Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except my Three Kingdoms book and Weiss dvds and mangas. For full disclaimer see the first chapter.

Chapter Four

Bloom

No man can master the infinity of possibility;

No heart can match wits with destiny

Luo Guanzhong

The Three Kingdoms

Lady Hidaka stared at her son. Ken stared back at his mother. Both were unmoving in their positions and neither wanted to give in to the other's demands. At long last, Lady Hidaka sighed and closed her eyes.

"Ken, you really do wish to keep Red Hare, don't you?" his mother asked. She looked at her son with gentle eyes awaiting his answer. Despite the fact, that she already knew it.

"Yes mother. I don't want to sell him but I can't find a horse for that general. I promised I would find him a horse but there aren't any in town for sale," Ken said quietly. Bowing his head, he continued, "Mother, please give him one of your horses. I know its asking for a lot. I really do. But, I promise to get Red Hare accustomed to farm work and we can use him instead of yours. Please."

She continued to stare at her son. The son whom, instead of joining the military for money or fame, continued to faithfully serve and protect his mother. The same son who would do anything she asked of him. Smiling kindly she placed her hand on his bowed head. "You know I could never deny you anything, dear. Please invite Lord Fujimiya to pick a horse of his liking. I will not tear you away from Red Hare. Now please, dry those eyes and let us prepare supper."

Wiping away the tears that threatened to spill, he embraced his mother. "Thank you, mother."

"Come, then. In the morning you shall ride in and inform Lord Fujimiya of my decision. Oh, and please do let those gentlemen know that supper shall be ready in a short while," Lady Hidaka said as she went to prepare dinner. She watched her eager son dash off to inform their guests, smiling as he went.

Scowling to himself, Omi continued to think of possibilities and strategies concerning the upcoming battle. There was almost no viable way to keep the town safe if General Fujimiya remained garrisoned here.

Stretching, he laid back on the soft grass. If there was a way to get the general out of town for even a day or two, then things would be different. The enemy would have no calm leader here and panic would strike them - that would be the best plan of action. But how?

"Tsukiyono, sir! Dinner's almost ready!" Ken shouted to the figure in the field. He quickly jogged to where Omi was laying. "You did hear me, right? Dinner will be ready in just a little bit."

"Thank you, Ken," Omi replied as he pulled himself upright. "I hope your mother doesn't mind us too much. If we're too much trouble me and my men could just leave."

Ken smiled brightly, "Don't worry about it. We enjoy the company, honestly. Mother doesn't get that many visitors now that Dad's gone."

"I mean it, Ken. If we're too much of an inconvenience tell us and we'll leave. I don't want to over stay our welcome," Omi again reiterated. Honestly, he didn't want to involve them in his affairs if he didn't have to. If the enemy found out who the Hidakas were housing, then the farm might be in trouble.

"Stop scowling and come on! Mom's cooking is the best around." Ken eagerly grabbed Omi by the arm and pulled him along back to the house.

Gan Ning surveyed his ships and men. The ships were almost prepared and the men were anxious to get moving. As he walked toward Kudou's tent, his bells jingled lightly alerting those nearby of his presence.

Almost instantly, Kudou appeared looking somewhat ragged. Gesturing to the former pirate, Yohji disappeared back inside the tent. Gan Ning followed.

"According to some merchants, the Wei bastards have already fortified themselves in the town. That'll make things harder for us. I was going to have us leave early and rendezvous with Omi but looks like we'll have to wait. I don't want to go in without knowing what that general is up to," Yohji said wearily. Running a hand through his light hair, he sighed.

Taking in the worried of look of Kudou, Gan decided to at least offer some bit of comfort to the commander. "Better safe than sorry, I suppose. Don't want to rush in and get repelled without a decent fight. If ya want, though, maybe me and a few of my men should go in and get Tsukiyono early," the pirate said at length.

Yohji laughed and waved a hand, dismissing the idea. "Nope. We don't move until Omi gets back. If we leave early and he catches us, he'll skin me alive. Not to mention lecture me on the finer points of patience. No, sir. I think we'll wait just to avoid another lecture."

Reclining, Gan Ning slowly responded, "Even if Omi gets back and confirms the fortification, do we really stand a chance? I mean, that if the town is as heavily secured as those merchants were saying. A quick strike is one thing, but a long siege on the water, veteran naval officers or no, will only work to the Wei's advantage. We'll long run out of supplies before we start to make a dent on their provisions."

"That's exactly why we wait for Omi. If he is able to find some weak point of the enemy's, we may be able to exploit it. And if the weakness is really good, we might be able to retake the city without much fuss from the Flying General. Of course, assuming there is any weakness to this general," Yohji smiled lightly.

Both men fell silent after that last comment. Both were thinking of the impending battle. One thought of the Flying General, the other thought of the rewards that would be gained.

Having left early in the morning, Ken had managed to hunt down Red Hare and saddle the beast. Despite being awoken at such early an hour, the Red Hare didn't put up much a fight as he usually did. Ken looked the stallion over.

"You're not sick, are you?" Half expecting the stallion to lash out, Ken warily kept a small distance away. When Red Hare did nothing, he moved closer and jumped lightly into the saddle. "You better not dump me in the river again," Ken muttered as both he and horse took off at a quick trot towards town.

Ran stood outside his tent and surveyed the camp. Most of the soldiers were still asleep, so camp remained quiet. He re-read the letter he had received from the council last night and frowned. It informed him of the Wu army and its movements in the south. To say that the military movements in the south bothered him would be an understatement.

If the enemy came from the south, then it would be a naval attack on the city. Clutching the letter tightly, he returned inside his tent. Reaching a hand to run along the blade of his spear, he pursed his lips. Fighting a naval battle would be no good, his men did not have the necessary training nor did he have any heavily armed ships. They would be helpless in the water against Wu. Sighing lightly, he turned and placed the letter back amongst his papers. Until the council gives me further instructions I will wait, Ran decided.

Reaching the town, Ken decided to ride Red Hare to the camp. After all, there was no one out on the streets yet, and every little bit helped tame his horse. Spurring the great horse into a fast trot, they quickly closed on the encampment.

And like clock work, as soon as Ran emerged from his tent, the Red Hare's shrill of hatred rang loud and the stallion took off towards the somewhat tired general.

Ran stopped walking as soon as he heard the shrill of a horse. Looking around for the owner of the sound, his eyes fell upon the Red Hare. Which was galloping full speed towards a very vulnerable general. His eyes went wide as he realized that there was no way to stop it this time.

Ken saw what his horse meant to do. Instead of allowing it, as he usually did, Ken pulled abruptly on the reigns. Both horse and rider swerved, narrowly missing the wide-eyed general. The brown haired boy struggled to regain some sort of control over the Red Hare but nothing was working. The stallion continued to fly at full speed through the military camp.

Ran couldn't believe his eyes. The horse missed. Narrowly, but he was still in one piece. Blinking out of his momentary stupor, Ran swung his head to where he saw Ken and the Red Hare. He started to run toward the two but stopped when the horse swung around with Ken still clinging to his back.

Ken managed to grab hold of the stallion's mane and pulled. The brief pain a small distraction gained Red Hare's attention. As the stallion twisted and turned, both rider and horse went crashing through the wooden fence and ultimately falling into the frigid river below.

The general ran to the bank of the river, looking for any sign of the boy or the horse.

"Hidaka!" He called. "Hidaka, answer me!"

A small cough and then a weak, "I'm here."

Running towards the coughing, Ran took in Ken's appearance. Despite having been dumped into a river, the boy looked no worse than normal. Except dripping wet with various water vegetation on him and in his hair. The Red Hare was faring no better than its master. The great beast was also soaked and also had various plants clinging to the once red coat. His lips turned at the corners, the Flying General's shoulders shook.

Ken turned his head and looked up to see the red haired general doubled over and clutching his stomach. I hope we didn't hit him, Ken thought. "Are you alright? If you're hurt I can go find a ..."

No, the general was not hurt. But instead, Ran Fujimiya was laughing so hard that it hurt.

A blush staining his cheeks, Ken turned and walked towards his horse. "You stupid thing. You made him laugh at us," Ken said as he grabbed the Red Hare's reigns. His eyes narrowed as he turned towards the keeled over general.

Ran slowly stopped his laughing and saw that Ken had regained his horse and was now stomping toward him angrily. "I'm sorry, are you alright?" Ran asked with mirth in his voice.

Ken stopped inches from him. His cheeks pink with either embarrassment or anger, Ran couldn't tell. "What is so funny? I save you from being trampled and you laugh at me? What is wrong with you!" The brown haired youth exploded. He continued his rant while Ran stared.

Ran couldn't help but be amused by this young man. Few dared to talk back to him and no one had ever cursed him for being born. A small smile again threatened to break out onto Ran's face as now Ken was cursing his ancestors for ever allowing such spawn to be born.

He was so livid in his rant that Ken's hair had flown every which way. Without much thought, Ran slowly lifted his hand and tentatively reached out. His fingertips brushing away a few errant strands to give him a better view of the irrate young man.

Ken had long stopped his rant as he saw the general reach for him. Afraid that he was going to be hit, he wisely shut his mouth and closed his eyes tightly awaiting the oncoming punishment for mouthing off to an imperial Wei general. Instead, he felt soft fingertips brushing away strands of his brown hair. Slowly, he opened his eyes and with a blush on his cheeks voiced the same question Ran was asking himself.

"What are you doing?"

Author's Notes:

So far so good with the writing schedule. I am currently two chapters ahead of where I should be, so huzzah! Sorry for such a short chapter. This was the most logical break point for a chapter. I'm writing this all as one huge document and that was the only way I could break off without going into a twenty page chapter.

And yes, the long awaited Omi and Ran meeting will be coming up shortly. I believe it might be the next chapter. Keep up with the reviews, they'll influence me into writing faster. They really do!

Here is my somewhat lame excuse(s) for slow updates:

1. I have had strange work schedules for the last couple of weeks. I hate work. I really do.

2. Dealing with financial aid for college is a pain. No matter how many times you do it, it will always find some way to irritate you.

3. I have had recurring migraines for the last week. I have no idea why either.

4. Our refrigerator is slowly dying. It doesn't keep anything cool, so we're living off of stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated. And it can't keep ice frozen anymore. No ice hot water to drink. Makes me unhappy. So very unhappy :(

Anyways, I will try to have another update by the end of this week or early next week. Keeps fingers crossed

Responses to Reviewers for Chapter Two:

Olivia yuymaxwell: Thanks for the review! Yes, it is a challenge to write anything concerning the Three Kingdoms but I'm enjoying it. Such is the love of an ancient history major sighs

hiro: It is difficult keeping in character as far as the Three Kingdoms and Weiss are concerned. I'm glad you like Kenken so far. He'll be playing a more important role later on.

M-Chan: That's why I didn't want to touch the Liu Bei/ Shu kingdom story line too much. That's the most common story/ perspective. It's a little bit easier to use the Wu and Wei characters, at least to me. I have a bit more freedom as far as characterization. I enjoy the lesser known characters of the Three Kingdoms and it'll probably start to show with upcoming chapters.

Kiori: Thank you for the review! I am so happy and sparkly now. And yes, RanxKen are the best! ;)

Sachiko V: Thank you! The beginnings are truly the most difficult thing for me to write. By setting Weiss against each other, I am kinda hoping to show the major character/personality differences. To use them as foils (I hate literature terms) as one another. I do hope the personalities stay consistent with their characters with the current plot.

Responses to Chapter Three Reviewers:

Daidaiiro-chan: Yes, Ken's frustration will be nothing compared to others in upcoming chapters! I hate doing this to them, but it is needed! Oh, the drama! I'm glad you enjoy reading this, I love writing this. It is so much fun.

RuByMoOn17: Thank you! I'm glad you think so!

Kiori133: This is progressing nicely isn't it? RanxKen coming up soon, I promise :) I'm also intrigued as to where the story will go. I don't make outlines. The story just comes to me as I write - or at work. Strangely enough..

M-Chan: There will be Ran and Omi interaction soon enough. Patience, my dear. I am definitely going to finish this or so help me, somebody will suffer. You can't decide on the winner? Neither can I! I've come up with three or four different scenarios as far as endings go. I can't choose which one just yet. As always, thanks for review!

And remember, reviews do help me. Feedback is always appreciated. At least positive/constructive feedback does. Keep it up, people! I'm a slacker and I need prodding to get going sometimes.