"I," Chikusa announces imperiously, "am an Adult."

Just like that, Ken closes his mouth and squints at the other boy suspiciously with all of their prior argument immediately forgotten. In the cozy light filtering into the estate, he inspects the young noble carefully. Nope, Chikusa doesn't look too different from how he usually looks, which is to say that he looks pale and scrawny and utterly Kakipii. Those really annoyingly delicate but expensive clothes still don't seem like they fit right no matter how many times the tailor visits him. (Personally, Ken finds it funny to see the adults get quietly worked up about it.) Glasses? Yep, still there and pinching his nose. Still that dumb haircut too.

His mouth scrunches up in aggravation. "Is this because you're taller?"

Watching Chikusa puff up helps ease off the edge of Ken's annoyance, if only because it's hilarious. There's nothing of Chikusa to actually puff up. He's made of chiken bones and skin. "It's not because I'm taller!" he snaps. "I read adult books."

Oh. Books. Ken makes a face. "Big words doesn't make you older."

"It's not the words. It's..." A pause as he seems to think over his sentence. "...the subject."

"Show me," Ken challenges immediately, and relishes the way Chikusa blinks wide eyed at him. Ha! All too soon, however, he screws up his mouth stubbornly and sets off for the door. Ken follows after him, readily ditching the bucket of water and rag he'd been using to clean up the little playroom of the third floor. He hates cleaning. It's boring and just the same thing over and over again. He'd rather be doing errands out of house, but he guesses then he wouldn't get to bug Chikusa.

Over well polished floors and rugs that cost more than a year's worth of groceries, Chikusa leads him into the solemn silence of the library. No one interrupts them in the halls on the way there. For one thing, Chikusa's parents are who knows where at any given time- Ken's own tell him it's very important work and socializing. He half wonders if they even remember they have a son. For another thing, the rest of Ken's family is busy buzzing around on the lower levels. There's a dinner, or something. He wasn't really paying attention.

The bright side is that Chikusa probably was, and he doesn't seem concerned about being caught or anything. Instead, he's carefully inspecting the rows of books with his brow all scrunched up over the rim of his glasses. Before Ken can get too bored and start to fidget, the other boy moves forward. He watches in keen interest as Chikusa carefully starts to clamber up the bookshelves in his fancy dumb shoes in a way he can recognize as practiced. There's a book squished in on the very end on the very top shelf that he retrieves, carrying it with a grip Ken didn't know he was capable of as he comes back down. That's the thing about Chikusa. He prefers to do boring things, a lot of which involve sitting down, but when you push him, then things get fun. With the same kind of care he'd used to climb the bookshelf, Chikusa sits down with his knees folded beneath him. In half that time, Ken sprawls out on his stomach and watches him curiously.

Clearing his throat, Chikusa speaks. "It's called," he says in his I-know-more-than-you voice, "The Young Prince of Tyvia." He pauses and squints at him. "...It's supposed to be performed by people on a stage."

"Are you gonna do voices then?"

"No."

"Booooooring!" Ken boos, but Chikusa ignores him as he opens the book. Sulking, Ken rests his chin across his crossed arms to listen.

"The scene opens in the foyer of the Bayle manor, servants waiting to the side. The Bayle family, including its patriarch Lord Nathan Bayle, are speaking in hushed tones before they all straighten up as the door is opened for Prince Kallisar of Tyvia who is garbed in luxurious furs..."

It sounds like it's going to be boring nonsense, at first. However, instead of being a boring political thing like Ken initially think it will be, this Kallisar guy ends up catching his attention. That alone is kind of impressive, considering Chikusa reads aloud with all the emotion of a dead rat. But then the story starts getting interesting.

"Prince Kallisarr, smiling coyly, reaching out... No need for anger between us, Lord Bayle. Is it so wrong for me to be here? As I've proven, I've developed an affinity for you and your family." Chikusa is starting to read a bit slower now, ears starting to flush pink, but Ken isn't really paying attention. He's just listening, perked up from his spot on the floor. "Lord Nathan Bayle... gasping... Oh, my, Kallisarr... your skin is so warm, it burns." A hard swallow. "Prince Kallisar, hand drifting- drifting-" And just like that, he snaps the book shut with his face practically blazing. Ken pushes himself up, scowling.

"You were getting to the good part!"

"You don't even know if it's the good part!"

"I could tell. It was getting good!"

"W-Well I'm done reading!" Chikusa scrambles up to his feet faster than Ken expects, and he nearly trips over myself in an effort to keep up. "So I'm going to put it back!"

"No! Give it to me and I'll finish it!"

"I'm not going to give it to you!"

"Why not-!" Except even as he's in the middle of demanding an answer, Ken pounces with all the force in his six year old body. Chikusa is skinny and always seems to be tripping over his own big dumb feet- when he goes down he goes down, and Ken laughs so hard in his triumph that he drowns out Chikusa's offended squawk.

Which means he's left perfectly wide open for a smack to the side of his head

Together, they go rolling across the library floor, book to the side soundly forgotten in the heat of the moment and adrenaline pumping through their veins. Ken always forgets how stubborn Chikusa can be when he's in a mood, but that just adds to the fun. He growls and kicks and laughs, all which only make Chikusa scowl at him from behind skewed glasses. When he gets rolled onto his back once more, he screws up his nose and sticks his tongue out-

Chikusa smacks his hand straight over his mouth.

Ken is about to slobber all over it, but he finally takes in Chikusa's wide eyes and, somewhere in the house nearby, footsteps. Both boys freeze, chests heaving, and listen carefully to the heavy footfalls that go throughout the hall directly outside. Ken can hear his heartbeat echoing in his ears, and Chikusa's too, practically. Together, they lay there on the floor, tangled up in one another and listening carefully. When the footsteps finally fade off, stomping down the stairs at the end of the hall, Chikusa slumps in relief.

Licking Chikusa's hand to get it away from his mouth, Ken grins widely at the offended look on his face. "We didn't get caught!"

"We almost did," Chikusa says sourly, pushing himself up to his knees and then his feet.

"But we didn't."

His cheeks puff up, and Ken laughs at him again. He's in such a good mood, he doesn't even care when Chikusa goes to put the book away again. It's fine. He knows where it is now, and he bets he can climb those shelves even better than Kakipii. As Chikusa comes down, however, he glances over at him and sighs. "You hurt your face."

Huh? Ken reaches up to lightly touch his face a few times before finding somewhere on his cheek that stings a bit when he prods at it. "Oh, huh."

He's about to lick his own hand, because there's nothing a little spit can't fix but Chikusa grabs his arm before he can do that and starts to tug him along. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"I'm going to fix it."

The room Chikusa leads him into isn't far off. In fact, it's the next room over, some sort of study that Ken's explicitly been forbidden from entering. Chikusa enters like it's nothing, however, so Ken follows right after him. Hey- one of the family's sons is doing it, so it's fine for him too, right? "How are you gonna fix it?" he asks as he goes to sit in a chair Chikusa indicates, swinging his feet.

"There's something that makes sure gross things don't get into your skin, and makes it heal faster," Chikusa says, standing on a chair to reach a bottle on a shelf. "It accelerates the healing process."

Ken sticks out his tongue again. "You don't have to use big words to explain stuff!"

"It's good for you to learn big words."

"That sounds dumb."

"Well, you're dumb." Before Ken can protest that, Chikusa sticks his tongue out at him, and laughter bubbles out of his throat. It keeps him content long enough for Chikusa to dab some of it onto a rag and lean down in front of him. When it's pressed against his cheek, Ken hisses.

"Ow! You said it was supposed to make me feel better!"

"I said I was going to make it heal," Chikusa huffs. "That doesn't mean it'll feel good. Like how eating cucumbers are important for your body but they don't taste good."

"I like cucumbers. You're the one who hates them."

"That's not the point and you know it." He scowls at him before carefully tearing off a piece of bandage. Ken waits as he applies some sort of salve to the edges, perking up when Chikusa speaks again. "You know, when I'm old enough, I'm going to go to that College. The one of Natural Philosophy." He says the words carefully, not wanting to mess them up.

"Aren't smart people only allowed in there?"

"Yeah."

"You're only smart half of the time, so it might be hard!" Ken snickers, only for it to backfire in his face as Chikusa smacks the bandage onto the scrape on his face. As he sulks, Ken inspects Chikusa's huffy face. Something occurs to him. "Other people aren't allowed to go in there, right?"

"No." He gives the answer while putting everything away carefully, almost as if they were never touched at all. "It's just the professors and the students."

"Huh." Ken swings his feet recklessly, frowning. "Then we won't get to see each other."

Chikusa pauses, fingers still barely touching the bottle he's only now put back. "We'll get to see each other."

"How?"

"I'll figure out a way." Chikusa shuffles down from the desk. "Even smart colleges need people who can cook, or, uh, clean up exploded bodies."

"I wanna see an exploded body..."

"And if I can't do that," he continues stubbornly, "then I'll do something like... get an apartment outside and go inside to study. I bet you can do that. And we'll get to see each other all the time when I'm not learning, and I'll take care of you."

"I don't need taking care of!"

"You get into fights all the time!" Crossing his arm, Chikusa glowers. "And when you get hurt, I'll be there to fix you so that you're alright again."

Ken guesses it doesn't sound too bad. It'll be nice, to have Chikusa always there for him. A grin spreads across his face. "And you don't know how to cook, so I'll take care of you, too. I bet none of those eggheads at the college know how to really cook."

His clearly selfless devotion is greeted by Chikusa making a face. "You don't know how to cook either! I overheard one of the cooks talking about how you almost set a stove on fire."

"Shut up!" Before their argument can continue, both of them freeze as they look towards the door. When there's no actual sound, just their imaginations, both boys quickly finish and sneak out of the study. It's only when they're back in the boring little room that Chikusa likes to hang out at, where the sun fills out the perfect spots for naps, does Ken speak up again. "Doesn't your pop want you to take over the company and everything when you're old enough?"

Chikusa is quiet for a couple of seconds as he curls up on the window seat, knees up against his chest. Ken can't really describe it, but he looks a little more there with the sun drawing color out from his skin and his eyes catching the light. He looks more real, instead of just a ghost haunting his own house or the area around his family. "Yeah, I guess he does," he says after a moment as Ken clambers onto the seat with him despite how many times he's been told he's not supposed to.

"Can you run a business when you're busy being really smart at that school?"

"I don't think so."

That's probably going to raise all sorts of yelling when Chikusa ever tells his father- because Ken knows he absolutely hasn't yet- but Chikusa is curled in on himself and staring straight out the window down to the pavement below. Bluntly, Ken moves forward to shove himself between Chikusa's legs and ignores his strangled squeak as he drapes over his torso with a grin. "Exploded bodies are way more neat than doing boring junk like math and stuff!"

Only on the seat precariously now, Chikusa still smiles in his weird awkward kind of way. "Yeah," he agrees quietly. "They're way neater."

He knows that he should get back to cleaning, or else his parents will get disappointed and other staff will scold him, but Ken doesn't want to move. Even though he's all bone, it feels comfortable to lay on Chikusa like this. The sun is hitting them just right, too. Comfortable and warm, he lets himself drift as Chikusa turns his attention back to the outside towards the dam keeping Rudshore dry.