Chapter Text
To say that Arata was enamored with his new young beautiful fiance was an understatement. Marrying her was truly going to be the happiest day of his life. He adored her, for her. For who she was as a person. She was considerably shorter than he was, which he found adorable. Even though she had spent countless hours in the sun working on her farm, her face was pristine and always clear and bright. Her eyes were the most striking shade of blue that he had ever seen; and they just had the inexplicable ability to just pierce his heart and soul. Her smile, Gods her smile, filled his stomach with butterflies and made his knees weak. It just put a direct beam of sunlight and joy in his heart and soul whenever she smiled at him.
He would never understand how or why she chose him of all people to spend the rest of her precious life with, but she somehow did. And he thanked every god under the sun and stars that she did! He fell head over heels from their first introduction that fateful day. He was to be a bodyguard for the 4th Prince of the Kingdom of Sumaranoc, Prince Samir-Raja Swareet. He was the youngest son of the Kingdom, and he had virtually no chance of inheriting the throne unless a catastrophic tragedy would occur leaving him the sole heir to the throne. This assurance allowed him to choose to live a peaceful and obscure life in a far off country in a peaceful small town to live as he pleased. But even then, the 4th Prince needed a bodyguard.
Which is precisely why Arata had arrived first, to scope out the place and report back to the King of Sumaranoc that this place was safe enough for his youngest son.
Arata's family wasn't nobility per se, but they weren’t exactly commoners either. They were descended from a long line of knights, swordsmans, martial arts experts that served as guardsmen for the Kingdom. Arata's father was among the King's top and most feared guardsmen, second only to his grandfather. It would only be natural that Arata would fall into this line of top tier guardsmen. Arata had dedicated his life learning the crafts of his fathers, and he was the guardianship's top graduate. He was on track to enlist as a knight, but then things changed.
Then the youngest prince needed a bodyguard.
Arata didn't mind the slight career change. As a matter of fact, he was thankful for it. He was naturally social, good natured and kind; but years of back breaking and soul crushing work and commitment that it took to be the top of the top guardsmen had buried that kindness deep inside of him. But he refused to let that kindness die. He refused to let his heart break.
When the king sent him ahead of his youngest son, with each mile that separated him from the Kingdom of Sumaranoc, he felt his natural kindness rising inch by inch from its grave. By the time he had reached the Principality of Norrenbrooke, and found the teeny tiny town of Zephyr Town, he was so eager and excited to meet smiling faces for once.
And then he met the biggest and brightest smiling face he had ever seen in his life.
K.C.
Arata knew her full name was Katrina Carolina, but she simply preferred to go by the simple acronym K.C. She preferred her life to be simple, and didn’t see the need to achieve that by always going by her elaborate full name. Trying to achieve and maintain a simple life is one of the many things that first attracted Arata to her.
When he first laid eyes on that beautiful face, he could have fallen to his knees. He was struck by her very presence. Sure, her beauty was beyond measure. She was without a doubt one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. But there was something so familiar about this young woman. He just couldn't put his finger on it. There was something about her eyes, her majestic blue eyes, that he knew he had seen somewhere before. He knew it because when he saw them before, he had to steady himself as the wind was sucked out of him.
Or more correctly, kicked out of him; because at the time, he was sparring in the courtyard of the Swareet Palace when he saw those two mystic orbs being led and followed through the great veranda leading to another corridor to another part of the palace. A part of the palace where official foreign visitors were greeted by the royal family.
Arata immediately came to a halt when he just happened to look up and caught a glance of those blue disks in a sea of the muted and dull colors of the outside courtyard. He couldn’t make out too many details of her face, as it was customary for women in the palace to wear a scarf covering their hair. The scarf she had chosen to adorn was a rose pink with gold embroidery in the styles of high ranking Sumaranocian families, a color and shade which perfectly complimented her eyes.
His normally laser focus on his opponent slipped, which handed his opponent their opportunity to land a swift kick to Arata's unguarded stomach.
Arata let out a loud “PUH” as he instinctively put his arms around his stomach and then to his knees as he tried to find purchase for the air that was just kicked out of him.
“Finally get so cocky you let your guard down, ‘eh Arata?”, his sparing partner huffed victoriously.
Even though was bent at the waist and his knees bent slightly, his head was still jerked up, being unable to take his eyes off the pink figure in the middle of five other figures of varying shades being led down through the corridor.
His sparing partner, looking perplexed at his expression, turned to see what had his partner so utterly lost to the world. Over his shoulder, he too turned to see the smaller pink figure. He watched until he saw her turn her head towards the sparing pair, and saw her incredibly blue eyes. From his vantage point, he could see more of her head than Arata could. She had pale brown hair with bangs just above her eyes, and a small face, which accentuated how large her eyes were. She had a beautiful face, with her eyes being the most magnificent feature. He could see why his partner couldn't take his eyes off her.
His partner gave an amusing snort, “I suppose I owe her a thanks for distracting you for me.”
“You might as well drink her in, cause that's the closest you'll ever get to being with the likes of her! She's probably here to meet the young prince, he's about marrying age after all,” the sparing partner taunted.
Arata's eye grew wide with a combination of revelation and elation. As Prince Samir's newly appointed bodyguard, if the young girl was here to meet with the prince, then there was a chance that he would see her again. He couldn’t fathom ever having another chance to meet someone as magnificent as her.
If he could just stare into those eyes again; and maybe if the Gods permitted, maybe he could have the chance to admit to her that she is one of the most spectacular beings he's ever seen in the flesh. Just maybe she would smile at him. Gods…a smile to go along with those beautiful eyes would send him over the moon. He would be content for the rest of his life with just having the memory of her face smiling at him with those big gorgeous blue eyes.
Arata immediately lifts his stance, arms straight to his sides, before he makes a bolt to report to his grandfather about the youngest prince's whereabouts. But not before turning his head to his sparring partner, “Oh look at the time, I gotta go to my post.”
With those parting words, Arata took off like a mad man, leaving his sparring partner in a cloud of dust.
Arata thought back to this memory and laughed to himself at his own foolhardiness as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. When he ran to meet his grandfather, his grandfather was ready to give him a reprimand for not already being at the prince's side; but when the elder man saw the lovestruck goofy look that was plastered on his grandson's face, he decided to let it slide. Just this once.
As it turned out, Arata wouldn't join Prince Samir's side until much later that evening. The Prince was meeting foreign visitors with his family. Samir didn't make any comment about who they were meeting or why he had to meet them. It wasn’t Arata's place to ask, so he simply dropped his feelings; but he tucked the image of that angel girl deep in his mind.
Looking back now, the angel girl looked so much like his own K.C., that she was all he could think about now since he met K.C. face to face. He had no need to visit that little place in his mind where he kept the image of the girl tucked away.
He had his own magnificent angel girl now, and he was never, ever, EVER letting her go or letting anything happen to her.