Fastidioso

Mafuyu sobs uncontrollably as she buries her face into Kanade's stomach, refusing to let her go. She's on her knees, practically begging as her arms are wrapped around the girl's waist. “Let me stay here with you!” Kanade chuckles and backs away. Though Mafuyu pulls her back in, “Please Kanade. Kanade! Kanade!” Mafuyu's eyes squeezed shut, “Please. Forgive me.”

“I'll be waiting, Yuki.”

….

Mafuyu woke up to the smell of something horribly burnt. Sweat drips down from her beck. She'd dream, again. Her throat's sore, perhaps from talking in her sleep again. Blinking several times, the prince now spots smoke from the other side of the tree as well as ash carried away by the wind. It's daytime again which means the air is also undeniably dry.

“Are you okay?” A voice asks that nearly makes Mafuyu leap out of her skin. Her head turns to her right, where she's greeted by dull blue eyes covered by messy white bangs. Immediately she turns away as she's painfully reminded once more of what she's lost. 

“What's burning?” her voice croaks. The man blinks before noticing the smoke. 

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” That androgynous voice curses. Mafuyu lays there longer, can she even face this man still? Especially after whatever she just woke up from?

Whatever, they need to leave anyway. Mafuyu picks herself off the ground, groaning as she realizes how stiff her back had gotten. Her position must not have been the most comfortable. The black horse greets the purple-haired knight with a gentle neigh, dancing on its hooves excitedly as Mafuyu reaches for the water bowl in her bag. Hesitantly, Mafuyu scratches the horse's chin, before pouring more water into the bowl and leaving it on the floor for the horse to drink up. They needed to find a water source soon. There wasn't enough for Mafuyu to last today. 

Eventually Mafuyu has to turn her attention to the one thing she'd rather prefer to avoid. The argument from last night still lingered in her mind. Though, it was the last thing Mafuyu wished to speak of. With a sharp inhale, Mafuyu turns around to face her companion. The man scratches his head as he watches what seems to be a partially burnt moor chicken on a makeshift giant skewer being held up by two larger branches. The uniform had been slightly darkened by the ash. 

Since when did this man have the time to go hunting? How come there wasn't blood on his clothes?

The white knight quickly acknowledges her as he finally notices the taller figure looking over, “I was preparing us breakfast… However, the summer heat has indulged with my cooking. The upper half is still edible, though.”

Mafuyu hums, deciding to focus on the man's delicate movements as he pulls out his sword and began slicing. Even the sword was clean. How did he manage to kill and skin this chicken then? The hell? 

The moor chicken didn't deserve to die for the failure of a meal. They'd probably get sick from eating it. “Not hungry,” Mafuyu decides to say, beginning to turn around.

“Mafuyu,” The white knight protests, “Please eat. You didn't eat anything yesterday.” Strangely, the man wasn't obnoxious like before, now with a quieter voice.

The prince sits down with the knight. “Fine,” The purple-haired replies, knowing that if she refused he'd probably pester her like a mosquito in her ear. The man smiles, cutting a great chunk for Mafuyu before placing it on a flat wooden plate. Perhaps he carried those in his own bag. He pulls out crackers from his pocket, though clearly they've been in better shape. Are they even edible?

Mafuyu's given her plate. With a sigh, accepting she might get food poisoning, Mafuyu reaches for a cracker and tosses it into her mouth. It quickly dissolves once it contacts her tongue. Now there's a weird wet soggy lump. Not to mention tasteless. Then her finger carefully sliced a part of the chicken and she took that to her mouth too. The texture, well, it was rough. Still edible, but any longer and it would have been charred as the rest of it. 

Her companion seemed to have agreed with such thoughts. Through the corner of her eye, the white-haired man twitches at the crunch. He gags softly, yet the continued crunching tells Mafuyu he'd still be eating it. Every crunch was followed with a sharp inhale or a soft huff. 

“Forgive me for making you eat this,” The white knight finally says, tossing his plate on the ground, “This isn't even chicken anymore. Maybe we should- ¡Mi Príncipe!”

Mafuyu finishes her slice rather quickly. “Let's go,” Is her reply as she stands up and quickly gives thanks for the food. His wide and shocked gaze is still on her, unfortunately. 

“B- But how did you eat that? It tastes absolutely awful. You'll also feel horrible later.”

She couldn't taste it. “I have no time to be picky on taste.” 

“Ya veo porque te tienen miedo…”

The comment made something on Mafuyu's face twitch for a second. Mafuyu unties the horse, whispering to it words of encouragement as she climbs upon its saddle. It's uncomfortably hot against her clothed legs, she could only imagine how the horse must feel. 

Was it humane? 

“How close is our stop?”

“Not far. If we leave now we might arrive by midday.”

Mafuyu looks back at the horse. “You think you can handle the heat a little?” She whispers to it. The black steed only blinks, after all it's just a horse. Considering it took the heat yesterday, it probably could do today as well. 

The prince was set to leave. Her companion, however…

The white knight seemed to still have difficulty putting out the campfire. Taking off his blue and gold capelet, the knight uses it to blow out the fire. Instead, it just made the fire worse. He slowly turns to Mafuyu, blinking twice and staring as empty as ever. 

“You know, we need to talk.”

Mafuyu's right eye twitched. “If this is about last night-”

The man shakes his head. “No. Not at all,” he says before shifting his gaze away. “You were yelling in your sleep…”

Mafuyu's eyes widened. She knew she spoke, but yelling? She can't control her tone in her sleep. So that means… 

Mafuyu feels nauseous. Ice quickly spreads across her body. 

“I won't judge you,” he finally says, “I understand how hard being a woman can be.”

Mafuyu blinks. “W- what?” Her voice is slightly high pitched much to her horror.

The white knight's eyes suddenly. “Not that I- I am- I just am observant, okay?” he blurts out before recollecting himself, “But that's not my main point. Who's traumatized you that has you pleading for forgiveness?”

Mafuyu backs away. “I'm not traumatized,” she snarls, a bit harsher than she meant to be, “It was a silly dream. Don't think too hard about it.”

“You said a name. It definitely is important. We can't just make up names, you know?” The white knight says, his voice breaking, “I just… I'm…”

“Stay out of my business,” Mafuyu growls, “You’re here to accompany me, not to be my councilor.”

“Right. Pardon me, Your Highness,” The white knight rasps, turning away from the prince. Her shoulders dropped and head hung low before returning back to putting out the fire.

His new competence was quite unexpected to say the least. Mafuyu sorta expected… some insistence? Instead the white knight quietly returned to his task. Mafuyu's heart sank, her throat closing with guilt. Now her words were just mean. She must correct it.

“I'm sorry,” she says, with a low bow of her head. 

He doesn't turn around, only letting off a soft hum for an answer. Perhaps this was rather deserved. Though it still made her heart feel heavy. The last time she received this type of silent treatment… was by the Queen herself until Mafuyu agreed to leave for the Shinonome Kingdom.

Her eyes continued to bore into the back of that white head, hoping the stare would make the white knight look her way. Yet he does not. Her blood boiled at the thought of being ignored.

Did he perhaps not hear her? Should she try again? “Sir, I am sorry,” she tries, her voice as low as it could possibly go. 

“Let's go now,” He says suddenly, refusing to look her in the eye. Voice as monotonous as his expressionless eyes. He grabs the lead of the horse and waits for Mafuyu to climb upon. With a sigh, the purple prince climbs upon the horse. Mafuyu doesn't get time to get comfortable as the white knight begins the journey without warning. 

She can't help but feel like a child in trouble. This silence was deadly. Yet… why does she care now? This is everything she could have wanted the days before. Mafuyu searches through her thoughts, yet only came to one possible conclusion: his white hair. 

He just resembled Mafuyu's dearest so well. Mafuyu might end it all if her dearest ever gave her a silent treatment. Though this wasn't even her dearest and she was about ready to pull her eyes out and give them as peace offerings.

But they're not the same person, why can't her mind understand that? If this continues to happen… she might…

No way. 

This might become troublesome in the future. Mafuyu concludes it's best to change her behavior in regards to the white knight. Starting now.