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“Wow. That’s a lot to take in.”
“Yeah. It is.”
“And you didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Huh,” Nori hums. He takes a moment to lick from the vanilla and caramel ice cream cone in his hand before he continues. “Look Ji, I know I can be pretty oblivious sometimes…”
Naaji watches quietly as the same place Nori just licked melts and warm caramel drips onto his hand. “Yeah?”
“But I’m preeetty sure I would be able to tell if my mom was about to have a baby and I was going to get a surprise little sister on a random Wednesday morning.”
Naaji rolls his eyes and eats a spoonful of his own mint ice cream. “Mesahrans don’t work like that, stupid. Babies don’t come from their mom, they come from La Madre — the Mother Tree. That’s where I came from.”
They take another bite, letting the chocolate chips melt in their mouth before swallowing, “… so, yeah, I had no idea.”
“Alright, sure, I’ll give you that…” Nori squints and gestures at them with his rapidly melting treat. “But it’s weird they didn’t tell you, no?”
Naaji gently tips the cone upright again to prevent all the ice cream from sliding off and plummeting onto the grass. His finger comes away dripping.
“Maybe a little,” the salted caramel is sweet on his tongue, “but so is telling your heir they're being replaced. That's a bit awkward to know ahead of time,” he says dryly. “But hey, can't blame them for getting a backup heir ready. You know, for whenever I fail at being a ruler? Best get ahead of that now.”
“Hey, don’t say that!” Nori pulls his cone back, taking a wet slurp from it. “You don't know that. And! You’re gonna be a great Monarch one day, I'm sure of it.”
“Mhm.” They close their eyes and lean back against the tree they were sitting under.
“Naaji. I mean that.”
“I know.”
He opens his eyes again and starts mixing his ice cream around with his spoon, watching as it becomes soup in the hot Mesahran sun. It was sweet of Nori to believe in them so much. It made them believe it too sometimes.
But he couldn’t help but think how easy it was to go out today, especially considering it was to see Nori, and just for the fun of it, not for any serious political alliance reason. Not long ago that would’ve been nearly impossible.
Maybe his parents had given up on trying to mold him into the perfect prince he should have been, and it was easier now because they’d stopped caring?
Probably not, they wouldn’t give up that easily. But it still sat weird with him.
“Maybe it’s a good thing, actually,” Naaji says after a moment. “I didn’t really want to be Monarch anyway.”
The grass rustles as Nori shifts forward, elbow to his knee and fist on his cheek, tilting his head up to look at Naaji. His face is curious, but his eyebrows are laced with concern.
“Well, yeah, I know that…” he says carefully, “but, if you're no longer in the running to be Monarch one day… what happens to us, then?”
“Nothing. Nothing happens,” Naaji says. “She’s still just a baby. I don’t think they’d dare mess with the all powerful magical bond between our kingdoms just to shift it over from me to a hatchling. It wouldn’t make much sense.”
“And—” he adds, suppressing a smirk, “by the time she’s old enough, you’d be what, 26? Surely that’s a power imbalance skewed in the Windarians’ favor,” Naaji raises an eyebrow, “and we can’t be having that, now can we?”
Nori’s expression shifts to a mischievous grin, eyes sparkling. “No! We shan’t be having that, not today!” He topples over dramatically, head falling into Naaji’s lap, the hand holding his ice cream flopping out to the side (and consequently dropping what remained of his treat into the grass) while the other hand lands over his heart. “Oh, woe is me! Devs forbid it, a Windarian, having any sort of connection with a Mesahran, in which the former benefits from the latter in any way! Just imagining it makes me faint…”
As he monologues, Nori’s now empty hand sneaks closer and closer to their ice cream. At the last second, Naaji snatches it up and away, making their friend pout.
“Uh huh, I’m sure it does, Kiki,” Naaji says, dipping his spoon into the dessert and carefully placing a dollop on the tip of Noriaki’s nose. “Good thing those kinds of relationships don’t exist, huh?”
“Aww… they don’t?” Nori mumbles, wiping the ice cream off his nose. “Well, that’s a right shame then, I think I’d rather enjoy that…”
Naaji hums thoughtfully and takes another spoonful. “Oh, really? What a coincidence, I think I’d like that too.” He lowers the spoon to Nori’s mouth, giggling as his friend perks up and consumes the ice cream in two licks like an excited puppy.
They continue this for a while — Naaji offering spoonfuls of melted ice cream to Nori, and Nori gulping the sweet syrup down without hesitation — until Nori asks: “So, Naaji… your sister…”
Naaji puts his spoon in his now empty cup and sets it aside. “Yeah?”
“Is sheee…” Nori hesitates, struggling for a good question, “I don’t know, is she cute?”
He knew Nori hadn’t meant it like that, obviously, but— well, he had said it like that.
“She’s a day old, Noriaki. That’s a little young to be hit on, isn't it?” Naaji huffs, lightly flicking him on the forehead.
“Ow!” Nori scowls and rubs at the offended spot. “Oh, come off it, you know I only have eyes for you, sunshine!”
A slight heat rises into Naaji’s cheeks that couldn’t be entirely explained away by the warm weather.
“I guess she’s kind of cute,” Naaji says, rather than acknowledging that comment. “I mean, she’s a baby. Kind of… squishy? I guess? And small.”
Nori nods along as he listens, clasping his hands together over his chest. “I see, I see… you got any pictures?”
“No, not yet. I only saw her for like, five minutes. Didn’t really get the chance.” Naaji shrugs. “Maybe I’ll send you some later, when I have some.”
If he got to see her up close again, that is. His parents had seemed incredibly protective of her when they’d brought her in to meet him. They didn’t even get to hold her.
Then again, maybe that was for the best — it was a little nerve wracking, being around someone so tiny.
“Yay! I can’t wait to see them. Then I’ll finally know what you looked like as a baby,” Nori says, grinning up at him cheekily.
Naaji snorts and shoves his friend off his lap. “The same as all the other Mesahran babies, idiot.”
Nori lands on the grass with a thump and rolls, narrowly stopping to avoid coating his tunic in the remnants of vanilla ice cream still melting in the grass. “No no, you were different, you were special, I know you were,” he insists. “And still are!”
He sits up and shakes his hair out, sending bits of dry grass flying. A few pieces land in Naaji’s empty ice cream cup. Good thing they'd let Nori finish it beforehand.
“Aaanyways…” Nori says, using his not-sticky-hand to brush his middle part back into place, “she got a name yet?”
“Madiha,” he says. “It means ‘praiseworthy.’”
“Oh, does it now?” Nori squints at them, an eyebrow raised suspiciously. “What, implying their firstborn heir wasn't?”
Naaji winces. Knowing his parents? That probably was their thought process, given their precious daughter "Successful" turned out not to be so successful as a daughter after all.
“Her middle name is Maritza, too… that was my middle name,” they say quietly.
“Ah yes, I remember that one. I still think it's a rather itchy name, I don't blame you for ditching it.”
“It's not itchy, it's familial. It being my mother's name, and all…” A frown crosses their face. “They probably gave it to her because I didn't deserve it.”
“What?!” Nori gasps. “And why would you need to deserve a name like that?! It's not even that nice of a name!” He places a hand over his chest proudly. “Personally, I think your parents should hire me to name all their children. I've already got a 100% success rate on helping to rename Mesahran royals with overly stuffy names!”
Naaji huffs. “Mine wasn't that stuffy… but yeah, consider me a satisfied customer, I guess,” they say, mouth twisting into a half smile. “I do prefer my name now, that's for sure.”
“See! That's what I'm talking about!” Nori says, raising his hands in the air. “Parents really ought to stop naming their children such insufferable names. A praiseworthy name, please, give me a break…”
He drops his arms, expression turning more sympathetic. “I am sorry you had to go through that, though. I don’t know what I’d do if my mom walked in holding a brand new baby and was all like—” he clears his throat, preparing for one of his half-baked impressions, “‘Hey, son! I know we’ve raised you all by yourself for the past sixteen years, but your father and I got bored, so weee had another baby!’~”
He finishes with jazz hands and a big fake grin, then drops his theatrics again, “… I imagine that must’ve been quite the shock.”
Naaji only shrugs. To be honest, he was just glad to have seen his parents outside of a meal. Or, maybe not glad, but it was a change of pace regardless. Sort of.
“Yeah, it was… kind of a crazy surprise.” He stares down at his robe and sash, where a rainbow of paint pigments were spattered along the lower edges. They frown and tug lightly at the hem. “It made me spill my paints and everything.”
Nori snorts at the splatters, as if his own clothes weren’t covered in ice cream drips. “Well, if that’s not the most Naaji thing… painting right before some world shattering news.”
Naaji rolls his eyes and starts trying to scratch away at the dried splotches with his fingernails to no avail. Well, there goes another set of clothes to the painting pile. “I paint all the time, Nori. Today wasn’t special.”
“Yeah? If you’re painting all the time, why haven’t I seen any of your recent work, huh?” he says, squinting at them suspiciously.
Naaji hesitates. Nori wasn’t really going to force an answer out of them, he wasn’t like that. But surely they could find an explanation for him that wasn’t flat out telling Nori that most of their artwork lately had been portraits of him.
And, when they weren't, they were commissions from his mother, who promised that if he made the pieces she asked for in a timely manner he would be permitted to see his “little friend” without too many repercussions.
So far, it seemed to be working out for them well enough. They’d made it out to see Nori today, after all.
“I… don’t know what you’d think of them,” he says slowly. “They’re… not your style?”
“Hmm…” Nori hums, reclining back on the grass to look up at the sky. It was a beautiful shade of blue today, and it complemented the purple and gold Nori was wearing so well. Maybe that could be his next painting — after he was finished with the next round of requests.
“Well, maybe you should show me your next one, then,” Nori was saying. “Because if it’s coming from you, I bet it’ll be fantastic.”
He pauses, wrinkling his nose. “Unless it’s one of those royal family portrait type paintings with your new sister in it. I never liked those kinds of paintings. Far too stiff. No life in them.”
Naaji laughs, despite the fact that he would most definitely be asked to paint that exact thing sooner rather than later. “It won’t be, don’t worry. I don’t like them much either.”
He falls back onto the grass, folding his wings in so he doesn’t thwack his friend with them. “Thanks for coming to cheer me up, by the way. I appreciate it.”
“Of course, my sweet prince! Anytime.” Nori turns to them, a big beaming grin on his face. “Anything for my best friend.”
And Naaji can’t help but smile back. How could they not, when he was looking at them like that?
“I couldn’t have asked for a better one.”