Trust
Category: YuixChichiri PWP
Warnings: Spoilers till end of series, Foul Language (Tasuki, I'm *warning* you...)
Note: This fic is set when Tasuki, Chichiri and Miaka are in the Kutou palace to rescue Evil Tamahome.
Author's Note: Hi... guess I've nothing better to do huh? This one is YuixChichiri. Thanks to all who reviewed my previous fics! (Continuation at bottom)
~***~
"Release Suzaku no Miko, and the bandit," commanded Nakago.
"S-sir?" a guard asked timidly, but the shogun gave his best I'll-have-your-puny-head-on-my-dinner-plate glare and he wisely shut up.
"Release the Suzaku!" the guard called, obviously not daring to challenge his general. Miaka and Tasuki were brought out and Nakago attached an iron-vice grip on the Miko's neck, as if daring the redhead to bring her to her end.
"I'll *never* tell you where the rest are!" the girl shouted defiantly. Nakago snorted contemptuously, while Tasuki just snarled. When they were alone, 'Nakago' transformed into Chichiri.
"Shit, blondie can fucking shapeshift!" Tasuki exclaimed, standing protectively in front of Miaka with his fists clenched.
"It's me no da!" Chichiri calmed him.
"What? That you, Chich? Matte... how can you prove it?"
"Come on, like Nakago can impersonate me no da... he thinks too highly of himself to act like this no da..." Chichiri said, then proceeded to behave like a monkey, hopping around and scratching his head.
"Chichiri!" Miaka cried, glomping onto the monk happily.
"Wait, someone's coming no da!" Chichiri stiffened, then transformed back into Nakago.
And who would round the corner but the blonde himself, and Tamahome.
~***~
The battle between the two Suzaku seishi had been going on for only five minutes, but Chichiri's shoulder was bleeding and his clothes (Nakago's armour) were ripped, Tasuki was coughing blood and Miaka was screaming while cradling an unconscious Tamahome.
Nakago wasn't too badly off, except he had to use the chi he had created the barrier with to heal himself.
At that moment, Chichiri sensed it and created a portal nearest Tasuki, Miaka and Tamahome. "Go now! Hayaku! I'll find my way out later!"
"Chichiri!"
"Don't die on us, you baka! We need you for the ceremony!" Tasuki protested.
"I won't die, go or *you* will!" With a blast of chi, the monk pushed them in and started running from Nakago.
~***~
Yui was finally out of her depression. She'd been in that state for god knows how long but somehow something clicked and the world made sense once more. God she needed to get out of her stuffy room. Maybe look for Tamahome...
Just as she opened the door, she came face to face with a bleeding, injured Nakago who practically collapsed on her.
"Nakago!" she screamed in fright. "What's going on! Who did this?"
"Um no da..."
~***~
What was he supposed to say? I'm after myself?
"Uh, one of the other Seiryuu seishi got mad at me no da," Chichiri fibbed desperately.
"Now what did you do to Soi?" Yui laughed despite herself. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Yui, the Seiryuu no Miko, was laughing?
"Yeah, that's it, Soi... but this is serious no d - I mean this is serious - aaahh..." Chichiri clutched at the wound which wouldn't stop leaking blood.
Yui sobered up (a little) and laid him on her bed. "Oh god, you're right. I'll get one of the servants -"
"No no no no!" Chichiri resisted the urge to add 'da'.
"What, are you still afraid of Soi? Okay, I'll see what I can do..." Yui busied herself looking for a cloth. "Okay, and here's some water."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" Chichiri yelled at the pain once the wet cloth touched his open wound. It was so bad that he felt his chi failing. Oh no, the spell...
~***~
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" Yui screamed at the blue-haired monk that suddenly appeared in her bed. "Where's Nakago? Wait a minute, you're the one who rescued Miaka at the shrine..."
"Please, Seiryuu no Miko, Nakago will kill me."
"Well, shouldn't he? You're a Suzaku seishi," Yui said coldly, ignoring the fear in his eyes.
"We Suzaku haven't done anything to you," the monk pleaded. "Please, trust me, I'll just leave after I'm better."
He was right, but... why did this feel so wrong? "Okay, okay. God, Nakago will kill me..."
"Doumo arigatou gozaimasu, Seiryuu no Miko no da," the monk sighed.
"Yui."
"Chichiri."
"So what do I do now?"
"I guess we have to clean the wound no da. Just do it." He grit his teeth bravely.
"Here goes -"
"Aaah!!"
"Sssh, Nakago will hear," Yui hushed him, muffling his cries with a pillow. "I *so* need to do my laundry after this."
~***~
An hour later...
"Thank you, Yui-san... for trusting me," Chichiri said as he leapt off the window into the night.
Yui sighed as she watched him go. After Miaka's betrayal, she hadn't had anyone to talk to. Why had she thought things would be different just because the monk had shown up? 'He just wanted you to protect him, baka,' she told herself. 'That's all it was.'
~***~
Two years later, in the mikos' world...
Yui walked down the street, hands in her pockets as she fixed her gaze on the ground. No one knew how she felt; no one would believe that a seventeen-year-old had experienced the horrors of war and death.
She was all alone.
Tetsuya had left her - come on, would a rich, handsome playboy stick himself with one girl? Even if the girl *had* been through more than anyone else in the world. Or so she felt.
Miaka and Taka had gotten married that June - since they already knew they were meant for each other, why not? This process had naturally made Yui and Miaka drift apart.
She shook her head, trying to stop thinking. As much as it made her feel superior to other humans, it usually only brought more confusion.
Barely glancing at the signboard above, she walked into a bookstore. Only when she began mindlessly browsing, did it strike her how silly it was to want to sort out her thoughts by getting confused with the thoughts of others.
Suddenly, she heard a shrill scream from the other end of the store, followed by repeated whacking sounds, and a panicked voice frantically apologising, "Gomen nasai no da! I was only trying to get that book there no da! Please, you have to trust me! Daaa, yamete yamete!"
Yui made her way to the other side - not too quickly; she didn't want to seem like a snoop - and came face to face with the scene of a hefty middle-aged woman thwapping a young man in the head with her equally heavy handbag. After every squeal, she'd cross her hands over her chest, blush and hit him again.
"Yamete, fujin," Yui said soothingly, pulling her away.
"I want justice!" she squeaked, infuriated. "That young man touched my... my..." So saying, she hugged her massive chest and sobbed.
"Please, I was only reaching for that book there! It was an accident!" the man panicked.
Yui couldn't shake the feeling that his hair looked familiar. It was light blue and stuck up at funny angles - sure, everyone was dyeing their hair nowadays, but he didn't look that sort. It looked almost natural. And his cute voice... wait a minute. If she just replaced his warm brown eyes with two upside-down 'U's...
He was Chichiri. The shock of realisation that came with déjà vu hit her straight in the head, and she twitched, reeling. God, she had just met Suboshi's reincarnation five months ago - he had stalked her like crazy and finally been imprisoned. But somehow she felt willing to risk it with Chichiri...
"Girl, are you listening?" the woman babbled, having done so for the past three minutes.
"Shut your trap and go away," Yui snapped.
The woman's mouth gaped dumbly, but to her credit *did* go away. However, not without mumbling about the 'horrid young folks'.
Yui didn't even notice. She was too busy staring at the young man, who looked uncomfortable under her scrutinising gaze.
"Um, is there a problem?" he asked mildly.
He didn't know her.
"Don't you know me - don't you remember - oh god. Are you acquainted with the name 'Chichiri'?" She knew it was just his seishi name, but she didn't know his real name and it was her best bet.
"Chichiri? Well, my name's Houjyou Chichibu."
Pretty close? But for names it was all or nothing. "Oh. I'm sorry, I'm mistook you for someone else. Well, nice meeting you," she turned around.
~***~
Chichibu watched the girl turn and leave, disappointed. Whoever it was she thought he was must have been important to her. But she was pretty, and would find other boys, right?
Right?
Just then, an image flashed into his mind. Of a young blonde girl looking down at him as she tended to his wounds, a soothing smile on her sweet lips.
Suddenly, he remembered. Kouran! Hikou! Wood in his eye... Dead - no! Taiitsu-kun... Nyan-nyans... Suzaku no Miko, Miaka! Tamahome, Hotohori, Nuriko, Tasuki, Mitsukake, Chiriko. Seiryuu scum. Nakago, wounded. Seiryuu no Miko. Yui. Yui... He blacked out.
~***~
"How is he related to you, madam?"
"I'm an old friend," Yui said, half-truthfully.
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside then," the doctor said crisply. "Only family."
She waited.
One hour later...
"Yui?" An uncertain voice pulled her out of her sleep. Yui opened her eyes and hazily saw an outline of beige and blue.
"Chichiri?"
His reply was a little shy. "I... I remember."
"So I heard," she laughed. "So how're you feeling?"
"Couldn't feel worse," he admitted. "I've got memories of a life I didn't know about for the past twenty-four years and my greatest enemy is the only one who's bothered about me. Yeah, it couldn't get much worse."
"I knew about it all my life but I'm still alone," Yui said bitterly.
The silence wasn't just uncomfortable, it was maddening.
Finally, the words that were said were bold and sure. "I could help you with that," Chichiri said with the slightest hint of a smug smile. "Do you trust me?"
~*Owari*~
Author's Note (cont'd): I hadn't even meant to make it a what-happens-when-they-get-back fic but couldn't think of any way else to end it. Yeah, I know Yui's really OOC, but as I said, she'd just broken out of her Great Depression. Crappy, but at least it's something.