Chapter 7

Sorry for the late update, I really am trying, I promise. Enjoy!

Kai was irritated. Did Yuuri really have to question his motives so much? He thought back on his earlier conversation with said Captain.

"So, Lord Kai, why leave him in my care?" Yuuri asked, staring at Kai thoroughly. "You know my opinion on demons after they killed Wolborg."

"That's the reason why I left him with you. You won't let him step one inch out of line. Keep him in control and train him hard, he better be ready for the upcoming battle with the demons once I find the last Guardian, understand?"

"Yes my Lord. I shall do as you wish." Yuuri said, bowing, face showing no emotion what so ever.

"Yuuri better keep him in control. I'll kill the Half-Breed otherwise." Kai thought to himself as he entered his bed chambers.

"You will do no such thing Master!" Suzaku squawked at him angrily. "You will hold your temper and treat the boy with respect. You after all did bring him here without his permission, he is going to hate you for this."

"Oh stay out of this Suzaku!" Kai hollered as he threw himself face first onto his bed, drifting off to sleep.

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Rei groaned lightly as he rubbed his head. He could feel the light burn from his wounds healing them selves. He always hated this part of getting hurt, the healing process, he found it almost as bad as the injury itself. "This shit burns." He rubbed his head a bit more before massaging his shoulder. "Where am… Oh yeah, Prince Kidnapper's castle."

"He'd probably kill you if he heard you say that." A hushed voice hissed from his right. Rei's head jerked in the direction, staring at the red head who spoke. "Though I should probably spare him the trouble and do it myself." Yuuri said, standing at full height and glowering at the young half-breed. "Now you need a bath, will you cooperate this time or will I have to use force?"

"Why should I do anything that you want?" Rei snarled, glaring at the red head venomously. "I shouldn't even be here!"

"Well it looks as though you have no choice in the matter. You're a Guardian, and you are here to train to defeat the demon king, the Devil himself! Get over it and take a damn bath already!"

"NO!" Rei screamed, noticing his wounds had finally finished healing, he gave a sinister grin, and was about to attack Yuuri until Byakku's voice floated through his head.

"If you stain your hands with innocent blood, blood that is not of a demon, you will lose me and my powers forever. Your demon self will take you over completely and your consciousness will be gone forever. Judge what you are about to do wisely. With out you, that demon will rein and all hope will be lost!" The tiger growled before leaving the boys mind at peace.

"Well, what? I thought you were going to attack me." Yuuri said, holding out his arms. "Come on."

"Where is this bath place?" Rei asked, defeated. Byakku was right, and he knew it. 'Stupid Tiger!'

"I heard That!"

Rei's face held a shocked look before walking up to Yuuri, only to be more shocked when his wrists got shackled together. "Can't have you trying to escape, now can we?"

Rei just rolled his eyes, following the red head out into the corridor outside his cell. He started counting every door they passed for something to do, by the time he reached sixty-two, he gave up and started whining. "Oh come on Red, how much longer do we have to walk?" He asked pitifully, trying to give a puppy pout, hey, it always worked on Rai and Mao, maybe he'll get somewhere. He looked up at Yuuri and hopes dropped, he didn't like that look.

"Since do you whimper you mangy demon? Just shut up and keep moving." He spat, turning his glare back in front of him.

Rei just rolled his eyes, keeping pace with the angry human. After trying to start up on counting doors again he finally lost it. "I'm bored! This walk is taking too long! How much farther are those baths?!" Rei whined, trying the pout one more time, he stared, and pouted, and, after staring at Yuuri's glare for a minute his mind screamed. 'SUCCESS!' The look changed from a glare to just plain annoyed. 'Now we're getting somewhere,' the boy thought.

"Look, the hot springs are outside of the castle walls! In a garden Chou designed. Now stop whining and keep moving!" Yuuri tried again, giving Rei's shackles a small yank.

"Chou, who's Chou?" Rei asked, he may have disliked this guy earlier, but not talking was not his strong point, he loved talking, as much as he possibly could. And being bored did not help, he always needed something to do. If he held still too long, he would start twiddling his thumbs if there was no one around, but this was not the case. There was a sour puss guard in front of him who he just wanted to snap into conversation.

"The King's precious pet. She does everything he says, and flaunts being his favorite all of the time. If it wasn't for Kai's impending marriage, she wouldn't even be around all that much, but hey, I have no say in what she does."

"So what, is she like his fiancée or something?"

"A conversation for another time." Yuuri stated as they stopped in front a rather large door Rei noted as he stared at the door, admiring the large rose engraving covering the door. "Here are the baths. The only way in or out is through this door. I am pretty sure the maids have left new clothes in there for you as well as soap and towels. So make your bath snappy, I'll be waiting out here." Yuuri said, removing Rei's shackles and opening the door.

Rei only nodded and stepped through the door, only to be hit with a very strong scent of flowers, a large variety of flowers. He stared around, awed by the astounding size and detail this garden was designed with. The hot spring was not only one small spring, but three large ones joined together and expanding to almost the full size of the garden, he could see where the water got deep and started anticipating a nice hot bath.

Looking up he saw that the top of the garden was covered by a see through dome of some sort, to most likely keep the humid green house effect he could feel, and to keep the rain out. He would ask Red what the material the dome was made out of was later. Slowly stripping from his old clothes, he slowly slipped into the shallow end of the water, letting his body relax. "I like this." He mumbled. Looking at all of the flowers lining the outside of the spring, he started to hum to himself, a small song he had picked up from one of the villages he had visited a while back.

"Didn't know demons knew what music was, let alone hum a tune." A crude voice said from behind him. Startling Rei out of his happy stupor.

TBC

Please R/R, all you have to do is hit that little 'submit review' button on the bottom left hand corner of your screen and you will get this little page that you can write your thoughts in about this story, and then, click the submit review button, and guess what, you're done! I may have only gotten ten reviews so far, but that is plenty for me. Hope to see more. JA