It was the slither of cloth across the rough floorboards that pulled Koumyou out of his post-orgasm fog. He rolled his head in the mess of his blonde hair and lazily opened his eyes. Ukoku had risen to his knees and was groping around for his pants. Feeling the weight of something heavy on his heart, he reached out and traced one hand along the lean muscle of the dark haired man's forearm. Ukoku stilled and looked along Koumyou's bare arm, and smiled, such a sad smile, one that made the younger man so devastatingly endearing. Slowly, gently, Koumyou leaned forwards to press a kiss to the back of Ukoku's hand. He glanced around, and saw that the sky was a deep shade of purple. He leant back, and watched Ukoku slowly gather the last of his clothes and begin to rerobe himself. Just as slowly, just as carefully, Koumyou dressed as well.
He'd known from the moment Ukoku had made a comment about Kouryuu instead of asking after Koumyou the younger man was in a dangerous mood. A predator had walked into the temple's courtyard tonight, and nothing and no one was safe. Perhaps he'd erred in his method of greeting; but after he'd heard Ukoku laugh, he'd thought he'd dampened the mad light burning queerly behind Ukoku's eyes. But after their night together, Ukoku radiated a cold, deadly, beauty that didn't seem quite human. Koumyou had tried with his hands, his mouth and his body all night to convince the other man that he was safe, he was loved. When Ukoku placed his sutra across his shoulders, the sense of power that flowed from him in waves magnified ten-fold.
Keeping his own movements slow and controlled, Koumyou rose to face Ukoku, his own robes and sutra returned to his body. They faced each other for a long moment, and it was then that Koumyou made his choice.
"That was excellent saki," Ukoku crooned. "Thank you for sharing." Koumyou gave a slight smile and tucked his hands into his sleeves.
"As if I had a choice," he chided gently in return. "You should bring some yourself next time you visit." He paused, just long enough. "Persimmon would be welcome." He watched as the man he'd known in the past gleamed in Ukoku's eyes for a moment.
"All right then, next time I'll bring a present or something."
"You're leaving already?" Koumyou kept the anxiety out of his voice at the blatant lie - Ukoku wouldn't be going anywhere without bloodshed.
"It's almost dawn," was the smooth, cold reply.
The blonde haired man couldn't help a chuckle. "Sunlight will turn you to ash perhaps."
"Something like that," Ukoku murmured to the dawn. Taking a deep breath, Koumyou brought the conversation around to a reminiscence of the time when they'd first met, and what Jikaku had said when they'd reached Chang-an.
"Say you're the moon, and I'm the night, right?" Ukoku mused aloud, taking a drag on his cigarette.
"Yes?" Koumyou enquired.
"Which one of us gets swallowed by the other?" The man's voice hissed out of the dark, and Koumyou knew if he didn't lead this dance in the right direction, he, and every one in the temple, were quite possibly dead. He'd seen that look in Ukoku's eyes, and desperately tried to change it throughout the night, but Ukoku had come to kill him or die trying. There was bleak desperation in those dark, dark eyes. Ukoku was broken - and he knew it. And he wanted out. He also knew Koumyou was the only one strong enough to prevent him from hurting too many innocent people if he self destructed in a suicidal rage.
Under the weight of the scripture he so violently acquired, Ukoku's mind had begun to crack. When he returned from his journeys, it seemed that brilliant, beloved mind had shattered completely. Somehow Ukoku had used those pieces of his psyche to be more powerful and wonderful and terrifying than he'd been before he'd left. Yet he'd come close to the precipice of complete collapse several times in the past 15 years, and now he'd fallen over the edge and was approaching terminal velocity in a free fall into madness. The sheer, unrestrained power of nothingness that came from the sutra he carried had thrust Ukoku into darkness, and Koumyou knew that if he didn't give Ukoku a reason to live, someone was going to die tonight. So he had to give the younger man a reason to continue playing the game called life.
All this flashed through Koumyou's mind in a heartbeat, and he could not help the tender smile that curved his lips. "Perhaps we should make a bet." The dark haired man stared off into the the night, a cigarette clamped between his teeth. "Ukoku." Slowly, oh, so slowly, those predatory, mad eyes swivelled to fix on him. It was a long time before Ukoku spoke.
"All right," he said in a deceptively mild tone. "What are the stakes?"
"Hmm. I'd say the next rising sun." Koumyou could almost hear the tumble of thoughts in Ukoku's brain. The younger man always did like the little puzzles and games Koumyou set for him.
"So." Ukoku tilted his head a little, enough to make Koumyou break out in a cold sweat. "You've felt it too."
"I think we're the only ones who have." His hand slid up, touching the sutra on his shoulders. "And you especially, because of your... affinity."
"Necromancers are so often less dark than they are painted," Ukoku drawled, tipping his face just enough that his dark eyes were hidden behind the moonlight flaring off his glasses. "To the west."
"These are some very dark customers, indeed. Do you know what I feel? It's time for a lot of old debts to be paid. Some very old deeds are going to come to light, but neither you nor I have the... power to face them alone." Koumyou took a deep breath. "But Kouryuu will be able to settle the debts." He couldn't help a small smile. "I am too much of a... traditionalist to do what must be done. Kouryuu will call those responsible to account." Ukoku hadn't moved a muscle.
"And I? What shall I be doing whilst the boy is being heroic?" Ukoku's voice held a crooning, savage sarcasm. Koumyou's smile didn't waver.
"Keeping him alive, of course. Although..." The dark haired man still didn't move. "Perhaps it would be better if a certain Ph.D I know took a job with the... people in the west to make sure they don't succeed with their plans until Kouryuu is ready to destroy this threat." Koumyou paused to make sure Ukoku heard him. "Once and for all." He opened his eyes and looked straight into that blind stare, then matched the other man's stillness with his own.
His voice still a lethal croon, Ukoku replied, "And why can I not do this on my own?" Koumyou cocked his own head, his normal, politely confused expression back on his face.
"Would you really want to?" Ukoku gave a half laugh, half grunt, and Koumyou breathed a silent sigh of relief as Ukoku's face tipped down just a fraction. From the expression in his eyes, he was assessing the shape and scope of the possible game board, and finding it to his liking. He allowed his own eyes to ghost shut for a heart beat of time. He wouldn't have to kill his friend today. "So are we agreed? I'll train the boy, you get to distract them." Koumyou took one step forward, then another, until he could finally rest his hand on Ukoku's white clad arm. The younger man's free hand glided up and covered his slender digits, and they stood there, just stood there, as the sun crested the horizon. Then Ukoku was lifting Koumyou's hand and pressing it to his lips.
"It would be my pleasure," he murmured against the back of Koumyou's fingers, his lips soft and gentle against Koumyou's skin. He allowed himself to stroke the younger man's pale cheek and his smile turned a little sad, a little worried. "You'll see me again, never fear," Ukoku crooned. "As always, it will be us against them." The dark haired man paused, his smile twisting a little. "I look forward to getting to know Kouryuu better." With that, he stepped back, breaking the contact.
"Before you go, I wonder if you found that little spell I asked you about last time I saw you," Koumyou asked as Ukoku turned to leave. He turned back, one thin, dark eyebrow lifting in sardonic amusement.
"I never thought you of all people would have a use for that kind of magic. But yes, I found the spell." He lifted one hand and gestured lazily. A deep, dark pocket formed in the air above his skin, and the feeling of dark power in the little garden surged. Ukoku's hand vanished as he rummaged for a bit, finally pulling a tightly wound scroll into the dawn sunshine. It was flying through the air as the pocket universe snapped shut, and Koumyou caught it gracefully. "Interesting piece of work, that. A little nasty, you might say. A spell to make a target invisible and paralysed. Imagine the possibilities."
Koumyou shook his head and tucked the scroll into one voluminous sleeve. "Thank you for your assistance," he said, a little primly, and in a teasing manner. Ukoku smiled lazily.
"Don't mention it."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Around ten years later
The moon gleamed down on the balcony, washing everything in its pale, cold, soothing light. It gleamed in Hunny Bunny's black button eyes, it awoke the silver shine in the paint on the carved wooden railing. Everything else was etched in blacks and whites and greys. The only flare of colour in the pristine nightscape was the burning red ember on the end of Ni Jianyi's cigarette as he took a long, final drag. He blew out the persona of Ukoku Sanzo with the smoke and tilted back his to finish his reminiscence to the moon.
"...we're not backing down. Not you, and not me." The dark haired man tossed his smoke to the floor and crushed it into the delicate decking with the twenty or so others he'd smoked that evening. As he scooped up the plush rabbit with one hand, he turned towards the door. As Doctor Ni Jianyi opened it and stepped through into the hall beyond, he tossed one last comment over his shoulder at the smiling face he saw in the luminous surface that danced so gracefully through the sky.
"However, I still maintain dying was a terrible move."
A/N: I realised when I was almost done I haven't done a disclaimer in anything I've written! My goodness, how slack. Kazuya Minekura is way cooler than me, because she came up with these characters in the first place. Her translators (she herself?) gave me a great deal of the lovely dialogue I used in this fic. All hail Minekura-sama! -Please review, because as I've said, it makes me happy. - YN