"Sera, you asleep?" Shinju murmured. It took the blonde girl a few minutes to knock out her elder cousin and bind her to male form - controlling her energy to hide it from the magicians in the walls.
"Nyguen, your mistress calls to you." She commanded through her mind, "Take this boy to the illusionist Tomo...tell him that the boy is a gift, but not to damage him too badly. I want him locked in an illusion, while I attempt to take the child from Shinju's womb."
"Yes, My Mistress. Your plan went off without a hitch," Nyguen said as the Endless Night wizards opened the doorway and stole Shin away…
"...My lord Tomo..." One of the envoys knelt in front of the warrior of Seiryuu, before depositing the body of Shin in front of him, "...an offering of good will from the Fey Queen and the Endless Night. She only requests that you hold him in illusion."
The long hair was surrounded by opium smoke. The voice was still nefarious. "Ahhhh, the great Blood Queen has offered me a gift of flesh in return for my magics. Tell the Blood Queen I lustfully accept her well endowed offer…"
The envoy smirked, bowing once before disappearing. Shin groaned, starting to sit up. "Wha...what the fuck happened...?" He rubbed the back of his head, "Oooh, when I find that brat, I'm gonna kill her..." He trailed off his muttering, before coughing a little bit at the smoke. "I don't feel so good." He tried to stand, finding his legs shaky before he blinked. 'Why...am I stuck as a man?' He wondered to himself before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out again.
"Shin...Shin, wake up..." Slowly, cream-colored eyes opened. Home? My...room? My mom?
"Mommy?" Sitting up, Shin rubbed his eyes; only realize that he was still a man. "Mom, what?"
"Well, you were getting ready for your date tonight, but you had another flare-up, fell asleep."
"F-flare up?"
"Your appendix, hon. C'mere, I'll brush out your hair." His mother sighed, picking up a brush, "That sweet boyfriend of yours is gonna be here in ten minutes...sometimes I think that nice boy is a Godsend, straightening you out..."
"What...? B-boyfriend?" Oh please, please, let it be Genro...
"...look, I didn't want to tell you because I wanted to just forget about it." Ellie rolled her gray eyes, "I know it's stupid, but..." She stopped, looking from Chichiri to Genro, "You guys...is it just me, or do you two get the feeling that something bad is happening?"
Genro's eyes narrowed. "You two go check the rest, I'll check on Shinju."
Ellie nodded, running down the hall at top speed. She could practically smell the magic that now permeated the palace. She checked every room, finding everything in place. The little ones were asleep, Mars and Shooter were busy making out as much as they could without making her no longer priestess worthy, Jefe was practicing with his pick, and Inu-Tiffy was out Amiboshi-stalking. Which just left Shinju.
Genro came into the room and found it empty. His heart dropped. No, not again! "Shin...ju. Goddamnit!" He whipped around to his guards. "Where is that little bitch Sera? FIND HER NOW!"
The guards dragged the nine-year-old out of bed, thrusting her at Genro's feet. "Wh-what happened?" She looked around, confused, before looking back up at him, "What're you doing?"
He sat on his throne staring daggers into her. "My Queen when to come see you while I was in chambers. Now she's missing. Tell me where she is."
"I don't know!" Sera protested, "I don't know where Shinju is!" That was the plain and honest truth; she knew only where she had sent Shin. She looked up at him, "I know you don't like me, Genro, but...I'd never hurt Shinju, honest! Not since she got that thing out of me!"
He felt a little twinge of sympathy, knowing Shinju would hate seeing her cousin cry, "I don't hate you, but you alone know where my wife is." His voice was gentler this time.
She looked up at him a moment, before looking at the floor. Her shoulders were shaking, at first it looked like she was crying. But, she threw back her head and was...laughing. "Your wife? Your wife is bound into the body of her beautiful male counterpart, hidden so that you will never find her. She'll never want to come back to you, Genro, King of Fools." She pointed a finger at him, "I will have that child, Genro, if I have to destroy both her parents to have her."
"Ellie, Chichiri...leave the room...and lock the doors. I'm going to end this shit right now." His fists clenched before he stood, Tessen in hand. Glaring down at the girl who had tried to kill his Shinju, who had taken her from him.
Ellie nodded, taking Chichiri's hand and leading him out. Looking over her shoulder one last time.
The boy was downstairs, making green tea with a little honey and fresh jasmine. His raven hair was long, almost to the floor with streaks of dark blue woven throughout. "Ah, Shin, my sweet, you're awake. Here, the tea is almost ready."
Shin was obviously very confused, sitting down in one of the chairs and just looking at his mother strangely. She just shook her head. "He should be fine soon..." She assured the other boy, "It was just a little one this time."
"Mom, this is ridiculous! I got my appendix out when I was twelve! I have the scar..." He lifted his shirt, blinking at the unblemished tan skin, "...right...here?"
"Sweetheart, that was your tonsils."
"No way! I remember, tonsils are up here, appendix is down here!" Shin looked over at his apparent 'boyfriend' in shock, "I don't think I've ever seen you before in my life..."
"Aw, come on tastycake, you know that's not true. You took an interest in me last year in high school. You saved me from a life of drug addiction and promiscuity. I owe you my life, Shin, and my love."
"Jeez, I thought you were the one who straightened me out." Shin muttered. His mother gently smacked him over the head.
"Be nice to him, please? Now, I'm going to leave you two here alone - I have to go to work. Remember, no-"
"-drugs, no sex. No danger of that." Shin rolled his eyes, before his mother kissed his forehead and left. For some reason, he had a vague recollection of this boy and of how they had gotten together and- his stomach started to burn again, and he winced. "Ow...ow...fuckity, ow..." Looking up at his boyfriend, he shivered, "...some of that tea sounds great." He finally admitted.
"Of course, Shin, shall I cool it down for you or do you like it...hot?"
He arched a brow, pulling his knee to his chest, "You're supposedly my significant other, don't you know?" God, what was this guy's name? He tried to wrack his memory for it, but for all his wracking, he was drawing a blank. His mind barely registered the very sexual purr of that question his 'boyfriend' had just given him.
The boy smiled sweetly. "Oh, with you it's just like sex, tastycake. One day you'll want to give, the next, receive. So I ask everyday, just so I know how to pleasure you."
Shin almost fell out of his chair, just staring up at him. "You said WHAT?!" He pointed with a shaky finger, "B-but, the rules are no drugs, no sex...what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck is going on?" He ran a hand through his hair, "Just...make it cool enough to drink, please." He gave a little shudder. So very, very confused.
The boy smiled, leaning down over Shin, basically straddling him. "Oh Shin," he whispered. "We always play when momma cat's away." The redhead blushed and looked away, his face about the color of his hair now. He really needed answers if he was going to be a rule-breaker.
"Hey...can you just pretend for ten minutes...that that last flare-up fried my brain...and I have no idea what the hell is going on here. Will you explain to me who you are and how the hell you know what I'm like in bed?" He looked up at the boy, "...and could you please get off?" After all, his body had felt someone sit on him and figured it was time to...play.
"Could I get off? Hmm, well, I guess...but I'd much prefer not doing it alone," he winked at him. He sat back, just a bit. "Alright, I'll play your game. I'm Edward. We've been dating for just over a year. You came out to your parents about 8 months ago...and it went very well."
Of course it had, Shin knew his parents had no problems with having people in their family attracted to their own sex. Hell, his aunt was a gay massage therapist, and his father's best man had been his stepmother's very butch, gay best friend.
Shin reached out and pushed Edward off him. "Look, Ed, hon, I hate to burst your bubble but...I'm not a guy, and I think my real boyfriend is gonna toss a fit if he finds you all on me like this." Might as well not get his hopes up, if the hard-on hadn't already.
"You're not a guy?" Edward looked down. "Could have fooled me, sexy."
Oh, he wanted to hit him, but he didn't. Abusing one's boyfriend was not on a list of good activities for him. "Seriously, most of the time, I'm most definitely female. Better stacked than Pam Anderson."
"We've had this conversation too. Pam Anderson is way overrated according to you and apparently a 'stupid, diseased butt.'"
…yeah, that sounded like him. A lot, actually. He'd never put a lot of stock into Ms. Anderson, only ever liking one movie she had ever done, and that was mostly for the Rottweiler and- back to business! Focus!
Shin dropped his head into his palm. "...wow, I feel really out of the loop." He groaned, before forcing a painful little smile, "I'll take a cup of that tea. My brain's shot."
Edward got up; grinding his midsection against Shin's and went to get the tea. "Oh, I'm on the gymnastics team too, tastycake." He pointed out, returning with two cups.
Oooh, flexibility. The redhead didn't comment, but he took one of the cups from him, gulping the tea down gratefully. "...wait a second...there's no gymnastics team in this little pack of gum town..." He looked at him strangely, "Plus, my mom usually works from nine in the morning to six at night FROM THE HOUSE. You'd better start explaining and fast, Ed."
"Shin...go outside. Where the hell have you been the last couple of years, honey?"
He stood, "Years? Jeez, the most I've been gone is a few months."
"I don't think so hon...if you don't remember all the development around here..."
He went to argue with him, before he felt that burning again. The cup fell out of his shaking hand as he hit his knees. "What...the hell..."
"Oh, Shin, baby…come on, let's get you back to bed." He was all of a sudden all cuteness, all cuddles. Not at all the sex-craving beast he had been earlier.
"...promise you won't do anything?" He asked, pleading as he looked up at Edward.
Edward kissed Shin on the forehead. "Cross my heart and hope to die, honey....now come on."
"O-okay..." Slowly, he forced himself to stand up, walking back upstairs towards his room. Wondering what the hell he had been doing for the past few months.
If this whole time, in Universe of the Four Gods, had all been some weird dream.
"Ellie, Chichiri, you two take a couple of hours. Do what you two need to do together. We are storming the Endless night's compound. I will get my Queen back." The determination kept him from killing himself, the urge to do so obvious in the pained look on his face. He needed his queen, more than anything in the world. He would give up his own life to have her safe, in his arms, for a few more hours.
Ellie bit her bottom lip, tamping down her protests and nodded.
"We're coming with you," Jefe stepped up at Ellie's side, Inu-Tiffy, Mars and Shooter slightly behind him. "Shin may be a spazz, but she's our spazz."
"Ellie...Chichiri…" The pleading was more directed to his azure-haired friend, "...I don't know if I'll survive this raid, but you bring her back to me...no matter where I am. Please..."
"You're gonna survive this raid." The blonde Witch growled, fists clenching as her black energy surrounded her again, "We're all getting out of this alive." The others nodded mutely, looking at Genro one last time before the group dispersed.
Genro slumped into his throne...and wept.
"My Lord...? Your orders?"
He didn't even look up when he said, "Kill...them...all."
...And the tears kept falling. "I just...got you back, damnit. I'm going to make it so you'll never leave me again Shinju...I need you with me..."
The army was marching now...one by one leaving their Bandit King to go fight his battle and all he could do was go to the bed where he and his Queen had made love only hours before. He could still smell the lovemaking in the sheets. "Shinju...please come back to me. Whatever I did wrong...I'm...I'm sorry..."
"Sh-sh-sh..." Madeline toddled in, all on her own, looking up at Genro with her big brown eyes, still trying to pronounce her big cousin's name, before she climbed up onto the bed with him. It took some doing. Reaching out with one little chubby finger, she traced the path of his tears down his cheeks. "She...come...home..." She finally made out. "Pwomise."
The little girl was Genro's smile. "Y...yeah, she will hon. Come on. Let's get you back to sleep, huh?"
"No." Madeline said stubbornly, looking up at him with Shinju's stubborn face, little chin raised and thrust out slightly at him. "No, not sweepy."
He couldn't help but fall back laughing. "God you are related to her, aren'tcha? Fine...no sleep for you. I just don't know what to..."
The voice made his hair stand on end.
"Do? Perhaps...I could help, Genro-Sama..."