A/N: Yay the sequel is here! :D I'm so glad all those who stuck through DP might be here for the follow up! I decided to update today because of my own excitement for the sequel, hehe. So anyways, hope you all enjoy this new story! ~Maya
To indrani: I'm sorry I couldn't answer your review in the DP finale, but here you go. You get the top spot in the new story. :D I appreciate all the good points you put forth. And trust me, I have experience with it too. Boys can be very creepy sometimes. -shudders- So thanks for your support and all the love! :D
To Alikkatz: Well, I made my decision already, but you might like how my decision turns out. Hehe.
Fire Starters
Chapter One
A soft voice could be heard drifting through the halls of a large municipal building. A piano melody followed shortly after and all who heard stopped to listen. A beautiful woman sat at a grand piano with a little boy at her side, his dark hair swayed as he rocked side to side to hum along with the woman. Her voice rose and fell in rhythm with her fingers upon the ivory keys as her song continued. As her song ended, she looked up to the skylight in the ceiling and sighed.
"What's wrong, Mother?" The child asked.
"Oh nothing, sweetie." She smiled at him as a man entered the room. He was an older man with dark hair and gray eyes and he was wearing a dark suit. Contrasting greatly to his pale skin, he looked sickly even as he gave a bright smile to the pair.
"Daddy!" The boy called and ran into the man's arms. The woman gripped the skirt of her golden dress as the man picked up the boy and swung him around.
"Are you ready to go to the clinic with Daddy?" The boy smiled and nodded joyfully as the men turned to leave. "Ah! Sweetheart!" The man called to the woman who tried her best to not look miserable in front of her child. "A new child will be joining out family for a bit, so do be courteous when Senpai brings her over. Her name is Kushina Anna, she's eight and an orphan." The woman nodded in understanding.
"Be safe, dear." She said half heartily as the two made their way to the door.
"You too, Hara dear."
Suoh Mikoto laid across the couch in his bedroom with his arm slung across his forehead staring at the ceiling in a daze. Sine Hara had gone missing, it became rather difficult to control his powers. He found that if he shut himself off and kept himself away from the outside, it became easier. A knock from the door reached his ears along with Tatara's soft 'King?'. Mikoto couldn't find the energy to reply so he stayed still, looking at the ceiling. The door opened and in walked a taller, much more handsome Totsuka Tatara. He called for Mikoto again and only received a shifting of his eyes before Mikoto went back to staring at the ceiling. Tatara moved into the room and peered down at his king.
"What?" Mikoto asked, already annoyed.
"You haven't shown your face in days," Mikoto snorted at the younger man. Giving off a menacing aura, Tatara thought he was in danger, but knew his king wouldn't hurt so he didn't move. "Izumo says there's a bunch of things he wants to talk to you about." Mikoto didn't answer. "You gotta show yourself sometime, the others can't be really happy when their king is in such a foul mood." No matter how he blabbered on, Mikoto refused to answer the boy.
Tatara opted to sit in the floor beside his king's couch and began to mutter on without much cause or reason. Mikoto finally gave out short and clearly bored answers. Tatara listened to the noise rising up from the bar below them when Mikoto suddenly reached and gripped his head. He tightened his gaze as Tatara called out in pain and shock. And just as quickly as Mikoto grabbed him, he shoved Tatara away.
"Ouch! What was that for?!" Tatara asked as he crawled away and turned a reproachful look upon his king. Seeing him still as uninterested as before, Tatara sighed. "King?"
"That head of yours would be easy to crack even with just one hand, huh?" Mikoto gave him a disturbing response in a bored voice. Tatara knew it was true, but was still not very bothered by it. He stretched one of his long legs out to Mikoto's couch and lightly kicked it.
"I'm alright," he said with a wry smile. Footsteps of someone running up the stairs were heard and Tatara looked at Mikoto's closed door. Someone gave a hesitant knock.
"M-Mikoto-san," Mikoto still didn't react to the knock and continued to stare at the ceiling. Tatara decided to get up then and opened the door to reveal a chunky Kamamoto Rikio.
"What happened?" He asked as Kamamoto tried to steal glances inside Mikoto's room.
"There's a woman named Kushina downstairs," he answered finally.
A now twenty-three year old Kusanagi Izumo stood behind the bar as a woman in her early twenties with fair skin and bearing a bright, calm smile sat across from him. She was Kushina Honami, Tatara's and Mikoto's and Izumo's old high school teacher. Beside her sat a little, doll-like girl about six or seven with long alabaster hair and large ruby eyes. She wore on a deep blue dress and stared with an emotionless mask.
"Honami-sensei, didn't we say it'd be better if you didn't come around here so much?" The woman only gave an unconcerned laugh. "And you bring a child with you. When did you even have a kid?" The woman's smile became sad as she waved her hand.
"No, you have it wrong. She's my brother's daughter Anna. Right Anna?" The little girl only nodded once in response. Izumo was about to speak further when the sound of several people began to descend the stairs. Izumo and Honami both looked to see Mikoto, Tatara, and Kamamoto re-enter the bar area. Tatara immediately went up to the woman and greeted her happily as Mikoto walked behind him almost sleepily.
"Suoh-kun!" She called to him happily as he only looked at her with a bored expression.
"I told you not to come here." He dropped down a seat away from her at the bar. Honami knew nothing of Mikoto being a King and the others were his clansmen. She only knew he had become some kind of underground boss and was widely feared. Mikoto had not wanted Honami around for fear that she might be used when she had nothing to do with his problems. Still she continued to stick around and the top three of Homura couldn't bring themselves to completely cut her off.
The clansmen were quick to notice and thought there might be something romantic going on between their king and the woman. The two newest members, Yata Misaki and Fushimi Saruhiko were two of them including a not-so-new boy named Bandou Saburouta. The other boys were quick to correct them though and Yata was the first to ask why.
"Well, we don't talk about it anymore," whispered Kamamoto to Yata with a down turned face. The boy gaze a quizzical stare before Bandou cut in.
"But why? It's not she died or something right?" He laughed though the entire room fell silent and they felt Mikoto's heated gaze on them. They turned to see their king watching them and though he appeared bored, they could feel his irritation.
"What are you blabbing about over there?" Mikoto asked as the boys went pale.
"Your ex-girlfriend. Why don't you talk about her?" Honami even paled as Mikoto's eyes went icy. Bandou froze where he was as did all the others. Mikoto got up from his seat at the bar very slowly and approached Bandou. Mikoto looked down on him with such an intense gaze Bandou thought he might burst into flames – not that it wasn't possible for them.
"Because we don't," he said simply and moved back to the bar to sit down again. Mikoto placed his hand under his chin, suddenly he felt someone behind him and glanced down by his chair.
"Oh my, Anna." Honami said in surprise. Standing behind Mikoto's chair was Anna, gazing at him with a fixed interest. Mikoto glared back, but the child remained undeterred. They continued to stare at each other as silent fell again the room further until finally Anna turned on her heel an moved to across the room. She sat on the floor not caring about her dress and pulled out some marbles to play by herself.
A/N: Well there you go! Chapter one of DP's sequel. Hope you all enjoyed. Review/Follow/Favorite! ~Maya