Ella couldn’t help but snort. “If only you Elves were as accepting of humans,” she said bitterly.
“Like how we accepted Princess-Consort Lady Clara?” Mizuki shot back, and Ella flushed. She’d forgotten about the only other human she’d seen in the Twilight Court.
As a small silence fell between them, Hiroshi and Mizuki shifted uncomfortably, and Ella cursed her loose tongue. She didn’t want to alienate the only friends she had in the Twilight Court.
“Let us talk of something else,” she said quickly, and the awkward moment passed as they began to reminisce about the youthful hijinks that they’d gotte upto with Ryu as young children in the Twilight Court.
“Did we tell you of the time when Hiroshi fell into the lake?” Mizuki asked, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. She was leaning against the trunk of a tree, playing with the flower she’d plucked.
Hiroshi, now laying on the grass with his arms crossed under his head, chuckled in delight.
“Ah, that was quite the afternoon, wasn’t it?” he said, his eyes glimmering with amusement. “I had climbed that tree, thinking I could reach the highest branch, but my balance betrayed me, and I toppled right into the water.”
“Oh no,” Ella said, her hand going automatically to her mouth. Her voice wavered as she tried to hold her laughter back, but Mizuki had no such compunction.
She broke into giggles, her shoulders shaking as she set the scene. “And there was Ryu, in his finest clothes, the ones his mother cherished so dearly. He didn’t hesitate for a moment. He jumped right into the lake, fully clothed, to save Hiroshi.”
“But surely you knew how to swim?”
“I did,” Hiroshi admitted, “but poor Ryu saw me fall in, and he panicked.”
Ella giggled as she imagined the scene. “And what did Ryu’s mother say when she saw him soaking wet?”
“She forgave me, but she never let me forget.”
Ella whirled her head around, and she told herself it was the sudden movement that made her dizzy as she looked up at Ryu, standing behind them.
With the sun at his back, and dressed in his ceremonial courthaoriandhakama, his hair loose about his shoulders, he looked dazzling.
“Ryu! Finally free of your duties?” Hiroshi called good-naturedly. “Come, join us!”
“We were just sharing tales of your exploits with Ella,” Mizuki said, smiling as Ryu joined them on the grass.
“Specifically, the time we both fell in the lake,” Hiroshi said, his voice filled with fondness.
Ryu grinned, shaking his head. “Don’t remind me.Haha uestill brings it up now and again whenever I’m wearing something new or particularly ornate.”
He looked at Ella, and his smile turned rueful.
“She’d found a tailor to make me a set of Merovian clothes with much difficulty, you see, and they were ruined the first time I wore them.”
Ella’s heart gave a queer thump, contracting at the idea of a young Ryu, soaked and sodden, quarreling with his mother about his ruined clothes, his hair wet and his bottom lip sticking out in a pout as he argued with her…
She shook herself to rid herself of such fanciful thoughts and told herself to get her head back on straight.
Mizuki’s laughter subsided, replaced by a nostalgic smile. “Those were the days,” she said fondly.
“When our biggest concern was finding new ways to get into mischief and making each other laugh until our sides hurt,” Hiroshi said fondly.
“And getting scolded for it by our mothers,” Ryu said dryly.
Ella leaned back against the tree trunk behind her, a warm feeling settling in her heart.
“It sounds like an idyllic childhood,” she said.
“It was,” Hiroshi nodded. “One that we enjoyed to the fullest.”
Mizuki’s gaze turned to the horizon, where the setting sun painted the sky with vibrant hues. She turned to grin at her friends, including Ella in her smile.
