Written for the 10whores challenge on livejournal - explained in my profile because I'm too lazy to keep repeating myself. Enjoy ) By the way, I hate this pairing. Hotohori fangirl
I used prompt #1 for this - navigation.
"Tamahome… are you sure you know where we're going?" Miaka hissed. Tamahome opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it again and pulled her behind a pillar as he heard a guard approaching. The armoured man passed by and they breathed a sigh of relief before sprinting to the next alcove.
"Yes, I'm sure," Tamahome told her in a confident whisper. "C'mon, let's go." He grabbed Miaka's arm and ran down the ornate corridor, listening out for the sound of approaching soldiers.
Miaka tripped over her own feet and yelped loudly; Tamahome cursed and dragged her into another alcove, a much smaller one. They didn't both quite fit. Miaka began to run towards the next alcove but Tamahome pulled her back as he heard the sound of footsteps approach.
Miaka felt her cheeks burn when Tamahome pulled her close against his body. She could feel the tension in his muscles, and she could hear his heart beating loudly within the confines of his chest. She realised he was more scared than he appeared – ok, he pretended to be as happy as anyone – at being inside the emperor's palace and trying to escape the clutches of a hundred soldiers.
"Are you sure sure that you know the way out?" she asked apprehensively. Tamahome nodded, but his heartbeat sped up just a little, telling Miaka that he was lying.
"Of course I know how to get out," he snapped. "Follow me, and don't wander off." Miaka glared at him as he stalked down the corridor, but followed him all the same.
I'm lost, Tamahome thought, three passageways later. But he continued strutting confidently forwards, unwilling to admit to Miaka that his navigation skills hadn't exactly performed on demand.
Miaka smelt food. All her doubts in Tamahome's knowledge of finding his way out vanished as she ran towards the glorious smell. Her thoughts of his beating heart vanished, too, as she was overcome by her love of calorific sustenance.
"Ok, I admit it, we're lost," Tamahome said frustratedly, annoyed that he was forced to confess to a girl. He waited for the 'I told you so', but it didn't come. He turned around to check Miaka hadn't suddenly gone deaf, and realised she wasn't behind him any more. Where had the idiot girl gone?
Tamahome heard a sudden commotion coming from the depths of the palace. He would have bet his precious money that Miaka had caused it.
"Shit," he cursed loudly and looked wistfully down the passage, which he was sure would lead him out of the palace to safety. But he couldn't leave a girl to be caught by the guards, could he? Miaka was odd and the cause of the whole prison problem, but he couldn't leave her in good conscience.
As Tamahome ran towards the noise, he wondered vaguely when he'd developed a conscience. He also wondered why the unexpected event's occurrence coincided with Miaka's arrival. You know why, the newfound conscience told him. Tamahome told it to shut up.