Disclaimer and Warning: See chapter 1. Ah, slight spoiler of Natsume Yuujincou up to 3rd Season, and Nuramago… let's see… future setting, maybe (yes, it's an AU after all)
A/N: Kyaaa! 8 reviews in a day! XD I love you guys and I'm in love with your reviews! XDDD Now, since you guys are so kind and considerate, I give you an UPDATE! Yeah! To chapter 2 now~ GO!
Chapter 2: Mix-breed
Natsume arrived at the holy ground of the Amagahara Temple fifteen minutes later, after he ran after Madara. But strangely, he arrived before the beast.
Natsume was panting slightly while looking around for his sensei's real form, but Madara was not there. "Where the hell did Sensei go?" the teen grumbled in annoyance, still pacing his breath for a moment. Then he remembered that it was a temple and Madara was a youkai, so he probably couldn't enter the holy ground without being invited.
Natsume then sighed deeply before scratching the back of his neck. He looked at the entrance of Tanuma's residence and decided to say hi first before bringing the issue. He knocked on the wooden sliding door and greeted "Excuse me!"
Some moments later, someone opened the door. A boy in Natsume's age with slightly messy black hair came up behind the door, blinking his dark grey colored eyes. "Natsu—err… I meant, Takashi?" he asked in surprised.
True, Tanuma and Natsume were trying to get closer to each other and some days ago had started to try to call one another with their first name, but it was still awkward and strange that sometimes, they slipped to old habit by calling each other's family's name. They were trying though.
"Good evening, Kaname…-kun," Natsume smiled small, still unable to lose the suffix facing the awkward and surprised greeting. "I'm sorry to bother you so suddenly, but…." He set a trouble look now, not sure how to say this to Tanuma.
"What's wrong?" Tanuma opened the door more widely and stepped outside. He looked slightly concerned after seeing Natsume's expression.
"Ah… I need help," Natsume said, looking down, a bit embarrassed. He was still not used to asking for help from his friend, even though Tanuma was similar to him and he already knew what Natsume could do.
"Of course, I'll do everything I can to help," Tanuma immediately responded to it positively even before he knew what Natsume needed his help for. Maybe it was because… it was the first time Natsume asked for help directly to him after all. Probably Tanuma was too excited.
"But… this might trouble you a great deal," Natsume said, not wanting to raise his hope even though Tanuma already accepted the request.
"Anything I can do for you, I will do it, as long as it's not against the law," Tanuma chuckled slightly, probably thinking that Natsume being Natsume again and still didn't want to rely on other people too much.
"Okay…," Natsume blushed slightly at that. "Ah… Oh yeah. I came with Nyanko-sensei, but it seems he can't enter this place if you don't invite him," he said.
"Sure. You can enter, Nyan-Nyan-sensei," Tanuma called to the empty air and suddenly there was a gust of wind blowing on the ground, creating poof of dust everywhere.
Though, in Natsume's eyes, Madara had just landed from the sky, Tanuma could only see the distortion in the air.
"Whoa!" Tanuma blinked and gasped in surprise.
"Sensei!" Natsume scolded the big youkai in a scowl for surprising his friend. "Sorry, Tanuma… you can see him? Must have surprised you…." He then turned to Tanuma apologetically.
"Well… it's kind of seeing and not seeing him, but… that must be a very big youkai over there, huh?" Tanuma chuckled awkwardly now still eyeing the spot where Madara had landed curiously, a bead of sweat rolling down his cheek. "And Takashi, it's Kaname for you," he then reminded him, turning to Natsume while smiling ruefully.
"Oh, right… sorry," Natsume chuckled sheepishly. "Um… so, what I want to ask you for help is… this. I found an injured youkai, but I can't bring him home, so… if you don't mind… can I leave that youkai in your home just for couples of days until he recovered?" he then looked up at Tanuma hopefully.
Silence greeted and Natsume though it was 'impossible request after all' after a full awkward minute passed without answer when Tanuma started speaking again. "By injured youkai you meant… that floating passed out silver haired man over there?" the dark haired teen then pointed at the air where the passed out youkai were still dangling between Madara's teeth.
Natsume widened his eyes in surprise at that. "You can see him?" he almost dropped his jaw, but it would be so unlike Natsume, so he just left his mouth slightly open.
"Yeah… as clear as day, kind of weird seeing it like that," Tanuma's sweat dropped again.
"You can't see sensei but you can see that youkai…? What's going on here?" Natsume couldn't help feeling confused.
~Natsume x Nuramago~
After the passed out youkai being settled down on a futon under a blanket in one of the unused rooms in Tanuma's household, Natsume and Tanuma, together with Nyanko-sensei, sat down on the mattress that was brought out and seated inside the room where the silver-black haired youkai was sleeping.
Tanuma's father was out of town again, doing his duty as a monk, so Tanuma was alone at home now. That's why he could help Natsume with his request.
"So… Sensei, why do you think Tanuma… I meant, Kaname-kun, can see that youkai?" Natsume asked curiously at the cat which was playing with a roll of wool on the table.
"Hn… that youkai… isn't exactly youkai, see," Nyanko purred slightly, still trying to fight his cat instinct, but doing it poorly all the time, like always.
"Not… exactly youkai, how?" Tanuma asked, looking confused.
"Well… there's this case… even though it's very rare, but… sometimes there are youkai who like to blend among human… so much that they start to think like human and start to believe they're human. Those youkai then mate with human as well, producing a mix-breed. That youkai over there," Nyanko pointed at the sleeping youkai with his paw, "-is a mix-breed between youkai and human," he said with a grin.
There was a brief deep silence befalling inside the room before "EEEEEEEH!" both Natsume and Tanuma yelped in shock.
"T-there's a mix-breed…?" Natsume's eyes were wide and he hanged his jaw again in disbelief.
"Youkai and human can mate with each other?" Now Tanuma wore the same expression as Natsume.
"Sure, there is and yes, they can," Nyanko nodded positively. "That youkai there, smelled strongly human, so… his human blood must have been stronger than his youkai blood. That's why Tanuma can see him clearly, because essentially, he's actually human with youkai power," he explained more clearly.
Tanuma and Natsume made an 'Oooh!' look, starting to understand.
"Then… who is he and why is he here? Who had injured him?" Tanuma asked Natsume and Nyanko then, looking curious again.
Natsume and Nyanko looked at each other before Natsume answered. "I didn't see who injured him, but… sensei fought the assailants."
Tanuma blinked. "Plural?"
"Yeah, he was attacked by some monsters I haven't seen before. But, I couldn't feel the feelings of those monsters when I fought them, as if… they were just dolls controlled by someone or something," Nyanko said seriously. "One thing I'm sure about though, that silver haired mix-breed and his assailants… they weren't from here. I chased the hollow monsters out, but… they're still alive. This might get dangerous. You two, don't get too friendly to that mix-breed or you might get caught up in something very troublesome," he warned while jerking his head in the sleeping youkai direction again in a huff.
Natsume looked down at his laps. "We already helped him. It's as good as getting involved, right?" he mumbled slightly.
"Then don't get involved any deeper. As soon as he wakes up, we'll send him off," Nyanko said again gravely.
Natsume wanted to protest though. The youkai… mix-breed, whatever, wasn't a bad person. True, he pointed his blade at Natsume's at some points, but… that was just because he was surprised. He then told Natsume to run, which meant, he didn't want to hurt the human. The monsters that attacked him… they were hollow, like they were used by someone, right? Then… it probably had something to do with Matoba Clan again. They seemed always plotting something.
Natsume didn't want to get involved because it would cause trouble to the people around him, but… leaving someone who was in trouble alone just because you didn't want to get involved was just too cruel.
"At least I want to know his name," Natsume grumbled, still feeling to be stubborn.
"You and your bad habit," Nyanko snorted at him, looking irked.
"Noisy, buta-neko," Natsume thrust his tongue out at his cat childishly and Tanuma chuckled, shaking his head seeing their antics.
~Natsume x Nuramago~
Natsume was running.
Wait, why was he running again?
"You're not going to get out alive! Nu~ra~~~!"
Natsume heard an evil laughter behind him and he felt someone or something was stalking him.
Run! I have to run! I have to survive… to stay alive…!
Why, why did Natsume think like that? What made him think like that? What was that fear squirming inside him? And who the hell was Nura?
I have to run…! For the sake of our last hope…!
Natsume gasped in shock when he suddenly tripped, no; something had caught his ankle that he fell down. He tried to protect his stomach while his body was rolling on the hard soil.
"Caught you!"
Something jumped on Natsume when he was crouching on the ground and he widened his eyes, screaming—
"Natsume!"
Natsume opened his eyes widely and gasped, body sweating profoundly and jerking up violently as he tried to protect himself in panicky. "Natsume, oi!" and then a bundle of fuzzy fat pig-cat head smacked him right on his face, making him collapse once again on his futon… hard.
"Oww…!" Natsume groaned painfully while nursing his abused nose. "What the hell… Sensei!" he shouted at the white cat in whisper (minding the time), totally annoyed at the rough treatment.
"Your own fault for screaming in your sleep," Nyanko snorted at him from beside his futon. "Nightmare?" he asked then, looking at Natsume with his slit-like maneki-neko eyes.
Natsume coughed slightly in response. His throat felt dry. "Yeah… but, it felt off… unlike the usual cryptic dream. This was… very vivid," he said, holding the spot on his chest where he could still feel his heart beating hard and fast. He could still feel the fright of being caught by whatever that caught him in his dream, and then…
Nu…ra?—Natsume frowned slightly, musing inwardly about that particular word. He assumed that it was a name, but… he wasn't sure. Was it some kind of code or something?
"You're probably channeling that mix-breed's memory, aren't you? That's just so like you," Nyanko huffed now, licking one of his paw.
Natsume pouted. "It's not like I have control over that," he said rather indignantly. Nyanko made it sound like it was Natsume's own fault for what happened to him in his sleep.
"Well, you're curious about him, right? It always happens when you decide to stick your nose in something that isn't your problem," Nyanko sighed in exasperation.
Natsume huffed. "You're unusually hostile, Nyanko-sensei. More than usual," he commented, feeling slightly disturbed. Surely, Nyanko often encouraged him not to get involved by the youkai too much, but this… this was in a whole new level.
Nyanko was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I have a bad feeling about this one," he said. "Call it a hunch, but his problem might drag us… you especially, to a very dangerous line," he continued while frowning.
"Sensei… you do care about me after all," Natsume said, waking up to sit again and smiling slightly, feeling like teasing his body guard a little because it would be hilarious.
"W-what? No! I just don't want you, my personal prey, to get done by something else! And Yuujinchou will be mine!" the cat glowered at Natsume with a tint of pink on his cheeks.
Natsume chuckled at that and he swore the flush on his cat's cheeks turned deeper in color. He just ignored Natsume after that in annoyed huff, though. Indeed, Nyanko could be very cute sometimes.
Minutes later, someone opened the door to the room and a very worried Tanuma came inside while asking "Takashi, are you okay?"
Natsume blinked before he turned to the other teen who just barged in. "Eh… Kaname-kun?" he asked slowly, confused of why he was there. Then he remembered. "Oh, right… I spent the night in Kaname-kun's house because last night was raining so suddenly…. Sorry, did I wake you up?" he apologized, feeling bad if he had disturbed his friend's sleep somehow. Nyanko did say he screamed in his sleep just then.
"But, you're okay, right?" Tanuma asked, still looking concerned. "I heard you screaming down to my room, and it's in the other end of the hall," he said again.
"Yeah, sorry about that… I have a nightmare," Natsume said, blushing slightly in embarrassment for his loud voice while smiling apologetically at Tanuma. "Sorry for causing such commotion…," he murmured lowly.
Tanuma visibly sighed in slight relief. "That's fine… You're okay, that's the important thing. Ahah, I thought you got attack or something…," he then sat down beside Natsume's futon, chuckling slightly at his own idea. "He's still asleep, right?"
Both Tanuma and Natsume then turned their faces to the sleeping youkai across the room. The steady rise and fall on the blanket indicated that the youkai was indeed still asleep.
"Sorry, it's just… sometimes I dream…," Natsume said, apologizing again, but he still couldn't tell Tanuma that he could channel other people or youkai past through his dream. It was like intruding in their privacy after all, and he didn't want Tanuma to consider him being rude.
Tanuma seemed realizing that Natsume didn't want to talk about it, so he just sighed and smiled small. "Okay," he said in understanding. "Want to have some tea before going back to sleep? It's still 3 a.m.," he offered.
"No, I'll be fine. Thanks," Natsume smiled serenely at Tanuma and for a moment, Natsume thought he saw he blush slightly.
"Okay… I'm going back… to my room," Tanuma looked dazed as he slowly stood up and walked back to the door before he got out and slid it back close.
Nyanko snickered at that.
"What, Sensei?" Natsume looked down at his cat, raising his eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing… humans are indeed interesting…," he snickered again while looking at Natsume's face gleefully, as if he knew something that Natsume didn't.
Well, Nyanko probably did. Not that Natsume cared.
Natsume then turned to look at the sleeping sliver haired youkai… mix-breed again. He woke up slightly and walked closer to him before sitting down beside his futon. The teen watched the sleeping figure carefully, more closely. The moonlight illuminated the figure and he looked very ethereal sleeping like that.
Wow… in closer inspection, he looks really… calm… beautiful….
Natsume blinked as he realized what he was thinking. He shook his head and flushed slightly. Did he just think that the… the mix-breed was beautiful? He was a man, for God's sake!
Natsume should really go back to sleep. He was too sleepy to think about something like…
Natsume held his breath as suddenly the mix-breed's eyes opened slightly, revealing the deep clear rubies of his eye color straight to Natsume's light honey colored ones.
"…Hey…." The soft whisper came out from the mix-breed's slightly parted mouth before he closed his eyes again and went back into his deep slumber.
Natsume was forced to exhale his breath because now his lungs felt burning. He couldn't help his heart beating a little too fast to his liking and he didn't know why. It was just a sleep-talking and the mix-breed wasn't exactly aware of what he was doing, but… why did Natsume feel so… thrilled suddenly?
This mix-breed tickled Natsume's interest so much despite just meeting him. He was very curious to know him better now.
Please hurry and wake up… and let me know more about you…
End of Chapter 2
Tbc…
A/N: Okay… channeling past experience and all, I'm sorry Yoru hasn't woken up yet. Yup, this fic is more in Natsume's perspective rather than the other way around… since the main body of the story is Natsume Yuujinchou. I love writing his interaction with Tanuma though XD. Don't worry, Yoru will be up in next chapter XD. Now, more… give me more reviews, because if you do, I'll update faster like this one! XD