Misao stared out her window into the night's sky wondering where Lord Aoshi was at the moment. It wasn't all that late and she hoped he was taking good care of himself. May not come back, long term commitment... those two phrases rang in her mind. Did Lord Aoshi really mean it? Of course he meant it! Lord Aoshi was always honest. Even... even if the truth hurt. But dang it! Did he have to be so cruel?
She didn't even realize tears were shimmering in her emerald eyes until a voice asked behind her, "Why are you sad?"
She whirled confronting the boy. They were about the same height, in fact they were a mere year apart in age. Soujiro was registered at her school and had started attending classes the day before.
At the moment he had a math book clutched to his chest and the ever present smile gracing his face. His hair looked unbrushed and his clothes were untucked. A sharp contrast to the neat, almost godly tidiness he displayed at school.
"What do you want?" She asked belligerently sticking out her chin and folding her arms beneath her breasts. He looked rather surprised at her offensive attitude, but the smile never wavered.
He showed her the math book and replied, "I was hoping you could help me."
"Oh."
"You see, I am not very talented when it comes to math." He finished and she felt stupid. It was just... just what bubble brain? Her inner voice insisted viciously. The poor guy just needs some help and here you are being a complete jerk for no reason! Help the boy out why don't you? And be nice.
Misao cleared a space on her cluttered desk knocking things to the floor. He bent down to pick them up, but she stopped him.
"Don't worry about those; I'll pick them up later." She smiled decided to be pleasant. "Here. Set your book down and show me the problems. I'm a whiz at math so it should be a cinch for me to teach you how to do them."
Two hours later Misao felt her lids getting heavy. She glanced at the clock and yelped. Soujiro looked at her questioningly, still with that unnerving smile, and she gave a sheepish grin.
"Sorry, I have to go to bed or I'll never get up in time tomorrow morning!" She informed him. Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt was a good idea. He really wasn't so bad. A nice guy actually. No replacement for Lord Aoshi, but maybe someone who could turn out to be a wonderful friend. "I have swim practice tomorrow morning around five. It's killer early, but luckily it's only on Mondays and Thursdays."
He nodded understandingly and started to gather up his stuff. He paused at the door, "Thank you very much for the help. Do you mind if we continue tomorrow evening...?"
She noted the hesitation in his voice. It seemed somehow wrong. Like it wasn't an occurrence that happened all that often.
She flashed him a smile of her own, "No problem buddy! How about after dinner then?"
He nodded then gave her a look she couldn't decipher. It slipped right out of her mind as she gathered up the spilled papers. Shoving them into some semblance of a stack she plopped the whole lot down on the corner of her desk.
She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and loosed her braid. Her long hair flowed back waving wildly glad to be free from constraint. Picking up the brush with a sigh she hoped she wouldn't break it. There was a serious downside to bouncing all over the place as Jiya put it. That's why she put it in a braid in the first place. To keep it from snarling up.
A soft knock on the door made her jerk her head up, and consequently yank the brush. Placing a hand on the now tender spot she opened the door.
Jiya looked up at her and she opened her mouth to yell at him, but something stopped her.
"Shinomori just reported in." Jiya announced stiffly, but kept his inner thoughts silent. He was aware that the man only bothered to give updates to appease Misao. The girl wouldn't be livable if he didn't. "His contract was made with no problems and it states that he must stay with his employer for six months before renewing."
Six months! Misao almost wailed. Instead she stared up like a dumb animal, feeling like stone. What would it be like to be stone? Surely Lord Aoshi's heart must be hard as one leaving her for so long!
Jiya placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and she flinched away. He let it slid off and eyed her. She twitched not in the mood to be soul searched. He looked like he was going to say something, but abruptly changed his mind when she slammed the door in his face.
Flopping down on her bed and scattering a multitude of cute stuffed animals everywhere she glared at the wall while her thoughts chased in circles.
How? How could he do this? He was their leader. Didn't he see how much they needed him, she needed him? Well, she hastily amended; the business was doing well without him. But that wasn't the point! The point was her beloved Lord Aoshi was going to be gone for six months leaving some kid in his place. Anger sprang up unbidden like a raging fire and she wasn't about to play fire fighter. To heck with that.
Jumping up she snatched up the darts lying off to the side and flung them viciously at the dart board across the room. They slammed in accurately on the red bull's eye before the tips snapped off under the sheer force. She ignored that looking for something else to throw. When nothing immediately came to hand she scowled and grabbed a stress ball.
Mashing the poor thing with vengeance she started to plan. If Lord Aoshi wouldn't come home then she would simply have to go to him! Not too hard right? All she's had to do was get on Jiya's computer, an easy thing to do after he went to sleep. Then she could look up the message from Lord Aoshi and hopefully pin point his location. If not... well, then she's improvise! She didn't have time to plan in case things didn't go right. Why bother anyway?
She bound her hair back up and flipped off the light feinting sobs.
Okina, still trying to get over having a door slammed, literally, in his face considered the loud crashing noises on the other side of the door. He sighed mentally adding more darts to the list of supplies. Honestly, he loved the girl dearly, but she had one nasty temper! He supposed that was in part a fault to the ones who raised her.
Abruptly it was silent and he was suspicious, but when the lights turned out and he could hear crying on the other side he relaxed. Being the messenger certainly was not something he would allow anyone else to do. It was too painful. Touching his tender nose he amended, literally. But his heart went out to the poor girl.
He wasn't sure at first why Aoshi brought home the boy, Soujiro, but now he had inkling. Despite his icy demeanor, Aoshi was a loyal soul, maybe too much so. He thought of little Misao as just that, little. Young actually. Of course, the old man didn't think the tall, silent man realized just how deep her feelings for him ran and he knew Aoshi would never act on them.
But he brought home this boy, who knows where he found the teenager, to keep Misao company. Maybe divert her affections? Yet Okina knew even less of Seta than he did of Aoshi. He had no idea if the boy had any ulterior motive, hidden agenda. He would just have to trust in Aoshi's uncanny ability to choose loyal followers.
Reviewers:
Fyyrrose: *Hiko smirk* I'm a much better big sister than you are, obviously. Of course, the minion and my brother are just as eccentric as I am, I blame Mom. O__O;; I don't want to know about that teacher/next generation comment. *raises eyebrow* You want it as an AU or Canon or AT? Give me some ground rules, otherwise I'll make my own >:) Sweet, now I'll have to find the time to watch them all. Cliffies are fun! (actually, I think it was past midnight, Alex had already gone to bed, and I wanted to end it). Stop teasing them.
silver-kitsune: Will do.
eriesalia: ^^;; children are annoying, and she's being spoilt. Kamatari has practically no character, the poor guy. All we know about him is that he's a cross-dresser, wields a scythe/chain, and is devoted/ loves Shishio. We don't know about his past... Hmm, there's an idea. *shoves it in back of mind with other short story ideas). *tries to picture Aoshi as a child* O.o *tries to picture Saitoh as a child* O.O;; Okay, I need some bleach now, dang my vivid imagination!
Wistful-Eyes: ^.-- Can't say really.
Kinetic Dream: O.o;; did I really? Wow, I'm so callous sometimes *sigh*. Ah yes, for Meg. Key words there. Hehe, as for updating, I've got this thing all done (I wrote it two months ago when I was in Italy and had nothing better to do.)
sacred night: Kind of creepy, isn't it? Then again, Okon and Omasu were sitting there drooling over the man (well, who wouldn't? the guy is sexy, it's just that ego/attitude).
Trupana: That's okay, better excuses than I have O.o no schoolwork for me, holidays just mean I get to see relatives (oh joy). Laziness is a good thing =D it's my best friend! I have a tendancy to drag in almost a full cast, I just can't seem to help it! Besides, it's fun to try and write from some many different POVs. O.o I just won't touch Hiko with a ten foot pole. Ah, what do six yr olds care about romance anyway? Hehe. I have NC on that subject. It was instigated by this nasty professor at the college in Italy *shudder* Stinky... I mean Mr. Sinky. They should, shouldn't they? Then again, @.@ I don't think I'd want saitoh to teach, Sano doesn't have the attention span ^^, maybe 'Tari then :D.
MissBehavin: Well, I got your review via e-mail, but it hasn't shown up on FF yet. I kinda forgot some of it, I just scanned it, but I'm too lazy to wait. Kamatari really didn't do much for me one way or the other when he was first introduced in the anime. It wasn't until I went back and read the manga that he caught my attention. Dunno why, I'm weird (and apparently seem to like cross dressers, Count D from PSoH). You pick up on things, that's where that silly, scatterbrain idea come from. It takes one astute person to know another *grins*.