Summary; Warning; Disclaimer: See First Chapter.
I'd like to thank PrussianBlue Cross for Tasuki's line about not knowing what to do. (Read her review or continue reading...) I like it! Thanks to all who've reviewed - if ya miss a chapter, go back and review the other one anyway! More reviews help me write better, for some reason...Anyway, here's another chapter. I believe it's longer than the last one, so no worries!
Please review if you read. Comments, ideas, suggestions, and helpful criticism welcome.
"Where'd that stupid brother of mine go?" Ai-Tong grumbled, helping Kae outside for some fresh air. The cool air stung her cheeks, and the trees were bare in preparation for the advancing snow. "What a useless bum – he's supposed ta be helpin' around the house."
"Thank you for the clothing," Kae said quietly, black Chinese shoes over white socks protecting her feet from the cold. She wore a pale yellow skirt underneath a deep-green tunic with silver trim, both reaching to her ankles, and a white high-necked blouse underneath the tunic, gathered at the wrists. The tunic was sleeveless and the lower part had no sides, revealing more of the skirt and silver embroidery. Her hair hung straight down her back, the sides pulled back and gathered together with a silver hairpiece.
"Ah, it's nothin'," she said, a little embarrassed at being thanked, and turned her head around in annoyance. "Mother's in the kitchen cookin' up a feast."
"Is your father here?" Kae asked, and Ai-Tong looked at her blankly.
"What're ya talkin' about? He's right beside ya," she pointed out. Kae jumped, and turned in surprise to see the small man sitting in a chair beside the door.
"Oh! I'm sorry," she apologized, but he only sighed mournfully.
"Don't worry – no one notices me," he told her, and Kae paused a moment nervously before stepping forward to catch up to a wandering Ai-Tong.
"What're you doing here, no da?"
"Ack!" Tasuki cried, and promptly fell out of the tree in surprise. Rubbing his wounded behind with his good hand, he glared up at the grinning monk. "What kinda question is that?" he demanded. "Ya think I'm gonna hang around that house and be bossed around some more?"
"Maybe Kae's worried," Chichiri suggested, landing lightly on his feet, much to Tasuki's annoyance.
"Yeah, well, I doubt it," he muttered, turning away.
"Why's that?"
"She still hates me!" he yelled, and then clamped his jaw shut, unwilling to continue.
"That bothers you this much?" the monk prodded, deciding now was the time to press Tasuki. "How come, no da? Did you ever think of that?"
"I…I…oh, go away," Tasuki grumbled, crossing his arms stubbornly despite the pain of moving his left appendage. "Quit with yer stupid questions."
"All right, then," Chichiri shrugged. "I should go strengthen the barriers anyway. But I wouldn't keep running if I were you, Tasuki, no da."
"What's that supposed ta mean?" the bandit demanded, but the monk had already disappeared. "I'll get 'em one day," he grumbled, and noticed that his sister was advancing on him. "Oh damn," he groaned, knowing there was no escape at this point.
"Where've ya been, ya lazy bum?" Ai-Tong demanded, going up to him and sticking her face next to his. "I've been lookin' fer ya all mornin'! And so's Kae, since she has to come along since you two disappeared!"
"Hm?" Tasuki looked past his sister to see a bandaged Kae a few feet away, only to turn red and turn around abruptly, not noticing her wince at his reaction to her. "Yer not the boss of me," he informed his sister, and yelped when she grabbed him by the ear.
"Oh yeah? Well, I've got work ta do around the house, and yer supposed to watch Kae, not me, oh great Celestial Warrior!" she informed loudly, and turned briefly to Kae, who seemed to be expecting Ai-Tong to yell at her. "No offense, Kae," the young woman added sweetly, and Kae nodded nervously.
"Get Chichiri ta watch her – I'm busy," he grunted, and Ai-Tong glared at him.
"I know fer a fact that the monk's busy with barriers or somethin' like that, and yer just loafin' around as usual," she hissed. "So ya better live up ta yer duties, or I'll teach ya a lesson ya won't soon forget!"
"Alright, alright!" he agreed hastily, as his sister pinched his ear even tighter. "No wonder yer not married!" he yelled after as she stalked away, and Ai-Tong only gave Kae a quick smile before picking up a rock and throwing it at her younger sibling, hitting him squarely in the jaw before retreating back toward her house.
"Sorry," Kae said quietly, and Tasuki turned to look at her in surprise.
"Fer what?"
"If you were busy."
"What? Oh, that – I wasn't really doin' anythin'," he shrugged, and she couldn't keep from giggling a little.
"I didn't think you were," she admitted, and he looked at her balefully before sighing heavily and turning away.
"Well, if I've got ta watch ya, wanna see around the place?" he suggested, and Kae hesitated for a moment before nodding.
"All right."
"C'mon then," he prodded, beginning to stride away. She had to jog to keep up with his long steps, and he slowed down after a few moments when he realized it.
"How cute, no da," Chichiri grinned at Tama, as he observed them from a nearby tree.
"Meow," the cat agreed. "You're pretty sneaky for a monk. And deceiving."
"But I really do have to check the barriers," the Warrior added hastily, almost as if he knew what the cat was thinking. Tama only gave him a 'look' before jumping onto his shoulder and going along for the ride.
"It's pretty big," Kae commented, the first word either had spoken for several hours. "How does your mom manage?"
"She does," he grunted, having barely even looked at her the entire time. "Ai-Tong helps out too – and my dad's pretty handy, even if his presence isn't the best."
"I'm surprised you're not like your dad," she said calmly, and he turned to look at her in surprise. She sat down by the river, ignoring his puzzled look, and played with several plants in front of her.
"Whaddya mean by that?" he asked, dropping to a crouch beside her.
"What?" she looked at him in amusement, and shook her head. "Well, you're certainly not quiet or small, that's for sure." Tasuki glowered at her, unsure how to take that, and she shrugged when he didn't respond. "Never mind."
"Thanks…I guess," Tasuki muttered, peering intently at the brown grass beneath his feet. "Aren't ya cold?" he asked, realizing the chill in the air was picking up. "Ya don't even have a coat on or nothin'."
"I'm fine," she told him calmly, but jumped when a familiar item dropped once again onto her head. "How…"
"I found it nearby when Chichiri was checkin' ya out after ya got back," he told her, as she looked at the familiar black jacket in surprise. "I figgered ya might want it – and if not, I'll take it back. It's a good jacket, after all."
"I'll…I'll keep it, I guess," she said, pausing a moment to think it over. Tasuki watched out of the corner of his eye as she folded it up carefully and placed it beside her, and snorted to himself, crossing his arms again stubbornly.
"Well, I'm cold, so let's go back," he muttered. "It'll take a while, anyway. C'mon." Kae looked up as he strode off, and waited a moment before gathering the jacket to her and getting to her feet, quickly following him before she lost sight of him among the bare-branched trees.
"Did you apologize?"
"Huh?" Tasuki mumbled, cracking an eye open, only to see Chichiri staring down at him. "Ack!" he yelped in surprise, and jumped up. "Stop doin' that!" he ordered, catching his breath. Chichiri sat back calmly and gazed at his friend.
"So, did you?"
"Did I what?" the bandit asked, annoyed at being woken up so early. "I see ya finally got back."
"Did you apologize to Kae?"
"No!" he yelled, almost throwing his pillow at the monk. "I ain't gonna, either!"
"No girl deserves to be treated like that, Tasuki!" Chichiri argued, becoming irritated over his friend's attitude.
"Hey! I didn't know she had feelings fer me!" Tasuki shot back. "If I had known, I wudda…I wudda…Damn. I really don't know." He sat for a moment, looking defeated, before noticing Chichiri's smug look and glaring at him. "Hey! What's that look fer?" he demanded.
"See?" Chichiri pointed out. "You can't toy with a girl's feelings like that, no da!"
"I wasn't!"
"I told you before any of this to behave around her!" the monk informed him. "I told you to either act nice or nasty, no da! Preferably nice," he added thoughtfully, before returning to his lecture. "But not to act the way you did, and make her unsure how you felt about her! And then to go and do what you did…"
"What did I do?" Tasuki shouted, now really mad at his friend. "No one'll tell me what the hell I was supposed to have done!"
"You broke her heart, stupid," Chichiri informed him coolly, and Tama gazed at the bandit accusingly as Tasuki processed those words. "If you haven't figured that out by now, I should bonk you again."
"Buh…buh…" Tasuki stammered, and then eyed Chichiri suspiciously. "Ya aren't in love with her, are ya?"
"No," the monk replied firmly, shaking his head. "But I don't have to be in love with a person to care about them."
"Well…well…neither do I!" the bandit shot back, but knew his argument was pathetic, as Chichiri's expression clearly showed.
"If you don't know how you feel about her, then at least don't do any more damage than you already have," the monk ordered, getting to his feet. "I'll guard Kae from now on, until you figure out what's going on in that unfathomable brain of yours."
"Chichiri!" Tasuki tried to argue, but the monk left the bedroom before he could utter another word, and the bandit slumped against the wall with a sigh.
"So, now they are divided," Keung Xi-Wang chuckled, resting inside a palace he had created from darkness atop Ligé-San Mountain, gazing into a sphere in his palm to observe the scene. "This will make my goal all the easier, if they can not even work together and solve petty differences like this."
Unfortunately for the evil spirit, Keung Xi-Wang underestimated the bond of friendship that had formed between the two surviving Warriors of Suzaku over the years and the love Kae felt for both of them, even if it was two different types of love.
Before the sun even reached the mountaintops in the distance, Kae woke to find Ai-Tong in a futon next to her, snoring lightly and obviously deeply asleep. Looking out her window, she saw the sky was still a dark gray, and hardly any light reached the horizon yet.
"It's cold," she whispered, rubbing her hands over her arms for warmth. Shivering from the winter chill and unable to go back to sleep once awake, she looked around and her eyes rested on Tasuki's coat, which had ended up on the foot of her bed, still folded neatly beside the clothes Ai-Tong had given her. Crawling out from beneath the blankets, Kae changed as quietly as she could into the outfit, slipping into her shoes as she tiptoed near the door. Shutting the door quietly behind her, she crept out of the house entirely and strode further away from it, wanting to be alone for a while.
Having walked for a few minutes, she paused when the house was out of sight and looked at the sky, only to notice flecks of white falling from the sky, finer than grains of rice.
"Snow?" she realized, and blinked when one fell into her eye. Lowering her head again, she pulled Tasuki's jacket tighter around her. She had been reluctant to wear it for several reasons, but there was no other item around she could find, and she reasoned that no one was going to see her anyway, so there wasn't any harm in it.
"What are you doing up so early, no da?" Chichiri asked, coming up from behind her and placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Stop that!" she pleaded, recovering from the shock, having been too frightened to even cry out. "You're going to give me a heart attack," she sighed, and the de-masked monk continued to rest his hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry," he apologized. "But you shouldn't be out alone, no da. Especially so early."
"What are you doing up so early?" she asked, and he shrugged calmly.
"I was meditating last night and fell asleep outside when I was done. I woke up when I got too cold, no da," he told her, and she grinned at his apparent absent-mindedness. In actuality, the Warrior had really meditated for a while, but had stood guard outside Kae's room the entire night, and then followed her when she left the house.
"Aren't you cold?" Kae wondered, beginning to walk a little. Chichiri kept his hand on her shoulder, she noticed, and kept pace with ease.
"Not really, no da," he shook his head. His gaze took in the fact she was wearing Tasuki's coat, which she noticed with a little embarrassment, but he refrained from saying anything.
"It was the only thing I could find," she said defensively, avoiding meeting his eyes. "Was it supposed to snow?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"No da," he nodded. "It's supposed to be a lot of snow, too. Do you like snow?"
"I like looking at it, but I never really played in it as a child," Kae shrugged, her hair now covered with a lacy pattern of flakes. "I guess my mom thought I'd get sick or something, so she never let me. Did you?"
"Hm? Oh, no," Chichiri told her, shaking his head again. "Where I lived, there wasn't any snow in that region. It wasn't until I began to travel that I saw snow."
"Oh."
"Kae…I'm sorry about your mother," he told her hesitantly, and she looked at him in both surprise and a certain tenseness.
"What?"
"When you were brought back to your world, Tai Yi-Jun gave us a mirror so we were able to see you," Chichiri explained, and she visibly paled – so much so the monk prepared to catch her if she fainted.
"E-everything?" she managed. Unwilling to lie, he only nodded. The Warrior blinked in surprise when tears welled up in her eyes, and grabbed her arm tightly when she suddenly tried to bolt.
"Kae! What are you doing, no da?" he demanded, pulling her to him to prevent her escaping.
"You…you must hate me," she sobbed, her body stiff but not trying to escape his hug.
"Why?" he asked blankly, rubbing her back awkwardly. "What you said was what you felt then. No one can hate someone for that. You were alone and sad…I wish we could have been there for you."
"I'm sorry," she sniffed, leaning back to dry her eyes. "It seems all I do lately is cling to you."
"It doesn't bother me, no da!" he said cheerfully, grinning widely. His expression caused her to laugh, but he kept an arm around her shoulder as she moved away from him.
"Was it hard, being the oldest Warrior?" she asked suddenly, and he looked at her in confusion. "I mean, having to be the adult or whatever," she added hastily, and he thought for a moment.
"Not really, no da. I seem to have to take care of Tasuki now – but back then, it was almost like Mitsukake was the oldest one of us, no da," he told her thoughtfully. "He was always so quiet and solemn, but he had a lot of wisdom to give to us. He was a very noble man."
"So're you, Chichiri!" she told him emphatically, getting the sense from his tone that he didn't think was like that at all.
"Thanks, no da," he nodded, suddenly squeezing his arm tighter briefly. The snow was beginning to pile up around them at this point, and he looked around curiously. "It looks like it's going to be a big storm, no da. We should go back before we get snowed out here."
"All right," she agreed, letting him turn her around and lead her back to the house.
"Don't worry, Kae," he told her suddenly, and she looked up at him in surprise. "It'll all work, no da. After all, you were destined to come here, right? So everything will be okay. I won't let anything get you again."
"Promise?"
"Daa," he nodded, and she hugged him briefly before continuing to walk. "I really do," he thought, glancing at the young woman beside him. Even though she was Tasuki's age, beside the monk she seemed small and fragile, almost as if another tragedy would break her completely beyond any healing. "I won't let that happen," he vowed firmly, determined to do his best to protect her as he did for Miaka.
"What does that idiot know?" Tasuki grumbled, kicking aside the futon in his room. "He's a monk, fer cripes sake! What'd he know about love?" The problem circled around in the bandit's head until they threatened to explode, and he groaned. "This is ridiculous, gettin' worked up over some chick," he grumbled, resting his head in his hands.
"Meow."
"Whaddya want?"
I love doing Kae/Chichiri moments, even though it's a Kae/Tasuki fic. Again, leave ideas for filler scenes if ya have any - I can make a short one into a long one, trust me. So don't worry about it! I give credit, too! Please review.