Part of the Darkness Unleashed series
AUTHOR: Macx and Lara Bee
DISCLAIMER: not mine. Definitely not! I just play with them and hope I tread on no one's toes.
Authors Voice of Warning (aka Author's Note):
English is not my first language; it's German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize g> The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are...
ARCHIVE: yes
WARNINGS: baby tiger on the loose and wreaking havoc...
SECOND WARNINGS: Due to the feedback received in the past we are adding another warning: this is an AU! Our take on the various shikigami's past is purely of our own making. Nothing, and we repeat: nothing! points toward what we made of it. There are a few hints as to what he might be, and we ran with our own ideas.
Keijin being Sohryu's first born is our crreation. Keijin is an original character as is Aya.
This is NOT canon!
TYPE: yaoi
RATING: PG-13
PAIRING: Touda/Byakko mentioned
FEEDBACK: empty inbox seeks emails g>
Touda had never been fond of official gatherings and he had always extremely disliked receptions. It just wasn't his thing to stand around and chat with the high and mighty... despite the fact that he actually was one of them. He was one of the twelve Divine Commanders, equal to the others, and so one of his duties was representing.
He sighed and shook his head, tying back his growing hair in a neat pony tail. Sometimes he wished himself back to the decades where he had been shunned, called a traitor, and left to his own devices. At least then he didn't have to look like a damn peacock!
Well, a black peacock.
Rather unicolor black, too.
He smirked at his reflection.
It wasn't really official business today anyway. It was a friendly get together.
"Ready?" an excited voice called and Touda had to suppress a chuckle at the eager light shining in his lover's eyes.
Byakko, looking almost as normal as every day clothes-wise, was bouncing up to him. He was smiling widely, clearly looking forward to this, and Touda couldn't fault him for it. He was a Protector and with it always busy. All of them were, but Byakko had to take care of a quarter of GensouKai and GensouKai was expansive. This occasion meant he could unwind, relax, have fun.
"Ready," he answered and Byakko beamed.
"This'll be fun."
"If you say so."
"Party-pooper," the white tiger replied.
Touda shot him a mock glare and the two shikigami were on their way.
Sohryu's palace was at the center of GensouKai and also the hugest of them all. One could get lost in the hundreds of corridors, but Touda knew his way around. He had lived in this place for a while and he knew every nook and cranny.
Touda let his eyes sweep over the large table with its chairs and decoration that had been set up in the garden and something niggled at the back of his memory. It looked familiar somehow...
His gaze came to stop at a huge bowl of what looked like sweets. A caramel colored cream with toffee toppings, if he was any judge.
And the memory rushed to the forefront.
Touda had to pull himself together not to laugh out loud, but a chuckle escaped and when Byakko shot him a quizzical look, he couldn't suppress the gleam in his eyes.
"What?" his lover demanded.
Touda sniggered and gestured at the caramel dessert. "You're about to enter a dangerous zone."
The tiger frowned. "What are you talking about? It's just a dinner party..."
"Yep. Just like last time."
"What last time? We've never been to one together!"
"Oh yes, we were. In way... in a manner of speaking..."
"What are you talking about?"
It was a sunny summer day, with a blue sky, barely any clouds, the sun warm enough to make this perfect but not too hot to have people break into a sweat at the lift of a finger. A light breeze touched the garden now and then, moving leaves, bending them ever-so gently. The trees rustled with the movement and here and there flowers bloomed among the excellently maintained area. In the middle of the lush, low cut grass stood a long banquet table, complete with a blue table cover that rippled faintly with each breeze. It looked like water, highlighted by the sun, almost alive.
Servants were busy bringing out cutlery and plates, bowls and glasses, napkins and flower arrangements for decoration, as well as the first food items.
Touda studied the going ons with a neutral expression. He was dressed in his habitual black, though today the outfit was a bit more on the representative side than the warrior's dress he usually wore. No weapons, no armor, no nothing. Just a black tunic that opened up front, a black, sleeveless shirt and black pants. He was wearing freshly polished boots and had bound back his hair with a ribbon to keep it from falling everywhere.
"It's not fair!" a whine interrupted his silent study of the proceedings.
Touda turned and his golden eyes fell on the teenage dragon currently involved in criticizing everything and everyone.
"It's not fair!" Keijin, son of Sohryu and his first born, complained again.
"What exactly?" Touda asked.
"Everything! It's a stupid party! I don't want to go there!"
"You're the son of the ruler of GensouKai."
"Dad's the Emperor's representative."
"Yes, and in the Emperor's absence he is the ruler. You see the Emperor anywhere?"
Keijin grimaced. "That's not the point. Anyway, I don't want to go to the stupid party!"
"You said so before." Amusement swung in the fire serpent's voice.
"I hate these robes. They make me look like an idiot! And I'm the only kid there, too!"
"Keijin..."
"You don't want to go either!" the gray dragon proclaimed. "I know you hate the formal receptions and all. We could do something else, right?"
Touda cocked one eyebrow. "I will go to your father's reception, Keijin, and so will you."
"But you hate it!"
"This isn't open for discussion."
Keijin gave a frustrated growl. "It's stupid!" he repeated.
"You said so, but it doesn't change the outcome. As Sohryu's son you will be there. And by the way, you're not the only kid there, Keijin." Touda grinned evilly. "There's still Byakko."
The gray eyes widened in horror. "The baby!"
"Now, Keijin, Byakko is five. He's hardly a baby."
Touda smirked. He knew that with fifteen, Keijin was hardly looking for a five-year-old as his companion throughout the garden reception.
"He's a thumb sucker, Touda! He's five, I'm not!"
The fire serpent chuckled. "Suzaku then."
Keijin grimaced. "Eeewww. She's... a girl!"
"I'd say she is. A fine young woman, too."
Suzaku was older than Keijin and while the young dragon was reaching an age where the other gender would be of interest soon, he wasn't really looking at them now. At twenty, Suzaku was also 'too old' as Keijin had once put it after Touda had teased him about her.
Keijin frowned at him. "This is stupid," he once again repeated his earlier sentiment.
Touda grabbed one thin shoulder and steered his charge toward the door. "Noted. Now get your butt down there. The guests will arrive soon."
A sigh answered him, but the young dragon did as he had been told.
Still grinning to himself, Touda followed. Yes, he hated receptions, too, but he had learned that there were things in life one just had to suffer. Among them were receptions, speeches and banquets. Keijin would learn that, too. In time. And he still had time. At his adolescent age he was prone to rebellion, just like his father had been, and it would pass.
Byakko stared at his lover who had begun grinning from ear to ear.
"I was at that banquet... so what? I was five. I hardly remember a thing from that time. What has that to do with anything?"
Touda chuckled again.
"You always had a tendency toward theatrical appearances... Toffee..."
"Huh?"
"Did I just hear you saying the magic word?" a deep voice rumbled, belonging to a chuckling Sohryu.
The representative of the Emperor looked every bit his representing self. Right down to the elaborate hairstyle that Touda knew was something of a constant source of grumbling from Sohryu. The headwoman insisted on him having his hair styled wherever he went; or at least bound back. Sohryu hated it.
But he was their leader. There was really not a lot he could do. He had to look the job.
"Yep."
"What are you two talking about?" Byakko asked a little annoyed.
"Let me put it this way... you were the life of the party," Sohryu grinned.
"This is Byakko, Keijin," Touda introduced the little boy to the teenage dragon, pretending to not have seen the dark glance shot into his direction. "You'll take good care of him while your parents are busy, will you?"
"Of course, Uncle."
Touda cleared his throat, cocking one eyebrow at being addressed like that. Keijin always called him uncle when he was upset with something the serpent said. The little dragon had a mind of his own and could be irritatingly stubborn.
Like father, like son Touda mused, giving the boy a stern look.
Byakko stood in the room, shuffling a little but glancing around curiously from huge red eyes, clearly torn between excitement and unease in his presence. It was the aura, Touda knew. He was giving off sharper spikes than what the young tiger was used to, and subconsicusly he was trying to shield himself. At his age he was still failing and the result was a growing unease in a powerful shikigami's presence.
Touda ruffled the spiky white strands of the little boy, smiling down at him.
"This is Keijin, Byakko," he said reassuringly, "he's a dragon. Would you like to play with him for a while?"
Red eyes widened with enthusiasm and the little tiger nodded, fear forgotten.
"You're a dragon? Cool! What kind? I'm wind! Can you show me your form? Do you have wings? And can you..."
And with this one innocent question, the runaway mouth had been launched. Keijin groaned and if looks could kill, Touda would have dropped dead right now. He heard the kid pester Keijin and had to suppress a grin.
Bold little thing.
"So I met Keijin?" Byakko asked.
Touda nodded. "Only once. He was fifteen at that time, and of course not really filled with enthusiasm to look after a 'baby'."
"He was my baby-sitter?"
"Not... quite,"Sohryu answered evently, but his eyes sparkled with unholy amusement.
Sohryu strode into the garden, following the loud crashing noises that had alarmed him, and for a moment he thought he was hallucinating.
"What the hell happened here?" he exclaimed.
Where the banquet table had once been there was nothing but... ruins of the banquet table. It had been turned over, all the food was spilled over the grass, and the chairs lay or stood in tumbles. There was food everywhere, liquids still dripping from chairs, bushes and even the near-by tree. Plates had been broken, cutlery stuck in or lay on the ground, and the table cover was bunched up under the overturned table top. Broken glass crunched under his boots as he took in the mess.
And then he discovered something amidst the former banquet. It was small, covered in... whatnot... and was inching away from him.
"Byakko!"
The tiger cub gave a soft cry and ducked down, hunkering onto the ground as if trying to become one with it, and in his current condition he almost managed to camouflage himself. In the middle of salads, dessert and cold cuts it wasn't really hard to do if one was covered in a mix of it all.
Sohryu reached down and plucked the little culprit off the ground, drawing a frightened squeal. His fingers closed around the soggy tiger's neck fur and Byakko, like all cats, automatically assumed the instinctual position of a cat about to be carried somewhere. He drew in his hind legs and curled up, then his body stiffened.
Dripping what looked like caramel sauce and looking like a kitchen accident, the young wind shikigami was a sore sight.
"Byakko..." Sohryu started, anger mixing with disbelief and even slight amusement, though the last was quickly drowned by his temper.
The cub whimpered.