Night had fallen, but celebrations could still be heard outside from the castle town. The nobility, the ambassadors, all the guests, had retreated however, the castle celebration having ended a while ago.

In his chamber, the newly crowned king sat on his bed, one leg folded and the other pulled toward his chest, arm leaning against it in a relaxed way. His chamber was sparsely lit, but not so sparsely that his eyes would be harmed as he read the letters on the sheafs of paper in his hand. By his knee, a slow smoke curled from the surface of a barely touched cup of tea.

He thought he heard a rustle of wind in the trees, just before he heard a voice.

"Oh. Did Lord Big Brother wait up?"

Izana looked up from one of the reports for the following day that he had by his side, smiling at Obi as the man was suddenly sitting crouched in the window. He shook his head briefly, eyes lidded for that short moment. "Of course not," He closed the folder he had been reading, and put it on the table on top of the others. "you come and go whenever you want, after all, I can hardly expect it. And I thought that surely you would be with Zen this evening?"

"I was, yes," Obi placed his knees on the bed, one hand on Izana's knee as he leaned across the bed, careful so he wouldn't cause the cup to overbalance. "everyone are asleep right now but I need to go back soon, in case any of them wakes up." A playful bite barely touched Izana's earlobe, and Obi smoothly straightened up after it. Izana raised his hand, not unintentionally, to touch it, gaze on the other man. "Asleep, together?"

"Well Master wanted to celebrate, and today's a good day you know." One of Obi's hands moved to his hip, the other was raised in the air, in the way of telling something new and exciting. "We got a new king and all, a really cool looking one that I bet'll be great at it." He winked. "I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him on the throne."

Izana's hand moved from his ear to his mouth, a loose half-fist not really meant to cover up the cheerful laughter passing his lips. "You are here to tell me that?" he asked once his laughter had mostly subsided. Obi was still grinning from ear to ear, now with his arms crossed over his chest and a position where he put most of his weight on one leg, one hip going to the side a bit more than the other. He looked relaxed, both in posture and clothing. He wore the jacket from his uniform, although he had removed most of the decorations. Izana had never seen him in an outfit like it before tonight. Though then again, the times he dealt closely with Obi, the man tended to be more than lightly dressed. The corners of his mouth twitched further upward at the thought.

"That too," Obi said, and suddenly his back was very straight, and a hand was pressed above his heart, and to Izana's astonishment, he bowed. At a perfect angle, too. "Congratulations on your crowning, your majesty. It was a very moving moment." When he rose, his smile cracked from a soft one, unusual because it was not generally directed at Izana, and it split into one of his grins. "very suave, too. It's like, ah! It's like it's a very great thing." If he had found the words, Izana would have made a comment about that last part. But all words had been momentarily lost to him. So Obi continued talking, undisrupted. "Though I met so many people today that my head is still going round and round, and it wasn't even me they were introducing themselves to!" He certainly could not stay serious for long, but Izana was still surprised by the sudden display of actual proper etiquette, which Obi usually bypassed when it was only the two of them, when nobody knew that they were hidden away among flickering shadows.

The kiss that he was given brought him out of his stupor, his hand moving to touch Obi's cheek, thumb brushing against the place that he had cut the first time that he had seen him. He wondered if he was glad or not that it didn't scar. But it was probably for the best that it had not. When Obi pulled back again, the dark haired man was holding the cup in his hand, the dissipating steam warming his palm only a little, after the tea had started to cool. "You looked good in the uniform, by the way," Izana said, as he took the cup from him, cradling it in his hands.

"Miss Kiki was the one most complimented for the outfit, particularly by Mistress," the messenger pointed out brightly, straightening up once again. "It doesn't really feel like it suits me that much though, I'm more comfortable in what I usually wear," Obi told him, and Izana chuckled. "Yes, you do tend to dress more for function than for fashion, I have noticed. Although you do know to act the part when you actually do dress properly."
"Oh my, His Majesty has been looking at what I'm wearing~" Obi had clasped his hands together, and batted his eyelashes at Izana in a very silly way, with a very silly and fake awed expression on his face, and Izana couldn't help but laugh again. The tea rippled dangerously as his body shook with laughter that he tried to suppress, at least somewhat. "Are you trying to come off as a lovesick young maiden? It doesn't suit you." Obi laughed at that, his normal, friendly laugh, and his hands fell, comfortably clasping behind his back. Behind doors in the night, they got along perhaps too well, sometimes. It would make Izana a bit disconcerted, later, he was pleased with the relationship that they had after all, but for now he was wholly enjoying himself.

"I need to go but," Obi tapped the cup, finger lingering a few moments. "Shouldn't you drink this before it turns cold, Elder Highness? Since the maids went out of their way to boil it for you at this late hour."

"I should," Izana agreed, lowering the cup to rest against his thigh. "The ones sooner to wake are Kiki and Mitsuhide?" Obi nodded. "Yes, master and mistress are both drunk so they sleep pretty well right now. Though master was sleeping on my leg at first because mistress fell asleep beside me." Surely, Obi would tease Zen about that. Unfortunately Izana could not, or his brother would wonder how Izana knew something like that. "Then, Your Highness, don't stay up too late."

Obi gave him one last kiss, and when Izana blinked, he had disappeared into the darkness of the night.