A Castle in the Trees (Saiouma Fantasy AU) (HIATUS)

3

Shuichi took a bite out of his peach, staring off towards the dreamy and picturesque view of the Oma Castle. The marble towers extended upwards great heights, almost touching the clouds as they drifted in the sky.

He was taking a break from harvesting peaches for a pie to eat one of his own, sitting on the ground with his back against the trunk of the tree. It wasn't all the way ripe yet, thus being a bit harder than the good ones reserved purely for cooking, but it was still a nice treat. He tried to be careful about eating out of the garden, not wanting to get in trouble, but he took what he could every now and then.

It was yet another hot and sluggish day. Wake up, eat, work, eat again if he had time, more work, take a bath if he could, eat again if he hadn't had lunch that day, go to sleep, repeat. It was all so repetitive. Honestly, that combined with the heat gave everything a slow and trancelike pace.

Although the winter months that would ensue after were harsh, he looked forward to fall. The weather would cool down and the leaves would start to change, leaving the surrounding forest in several beautiful shades of orange and red and brown. For now, he had to withstand the heat.

"Ne-hehe! You can't catch meeee!"

"Well, obviously I cannot, not in these shoes!"

Two familiar voices came from the direction of his castle and he focused his attention there, seeing Kokichi and Celestia running away from the building, Celeste giving chase to her grinning brother with an irritated expression on her face. 

He froze, unable to look away but not wanting to look towards them. He didn't know if he should get up and move, or go back to working, or just pretend he didn't see them. Eventually, he decided on what he thought would be the most reasonable option, which was to duck behind the tree in a panic and hide. He silently hoped that they hadn't seen him, peeking around the side of the trunk just subtly enough that they didn't see him.

However, just his luck, they had. Kokichi halted his sister and looked towards the tree curiously. "Hey, did you see him?" He questioned.

"Who?" She asked.

"The guy that was over there." He pointed towards the tree, trying to crane his neck around it to see if Shuichi was still there.

"The one who just ran behind the tree as soon as he saw us?"

"Yeah, him."

"What about him?" She asked. "He is probably another worker. Leave him be."

"I've been seeing him around a lot lately. I think he's our age. I should go talk to him!" He said decidedly.

Celeste sighed. "Kokichi, you know better than any of us that we are not allowed to interact with them. We would get in huge trouble, and put him at even more risk. It is better if we let him be."

"I'm in hot water already anyways, so why is it such a big deal? Besides, I never said you had to come along. You're boring anyways." This was a line of reasoning Kokichi stuck to frustratingly frequently- if you were already in trouble, what's a bit more? Yet another annoyance his sister had to deal with when trying to keep him safe.

"Doing so would raise your 'hot water' status, as you put it, to scalding, boiling, lava-hot. I'm telling you, we are to stay away from him." He said sternly. He scoffed.

"Just because you're jealous that some guy I don't even know is more interesting than you doesn't mean you get to dictate who I'm friends with." He teased. "I'm going to talk to him, and you can't stop me." He started towards the tree with determined footsteps and his hands on his hips, fueled halfway out of a will to see what exactly Shuichi's deal was and halfway by a will to defy his sister.