When they finally reached the throne room, he put Shuichi down gently and grabbed his shoulders to make sure that he could stand on his own.
"Are you ready?" Yuki asked, knowing that it was pointless. Of course he wasn't, and Yuki was beginning to think that he never would be.
"Yuki…" Shuichi whispered, reaching out and running a hand down Yuki's soft cheek. "I…"
"I'm so sorry, Shuichi…" Yuki whispered, leaning down and kissing Shuichi, wishing that he could fix things with something as simple as a kiss. He broke away when he thought that he couldn't take it anymore and held Shuichi to him, finally letting the tears leak out. "I'm so sorry…"
"We have to go in." Shuichi said, his voice sounding distant and detached. There'd been a sadness to Yuki's embrace that had never been there before, and he couldn't shake the feeling of finality. The love of his life was leaving, and he had to learn to live without him.
"I know." Yuki answered, quickly wiping the tears away and composing himself. "Let's go."
He released Shuichi and watched the Prince shake himself and walk towards the doors to the throne room. When he thought he could handle it, he followed Shuichi into the room and tried not to be painfully self-conscious. The long walkway to the Sultana's throne was lined with the elite of Agrabah, and the Sultana herself was seated, looking angry enough to kill. He had no idea how late they were, but judging from her expression, it was a grievous amount of time.
"Ah, there they are. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the Prince, and the future Sultan of Agrabah." Mika said loudly, standing up and gesturing to Yuki and Shuichi.
The room started to clap, some softer than others, as Yuki and Shuichi made their way up to Mika's throne. Yuki could hear a few whispering about him as they approached, and he was pretty sure that'd he'd encountered some of their wallets when he was a thief. He gulped and kept his eyes focused on Mika, hoping that on one tried to out him before he reached her.
"What took you so long?" Mika hissed when they approached her throne. "You're almost an hour late!"
"Sorry, milady." Yuki answered, noticing that Shuichi had regained his disconnected look. "We had to discuss a few things…"
"Is everything alright?" Mika asked quickly, smiling at a few of the closer council members.
"Actually, we need to talk, the engage-"
"EVERYBODY FREEZE!" a voice rang out, followed by the slamming of the throne room's doors against the walls. Smoke billowed in from the entrance hall, and the lamps in the room flickered ominously.
"K?" Yuki wondered aloud, recognizing the genie's voice instantly. He straightened up to his full height and peered through the fast-spreading gloom, trying to see what has happening at the entrance to the room.
"What's going on?" Shuichi asked listlessly, not entirely concerned but putting up a front anyway.
"Just stay back, it's K, he's with Tohma now…" Yuki whispered, wondering if he could slip out undetected. If Tohma discovered that he was still here, he was sure that he wouldn't make it out alive.
"What's the meaning of this?" Mika called out, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward to get a better look. "Show yourself!"
"With pleasure." Tohma said, his silky voice preceding him. He emerged from the smoke with a huge smile plastered across his face, looking entirely too pleased with himself. He smiled at those in attendance as he sauntered up the aisle, making sure to take things slow. He wanted to savor his moment of victory, and he wasn't about to rush things. "Hi, nice to see you again, lovely day isn't it?"
"Tohma, what are you doing here?" Mika questioned, her voice dripping with acid but her face still smiling for the audience's sake.
"Just taking a walk, milady. Wanted to have a little chat with you." Tohma responded, motioning K forward.
Yuki grabbed Shuichi and slid behind the throne, not wanting Tohma to catch a glimpse. If he did, this could get ugly fast.
"Not now, you imbecile, I'm busy!" Mika growled, ready to kill her vizier.
"Not anymore you're not." Tohma told Mika, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. "K, clear the room."
"I'm not sure that's part of the wish…"
"NOW." Tohma commanded, turning to face K and staring him down. "Don't make me get violent, genie."
"Wait, genie?" Mika asked, stepping forward and staring at K. "Tohma, stop lying to me!"
"Alright, alright…" K muttered, shaking his head and grumbling to himself. He snapped his fingers to get some extra ammunition and then opened fire on the ceiling, successfully traumatizing everyone in the room that wasn't used to his sporadic spurts of gunfire.
The entire throne room erupted into a panicked warzone, and Tohma giggled like a schoolgirl, dancing in place while the elite of Agrabah nearly killed each other trying to escape his madness.
"That's right! Be afraid! You have no idea what's coming, you can't handle-" Tohma sang out, the fire rising in him again and only going out when he tripped on his own robe and face-planted into the floor.
"Nice one…" K muttered, hoisting Tohma up by his boa. "Let's keep it together captain."
"Put me down!" Tohma ordered, kicking his feet in an attempt to reconnect to the ground. K was a lot taller than he looked.
"As you wish." K responded promptly, releasing Tohma and trying extremely hard not to chuckle as the vizier smashed onto the floor for the second time in under a minute.
"Tohma, explain. Now." Mika spat out, marching forward and prodding at Tohma with her foot. "You have thirty seconds, then you're under arrest, we clear?"
"Afraid that's not quite right, madam." K told Mika, bowing his head. "Can't let you do that…"
"And just who the hell do you think you are? You're his assistant!" Mika yelled at K, flapping her arms up. "Guards!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" K warned Mika, rolling up his sleeves and popping his fingers.
"Stay behind me." Yuki whispered to Shuichi, stepping in front of the smaller man in case K's lunacy got out of hand.
"He's not an assistant, Mika. He's a genie." Tohma stated, his voice staying even and matter-of-fact. "I tried to tell you."
"What?" Mika sputtered, looking at K skeptically. "What the hell is going on here, Tohma?"
"I have a bone to pick with you." Tohma told Mika, clearing his throat a few times.
"Then pick it already! You have any idea how much ass-kissing this is going to take me to fix? What in Allah's name is wrong with you!" Mika griped at Tohma, sighing exasperatedly and glaring at her vizier.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Tohma roared, the anger starting to bubble back up. K sensed the danger and backed up, surreptitiously searching the room for his old master. "I'm so sick of you treating me like this!"
"Like what? You're my inferior!" Mika yelled at Tohma, deciding to step past the genie issue to concentrate her wrath on the revolting vizier.
"I'm not anyone's inferior! Not now!" Tohma shrieked, his eyes popping out of his head. "I HAVE REAL POWERS NOW! YOU'RE FINISHED!"
"Tohma…you little moron…" Mika warned, cracking her neck and falling into her fighting stance. "I'll drop you like a bag of coconuts."
"NO! I'm not a moron! I'm not stupid! I'm not useless!" Tohma yelled at Mika, balling his gloved fists and spitting. "All of these years, you've taken me for granted! You never respected me!"
"YOU NEVER EARNED IT!" Mika yelled back at Tohma, glaring machetes. "Not once in the last three or four years have you ever once given me a reason to!"
"That's not true!" Tohma screeched indignantly, his feathers severely ruffled. He returned Mika's glare and started pacing erratically, his eyes never once leaving his love's face. As he stomped around the throne room, sparks ignited around him, singing the long carpet leading up to the throne.
"Yes it is!" Mika returned, feeling exasperated with the situation, and secretly admiring the sparks. She'd known that Tohma could luck his way into magic, but she'd never gotten this sense from it. It felt real, tangible, and she was intrigued. "When I met you, you were untouchable. You were a genius, you were brilliant, you never screwed up, you were perfect!"
"I STILL AM!" Tohma replied angrily, the sparks evolving into a few ill-aimed lightning bolts. One frizzed Mika's throne, giving the two hiding behind it pre-mature coronaries, and the others bounced around the room, burning holes into whatever they happened across.
"NO YOU'RE NOT!" Mika screamed, adding in a little hop in her excitement. "You've messed up so much in the last month, Tohma, I can't even keep count! Hell, your damned parrot had to restrain you! You lost a prisoner, you couldn't even raid a cave, you tried to kill visiting royalty, and you lied to me Tohma! You lied! You're my advisor, you're supposed to help me!"
"I HAVE BEEN HELPING YOU! HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THAT?" Tohma screamed back, raising his voice as much as possible without it cracking. "COME ON!"
"Then prove it, Tohma! You worthless excuse for a vizier, show me!" Mika suggested loudly, huffing at Tohma.
"I'VE BEEN TRYING YOU STUPID WOMAN! DID YOU NOT SEE THE LIGHTNING?"
"Excuse me?" Mika directed at Tohma, scanning the room for the lightning damage and feeling highly impressed. Tohma'd never pulled off this much magic without either giving himself a hernia or a heart attack.
"YOU HEARD ME! YOU HARPIE! YOU SHE-DEVIL!" Tohma frothed, his face as red as a beet. "Every second of every day of my life has been devoted to you since I first saw you, you've had me wrapped around your finger! I'd give anything for you, and you toyed with my heart one too many times! I've tried so hard to help you, to make you happy, and then, when I tried to save you, you called me a liar! YOU WITCH!"
"How dare you…" Mika growled under her breath, trying to maintain a tough face in front of Tohma's lambasting. No one had ever spoken to her like this, and she wasn't quite sure how to handle it.
Her entire life, she'd been revered, she'd been kowtowed to incessantly, and no one had ever told her that it should be any different. She'd come from royalty, married into royalty, and been given the crown of Agrabah when her husband met his untimely end. She was torn between anger and something that she couldn't quite identify.
Tohma had once had his brilliance, but he'd never had such a backbone. The more she watched his angry face and his waving hands, the more flustered she started to feel. When the heat started rising to her face, she fanned herself a few times, wondering what had hijacked her emotions. It was quite something seeing Tohma so worked up, so powerful. She shook her head a few times, Tohma's screeching interrupting her personal reflection hour.
"NO! HOW DARE YOU! YOU USED ME! You…you…I HATE YOU!" Tohma roared, tears leaking out of his eyes. "I HATE YOU! YOU STUPID, STUPID WOMAN, I CAN'T STAND THE SIGHT OF YOU, YOU DISGUST –"
Tohma was cut off mid-rant by Mika assaulting his face with hers. He stumbled back, surprised by the sudden attack, and stared at his ambusher with a worried look. When Mika broke the embrace he grabbed her shoulders to steady himself and gave her his most scandalized look.
"What was that?" Tohma spat at Mika, trying to remain offended without getting overexcited by the sudden shower of affection. Behind Mika's throne, Yuki gagged and Shuichi buried his face into Yuki's back in case the atrocity that had just occurred reproduced itself.
"You…you've never sounded so…so…"
"Powerful? Brilliant? Amazing?" Tohma suggested, stepping back and preening himself.
"Exactly." Mika responded breathlessly, stepping forward and latching onto Tohma again. He struggled for a few seconds and then gave into her passionate tackle.
"Oh, oh, no, no one needs to see that…" Yuki gasped, stumbling over his words in his shock. "Look away…"
Shuichi numbly obeyed, having yet to recover all of the feeling in his body. The longer he stayed near Yuki, the more he wanted to keep him, and it was taking all of his strength to win the mental battle that he'd never wanted to fight.
"Eugh…" K groaned, shielding his eyes and turning away from the romantic carnage in the middle of the room. He made sure to keep the interlocked couple out of his line of vision, but once the animal noises started, he couldn't contain his curiosity. As soon as he glanced their direction, he instantly would've given anything to have altered that course of action. "MY EYES! IT BURNS!"
"What now…" Yuki muttered, leaning around the throne to see what has happening. Mika had Tohma pushed up against a pillar, and his legs were wrapped around her waist. Both were making jungle cat sounds and seemed to be permanently attached to one another's faces. "Dear lord…"
Shuichi blinked slowly and looked too. The horrific sight didn't quite register with him and instead led his mind down the dark, dark path of thinking about when it had been him and Yuki in similar situations. He slumped as the images got more pervasive, remaining even when he closed his eyes to escape them.
"Hey, snap out of it…" Yuki whispered to Shuichi, waving a hand in front of his dazed lover's face. "Shuichi, come on, stay focused."
"Hmm?" Shuichi murmured, looking up at Yuki with a vacant expression.
"Listen, I'm going to sneak out of here while Tohma's…occupied." Yuki told Shuichi quietly, smacking him softly on the cheek to make sure that he was still awake.
"But…"
"You'll be fine, they can't do anything to you. If Tohma sees me here, he'll kill me, you know that. I have to get out of here." Yuki hurried, desperately wanting Shuichi to understand. "I…I…never mind, I have to leave, now. Goodbye Shuichi…"
"Eiri, I can't say that to you…" Shuichi choked out, the tears returning.
"Then don't." Yuki replied, pulling Shuichi up to his face and kissing him, wishing that he could say the words that were running circles in his head.
He broke the kiss sooner rather than later, not wanting to give Shuichi the wrong idea. As soon as he was sure that Shuichi wasn't going to face-plant or stop breathing, he darted away from the throne and started sneaking around the edge of the courtroom, hoping that Mika could continue justifying the astonishingly atrocious noises that Tohma was making.
He was halfway to the door when the purring stopped, and he halted behind the nearest column, watching as best he could without giving himself away.
"Genie, I think we have a rat." Tohma said suddenly, having spotted Yuki's moving shadow when he'd come up for air. "Let's take care of it, shall we?"
Yuki's heart stopped beating and he swore that he could feel his blood going cold; Tohma knew he was there. He forced himself not to panic and flattened himself against the large pillar, silently praying that K wouldn't betray him.
"A what?" K asked, moving his hand enough to see with one eye. "I don't see any…"
"Then check the pillars." Tohma ordered, stepping away from Mika and making sure that his boa was hanging evenly on each side.
"Rats? Tohma, what are you talking about now?" Mika questioned, cocking her head to the side and staring at Tohma. "There aren't any rats in here."
"Shit…" Yuki cursed under his breath, wondering which side K was going to approach from. If he ran in zigzags, maybe Tohma wouldn't be able to hex him, and he was almost sure that K would at least give him a head-start before attempting to tackle him. It was his only option at this point, as Mika seemed much too enamored with Tohma to give a flying rat's derriere about his papers proving Tohma's involvement with him when he was a prisoner.
"Not that kind of rat, my darling, just watch." Tohma said to Mika, nodding to reassure her. "Trust me."
On any other day, she might have smacked him upside the head, but her newly rekindled passion for the pale-haired vizier stalled Mika's hand and temper. Deciding to believe that Tohma had all of his eggs in the correctly labeled basket, Mika held her tongue and nodded at her love, hoping that he wouldn't let her down this time.
"Pretty sure there's nothing there captain." K told Tohma, wanting to buy Yuki some time. He wanted to signal to the cornered fugitive, to tell him to get the hell out of there, but he couldn't without Tohma seeing him. Now that his face didn't have a Mika-shaped growth, he was watching him intently, making sure that he didn't pull any tricks.
"Oh, there's something, or should I say, someone, there. I'll help you look." Tohma said sinisterly, cracking his knuckles and moving to provide the assist. Mika blushed and started fanning herself, thoroughly enjoying the proceedings now that Tohma was bringing out the magic again.
"No, no, that won't be necessary, you just relax and…enjoy yourself." K suggested, putting up his hands and backing up. "I can handle this chief."
"I'm not sure you can." Tohma replied, rolling his shoulders and neck to prepare for an extermination. "This is how you should be searching."
With that said, Tohma threw his arm out towards one of the pillars and sent a lightning bolt flying straight at it. The pillar cracked in half and crumbled, shaking the foundations of the room. The rumbling of the floor and walls jarred Shuichi out of his stupor and he walked out from behind the throne, watching Tohma closely. He scanned the room, but didn't see Yuki anywhere. Inside, the tendrils of panic started to rise up, but he closed his eyes and fought them back, refusing to believe that his sacrifice would go unneeded. If Yuki died, then he wouldn't have the life that he wanted him to have.
"You start on that end, I'll get this one." Tohma called over his shoulder to K as he walked to the other side of the room. He was pretty sure that Yuki was on K's side of the gargantuan expanse of throne room, but he wanted to test the genie's loyalty before things got messy.
"Sounds good…" K sighed, shrugging his shoulders. He'd always been afraid that this would happen, and now that he had to be an agent of his friend's downfall, he wasn't quite sure what to do about it. If Tohma truly saw killing the street rat as an essential part of his takeover, then he had no choice. He'd have to stand by and watch, maybe even help.
"K…no…" Shuichi whispered, edging away from the throne some more. He still couldn't see Yuki, and he was starting to get worried. If he was still in the room, he was doomed, especially if K was really on Tohma's side.
K started zapping the columns as Tohma had, bringing several of them down and making the palace roofs rattle ominously. Yuki darted behind another one every time that K struck, using the noise and ensuing dust to mask his movements. He was one jump away from the door when Tohma's voice interrupted the mayhem.
"If he gets away, this takeover won't be complete, genie. He's an annoyance, a hindrance, and he won't be tolerated." Tohma called out to K, raising his hands up in order to repair some of the integral supports for the room.
"I'm still not sure what you're talking about…" K feigned, wondering how much longer he could fake innocence. He tried to make a 'shooing' gesture at Yuki, but couldn't risk it now that the dust clouds in the room were settling.
"Yes you do. Your street rat chum, he needs to be eliminated." Tohma shot back, refusing to get irritated with the genie. He knew exactly where the street rat was, and he was patiently watching his new subordinate fail the loyalty test. Shuichi listened intently from the sidelines, his stomach churning with fear for Yuki.
"I don't have a street rat chum." K said, his voice unusually high. He knew that Tohma was toying with him, and he knew that Tohma knew everything, but he wasn't about to give Yuki up that easily. The longer he kept Tohma talking, the better Yuki's chance for survival was.
"Tohma, what-" Mika tried to interject, thoroughly confused. She had no idea why Prince Eiri's assistant had magic powers, or why Tohma was mistakenly calling him a genie, but she was dying to find out.
"Hush, love. I'm handling this."
"Well, handle it faster." Mika said under her breath, not sure if she wanted Tohma to overhear her or not.
"Alright then." Tohma replied calmly, saving the crazy for when he finally got to unravel all of the threads of his grand victory. "Genie, bring him out here."
"No…" K replied, struggling to fight off the wish again. Unfortunately for him, Yuki's demise did indeed fall into the parameters of Tohma's formal request, and as such, he was bound by the lamp to help him see it through. "You do realize that I can't kill him, right?"
"And the game is up!" Tohma sang out, glad to have broken through K's useless lies. The closer he got to ending the cause of all of his failures, the happier he was. "Get him out here!"
"EIRI, RUN!" K yelled, hitting himself in the head to prevent any well-aimed magic. As angry as part of him was with the thief, they'd been through a lot together and he hated to lose to a man that was governed by a talking bird. "NOW!"
Yuki didn't say a word and instead darted for the entrance, leaping over pieces of column when necessary. He was midair, jumping over the last large rock between him and the door when he was thrown into the nearest wall with the force of a stampeding rhino.
"NO!" Shuichi shrieked when Tohma's spell hit Yuki. Mika immediately shot him a death glare and he backed up towards the throne, wanting to have something to put between them if she charged.
"Not so fast!" Tohma yelled, shaking out his sleeves after casting the spell at Yuki. If K wasn't going to help him, he could help himself. He sighed internally, having almost forgotten that he had real powers to use, even though he'd just used them to bring down the throne room. He said a silent 'thank you' to the gods of the world, immensely grateful that Caspian hadn't been around to point out his memory lapse.
"Ouch…" Yuki groaned, rubbing his ribs and wincing when his fingers found the large gash from Tohma and Caspian's spear fit endeavor. Before he could gain his wits back, Tohma had marched over and was holding him down with his foot.
"Look what we have here…" Tohma murmured dangerously, leering down at Yuki with a savage smile. "A rat, caught with his hand in the cookie jar."
"I think you're mixing up-"
"Shut up!" Tohma said, removing his foot and kicking Yuki in the side, hard. "No more talking, you're through!"
Tohma backed away from Yuki and raised a hand up slowly, his magic pulling Yuki to his feet. He dragged the street rat along behind him, lowering his hand sharply when he reached the middle of the room. Yuki fell to the floor and moaned again, Tohma having split open a few of his stitches. Shuichi fought the impulse to run forward, terrified of what Mika might do to him, or to Yuki.
"Oi, Caspian, you're on!" Tohma yelled across the room, kicking Yuki again when the latter tried to regain his footing.
"Oooh, goody!" Caspian squealed, his parroty cackling flowing in from the entrance hall. "GET MOVING!"
"What?" Tohma asked, raising an eyebrow. They'd planned out their takeover almost to the letter, and he wasn't too keen on any surprises.
"I brought you something, no worries." Caspian responded smugly, biting at his surprise to encourage forward progress. When he finally got around to entering the room, K snapped and some fireworks went off around him to showcase his fancy duds.
He was decked out in a leather jacket that had glittery red lining and red metallic zippers, complete with a sequined red beret with an eagle feather sticking out of the back of it. There were several little chains on the front of the jacket, and the back was emblazed with a phoenix.
"I am not a thing, you devil!" Tatsuha said to Caspian, kicking at the bird. Ryuichi trailed along behind him, looking genuinely frightened of Caspian. He waved robotically when he saw Shuichi, his eyes bugged out. Shuichi waved back, and then darted behind the throne again when Mika looked his way.
"How the hell did you manage this?" Tohma said gleefully, rubbing his hands together and doing a little hop. He'd been concerned that Tatsuha might've mobilized the guards against him once he'd taken over. Now that Mika had made up for her indiscretions and was once again on his side, this was less of a concern, but it was nice to have all the loose ends tied up. Plus, he was still a little shaky around the pink rabbit.
"They came up from the guard quarters to investigate the explosions, I got bored waiting for you to finish this, and it seemed like a good…opportunity." Caspian explained, biting at Tatsuha's heels again in exchange for the kicking.
"Nice work." Tohma said, conjuring ropes and gags on Ryuichi and Tatsuha to prevent any trouble during Caspian's next assignment. "Shall we continue?"
"Oh, let's." Caspian hissed maliciously, staying on the ground and running over to Yuki. "I've been looking forward to this…"
When Caspian got too close for comfort, Yuki started blowing at him, unwilling to slap at the bird out of fear for his fingers.
"Wow, that's all you have left?" Caspian teased, dancing around and twirling to show off his new look. "Can't touch this, oh yeah, can't touch-OUCH!"
Yuki had half-heartedly swatted at the bird and had caught him in mid-spin, toppling him beak-first into the ground. Shuichi did a few elaborate air punches to celebrate, thrilled that Yuki wasn't completely incapacitated. If that had been the case, he would've had to do something, though he had no idea what. As much as he loved Yuki, he was no match for Tohma.
"You'll pay for that one." Caspian promised, ruffling himself up and flying over to K's feet. "Start the show, man."
"I don't think-"
"You heard him, genie, deliver!" Tohma shouted at K, starting to feel the impatience eating away at his cool exterior.
"Why do you keep calling him that?" Mika asked, ignoring Tohma's request for her to trust him.
"Mika, please, later, don't rain on Caspian's parade."
"Oh, he finally came out, did he? 'bout time, I wondered when the closet would start to get stuffy." Mika observed, barely containing her delight. Even though Tohma was a sexy beast, the sentiments that she had for him did not apply to his feathery sidekick.
"Genie." Tohma said, shaking his head at Mika. K acted as if he hadn't heard anything and started whistling. When Caspian muttered something about impaling and starting running towards Mika, Tohma lifted his foot and brought it down on Caspian's tail, just in time to prevent a disaster. "And you, bird, concentrate. You're after the street rat, not the Sultana."
"For now…" Caspian said under his breath, considering gnawing at Tohma's toes to free himself.
"Caspian…" Tohma warned, conjuring some sparks to remind the bird that he had legitimate powers.
"Fine, fine, I won't get her, just him…" Caspian agreed half-heartedly. He nodded at K and Tohma released his tail, watching him closely to prevent future misbehaving.
"Genie." Tohma said again, this time a little bit louder. "We had a deal."
"I know, I know…" K said, mouthing 'I'm sorry' to Yuki and cueing Caspian's music. They'd arranged the song before crashing the announcement, and Caspian had apparently had the lyrics memorized for weeks, waiting for the proper opportunity to unleash them on the unsuspecting palace population.
"It's go time…" Caspian whispered, walking over to Yuki and jumping onto his head. Yuki groaned and tried to bite the bird, but still didn't have the strength to sit up, let alone fight off a Caspian attack. "Genie!"
K snapped his fingers and the throne room lights dimmed magically, casting an ominous gloom on the scene. A few seconds later, Caspian's arrangement started reverberating around the room and a free standing microphone appeared near the center of the carpet.
"What the hell…" Yuki wondered aloud, rolling over and partially squishing Caspian, who flew off and landed in the middle of the room, his fancy hat askew and a terrible string of curses falling out of his beak.
Yuki used the momentum from steamrolling the bird to get off of the floor, trying to assess his situation. Before he could do too much contemplating however, he heard the sinister sound of K snapping his fingers. He instinctively ducked and covered, waiting for the inevitable conclusion of the day. When nothing happened for a few seconds, he unclenched and looked up.
K was standing off to the side in an outfit that matched Caspian's, complete with a pair of dark aviator sunglasses. He was leaning up against a wall, elbows at his waist, and both hands snapping out a steady 'bum, bum, bum' rhythm. Yuki watched with his mouth open, horrified that K was finally playing along. In the center of the room, Caspian was doing a strange little side sidling step in time to the strange music, and Tohma was conducting behind him, looking absolutely evil. When the music stopped its crescendo and twirled into a flat note, Caspian flew up onto the microphone that K had provided for him and a spotlight clicked on, focusing on Yuki.
"Prince Eiri, yes it is he, but not as you know him…" Caspian started singing, the words flowing out of his beak with a sickening lilt. Tohma reacted to Caspian's lyrics and levitated Yuki, preventing him from leaving the spotlight. Mika raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, eager to have the answers at last.
"No…" Shuichi whispered, eyes darting around the room. Caspian and Tohma were going to unravel everything, and if Mika got angry enough, Yuki wouldn't live through the night. He looked from face to face, trying to figure out what to do. K was clearly on the side of evil, Tatsuha and Ryuichi were tied up, and the carpet that usually followed one of the trio around was nowhere to be found. He gulped and steadied himself for what had to come next; he had to rescue Yuki, somehow.
"Read my beak, it's the truth you seek, it's reality." Caspian continued, swinging from the microphone by one foot and smiling at Yuki. K continued to snap by the wall, his eyes shut tight to avoid the carnage. He couldn't stand what was happening. It was infuriating to see his own magic undoing all of his hard work.
"Ok…charge the bird, make a lot of noise, hit Tohma with something…" Shuichi whispered, plotting aloud. Off to the side, Ryuichi tried to worm his way out of captivity, but Tohma's magic was holding him tight. Next to him, Tatsuha had completely given in, thrilled to be next to a tied-up Ryuichi. His only concern was how to avoid drooling on his beloved.
"Yes, meet a blast from your past, whose lies were too good to last!" Caspian sang, crawling back on top of the mike. Tohma started spinning Yuki in mid-air, waiting for Caspian's signal. When the bird nodded at him, he swung an arm towards Shuichi and magically dragged him forward, thoroughly enjoying himself.
"Hey, let me go!" Shuichi squalled, desperately fighting the spell. If he was caught too, there was no way for him to help Yuki. In one of the higher windows, the carpet hovered, its nap having been interrupted by the loud music.
"Say hello to your precious Prince Eiri!" Caspian screeched into the microphone, breaking from his melodic singing in the heat of the moment. At the last syllable, Tohma slammed Yuki into a column and let the latter slide to the floor, leaving a smear of blood behind him. Once he stopped wriggling, Tohma flicked his wrist and took away all of Yuki's finery, returning him to his original form.
"STOP IT!" Shuichi screamed, coming unglued.
Yuki whimpered and flopped onto his stomach, barely able to breathe through the pain. When the bells stopped clanging in his head, he noticed that he was dressed in his normal garb and closed his eyes, ready for the final blow; it couldn't be long now.
"What the hell?" Mika managed to spit out, leaning forward and staring at Yuki. "Tohma?"
"Just listen…" Tohma drawled laconically, rocking on the balls of his feet.
"And the rat's out of the bag, eh, Yuki?" Caspian sniped, ignoring Mika's outburst. He accented his last word and motioned to Tohma who in turn dragged Shuichi over to Yuki. "Nice choice Princey, bet you didn't see this coming."
"See what coming?" Shuichi asked, struggling to reach Yuki and genuinely confused about Caspian's statement. Yuki still had his eyes closed, and seemed to have checked out.
"He's a street rat!" Caspian yelled into the microphone, causing it to screech obnoxiously. K stopped snapping only to pop in some ear plugs and then continued his metallic back-up beat.
"No shit Sherlock!" Shuichi replied haughtily, annoyed that he was so close to Yuki and still couldn't help him.
Caspian's responded cheekily with a few well-chosen insults, slights, and curses, and almost tipped the microphone over with his angry twittering and ruffling.
"I told you he probably knew…I warned you, Po…" Tohma said to Caspian, releasing Shuichi from his spell. "I told you not to expect a big reaction."
"Eiri?" Shuichi asked softly, immediately sliding forward to Yuki. He rolled his lover over and pulled him into his lap, trying to rouse him. "Come on, don't do this…"
"BUT HE'S A MORON!" Caspian yelled, ignoring the fact that the microphone was still turned on. A few chunks of the ceiling fell and landed dangerously close to Mika.
"Shuichi?" Yuki asked, opening one eye to take in his surroundings. He'd blocked everything out, and was surprised to find himself alive.
"Caspian! Stay focused!" Tohma yelled back, his calm demeanor starting to crack. "Finish your song already!"
"But!"
"BIRD!" Tohma roared, his eyes popping and his hair starting to frizz out with all of the static electricity in the area. "DAMMIT, CONCENTRATE!"
"Well excuse me!" Caspian responded, flipping over and mooning Tohma. "Don't get your panties all wadded up-"
"Don't start with me Caspian!"
"Then don't finish with me, Tohma!"
"Well….wait, what?" Tohma asked, raising an eyebrow at Caspian's reply. In his spot, K was still snapping, oblivious to the disruptions. "Just keep singing…"
"Are you alright? Come on, we have to get out of here." Shuichi whispered to Yuki, starting to get up.
"No, this is about me, you get involved, you'll get killed." Yuki said quickly in gasps, trying to breathe through the pain. His side was split open and he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to stay conscious with the amount of blood he was losing.
"Fine." Caspian finally conceded, having taken some time to consider Tohma's command. He cleared his throat and straightened the microphone.
"But-" Shuichi tried to say before he was cut off by Caspian's derogatory warbling.
"So Eiri turns out to be merely a Yuki…" Caspian plowed on, his voice dancing on the syllables of Yuki's various names.
Tohma re-captured Shuichi and jerked his arm backwards, sending the prince flying towards Mika. The Sultana took the hint and grabbed her stepson, successfully restraining him. He then turned his attention to Yuki, who looked about ready to keel over on his own. Tohma waited for Caspian to start an elaborate dance move and healed the street rat when the parrot wasn't looking to quickly heal their quarry; if he didn't stay awake for the grand finale, there was no point to all the antics.
"Just a con, need I go on, take it from me…" Caspian cooed into the microphone, pouring all of his malice into the song.
Mika listened closely, still disbelieving that she'd been so utterly taken by a street rat. Off to the side, K's snapping rate started to slow, the genie drifting off to sleep in the quiet of his ear plugs. Tohma used his magic to wrench Yuki off of the ground, preparing him for Caspian's last hurrah, and starting to feel giddy. The entire time, he'd tried to maintain his cool to look like a bad-ass, and once that had faded, he'd been convinced that they'd somehow fail. Every other time they'd tried to pull off something this big, a freak accident always stopped them, always threw a wrench into the finely-tuned gears of their master plan, something. Now that they were literally a lyric away from sweet, sweet victory, it was getting extremely hard to control himself. He danced in place, sparks coming out of his feet every time they hit the solid floor.
"His personality flaws give me adequate cause to send him packing on a one-way trip, so his prospects take a terminal dip, his assets frozen, the venue's chosen, it's the ends of the earth, yippee!" Caspian squealed into the microphone, the words tumbling out at warp speed and tripping over one another. At his last word, he did a little spin on the microphone and Tohma pirouetted with him, pointing at Yuki when he came to a stop and making the street rat fly up and out of the throne room with astonishing speed. "So long, ex-Prince Eiri!"
"YUKI!" Shuichi screamed, biting, clawing, and kicking at Mika to get free. "NO!"
"And he's OUTTA HERE!" Tohma exclaimed, jumping up and down in a victory celebration.
"Bam diggidy!" Caspian squawked into the microphone, unable to contain his excitement. Yuki was gone for good, and he and Tohma were on top of the world.
When the music stopped playing, K snorted himself awake and removed his mufflers, stretching to wake himself up.
"What's going on?" K asked sleepily, scratching his head and ambling forward. "Song done?"
"That's just sad…" Tohma sad, clicking his tongue at K.
"Your face is sad." K returned groggily, used to having this kind of debate with Ryuichi.
"Your mom is sad!" Caspian yelled into the mike, his voice bouncing around the room.
"HEY!" K yelled, snapping his fingers and making Caspian's shiny perch vanish. "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!"
"Don't give him ideas!" Tohma wailed, making a cutthroat motion at K.
When the microphone and its stand disappeared, Caspian let out an indignant shriek and flew over to Tohma, wanting to avoid giving K the pleasure of him smacking into the ground at all costs.
"Not so tough now, huh?" K shot at Caspian, smiling wide.
"Enough bickering, this is a time to celebrate…" Tohma said, patting Caspian on the head and ignoring the torrent of threats that issued from the persnickety parrot.
Tohma clapped his hands a few times, intending to redecorate. The way he saw it, things couldn't get any better; Mika was madly in love with him, Caspian had a new target, Shuichi was miserable, he had the pink bunny in custody, and, best of all, the street rat was finally finished.
We all knew it was coming…Caspian just had to have a chance to flew his vocal wings. Unfortunately, he now wants me to make him that outfit, and we're at a standstill at the moment. I threatened to take away the cereal, he threatened some things that I shall not list, you get the idea.
Ahem. In other news, I wrote up my massive whiteboard plot for the final fight scene and I figured out what scene I want to end the story with. I've had my twist for the end figured out for months, but now I know exactly, almost word for word, how I want to end this mess. I should be updating regularly until the end, as long as my inspiration holds out and finals don't kill me. Over and out, and thanks again for all the reviews and support, they're awesome. :D
-Amaya