Title: The Costs of Royalty
Chapter: 2/4
Pairings: Extremely various; I'm not even sure what all is going to end up with this story yet. For this chapter, expect plenty of hints for all of the Fuuga members, wherever you choose to see it. I'm trying to keep things vague and letting people use their imaginations. As for scene number XIX... :D Take a wild guess at who he's with. I ain't tellin'. Maybe in a nother chapter. Maybe.
Notes/warnings: M/M relationships? That's about it. You have been warned.

XIII.

They made their new, permanent home in what Kazuki suspected used to be an old apartment building. There were no beds, which left the three making their own out of old, ratty blankets found throughout the building. Juubei and Kazuki collected them, Sakura mended them, and all three found themselves sleeping on them, curled tightly together from there on out.

The walls of the building were cracked and crumbling, few windows intact. It didn't look livable, but the children made the best of it.

They managed to get the stove top working, and the water still ran. The lights were dim and Kazuki was worried the electrical wiring in the place was a fire hazard, so they stuck with candles in lieu of light bulbs. Juubei disappeared some days and returned with either a bit of food or money he'd received in exchange for manual labor for vendors in Lower Town. Sakura took to earning money in her own way; patching and sewing and creating clothing so long as people brought her the cloth to work with.

Kazuki felt a little more useless. He didn't know how to sew, nor was he built for manual labor. His kimono was torn and dirty, but he was so loathe to get rid of it no matter how much Juubei and Sakura protested. He lost the argument one night when the pink fabric tore even farther up one side, and Kazuki was forced to give in and toss it out.

Coming home from fetching groceries one night, Kazuki found a new outfit waiting for him, made from the salvageable scraps of kimono fabric among other scraps Sakura had saved from her various projects.

Kazuki told himself he wouldn't cry in front of her, but the moment he opened his mouth to say "thank you" and Sakura smiled, he couldn't help the tears running down his cheeks.

XIV.

She was soft, and he liked the feel of her fingers brushing over his cheeks and jawline. He liked the way she hummed softly while she brushed his hair while his head rested in her lap. The way she smelled -- Juubei often said Kazuki and Sakura were like flowers in a dead world. He said they both had such a wonderful scent about them that reminded him of home. Kazuki just smiled.

Sakura hummed the tunes his mother used to sing to him back in the Fuuchouin home. He wondered if perhaps her own mother knew those same songs, seeing as the families had been so close they could have very well learned them from one another.

Kazuki's dark eyes drifted open as Sakura finished with his hair, and he rolled onto his back to smile up at her through his thick lashes. Sakura returned the smile in kind, brushing his bangs back from his face. "I should be getting started on dinner soon," she said.

Her lord merely nodded, but made no move to get up yet. He reached up slowly, curling a strand of her hair about his long, delicate fingers with a thoughtful noise. Sakura just blinked at him questioningly.

"You know," Kazuki began slowly, his smile widening, "you're still prettier than all the other girls."

XV.

Even if Kazuki was oblivious to it, Sakura noticed the way her brother stared at their Prince with such adoring eyes. Adoration and devotion beyond that required of the Kakei family to the Fuuchouin. Juubei was in love and nobody realized it but her.

It was for that reason she took to sleeping in the second room of their small home. Kazuki was plaintive at first, but quieted down after awhile when he came to his own conclusion that perhaps, being a girl, Sakura just wanted some privacy from the boys for a change. They were all getting older and all girls liked their alone time to do their own girly things, didn't they?

Still, there was more than one occasion when Sakura would wake up to both Kazuki and Juubei creeping into her room to crawl into her bed, both curling around her with their faces tucked into her neck or resting on her chest. Something in her head told her this wasn't proper at all; not only her lord and master, but her brother as well. But those were the nights they all seemed to sleep best, so she never once complained.

Kazuki still had nightmares occasionally, and when he woke from them he was covered in a cold sweat and usually darted off to the bathroom to stick his entire head under into the tub under cold water as a way to cool off and to wake up quickly. Sakura and Juubei listened quietly. The later would get up after awhile, disappear into the bathroom after his friend, and spend the next hour wrapping Kazuki up in a towel and helping him dry his hair. The morning hours that followed were spent with Kazuki curled up in his arms, hiding his face against Juubei's chest. But not sleeping, no, never sleeping.

Sometimes Juubei wondered if seeing Kazuki's terrified, teary face was a nightmare of his own. There was nothing to be done but wait for the sun to come up, and bring Kazuki's usual smile along with it.

XVI.

He met Uryuu Toshiki in the middle of a leveled building. The blonde had been standing atop a hill of debris with corpses littered around him. Kazuki had watched him take down every one of those corpses, who'd been after him for being in "their" territory.

Kazuki approached him as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and Toshiki turned to face him with a frown and a gruff, "What the hell do you want?" before turning away and kneeling to start checking the fallen thugs for money or anything else he might be able to filch. They were dead, after all, it wasn't like they would need any of it.

The younger boy crouched with his hands on his knees a foot or so away, smiling in that bright way of his. "What's your name?"

"None of your business." Toshiki glanced over, eyes lingering on Kazuki's face and then skimming lower over the rest of him. If ever he'd seen someone that didn't look like he belonged in Mugenjou, it was this young boy in the pink hand-made outfit and soft, messy brown hair that wore a smile that could have lit up the entire block.

It took a mere hour of Kazuki following him around through the streets of Mugenjou thereafter before he finally agreed to accompany him back 'home'.

"It's just the three of us," Kazuki told him, "well, four including you, but even a few can make a difference, right? Everyone complains about Lower Town being unbearable, but we're trying to do something about it. We want to help the people that can't help themselves."

But it wasn't Kazuki's words or his little mission-statement that made Toshiki follow him home. It was the way his eyes sparkled and the way he spoke and moved and laughed. Kazuki could have told him he was planning on taking over the world.

Something in his eyes would have made Toshiki believe he could do it.

XVII.

Toshiki fit in well enough in their little group although it took some adjusting. He slept in the main room for the first month and a half, until finally he was coerced into joining Juubei and Kazuki in their pile-of-blankets bed. He watched quietly the way Juubei's arms stayed around Kazuki protectively, and it wasn't until Kazuki rolled over one night and beckoned Toshiki closer that he gathered the courage to find a way to fit into their puzzle of limbs.

Eventually he settled with his arm around Kazuki's waist, just above Juubei's, and his face tucked into the curve of his prince's neck. It was the first time he'd been so close, and noticed that Kazuki did indeed smell of soaps and flowers and things that he didn't think existed inside Mugenjou.

On a night that Kazuki and Juubei didn't return home as a result of a bad storm that sent them looking for shelter instead, Toshiki found his way into Sakura's room. She kept her head tucked beneath his chin, hands curled against his chest. He could feel her breath against his skin, the curve of her breasts against his ribs, and it took all he had to will his body not to respond the way a teenage boy's body tended to respond to such stimuli.

When Kazuki and Juubei returned the next morning, they found Sakura cooking breakfast with her usual soft smile, and Toshiki taking an ice-cold shower.

XVIII.

They found Saizou entirely by accident. One moment they'd been fighting a few thugs that'd wandered down from the Beltline, and suddenly Kazuki was seeing threads not his own in the air. Saizou was just surprised to see them as they were to see him, and it seemed only natural to bring him back home. Toshiki seemed wary of the stranger at first, but warmed up to him after a few weeks. To Sakura, Juubei and Kazuki, it was a bit like discovering an old family member they'd never thought they would see again.

Saizou looked just as Kazuki remembered him, though didn't hesitate to comment that the other boy seemed to have loosened up a good deal from the serious face he usually had on. Saizou, in fact, smiled a lot, joked a lot, poked fun at Juubei and Toshiki's arguments -- and wasted no time in bringing up a subject for them to argue about so that he could sneak away and keep Kazuki to himself for just a little while.

As spring and summer rolled around, Kazuki took to disappearing to the roof of the building and lying out beneath the sky to watch the stars at night. The others respected his seeming want to be alone; Saizou took it as an opportunity to sneak up there with him and they would watch the stars together and talk of the homes they remembered. Kazuki fell asleep one night, and Saizou laid there and watched him through half-lidded eyes and a smile before carrying him back downstairs to his bed.

And it was Saizou that came home one day with a bruised and bloodied body and face, laughing even as Juubei stitched up his wounds and proudly announcing that he'd taken on three Beltline monsters all on his own and won. Kazuki looked on with a worried and disapproving frown, and Saizou looked to him with a smile.

"And you know what else? Do you know what they're calling you now, Kazuki?"

The brunette lifted his chin a little, made an inquiring noise.

"The people; they're now calling you 'The Prince of Battle Terror'. And this marks the tenth week in a row that nobody's come into our territory aside from those Above." His smile widened into a grin.

The name was both flattering and a little intimidating to Kazuki. Everywhere they went, it seemed, people were smiling and waving. Everyone recognized them, everyone knew of Fuuga, and the only ones that didn't like the sound of that name were their enemies.

Kazuki dipped his head and smiled a little. "Then perhaps it's time we extended our territory a bit. There are a million other streets that could use our protection."

When he looked up again, Saizou, Toshiki, Sakura and Juubei were all smiling at him, every one of them ready and eager to help in any way possible.

Kazuki felt a laugh bubbling up inside of his chest.

'Funny,', he thought. Somewhere along the line, he'd found a family again.

XIX.

He could see the Beltline from one particular side of the building, on one particular fire escape. He'd brought out blankets and pillows and made himself a small little nook there where he could go to be alone some evenings. The crisp autumn air left him a bit chilled, and so he tugged one of the blankets up around him and gazed off into the distance at the cluster of buildings that led to the Beltline doors.

Though they knew where to find him if they needed him, his followers tended to leave him be when he came there. But that night was particularly chilly and the company he received was more than welcome.

"I know you're there; you can come out if you want."

"You're looking at that place again."

"Mm..."

He felt the warmth at his back and leaned into it, felt the familiar arms slide around his waist and the face nestling into his hair. He blinked once, thought nothing of it and closed his eyes.

What started as simple affection turned rapidly into something else. Kazuki inhaled sharply, the feel of warm fingers up beneath his shirt and over his ribs and chest and nipples, another hand creeping down and disappearing beneath the waistband of his pants. He wasn't sure why he permitted it, but his body responded and he saw no reason not to continue.

He twisted and squirmed to turn around, searching out his companion's lips and drawing him into a heated kiss, made awkward by his own inexperience. He was thankful then for the blankets strewn about once his back was against them and the other boy was over him, hips pressed firmly to Kazuki's and rocking slow and rhythmic against him.

Everything else seemed a blur. The prince could think of no objections with being disrobed and ravished, especially not once the other boy was inside of him and sending every bit of coherency out of his head. The hands that were in his hair and grabbing his hips and shoulders and the ache between his legs were soft and familiar and perfect. Kazuki mouthed out soft little pleas and urges for more until his body shuddered and arched in release, sending a choked cry from his lips.

The figure above him panted and gasped out Kazuki's name, and soon they both lay there in a quiet tangle of limbs. Kazuki rolled slowly onto his side, buried his face into his companion's chest, and slept.

His body felt at ease in a way he'd never known.

But something was still missing.

XX.

It was a nightmare that sent him to the Beltline. A nightmare of flames and burning bodies and his mother's face telling him to go to Mugenjou. There, wasn't he supposed to find some clues to the people that had murdered his family? It'd been a few years now, and still he'd accomplished nothing. The thought made him sick.

It was why, in the dead of night, he dressed and snuck out of their small apartment for a walk. Just a walk in hopes of clearing his head.

But then he happened by the long halls leading to the Beltline doors and, dazed, he'd gone right in.

Everything was quiet enough at first, no one to be seen. The streets that stretched out before him looked similar to Lower Town's, but darker somehow. There was no presence of life there, no sense of people in their homes, hiding away for the night where they thought they were safe. After lingering by the doorway for a few minutes, the young Prince advanced forward slowly farther into the depths of the place people were afraid to speak of.

Dust upset about his feet as he walked, but his footsteps were nearly silent.

It wasn't until he was half a mile in that he realized he was rather turned around in the dirty streets and started to grow nervous. And it wasn't until he realized that he couldn't find his way back to the main doors that he was attacked.

A natural instinct to survive kicked in somewhere along the line, and it was all Kazuki could do to keep running and fighting, and then run and fight some more. He saw the creatures that often advanced from the Beltline into Lower Town. And he saw worse. Things that had the semblance of human anatomy, but with peeling and discolored skin, missing eyes, additional limbs and tentacles, exposed bones, jagged shark-like teeth. Kazuki was small enough as it was and normal grown men still looked far down at him. Some of these monsters towered over him by four or more feet. One was half his height even lying on the ground once he'd been felled by Kazuki's threads.

It rained at some point. He took refuge beneath an old, rusted aluminum awning. The water hitting it rang like thunder in his ears and made it difficult to listen for any approaching enemies, but already he was weak and tired from having no sleep nor food.

Nor water, for that matter. He watched the rain hungrily, wet his lips and extended his dirty hands out into the storm. First to wash them, and then to draw them back cupped and full of water to drink what he could before the rest seeped out between his trembling fingers. He repeated the process until he'd had his fill, and then tried to wash his face and the wounds on his body. He had nothing to bandage them with, but at least he hoped keeping them clean as much as possible would help prevent infection.

Under that awning he settled down, legs drawn to his chest and shivering, putting his tongue between his teeth so that any nearby monsters wouldn't hear them chattering. He didn't sleep that night... but it was the first and only instance that he had time to cry. With his tears came the resounding, frightened but determined thought of,

'I won't die here.'

XXI.

Juubei's hands were skilled and warm against his skin. When his best friend and doctor left him after awhile, Kazuki lay deathly still and focused on each part of his body in turn. In the end, he concluded that there was not a single inch that did not hurt.

His back, neck and hips were stiff from hiding in cramped spaces, damp corners, boxes and other various places he'd hoped not to be seen. Then there were his eyes, which were bloodshot and burning, a result of not having slept a wink in the entirety of time he'd been gone. In addition, his feet were bloodied, his legs aching from walking, arms from fighting, fingers cut and blistered from non-stop use of his threads. His ears still rang with the sound of inhuman shrieks and his own screams, head pounding.

That didn't even include the various cuts, gashes, scrapes, bruises and the one or two fractures he'd come home with. Juubei tended to every single one in turn; bandaging, allowing Sakura to stitch up what needed mending, letting Toshiki and Saizou wash him down from head to toe so he could see where the injuries were beneath the dust and blood. They'd expected some sort of pained crying and whimpering from Kazuki, and were met only with silence.

And then they left him to sleep, and sleep he did. For nearly twentyfour hours, in fact, waking only when Juubei changed his bandages and Sakura came to force a bit of food and water down his dry throat.

Kazuki was never more thankful for Mugenjou's accelerated healing rate. What should have taken weeks took only a few days, and soon he was sitting up to make Juubei's doctoring job simpler on him, and he was gladly taking down as much food as they would give him. Not once did they ask him again about why he'd gone to the Beltline, and Kazuki was thankful for that.

Saizou had kept his quiet distance more often than not, but on a night that the others were out on patrols, he dutifully brought Kazuki his dinner and sat with him while he ate.

"You're looking better."

"I feel better." Another bite. Chew. Swallow. "Juubei always has been a wonderful doctor."

Saizou regarded him quietly, squinting a bit. Kazuki had always told him he probably needed glasses, but Saizou had not bothered. "Indeed."

The brunette paused, lowered his fork and looked over. "Is something on your mind?"

"...No." Saizou averted his gaze suddenly, and Kazuki became aware that his friend was refusing to meet his eyes. Silently, he continued to eat. His friends were all worried for him and, he suspected, a little angry with what he'd done. Why would Saizou be any different?

Thereafter, Kazuki noticed that Saizou would never meet his eyes again.

XXII.

Kazuki didn't like the rumors going around of a new gang forming beneath this Lightning Emperor. It threatened his position having them so close to Fuuga territory. The streak they'd had of rival groups not invading their area had been broken, and every day it seemed there was someone new to go after. They were all tired. Fuuga, as strong as it was, was made of only five. Day after day of fighting groups of eight or more would make any powerful warrior tired.

It figured that the night Sakura and Juubei came to him with Raitei's location, it was storming outside and the lightning overhead lit up the sky. Kazuki stared up at it with a sense of foreboding, and called all five of his followers to accompany him as he led them through the streets with Fuuga's banner held high overhead. It was no surprise that most cleared out of their way as they passed.

The first time Kazuki laid eyes on Raitei, it was looking down at him from a hill of debris. A silhouetted figure stood below in the center of a rather large crater, bodies littered about him like broken dolls, and just as Raitei turned to look up at him a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky. Even after it faded, Kazuki realized that the man before him was still illuminated in an almost blinding light, electricity crackling across his skin. Raitei stared at Kazuki, and the banner Juubei held behind him.

Perhaps some of the surprise showed on both their faces. This... Lightning Emperor that everyone was talking about... was a boy younger than himself, broad-shouldered but otherwise rather skinny. And while his expression was hardened at the moment, Kazuki couldn't picture him looking like that often. No... normally, this was a person that had soft eyes and liked to smile.

And Raitei, having heard of Fuuga's reputation, hadn't quite expected such a young, feminine boy with such a gentle face to be its leader... Nor had he realized their group was so small. For several long moments, neither said a word, and none of the other Fuuga members stepped forward.

Finally, Raitei turned completely to face them. "Fuuga... Are you here to challenge me, too?"

Juubei, Sakura, Toshiki and Saizou stirred restlessly. Kazuki's eyes seemed to sparkle with something akin to amazement, and he smiled. "No..." he breathed. "What's your name?"

The blonde seemed a little surprised, and slowly, some of the light around him seemed to fade and his expression softened.

"Ginji..." he replied, "Amano Ginji."

Kazuki delicately picked his way down the rubble until he was standing face to face with the man everyone only dared to speak about in hushed tones. "Ginji-san, is it..." Up close, he decided, Raitei was quite handsome. Looking up into his face, Kazuki felt his heart skip a beat.

And everything he'd ever accomplished, everything Fuuga had ever accomplished, everything he'd ever said he would do to make Mugenjou a better place suddenly didn't seem like enough. His small group would never reach their ultimate goals.

Kazuki knew in an instant he would follow this man to the ends of the Earth.

XXIII.

His head and his heart didn't stop racing for days. Nearly a week after his meeting with Raitei - no, Ginji-san - Kazuki could still think of nothing else but those soft, curious brown eyes staring right at him. This didn't seem to please some of his followers.

"He's dangerous," Saizou said at some point.

"We don't know whether he'll turn out to be an ally or a foe," Juubei added.

"People are afraid of him for a reason, Kazuki," Toshiki hissed.

And later, "Do what you think is right, Kazuki-sama. We will always be by your side," Sakura whispered into his hair as he curled up beside her to avoid the concerned and wounded looks from the rest of his family.

The next day, he stood on the rooftop of their home and gazed out over Lower Town, and when the others had joined him, he turned around with a smile and the wind whipping his hair about his face and told them, "As of today, I will be disbanding Fuuga to follow the Lightning Emperor." When he was met with silence, a bit of his courage faltered but he continued. "Those of you who wish to follow, come with me. You are all my family, I can't see myself without any of you in my life."

To that, Sakura and Juubei merely bowed their heads quietly. They then turned, retreated back to where they'd come to pack up what few belongings they had. Kazuki didn't need them to speak; he knew they were coming with him, he'd never doubted that. The other two, however...

The look on Toshiki's face could have broken anyone's heart. Saizou wore one of apathy, which Kazuki took as a bad sign. "I won't follow Raitei," he said simply. "I want nothing to do with him."

Kazuki's smile nearly faltered, but he merely nodded. He couldn't beg with them, couldn't plead that they come along. It had to be their decision, 'else what kind of leader was he?

Toshiki stood there long after Saizou left, and his Prince merely stood with him, and waited. The blonde finally locked eyes with him. "Answer me something."

Kazuki straightened, squared his shoulders, prepared for the worst. "Of course."

"Are you following after this guy because you agree with his goals, or because you're in love with him?"

At that question, Kazuki's smile crumbled and left something indescribable in its wake. "I don't..."

"You do," Toshiki corrected, and turned abruptly. "It doesn't matter either way, I guess." Or maybe he just couldn't stand to hear one answer, and would not have believed the other. "I won't stick around to see you bending your knee to anyone."

"Toshiki..."

"You are my leader. You. No one else. Kazuki of the Strings should bow to no one."

With nothing further to say, Uryuu Toshiki walked out of his life.

Kazuki remained on the roof until Juubei and Sakura returned to him. They would stay one night more in their home, sans two of its usual occupants, and tomorrow they would leave and not look back.

The former Fuuga leader curled up beneath warm blankets and between two warm, familiar bodies that night. He did not sob, but Sakura could feel the wetness on his cheeks when she reached up to brush his hair from his face.

Kazuki tried to sleep, and told himself that everything would be okay.

Tomorrow was a new day.