Here it is; the month after January and it took quite some time for this to come out, mainly cuz I wanted to find a topic that fit February. So, finally, I decided to settle on the obvious.
I do not own Senkaiden Houshin Engi or Soul Hunter, it belongs to the guy who made the manga, Ryu Fujisaki, which then bloomed into a cool anime that I fell in love with…
Day of the Rose
By DayDreamer9
The sun was high in the clear blue sky, the cool wind flowed overhead with a simple, gentle touch, nothing like the biting cold of last month, thank goodness. No, Spring was on its way and if the gentler atmosphere didn't clue one in, the blooming flowers sure did. Color was slowly returning to the land, the bare trees were gaining buds while the grass poked out from under fading clumps of melted snow. Flowers, shrubs, and trees alike were all starting to wake up as the birds began a song of Springtime.
Of course, to a certain dark-haired doushi, the pleasant melody fell on deaf ears.
Snore. Snore. Snore.
Taikoubou was fast asleep, emerald eyes closed and face peaceful as he lay there, arms folded behind his head as a makeshift pillow while his right knee was bent, the other straight in the grass. Not-so-soft snoring drifted above the healthy green plants all around him as he yawned occasionally and not even the buzzing bees that floated busily by his head could wake him up as sunlight splashed down around him.
But the person who was soundlessly hovering over him sure had a way of waking one such lazy doushi up.
"Taikoubou?"
The flat, but bold and obvious young voice broke through the serene silence around the doushi, even more so than the bees, and caused him to twitch in his sleep.
"Taikoubou?"
The voice came again and, this time, the doushi in question stirred a lot more as he felt his 'peace and quiet' shattered as his eyes fluttered open lazily, emerald green eyes catching a flash of scarlet against the blue sky. Yawning, he tried to turn over as he closed his eyes again, but the voice put a stop to that plan.
"Taikoubou, what are you doing?"
Groaning, Taikoubou rolled over again and opened his eyes, vision now clear to the point of identifying the scarlet-haired young man standing over him.
"Sleeping," he muttered, trying not to completely wake up, "now let me…"
"Why are you sleeping here?"
Wincing at how he was becoming more awake by the moment, Taikoubou cracked an eye open again, almost irritably.
"Because the flowers give off a nice, soothing smell," he replied, taking a deep inhale of the fragrance to calm his slight annoyance…and he was having such a nice dream too, "it helps me sleep. Speaking of which…goodnight."
His eyes weren't even closed, when…
"It's not even nighttime," came the voice again, though this time it seemed more…persistent? "why bother? And here out in the open of all places?"
Taikoubou, as much as he felt for the boy, was about ready to snap as he felt his chances of falling back into that beautiful, dreamy sleep again slipping away by the minute.
"Because it's a nice day outside," he growled out, yet trying to sound nice at the same time, "why waist it?"
And finally…silence.
Aaahhh…yes! I finally flabbergasted him! the green-eyed doushi thought in triumph as he closed his eyes once more, allowing himself to drift back-
"Why these flowers?"
That did it.
"NATAKU!" Taikoubou shouted, bolting upright amidst the rosy red flowers and whirling on the boy, "why are you-"
And he stopped dead when he saw the look on the boy's face and realization dawned on him.
"Nataku…?" Taikoubou said, voice calmer and more understanding, though slightly surprised, "wait…are…you…jealous?"
The red-haired doushi, who had been looking down at Taikoubou all this time, blinked a couple of times.
"….what?" he asked, not expecting the question.
Taikoubou smiled as the clueless look replaced the somewhat faint, but fairly obvious look of indignation that had been all over the other's face.
"Jealous," he continued, "that I'm sleeping here, around the roses, instead of the lotus field like I normally do?"
Nataku just stared for a few seconds, eyes looking from Taikoubou to the roses that were crowded around him (and took the dark-haired doushi great care not to get stuck by any of the thorns while settling in) to even looking down at the ground. Taikoubou's sleepiness was no longer there, but he didn't mind now that he knew the truth, and the other's fidgetiness proved it; this kid seldom fidgeted and Taikoubou should know. Smiling lightly, he drew his legs in and stretched his arms out to work out the sleepiness from his joints, taking care not to get pricked.
"Look, I'm sleeping here because the lotus field isn't awake yet," he explained, still keeping eye contact with the boy through his stretches, "that doesn't mean that I won't go there when they're in full bloom, but where else can I sleep?"
Nataku had said nothing up until that last part.
"In bed," he said, bluntly.
This made Taikoubou laugh to the point of almost falling back into the thorns.
"Nataku, you're unbelievable," he said through his chuckles.
The redhead cocked his head to one side as the other doushi managed to compose himself, grinning over at Nataku with a broadening smile.
"I meant 'where else can I nap during the daytime'?" he reworded, still smiling coyly, "and I need a sweet fragrance to give me sweet dreams."
Once again, Nataku stared at his for a while before it happened; he started to hover closer to where Taikoubou sat, drifting over the thorns, and slowly started to lower himself beside a mildly surprised doushi. Taikoubou had a feeling that he was about to do something cute to get his attention, but this was a whole lot better than blowing up the rose patch.
"Whoa, easy," he warned, nonetheless, reaching up the help the young Paopei Human angle himself in the vacant spot safely, "careful, there's a lot of thorns."
Nataku didn't seem to bother or care about the roses as he managed to make it down without hassle from the plants…instead he found himself tumbling forward when he tried to balance himself into a sitting position, something that he seldom did for obvious reasons. But instead of toppling into a tangle of sharp thorns, he found himself being caught around the middle by a pair of familiar arms that dragged him down, albeit roughly, onto the clear patch in the center of it all. He looked up to see Taikoubou smiling at him as he removed his arms, ruffling the boy's wild red hair.
"You always were a klutz when it came to sitting," he said, smiling as he started to settle back down in the soft dirt, fresh from the melted snow that still hung about some of the flowers in the form of cold dew.
Normally, had it been anyone else besides his mother who'd said that, Nataku would have probably shot at them by now…but in this case, he didn't. Instead, he simply remained sitting down and watched as the other began to drift back into dreamland as they both sat amongst a wide patch of beautiful red roses. But it was no longer the scent of roses that the sleeping doushi smelled…
Instead, the fresh scent of lotus flowers wafted through the clean Spring air.
Heh heh heh, Taikoubou's sleeping behavior is sorta mimicked off my own XD;;; I also figured that, since Nataku is technically the incarnation of a lotus, well…who says that it can't be possible? XD He's such a sweety. Enjoy, read, and review 'til next month!
