A few weeks later
Mizuki walked towards his father's throne room to find out why he hadn't left it yet to join the festivities that have been happening all day. They finally found an appropriate time to host their annual festival and Mizuki was overjoyed at how everything came out.
Hana had truly outdone herself.
Everything from the food to the music to the decoration was absolutely perfect. Everyone was having the time of their lives and Mizuki would be too but he couldn't bring himself to genuinely smile without his love by his side.
He chided himself for letting any negative emotions overtake his mind once again and snapped out of it as he reached the door that led to his father.
After two gentle knocks, he slowly pushed open the door and took a step inside. His eyebrows furrowed in worry when he saw his father leaning against the desk with two fingers massaging his temple.
"Dad?" Mizuki called out softly. "Are you okay?"
"Ah-Mizuki." Hiroshi said as he sat up straighter and masked his expression. "What happened?"
"Nothing I just wanted to ask why you haven't joined yet?" Mizuki asked as he walked closer to his father.
"I might skip it this year." He answered sombrely.
"Why?" Mizuki asked as he took a seat and leaned back on the comfy chair.
"Your mother used to love the festivals." He breathed out after a moment of silence and Mizuki's face dropped as his heart tugged painfully.
"She did?" He asked and Hiroshi hummed.
Hiroshi rarely talked about his late wife as it always clouded his judgment and dampened his mood. Aki Hayashi caught a deadly plague right after Rin's first birthday and after weeks of suffering she passed away.
The whole kingdom was in shambles after her death and Yarisha had taken that opportunity to attack their borders but after a three year old Mizuki almost got caught in the crossfire Hiroshi snapped out of his grief and fought back to protect his children.
He knew that his beloved wouldn't have forgiven him if he let his children be harmed.
Growing up, Mizuki and Rin stopped asking questions when they saw how sad their father got and instead they were content with the way their life was. Of course they wished they had gotten the chance to properly know their mother but their father never let them feel the missing piece in their family.
"She used to organise them before Hana took over and she always had so much fun. It would be all she talked about for weeks and she worked hard for so many hours. The last..the last festival she attended was after you turned 2 and she had made you an outfit herself. She worked so hard on it and when she was done she 'dolled' you up and said you were the most adorable prince ever." He said and Mizuki laughed softly.
"Do you still have the outfit?" He asked his father and Hiroshi nodded his head as he pushed himself away from his desk and walked deeper into his throne room.
After a few minutes, he came back holding gold and black fabric that he handed to Mizuki. Mizuki held the clothes in his shaking hands and he felt surprised at the growing lump in his throat.
He swallowed harshly as he took a deep breath and instead raised his head to give his father a shaky smile. "It is pretty adorable."
"Come on, dad. You should join us out I'm sure...mom would want you to have fun since this is her favourite time of the year." Mizuki said and Hiroshi sighed but nodded his head.
"She would have adored him." He suddenly said as they both stood up to walk out.
"What?" Mizuki asked confusedly.
"Your prince-or should I say king now? She would have loved him. Especially with all he's been doing recently. He's truly wonderful." Hiroshi said and Mizuki felt a grin crawl on his face.
His father had found him after he came back from Yarisha and after yelling his head off and almost threatening to execute Emilio, he sat down with his son and asked about Eren.
And Mizuki told him.
He told his father how he irrevocably fell in love with the freckled prince of Yarisha. He told him everything that had happened and his father wasn't the least bit surprised with the way he had seen Mizuki and Eren heartbrokenly stare at each other during the meeting.
His heart went out to his son who was forced to be away from his love but he assured him he had his full support as long as Mizuki doesn't break in their rival country again.
"I know, I'm so proud of him." Mizuki mumbled happily as they walked.
The first thing Eren did after his relatively quiet crowning ceremony, since not many people wanted to attend, was change the laws.
He started small, with the laws concerning the women and children of the country until he changed the laws concerning same sex relationships. There was an uproar and many people protested and there was a lot of rage but Eren didn't budge on his decisions. He had tight security installed everywhere in the kingdom and there were harsh punishments to anyone who dared cause violence.
In the midst of the anger and complaints there were also many people who came to Eren and thanked him for freeing them. Some even shed tears while hugging their new king who was finally making a good change in their country after decades.
Eren was surprised at the amount of closeted people in his own country and he felt so fucking proud of himself for finally being able to give them their voice back.
There were plenty of young women who freely started training and anyone could see the growing confidence in them. There were a lot of women who decided to live their lives as it was and that was completely okay.
Unfortunately, there were some who were still too scared to do anything but Eren figured for those who were scared he would help them slowly and surely. They had to start small.
Fixing Yarisha was going to be a long progress that would probably take years but it was something Eren was going to do and over the few weeks he truly proved to everyone who ever doubted him that he could and is a marvellous king.
As expected, Eren got attacked thrice but thanks to his soldiers and his own personal guard, Arlen he was safe and they caught the attackers and they were punished so people would know not to try anything similar as there would be punishment. Eren may be wanting to change the country for the best but he knew some rules had to stay in order to keep the peace.
When all this information came back to Mizuki thanks to Emilio who kept an ear out for him Mizuki had felt such pride and happiness that it took everything in him not to ride to Yarisha and hug his sweetheart.
Mizuki and Hiroshi finally reached outside where loud traditional music was playing and Mizuki looked around the crowd, searching for his baby sister.
When he saw her happily laughing and dancing he felt a smile tug at his lips. He hasn't seen Rin this bright in months. His eyes curiously looked in front of her at the person she was smiling at and his eyes narrowed when he saw Emilio stiffly standing in front of her, watching her dance with the rest of the crowd.
He wasn't dancing with her, just standing with a soft smile on his lips as he watched Rin laugh contently. When Rin danced a bit away from him his eyes would follow her and sometimes he took steps forward to keep her close. He looked very odd standing in the middle of a dancing crowd but he didn't seem to care as all his focus was on the petite girl in front of him.
"She looks happy." Hiroshi said as he too, watched his daughter with relief.
"She does." Mizuki agreed and then he felt sad realizing that he couldn't dance like that with Eren. He wondered how his sweetheart would look dancing.
He would probably have a light blush coating his freckles and his lips would be pulled in a pout but he would still indulge in Mizuki's antics and dance along with him and soon he would have been giggling softly.
"Mizuki." Hiroshi suddenly said as he read his son's thoughts on his face.
"Yes?"
"You should go near the border, I think there's something waiting for you there." His father said with a smirk as Mizuki's eyes widened in realization.
"Dad, you're being serious?" He asked and his dad nodded and laughed when Mizuki surprisingly squeezed him in a hug before turning around and running away, but not before shouting an I love you and have fun behind his back.
He ran to the stables and when he reached he greeted Niko before climbing on and riding away. The wind whipped at his face and he felt chills crawl on him from both the cold and the nerves. There was an enormous smile on his face that kept growing the closer he got to his destination.
The music was playing so loudly and was spread over in almost all the kingdom that Mizuki could still hear it as he rode away from the main part of the festival.
When he finally reached the border he got off from Niko and after securely tying him to a tree he started walking around. He heard the leaves rustling and his heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest.
"Eren?" He called out hesitantly in the dark and then the leaves stopped rustling for a second before more hurried footsteps approached him.
"Mizuki." Eren breathed out when he finally caught sight of him. "I found you."
Mizuki felt a choked laugh leave him as he ran to him and caught him in a hug. "You found me, sweetheart."
Hello!!
Thoughts?
I'm so sorry for not updating in almost a whole month. School has been absolutely crazy and I barely have any free time.
I don't know if some of you can tell but meeting you in the middle is coming to an end. There's three more chapters + an epilogue left and I really hope I finish it before the New Years.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the next one is going to be amazing and I'm very excited to write it down. I missed my babies so much >:
-till next time <3