Disclaimer : Nope, still don't own FY or Nakago *sob*
CHAPTER II : Dinner Date with the Devil
It had been a week since the ill-fated encounter with the now not-as-dead-as-can-be-hoped archenemy and Miaka was rapidly regaining some of her buoyancy and enthusiasm in her surroundings. Although, the thought, of having to change majors, was weighing heavily in her mind. Now what would a rational person choose if given the following choices : a) Economics : Semester full of mathematical crap, possible torture and loss of life, not to mention more math, and of course the godawful bane of her existence : Him.
OR, b) Art History : serenely looking at beautiful paintings and learning nice things under nice , calm , serene professors in a serene environment. She could see herself as an art historian or possibly as a curator somewhere…
"But you can't be serious?" implored Yui. Miaka had refused to budge from her decision all week. From Yui's point of view, she honestly could not understand the decision. But then again, while the former priestess of Seiryu was very well informed now on matters of right and wrong, she knew she would never be able to deliver an impartial judgment when it came to her once most trusted seishi. So, she let the matter drop before long. Heaven knew Miaka was stubborn to a fault. A less dear friend would have compared this trait of hers with a dog's tail but seeing as that same stubbornness had led to things like world peace on more than a few occasions ….
"But you know," her boyfriend of four years had said, " we can't exactly complain that he's here. I am here. So is Hotohori-san and Nuriko. So, I guess, you know…I mean we're okay, so long as he doesn't try to raze Tokyo Tower to the ground again, right?"
Taka Sukunami , reincarnation of Suzaku seishi Tamahome, had come a long way from being the rash, brazen young man he once was. He still jumped when money was mentioned. But if there was one thing that he had taken from his time in the book and his final confrontation with Nakago then, he now knew that the world was not just white and black .
On her way back from the Enrollments Department that evening however, Miaka was greeted with the strangest sight. Sitting on a bench, in a gazebo, in the middle of a garden, surrounded by flower bushes, looking thoughtfully into the distance, was none other than a very familiar tall, blonde man. The whole scene looked so …un-evil…that for a moment she was sure that she was either hallucinating or else thoughtful blonde guy sitting in a bench , in a gazebo, surrounded by flowers, was not …Him….
A part of her wanted to slip away quietly. But another part of her was just too darn interested. Curiosity won in the end as she found herself walking through the maze of hedges to where he was sitting.
Hey, curiosity couldn't have killed that cat. Either that, or cats did not have nine lives.
Now if some stupid cat didn't learn the first eight times over….
The stray thought made her stop in her tracks for a second.
Don't answer that, her mind supplied helpfully.
She stood about five feet away from him presently, pretty sure that he was too busy planning something evilly evil to notice her. Uncertain now, with her curiosity induced courage long gone, she was deciding the best course of action, till a lazy baritone voice made that decision for her.
" Are you done staring at me? I feel quite…victimized…"
Bastard…..
She folded her arms and resolutely marched in front of him. The misguided courage was once again back in place, and this time with a vengeance.
"I was walking past and then suddenly I found the most evil person in my acquaintance sitting in a bench planning, undoubtedly, something evil. Out with it, " she continued, " just tell me what you're planning to do so I don't have to play guess anymore."
His lips twitched a little, amused at the outburst. He should have seen this one coming. Welllllllllll….
"Can't you see," he said dryly, " I am training these new minions in the arts of apple poisoning and salesmanship . Go away."
He was pointing to the geese who had been wandering aimlessly around the river banks, minding their own business.
For a second, Miaka feared for his sanity.
"You are drunk!" , she said , in a hushed voice. For him to appear out of control, was definitely cause for surprise.
He blinked at her and continued in the same dry tone, "Why? You don't see the brilliance of my plan? Ashitare was only skilled on land and look at the damage he did. Now here I have an army of ambidextrous ninja ducks. Suzaku will be begging for mercy before long,plus I have no complaints about dinner anymore."
Suddenly, the priestess of Suzaku let out a horrified giggle she had been holding in for the past few minutes.
"I don't think the minions appreciate being eaten."
"I was never known for my benevolent nature, Suzaku no Miko."
Regaining her composure, she stared intently at him. She could not believe she was having a conversation about geese with her former arch enemy. Yes, the same person who had tried to kill her more times than she dared to count.
He stretched his legs and got up. As if sensing her thoughts from a moment ago, he said , " The point is, dear priestess, you should not be quick to stereotype people…or let your guard down too easily."
The bland mask of supreme apathy hadn't changed. But she couldn't look away from his eyes. Two swirling pools of darkness seemed to be staring right through her and into her soul. She felt like a man standing in the tracks with the train approaching. There's that one moment when you know you have to move but something just keeps you there, hypnotized…
Ayuru smirked internally at the young woman in front of him. To think she was the same person who had stopped him , a lifetime back.
Jolting out of her reverie, Miaka desperately thought of something to say , to clear the uneasy air that seemed to have made a habit out of forming, every time they met.
" I changed my major. I am doing Art History now," as the words left her lips, she realized, once again, tact was not her strong suit. "You're looking," she carried on with pride she really did not feel, " at the next curator of the Louvre."
He studied her for a moment and then bent down to pick up his laptop that he had originally working on before Miaka had shown up. Smirking, he replied , in a tone of mock exasperation, " Oh now you choose to back down from a threat." He shook his head, apparently, very disappointed.
Miaka blinked at him in surprise. But then again, did she think she could ever mislead HIM? The overlord of all things manipulative and eeeeeeevillllll?
The thought made her bite back a smile.
"HA…you wish .I have defeated you once and I will again, if I need to." There was no malice in her words or even a sense of accomplishment, just friendly banter.
The Suzaku no Miko, had very casually , undermined something that had been the center of his past life.
He looked down at their feet and smiled to himself. Maybe, one of them had the more accurate view on life, and it wasn't him.
"YEEEEEEEEEEESH!"
Yes, the high pitched squeak, had emanated from the same person he had begrudgingly been accepting as the better philosopher in his head.
"What happened?", he asked, curious, as to what could have possibly elicited that unearthly shrill sound from any human , let alone her.
The priestess of the phoenix looked at him mournfully. Utter distress was written plainly all over her face. "Well, no thanks to you, I am five minutes away from losing my dinner."
Ah…food, the Suzaku no Miko's personal kryptonite….
"Would you like me to take you to anywhere?" he offered, wondering inanely to himself, what had possessed him to be polite to her of all people.
Miaka stared back at him, her face full of alarm and eyebrows raised in utter disbelief.
"Will I be coming back alive?"
Really, she did not trust him anymore than she trusted a snake.
He shrugged noncommittally at her. "Depends on how thoroughly you annoy me on the way."
She looked at him surreptitiously and mentally calculated her chances. She did not have a car. Unfortunately. Taka lived in his own apartment out of campus. Calling Yui would be of no help as she was as woefully car-less as Miaka herself. All that was left, were the campus vending machines and pretzels had turned annoying after her third day on campus.
Throwing cautions to the winds, she made up her mind. After all, this wouldn't be the first time he had lured her with food. And this cat definitely has nine lives….
She looked up at him and stated in what she hoped was a no-nonsense voice, " Well, it's your fault I skipped dinner.."
He raised his eyebrows at that but chose not to comment.
"..so you're going to have to pay mister. But be warned, if one hair on my head is out of place, you are going to have to answer to a lot of people."
"That means," countered Ayuru, "so long as your hair is okay, I can do anything-"
"SHUT UP !" she glared at him.
"Hey that's not fair. Evil people should not have cars like this !"
The whine had come from the Suzaku no Miko after she had taken a good look at the smooth black and undoubtedly expensive Jaguar that was sitting idly in the faculty parking lot , standing out quiet noticeably in a sea of unassuming Toyotas and Hyundais.
He smirked at her unflattering outburst. By now he was used to her speaking her mind in front of him. It was a breath of fresh air truthfully, because from where he came from, people usually had the urge to trip over themselves to be in his good books – something he found convenient but utterly pathetic. The russet haired teenager , however, had no problems calling him out every chance she got. And it was very entertaining for him to watch her fume every time he returned the favor with interest.
"Feel free to switch sides then," He said nonchalantly, " and I'll give you the "Starter kit to evil…for dummies", to get started on."
This one, she did not grace with a reply.
He turned around and held out the door open for her to get in. She, on the other hand, shot him a look that conveyed utter loathing. So much for being the priestess for the God of love , thought Ayuru to himself, smiling at the irony.
They arrived at a cozy diner not too far from the campus.
The car ride has gone entirely in silence and courtesy dictated that since he was the one paying, she should at least attempt some form of conversation.
"So exactly, what possessed you to be a teacher?" she said, taking a bite out of her sandwich.
He looked up from his steak to pay attention to her.
"Why, to make your life miserable of course, I thought we cleared that already."
"Would it kill you to give me a straight answer for once?"
"Yes."
Letting out a small hmmpf, the Suzaku No Miko returned her attention back to her own dinner. There, she had tried.
"I am not a professional teacher." She looked up to find him answering his steak. "I work as a corporate investor for a bank. I am here because our bank has partnerships with your school, possibly for an internship program for new potential recruits. I was told this would be less stressful," he paused and looked up at her, "…and then I saw you."
Ignoring the jibe, Miaka ploughed on , "Oh so you must be pretty rich, huh?"
As if that car wasn't proof enough, her mental voice commented.
He was still looking at her and Miaka had the feeling that the soul-searching-X-ray eyes had been turned on again.
"Not as rich as you are, in some ways.."
With that , he went back to cutting his steak while she stared at him with a shell shocked expression.
He had been acting weird all evening but was that a compliment?
It was a veiled compliment for sure. He had said it casually but she was sure he wouldn't be caught dead saying that again. And coming from him, given their past, that definitely was something. Wow..
Ayuru had noticed the emotions playing on her face as she thoughtfully chewed on her sandwich. The unexpected compliment had put him off guard as much as it had apparently unsettled her. In his mind, he knew that it was true, but admitting was a different issue altogether.
Besides, life would lose color if she thought he had given up on the "evil" line of business.
"I was referring," he said smirking at her, " to your vast resources of stupidity and clumsiness."
"Thought so." Said the Suzaku no Miko, smirking right back.
The drive back to campus, was once again a silent affair. But this time, it was a comfortable silence.
Miaka Yuuki, priestess to the beast God Suzaku, wondered if she were insane for actually having gone on a dinner with her enemy and having a good time. Her mind told her, for the things he had done, he should never be forgiven. At the same time, she knew that some of the animosity she had felt for the erstwhile Seiryu seishi , had somehow vanished somewhere between the sandwich and the dessert.
He had killed a lot of people and heaped miseries on a lot of others, her own self included, in his past life. But he had paid the price then. And now that he was being given a second chance, was he really going to change for the better? Yui had reconciled with her seishi and Taka wasn't too perturbed ,generally speaking.
But then Tamahome has fists of fury….Usssss?
And lastly, the people that he had killed, her friends, had all been reincarnated in her world. Hotohori was now a very prominent businessman, successful in his own right. Nuriko, curiously, a woman now, worked at a restaurant as a waitress and was happy with her modest income. Mitsukake was now one of the leading surgeons of the nation. Chiriko was in high school. He wanted to study abroad after finishing.
She took a sidelong glance at the man sitting beside her and knew that here was a topic that would need a lot of thought. Somehow she sensed much of her life depended on her decision. And it really did. While art history was a word she liked, she knew little else of the topic. But accounting was what she had prepared for all through high school…
"Do you know," she commented suddenly, " at this rate, if I make it back to school, it will be the first time you lured me in with food and let me go unharmed?"
He frowned at her general direction. "I never lured you in with food. You were just that stupid."
"Oh really?" she mocked him.
His lips curled in amusement, "Let's enumerate."
"I am all ears." His companion commented with mock sweetness and a overly wide smile.
"Well, the first time you were, as you say, lured, in the palace, was Yui's idea. And the time in Hokkan-"
The smile disappeared from her face before the word had left his mouth. He paused for a moment before continuing again. "And the time in Hokkan when you effectively cleaned me out of rations, that was my dinner. I was left… unsatisfied… in every sense of the word that day..."
She was silently staring out of the window. They had reached the campus.
He got out and walked over to her door to help her out. Her face was a bit pale and she was carefully avoiding his eyes. Her manners suddenly had turned extremely polite as she thanked him for the "wonderful dinner" and for his "kindness" etc etc.
"Now I would offer to walk you back to your dormitory to protect you from harm but that would be the height of hypocrisy. Can you manage on your own?"
She nodded mutely. That she would let such a perfect chance to mock him slip by unnoticed, was now cause for concern for him. To his own surprise, he was a bit distraught when she did not jump to the bait like she normally would have.
He sighed as he closed the door and locked the car before going after her. This night was not over yet.
She did not object when she found him walking in step with her. In fact, she did not give a reaction at all. Her mind was on other things. She had nearly decided to give him a second chance but then he dragged her attention back to that night in Hokkan. A night she would have gladly forgotten. But now she remembered everything with vivid clarity. His words, the expression on his face, her own acute fear….they were all back..
He had his hands in his pockets. For the first time in his present life, he was at a complete loss as to how to broach an awkward topic. He had been guided by the wrong ideals. But even then, the idea was only to scare her and make her think that she had been compromised. Both in this life and in the past life, Gi Ayuru ,otherwise known as Seiryu no Shichiseishi Nakago, was guilty of a lot of things, but forcing himself upon helpless people was something that made his blood boil now as much as it did then.
For reasons best left unremembered, he concluded silently in his mind. Unbidden images floated in his head and he could do little to stop them. But at the same time, the fierce, unbridled, passionate hatred that he was now feeling, made him acutely aware of her current state of mind.
"For what it's worth," he said quietly, "I didn't mean to go through with it."
She glanced at the tall man walking beside her. He was currently paying a great deal of attention to his shoes. But she did not miss his words, or their meaning.
" Yeah, I know.." she replied softly after a while when no more explanations seemed to be forthcoming.
He raised his eyebrows at that. "You do?"
"Yes," she said, suddenly smiling at him, "you were too proud and arrogant to stoop that low. And you always thought you were better than the rest of us too." She said the last part almost wistfully.
If he was stunned at that revelation, he did a good job of digesting it without a change in expression. The Suzaku no Miko had once again managed to surprise him with her sudden, and disgustingly accurate, insight of his character. What she said was true to some extent. He had always valued his own sense of discipline and had internally mocked others who were floored by appearances. During his time as Shogun, he had only shared his bed with one person : Soi, and even that had been an act of necessity, he would request for her company only whenever he needed a raise in his energy levels. In fact, truthfully, he realized, his standards were more lax now than then. He didn't need anyone to raise his chi anymore, but like every other singles in any city, he had had his share of girlfriends and meaningless flings as often as his work permitted.
But how one person, who got distracted by cheeseburger and cute puppies, could have seen through that, was very annoyingly respect-worthy,.
He looked at the girl walking beside him. The buoyancy was back in her face . This was another thing about her he noticed. She was, for the most part, as plain to read as a newspaper, but even with that apparent transparency, she managed to surprise people with her sudden and accurate intuitive skills. The Suzaku No Miko, he surmised, was a veritable Jack-in-the-box when it came to surprises and hidden character traits.
"Well, if you're appeased," he said, smirking at her , "would you mind saying something stupid and insulting so I can sleep in peace tonight?"
Now it was her turn to be surprised.
"I just did insult you, didn't I? Proud and arrogant? How dare you insult me by not recognizing my insults? A lot of work goes into that you know." Her voice was back to light and cheerful.
"Unfortunately that was a bit character redeeming." He said dryly, " Doesn't count."
She chuckled at that when an idea hit her.
"Is that so?" she arched her eyebrows at him. Too bad they didn't arch in the same gracefully mocking manner as his did (she knew because she had checked in the mirror not two days ago), but then, she reasoned, that came with years of practice, of being evil of course. No one, could do eyebrows like that unless they were genuinely, thoroughly, irredeemably evil. Like this specimen here. Have you seen a more evil person? Hmmmm?
"Well don't be too sad about it," Suzaku's chosen priestess commented gaily, " I will have the whole semester to heap insults on you."
Another surpise.
"Does that mean you will be changing back to Economics?" he inquired, curiously.
"Hai !"
It was her way of forgiving him , he knew. The Suzaku no Miko, was, indeed, a strange one.
"In fact, I'll make a list of funny insults to run by you every week."
"I am sure they won't be half as funny as your midterm results !"
"Jerk !"
He smirked at that. "Thank you, glad to know I haven't lost the golden touch yet."
When Miaka returned to her dorm that night, two things were immediately apparent to her best friend. For one, gone was the mopey ,dejected face that had been present all day. And two, it was ten in the night and the Suzaku No Miko had been gone for almost four hours and whatever she had been doing, definitely had had a great affect on her.
"Were you out on a date with Taka again or did you steal food from the cafeteria?" Yui asked suspiciously.
Miaka smiled brightly at her best friend. " I am back to Economics Yui- chaaaaaaaaaan"
"REALLY?".
"YEAAAAA…..now I can be with you guys after all !" the former priestess of Suzaku was , to be precise, jumping on the couch.
"But, then what happens to…you know…," asked the Seiryu No Miko in concern.
"Oh its fine. I'll deal with that jerk. Besides I have to be there to protect you all right?"
Yui Hongo took a second to thank whichever God was responsible for this sudden change in behavior before turning her suspicions back on the object at hand.
"Okay. Something happened. Spill." She looked squarely at her best friend who was still grinning away like a loony.
"'snotevilanymore." If possible the grin just got bigger.
"Excuse me?" said the dragon priestess , hardly believing her ears.
Miaka smiled at her best friend. She couldn't blame Yui for being so protective and suspicious.
"It's a long story Yui chan, but suffice to say, to be or not to be , is absolutely out of the question now!" said Miaka happily, " Evil blondes notwithstanding, I will get that degree !"
Notes from yours truly =D
First of, thanks so much, to the people that reviewed and read the first chapter :D hope you guys will read/like this chapter too =D
Jangjang1229 : haha thanks :D i really want to finish it too :D n i will :D dont worry xD
Flashyfirebird : :D:D:D thanks so much for reading :D well I took your advise, I get what you said about show n tell, actually my professor for composition stressed more on tell than show, =D I keep hearing her in my head every time i write now...this chapter is more like how I generally write..so moar show XDDD
aaaaand I'm looking for beta's..i'l contact any that I find interesting =D n u were rite about Miaka speaking too much in caps, I dislike shouting myself, but her doing it sounded cute in my head lol.
That being said xDD what does everyone think of this chapter? :D:D:D
~Did I make Nakago too...whats the word...un-evil? I always saw him as a person who clearly understood right and wrong but ignored them for the benefit of his goal. What do you think?
~ "apple poisoning and salesmanship" yup, remember Snow White and her evilly evil step mother?
Ok that's it I guess =D
Pleaseeee reviewwww :D