A/N : I typed this while fighting against my writers block... e_e
Summary: Chapter 2: Jiaying is thankful that people who just knew her recently tries to help her out. Zen is wondering why is she always picking up a fight with him, though he couldn't really say that he hates it.
Warnings: Might be some grammar mistakes, genderswitch for Rikuo F!Rikuo Reika, curses.
Disclaimer: I do not own Nurarihyon no Mago, OC characters belongs to me.
"Longwei ge ge... I don't want to go to Japan..."
The bird youkai stares at the frowning face of Jiaying. He hears her muttering words in Chinese, but like hell could he understand it. He pulls his fingers back, sighing softly. Is she having a nightmare?He thinks. He's only judging it from her expressions. There's no way someone would frown in their sleep if they're having a good dream.
"Hey kid... wake up."
Zen shakes her shoulder slightly, but the girl seems to be showing no sign of waking up. The lower part of his eye twitches comically as he lands a smack on the girl's head. The sleepy girl shoots up from the futon and looks around, surprised.
"E-earthquake?" she yelps.
The bird youkai is known as hotheaded guy, so this kind of thing is really typical for him. The male lets out a sigh of relief when he saw the girl is finally awake, and she looks perfectly fine, despite the comically huge bump on her head due to Zen's smacking.
"Finally you're awake." he says, scratching the back of his neck while yawning widely.
"H-huh? Awake?" She replies to him and fixes her messy ashen locks.
She has no idea she had been unconscious for few days, because she felt like only a day passed. She laughs and scratches the back of her head awkwardly.
"Are we... Did we 'did' it?" she asks shamelessly.
She was judging from the current situation. She's in an unfamiliar bedroom with an unfamiliar guy, and woke up at the same unfamiliar futon. She could only lead to one conclusion... –
Zen's eyes twitches again, but this time, a comical vein pops under his eyes.
"We did not you idiot! And it's not something a lady should say!" he yells at her.
"E-eh? Then, what should I say?" Jiaying asks dumbly.
The bird youkai feels like he could whack Jiaying from being so bold about it. Of course, he feels a tad embarrassing feelings because of her question. He shoves the blanket off him completely and stands up, fixing his kimono and walks towards the door.
"I'll tell you later, for now stay in here. I'll be right back."
She nods slightly, watching the shoji screen door sliding open and close. At first she thinks that she might just follow what she was told obediently, then again she's not the type who listens to other as much. Jiaying is fidgeting while waiting in the room.
Zen in the other hand, is heading towards the main hall, where most Nura Clan's youkai are hanging out. He tucks his hands into his kimono's sleeve while letting out a deep exasperated sigh. He's currently looking for the young heiress for the yakuza clan, Reika, since she did asked him to call her once Jiaying wakes up.
He then approaches Reika who's sitting with Kubinashi, Kurotabo, Aotabo, Tsurara and the others who are chatting about usual random stuff. Reika then grins at him and gestures so he would come and joins them.
"Just woke up?" she asks.
Zen yawns and nods slightly as a short reply.
"Oi, your friend, ...she woke up earlier." he says.
The two of them heads back to the room where Zen left the girl earlier, but less that he knows, Jiaying already left the room and roams around in the Nura Clan's mansion. When he notices this, (that's when he already arrived at the room and found out she wasn't there anymore) his eyes twitches in annoyance.
"..Where the hell did she go?" he mutters to himself.
"Eh? Reika-sama? Are you looking for something?"
Reika and Zen looks down at Natto-kozo.
"En, yeah. Did you see a girl with long ashen hair around?" she asks.
"Oh? Yup! Earlier I when I went to the kitchen to get some cups, I saw Kejoro giving food to her. Man~ she ate 3 bowl of rice really fast!" he replies.
Reika blinks in surprise and follows Natto-kozo to the kitchen, the khaki haired male follows behind her. As they reach the kitchen, they could see many empty dishes piling next to Jiaying. The young heiress sweat drops from this and thinks, is Jiaying that hungry?
WHACK!
Zen lands his fist on Jiaying's head, which practically makes her spurs the tea out of surprise. She rubs the back of her head while wiping the drinks on her mouth using a hanky that appears randomly. She stares at him and Reika in surprise.
"W-what?" she asks.
"I told you to wait at the room." a comical vein pops on Zen's cheek, twitching slightly.
"I-I couldn't help it! I was hungry!" she replies.
"Zen-sama, you should join her too. She said you just woke up yourself." Kejoro says.
The timing fits perfectly after Kejoro said that, Zen's empty stomach grumbling.
"What's that? The timing is damn well like those in anime." Jiaying mumbles.
The khaki haired male's face turns slightly red from this, but he doesn't protest. He settles down somewhere nearby as Reika sits next to Jiaying. He watches the three females chatting. Somehow, he could feel that it's hard for him to fit in as they're having girls talk.
Jiaying and Zen apparently sit across each other. There was a point when the two of them unintentionally stares at each other.
"Eh? This family is a yakuza clan?" she asks.
"Yeah. And Reika-sama is the heiress for this family~" Kejoro hums while replying to her. It seems that she really enjoys her company.
"Oh! Hai, Oyabun!" Jiaying say out of amusement while looking at Reika who's still eating.
"What the-" Reika sweat drop from hearing that, but she just laughs right after.
Zen closes his eyes and continues eating, but then, he stops and put his chopstick and bowl with quarter of rice still inside it.
"I'm done." he mumbles.
"Oi, Zen. You should finish your food you bastard." Jiaying mumbles with her mouth full.
(A/N: Jiaying uses 'kono yaro' to make herself sound badass and yakuza-ish)
"It's alright, I'm already full." he replies with a vein twitching comically under his eyes.
"Jiaying-san, you shouldn't talk with your mouth full." Kejoro chuckles.
The ashen haired female blinks and swallows her food upon hearing that. Somehow, they're acting like a mother with daughter, or big sister with little sister. Jiaying then lets out a satisfying sound after she swallows her drink, then she looks back at the male who sit across her in the kitchen.
"It's never about you, it's about the food. It would be a waste if you wouldn't finish eating. Seems like I need to reminds your future wife to not give you any rice to eat because you'll waste them." she says.
"What are you, my mother?" he asks, sweat dropping.
"Jiaying-chan, you live alone right? Is it safe for you to go back home?" Reika asks.
The ashen haired girl nods slightly to her friends, then she lets out a soft smile. Since she came here few weeks ago, she has always been living alone in the apartment provided by her brothers.
"Why didn't you live with your brothers?"
"They are busy! My big brother said that he will come to Japan in less than a week, until then I had to survive by my own." she scratches the back of her head and chuckles slightly.
For a 13 years old girl to talk about surviving by her own, it seems very unnatural. Remembering how she was severely wounded few days ago, there would be no way for the khaki haired bird youkai to allow her to go back home. Of course, she made it alive few days ago because it was her luck that he was the one who found her.
"Jiaying-san... I think it's better for you to live here with us for a while until your brother would be in Japan. Reika-sama wouldn't mind, right?" Kejoro replies.
Certainly it's the best for Jiaying to stay at the Nura Clan's mansion. If the forces were strong enough to make Jiaying escapes to Japan, it means that they aren't ordinary bunch and Jiaying knew that best. Surely her presence couldn't be detected because there are many youkai in this house, but what if the fox manages to track her down?
The young girl frowns by thinking about it. She honestly thinks that by coming to Japan, she could go through a normal junior high school girl, but it seems like that's not going to be happening soon. After a while, she finally agrees to this suggestion.
The young heiress and the hair youkai let out a sigh of relief.
"Jiaying-chan will share room with me then!" Reika suddenly burst out into laughter.
Somehow, the odd clan seems to care about someone who they just know recently so much. She couldn't help but to feel slightly touched from this.
'Thanks.'
XXXXX
"Zen-nii, you should go to rest."
Zen brings his optics up to look at where the voice is coming from. Reika approaches the male who's sitting by himself at the corridor while she's holding a small tray with a clay tea cup on it. She then holds the cup to Zen, asking him to drink it while it's still hot.
"Reika you little shit, stop treating me like a sick brat." he snickers but incidentally coughs after he said that.
"Aren't you?" she replies back sarcastically.
The young heiress who's currently taking her night form settles down next to Zen. The night seems so tranquil that she could hear the sound of the sakura tree branches shifting against each other. The bird youkai carefully sips that Reika gave him earlier.
".. Hm..?" the bird youkai looks at the liquid in the cup, somehow.. – the tea tastes different from what he usually has.
"You noticed? Jiaying-chan brew it for you. She said it's as her gratitude because you saved her few days ago." Reika says.
He snickers slightly to his sworn sister and continue on sipping his tea. He notices that Jiaying didn't use the usual tea leaves, and the scent seems to be slightly sweeter from the usual one.
"Take this. Jiaying-chan asked me to give this to you." Reika mumbles.
The young heiress put out a dictionary tall paper bag on the wooden corridor floor. Zen sets the cup down and picks up the paper bag without questioning the other. He sniffs the packet and then opens to look inside of it.
"The tea leaves?" he questions.
Reika shrugs as he asks that. What she knew was Jiaying said that it's actually a medication for Zen. It may not cure him like she wishes it would, but at least it could make Zen feels a lot better than he usually does.
Suddenly, Zen bursts out laughing.
"What's the deal Zen-nii? That surprised me!" Reika yells out of surprise.
"Ahah, nothing." He replies.
The young heiress groans slightly to him and decides to leave the other laughing to himself. Zen then breaks off from the laugh and smiles slightly to himself. Surely his impression towards her changes each time.
"Jiaying you little shit." He chuckles.
(A/N: Zen you curse master…)
XXXXX
It was late at night when the bird youkai wakes up once again from his slumber. Zen grunts slightly, feeling some something's shifting inside his futon. He raises his body ever so slightly; his elbows are currently the thing that is keeping his body up.
He yawns widely and tugs the futon's cover down a bit, just to reveal a sleeping ashen haired girl. He rubs his eyes to make sure what he's seeing are real, since Jiaying was supposed to sleep at Reika's room.
"Shit… I've started to see funny thing…" Zen mutters.
He rubs the temple of his head and sighs deeply, seems like she is a real person after all. He shakes the girl's body softly to wake her up, but she's not moving an inch.
This time, Zen starts to shake Jiaying's shoulder a bit harder than before, and it seems like he's getting a response. Just that the response he receives now is opposite to what he's wishing for. The girl apparently shifts her arms to hugs around Zen's chest while her face is cuddling on his side.
The bird youkai finally gives up after a few tries, because he's extremely sleepy himself not mentioning he feels comfortable by having the girl cuddling to his side. He sneaks his right arm under Jiaying's head and put his left hand hovering his eyes as he lays back down./
He doesn't understand why she sneaks into his futon at night, but he's letting it lose for now.
"Goodnight…" he mutters as he swiftly drifts back into the dreamland.
XXXXX
"Longwei ge ge! Run! Escape to somewhere safe with the others!"
That night was unfortunate for them. Those young Nagas are still green, and they were under attack by a bigger force. Jinhai, the second son of the Ran or Lan family held the foe back to make some time for his siblings to flee. Longwei the first son hesitated at first, because it was against his pride to leave his siblings behind, but he wasn't spared with any other choice.
That time, Jiaying was just 4. She barely understood anything that was going on around, but she heard from her parents many time – her brothers was born before her to protect her from any harm.
Because of that, her brothers undergo many tough training for her sake. They have always gotten hurt because of her and now, one of her brother sacrificed himself just to buy them some time to run away.
"Longwei ge ge! W-wait! Jinhai ge ge- ! You left Jinhai ge ge behind!" the little girl cried while hitting the shoulder of her 12 years old big brother.
"Jiaying calm down! We'll definitely come back for Jinhai." He replied while gasping for breath.
"No! Don't leave him behind!"
.ji..
…ying..
. jia…
"Jiaying!"
The girl gasps and opens her eyes wide. She's bathing in cold sweat. She breathes hard and tries to look at the person who woke her up. He frowns while staring down at the smaller female who's currently shaking violently since the time he wakes her up.
Currently, Zen's not asking anything, because he's allowing the female to recover from the shock. He then clicked his tongue and grasp on her smaller hands, hoping that she would calm down at least from having someone nearby.
It's just 3AM currently. This isn't much of a rest for him because he keep waking up every once in a while.
"Z-zen… D-d-did I woke you up?" she asks, trying really hard to put on a smile on her face.
The bird youkai groans out of annoyance and put his right hand on top of her head while his forehead resting on his right hand. He sighs deeply from her pathetic tough act. Zen could swear that he saw tears streaming down her cheeks – and she still tries to act like she's okay.
"Were you scared?" he asks.
He could hear a slight sobbing coming from the female who's squeezing into his left hand tight. He stays there silently, waiting until the female is willing to tell him what's going on inside her head.
Eventually, about few minutes later, she finally calms down. She glomps the bird youkai which practically made him fall back on the futon with her on top of him. She buries her face into his chest and grunts slightly.
"… what are you doing, you little idiot?" he asks.
"I don't want you to see my face right now." She mumbles.
Zen stares at her ashen locks and chuckles slightly.
"I can't hear your mumbling, retard." He replies shortly after.
She then growls slowly, even though it is loud enough for him to hear it. She then raises her head to stare at Zen's face, her expression towards him is priceless that time.
"I said I don't want you to see my face right now damnit!" she yells at him and buries her face back to his chest.
For god's sake, she really does amuse him to the highest degree. Not to mention that she has a lot of weird expression.
"But I just saw it…" he says.
"No, your eyes are wrong. You should see the ophthalmologist you bastard." She replies to him.
His lips then twitch into an insincere smile while the upper part of his face turns dark as she said that.
"Just why exactly do you like to pick a fight with me you little shit…" he mutters.
Upon hearing this, Jiaying chuckles slightly and shrugs. Even though he couldn't see her face right now, he's certain that she's grinning widely from what he just said earlier. Zen already lost count on how many times did he sigh since the first time he met this girl.
"Nura Clan aren't weak, we could protect you."
Finally he said it. Of course, Jiaying goes silent right after. She either feels touched from that or she just ignores him purposely.
"We? What do you mean we? Don't you have a weak constitution?" she replies.
Once again, a vein pops out on his cheek and it twitches comically. He then pinches the soft cheek of Jiaying out of annoyance. Seriously, she always picks up a fight with him, but she never bothers to leave him alone too.
Zen gives up as he tries to rest now.
"What a sadist you are." He says.
(A/N : Earlier in the morning, electricity went off when I was typing out the 4th chapter for Itaku X Reika. My PC turned off and I haven't save the chapter yet that time.
Luckily though, Open Text Document had auto recovery. Else I would have killed the person who turned the electricity off downstairs.
For some reason, recently I tend to listen to the oldies music. Apparently I never get tired of it like how I usually did to the musics nowadays.)