TA: I own NOTHING. So no sue can you! Hah!
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Fang
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A dream. It was all a bad dream. I was going to wake up and everything would be normal. I'd be normal. I'd be sixteen again, having a hell of a time playing tricks on Kouji and beating up slave traders who walked our mountain, not having to worry. But when I opened my eyes, I knew it wasn't true. That's how every day started. Then Chichiri would greet me with a warm "Good morning sleepyhead no da!" Miaka would smile and say "Morning Tasuki. Sleep well?" Nuriko would joke and say "Did I really hit you that hard?" Tama would mew and Mitsukake would nod his welcome. Chiriko would beam and hit me with an interesting fact of the day. Then Tamahome would flash a grin and say "Morning Fang-boy." I'd grab my tessen and burn his ass. Those were the good mornings, the painful mornings.
I wanted to tell them, to let them know the truth. But would they scorn me? Would they turn on me and try to kill me?! I tried to tell myself it was just paranoia, but deep down, it was fear. I liked my friends. A lot. I couldn't tell them.
Damn Hakurou. It's all his fault I'm like this. I know I'm not the only one, but still. It's torture to be thirsting around the people I care for most. It's like I'm almost starving myself. Killing myself until I can get to another. Even when my friends began to fall, I couldn't bring myself to…the pain. Small wonder Hakurou told me not to befriend anyone after he did this to me. I swear I never had the choice to be this way! But I guess I'm lucky to be alive. Only one out of ten turn out like me. Chiriko…he wasn't one of the ten. I tried to save him with my curse, while Mitsukake wasn't looking. If it had worked, Miboshi wouldn't have been a problem. Chiriko would have been old Chiriko, except…like…this…
Tears burn my eyes. So many years have passed since the last time I saw them all. How many, eight, nine? How long until I see Chichiri's smiling masked face again? I know he is still alive. I'd feel it otherwise. I can't help but wonder if he's gotten rid of that mask, or healed his scar with Mitsukake's magic potion, or maybe even renounced being a monk to settle down with some nice woman. That brings a smirk to my face. Yeah right. Chichiri is probably the same old Chichiri.
There are no others left. Eiken and any others I knew of succumbed to disease or starvation. Or I killed them. Kouji and I are the only two left. I hadn't let anyone get Kouji. He was the last thing I had left. My sisters are all married and living around what Konan had become, a wasteland. Kouji…what a guy. I won't forget the day he came into my room and found me, sitting on my bed, trembling from my need. That was when I had to tell him. He wouldn't leave me alone otherwise. And he, my best friend for years, my partner in crime, let me use him. He was willing to take the risk than to let me die and leave him all alone. What a guy. I was so glad…so glad he was the one. I wasn't alone anymore…and I would never be alone.
"Yo, Genrou!"
I stop my contemplation to look up at my friend.
"There's a traveling party passin through about 300 yards south of here? Up for dinner?"
I flash a fanged grin.
"You know it."
Kouji's smirk matches my grin, vampire's fangs and all.