"You two done?" Sohryu asked almost casually.
"Yes," the girl acknowledged. "Look, father, they're all healthy!"
Father!
Ryu felt his heart miss a beat. He knew all the twelve Divine Commanders and of course he knew that one was called Tenkou, but he had never expected her to be a little girl! Not in his wildest dreams! The books didn't mention it. They had never mentioned it!
Sohryu, apparently oblivious to his shock, let his daughter explain about the ducklings, about their names and how Ryu had named the last one. Tenkou turned to her new friend and smiled openly.
"Bye!" she called. "You're nice," came the addition before she turned and skipped off.
"Uh," Ryu murmured.
Sohryu smirked, one eyebrow rising, then he followed his child without another word.
Ryu rose slowly and his red eyes met the onyx ones of his lover. Rikugo still radiated aggression, but it was getting better. Dusting off his pants, he joined him.
"Rikugo?" Ryu asked casually as they began to walk away from the duck pond.
"Yes?"
Ouch. Don't bite your own tongue off.
"Care to tell me why you tried to take Sohryu's head off over a perfectly innocent conversation?"
"I didn't take his head off," was the almost sullen reply.
"Uh-huh. From your behavior you might think Sohryu was about to molest me."
The blond head snapped around and black eyes stared at him in shock. "What?"
Ryu grinned a little, putting a playful note in it. "To me it looked like Sohryu was challenging you over me, and you were ready to defend a mate."
The astrologer's shock didn't subside. If anything, it grew. "Ryu...? I..." His features hardened. "Sohryu won't touch you ever!"
Whoa. Okay. Now here was a declaration of possession like there was no other.
"Well," he went on lightly, "then again I could also say you two looked like an old couple after separation."
Rikugo blanched and turned away.
Bingo.
Oh well, he hadn't thought his lover had been sleeping with anyone but another shikigami anyway, though he hadn't guessed it might be Sohryu.
"So you slept with him?" Ryu asked calmly.
Rikugo was silent, then nodded. "It was... for mutual relief."
"It usually is."
A wry smile crossed the handsome features. "You wouldn't say that if you had been there."
"Would I have wanted to be?"
"No," was the soft reply. "It was desire, but not love. It was a feeling of dominance and power and anger and pain and taking out the frustration of politics on each other. Sohryu and I, we don't see eye to eye on most things. We oppose each other and in a way I enjoy riling him up."
Rikugo gave him a little smile, a quirk of the mouth.
Ryu looked at his lover with a completely new understanding. Hell, his late collection of porn had included some very heavy dominance flicks and he knew exactly what Rikugo was talking about, but he just couldn't imagine this gentle being letting someone else...
He chased the image away. Too many nights satisfying his primal lust in front of a TV had given his imagination a very good head start on what there might have been.
"Tsuzuki once told me that we need each other, that Sohryu needs the opposition, and that I need it too. I don't want his job, but I also can't just stand by and watch him do things as he does."
Ryu watched the astrologer thoughtfully, hearing a lot more out of the words than Rikugo probably wanted to reveal. The shikigami felt threatened by the other dragon, especially when it came to his partner, and while Ryu was touched about those deeper emotions, it also made him shiver.
"So what's this?" he asked, aware that what he was about to say would be more than provocative. "A fight over the possession of me? Who gets me? Or a way to get back at him? Rile him up some more?"
Black eyes widened and Rikugo stared at him in utter shock. "NO!"
Ryu almost stepped back when that powerful aura flared.
"You're not an object to be used!" the blond snarled. "Never! I told you so before..." He stopped and forcefully calmed himself down. "No, Ryu, it's nothing of the like," he finally said. "Sohryu just... he usually catches me the wrong way, whatever he does, and the moment I saw him talking to you I saw red. The mere thought that he might harm you..."
"He wouldn't and he didn't. We had an actually quite nice conversation." Ryu had felt no aggression from him.
Rikugo exhaled slowly, looking still too tense and very tired all of a sudden. "I know," he murmured.
The demon stepped up to him and wrapped his arms around his lover, pulling him close, cupping the back of his head with one hand.
"It's okay, Rikugo. In a way it's flattering. You being jealous tells me I'm not just living a dream where I'm loved, a dream that could end any moment now."
Rikugo held him tightly. "I love you," he murmured. "Never doubt that."
In his messed up mind he did. He had so frequently, on his own, pondering the what ifs and what nots. All of this, even with the pain that had accompanied the changes, had been too good to be true. Two thousand years of hardly any friendship and suddenly he had Tsuzuki making deals with the Lord of Hades over his freedom, and he had a partner who hadn't given up on him after a few days of fun.
"As long as you stop bristling whenever I meet someone who doesn't approve of me or gives me a strange look," he answered softly. "I know my aura sets them off; I know I'm an intruder."
"Ryu..."
"Shhh." He put a finger on his lover's lips. "I found I don't care. I'm here with you and for you. I have forty-eight hours at a time and I want to enjoy it. I'm not moving in, I'm not trying to take a place here. I just want to be with you."
Rikugo leaned down and captured his lips in a gentle kiss.
° ° °
"How come there's a demon in GensouKai?"
Sohryu's head snapped up from the papers he was studying and startled blue eyes met very calm red ones. Terazuma met the surprise with a calm expression.
"What?" the stammered.
"You know what I'm talking about, Sohryu. You know there's a demon in GensouKai. I met him. It took me a while to classify his aura, but it finally clicked."
Dark blue eyebrows dipped into a frown, then Sohryu let the papers sink onto the table. "It's a special case."
"I figured. Demons usually don't roam around here unpunished. So how come?" Terazuma wanted to know, taking a seat across from his partner.
The dragon hesitated a moment, then shrugged a little. "It started with Tsuzuki..."
"Tsuzuki? Why am I not surprised? What does he have to do with this?" The shinigami shook his head in fond amusement.
"He was the driving force behind the deal that allowed Ryu to come here to visit Rikugo." Sohryu stopped.
Terazuma smirked a little. "I saw them together, love. I know."
"Ah. I see."
"So... Rikugo fell for a demon. Hardly normal, I'd say."
"It isn't. Nothing about it is."
"And Tsuzuki made it possible for him to come here?"
"He made a deal that allows Ryu to leave Meifu for forty-eight hours."
"Whoa, hold on!" the possessed shinigami exclaimed. "Meifu? Leave Meifu? There are no demons in Meifu!"
"There is one," the dragon replied. "And I'm surprised you don't know him."
"Huh? Me? My experience with demons is very limited, thankyouverymuch! Should I know him?"
"Yes. He was imprisoned in Meifu."
Terazuma stared at his lover in shock. "What?"
There were close to no prisons in Meifu. There was no need for them. And a devil... a demon... no way! This was getting weirder by the second.
"Tsuzuki made a deal for a demon that comes from Meifu to leave there and come here?" he clarified.
"Yes."
"Because this demon, Ryu, is in love with Rikugo?"
"Yes."
Terazuma felt his head starting to swim. Sure, Tsuzuki was one of the most unusual men he had ever met. From day one they had been at each other's throat. Terazuma had been about the only shinigami to get such a rise out of the other man. Back then he had been rather proud of this, today he knew what a fool he had been. Both of them, actually. It had been one reaction to another's action and vice versa, and it had taken him three decades to break that vicious cycle. He owed his relationship and probably his sanity to Tsuzuki, who had done everything to help them.
"And you... you tolerate him here? Sohryu, he's a danger to GensouKai!" he finally exclaimed.
"No. That's why I tolerate it. Ryu isn't dangerous here. His powers were sealed. As I understand it, his history is rather complicated and the only people who know about it are Tsuzuki and Rikugo." Sohryu held the astonished, red gaze. "Leave it at that, Hajime. Ryu is our guest and he is rather good for Rikugo."
Another shock coursed through Terazuma. Sohryu hardly talked about Rikugo as such or his private life in particular. Those few words were... an immense confession.
Even today Terazuma couldn't really fully understand what had been between the two dragons. It had been sexual, sure. It had been intense and wild, but not love. Sometimes he wondered, though. Sometimes he thought that with a few more decades, there might have been something, though he knew that two dragons never matched. And Sohyru and Rikugo were as mismatched as possible.
"He is?" he finally echoed.
"Yes."
"Okay..."
Puzzled, Terazuma leaned back. His professional mind was tickled by the mystery of this demon from Meifu.
A lot.
Sohryu rose and leaned closer, kissing him gently. "Leave it be," he murmured again.
Terazuma buried his hands in the silky folds of his lover's robes. "I'm a detective," he teased.
"You were a detective. You're now a shinigami. This isn't a case, Hajime. Ryu is part of Rikugo's life. As such, he comes here once in a while."
"Which you tolerate and sanction and actually think is good for your rival of many years."
"He's not a rival. He is my opposition."
Hajime smirked, but he didn't comment on it. He just caught Sohryu's lips in another kiss.
tbc...