(no subject)
Title: Right Back to You: Prologue
Pairing: none
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1082
Notes: So, you know NaNoWriMo? Where you write 50,000 words? Yeah. I started this for that. Which means, yes, this 'fic is that long. Longer, actually. I promise this gets better than the prologue. Maybe.
Kazunari was the son of his father’s youngest and newest wife, inauspiciously born in a time of upheaval and uncertainty - the Eastlands and the Northern territories had been fighting off and on for the last twelve years, and were almost certain to continue for the next twelve if nothing was done.
Kazunari was born to his mother and one sister, older than himself by two years. She spent her time with the other daughters of the court, learning to spin and sew and paint and run accounts and organize servants, and so she never really knew him. He had several half-sisters who didn’t want to know him, because he was just a boring baby, and they had mothers who scolded them if they took interest in him. And he had his mother, who kept him by her side at all times, afraid to let him our of her sight, so he never really knew anyone else. She kept him isolated because he had one quality to make others envious of him from the beginning.
Kazunari was his father’s second son.
He was named, as all children of the court were, in secret on the night of his first birthday - a precautionary measure against ill will and spells that might harm newborns. Only his mother, father, and sister knew his real name. To everyone else, subjects of the kingdom and in the household alike, he was known as Ninomiya.
Despite being the second son, Kazunari had seen and been seen by his father a grand total of three times; at his birth, and at his first and second birthdays.
The pressures from the conflicting northern and eastern lands kept the Lord occupied at all hours of the day and night. The Lord barely had time for his first son and heir, let alone this spare, and Kazunari’s mother knew better than to disturb the precious time he had for his first son. She eschewed nurse-maids, preferring to care for her children on her own; so Kazunari and his mother were left to themselves - or occasionally with his sister.
Not that Kazunari was aware of it, but it was a lonely life in the making. Thus separated from the girls and kept away from the other wives, Kazunari would have had no other friends.
Then someone else took interest in him: The First Wife’s son, and his father’s heir, Sho, called Sakurai. It was an accident that the young boy even knew of Kazunari’s existence - while practicing walking, he’d fallen into the Seventh Wife’s quarters. She’d come out immediately when she heard the crying, her instincts telling her to protect and soothe the crying child. The infant Kazunari was in her arms.
Sho was curious about the new arrival in the same way he was curious about everything in the world around him. Only a year old, Sho wasn’t aware of anything beyond what he could see, let alone the politics of heirs and birth. His mother came to find her son babbling happily at Kazunari, who cooed back at him and smiled and waved chubby little fists. Sho would reach out and try to catch those fists in his own tiny hands, and the infant would giggle delightedly at him.
The First Wife was a woman of gentle nature, and when it came to her boy she was willing to move mountains. There was no way Kazunari’s mother could deny the First Wife, so the boys became playmates and the wives became companions, supervising the children as Sho curled up besides the sleeping baby and took naps with him, or prodded at the baby’s face and let Kazunari flail at him.
What would have been a lonely life turned into a life of gentle comfort.
Kazunari lead this life for four years.
------
Kazunari went missing from his home three days after his fourth winter, lost amidst the confusion of invasion and death.
He was taken from his dead mother’s arms.
The Seventh Wife had an outer courtyard which was her favorite, and had in fact been given to her as a wedding gift. It was out to the northwest of the main house; a small, high-walled and cozy affair of greenery and winding paths, tucked out of sight of the main house and often unguarded.
The Seventh Wife was there with Kazunari, sitting on a bench and watching him sleep, when an arrow pierced her neck, and two more pierced her chest. She slumped over Kazunari’s napping form silently, bleeding out and unable to call for help, and the eastern soldiers advanced. The alarm was raised only after they’d broken through.
In the ensuing panic and confusion it was all any of the woman could do to keep track of their own children and hide. Kazunari was forgotten, un-missed by any but the First Wife. Sho refused to stop crying for the three days of battle, saying nothing but ‘Kazu’ when asked what was wrong - but there was nothing that could be done.
In fact, even following the defeat and retreat of the Eastland soldiers, Kazunari went un-missed by any but the First Wife.
But when the chaos had settled enough to think of sending out search parties, it was too late: even if he had survived the invasion attempt, no four year old child could survive the harshness of a thawing winter.
------
Kazunari was given up for dead two months after his fourth winter, by all but one child. Even at five, Sho knew that his favorite (and only) brother was still alive. And if he had to do it, he’d find Kazunari by himself.
------
But Kazunari was not dead. Kazunari had been discovered crying his hunger to a mother who could no longer hear him, by an Eastland soldier with three children of his own. The man couldn’t ignore the boy’s cries, even though he couldn’t afford to take care of another one. The boy’s mother’s eyes were still open. The soldier closed them and took the child away.
“There are two boys here, I’ve been told,” he told the child, who looked back at him curiously, “I think you look more like a Ninomiya.”
The boy screwed up his face in recognition. The soldier sighed and held him securely.
“I’ll try to get you some food.”
The boy would likely die on the march back, but he could still try. Perhaps he could find someone wealthy to take the boy in if the financial strain got to be too much.
Pairing: none
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1082
Notes: So, you know NaNoWriMo? Where you write 50,000 words? Yeah. I started this for that. Which means, yes, this 'fic is that long. Longer, actually. I promise this gets better than the prologue. Maybe.
Kazunari was the son of his father’s youngest and newest wife, inauspiciously born in a time of upheaval and uncertainty - the Eastlands and the Northern territories had been fighting off and on for the last twelve years, and were almost certain to continue for the next twelve if nothing was done.
Kazunari was born to his mother and one sister, older than himself by two years. She spent her time with the other daughters of the court, learning to spin and sew and paint and run accounts and organize servants, and so she never really knew him. He had several half-sisters who didn’t want to know him, because he was just a boring baby, and they had mothers who scolded them if they took interest in him. And he had his mother, who kept him by her side at all times, afraid to let him our of her sight, so he never really knew anyone else. She kept him isolated because he had one quality to make others envious of him from the beginning.
Kazunari was his father’s second son.
He was named, as all children of the court were, in secret on the night of his first birthday - a precautionary measure against ill will and spells that might harm newborns. Only his mother, father, and sister knew his real name. To everyone else, subjects of the kingdom and in the household alike, he was known as Ninomiya.
Despite being the second son, Kazunari had seen and been seen by his father a grand total of three times; at his birth, and at his first and second birthdays.
The pressures from the conflicting northern and eastern lands kept the Lord occupied at all hours of the day and night. The Lord barely had time for his first son and heir, let alone this spare, and Kazunari’s mother knew better than to disturb the precious time he had for his first son. She eschewed nurse-maids, preferring to care for her children on her own; so Kazunari and his mother were left to themselves - or occasionally with his sister.
Not that Kazunari was aware of it, but it was a lonely life in the making. Thus separated from the girls and kept away from the other wives, Kazunari would have had no other friends.
Then someone else took interest in him: The First Wife’s son, and his father’s heir, Sho, called Sakurai. It was an accident that the young boy even knew of Kazunari’s existence - while practicing walking, he’d fallen into the Seventh Wife’s quarters. She’d come out immediately when she heard the crying, her instincts telling her to protect and soothe the crying child. The infant Kazunari was in her arms.
Sho was curious about the new arrival in the same way he was curious about everything in the world around him. Only a year old, Sho wasn’t aware of anything beyond what he could see, let alone the politics of heirs and birth. His mother came to find her son babbling happily at Kazunari, who cooed back at him and smiled and waved chubby little fists. Sho would reach out and try to catch those fists in his own tiny hands, and the infant would giggle delightedly at him.
The First Wife was a woman of gentle nature, and when it came to her boy she was willing to move mountains. There was no way Kazunari’s mother could deny the First Wife, so the boys became playmates and the wives became companions, supervising the children as Sho curled up besides the sleeping baby and took naps with him, or prodded at the baby’s face and let Kazunari flail at him.
What would have been a lonely life turned into a life of gentle comfort.
Kazunari lead this life for four years.
------
Kazunari went missing from his home three days after his fourth winter, lost amidst the confusion of invasion and death.
He was taken from his dead mother’s arms.
The Seventh Wife had an outer courtyard which was her favorite, and had in fact been given to her as a wedding gift. It was out to the northwest of the main house; a small, high-walled and cozy affair of greenery and winding paths, tucked out of sight of the main house and often unguarded.
The Seventh Wife was there with Kazunari, sitting on a bench and watching him sleep, when an arrow pierced her neck, and two more pierced her chest. She slumped over Kazunari’s napping form silently, bleeding out and unable to call for help, and the eastern soldiers advanced. The alarm was raised only after they’d broken through.
In the ensuing panic and confusion it was all any of the woman could do to keep track of their own children and hide. Kazunari was forgotten, un-missed by any but the First Wife. Sho refused to stop crying for the three days of battle, saying nothing but ‘Kazu’ when asked what was wrong - but there was nothing that could be done.
In fact, even following the defeat and retreat of the Eastland soldiers, Kazunari went un-missed by any but the First Wife.
But when the chaos had settled enough to think of sending out search parties, it was too late: even if he had survived the invasion attempt, no four year old child could survive the harshness of a thawing winter.
------
Kazunari was given up for dead two months after his fourth winter, by all but one child. Even at five, Sho knew that his favorite (and only) brother was still alive. And if he had to do it, he’d find Kazunari by himself.
------
But Kazunari was not dead. Kazunari had been discovered crying his hunger to a mother who could no longer hear him, by an Eastland soldier with three children of his own. The man couldn’t ignore the boy’s cries, even though he couldn’t afford to take care of another one. The boy’s mother’s eyes were still open. The soldier closed them and took the child away.
“There are two boys here, I’ve been told,” he told the child, who looked back at him curiously, “I think you look more like a Ninomiya.”
The boy screwed up his face in recognition. The soldier sighed and held him securely.
“I’ll try to get you some food.”
The boy would likely die on the march back, but he could still try. Perhaps he could find someone wealthy to take the boy in if the financial strain got to be too much.