Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ To Remember ❯ Epilogue ( Chapter 14 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Cousin D 
Anime/Manga: Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.15.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.1K | Visits: 369 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 10.15.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 6.1K | Visits: 369 | Status: Completed
EPILOGUE
Home-
Ryou-
Shin and Touma had brought everyone back through the portal. However it had been kept open, it closed once they were through. It wasn’t exactly a relief, though. Ryou was just starting to get used to the whole vampire thing…well, not really. He didn’t think he’d be able to get used to it and he was trying very hard not to think about all the people he’d killed just to satisfy his hunger. Despite all that, Ryou was pleasantly full when Anubisu returned to reclaim his body. Laying on the bloody grass, like a swollen tick, Ryou didn’t even open his eyes when he felt his own hands touching him.
“Of all the times to be a glutton…” It was his own voice that Ryou heard. “Come on, then. It’s mine. Give it back, my firefly.”
So content and warm he felt that Ryou didn’t think it at all odd to see himself looking down at him. He smiled up at himself, but didn’t feel like talking. The pleasantly warm glow just made him want to go to sleep. But Anubisu’s mind prodded at him, pushing and pulling until Ryou had to wake up to push him away. It was then that he felt as if he were falling and suddenly the comfort of a well-fed stomach were gone, replaced by the horror of what he’d done and the indescribably agony his body was in.
There was bliss, too. He wasn’t alone, any longer. He could feel the others inside him, each one of them shouting for joy that they were together again. So loud they were that Ryou could hardly distinguish one from another. Deeper than their voices and deeper than the spot of coolness that was Anubisu’s place in Ryou’s mind, Rekka was pleased to be back with Ryou. Though it didn’t speak to Ryou, Rekka pulsed like a heartbeat and made Ryou grow warm all over.
It would have been quite pleasant if it hadn’t been for the mind-blowing pain.
He would have fallen but for the fact that Touma had him securely held with his arm around Ryou’s waist. The others must have noticed the change. There was a lot of noise while they went to their friends. Seiji’s hands were the first thing that broke through the pain in Ryou’s mind. Seiji’s wonderful, soft hands the made the pain melt away.
He didn’t really pay much attention to anyone as they slowly made their way into the mansion. Upon entering the mansion, Shin rushed to set his mum on the sofa of the parlor then called out, “Seiji! Come check mum. She looks alright, but…”
The woman in question smiled up at Shin and tried to soothe his worries away. “Don’t fret. I’m just tired and a little sore. What on Earth’s happening? I feel like I’ve been sleeping for a hundred years and I’ve got a headache you wouldn’t believe.”
“Don’t worry, mum. It’s nothing. I’ll tell you later.” He smiled at her and patted the back of her hand, then fairly screamed, “Seiji!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Seiji turned away from Ryou with one last, critical appraisal. “Can you stand on your own?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.” Seiji was clearly not impressed by Ryou’s quick answer. “Do it, then. Walk to the stairway. Touma, let go of him.”
While Ryou did his best to satisfy Seiji, he was aware of what else was going on in the room. Rajura had an arm around Anubisu to support him, though all the way Anubisu was cursing at him. “Damned old man!” Naaza spat, speaking around his fangs. “If you’d just tell us some of the secrets you have crawling around in your head, we might not get into messes like this! Don’t jar him!” He snapped when Rajura accidentally made Anubisu stumble slightly.
“I won’t. I won’t. Now, what’s this about telling my secrets? Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not joking!” Naaza was nearly in a rage with his immense eyes wide and lisping because of his fangs. “Kay! Do keep up. Don’t want you being left behind, hold the door, ‘Jura and don’t you think you’re running off anywhere. This whole thing is your doing! You and your secrets!”
“Look,” Rajura tried to sound reasonable as he guided Anubisu to an armchair and helped him to sit. “Even if I had told you, there’s nothing that you could have done to prevent it. Fate is already written. It has already been predetermined, so knowing about it would only cause anxiety. It was also predetermined that Sedari would die at the end.”
“I know your outlook on fate. You don’t have to beat me over the head with it. Besides, that changes nothing. If you know it‘s going to happen, you should have told us. And what about all that crude you‘ve been spewing for centuries about your touch being death? I‘d like to know about that!” Once Naaza got off on a ramble, it seemed that he didn’t like to stop. “Honestly, didn’t you used to go on and on about the doom attached to a seer’s touch? What happened to all that?”
Rajura shrugged, as though it didn’t matter. “Nothing has happened to it. The old laws still apply.”
“That fae thing touched you, didn’t she? If I’ve got the story right, it was thousands of years ago when that pervert put her grimy paws all over you. She lived an awful long time for someone cursed.”
“But, she did die and in a rather awful way.”
“So you’re saying we’re all still cursed?” Naaza pulled Rajura down onto the sofa next to him and ran his sharp fingernails across the other man’s cheek. “Ah, well. We all have to die, someday.”
“Quite right.” Rajura patted Naaza’s thigh and then gave Anubisu a curious look. “You haven’t said much.”
Indeed, Anubisu said nothing. He slumped despondently in the chair and didn’t even bother to bemoan his swelled belly. It wasn’t until Jun crawled into his lap that Anubisu had any reaction at all and the reaction he had was a strange one. He muttered the word, “Mother”, then held Jun close and sobbed. As Jun was stroking Anubisu’s hair and crying, too, no one saw fit to disturb them.
As for Kayura, Naaza was kept busy healing the wound Ryou had given her. The healing didn’t seem to take much effort on his part. He just pressed his hand against Kayura’s throat where Ryou had bitten her and held it there for a moment. While Kayura made faces of discomfort, she didn’t complain and when Naaza took his hand away, there was no more wound.
“Something will have to be done with the bodies.” It was Michael who spoke, seemingly as calm as if it were an everyday thing to have corpses scattered around one’s front yard. He turned to look at Xiu who, like the rest of them, was still in his yoroi, and looked more tired than anything else. “You know, there was a time when I thought I knew everything about you.”
Xiu got a defiant look in his eyes, not uncommon for him, and grabbed Seiji as he made his way to the sofa to tend Shin’s mum. “Well, did you know this?” He kissed Seiji full on the lips, a long, passionate, wet kiss. He released Seiji with a triumphant grim, though Seiji just rolled his eyes.
“Save it for tonight. Can’t you see I’m working?”
Michael’s reaction was just as placid. “Of course I knew. Your father told me. This whole ‘magic’ thing takes a bit of getting used to, though. Those bodies…I know some people. Is there a phone around here? We should get it cleaned up by daybreak and your folks will want to know you’re alright.”
A few hours passed, day came and faded away. The bodies were, as Michael delicately put it, taken care of by people in an unmarked white van. Three men in overalls had loaded up the bodies and drove them away without a word and Xiu advised them all not to ask any questions.
Not too long after the van had left, a large black car pulled up in front of the mansion and family poured out of it. Mama and papa Faun, grandfather Date, and okaasan Akane all spilled out of the car. In the end, they all clustered together in the parlor, which didn’t seem nearly so spacious as it used to.
Shin and Touma were sitting at the dining table with Shin’s moms, trying to explain what had happened while keeping them from panicking about the baby. The two mothers didn’t want to stay long as they agreed that Shin’s mum should see a doctor as soon as possible to make sure no damage had been done.
Seiji and grandfather Date stayed protectively close to Ryou, especially after grandfather Date had seen Ryou’s awful scars. While Ryou had passed Seiji’s test about walking six feet to the stairway, Seiji wasn’t entirely convinced about his heath and ordered that Ryou shouldn’t go anywhere but to bed without supervision, to which grandfather Date had quickly agreed. He, the old man had said, would stay until he was certain Ryou was healed or Ryou would return to the Date dojo with him. Those were the only two choices. In the end, Seiji had happily told his grandfather that he could use one of the many spare rooms.
Mama and papa Faun were fussing over both Xiu and Michael, though Michael kept trying to squirm away from mama Faun’s stern lecture about wandering off without telling anyone where he was going. “Mama!“ Michael protested as quietly as he could. “I’m a hardened assassin and ruthless criminal. It’s not like I’m going to…“
“Don’t you back talk me, young man!“ She had grabbed Michael by the ear at that point and hauled him off to the car, muttering angrily about uppity boys and how they thought they could take on the world.
Papa Faun shrugged helplessly. “Women.” He said, in way of defense of his wife. “Still, Michael should have known better than to question her. Boy,” He looked at Xiu, then at Seiji and managed a smile. “Stop by the restaurant for a bite one of these days.” He tipped his hat to Seiji and gave Xiu a quick hug before he followed mama Faun and Michael with the Mouri ladies behind him. No doubt he would make sure they were taken to their physician.
The minute the car pulled away, Xiu let out an ecstatic yelp at the top of his lungs and threw his arms around Seiji. “Did you hear that?! Did you?!”
“Yes.” Seiji smiled quietly. “Took him long enough. Guess he finally understands that I’m not helping his baby boy on his way to Hell.”
Rajura and Naaza kept close to one another and Kayura, far from the terrifying woman they’d faced in battle, was desperately shy around all the strangers and kept right at Anubisu’s side until he went to speak with Jun and then he left her with Rajura and Naaza. After that, Kayura latched onto Naaza’s arm and said very little the whole evening.
“Ryou, are you listening?”
With a start, Ryou turned back to grandfather Date. “Yes. Sorry. I just got distracted. Still trying to sort everything out, I guess.” He thought he had the whole thing straight.
“Don‘t worry too much.” Grandfather Date told him. “How are you feeling?”
He’d been cut open and studied like a lab rat. How good could he be feeling? Then again, it was Anubisu who’d had to suffer through it. “I could be worse, I guess.” He saw Anubisu on the far side of the room, kneeling in front of Jun, speaking quietly about something. It was going to be hard to start thinking of Jun as anything other than a child. Harder still to think of Anubisu as anything but the enemy. “I should ask Anubisu, though. He went to a lot of trouble to help me and I’m still not sure how or even why.”
“A good idea.” Grandfather Date gingerly touched Ryou on the back, patting him slightly. “He seems like a good boy.”
“You don’t know him.” Ryou laughed.
“I know he saved you and his green haired friend saved Seiji. I have precious little family left, so I’d like to keep what I do have left. I’ll be grateful for him.”
Ryou always thought grandfather Date was a little odd. He was a great and intimidating man, to be sure, but he always spoke like he knew something no one else knew and was reluctant to tell it. But when he looked again at Anubisu, Ryou thought that maybe what grandfather Date knew wasn’t so important as what might be. He found that he wasn’t entirely adverse to the idea that he and Anubisu had been lovers.
He certainly wasn’t homophobic - even after his disastrous experiences - so the general concept of having a male lover was no trouble for him. The problem was that it wasn’t real to him. He had only Naaza’s word for it and the strange bond that had appeared between himself and Anubisu. He looked at Anubisu where he was speaking quietly with Jun. Jun was the picture of despair and it was no wonder. He’d always been so close to Nasutei.
Suddenly, Anubisu raised his face and looked at Ryou over his shoulder. Their eyes met for a moment before Anubisu looked back down at Jun and whispered something. Slowly, Jun slipped his arms back around Anubisu’s neck and pressed their cheeks together. It seemed…wrong…to see such a little boy holding a grown man like that. Not just because it brought back painful memories for Ryou, but because Jun was the one initiating it. Anubisu just knelt there, patiently waiting to be released. “Miko was my favorite.” Jun said, looking directly at Ryou. “She died for you.”
“I know.” It wasn’t something Ryou was proud of. Vampire or not, Nasutei had been a lady. There was no reason why she should have been involved in a war. The house and all her fortune had - quite rightly - been left to Jun. “Do we call you Jun or Abraham?”
“Jun, I think. I’m used to it now and Abraham is really for another part of my life.” Jun stood abruptly and headed for the front door. “I think I’ll go out for a bit. Don’t wait up for me.” There was nothing vampire-like about him, anymore. He seemed entirely like the little boy they’d all grown to care for and it was hard to start thinking of him like a little adult. The fact that he was older than everyone else in the room, with the possible exception of Rajura, forced Ryou to think of him a little differently.
Seiji, sighed and shook his head. “Brother of mine,” He put his arms around Ryou and kissed his cheek lightly. “Time for you to be getting to bed..”
“But, I just want to get a few things straight.” Ryou was tired of standing. Despite Seiji’s healing, he was still unbearably sore and tired. There were empty chairs in the parlor, now that half the guests had left, but Ryou sank down onto the stairs instead. “Rajura,” He looked at the one-eyed man sitting on the sofa with Naaza cuddle up next to him - a scene Ryou had never thought he’d see. “You aren’t Rajura? Your name is Ari and you really are a seer. See the future and all that stuff?”
“And all that stuff.” Rajura confirmed with a soft smile as he patted Naaza’s hair. “But, as I told Sedari, Ari is dead. I AM Gen Ma-Sho Rajura.”
“What’s it like?” Xiu asked. He was on the floor between Ryou and where Seiji was leaning against the fireplace. Ryou could feel their minds rubbing against each other like content cats. It was such a relief to have that bond back. Didn’t feel like he was half-dead anymore.
“A nuisance. More a curse than a gift, really. Still, it can be useful.”
“Any chances of you giving me an outcome of the football game on Saturday?”
“Sure. What are the chances of me lying just to see you lose your money?”
“Damn.” Xiu cursed.
“Right, then,” Ryou continued, trying desperately to make sense of things. “You,” He looked at Naaza. “Hate humans, but you saved Seiji. Right?”
“Right.”
“Why?”
“Why not? I had nothing else to do that day.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“Tough.”
Giving up on Naaza, Ryou turned his gaze to the most alien of the people in the room, the Wyrm. “And you…you’re Byakuren?” He was obviously having a hard time believing that one.
“Yes, Ryou.” The Wyrm came forward and stood over Ryou, smiling down at him and it felt safe. The creature smiled, but it was like looking at Byakuen smile. Though the teeth were terrible, Ryou wasn’t afraid. “If you need proof I can tell you things that no one but you and I know. Our hunting trips and the food your mother used to make for you. The songs she would sing to you. For now,” It held out the Ryoken to Ryou and let him take it. “I’ll take the shape of the tiger, if it makes you more comfortable. Really, it makes no difference to me.”
Ryou shifted uneasily, holding the sword more awkwardly than he had since he was a child. “Actually, I think it would. Just for a while, until I get used to the whole idea. Can I still call you Yaku-chan?” It didn’t seem right to give such a cutesy name to the fearsome person in front of him. Like naming a crocodile Fluffy.
The Wyrm leaned down and put its hands on Ryou’s shoulders. “If you like.” It kissed his forehead then, before it even took it’s face away from Ryou, it transformed into the white tiger. Byakuen gave Ryou’s face a hearty lick, then jumped off him and padded away to curl up in a corner. On the floor where the Wyrm had stood, were two swords - the twin Ryokens.
Ryou grew pale at the sight of the two of them. “I’d like to know where you found the other one.”
But Byakuen didn’t answer. He just curled up by the fire and looked smug.
“Enough.” Seiji’s voice was stern, broking no argument, as he helped Ryou to his feet. “I don’t want you stumbling down the stairs in the middle of the night, so it’s the first floor guestroom for you.” He ignored Ryou’s protests that he should be allowed to make his own choice in the matter and that he wanted to ask some more questions. Were the Ma-Sho staying with them? Was Kayura alright? He hadn’t meant to hurt anyone. “Time enough for that later.” Seiji said, briskly as the sounds of talking from the parlor died away. It was just a short walk down the hall to the bedroom and Seiji helped Ryou to lay down, covering him with the blankets. “Right now, your body needs sleep.” He managed a smile. “I expect everything’s going to take getting used to. It’ll take a while so a short nap won’t hurt you at all.”
Seiji left the room, but not before he’d opened the curtains to let in the early morning light. It surprised Ryou that Seiji let Anubisu into the room without a fight. They were allies, it shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. Seiji nodded curtly to Anubisu and briefly touched on Ryou’s mind to say, IF YOU NEED US, CALL. Then he was gone.
Anubisu seemed to find it all very amusing as he sauntered into the room and sat heavily on a chair near the door. “He’s protective, that brother of yours.”
Ryou shook his head. Of course Anubisu would know about Seiji. They’d been mucking around in each other’s heads for long enough, though Ryou hadn’t been in any state of mind to find anything much out at the time. “Nasutei, she was special to you.” No one had missed how he’d cried with Abraham when he’d been told that she’d been killed.
“She was my mother.” With his head hung low, Ryou couldn’t tell if Anubisu was crying or not, but it seemed important that he know. He didn’t add anything to the statement, but really? What could he add?
“She was always good to us.” Ryou wanted to slap himself for that. How trite could one get? He might as well have been talking about the family dog. What could he say, though? A proud exclamation of how Nasutei had helped them to trounce Arago didn’t seem quite appropriate.
“She was good. Period.”
They sat in silence until it became oppressive and Ryou felt the need to say something. “So…ummm…Naaza said…”
“Naaza has a big mouth. Yes, we met before the war. Yes, I destroyed some of your memories. I won’t apologize.” He crossed his arms at that and sat a little further back in the chair. “There are some things I’m sure you’d like to know, but none of it really makes any difference, now. It was for the best back then.”
“Naaza said it was sort of necessary.”
“It seemed necessary. It WAS necessary.”
“Before the fae and all this started, were you planning to tell me?”
“No.” Anubisu answered easily and without hesitation. “You were happy. Why should I disturb that?”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“Hardly a decent reason.”
The awkward silence stretched a little further after that and Ryou tried to think of a way to ask what he’d been thinking about since Naaza had told him. “Did we…you know?”
“Know what?”
Ryou blushed bright pink and was glad that the room was still half in darkness. “IT.”
It took a minute, then understanding dawned on Anubisu’s face. “Ah. IT.” Anubisu let out a rather self-deprecating laugh. “No. Not even once. Don’t be mistaken. It wasn’t a long or glorious love affair. I saw you street walking and watched you be taken away by a man. I was curious. Nothing more. You know I am dhampire?” When he saw Ryou look away uncomfortably, he continued. “I see you do. I enjoy the taste of blood and thought you would make a nice snack. Your blood was the warmest I’d ever tasted and I wanted more. Maybe its because we both have yoroi. I don’t know. But I did know that I wanted more and I returned for you. I took a taste of your blood again before your friends discovered me and chased me off. Don’t get all offended. I’d destroyed their memories, too, so they couldn’t have told you anything. I do not know if it was love,” He hesitated at the word. “Or not. I was inexperienced at such things. I did want to see you and to speak with you. I didn’t want to see you hurt and I was fiercely territorial concerning you. I suppose that might be love. Maybe. I‘d never thought too much about it.”
Ryou ended up feeling guilty. Anubisu obviously felt strongly for him, but Ryou didn’t feel much of anything at all. Still…Anubisu wasn’t ugly by any means. True, he wasn’t as handsome as Seiji or even Rajura, but he wasn’t ugly. More striking than handsome. “I don’t love you. I don’t even know you.” Somehow, it came out sounding like an apology.
“I understand.” Anubisu’s voice was even, but low.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but it’s kinda weird, ya know?” Ryou picked at his knee in an effort to keep his hands away from his chest. “It just doesn’t seem real.”
“Real enough to me.”
“So,” Ryou said after a long, awkward silence. “This bond-thing, how far does it go? I heard your voice, like I hear the guys, but it’s not like the link we have with the yoroi. It’s…not deeper, just different, I guess. How did it happen?”
“It’s never happened to me before, so I really don’t know. I’m not exactly a vampire, so my grandsire can’t help me out much as far as information goes. I believe it happened after the second time I took blood from you. In all honesty, I’ve never given myself much thought. I haven’t been close with anyone for a long time and then Rajura came for me and I suddenly had three bonds closer than I’d ever experienced before. I’d never thought to have anything more than that.” He turned away from Ryou, sharply. “This was all as much of a surprise to me as to you. You weren’t supposed to be anything but a quick snack.”
“Thanks for that boost to my self-confidence.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
“You didn’t answer my question. How far does this go? So far I’ve only been in contact with you when we were both separated from the rest of our friends. Now, I can feel you in my mind, but it doesn’t feel as strong. Are you blocking me?”
“Not intentionally, but neither am I actively trying to touch your mind. I know you‘re worried about what I know. I can see - for lack of a better word - people when I taste their blood. I know everything about you.”
“Everything?” Ryou thought back to everything he’d done in his life and frowned. There were lots of things he didn’t want anyone to know about. “What kind of ‘everything’?”
“Thieving. Your hunting, which doesn’t repulse me at all, in case you’re wondering. Your shame at the man you trusted having betrayed that trust. Your shame at not being able to take care of your grandmother as well as you thought you should be able to. Everything. I’ll keep your secrets, no fear, there.” Anubisu looked back at Ryou and gave the tiniest of smiles. “As for how far our bond goes, I’ll show you.” Anubisu’s mind reached out and brushed against Ryou’s, then sought something deeper. It pushed against Ryou’s mind, then penetrated.
What he showed Ryou was not just the memories of what he’d gotten from Ryou’s mind, but also Anubisu’s memories. Ryou lay back as the memories washed over him. He saw little Jun as Anubisu saw him sitting in a high-backed chair in an old European manor house. He saw Nasutei flying over the Egyptian desert. He saw intimate moments with Naaza, naked and fast asleep laying contentedly beside Anubisu and more scenes of Sh’ten’s playful pain and Rajura’s nagging love. He saw midnight hunting on Earth with a wolf, Lightfoot, at his side.
“That’s just for a start. I don’t know that there is a limit. WE managed to change bodies, when it became necessary. No. Don’t look ashamed. IT was as much my choice as it was yours. I’ve been trained to withstand torture tactics in interrogation.“ At Ryou’s wondering look, he grinned and reached out as if he might touch the burned scars on Ryou’s chest, but let his fingers just hover over the skin. “Rajura was VERY thorough in our training. Sh’ten helped a lot with that, as I remember. ‘Jura said ’Ten-chan didn’t need the training. That brat would have gone to the enemy giggling if he thought he’d have any chance of getting a little torture out of the deal.”
“I never saw that side of him.”
“Then you didn’t know him very well. He was hiding himself. Probably trying to protect you.” Anubisu pulled back to himself, he leaned forward with his hands on his knees. “That’s who I am. More than Yami. More than Arago’s lapdog.” He shrugged, helplessly and stood. “I’m not a man of words, never was. The bond’s there and I don’t know a way to break it. If you think you can, we can live just as it is. I’m not asking for anything more.”
Every movement hurt despite Seiji’s healing, he ached all over. It was nothing, he knew, compared to what Anubisu must have felt during the torture. Still, Anubisu had willingly taken Ryou’s place to spare him the pain. He was trained to stand torture, which meant he must have known what he was getting himself into. Ryou wasn’t even sure he’d be able to make that kind of sacrifice. It made him think more highly of Anubisu than anything else.
‘He did it for me.’ It wasn’t often that anyone outside of Ryou’s tight circle of friends did something so selfless for Ryou. Everyone wanted something, but for the life of him, Ryou couldn’t figure out what Anubisu wanted. Oh, he knew what Anubisu WANTED - that much was obvious from the memories he’d shared - but he asked for nothing. To have someone deliberately place themselves in the path of pain to save a person…that was something that bore consideration, respect, and gratitude. Ryou’s face hardened as he looked at himself in the mirror. ‘A real man would at least give him a chance.’
“When I fed, when I was you…”
“I am sorry about that. I’m sure it must have been quite the shock.” Anubisu looked uncomfortable and shifted in the chair. “You mustn’t feel guilty about it. It wasn’t really you that did it. My body just wanted some blood and they were the closest at hand.”
“I don’t feel guilty, not exactly. Not about the fae. It was a battle and what I did helped rescue you and the others. So, I’m not sorry they died. I’m not sure how I feel about the blood, though. When I was young, I ate a freshly killed animal. There was blood everywhere and I remember licking my fingers clean of it. I liked it, before I realized what I’d done. It tasted good today, too.” He paused, then added, “I’m sorry I hurt Kayura.”
“She’s a tough girl. She’ll forgive you.”
He wanted something, Ryou could tell. It was that bond, but when he went to explore it, to find out what it was that Anubius wanted, he found that his friends were watching, too. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Ryou demanded. SPYING ON ME?
ONLY BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU. Shin whispered back in a teasing voice. DON’T YOU TWO LOOK ALL CUTE AND CUDDLY SITTING IN THE DARK TOGETHER.
WHAT?
IT’S TRUE. THE SHOCK WAS A BIT MUCH, BUT I THINK WE CAN ALL DEAL WITH IT. IT’S NOT AS IF YOU BEING WITH ANUBISU IS ANY WEIRDER THAN ANYTHING ELSE WE’VE DONE, LATELY.
Seiji sounded slightly disapproving. WE SHOUD FIND OUT WHAT ANUBISU’S INTENTIONS ARE. CAN’T HAVE HIM JUST USE UP ALL OUR RYOU’S LOVIN’ AND TOSS HIM OUT LIKE OLD DISHWATER.
Shin spoke up, defensively. I’LL BREAK HIS KNEECAPS IF HE DOES! Then his tone changed to something sweeter. BUT LOOK AT HIM. POOR ANUBISU. HE LOOKS SO LONELY SITTING THERE IN THE DARK AND HE DOES SEEM TO CARE. A LITTLE KISS WON’T HURT.
IT MIGHT. Touma added his two cents in. DON’T DO IT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO. MAYBE HE’LL NIBBLE ON YOUR NECK AGAIN.
That, Ryou thought, might not be such a bad thing.
Somehow, it was Xiu who had the best idea. AWW…JUST DO IT.
Ryou wanted to. He found that he really wanted to just jump out of bed and jump into Anubisu’s lap and give him a big, wet kiss. But though he was sure it was what he wanted, it just wasn’t in Ryou. Firstly, his body wasn’t up to the challenge of leaping. Secondly, touching anyone he didn’t know well just wasn’t in Ryou’s nature. He wanted to…but…
Anubisu let out a frustrated sigh. “Oh, Hell with it.” He surged to his feet and lunged at Ryou, grabbing his face with both hands to hold him still then kissing him hard on the lips. Anubisu did nothing by halves. He leaned over Ryou while he kissed, towering over him until he finally let go of Ryou and stepped back a few paces. “I lied.” He said, somewhat shamefully. “I guess I will demand some things.”
Anubisu, Ryou decided, was a VERY good kisser. By the time Ryou blinked and realized that he wasn’t going to get a second kiss - and frowned with disappointment - Anubisu had left the room, his heavy feet stomping on the floor until they disappeared. After a moment, there was a movement outside Ryou’s window. He waited a moment and then saw Anubisu with a brown wolf trotting at his side. Lightfoot, Byakuen’s other self.
ANUBISU?
Anubisu stopped and half-way turned back to the house. His eyes went directly to the window Ryou was looking out of. The moonlight falling on his face enough to let Ryou see the carefully neutral expression. YES?
Ryou was at a loss as to what to say. He knew what he felt, but getting the right words was hard. I CAN LIVE WITH THE BOND, IF YOU CAN.
EASILY. It was impossible to ignore the happiness in Anubisu’s voice, though Anubisu tried very hard to conceal it. He turned again and ran into the forest, vanishing into the shadows.
Ryou smiled, satisfied. It would do, for the time being. He put a hand against the cold glass of the window. Maybe one day, there could be something more. All relationships begin with friendship, right? He put his fingers to his lips - ignoring the chatter of his friends - and smiled.
Definitely more than friendship.
The End
Home-
Ryou-
Shin and Touma had brought everyone back through the portal. However it had been kept open, it closed once they were through. It wasn’t exactly a relief, though. Ryou was just starting to get used to the whole vampire thing…well, not really. He didn’t think he’d be able to get used to it and he was trying very hard not to think about all the people he’d killed just to satisfy his hunger. Despite all that, Ryou was pleasantly full when Anubisu returned to reclaim his body. Laying on the bloody grass, like a swollen tick, Ryou didn’t even open his eyes when he felt his own hands touching him.
“Of all the times to be a glutton…” It was his own voice that Ryou heard. “Come on, then. It’s mine. Give it back, my firefly.”
So content and warm he felt that Ryou didn’t think it at all odd to see himself looking down at him. He smiled up at himself, but didn’t feel like talking. The pleasantly warm glow just made him want to go to sleep. But Anubisu’s mind prodded at him, pushing and pulling until Ryou had to wake up to push him away. It was then that he felt as if he were falling and suddenly the comfort of a well-fed stomach were gone, replaced by the horror of what he’d done and the indescribably agony his body was in.
There was bliss, too. He wasn’t alone, any longer. He could feel the others inside him, each one of them shouting for joy that they were together again. So loud they were that Ryou could hardly distinguish one from another. Deeper than their voices and deeper than the spot of coolness that was Anubisu’s place in Ryou’s mind, Rekka was pleased to be back with Ryou. Though it didn’t speak to Ryou, Rekka pulsed like a heartbeat and made Ryou grow warm all over.
It would have been quite pleasant if it hadn’t been for the mind-blowing pain.
He would have fallen but for the fact that Touma had him securely held with his arm around Ryou’s waist. The others must have noticed the change. There was a lot of noise while they went to their friends. Seiji’s hands were the first thing that broke through the pain in Ryou’s mind. Seiji’s wonderful, soft hands the made the pain melt away.
He didn’t really pay much attention to anyone as they slowly made their way into the mansion. Upon entering the mansion, Shin rushed to set his mum on the sofa of the parlor then called out, “Seiji! Come check mum. She looks alright, but…”
The woman in question smiled up at Shin and tried to soothe his worries away. “Don’t fret. I’m just tired and a little sore. What on Earth’s happening? I feel like I’ve been sleeping for a hundred years and I’ve got a headache you wouldn’t believe.”
“Don’t worry, mum. It’s nothing. I’ll tell you later.” He smiled at her and patted the back of her hand, then fairly screamed, “Seiji!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Seiji turned away from Ryou with one last, critical appraisal. “Can you stand on your own?”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm.” Seiji was clearly not impressed by Ryou’s quick answer. “Do it, then. Walk to the stairway. Touma, let go of him.”
While Ryou did his best to satisfy Seiji, he was aware of what else was going on in the room. Rajura had an arm around Anubisu to support him, though all the way Anubisu was cursing at him. “Damned old man!” Naaza spat, speaking around his fangs. “If you’d just tell us some of the secrets you have crawling around in your head, we might not get into messes like this! Don’t jar him!” He snapped when Rajura accidentally made Anubisu stumble slightly.
“I won’t. I won’t. Now, what’s this about telling my secrets? Don’t be silly.”
“I’m not joking!” Naaza was nearly in a rage with his immense eyes wide and lisping because of his fangs. “Kay! Do keep up. Don’t want you being left behind, hold the door, ‘Jura and don’t you think you’re running off anywhere. This whole thing is your doing! You and your secrets!”
“Look,” Rajura tried to sound reasonable as he guided Anubisu to an armchair and helped him to sit. “Even if I had told you, there’s nothing that you could have done to prevent it. Fate is already written. It has already been predetermined, so knowing about it would only cause anxiety. It was also predetermined that Sedari would die at the end.”
“I know your outlook on fate. You don’t have to beat me over the head with it. Besides, that changes nothing. If you know it‘s going to happen, you should have told us. And what about all that crude you‘ve been spewing for centuries about your touch being death? I‘d like to know about that!” Once Naaza got off on a ramble, it seemed that he didn’t like to stop. “Honestly, didn’t you used to go on and on about the doom attached to a seer’s touch? What happened to all that?”
Rajura shrugged, as though it didn’t matter. “Nothing has happened to it. The old laws still apply.”
“That fae thing touched you, didn’t she? If I’ve got the story right, it was thousands of years ago when that pervert put her grimy paws all over you. She lived an awful long time for someone cursed.”
“But, she did die and in a rather awful way.”
“So you’re saying we’re all still cursed?” Naaza pulled Rajura down onto the sofa next to him and ran his sharp fingernails across the other man’s cheek. “Ah, well. We all have to die, someday.”
“Quite right.” Rajura patted Naaza’s thigh and then gave Anubisu a curious look. “You haven’t said much.”
Indeed, Anubisu said nothing. He slumped despondently in the chair and didn’t even bother to bemoan his swelled belly. It wasn’t until Jun crawled into his lap that Anubisu had any reaction at all and the reaction he had was a strange one. He muttered the word, “Mother”, then held Jun close and sobbed. As Jun was stroking Anubisu’s hair and crying, too, no one saw fit to disturb them.
As for Kayura, Naaza was kept busy healing the wound Ryou had given her. The healing didn’t seem to take much effort on his part. He just pressed his hand against Kayura’s throat where Ryou had bitten her and held it there for a moment. While Kayura made faces of discomfort, she didn’t complain and when Naaza took his hand away, there was no more wound.
“Something will have to be done with the bodies.” It was Michael who spoke, seemingly as calm as if it were an everyday thing to have corpses scattered around one’s front yard. He turned to look at Xiu who, like the rest of them, was still in his yoroi, and looked more tired than anything else. “You know, there was a time when I thought I knew everything about you.”
Xiu got a defiant look in his eyes, not uncommon for him, and grabbed Seiji as he made his way to the sofa to tend Shin’s mum. “Well, did you know this?” He kissed Seiji full on the lips, a long, passionate, wet kiss. He released Seiji with a triumphant grim, though Seiji just rolled his eyes.
“Save it for tonight. Can’t you see I’m working?”
Michael’s reaction was just as placid. “Of course I knew. Your father told me. This whole ‘magic’ thing takes a bit of getting used to, though. Those bodies…I know some people. Is there a phone around here? We should get it cleaned up by daybreak and your folks will want to know you’re alright.”
A few hours passed, day came and faded away. The bodies were, as Michael delicately put it, taken care of by people in an unmarked white van. Three men in overalls had loaded up the bodies and drove them away without a word and Xiu advised them all not to ask any questions.
Not too long after the van had left, a large black car pulled up in front of the mansion and family poured out of it. Mama and papa Faun, grandfather Date, and okaasan Akane all spilled out of the car. In the end, they all clustered together in the parlor, which didn’t seem nearly so spacious as it used to.
Shin and Touma were sitting at the dining table with Shin’s moms, trying to explain what had happened while keeping them from panicking about the baby. The two mothers didn’t want to stay long as they agreed that Shin’s mum should see a doctor as soon as possible to make sure no damage had been done.
Seiji and grandfather Date stayed protectively close to Ryou, especially after grandfather Date had seen Ryou’s awful scars. While Ryou had passed Seiji’s test about walking six feet to the stairway, Seiji wasn’t entirely convinced about his heath and ordered that Ryou shouldn’t go anywhere but to bed without supervision, to which grandfather Date had quickly agreed. He, the old man had said, would stay until he was certain Ryou was healed or Ryou would return to the Date dojo with him. Those were the only two choices. In the end, Seiji had happily told his grandfather that he could use one of the many spare rooms.
Mama and papa Faun were fussing over both Xiu and Michael, though Michael kept trying to squirm away from mama Faun’s stern lecture about wandering off without telling anyone where he was going. “Mama!“ Michael protested as quietly as he could. “I’m a hardened assassin and ruthless criminal. It’s not like I’m going to…“
“Don’t you back talk me, young man!“ She had grabbed Michael by the ear at that point and hauled him off to the car, muttering angrily about uppity boys and how they thought they could take on the world.
Papa Faun shrugged helplessly. “Women.” He said, in way of defense of his wife. “Still, Michael should have known better than to question her. Boy,” He looked at Xiu, then at Seiji and managed a smile. “Stop by the restaurant for a bite one of these days.” He tipped his hat to Seiji and gave Xiu a quick hug before he followed mama Faun and Michael with the Mouri ladies behind him. No doubt he would make sure they were taken to their physician.
The minute the car pulled away, Xiu let out an ecstatic yelp at the top of his lungs and threw his arms around Seiji. “Did you hear that?! Did you?!”
“Yes.” Seiji smiled quietly. “Took him long enough. Guess he finally understands that I’m not helping his baby boy on his way to Hell.”
Rajura and Naaza kept close to one another and Kayura, far from the terrifying woman they’d faced in battle, was desperately shy around all the strangers and kept right at Anubisu’s side until he went to speak with Jun and then he left her with Rajura and Naaza. After that, Kayura latched onto Naaza’s arm and said very little the whole evening.
“Ryou, are you listening?”
With a start, Ryou turned back to grandfather Date. “Yes. Sorry. I just got distracted. Still trying to sort everything out, I guess.” He thought he had the whole thing straight.
“Don‘t worry too much.” Grandfather Date told him. “How are you feeling?”
He’d been cut open and studied like a lab rat. How good could he be feeling? Then again, it was Anubisu who’d had to suffer through it. “I could be worse, I guess.” He saw Anubisu on the far side of the room, kneeling in front of Jun, speaking quietly about something. It was going to be hard to start thinking of Jun as anything other than a child. Harder still to think of Anubisu as anything but the enemy. “I should ask Anubisu, though. He went to a lot of trouble to help me and I’m still not sure how or even why.”
“A good idea.” Grandfather Date gingerly touched Ryou on the back, patting him slightly. “He seems like a good boy.”
“You don’t know him.” Ryou laughed.
“I know he saved you and his green haired friend saved Seiji. I have precious little family left, so I’d like to keep what I do have left. I’ll be grateful for him.”
Ryou always thought grandfather Date was a little odd. He was a great and intimidating man, to be sure, but he always spoke like he knew something no one else knew and was reluctant to tell it. But when he looked again at Anubisu, Ryou thought that maybe what grandfather Date knew wasn’t so important as what might be. He found that he wasn’t entirely adverse to the idea that he and Anubisu had been lovers.
He certainly wasn’t homophobic - even after his disastrous experiences - so the general concept of having a male lover was no trouble for him. The problem was that it wasn’t real to him. He had only Naaza’s word for it and the strange bond that had appeared between himself and Anubisu. He looked at Anubisu where he was speaking quietly with Jun. Jun was the picture of despair and it was no wonder. He’d always been so close to Nasutei.
Suddenly, Anubisu raised his face and looked at Ryou over his shoulder. Their eyes met for a moment before Anubisu looked back down at Jun and whispered something. Slowly, Jun slipped his arms back around Anubisu’s neck and pressed their cheeks together. It seemed…wrong…to see such a little boy holding a grown man like that. Not just because it brought back painful memories for Ryou, but because Jun was the one initiating it. Anubisu just knelt there, patiently waiting to be released. “Miko was my favorite.” Jun said, looking directly at Ryou. “She died for you.”
“I know.” It wasn’t something Ryou was proud of. Vampire or not, Nasutei had been a lady. There was no reason why she should have been involved in a war. The house and all her fortune had - quite rightly - been left to Jun. “Do we call you Jun or Abraham?”
“Jun, I think. I’m used to it now and Abraham is really for another part of my life.” Jun stood abruptly and headed for the front door. “I think I’ll go out for a bit. Don’t wait up for me.” There was nothing vampire-like about him, anymore. He seemed entirely like the little boy they’d all grown to care for and it was hard to start thinking of him like a little adult. The fact that he was older than everyone else in the room, with the possible exception of Rajura, forced Ryou to think of him a little differently.
Seiji, sighed and shook his head. “Brother of mine,” He put his arms around Ryou and kissed his cheek lightly. “Time for you to be getting to bed..”
“But, I just want to get a few things straight.” Ryou was tired of standing. Despite Seiji’s healing, he was still unbearably sore and tired. There were empty chairs in the parlor, now that half the guests had left, but Ryou sank down onto the stairs instead. “Rajura,” He looked at the one-eyed man sitting on the sofa with Naaza cuddle up next to him - a scene Ryou had never thought he’d see. “You aren’t Rajura? Your name is Ari and you really are a seer. See the future and all that stuff?”
“And all that stuff.” Rajura confirmed with a soft smile as he patted Naaza’s hair. “But, as I told Sedari, Ari is dead. I AM Gen Ma-Sho Rajura.”
“What’s it like?” Xiu asked. He was on the floor between Ryou and where Seiji was leaning against the fireplace. Ryou could feel their minds rubbing against each other like content cats. It was such a relief to have that bond back. Didn’t feel like he was half-dead anymore.
“A nuisance. More a curse than a gift, really. Still, it can be useful.”
“Any chances of you giving me an outcome of the football game on Saturday?”
“Sure. What are the chances of me lying just to see you lose your money?”
“Damn.” Xiu cursed.
“Right, then,” Ryou continued, trying desperately to make sense of things. “You,” He looked at Naaza. “Hate humans, but you saved Seiji. Right?”
“Right.”
“Why?”
“Why not? I had nothing else to do that day.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“Tough.”
Giving up on Naaza, Ryou turned his gaze to the most alien of the people in the room, the Wyrm. “And you…you’re Byakuren?” He was obviously having a hard time believing that one.
“Yes, Ryou.” The Wyrm came forward and stood over Ryou, smiling down at him and it felt safe. The creature smiled, but it was like looking at Byakuen smile. Though the teeth were terrible, Ryou wasn’t afraid. “If you need proof I can tell you things that no one but you and I know. Our hunting trips and the food your mother used to make for you. The songs she would sing to you. For now,” It held out the Ryoken to Ryou and let him take it. “I’ll take the shape of the tiger, if it makes you more comfortable. Really, it makes no difference to me.”
Ryou shifted uneasily, holding the sword more awkwardly than he had since he was a child. “Actually, I think it would. Just for a while, until I get used to the whole idea. Can I still call you Yaku-chan?” It didn’t seem right to give such a cutesy name to the fearsome person in front of him. Like naming a crocodile Fluffy.
The Wyrm leaned down and put its hands on Ryou’s shoulders. “If you like.” It kissed his forehead then, before it even took it’s face away from Ryou, it transformed into the white tiger. Byakuen gave Ryou’s face a hearty lick, then jumped off him and padded away to curl up in a corner. On the floor where the Wyrm had stood, were two swords - the twin Ryokens.
Ryou grew pale at the sight of the two of them. “I’d like to know where you found the other one.”
But Byakuen didn’t answer. He just curled up by the fire and looked smug.
“Enough.” Seiji’s voice was stern, broking no argument, as he helped Ryou to his feet. “I don’t want you stumbling down the stairs in the middle of the night, so it’s the first floor guestroom for you.” He ignored Ryou’s protests that he should be allowed to make his own choice in the matter and that he wanted to ask some more questions. Were the Ma-Sho staying with them? Was Kayura alright? He hadn’t meant to hurt anyone. “Time enough for that later.” Seiji said, briskly as the sounds of talking from the parlor died away. It was just a short walk down the hall to the bedroom and Seiji helped Ryou to lay down, covering him with the blankets. “Right now, your body needs sleep.” He managed a smile. “I expect everything’s going to take getting used to. It’ll take a while so a short nap won’t hurt you at all.”
Seiji left the room, but not before he’d opened the curtains to let in the early morning light. It surprised Ryou that Seiji let Anubisu into the room without a fight. They were allies, it shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. Seiji nodded curtly to Anubisu and briefly touched on Ryou’s mind to say, IF YOU NEED US, CALL. Then he was gone.
Anubisu seemed to find it all very amusing as he sauntered into the room and sat heavily on a chair near the door. “He’s protective, that brother of yours.”
Ryou shook his head. Of course Anubisu would know about Seiji. They’d been mucking around in each other’s heads for long enough, though Ryou hadn’t been in any state of mind to find anything much out at the time. “Nasutei, she was special to you.” No one had missed how he’d cried with Abraham when he’d been told that she’d been killed.
“She was my mother.” With his head hung low, Ryou couldn’t tell if Anubisu was crying or not, but it seemed important that he know. He didn’t add anything to the statement, but really? What could he add?
“She was always good to us.” Ryou wanted to slap himself for that. How trite could one get? He might as well have been talking about the family dog. What could he say, though? A proud exclamation of how Nasutei had helped them to trounce Arago didn’t seem quite appropriate.
“She was good. Period.”
They sat in silence until it became oppressive and Ryou felt the need to say something. “So…ummm…Naaza said…”
“Naaza has a big mouth. Yes, we met before the war. Yes, I destroyed some of your memories. I won’t apologize.” He crossed his arms at that and sat a little further back in the chair. “There are some things I’m sure you’d like to know, but none of it really makes any difference, now. It was for the best back then.”
“Naaza said it was sort of necessary.”
“It seemed necessary. It WAS necessary.”
“Before the fae and all this started, were you planning to tell me?”
“No.” Anubisu answered easily and without hesitation. “You were happy. Why should I disturb that?”
“Because it’s the truth.”
“Hardly a decent reason.”
The awkward silence stretched a little further after that and Ryou tried to think of a way to ask what he’d been thinking about since Naaza had told him. “Did we…you know?”
“Know what?”
Ryou blushed bright pink and was glad that the room was still half in darkness. “IT.”
It took a minute, then understanding dawned on Anubisu’s face. “Ah. IT.” Anubisu let out a rather self-deprecating laugh. “No. Not even once. Don’t be mistaken. It wasn’t a long or glorious love affair. I saw you street walking and watched you be taken away by a man. I was curious. Nothing more. You know I am dhampire?” When he saw Ryou look away uncomfortably, he continued. “I see you do. I enjoy the taste of blood and thought you would make a nice snack. Your blood was the warmest I’d ever tasted and I wanted more. Maybe its because we both have yoroi. I don’t know. But I did know that I wanted more and I returned for you. I took a taste of your blood again before your friends discovered me and chased me off. Don’t get all offended. I’d destroyed their memories, too, so they couldn’t have told you anything. I do not know if it was love,” He hesitated at the word. “Or not. I was inexperienced at such things. I did want to see you and to speak with you. I didn’t want to see you hurt and I was fiercely territorial concerning you. I suppose that might be love. Maybe. I‘d never thought too much about it.”
Ryou ended up feeling guilty. Anubisu obviously felt strongly for him, but Ryou didn’t feel much of anything at all. Still…Anubisu wasn’t ugly by any means. True, he wasn’t as handsome as Seiji or even Rajura, but he wasn’t ugly. More striking than handsome. “I don’t love you. I don’t even know you.” Somehow, it came out sounding like an apology.
“I understand.” Anubisu’s voice was even, but low.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but it’s kinda weird, ya know?” Ryou picked at his knee in an effort to keep his hands away from his chest. “It just doesn’t seem real.”
“Real enough to me.”
“So,” Ryou said after a long, awkward silence. “This bond-thing, how far does it go? I heard your voice, like I hear the guys, but it’s not like the link we have with the yoroi. It’s…not deeper, just different, I guess. How did it happen?”
“It’s never happened to me before, so I really don’t know. I’m not exactly a vampire, so my grandsire can’t help me out much as far as information goes. I believe it happened after the second time I took blood from you. In all honesty, I’ve never given myself much thought. I haven’t been close with anyone for a long time and then Rajura came for me and I suddenly had three bonds closer than I’d ever experienced before. I’d never thought to have anything more than that.” He turned away from Ryou, sharply. “This was all as much of a surprise to me as to you. You weren’t supposed to be anything but a quick snack.”
“Thanks for that boost to my self-confidence.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
“You didn’t answer my question. How far does this go? So far I’ve only been in contact with you when we were both separated from the rest of our friends. Now, I can feel you in my mind, but it doesn’t feel as strong. Are you blocking me?”
“Not intentionally, but neither am I actively trying to touch your mind. I know you‘re worried about what I know. I can see - for lack of a better word - people when I taste their blood. I know everything about you.”
“Everything?” Ryou thought back to everything he’d done in his life and frowned. There were lots of things he didn’t want anyone to know about. “What kind of ‘everything’?”
“Thieving. Your hunting, which doesn’t repulse me at all, in case you’re wondering. Your shame at the man you trusted having betrayed that trust. Your shame at not being able to take care of your grandmother as well as you thought you should be able to. Everything. I’ll keep your secrets, no fear, there.” Anubisu looked back at Ryou and gave the tiniest of smiles. “As for how far our bond goes, I’ll show you.” Anubisu’s mind reached out and brushed against Ryou’s, then sought something deeper. It pushed against Ryou’s mind, then penetrated.
What he showed Ryou was not just the memories of what he’d gotten from Ryou’s mind, but also Anubisu’s memories. Ryou lay back as the memories washed over him. He saw little Jun as Anubisu saw him sitting in a high-backed chair in an old European manor house. He saw Nasutei flying over the Egyptian desert. He saw intimate moments with Naaza, naked and fast asleep laying contentedly beside Anubisu and more scenes of Sh’ten’s playful pain and Rajura’s nagging love. He saw midnight hunting on Earth with a wolf, Lightfoot, at his side.
“That’s just for a start. I don’t know that there is a limit. WE managed to change bodies, when it became necessary. No. Don’t look ashamed. IT was as much my choice as it was yours. I’ve been trained to withstand torture tactics in interrogation.“ At Ryou’s wondering look, he grinned and reached out as if he might touch the burned scars on Ryou’s chest, but let his fingers just hover over the skin. “Rajura was VERY thorough in our training. Sh’ten helped a lot with that, as I remember. ‘Jura said ’Ten-chan didn’t need the training. That brat would have gone to the enemy giggling if he thought he’d have any chance of getting a little torture out of the deal.”
“I never saw that side of him.”
“Then you didn’t know him very well. He was hiding himself. Probably trying to protect you.” Anubisu pulled back to himself, he leaned forward with his hands on his knees. “That’s who I am. More than Yami. More than Arago’s lapdog.” He shrugged, helplessly and stood. “I’m not a man of words, never was. The bond’s there and I don’t know a way to break it. If you think you can, we can live just as it is. I’m not asking for anything more.”
Every movement hurt despite Seiji’s healing, he ached all over. It was nothing, he knew, compared to what Anubisu must have felt during the torture. Still, Anubisu had willingly taken Ryou’s place to spare him the pain. He was trained to stand torture, which meant he must have known what he was getting himself into. Ryou wasn’t even sure he’d be able to make that kind of sacrifice. It made him think more highly of Anubisu than anything else.
‘He did it for me.’ It wasn’t often that anyone outside of Ryou’s tight circle of friends did something so selfless for Ryou. Everyone wanted something, but for the life of him, Ryou couldn’t figure out what Anubisu wanted. Oh, he knew what Anubisu WANTED - that much was obvious from the memories he’d shared - but he asked for nothing. To have someone deliberately place themselves in the path of pain to save a person…that was something that bore consideration, respect, and gratitude. Ryou’s face hardened as he looked at himself in the mirror. ‘A real man would at least give him a chance.’
“When I fed, when I was you…”
“I am sorry about that. I’m sure it must have been quite the shock.” Anubisu looked uncomfortable and shifted in the chair. “You mustn’t feel guilty about it. It wasn’t really you that did it. My body just wanted some blood and they were the closest at hand.”
“I don’t feel guilty, not exactly. Not about the fae. It was a battle and what I did helped rescue you and the others. So, I’m not sorry they died. I’m not sure how I feel about the blood, though. When I was young, I ate a freshly killed animal. There was blood everywhere and I remember licking my fingers clean of it. I liked it, before I realized what I’d done. It tasted good today, too.” He paused, then added, “I’m sorry I hurt Kayura.”
“She’s a tough girl. She’ll forgive you.”
He wanted something, Ryou could tell. It was that bond, but when he went to explore it, to find out what it was that Anubius wanted, he found that his friends were watching, too. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Ryou demanded. SPYING ON ME?
ONLY BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU. Shin whispered back in a teasing voice. DON’T YOU TWO LOOK ALL CUTE AND CUDDLY SITTING IN THE DARK TOGETHER.
WHAT?
IT’S TRUE. THE SHOCK WAS A BIT MUCH, BUT I THINK WE CAN ALL DEAL WITH IT. IT’S NOT AS IF YOU BEING WITH ANUBISU IS ANY WEIRDER THAN ANYTHING ELSE WE’VE DONE, LATELY.
Seiji sounded slightly disapproving. WE SHOUD FIND OUT WHAT ANUBISU’S INTENTIONS ARE. CAN’T HAVE HIM JUST USE UP ALL OUR RYOU’S LOVIN’ AND TOSS HIM OUT LIKE OLD DISHWATER.
Shin spoke up, defensively. I’LL BREAK HIS KNEECAPS IF HE DOES! Then his tone changed to something sweeter. BUT LOOK AT HIM. POOR ANUBISU. HE LOOKS SO LONELY SITTING THERE IN THE DARK AND HE DOES SEEM TO CARE. A LITTLE KISS WON’T HURT.
IT MIGHT. Touma added his two cents in. DON’T DO IT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO. MAYBE HE’LL NIBBLE ON YOUR NECK AGAIN.
That, Ryou thought, might not be such a bad thing.
Somehow, it was Xiu who had the best idea. AWW…JUST DO IT.
Ryou wanted to. He found that he really wanted to just jump out of bed and jump into Anubisu’s lap and give him a big, wet kiss. But though he was sure it was what he wanted, it just wasn’t in Ryou. Firstly, his body wasn’t up to the challenge of leaping. Secondly, touching anyone he didn’t know well just wasn’t in Ryou’s nature. He wanted to…but…
Anubisu let out a frustrated sigh. “Oh, Hell with it.” He surged to his feet and lunged at Ryou, grabbing his face with both hands to hold him still then kissing him hard on the lips. Anubisu did nothing by halves. He leaned over Ryou while he kissed, towering over him until he finally let go of Ryou and stepped back a few paces. “I lied.” He said, somewhat shamefully. “I guess I will demand some things.”
Anubisu, Ryou decided, was a VERY good kisser. By the time Ryou blinked and realized that he wasn’t going to get a second kiss - and frowned with disappointment - Anubisu had left the room, his heavy feet stomping on the floor until they disappeared. After a moment, there was a movement outside Ryou’s window. He waited a moment and then saw Anubisu with a brown wolf trotting at his side. Lightfoot, Byakuen’s other self.
ANUBISU?
Anubisu stopped and half-way turned back to the house. His eyes went directly to the window Ryou was looking out of. The moonlight falling on his face enough to let Ryou see the carefully neutral expression. YES?
Ryou was at a loss as to what to say. He knew what he felt, but getting the right words was hard. I CAN LIVE WITH THE BOND, IF YOU CAN.
EASILY. It was impossible to ignore the happiness in Anubisu’s voice, though Anubisu tried very hard to conceal it. He turned again and ran into the forest, vanishing into the shadows.
Ryou smiled, satisfied. It would do, for the time being. He put a hand against the cold glass of the window. Maybe one day, there could be something more. All relationships begin with friendship, right? He put his fingers to his lips - ignoring the chatter of his friends - and smiled.
Definitely more than friendship.
The End