**
In spite of any fears Yuusuke may have had, he found himself fitting in rather easily at the strange place. Within a week he already knew his way around the large building, which turned out to be a warehouse that had been gutted and redone on the inside, and was soon living there like he always had. Mornings, just as Haku had said, became routine as he always joined the others for breakfast, always enjoying Kuronue's wonderful ability to cook. During the mornings, scents of delicious food filled the entire building, so much to the point that, more often then not, even Taski and Yomi joined them. Though, no matter how good the food smelled, Triton never stayed long enough to sit down, and he never spoke a word.
Days were filled with cleaning and helpping with odd jobs around the building. To Yuusuke's surprise he actually learned quite a bit of carpentry to help repair rooms, and was forced to come up with creative ideas for repairing or creating the strange rooms which lined the main hall, all of which were set up with a particular setting, cattering to the odder of people's fantasies. Cooking, cleaning, building, even helpping Botan by cutting fabric, Yuusuke soon became a jack of all trades in the strange club, able and willing to help with nearly anything. Anything but stripping.
The evenings where the times when he still felt a bit uncomfortable, but then even the bad boy was allowed to feel uncomfortable or uneasy when his new home became alive with people and transformed into a strip club of sorts. At night Haku would be at his normal position at the door to greet the many rich guests who entered the club. And more often then not, Yuusuke found himself stopping by the door to the main entertainment room, as it was called, where these men would meet whoever they were paying to spend the night with. And it was at those times that Yuusuke was able to catch a glimpse of the stunning silver creature who'd caught his eyes that first night.
Nearly every night that Yuusuke passed by the room, that silver creature was there, along with Kuronue and a couple of the others. Nearly everyone in the building seemed to have business in the room, save for himself, Taski and Haku. And nearly every night that silver creature met Yuusuke's eyes for just a second, then went back to his work, soon to leave the room with his client and go to one of the themed rooms in the hall, which were - thankfully - soundproof.
Other then those times at night, the strange silver haired creature was never sighted, not even for a second. But Yuusuke wasn't stupid, he had his supicions. The most probable of which was that Triton was the silver creature with the tail, and his ability was that of shape changing, or something odd like that. After all, that would cause him to fit right in, and that would also explain how his eyes always seemed to flash golden for a split second whenever his eyes met Yuusuke's. But it still didn't explain how anti-social he seemed. Yuusuke never saw Triton, or the silver creature for that matter, talking with anyone. He didn't count the customers, because he wasn't sure about that, but he never saw him talking to anyone else. He was fairly sure that Triton could talk, so perhaps he was just overly shy. But still, that didn't seem to fit either.
"Well?"
Yuusuke blinked and looked down from where he was sitting up on a roof support beam. Haku was standing below him, watching him as he was painting over a patched area of the ceiling.
"Well what?" Yuusuke asked as he paused and looked at the younger boy. Haku responded with a giggle.
"You're spacing out again. I was asking you about you."
"Oh. Umm... what about me? Can I get some more paint?"
Haku just chuckled again and made his way up the ladder with the paint bucket. He took a seat next to Yuusuke so he could reach the paint, swinging his legs over the edge of the support beam. "You know, just about you. Why are you here? Where did you come from?"
"No where interesting," Yuusuke answered, resuming his painting and trying not to get it all over himself in spite of the fact that he was painting the ceiling. "You know, normal town near the main city, some beat up house on the corner. Parents who don't really care, the regular."
Haku seemed to debate that for a moment, then shook his head a bit. "No, that doesn't sound familiar to me at all. What else?"
"Well, I got sick of it. I got sick of my mother drinking all the time and my father up and disappeared before I could even remember what his face looked like. So I just got sick of it and left. And well... it was raining and I was sick and cold of the rain, so I stopped here. And yeah, you know from there."
"You stopped here, of all places?" Haku asked him curiously.
"No, I've tried to stay at a couple of other places, but they all kicked me out eventually after they found out I was looking for a place to live and not just a place to crash. People don't like runaways that much."
Haku nodded his agreement. "That is true."
"What about you?" Yuusuke asked as he laid back on the support beam, to reach a lower part of the ceiling he couldn't sit by.
Haku's eyes darted to him, then back to the floor below them, gaining a thoughtful look. "I went missing."
Yuusuke blinked. "But you're here right now, so you're obviously not missing."
"My parents tried to kill me."
Yuusuke's hand stopped in it's constant motion and the brush actually slipped out of his hand. Sitting up quickly he caught it in the air, but his head hit the ceiling, causing his hair to be covered in paint and a string of curseword to leak out of his mouth. And even after that effort, the brush still slipped from his hands and landed down on the floor. Yuusuke groaned and rubbed his head, groaning a bit more as he realized he just smeared the paint over his head more.
"Sorry," Haku said, between an attempt at covering his amusement. Yuusuke just smiled back at him and shook his head. "Fine by me, no big loss, now I'm just really happy I laid out that cloth on the floor." He pulled a spare brush from his pocket and laid back down, going back to painting the ceiling and fixing the weird lines his hair had indented into the wet paint.
"Your hair..."
"I have to take a shower anyway, no big deal." Yuusuke went back to painting, easily enough. "Oh, and sorry for being nosey... I didn't mean to bring up uncomfortable stuff."
"I told you before, Yuusuke. You can ask any question you like. And I can answer any questions I like. I've lived with it all my life, it doesn't bother me that much anymore."
Yuusuke glanced over at Haku, then nodded a bit himself, returning back to painting in relative silence. Still, even with Haku's words he couldn't get over what the boy had said. He'd thought that he himself had had it bad with his drunk mom and his father who disappeared off the face of the earth around the time he was born. But he'd never even really considered what it would be like to have his parents turn around and try to kill him. He could only imagine what it would have been like to grow up with whatever powers Haku might have had, and have his parents turn on him because of it.
How does one act when the world stops seeing you as human?
Running away from a home that neglected him was nothing compared too what most of these people probably had gone through. And yet... Haku still had a sweet smile on his face for most of the day. He was able to deal with it, or he had learned to. Yuusuke glanced over at the younger boy once more and found himself smiling just a little. That boy was certainly stronger then he looked.
Stretching out his arms he finally sat back up and took a critical look at the ceiling. "Ok, I'm done. Looks like it worked out, and if not I'll just paint it more tommorrow."
Haku nodded and snapped the top back on over the paint container. "It's almost time for dinner, and Kuronue is cooking again. Are you going to join us?" He asked as he climbed down the ladder and retrieved the brush that Yuusuke had dropped earlier.
"I'm gonna go take a shower first before my hair turns brown. While I wouldn't mind the new color, I don't think it would look the greatest on me." Yuusuke grinned at Haku, making a silly face and the boy responded with a laugh, before heading off to the kitchen. Yuusuke, meanwhile, made sure everything was safely tucked into a corner where it wouldn't be tripped on, and made his way back toward the bedroom which he and Haku shared. He was looking forward to a nice warm shower, even if most of it would be spent with shampoo trying to scrub the paint which had mostly dried into his hair.
Walking down the hallway, back toward his room, he found himself passing the enterance area where they usually entertained the guests. The room was empty, as it usually was at this hour, save for one person. Yuusuke stopped in the doorway and turned to face that person, quite surprised to find the silver creature sitting on one of the chairs as if he were waiting expectantly, not facing Yuusuke. And Yuusuke found himself stepping into the finely furnished room, toward the beautiful creature.
A couple steps and the creature's ears twitched, once. Then it turned to face Yuusuke and he found himself caught in the creature's golden eyes. Yuusuke froze in his steps and swallowed a bit, suddenly not able to move. When standing this close he finally had a good look at the being before him, and was only slightly surprised to find he was staring at what looked like a mix between a silver fox and a human. And somewhere, some thing in the back of his mind vaguely remembered some half-forgotten mythology lesson from school mentioning just such a creature, but there was a name for it...
"Youko."
The silver youko tilted its head, just the slightest, as if to almost nod with Yuusuke's choked out assumption.
Yuusuke managed to get a hold of himself for a moment and stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Very slowly, and carefully, he reached forward and brushed his fingers lightly into the youko's long hair.
In amazement he watched the youko's eyes slide shut as he leaned just slightly into the touch, obviously enjoying it. "You're not the one I'm supposed to see tonight." The youko responded softly, his voice light, almost like a stray string of mist.
Yuusuke swallowed but couldn't resist or pull his hand away. Instead he found himself still standing there, lightly touching the youko's cheek almost as if he were petting an animal, and he was surprised when the youko didn't stop him.
After a moment the silver being opened its eyes, glancing up to Yuusuke. His lips tilted in a small smirk, but he still didn't move away from Yuusuke's hand. "You're more curious then most humans. And more bold."
"I... I guess..." Yuusuke managed to studder out in response, not able to say much else. His brain was still too fogged.
The youko in front of him chuckled, just a bit. "You're not who I'm supposed to see tonight. You should go." Then the being stepped back, away from Yuusuke's touch, and returned to his seat on the chair.
Yuusuke stood there for a moment, still seeming to be in shock, then he managed to shake himself out of it, at least enough to regain control of his body. "Who are you?" He asked, taking a step back to steady himself.
"Go. You shouldn't be here."
Yuusuke opened his mouth to ask again, but suddenly thought better of himself. He, instead, nodded and turned leaving the room. As soon as Yuusuke hit the hallway he broke into a run back to his own room and didn't stop until he'd reached the shower, where he quickly threw off his clothes and proceeded to go about his original plan of washing the paint out of his hair. But as he stood there under the scalding warm water with the shampoo covering his head, all he could think about were those eyes and the voice that still seemed to ring in his ears.
In spite of any fears Yuusuke may have had, he found himself fitting in rather easily at the strange place. Within a week he already knew his way around the large building, which turned out to be a warehouse that had been gutted and redone on the inside, and was soon living there like he always had. Mornings, just as Haku had said, became routine as he always joined the others for breakfast, always enjoying Kuronue's wonderful ability to cook. During the mornings, scents of delicious food filled the entire building, so much to the point that, more often then not, even Taski and Yomi joined them. Though, no matter how good the food smelled, Triton never stayed long enough to sit down, and he never spoke a word.
Days were filled with cleaning and helpping with odd jobs around the building. To Yuusuke's surprise he actually learned quite a bit of carpentry to help repair rooms, and was forced to come up with creative ideas for repairing or creating the strange rooms which lined the main hall, all of which were set up with a particular setting, cattering to the odder of people's fantasies. Cooking, cleaning, building, even helpping Botan by cutting fabric, Yuusuke soon became a jack of all trades in the strange club, able and willing to help with nearly anything. Anything but stripping.
The evenings where the times when he still felt a bit uncomfortable, but then even the bad boy was allowed to feel uncomfortable or uneasy when his new home became alive with people and transformed into a strip club of sorts. At night Haku would be at his normal position at the door to greet the many rich guests who entered the club. And more often then not, Yuusuke found himself stopping by the door to the main entertainment room, as it was called, where these men would meet whoever they were paying to spend the night with. And it was at those times that Yuusuke was able to catch a glimpse of the stunning silver creature who'd caught his eyes that first night.
Nearly every night that Yuusuke passed by the room, that silver creature was there, along with Kuronue and a couple of the others. Nearly everyone in the building seemed to have business in the room, save for himself, Taski and Haku. And nearly every night that silver creature met Yuusuke's eyes for just a second, then went back to his work, soon to leave the room with his client and go to one of the themed rooms in the hall, which were - thankfully - soundproof.
Other then those times at night, the strange silver haired creature was never sighted, not even for a second. But Yuusuke wasn't stupid, he had his supicions. The most probable of which was that Triton was the silver creature with the tail, and his ability was that of shape changing, or something odd like that. After all, that would cause him to fit right in, and that would also explain how his eyes always seemed to flash golden for a split second whenever his eyes met Yuusuke's. But it still didn't explain how anti-social he seemed. Yuusuke never saw Triton, or the silver creature for that matter, talking with anyone. He didn't count the customers, because he wasn't sure about that, but he never saw him talking to anyone else. He was fairly sure that Triton could talk, so perhaps he was just overly shy. But still, that didn't seem to fit either.
"Well?"
Yuusuke blinked and looked down from where he was sitting up on a roof support beam. Haku was standing below him, watching him as he was painting over a patched area of the ceiling.
"Well what?" Yuusuke asked as he paused and looked at the younger boy. Haku responded with a giggle.
"You're spacing out again. I was asking you about you."
"Oh. Umm... what about me? Can I get some more paint?"
Haku just chuckled again and made his way up the ladder with the paint bucket. He took a seat next to Yuusuke so he could reach the paint, swinging his legs over the edge of the support beam. "You know, just about you. Why are you here? Where did you come from?"
"No where interesting," Yuusuke answered, resuming his painting and trying not to get it all over himself in spite of the fact that he was painting the ceiling. "You know, normal town near the main city, some beat up house on the corner. Parents who don't really care, the regular."
Haku seemed to debate that for a moment, then shook his head a bit. "No, that doesn't sound familiar to me at all. What else?"
"Well, I got sick of it. I got sick of my mother drinking all the time and my father up and disappeared before I could even remember what his face looked like. So I just got sick of it and left. And well... it was raining and I was sick and cold of the rain, so I stopped here. And yeah, you know from there."
"You stopped here, of all places?" Haku asked him curiously.
"No, I've tried to stay at a couple of other places, but they all kicked me out eventually after they found out I was looking for a place to live and not just a place to crash. People don't like runaways that much."
Haku nodded his agreement. "That is true."
"What about you?" Yuusuke asked as he laid back on the support beam, to reach a lower part of the ceiling he couldn't sit by.
Haku's eyes darted to him, then back to the floor below them, gaining a thoughtful look. "I went missing."
Yuusuke blinked. "But you're here right now, so you're obviously not missing."
"My parents tried to kill me."
Yuusuke's hand stopped in it's constant motion and the brush actually slipped out of his hand. Sitting up quickly he caught it in the air, but his head hit the ceiling, causing his hair to be covered in paint and a string of curseword to leak out of his mouth. And even after that effort, the brush still slipped from his hands and landed down on the floor. Yuusuke groaned and rubbed his head, groaning a bit more as he realized he just smeared the paint over his head more.
"Sorry," Haku said, between an attempt at covering his amusement. Yuusuke just smiled back at him and shook his head. "Fine by me, no big loss, now I'm just really happy I laid out that cloth on the floor." He pulled a spare brush from his pocket and laid back down, going back to painting the ceiling and fixing the weird lines his hair had indented into the wet paint.
"Your hair..."
"I have to take a shower anyway, no big deal." Yuusuke went back to painting, easily enough. "Oh, and sorry for being nosey... I didn't mean to bring up uncomfortable stuff."
"I told you before, Yuusuke. You can ask any question you like. And I can answer any questions I like. I've lived with it all my life, it doesn't bother me that much anymore."
Yuusuke glanced over at Haku, then nodded a bit himself, returning back to painting in relative silence. Still, even with Haku's words he couldn't get over what the boy had said. He'd thought that he himself had had it bad with his drunk mom and his father who disappeared off the face of the earth around the time he was born. But he'd never even really considered what it would be like to have his parents turn around and try to kill him. He could only imagine what it would have been like to grow up with whatever powers Haku might have had, and have his parents turn on him because of it.
How does one act when the world stops seeing you as human?
Running away from a home that neglected him was nothing compared too what most of these people probably had gone through. And yet... Haku still had a sweet smile on his face for most of the day. He was able to deal with it, or he had learned to. Yuusuke glanced over at the younger boy once more and found himself smiling just a little. That boy was certainly stronger then he looked.
Stretching out his arms he finally sat back up and took a critical look at the ceiling. "Ok, I'm done. Looks like it worked out, and if not I'll just paint it more tommorrow."
Haku nodded and snapped the top back on over the paint container. "It's almost time for dinner, and Kuronue is cooking again. Are you going to join us?" He asked as he climbed down the ladder and retrieved the brush that Yuusuke had dropped earlier.
"I'm gonna go take a shower first before my hair turns brown. While I wouldn't mind the new color, I don't think it would look the greatest on me." Yuusuke grinned at Haku, making a silly face and the boy responded with a laugh, before heading off to the kitchen. Yuusuke, meanwhile, made sure everything was safely tucked into a corner where it wouldn't be tripped on, and made his way back toward the bedroom which he and Haku shared. He was looking forward to a nice warm shower, even if most of it would be spent with shampoo trying to scrub the paint which had mostly dried into his hair.
Walking down the hallway, back toward his room, he found himself passing the enterance area where they usually entertained the guests. The room was empty, as it usually was at this hour, save for one person. Yuusuke stopped in the doorway and turned to face that person, quite surprised to find the silver creature sitting on one of the chairs as if he were waiting expectantly, not facing Yuusuke. And Yuusuke found himself stepping into the finely furnished room, toward the beautiful creature.
A couple steps and the creature's ears twitched, once. Then it turned to face Yuusuke and he found himself caught in the creature's golden eyes. Yuusuke froze in his steps and swallowed a bit, suddenly not able to move. When standing this close he finally had a good look at the being before him, and was only slightly surprised to find he was staring at what looked like a mix between a silver fox and a human. And somewhere, some thing in the back of his mind vaguely remembered some half-forgotten mythology lesson from school mentioning just such a creature, but there was a name for it...
"Youko."
The silver youko tilted its head, just the slightest, as if to almost nod with Yuusuke's choked out assumption.
Yuusuke managed to get a hold of himself for a moment and stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Very slowly, and carefully, he reached forward and brushed his fingers lightly into the youko's long hair.
In amazement he watched the youko's eyes slide shut as he leaned just slightly into the touch, obviously enjoying it. "You're not the one I'm supposed to see tonight." The youko responded softly, his voice light, almost like a stray string of mist.
Yuusuke swallowed but couldn't resist or pull his hand away. Instead he found himself still standing there, lightly touching the youko's cheek almost as if he were petting an animal, and he was surprised when the youko didn't stop him.
After a moment the silver being opened its eyes, glancing up to Yuusuke. His lips tilted in a small smirk, but he still didn't move away from Yuusuke's hand. "You're more curious then most humans. And more bold."
"I... I guess..." Yuusuke managed to studder out in response, not able to say much else. His brain was still too fogged.
The youko in front of him chuckled, just a bit. "You're not who I'm supposed to see tonight. You should go." Then the being stepped back, away from Yuusuke's touch, and returned to his seat on the chair.
Yuusuke stood there for a moment, still seeming to be in shock, then he managed to shake himself out of it, at least enough to regain control of his body. "Who are you?" He asked, taking a step back to steady himself.
"Go. You shouldn't be here."
Yuusuke opened his mouth to ask again, but suddenly thought better of himself. He, instead, nodded and turned leaving the room. As soon as Yuusuke hit the hallway he broke into a run back to his own room and didn't stop until he'd reached the shower, where he quickly threw off his clothes and proceeded to go about his original plan of washing the paint out of his hair. But as he stood there under the scalding warm water with the shampoo covering his head, all he could think about were those eyes and the voice that still seemed to ring in his ears.