All right! So. I'm finally
back! I'm so sorry that it took so long for me to get this part out
but, here it is finally! Lol. If anyone cares!
It had been another exhausting day
in a long line of them. Alone in his room, with nobody to fool with
his unfailingly passive expression, Nakago let out a soft sigh. Walking
over to his dresser after stowing away his heavy armor, he stared at himself
intently on the mirror. The day had taken it's toll, he thought with
a small smile. He scrunched his forehead up experimentally, searching
for any unsightly lines that might have made it's appearance and seeing
none, for the moment anyways, proceeded with his nightly rituals.
The Emperor was angry and when the
Emperor was angry, he made everyone in the Palace suffer. It seemed
as though the Imperial Fat Slob had gotten the news that the Suzaku Shichiseishi
were lacking only one warrior as of this day, compared to the Seiryuu's
two. They were missing Chiriko while the Seiryuu were searching for
Ashitare and Miboshi, and of course, since he was the leader of the seishi,
he had been the one to take all the heat.
Nakago had been very tempted to just
blast the Emperor to hell as the man ranted and raved at him about his
ineffectuality and his inability to complete such a simple task as finding
two people. The thought that the Emperor would end up there sometime
soon anyways had kept him from doing so but he had been so close!
It would have been so easy for him to just get rid of the man, right then,
right there. After all, the Lords of the Palace wouldn't have minded
so much if the Emperor Shoukitei met a sudden demise. The man's extravagance
was running the Empire to ruins, the peasants were unhappy and he was the
one who controlled the country's military. Everything was set for
his takeover so what was keeping him?
" I want him to suffer." Nakago
said out loud to the empty room. Revenge wouldn't make his past any
more pleasant than it had been when he looked back at it but it would make
things feel so much easier. That man had wiped out a whole race of
people, a way of living, a whole culture. Nothing would ever bring
that back, nothing would ever make up for the abuse that he had suffered
under the hands of the Emperor, but he could at least have his revenge.
Eventually. He just had to bide his time.
As for now, he had to mollify the
Emperor somehow. Indulge him and let him think that he was still
very much in charge when for the past few months or so, it had been him
running Kutou.
He wasn't overly worried about the
Suzaku Menace, as Emperor Shoukitei referred to the situation. He
didn't think the people of the Southern Empire posed much of a threat,
especially not since they held one of the Seishi, Tamahome, and the
Sacred Scroll .But he still had to devise some sort of ploy to appease
the Emperor, though at the moment it seemed as though the scales were pretty
much tipped to their favor.
It had been a stupid move on the
Suzaku's part to allow Tamahome to come to Kutou as a hostage. What
was one village when compared to the power that one could gain upon the
summoning of the god? But then it was their misfortune that Suzaku
just happened to be the patron of love. By now he had figured out
that those people acted on their hearts. A stupid thing to do in
a situation such as this.
Human emotions made you weak.
Feelings such as love, pity and concern clouded your judgment, made you
stupid and vulnerable. He had always managed to distance himself
from everybody and anything, that had been what helped him rise to where
he was now, so he was somewhat surprised by the way that, for the first
time in years, somebody had managed to worm his way into his life.
He allowed this trail of his thoughts
to peter off, not liking what it implicated. No. He was the
same as always. Nothing in him had changed.
The sound of a flute drifted in from
his open window. Amiboshi off again having one of his midnight concerts,
Nakago thought, as he tried to work up the annoyance that he usually felt
whenever the boy disturbed the nighttime peace with his incessant playing.
He was unable to do so. Lately, he had come to actually like the
comforting strains of the flute. It brought him some comfort, as
it must also for the younger seishi.
Without thinking, not exactly knowing
what he would do once in the company of the younger seishi, he followed
the sound of the flute until he found Amiboshi, sitting on a grassy knoll
by a group of willow trees that he had noticed was a favorite haunt of
his whenever he wanted to go off for some solitude. He had been observing
Amiboshi a lot lately... " Amiboshi? Do you really think it's
wise to play your flute this late in the night when Tomo has been in such
a bad mood all day?"
Startled from his music, Amiboshi
let out a jarring note on his flute, his frown eventually turning into
a hesitant smile when he saw who it was. Nakago couldn't remember
the last time that anyone had smiled at him with true warmth. " Nakago-sama!
What are you doing here?"
~**~
It wasn't true. It couldn't
be true. There was no way in hell that that painted freak was right
about this. He knew perfectly well that Tomo laughed at him because
of his gullibility, but even he wasn't stupid enough to fall for such a
stupid suggestion. " Does he think I'm a fucking spaz or something?!"
Suboshi fumed, drop kicking his pillow, imagining it was a little Tomo
that his foot made contact with instead of the soft, feather filled pillow.
He proceeded to pace around his room, kicking the pillow around before
him while cursing Tomo profusely under his breath. If his brother
had been around, he would have told him off for using such foul language,
Amiboshi was like that, always acting like some sort of mother hen, but
the thing was that lately, his brother hadn't been around.
" But it's not because of what that perverted freak thinks! "
There was a loud rapping on the door.
" For the love of Seiryuu, Suboshi! I have to sleep. Even the
perverted freak has to sleep! Will you give it a rest? You've
been thumping around there for hours now! It's the middle
of the night! If I have to electrocute you to within an inch
of your life to get some quiet, I bloody well will!"
Letting out a loud cry of frustration,
Suboshi leapt onto the fluffy white pillow and proceeded to stomp on it
mercilessly. The door flew open, Soi stood there, bolts of raw energy
crackling on her hands. " What is the matter with you?
Have you finally lost your mind?!"
He jumped one more time on the pillow,
before finally kicking it aside and glaring at Soi, his chest heaving with
exertion.
" What's wrong, Suboshi?" Soi
asked once more, her tone of voice softening slightly when he saw how worked
up he was.
He didn't really think that Soi would
want to hear about Tomo's suspicions. He would have loved to march over
to that bastard right now and maybe cut him up a little, just enough to
really hurt, but nothing fatal. He wasn't sure that Soi would be
able to restrain herself though, when she heard about the things that that
freak was saying. " It's nothing. I was just thinking about
something is all, but it's really nothing. I'm just really worried
about my brother is all." At least this was a half truth.
" Oh. Worried about Amiboshi,
huh?" Soi bit her bottom lip, wondering how much the boy knew about
his brother and what was going on. Of course the kid would know that
there was something fishy going on, they were twins and they were extremely
close after all, but she didn't think that Amiboshi really knew what it
was that was bothering his brother. If he had, then he would probably
had done something stupid by then, like try to attack that perverted Emperor.
" Listen, about your brother, just try to be patient with him for a while.
I know he hasn't been acting like himself lately at all but...He'll get
over it. He will. I'm sure."
" But what is it that he needs to
get over? Why won't he tell me anything anymore?"
Soi shrugged, backing towards the
door to make her getaway. She really did need her sleep and she didn't
think it was a good idea for the guy to find out about what was going on
from her. " People change, Suboshi-chan. Good Night."
He scowled after her as she departed.
He had the weird feeling that the others were keeping something very important
from him. Something that would explain his brother's unusual behavior
as of late. But what was it?
How was he supposed to sleep when
he had all of this crap running through his mind? He already had
enough trouble drifting off as it was ever since his brother had changed
rooms, a fact that he had been mentioning a lot lately in attempt to make
his brother feel guilty and now he had this to think about! Thinking
had never been one of his fine points either!
He frowned as he was able to make
out the faint strains of his brother's favorite song. So the guy
was still awake. Dare he go and confront him about this or would
he just sound stupid and succeed in embarrassing and angering his elder
brother. He didn't need that. Things between the two of them
were already strained enough as it was!
Soo...Basically, things can't get
any worse than they are now! Suboshi told himself, frowning.
And he really did need to find out the truth about Nakago and his brother!
Was there really something going on between the two as Tomo had implied,
or was it all a product of the man's twisted imagination? The only
way he would find out was if he asked directly because he didn't think
his brother would volunteer information any time soon, so it was either
he ask him flat out right then or just spend a sleepless night of wondering...So,
his curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to just go right out
to the garden and confront his aniki.
