Loyalty and Honor 2

Author's Notes: I'm so glad that everybody loves the whole Miaka and Nuriko pairings. I wasn't sure that there would be any fans of this whole pairing, but I was astounded to see there are a lot of Miaka and Nuriko shippers out there. Anyway here's chapter 2, and I hope that you like this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: Who does these characters belong to? I don't really know. So I'll say that they belong to the people who made them, and no it's not me. So there. Let's get on with the story.



I was sitting at the table eating my breakfast, and I was one of the first people to finish eating. The table was crowded with food, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the empty plate that was in front of me. At the moment Nuriko was sitting directly in front me, and he had been avoiding me all morning. As a matter of fact whenever I asked him to pass me something he flat out ignored me. There were many times when Chichiri would have to intervene and pass me what I wanted.

I won't lie and say that I wasn't affected by his plainly obvious attempts of pretending that I wasn't there. There were many times when I had to fight back my tears that threatened to escape from my eyes. Of course there were many times when Tasuki would blurt out something inappropriate, that would eventually make both Nuriko and I turn beet red.

I couldn't believe that Nuriko was being this cold towards me, and it was all because I kissed him. I told him that it would never happen again, and so far I had been true to my word. I hadn't made any passes at him since yesterday, and I haven't even been able to look him in the eyes. So why was he acting like this?

I made a promise to myself that I wasn't about to let myself get all down and depressed over Nuriko. I had been in that situation once before with Tamahome, and look at where it got me. It certainly wasn't with Tamahome, and I was still all-alone.

After spending my entire morning being fixated on Nuriko, I decided that I was going to go and train. Even though I was still hungry, I couldn't bare spending any more time in the dining room. So I stood up and grabbed my plate. As I was getting ready to leave I felt a hand grab my arm. I felt my heart skip a beat, and I suddenly became nervous. For a moment I thought that it was Nuriko's hand that reached out to me, but I was disappointed to find out that it was Tasuki's hand instead.

I don't know if my disappointment was apparent on my face, but it was clearly visible in my heart. I snatched my arm away from Tasuki, and I glared as evilly as I could at him. He looked at me with a look of frustration, and I questioned him with my eyes.

"You're finished eating?" Tasuki said confusedly.

"Yeah. Besides I have to train."

That statement earned me a furious glance from Nuriko, but it lasted for only a second. As soon as Nuriko noticed that I was looking at him, his eyes quickly diverted back to his plate.

"I'd never thought that you'd actually pick training over food Miaka." Tasuki said cruelly.

This earned Tasuki a quick whack upside the head. After a quick argument session, I turned to walk away. I stopped short when I saw Chichiri staring at me strangely. He was looking at me oddly, and I wanted to know why.

"Chichiri, is there something wrong?" I suddenly asked.

"Gosh, there's nothing wrong. It's just that you seem to be down ya know. Is there something bothering you? No da!"

"I'm fine. Can I ask you something Chichiri?"

"Sure Miaka,"

"Could you teach me how to use magic?"

It became so quiet that you could actually hear a pin drop, if someone were to actually drop one that is.

"Gee, Miaka. I don't know."

"Please. I want to be able to protect you guys, when it's time for this war."

"You already know how to fight. Personally I don't think that you have any thing to worry about." Tasuki said.

"That's not the point Tasuki. I want to be able to fight with all that I have, by any means necessary. If magic will help me to be a better fighter, then I'll do anything that I can to improve my skills. Chichiri, I'm not asking you to teach me everything that you know. I just want learn how to do some simple spells, and I wanted to learn how to do your little disappearing act."

"Miaka, you do understand that you have to be a monk to perform some of these spells. No da!"

"I am the Priestess of Suzaku after all. Doesn't that count for something?"

"It's not that simple ya know."

"Can we at least try?"

"Well I don't know Miaka."

"Please?"

"You know Chichiri, it's not polite for a man to have a woman beg." Tasuki said.

"Like you would know. You don't even like girls remember?" Chiriko said.

As the two of them threw verbal assaults at each other, my eyes wandered towards Nuriko. His eyes were still focused on the plate before him, and he was ever so quiet not saying a word. I began to wonder what he was thinking about, and then I was pulled away from my thoughts as I heard Chichiri's voice ring out.

"Well then. If you really want me to train you, then I will no da!"

"Oh really! Thank you Chichiri!"

I ran up to him and then I threw my arms around his neck. I hugged him as tightly as I could, as a feeling of joy rushed through my body. I wanted to use this training as a means of forgetting about Nuriko, and that was going to start today. Once I was through with my hugging craze, I grabbed on to Chichiri's hand and pulled him out of his seat. His eyes nervously shot between both Nuriko and I. Did he know? Could he tell that I had feelings for Nuriko.

Chichiri had always been able to make astute observations about certain things. Surely he could see through this façade that I was building up. Before he could say anything I pulled on his arm, and dragged him out of the room. However before I left the room, my eyes settled on Nuriko once again. This time there was something else written on his face, something that I couldn't place.

For a moment his eyes were frozen on mine, and I didn't know what to do. It felt like I was glued to the ground, and I couldn't move. It was something in the way that he looked at me. It seemed like his big brown eyes were boring a hole right into my heart.

I wasn't supposed to be feeling like this. I was supposed to be the strong one, but here I was and I couldn't even move. As much as I wanted to move, I found myself unable to budge one step. Mentally I was cursing myself out for being so weak, and I guess that Chichiri instantly picked up on this. For in that instant Chichiri pulled on my arm, and lead me out of the dining room. Before Nuriko was out of my line of view, I stole a quick glance at him once again. There was a look of unmistakable sadness written all over Nuriko's face, and I couldn't help but wonder if he thought that I was mad at him. All I wanted to do was talk to him, but I knew that it would be more than awkward. So I let Chichiri lead me out of the room, and once again I felt that feeling of rejection creep up on me once again.



I watched Miaka and Chichiri walk out of the dining room, and it was only then that I was able to relax. I don't why I was so nervous when Miaka was in the room, but there was something in the way that she was looking at me. It was something in her eyes that made me feel rather strange. There were so many different emotions burning inside of me, that I couldn't discern exactly what it was that I was feeling.

There were times when I was angry, and there were times I felt annoyed. However there was one emotion that stood out above the rest, and that was the sudden feeling of jealousy, that crept through my body when I saw Chichiri holding Miaka's hand. Now don't get me wrong. I have no feelings for Miaka in that way, and neither do I have any feelings for Chichiri. Yet there was something there that I couldn't put my hand on. There was something inside of me stirring like a wild tornado with no destination in mind. I felt so lost and confused like that wild tornado, that I was sure that my teammates had noticed it.

I suddenly became aware of Tasuki's eyes boring into me, and so I turned towards him to see why he was staring. He had an upturned smirk on his face, and I could see the sharp fangs of his teeth. It was a look that let me know that he was up to no good, and it was a look that I wasn't exactly comfortable with. I've seen that look far more times than I could even remember, and always ended with trouble. So I decided to question him, with the hopes of getting Miaka off of my mind.

"Spit it Tasuki."

"I was just thinking that maybe its time that we have a little fun." Tasuki said.

"I'm not interested Tasuki." I said passively.

"What! That's not what I meant! The nerve of you thinking that!" Tasuki yelled.

"Well what do you want?" Chiriko asked.

"Noneya." Tasuki said.

"What's a noneya?" Chiriko asked confusedly.

"You know what it means." Tasuki said coyly.

"No I don't." Chiriko said.

"Noneya means none of your business. That's one of the oldest jokes around." Mitsukake said plainly.

"Why I outta!" Chiriko stated

I stood up to leave because I was starting to get annoyed with the childish bickering. I turned to walk out of the room, and Tasuki walked right up behind me. As I left the dining room, I was aware that Tasuki was talking to me. However I was so involved in my own thoughts that I didn't even hear the words that escaped his lips. It wasn't until he stood in front of me that I stared at him and listened to what he had to say.

"What do you want Tasuki?" I questioned.

"I wanted to ask you a personal question. Did you and Miaka have a fight? I've noticed that you two have been acting kinda strange."

"You could say that."

"What you two fight about anyway?"

"I didn't want her to train so much, but you know how stubborn Miaka can be."

"Don't I know it? Hey let's go see how her training with Chichiri is going."

"I have better things to do with my time, than to spy on her."

"Come on! It should be fun to watch. Remember when you first trained her? She could barely walk straight. Man I thought that I was going to die laughing."

"Tasuki, will you leave me alone?"

"Not until you come with me."

"Fine. I'll go."

After all I was a little curious to see how things were going with Miaka's training.

"Great!"

Both Tasuki and I walked out to the training grounds, and almost immediately we could see Both Miaka and Chichiri training. They stood facing each other, and they had their palms pressed flatly against each other. They both had their eyes closed, and they were obviously concentrating very hard on the spell that they were trying to work on.

After a while I noticed that both Miaka and Chichiri were beginning to levitate. It was almost exotic to watch. I stood in awe, at how fast Miaka seemingly was learning the art of magic. My eyes were glued to her form, as she suddenly made an illusion of other Miaka's surround her. Both Miaka and Chichiri were in the middle of the other Miaka's, as they circled around her. I noticed that Miaka was concentrating so hard, that she wasn't even aware at how heavy she was sweating. However she was doing it. She was mastering the art of magic, and for one brief instant I was aroused.

I don't know where that feeling came from, but I decided that the time for me to leave was now. However, before I could leave the multiple Miaka's disappeared. Both Chichiri and Miaka looked over in our direction. I could clearly Miaka's eyes sweep up and down over my form, and I did the first thing that I could think of at that moment. I grabbed Tasuki's hand, and I pulled him close to me.

I turned around to walk out of the training room, and at the same time I had heard an earful from Tasuki. I stole one last look at Miaka before I left the room completely, and was surprised to find that Chichiri had his arm around his shoulder. An inward rage boiled deep within me, and I was confused about what to do. So I turned towards Tasuki, and prayed that I was doing the right thing about asking for his advice.

"Tasuki, do you think that Miaka and Chichiri are a couple?"

"No. Why are you jealous?"

"Get real Tasuki. I was just curious. Miaka haven't said anything to me in a while, and it seems like Chichiri and Miaka are getting a little too close."

"You can't have Chichiri Nuriko. He's a monk. You know, he's close to God or something like that."

"Like you'd know anything about religion."

"Umm. Newsflash I don't. I'm still trying to figure out why I was chosen to a Suzaku warrior. It's not like I've lived a morally chaste life."

"You can say that again. Look I'm going to go to some of the shops. I need a new outfit."

"Now there's the Nuriko we all know and love. Wait! I didn't mean that like you think I meant it, you know."

"That's a relief."

We walked towards the shops, and Tasuki suddenly stopped me. He looked at me with a look of tranquility written all over his face.

"Give her time. She'll come around. She's still getting over that whole Tamahome and Hotohori thing. Just give her a little space. I'm sure she'll be back to her old self in no time, and I'm positive that she's going to find another guy to obsesses with in no time."

The only thing that I could think of at that moment was this. You have no idea how right you are Tasuki. You have no idea at all. Still I wondered why I was having these strange feelings. I needed to go to the shops, and scope out all the cute guys. Maybe they'll get my mind off of Miaka for once and for all.



Next Chapter: Nuriko finds Chichiri and Miaka in a somewhat compromising position, and this stirs up a lot of feelings that he didn't know he had. Also the last person Miaka thought that she'd ever see shows up at her door. Alone. No it's not who you think. Who will help Miaka out of this fit of depression that she will go through? Also Miaka and Nuriko have their first big major fight, and it's not going to be pretty.