Disclaimer: Characters used in this work of fiction belong to Takeshi Konomi-sensei.
Warning: Possible grammar/spelling mistakes and missing words/letters. There may be mentions of violence and killing, as well as shonen-ai.
Italic – thoughts
Italic + bold – memories or something that happened, was said in the past
Normal – Present
"Something inside these things" - talking
Pairing: Thrill Pair [Fuji/Ryoma]
Fuji was sitting in his living room and lazily watching out of the window. The sunrays played on the carpeted floor and the small, black, cat-like creature was happily lying on. It seemed like a perfectly peaceful day at the Fuji residence, if not for the occasional overly loud bits and pieces of Fuji's parents talk floating around the house.
"How long will that go on for?" someone's question could be heard in the seemingly peaceful room.
Fuji averted his eyes from the bright blue sky and white, fluffy clouds in it and focused on the cat that was now lying on his back in the sun. He seemed to stare at the animal, for a moment, in a questioning manner, but when his lips parted to speak another voice, feminine and soft, stopped him from talking even before he had started.
"Syuusuke, was that you talking?" His sister's voice flowed from the kitchen where she was working on some sort of porridge, meant for her little brother.
Fuji quickly pushed some buttons on the remote control to turn on the TV and lied: "No, it was just the TV. I pushed the wrong button, sorry nee-san."
The affirmative yell from his sister was the end of that talk. Fuji sighed and got out of the couch, only to crouch down next to the black cat and poke his tummy.
"Don't do that." A low hiss came from the small animal. Though, it didn't put up much of a struggle and only rolled over to sleep on his side, tummy away from the human teen.
Fuji tilted his head a little on the left and whispered out: "You're not supposed to be heard by my family, aren't you the one that said that, Ryoma?" Fuji picked the cat up and smiled. "And in fact, I thought you can't speak in this form."
"I never said that." The cat yawned and opened his eyelids, so that the golden eyes now focused on Fuji. "And that was a mistake on my part. It's because I'm still weak." He yawned again.
"Mattaku." Fuji shook his head and got up to walk back to the couch, the cat still in his arms, and sat down. He gently placed the animal in his lap and started to rake his fingers through the soft, black fur, "I thought that my blood healed you."
"My physical wounds only. My magical energy is low; the fight with the Lost took a lot from me." Ryoma curled into a ball and stretched out his front paws, "I'm not considered one of the strongest demons."
Fuji simply scratched behind the cat's ear and resumed to look outside the window. "They're fighting about my school you know." He said after a moment and sighed. "They think it's not safe for me to go there anymore. Since something like that might happen again."
"It won't."
"How do you know that?" Fuji looked down on his lap, the TV making noise in the background, so his sister couldn't hear the slightly surprised tone he used, "That thing couldn't have gone far from my school, so…"
Golden eyes once again looked up at Fuji and the cat yawned again. "Did you really think he just popped up there on his own and then disappeared just like that? Someone took care of him, I'm sure." The cat stretched and jumped out of Fuji's lap. "Since, I'm not the only demon here you know."
Fuji could only follow the small animal with his eyes, as he left the room. The whole thing was strange, that much Fuji could still understand, but what was Ryoma hiding from him still? The erasure of memories and lives he could understand, since he wouldn't want to see someone he cared about fading away from the world over and over again, remembering too.
So what is Ryoma still not telling me? Fuji touched the still warm spots on his pants where Ryoma had slept not too long ago. Is he really that scared of telling me everything?
"M-my Lord, where are you going?" one of the demons in his way asked, head bowed low and eyes hidden behind the mask and hood. His whole body was dressed in black, torn and dirty rags; the best he could muster up in the world of demons.
Grausam walked past him giving the demon a short answer: "Human world."
His footsteps echoed in the ruin all around him, the red light warping his shadow, making it look like something alive, yet dead at the same time. Few servants followed closely behind him, not making a sound as their feet lightly touched the ground, the rags they were wearing fluttered behind them.
"My Lord," one of the female demons, slightly better dressed and not bowing in front of Grausam's path called out to the demon king, "May I accompany you on this, heh, journey you are taking?" she slid down from the broken pillar that she had used as a chair.
Grausam let his eyes wander around her body and then turned his head away from her. "Do as you wish, Ita. Just don't get in my way or you will die."
"Yes, My Lord." Ita smirked and her eyes glowed red. "Cut, Sin, come with me my cute, little boys. This will be fun, no?" she purred and wrapped her fingers around the two chains, lying by her feet. The two male demons slid out from the shadows and followed their master obediently.
Grausam didn't look back, but it wasn't like he needed to do it anyway, "You still keep them around? I thought you will have gotten bored with those two toys by now." He sneered and stepped over a dead body, lying on the path.
"Oh you know how it is My Lord," Ita let out a shrill laugh and pulled the chains more, making the two demons behind her walk faster, "once you get to know them, you just can't let go anymore. And they have been the best toys so far; so very, very cute…" she patted the red-head demon's head.
"Disgusting." Grausam muttered to himself.
Ryoma slid into the warm kitchen, where Fuji's sister Yumiko was standing by the stove and stirring some sort of porridge for her brother and humming a quiet song to herself. The white apron was loosely tied behind her back and the knot was not far from untying on its own.
Ryoma padded over to his bowls of food and water in search of something to eat. Finding none there he sighed and slowly walked to the table, next to the stove, and jumped on it.
Yumiko looked at the cat and reached out her hand to scratch the one spot behind his ear. "Sorry Ryoma, I'll get you something after I finish this, ok?" she smiled and poked Ryoma's nose lightly.
The cat sighed again: "Fine. I'll wait then." He curled up and closed his eyes again, not bothering to remove his persona from the table.
"Make sure my parents don't see you sleeping there, you know what they think of you." Yumiko warned the demon and lifted a spoon, full with the porridge, to her mouth. "Still needs something. But what…?"
"They won't notice me, I'll blend in with.. Stuff." Ryoma yawned, getting comfortable on the table. "The sunny spot on the carpet was better."
Yumiko laughed again: "In that case, you should have stayed with Syuusuke." She turned off the fire under the pot and walked to the refrigerator to pull out something for Ryoma, probably. "Will fish do?"
"Yeah." Ryoma opened his eyes a bit and only when the small bowl with some kind of fish salad was put next to him did he move. "Itadakimasu."
Yumiko sat on one of the chairs, supporting her head with her left hand on the table and looked at Ryoma, how he ate his lunch. "Did you tell him yet? Or he still doesn't know?" the jolly tone was gone from her voice now, only seriousness and a tad bit of worry was left.
"What do you think I should tell him?" Ryoma snorted, "Something along the lines of 'hey, one of your friends is a bloody backstabber demon, nice huh'? He's not ready for that; even, if he remembered the other scenarios." His golden eyes landed on Yumiko.
She tried to smile in return, but failed. "He's not ready, I guess. But Ryoma, you do realize that you don't have much time left, and I'm not saying this as someone that's a part of the other world." Yumiko looked straight into Ryoma's eyes.
"I know Yumiko." Ryoma stood up, licking the corners of his mouth clean, "I know, but there is little I can do. Without his help it's impossible to achieve that. Even you should know that." He sat down again.
Both were quiet after that, looking at some point in front of them, yet not seeing anything. None could say something, anything that would cut through the unwanted silence that had settled between them. Because, they both knew that once all of this will end and that Fuji will eventually find out everything, for real this time.
"Nee-san?" Fuji walked inside the kitchen, "Is the porridge ready yet?"
Before the second eldest of the Fuji siblings could notice the awkwardness between the two or any indications that they both knew each other better than he thought they did, Yumiko had returned to her usual jolly self and Ryoma just continued to stare in space.
"Hai, I just finished cooking and was about to call you Syuusuke." She walked to the pot and threw Ryoma a sideways glance, "Don't tell mom and dad that I allowed your cat to eat on the table, they wouldn't like that." She smiled and reached out to pat Ryoma again.
"I won't." Fuji promised and sat down, ready for his lunch.
A/N: Sorry for the lateness, I didn't have the will to write something for this story for a long time. Somehow, it's like I'm in a slump or have caught and author's block. I don't know.
Meh, whatever.
19.02.2011.