#and kennyo tbh he's a sweetheart really

[ythmir-writes]

If you’re still looking for prompt, Kennyo and window. Thank you.

fandom: Ikemen Sengokucharacter: Kennyo

a/n: alrightey im gonna be upfront and say that Kennyo is a character i am not entirely familiar with. i read through all of my saved up stories of him and still felt wanting of information and characterization so please be gentle with me. Also, i tried something new with my storytelling so if anyone has any thoughts on how… chatty… this one is, hook me up. :>

also, crossing my fingers that mobile won’t fuck up this time.edit: mobile version looks effed on my phone:/

last, well, this one has no warnings. Please enjoy!

Window

The first time he had chanced upon the Oda Princess by the river bank, she had been crying.

Kennyo had not bothered to approach her. He recognized those tears; the quiet kind of fierce bawling that no amount of comforting words or presence could dispel. That, and Kennyo knew from experience those tears were better shed than left to dry from within.So he had kept just out of sight, making sure she had a good cry undisturbed. He left only when the Princess was later on found and picked up by a man who seemed to be Mitsunari Ishida.

The second time Kennyo saw the Princess along the same spot, she was alone again but at least calmer somehow. She was no longer bawling her eyes out though the occasional sniffling told him he had just missed it. Most of the time however, she simply sat and stared at the sky until the blue became red and orange. He had just made up his mind to tell her to go home when all of a sudden she had stood up herself and made her way back towards the castle.

As he had watched her disappear into the forest, Kennyo wondered what could possibly be suffered by an Oda Princess that would make her cry so often as she did.

The question ate at him more than he had anticipated and made him feel restless enough that in next few days, he purposely passed by the same spot by the river bank in the (unspoken) hopes of seeing her somehow. A quiet vigil in the hopes she would come back. But the Princess did not return.

Perhaps she was feeling better? Perhaps whatever was causing her sorrow had been removed? Thatwas a good thought to entertain, wasn’t it? That the Princess had found her happiness or whatever it was that made her so sad had already been resolved.

Or perhaps, the worst had come to pass. And it was the Princess that was gone.

The thought saddened him more than he had thought it could. He had never really spoken to her, much less had any kind of interaction with her that could spark the empathy he reserved for his friends. His only interaction with her after all had been to warn her of monsters in the dark. But that had been months ago. She might not even remember.

No, he told himself. What he was feeling was simply unsatisfied curiosity. He stumbled upon her, distraught and wailing, and had been curious. That she would no longer return left that curiosity without conclusion, which would explain why he kept returning to the spot he had seen her in an attempt to fill-in his thoughts.

Thoughts, he mused, as he passed the river bank for the umpteenth time, that he needed to bury. Because even if she was still alive, the chances of meeting the famous Oda Princess were far and few in-between. It was not like either of them were living under similar circumstances to casually and unintentionally see each other as if they were normal neighbors.

And bury them he almost did.

He was passing by that spot again, thoughts of the Princess replaced by hunting he needed to do to fill in his stock for the week. Out of habit, he turned his head to look at the river and saw the same shock of golden hair.

And the same set of trembling shoulders.

And heard the same near-desperate howl of her anguish.

The curiosity that ate at him grew tenfold that he had to stop himself just short of bursting out of the thicket to ask if she was all right. He had to calm down. After not seeing her for so long, he now doubted if asking was the correct thing to do.

He should not tangle with Oda business, even if the Princess was nothing more than a titleholder than a true blood relation. He was an enemy of the Oda, blood or not. Besides, what good would it do him if he knew the troubles of one of the Oda.

Then again –

One talk was all he needed, he told himself. A simple conversation, is all. If he made her feel better, then that was a good enough end in itself to aim for. It would finally put his own anxiety to rest.

However, if aside from making her feel better she somehow told him a detail or two about the Devil King, then it would be worth more than all the time he had wasted feeling sorry for her at a distance.

With that in mind, Kennyo mustered enough courage (and alibis) to convince himself he could not leave her alone.

He made his way towards her, making as much noise as possible so she could raise her guard. Sure enough, just as he was within earshot, the Princess had jumped from where she sat, and spun around to face him. Though her eyes and cheeks were red, there was steel and a readiness in her that told him she had been waiting. That fact surprised him and made him consider the situation seriously.

There was also the matter of the pistol in her hands.

“I mean no harm.” Kennyo said, raising his arms and opening his hands to show her the kerchief he had meant to give her. “I heard someone crying and decided to approach. I did not know it was going to be you, Azuchi’s chatelaine.”

“How did you…?” Then, she recognized him; no doubt from the wanted posters her clan had circulated. And she raised the pistol higher aiming for his chest. “What are you doing here?” She asked, hastily wiping at her tears. “You shouldn’t be here. These are Oda lands. If he finds you, he will kill you.”

“If he finds me.”

“He could.” She replied. “He knows how to find what he wants.”

“Then if he does, he would have to try really reallyhard for me to not kill him first.” The all-too familiar anger coiled inside him at the mere mention of Nobunaga Oda and he found himself half snarling at the thought. He caught himself just in time – or had it been the look of panic on the Princess’ face – and then he sighed, putting a lid on his emotions. “But I take it you are opposed to the idea of him killing me?”

The Princess opened her mouth and then closed it before looking away. “Not particularly.”

“Not good for you to look away from a man you’ve aimed your weapon at.” He cautioned.

The Princess rolled her eyes, and steadied her aim. “Why are you here, really?”

Kennyo sifted through the dozen of excuses he had on the tip of his tongue, but found he could only tell the truth. “I told you. I could not leave you crying alone.”

That took her by surprise as much as it did him. And this time it was his turn to look away, embarrassed. He hastily put down his arms and attempted a lazy shrug as he pocketed his kerchief. “It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to leave a woman in distress.”

“The stories I have heard about the monk named Kennyo never included that he had a soft spot for women’s tears.” She said.

Kennyo scoffed. “The rumors about Azuchi’s witch have not been kind either.”

She grimaced and Kennyo wondered if he had hit a sore spot. “Then it seems neither of us have very good reputations.”

“Evidently.”

The Princess shook her head, extinguishing the pistol and tucking it away. Or rather, putting it roughly in her obi, the weapon plainly in sight and within her reach. Then, as if resigned, she picked up a rock and threw it at the river. It bounced twice before falling into the water.

Kennyo watched quietly as she repeated the same action over and over again, choosing pebbles carefully before throwing them into the water. However, despite her repeated attempts, her stones bounced no more than three times before sinking. And each time, she only grew more and more frustrated until she dropped all sense of subtlety,hurtling a rock in a throw, screaming. The stone flew silently in the air, to be swallowed by the river with nothing more than a sigh.

Kennyo wondered why his feet remained rooted where he stood.

He could turn and leave anytime. He had been dismissed, after all. And the Princess had made her unspoken promise not to tell her liege lord of the rat in his hunting grounds. As a matter of fact, he should be packing up his things in his makeshift cabin at that very moment, moving his location somewhere deeper into the forest. But instead of doing every practical thing he had planned in case he had been found by the Oda, he stood there watching their treasured Princess skip pebbles in the river.

“I’m not a witch.” She finally said, not looking at him but at her hands, dirtied with mud and grass. “And even if I was, it wouldn’t be that kind of witch.”

When he did not respond, the Princess turned towards him. “Are the rumors they tell about you true, then?”

“Yes.” He answered. “All of it.”

“Even the ones that say you swindle money from the poor?”

Kennyo frowned.

“Thought so.” She flashed him a quick smile and Kennyo felt as if he had somehow lost a bet. “This might sound repetitive but why are you still here?”

Kennyo wondered about that himself. Slowly, he approached her but kept a safe distance. “When I was young, I remember being told a story about skipping stones in the river.”

The Princess remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

“They say that if you manage to have your stone reach the other end, all your worries will disappear and your heart’s desire could be granted.”

“Isn’t that convenient.” She muttered. “Throw a stone hard enough and everything will be all right in the world.”

“Wasn’t that what you were doing?”

A faint blush colored her cheeks. “I was practicing my aim.”

“Well it was a very random aim.” Kennyo picked up a stone and tried it himself. It managed five skips before disappearing into the water.

“Yours ain’t so grand either.” She huffed. And then, with just the barest hints of excitement, asked him, “How did you manage five?”

Kennyo could only barely contain a laugh. “It’s in the wrist.”

“That doesn’t seem right! You barely flicked it!”

“You also need to choose a flatter pebble.” Kennyo crouched down, selected a stone, and repeated his movements. Again the pebble bounced five times before sinking.

He grinned. The Princess clicked her tongue but crouched down anyway and began to search.

“Have this one.” Kennyo offered to her before he realized what he had just done. However, just as he was about to pull back his hand, the Princess took the stone from him, running her fingers around it, oblivious to his discomfort.

“Oh these are smoother.” She said. “And you said it was in the wrist?”

Kennyo nodded, not trusting his mouth.

The Princess practiced the motion slowly several times before letting the stone go. Kennyo wished it would go farther than his. Unfortunately, it bounced only three times before sinking yet again.

“This is rigged.” The Princess kicked at the grass.

“You just need more practice.” Kennyo said. “Try again.”

Despite her complaints,the Princess did crouch down and dutifully selected several stones.

How his plan to weasel information from the Princess managed to end up with them spending time looking for smooth pebbles and throwing them into the water, Kennyo was not sure. He had not dropped his guard the moment he was within range of her pistol. He was sympathizing but he was not stupid. He tensed whenever she picked up a new stone and aimed for the river, knowing that she could easily hurl it at him and then shoot him in the chest.

But then, somehow in the back of his mind, he knew she would not do it. She did not seem to be the type. And even if there was no telling either that any of the Oda would suddenly burst from the bushes to apprehend him, the same sense of peacefulness managed to smooth every anxiety, and assured him that it would not happen.

At least, not today.

“Looks like neither of our problems are going away.” The Princess said, watching the ripples her last throw made until it disappeared.

“Not any time soon, yes.” Kennyo answered after a while. “But I think the moral of it isn’t that there is anything magical in the act. Only that you need to try it again.”

“And if trying and trying doesn’t work?”

“Then it simply means you haven’t tried hard enough.” Kennyo replied.

“We’ve been throwing stones the entire afternoon.”

“Some of us spend lifetimes just trying to reach one dream.”

“That’s bleak.”

“Life has never been fair.”

“That’s…” The Princess fell silent and said after some time. “That’s true.”

They fell silent again, watching the river, listening to the waters lap and gush by. Kennyo glanced at the Princess from the corner of his eyes, watched her hair dance softly in the wind. Her face no longer held any traces of her tears but neither was she any less sad than when they had started.

He wanted to ask what could possibly be wanting from an Oda Princess to have such a desolate look on her face. And more importantly, he wanted to ask what she desperately wanted granted to rely on superstitious beliefs, when she had all of Azuchi’s powers in the palm of her hands.

The quiet moment seemed to be the window of opportunity he had been waiting for. If he could not physically help her, at the very least he could offer some words of comfort.

She was not of Oda blood, right? It would be all right for him to drop the façade just this once, right?

But before he could ask, she had spoken up again. “Let’s pretend we never saw each other today, all right?”

Kennyo felt surprised at the sudden sinking sensation in his stomach at her words. “I was going to suggest the same thing.”

“And you never saw me crying.”

“All I saw was a woman failing at skipping stones that a toddler could beat her at it.”

“Hey! Not fair!” the Princess laughed despite the indignation in her tone. “Well, if you’re going to be like that then I saw a monk with a soft spot for women in distress!”

“You lose. No one would ever believe it was me.”

“Well, nobody would ever believe you either. My aim is amazing!”

“Of course it was.”

The Princess laughed again, turning around without another word and running back to wherever direction it was that she came from. Just before she was swallowed by the forest, she turned back to look at him and waved.

Kennyo waved back before he could stop himself, and half balked half pretended to scratch at his head.

That earned him another wide grin and laughter that seemed to never end. And Kennyo found himself staring far too long when she finally disappeared into the forest.

Thinking that he wanted to see that smile again.

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