A/n: well here it is folks! I've finally hit the double digits in this ficcy! Go me ^-^! Yes, excuse my hyperactive ramblings…Tenshi has had too much pocky today. Okay on to the actual story. I no own Fushigi Yuugi but Rosie's all mine y'know. To the real chappy, y'know…
Rosie streaked down the hallways, her blue eyes scanning around her for either gravity-defying azure bangs or the mass of fiery locks that belonged to her two missing babysitters. Suddenly the small angel smashed headlong into something solid, knocking both herself and the other person backwards. A shower of scrolls rained down on Rosie's head and a high pitched but decidedly male voice cried out in surprise as he landed on the hard wood floor.
"Aw damn! I did it again!" Rosie cried in dismay, leaping to her feet and rushing to help the boy up. The boy was about two feet taller than Rosie with light brown hair tied on top of his head and large, intelligent brown eyes. He looked to be about thirteen. "You okay? I'm sorry!" the angel apologized as she darted around picking up the fallen scrolls.
"Yes, I'm alright." the young boy replied "I hope I didn't injure you when I walked into you."
"Forget it, it was my fault anyways." Rosie told the other "I was runnin' an' not watching where I was goin'."
"Oh no, I must insist that the blame is most probably mine. You see I was reading a very interesting scroll on the movements of the constellations and I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." the boy protested.
"You were reading?" Rosie asked in amazement. "Can I hear you read? Onegai?"
"Well, sure if you really want to…" the young boy replied, "Ano…I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are…"
"Oh yeah!" the girl exclaimed, hitting her forehead with an open palm "I'm Rosie an' I'm a angel." she told him "Who're you?"
"I am Chiriko of the Suzaku Shichiseishi." the boy answered amiably. "I'm very pleased to meet you, although I must admit I've never met an angel before…"
Rosie giggled. "Everyone says that. I guess angels are kinda rare around here. Anyways, d'you still wanna read to me?" the girl asked eagerly. The tiny angel started hopping up and down, pleading with Chiriko to read to her. "I even picked up your scrolls for ya. Pleeeease? With sugar an' everything on top?"
"O-of course." the boy replied, "It would be a pleasure."
Rosie's eyes lit up and she stopped jumping. "Really? You're the best!" she seized Chiriko's hand and looked up at him. "Where to mister reader man?"
Chiriko laughed. "You're quite the reading enthusiast I see. Well I was going to the library, but I think we should go to my room instead. It's closer."
With that the two set off hand in hand towards Chiriko's room, talking animatedly about everything from Rosie's world to why Chiriko was so smart. Finally they reached the young genius's room and settled themselves on the bed. Rosie was sitting next to Chiriko, who was reading from a yellowed old scroll about the moon's phases in relation with the position of Venus and Saturn in their respective celestial positions.
Meanwhile, Tasuki and Chichiri had gone back to check on Rosie to find that the angel was nowhere to be found and had been looking for her for the past hour.
"I knew we shouldn't have left her alone!" Tasuki muttered sourly. "Now she's run off again!"
"Don't worry, no da." Chichiri said in a placating manner. "She probably ran into another seishi by now, no da. I'm sure she's fine."
"Yeah, well, fine or not I'm still gonna kill that kid when I find her!" the bandit growled in irritation. "Doesn't she know we're worried about her?"
"I'm sure she does, no da." the mage replied "She probably woke up while we were still gone and got scared so she ran out to look for us, no da."
Tasuki frowned in concern. "Think so? Then we really gotta hurry up and find her! You go that way I'll go check the grounds, that way we cover more ground in less time." he said as he started off in the direction of the Imperial forest.
"Be careful, no da!" Chichiri called after him. The monk shook his head in amusement. That's Tasuki for you, always the impulsive one, no da. He laughed softly as he kept going down the hallway to where the seishi's chambers were . But that's why we love him, no da.
The warrior-mage silently made his way down the hall and found Hotohori, still leaning on the rail, watching the stars with a curious half-smile on his face.
"Ano…Sorry to bother you, Heika, but you haven't by any chance seen an angel come by here have you, no da?" Chichiri asked, standing a few steps away from the young emperor.
"W-what? An angel? Oh, yes I have." Hotohori replied, shaking his head to clear it. "She was watching the stars with me until the ninth chime, then she ran off that way." He pointed to his left.
Chichiri bowed respectfully. "Arigato, Heika."
Hotohori nodded and Chichiri continued down the corridor. The monk turned a corner and saw light spilling out from under Chiriko's door.
"That's odd," he murmured as he got closer "Chiriko isn't usually in his room at this hour…"
The mage gently knocked on the half-opened door. When no response came, he carefully pushed the door opened a little more and found not only Chiriko, but Rosie as well.
The two were leaning on one another, fast asleep, with an open scroll across their laps. Chichiri smiled and quietly entered the room. Taking Rosie into his arms, he gently lowered Chiriko to the bed with his free hand and pulled the covers over his youngest brother. The monk blew out the candle on the bedside table and tiptoed back out of the room, closing the door behind him. He moved away from the door and looped the thumb of his spare hand through his prayer beads, sending a silent message to Tasuki that he'd found Rosie. Tasuki told him to meet him at his own room and Chichiri agreed. He unhooked his thumb from the beads, breaking the link, and looked down at the angel sleeping peacefully in his arms. Her fiery hair, made lighter in the darkness gently framed the girl's small face and played across her downy wings, which were folded lightly behind her. She shivered and Chichiri unclasped his kesa and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"You'd never know she was such a handful if you saw her like this, no da." Chichiri said softly to himself as he made his way to Tasuki's room.
A/n: well it ends here for now because I have too much sugar in me and Easter chocolate is calling my name. So tell me what cha' thought an' the dictionary's right below.
Onegai- please
Arigato- Thank You
Heika- Your highness
see ya next chappy y'know!
~Tenshi Kitsune~