Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Love's Flaring Light ❯ Bewilderment and Fear ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3:

Seiji woke the next morning with a feeling of contentment. He was warm and felt safe. What was even better, he did not remember having any nightmares from the night before. Stretching, he paused as he felt something rub against him. Blinking his bleary eyes, he saw a swath of blue laying across his pillow. Touma was tucked into the crook of his arm. One of his hands spread possessively across Seiji's middle.

Seiji smiled down at the archer, wondering idly why he was asleep in his bed. Reaching out a hand, Seiji played with Touma's silky locks as he tried to remember the past evening. Everything was a blur from the time he went out to the woods. Wait a minute. Woods? The last thing he remembered was lying down on the boulders by the waterfall, so how then did he get back to the house and in his bed no less? Glancing at Touma's still sleeping form, he wondered silently, 'Did he bring me back here?' Seiji struggled with his memory but it kept flitting away just out of his grasp. He dragged his hand over his eyes in annoyance. A headache began to pound beneath his brow. Struggling to get out from under Touma's arm without waking him, Seiji was surprised to find Byakuen balefully watching him.

"Byakuen? What are you doing in here, boy? Shouldn't you be with Ryo?"

Byakuen huffed at the swordsman as if to say 'I don't always have to be with him, you know.' Instead, he padded over to the swordsman's bed and began to nuzzle Seiji's cheek.

Seiji had yet to untangle himself from Touma's tight embrace and truth be known he wasn't really sure if he wanted to. He rather liked the feel of the archer's arms around him and the heavenly scent that was pure Touma. Touma smelled fresh like the morning rain. Turning his head to see the clock, Seiji was surprised to see that it was almost noon. He never slept this late. Stunned, he sat bolt upright, knocking Touma's arm from around him.

Byakuen hastily retreated back to his rug. 'Humans' he thought irritably to himself.

"Seiji?" a sleepy voice called to him.

"Oh Touma. I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I'm just surprised that I have slept this late." Seiji glanced down at the floor, ashamed that he had awoken Touma.

"Late? What time is it?"

"It's almost noon."

"Noon? Too early. Need more sleep" came Touma's muffled response.

Seiji grinned down at his blue haired friend, laughter evident in his sparkling eyes. "Maybe so but I am getting up."

Touma responded by tightening his hold on Seiji and refusing to let him up.

"Touma, let me go."

"No."

"Touma . . . Touma, damn it, let me go." Seiji began to push against the archer to no avail. Touma's arms were like bands of steel wrapped about his body.

"No way, am I letting you go. Not after last night." Came the sleepy retort. Had Touma been in full control of all his mental capabilities he would have known not to have said that to Seiji.

Seiji stiffened in Touma's arms. "Last night? What happened last night?" Seiji asked in a cold, demanding voice.

Touma flinched as he realized his mistake. Cursing under his breath, he chanced a brief glimpse at Seiji's face. Seiji was staring at him as if he could see right through Touma's soul. It was an unnerving feeling to say the least. Deciding that perhaps he should find out what Seiji remembered first, he replied to Seiji's question with a question of his own. "What do you remember of last night?" Touma held his breath as he waited for Seiji to answer him.

Seiji was startled that Touma did not answer his question and instead had asked one of his own. Eyeing the now coherent archer, he wondered again what had led to the two of them being in bed together. Shaking his head, he tried to get rid of the cobwebs that insisted on clinging to his memory. Raising rueful and somewhat panicked eyes to Touma's midnight blue ones, he stated "I remember leaving the house to go out to the waterfall. I needed to meditate and I had asked Shin to come and get me for dinner. I reached the waterfall and sat on those boulders near the shore. I think I might have fallen asleep but that's all that I can remember." Seiji's voice began to rise in panic. "Oh dear God. Touma, I don't remember anything else. It's all a blur." Tears began to course down his cheeks again. "What is happening to me?" he cried.

"Shhh, Seiji. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to ya." Touma pulled the quaking figure into his embrace. Rubbing his hand on Seiji's back, he spoke soothingly to the swordsman. Touma felt bad about not telling Seiji what he knew, but he figured that Seiji did not need the added turmoil. Sensing a shadow in the doorway, Touma looked up to see Shin peering worriedly into the room. Shaking his head, Touma mouthed "later" to his friend.

Shin nodded, closing the door softly behind him, a frown marring his features as he made his way downstairs. Byakuen sensing that his two charges needed to be alone followed Shin down the stairs.

"Touma, I know you know something. Can't you please tell me what it is?" Seiji raised his tearful gaze to the archer, hoping that the archer would tell him what was going on.

Sighing, Touma shook his head. "Seiji . . . yeah I do know something and so does Shin, but I think that you need to figure this out for yourself. I don't want to upset you any more than you are. Please, Seiji don't ask me to."

Seiji could hear the pleading in Touma's voice but he didn't heed it. Grasping Touma's left wrist harshly in his, he twisted the other teen's wrist in a painful angle. "Tell me!" The words came out grating, harsh, demanding. They bit into Touma's flesh as sure as the pain was arching through his arm from the painful angle that his wrist had been turned. Seiji's normal calm exterior had snapped, leaving in its place a scared shallow shell of the former Seiji.

Touma knew that Seiji would never truly hurt him but the wild look in the blond man's eyes had him wary. He had never seen Seiji so rattled until last night and now he had unnerved Touma twice in the space of a few hours time. Touma gulped, wondering what he should do when Seiji's voice floated over him like water.

"Please?" he begged.

Sighing, Touma gave in. "All right Seiji, you win on three conditions." Touma looked at the blond man and wished he could erase that haunted look, but instead he was simply going to add to it. "First, you have to let go of my wrist. Second, you must promise me that you will listen to everything that I have to say without interrupting me, and third you must not blame yourself for anything. It is not your fault. Understand me?"

Seiji looked at Touma and then down at the wrist he held, only now realizing how much pain Touma must be in. He immediately let go of the wrist which Touma cradled gratefully to his chest. Seiji flushed slightly in embarrassment. "I'm sorry Touma. I didn't realize." Seiji's voice trailed off as Touma placed a restraining finger against his lips.

"What did I tell you? I told you it is not your fault. Now are you going to listen?"

At Seiji's nod, Touma began to tell the story. "First off, I want you to know that this is not going to be pleasant but you still need to hear it ok?"

Seiji nodded, he already knew that this was not going to be pleasant from Touma's tone.

"You are right. You did fall asleep on the boulders by the waterfall. Seiji, you had another nightmare." Touma paused as he saw Seiji's face blanch. "I tried to wake you up but you were too caught up in the nightmare to notice me. When you came too, you took one look at me and ran screaming."

Seiji placed his head in his hands as a memory assaulted him. Groaning, he looked wide eyed at Touma. "Noooo, you're dead. I saw you. I held you in my hands." Seiji began to back away from Touma in fear, the nightmare once again gaining control.

"No Seiji. I'm alive. What you saw was just a dream. It wasn't real."

Seiji kept shaking his head in denial. "Noooooo!!!! I know what I saw. You are not real." Turning, Seiji prepared to run when Touma's hand encircled his wrist.

Touma, seeing that Seiji was on the verge of losing control like last night, did the only thing he could think of to get rid of the madness in Seiji's eyes. He grabbed the swordsman's wrist as he prepared to flee and dragged him roughly up against his slender frame. Before any rational thought could interject itself into his brain, Touma slammed his mouth down over Seiji's. He roughly kissed the swordsman, in desperation. His mouth kneading the pliant flesh of Seiji's lips. Running his fingers through Seiji's golden locks, he kept the swordsman from escaping by twisting his hands into the strands. He gradually felt Seiji begin to soften under his onslaught, and he gentled the kiss. No longer was the kiss rough and in haste but it slowed to a mere trickle before Touma pulled away, leaving them both breathless.

"Don't ever say that I am not real Seiji. I'm standing here in front of you. I promise you that I am quite real and that what you saw was simply a nightmare. It will not come true. I promise you." Touma crossed his fingers behind his back praying that he could keep that promise, thinking of the creature he had seen last night. He knew the thing would be back. It was only a question of when.