Tsubasa: RC - Gen Fic
Title: Starry Night
Rating: G
Pairing: n/a
Warnings: none
Status: Complete
Summary: It's Fay's first night at Ashura-ou's castle and he cannot sleep.


He couldn’t sleep; it seemed unnatural to be in a comfortable, warm bed when he had been locked up in the tower for so long.

Shoving off the heavy blankets, Fay slipped out of the bed. Grabbing one of the blankets, he wrapped it around himself while slipping his feet into the slippers he had been given. He then went to toss his hair over his shoulders but remember that it was no longer there; upon being fed after arriving at the castle, he had been bathed and his greasy, tangled hair had been cut away, leaving it short.

Exiting the room, Fay wondered where he should go. Ashura-ou didn’t say he couldn’t explore the castle but Fay wasn’t going to risk getting caught; the last thing he wanted to do was make the king mad and return to that horrible place.

After a few minutes of wandering the massive hallways, Fay quickly found himself lost; he hadn’t yet had a formal tour of the place since Ashura-ou had declared it ‘too late’ and had ordered the child off to bed. Wandering around definitely hadn’t been a good idea.

Fearing what would happen if he was caught out of his room, he decided to try and find his way back when a pair of massive doors caught his attention. They were elegantly designed with and impressive patterned on them, sketched in gold; the curious child couldn’t resist temptation.

With a jump to grab onto the golden handle, with all his might, Fay pulled one of the doors open far enough that he was able to slip into the room before the door swung back close behind him. To his amazement the grand room was lined with rows and rows of shelves.

“Books?” Fay murmured recognizing the objects on the shelves. On their way to the castle, Fay had discovered a book among Ashura-ou’s items and the king had explained them to him.

Walking over to a shelf, Fay picked up a book and cradled the heavy object in his arms as he attempted to flip through it. Unfortunately it was all words with no pictures and since Fay couldn’t read, the thing was useless to him.

Snapping the book shut, Fay attempted to return it to the shelf but lost his grip and the book tumbled to the ground along with the blanket that had fallen from Fay’s shoulders in his haste to catch the falling object.

Reaching down to pick up the book, Fay froze when he heard light footsteps heading in his direction. Silently he prayed it wasn’t Taishakuten, the king’s… well Fay wasn’t completely sure what he was to the king. Ashura-ou had simply introduced him as a ‘special person’ while the man had glared at Fay the entire time, clearly unhappy with the new development of having a child live at the castle.

“Ah!” came a voice and Fay looked up to find Ashura-ou looking at him with gentle eyes. “So you’re the one I heard enter. Couldn’t sleep?”

Fay nodded his head, his eyes wide with fear; he shivered, not knowing if it was from fear or the cold.

Kneeling down, Ashura-ou picked up the blanket and once more wrapped it around Fay’s shoulders. “Then how about a story?”

Picking up the book Fay had dropped, Ashura-ou stood and began leading the child over to a seat by the window where light from the moon was streaming into the window. Sitting down on the bench, Ashura-ou had Fay sit in his lap before opening the book.

“What’s this about?” Fay asked, snuggling against Ashura-ou’s chest. All his previous fear was now gone, now that he knew the king wasn’t going to ship him off back to the tower prison.

“It’s a story about gods and the Six Stars of Destiny who will come together and defeat the evil Emperor.”

“Sounds fun.”

Closing his eyes, Fay began listening to Ashura-ou’s soothing voice as he began reading about the tail of fate and the quest to change it. Soon, he was asleep.

~Fin