Give What You Can
Chapter 2
Addendum
Tsukune had been trying to avoid this. He was being pulled two ways about this situation, but his honor and duty to his friend, to her, was not something he could let go despite her deliberate attack on him in the past. The recent events had made him believe she has served enough penance. He didn't know how to align himself with her considering everything, but he still couldn't find himself to kick her out. While the turmoil he has suffered from her actions and those who sought to punish her, he wouldn't be alive or enjoyed the friends he has now if it wasn't for Moka.
That was a fact he still felt compelled to honor.
He knocked on her door.
"Come in, Tsukune."
He did. She was sitting on the edge of her bed wearing a nightgown. She was still remarkably beautiful. Her long flowing fuchsia hair, her lithe figure, and the sorrowful jade green eyes used to stir so many things inside of him. Her scent, the sound of her breathing, and the way she watched him made him feel like he was so undeserving of her.
Now, it was hard for him to not see her touching Gin. It was impossible to get the smell of her baby lingering in the air.
"Is this a bad time?" Tsukune asked, brining in a tray with two cups of tea, some cookies, and the docket under his other hand.
"I couldn't sleep," Moka answered softly. She watched his every move. Regret and the smallest bit of hope still lingered in her gaze.
He put the tray on a small desk across her room, and then offered her a cup with a cookie on the plate the cup was sitting in while keeping his.
"How are you feeling?"
She could only sigh, a sad and lonely sound. "I'm not okay, Tsukune. I don't know what I'm doing or what to do from here on-"
"I mean, are you injured?" Tsukune interrupted with an insistent tone. "Are you recovering from the birth? Do you need medical attention? Are you hungry?"
Tears, one right after another fell from her eyes. "I want to hold you."
She reached a hand out to him.
"I think that would be a bad idea, Moka." Tsukune took a napkin from the tray and offered it to her. "I promise to protect you and everyone but that part of us is gone. When I see you, all I see is you going into our bedroom pulling Gin by his hand. When I hear your voice, all I hear is you with him that night. When I breath you in, I can still smell him with you. When I think of how all of this started, Moka, I am reminded that it all started because of how much you detest humans."
When she accepted the napkin, he stood up and took a sip of his tea.
She didn't dab her eyes. She looked at the piece of cloth and then back at him. "Tell me what you want me to do to fix this, Tsukune."
"Maybe some things don't need to be fixed," Tsukune answered her honestly. "Maybe some things need to just go through their moments. You and I are going to live very long lives, Moka. Here is your chance to focus on you and just you. Your family is eternal, as is their reach. I would focus more on that than anything I'm ever going to be involved in."
Moka looked absolutely hopeless.
"In fact..."
He handed her the docket.
"...Ria gave me these to sign."
Moka accepted the folder, opening it and skimming the manuscript. She dabbed her eyes with the napkin now to see. While she was reading, she asked a few questions here and there about how he felt. To her, everything seemed about right as per the Shuzen way of protecting their interests and setting up the proper repercussions should they be mettle with.
Moka looked up from her reading. "Why are you here by yourself?"
"Pardon?"
"Where are the others? Where's Ruby? Where's Ria? Where are the others? It's not like any of them to leave you unattended."
Tsukune chuckled, a small sound coming from his heart. "They're hashing things out."
Moka squinted, unsure how to respond to that.
"Times sure have changed from when we first met," Tsukune looked out the window to see the vast fields of sunflowers around Witch's Knoll. "I could barely talk to a woman without feeling like I was bothering her. Now, the thought of being attended to regularly is my routine. I won't deny how wonderful that feeling is."
Moka winced, chewing on a cookie he had given her. "I'm glad things have gotten better for you after everything."
"I owe it all to you." Tsukune acknowledged, raising his tea cup to her. "Thank you, Moka."
"You said the same thing at our reception." Moka said in a small voice. When she didn't get a response, she turned back to the docket. Her eyes flicked through a few lines, she stopped on a certain line and considered it.
"May I tell you something?"
Tsukune gestured for her to continue.
"If you stay out of their way, you can marry anyone who is part of the Shuzen family. Ria is the default, but there is another option."
"Yeah," Tsukune answered after taking a sip. "Kahlua, Kokoa...dear god, not her. But yeah, Ria, too."
"And me, Tsukune." Moka replied under her breath.
"We'll see in a hundred years, Moka." Tsukune shook his head, making it clear that it was doubtful. "So what do you want to tell me?"
A false smile creased her lips. "If you could marry anyone and make it eternal, why not make her someone that would be adopted into the family?"
"How so?" Tsukune inquired, curious.
"Turn her. Make her one of us and have father approve, just like I did you."
Tsukune considered that, a positive feel about it making him smile. "I can do that?"
"It won't be easy," Moka closed the docket, as if sealing her fate. "But if its for a mate eternal, wouldn't it be worth the effort?"
"Maybe," Tsukune considered it, a new door opened to consider. "Thank you."
Moka's eyes pinch, her smile trying to be sincere but only filled with regret. "Of course. So, who would it be if you could choose?"
"Honestly?" Tsukune considered, looking away from her pain filled expression. "I don't know."
"Too many to choose from?" Moka tried to tease, but it sounded hollow. "Its kind of funny how after all this everyone is back together. When we were married you just wanted it to be you and me."
"I know." Tsukune exhaled long and slow. "That really messed things up for everyone back then, didn't it?"
"True, but look at where we are now." Moka reasoned, playing with the ends of her hair. "You and Mizore have a child. Ruby is now serving you as she always wanted to. Kurumu is...well," Moka scratched her head considering. "What exactly is she doing, Tsukune?"
"Out of everyone that has been hurt by us being together, Moka, she has been hurt the worst. I want to take special care of her while she's with us." Tsukune made a point of looking Moka in the eyes.
Tsukune could see her weighing his words. "And Yukari?"
"Yukari's will have Kurumu be there for her and vise versa," Tsukune chuckled, thinking how much trouble the two of them will cause now that Mizore has other responsibilities.
Moka agreed, taking another sip of her tea. "So, Ria and Ruby are really hashing out details over the contract?"
Tsukune fidgeted with the tea in his hands. "Ria goaded Ruby, and Ruby returned Ria's energy. Ria attacked Ruby and now Ruby is dishing out punishment in her chambers."
"Ruby is punishing Ria in her chambers?" Moka nearly spilled her tea. "Tsukune, Ria is not someone to mess with."
"I know," Tsukune admitted, taking Moka's tea before it splashed on the floor. "I really do know."
"Tsukune, c'mon," Moka pleaded, taking his hand. She let go when he was obviously uncomfortable with her touching him. "Ria doesn't take losing well and she's always scheming. Yes, you defeated her in battle and even now, but you have to know she thinks of two main things: How to please our Lord Father, and how to keep the honor of the Shuzen Clan in tact."
"I said I know, Moka," Tsukune answered impatiently. "I faced a dragon, your father, and all of her machinations to get into your family and get their approval."
Moka nodded quickly, her hair rippling. She scooched closer to him. "You've now given her the permission to go after everyone in exchange for your freedom, and she is the one who can give the order."
Tsukune was getting frustrated, but he decided to listen. "Moka..." Tsukune ran his fingers through his hair. "Now that you've read this, tell me what you see that I don't."
"I...I..." Moka glanced back at the docket and then back at Tsukune. She closed it and became subdued. "Enjoy your time, Tsukune. You have a hundred years, make the most of them. Just don't tempt Ria to act. She doesn't play fair. She has the power and connections to make a false accusations seem real enough for the family to act."
She handed him the docket, staring up at his eyes.
"That is something I didn't think of. Thank you." Tsukune read it again, noticing there wasn't anything in there about punishing false allegations. "How would I amend this?"
Moka played with the ends of her hair. "You signed it, right?"
"Yeah."
"Did she stamp it?"
"Huh?" He glanced back at the papers. "No, not yet."
"And it's not stamped with blood?"
"It's supposed to be?"
"All of our documents are, Tsukune. Remember our marriage certificate back at the castle making you my mate?"
"Oh, right."
Tsukune pondered, then a thought came to his mind. "Ria doesn't make mistakes like this, does she?"
"Not unless she has other plans." Moka saw where Tsukune was going with this. "She was going to add to this when she left."
Tsukune knocked his knuckles on her desk, excited about their new revelation. "What could she have added to it?"
"Tsukune," Moka looked at him as she used to that said she loved him but at times he was an idiot. "Anything she wanted."
Nodding, Tsukune took her hand and squeezed it. "Thank you. This could have gone really bad."
"If you give me a chance, Tsukune, know that I can protect you, too." Moka didn't let him let go of her hand. "And everyone you love. Please, let me show you."
"Moka, I came to you right after, didn't I?" Tsukune gripped her wrist with his other hand till she let him go. She did, although with a bit of melancholy. "Good night, Moka."
And he left her sitting at the foot of her bed.
xxx
Ria appeared in Tsukune's bedroom tangled in vines with a ball gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. Disheveled, scraped, burned, panting with tattered clothes, and with a reverse spiked collar around her neck. Ruby soon followed, panting, twitching, and euphoric.
"Let her go, Ruby," Tsukune had an ice chest next to him.
Ruby giggled, fumbling over herself to sit up. She wiped a blot of blood from her lips. She crawled over to Ria, kissed her cheek and whispered loudly for Tsukune to hear. "Last night was wonderful. Come see me anytime you want to play."
The vines around Ria withered and decayed. Ria scrambled out of them, screaming at the top of her lungs but tumbled over when she tried to stand. "What the fuck is wrong with you!"
Tsukune grabbed Ria under one arm, sitting her up and pushed the ice chest to her. It was filled with blood packets. Tsukune poked the side with a straw and handed it to her. She snatched it away him and sucked it down quickly. She emptied five before she spoke again.
"I have done some pretty fucked up things to people, Tsukune, but your witch-"
"Ruby."
"That bitch is fucking weird and crazy! I feel so," Ria squirmed, shivering and traumatized. "Violated doesn't even begin to describe what I feel."
"She is an eclectic person."
"No," Ria poked open another blood packet and took a long sip. "I've never experienced anything like this."
"What do you mean?"
"Everything she did to me," Ria pulled her dress closer to her, a prolonged ache. An obvious intimate ache. "She did twice as hard to herself."
Tsukune tilted his head to Ruby, intrigued.
"She's a real trooper," Ruby cackled in mild hysteria and pleasure. "She kept up just fine."
Ria hissed under her breath, throwing an empty blood packet at Ruby.
"Lessoned learned?" Tsukune helped Ria on her feet.
Unsteady, it took a moment to balance herself. She snatched her hand away and growled.
"Fine," Ria straightened out what was left of her dress and jacket. "Where's my suitcase? I need to get out of here."
"Here," Tsukune gave her the case but handed her the file separately. "I've made a few changes."
"You did what?" Ria read over the penned in parts he added. "It doesn't work that way, Brother Dear."
She pushed the paper at his face. "You can't just add-"
"It wasn't sealed," Tsukune grabbed her wrist and pointed towards his signature. "Now it is. With my blood."
Ria snarled to rebuttal, but he responded with one of his own. Shoving her against the wall and savagely biting down into her neck, drinking deep. She squealed, flailing against him in shock. After struggling briefly, she embraced him, panting, pulling him close to her and moaning and melting into him. "Yes, like this Tsukune."
Then he pushed her away, grabbed her hand and dipped it in her own blood at her neck and slapped it on the ink on the page.
"And with yours, Ria." Tsukune grinned, wiping her lips with his thumb. "Now you can't add anything with a sealed document, can you?"
Angry, frustrated, seething and wanting, she licked her lips and pulled at her dress to force herself on him.
"Ruby," Tsukune commanded.
"Yes, master," Ruby snapped her fingers and Ria disappeared in a flutter of sunflower petals.
