We All Fall Down
19th August 2008
Series: The Seer
Summary: Research and conversation. Shizuka is concerned… with amusing results.
Warnings: Hints, hints, and more hints. Love to profiterole and curiousrobin for all the input and effort –you guys mean so much to me for this.

"How exciting!" Jason exclaimed, drawing everyone's eyes, holding up the skin-scroll he'd been reading. "Listen! Mardea used to be an entertainer. An acrobat!" He smiled cheerfully, "Isn't that so interesting?"

"Hm, yes," Watanuki distractedly replied, calmly reaching over the many scrolls surrounding him, Jason, Sorata and Shizuka to take the skin-scroll and begin to read it himself.

"Hehhh," Jason sang quietly, letting his cousin take the item. "Kim is distracted." He waved a hand at Watanuki's forehead, obviously aiming to annoy. Shizuka rolled his eyes and returned to reading his scroll.

Pushing the hand aside, Watanuki absently admonished, "Yes, I am. Now hush."

"Hyu!" Sorata teased, "It's too hot today to lose one's temper. Jason's being ignored instead."

The One Ignoring was getting an interesting expression on his face; Shizuka got up and wandered over, circling around Jason and Sorata.

"Now, you hush." Jason poked Sorata's arm. "After you teach me what that means."

"Eh? You mean hyu?" The priest laughed, "It doesn't mean anything. Just sounds funnier than whistling."

"It sounds funny. And I can't whistle," Jason lamented but there was an odd shadow in his eyes which Shizuka found puzzling. And Sorata went back to reading his own scroll but burst into mischievous whistling song. Poking the priest again, Jason accused, "You show off."

Sorata laughed and Jason playfully swiped at him.

"Quit playing around, you two," Watanuki muttered, wiping perspiration from his forehead. "You're behaving like children."

"Haaai," they chorused, settling back down with scrolls. It really was too hot to be bickering.

By this point, Shizuka had made his way to Watanuki's side and knelt beside his master, leaning over to peek at the scroll. "Do you think Mardea has given up her old practices?"

"You heard her. When I asked her about her habits, she didn't name anything." Watanuki thoughtfully tapped his chin, not the least bit mindful of how close his bodyguard was to him. "But she did have that extra muscle on her. Maybe she does but is so used to it, it doesn't bear mentioning to her. We will have to ask."

They shared a look for a moment and the monk found it fascinating they seemed to be on the same page of thoughts so automatically. Shizuka quietly mused, "Maybe she taught her daughter."

"Maybe." Watanuki frowned at the skin-scroll, adjusting his robe's sleeves and pushing them up off his forearms. "Considering I suspect the daughter, this might be another angle of Sia for us to explore."

The monk made a noise of acknowledgement but said nothing more, studying his master and the dark scowl the noble wore today.

It felt incredibly hot despite the curtains drawn to keep the light and heat out, and Watanuki did not seem to be dealing with it well. In fact, he seemed to be veritably melting in the dry air and humidity, Shizuka thought. He noticed a tassel sticking out of his master's sleeve.

"Is that a fan?" he asked.

"Hm?" Watanuki followed Shizuka's line of sight to the tassel. "What, this?" Pulling it out, indeed it was a fan, he handed it over, "Did you want to use it?"

"No. You."

With a sharp frown, "I would fan myself if I wanted to." Watanuki shoved it back into his sleeve.

Calmly and patiently, Shizuka pointed out, "It's hot."

"I know it's hot." With a wild wave of the scroll, he sarcastically said, "I'm only perspiring in it."

The monk ignored the way Jason and Sorata had looked up to watch the exchange, distantly noticing his master appeared not to have realised their attention yet. He persisted, "Then why don't you use the fan?"

"I'll just feel hotter to exert the effort," Watanuki said dismissively, brow twitching, and resumed reading.

"Do you want me to fan you?"

Watanuki slammed the scroll down and glared. "No! If I wanted to be fanned I would have asked!" He seemed to realise something then added at a lower volume, "Or ordered you to fan me." Then his cheeks turned pink as though embarrassed by the words. Grumbling, he picked his scroll back up, "Just read, will you? Honestly."

"You don't look like you're doing well in this heat," Shizuka commented blandly. Sorata looked intensely amused and Jason was grinning; why couldn't they mind their own business? Watanuki did not look well.

"I'm old enough to take care of myself, you know." Watanuki had the scroll right up at his face so Shizuka couldn't see but it sounded like he was speaking through clenched teeth, and his fingers were tight on the scroll in his hands.

The monk leaned over to get a better look at his master, so very badly wanting to point out an incident in the very recent past when Watanuki most definitely had not been able to take care of himself.

And almost as though hearing his thoughts, Watanuki peeked from around the scroll to shove a finger at him –the monk barely managed to shove a finger into place to save his ear drum-- glaring and snarled, "Don't answer that!"

Unplugging his hear, Shizuka calmly pointed out, "You didn't ask a question to begin with."

"You know what I mean!" With a frustrated huff, Watanuki returned to the scroll, oblivious to the way Jason and Sorata wisely restrained their amusement.

Shizuka fetched a scroll for himself, setting it calmly in his lap to resume reading, resisting the urge to tell the other two to get back to work. This was an unsatisfactory result. Maybe he should insist at dinner that Watanuki drink a little more water instead.

--

"Let's skip dinner," Watanuki was saying. "You know…" Shizuka perked up, looking up from his reading, when Sorata glowered. "I was thinking I could… have a look around myself."

Something about the way his master spoke sent horrible chills down Shizuka's spine.

"I really don't think that's a good idea," the priest frowned, the uncharacteristically severe expression pulling sourly at his face. "That method is too dangerous."

Shizuka frowned at his master, "If it's so dangerous, whatever it is, I don't think you should be doing it either."

"It's not that dangerous!" Watanuki argued to Sorata. "I've done it a few times before and it's part of my abilities, probably the one thing of my abilities that comes naturally to me." He scowled at the monk, "You. Back off."

"No." Shizuka narrowed his eyes, frown deepening, making his stand. He met his master's glare head on.

"Come on, you two, this is not going to solve anything." Sorata sighed and he reasoned, "Okay, what if this time you let me make more extensive preparations? I'd feel much better if you did."

"That's fine," Watanuki quickly agreed. He waved a hand at Shizuka, "And you don't even know what it was I was planning to do, idiot."

"You're the idiot for wanting to do something explicitly dangerous," Shizuka growled, feeling an unpleasant clench in his chest that his master planned to do something not safe.

"What did you call me?!" Watanuki hissed, shoulders stiff and eyes snapping blue sparks. "Try saying that again!"

Shizuka scowled and tried, "You're the—" but Jason pounced on him from behind and covered his mouth.

"Hyu!" Jason cooed, hanging over the monk's shoulder. "The big bad monk is so protective. Don't you think, Kim?"

"He's a hindrance," Watanuki huffed darkly, looking away to talk to Sorata.

"He's only trying to help…" Jason tried to reason but the noble wasn't listening. He grinned then peeked at Shizuka, whose mouth he still covered, and spied the hot glare in the monk's eyes. "Ooohh, scary…" He released the monk but for a moment remained hear and murmured quietly in a tone meant only for their ears, "Watanuki doesn't like holds that are too-tight. You can't tell him not to do something he feels is correct."

Shizuka had choice words to reply to that on the tip of his tongue but the expression in Jason's eyes stopped him short. What the…? He frowned at the still-smiling blond, watched that deep sadness and quiet intelligence he could not understand in Jason's bright blue eyes. But then again, considering the opinion came from the perspective of someone who knew his master quite well, he figured he ought to listen.

When he remained quiet, Jason smiled approvingly at him before finally moving away.

"Tomorrow night," Sorata argued, pulling Shizuka's attention and gaze. "You agreed."

"Tomorrow night is too long away," Watanuki muttered. He turned and stared at Shizuka.

Shizuka stared back, meeting and holding the blistering glare. He said nothing even if he had that nagging gut feeling something was off. For now, he did not argue.

It really was too hot for it.

--

"So," Watanuki ticked off his fingers, "Mardea is a former acrobat entertainer and not only does she still do her maintenance exercises, she did train her daughter." Another finger, "Sia did not want to enter the harem but Prince Amko put her in by royal order." Another, "The King has a dead concubine and two others are ill as well." He frowned at the latest finger, "We're not allowed near the women because of their vulnerable state and we don't we want to draw more attention to ourselves, meeting so many concubines." Last finger on the hand, "And we have missing artefacts, suspected magical able artefacts, stolen and still at large." He popped up a finger on his other hand, "And that mirror of Mardea's is a mystery to us except for the fact that it had been a Royal heirloom which the King gifted to her at her request."

"Fine mess we're in, aren't we?" Jason commented blandly. "You know, we still have to investigate whether that mirror might have anything to do with the missing items, and I really find it strange she asked for it. Something about the way they underlined that; she asked for it. And we've yet to exhaust all avenues in finding a link that could connect her to Sia."

Shizuka looked up from the scroll he was reading to acknowledge that statement with a brief nod. He returned to his reading but remained aware of everyone only in his peripheral vision; he had just turned up an interesting side-record of Lady Mardea…

"We will explore all avenues but still," scowling, Watanuki announced, "I want to get this over with. I don't sense anything here that might help me and my cause. I want to move on."

Ah yes, that quest nonsense again, Shizuka thought absently with mild irritation, absorbed his scroll's contents of little snippets of Mardea's history. She's how old? Hm. And Sia…? He reached for another scroll.

"Impatient, my lord?" Sorata asked, smiling. He chewed on a piece of sweetgrass one of the palace guards had offered him, the slender stalk sticking insolently out of his mouth. "What's up?"

"I don't know," Watanuki shrugged, squirming on his cushion. But then he seemed to wilt, looking a little miserable, "I just don't like this place. It's so dry and… still."

"Hmm…" Jason cooed softly, "You always did do better on water. How have the swords been?"

Shizuka had just recently discovered that those swords offered a warning when they glowed. He'd have to ask more about that. And then about who'd spelled them.

"They glow every once in a while, especially when I'm near Amko--" In Shizuka's mind this was enough to at least dislike the Prince. "—but luckily he doesn't seem to be able to see it and nothing has happened. No dreams, either." He frowned at Shizuka, who looked up to stare back. "Actually, no bad dreams since we acquired Uncle's arm's chest."

Shizuka looked back down at the skin-scroll he'd been reading and asked, "Have we decided what our next move is?"

Flashing the monk a quick glare, Watanuki turned thoughtful. "We have tonight to keep watch. This time, with the barrier in place, I can be alone safely and both you and Sorata can have a look about the place." He shrugged, "Something might happen, we don't know. The Prince tells me rumours are flying about us so likely nothing will, the culprit too afraid we might catch her. Or him." Shaking his head, "I still maintain it's Sia, even having not met her yet."

Putting the scroll he held down and reaching for another, the monk asked, "And when do we reconvene?"

"Dawn. We'll discuss all our findings then." Watanuki looked over at Jason, "Could you send a message to the Prince for me? If we cancel dinner plans, we can rest and prepare properly for tonight."

"Yes, my lord."

Shizuka noticed Jason's fond use of what was supposed to be a respectful address, and the small smiles they exchanged over it. Those two gave away more and more indications of how close they are every time he looked. He unrolled a new scroll… but that didn't distract him from the expression that flashed across his master's face.

When Jason slipped away and Sorata went to prepare for rest, Shizuka sidled closer and asked, "Oi. What are you planning?"

"Eh?"

"You're planning something," Shizuka stated, looming closer and studying his master.

The nearness made Watanuki blanch and lean away from him, stretched out awkwardly to balance on a hand set to one side of the cushion. It was a strange reaction since usually Watanuki didn't mind when the monk remained in close proximity. The out-of-habit reaction sent warning bells ringing in Shizuka's head.

"You--!" Watanuki sputtered. He shoved at one of the monk's shoulders, "Move away, you lug, you're creeping into my personal space!" With a glare, he snarled back on a low tone, "And mind your own business!"

"I am," Shizuka shortly replied. "And I don't like it, whatever it is you were planning with Sorata. I anticipate an explanation from you on it."

"And I expect an explanation about why you're so friendly with Jason!" Watanuki's face had turned red with his passionate anger… but not enough to disguise the strange sort of worry in his expression. There pinched a touch of pain in the monk's chest as Watanuki had spoken and Shizuka wondered at it, this echo of emotion from his master. "You didn't trust him, I know I… I saw the way you looked at him before, when I was infected, don't think I didn't notice! I know what I—"

"He's your cousin," Shizuka reasoned quietly. Watanuki blinked at him and he explained, "When you were infected that day we retrieved the arms chest and slept for so long, he was worried. When you finally woke, he was in tears with relief."

He had known then that Jason loved Watanuki… and Watanuki returned that emotion. And now it appeared that this was somehow not the right answer because there came that twinge in his chest again –sharper this time.

Narrowing his eyes at his master if just for the sheer confusing reactions, he insisted, "But I know there is still something about him you're not telling me."

Watanuki's cheeks flushed with guilty colour, fingers fidgeting with the edge of his long sleeve. He didn't say anything for so long that the monk's curiosity got the better of him;

"Why are you worried about my opinion of him?" He frowned, "I would have thought you'd like it better if I got along with Jason."

The noble slowly began, "Well of course I want you two to get along—"

"Whatever you want, master," Shizuka murmured, the words full of honest meaning and easy to say. The next words were a little too personal but no less true, "Whatever it takes to keep you safe and make you happy."

Watanuki's face turned a deep and dark red, eyes turned stubbornly downward and only showing off the way the pale skin of his neck turned the same shade.

"But I still need you to talk to me. I need to know what is going on because I can't do this without your instruction and guidance." The monk frowned, "There is something about Jason you're not telling me but I don't need to know about that right now –not unless you think I need to know. But I can tell."

A dark sadness swept quickly over Watanuki's face and he looked away in a poor attempt to hide it.

"Just as I can tell you're up to something now," Shizuka insisted. "It better not be something else that's dangerous." He blinked, "Especially since Sorata just managed to manoeuvre you away from plotting something without his help." Narrowing his eyes at his master, "That better not be what you're thinking about."

But Watanuki's ears and neck had turned an even darker colour. Bull's eye.

"Oh, that," the noble murmured softly. Yes, that. "It's nothing."

Shizuka almost rolled his eyes. "It's not 'nothing' if it has Sorata so worked up about it." He pushed, "Don't start plotting things without us, Watanuki."

"Mind your own business!" the noble hissed again, eyes suddenly flashing, the show of temper oddly reassuring.

"I am. You are my business," Shizuka calmly replied, returning to his seat a proper distance away and picking up his scroll. He nearly growled with his frustration. "You seem to keep forgetting that."

"Ugh!" Watanuki complained. "Don't remind me."

--

Six hours later in the dead of night when Watanuki stood in the middle of the room, transparent and looking very guilty, Shizuka reminded him, "You are my business. When are you going to get it through your thick and stubborn head?"

He glanced back at the too-still sight of Watanuki's physical body lying on the bed then at the angry expression on Sorata's face –who had just barged into the bedroom at Shizuka's startled shout—and decided,

"You, master, are an idiot," he growled, feeling his temper come loose and glaring very fiercely, making Watanuki's ghostly body curl and cringe.

And so am I.

TBC.

Author Notes:

A lot of you have probably been wondering why I haven't managed to reply to your reviews.

Nothing is wrong; its just that I have been so busy preparing for my vacation that I have not had the time at all; zero, zilch, zip, nada, nai. I've been plagued by temp-hiring woes at work and personal preparations so things are not going very well. And then I'll be travelling for three weeks starting Monday and won't be back in London until Sunday the 12th October --total of three weeks. So while I am away, I will only be online to read your reviews and update The Seer –please don't abandon me because I can't reply for a while…!

Thanks for reading and please don't stop reviewing!

Promised drabble: I didn't see any particular demands; correct me if I'm wrong. All I hear is a plea for a Dou x Wata drabble. Anybody, prompt please! I'll write the one plot that jumps at me hardest!