Disclaimer: King of Fighters is the property of SNK. I'm just borrowing a few characters for some non-profit entertainment.
A/N: New chapter of my annoying emo-angst story, now with actual plot! (Sort of.) To my regular readers I just want you to know that I have not forgotten Sore ga Ai, Deshou? I'm just taking a break from it until I can get over this little depression I'm going through. Please bear with me.
The Sweet Far Thing
Chapter Two: Abatement
Andy touched the porcelain handle of Mai's teacup as if by doing so he could touch her hand. So close, he had been so close if only he were just a little faster. She had been here, she had been right here! He had heard her leave, she had been right before his grasp and she had slipped through his fingers before he had even know he held her, for the thousandth time. Why must fate tease him like this?
She hadn't finished her rice; maybe he could use that as a pretext to get her to see him. Sometimes it felt like everything would be better if she would just let him see her, she didn't even have to talk if she didn't want to, just let him know that she was still alive, that she was still real and not some dream of his.
She had loved him once, so ardently and fiercely that he doubted that it was real. Now that love of hers was gone and he was left feeling empty and broken inside. He wanted to hold her, to offer her some words of comfort or affection even though he was skilled at neither. All he wanted to do was seek her out and beg her to talk to him again.
He was still debating whether or not he should when he heard something shatter in another part of the house.
"Mai!" He breathed before dashing out, off to see what had happened.
…
Mai didn't feel much like working on the grounds outside today and so she had opted to clean some of the rarely used rooms within the house, one of which contained a collection of porcelain animals, the twelve animals of the zodiac to be precise. She cleaned them each in the order of the years, starting with her own (year of the Ox) and working her way around, taking each animal down from its shelf and gently wiping it down with a damp rag.
It was as she was doing this to the monkey that the figure, moist from the cloth, slipped from her grasp and shattered on the floor. She immediately bent down to pick up the pieces and cut her finger on one of the porcelain shards.
She didn't know why, it was just a stupid scratch but for some reason her eyes just welled up and she began to cry for the second time that morning. Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid. She was just being stupid getting all emotional about a silly little cut. She'd had worse; she'd had much worse. She was a fucking ninja and a regular competitor in the King of Fighters tournaments; she had had much, much worse injuries than this.
As if to add insult to her injury, Andy appeared the very next second and rushed to her side. "I heard something crash! Are you okay?"
She looked up at him, unable to stop her tears yet wishing for a way to hide them from him. She still didn't want to talk to him, didn't really want to see him but some explanation was necessary or else he wouldn't leave her alone.
"I cut myself." It came out as a bit of a sob.
"Let me see." Andy bent down on one knee and took her hand in his, examining the wound. It was a small cut, just a bit bigger than a cat scratch with a bead of red blood welling from it. He brought the finger to his lips and sucked the blood away in a gentle kiss. "Its just a scratch you'll be fine."
"I know that!" Mai yanked her hand back. His tender gesture made her feel uncomfortable; the old Andy Bogard wasn't so free with his affections.
"I never said you didn't." He looked hurt by the venom in her words.
She should talk to him; this was the perfect opportunity. She should tell him that she appreciated his staying with her and that she knew his training was suffering and that she appreciated his sacrifice. But she didn't, instead she asked, "Why are you here?"
"I worry about you." He replied soberly. "I haven't seen you in a while." 'A very long while.'
Another pang of guilt rumbled through her. She had made him promise, she had made him stay and then she had ignored him, she had shut him out. And yet he still cared enough about her to worry. What a wicked woman she was.
"Sorry." She replied meekly, her eyes downcast. She wanted to say more, was about to say more when the there was a knock at the front door. Mai stood to answer it but Andy held her back.
"I'll get it." He said. "You go put some anti-septic on that cut."
"I thought it was just a scratch." She played at being defiant but it was just an act, she didn't have the energy to be truly defiant this morning and besides, she didn't really feel like talking to whoever was at the door anyway.
"And I'm just a blond." Was Andy's retort.
"Hmph!" She pushed passed him and on into the bathroom to rummage through the medicine cabinet.
The town's sheriff was waiting on the front porch with two other men, one bearing the insignia of Wildlife, Fish and Gaming while the other looked to be a city official. The sheriff greeted Andy with a warm and friendly expression, he had been born and raised in the small town of Mino and had attended high school along side Andy and Mai. The WFG ranger, likewise knew Andy from his long jogs up in the mountains when the whether was warmer.
"Bogard-kun." He said.
"Nakamura-kun, Kino-san." The blond ninja responded, greeting the officer first and ranger second. "What can I do for you, gentlemen?"
"We wish to speak with Shiranui-san." The city official said.
"Mai-san has been feeling a little under the weather lately." Andy said, careful to add the honorific onto her name. "But if you'd like to come in for some tea I can see if she's up to seeing you today."
"We would be very grateful if you could." The official replied.
Andy led them into a sitting room before dashing back to the kitchen for the promised tea. The pot that Mai had made earlier that morning had been sitting on the hotplate and was still warm, Andy added an extra teabag and some more hot water from the kettle before serving it to the trio. He then dashed off to fine Mai and see if she was up for visitors.
She wasn't.
Andy returned a few minuets latter and sat down politely on his knees across from the trio.
"I'm sorry, but Mai-san is unable to see you at present." He informed them with a bit of a forlorn sigh. "Was there anything that I could help you with?"
"I suppose…" The city official grumbled, apparently none to happy about being denied an audience by a woman and having to deal with her house pet of a foreigner instead. "I assume you've heard about this mysterious Monkey-man that has been terrorizing the mountain hot springs this past winter, yes?"
"I think Kino-san mentioned something the last time I was up there, yes." Andy replied coolly, forming a strong dislike for this person.
"Well, we were hoping to enlist Shiranui-san's help in dispatching the problem." The man continued. "But since she is otherwise unavailable I suppose we can ask you. You are trained in tracking as well and the Shiranui's arts, I trust."
"I'm trained." Andy confirmed. 'Are you kidding? I've beaten her a billion times while she screams my name.'
"Excellent!" The official stood. "I wish you to begin cooperating with Kino-san at once."
"Hold it! What about compensation for services rendered?" Well off, though it was, the Shiranui dojo didn't pay for its own up-keep and expenses.
The city official sat back down and he and Andy began negotiating a price settlement.
…
Mai leaned against the frame of Andy's bedroom door and watched him gear up. He really was a beautiful man. From his mane of long golden hair to the curve of his shoulder blades, the lines of his back, his narrow but powerful hips, his strong thighs, Hell even his kneecaps were hot! She sighed when he pulled a white tunic over his head, obscuring the view of his backside.
He had dressed completely in white for better camouflage in the snow. Gone was his bright red sash or his black under suit; between his naturally pale complexion, fair hair and immaculate white clothing he looked otherworldly, ethereal. She missed not being able to touch so exotic a body, but she knew the moment she did she would be consumed by the fire of her own lust and just end up right back where she had been back in '99 and '01. She didn't need that.
"Ya know, peeping toms aren't supposed to be so obvious about it and ninja are supposed to be covert." He turned to face her. "I hope you enjoyed the show."
Mai felt her face turn hot with embarrassment. "Its nothing I haven't seen before." She replied testily.
Andy advanced towards her with the slow deliberate swagger of a predator and Mai found herself longing to be devoured by him. It had been so long and she loved him so much but she wouldn't, no, couldn't allow herself that pleasure, never again; not unless they were married.
He cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her face up to meet his eyes. For one brief, fleeting moment she though he was going to kiss her and she would lose all self-control and fall into that kiss. She longed to feel his lips on hers again and yet dreaded it at the same time. Her lips parted slightly with anticipation.
"Come with me?" He asked.
"What?"
"Up in the mountains." He clarified. "Come hunting with me. There are hot springs, maybe they could relieve some of your tension."
"I'd rather just stay home."
His shoulders slumped and his face sank, Andy looked utterly and completely crestfallen. "Fine." Mai's heart felt another stab of guilt for denying him. "Still, I'm happy." He attempted a smile.
"Why?"
"This is the most you've spoken to me since that day."
'That day…' The day she had dragged him out to the Jizou statues and told him of his unborn children. The day she had begged him not to leave her ever again. The day she had trapped him here by his own sense of obligation. The last day she had really spoken with him. That day. Mai felt another wave of guilt wash over her and she for a moment felt like she might drown in its current.
"I have chores to do." She said, turning to leave him to prepare on his own. "Just don't get hurt."
"I won't."
She knew.
…
"This is so cool! This is the first time I get to see a freaking ninja in action!" Mountain Ranger Kino was practically bursting with enthusiasm as he and Andy trudged up the snow leaden mountain trail.
Andy hated the way the wide bulky snow shoes forced him to widen his step and he wished that Kino-san would just shut-up. The man's chatter was getting on his nerves, while Andy might have stopped off at the Ranger's station a few times during his early morning jogs he had never before spent any extended amount of time with the man and was now beginning to believe that that had been a good thing.
"You don't go hunting much, do you Kino-san?" Andy observed more than asked.
"Not really, no."
"Well, I need you to be quite, if you can. Please."
"Oh, sure thing!" He promptly shut his mouth and mimed zipping it.
One of the things that made Winter great was that it made tracking easy. Tracks could easily be found in the snow and were usually deep enough that even the blind could spot them a mile away.
Andy's bulky snow shoes kept him atop the white fluffy mass that covered the landscape, but judging by the depth of the tracks the snow was about knee deep and very thick near the bottom. The pattern of the tracks was sporadic, as if his quarry were trying to keep to the trees but failing and falling to the ground every now and again. They followed the trail to a sheer rock wall, as if the very living rock of the mountain had been torn away. Here the trail stopped.
"Well, what do we do now?" Kino-san asked.
"Climb." 'Obviously.' Was Andy's clip of a response.
"Up that?" The Ranger looked at the rock wall skeptically. "I don't think I can do that. Least, not without ropes and equipment and stuff…"
"I s'pose that's why you're a mountain ranger and not a ninja." Andy muttered, then to Kino said, "Fine, stay here. We'll call this 'Base Camp' or whatever fancy name you wanna give it. I'll find out if our monkey-man monster thing's trail continues on up there or if we're just chasing while geese."
"'Kay."
Andy unstrapped his snowshoes, happy to be rid of their bulk and regain his full range of motion. He examined the rock wall for a moment or two before choosing a foothold and handhold to start from and scaling the wall. The top leveled off into a small platform that dropped back down onto the other side. Andy leaned over the far edge and was rewarded with the foul stench of sulfur; apparently there was a hot spring down the other side.
Even without the horrid rotten egg smell he would have know there was a spring there, steam wafted upward, obscuring his vision and making it difficult to judge the depth of the chasm. He swung one leg over the edge, testing for foot holds. When he found one that could support him he lowered the other leg, then the rest of his body and slowly climbed down the other side. As it turned out it was nowhere as deep as the side he'd first come up had been, in fact it was only twice as tall as he was and he felt like a moron when he was startled by his foot suddenly impacting the hard ground while testing for foot holds that were no longer necessary.
'Now all you need to do is fall face first into the spring when its two feet in front of you.' He teased himself silently, feeling the fool for not noticing the shallow depth of the cliff sooner.
It was warmer down here than it was up top and Andy was glad for the break from the cold. He really wished Mai had come with him. Leaving Kino behind at the wall meant that it would have been just the two of them here now and it was warm enough that they could easily strip down without having to worry about hypothermia. Mai had such a wonderful body and it had been so long since he's seen it unclothed and covered in a sheen of sweat.
Andy pushed that thought away for now. However pleasant it was, it was unimportant to the moment. The mission; that was what he needed to focus on now.
There was no snow in the chasm and rock didn't form tracks so there was nothing for Andy to go on but gut instinct. Again he wished Mai had come with him, he was a good fighter, tracker and ninja but he was crap when it came to gut feelings and instincts. Terry was the "gut feeling" brother, Andy was the quite "I need a goal in sight" brother. Right now his goal was to find and catch the creature that had been terrorizing these mountains, but no sign of it was in sight. He could really use Terry's gut or Mai's Woman's Intuition right about now.
Andy circled the chasm, slowly spiraling his way towards the center where he decided the hot spring must be. The chasm had probably formed when the spring first broke the surface and was originally quite deep, but as time wore on and the spring's pressure dropped so did the water level until it was just a hot puddle at the bottom of a very large hole.
When he finally reached the edge of the spring-proper he noticed a grouping of flat stones laid out almost like a table, a table in the sense that it was a level bit of stone that one could eat off of, and that appeared to be just what someone had done. The makeshift stone table was covered in empty chip bags, granola bar wrappers and other assortments of wrapping for junk and camping food.
Andy picked up a half eaten rice cake and examined it. No sooner had he done this then he suddenly felt another body ram into him, and hard.
"Mine." A voice, presumably belonging to his attacker, cracked.
Andy rolled to the side, using the momentum from his assailant's attack to propel him farther from his opponent, putting some space between them so that he could catch his breath. The steam still obscured his vision but from what he had seen of his attacker, he looked mostly human and since he had spoken Andy assumed that he was human and not some half-monkey hybrid.
He heard feet padding across the stone, coming toward him for another strike. Andy whirled around and backhanded his opponent, knocking him to the ground. The aggressor's head struck the stone and he promptly fell unconscious. Andy leaned over his fallen foe to finally get a clear look at him.
"Aw crap."
With the steam no longer obscuring his vision Andy now saw that his assailant had been a kid, no older than thirteen or fourteen. The boy looked terribly mal-nourished and was dressed in near rags. In fact if it weren't for the warmth of the hot spring Andy was pretty sure the boy would be dead of hypothermia already.
…
