his arms.
“Okay, if it makes you feel better, Suguru will also help?” Gojo asks, more seriously this time. “I know you much better than the Zenins do, obviously. Trust me, it will be much, much better than whatever marriage the Zenins are planning.”
Megumi sighs, thinking. “Just let me think about it for a while?”
“Of course, I would never force you to do anything you didn’t want to.”
“Just one thing.” Gojo turns, facing him. “Just promise you that you’ll stay the entire night and not run away. I want you to meet the person you’re engaged to.”
Megumi crosses his arms. Gojo tries to make huge, begging eyes but it just looks ridiculous on a fully grown man who is a king of a whole kingdom. “Megumi, promise me.”
Tsumiki grabs his arm, smiling widely. “You have to trust us about this! Just stay the whole night and see what happens. It might end up better than you expect.”
Why did he agree to this again? It was Tsumiki who convinced him to agree to Gojo’s arranging something in the end, because of course it was her. Once she sat down with him and convinced him to at least try, he decided it was better than anything the Zenins would think of.
So the engagement happened. But Gojo, for some reason only known to him and the gods probably, decided to keep the name of the person he is engaged to a secret until the celebration party. Tonight.
They had exchanged letters, though nameless.
Megumi sighs. “Fine. I guess I’ll trust you.”
“Perfect!”
And Megumi is promptly shoved out into the ballroom.
It’s crowded, overly full. Megumi immediately wishes he hadn’t agreed to Gojo’s plans and that he could disappear through the nearest door. How was he supposed to know who Gojo had arranged the marriage with anyway? There’s potentially hundreds of people his age here.
Megumi walks through the crowd, looking around as he does. Lots of faces of people he knows. Inumaki, Panda, Nobara, Maki, Mai, even Todo Aoi is here, talking to the singer that Nanako and Mimiko love to watch.
And Megumi keeps walking, wondering how Gojo expects him to know who he is engaged to. It has to be a politically sound match, even if Megumi is not a high-ranking member of the Zenin royal family, he is still technically a prince. And by proxy and Gojo’s sheer force of will, a Gojo prince in all by name.
He turns his head for one moment.
A flash of pink.
Megumi stops in his tracks.
Hidden partially behind Todo and High Prince Choso of the Itadori Kingdom, is Yuuji.
Megumi sucks in a breath. How could Yuuji be here?
Megumi quickly glances around the ballroom but he doesn’t see Gojo anywhere. He glances at Yuuji again, someone he hadn’t expected to ever see again. But here he is, wearing the Itadori family colors. He must be a noble in the family line.
But why is he here?
Megumi is walking through the crowd before he can think twice, even though normally he avoids Todo like he has a disease at events like these, ever since Todo decided that dueling Megumi in the middle of the dancefloor was a good idea three years ago. Gojo still has not let him live down how badly he lost or the fact, as a last resort, he threw the cake at Todo’s head.
Before he even thinks twice, he is walking towards Yuuji.
Shouldn’t he be trying to find whoever Gojo engaged him to? Would they find it rude that Megumi would much rather speak to the boy he met while running away from his royal duties?
But before he reaches Yuuji, he pauses and hesitates.
Should he even approach Yuuji?
When they both had to return home, Yuuji had asked about Megumi’s last name and if they could find each other again. Megumi had hesitated a moment too long, fearing that his unfortunate relation to the Zenin royal family would cause a rift between whatever developed between them during those three weeks.
Now, it would be impossible to pretend he was not related to the Zenins. Not when he was wearing the royal family’s colors in this setting.
Perhaps it would be better if Megumi left him alone…
Then between the people standing between them, Yuuji’s eyes drifted for a moment and locked with Megumi’s. Yuuji’s eyes widen and he lowers his cup in a split second. High Prince Choso turns when he sees Yuuji staring and he notices Megumi as well.
Then Yuuji breaks into a smile, one he had not seen in several months now. Then he breaks away from the group he was talking with, to walk up to Megumi. Not even for a moment does his smile falter.
Then they are standing face to face again.
“Hi,” Yuuji says, quietly. “It’s nice to see you again.”
It is only then that Megumi realizes Yuuji is wearing the Itadori royal family colors, the same ones that High Prince Choso wears. He sucks in a breath.
“You’re part of the Itadori family?” It is not what he meant to first say to Yuuji after seeing him again.
Yuuji glances down at his clothes then back at Megumi. “I didn’t know you were part of the Zenin royal family. Though I guess it makes sense now.”
They stand there, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people, in silence for a moment as it sinks in.
Then Yuuji quickly says, “Well, I knew after we met. I mentioned to my brother—” He glances over his shoulder at High Prince Choso. “That we met and then I realized. And—”
“You’re a prince?” Megumi says and immediately feels like it was an incredibly stupid question to ask.
Yuuji looks at him, blinking. “You didn’t know?”
“No?” Megumi furrows his brows. “How would I have known that?”
“Well—” Yuuji glances back at his brother, looking very confused now. “Why wouldn’t you know?”
“We never told each other our identities,” Megumi reminds him. “We never met at any formal events, so I never had a chance to meet you before then.”
“But…” Yuuji is looking more and more confused now. He looks around the ballroom like it held answers somehow. “Your engagement?”
Megumi looks away for a moment. “Well, I’m not engaged to the woman I told you about anymore.”
Yuuji laughs, like Megumi said something incredibly funny. “I mean, I hope not.”
“But, I am engaged to someone else now.”
Yuuji laughs even harder now and while they were traveling, Megumi would have been happy to have made him laugh like that but at the moment he is simply confused why he is laughing so hard. “Megumi, I know.”
“Oh.” Megumi briefly wonders if Gojo had sent out announcements about the engagement already, but that seemed unlikely considering that Megumi still had yet to meet the person he was now engaged to. “I think I’m missing some context.”
Yuuji stops laughing, though he’s still smiling. “Do you not…know?”
“No?”
Then Yuuji slightly tilts his head to the side. “Do you not know who you’re engaged to now?”
Megumi looks away. “No, I don’t. My godfather arranged it, but said I had to meet the person at this party. I happened to see you and I didn’t know you were an Itadori prince…”
Then he turns back to Yuuji, unsure why he is looking at Megumi with that expression—like someone who is incredibly fond. “But why were you traveling then? If you’re a prince?”
“Oh, I just wanted to travel and get away from the palace for a bit. That and my grandpa was trying to convince me to marry soon.”
“Oh.” It left a strange feeling in Megumi’s gut, almost disappointed. Though that would make no sense since he was engaged and had been engaged when he first met Yuuji.
“Actually,” Yuuji says, after a moment, with a very wide smile. “I’m engaged.”
Megumi stops. “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He stops himself. “Well, I suppose I did know. You did say you were running from a potential engagement—”
“No, it’s a new engagement.”
Megumi freezes and meets Yuuji’s gaze. “What?”
“Oh perfect!” Tsumiki says, as she appears beside him and grabs Megumi’s arm. She’s quickly followed by Nanako and Mimiko as well, all grinning like they know something that Megumi does not. “You found him!”
Megumi furrows his brows and looks at his sister and he is about to ask a question when the twins both break into cheers. “Surprise! Didn’t we tell you to trust they would pick out a good person for your engagement?”
Megumi stares at them, his eyes briefly flicking to Yuuji. “What do you mean when you say that?”
Nanako rolls her eyes and gestures to Yuuji. And in a voice that implies Megumi is stupid says, “Yuuji, obviously!”
Megumi stares.
Yuuji breaks into an even bigger smile.
“What?”
Are they implying that the person he is engaged to is Yuuji?
Gojo and Geto both wave across the room, twin huge, wicked smiles plastered on their faces. Entirely too pleased with themselves.
How in the gods’ names did they know the person he talked about was Yuuji?
“Well,” Yuuji says, breaking into a smile. “Hopefully you don’t run away from your engagement party this time.”
Megumi can’t stop himself from laughing as he meets Yuuji’s gaze. “No, not this time.”
Not if it is Yuuji he is engaged to.