Sequel to Dark Horse
AUTHOR: Macx and Lara Bee
DISCLAIMER: not mine. Definitely not! I just play with them and hope I tread on no one's toes.
Author's Voice of Warning (aka Author's Note):
English is not my first language; it's German. This is the best I can do. Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize g> The spell-checker said everything's okay, but you know how trustworthy those thingies are...
ARCHIVE: yes
WARNINGS:
TYPE: yaoi
PAIRINGs: several!
FEEDBACK: empty inbox seeks emails g>
Tentative fingers ran over the lacquered wood railing, touched the gilded ornaments, explored the vine of a plant that grew up the side of the observatory and bloomed in a gentle pink color. He smelled an air that was nothing like what he had breathed in the last two thousand years, he saw a world he had only read about, and he was here in body, not just in a dream.
Rikugo had described his home to him and Ryu's very vivid imagination had given it form. But even that fantasy paled compared to the real thing.
He was in GensouKai, in his lover's realm, in his palace, and he was... free. Just for a few hours; two days to be precise, but it was freedom like he hadn't felt it in so many millennia.
The sky was the same blue color, but still not the same. There were clouds, but not the ones he had watched as he had spent boring afternoons lying on the grass of the wide-spread gardens. He was in a new realm, could explore, could see things he had never seen...
Ryu exhaled shakily and felt his fingers tremble where they touched the wood. He curled them into a light fist, closed his eyes, and willed the tremors to subside.
He had arrived together with his lover just two hours ago and he was still feeling the shivers. He was a prisoner who had his first freedom and the world was suddenly so much larger than the Palace and the palace grounds. It was overwhelming, it was frightening, and it didn't help that whoever passed by knew exactly what he was. Unlike Tsuzuki, whose human half smoothed out the demonic side, Ryu was a full-blooded demon, even if he had started out a human being. The seal that kept his powers in check didn't dampen the aura that had bloomed to its full potential the moment he had arrived here. For whatever reason...
Shouldn't have come, he thought again, a thought that hadn't left him alone for the last two hours.
And he wouldn't have, if Tsuzuki hadn't been such a literal pain for days... weeks... for four months! Whatever free time the shinigami had been able to make, he had come to the Palace to pester and wheedle and cajole and outright threaten Ryu into leaving.
Enma-Daiou had granted him a forty-eight hour time window to leave his prison, his Palace, but only under one condition: Tsuzuki would take his place. The first time they had switched, things had ended in pain. Tsuzuki had been caught by the candles' magic, had been confronted by nightmarish visions of Muraki, and he had nearly broken over it. Back then, Ryu had decided there would be no second time. He wouldn't chance his friend's sanity again. He wouldn't leave to follow his own pleasures, knowing fully well that Tsuzuki suffered the nightmares.
But Tsuzuki had been persistent.
Rikugo in turn had been very patient, never pressuring him into leaving, never bringing up the topic. His shinigami master had been doing the job for him in a way. And he had finally managed it.
Ryu sighed and leaned against the pillar, wishing Rikugo was here, but something had come up and the astrologer had had to pay a visit to one of the other shikigami.
So here he was, alone, suffering from fear of wide spaces. He smiled humorlessly to himself. He had never been claustrophobic in his restricted prison, the Palace and the adjourning grounds, but here, in this limitless realm, he was suddenly the opposite.
Welcome to your agoraphobia.
Gods, he was so messed up. Sometimes he wondered what Rikugo saw in his fractured mind, what he saw in his torn soul, that he stayed with him. The shikigami had gone through so much already with the wreck of a lover he had. What was it that bound him to the immortal being?
Ryu grit his teeth.
No, I'm not going to fall into that pit again. We had that out. He loves me. He knows me. He truly Looked at me and didn't turn away in disgust.
But it was hard to exist knowing that there was someone who had seen him without all barriers, who had looked past the mask and seen the tortured, twisted and perverted creature he was -- and still stayed on.
Ryu blinked furiously and hugged himself, feeling achy and exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to be with his lover, have him wrap his arms around him, feel that strong presence, and adjust to this change in his life.
So pathetic, he thought faintly. Two thousand years old and utterly pathetic.
There was a noise behind him and he whirled around, too on edge by the newness, the feeling of being threatened by the mere existence of so much space. While he had power, it was a passive form, restricted by Enma-Daiou even here. He could defend the Palace, nothing more. Only then did his demonic powers rise. Otherwise he was a weak human being whose only advantage was that he couldn't die, whatever was thrown at him.
Ryu's eyes fell on a small shikigami, old, using a wooden walking stick that was about his size, dressed in the expensive clothes of a high representative.
He didn't need to ask who he was facing. Ryu knew everything there was about GensouKai; he had had a long time to read the books. He knew them all. By name, by rank, by designation. He knew their powers, their affiliation, their status.
"Genbu," he greeted the God.
"Enjoying your stay?" the small shikigami asked casually.
"Ah, yes."
"It can be a bit overwhelming."
He swallowed. "I agree," Ryu answered. "But it's nothing that doesn't quiet down after a while. It takes some getting used to."
Dark eyes from under bushy eyebrows looked critically at him and Ryu wondered what was going on in that old head. Genbu was Rikugo's sensei, he was the Protector of the North, one of the four most powerful shikigami, and he was one of the oldest of the twelve Divine Commanders. Ryu knew he would never meet any expectations from anyone because of what he was and who he was. Rikugo must have mentioned him to his sensei, and Genbu could sense the demonic aura.
The arms crossed over his chest tightened and he wanted to be away from here. For millennia he couldn't have cared less what others thought. Now, with Rikugo being so very close to him, meaning so much to him, Ryu didn't want his status to reflect back on his lover. He was a demon, the enemy, and Rikugo...
The sick feeling spread. It was almost a physical pain now.
"Since my student was called away and cannot take care of his guest, would you like to join me for tea?" Genbu interrupted his wild thoughts.
Ryu blinked. "I'd be honored," he replied formally, pushing his unease aside.
Genbu grinned toothily and turned around. "Then come along, young one."
And he did. He followed the shikigami into a large room almost on the other side of the palace where tea was served by silent servants that didn't give him even a cursory look. Neither did they look at their master.
° ° °
Genbu watched his guest, the man his student had chosen as his partner, and he made up his own image of who Ryu was. The most tell-tale of all signs for a shikigami was the unmistakable aura. Where Tsuzuki had a little flicker of demonic presence that only surged when he truly used what powers he had been born with, Ryu radiated his demonic heritage quite openly -- if he let his aura go, that was. Currently he was tugging it close, wrapping it around his slender form, and only someone who approached him could feel his difference.
Genbu knew that the man wasn't a creature of darkness, but he had absorbed a devil and become one himself.
Ryu looked no less different than a shikigami would and the red eyes were no more strange than any eye color would be to the God. Genbu was no one to judge by appearance; it was foolish to do so. He concentrated on looking what lay underneath, just like Rikugo did, and he had found the same his student apparently had.
Ryu was a very fascinating man, with a gentleness that broke through when the caution finally made way for interest, when the wariness dissipated, and despite the injuries to his soul he was remarkably intact. Genbu knew the man's past from what Rikugo had told him, and he was surprised how well the Count held up for himself in this realm. There were tremors now and then, little flinches, and he was radiating his unease, but he was trying.
He was a fighter.
No one else would have survived two thousand years of imprisonment without going insane, and being able to love again. Yes, he saw the attraction, he saw what Rikugo had seen, and since his student had a special sight, too, he must know what there was to know about this fascinating being.
Ryu cast a glance at his watch and a pained look crossed his features.
"You still have time," Genbu remarked casually. "The forty-eight hours aren't up yet."
Red eyes snapped up and looked at him in shock, and the old shikigami smiled.
"I know about it from Rikugo. Don't worry. You'll be back on time."
There was no answer.
"Don't you think so?"
"I... I feel unwell leaving Tsuzuki in my position. He's trapped in the Palace, and he's trapped in a deal he made with Enma-Daiou..."
"Tsuzuki will be fine. He's strong."
"I don't doubt his strength, Genbu, but I doubt his sanity when it comes to striking a deal with Enma-Daiou over me."
Ah, here we go.
"He had his reasons." Genbu sipped at his tea.
"I think it was his compassion and his heart," Ryu muttered. "He got too close to me." A wry, cynical smile crossed his lips. "A while ago I would have loved him to be close to me, but that changed. I was too late, I saw it too late. He started to see me as a friend and it's what drove him into this deal."
Tsuzuki fought for his friends, tooth and claw, and he would go up against whatever opposed him to be there for them.
"True. That is what makes him Tsuzuki. He cares."
"He shouldn't care for me!" Ryu snapped.
"Why not? You are his friend, are you not?" The dark eyes held the unsteady red ones.
Ryu opened his mouth, then closed it again, his argument dying unheard. He just shook his head.
"Ryu, you are worth it," Genbu voiced it, answering it, and the demon stared at him in mounting shock. "You are my student's partner. Rikugo chose you. He would not chose someone unfitting for his companionship. I can see why he loves you. I can see what he sees, though not as deeply. I can see why Tsuzuki feels loyal to you, why he did this. You are worth it. Every living being is. Enjoy the chance you have been given."
Ryu clenched his hands around the cup, then lowered it carefully. "Thank you for the tea," he whispered hoarsely and rose. "I... need to go."
Genbu didn't stop him, just sat there and stroked his beard, thoughtful. "You're still learning what it means, young one. You're still trying to understand yourself."
Ryu was unaccustomed to many things in his new life. He was unable to deal with the true meaning of his freedom, with being free, with actual friends who would stand up for him.
He needed time -- and Rikugo.
Genbu finally rose and left his palace, determined steps leading him to where a certain dragon was keeping Rikugo unnecessarily away from the one person who really and truly needed him right now.
tbc...