The Fairytale Prince

AN: The setting of this story is 19th century(1800s) Europe meets Edo period Japan.

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Iruka was walking down a long, dusty path. A trail of sweat ran down his forehead as he drank from the small gourd in his hand.

The weather in the village was unusually hot today. People who dared to walk outside were covered in sweat, flowers set out on windowsills seem to wilt on sight, and the area where the children would usually play and laugh at was now emptier than a ghost town.

He wouldn't even be out in this hellish weather himself if it weren't for the fact that he had to work.

“Help,” called a faint voice.

Iruka looked around to see where the voice came from, but didn’t see anyone.

“Down here,” called the voice again.

Iruka looked to the ground and saw an old man dressed in ragged clothes and covered in dirt lying against a building.

“Oh my god! Are you okay?” Iruka said with concern as he crouched to the ground.

“I'm so thirsty,” The old man croaked out.

Iruka felt bad for the elderly man. To be outside in such harsh weather must have been hell for a man his age. The only thing that seemed to protect the old man from the heat was the straw hat he was wearing, which hid most of his face.

“Don't worry; I have some water right here.” Iruka said, referring to the gourd in his hand.

Iruka lifted up the man's hat and was surprised by what he saw. The old man was absolutely gorgeous. His face was completely smooth, possessing not a singe blemish or wrinkle. In fact, the only way Iruka could tell that the man was old was the spiked silver hair the man possessed.

“Water,” Whispered the old man.

“Oh yeah...sorry.” Iruka said as he pulled the gourd to the man's lips. Slowly, the exhausted male drank from the gourd until his thirst was satisfied.

“Um…will you be okay?” The younger man asked, “Do you have any relatives I can take you to?”

“No, don't worry. I'm alright thanks to you.” The old man said while caressing one of Iruka's hands causing the younger male to feel extremely uncomfortable.

“Okay...well I'm going to go now. Take this in case you get thirsty again.” Iruka said as he placed his gourd in the man's lap.

“Before you go can I ask you your name?” The man asked as he held on the younger man's hand.

“Sure. It’s Iruka,” He replied with a kindly smile.

--- A few hours later---

“Iruka, hurry up and served those customers their drinks,” yelled a huge muscular man.

Iruka sighed miserably as he navigated through a smoke filled room with a tray of drinks in hand.

“Here are your drinks.” He said as he set cups of sake in front of the four guys sitting at the table.

“Hey, you’re pretty cute for a guy!” said one of the particularly ugly males sitting at the table. “Are you sure you’re not a girl?”

“Hey, stop it!” Iruka yelped as the man attempted to pull up his yukuta.

“Oh, come on we just want to take a peek,” The man said as everyone at the table began laughing.

“I believe he said stop.” Came a voice that quickly halted the men’s laughter.

Iruka looked towards where the voice came from and spotted a silver haired man standing at the entrance of the bar. Iruka could tell that the guy was a noble due the aristocratic clothing he was wearing.

“And who the hell are you?” said one of the men at the table as he rose out of the seat.

“I am the prince of this country, Lord Kakashi,”

The entire bar instantly went silent.

“You lie. The prince has never left the castle grounds, not even once,”

“Oh, so you need proof of my royalty,” The silver haired man pulled out a sword from the sheath attached to his coat. He sauntered towards the man at the table causing the ugly male to become extremely nervous. Once close enough, the 'prince' lifted the metal blade to the man's neck.

“How about I kill you here and now for treason against this country?” The prince suggested with a cold look in his eyes. “When the police come, whose words do you think they will believe? A room full of peasants or the prince himself?”

“Uh, that's okay.” the man said, his face now void of color. “Me and my friends were just leaving anyway. Come on guys,”

The man and his crew got up from the table and scrambled to the door, leaving immediately. Iruka was still standing at the table looking completely dumbfounded as he wasn't exactly sure what had just occurred a few seconds ago. He then looked at the silver haired noblemen in front of him and notice that the man was starring at him with a gleeful expression in his eyes instead of the cold glare he had wore a few minutes ago.

“Um...thank you,” Iruka finally said.

“No, thank you,” Kakashi said as he walked closer to the waiter.

“For what?” Iruka asked, confused.

“For giving me that water earlier.”

“Water…” Iruka said before his eyes widened in realization, “You’re the old man from this morning!”

Kakashi laughed.

“Old? Hardly. In fact, I'm at the ripe age to marry.” Kakashi said the last part tenderly as he grabbed a hold of one of Iruka's hands.

“Okay.” The waiter said slowly as he removed his hand from Kakashi’s grasp, but instead of being offended, the prince just seemed to smile at the action.

“I came here to get my wife,” Kakashi said now changing the subject.

“Your wife?” Iruka questioned as he looked around the bar, “I'm sorry sir, but it seems that no women have entered the bar today.”

Kakashi suddenly grabbed a hold of Iruka's chin and brought his face closer to the younger male's causing Iruka to blush slightly.

“You are my wife.” The prince whispered across the dark haired man's cheeks.

It took a while for the man's words to register in Iruka's brain but once they sunk in the waiter began to freak out.

“What?!” Iruka yelled as he pushed the silver haired man away from him.

“Dolphin, why are you upset?” Kakashi said while looking at the dark-haired man in confusion, “You passed my test, which makes you my wife,”

“What test?” Iruka asked while backing away from the so called ‘prince’.

“I waited out in this hot weather for hours asking anybody who walked passed me for a sip of their water, and you were the only one who offered me some. That sort of kindness is very important trait for my future queen to possess,”

“Qu-Qu-Queen.” Iruka choked out.

While Iruka was in shock, Kakashi took a hold of his hand once again.

“We must quickly go to the castle and prepare for the wedding. Come with me, I have a carriage waiting for us outside,” Kakashi said as he began pulling his 'bride' towards the door.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Iruka yelled while letting go of the prince's hand. “I'm not going anywhere with you !”

“Why not?”

“Why not?” Iruka said as he looked at Kakashi as if he was insane, which he most likely was. “Well, one of the major problems is that I'm not a woman, so I can't be your queen, wife, bride, or whatever,”

“Oh, don't worry about those titles,” Kakashi said with a warm smile, “The sex of the couple doesn't matter in a marriage; all that matters is that the two people love each other,”

“But that’s just the thing; I don't love you,”

“What?” Now Kakashi was the one confused.

“I don't understand,” The prince said while wearing a perplexed expression, “I made a test and you passed it, which means we are destined to be together. So you should be in love with me, right?”

“I hate to break it to you but love doesn't work like that. I mean you can't honestly tell me that you are actually in love with me,”

“But I am!” Kakashi said with not a hint of doubt in his voice.

This guy can't be real.

“Look, Prince Kakashi, if that's who you really are. Why don't you go back to your 'castle' and go to sleep. I think you may have been out in this heat for too long,”

“Hmm...” Kakashi said, sounding as if he was thinking Iruka's words over. “I think you’re right. I wasn't expecting this outcome. I need to go home and think about this,”

“Yeah, why don't you do that,” Iruka said before pushing the crazy man towards the door.

“Are you sure you don't love me?” Kakashi said as he looked at the younger man one last time.

“Positive.” Was the waiter's reply before pushing the 'prince' out the bar door.

Iruka turned around and saw everyone in the building staring at him.

“What are you guys looking at? Go back to what you were doing,” The dark haired man shouted, his face flushed.

And just like that the bar went back to the chattered filled room it had been a few minutes ago.

--- Nighttime---

Iruka left the bar feeling extremely tired. He still hadn't recovered from the whole prince incident when the rush hour came around, which meant his mind wasn't concentrating on his work. This caused a lot of accidents such as spilling drinks and breaking cups throughout the day. The only thing the tired waiter wanted to do now was go to bed.

“Well at least the weather is cooler now.” Iruka said as a cool breeze blew by.

Exhausted, Iruka began walking home. Every now and then he would look up at the sky, admiring the beautiful stars that seemed to light up the night. Somewhere among those stars, Iruka knew his parents were looking down at him from above. It had been a 10 years since the boy's parents had died in a fire, and while Iruka had gotten over his mourning, that didn't mean he didn’t miss them occasionally and wish they were still around.

Suddenly, Iruka heard a pair of footsteps behind him. The dark haired man quickly looked back and saw nobody walking on the dusty path behind him. Iruka just assumed he was hearing things and continued walking, only to stop once again after hearing a loud cracking sound.

This time Iruka didn't bother looking behind him, he just ran. He ran past the play area, he ran past the red light district, he ran past the ramen shop until finally...

“Meow,”

“Aaah!” Iruka let out a girlish scream once a cat came jumping out of an alley.

“Oh god, what's wrong with me? I must be going crazy,” Iruka said as he brushed the sweat from his face. However, unbeknownst to the waiter, there was a shadowy figure standing behind him.

Iruka barely had time to react before the unknown figure grabbed his body from behind and covered his mouth with a wet white cloth. Iruka began to feel woozy as he smelled a sweet scent coming from the cloth. Everything went black as he began to lose consciousness.
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So, what do you think?