Voler à Leafenia
Sasame opened his eyes to darkness, yawning as his ears adjusted to the foreign sounds that woke him. He felt his body curl in the sheets, a wave of nervousness falling over him. His heart began to beat faster and faster as he heard a light shuffling sound nearing him.
Then suddenly, he felt a heavy weight press against his body. "Mmmmmf!" He whined, reaching his small hands up, trying to push the warm weight from him.
"Whoa, whoa!" He heard a familiar voice sound as the weight lifted from him. Sasame poked his head out of the covers, feeling a refreshing, cold air hit his face. "..oh.. forgot you were there." The voice said as a light flicked on. Mannen stood before him, wearing only loose dark blue boxers.
"You nearly crushed me!" Sasame snapped, his face flushing. The older knight rolled his eyes, holding his hands up as if to say 'so what'.
"I forgot you were in my bed, kid! I didn't do it on purpose!" Mannen replied, his brow furrowing in annoyance.
The small child frowned, curling into a small ball in the corner of the bed, his face buried in the pillow. Mannen sighed woefully.
"Don't tell me you're going to cry." He muttered.
"..I thought you were a Demon Larva.." Sasame whispered from the pillow. The Knight of Ice paused, thinking of how to solve this problem.
"I suppose you are still a bit young to be able to detect another Leafe Knight's power patterns to identify us.. and I remember that the dark used to scare... err.. Shin and Hajime very badly. So.. don't feel embarrassed or anything." Mannen whispered, climbing into the bed and resting a hand on the shivering back of the new knight.
He looked up at Mannen, his amethyst eyes focusing on him, "Shin and.. Hajime?" He asked.
"Yeah, Shin and Hajime.. I was never afraid of the dark, no damn way." Mannen replied, averting his gaze from the young child to the ceiling. "Don't worry.. this kind of darkness won't hurt you. And you have the best Leafe Knight with you."
A yawn came from the boy as he nestled near the older knight, "Okay.. I'll trust you." He said quietly as he fell into a deep sleep.
"Yeah.. great.." Mannen mumbled, noting how the child was taking up a good three-fourths of the bed, and was cuddled close to him to boot. "..Just.. perfect." He hissed, resting his head on his pillow.
The smell of bacon, eggs and toast filled the air the next morning. It was not a particularly pleasant day; it had begun raining early morning, around 2:00.
Kei sat in the dining room, woefully examining the large horizontal break in the circular window, figuring in his head the amount it would cost to repair the damage. He and Goh had woken to the sound of thunder early that morning, and the two were forced to find some makeshift way to keep the rain from entering the apartment through the window. They had settled on taping tin foil to the broken area of the window. It may not have been attractive, but at least it would keep the carpet from becoming soaked with rain.
Presently, only Kei and Goh were awake, though Goh was sure he heard Hajime and Shin talking in their room, so one of the two was bound to surface at any moment. Goh, meanwhile, had begun preparing breakfast, making sure to begin preparation of the morning tea, which Kei was pretty much useless without.
"It's a lovely morning for training a new knight, isn't it, Goh?" Kei mumbled, entering the kitchen from the dining room. He walked to the bar, pulling out a stool to sit on as Goh busily moved about the kitchen.
"We never know.. it might not be raining in Leafenia.." Goh replied, turning and smiling to Kei as a batch of toast popped from the toaster. It was more than obvious that Goh was much more of a morning person than Kei, and on more than one occasion, it took extra 'prying' to convince Kei to rise from bed before 7:30... 9:00 if it was a Saturday.
Kei tapped the counter top with his left index and ring fingers, his eyes focusing on the ring, inscribed with the character of Light, which encircled his middle finger. "I do not think Mannen will be up to assisting us this morning." He said lightly as Goh poured himself a glass of orange juice.
"Why do you say that?" Goh asked.
"Because he came in at 4:00 this morning.. and he stumbled into the walls quite a few times so I believe that he was a little bit tipsy." Kei replied, lifting his tea cup to his lips and taking a sip of the hot liquid.
"..That little bastard." Goh muttered, clenching his glass as his eyes lit in anger. "..I'll have to kill him later."
"And you never got drunk and stayed out late, Goh?" Kei whispered, blowing a drift of steam away from the cup. "I know you did at least once."
Goh smiled, looking toward the ceiling, ".. the last time I did I learned my lesson because some scary man in a Mercedes took me to his apartment and never let me go."
"..you liked it." Kei muttered, setting his cup on the countertop as a very peppy Shin entered the kitchen, waving to Goh as he did.
"Good morning, everyone!" He said in his usual lively tone. "I love rainy mornings.. they're so peaceful, aren't they?" Shin asked, smiling to Kei while he pulled out a stool to sit on.
"It's the ray of sunshine." Goh smiled, holding out a glass. "Can I pour you some orange juice?"
Shin shook his head, "I think I'll have water, thanks." He replied, hopping off the stool and bustling to the fridge for the filtered water.
"Did Sasame get to bed alright last night, Shin?" Kei asked, lifting an eyebrow as he skimmed through the morning newspaper. Shin took a sip of his water, nodding.
"Yes, he did.. oh, by the way.. Kei.. did you slip in the shower last night? Hajime and I heard several loud thuds coming from your bathroom." Shin asked, blinking as Kei coughed suddenly when he tried to sip his tea. Goh's eyes widened, his face reddening as he spun around to grab a plate.
"BACON, SHIN?" Goh said loudly, his voice high as he spun back around with a plateful of bacon.
"There was a spider.." Kei said, quickly trailing Goh. A paused followed where Shin blinked, looking from Kei to Goh.
"Um.. okay." Shin whispered, reaching out to take a slice of bacon. He lifted it to his lips and gingerly took a bite off the end.
"Uhhn.. coffee.." Hajime mumbled as he came slugging into the room, looking like one of the undead. He wore one green sock and one blue sock. That combined with his red checkered sleep pants, backwards tee shirt and the most serious case of bed head ever painted a fairly typical "Hajime in the morning" picture. He was even less of a morning person than Kei, and Shin often complained (good naturedly) that HE had to get up an extra hour early to dress Hajime on school days.
"Good morning, Haji-san." Shin beamed, glancing at Hajime as the Knight of Water stumbled to the coffee pot and groped for a mug. At only the age of fourteen, Hajime had become something of a coffee junkie, completely unable to function without it.
"...yeah.. morning.." Hajime replied, his eyes glimmering lightly as he poured the hot coffee into his blue mug. "Hey.. did you slip in the.."
"Spider. It was a spider." Goh said quickly, thrusting the plate of bacon in front of Hajime's nose.
"Ooh.. bacon." Hajime whispered, taking the plate from Goh's hands. As he nibbled on two slices of bacon at once, Kei set the newspaper on the counter, pushing away from his stool to stand.
"We are to meet Hayate and Himeno in Leafenia at 9:00.. someone should wake Sasame and Mannen soon." He commented as all eyes turned to the local wake-up call boy.
"..Why are you looking at me?" Shin whined, his face flushing as Hajime approached him from behind.
"You can head into the lair of the beast and try to wake him from his sleep." Hajime commented, poking Shin's shoulder with his finger. Shin gave a light whimper as he nodded, silently obliging to the request made by the three older knights.
He traipsed lightly through the living room, hesitating at Mannen's door before opening it, having to use a bit of force to open it due to a large amount of debris blocking the other side of the door.
The room was nearly pitch black; Mannen liked it that way. He had thick shades to block out any sunlight entering his room, otherwise he could not sleep. It was also always several degrees colder in this room than in any other room in the apartment, seeing as how the Knight of Ice enjoyed keeping his habitat nice and cool.
Shin squinted in the dark, attempting to avoid the mess to make his way to Mannen's bed. When he finally made it there (with much toe stubbing), he reached his hands down, shoving the nearest mound in the mess of sheets on the bed. An annoyed groan came from the covers, alerting Shin that it was Mannen he had nudged.
"Get the hell out." Mannen muttered, his hand appearing from under the covers, swatting at Shin's hands.
"I'm sorry if you stayed out till all hours of the night, but I need Sasame. We have to get him ready.. are you even going to help with this, Mannen?" Shin asked, falling back as Mannen rolled over and heaved the curled, warm child that had been peacefully sleeping next to him upward.
Sasame made a sound not unlike that of an irritated cat that had been woken from a deep sleep, moving himself in an attempt to shake loose of Mannen's grasp to make it back to the warm covers. Shin reached out, taking the small child from Mannen's hands, bringing him up to his torso, where the child wrapped his legs around his waist. The Knight of Sound burrowed his silvery head in Shin's chest, muttering something about being tired as Shin moved toward the door.
"I'll be up in a minute.. tell them not to leave without me.." Mannen called after him.
"Right, right.." Shin nodded, shutting the door as he carried Sasame to the kitchen. He balanced the child on one arm as he pushed the swinging kitchen door open with the other hand.
Sasame peeked over his shoulder when Shin entered the kitchen, blinking at the bright lights of the room. "..Ahn..?" He whimpered as Goh smiled, approaching Shin. The Knight of Fire took the child from Shin's arms, swinging him around before resting him on one of the bar stools.
"Good morning, Sasame." Hajime smiled, reaching forward to toss the child's hair as Kei smiled and nodded at him.
"..morning." Sasame replied, tilting his head back to yawn as Goh placed a small plate on the counter in front of the child.
"Would you like some bacon or toast, Sasame?" Goh asked, taking the plate of bacon from Hajime, who whined in objection.
"..mm.. I.. guess." Sasame replied, blinking at the plate while Goh set a slice of toast and a slice of bacon on it. Afterwards, Goh placed two small jars before the child and Sasame leaned forward, peering at the labels, trying to make sense of the writing from the language he knew. "..gr.. grape.. jell..jelly. Con..fi.. ture.. du.. rai..sin.. pe..ach jelly.. confi..ture.. du.. pêche.." Sasame said slowly, Shin giggling as he did.
"It's jelly, Sasame. This is grape and this is peach." He said, pointing to each jar as he identified both. "You put it on your toast to make it taste better.." Shin explained, Sasame's eyes widening as he began to piece together what Shin was saying. "See, you use this little knife here to scoop the jelly out of the jar.." He began, lifting his own piece of toast and dipping the knife into the peach jelly. "Then you spread the jelly on your toast." Shin finished, smoothing his toast in the rosy jelly.
"..I.. see." Sasame replied, a smile appearing on his face. He reached a small hand forward, taking the knife from Shin's hand and dipping it into the grape jelly jar. He lifted a small amount of jelly from the jar, a globule of the deep purple mixture falling to the countertop as he brought the knife to his toast. Sasame carefully spread the jelly on his toast, smiling as he finished his task.
"Good job!" Shin beamed, taking a bite of his peach jelly covered toast. Sasame nodded, following Shin's example by nibbling at his own slice of toast. His eyes brightened when the jelly touched his tongue, and he quickly finished off his small breakfast.
Hajime smiled at Shin, admiring the comforting feeling the blond boy obviously gave Sasame. Ever since they were children, Shin always acted a bit older than his age, and now he seemed to have taken it upon himself to help familiarize Sasame with his alien surroundings. He was focusing so much on Shin's jelly lesson to Sasame that he didn't notice Goh calling his name.
"Hajime.. Hajime." Goh said, reaching out and poking Hajime's shoulder as he repeated his name. "Hey!" The older knight said as Hajime snapped back into consciousness.
"..oh.. what?" Hajime blinked, turning to look at Goh.
"..you're pouring coffee onto your leg." Kei said, causing Hajime to suddenly realize the pain on his leg.
"Ah!" Hajime cried out, placing the coffee pot onto the table, yanking a napkin from Goh's hand and covering his leg with it, attempting to soak some of the hot coffee from his pajama pants into the cloth.
"..Goodness.. you really are a terrible morning person, Haji-san." Shin smiled, hopping from his stool. "I'm going to take a shower.. unless of course you would like to use it first, Haji." The smaller young man said as he approached the door, an eyebrow raised in humor at Hajime.
"..N..no. That's alright, Shin.. I'll use it after you." Hajime replied, looking down at his leg.
"..Hopefully there aren't any.. 'spiders'.. in the shower." Shin teased, looking at Kei and Goh.
"Go bathe." Goh muttered, his face reddening as Shin disappeared from the kitchen with an infectious giggle. Following Shin's exit, Mannen shuffled into the kitchen, brushing a few locks of snow white hair from his forehead as he made his way to the counter, where he snatched a handful of bacon and several slices of toast. He placed three or four slices of bacon into his mouth as he reached into the cabinet to take a glass.
"Oh, happy day, all." Mannen said as he tilted the orange juice so it would pour into his glass.
"Have a nice evening, Mannen?" Goh asked, squinting as the Knight of Ice downed the glass of orange juice and began to pour another.
"Indeed I did." Mannen replied, smiling coyly to Goh, "Enjoy your late night shower, Goh? Sure sounded like you did." Mannen said.
"..Shut up, Mannen." Kei said slowly, arching an eyebrow at Mannen in annoyance.
While Mannen finished off his breakfast, Sasame hopped from his stool and shuffled closer to the Knight of Ice. "..are you coming to help me train, Mannen?" He asked, blinking.
"Huh?.. yeah." He muttered as he swiveled his orange juice glass in his hand. As he set his glass on the countertop, Sasame smiled, turning to shuffle from the kitchen to the living room.
"Oh, Sasame?" Goh called after him, leaving the kitchen to follow the young child. Sasame paused next to the white couch, tilting his head around to look at Goh.
"Yes?"
"We have to leave for Leafenia in half an hour.. it would be best if you started to get ready.." Goh said, "Do you need any help?"
Sasame looked at the ceiling, pondering, "..I think I will be alright." He replied, turning and walking away slowly. "Shin left my clothes in Mannen's top drawer.. I can change myself." He murmured as he continued to walk towards the bedroom door.
"Oh.. alright.." Goh trailed off, turning to face the kitchen door, ".. and Sasame?" He added as Sasame paused once more. Goh turned back to smile, "You're going into Hajime and Shin's room.. Mannen's is one to the right." He said gently, reentering the kitchen.
Sasame blinked, his eyes turning to the door to the right. "Oh.." He squeaked.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Mannen drummed his fingers on the countertop as he chewed his breakfast loudly, staring off into space. Hajime, having recovered from his self-inflicted coffee injury, sat next to him, slowly growing more and more irked by the loud chewing noise. Kei slowly lowered his newspaper and watched Hajime as the young Knight of Water began to twitch each time Mannen chewed.
"Are you two almost finished? You don't have long to get ready." Goh said stiffly as the kitchen door swung open and he entered.
"I'll just need a quick five minute shower after Shin is finished in the bathroom and then I'll be ready." Hajime commented, twitching once more as Mannen sucked on his tooth.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be ready, don't worry." Mannen added, waving his hand. The younger knight's head lifted as he set his hand back on the table to continue drumming with his fingers.
"The water stopped. I guess Shin is done with the shower." Hajime said quietly, sliding from the stool. He held out his hand, lifting all five fingers to indicate the five minutes he would need to clean and dress. As he did, Mannen set down his spoon, jumping to his feet and rushing to the door after Hajime.
"I'll be back in a jiffy." Mannen grinned, disappearing from the kitchen.
Kei raised an eyebrow, sipping the last bit of his tea and finishing off the small biscuit he had been nibbling on. "Well, then.. It is almost time." He said, shutting his eyes.
"Yeah.." Goh replied, nodding.
"..Are you ready for another Naming Ceremony?" Kei whispered, placing his slender hands in his pockets. This brought a shrug from the younger knight.
"I suppose." Goh sighed, winking while he lifted the breakfast dishes from the table and over to the sink.
They went about their usual morning activities; Kei finished the morning paper while Goh washed the breakfast dishes. Hajime made a record 4.30-minute wash-up routine while Shin blow-dried his hair (Shin had become somewhat vain over the years, Goh blamed it on living with Kei.), and Mannen slid on clothes from the day before and brushed out his hair, since he didn't really see this as a special occasion.
Five minutes before they were scheduled to meet Himeno, Hayate and Sasame in Leafenia, the five knights and the soon-to-be-knighted child stood in the living room.
"Alright.. so, there is no need to be nervous, okay?" Goh said, leaning on one knee as he tugged on Sasame's collar.
"I understand.." Sasame whispered, blinking sleepily as Goh ran his hands along his shoulders to smooth out a few wrinkles in his shirt induced by the large size of the clothing in comparison to Sasame's small figure.
Shin held out a hand to Sasame as Goh rose to his feet, smiling down at the boy. Sasame blinked in response, not understanding what Shin intended him to do.
"Take my hand." Shin said, curling his fingers slightly. "It will be easier to get to Leafenia if you let me help you." He explained as Sasame obliged, taking Shin's hand with his own hand.
The two youngest knights looked up to Kei and Goh for further instructions. Kei sighed, his eyes swiveling to Goh. "If we are ready.. then let us go."
"Alright.. let's make this quick." Mannen said quickly, folding his arms and tapping a foot.
"Why, Mannen? Have a date or something? That would be a first." Hajime teased, sticking his tongue out.
"..Shut up, ballerina.." Mannen muttered, referencing to Hajime's recent interest in taking dance lessons. Hajime's face reddened.
"Why, you-" Hajime began, but Goh held up a hand, causing both the Knight of Ice and the Knight of Water to pause and blink.
"Wait till later, you two." Goh hissed. "Let's go." He said, smiling at Sasame, who smiled shyly in response. Mannen growled in annoyance as a cool wind passed through the room, and in a flash of white light, he disappeared.
"..See you in Leafenia." Hajime added, winking to Shin and Sasame, and in a flash of light blue light, was gone as well.
Kei and Goh nodded to Shin, whose grip on Sasame tightened as the child felt a wave of warmth fill him. He shut his eyes as he tightened his own grip on Shin's hand almost instinctively. After the warm wave of energy had passed through him, he felt his surroundings change dramatically.
The smell of flowers and fresh rain filled his senses, and his body almost felt lighter. The air around him almost seemed to awaken him, and he felt his powers increase to a point they had never been. Sasame opened his eyes, blinking back as a bright light filled his eyes. With the light came thousands of sounds; birds singing, dew dripping from leaves, and even butterflies slowly moving their wings.
All around him were colors; bright yellows, pinks, blues and greens. Lush grass grew far as his eyes could see, and several large, ancient trees grew in the area around the grassy knoll they had transported to. The sky was the most vibrant blue he had ever seen. Large creatures with shimmering fins flew through the skies, and tiny round birds fluttered around his head.
"..Ah.." Sasame blinked as he looked around, noticing the other Leafe Knights standing around him. "Is.. this..?" He began as Shin smiled down at him.
"Sasame.." He began, holding a hand out the span the horizon, "Welcome to your home.." He continued as he released Sasame's hand. "..Welcome to Leafenia.."
A/N: Well, that ends chapter four.. Chapter five will be Sasame's Naming Ceremony, and it will also be the end of the first part of the story. The first part was really a tiny tidbit to explain Sasame's arrival and all, and the second part is much longer, and it the true plot of Reflets Sombres (Dark Reflections, in the French). Anyhoo, thanks for reading chapter four and please keep checking back for more updates! Also, read the conclusion to my sis' fic 'Light My Fire', which should be up soon if I can force her to finish it..