Forgotten Faces

How It All Began

And they lived happily ever after. The End. 

Oh, it seems we have a late arrival. Why hello. I'm afraid you just missed the story. 

You still wanna hear it?

Well alright. Where should I start? 

Where I left off? Well that just won't do. You wouldn't know any of the details. How about I start at the beginning? Where everything began.

The room stood silent all but for the desperate cries. A tall lady with beautiful brown hair and an elegant red, gold, and black dress, expertly crafted, watched in horror as a poor boy and his father were pushed to the ground harshly in front of her. Their clothing, ragged and dirty, indicated their low stature. Another woman stood above them stepping on the little boy's head as he cried in pain. The woman looked an awful lot like the boy. Their pain and the woman's yelling told the brown haired woman all she needed to know. 

The father was a slave, the woman his owner, and the child an accident between the two. An accident the mother would prefer to kill off. The sight was horrifying as the woman presented the elegant woman with the two she seemed so eager to get rid of, offering a trade. Behind the one so elegant was a child. One that was her own. A little girl she loved so much.

As a mother herself she could not fathom why the other woman treated her own child so terribly. The little boy screamed in pain as his mother hit him with a whip, yelling at him to 'shut up'. That was the last straw. 

"Enough." The elegant one's voice boomed through the hall. She would no longer stand the abuse in front of her. "I will take them. How much do you request?" 

She would pay any amount if it meant she could get at least the poor boy a safer place to stay. The mother spoke her request and it was met immediately.  Then she left, ignoring the cries of the child she gave birth to and abandoned for her own gain. A horrible woman she was. 

But no longer did the man or child have to suffer. They bowed to the woman left in front of them. They could not disrespect their Queen, or her daughter, the princess. 

"Please, stand up if you can." She spoke sweetly. "I wanted to assist you any way I could."

The man quickly and clumsily got to his feet, helping his son stand after doing so. He opened his mouth to thank her but was shut down before he could make a sound. 

"There's no need to thank me or ask what you can do in return. All I request is that you serve as a butler in my castle. You may be a cook or guard if that is your wish. And you need not worry for your son. He will be trained to be my daughter's personal butler. You will sleep in the servants' sleeping quarters next to the castle and be well fed from now on." 

The woman's daughter peeked out from behind her mother to get a better look of the boy. He was tan with messy black hair and hazel cat like eyes. She herself had brown hair and a dress similar to her mother's. The boy looked at her while he clinged to his father. Neither said a thing to the other and neither would for a bit of time. 

Years passed and the two got to know each other better. The princess came to find the boy's name was Tetsurou Kuroo and he learned the girl was called Kenna Kozume. When they met, Kuroo was six and Kenna was 5. Now they were 9 and 8. Tetsurou was still in training though he would complete it on December 10. And Kenna?

Well, she met her betrothed. The man she was destined to marry when she reached 18. He was the same age as Kuroo, older only by a few months. He was an interesting boy to say the least. Neither hated him, they were getting used to him. He was more outgoing than the two of them combined. The three of them got closer by the day as it was required for Kenna and him to spend time together as their future spouses. 

Kenna in fact had many potential husbands throughout the land as few kingdoms had daughters and her kingdom was among the most respected; the Nekoma Kingdom. Her betrothed was the prince of a nearby kingdom that had had a rivalry and constant competition with the Nekoma Kingdom; the Nohebi Kingdom. His name was Suguru Daishou. The only reason for their betrothal was because of their rivalry.

The two queens feared that if it continued any longer a war would break out and so the kings of both kingdoms made an agreement that if their children were married to unite the two kingdoms then they would stop the rivalry and end any fuse that would cause a war. Now their kids and a butler were good friends. 

They continued to grow closer as days passed. Before they knew it Kuroo was an official butler, Christmas came and went. New Years did the same. Kenna found out she was a trans male and preferred the name Kenma. The confusion of a two king marriage became too much and the arranged marriage was cancelled. But a rivalry never erupted again because both kids and queens had become good friends and no one had the heart to start a war when they were so close now. 

More days passed, all happy days and the three had tons of fun. They were always together. That is until a day came where Daishou was sent to a strict boarding school. He would have no contact with anyone outside of it and would not be back for several years. The goodbyes were hard but had to be said and he was off. Over time the two queens lost contact and neither kingdom interfered with the other. 

Leaving Kuroo and Kenma to grow up together without their friend.