Warnings: Tomo is gay and in love with Nakago, therefore there will be some unrequited love interest going. Also, I subscribe to the theories that Tomo's past is a violent, trauma-filled mess. Therefore his memories will include abandonment, abuse, violence, and child rape. You have been warned. This is not a Happy Fic.
Translations/Notes
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yamete-stop
Aniki-elder brother
Shunkaku-Suboshi's real name
Now and Forever
It's time for the torture to end. Now die."
Amiboshi looked up, barely able to see through the red haze of pain and blood before his eyes. Tomo's smirking face stared back, twisted with mockery.
It's an illusion! Amiboshi thought desperately. Illusion! Illusion!
I'm going to die.
He shut his eyes, cringing--but the fatal blow never came. Amiboshi stared in shock as the razor feathers of the ryuuseisui exploded through Tomo's chest.
Shock spasmed across the illusionist's face as his right hand, trembling violently, clenched over the wound. He turned slowly, blood spilling out of his mouth.
"Suboshi." His lips formed the breathless word. "Y--You..."
Amiboshi followed his gaze to see his younger brother, right arm stretched out in a commanding gesture.
"Don't you dare touch my brother," the boy growled. His arm pulled back and around, his fist clenching.
He--He's going to kill him! No! No!
"No!" he shouted, wrenching to his feet. "Suboshi! Shunkaku! Yamete! Yamete!"
Two pairs of shocked eyes turned to him. Suboshi's arm fell in amazement. "Aniki?" he asked.
Tomo's mouth moved, but no sound emerged. His eyes, the pupils dilated, rolled back into his head as he and Amiboshi crumpled to the ground.
"Aniki!" Suboshi cried, his fellow seishi forgotten as he rushed to his brother's side.
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Sorry for the inopportune break. I am lazy, and I don't WANT to write the scene that should be here. It's been done before, and this is a Tomo-focused story, not a twins-focus story. I know it's extremely lazy of me. I don't care. For those who have not seen the episode (if you have, you can skip this) and are reading this anyway, what ensues is Amiboshi asking Suboshi stay with him. Suboshi takes the drug that would give him amnesia, enabling him to forget about Yui and the Seiryuu seishi, but he then bends down and kisses his brother, spitting the drug back into Amiboshi's own mouth. As Amiboshi passes out, Suboshi says that he can't leave Yui.
He goes to grab Miaka and rape her as he believes Yui has been raped. He is prevented from doing this by a miraculously alive Tamahome and the other Suzaku seishi, who have escaped from Tomo's illusion. Suboshi picks up his unconscious brother and runs off, and Miaka prevents her seishi from giving chase. Enter Subaru and Tokaki, an elderly married couple who saved Tama. Tokaki was the guy who taught Tamahome martial arts. The Suzaku seishi go stay with them for a while. Okay, on with the story.
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Mitsukake, seeing his miko's safety assured, turned, a sense tugging at the bottom of his spine. His eyes fixed the Seiryuu seishi who lay face-down on the ground, his dark hair strewn around him, shards of a headdress glinting in the blood pooling around him.
He's alive.
Instantly, the healer rushed to Tomo's side, kneeling down and turning him over carefully as he called forth his power.
A gut wound. One lung filled with blood. He's barely breathing, and I feel almost no heartbeat. If I don't act fast, he will die. Can't let that happen.
Without thought for caution, he jerked the ryuuseisui out of the younger man's chest, tossing them aside with the disgust of a man born to bring life, not cause death. Clamping his left hand over the chest wound, Mitsukake clenched his teeth and sent forth his ki. It was dangerously low, after the time spent in the desert, but he had to act! If he failed, the man would perish.
"Oi!" Tasuki cried, stepping over to an oblivious Mitsukake. "What're ya doin' tryin' ta heal him?!" Angered confusion filled the bandit's brown-gold eyes. "He's Seiryuu shichiseishi!"
A hand clamped down on his shoulder. He turned, heated words on his lips.
Tamahome's master stared at him grimly. "Would you become a murderer?" he asked grimly.
"What the hell are you talkin' about?" Tasuki spat. "He's one of them!"
"It's one thing to kill a man in battle," the old man responded, his eyes firm and unforgiving, boring steadily into Tasuki's mind. "It's quite another to have the chance to save him, and choose to let him die. That's called murder."
Tasuki opened his mouth to protest again, and the man's fingers tightened, squeezing. The Suzaku seishi yelped as his limbs froze.
"Your companion has the power to save that man's life. If you stop him, you condemn a human being to a calculated, honorless death. I ask again--would you become a murderer?"
His fingers flexed once more, and the blood spilled back into Tasuki's body. He glared at the old man.
"Tasuki," came a soft voice from the side. The bandit looked across into Miaka's moss-green eyes. "We can't just let him die," the Suzaku no miko whispered. "Even if he did try to kill us. We're different. We can't kill him that way."
"It doesn't matter anyway," a new voice said. The group looked over at the old woman approaching them. She stopped at her husband's side, pointing at Mitsukake.
The healer stood, Tomo held gently in his arms. The Suzaku seishi's face was pale and haggard; he stumbled slightly. The old man shook his head ruefully and walked over. "Let me take him," he instructed, holding out his arms.
Mitsukake nodded slowly. "Be careful..." he murmured. "He's not healed--completely yet... I don't have enough energy..."
Careful not to jostle the unconscious seishi, Tamahome's master took Tomo and turned. "Come on," he said, nodding his head off towards the east. "You can stay with us."
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Not the most interesting of beginnings, I'm afraid, but it does get better once you get into the real meat of the story, rather than this little set-up stage. As for why Tomo survived... First off, there's no evidence that he died instantly in the series--hence Tomo death-fics. However, in this case I justify it by saying that the only wound Tomo sustained from Suboshi was the first strike through his body. The lack of the others (the ones that whip and just generally wreck his outfit and inflict quite a few more, but less-serious wounds) is what kept Tomo alive long enough to be noticed by Mitsukake. Don't buy it? Oh, well, it's my premise and my story, so deal with it. On to chapter two.