"Hayate," he heard Minha's tired voice speaking close to his ear. "Mate, please," she added after he had not responded.
"What?" Hayate half snapped at her. He turned over on the bed to face her. He noticed she had a half hopeful look in her eyes and a tray of food in her hands. By the smell of it, food seemed appealing for the first time in days. He half sat up, leaning his weight on his back against the bed.
"I brought you something to eat if you would like it," she said softly, setting the tray down on his legs before he could tell her no. "It's the middle of the afternoon and I figured you would be hungry as you haven't eat yet today," she added cautiously. She sat down on the bed next to him, looking as if she would spring up at provocation.
He looked down at the food, feeling his stomach roll. He shook his head, hearing her give a sharp intake of breath. He glanced over at her, noticing she looked clearly worried about him.
"I also need to know what to do about-" she began.
"About what?" he asked grumpily, pushing the tray away, smarting as it stopped abruptly at his knees. In annoyance, he picked up the tray and threw it off of him and the bed and on to the floor. She seemed to insist on bothering him with clan troubles since his father died and he was sick of it. He just wanted to be left alone to decide if he wanted to die too, but she would not leave him alone. She seemed to hover over him like a mother hen in the past two weeks, sometimes succeeding in getting him to do things bar leaving their quarters. A few times her brother was with her, making him more apprehensive that Yasha would touch him and ordered him to do something. He went along with her goading a bit more when Yasha was around.
She put two soft hands on his. "A storm is coming. Severe by the looks of it. Should we bring the harvest in a month early, getting a lower yield, or wait for harvest time and risk it and hope to get the full yield should the storm not destroy any or all of it?"
"You woke me up just to ask me that?" he growled, pulling his hands away from hers.
"I can relay your opinion to the council if you would like to tell me what it is?" she asked nervously, hoping not to raise his temper anymore. "Like I did the last few times."
"I don't care," he turned away from her and tucked himself back into the bed. "Do what you want."
"Okay," she responded gently, running a tender hand along his hair. He considered telling her to stop, but he liked the feeling he felt when she touched his hair. "I'm going to have the harvest brought in early. I don't want to risk it," she explained. "When you're ready to lead, I'll be there with you," she promised. He ignored her, wishing his father was there instead, feeling overwhelmingly lonely. He felt her shift on the bed and then place a barely there kiss on his temple. Then he felt her get off of the bed.
He continued to ignore her, feeling annoyed that she had not left the room yet and instead was cleaning up mess he made on the floor. He felt better and then worse when he heard her leave the room. He heard her arguing with two male voices not far off. He ignored them all, trying to will himself back to sleep so his father could dream walk into his dreams again with the help of the Great Hawk Spirit, the Hayato clans' ancestor. She always guided the clan's dead into the dreams of people they knew; one night for each year the clansman lived. His father had visited him the first night, but not any other nights since.
He felt like he was hovering on the edge of sleep when the door opened again. A tired and annoyed looking Yasha walked into the room, arms crossed over his chest. He leaned against the closed door, not saying anything. Hayate ignored him as well, waiting for sleep to finally take him over again.
The next two weeks continued in similar fashion, Minha hovering over him for almost every waking moment. The times if she was not there, it would be Yasha, on a few occasions Mai or a servant, or once Kohaku. He felt like she would not let him be alone. On two occasions, she had pressed her luck and started touching and kissing him romantically. He shoved her away as gently as he could both times, taking longer to do so the second time then the first.
On another occasion, both Minha and Yasha had come into his room, bothering him to meet with Mukuro, but he told them to go away and ignored them. A little while later, he heard someone come into the room, slamming the door shut behind them. Hayate looked over towards the door, a sudden anger swelling up within him that he was being bother again, this time with Yasha by himself.
"Get up," Yasha snapped at him, moving over to him on the bed. Yasha grabbed his arm, tugging him into a sitting position before he could react.
"You son of a bitch," Hayate swore, shaking out of his grip. He checked Yasha's hands, noticing he still had a similar pair of skin toned gloves on his hands that Minha wore. "Don't touch me."
Yasha narrowed his eyes at Hayate. "Enough is enough. You've been laying around for too long while Minha's doing your job for you on top of her own," he sounded enraged without actually yelling. He reached over and grabbed his arm again, tugging him towards the edge of the bed. "Get up and lead or get up and kill yourself. I don't care. I'm sick of having to babysit you while my sister is on the verge of a nervous breakdown." Hayate pulled Yasha's hand off of his arm. "She has to go face Mukuro because you won't get your lazy ass out of bed." Yasha gave an annoyed growl and punched Hayate's shoulder. "She's your mate damn it."
After a delayed reaction, Hayate felt his temper growing shorter with Yasha. He felt more alert and awake then he had in weeks. He rounded on Yasha, taking his own swing at him and missing as Yasha backed away from the bed. Yasha gave a snide click against his teeth. Feeling insulted, Hayate jumped out the bed and charged at Yasha, escalating the situation into a full blown brawl in the bedroom. Hayate punched Yasha square in the chest, sending him staggering backwards. Yasha retaliated with his own right hook to Hayate's jaw. Hayate rounded on him with a strike aimed for his chest again, but he blocked it and shoved Hayate away towards the door. Hayate charged back at him again, landing a punch across his jaw. Then another one into his shoulder. When Hayate tried to land a third punch, Yasha blocked it, kicked him in the chest, and then punched him in the face before he could react.
Yasha paused, raising his guard as he panted. "Minha said to let you be, to be nice to you, but I'm sick of it. So unless you want me to kick your ass some more, catch yourself on and lead like you're supposed to. Instead of making your mate do everything for you."
Hayate clenched his fist and charged at Yasha again. Yasha dodged him with effort and then struck him between his ribs. If he were not a wind demon, it would have made it difficult for him to breath. The pain was enough to make him pause though, leaving an opening for Yasha to kick him in his knee and make him stagger and almost fall. Hayate roared wordlessly and shoved Yasha back hard and pinned him against the wall. One hand came around Yasha's neck and the other pinned his right forearm to the wall. Yasha gripped at the hand around his neck, but could not pull it off.
"That's the spirit," Yasha teased in a wheezing voice. "We could have used this attitude adjustment a little earlier. Before you let Minha go face Mukuro in your place." Hayate slackened his grip on Yasha, but he did not try to escape his grip, but stared him down instead. "She needs you. Whether you want to or not, she can't keep this up much longer. It's no secret she wanted the power that comes from being your mate, but she's not able to handle the pressure after your father died and you just laid down and hid like a coward," he swore. Hayate tightened his grip on Yasha, keeping him from talking anymore. The insult making him angry.
Both men froze when they heard an argument starting outside the door. Hayate's grip slackened again on Yasha as they listened in. "For goodness sake! I said let me see that!" Yasha groaned, recognizing the voice a split second before Hayate did.
"Let me go," Yasha requested, looking suddenly very worried. Hayate ignored him, listening to the argument, feeling his tempering beginning to boil over again.
"I told you no!" Minha's high pitched voice responded to the first voice. "Hayate should see it first! Not you!"
"He won't even leave your rooms! I have half a mind to call a vote of no confidence against him as well!" Hiroto shouted backed at her. "I haven't bothered yet because that would leave Jiro in charge and you displaced! The least he could do is knock you up! If you were pregnant, then he can be displaced without displacing you! He can't even seem to do that!"
"Leave him alone! Let him grieve!"
"You seemed to have forgotten how to listen in the past month!"
"You're not the only one on the council! I don't have to listen to you!"
"I'm your father! Now let me see that treaty you lost your hair for!"
"I said no!"
"Mukuro did us a favor branding you a craven!"
Both men froze and tensed up when they heard a sharp smack and a pitiful shout from Minha. Hayate shoved Yasha to the ground to keep him out of his way and stormed over to the door, nearly tearing it from its hinges as he threw it open. He saw a bad-tempered Hiroto standing a cowering Minha, trying to pry a set of papers she desperately clutched to her chest. She bit his hand, trying to stop him from getting the treaty from her.
Hiroto swore at her "you little bitch!" as he shook his hand free from her bite. He raised his hand up, ready to back hand her across the face.
"Hiroto!" Hayate boomed, charging over to him. "Get away from my mate!" He shoved Hiroto so he was facing him and punched him hard across the mouth, sending him to the ground.
"How dare-" Hiroto began.
"Get out of my sight!" Hayate shouted him down. He pulled him up by his shirt collar. "If I ever hear you've touched her again I'll kill you!" He shoved him backwards with him moving readily to get away until he was out through the main door of Hayate and Minha's quarters.
Panting heavily, he turned back and went to Minha. Yasha was kneeling next to her, holding her close. He knelt down in front of them, facing Minha. She kept her face downcast before him. He noticed her hair was much shorter, cut roughly in line with her chin. He vowed to kill Mukuro for the insult he dealt her. He brought a hand under her chin on the left side of her face, raising her face to look up at his. "I'm sorry," he told her, breaking the silence.
She gave a whimper, detached herself from Yasha, and sat back very still and tense. The papers she had been holding were crumpled when she handed them over to Hayate with a weary look in her eyes. He could see she was holding back some pretty powerful emotions because he was there. He took the papers from her, smoothing them over and taking a cursory glance over the words. This definitely needed to be reviewed thoroughly by the council immediately. He looked back at her exhausted form, realizing he hardly knew her and yet she had done so much already for him and the clan. He sat the treaty down carefully, reached over to her, and pulled her by her forearms towards him into a tight embrace. His hand went up to her knewly shorn hair, running his fingers through it. She was stiff at first, but then relaxed in his arms and hugged him back.
Yasha broke the silence next. "He must not have known I was in there. Or that you would react the way you did. He prefers if no one saw him raise a hand to her."
"Why don't you-" he paused, not wanting to reveal that he knew about Yasha's abilities "-stop him."
"I haven't been able to," Yasha responded with a weak excuse.
"Then I will. I will kill him if I have to," Hayate retorted.
"Killing one of your council members is not the first real thing you want as your act as gunju," replied Yasha with a soft laugh.
"How can you joke about that," Hayate hissed.
Yasha rolled his eyes. "Can I assume you'll watch over her now like a real mate should?" he dug. "Instead of still leaving that bit to me?"
Hayate flinched at the dig, tightening his grip on Minha reflexively. "You're hurting me," she struggled to say. She raised her head up from his shoulder and pushed weakly against him. "Too tight."
He slackened his grip around her, looking her face over. Her eyes had a steely look to them underlined with concern. She had a red mark on her left cheek. He growled under his breath at the sight of it. It made he want to hunt Hiroto down and do worse to him then he did to her. He barely kissed the spot softly.
Minha pulled away from him and sat back away from him, looking skittish. She reached up and healed the red mark on her cheek. "You need to review the treaty. Then we need to call a council meeting to review the treaty with them."
"Show me," he requested, standing up and offering a hand down to her. She took it and he pulled her up to her feet. She gave him a sad, nervous smile.