The Emperor's Heir

The Childhood Crush

Yuzu and Mei reached the castle in a few minutes. The ride back was unusually quiet. Yuzu had a lot of questions going on in her head about the attackers. She was slowly coming down from her adrenaline rush and realised her previous stab-wound was also stinging slightly along with the cut on her arm. She didn't want to react, convincing herself that she'd been through worse.
They reached their destination and Yuzu got down first and then helped Mei. The soldiers, maids and butlers were shocked seeing the General and her fiancé in such a condition on their first day out. They watched as Yuzu was taken to the recovery room to get healed with Mei following her shyly, almost with guilt. They all understood that Yuzu had gotten injured by protecting Mei. They knew that it was the General's habit to put others before herself so they didn't blame Mei. Yuzu's parents and grandfather were notified, along with Mei and Yuzu's friends. As soon as they heard, they rushed to check on the both of them.

At the Treatment Room
"I'm fine really. It's just a cut! Nothing to worry about!" Yuzu tried convincing everyone. The doctor had bandaged her arm and gave her some painkillers for the pain of the stab wound from earlier. "You idiot! You can't go anywhere without starting a fight" said Blake and Matsuri joined in "Yeah she probably went and announced to everyone that, HELLO I'M THE PRINCESS, PLEASE ATTACK ME NOW" and they both punched Yuzu's head lightly, causing everyone to laugh at the antics of the three best friends. "Hey it's not my fault this creepy lady and her masked men just attacked us all of a sudden" Yuzu replied, chuckling lightly. Then she suddenly remembered the Luginican emblem she had seen on one of the masked guys and her smile disappeared. Everyone noticed her change of expression and knew that Yuzu was going to say something important.

Yuzu took a deep breath and began, "While fighting with them, I slashed the cloak of one of the guys, revealing the Luginican emblem. As we all know, the Luginicans were not happy about this alliance. But going after me and Mei like that was not something the kingdom would do, since the attack wasn't well coordinated. I believe it's someone else from the Luginicans, someone with the power to pull something like this and get away with it." After Yuzu finished, King Hiro spoke "You're right. Now can you please tell me if you saw the leader of this attack? That is a very important detail." Yuzu looked at her father and nodded, "Yes, I remember the leader being a lady in a silver cloak. She said that she was my childhood lover and to kill Mei and run away with her, claiming that I belong to her."
Before anybody could say anything, Yuzu's grandfather, Hioshi, spoke in a grave tone, "I remember now. The lady who attacked you was the missing Luginican princess, Hotaru Luginica. There is a rumour that she ran away after the Okogi-Aihara alliance was made. Some people think it's because she was in love with Yuzu, and the alliance made her want to run away and take Yuzu with her. They used to be close friends during childhood." Everybody was silent hearing that. Suddenly Yuzu spoke up, " Hotaru? White hair, red eyes? Oh, I remember her. We used to be close friends. Didn't know she was in love with me though." "That's because you are denser than wet cement when it comes to this" said Matsuri.
Everyone chuckled again, clearing the tense atmosphere. Suddenly Queen Ume spoke up, "Looks like Yuzu's fine for now. We should all go, it's late. And I believe that someone wants to talk to Yuzu, so we should give them space" glancing at Mei, who was sitting quietly in the back of the room, listening to the conversations. Blake cleared his throat and said "Ah yes Ume-san, I believe we should all go to our rooms .It is quiet late and the LOVEBIRDS have a lot to talk about" "Blake you imbecile! Stop spewing nonsense" screamed Yuzu as she and Mei had identical blushes. Soon, everyone left, leaving Mei and Yuzu alone.
Yuzu looked at Mei and patted the space next to her on the medical bed. Mei stood up and shyly sat down next to Yuzu. "How are you holding up Princess?" Mei blushed and thought that Yuzu referred to her as Princess not as her royal title, but as her princess. "I'm fine. You're the one who got hurt. Try to think about yourself more." Mei said in her monotone voice. "Ah well, you looked so scared back there that I thought I was going to kill all of them for that" replied Yuzu chuckling. Mei looked at her and without thinking, hugged her, causing Yuzu to stop laughing and become still. "T-thank you. For e-everything" said Mei. She then felt two pairs of strong arms engulf her and hug her back, making her face rest on Yuzu's collarbone. "I promised, didn't I?" replied Yuzu in a soothing tone. They stayed in that position for a couple of minutes till Yuzu felt Mei's breathing get even, indicating the girl was on the verge of falling asleep. Yuzu then gently placed her own hand under Mei's thighs, and lifted her up on her lap. "W-what are you doing?" said Mei, whisper-shouting. "Relax, I'm just going to carry you to our bedroom, you look like you're going to fall asleep any minute." And after saying that, Yuzu stood up and made her way towards their bedroom, causing Mei to tighten her hold on Yuzu's neck. Yuzu carried her and gently laid her down, both of them blushing, and slid in beside her . Both of them fell asleep soon, both of them thinking about the other before drifting off to a peaceful slumber.

Hotaru Luginica: