Hello people who bothered to read the second chapter of this!
Recap: Although the stone labyrinth between palaces and the human world looked all the same in everyway with its yellow-grey brick structures, the route she usually took was rather simple: go straight until you see a large grey-white pillar and continue left to a large white door. The door itself was usually locked, but Nori figured out how to pick it using her dagger or the sharp parts of a Kokuchi. With a loud click, the door was open, granting her access to the residence of Rei.
starfruit-kitten: And now... the dreaded disclaimer. x_x Ryuuko, please read this. *hands paper to Ryuuko*
Ryuuko: Alright. Monochrome Factor and all it's characters belong to Kaili Soran. starfruit-kitten only owns the OC (Nori). By the way, where's Shirogane?
starfruit-kitten: Sadly, he's not in this chapter.
Shirogane: Thank Kokuchi for that...
Ryuuko: Aha! :O He is here!
Shirogane: Oh, hello Ryuuko. How are you?
Ryuuko: Good, good! How are things in the Shadow World?
The conversation goes on...
starfruit-kitten: *to reader* Seeing as we don't have time for this right now, please enjoy this chapter. ^_^
Shirogane: Seriously, who is she talking to?
Warning: Some mild language (hardly any...) and possible mature content in later chapters. (MWAHAHA!)
Chapter 2
Nori's POV
Nori absolutely hated passing between elements! It always gave her a terrible headache, and she never really bothered to look at what was going on around her while crossing the barrier.
The Light Palace looked no different from the Shadow Palace, other than the colors being opposite. She found it to be rather ironic how most things were black in the world of light. Either way, Nori was still helplessly lost in such a large building.
As always, Kou was there to greet her at the main doors. Kou was Ryuuko's "dog" whose voice could only be heard by the Direct Royal of Rei for the time being. His shiny white coat swayed with every energetic step he took. Even in the human world, Nori had never seen a wolf as big or happy-go-lucky as Kou.
"So, how've you been poochy?" she asked using Lulu's nickname for him. Kou, who was obviously not amused, turned his large furry head and started glaring daggers into Nori's head. His golden eyes felt more like flaming arrows than daggers. "Sorry, sorry, I've known you since you were a newborn, so of course I know your name is Kou! Lulu talks about wanting to play with you again quite often, so it's become a habit to call you poochy."
Kou barked. Nori assumed he forgave her, since she wasn't fluent in wolf. He led her to a fairly large black door with two big elaborately engraved silver handles. He barked again, as if telling her to go in.
"Ryuuko's in there, right? Thanks a bunch Kou!" Nori beamed, ruffling the soft fur on the wolf's head. She giggled, "You've always been like a little brother to me, so I'd like to thank you for that as well."
Kou's ears perked up. He probably thought of her as an older sibling as well.
The door creaked violently as Nori gently pushed it open. Cautiously poking her head though the crack, she saw Ryuuko, who was sitting at a sleek black desk, look up from whatever paperwork he was doing and smile at her. His long raven black hair falling over his right shoulder and onto the book in which he was writing. "It's good to see you again Nori!"
"Hey, Ryuuko!" Nori exclaimed casually, slipping in through the open door. Unlike Shirogane, Ryuuko didn't care much about formality. "How's the paperwork?"
"Boring, as usual," he chuckled inwardly. "Did you get lost on your way here again?"
Nori sighed, "Yes, Shirogane was pretty ticked off about it and to make things worse, I asked a simple question and now he's a ticking time bomb of murderous intent! I'll have to apologize to Homurabi and Lulu for leaving them with him when he's like that…"
"What did you ask him this time?" the Rei asked, getting up from his chair. His long white coat was slightly wrinkled. How late am I? Had he been sitting there the whole time? He walked over to her, grinning his brotherly grin and casually rested his elbow on her head. Why the hell is everyone so much taller than me?
Nori shrugged. "All I wanted to know was how he could scowl like this-" she childishly mimicked the Royal Shin's signature scowl, pointing to her eyebrows, "-all the time and not get any wrinkles."
"I've always wondered about that myself… did he give you an answer?"
"No, he viciously stormed off and muttered every word he could possibly think of to describe me; all of which far too indecent to repeat to anyone."
Ryuuko laughed, "I would have expected noting less from him!"
"You really know Shirogane well, don't you?" Nori grinned, curiously glancing over at Ryuuko's unorganized stacks of paperwork.
For a second, Nori could have sworn she saw the Rei blush. Though it was probably just her imagination, she knew what she saw.
"We have known each other for a very long time, so I suppose," he replied rather calmly.
Nori could tell that the Royal was thinking of Shirogane, since his cheeks were slightly flushed. There were so many questions she wanted to ask the Rei, all of which would be incredibly awkward for the both of them. After giving it some thought, she asked the least awkward question she could think of: "so, between you and Shirogane, who's the seme?" she managed to voice as indifferently and uninterested (though she was dying to know) as she could.
"I… I'm sorry, but I don't know what you are referring to," Ryuuko's face started to turn a subtle rosy pink. He turned his attention to the door, as if something was actually there. "Hey, why don't you and Kou keep each other company a while. I'm sure he's lonely sitting outside the door right now."
As if on queue, Kou's tail swished past the door. "Well, you might be better at eavesdropping if you were to be a little quieter," The Royal teased.
…silence...
"It's not like you'd be any better at it if I wasn't the only one who can hear your voice." Ryuuko folded his arms in annoyance… the good kind.
Nori giggled.
"Thank heavens I didn't answer her question," said Ryuuko in a quiet and partially muffled voice.
"Did you say something just now?" Nori questioned suspiciously. Why would he even say that aloud in the first place?
"Huh…?" the Rei looked about as clueless as she was. "No, why?"
Nori blinked. What the hell just happened? Even though he was clueless and naïve when it came to certain things, Nori highly doubted that Ryuuko was clueless enough to forget the last thing he said.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask another question." Nori said, deciding to ignore whatever it was that just happened.
"This certainly won't end well…" he said in that muffled voice again. But strangely, his mouth didn't move.
Holy Hakua, I'm reading his mind!
"Alright," Ryuuko smiled, despite the skeptic look Nori was giving him. "What would you like to know?"
Nori slowly started to circle the Royal of Rei, staring at his beyond floor length hair. "Your hair… how is it that you never seem to get your hair caught in doors? This stuff is floor'd for crying out loud!"
The Royal looked down at his hair. "Since when did it get this long?" he thought.
"Huh… who knows…" he smiled at her, then looked back down to the floor'd locks. Nori felt her eye twitch.
Well I'll be damned… Nori thought. She was beginning to understand how Shirogane felt whenever she or Ryuuko spoke to him. He really is that clueless after all…
"Well, we're off!" Nori shouted, running past the now pondering Royal and through the open door and nearly tripping on Kou, who followed almost immediately. "Holler if you need anything!"
Kou's POV
Nori and Kou spent the next few hours roughhousing and playing merciless games of mercy. All of which ended with Kou lying on Nori's back. He rather enjoyed watching the Neutral struggle to shake him off, which was nearly impossible. He enjoyed listening to her complain about him being as heavy as a lead statue. He even enjoyed it when Nori would put him in a bone-crushing headlock, only to be flipped over and trapped underneath him yet again. But he especially enjoyed resting his head on Nori's flat, but still squishy chest, listening to her fast heartbeat and heavy breathing after playfully abusing each other for the hell of it.
"Hey, Kou," she panted, stroking his fur. Her gentle hand felt nice. "You really seem to like spending time with me, don't you?"
There were so many things Kou wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her about the roughhousing, the headlocks, the melody that her voice produced while nagging him to get off, but couldn't. Not because he was nervous or afraid of doing so, quite the contrary. Even if he told her about everything he enjoyed about being with her, she wouldn't be able to hear his voice anyway. All he could do was to bark contently.
"I see…" Nori smiled, slowly drifting to sleep. Her voice was as gentle as her touch.
Kou, whose head was still rested on Nori's chest, watched her nod off to sleep, still smiling at him. He watched her slumber peacefully for a while. She looks so cute like that. He thought, admiring the look of tranquility on her face. Almost nodding off himself, he heard her mumble what sounded like a love confession, he thought it was anyway. He was shocked to hear her say something like that, even unintentionally in her sleep. The last word she breathed surprised him the most.
"…Kou…"
Thanks for reading! Reviews and suggestions are appreciated.
Well, it's back to school in a few days (yay...! note the sarcasm) meaning that I won't have much time to work on new chapters because of any dragon-lady teachers I may have. I will try to post new chapters soon (eventually... maybe...)
I sincerely hope you all had a wonderful summer and that you have a great time going back to school! ...che... as if that's even possible...
UWAAAAAA! Dx I wanna go back yet!
