[March 2010] [Word count: Free!] [Prompt: Survivor]

TITLE: The Party
AUTHOR: beyondthemoor on LJ
RATING: T for themes…
GENRE: Humour, family-love, fluff
WARNINGS: - Suggestive themes… some mild language
AU/CANON: Modern University AU
CHARACTERS: Shuurei, Ryuuren, Eigetsu / Yougetsu, Kourin
WORD COUNT: Approx. 5,000 words
SUMMARY: The group ends up at their first kegger, under… mixed circumstances. (Follow-up to "The Misery Fairy" and "That Lunatic" and "Opera".)
PROMPT: March 2010 – Survivor

SURVIVOR

–noun

a person who continues to function or prosper in spite of opposition, hardship, or setbacks.

Standing outside one of the smaller lecture halls on campus, one man nudged his friend and gave a look over the other's shoulder.

"Tall guy, long hair, neon hoodie," he said casually and handed a flyer to his friend. "See if he's interested."

"Right."

The second man took the colourful paper and made his way over to clap their intended on the back.

"Hey, Ryuuren, isn't it?"

"Mm?" replied the young man, surprised at the stranger's greeting. His deep violet eyes took in the other's rather friendly grin and overly friendly arm around his shoulders.

The man glanced back at his friend a moment before turning back to Ryuuren.

"Right, right. Look man, we're having a party at our place tonight, what with it being Friday and all, and we were wondering if you'd like to come over and join us for a bit."

Ryuuren stared at the man, unsure of how to respond.

The 'spontaneous friend' held out the flyer and leaned forward as Ryuuren reached for it; as a group of students walked past, he whispered in his ear, "Bring the 'good stuff', ok, 'bro?" Then he gave the long-haired man a meaningful look before stepping back to clap him on the arm again.

"There he is—hey, Ryuuren!" a woman's voice caught the pair's attention, and they turned to see a lovely, dark-haired woman approaching them, with a younger man with a green streak in his air following after her. "Good news, Kourin can make it after all, so is it ok if we stop by the station after class to pick her up—oh, sorry," she stopped herself and gave a quick bow, realizing he'd already been speaking to someone else. "I apologise, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Seeing the cute flush across her cheeks, the innocent tilt to her face, the other man smiled internally. The more the merrier.

"Oh, you're not interrupting, no apology needed, we were done talking. We'll see you tonight, Ryuuren! Bring your friends," he suggested lightly, and with a wave, made his way back to his original partner.

Eigetsu watched the retreating man and his partner turn away from them and start back towards the library, one pulling out a cellphone while the other held a lighter out to a cigarette he'd slipped between his lips. Something about the encounter seemed odd to him.

"I didn't know you knew them," remarked the youngest of their trio.

"I do not," said Ryuuren, looking at the flyer in his hands.

Shuurei looked down at the paper in her friend's hands. "They invited you to a party and didn't know you? Seems a bit odd," she mumbled to herself, reading over the address. "Well, it doesn't look took far from campus. After we pick up Kourin we can grab supper and take a look if you want."

Ryuuren looked his friends over, unsure how to put his thoughts into words. For a moment or two, he debated asking them if they knew what the man had meant by 'good stuff'.

Instead, he glanced at the paper a last time before folding it up and tucking it in his pocket. "Bosom-brother mentioned the treasure-bead-of-his-heart," he said to them both, changing the subject. "She is coming to stay with us this weekend?"

Eigetsu blushed and reached to scratch the back of his head. "Remember, the official story is she's staying in the spare room at the dorm where we *still live*, ok? If her overprotective grandmother gets wind that we're off-campus and unchaperoned, she'll never let her come visit again."

The lone female of their group grinned at him. "I think your secret's safe with us," she winked. "So, one class left!" she cheered, and linked her arms through her friends' to steer them towards the buildings that housed the Business Department.

The tallest among them smiled softly and put his troubling thoughts away for the remainder of the afternoon, not minding one bit when his friends carried him away with them.

Eigetsu helped Kourin out of her coat as they entered the cramped, noisy townhouse that night after Ryuuren and Shuurei.
"I wasn't aware you had friends like this," she said through clenched teeth as she faked a smile at the drunken revelers who slurred a greeting at them when they entered.

Eigetsu shrugged and smiled to put her at ease, while at the same time internally admitted she had a point. This definitely wasn't their usual crowd.

The vinyl-sided two-storey townhouse was bursting at the seams with people when they arrived. They'd already had to shuffle their way through the crowds of smokers huddling together on the front doorstep, and it looked like they'd be doing the same within the dwelling, but trading the smokers for drunkards instead. The music blaring from every corner seemed to create a physical force-field around the building, and they felt the bass thumping through the soles of their feet and up into their spines. It reeked of alcohol and tobacco, and some things Eigetsu was pretty sure weren't normally found in such quantities this-side of a pharmaceutical counter, and others he wasn't sure were found outside of a restricted-substances lab. And he would know.

"I don't think we'll be staying very long," he replied, his lips against the sensitive skin of her ear, in what he hoped was a confident tone. He'd barely finished reassuring his girlfriend when he watched a man who'd had one too many teeter past them and stumble through the door, only to keel over and wretch into the bushes once his knees met the pavement. "Maybe we should keep our jackets with us…"

"Good idea."

Someone, whoever must have access to the stereo system, decided to put on an upbeat dance song as they entered further into the zoo. Of course, this seemed to encourage the herds to jump in some manner of synchronization… Which would have been laughable, if the pair of newcomers hadn't been so worried about being vomited on.

That was when Kourin looked around and realized they'd been separated from Ryuuren and Shuurei, who'd entered before them. Her sharp eyes scanned the room that teemed with life, and noted that Ryuuren had been hustled off to the back of the house, surrounded by a group of jocks, while Shuurei was nowhere to be found.

Thanking the heavens for his bright clothing for the first time in her relatively young life, the green-eyed girl locked arms with her boyfriend and turned her mouth to his ear this time.

"Let's find Shuurei."

With a nod they set off together.

"So, Ryuuren, whatdja bring us?" asked a smiling man. It was the same one who'd accosted him earlier that afternoon.

Completely oblivious, Ryuuren reached into his grocery bag to produce what he'd considered a suitable house-gift.
"He brought… marble cake?"

One of the group eyed his pal. "Ok…. Did you *make* this marble cake?" he hinted. "You know… special ingredients?"

"No. But my roommate made these brownies—," the young man started, but was cut off when another man ripped the bag from his hands with a happy shout.

"That hot chick you came with made brownies? Oh man, I'm digging in!"

"Hey, you better share those!"

"Yeah, man, we invited him!"

As more than half the group suddenly released him from their circle, Ryuuren found himself being not-so-subtly nudged further towards the back of the house, towards the patio doors which led to the much quieter rear garden.

There he found Shuurei, surrounded by men and who refilled her cup, over and over again.

Ryuuren's normally heavy-lidded gaze sharpened minutely, but his bland expression remained impassive.

The man from that afternoon, who everyone referred to as "Moose", sidled up to Ryuuren again and handed him a cup.
"Drink up, man. There's plenty to go around."

Ryuuren accepted the plastic cup, but merely held onto it as he stared across the fenced-in rear yard. The fence was at least ten feet high, he estimated, a good two feet higher than the local bylaw. It probably ensured the tenants' privacy, and provided some measure of sound barrier.

"So, your girlfriend. Seems nice."

"She is the treasure-bead-of-my-heart," responded Ryuuren, still staring out over the garden. He didn't see any point in correcting the other man's assumption that he was in a relationship with Shuurei. The overly familiar man was sniffing around Ryuuren looking for something, he was sure of it.

'Moose' chuckled to himself at something he found funny. "Yeah. Seems like she can hold her drink, too."

In truth, Ryuuren had never seen his roommate intoxicated before, so the comment probably held some merit. But he didn't think it was a good idea to test the validity of the claim, and wondered if he could get Shuurei's attention to pull her away from the group of soused men who kept plying her with spirits in the secluded area. It didn't escape his notice the better part of the yard was protected by a large awning, followed by a canvas extension. Even the neighbours wouldn't see what was going on back there.

"You're probably wondering why we're back here holding her hostage, huh?"

"Is this a kidnapping? I did not realise this was a mystery party!"

The man took another sip before turning to Ryuuren to smile. Thinly.

"Where's the stuff, man? You were invited for a reason."

Feigning innocence, the long-haired man gazed at his interrogator with wide eyes. "What stuff? Were the baked goods insufficient?"

Moose's jaw tightened.

"Very cute, 'Ryuuren'," he said mockingly, crushing the cup slightly in his large, meaty hand. "But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the 'goods', the drugs. You've been here almost 20 minutes and I'm getting complaints that you aren't supplying my friends with the things they came here to find. Now if I need to be direct to tell you the door's open to do business, so be it. Go sell. My friends came here looking for a good time. The other sellers already sold out, so you better have something up your sleeve."

"I apologise for the miscommunication," began Ryuuren in a bored tone, his eyes never leaving the rear fence, "but I am not who or what you think I am. You will need to locate another 'supplier'."

With that, he took a step forward towards Shuurei but was blocked when two more men appeared in front of him.

"Forgive me for intruding, the treasure-bead-of-my-heart awaits beyond your reach!" called Ryuuren more loudly, in case the men were a bit hard of hearing.

As he'd expected, this got Shuurei's attention and she turned to him questioningly.

Her brow furrowed as she took in the scene: Ryuuren blockaded by near-thugs, and herself surrounded.

Their eyes met across the distance, and held a moment in silent communication.

"You see now?" Moose said in an oily, smug voice. "So, you run along and bring back enough merch to satisfy the good folks gathered here tonight. Now."

"And if I truly don't know how to acquire such… 'merch'?"

Moose laid a heavy hand on Ryuuren's shoulder, took a swig of his beer, and let his heavy-lidded gaze fall on Shuurei.

"I suggest you find someone who does. For her sake."

Kourin was not impressed.

"They invited you here because they thought you were a stoner?" she asked in a snippy voice.

"No, not a stoner, a dealer," corrected Eigetsu. He took in Ryuuren's long hair, droopy eyes, tendency to wear bright, neon clothing, and odd behaviour. "I don't see it, myself. You don't hang out with weirdos," he missed Kourin's eye-roll, "and you aren't a grad student. Really, they should have just gone with some of the Philosophy profs. Everyone knows they're knee-deep in--."

"That's not the point!" stomped Kourin, cheeks flushing angrily. With a curt gesture, she settled her petite hands on her well-dressed hips. "We need to get Shuurei out of there. Think of something, Eigetsu!" she ordered.

"We'll need to get them drugs, I guess," he shrugged. He looked at her pursed lips and narrowed eyes. "Or not?" he added weakly, visibly shrinking back from his tiny, if bossy, loved one with a penitent expression.

With a tight sound, Kourin turned to Ryuuren. "You. Who are the other dealers here?"

He cocked his head to the side, confused. How would he know?

"Oh, don't give me that look," she snapped. "Point them out. Chop-chop."

Automatically his arms raised at ninety degree angles, as if set off by a trigger, and he pointed to two slightly older college students, a woman Eigetsu recognized as one of their TAs, and another, a man with blue undertones in his longish hair, he hadn't seen before.

"How'd you do that?" the younger man gasped, amazed.

"I'm the one in charge here, obviously," she said primly. "And Ryuuren's a smart man, he respects a woman of authority."

No wonder Shuurei controls him so easily, realised Eigetsu, a lightbulb blinking to life in his mind.

"Eigetsu, focus!"

"Yes, ma'am!" His green-streaked head whipped around as his girlfriend immediately reeled his wandering attention back in.

"Go with Ryuuren. Find the nearest Chinese supermarket, and go to the dried goods aisle…"

As she bent their heads together, the trio came up with a quick plan, and within a few minutes were ready to initiate the first stage of their Release-Shuurei-and-Escape-Intact survival strategy.

"Also, Ryuuren? Give me your phone."

Ryuuren eyed her a moment before handing it over.

Kourin exchanged it with hers.

"If anyone asks, you went to get my phone for me, got it?"

"Yes, treasure-bead-of-bosom-brother's-heart."

Kourin stared at him.

"I heard a 'yes' in there, so I'm assuming you understood."

Eigetsu couldn't help it, he chuckled to himself.

She gave them one last order before she let them go. "Call me right before you get back, ok? I'll tell you where I am."

With a polite clap of her hands, Kourin waved them off and went to find a the best vantage point she could to observe the guard around Shuurei.

With that, the men set off.

"You'd think she intended to make Chinese medicine soup with all this," remarked Eigetsu as he stuffed another package of dried food into his wire shopping basket. It was late, but the market was still full of loud patrons, all pushing and shoving and ignoring all signs of etiquette as they filled their carts.

"Perhaps she has unbalanced chi?" Ryuuren inspected two types of seasonings before carelessly tossing both in his own basket.

"Ok, what's next on the list?..."

Kourin looked down at the cellphone in her hand when it beeped softly at her. The first thing she'd done when they'd disappeared from sight was re-arrange all the settings. Not that Ryuuren had any passwords or anything on it. Either he was lazy, or far too trusting.

She'd rolled her eyes at how easily she'd hacked into his call history and address book. There were some very interesting contacts therein, she found out.

She'd almost snorted aloud when she'd found the photo album of pictures of Shuurei asleep in bed. Apparently, Ryuuren had a thing for playing with his roommate's hair while she slept. At least she had some blackmail material on him now, to keep him from retaliating on her when he returned. It was always good to have some insurance.

She had a feeling she'd need to call in some of that insurance after what she planned on pulling that night. It was one thing to make use of her own connections—but she was afraid that would lead to never being allowed to visit Eigetsu again, in this situation. So, she had to make use of someone else's. Like Ryuuren's.

Considering the consequences of what she was about to do one last time, Kourin glanced around, covered her mouth with her hand, and hit the 'Redial' button on the highlighted name in the call history.

"Ryuuren? Hello?" a deep, smooth male voice answered, somewhat surprised.

Still watching the goings-on in the garden below, Kourin muffled the mouthpiece and started talking as fast as she could.

The petite young woman met the two young men just inside the main doors of the house. "Ok, and you found everything?" she asked anxiously, glancing at a clock on the wall.

"Yeah, sorry, it took us a while to find the--."
"It doesn't matter," she interrupted, grabbing the bags. "Good, you already put everything in the paper bags and discarded the wrappers."

Standing straighter, she turned to Ryuuren. "Did you get the other things I asked for?"

"Yes," he held out the jar, which she snapped from him and started unscrewing.

"Good boy." She turned to her boyfriend next. "Eigetsu?"

"Yes?" he asked eagerly, wondering what their next move was.

"Forgive me for this!" she said, screwing her face up in apology as Ryuuren grabbed him from behind and secured his arms.

"What the--! Gllkkkkhhh!"

Kourin had pinched his nose shut and yanked his head back by his hair, securing the bottle of shochu to his lips before he could protest.

"This was the 'nastiest alcohol' I could find, treasure-bead-of-my-bosom-brother's-heart," affirmed Ryuuren as Eigetsu sputtered and choked at the burning liquid that coursed down his throat. "I hope it meets with your expectations."
"We'll just have to hope so, Ryuuren," she said grimly. "Keep boozing him for me, I'm going in."

Giving her a quick salute before taking the bottle from his ad-hoc commander, Ryuuren watched as the elegant high-school student clasped the paper bags demurely in her manicured hands and made to tread as fearfully as she could muster into the rear yard prison.

"—which is why you should have taken macroeconomics, not micro, to understand the larger effect of that technology's impact on the competitive Eurasian market" finished Shuurei to her 'guards' patiently. She gave them a grin and slid the stick (that she'd been using to draw in the dirt) behind her ear with a flourish.

"Ooooh!" they exclaimed together, finally understanding. "Well, if the prof had only explained it that way, I would have totally understood! Wow, you're pretty good at this. You should tutor."

"Oh, I do!" she smiled, pulling out her business cards from her pocket. "On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, I usually work at this tutoring center. Give them a call, if there's a group of you, they can give you a discount."

"Thanks!"

"Great!"
"That's really nice of you, we'll check it out..."

From her place at the doorway, Kourin would have sighed if she hadn't been half-expecting something like this.

Still, she cleared her throat to get their attention, as timidly as possible.

"E-e-excuse me?" her voice wibbled, and her luminous green eyes swam. "I'm… I'm here with the," she paused, and looked around anxiously, putting a hand up to her mouth, "'stuff'…"

"Tch, they sent the woman!" one man spat irritably.

"Now that's just being cowardly," added another, completely ignoring the fact he'd been holding another young woman hostage all evening.

Refusing to give in to the flare of temper that burned deep within her, Kourin kept her cool.

"May I please have Miss Shuurei back now? We'll leave you as soon as we can. We apologise sincerely for our misunderstanding," she bowed low, feet together, trembling ever so slightly.

One of the men actually guffawed at her act, "Awwww…. She's so cute!"

Kourin clenched her teeth, praying they wouldn't hear her molars grinding together.

"Wait a minute there, missy," called Moose, angrily stomping over in an attempt to intimidate her. "How do we know these are real?"

"Yeah!"

"Would you like me to show you their effects?" she asked quietly, looking up as cautiously as she could at the much larger man. Behind him, she caught sight of Shuurei slowly inching her way forward.

"Damn straight. We aren't letting any of you out of here until we know you got us what we wanted."

"Please take a look at my acquaintance," she said sadly. "We were…. Forced to try them on him before we left." She added a choked, tearful snuffle as she turned away, pointing back inside the house.

It was then the men noticed the noise was no longer coming from the stereo, but from the screams of terror of their party-goers.

"Oh… my … god…" breathed one man, incredulous.

Another dropped his beer, the bottle shattering on the concrete pathway.

"Oh, I can't look any more!" said yet another as he turned away to lean against the side of the building. "My house!"

"I think that's a bit strong, man," another said quietly, watching the carnage within.

Kourin held out the paper bags to them. "If it can turn that mild-mannered man into… that…" She thrust the bags dramatically into Moose's hands. "Please, just take them away from me!" she cried, and rushed to Shuurei to cling to her outstretched arms, wailing loudly. "I can't stand to see him like thaaaaaaat!"

"In the space of the past 60 seconds, Eigetsu has scaled the walls, leapt across the ceiling like Spiderman, overturned the entertainment center, and started three fires with some kind of contact explosive," murmured Shuurei in Kourin's ear as the younger woman kept up her anguished sobs to cover their exchange, "that looks like it is tea-based. Oh, wait, I remember he did specialize in organic bio-chem before he transferred…" She squinted her eyes, Kourin still maintaining her Overcome Female act as loudly as possible. "His pupils are still dilated, and wow, I never knew he had such a long tongue. If Kouchou-neesan was here, she'd say you were a very lucky girl, for some reason…."

"We need to exit the building within the next 3 minutes," murmured Kourin back, under the guise of taking a breather from her wailing. "Oh, I just don't know how to bring back the man I love! I'm just praying he'll still love and come back to meeeeeee!"

For his part, Moose couldn't seem to grasp entirely what was going on.

"Really? From one hit?" He looked over the unmarked paper lunchbags in his hands. "Seriously, I could make a lot more by selling this on the high school market…" he muttered to himself aloud, rubbing one hand along his chin.

"That's another example of the micro- versus macroeconomics Shuurei explained to us!" one of the men piped up proudly, remembering the impromptu lesson.

"Uh, Moose, we got a situation in here!" called a man who looked a bit disturbed when Eigetsu—or rather, Yougetsu, Eigetsu's drunken half—decided to start mixing Molotov cocktails in the empty beer bottles and throwing them at the cats that were roaming around out front of the house. Well, to him they were cats. In reality, they were the smokers. He thought their lit cigarettes were animal eyes. Oops.

Kourin and Shuurei, who was still perfectly sober in spite of drinking her captors under the table, had managed to inch their way back inside the house by that point and were now shoving their way through the chaos to meet the boys out front.

"You do know how to calm him down from this, right, Kourin?" queried Shuurei as she saw Yougetsu swing down (apparently he'd found something to make a vine out of, and had strung it up from one of the windows out front) and shriek eerily at a bunch of jocks (who obviously had managed to purchase some of the 'good stuff' from the first round of dealers, going by how they over-reacted to the spooking). "On three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three!"

She and Kourin executed a perfectly synchronized pair of roundhouse kicks to clear a broken couch from their path, and glanced at each other. "Glad we took that Tae-Bo class together. Anyway. Eigetsu?"

"Pretty sure, yeah," answered the other confidently.

"And the three-minute mark?"

"… You'll see."

"There's going to be quite a bit of property damage," remarked Shuurei as they finally made it to the front door.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kourin looked outward, pretending she hadn't heard her senior.

Shuurei just sighed as they crossed the front door. "And I'd been so hoping to bring in some new clients," she mumbled mournfully. She glanced behind them a moment, and squeezed her rescuer's hand. "Heads' up, two o'clock!"

"Oh, the horror!" cried Kourin, spotting Moose bearing down on them, and putting a hand across her eyes. "Oh, I can't stand to even look at the hell this evil substance has brought about on this poor, poor… uh… party!"

"Hey, is this stuff for real?" he snarled, trying to reach for them. "Because I just gave some to my dog, and he didn't--."

"Your dog?!" shrieked Kourin, aghast, momentarily forgetting the plan. "You're sick!"

"Uh, not now, Kourin," grit Shuurei, grabbing her friend and starting to run as the way parted before them, dragging the younger woman along behind her and evading Moose. Once they passed behind a row of vans, she paused and scanned the now-in-some-places-burning parking lot and noticed a few dark, nondescript sedans pulling in and surrounding the people streaming from the ruined event. Aha. The 'three minute mark', she presumed.

Thankfully, she also saw Ryuuren signaling them from his car, the engine already running. He gave a perky beep-beep, and they ran again.

"Ok, whatever you need to do to reign Yougetsu-Eigetsu in, start doing it," advised Shuurei, "the cavalry's here." She glanced around again at the sedans. "And do it discreetly, if possible."

Kourin coloured. "Um, about that…"

Shuurei paled. "Ok, look, just get him down from the roof of the building and into the car. Ryuuren will have to lose the police if they give chase." She would have sighed, if she wasn't huffing so hard from all the running and shoving. "Even if, knowing him, it's some kind of hidden talent…" she growled under her breath.

"Right."

By the time they reached the car, Yougetsu had landed on the roof of the Jag and Kourin was re-buttoning her shirt back up as fast as she could.

"No one saw anything," she ordered, her cheeks still flaring.

"Not a thing."

"Pink is a very nice colour on you," complimented Ryuuren, oblivious. "The rosebuds are very cute. Shuurei would also look nice in--."

"Just go!" the scarlet private-schooled-teenager snarled, hauling a dreamy-eyed, now-Eigetsu-again down into the vehicle.

As they pulled away, a tall man, with long, familiar dark hair and insolent eyes, watched them thoughtfully with a hint of a smile. He waved, but received only a blank, familiar stare in return.

"Ah, so I'm only good for cleaning up your messes, eh, little brother? I'm saddened," he said to himself.

"Uh, Chief. Ran, sir?" queried one of the man's officers.

With a sigh, the police chief pushed his soft bangs out of his eyes and slid his cap on. Of course his troublesome little brother would ruin his Friday night. Tch.

"Round everyone up, bring in the usual suspects, and for god's sake, get rid of this dog," ordered Ran Shuei, indicating the canine who'd attached itself to his leg, rather amourously.

Trying not to snicker, the man bowed to hide his grin. "Yes sir."

With a huff of annoyance, the chief deployed his men with a careless wave… once he saw his brother and company had safely eluded them onto the main road and out of sight.

"We survived," Eigetsu mumbled sleepily, snuggling into Kourin's side as they sprawled out on the couch at their condo again, very, very early that morning. "Thank goodness for small favours."

'Small' her ass. Rolling her eyes, and giving a distinctly unlady-like snort, the young woman gave up trying to dislodge him for the hundredth time and grumbled instead about him being 'troublesome'. He purred and snuggled closer, much to her annoyance.

"I had no idea treasure-bead-of-my-bosom-brother's-heart was so deceitful and cunning," piped up Ryuuren pleasantly, as if it wasn't the dead of the night. "Your girls-only private school education has prepared you well for a career in both politics and military sabotage. I am very impressed. You are very well-suited to complement the unsuspecting nature of bosom-brother-of-my-heart. I rest easy knowing you love each other as you do."

Shuurei rubbed her eyes and didn't know whether to grin or grimace at her roommate's odd 'blessing'.

"Thank you, Ryuuren. But don't ever drag my Eigetsu into such trouble ever again," their guest replied sweetly, finally allowing herself to drift off.

"You are too frightening a foe for me to take on by myself," he humbly admitted.

Kourin just smiled sleepily, her eyes closing.

"Ryuuren," murmured Shuurei tiredly, tilting her head towards his room.

He glanced up at her, and though not at all drowsy, he stood and retired to his own suite in the condo. Meanwhile, Shuurei covered the younger pair with a few blankets, sneaking pillows under their heads to make them more comfortable. Hands on her hips, she stretched her back until it cracked, then she stifled a yawn before giving them one last, motherly glance, and shuffling down the hall to the washroom, running a hand along the wall to extinguish the lights.

When she emerged in the darkened hallway, as she'd turned off all the lights before she entered the bathroom, she was blinded momentarily by the flash that went off but mere inches from her the end of her petite nose.

"Gah, Ryuuren, damnit!" she cursed tiredly, rubbing her eyes and seeing nothing but spots.

"My apologies, treasure-bead-of-my-heart," he said, completely apologetic, and slipped his camera-video-phone back into his pocket.

With a small growl, which turned into a yawn, the exhausted young woman's shoulders slumped, and she gave up being angry with him even as she still massaged her swollen eyes. "It's too late to be angry at the moment. Just point me in the direction of bed, please," she begged of him, another yawn working its way through her throat already. Her eyes remained closed when her hands dropped to her sides. "I'm too tired to fight…" she mumbled as she swayed on her feet.

"As you wish," she could hear the smile in his voice, but too groggy to question anything else that night, she followed blindly when he steered her by the shoulders into a bedroom, guided her down on a bed, and pulled the covers up to her chin, tucking her in with a kiss to her head.

"Goodnight, Ryuuren. Thank you, for tonight… I think…" she mumbled, turning onto her side, eyes long closed. She was snoozing quietly within a few minutes.

The protective young man watched her a moment, before changing into his own pyjamas, letting down his hair and sliding into his bed beside her. She hadn't specified it had to be her bed, of course, that she wanted to sleep in a few moments ago.

After depositing a quick kiss to the crown of her head, he sighed contentedly.

"Good night, Shuurei, treasure-of-my-heart."

The flash went off one more time, with his arm cuddling around her, before he hid the phone again and went to sleep.

R&R?