Playing Games

Author's note: hmm…think some of the facts are a bit warped but hope you enjoy it anyway.

This fic is dedicated to zephyr. Happy Birthday cherie!!!

Standard disclaimers apply.

Oh. And it's shonen-ai. If you can't deal with it, why are you still here?

I watched him enter in the mirror, all dark grace and gentleman death.

His nondescript brown trench coat hung below his knees, swaying open from time to time to reveal glimpses of the Ensui hung at his waist. Underneath, he wore a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of washed blue jeans that clung to his legs.

He stopped at the doorway to the room. "Tell me," he demanded softly.

Still facing the mirror, I replied sardonically, "More haste less speed, young one. The night is young yet."

He crossed the room in long, angry large strides, and placing a delicate hand on the arm of the swivel chair on which I lounged, turned me roughly around to face him.

"Stop this game," he said angrily, "You know what I came here for."

Bowing my head so that the upper half of my face was still hidden by the baseball cap I wore, I managed a cold smile.

"What I do know," I said, the rising anger in my words belying the pleasant expression on my face, "is that you came for information only I have, and anything I say will be on my terms."

He paused, and began to remove his hand from the chair. Before he had moved it but two inches from me though, I caught it in my own right hand, and bringing it to my lips, laid upon it a gentle, mocking kiss.

He hissed, and drew his hand away sharply. Myriad emotions ran through his eyes; anger, contempt, disgust, and to my shocked delight, a fleeting desire. However, by the time I had risen from my chair, he had recovered the cool, disdainful persona carefully cultivated over the years.

The furnishings in the room were sparse, but a small side table held a bottle of chilled red wine and two long glasses. I brought the items to the dining table, and gestured for him to sit opposite me. After pouring the wine, I sat back and waited for him to pick a glass.

Eyes filled with suspicion, he picked one and took a hesitant sip, never looking away from me.

I laughed at his obvious discomfort.

"Did you think I would need to stoop to such methods to kill you?" I asked, "Don't worry, I wouldn't waste good wine by poisoning it."

Lifting my own glass in a toast, I took a long deep draught. From the corner of my eye, I saw him relax and begin to drink his own.

I pulled a battered pack of cards from my shirt pocket. Shuffling them with ease born of familiarity, I smoothed them face down into a line between us.

"It works this way," I explained, "we each pick a card. If the value of your card is higher than mine, you get to ask me a question, and I will answer it as truthfully as I can."

"And if it is lower?" he asked.

"Then I get to ask a question of my own. Simple enough?"

He nodded, and picked a card.

The ten of spades.

I thought a moment, and selected another. Glancing swiftly down, I flicked it up my sleeve and let another drop into my palm before he was any wiser.

The two of hearts.

I looked at him. "Ask away," I said.

"I was there," he said, a frightening intensity in his eyes, "and yet, I cannot remember…tell me, how did she die?"

Resigned, I settled further into my chair and said, "I killed her."

He was up in an instant, the Ensui in his hand, hatred bristling in every line of his body. Clearing the table easily, he pressed the cold blade against my throat.

"Would you kill me now?" I asked calmly, "When there is still so much more to tell?"

"Say it then," he said through clenched teeth, "If you think it will save your life."

"Perhaps it would be more accurate," I continued, "to say that she killed herself."

Shock as she plunged the knife I held to her chest into her own body. She told me then, as her spirit fled and her life bled away.

"We had orders. We were to take her back to Meguri Kyoza and silence everyone else. As you can see, things didn't turn out quite the way we planned."

I stayed as far back from the carnage as possible. Coward, I told myself. But the screams of young children filled my head, and I didn't, couldn't, move.

"What are you waiting for boy?" Kai growled at me, "Come with me now!"

Stepping over the bodies of men and women and infants growing cold in their arms, I moved towards my commander. A scream welled up in my throat, but it died before it left my mouth. Not here, not now, and not in front of him. I would mourn them later.

"She was alone when we entered, Kai and I. But it didn't seem to matter to her."

We marched into the inner rooms of the sprawling house, the sounds of fighting growing muted. She sat on a white blanket in the middle of the room, eyes closed, breathing even, as though a brutal battle were not taking place at her very doorstep.

"Take her," he said.

I moved towards her, but before I laid a hand on her, her eyes flew open, staring into mine.

"She wanted me to make sure you were unharmed. She was quite insistent on that."

"Keep him safe," she whispered, pushing the dazed, blue-eyed boy into my arms.

"I…"

"Keep his safe," she demanded urgently, "I know you will."

"All of a sudden, she began to insist that you, and not she, was the Chosen one, the one destined to wield the Ensui. Foolish of her; she should have known that she would not live after that."

"What's the matter now boy?" Kai demanded, "What's taking you so long?"

I turned towards him, unsure of what to do. "She…" I began.

She grabbed my head in both hands and turned me back to face her.

"I am not the one you seek," she called towards Kai, "I am not the one destined to master Hyomon Ken."

Kai narrowed his eyes and said, "Don't lie to me. I know who you are. I know what you are. Prophet. Witch."

She smiled sadly. "Then you know that what I say is true. Take him, and spare his life."

She turned back towards me and drew the dagger from my belt. Wrapping my hands around it, she plunged the knife into her heart and whispered in my ear…

"Don't you understand?" I told him, "She sacrificed her life for you. Till now, I don't know if what she said was true, but what I do know, is that she loved you more than she loved life itself."

He staggered back as though he had been hit. The Ensui dropped with a clatter to the floor.

"Watch out!" I cried, and gathered him in my arms before he tripped over the swivel chair I had been sitting on when he had first entered the room. He struggled briefly, but his heart wasn't in it and before long, he gave up.

He stood still for an eternity, motionless in my arms. All of a sudden, the barriers that he had so carefully built up against the memories came crashing down under the onslaught of emotions, and he began to shake as silent sobs racked his body.

"I killed her," he murmured softly, "My fault. It was all my fault…" he said over and over again in a heartbreaking litany.

I rocked him gently from side to side, not knowing what to do, and only vaguely aware that I wanted to soothe his agony, take away his pain. My attention was focused entirely on the slight, shivering figure that I held in a loose embrace.

Muttering meaningless words of comfort in his ear, I drew him slowly to the bed in the corner. I reached up, and pulled the leather thong from his hair. It spilled like a silver waterfall down his back, surrounding him in a soft halo. My breath caught, and I moved hurriedly away before I did something that I knew I would regret.

But before I had drawn very far back, it was his turn to catch my wrists.

"Don't go," he begged, blue eyes pleading, "Stay with me, please."

The moment he had touched me, I was lost and so, it seemed, was he. The muted desire which I had seen flash across his eyes earlier that evening returned in full force, hitting me with an almost physical impact.

Nodding, I snapped my fingers, and the lights in the room went off. Only then did I remove the baseball cap from my head.

Lowering myself over him, I laid a chaste kiss on his lips. And then we were well and truly lost, in the night, in the dark, and in each other…

~

I slung my jacket over my shoulder, and turned to look at the sleeping figure on the bed. In the early light of dawn, he looked so young, so vulnerable.

"You were right Mifuyu," I said softly, "I would do anything to protect him."

Rubbing the teardrop shaped birthmark at the corner of my right eye, I ran my hands gently over the matching one on his left shoulder. He stirred slightly, and I drew my hand back quickly.

"I just didn't want to believe I would die for him."

I drew the baseball cap over my head and exited swiftly out of the door. Two steps later, I paused, and flung the card I had truly picked towards the bed and was gone before it floated slowly down.

The Joker, the wildcard.

"You see, Odokemono Hiroji," she said as the blood flowed from her veins, "you are his soulmate. And you will die for him."

~

As the door swung silently shut, Tokiya Mikagami opened his eyes.

© ai 2002

Happy Birthday zephyr!!!