16 - The Castle walls are Practically Gone


Shoto POV:

My eyes flutter open as I wake up. I sit up and realize Izuku was already standing off by the closet. He was changing.

He pulled his shirt off and threw it off to the side, and I felt my face heating up. Am I sick? I think to myself. Either way, I direct my eyes away from Izuku, which in itself was a strangely hard thing to do.

"Oh, Shoto, you're up." Izuku says when he notices me. "We're leaving soon, you might want to get up." He looked nervous for some reason.

I nod. "Yeah, okay." I say. "But I don't have a change of clothes."

Izuku tips his head to the side table. I looked and saw that there was a stack of clothes. "Eri helped me pick it out." Izuku says. "She has a weird knack for outfits." I stand up and sigh.

Izuku leaves to go get breakfast and I quickly change to follow. After I finish, I make my way to the kitchen, where I see Ochako teasing Izuku for something. Izuku's face was beet red. But Ochako stops pestering him when she sees me. Odd. I think but dismiss the thought.

All the others were in the kitchen as well, eating different snacks. Izuku tosses me an apple and I take a bite out of it.

(Me being a PJO fan rereading that: ๐Ÿฅน)

I took a seat next to him and listened to the conversation.

"If we leave in an hour or so, we'll get to the castle by noon." Ochako says. "But we need to find a way inside as well."

"I know a way." I say. Everyone turns to me. "There's a point at the edge of the garden that's really easy to get in and out. Plus it's not too far from a door into the main library."

Ochako raises her eyebrows. "Okay." She says. "That clears a lot of things up." I nod.

"Well, I think we should go." Tsu says. "We have everything packed up."

Izuku finishes the sandwich he was eating. "Then let's say goodbye."

...

Halfway through the journey, we cross a town and find a girl with a cart who says she's delivering to the palace.

Izuku glances at me and the others before jumping into the back of the cart. Thankfully, it had blankets to hide in, so we all silently jumped in as well. After we all got hidden, we waited a few more minutes before the girl drove away.

An hour and a half of the uneven road, occasionally bumping shoulders with Izuku, passed silently.

After shoulder bump five, we stop and the girl gets out of the cart. She talks with more customers before they leave. Then she comes over to the back of the cart, where we were. I feel Izuku tense up next to me and don't hesitate as I grab his hands tightly.

But the girl just returns to her driver's seat and Izuku relaxes. I keep my hand on his, looking in the other direction.

We continue moving for another half hour. Midway through that I feel the cart cross onto smoother ground, maybe cement or concrete. I hear more and more people talking around the vehicle, maybe aristocrats and soldiers. I start thinking of why no one was check the vehicle, usually they do that when you entered the castle.

An additional minute went by before we stopped. It was quieter here.

The girl got off and again came over to the back of the cart.

We waited.

"You can come out now." The girl whispers. I blink in confusion. "No one is here to see you except me, Prince Shoto." I tense.

Then I sigh and pull the blanket off me. I heard Izuku try and hiss a warning, but I didn't listen. I looked at the girl in front of me. She was wearing a basic beige T-shirt and light teal airy pants. She was bare foot and had messy long light purple hair. Her eyes were dark pink. And her skin had a tint of pink to it as well.

"Hello." I say. "Who are you?"

The girl grins. "My name is Etris, and I just smuggled in a Prince!" She says. My eyebrows raises.

"You're named after the goddess of youth?" Izuku says, his voice changing as he talked with the child. "That's auspicious for you."

Etris smiled mischievously. "Now where do you want to go, Prince?" She says. Then I noticed that the ends on her hair were wet and kind of watery looking.

"We're entering the palace gardens." I say, and I could feel my headache coming back as I look at Etris. She must've seen the look on my face and her expression softened.

"Alright." She says. "We're behind the royal stables, can you get to where you're going from here?"

I think for a moment. "Yes." I decide. Etris nods and then turns around.

"Well I never saw you guys." She says. "Goodbye!" She runs off and away.

I turn back to everyone. "That was very strange." Ochako says. "Let's go?" I nod and they all follow me in the other direction.

We make our way over to the point of the edge of the garden. It looked like a brick wall half covered in vines and moss from the outside, which made the others look at it in confusion.

"Shoto, is this it?" Izuku says.

I nod and trace my fingers across the vine area. My pointer finger falls through at a point and I press inwards. The vines part away, revealing a garden area. I hear Izuku make a oooing sound behind me as I enter, and he follows.

After we all enter I look at Tenya and Tsu. "I need that part patched up again, or someone might find it." I say. "Can you do that while we go inside? The last time I didn't fix it an assassin came in and almost killed my brother." Everyone's face, except for Katsuki's, goes pale.

Tsu nods and Tenya gives me a thumbs up.

I gesture the others over to a door into the library. I open it slowly, to not make a lot of noise. Izuku enters first, followed by Ochako, then Katsuki and Eijiro.

"So now we're in," Ochako whispers. "Where do we go? Not your room I hope."

I shake my head. Izuku looks around and a grin crosses his face. "On a different note, you got to come to this library anytime you wanted?" Izuku whispers to me. "That's amazing! There's at least a thousand books here."

"Two thousand, seven hundred, forty-nine." I correct. "I've read them all. Plus every royal has their own private library closer to their room, and I go there more. It's smaller than this but bigger than the others."

Izuku's grin grows larger. He walks over to the nearest bookshelf and scans the books. I glance over at Ochako, Katsuki and Eijiro, but Eijiro and Katsuki were talking between themselves and Ochako was drawing in a sketchbook.

I lean next to Izuku. "That's one of my favorites." I whisper. He grins and places it back. Then he turns his head to say something, but stops when he realizes how close their faces were.

Subconsciously, I glance down at Izuku's lips before looking back up at him. He does the same before his face becomes red and he pulls away. I do the same. I was about to say something when-

"Shoto?"

<^> To Be Continued

(1.2k words)

wOah. that's crazy peoples.

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