[I'm starting to get how ff.net screws over my HTML formats…oi yoi yoi…]
Chapter One: Watch Me
One. Two. Three. Three knocks had by now passed upon Zato's door. It'd been a few weeks since the incident involving the guild's former chieftain and his wife, and still Zato had not returned from his chambers. He'd simply locked himself in there, and, as it seemed, would not come out. Three more knocks met his door. No answer, sighing the one who dared to disturb his leader retreated down the hall from whence he came…but as he left, the doorknob slowly opened. Stopping in his tracks, he turned on heel to see who it was. To his dismay however, it was none other than Venom, who himself looked a bit weary…saddened nearly. Instead of asking of the young assassin what he wanted with Master Zato, Venom only looked at him a moment and ventured off in the opposite direction. Not bothering to ask why, the young man instead returned to Zato's door, for Venom had left it open. Zato was alive. And very healthy-looking at that. He sat within the sill of the massive window, arms wrapped around his legs as his eyes were closed gently. He seemed to be meditating on something, for it seemed as if he'd not even felt the man's presence. Daring even more, the young one spoke, hoping not to get spiteful words from his leader.
"Master Zato," he began with a gentle bow of the upper torso. "I apologize for disturbing you, sir, but I simply wanted to see if you were alright. Everyone has been worried due to your absence."
Zato still did not move. Instead, he opened a single eye of pale blue, then the other, and left out a whisper of a sigh. Letting his arms fall to his sides, Zato stretched lightly and pushed himself from his sitting position. After stepping from the sill onto the cold marble floor with naked feet, he inhaled and exhaled a bit, as if he were still treasuring the reanimation of his lungs, and finally acknowledged the young one.
"I needed time to recuperate…to rest…and to think. Is that ample?" he asked, quirking his mouth some. The young man smiled a bit, and nodded.
"Yes sir…it was only a matter of us concerned about not hearing from you in so many weeks…and your door was locked. We saw Master Venom occasionally, but—."
"Now by "we", are you referring to the Guild of Assassins as a whole….or yourself?" Zato interrupted, sensing more to this one than what he was having him believe. The young man gasped slightly, and pulled in his lower lip a moment, his shoulders slumping some in the process.
"…Myself, sir…" he said dejectedly. Zato nodded in response, and began to walk past the youth, toward his door.
"I see. Well…truthfully, I needed a few weeks to meditate. Yes, I slept, ate, and handled all other assessments moderately in the process, but for the majority, Venom and I had to discuss some things."
Now the young man was even more curious….and he let such curiosity get in the way of his formality.
"Like what?" he asked, but soon regretted that statement as Zato gave him a soulless glare without words.
"I—I apologize for the past inquiry, master. I now remember that one such as myself or others should not ask of the affairs of one of higher authority such as yourself, Master Zato," he said quickly. Zato sighed and shook his head
"It's no matter. Just don't let that happen again. You are an assassin, not a child."
The young man again bowed in apology.
"Understood, Mater Zato…I will dismiss myself immediately," he said before stepping around Zato and into the hallway. Zato sighed and shook his head.
"And…Lei?" he said, watching the young man turn around at hearing his name.
"Yes sir?"
"Don't be so worried about matters concerning me. They are usually handled easily," he said nonchalantly. Lei nodded before taking off down the hall again.
"You can't blame them for being concerned…" the voice of Venom said as he approached Zato from behind, and stopped beside him. "If I were that young man, would you have been as dismissive?" he asked. Zato smirked gently.
"You and I both know the answer to that. The difference between him and you is that you know what is to be expected of you already, what is proper and what is not…and with that, you are of a higher status than he is. Being such a new recruit as he is, he needs to be trained properly, and not as one would see fit."
Venom released a faint chuckle.
"If this is so, then why did you have me spared?" he asked. Zato looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
"Had I not told you before?" he asked. Venom shook his head, the endless strands of white revealing his other eye of brilliant blue from time to time, while the other remained, for the strands on the right were tucked behind an ear comfortably.
"…I admired your valor concerning your pending death…you did not quake nor break to tears as so many others had…you were accepting your fate…and it was because of that that I had you spared."
"Among other things, I presume…" Venom added. Zato looked at him with a twitch of the brow.
"…Among others, yes."
-
Lei growled a bit as he took another swing at Venom with the extensive blade, which did not even graze the tall man as he simply leaned backward, and used the pool stick to unbalance the young man with a hit to the hilt of the blade, sending him to one side inelegantly. The others who watched clapped gratefully—for Venom's tact—and continued to watch. Lei sighed as he got up again, this time more determined. However, Venom had lowered his guard. Underneath the sheet of white, he was studying Lei, deciding to continue the lesson or not. And seeing as how Lei had suffered enough defeat, he decided to end it.
"That is all for today, Lei. We will continue after dusk. After you have rested enough, I will be out here awaiting you. You may be dismissed," he said before starting toward the forest. The other trainees gasped and awed at their teacher's skill, and then rushed to Lei, who tiredly sheathed his blade.
"I didn't think Master Venom would even consider letting real weapons be used! I guess he's just that skilled, huh Lei?" one asked, marveling at her mentor's amount of skill. Lei nodded wearily.
"Yeah..it's harder than it looks though—going up against him. He's too damn fast!"
"I know!" the female trainee replied. "But he doesn't let me use real weapons. I have to use a stupid stick. You're lucky, Lei. OH!" she yelped at a realization. "I heard you got to speak with Master Zato! How is he?! Is he okay?" she asked. Lei nodded.
"Yeah. Everyone put me up to it, though—to see what was going on with him, I mean."
"So what was the matter with him?" another trainee asked. Lei shrugged some.
"To be honest, I dunno. I heard some of the older members say that he was undead…but he seemed fine to me. And Venom was there, too."
The female trainee's eyes widened greatly.
"REALLY?! Hey, what did he sound like?!" she asked. Lei swallowed hard a bit, not wanting to convey his true thoughts on that, and decided to trim his opinion….greatly.
"Like a leader, I guess. It wasn't like a monster or anything, Terra."
Terra hopped about like the youth that she was, and clung to the other male trainee. "Yu, did you hear that? Now I really wanna meet him—."
"No you don't," Lei interrupted, but then quickly corrected himself. "I mean…he's okay…but I don't think you know all of the formalities yet for approaching the master."
Terra looked at him oddly, then cocked her head to one side.
"I do, too! All you have to do is bow a lot and say "sir" with everything!"
Both Yu and Lei sighed extravagantly.
"No. You. Don't. I know, Terr. You're supposed to bow when you meet him and apologize for disturbing you if he hadn't summoned you, and then you wait for him to allow you to speak and then—."
"But what if he forgets that he's supposed to give you permission?" Terra asked. Lei looked at her oddly.
"If he did that, he wouldn't be the leader for very long, Terra. Don't be stupid."
Just as that was said, one of the members of the guild stepped out of the doors of the manor, and made an announcement.
"All of you are to report to the dining hall at once. Master Zato has returned from his leave, and would like to speak with you all."
Terra beamed happily, rushing ahead of everyone toward the door, while Lei and Yu walked beside one another.
"Well, I guess everyone will get to see him, huh?" Yu asked, smiling gently. Lei nodded, avoiding the subject of Zato.
"Yeah…"
-
Zato stood in front of thousands of potential killing machines, clad in leather pants and a shirt, both of the color of the night, and matching boots as he slowly paced left to right in front of them, examining them all, one by one with his intellect. Every last one of them sat silent in his presence, awed by his every movement and gesture. Venom could be found nearby, arms folded as he watched the trainees and Zato in silence, along with the other members of the guild. Zato finally stopped pacing, stood at his full height, and raised a hand to about the height of his mid-chest. Slowly, a cloud of eerie white rose from the ground, and slowly a hideous shape formed to that of some indefinable monster, who was silent also…but its presence was shocking…
"This is what is attached to me: a purified parasite. It killed me once…but as you all can see, I stand before you now. What caused my resurrection is of no concern to you, but I will, however explain matters that many of you are concerned with. Most of which concern my being absent for so many weeks. Being alive for such a short period of time, I needed to recuperate my thoughts and senses and memories. Though this may seem simple, it is indeed an arduous task. This would not have happened had I not went to what lengths I did for strength…power. What I did then still affects me now, and forever will. I am telling you this because you may later decide to take what you consider to be an 'easier path' to attain what it is you desire. That is not the way of the assassins. That is not the way of man in general. In addition to that, you must work hard within this guild. Some of you are here without choice…some of you are here by choice. No matter the reason, all rules will apply to you, no matter what your history may be."
Momentarily, Zato pointed in Venom's direction, who did not move, though he knew what Zato was doing.
"Your Master Venom is an example. He failed as an assassin, and was sentenced to death. However, he still stands. Why? Because of his valor. He was not a coward then, nor is he one now. And that is what I expect of all of you. If nothing else, you all must be full of valor. There are no cowards in this guild, and there will be no cowards within this guild..."
Lei watched as Zato spoke, pacing along the floor of the hall and speaking so strongly while the bright demon followed his footsteps. He was so vibrant—so strong with every word! Yu noticed the glint within Lei's eye, and nudged him lightly.
"You okay?" he whispered, arching a brow. Lei's awed concentration was broken, and he looked at Yu with part of the expression from before still visible.
"Uh. Me? Oh—yeah, of course!" he whispered in return. Yu blinked a few more times.
"You sure?"
Lei nodded a bit more extravagantly, causing Yu to believe otherwise.
"Whatever you say…"
-
Zato collapsed upon his bed, tired. Staring at the ceiling, he sighed some, looking out of the window a second before turning his head to look at Venom, who was stretching at the moment after throwing his white dress shirt over a chair.
"How do you think they'll react?' he asked, sighing a bit as Venom joined him in bed, straddling his mid-torso.
"You told only the truth. It is up to them what they will do with it," Venom said in reply as Zato pushed himself upward to kiss Venom's collarbone gently before whispering against it.
"This is true," he sighed. Venom used a hand to tilt Zato's head upward, as so he could gently..almost sympathetically…kiss the pink-tinged lips of Zato, who replied with a gentle closing of his eyelids in the process.
"You should forget your troubles now..let them go until the morning..okay?" Venom said with a gentle smile before wilting Zato with a pleading kiss to his neck, and with such a willing submission did Zato indeed forget those troubles, raising his arms to ravel them around the trunk of Venom and enjoy every sensation. All the tensity within his muscles now fled him as seduction took its course, and Zato was left at Venom's mercy. Feeling breathless as his heightened senses derailed his train of thought several times, Zato was able to whisper gently every now into his lover's ear.
"I wish…nn…that I could forgot all of my problems with you…" he sighed. Venom breathed against Zato's neck a moment all the while caressing the newly borne skin of his ribcage, and downward further, onto his hips and thighs, allowing Zato to do the same from his bare shoulders to his lower abdomen as well.
"You can.." Venom replied, guiding Zato into the throes of ecstasy while supporting his spine with gentle hands.
And with me, you forever will…-End Ch 1-