I don't own any of Shungiku Nakamura's works, besides my OC's.
Okay guys, what would be a good name to give Kou's older brother?
Gou...? XD or something cool or hm... Yuichi? Haruto? Hm... (-_-)
Maybe Kai? Akira, Atsuo, Daisuke, Eiri, Fusao...
I should be updating my other stories, but... *sighs in the highlights of procrastination*
An hour into their walking, Masamune looks down in curiosity upon hearing a soft snore. He smiles a small one seeing Ritsu's tired, peaceful sleeping face after sobbing of ear ache.
(Even after all this time, you're still so delicate and strong at the same time...)
"Are you his mate?" He looks to see Hiyori looking between the both of them.
"Yes."
She smiles in some excitement. "Are you going to marry him?"
"Of course. Although, that wouldn't really matter," Masamune answers, cradling Ritsu more securely against him. "Weddings are just another excuse to throw parties."
"But it's fun though!" Chiaki says, "I mean, we would all buy you gifts, and do the cake, and we would all talk and stuff."
"That's just it though. Can't we just skip to the year long honeymoon?"
"Y-year long?!" Chiaki sputters out. "Why so long?"
Masamune scoffs. "Bonding time, what else?" He pauses for a moment. "Maybe every two weeks- Ritsu can't stand having no outside contact."
"That still sounds a bit extreme..."
"10 years, Chiaki," Masamune adds, "I'm going to love him all over again so much that the only thing you guys are going to detect is my scent."
"That can happen?!"
"Yeah, I mean, once long time ago, some guys were looking for me to go spar with them, and they thought I was Ritsu. They couldn't tell the difference at all."
"Isn't that kind of strange though?"
"..." Masamune sighs, reluctantly adding, "They made me go see someone to control my urges. I wasn't exactly great at self-control."
"Now that makes sense si-" he stops abruptly at his glare, and changes his sentence, "S-so, does that happen a lot with you guys? I mean, I didn't figure out that I'm Tori's mate until Shinobu pointed out. I didn't even know he felt that way."
"Well, you've always been so dense."
"W-well, at least I'm not as dense as Takafumi!" Chiaki counters, "I mean, I can at least see that!"
"Tch, I give you credit for that. He dug his own grave though. Technically, the dense one is Zen. He hasn't even pieced it together that..." He remembers Hiyori and looks down at her.
Chiaki follows suit.
They had to look away a bit since the light that emitted from her Shoujo happiness aura was starting to blind them.
Suddenly, she turns away from them to face ahead. They can see her skip a little in her steps as she walks ahead of them, planning all the wedding details in her head.
"See," Masamune nods off at her, "I figured she'd be happy for them, but Takafumi's all 'She's too young, yadiyada'..."
"This is good then," Chiaki says, "As long as he doesn't know that we told her."
"Yeah..."
"See, this isn't that bad right?" Shinobu says, after they fought some monsters in their way. "And we're doing a big favor for the people far behind us, you know?"
"Yeah, but back then you told me there'd be cabbages with legs going after us!"
"That was a myth and we were just 7! Get over it!"
"Hehe, you guys are so cute," the woman says, smiling fondly at them. "For some reason, I feel like I've known you two forever."
"Misaki!" He looks to see some soldiers step a little behind to talk to him. One of them hands him an old picture.
"What's this..." Misaki examines the old photo with a dark haired man looking close to Akihiko, and a brunette woman with a slightly stoic but gentle facial expression.
"This is the King's first wife! See the locket around her neck? It's pretty faded, but the color's a sort of a red-brown, with some gold freckles on it."
"He told us that the chain doesn't really matter, so as long as we find the locket part, we're good," further explains another knight.
"Okay," Misaki nods, keeping his eye out for anything shiny.
"So, um, Princess," Shinobu says to her as he looks between her and Akihiko, "What are you guys to each other?"
"Big sister," she says, as he says, "Older brother-in-law."
"Oh, you have a older brother?" Misaki asks Akihiko.
"Half brother," he answers, "Tried to sell me away on the streets when I was 5 and he was 6; the first time we bonded as siblings cause I hated the place and he didn't want to be an older brother."
(Are you for real?!) Misaki thought, not expecting the sudden childhood story.
"I guess we're kind of close," he shrugs, "He was always studying most of the time though, even on our days off of tutoring. And we were always forced to go fishing with our Father, so we would always try to drown each other so he'd give up on bonding with the both of us. It took us about 5 tries a trip but we managed to get out of it."
(Are you serious?!) Misaki thought in disbelief, his mouth agape.
"Aki's also the best man for our wedding!" She says happily.
Akihiko translates it after her with a deadpan expression. "He has no friends-"
"That are able to take the spot," she finishes. "And you can call me Su if you want. Or just my name Sumiko." She grimaces. "I'm not allowed to be called Sumi."
"Huh?" Shinobu and Misaki regard them questionably. "Why?" they both ask.
"Cause..." she reluctantly begins, "That's the president of the "I Love Akihiko" Club. Keiichi of the Sumi Family, but we just call him Sumi."
"UUggh," Akihiko glares tiredly ahead thinking of the club, and he gags a little. "Okay with family, but hate him and the club. Hate them. All of them."
"Don't worry, your Highness!" A soldier gives him a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Our "I Love Misaki" Club will beat them all to shreds and bend their allegiance."
Misaki blinks at them in confusion, while Akihiko turns to glare at them. "WHAT?"
"Well, I mean, if everyone ends up focusing on Misaki, you're home free!" The soldier explains, now facing Misaki. "You've become very popular with the young woman near our dancing district."
"R-really?" He blushes. "Girls like me?"
"I can't wait to tell everyone at home," Shinobu says, thinking that there may be hope for him after all.
However, Akihiko saw this as a threat, not understanding that Misaki was just being bashful and happy that he was found attractive by other girls because the girls at their village regard him as a brother from another mother so he never had a girl like him before in a non-sibling way since he never went out of the village to other places.
His throat tightens and his eyes go downcast at the thought of Misaki being all lovey-dovey with someone else.
"Wait." They all look at Sumiko, who frowns at them. "You didn't actually challenge Sumi with Misaki, did you?"
"Of course we did!" They grin like the idiots they are, "Pictures and everything!"
"Why?! Don't you forget what happened 3 Summers back? With the firecrackers?"
After a while, they visibly cringe. "Oh, yeah..." They turn to Misaki with worried looks.
"What if he followed us here?" Sumiko wonders aloud, looking around suspiciously.
"Don't worry!" The idiot soldiers announce, getting in a surrounding guard position. "We'll protect you guys!"
"What's happening..?" Misaki faces Shinobu, confused.
"I think some creeper's after you, but it'll be okay," he grabs his hand and pulls him along. "Like old times."
Misaki smiles, keeping a grip on the hand like when they were little to make sure Shinobu wouldn't speed away for the fun of it. "Yeah, like old times."
"Like old times...?" Akihiko says quietly, wondering how exactly close they were. Strangely enough, he didn't feel threatened by their closeness like he thought he was going to be. He begins to walk after them and the soldiers until he realizes that Sumiko didn't move and looks back to her. "Su?"
She merely stares at them, finding the two's interacting familiar. Her mind went back to the small rabbit hybrid in her dreams. (We were like that, weren't we...)
"Su."
"Weh?" She startles as she looks at Akihiko, realizing how behind she was and catches up to him. "Ah, sorry..."
Shouta took deep breaths, his hand ready to fling a piece of fire onto a piece of cabbage.
Each time though, whenever someone passes by or when he hears something, he quickly turns and pretends he's doing nothing and just whistling out of place.
(I don't want to do this!) Shouta thought. (But if he doesn't see any reports on this he's going to fire me even though I just quit like Masamune-) he pauses as a breeze goes past him, and he sniffs the air. (Wha-?) He looks around, (He's here? And...) He closes his eyes trying to remember the other scents.
(Chiaki...? And... Hm...) he then remembers Hiyori from 'Bring your child to work day', (Oh, and Hiyo-) The atmosphere around him becomes dark with fear. (They... they're here? So, if... if...) The thought of an angry mama bear-wolf Takafumi made him back away from the cabbage.
(He's going to kill me if she gets hurt...!)
Obviously, the fear factor here is: 1st place TAKAFUMI and 5th place Ryuuichirou
"Aaa!" He shakes his head in frustration. "Forget it!" He instead goes inside the maze to see if he can catch up with Chiaki or Masamune.
...
"Fire...?" A figure walking out from behind a tree Shouta was near. He pushes up his glasses as he began thinking.
He pulls out a small, handheld book of spells, his thin lips curving up into a smirk as he reads through it. Seconds later, with a snap of his fingers, he stares at the flame in his hands.
"What a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself."
"Hmm...?" Hearing that lovely sound, Masamune gazes down at Ritsu, who rubs his eyes upon waking. "Fire..."
"Fire?" Masamune says in amusement, before noticing how Ritsu glanced about in worried sleepiness with his ears twitching to tune in to something.
"Fire... They're not good in fires..." Ritsu yawns, trying to shake his head of the sleepiness he felt before surrendering and cuddling back into Masamune's chest. "I don't want to leave you..." he mumbles softly, audible only to Masamune's ears.
Happy as he was to hear that, Masamune glanced about with a serious eye and wondered how far Ritsu was listening.
Takafumi is to be feared... Haha. This will be happening in multiple occasions. Unknowingly, Takafumi will rise to the top... And possibly achieve the title of Badass.
