Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of Time ❯ 2x4 To The Head ( Chapter 6 )

 

 

Konzen blinked and then stared at his friend as though he'd never seen her before. Well, he'd never seen her like that before at any rate. It had taken him a couple of seconds to register that the person standing in the doorway wearing a deep purple and silver dress was indeed Shi-ne. The dress hugged her body without being too tight and was cut right to show some areas of skin yet keep her covered. Also unusual was the riot of dark, not quite shoulder length curls as he was used to seeing her hair gathered back into a ponytail to keep it out of her way. She hadn't managed to put on any make up but he figured that if he mentioned it he might end up on the business end of her sword, friend or not.

 

“What the hell are you staring at?” she demanded. “If it looks bad it's your fault, you were the one who said I had to wear the damn thing.”

 

“Merciful goddess, Shi, what idiot told you that you weren't attractive?”

 

“I have a mirror, Konzen. I think I'm going to make the more obnoxious members of my squad wear these when I get annoyed with them,” she said, looking down at the heels she was wearing. “I'm fairly certain they were invented as a torture device. My feet are killing me already.”

 

“Can you actually walk in those?” Konzen asked, looking at her doubtfully.

 

“Enough to get from point A to point B without falling on my face as long as it isn't too far,” she said, taking them off. “But I am not wearing them on the walk all the way to dinner. Come on, the sooner we get there the sooner we can make our excuses and leave.”

 

****

 

Tenpou was pacing back and forth in Kenren's office, smoking and swearing the whole time the other man was putting on his boots.

 

“You know they aren't going to court martial her any more than they would you,” Kenren said, tapping the heel of one boot to get it on right. “They certainly won't do it just because she broke your door. Stop being all pissy about it.”

 

“She's driving me insane!” Tenpou said, shoving a hand through his already messy hair.

 

“Can't go someplace you've already arrived,” Kenren said with a grin. He slung his coat over one shoulder and started out of the office with Tenpou following.

 

“Not funny.”

 

Kenren locked his office door and turned to his friend. “Y'know, I kind of think she likes you. In a boy/girl sort of way.”

 

Tenpou looked at him as though he had suddenly lost every functioning brain cell in his head. “Please tell me you're joking.”

 

“Oh, come on. Don't tell me you haven't thought that on occasion. Plus, she's everything you always said you wanted in a woman. She's smart.”

 

“That goes without saying. You don't become a General by being an idiot. Though in your case . . .”

 

Kenren grinned unrepentantly and went on. “She's damn cute when she isn't trying to tape me to something or skewer me with that damn sword.”

 

“She isn't terrible to look at.” He wasn't about to admit that he agreed with Kenren's assessment that she was damn cute.

 

“She adores Goku and is probably the only other person in Heaven who can stand Konzen for more than two seconds at a stretch.”

 

“She's a menace! She threw an armful of my papers out the window just to get me to go outside. I never managed to find them all. She set fire to my desk so I'd go get something to eat. She fed Goku honeycakes and set him loose in my office one afternoon so I had to play with him because he wouldn't leave me alone. This is the third time she's kicked in my door. I don't want to contemplate how many times I've had to untie or untape you from one piece of office furniture or another.”

 

“Yep. Getting you out of the office for a while, making you eat, forcing you to play with someone you'd have played with anyway. Terrible person.”

 

Tenpou opened his mouth then shut it again with an audible snap and glared at his friend. Kenren did have valid points, he couldn't argue that. It was just the method of delivery that irritated him. Of course, he highly doubted anything more subtle would have worked. Hell, Shi-ne was as subtle as a cannon ball shot through rice paper.

 

“She drives me insane. I swear every minute she's home she's in my office aggravating me.”

 

“You're exaggerating, Tenpou. Most of the time she's in her office working, reading, training or mothering Goku and Nataku,” Kenren said.

 

Tenpou peered at his friend over the top of his glasses. “Reading? What does she read?”

 

“From what I've seen of her office, everything she can get her hands on.”

 

***

 

When they were halfway to the banquet hall Konzen paused and looked oddly at his friend. She had been almost completely silent for their entire walk, something unheard of with her. Her brows were furrowed and she looked to be in deep thought about something.

 

He rolled his eyes. “I know I'm going to regret asking this. What the hell is wrong with you?”

 

That seemed to snap her out of her reverie and she looked askance at him. “I've just been . . . thinking.”

 

“You look like you aren't happy with whatever you're thinking about.”

 

“I'm not.”

 

“So . . .” he said, waiting expectantly.

 

“So, you're right. For once. I've been chasing him around like a lovesick puppy since the outside of forever and that needs to stop. I'm a joke to him.”

 

Konzen frowned a little deeper than usual. “I don't think you're exactly a joke to him, Shi-ne.”

 

“Joke, nuisance, pain in the ass, it all amounts to the same thing. Someone he doesn't want around. So, I plan on not being around.”

 

“You have to be around him for some things. You have meetings and various functions together from time to time,” Konzen pointed out as they started walking again.

 

“Yes. But those are few and far between,” she said, her eyes taking a far off look. “Maybe after this next campaign I'll take some time off in the lower world. Men tend to like me there for some odd reason. Come on, I want to get this over with and head down for the party,” she said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him along. “The Fiesta del Flores is this week and I've already missed most of it.”

 

***

 

Gods he was bored, Tenpou thought. He and Kenren had been there for all of ten minutes, he'd already downed three drinks, and he was currently cornered by one of the lower ranking officers wanting to rehash the last campaign. Kenren had gone to get him another drink, in his opinion the best way to listen to the vast majority of the windbag speeches was to be at least pleasantly buzzing and he intended to get to that happy state before dinner was served.

 

He was glancing around at the people he knew and spotted Konzen not far away. He was trying to catch the other man's attention when something suddenly caught his. Inexplicably, it was the movement of dark curls along the neck of the woman standing in front of Konzen. Unfortunately, she had her back to him. The dress she was wearing bared a modest portion of her upper back and the slightest hint of a tattoo could be seen at the edge of where her dress covered her shoulderblades. He wouldn't have noticed the marking had it not been for the bright red slash of color on her very pale skin. He loved that kind of skin on a woman and for some insane reason he suddenly wondered what it would feel like under his hands. He shook off the strange thought and tried to pull his head back into the conversation only to be drawn back into his perusal of the woman talking to Konzen. She stood straight with her hands behind her back, holding on to one wrist in a military at ease stance, so she had to be one of the soldiers but for the life of him he couldn't place where he'd seen her before. Maybe because he was seeing her from behind. He shifted around, trying to avoid seeming downright impolite to the man talking to him, and attempted to at least get a side look at her. Anyone who could hold Konzen's attention had to be interesting.

 

Kenren came back a few moments later with their fresh drinks and managed to shoo the younger officer away. Tenpou took the glass from him and downed it without so much as tasting the contents. Kenren looked at his friend oddly then followed his line of vision to where Konzen and the woman were standing and back to Tenpou. He frowned a little because he had never seen that expression on Tenpou's face except for when he was looking at something he really wanted. His eyebrows lifted when he realized exactly who the other man was staring at so intently.

 

“Uh, Tenpou,” he ventured.

 

“Hmm?” Tenpou said distractedly.

 

“Is there some particular reason why you're staring at Shi-ne like she's suddenly on the dinner menu?”