Fushigi yuugi = the anti-mine. Thank you for the readingses! :D

They had found two seishi in one day! The first, surprisingly was the red- haired, fanged bandit! He had not wanted them to know that HE was Tasuki because he wanted to stay with his fellow bandits, but with a little pushing from his friend, Kouji, he had been convinced to come find them. Although Tasuki's lie nearly got them killed, it also led them to the sixth seishi, Mitsukake. He was a tall, muscular, dark-haired, and unbelievably boring man. Mitsukake had saved Miaka from being consumed by the demon that could supposedly bring people back from the dead. The demon had possessed Mitsukake's lover, Shouka, who had died of an illness nearly a year ago. It was very tragic, thought Nuriko as he stood watching the newest seishi carry Shouka's dead, battered body to its resting-place. He turned, looking solemnly to Hotohori's still, sad face, then to Miaka's and Tasuki's. He and Tasuki had sort-of bonded earlier. The two had quickly become friends.

Later, just as most of them were starting to, for the first time, seriously regret that the bandits had kept their horses when they captured them earlier, the five of them decided that they would stop where they were and set out their tents.
Nuriko, who had been appointed to carry all the luggage, tossed the various bags onto the ground, going for the one that contained the tents. Just then it stuck him, and apparently everyone else that there were only four tents.
All eyes went to Hotohori.
"Ah..." he shut his eyes in frustration, "When we were planning to leave, I guess whoever packed our tents must have planned on us only finding ONE seishi..."
"Someone'll have to share tents," Miaka looked around, "and since I'm the only girl, I get my own tent."
"What about Nuriko?" asked Tasuki innocently. Nuriko blushed crimson, realizing that Tasuki thought that he was a girl, a mistake not too hard to make.
"What about Nuriko?" Miaka said. It wasn't really a question. Tasuki flinched slightly as he thought to himself, 'I almost had to KISS that a few days ago...' Miaka finished assigning tents according to the best of her logic. "And of course Hotohori gets his own tent..."
"Why the hell should HE get his own tent?" Tasuki demanded, quickly laughing an apology as he saw the glares of the Miaka, Hotohori, and Nuriko.
"And since Mitsukake is the biggest of us all and he's so boring, he needs his own tent..." She finished. Apparently that was the final word about it, as Miaka, Mitsukake, and Hotohori all three simultaneously took their tents and scattered a little to set them up, leaving Nuriko and Tasuki standing there with a single folded-up tent and poles in front of them. Tasuki laughed a little, nervously, giving Nuriko a lopsided, fanged grin before he bent over to pick up the tent.
"Well? Help me set it up," the bandit grinned.

The two had worked for nearly half an hour trying to get the tent up. Nuriko was already inside the small tent, laying out blankets for them. Tasuki was elsewhere, doing who knows what.
"Goodnight Nuriko! Goodnight Tasuki!" Miaka's voice squealed merrily. Nuriko stuck his violet head out of the tent's opening, flashing a cute grin.
"Goodnight everyone."
"Hey, outta my way," Tasuki walked over, kneeling beside the tent, "I need to get in." Nuriko scooted himself to the back of the tent as Tasuki, stumbling, crawled in. He sat himself up, having to slouch down rather low due to the height, or lack there of, of the tent. "Heheh... Kinda cozy."
Nuriko laughed a little, shaking his head. "Let's go to sleep," he said. Somehow, Tasuki never failed to amuse him.
"Sure," Tasuki replied, laying down on the side designated 'Tasuki's side'. He reached over, putting out the small lantern they had in there. Tasuki stretched out, the sound of humming insects putting him, suddenly, in a very tired mood.
After a pause, Nuriko looked to Tasuki's dark figure. "You know what?" he lowered his voice a little, as he didn't want to wake the others, although the tents were fairly well spread out and they probably couldn't hear him anyway.
"Aa?" Nuriko heard Tasuki turn to face him.
"Hotohori-sama is really nice..."
"You two are a thing?" he propped himself up on his elbow, his cheek resting on his hand.
"I guess so... We haven't really talked about whether or not we're officially 'a thing' yet..." Nuriko stared up at the top of the tent, lowering his eyebrows a little.
"Why the hell not? I bet he's just nervous because he likes you so damn much!"
"You really think so?" he turned his head toward Tasuki, although he wasn't able to see much except the dark outline of him. "Do you think we're good together?"
"Yeah! You two are great together!" the red-haired bandit said enthusiastically, "I can just see it now! You two are gonna get married and- "
"But I don't really know if he even likes me that much..."
"What? You mean he hasn't even told you he likes you yet?!"
"He has... he just doesn't act like it unless we're alone..." Nuriko turned his head back away from Tasuki, looking at the side of the tent, which wasn't too interesting.
"He's probably just shy or something!" Nuriko couldn't think of a reason why an emperor would be shy about anything, but he didn't say anything to Tasuki. "Hell! He's probably not sure that you like him... Guys are like that. Well, a good guy is like that. I'm sure someone like me wouldn't be like that," Tasuki grinned, chuckling a little.
Nuriko laughed, "Tasuki you're not a bad guy! I bet you're more shy with people than Hotohori-sama is!" Nuriko could practically feel Tasuki blushing.

"Aa no way! I'm a bandit! You wouldn't believe some of the horrible things I do."
"Of course, Tasuki-chan."
"Hey! Don't be callin' me that shit!"
"Shh! You'll wake the others up."
Nuriko grinned into the night. Tasuki was so much fun to mess with. He was always stuck on the fact that he was bad and wild and whatnot, but the truth was, Nuriko actually thought he was one of the sweetest people he'd met, besides Hotohori. When you took away all the cursing, egotistical- ness, life of crime, and alcohol, Tasuki was just a big sweetie. "But you're probably right..."
"Damn straight!"
"No, no! You are sweet!"
Tasuki growled.
Nuriko grinned, brushing the hair out of face, "I meant what you said about Hotohori-sama." Nuriko sighed. "He's so sweet... and handsome... brave... perfect..."
"Hmph."
"Something wrong?"
"Nah! You two'll be great," he let out a yawn. In his opinion, Hotohori was over-rated. Sure, he was good looking, but he was also really stuck up and vain... "So how did you find out that he likes you?"
Nuriko rolled over onto his side, facing Tasuki again. "Well," Nuriko got a huge smile just remembering what had happened. "It was the day that we first met up with you... And we were in the woods looking for Miaka. I assume she was with you at the time?"
Tasuki shuddered to remember. Miaka had gotten a... little better since that night, but not all that much. She was still ugly as hell. Not like Nuriko...
"And he just kind of told me..." Nuriko's smile grew even more. He paused. "I just hope he meant it..." his smile fell completely.
The bandit heard the decline in Nuriko's tone, and quickly went to make him feel better. "Of course he did! How could anyone resist a hot sexy thing like you??"
Nuriko nervously looked around, seeing nothing but darkness. It was weird. He'd worked so hard to keep people thinking he was girl, but then when they found out he was really a guy it seemed really weird, and as soon as he had gotten sort-of used to it, it felt even weirder to have people think that he was a girl...
"Somethin' wrong?"
"...No."
"Alright, well I'm going to sleep," Tasuki stated as he stretched out and closed his eyes, the whole world quickly fading away into nothing.