royally arranged

Shoto [chapter 25]

"Touya, Your performance in just about anything has been getting poorer with each passing day. Do better," Enji spoke from his throne.

Ah yes, the daily summonings. You stood in a line from youngest to oldest, waiting for Enji to degrade you on whatever minor bullshit you accidentally messed up that day. You didn't see the point in this crap. Every single day, the same thing would happen.

"Yeah, yeah," Touya waved off his father with a bored expression, "Whatever. Just hurry up and insult us so we can all go on our merry ways."

Enji sent a glare Touya's way before moving his attention to Fuyumi, "Fuyumi, you did better to day than yesterday. However, there were minor things you need to work on such as posture and politeness."

You saw Fuyumi's eye subtly twitched, but she quickly covered it up with a smile, "Yes sir."

"Natsuo—" Enji started to say.

"Shut up. I don't care what you have to say, it's just going to be nit picky things that nobody else even pays attention to," Natsuo rolled his eyes, "Save my time and everybody else's."

Enji rolled his own eyes, "Shoto—"

Shoto covered his ears while looking directly at Enji, "I'm going to start blocking out all negativity in my life. I will be starting with you."

Touya chortled at what his brother said, Fuyumi snickering, and Natsuo cackling. You laughed as well, not expecting Shoto to say anything like that. Rei probably would've laughed too if she were there, but she wasn't. She decided on skipping out and locking herself in her room.

"Y/n," Enji ignored what his favorite child said and turned to you.

You raised an eyebrow, "You really want to do this little game with me today?"

"Dismissed," Enji waved you off, all five of you leaving the throne room and heading for your own.

Shoto pushed open the door to your bedroom once you arrived, holding it open for you before gently shutting once both of you got inside. You were going to grab a night gown to get changed in, but stopped when Shoto opened the doors to the balcony and walked out.

You watched as he hopped up on the edge, plopping down with his feet dangling over the side. He looked up towards the stars, his hair falling back and blowing to the side a bit from a cool, windy breeze. He looked handsome.

You slowly walked out onto the balcony, leaning on the railing in the spot directly next to him. You turned your head to look at him, Shoto looking at you out of the side of his eyes.

"Is something wrong?" you asked him. Your dress blew to the side due to the winds that had been blowing all day. They weren't bad or anything, they just never seemed to stop.

"Nah," he shook his head, hair swaying from side to side, "Today is the anniversary of the day Rei boiled my face."

"Can I laugh?" you asked, "You were so blunt about it to the point where it's almost funny. Like, it's horrible that she would've done such a thing, but the way you told me."

Shoto chuckled, turning his head so he was facing you, "Yeah, it's fine."

"I'm so sorry," you laughed a bit, covering your mouth and bringing your forehead down on his shoulder, "Now... Rei did that to you?!"

Things got serious now that the laughs were out of the way. You had brought your head from off his shoulder and looked at him with worry.

"Yeah," he nodded, "It's partially her fault and partially my father's. They're both bad parents in my eyes."

"Rei? She seems so nice though," you mumbled.

"Enji made her go insane. You know how my left side basically is a clone copy of my father's?" Shoto asked, continuing when he received a nod from you, "Well my mother went mad to the point she couldn't even look at my father. I was young and didn't quite understand much, but she ended up burning my face with boiling water."

"All that just because you look like your father? You can't control that," you brought your hands up to his face. You wanted to ask a question, but were hesitant. "Can I touch it?"

Shoto looked into your eyes with a small smile and nodded. "It doesn't hurt anymore," he explained, grabbing your hand and guiding it across his face until you eventually touched the red scar that covered his eye.

"I'm sorry that happened," you replied softly, gingerly running your fingertips over the scar. You doubted that it would still hurt after all the time it had to heal, but that didn't stop you from being gentle with him.

Shoto placed his hand on top of yours, lightly closing his eyes as he let out a hum. He liked when you touched him, (and not in a sexual way you dirty minded little pests) he found it comforting.

"It's in the past now. There's nothing more that can be done," he replied. Shoto slowly opened his eyes again to stare back into yours. "You can go to the library if you'd like. Sorry if I held you back from going."

"No, no," you shook your head, "It's fine. I want to stay here with you."

Shoto narrowed his eyes at you, smiling when he came up with an idea, "How about we both just go to the library? I know you want to read, so if I go to the library you can do both. Spending time with me and reading."

Your eyebrows raised from his willingness to so easily come up with a solution. From your observations of your mother and father, (which probably aren't the best two people to learn about love from) you had seen that your mother was the one who tried to fix the problems they had. She'd always being the one coming up with solutions, and your father would just let her.

That still didn't save their marriage, not in the slightest, but it had made them last just a tiny bit longer.

"Yeah," you smiled, grabbing his hands and pulling him down off the balcony railing, "Yeah, let's do that."

With a smile, Shoto lead you back inside your room. He closed and locked the doors to the balcony before heading to the doors that lead to the hall.

And thus, you ended up sitting in Shoto's lap and reading books with him for the rest of the night, Well until Shoto forced you to go to bed, knowing full well you would spend the full night awake if you were allowed to.