"No." Yuki said, crossing his arms and staring at the lunatic in front of him.
"Get over here. You're going to get bird flu…" K said, advancing on the now-retreating Yuki.
"K…back up…" Yuki said, putting up his hands and backing away from the crazed genie with the antiseptic.
"But…but…maybe it's good for you, Yuki…" Shuichi chimed in quietly, not wanting to upset Yuki. He was sprawled on a couch in the trio's suite, watching the standoff between master and genie.
"Stay out of this." Yuki snapped at Shuichi, not at all excited about the prospect of Shuichi allying himself with K. He didn't think he could handle both of them.
"Yuki…" Shuichi muttered, looking dangerous. "Let him help you."
"I told you to stay out of this!"
"Hey! Manners!" K said loudly, charging Yuki and smacking him upside the head. "Be nice!"
"No!" Yuki shouted at K, massaging his temple. "And stop hitting me!"
"Apologize!" K said, pulling out his gun and aiming it at Yuki's head. "Now."
Yuki glared at K and shook his head side to side very slowly. Shuichi looked nervously from K to Yuki and back again, concerned for everyone's safety. K cocked his gun and pushed it against Yuki's head. Shuichi gulped and stood up, ready to bolt if necessary.
"Go ahead. Shoot. Then you'll never get wished free." Yuki said under his breath, his eyes locked onto K's. "Pull the trigger, genie."
"Was that a wish I heard?" K said, smiling a bit and backing Yuki into the wall. "Ok."
"NO!" Shuichi screamed, throwing himself between Yuki and K. He put a hand on each man's chest and tried to push K away from Yuki. When this effort failed, he put both hands on K and pushed with all of his might.
K raised his eyebrows and looked down, trying to figure out what Shuichi was trying to do. He glanced up at Yuki with a quizzical expression. Yuki shrugged in return and started trying to pry Shuichi away from K.
"No, Yuki, let go!" Shuichi squealed. Yuki hoisted him off of the ground and held him there for a while. Shuichi flailed around, trying to regain his footing, but eventually went still and took to glaring at K and Yuki. "You two play nice."
"Yeah…right." Yuki said, putting Shuichi down and patting him on the head. He gave him a shove towards the couch and went back to staring down K. "I'm fine, I don't need your help."
"I'm done with this argument. Get your ass over here." K said, looking frustrated. "I'm serious, your ear is still bleeding and you're covered in scratches and dried blood."
"K, for the last time, I don't need your help!" Yuki yelled, throwing a pillow at K and attempting to storm off to his room. Instead, K let out a war cry and tackled him. Yuki flipped over and slapped K, trying to push him off. In response, K starting pulling Yuki's hair and flicking his ears.
"Guys…" Shuichi said, peering over the edge of the couch at the fight. "Guys."
The brawlers ignored Shuichi and continued to roll around on the ground, trying to inflict as much pain as possible to the other.
"HEY!" Shuichi screamed. The windows in the suite rattled ominously and K and Yuki stopped fighting long enough to stare at Shuichi.
"Ummm…" Yuki said, coming to his senses and realizing that K was sitting on him and had his arms pinned down. "Get. Off."
"Hmm?" K responded, returning his attention to Yuki. "Oh, right, yeah. Wait a minute..."
K's eyes took on a devious glint and he smiled at Yuki.
"K…" Yuki said slowly, starting to get worried. He renewed his effort to stand-up, but K continued to hold him down.
"Could you please bring me the antiseptic?" K directed at Shuichi, still smiling devilishly. Yuki muttered a few curses under his breath and started trying to head butt K.
"Okay!"Shuichi chirped, happy to be of assistance and completely oblivious to the look he was earning from Yuki. He ran over to where K had dropped his medical kit and skipped back over to him. "Here you go!"
"Dammit…" Yuki muttered, wriggling around in a vain attempt to get loose. "GET OFF!"
"You keep yelling and I'll shoot you." K said, releasing Yuki's arms but remaining seated on his chest. He opened the kit and swabbed a little rag with the antiseptic. "Hold still, I don't want to get this in your eyes."
"K…don't…I'm fine…" Yuki whispered, not wanting to look too panicked in front of Shuichi but terrified of the idea of K playing doctor. "It's not that bad, really…"
K clicked his tongue and shook his head, clearly disbelieving. He sighed, and pressed the rag to Yuki's bloodied ear. Yuki let out a bloodcurdling scream and started hitting K as hard as he could in the stomach and chest. K groaned a bit but stayed where he was, determined to prevent Yuki from dying due to bird bacteria. K swabbed Yuki's ear again, making sure to get all the blood cleaned off and the entire wound disinfected.
"See? Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" K asked, his tone light. "It's for the best, I don't even want to think about what's been in that bird's beak."
Yuki hissed a bit at K, the pain in his ear rendering him incapable of speech.
"I'll take that as a 'thanks'. Alright, let's get the rest of them taken care of. Shu-er, I mean, Prince…uh…" K stuttered, suddenly unsure of what to call Shuichi. He felt the need to be formal even without Mika present.
"You don't have to call me those things, K-san!" Shuichi said brightly.
"Good." K said, sounding relieved. "I need you to grab the other rag here and help me. That bird really did a number on him."
Yuki sighed slowly and looked off into space. He stayed quiet, unwilling to cause anymore of a scene with Shuichi this close to him. K and Shuichi made quick time in treating all of the wounds, and as such K released Yuki and took to giving Shuichi a tour of the suite. Once Yuki had gotten over the indignity of being beaten up by a parrot and subsequently having been tackled and treated by a pair of maniacs, he got up and slunk over to one of the windows. In the courtyard below, Cinda had returned to ripping up trees.
Yuki flopped onto the nearest couch and considered the merits of taking a nap. He was still exhausted from last night, let alone the bird encounter. As he was closing his eyes, the door to the suite flew open and Ryuichi came prancing in, swinging Kuma wildly as he did so.
"Na no da! I made a new friend, Yuki!" Ryuichi squealed, bounding over to Yuki's couch and jumping up and down on the spot. "'member Tatsuha?"
"What?" Yuki asked, immediately alarmed. Tatsuha could spoil everything.
"He's my friend now!" Ryuichi said, positively beaming. "We played tea party, and he was real nice to Kuma, and, and…"
"Ryuichi." Yuki said, reaching up and grabbing the older man's shoulders in order to keep him from his continual bouncing. "He knows who we are! You didn't tell him anything, did you?"
"Nope! He just wanted to talk about Kuma anyway." Ryuichi said, sensing the seriousness in Yuki's voice but feeling too hyper to pay much attention to it.
"Alright. You can't tell him that I'm Yuki. That's your mission, you have to keep the secret!" Yuki said, this time grabbing Ryuichi's face to ensure that he listened. "He already knows you and Kuma, but he can't know that I'm really a street rat, OK?"
"OK!" Ryuichi quipped. Yuki let go of him and he resumed his bouncing. "Gots to keep a secret, Kuma…"
Ryuichi hopped around the room, singing to himself and Kuma, and Yuki laid back down on the couch, thankful just this once for Kuma. Without the rabbit, Ryuichi might have ruined everything. He'd been asleep for five minutes when he was jolted awake by one of his suitemates.
"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." K said, pushing his gun against Yuki's temple. "Brrring!"
"K…not now."
"Yes, now, we need to talk. I have a bone to pick with you and Ryuichi." K returned, wanting to discuss the fact that Yuki and Ryuichi had neglected to tell him they were wanted criminals from the slums. "Ryuichi, come here please."
K glanced around for Ryuichi, and was shocked to see him standing utterly still with Kuma on the floor beside his feet.
"Ryuichi?"
"He looks like me…" Ryuichi whispered in an awed voice to no one in particular.
He was standing about three feet in front of Shuichi and the two were staring at each other intently. They started to circle one another, studying the slight differences and abundant similarities.
"You've met him before, dumbass." Yuki barked from the couch, aiming his remark at either of the two.
Shuichi and Ryuichi ignored Yuki entirely; they were both too busy being engrossed in their apparent twin.
"Ryuichi?" K asked again, this time clearing his throat for some added emphasis.
"Just let them work it out." Yuki interjected from the couch. He raised himself up momentarily to check on the dynamic duo and then returned to his napping.
K shook his head and leaned against the nearest wall, content to listen to Yuki just this once.
"Wait…you're the guy from the throne room! The one that led the parade!" Shuichi exclaimed suddenly. The previous night had partially erased his memory, and he had forgotten all about his prior feud with Ryuichi.
"Yeah! Kuma remembers you! From the streets! And when we lost Yuki!" Ryuichi squealed, picking up Kuma and resuming his on-the-spot dancing. His momentary excitement, however, was quickly replaced with terror at remembering that Shuichi had tried to kill him the day before. At this thought, Ryuichi started backing up and clutching Kuma to his chest with a terrified look on his face.
Shuichi cocked his head to the side and stared at Ryuichi. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. Ryuichi continued to back up and eventually bumped into the couch that Yuki was draped across. In response to the bump, Yuki opened one eye and took in his surroundings.
"You OK?" Shuichi asked timidly, not wanting to startle Ryuichi. He took a few steps toward the thief.
"YUKI!" Ryuichi screamed. "HE'S GOING TO EAT ME!"
Ryuichi jumped over the back of the couch and landed right in the middle of Yuki. Yuki tried to shove him off, but Ryuichi wrapped his arms around Yuki's neck and burrowed in for dear life.
"Ummm…?" Shuichi said quietly, slightly concerned about Ryuichi.
"He thinks you're going to kill him." Yuki said matter-of-factly. He stroked Ryuichi's head, whispered a few encouraging words, and, when Ryuichi loosened his grip, promptly dumped him onto the floor. He stood up and moved to a different couch. "Just tell him it's alright and he'll calm down."
K looked askance at Yuki's handling of Ryuichi, but recovered in time to see what the latter would do next.
"I'm not going to eat you…" Shuichi said in a soothing voice. "And I know you're not a jerk, so I don't want to kill you anymore."
"No murderizing?" Ryuichi asked, hoisting Kuma over the edge of the couch and talking through him.
"No…" Shuichi said, feeling uncomfortable. He wasn't used to being the mature one in any situation.
"Okaaaay!" Ryuichi said, catapulting over the couch and throwing himself at Shuichi. Shuichi shrieked and tried to jump out of the way, but Ryuichi was too quick for him. After he got over the shock of being assaulted by a bunny-wielding blur, he returned the hug in earnest. "Friends?"
"Friends!" Shuichi said, a huge smile in place.
"Oh dear god…" Yuki muttered, covering his face with his hands and sighing. He'd had a hard enough time dealing with just one Ryuichi over the years, but now it appeared that he had two.
"Yeah, this could be bad." K said from the sidelines. "And what the hell was that thing with Ryuichi?"
"Nothing." Yuki snapped, feeling defensive.
"It was definitely something." K responded, looking very pleased with himself. In the center of the room, Ryuichi and Shuichi were sitting cross-legged and whispering to one another. Every once in a while, one of them would giggle and glance over at Yuki or K.
"I've been stuck with him for seven years. You have to know how to make him stop freaking out when half the city guard is tailing you." Yuki replied, swinging his legs over the edge of the couch and stretching. Now that Shuichi and Ryuichi were acting like a pair of pre-teen girls, he had abandoned all hope of squeezing in a couch nap.
"Mmm hmm." K returned, smirking at Yuki. "So you've been stuck with Ryuichi since you were sixteen?"
Yuki considered throwing another pillow at K, but decided not to rise to K's taunts this time. He did some deep breathing, closed his eyes, and nodded in response to K's question.
"Alright, alright, I'll let this one slide. But I still need to talk to you and Ryuichi." K said, deciding to let Yuki get away with this one. He was sweet so rarely, and K didn't want to tease it out of him.
"Hah. Good luck with that one." Yuki said, gesturing with his head toward Shuichi and Ryuichi, who were now rolling around on the ground and shrieking with laughter.
"Did you just…laugh?" K asked Yuki, starting to feel like he was in the twilight zone.
"No. You're mistaken." Yuki said quickly. "I'm going to go take a nap, you might want to keep an eye on those two."
With that, Yuki walked over to his room and locked himself in. He put pillows around the bottom edge in an attempt to block out the peals of school-girlish laughter issuing from the maniacs in the main room. Soon as his head hit the pillow, he was dead to the world, completely oblivious to everything that Ryuichi was saying about him on the other side of the door.
I had originally intended this to be the first half of a HUGE chapter, the up and coming Caspian/Tohma reunion got way too out of hand. So, sorry that this chapter is shorter than usual. I think it's all for the best, though, it's no fun trying to contain my Caspian inspirations, especially when he's sitting three feet away and giving me tons of new ideas. Everything that he does in this story is, unfortunately for me, his roommate, based on something he's done in real life. Well, maybe not the conveyor belt…not as far as I know anyway…he's such a special little terror.
He's not that bad, truthfully. He has his moments. Like when he tries to follow me into the shower or when I wake up from a nap and he's somehow maneuvered himself between my neck and the pillow. Or when he's trying to sneak-attack the cat, my feet, or the gigantic greyhound. Anywho, hope you enjoyed the update, expect much zany Tohma/Po action in the next chapter, which by the way is almost completed. Should have it up next weekend.
Peace out,
Amaya