Welcome to My Nightmare
Main Character(s): Yamano Yulie, Lady Kayura
Fodder: Ronin Warriors
Genre: General
Rating: T17?
Warning: Reading between the lines makes things creepy
Spoilers: ?
Summary: When you're always someone else, there's one day a year you get to be yourself.
Universe: Same as "Regret"
x&x&x&x&x
Yulie stretched his muscles, feeling tired and worn from the day. Any other day, he would probably feel just the same. But today, of all days, wasn't permitted to let him alone to sleep in bed. He was due to attend a Halloween party this evening. Had promised the Archeology professor he would be there, no matter what. And it was supposed to be fun, besides.
What wasn't was getting prepared for it. Professor Auburn had kind of sprung it on him just yesterday, so Yulie hadn't had time to plan a costume, or work on how to get out of it. Both of which were tricky enough even with time to plan, and so he'd had to practically kick his roommate out.
Wasn't hard. Bobby had a girlfriend to go visit, one Yulie wasn't supposed to know about.
Didn't make Yulie want to pull on the silk any more then he had been with the other in the room.
Old silks.
Simple white under-kimono to go over kon-blue nagajuban, painting petals play with feathers in equally upsetting futaai purple. Thicker outer-robe, made of two entirely different pieces sewn together to create what appeared, for all intents and purposes, a single kimono. Kurobeni dyed, the inner piece, with ginnezumi silver-gray patterned misted mountain peak into it by hand. Solid aijiro kimono sewn over it, just a bit thicker, to hide the thread beneath, and all tied nice and tight with a byakuroku obi.
Protection warding that no one would ever see, all of it; against ghosts and chill and anything else that might bode one ill, willing or otherwise.
The Kaosu had been such a paranoid bunch. Knowing what he knew though, Yulie couldn't say it was unfounded paranoia. Most of the time.
He kept a jar of pickles in the fridge and ritually fed the campus pond whenever he was gone for more then a day. He never strayed out during the 'tween hours, and he didn't hover in doorways, hallways, gazebos or under the wisteria arch at the meditation garden. He made sure all the doors and windows were locked tight before he went to bed. And he kept a candle burning under a globe in the corner.
The Jewel of Life didn't come off for showers, either, not anymore. But that was more because it was a familiar comfort then his paranoia.
These robes weren't precisely common, even among the now-dead Clan. But Kayura had dug them out and brought them to him, when she had quietly added his name to the roster. He'd tried not to think about the fact that Cye might know, as Kayura knew. That Cye might hunt him down, as Kayura had.
That he had more in common genetically with a woman nearly as old as the Warlords then he did with his parents. With Rikai.
Not that it was strange to think of Kayura as family, anymore. Even if cousin-aunt-sister read a little strange on the family tree. But he often tried not to think about it, since the Yamano tree-branch with him hanging from it was kind of dead. And the one he sat on with the Kaosu didn't have a parent anywhere for the last, oh, six to eight hundred years?
Whatever sap of an Ancient who's heart had been crystallized, turned into a necklace, and presently rested against his collarbone. He might even be more distant then that. Older then the one who'd decided it was high time a bunch of teenagers saved Japan.
That's what things were, though, with he and Kayura. They were both heirs of dead people, not that different from the ones Yulie wanted to unearth, save perhaps more mystical inclination. Acknowledged, by each other and legal records of a world he only visited; marked and carrying title of being clan leaders. And no matter how much either of them studied or read, they were never going to really know the ancestors that tied them together into this place.
That didn't mean he wouldn't have preferred to have the hiwacha farmer's garb instead. It would have been much simpler to put on.
x-x-x-x-x
His alarm clock startled him out of his thoughts, bright red letters declaring it was already seven o'clock. He didn't know how long he had been standing there, staring at his reflection in the- Bobby's- mirror. Trying not to see the white that had finally stretched far enough he could see it without looking. The way his eyes glowed a low blue in the dim light.
The way he looked like an old noble, and just how badly he missed the guys. It wasn't his first holiday without them, nor even the first Halloween. But this one seemed to hurt worse, dolled up like one of the guys might be, for their families. Probably not in the same colors, though. Maybe white, to honor the dead.
Yulie kind of doubted that. White wasn't a color samurai did.
Something clicked on the tile in the kitchenette, just two simple taps that screamed metal touching down. White pulsed at his fingertips just as quick as he turned around, and open, trusting blue eyes stared back at him.
"You go to party?"
"Kami-sama! Kayura!"
x-x-x-x-x
Gods. When did Kayura get so small? Well, to be honest, he had grown. But even in her old battle armor, she barely reached his shoulders, and that was something new. The last time he'd seen her, he had still been looking up.
Did the gap warrant being so tall? When had it happened?
Just how long had it been?
Kayura slipped back into Japanese for more fluid words, and Yulie was grateful. Her English was getting better, that he would never deny, but it just wasn't... Kayura. His earliest memories of her were of her hovering over Mia's lake, goading the guys. Of Rowen loudly announcing Lady Kayura was, in fact, a girl, which very might have been what had incurred her wrath to start with. "What is this festival about, anyway? We do not have it in the Dynasty."
"I think the jist of it is being who you are not." Kayura ran pretty blue eyes over them both, and frowned. Yulie managed a reassuring smile. "Most people dress up like ghouls and goblins. Something not-human, or movie-stars. Anything to be someone else for a night."
"But we are going as ourselves."
Heart-wrenchingly true. And if he could have gotten out of it, he'd never have put this outfit on. The only good thing about it was that Kayura had brought him a conical hat. It was made of some kind of Dynasty-reed, something native Yulie didn't know. But he didn't know a lot of the plants that grew there.
She'd made it herself. Yulie'd probably wear it every day for the rest of his life.
He reached up to finger dried greens, and tried hard not to think about the weave pattern that was meant to ward from fire and arrows. It was nice of her to worry about his health. Even if he didn't want to know what might try to kill him in a human college. "Yes... We pretend to be people we aren't every other day. Tonight, Shimai, we get to be ourselves."
x-x-x-x-x
The party was not quiet by any means.
Yulie thought about sequestering them both into a dark corner to hide from the other guests, and Kayura firmly put a stop to that by dragging him to the dance floor, bright-eyed and far too eager.
x-x-x-x-x
The music turned from upbeat to a low, quiet melody. Something gentle. A lover's song.
At once, they both stepped away.
x-x-x-x-x
"I found old records, Ani," Kayura told him, sitting on the edge of the bleachers. She kicked her feet like a small child, and Yulie fought to remember that she was the elder of them both. It was curiously hard, given her appearance. She didn't look young. Her body had filled out and she had grown her hair longer; it was nearly white and tied up high. Screaming at age.
At old blood, stirring in her veins.
But it seemed like it had progressed much faster then his had. Kayura hadn't seemed to notice.
"Shimai..." Kayura's smile was downright blinding though. It was hard to say no to her. Yulie took a long drink of his punch to stall a response, so he wouldn't seem eager. So he wouldn't seem interested.
He wasn't. Really. It was only for her benefit.
"What did you find?"
Kami, did she have to look so happy about his reluctance?
x-x-x-x-x
Kayura danced with the grace of an assassin, not a warrior. Yulie was silently amazed that he never before noticed. But truly, none of her motions were wasted.
On the dance floor, as on the battlefield, the Dynasty Princess was a view to behold. There is grace there, and power. Both in a way that he had only ever seen when watching Seiji or Cye preform their katas. A lethal skill, hidden in harmlessness.
If Yulie did not know her prowess with the blades she carried, he might have been truly entranced. But no false blades were these, the sai she carried tonight in place of the Ancient's Staff, the ones who screamed with the fury of the stars. These had tasted the blood of his childhood heros, and instead of fear or anger, all Yulie still saw was awe.
He entertained himself by the bleachers, counting just how often and easily she could kill everyone out there. Content that those blades would never turn on him.
x-x-x-x-x
Bobby was a pest that Yulie tried hard and often to forget existed, for a variety of reasons. He had never quite managed. Partly because at times, Yulie used the other as a grounding rod for reality. Partly because, invariably, Bobby would ruin it by dragging Yulie out of his happy place.
"Dude, your girl's hot."
The young mystic blinked. Followed the other's line of site to where Kayura was doing Wipe-out on the floor, going strong even as others dropped. Even as the drummer began to get tied.
"She is not my girlfriend." Aunt-cousin-sister-niece, if he was to believe what Kayura had told him. As disturbing as it was. But the records she had found of Kumakira were hard to dispute without having read them himself.
"Don't know what she's doing with a guy like you," Bobby continued, and Yulie became oddly aware that his roommate wasn't listening again. "Now.. I think I'll give her a tour and show her just how good a real man can make her feel. It is a party, after all."
The plastic cup splintered in his hand. He let it go and lunged at the American instead.
"You are dead, Danshou!"
x-x-x-x-x
The campus had it's own police force, and a small lockup where troublemakers cooled down. They didn't stick Bobby in with him, which was good. He had already determined that if he saw the other again, he was removing interesting portions of anatomy.
He was kind of grateful that the door was not meant to be opened until morning. In this small a space, Yulie could feel the low, angry heat against his chest and take solace he had a right to be angry.
"I should have warned you we have tempers," Kayura spoke up from where she was leaning against the far wall; she had teleported in at some point, easy as breathing. He didn't respond to her though, staying settled with the hat pulled low instead. Right now, he didn't feel up to having much of a conversation.
It had felt good to attack Bobby. More then just because he'd been asking for it.
"Yoshiaki.. that is, the Ancient you knew during the war... he had a bad one. I'm still trying to work out how bad. There are not very many records in this world of them, and the ones in the Dynasty were mostly written by Talpa... but none of it looks very good."
"..are you angry?" Yulie managed instead, doing his best not to think about the man he had met back then. He didn't remember him well. Mia had trusted him, despite the fact that he never really associated with them.
For some reason, the guys really hadn't.
Yulie hadn't really thought about it. And he definitely wasn't going to start now.
Kayura was quiet for a long time, then he felt the air shift as she nodded. "Yes. But not at you." At him, Yulie heard under her words. At the faculty. At the officers. At their arrogance.It made him feel better. "The party ended, after. For a little bit."
"You stayed to watch?"
Her tone turned impish. Sang with promise and hidden secrets just itching for him learn. "I had questions. But I'll stay with you tonight."
"...thank you, Shimai."
x&x&x&x&x
Kon - Dark Blue
Nagajuban - Stiff under-kimono garment
Futaai - Dark Indigo
Kurobeni - Black Safflower
Ginnezumi - Silver-Grey
Aijiro - Blue-white
Byakuroku - Whitish Green
Obi - Belt
Hiwacha - Finch-brown
Kami-sama - God/Gods
Shimai - sister
Ani - brother
Kami – God/Gods
Katas - martial arts/weapon form
Kumakira - Bear-killer - Mystic man who's heart became the Jewel of Life
Danshou - Man whore
Yoshiaki - Bright Justice - the Ancient One