#m.anjuren

[the-wyld-archive]

19 RENJU. Is that Ren and Anju's ship??? RENJU.

19. things you said when we were the happiest we ever were

“Anju, you ever want kids?”

Anju’s laugh was quick and sharp, cutting through the afternoon air and ringing in Hakuren’s ears. He’d heard people call it a violent laugh before, but he’d always found it refreshing.

“Me?” Anju scoffed, leaning back on his hands. “Hell no. I’m not father material on my best day, and you know I don’t have many of those.”

Hakuren elbowed the assassin for his comment, and Anju laughed again, just as sharp as before. He sat up again and flung an arm around Hakuren’s shoulders.

“Besides, I’ve got you little monsters to keep a track of, don’t I?”

“I’m not a kid, Anju!”

“Yeah, yeah.” he ruffled the prince’s hair affectionately. “You’ve been a menace since you could crawl, and you continue to be.”

“You like me being a menace, though.”

He didn’t agree aloud, but Hakuren had known Anju long enough to see the devilish amusement in his eyes. Anju could hardly reprimand him half the time, since he himself was a troublemaker to the nth degree. Once or twice he’d even heard his father muttering about having four children instead of three. Though, now--

“Thinking about your soon to be youngest sibling?”

Hakuren’s ears flushed, though he wasn’t sure why he felt embarrassed. Anju had been able to read him like an open book since he was a child, and it was no secret within the palace that his mother was pregnant again. He ducked his head anyway, fiddling with his sash absently.

“Yeah.” he admitted sheepishly. “I’m excited, y’know, but also... I mean, I’m gonna be a lot older than them, and what if it’s a boy? They’ll look up to me, right? God what if it’s another girl? I can’t have two little sisters, that’s too many dress-up games--”

“Hakuren,” Anju interrupted, amused. “You had this same meltdown before Hakuei was born. You remember what happened?”

“Dad had to bodily drag me away from the nursery? Cause I wanted to spend all day playing with her?”

Anju’s smile was the same smirk he gave people when he knew he’d entrapped them, but his eyes were warmer. It made Hakuren’s stomach twist into funny knots, and he leaned subconsciously into his guard. Anju’s arm curled a little more tightly around his shoulders.

“Boy or girl, you’re going to love whatever little blue eyed bundle of Ren gets put in your arms in a few months’ time.” he reassured. “And I’m gonna be around.”

“Thought you said you weren’t father material?” Hakuren teased. Anju grinned wide.

“Oh, I’m not. But someone, someone who happens to be your father, the Emperor, has decided that it’s about time me and mine come crawlin’ out of the shadows.”

Hakuren was immediately alert, sitting upright and staring at Anju wide-eyed. Anju and the rest of the Kuroshi, out in the open? Existence no longer hidden, names no longer coded, for all to see? Could it be?

“He says I’m gonna be this kid’s teacher, right from the get go. So I’ll be around a lot more from now on.” Anju cocked an eyebrow. “Think that’ll help?”

Hakuren wanted to say a thousand things, but all that came bubbling out of him was joyous laughter. He pounced on his guard, toppling them both back onto the grass. They lay there laughing a while, blissfully unaware of their own fates.

[the-wyld-archive]

{ Title } Catch and Fall

{ Series } Magi: The Labyrinth of Magi [ Magi Disclaimer ]

{ Verse } Canon

{ Summary }  [ K ] “One day I’ll stop catching you and you’ll learn your lesson about being such a reckless brat. That’s what you’re thinking, huh? And you’ll just keep pushing it until then.”

                                                                “Oi… Y’know… I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose.”

Anju glared accusingly into blue eyes, tightening his grip on the squirming figure a fraction. For a few long moments, there was silence, then the baby giggled joyfully. Resigned to the fact that he wasn’t about to have an actual conversation with an infant, the assassin sighed aloud, brow furrowing a moment when a small hand grabbed at his bangs.

It had been almost three years since the emperor had tasked the then eleven year old Kuroshi with protecting his child. Anju had been there since his birth, watching over Hakuyuu’s first night alive, his first steps, his first garbled words. The little prince was everything you would expect a perfect child to be, he didn’t cry in the middle of the night, he always held his mother’s hand and he very rarely acted out.

Aside from the occasional kidnapping or attempted assassination, Anju’s job had consisted mainly of making sure the prince’s nights passed peacefully. It wasn’t boring by any means, and he got to spend a great deal of time with the emperor, but it was an easy enough assignment.

And then, a year later, along had come Hakuren.

From the moment he was born Hakuren was a bouncing bundle of energy and mischief. Even before he learned to crawl he managed to make an utter nuisance of himself at every available opportunity and once he could move on his own…

Anju’s days of resting in treetops idly watching his infant charges were over in the blink of an eye. If he wasn’t on full alert at all times he’d turn his head and find Hakuren ambling his way off towards some kind of immanent catastrophe or other. He wore his mother, his father, and every single nursemaid down without losing even a shred of his energy.

Night was about the only time anyone got any reprieve from the tiny terror, Anju included. Until, of course, tonight.

It wasn’t unusual for Hakuren to be a restless sleeper, he often woke up crying for his mother or simply woke and toyed around in his crib for a while, keeping himself entertained. However tonight the little Ren, who couldn’t even stand on his own yet, hauled himself up against the side of his crib and stood there, peeking out at his room.

Anju had watched, always wary of whatever worrisome activity the prince was about to get himself into this time, and was utterly horrified when not a half hour later the little one had apparently gotten it into his head to try and escape his crib.

Anju battled the idea of interfering for almost five minutes, but the decision was made for him when Hakuren successfully hauled himself halfway over the railing and out of his crib. In a flash, the Kuroshi was out of his perch and inside the prince’s nursery, managing to catch his charge before he fell headfirst onto the ground.

“…You are doing this on purpose.” Anju concluded aloud as the baby continued to muss his little hands in his hair.

He had been sitting there for almost ten minutes, reprimanding the child in his lap like he might actually understand. If anyone walked in just then, they would find a strange youth leaned against the prince’s crib, knees drawn up and Hakuren resting on them. A full alarm would sound. The emperor would be summoned. Anju, likely, would be reprimanded.

But still he sat there, holding onto the excitable child’s middle and looking into his smiling face. He and his brother had the same exact mole, but his was a little further right.

“Look at you,” he sighed. “Not even two and already testing my limits. At this rate, you’re going to be the most spoiled prince this kingdom has ever seen, you know that?”

Hakuren mumbled something unintelligible, still fascinated with Anju’s unruly locks.

“I bet you’re thinking you can get away with anything, that no matter what I’m always going to be there to catch you, right?”

Realizing he was being spoken to, Hakuren’s large eyes fixed on his guardian, tiny fists still in his hair. Sighing through his nose, the assassin hoisted the baby up and lowered his knees. Hakuren got the idea quickly, situating his legs beneath himself and standing shakily with Anju’s hands still bracing him.

He smiled, terribly pleased with himself for remaining upright.

“But,” Anju went on. “One day I’ll stop catching you and you’ll learn your lesson about being such a reckless brat. That’s what you’re thinking, huh? And you’ll just keep pushing it until then.”

The older boy’s expression softened, all his mock annoyance gone.

“Well, you’re wrong.”

He watched as Hakuren wobbled, hands gripping his hair more tightly for support before his shaking stopped and he was standing. A few moments of concentration passed, then he slowly lifted his little hands from their tether, letting go and holding himself upright by his own will. The assassin’s hands hovered on his waist, but offered no support besides.

“I’m going to let you become the most spoiled child in the world,” he murmured. “You and your brother both. No matter what you do, where you go, I will always be there to catch you. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ll stumble, I’ll always be there.”

Anju smiled, genuine and gentle.

“Always, Hakuren. That is my promise to you.”

Laughter bubbled out of the prince, who had only just seemed to notice he was standing all by himself. The force of his giggles made him wobble and he tipped forward, throwing out his hands to catch himself.

Both palms smacked onto Anju’s cheeks, bringing prince and assassin almost nose to nose.

Hakuren blinked at him, then laughed again.

“Gu!”

He knew it was just a senseless sound from a child’s lips, but Anju smiled regardless.

“Yeah,” he hummed, as little hands felt across his face. “Anju. Your Anju.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to the palm that found its way to his mouth, still smiling softly. Soon, he told himself, he would return Hakuren to his crib to continue his rest. For now though, he caught both small hands and lifted them, helping the prince stand once more, this time without the hands bracing at his waist.

[the-wyld-archive]

[ Send me a ship and one of these and I'll write a mini-fic ] [ AnjuRen ] requested by alibaeba​

·         5. Things you didn’t say at all

                                                                                                                                Hakuyuu has told him that Anju has always been there, and Hakuren believes him. Admittedly, yes, he believes everything his elder brother tells him without question because Hakuyuu is always right, but in this case he would have believed him regardless of that fact. It seems impossible that there could have ever been a time in their lives when Anju wasn’t there, and indeed, there hasn’t been.

From the moments of their birth, the assassin has been watching over them from the guise of night and the forgiveness of the daytime shadows. Every misstep, every skinned knee, every night disturbed by unwanted fears; he has been there. At some point it is easy for Hakuren to decide that without fail, he always will be.

With someone that omnipresent in their lives it’s no wonder that they came to love him. Hakuren wasn’t even surprised when he found himself counting Anju among the people he thought of when he rode off to battle, because why wouldn’t he? He loved Anju, just like Anju loved him, just like he loved his brother, and his infant sister.

It is not until Anju is dead that Hakuren came to understand how he had taken his presence completely for granted. The man had always been there and his mind had taken that and turned it into; he will always be here. But he wasn’t. Anju died, alone and unnoticed, and it left a gaping void in Hakuren’s life he had never properly noticed was filled. Nights were darker, battles longer, and the welcome home was never quite as bright without the shadowed figure in the distance, watching just from the corner of his eye.

Hakuren began recounting in his mind if he had left anything unsaid with Anju, if there was some little thing he had missed. He had thanked him for his care, his teachings, he had told him how great he was, he had heard in Anju’s voice “I’m proud of you”—

Had he told him he loved him? Had he looked him in the eye and said it? Yes, of course he had, he could remember it well. Being small enough to fit in his lap and looking up at him with eyes full of wonder, or curled up in his bed yawning his goodnights while Anju crept from his room, nightmare soothed. He had said I love you, but not for years. Hakuren realized, in a single moment that struck him like a fatal blow, that he hadn’t said it since it had mattered.

Not since he’d begun looking at Anju and seeing a man he’d like to spend his life with, not just as a student or a fellow warrior, and not quite a friend. He had begun to look at the man he’d come to consider his sanctuary with eyes that filled with warmth. Hakuren had always loved Anju, it was impossible for him not to, but at some point he had begun to love him. He had told him, in years long past, that he loved him with the innocence of a child, but he had never said it as a man.

And that he had never said it right was somehow worse than never having said it at all.