Disclaimer: FB belongs to Natsuki Takaya, and anything else you recognize does not belong to me either.
Chapter 30
Long ago, when he was still just a pup, Shehure had grown accustomed to the stifling air that characterized the family head's rooms. He'd given up wondering why it remained so, when it was so obviously not conducive to the god's already poor health. Actually, reflected Shehure, the heavy atmosphere fit the state of the Dzuni quite appropriately; always shut away from the normal world, trapped within a narrow sphere of living, crushed by the oppressiveness of the curse.
When the curse is broken, thought Shehure, I'll order these windows to be opened. Now the dog sat by Asheno's recliner. It'd been too long since he'd visited the family head. A surge in deadlines, and the commotion caused by the teenagers in his house, kept him very occupied. Outside the bay windows, a gentle snow fell, a pleasant precursor to the furious storms that would surely follow within a week or so. Winter had just begun.
"Shehure, you'll never leave me, will you?" The wheedling voice interrupted Shehure's wandering stream of thought. The dog looked down upon the frail, slightly feverish 20-year-old lying beneath a crumpled blanket. The brown eyes looked to Shehure with a childlike fear. Asheno tended to be like this, when he was feverish at nighttime. Hathori had told Shehure, on a recent visit to his house to tend to a cold of Lhoru's, that since Asheno had now reached the age of 20, he would become steadily sicker and sicker. Finally, Asheno would die before his 25th birthday.
Less than five years to live. And not much of a life, at that. Shehure gazed at Asheno pitifully. Shehure really was Asheno's only friend, and he would commit the ultimate betrayal by breaking the curse. Soon after his birth, Asheno had become close to Shehure—the dog always helped him calm down when he one of his many infamous tantrums, and he was always willing to entertain Asheno when he was ill yet again.
"No, I won't leave you." Technically true, but it remained to be seen whether or not Asheno would forgive him for breaking the curse. If the curse was ever broken.
The god nodded, satisfied. For a moment, a twinge of guilt tugged at the corner of Shehure's conscience over the impending betrayal, and Asheno's future death. Compared to Ekhuze, Asheno was only mildly affected by the curse.
"Has that girl caused trouble yet?" Asheno meant Lhoru.
"Hmm? No, everything's dapper," smiled Shehure.
"Mark my words, someday she'll slip and reveal the curse to outsiders," nodded Asheno knowingly. "When that happens, her memory'll have to be erased." There was no mistaking it—Shehure saw Asheno smile grimly, relishing the thought. "Then Huki will realize he was never meant to live outside the estate, he'll come back to me. To me! And Lhadoman will be broken and submit to his fate more easily. I'll never have to see him again…"
All guilt instantly vanished from Shehure's being. His rational voice silently chastised him, "Asheno is no better than Ekhuze. He's just more of a subtle plotter than Ekhuze." Naturally, Asheno had violent moments when he lost his temper and lashed out at the nearest people, but not a quarter as often as Ekhuze had done. Even so, Asheno had already left his mark of violence upon the current Dzuni.
Oblivious to Shehure's critical countenance, Asheno talked on in a happily malicious tone. "It'll be wonderful to have my Rat back with me, where he belongs." It had been a miracle that Shehure had managed to convince Asheno to let Huki live at his house. The meeting nearly provoked one of the horrible tantrums.
The god's brows suddenly furrowed. "I'll be glad to be rid of Lhoru. I don't like the way the other Dzuni talk about her so much."
Jealousy. Shehure sighed to himself. That was always the problem with Asheno, the trigger of his temper. At the humblest hint of anything—be it an outsider, a love relationship with another Dzuni, whatever—that threatened to distract the Dzuni's attention from himself, Asheno became suspicious and hostile.
I hope Lhoru never has to encounter him, thought Shehure, futilely attempting to ignore the certainty of their meeting each other.
Life at Shehure's house continued much as usual, except now Hatsuharu and Nharu were frequent visitors. Lhoru always made sure to cook extra, in case they dropped by. She'd been surprised to learn they were both fifteen, despite Nharu having a much smaller and more delicate frame.
"Wei'll be attendin' Kayrouri as feirst years ein t'e fall!" announced Nharu excitedly.
"Oh, no," groaned Lhadoman and Huki in unison.
"What can I say? Karori's the Dzuni-approved school!" chirped Shehure, in a bright mood after a successful session of torturing his editor over the phone.
One day, on a particularly bitter winter afternoon, Huki and Lhoru walked up the path to the house. They had stayed late after school so Huki could help Lhoru find library books for a project. Squat lamps lined the walkway, illuminating it clearly. In Lhasa winters, the sun sets by midafternoon. Their boots crunched on the thin layer of snow. Elsewhere a foot of snow had already accumulated in the unshovelled parts of the yard.
As they approached the front steps, Lhoru saw a thick bundle of fabric sitting on the first step.
"What is that?" asked Huki. Lhoru bent down to investigate the fabric. She recognized a fine-quality, heavy deep reddish-purple overcoat. She picked up the coat to reveal bright red silk fabric. The silk rustled, and a cool, eel-like object flitted into Lhoru's sleeve and up onto her chest, beneath her blouse.
"Aaaieeee!" shrieked Lhoru, jumping up and down frantically.
"What? What's wrong?" asked Huki, his muscles tensed.
"Eh?" The door opened, revealing Lhadoman's and Shehure's startled faces.
"Augh! I think a-a…worm or something crawled inside me," whimpered Lhoru.
"It's too cold for worms," said Lhadoman. "Must be something else."
"It's Ahame!" Shehure yelled, seeing his dear friend's clothes heaped on the steps. "Lhoru, come inside now!" The girl didn't need to be told a second time. After she dashed inside, Shehure immediately ripped off her coat.
"Hey! What are you doing you pervert!" yelled Lhadoman.
Seeing a lump under her blouse, on her shoulder, Shehure deftly reached under her collar and pulled out a limp, unconscious silver snake about two feet long. Lhoru only stared, barely registering that Shehure had just yanked a snake out of her clothes.
"Ahame?" Huki croaked, eyes hard and tense.
"What the hell was Ahame doing in Lhoru's clothes?" demanded Lhadoman. The dog didn't bother to answer as he gingerly rushed the snake into his study. Huki entrenched himself in a raging, stony silence, and stomped upstairs to his room. Lhadoman and Lhoru stood as they were, staring into blank space. Shehure promptly returned after a few minutes.
"Heh, so sorry about all the commotion," said Shehure, quietly sliding the study door shut. "That was Shoma Ahame, the snake of the Dzuni. He crawled into your clothes, Lhoru, because he was seeking warmth. Snakes are very sensitive to the cold, and can die if they get too cold. That idiot should've dressed more warmly," added Shehure in an angry undertone. "Anyway, we'll let him sleep until he becomes warm again and changes back to a human."
"But why is that lunatic here?" Lhadoman growled at Shehure. "He's an even worse pervert than you are!"
"A strong statement, indeed," demurred Shehure. Ignoring the orange-haired boy, he addressed Lhoru once again. "Hathori, Ahame and I make up the three oldest members of the Dzuni. We're also best friends. By the way, Lhoru, Ahame is Huki's—"
"Don't say it!" Huki, still furious, stood halfway down the stairs. "Get that snake out of here!"
"Now, now, Huki, you shouldn't be so harsh on your brother," placated Shehure.
"Brother?" repeated Lhoru in amazement.
"Hello, everybody, I do apologize for all the fuss." A white hand flung aside the study door, to reveal a soft-faced man with long silver hair and golden eyes. He wore a simple white underdress. "I was merely seeking some heat. Is it my fault I had to crawl to the nearest person? Why, hello, Huki. It's simply been forever! Much too long, my little brother."
"You are not a brother to me, nor will you ever be," Huki forced out between grated teeth.
Completely oblivious to Huki's icy response, Ahame leapt into Shehure's arms. "Hure! One of the few people who truly understands me…Have you been a good puppy while I was gone?" They nuzzled noses. "You haven't cheated on me, now, have you, Hure?"
"Cheat on you, dear Ahame? Heavens, no!" Shehure winked at the snake.
"Stop being so disgusting!" snapped Lhadoman.
"Silly me, you wanted to talk to Lhoru, didn't you, Ahame?"
"Ah, yes! The person I came to visit, besides my dear baby brother, of course…"
"Do not call me your baby brother," growled Huki.
"So you are the flower everyone's been raving about," Ahame bowed and kissed Lhoru's hand theatrically.
A trembling Huki ran back up the stairs. Lhadoman merely kept glaring at Ahame.
"I have to get to Isho's place. I'm late," muttered Lhadoman, gathering his workout bag and zipping up his heavy jacket. "Don't do anything perverted to Lhoru or I'll smash your heads in."
"Have fun fighting bears!" called Shehure as the boy walked out the door.
"I do NOT fight bears!" came the belligerent response.
"I feel a strong yearning for a hot beverage," Ahame said as the door slammed shut.
"I'm so sorry! I should have made tea right away!" Lhoru gasped. She skittered into the kitchen.
"These children are so active, aren't they?" remarked Ahame. He followed Shehure to the dining table.
"Indeed, at a great cost to the house." The two men seated themselves. Magically, Lhoru appeared in the room with a platter containing a steaming kettle and three cups. A lavender scent wafted its way through the air from the platter. Lhoru nearly broke a cup in her haste to pour tea for Ahame. Finally order was restored, and Lhoru sat across from the men. All three took long draws from their cups.
"I was never aware that Huki had an older brother." Immediately Lhoru mentally slapped herself for bringing up a topic that was obviously so sensitive. Well, sensitive to Huki, at least. Ahame didn't seem to have noticed Huki's rancorous reaction.
Ahame laughed. "We are ten years apart, after all. We lived such different lives. When he was little, he was always sick and therefore confined indoors. I rarely got a glimpse of him, so I often forgot that I even had a brother." The smile quickly faded into a sober expression. "Well, that and I treated him badly when I did see him."
Ahame stopped, startled at the ease with which he'd admitted one of his longtime skeletons in his closet. And to a practical stranger too. His friend gave him a knowing look. Shehure had been right when he told Ahame that Lhoru made you feel safe, like you could unload all your great burdens onto her. The old memory returned to Ahame—swatting Huki's deathly pale hand away from him, a hand that begged for help, after Asheno had spent a night torturing Huki.
The recollection burst and the snake contemplated Lhoru. A cute enough girl, although her hair and features were rather plain. But her eyes contained an extraordinary depth of compassion and sympathy.
"I'm sorry, Ahame, I should never have asked you such a personal question," apologized Lhoru.
"No, no, it's fine," Shehure said, taking a sip.
"Yes, I'm not offended," Ahame shook his head. "Actually, I came here partly in the hopes of beginning to mend the rift between me and Huki. I feel tremendously guilty for abandoning him when he needed me most. I'm so stupid and selfish…I wish I had been more receptive to him."
"Ahame," Shehure sighed, "I've told you a thousand times that children have an incomplete sense of compassion and morality. You can't beat yourself up for what you didn't know when you were 15."
"My mother once said it was never too late to try to reconcile with your family. She believed no one could fully live life without the love of a family," interrupted Lhoru. She tried to imagine what had happened between Ahame and Huki. Surely it had to do with the curse, it invaded every aspect of the Dzuni's lives. How could she encourage Huki to patch up relations with Ahame?
"That's a lovely thing to say," Ahame smiled gently at Lhoru. Nodding in agreement, Shehure thought ironically that her statement applied to the Dzuni perfectly. They had each other, but the Shoma family bonds were so frayed and shaky. Judging from how intently his friend looked at Lhoru, this girl seemed to be getting through to Ahame. Even Hathori, generally the only person Ahame actually listened to, had a hard time getting Ahame to understand that soon it would be too late to win back Huki's good graces.
The serious look on Ahame's face didn't remain for very long. "Yes, it shall be a great challenge to get Huki to understand me, his one and only older brother! I must take drastic steps!"
"Um, Ahame, maybe you should…" Lhoru's hesitant words bounced off the snake's back as he dashed into Shehure's study. A gleam of perspiration appeared on her forehead; "drastic steps" could not possibly work on Huki.
"Is he gone yet?" asked a miserable voice from the stairs.
"Huki…" began Lhoru.
"Hukiiii!" yelled Ahame in joy. He clutched a faded scrapbook in one hand. Lhoru noticed that the scrapbook had a sky blue cover with white lace bordering the edges and a large pink bow in the center.
"Huki! You're just in time for some absolutely lovely stories of my childhood!" Ahame rather forcefully guided the boy to the table before he had time to react. "I made this book with my very own hands as a high school graduation present for Shehure."
Huki eyed the pink bow disdainfully, as it bounced after Ahame placed the book on the table. He could well believe Ahame had made it. "Ahame, stop wasting our time and go."
Both men ignored Huki as they flipped the book open.
"Look at this, Lhoru! Weren't we darlings?" Shehure gestured to a photo of himself, Ahame, and Hathori in junior high. All three wore the same somber black uniform, a rarity considering Hothans' love of color. They looked the same as their adult selves, except with traces of baby fat, less height, and not as much of the disillusionment Lhoru had seen in their faces.
"Oh, how I suffered in that dreary uniform!" moaned Ahame. "What were they thinking? Surely the climate wasn't bad enough already that they had to make us wear…THOSE!" He gagged.
"You're right, dear Ahame." Fleetingly Lhoru wondered if Shehure and Ahame were lovers, but her concern for Huki pushed such questions aside immediately. Huki still sat next to her, but he looked away in his best attempt not to pay attention.
"Let's move on to high school," suggested Shehure.
"Yes, yes!" Ahame nodded eagerly. "Ah, the memories!"
"What is that?" asked Lhoru, looking at a photo in which Ahame wore something golden.
"Oh, I wore a fur coat in the winter because I couldn't take the cold," chuckled Ahame. "I lied to the principal and said I had a rare medical condition."
"The principal of Sharushu High School was very strict about the dress code," explained Shehure. "Ahame, you certainly had plenty of tiffs with that old man."
"You must hear how I was able to keep my hair long," declared Ahame, slapping his hand on the table.
"No," said Huki.
"Good!" Ahame plowed on. "Naturally, the rules said we couldn't have long hair. But I wasn't about to lose my wonderfully silky tresses, I'd worked too hard nursing them. So one day after our first year began, the principal stopped me in the hallway and says in that pompous way of his, 'Shoma, I have allowed you to keep that color, but I do not recall giving you permission to have long hair.' Of course, I was in despair when I heard that. How could I save my precious hair? So I invented a story then and there. He says to me, "If you do not get it cut by tomorrow, I shall call your family head.' It was the moment of truth. I took a deep breath and said, "There is something you don't know about me, sir. I hail from a family with powerful magical and spiritual abilities. My hair is the link to my powers. If it were cut, I don't know how my demon familiars would react. I would do my best to keep them from destroying the school, but there's no guarantee they would decide to place a curse on you and make you go bald, or lose your sight, or give you nightmares. Then once my enemies found out I'd lost my powers, they'd besiege the school and continue until…' At that point, the principal is looking really scared, and he yells, 'Fine! Fine! Keep your hair long! Just don't come near me again!' Who knew he was so superstitious?"
"You did, you mischievous little snake," laughed Shehure.
"Perhaps I did have some advance information," admitted Ahame.
"That was a funny story, Ahame!" complimented Lhoru. Ahame's principal reminded her very much of Karori's. "Oh, Ahame, is that a club band?" In another photo, the teenage Ahame sported a blue armband around his fur coat's sleeve.
"Yes, I was president of the Student Government," answered Ahame.
"President?" Shock covered Huki's face. Lhoru smiled happily—he was listening, after all! "How could YOU be president of the student body?"
This is your chance, Ahame, thought Lhoru. Huki's interested now.
"Ha ha, well, Hathori did help me quite a bit as vice president." Ahame leaned back in his chair and sipped some tea.
"Hathori was always the responsible one," said Shehure.
"He would've made a much better president," laughed Ahame, "but as it was, the student body deemed me the handsomest of the two. I am a most unusual specimen."
"I'm going to tell on you to Hathori," teased Shehure.
"Oh, Shehure, do you remember that big scandal during our last year?"
"The scandal? Of course, I'd never forget something like that!"
"What happened?" asked Huki.
Ahame closed his eyes, a meditative look crossing his face. "Once while my history class was out on a field trip, some boys slipped away from the group and went into a brothel."
"Oooohh…" murmured Huki and Lhoru, their eyes widening.
"They were just curious, as any boy at that age would be. Naturally, the school wanted to expel them, and there was a big meeting with the students, parents, and administrators. As the representative of the student body, I also attended. And I took it upon myself to aid the poor boys however I could. I spoke and said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, expulsion is a very harsh punishment, and is it really necessary? These boys were merely acting upon a natural impulses, which all human beings share. Expelling them will only deny our humanity and worsen our tendency to be narrow-minded and prudish. Rather, we should attempt to deal with our carnal desires as best as we can, and find appropriate outlets so such tragic incidents as this don't happen again. Therefore, I declare that you may vent all your carnal desires on me.'"
"Please, please tell me you did not actually say something that stupid," groaned Huki.
"Actually, Huki," corrected Shehure, "it was quite clever. Ahame saved those boys from expulsion because the principal was too busy screaming at him to throw out the boys, and Hathori arranged an alternative punishment for them. But you were suspended, though, weren't you, Ahame?"
"For a week. But it was a cause worth martyring myself for." Ahame nodded sagely. Huki's mouth hung open in shock…or disgust…Lhoru couldn't tell which. Everybody turned their heads as the front door opened.
"TORIIII!" shrieked Ahame joyfully as he leapt out of his chair and trapped the exhausted doctor in a breakneck hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you arrived to see the embryonic stages of Project Bond with Baby Brother! Or the "Three B's as I like to think of it. I've been telling Huki stories…"
"WE ARE NOT BONDING!" bawled Huki, storming off to the kitchen.
"Ahame, stop this nonsense, my head is killing me," said Hathori. "I came to drive you home."
"Oh, okay, Tori. Shall I drive to make up for forcing you to brave an incredible journey through the snow?"
"No."
"Would you like to stay for dinner, Hathori?" offered Lhoru.
"I'm sorry, but I must get back, the flu is going around the Shoma compound…again." Hathori smiled. "But I'll return another night."
"Ooh, Hathori likes Lhoru!" giggled Shehure. The girl in question looked very confused.
"Shut up, you. Let's go, Ahame."
"Farewell, then, my lover and the fair princess," Ahame whimpered as he blew a kiss towards Shehure. He and Hathori went through the dining room door to the front.
"I'll come visit you soon, Ahame," yelled Shehure.
"Good-bye, Ahame! It was wonderful meeting you!" called Lhoru, clearing the tea dishes. She'd have to start dinner soon, and she carried the dishes into the kitchen.
When the front door finally closed, Huki staggered out of the kitchen.
"Lhoru, just leave a dish aside for me. I won't be hungry until much later." Huki sighed and walked wearily up the stairs. He didn't notice Lhadoman standing in the dining room entrance, with an almost pitying look. Lhadoman quickly snapped back into hostile mode, but not before Shehure had seen him.
"Perhaps you don't hate the rat as much as you act?" spoke Shehure softly.
Lhadoman only hissed back.
"Lhadoman, I didn't know you were home," exclaimed Lhoru, smiling. "How'd you get back so quickly?"
"Eh, I called Hathori and got a ride."
"You never did that before," remarked Shehure tonelessly.
"Ah! Um…I was just especially tired…Isho was extra tough today, good workour…idiot, as if I'd ever do that damn rat a favor! I only wanted that psycho snake out of the house when I came home!" Lhadoman stomped up the stairs.
As she returned to tend to the stove, Lhoru smiled secretly, happiness welling within her. Unbeknownst to her, Shehure also grinned. There was hope yet, if the cat had actually shown consideration for the rat. Of course, Lhadoman would perish before he admitted that he'd phoned Hathori because he knew how strained Huki was around Ahame.