Title: FoxHunters
Author: sushi aka yume
Part: 12/?
Genre: yaoi
Pairing: various, but mainly HanaRu/RuHana
Rating: G ^-^
Archive: ML
Mailo: yume_chan14@hotmail.com
Warning: nothing really bad
Author's note: horrible english
Disclaimer: all characters used below belong to Inoue Takehiko Sensei
------------------------------------------------ Chapter Twelve -
'Fo. Rukawa!" Sakuragi asked, smothering the sound of 'fox' in his throat. 'How long do we still need to go until we reach wherever we're going?'
Rukawa mused at the stamina of his redheaded company, he himself is already tired, why isn't there a single sweat drop on Sakuragi's face? 'It's deeper in the forest, I think we should reach there in about a hour.'
Hanamichi sighed, the distance isn't a problem for him, but he wants to get the reinforcement as soon as possible. Then as if he suddenly remembered something, he waved his hand in the air casually, a bush along the road swayed slightly when there wasn't a single trace of wind in the air.
'Mito is still around.' Rukawa observed.
Hanamichi nodded in agreement, but worries filled his golden eyes, the cheerful self is gone.
Rukawa shook his head hopelessly, why did the God of Love assigned him with the task of making this idiot happy? 'Saku. Hanamichi, when this is all over.' Rukawa paused, then smiled, a smile so beautiful that everything around them darkened in comparison. The birds stopped singing, the wind stopped blowing, all movements froze while Rukawa smiled, and displayed the most inner side of his heart to his true love. 'I promise with the oath of my tail that I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'
Their grip around each other's fingers tightened, Sakuragi's smile grew confident, and his eyes are now pure, without interruptions of worries.
The bush swayed again.
-----------------------------------------------------
'Toru, can you PLEASE sit down?' Kenji asked impatiently for the nth time. Maki said to everyone that the battle would be an easy win, and Maki's power is really convincing, but yet Hanagata is pacing anxiously like their plan has thousands of flaws in it. Fujima's incredible tolerance kept him from castrating his best friend, he kept silent for the first 15 minutes, but he can't take it anymore.
'Kenji, please listen to me!' Hanagata exclaimed, tossing both of his arms in the air. 'This is not bloody safe!' He paused as he realized his usage of a certain offensive word towards his Chief, but as he saw no danger coming, he continued. 'Go into the tent, it is not safe to expose yourself openly to your enemy, and that mysterious spy.'
'Stoy worrying, Toru!' Kenji rubbed his temples, all his life he's been telling this tall, sensitive man to stop worrying. 'if the FoxHunters are coming, Hasegawa will find them first and report them back to me.' As his sentence was finished, his eyes uncontrollably trailed to Maki - who's pouring over a map and discussing it with his Chief - in a dreamy look that Hanagata would die to replace Maki's image as his own.
He sighed heavily, knowing the possibility of that happening is even less than 0.0001 with more reoccurring zeroes before the one, he pulled out a chair and seated himself next to Kenji. 'At least I can stay next to Kenji.' Hanagata thought in a self-comforting way.
-----------------------------------------------------
Akagi sat next to Anzai-sensei, he's tapping one of his large feet against the solid aground, obviously impatient. Why is there no job for him to do? Why is he to stay in the safest area where danger will never be able to reach - for the meantime anyway - while others are striving to let victory proceed? Just because he is the smartest, calmest, strongest and the most determined, doesn't mean that he has to get the 'waiting job'.
Akagi had been asking Anzai sensei about their next step for the past 15 minutes, but only the same ho-ho-ho's came as the reply. Before, Akagi would just take Anzai's peculiar answer without any objections. But first time in his life he wanted to pluck that teacup out of Anzai's chubby hands and threaten him with his deadly glares for the instructions of what to do next.
As if Anzai's read Akagi's mind, he slowly put down the teacup and stood up. 'We wait, Akagi, there is nothing we can do about it.'
Akagi sighed, ashamed of himself. He knew that would be the answer, the only thing he could do, but he just can't stand the idea of having a battle outside which he cannot join, and all he could do is to stay next to a warm, comfy fire toasting his toes.
---------------------------------------------------- 'Sir! The hounds had found something!' A WolfHunter whispered into Kiyota's ear.
'Jin-sempai, I believe our Hunters had found the red-monkey and the fox- prince's trace.' Kiyota reported trustworthily to Jin.
'Red-monkey?' Jin queried curiously, he knew Kiyota has a talent of making special names for people, and wondering about his own special name in the younger boy's heart had become a daily ritual for him.
'It's Sakuragi, in last year's tournament, he called me a wild-monkey while we both chased on the same prey, and I called him back by saying he's a red- monkey.' Kiyota replied innocently.
Jin chuckled helplessly. He was long informed that the world is miserable and without miracle, only the strongest and the coldest can survive. The world is black, white and gray in his eyes, boring and lifeless. But Kiyota can always manage to let the sun shine in his mind. 'That sounds exactly like what you will do, Nobu-kun.' Jin smiled again, but this time without coverage or disguise, a true smile from the bottom of his heart.
Kiyota thought the door of heaven opened in front of him when Jin shone his smile at him, he looked so much like an angel, so peaceful and beautiful.
'Glad our spy had stole a piece of garment Hanamichi wore from the FoxHunters camp, so the hounds can follow and track them down.' Jin's soft voice broke Kiyota's intense admiration. 'I think we're right next to our prey now.'
A thought suddenly struck Kiyota's mind, 'Iif we just take the fox-prince away from the red-monkey, wouldn't it be like snatching Jin-semapi away from me?/I' the thought of not having Jin around him left his mind black, a chill ran down his spine. But one glance at his sempai, he hardened his thought.
'For Soichiro, my midnight-pearl, I'll do anything.' Kiyota thought secretly in his heart, murmuring the special name he'd given his sempai, although unavoidably Sakuragi and the fox-prince's situation again and again chorused in his mind.
-----------------------------------------------------
Rukawa stopped suddenly, sniffing the air as if he had caught something in the flowing wind, but his awareness of danger made Sakuragi burst into a wild laughter.
'What are you laughing at, baka?' Rukawa asked curiously, momentarily threw the worries away.
'You. You looked so funny like that!' Sakuragi explained while his laughing continued. 'You looked so much like a dog when you were sniffing!' Unconsciously Sakuragi moved his large hand toward Rukawa's ear, and scratched him as if he was scratching a dog.
'Baka!' Rukawa blushed unconsciously, the touch of Sakuragi's hand. no; he must not think that.
'TEME! Why you Baka fox!' Sakuragi fumed, but his anger soon drifted away when he didn't see the challenging look in Rukawa's beautiful eyes. 'What's wrong, fox?'
'Shut up, I think I just heard something!' Rukawa clapped his hand against Sakuragi's mouth, rather violently.
'%$^(&(^*&^%$.' Sakuragi continued relentlessly, although no one can make out a word he was saying, Rukawa finally understood that the redhead would make much more noise that way and let go. Sakuragi gasped hungrily for the oxygen Rukawa cut while blocking his mouth and nostrils, 'So what did ya sense?' Hanamichi asked.
Rukawa shook his head. 'I don't know, this human nose is not as good as I thought.'
'Don't worry, maybe it was just Youhei been clumsy again.' Hanamichi replied, pretending to be careless, he supposed to protect Rukawa, not making him worried.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Rukawa's words ran through in Youhei's head like an echo that will never die out.
'When this is all over, I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'/I
What really made that sentence unforgettable, is Sakuragi's reaction afterwards. Unlike Rukawa, Sakuragi is a cheerful person by nature, so seeing him smile isn't strange. But the smile Sakuragi displayed after Rukawa's promise was so true that it shook Youhei's heart, Hanamichi never smiled to anyone like that before, not even Youhei himself. The loud redhead laughs often, but he only smiles when he could rely on someone he trusts, his true happiness.
'I have no chance competing against Rukawa.' Youhei murmured. 'But as long as Hanamichi is happy, I'll do anything.' Bitter sadness flooded his heart.
Suddenly, his sharp eyes caught something moving in the shadow, Youhei quickly took out his spying glasses and searched through the bushes. He froze when an arrowhead came into view.
'Bloody hell!' Youhei cursed under his breath when he realise somehow the Combined Camp had mysteriously cracked their plan. 'What had we forgot? How did they find out? What should I do now?' Thousands of questions flew into Youhei head, and he has the answer for none of them.
In Youhei's eyes, what happened in the next minute are printed onto his brain in slow motion, he swears he will remember every detail of it even if someone asks him to narrate it 20 years later.
The arrow was released, fast and steady. 'I need to do something, I need to save Sakuragi and Rukawa.' Thoughts fumbled and raged inside Youhei's head, he tried hard to trim them but couldn't. 'I should shout, to warn them, but then I will dispose myself to the others, but what good will I do if Sakuragi is dead?' What could he do? He can't decide. his nerves are overloaded by choices of what to do, or what will happen if that action prevailed, or failed.
Rukawa's words struck his mind like a lightning bolt in the midsummer sky.
i'When this is all over, I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'/I
i'As long as Hanamichi is happy, I'll do anything!'/I
Hanamichi's visage jumped into his head. It was so vivid, so realistic, it calmed Youhei and straightened his thought like a magical key. The image of Hanamichi smiled, the same confident, truly smile he displayed Rukawa. It was that smile that smashed all Youhei's hesitations away and broke all the binds that stopped him from moving.
With Hanamichi's smile in his head, Youhei jumped briskly in front of the FoxHunters couple - who failed to notice the flying arrow - and blocked it with his own chest.
'YOUHEI!' he heard Hanamichi's voice, a voice that bear uncountable pain and lost, Youhei smiled with satisfaction, at least he was someone important for Hanamichi.
The wound was deep, Youhei was sure that no physician could possibly heal him. But he doesn't care anymore, he can feel Sakuragi and Rukawa breathing next to him, they're alive. With great difficulty he drew out all the remaining strengths that are still left in his feeble body, he pulled Rukawa close to him with a shaky hand, and clued his trembling cold lips against Rukawa's ear.
'You promised.' Youhei squeezed the words out of his nearly disabled throat. 'You promised when this is all over, you'll make Hanamichi the happiest man on earth. Now promise me, say you will really do that.' He asked, eyes deadly locked with Rukawa's.
Rukawa's eyes grew watery, waves of emotion struck him so many times that he can't even feel them anymore. 'How stupid are the FoxHunters?' He asked himself. 'I can't even remember how many times had they risked their own lives for someone else's happiness.'
Rukawa nodded gravely, hands tightly grasping Youhei's arms, trying to keep the energy in Youhei's body.
Youhei smiled peacefully. He wanted to say 'Thank you' to Rukawa, but unfortunately his time ran out. He caught the last flash of red kneeling next to him when he fell back, the passionate warm tears that dropped onto his face, that was the only regret he had. He felt all his strengths draining out of his body, his eyelids drooped, he got ready to fell into the suffocating darkness that awaited him and will imprison him forever after. But strangely, he didn't fell, he felt a spiritual power pulled him up high, into the azure sky full of serenity and promise.
------------------------------------------------ Chapter Twelve -
'Fo. Rukawa!" Sakuragi asked, smothering the sound of 'fox' in his throat. 'How long do we still need to go until we reach wherever we're going?'
Rukawa mused at the stamina of his redheaded company, he himself is already tired, why isn't there a single sweat drop on Sakuragi's face? 'It's deeper in the forest, I think we should reach there in about a hour.'
Hanamichi sighed, the distance isn't a problem for him, but he wants to get the reinforcement as soon as possible. Then as if he suddenly remembered something, he waved his hand in the air casually, a bush along the road swayed slightly when there wasn't a single trace of wind in the air.
'Mito is still around.' Rukawa observed.
Hanamichi nodded in agreement, but worries filled his golden eyes, the cheerful self is gone.
Rukawa shook his head hopelessly, why did the God of Love assigned him with the task of making this idiot happy? 'Saku. Hanamichi, when this is all over.' Rukawa paused, then smiled, a smile so beautiful that everything around them darkened in comparison. The birds stopped singing, the wind stopped blowing, all movements froze while Rukawa smiled, and displayed the most inner side of his heart to his true love. 'I promise with the oath of my tail that I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'
Their grip around each other's fingers tightened, Sakuragi's smile grew confident, and his eyes are now pure, without interruptions of worries.
The bush swayed again.
-----------------------------------------------------
'Toru, can you PLEASE sit down?' Kenji asked impatiently for the nth time. Maki said to everyone that the battle would be an easy win, and Maki's power is really convincing, but yet Hanagata is pacing anxiously like their plan has thousands of flaws in it. Fujima's incredible tolerance kept him from castrating his best friend, he kept silent for the first 15 minutes, but he can't take it anymore.
'Kenji, please listen to me!' Hanagata exclaimed, tossing both of his arms in the air. 'This is not bloody safe!' He paused as he realized his usage of a certain offensive word towards his Chief, but as he saw no danger coming, he continued. 'Go into the tent, it is not safe to expose yourself openly to your enemy, and that mysterious spy.'
'Stoy worrying, Toru!' Kenji rubbed his temples, all his life he's been telling this tall, sensitive man to stop worrying. 'if the FoxHunters are coming, Hasegawa will find them first and report them back to me.' As his sentence was finished, his eyes uncontrollably trailed to Maki - who's pouring over a map and discussing it with his Chief - in a dreamy look that Hanagata would die to replace Maki's image as his own.
He sighed heavily, knowing the possibility of that happening is even less than 0.0001 with more reoccurring zeroes before the one, he pulled out a chair and seated himself next to Kenji. 'At least I can stay next to Kenji.' Hanagata thought in a self-comforting way.
-----------------------------------------------------
Akagi sat next to Anzai-sensei, he's tapping one of his large feet against the solid aground, obviously impatient. Why is there no job for him to do? Why is he to stay in the safest area where danger will never be able to reach - for the meantime anyway - while others are striving to let victory proceed? Just because he is the smartest, calmest, strongest and the most determined, doesn't mean that he has to get the 'waiting job'.
Akagi had been asking Anzai sensei about their next step for the past 15 minutes, but only the same ho-ho-ho's came as the reply. Before, Akagi would just take Anzai's peculiar answer without any objections. But first time in his life he wanted to pluck that teacup out of Anzai's chubby hands and threaten him with his deadly glares for the instructions of what to do next.
As if Anzai's read Akagi's mind, he slowly put down the teacup and stood up. 'We wait, Akagi, there is nothing we can do about it.'
Akagi sighed, ashamed of himself. He knew that would be the answer, the only thing he could do, but he just can't stand the idea of having a battle outside which he cannot join, and all he could do is to stay next to a warm, comfy fire toasting his toes.
---------------------------------------------------- 'Sir! The hounds had found something!' A WolfHunter whispered into Kiyota's ear.
'Jin-sempai, I believe our Hunters had found the red-monkey and the fox- prince's trace.' Kiyota reported trustworthily to Jin.
'Red-monkey?' Jin queried curiously, he knew Kiyota has a talent of making special names for people, and wondering about his own special name in the younger boy's heart had become a daily ritual for him.
'It's Sakuragi, in last year's tournament, he called me a wild-monkey while we both chased on the same prey, and I called him back by saying he's a red- monkey.' Kiyota replied innocently.
Jin chuckled helplessly. He was long informed that the world is miserable and without miracle, only the strongest and the coldest can survive. The world is black, white and gray in his eyes, boring and lifeless. But Kiyota can always manage to let the sun shine in his mind. 'That sounds exactly like what you will do, Nobu-kun.' Jin smiled again, but this time without coverage or disguise, a true smile from the bottom of his heart.
Kiyota thought the door of heaven opened in front of him when Jin shone his smile at him, he looked so much like an angel, so peaceful and beautiful.
'Glad our spy had stole a piece of garment Hanamichi wore from the FoxHunters camp, so the hounds can follow and track them down.' Jin's soft voice broke Kiyota's intense admiration. 'I think we're right next to our prey now.'
A thought suddenly struck Kiyota's mind, 'Iif we just take the fox-prince away from the red-monkey, wouldn't it be like snatching Jin-semapi away from me?/I' the thought of not having Jin around him left his mind black, a chill ran down his spine. But one glance at his sempai, he hardened his thought.
'For Soichiro, my midnight-pearl, I'll do anything.' Kiyota thought secretly in his heart, murmuring the special name he'd given his sempai, although unavoidably Sakuragi and the fox-prince's situation again and again chorused in his mind.
-----------------------------------------------------
Rukawa stopped suddenly, sniffing the air as if he had caught something in the flowing wind, but his awareness of danger made Sakuragi burst into a wild laughter.
'What are you laughing at, baka?' Rukawa asked curiously, momentarily threw the worries away.
'You. You looked so funny like that!' Sakuragi explained while his laughing continued. 'You looked so much like a dog when you were sniffing!' Unconsciously Sakuragi moved his large hand toward Rukawa's ear, and scratched him as if he was scratching a dog.
'Baka!' Rukawa blushed unconsciously, the touch of Sakuragi's hand. no; he must not think that.
'TEME! Why you Baka fox!' Sakuragi fumed, but his anger soon drifted away when he didn't see the challenging look in Rukawa's beautiful eyes. 'What's wrong, fox?'
'Shut up, I think I just heard something!' Rukawa clapped his hand against Sakuragi's mouth, rather violently.
'%$^(&(^*&^%$.' Sakuragi continued relentlessly, although no one can make out a word he was saying, Rukawa finally understood that the redhead would make much more noise that way and let go. Sakuragi gasped hungrily for the oxygen Rukawa cut while blocking his mouth and nostrils, 'So what did ya sense?' Hanamichi asked.
Rukawa shook his head. 'I don't know, this human nose is not as good as I thought.'
'Don't worry, maybe it was just Youhei been clumsy again.' Hanamichi replied, pretending to be careless, he supposed to protect Rukawa, not making him worried.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Rukawa's words ran through in Youhei's head like an echo that will never die out.
'When this is all over, I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'/I
What really made that sentence unforgettable, is Sakuragi's reaction afterwards. Unlike Rukawa, Sakuragi is a cheerful person by nature, so seeing him smile isn't strange. But the smile Sakuragi displayed after Rukawa's promise was so true that it shook Youhei's heart, Hanamichi never smiled to anyone like that before, not even Youhei himself. The loud redhead laughs often, but he only smiles when he could rely on someone he trusts, his true happiness.
'I have no chance competing against Rukawa.' Youhei murmured. 'But as long as Hanamichi is happy, I'll do anything.' Bitter sadness flooded his heart.
Suddenly, his sharp eyes caught something moving in the shadow, Youhei quickly took out his spying glasses and searched through the bushes. He froze when an arrowhead came into view.
'Bloody hell!' Youhei cursed under his breath when he realise somehow the Combined Camp had mysteriously cracked their plan. 'What had we forgot? How did they find out? What should I do now?' Thousands of questions flew into Youhei head, and he has the answer for none of them.
In Youhei's eyes, what happened in the next minute are printed onto his brain in slow motion, he swears he will remember every detail of it even if someone asks him to narrate it 20 years later.
The arrow was released, fast and steady. 'I need to do something, I need to save Sakuragi and Rukawa.' Thoughts fumbled and raged inside Youhei's head, he tried hard to trim them but couldn't. 'I should shout, to warn them, but then I will dispose myself to the others, but what good will I do if Sakuragi is dead?' What could he do? He can't decide. his nerves are overloaded by choices of what to do, or what will happen if that action prevailed, or failed.
Rukawa's words struck his mind like a lightning bolt in the midsummer sky.
i'When this is all over, I'll make you the happiest man on earth.'/I
i'As long as Hanamichi is happy, I'll do anything!'/I
Hanamichi's visage jumped into his head. It was so vivid, so realistic, it calmed Youhei and straightened his thought like a magical key. The image of Hanamichi smiled, the same confident, truly smile he displayed Rukawa. It was that smile that smashed all Youhei's hesitations away and broke all the binds that stopped him from moving.
With Hanamichi's smile in his head, Youhei jumped briskly in front of the FoxHunters couple - who failed to notice the flying arrow - and blocked it with his own chest.
'YOUHEI!' he heard Hanamichi's voice, a voice that bear uncountable pain and lost, Youhei smiled with satisfaction, at least he was someone important for Hanamichi.
The wound was deep, Youhei was sure that no physician could possibly heal him. But he doesn't care anymore, he can feel Sakuragi and Rukawa breathing next to him, they're alive. With great difficulty he drew out all the remaining strengths that are still left in his feeble body, he pulled Rukawa close to him with a shaky hand, and clued his trembling cold lips against Rukawa's ear.
'You promised.' Youhei squeezed the words out of his nearly disabled throat. 'You promised when this is all over, you'll make Hanamichi the happiest man on earth. Now promise me, say you will really do that.' He asked, eyes deadly locked with Rukawa's.
Rukawa's eyes grew watery, waves of emotion struck him so many times that he can't even feel them anymore. 'How stupid are the FoxHunters?' He asked himself. 'I can't even remember how many times had they risked their own lives for someone else's happiness.'
Rukawa nodded gravely, hands tightly grasping Youhei's arms, trying to keep the energy in Youhei's body.
Youhei smiled peacefully. He wanted to say 'Thank you' to Rukawa, but unfortunately his time ran out. He caught the last flash of red kneeling next to him when he fell back, the passionate warm tears that dropped onto his face, that was the only regret he had. He felt all his strengths draining out of his body, his eyelids drooped, he got ready to fell into the suffocating darkness that awaited him and will imprison him forever after. But strangely, he didn't fell, he felt a spiritual power pulled him up high, into the azure sky full of serenity and promise.