Chapter 2
"Sir Jakotsu! Come hither boy!" Mushin called his dear friend.
"Yeah, yeah! I'm coming you old fart!" Jakotsu muttered as he entered the kitchen with a bottle of sake.
Mushin immediately jumped of the table that he was sitting on and struck Jakotsu across the face with the back of his hand. "Do not make an ass of me! Show respect for your elders boy!"
"My apologies, Your Majesty!" Jakotsu mumbled. "I'll remember not to call you cruel names!"
Mushin laughed. "I don't care about names! Sticks and stones, boy! But you should never keep elders waiting for important things such as sake!" Mushin greedily grabbed the bottle and started chugging. "Sorry boy, I guess you don't get any!"
Jakotsu smirked. "Do not make an ass out of me, old man! I can not be underestimated even if I'm not the brightest fellow around…"
"Why is that, boy, that you are so witless? Mushin asked, wiping sake from his mouth.
"I am a great eater of beef, and I do believe that it does harm to my wit!" Jakotsu explained, a little to proudly. "Do you really think we should be staying up so late at night?" he asked, changing the subject.
Mushin waved his hand. "Nonsense! We will be going to bed early!"
Jakotsu blinked. "Early? Its almost midnight, old man!"
Mushin shook his head. "You really do eat to much beef, boy. To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is early!"
Jakotsu clapped is hands with amusement. "Faith, old man! Here comes the fool!"
"How now, my friends! Did you never see the picture of 'We three'?"
"Welcome ass!" Mushin greeted Renkotsu. "Now, let's have a song!" he ordered as he tossed Renkotsu a gold coin.
"Would you have a love song, or a song of good life?" Renkotsu asked, stuffing the coin in his pocket.
Mushin held up his bottle of wine. "A love song, a love song!"
"Yeah, I care not for good life." Jakotsu added.
Renkotsu cleared his throat.
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.
"Excellent good, I faith…" Jakotsu whispered.
Mushin nodded. "Good, good."
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.
"A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight!" Jakotsu applauded.
"A contagious breath…" Mushin commented, taking yet another sip of sake.
"Gentlemen!" The voice came harsh and with rage. Everyone's head snapped up in surprise. Sesshoumaru stood in the doorway, a face that made it seem that he hadn't shouted in the first place. "Are you mad? Have you no wit, manners, not honesty? Do you think this is some ale-house?"
Mushin waved his hand as if to shoe him off. "Peace now, you old bat! We're just having some fun!"
Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "Old? You're one to talk you fat drunk!"
"Oh, so 700 and some years old doesn't qualify as old then?" Mushin taunted, reminding him of being a demon.
"Well bless my stars that I am not bald!" Sesshoumaru spat back.
Mushin was about to let out a nasty comment, when Renkotsu's voice interrupted.
"If I may, good sir. Baldness is not an absence of hair, but a presence of head!" Renkotsu stated proudly, his own "presence of head" lighting up the room for a brief moment.
Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. "If any of you prized my lady's favor, you would not give means to this uncivil rule. She shall know of it, by this hand!" he bellowed over his shoulder as he went back to bed.
"Go shake your ears!" Came a voice a couple seconds after Sesshoumaru left. Everyone looked around to see where the voice had come from.
Kikyou came out of hiding from behind the door with a lantern. "My, that Sesshoumaru is quite a puritan, isn't he?" she giggled. "I have a plan, gentlemen, for revenge on that devil puritan!"
All three men crowded around, their ears unnaturally listening to every word.
Kikyou smiled wickedly. "I can write very like my lady."
Mushin scratched his head. "What does that have to do with any of this?"
"We can use this to our advantage… especially with Sesshoumaru's admiration of my lady…"
Hehe, I luv this chapter! I can just picture Renkotsu playing a banjo or something and singing! Oh, what a laugh that would be! please tell me what you think!