For my Kingdom, For our Love

4 - In your Arms.

"What do we have here?" A voice, no. A man, was making his way towards Tsukasa. "I got shot down, I can barely move" Tsukasa pleaded, praying that it wasn't one of the forests knights. As he grew closer, it was easy to make out who he was. It was the soldier from earlier, Tsukasa couldn't remember his name, only that he had tried to take Tsukasa's role back at the gate by addressing everyone. "Well I suppose you could move just fine when Kamishiro was carrying you.. HA! How the Queen would LOVE to know that you of all people have been fantasising with the enemy!"

"What do you mean?" He asked, trying to play dumb. Needless to say, it didn't work as planned. "You know exactly what I mean, Tenma. That's why you wear that ring, right? It matches his". Tsukasa stared at him, shocked. "H-how did you-"

"We got caught in a one-on-one earlier and I noticed it, so tell me.." He stepped closer and grabbed Tsukasa's chin, making him flinch. "are you two together? As in, married? This sure must be embarrassing for you~"

Tsukasa ignored the question and fired one right back. "Why are you doing this?"

"Information for the Queen, of course, I mean, you're her favourite, I'm sure hearing that you died out here will break her heart, but not as much as this betrayal will-! And plus, it gives the rest of us.. no.. ME, Sir Ichiro Yamamoto, a chance. A chance to be the one who outshined the Tsukasa Tenma.!" He explained creepily. 'Yamamoto, that's his name huh..' Tsukasa thought. "And I'm going to make sure you're dead before I leave-"

"So you're killing me out of jealousy?" Tsukasa questioned. "No, I don't want to be you, you're boring, I want your rank. Now, say goodbye, Sir Tenma.." He pulled out a large bow and arrow from behind his back and aimed it at Tsukasa's head. Tsukasa didn't even attempt to move, he couldn't. He just had to accept his death at this point. He stayed silent rather than protest, it would make this end a bit less painful. The arrow was pulled back, and was set. Tsukasa squeezed his eyes shut, he didn't want to see it coming towards him, the thought was already frightening enough. But there was no impact.

"What do you think you're doing, you fool?" A sharp voice rung through the air. Tsukasa opened his eyes after hearing it. "Gah, its you, Kamishiro.. here to save your traitor little husband, are you?" Ichiro laughed maniacally. "Damn right I am, now step away from Tenma or there will be.. issues.." He spoke formally and boldly, making him come off as quite frightening. "Oh yeah? Come on, try me" He boasted, all though, not as confidently as before, which Rui noticed. "What, scared? Finally realising who made your arrow stop mid-air?" And he had. The arrow that was aimed at the blond boys head, was floating in the middle of the who Asahina kingdom boys. Rui did a gesture with his hands and the wooden weapon fell to the ground. "I suppose I'll be needing the extra hand to deal with you, although it shouldn't take much strength" He closed his eyes and held his hands out, performing all sorts of movements with them until there was a red ball of light hovering above his palms. He aimed it at him and fired without a single word. As expected, Ichiro fled the scene in an instant. Rui knelt down to Tsukasa. "I'm so sorry, darling, did he harm you?" He asked. "No, I'm fine, it's just.. everything going so fast-! It's confusing.." Tears were beginning to form in Tsukasa's eyes. "How am I not dead yet, Rui?! I've been like this for so long and-"

"I casted a temporary spell to stop it from getting fatally worse, that's why.. and it's also why we're leaving now, I need to get you bandaged up" Rui scooped Tsukasa into his arms and made his way through the quieter parts of the forest.

Tsukasa was never like this, maybe the pain was messing up his thoughts? Rui didn't know, but he needed to hurry before the magic wore off. "I only left because I needed to inform who I was working with that I was leaving.. I never meant for this to happen.." He said. He felt horrible that he had left Tsukasa alone like that, what was he thinking? "It's.. fine" Tsukasa was growing weaker. The magic was fading away much quicker than expected. "We're nearly there, Tsukasa, hang on"

"Rui.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry for.. all of this.." Tsukasa looked up at him. "No, don't apologise, please don't apologise. None of this is your fault, Tsukasa" Rui said reassuringly, even though he knew that they would be having a very different conversation later, it was best to just not add any more stress onto him.

They reached a large oak wood house, it seemed oak was very natural to this Kingdoms environment, unlike the Asahina kingdom, which only grew trees that the Queen thought were elegant enough for her land, however the trees here matched much better and were much prettier than those that were grown over the border.

Rui let himself inside the house, not even bothering to lock the door behind him. "Rui?! The door? Wait, is that-?" A voice called over to him from the end of the hallway. "I know, can you get it for me? And yes, it's him" He said briefly as he hurried up the stairs and into one of the rooms. But he was too late.

The pain had drained Tsukasa's energy, meaning he was now unconscious, or sleeping, Rui couldn't tell. Either way, it ended up working to his advantage.

"Sleep as much as you want, my dear, I've got this from here, you're safe now"