Many Faces of a Friend
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Author's notes: A little slower than the last few chapters... deal with it!
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Tasuki was kneeling in front of his father, his head bowed in shame. Somehow Tomo had found out about the demon from that night and that he had gone out to face it. Now, he was getting another earful from his father.

"Always telling you-- downright ashamed-- if your mother knew-- do you want to me get her?"

Tasuki only caught snippits of Nakago's speech, and he trembled. His mother never left her room, and to call her out was almost like a death sentence. He shook his head slowly, afraid to look up. However, his chest and back burned with the injuries from the fight. He prayed to the four gods that no one would find out. Finally his father sat back down in the chair, a hand to his forehead in frustration. "Go, I can't handle you anymore. Just, don't do it again."

He stood up, bowed and ran from the room. "As for you, Tomo," the emperor added, turning towards the pale magician, "your magic is weakening. What good is it to keep you here!"

"I'm sorry sire, but I saw someone 'save' the prince last night. Somehow he's managed to penetrate my defense. He must be a very strong magic user. While I posses white, protective magic, he must have powerful black magic. Able to disrupt the very spells I cast to ensure the safety of this palace," Tomot insisted, his head bowed in respect.

Nakago let out a long dragged sigh of irritation. He waved the man away. "Fine," he said after a while, "find this black mage and bring him to us. I will take care of him myself."

Tomo rested a hand against his chest as he bowed. "Yes, your majesty."

~*~

Chichiri stumbled a bit, the pain of the wound all to familar. The fatigue had gotten to his head, so he seemed to lack coordination and sense. Nuriko stayed by his side fore most of the morning, but he soon left his brother to peace. Chichiri left his room, having been in there for the third time that day to check his bandages. He lost his footing and fell right into Tasuki's arms. The prince, unfortunately, let out a groan as he did so, the pressure too much for the burn on his chest.

The elder boy, who was disgused as a girl, pushed away and cried, "Oh Prince no da! I'm so sorry na no da!"

"Eh," Tasuki grunted, "it's alright. Not many girls run into me anyway. It's... an experience!" He grinned.

"Still no da, I should have been watching where I was going na no da!"

The prince grabbed Chichiri by the shoulders and shook him crying, "I told ya, it's alright!"

Although the young man's mask was smiling, he certainly didn't feel that way. The shake was unexpected and made things a worse than before. When the prince finally let go of him, he caught his head in his hands, a dazed expression on his mask. After his brain was in order he decided to ask, "I heard that you've been fighting the demons no da. Why?"

Tasuki stared at him. "What!?"

"Everyone knows about it no da. Why do you do this na no da?"

The prince shrugged, and stuffed his hands into his pockets, smiling his fanged grin. "Ya know, just cuz it's fun. Bein' a prince is really borin' so I go and entertain myself somehow, ya know?"

Chichiri nodded, but somewhere he didn't want to believe the words that were coming out of Tasuki's mouth. However, he knew that the prince didn't want to tell him everything. There was always that fine line that mustn't be crossed. He started tracing the line between his skin and the mask absentmindedly. "I just didn't know it was gonna go n' get me in all sorts a' trouble," Tasuki added.

Hotohori had been watching the two for a few moments, and he came and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Tasuki," he said stiffly, "have you not listened to a thing that came from my mouth? or father's?"

Tasuki shrugged. "So what! You're going to be the emperor, I may as well practice not being royalty!"

"You'd still be considered a crown prince--"

"UNTIL you have a son!"

"You'll still be part of this family, and you must maintain a certain appearance. We can't have you getting beat up just because you're bored!" Hotohori scolded.

Tasuki groaned, and took his head in his hands. "I don't want to hear this!" he cried, and ran off. He ducked into his room and sank into a chair, his body tense with anger and resentment. The fact that his chest and back hurt wasn't helping the situation at all. It was then he discovered that thinking about the previous night seemed to calm him down some. What he didn't understand was the person watching over him when he woke up in his bed. His vision was blurry and his mind was unsettled, but he could make out delicated male features. The boy would have been very beautiful if it hadn't been for that hideous scar of a left eye... no... he was still beautiful with it.

"Could he have been the warrior those past times?" he thought outloud, looking up at the ceiling. The sillouhete was always of a man with bangs that seemed to stick up on their own accord. And the man before him seemed to have those kinds of bangs.

Tasuki groaned at the prospect of falling in love with a mysterious stranger. It was straight out of a romance story; stories that the women his mother hired told. The thought almost made him sick, but still... the warrior intrigued him greatly. His magic was amazing enough to destroy a demon with one blast. He wanted very much to tell about this warrior to Chichiri, the one person he could trust.

"She... she's not so bad," he said to himself suddenly, "I mean, if she wasn't a girl, she'd be pretty cool."

'If she wasn't a girl...' The thought played over in his head a few times. And for a brief moment, he almost believed it. "Well," he said aloud, "if I gotta marry one of those girls, I guess I'd choose her." He paused and chuckled to himself, remembering an old friend.

"Koji, ya fuck. Had to go and get yerself killed huh?" Tasuki said aloud looking up at the sky, his arms raised. "Yah, fuckin' killed by a fuckin' demon..." he added.

Koji was Tasuki's dearest friend, someone that worked in the castle as a gaurd along side Suboshi and Amiboshi. He had lost his life during a fight with a demon beyond the walls of the palace, and Tasuki never forgave him, which lead to his obession with wanting to kill the demons. There were a lot of time he wanted to tell Chichiri about Koji... but the topic never came up.

Tasuki looked over towards the window, where he saw Chichiri, Chiriko, Miaka and Nuriko outside in the melting snow. Chichiri scooped up some of the snow and pressed in in his hands, before presenting it to Miaka. It was a perfect snow sculpture of her, made with amazing details.

"Wow!" Miaka cried, taking the snow into her own hands.

Nuriko leaned over and hissed, "You're not using magic, are you?"

Chichiri only smiled and proceeded to make a snow figure of Chiriko. Nuriko scoffed and watched as the small girl snatched the figure, staring at it in wonder. Again, he made another figure and held it out for Tasuki to see. In Chichiri's hand was a small version of the younger prince.

Tasuki stepped back, and Chichiri waved, setting the figurine of ice by his window. "How the hell is she always so happy?" he asked himself, watching the smiling face of his only friend turn back and continue to make sculputers of snow.

"Chichiri, are you alright?" Nuriko asked, whispering in his ear.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to get better in a few days na no da."

The figures had already begun to melt from the hot temperatures and soon the two girls were holding water. Chichiri stiffled a laugh as Miaka sniffed back a few stray tears. "It's alright Miaka no da," he said with a smile, "I'll make you another during the next snow fall!"

"Thank you Chichiri!" she chirped, and bounced back into the palace. Chiriko bowed, and headed after her, hiking up her skirts as she did so.

"You've really found yourself a place here br--sis," Nuriko said after a moment of thought.

Chichiri's mask continued to smile, and his younger brother found it quite infuriating. On many levels he wanted very much to rip off the mask and see his brother's real expression, but he had grown up learning about respect, so he never said anything. "Hey Nuriko no da?" Chichiri finally asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why do you like Hotohori no da?"

Nuriko was taken aback slightly. He didn't expect that question, and he didn't know how to answer it. "What are you asking that for?" he finally replied.

Chichiri's shoulders moved in a barely noticable shrug. "Just a question no da."

"Well... I suppose I like his looks. He's so beautiful," Nuriko replied with a sigh.

Chichiri laughed, "Ah, I see!"

"Ooi, Chichiri! Nuriko!" Miaka called, "the emperor is calling for a meeting of the women!"

~*~

Tomo stared at the women, who looked back at him with the same intent. He cleared his throat loudly and announced, "Women, you must be very careful. You all know of the demon attacks as of late, but I will assure you that my protection is quite good. Whoever is doing such, is a great black mage, and must be stopped. If you find suspicion in anyone, do inform a guard. Unless you wish to see another member of the royal family die." He gestured to Tasuki, who looked undeniably pale in the bright lights of the room.

Chichiri looked up from the far corner of the room, and caught Tasuki's gaze. He couldn't help but wonder what he prince was thinking... and what the prince thought about the "mysterious man" that stayed with him the whole night. Then a thought occured to him, it was possible that Tasuki didn't even remember him. Suddenly he felt the back of his neck tingle, and he noticed that Tomo was staring straight at him. Chichiri sucked in his breath, and hoped to Suzaku that he couldn't see through the mask.

"So, if you are withholding information, please devulge it, or the fall of the empire rests upon your shoulders," Tomo finally finished and left.

Tasuki stood there, feeling both awkward and afraid of the women. However none of them pointed at him, instead they started chirping amoung themselves about the attacks and who could be behind them. Chichiri walked over to Tasuki and bowed in respect, and to show the other women that he wasn't that much special.

"Chichiri..." Tasuki said slowly, forming his words carefully, "I think... I mean... I don't want to believe it, but there's this person that's been saving me the past few attacks, but he's far to powerful to just be a normal person."

"What no da?"

He leaned over towards him and hissed, "He might be an angel..."

"Angel na no da??"

Tasuki nodded, and Chichiri felt his face flush over instantly. Luckily his mask continued smiling with no obvious hint that it had affected him. "However," the prince added with utmost seriousness, "I fear that someone might think he's behind the attacks."

Chichiri turned quickly towards the door, and he saw the last bit of long silver hair walk away. The thin eyebrows of his mask furrowed together in thought. He had this feeling inside that told him to be careful around Tomo. "Chichiri?" Tasuki asked, a hand moving to his shoulder.

The older boy jumped at the touch, and quickly his hands moved up as he said, "Ah, Tasuki no da, don't worry about that angel na no da! If he's a real angel, he won't get caught!"

~*~

Ryuuen watched as his brother removed the slik robes carefully. The blood had stopped a while back, and the wounds were slowly healing. As Houjun sat down for the younger of the two to observe the cuts, he said, "Tasuki think's I'm an angel no da."

His brother looked up at him, one perfect eyebrow curving upwards with skeptisim. "What do you mean by that?"

"Tasuki thinks the mysterious man resucing him each night is an angel na no da!"

"Well I'll be damned!" Ryuuen laughed, tying off the wraps, pulling them a little tighter as he did so. "I thought you meant that Tasuki thought Chichiri was an angel, you know.. in the concept of--"

Houjun shook his head and laughed. "No, not like that." He reached up and pulled the mask off his face, rubbing the flesh with the back of his hand. "I'm merely that smiling friend of his."
~*~

Author's note: AHHHH!!!! The ending was a horrible case of writer's block, and no there were any monster attacks in this chapter... sorry to say. So anyway, what do you think is up with Tomo, huh? huh? And why isn't Nakago any meaner?? AND WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE SEISHI??

Actually, that last question I'm leaving up to you. I have an idea for Mitsukake, but I'm open to hear ideas for Ashitare, Miboshi... if you're willing to contribute. And if you want to see any other favorite FY characters, do suggest! Like if you wanna see Keisuke or Tetsuya or even Taiitsukun and/or the Nyan-Nyan, you better tell me, review and I'll see what I can do(I can even put YOU in it! As one of the women of the harem or a gaurd of course, nothing too big...)! *sobs* And I'm sorry about Koji-sama.. I love him... really I do... but I had to kill him.