Tea for the Third

Kiyotsugu could not believe that he could be so foolish! Here he was with his friends, sitting in the living room of his large, spacious house and yet he had not thought of the fact that they may be out of tea. Surely, with his family being as important as it was they could not possibly run out of tea. Yet here was one of his maids, shaking her head in apology and saying that there was none left.

Slowly he peeked around the kitchen door.

The whole Kiyojuji Paranormal Patrol were sitting around the table of the living room. He could hear Maki and Tori marvelling over how soft the sofas were. Shima had occupied a whole sofa for himself propping his legs up on an up rest looking very content.

While Kiyotsugu was glad that they were comfortable he felt irked that they weren't more impressed by the candles that were laid on the table in front of them. They were the yokai attracting candles that he had gone through the troubling of telling them all about. Okay, well he didn't really need them anymore, since he now knew that he went to school with not one, but two yokai.

The two yokai in question, Tsurara and Rikuo were sitting on another sofa. Kana was sitting on the other side of Rikuo and for some reason it seemed like Tsurara was glaring at her. Kiyotsugu didn't find any problems with that, though – they always acted like that. What he was worried about was Rikuo.

While he might look like an average middle schooler to most people, Kiyotsugu knew that he was the Lord of Darkness himself. He could not shame himself by not being able to serve tea to the Nura Clan's head. It was common Japanese courtesy to serve tea and if he could not even do that, he would have to renounce his name.

"Hey guys," said Kiyotsugu, seeing that worst came to worst. "Could I have some help in the kitchen?"

Shima turned his head from his spot on the sofa. "Don't you have maids for that?" he asked bluntly, not noticing Kiyotsugu's panicked pointing towards the kitchen.

"They're busy!" This was an emergency issue and his maids wouldn't get the importance of this!

Maki and Tori rolled their eyes but they walked over nevertheless.

"I'll help," said Rikuo too, but as he moved to get up Kiyotsugu shook his head and waved his arms around.

"No!" He backtracked, "I mean, haha…I think the two girls will be plenty of help! Just carry on!"

He ushered Tori and Maki into the kitchen and shut the door behind him.

"So what's bugging you this time?" asked Maki sceptically.

"Tea!"

"What?" asked Tori, looking confused.

"We're out of tea!"

The two girls exchanged a look.

"So?" They asked simultaneously.

"So, we have the Lord of Darkness sitting in my living room and since we're going to be studying, Rikuo said he'd be staying over the night," he explained frantically. "That means he might go into his yokai form! Rikuo's a whole lot more gentle when he's normal but what if he remembers my rudeness and gets angry and leaves once he turns into the other form!"

Tori put out her hands, trying to calm him down. "Um, Kiyotsugu, I'm pretty sure that Rikuo doesn't really care – "

But at this point Kiyotsugu had started listing off all the 'options' that they had left. One of them included some convoluted plan to secure some tea and get back to the house without Rikuo noticing.

"Forget it Tori, you know we can't stop him when he gets like this," said Maki with a sigh. "Let's just get the tea from a convenience store and come back."

"Wait, wait, wait!" said Kiyotsugu. "What kind of tea does Rikuo drink? What if his other form like a different kind of tea?"

"Uh…"

Kiyotsugu rushed back to the door, flinging it open. "Oikawa! Can I talk to you for a minute?"

The yuki-onna looked towards Kiyotsugu tilting her head. "Why?"

"Just get here! We need your help!"

"You said you didn't need more help." Her eyes shifted back and forth between Rikuo and Kana as if not wanting to leave them alone.

Rikuo, oblivious about her looks, just smiled. "Oh, go on, Tsurara! Looks like Kiyotsugu really needs the help."

"Right, Rikuo-sama!" she said, more inclined to following a request from the Head than to worry about leaving him alone (besides, Shima was still there so Kana couldn't pull any sneaky moves).

She entered the kitchen, adjusting the scarf around her neck.

Kiyotsugu wasted no time pressing her for the 'vital' information. "Oikawa, what kind of tea does Rikuo like?"

"Tea?" she repeated, looking slightly ticked off at the seemingly trivial question.

"You're his aide, right? Since you're the closest to him you must know what kind of tea is his favourite."

Tsurara was much more willing to answer his question after that, smiling quite broadly now. "Yes of course, I'm Rikuo's most important aide, so I know everything there is to know. His favourite tea is…" The smile dropped. "…Huh? Wait…what is it?"

"You don't know!?" Kiyotsugu exclaimed in shock.

"Well, Kejoro usually makes the tea," she defended. "I always cool mine down so it loses the taste…I can't really tell the difference."

"Ahh!" Kiyotsugu clutched his head. This was a disaster.

"I'd tell you to just ask Rikuo but I'm pretty sure that's not happening, so let's just go to the convenience store, alright?" said Maki, trying to direct them back to the first plan.

"Right! Good idea! Let's go!"

xxxxx

What Kiyotsugu didn't tell the others was that the nearest convenience store was about twenty minutes away and by the time they had got there the sun had already nearly set.

"This isn't convenient at all," Tsurara huffed. (She had left Rikuo with Kana for a whole twenty minutes already!)

"Guess that's what happens when you're living in a large house, isolated from everyone else…" Maki muttered.

Tori was now dragging her feet, looking defeated.

Kiyotsugu was still full of determination. Chanting the word 'tea' in his head.

He was faced with utter disappointment though, when the convenience store happened to be out of tea.

"It's a convenience store! How could it be out of anything?" he yelled in an outcry.

"I don't think people usually buy tea from convenience stores," Tori said. "Maybe that's why they just don't restock it."

They left the store and Kiyotsugu's shoulders were slumped down.

"Geez, you don't have to look so depressed," said Maki. "It's just tea."

"It's not just tea!" he snapped, suddenly. "You guys don't get it either!" He ran off ahead of them, ignoring their calls for him to stop.

He did start to slow down once he was far enough, but that was only when he started taking another route back to his house.

His other friends just didn't get it.

He needed Rikuo's stay to go perfectly.

If he was to be honest, he was scared. Sure, during the day Rikuo still came to school and everything seemed normal. But when night fell, he didn't know what went on with Rikuo. He was a yokai and not just an ordinary yokai, the master of all yokai. He had seen with his own eyes what kind of danger Rikuo could get into. Who knew when was the next time Kiyotsugu was going to see him? What if Rikuo was defeated the next time he went into a fight? What if he died?

Every little thing Kiyotsugu did now for Rikuo was important and he couldn't mess anything up. He just couldn't –

"Kiyotsugu? There you are."

A chill ran down Kiyotsugu.

"R-rikuo?" Even though he should have been used to being addressed by him, he was still startled – this was Rikuo's other voice. Kiyotsugu looked around but he couldn't see him.

The street he was walking down was lined with houses, most with light just visible through their closed curtains, so it wasn't completely dark. The sun had set, though, and with the voice he had heard, Rikuo must have transformed into his night form.

"Kiyotsugu, where did you go?" There he was.

The Lord of Darkness himself had glided down from one of the rooftops, though Kiyotsugu could have sworn he hadn't been there before. Then again, he did know that Rikuo's powers were ones of concealing his presence. As usual, his short brown hair had been replaced with a shock of white, and his form had grown taller, towering over Kiyotsugu.

"I went to get tea for you, Master!" Kiyotsugu said immediately.

"Haha, you don't usually call me 'master'," said Rikuo, as he walked closer towards Kiyotsugu. "Are you going to start calling me that all the time, now?"

"…" Kiyotsugu couldn't say anything to that. He had never called Rikuo 'master' in his day form. The person that had saved him all those years ago, that he had idolised all this time, was the form standing in front of him having an normal conversation with him. Even now, he still found it almost unbelievable.

"I'm Rikuo either way, you know," said the quarter-yokai, as if reading his thoughts. "You get that too, right? I dropped by Tsurara and the others before coming here. Seems like you really were eager to get some tea for me. You didn't have to."

"I…" He knew he was contradicting himself. Whilst Rikuo had been in his living room he was so conscious about the yokai side of him, yet when he was actually in his night form, Kiyotsugu couldn't think of them being the same at all.

The Rikuo now just gave out an aura that the normal Rikuo didn't - he gave out Fear.

"Hey Kiyotsugu, come with me," he said, through Kiyotsugu's silence.

"Oh, of course! Where are we going?"

Rikuo didn't answer him, just leading him forward until they reached the edge of one of the parks in the area. The trees grew denser as they walked on, so Kiyotsugu was surprised when he reached a clearing. He was even more surprised when he saw what looked like…a tea set?

"Just here," said Rikuo, sitting down on one side of the set. He motioned for Kiyotsugu to do the same.

"What is this for?" Kiyotsugu questioned, looking curiously at the tea set.

"Have you heard of 'Sakazuki'?" the yokai asked back.

"Of course!" he replied instantly, eager to show off his expansive knowledge of yokai. "It is when two yokai exchange sake in order to pledge loyalty to each other."

"Right," said Rikuo, a grin spreading on his face. "We're going to exchange Sakazuki."

…

…

"What!?"

"Ah, don't worry," said Rikuo, misunderstanding the reason behind Kiyotsugu's outcry. "I replaced the sake with tea, so we're good to go."

In the back of his mind, Kyotsugu registered how ironic it was tea, the one thing Kiyotsugu had been unable to find, that he had changed the sake with.

"No, I mean…you want to exchange Sakazuki…with me?"

"Yes."

Kiyotsugu was sure that he hadn't even blinked, but the next thing he knew, it didn't seem like they were in a park anymore. Instead it was as if they were sitting under a wooden shelter. Around the structure they were under, Kiyotsugu could only see what seemed like an endless body of water around them. Was this the inside of Rikuo's mind?

Looking down, Kiyotsugu saw the tea no longer appeared to be in regular cups, but were instead in traditional sake cups.

Before he could protest to how he could not possibly accept, how he was unworthy of this kind of honour, Rikuo lifted the cup up towards Kiyotsugu.

"I, Rikuo Nura, Third Head of the Nura Clan, pledge my loyalty to you, Kiyotsugu."

Shaking himself out of his initial awe he shakily raised his cup too. "A-and I, Kiyotsugu, pledge my loyalty to Rikuo Nura."

As the tea passed through their lips, Kiyotsugu felt himself spiritually connect to Rikuo.

And in that moment he realised that he was the one who hadn't really understood.

Rikuo was his hero after all. There was no point in fussing over him – there was no way Rikuo would lose to anyone.

xxxxx

"You exchanged Sakazuki with a human!? With Kiyotsugu!?" Tsurara shrieked, looking just about ready to freeze everyone in the room.

Rikuo simply laughed at her. Oh, she worried too much.

"Hahaha, see since I'm obviously the human closest to Rikuo, of course I would be the one exchanging Sakazuki with him," he boasted.

"You!" Tsurara started shaking him, but nothing seemed to faze Kiyotsugu.

Kiyotsugu had announced what had happened the moment that they had returned, laughing triumphantly.

"Seems like Kiyotsugu's back to normal," Kana commented, smiling.

As she said that, Rikuo's night form dissolved and he sat down, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Yep."

He adjusted his glasses and smiled warmly as he watched his friends.

"That's the way things should be."

A/N: Tadaa! I swear whenever I intend to write something really light-hearted I just go on and make it more emotional. Like first this was just going to be 'friendship xD' and now it's like 'FRIENDSHIP T^T'. But yeah, I think Kiyotsugu would go a bit self-conscious since his hero turned out to be someone that he was supposed to be leader of and would confuse himself with how to act. And Rikuo sensed that and did Sakazuki so they had a bro understanding moment so they're all fine now.

Anyway, this was the result of me finishing this manga last week, and it was just super amazing and I loved it ;-; Yokai ftw. (That being said I'm sure I've gotten the way some people address each other wrong, but I'll go revise that, eventually xD). Also why is Kiyotsugu not available as a 'character'? ;-; I'll have to go do something about that.

This was part of the Twelve Shots of Summer challenge, which you can search up for the forums! The prompt was 'Tea Party', and this was the closest I could get to it. Their Sakazuki exchange caused celebration so in a roundabout way it could count as a party…-coughs- Please do go check out all the others, I'm sure their prompts are much more fitting! :D Thanks for reading!

- Dina (21/6/2014)