Hiro glanced over at  his parents again. As usual, his mother smiled at him before turning her attention to Hoko. She loved the cute little audrat, he noticed. He was almost surprised she hadn’t asked to babysit the creature while Akito wandered the palace. However that wasn’t Hiro’s concern so his train of thought continued. His gaze landed on his father but by the looks of it, eye contact was being avoided. [i]’Oh well. . .’[/i] He mused, deciding to leave it be. 

Servants started to file in just as quickly as when they were setting up, setting plates in front of the four royals. Jezura took her attention from Hoko to look at her son and then her husband. She gave a small, barely noticeable huff before smiling and gently placing a hand over Hiro’s arm. With a voice near a whisper she spoke, “I appreciate the effort dear. Thank you.” 

A playful grin flashed on Hiro’s face before playing innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, honestly. All I did was come for a meal with my family.” He paused and passed a quick glance over at Akito. “New and old of course. That’s no big deal.” He smiled when the Empress giggled and nodded. Once again his gaze fell onto his father but he didn’t pay him much attention. “Yeah, no big deal at all.” His attention went over to his stepmother as she somehow managed to rope into a conversation about one of the many gardens in the palace. “Well, there are a bunch of yellow flowers on that side. Wouldn’t you want to change the colors as the season-” 

Both Empress and Prince paused in their conversation, turning to look at Akito. One was rather surprised while the other practically had stars in her eyes at just how cute the two were. Neither of them probably saw what she did though.

Hironori took a sip of the water next to him only to cough when he realized what Akito was doing. Eyes fell on him and a servant quickly rushed forward, but he immediately waved them away. “My apologies… went down the wrong way.” He shrugged and then dropped his gaze back to his food. 

The Emperor raised a curious eyebrow as Akito spoke. At first, the only response Akito got was a nod towards the apology. His brows furrowed in contemplation and he finally looked over at Hiro- who had kept his gaze down. He didn’t want them thinking he had any part of this. The drawn out silence made the Empress nudge her husband with her elbow. He was going to question it, but the look in her eyes was enough of an explanation. With a sigh, he spoke. “I suppose I shouldn’t stop you from seeing your family.” Emperor and prince met gazes before he added, “And that would be one less thing I have to worry about in regards to his troublemaking.” 

Hiro shrugged, starting to say something but was pinched. The Empress apparently knew that whatever he was going to say wouldn’t have been good, so he opted to taking a bite of his food while the Emperor continued agreeing to Akito’s request. There were probably rules he was going to spew out so Hiro opted to pay more attention to his food  instead, though that didn’t stop him from giving Akito an appreciative smile. 

“So, what did you to do when you went to the village?” The Empress prodded before taking a bite. 

“Oh, I met the villagers. They were really nice, they even have activities together- it’s a small place too so I believe everyone is well acquainted with each other. One of the activities is a game actually.”

“Oh? What kind of game?” 

“It’s a lot of running back and forth, but you and your team have to kick a ball into a basket on either end.”

The Empress smiled. “I remember watching the servants play something like that when I was a little girl. They always looked like they had so much fun. I’ve never played it though. Why didn’t you play with him?” 

Hiro didn’t really want to admit he’d much rather watch the sport than partake in it. He figured his father thought he was lazy enough. So, he smiled and shrugged. “I decided to watch and learn. Besides, I wasn’t in the right attire for physical activity like that. And there was a nice woman on the sidelines giving out muffins- It was worth not playing. Besides, I got to watch Akito play; he’s really good at it.”