• Royal Pain
    Chapter one: A Normal Morning


    Darkness, nothing was visible, except for a lone girl. She was young, in her early teens. She looked lifeless and gray. She just stood there, staring at nothing.

    Slowly, a scene bled through the dark abyss. The girl’s lifeless eyes widened when two happy smiling people came into view. One was a tall, handsome man with short red hair and a slight beard; it looked like he was telling his companion something. The other was a beautiful woman with long reddish brown hair, and she was laughing and smiling. The girl’s eyes gained a hopeful look, and her lips came up in a smile. She reached out to the figures, taking a couple steps toward them.

    The happy vision did not last long. There was a bang, like a gunshot, and another. With those two shots, the girl’s eyes became wider, and her smile disappeared. As the bodies fell, she collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face. She covered her face with her hands to block out the dead, soulless eyes of the people in the image. Her shoulders shook with gut wrenching sobs.

    Her body froze when she heard laughter. It was deep, gravelly laughter, rising in volume every second. It was maniacal, scary. The girl’s head shot up, her eyes watery and fearful, and screamed. There in front of her were eyes. The eyes were black, burning with hatred. They stared at her and the laughter got louder and louder. She kept screaming and crying, telling them to leave her alone.

    She felt pressure on her arms, like hands gripping them, and a voice filtered through the laughter. “Yumi…!” She screamed more and thrashed around, trying to get away from her invisible captor.

    “Yumi…! Wake up!” After that, everything went blank and violet eyes shot open with another scream. The girl, Yumi, sat up and flung herself at the person who woke her up, sobbing hysterically.

    The person was a man, at least in his twenties. His red hair was in complete disarray and his prominent chin was scruffy and unshaven. He wrapped his strong arms around the crying teen, rocking her back and forth, soothing her with calming whispers. His deep, dark blue eyes held apprehension, and his handsome face creased with worry.

    Yumi clutched at the man’s chest, attempting to find something to hold onto. Her pretty face was red and covered in tears. As her breathing calmed, she began to stop crying. She brought her head and her watery violet eyes lock with the man’s eyes.

    The man sighed, “Was it the dream again?” he asked, his voice quiet and deep. He shifted a little as Yumi settled herself in his lap.

    Yumi nodded and buried her head into his shoulder. She didn’t want to talk about it. She never did.

    “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, already knowing her answer. The man always asked this when his sister had this nightmare. She always said no.

    Shaking her head, Yumi nuzzled her brother’s shoulder. “Haru, why does it keep coming back?” she asked, her voice cracking from screaming and crying. The dream came to her every once in while usually, but lately, it’s been repeating itself more frequently. She guessed that it was because it was almost the year anniversary of her parents’ murder, so her mind made her relive the incident more often. Her mind must hate her.

    Haru frowned, and hugged her tighter. “I don’t know.” He said softly, laying his cheek on her head. Since she saw their parents shot down a year ago, his sister had never been the same. Well, at least after dark. During the day, she was her usual angry, violent self, much like him. To see such a strong, prideful girl like Yumi break down and cry was almost devastating. Haru hated himself for not being able to help her.

    “It hurts.” Yumi mumbled, looking up from Haru’s broad shoulder. To constantly see the lifeless eyes of her parents, and to hear their screams is too much for her.

    Haru lifted his head as she lifted hers. He looked down at her sadly, as he stood up. He held her bridal style as he walked toward the bathroom. “I know, I know.” He said soothingly as he pushed the down the door handle with his elbow and bumped the door open with his hip. After setting her down on top of the toilet, the red head went over to the shower and turned it on. “Take a shower, okay? It’ll make you feel better.” He told her as he touched his forehead to hers. When she nodded, he left the room completely.

    * * *

    When Haru was back in his bedroom, he saw that there was a woman sitting up in his and her bed. She was beautiful, at least in his eyes. Her dark eyes brightened, and her full lips pulled up into a smile at the sight of him. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders, pretty much covering the collar of her purple spaghetti strap tank top. The red head smiled tiredly at her as her joined her in the bed, immediately giving her a kiss.

    “G’morning, Yuri.” He greeted, rubbing his nose to hers. He picked up her left hand and kissed the diamond ring that resided on her ring finger.

    Yuri blushed a little before frowning, “Did Yumi have that dream again?” she asked, her eyebrows creasing in worry.

    Haru, who was absently playing with his fiancé’s hair, stopped and nodded solemnly. “I think that it’s getting worse. I mean, it was going away, and now it’s back full force.” He said as he got out of the bed, and walked into their bathroom.

    “I hate not being able to do anything about this!” The red head called from the bathroom. He gathered his shaving materials before continuing. “I’m beginning to to worry about social services. I mean, I know that they can’t really do anything, because of my position in power and all, but I can’t help but worry about it.” He paused to shave his chin, leaving a thin beard along his jaw and up into his short, shaggy red hair. “I’m a horrible guardian.” Haru mumbled under his breath, not wanting Yuri to hear him as she walked in behind him.

    Yuri sighed exasperatedly at the last statement that her husband-to-be made. “Don’t say that, stupid!” she said, punching him in the arm. “You’re a great guardian!” the brunet hugged him comfortingly around his waist, nuzzling her face into his strong back.

    Haru sighed as he ran his fingers in his hair to calm it down. “Well, if I’m such a great guardian, then why won’t she tell me anything?” he asked grumpily, turning in the woman’s arms to face her.

    Yuri giggled and brought her arms up to wrap around his neck instead. “She’s like you, Haru.” She pulled him down a little so they were closer, since Haru was a tall man, being six feet and three inches tall, and she was only five feet and six inches herself. “She wants to be strong like you. You hide your worries too.” The woman sigh contentedly as Haru’s arms wrapped around her waist. “It took you forever to open up to me once we started dating.”

    Haru frowned. “That’s what I’m afraid of; I don’t want her to be like me.” He mumbled dejectedly. The red head thought of himself as a bad role model, and definitely did not want his sister to take after his slightly violent ways, even though she already has.

    Yuri scoffed loudly. “That’s bull s**t.” She scolded softly. She pecked him on the lips playfully before darting away from Haru. The woman giggled when the red head attempted to swat at her backside.

    Haru followed her out and began to change his clothes. “It took us forever to stop biting each other’s heads off to even get together in the first place.” He said as he took off his sleep pants and slipped on a pair of black jeans. This was very true. When they were introduced, Haru and Yuri did not get along at all. Yuri and two others had been assigned to guard the royal family while Haru and Yumi’s parents were away three years ago. They fought all the time, at least until about a year later when they finally faced the inedible and got together. A year ago, a little while before the murder of the King and Queen, Haru and Yuri were engaged. They would’ve been married already, but since Haru had to become King and pick up all of his father’s duties, they didn’t have time.


    Yuri giggled while she gathered up a clean towel from the neat pile of folded clothes and linens. “You have to admit, those days were never boring.” She said, walking toward the bathroom.

    Haru chuckled as he slipped on a form-fitting, dark blue t-shirt. That was definitely true. Before Yuri, nobody would ever try to defy him, being the heir to the Ryu throne. It made dating and socializing boring for him, since all his previous girlfriends just hung on him and used him to brag to their friends. Yuri was different, and he loved her for it. Haru smiled as he heard the shower start running.

    “Oh!” Yuri poked her head back out of the bathroom. “Go make sure that our “house wife” doesn’t go over board with breakfast again, would you?” she asked, making air quotes at the “house wife” bit. This was referring to Haru’s cousin, Botan. The eighteen year old was the only one in the remaining Ryu family that had any house keeping ability, and so he had taken up the role of the “mom” in the house.

    Haru’s shoulders slumped and he groaned. “Do I have to? You know how much he gets on my nerves.” Because of Botan’s motherly and girly personality, he always annoyed Haru, who is three years Botan’s senior, since childhood. He always called him girly names and it pissed him off.

    He heard Yuri laugh again. “Yes you do, we don’t need a multitude of breakfast food for a week. Remember last week?” she called over the shower.

    Haru shuddered. Oh yes, he remembered. The red head vowed that he’d never eat pancakes again after that… “All right … I’ll go.” He grumbled.

    “That’s what I thought.” Yuri called again over the sound of the shower. Haru glared jokingly at the bathroom door before walking out of the room.

    * * *

    In the kitchen, a tall, slender, young man was frying up a large amount of bacon while swaying and humming a tune. A sky blue apron covered his pure white shirt and his strawberry blonde hair was clipped back out of his bright, silvery blue eyes with a few bobby pins. To complete his look, his lips were pulled up in a happy smile. This was a normal occurrence in the Ryu Mansion in the morning, Botan cooking everyone’s breakfast.

    Did he ever get tired of it? Of course not! This was his most favorite activity in the world; in fact, he was studying in one of the best culinary schools in the Land of Dragons. The kitchen was his happy place, especially in these turbulent times in the Kingdom today.

    For Botan, the problems in the Kingdom were not his problem, since he was really just Haru’s advisor. His family is the most important thing to him, especially his little sister, Kane, and a demon that his family had taken in, Kari. Since his parents were killed in a bombing incident four years ago, the girls and Botan had lived here in the main Ryu mansion, with Haru and Yumi’s parents, who were their aunt and uncle. The blonde treated the little girls like they were his own children, feeding them, clothing them, and nurturing them.

    “Nii-chan?” a small, sweet voice called from the entrance to the kitchen. Botan paused in his cooking and turned to see a pretty, little red headed girl standing there, looking up at him tiredly, and rubbing her dark blue eyes with a small, closed fist. Botan smiled, and swooped down to scoop the seven-year-old up into his arms.

    “Good morning Kane-chan!” he greeted happily, nuzzling the little girls cheek, making her giggle. “Why are you awake so early? And where’s Kari? She usually goes where ever you go.” Botan searched around for the little cat demon, wondering where she was.

    Kane, who was smiling, frowned and wrapped her arms around her big brother’s shoulders. “Yumi-neechan’s yelling woke me up.” She looked up into Botan’s face, her lower lip poking out. “Is she okay?”

    Botan frowned and sighed, “Yumi’s fine, honey, she just had a bad dream.” He answered, hugging the little girl tighter. After a second of silence, the blonde smiled again. “But enough frowns! Where is our kitty friend?” he said, as he looked around comically, smiling when he got a cute little giggle from Kane.

    Before Kane could answer, a shrill meow sounded from out of nowhere, and another small body jumped and latched onto Botan’s back. The thing let out a happy purr and rubbed its face into the back of the blonde’s neck. Botan chuckled, “Well, look who decided to make her appearance. Good morning Kari.” He said, helping her get from on his back to in his other arm.

    Kari smiled happily, her dark pink eyes shining. She was still dressed in her pajamas, which had a hole in the butt for her fluffy, purple cat tail. Her cat ears twitched in excitement, and she was once again purring and rubbing her face in Botan’s shoulder.

    “G’ morning Botan-niichan!” the cat said, making Botan smile more. Kari was so cute, just like Kane. The two were inseparable, almost attached at the hip. Right when they took her in, her and Kane had been thick as thieves, since Kari was four and Kane was two. Botan set the girls down, for fear of his masterpiece burning. The girls immediately joined hands, Kari’s tan skin contrasting nicely with Kane’s pale skin.

    Botan turned back to his precious oven and picked up his discarded spatula. “You girls go play now, okay? I’ve got a breakfast to cook.” He said, giving the pan a determined stare.
    The girls giggled at his behavior. “Okay!” the said in unison, before scurrying off, still hand in hand. As they headed out, they ran past Haru, who had finally made his way down the hall. They stopped to say hello to him before continuing on their merry way.

    Haru smiled secretly at them, not wanting Botan to see him doing so. The younger man would’ve never let him live it down. The red head walked up to the counter next to the blonde, leaning his back on the counter. “Hey.” He said gruffly.

    Botan smiled brightly at him. “Good morning, Haa-chan!” he greeted happily, completely ignoring Haru’s grimace at the nickname. Botan loved teasing his older cousin; he thought that his reactions were hilarious. “How are you?”

    Haru glared at the other for calling him the girly name before sighing and crossing his arms over his chest. “To be honest, not very good.”

    Botan frowned as he dumped the contents of his frying pan onto a large plate. “I heard Yumi scream earlier. Is she okay?” he asked as he hurried over to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of two dozen eggs.

    Haru frowned. “Yeah, it was just another nightmare.” He said before pausing. Out in the living room, the red head heard the distinct sound of the girls greeting his sister enthusiastically. Not wanting Yumi to know that he was talking about her to Botan, which she hated with almost all her being, he quickly changed the subject. “Your not going overboard, are you?” the king asked warningly.

    Botan started at the sudden change in topics, but caught on swiftly, and answered. “Of course not, Haa-chan! I’m cooking just the right amount for ten people!” he smiled cheerfully up at the taller man while expertly cracking three eggs and pouring them into the frying pan. The blonde giggled at Haru’s glare, then at his surprised face.

    “Ten people? I thought that only Kimiko, Kaito, and the pervert were coming.” Haru said, confused. He pointedly decided to ignore the use of the mutilated form of his name, not feeling like yelling at the idiot blonde.

    Botan carefully set the three perfectly fried eggs onto another plate, and cracked another three. “Oh, Hiroshi’s coming over, too. He called yesterday. He also wanted to know if he could crash here with us.” Botan explained.

    Haru grunted. Hiroshi was their other cousin who lived with his deceased mother’s mother. You could say that the teen was the wild one of the family. Hiro is always staying with them, because of the fact that his grandmother was always trying to control his life. “He may as well just move in. He’s always here anyway.” The red head said gruffly. Haru would also feel better if he all of his remaining family under one roof anyway, to keep them safe.

    Botan once again deposited the newly cooked eggs before picking up three more and cracking them. “I think Hi-chan would like that.” The blonde said thoughtfully. Botan pursed his lips in a feminine fashion, and lifted his hand to shoo Haru away. “You’re distracting me Haa-chan! I still have to finish the eggs and make all the pancakes, and everyone will be here soon!”

    Haru scoffed. “Whatever.” He mumbled and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Botan to his cooking.

    * * *

    When Yumi finished her shower, she got dressed and stared at herself in the mirror that was on top of her dresser. She felt like a mess, all that crying and screaming. The teen rubbed her cheeks and made a weird face at the mirror before brushing her shoulder length hair. She had to keep herself together, especially today, since her friends were coming over. The red head had no desire to worry them.

    Once her hair was brushed to her liking, Yumi open one of the many small boxes that cluttered the dresser top, pulled out three, small, simple hoop earrings, and put them in, two in each lobe and one in the left ear’s cartilage. She then fluffed her shaggy bangs out of her stunningly purple eyes and straightened her semi-loose, plain, black t-shirt. The teen pulled down the sleeves of the horizontally, red and black striped, long-sleeved shirt that she was wearing under the t-shirt, and tightened her brown belt, which was keeping her form-fitting black jeans from sliding down, around her thin waist. Yumi ran her fingers through her hair one last time before turning away from the mirror and walking leisurely out of her room.

    As Yumi walked down the hall to get to the stairs, she gazed upon the many pictures that littered the walls. They gave her a nostalgic feeling, somewhat happy, but mostly sad. The pictures of herself, her brother, and her cousins all stared back at her happily (grumpily or stoic in Haru’s case), and of events in their shared childhoods together in this very mansion. She remembered all the instances that were depicted that she was physically capable of, like a family outing to an amusement park for her seventh birthday, or when Botan accidentally shoved Haru’s face into his cake while everyone was singing to the even then grumpy teen on during his fifteenth birthday party. Memories like these made her smile, but when she descended the stairs to the first floor hallway, the smile always faded away.

    On the walls of this hall, there are pictures of her late parents, Ai and Taro. There were pictures of their early years as a couple, like pictures from what may have been a high school dance, and of their marriage ceremony and reception. There were pictures of them with their children as well, like the two with a baby Haru, or with the past King and Queen, an eight-year-old Haru, and Yumi herself as a newborn baby. Seeing her parents so happy, and remembering the days that she shared with them when they were still alive made her almost want to hide away and cry. They brought back what she remembered from the murder.

    She didn’t remember much, since the pure shock of the experience of the incident made her subconsciously hide some of the most traumatic memories in the back of her mind. All the princess could remember was all of the day before the shooting, her parents falling down dead and sinister laughter. The memory of laughter was always accompanied by malicious black eyes, which were what have haunted her dreams on and off for the past year.

    As she walked into the living room, Kane and Kari, who were already playing some type of game, greeted Yumi. “Hiya Yumi-neechan! How are you?” Kane asked cheerfully, hugging Yumi around her waist, with Kari following suit.

    Yumi smiled before patting the seven-year-old’s head and scratching behind the kitten’s ears. “I’m good.” She paused and looked around, wondering where everyone was. “What are you two doing? Not messing around in Haru’s office I hope.” The teen asked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion and smirking.

    The girls let go of the older and looked up at her with innocent, wide eyes. “Of course not, Yumi-neechan!” they chorused in unison. Then they looked at each other sneakily, and once again grabbed each other’s hands. “At least not right now…”

    Yumi raised her eyebrows in an almost disinterested manner before smirking. Haru was gonna love this. She stepped around the girls and gave them a little nudge in the direction of the stairs. “Don’t forget to mess up his paperwork!” the red head said, winking.

    The girls looked at each other again before smiling and skipping off down the hall and disappearing up the stairs. Yumi watched the go with a satisfied smirk on her face. Boy, she sure did love being a bad influence. The teen laughed to herself before walking over to one of the nice, black, leather couches that were situated in the living room.

    As she walked, she passed by the kitchen door, but stopped when she heard her name mentioned. She put her ear up to the door, who was talking about her with Botan? Listening closely, she figured out that it was Haru. They were talking about the breakfast now, but they were talking about her before. The teen was a little glad to see that Haru wasn’t dwelling on her problems for long like usual. Yumi really didn’t want to trouble her brother too much.

    Deciding that she didn’t care that Hiroshi was coming over, she wandered over to the couch and sat down. Her friends would be there any minute, so she might as well be close to the front door. This Sunday brunch thing was a weekly thing. Yumi’s friends would come over and they’d eat a big breakfast (made by Botan), and then they’d hang out. Before she got to comfortable in her chair, though, the doorbell rang.

    End of chapter one