Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ Stalking the Wolf ❯ Long Awaited Meeting ( Chapter 4 )

Stalking the Wolf

 

 

By: Yahnkehy/V.M.

 

 

A/N: Thank you, everyone who has read the last chapter. I really hope that I haven't lost anyone, trust me, things are going to get a lot better now. Chapters should get longer and the plot will thicken to the point you'll need a spoon to read it! Haha.

 

 

Chapter Warning: Language, skewed version of events

 

 

Chapter Rating: T 16+

 

 

Chapter 3: Long Awaited Meeting

 

~0~

 

Genrou- no, he was Tasuki again- felt like a stalker for the fifteen years that he had spent following and protecting his miko. From the day she was born, he had always been only a few feet from her. He had rented an apartment and specifically requested the one that was right next door to her mother's apartment. He'd babysat her, helped her and her brother with their homework, stepped in and helped out with bills while her mother had been too sick to work, and never once did she realize who he was. Not even after she came back with Tamahome and needed a place for him to hide.

 

He didn't think he'd changed all that much from the time he'd been in the past, maybe he'd finally gained a sense of delicacy and decorum but he was still the same guy. Slightly more cynical, but inherently the same. Granted, he went out of his way to make sure she never caught on, but that was beside the point.

 

Now, he stood at the edge of the crowd that had gathered around Miaka and the formerly destroyed part of downtown and waited for his past self and the other seishi to fade back into the book. He still cursed under his breath when she made that ridiculous wish, but she was his miko and she knew what she was doing. It didn't escape him that she had a look on her face once the world started moving again, a look that said that she was entirely certain that she'd made the right choice. Perhaps Suzaku had tried to talk her out of it?

 

Keisuke, Tetsuya and Miaka walked back towards the crowd, Yui on Tetsuya's back wearing his coat, when Tasuki stepped out of the crowd and over to Miaka's side. “I see ya made a mess of things again, Squirt.”

 

“Oh! Terry-san! I didn't even see you there. Were... were you watching?” Miaka asked, twisting her fingers in her shirtfront.

 

Tasuki laughed, the sound cynical and disbelieving. “Ya still haven't figured it out, have ya.” He paused, waiting until her eyes turned back to his. “Mi-chan.”

 

Green eyes wide and surprised, Miaka gaped at him in utter, stunned silence. “T-Tasuki? Oh my god!” She stared at him in horror, then the horror faded to guilt. “You're still... you haven't...?”

 

Tasuki shook his head. “No, I haven't. Thanks so much fer the `gift', Mi-chan.” He snorted and put his hands in his pockets.

 

Tetsuya and Keisuke stared at Miaka like she was insane, neither having been present for the final wish she had made to Suzaku and thus not knowing what the heck she was talking about. What they did get was that Miaka was calling their old friend `Terry' `Tasuki'. “Um, Miaka? Care to enlighten the rest of us as to what the heck you two are talking about?” Keisuke asked, confusedly, Tetsuya and Yui looking on in silent agreement.

 

Miaka and Tasuki looked at each other for a moment and Tasuki nodded. “Let's go t'my place an' I'll explain it to everybody at once.”

 

Their trip back to the apartment went surprisingly uneventfully, no one seemed to even notice their motley group wandering around with an all but naked girl clinging to a tall boy's back. It had to be a hold over from the wish to make everything right that kept the questions from being asked and the eyes from following them. The shops selling televisions proudly showed the news channels yet not even a breath about the strange events that had happened in downtown was even uttered.

 

By the time the five of them had gotten back to Tasuki's apartment and settled down, there were questions brimming in four sets of eyes, all questions directed at Tasuki.

 

“We're gonna do this in reverse order so that it makes sense, arright? So, just sit down, shut up and hang on.” Tasuki grinned at his audience. “First thing's first; Miaka wished for me to never rest until I found love. Obviously, since I ain't dead yet, it ain't happened. Second thing; I don't wanna hear no cracks about me bein' an old fart. I still got my tessen an' damnit I'll roast ya if I even think yer thinkin' it. Now, questions. We're gonna go with oldest first. Tetsuya, ask.”

 

Tetsuya stood, bowing to Tasuki as he would to a teacher before answering, he cleared his throat and asked the first obvious question. “How can you be here? Isn't the Universe of the Four Gods just a story?”

 

“That's two, but I c'n answer `em both. And fer consistency's sake, I'll answer the last one first. No, the book ain't just a story. It's a path to the past. I'm here because I ain't dumb enough to fall in love. Suzaku's power kept me alive, no matter what I did. Next question, Keisuke.” Tasuki spouted, rapid-fire.

 

Keisuke was a little less formal and kept his seat while he asked his question. “If you already knew, why didn't you warn us about the book?”

 

Tasuki grinned wider. “Good question. Ya ever met Taiitsukun?” At Keisuke's head-shake, he continued. “Ya read about what he said to Miaka?” An affirmative nod. “If I had changed the future of the book, I would have changed too much of the past. Too much change causes things to unravel. Ya think I didn't wanna warn ya both t'stay the fuck away from that goddamned book? Ya think I <i>wanna</i> still be alive after damn near four centuries? Fuck no! If it wouldn't a changed the past of this world for me to not have been here, I would'a hid that book at Mt. Reikaku a long fuckin' time ago. Next, Yui.”

 

Yui looked at her feet; she knew Tasuki almost as well as Miaka did, though he had always treated her kindly, he'd never actually been friendly. “You knew what I would do, but you still let me be friends with Miaka. Why?”

 

“That's the easiest so far.” Tasuki grinned, finally able to be straight with the poor girl. “You hadn't done anything wrong. Knowin' someone's gonna do bad things ain't no reason to not give `em a chance to redeem themselves. I saw what ya did for Miaka a little bit ago; I didn't see that the first time. I'm sorry fer treatin' ya so coldly all this time.”

 

They shared a soft smile for a moment before Miaka spoke up. “Why?”

 

Cocking his brow, Tasuki's grin became cynical. “Why what? Why ain't I fell in love and went ahead an' died yet? Because I ain't built like that. I told ya today, and I told ya four hundred years ago; I don't need it.”

 

Miaka's lips trembled and she looked at her hands, picking at a fingernail. “But, did you even try?”

 

Tasuki laughed bitterly, “Oh yeah. I tried once. Met up with Hotohori and Nuriko in England about a hundred years ago. Brother an' sister. Hotohori was th' prettiest girl in London. She seemed t'like me fine too. But; seems like Nuriko got his wish. He had Hotohori in ways I don't think that miko like you an' Yui should ever find out about.”

 

Miaka's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped open. She couldn't picture Hotohori as a real woman, so all that she could imagine was Nuriko and Hotohori as they were when she knew them. “That's... that's gross! I don't want to know how you know that! Ew! I'm glad that I didn't know that while they were alive, I'd never have been able to look at them!”

 

Tasuki laughed loudly, leaning back against the counter top that served as his wet bar. A perfectly aged scotch in hand, Tasuki sighed out the last of his laughter and tipped it to his lips. “Sure, Mi-chan. I know alla you have had a real long day, Mi-chan an' Yui more than anybody, so I want ya all to go home and rest. We c'n talk about things more once ya get some rest.”

 

Miaka got to her feet and twisted her fingers in her shirt once more then broke into a run, flinging herself into his arms and sobbing. Her body shook with the force or her crying, but she clung to him. “I-I'm so- so sorry! Suzaku...” she bawled into his shirt, hiccuping sobs that broke her words into an almost unrecognizable mess. “He, he told me that you'd fall in love! He promised me! Said that you'd find love, that's why I went ahead and repeated my wish!”

 

Tasuki hugged her tightly to his chest, pressing a fatherly kiss to the top of her head. “It's arright, Mi-chan. Look, “ he tipped her chin up and dried her tears with his thumb. “I've still got time t'find someone. Yeah, I'm hard headed and I like t'hold a grudge, but if it'll make ya feel better I promise to try again. Okay?” Her tears had always cut into his heart, but the fact that she was crying because of something he hadn't done made her tears gouge out deep scours in his chest. He'd do anything to make her happy.

 

She nodded against his chest, still crying but not as hard as before. “O-okay.” Her lower lip quivered and she stepped back.

 

Keisuke came to Miaka's side and led her out of the apartment, reassuring her that everything would be okay. Tetsuya and Yui followed close behind, but Yui stopped in front of Tasuki. The borrowed coat made her look like a lost waif, but the look of happiness on her face made that fade under the radiance of her smile.

 

Tasuki leaned in and hugged her, petting her hair back from her face. “You keep him in line, ya hear me?” He winked at her and gestured to Tetsuya. At her blush he laughed and handed her back to the glasses wearing boy.

 

Once the door closed behind the last of them, Tasuki set his cup on the counter and stared at the ice inside while he tried to figure a way out of the promise he'd made on the spur of the moment. He still didn't think he needed love, so far as he'd seen it only caused problems and pain. He'd have to be an idiot to willingly put himself in that position, but then he guessed he was an idiot because he'd just promised Miaka that he would do just that. “Damnit. This is gonna be a clusterfuck.”