Difficult to write + little time + broken keyboard = noooo!
DEAR GUEST: Thank you for being such a lovely reviewer! I'm thrilled you like Zenshi so much! I'm working on uploading my drawings of him to deviantART and drawing more scenes from this story!
Disclaimer: eh? Yato? Whazzat? -Sakamoto Tatsuma- (Hideaki Sorachi)
Now, we're off to continueeeee...after meeting the best mom and a bitch slappin' Tsukki...
(this was so hard to write OTL)
Eyes of Wolves
- 34 -
.: AUGUST, PRESENT :.
He never let go of the suitcases; his fists were clenched, nails biting into his palms. The group had gone silent, and Tsukuyo was staring at him, eyes boring into him like sharp edges of amethysts, searing hues of impassive violets and lavenders into his core.
A bubble of anger surged within him, to his surprise. His temper, which usually held steady, was triggered unconsciously by the unfamiliarity of the blow, the simple act of insubordination causing him to bristle inadvertently. With the Harusame, he'd tolerated the pugnacious attitude of the ever-lively Mei, but had made apparent that there was a limit. Mei, of course, knew him well enough. Sure, she had her quirks and her typical way of irritating him, but he mouthing off never constituted into physical contact. More often than not, it was Zenshi stomping on her toe to get her to shut up, elbowing her or glaring her into submission.
But here, here was this woman, standing before him with an impeccable glower plastered onto her porcelain features, only marred by the two scars aligned in perpendicular fashion. Here was a hodgepodge of emotions and a henna of rages and furies and confusions and mystifications. She withdrew her hand without furtiveness or shame, as if to galvanize the fact that yes, she had just struck him across the face, and hard.
Yet she was untouchable.
He did not utter a word, did not even move a single muscle.
They exchanged a long glance without communication.
"Tsuk—"
Someone wisely cut Kagura off, and the group sidled away, giving the two a wide girth.
"Where," Tsukuyo said again, "d'ya think yer goin'?"
His eyes were hard ice, then, a stormy blue like none other she'd seen before. Tsukuyo knew full well that he was far from happy with her; in fact, he looked less composed than when he'd fought those Harusame with her.
Zenshi smiled, tightly and bitterly.
"I don't suppose you have an extra seat in the restaurant, do you?"
She had won. Her intention had been to reel him in, whatever the circumstances. If she couldn't have her conversation now, she'd have it later.
But he wasn't running, not now.
He was angry? Well she was angry, too. And that was something she would not excuse him for.
.: ELEVEN YEARS AGO :.
His Yato classmates revere him in partial awe and partial fright. The rest of the class stares, because he has just ascertained his position as strongest Amanto in the entire school. He doesn't particularly care, supposing that his neutral stance on just about everything would make for peaceful living. His father seems to pick up on this by the nonverbal cues the student body gives on Visiting Day. The fact that such a big name is on campus has the school roaring — when many discover who his child is, they both leap and recoil.
Linter tells him things like, "You need to cut your hair," or "This suit is atrocious," or "Don't slouch, my boy," and Zenshi complies with conditioned habit to his father's more direct demands. The school's superintendent and principal are simply gushing, and they disgust him just as much as all those foreign princes and dames do.
He fingers his braid as he spots Mei out of the corner of his eye.
No, he realizes it's not Mei — this woman is a good few inches taller. He can tell from a distance that this Yato carries herself with a certain air that Mei lacks, or rather, could care less to have, and sports those bright carroty locks only to the small of her back. When Zenshi does happen to spot his noisy companion, it is at the side of her parents, accompanied by the mysteriously similar woman, whom he deduces to be her renowned sister. Mei's sister, Aina, is a fairly popular intergalactic celebrity. Zenshi wouldn't be surprised if he turned on the TV and saw Aina in anything from a shampoo commercial to a blockbuster hit film.
Mei doesn't exactly loathe her sister, but resents her presence.
"I love your hair," Aina says, as they draw closer. She speaks with a slight clip to her voice, and Zenshi picks out a slight Earthling accent. Earth is, after all, known for a great film industry, especially in the western hemisphere. Aina certainly fits the bill for "Earthling Movie Star".
"I'm gonna chop it off when I graduate," declares Mei with vicious conviction. "And dye it a different color."
The facial similarities between the sisters are so apparent and so shocking that Zenshi finds himself subtly trying to hide his bewildered exchanges between studying his boisterous friend and her model-like sister. In fact, he becomes almost confused because their eyes and nose are so similar. The only thing differentiating them is probably Aina's practiced smile and Mei's unabashed grimace.
"Don't be ridiculous," Aina chirps. Mei looks like she wants to rip her sister's head off, and that is without exaggerating. When her sister glances in Zenshi's direction and lights up, the absolute transformation of Mei's expression into dread and horror is almost amusing. "Isn't that Zenshi, Linter's son? Is he in your grade? Do you know him? The Yato all live in the same dorms, right? Or have they changed it since I've been here? My, he is a real looker, isn't—"
"No, that boy is the scariest shit you will find in this school," Mei cut in promptly, sufficing half a gag at her sister's last statement.
"Mei, your language," their mother mildly admonishes.
"I'm serious," Mei cries.
Zenshi pointedly looks away, and he can feel her silent spluttering.
"Do you know him, then?" continues Aina, her furtive curiosity revealing itself. She obviously has sisterly intentions in mind, seeing as she is boundlessly interested in any attractive male that passes, immediately suggesting something apparently appalling (to Mei, at least). Some must be horrible innuendoes because if Mei is any color, she's closest to green.
"I do," she finally admits, almost grudgingly, defensively. "Why?"
"Do you know, know him?" the elder sister goads with a wiggle of her finely shaped brows.
"What is that supposed to mean?" snaps Mei with a cheeky imitation of Aina's accent.
"Well, you know," Aina hums vaguely, smiling sweetly. "I was just curious to see if my sister had gotten any…action."
Mei's green face turns greener, and when Zenshi actually snickers out loud, her spinach-like hue completely drains and she is left with one of mercurial horror and disgust and probably rage.
"Well, whatever the case," Aina continues, "you should introduce him to your family, right? We'd like to know about your friends. Last time, you just sulked in the cafeteria and we didn't meet anyone except…what's her name, Kogami?"
"Kougi," snarls Mei.
"Right, Kougi."
The family waits expectantly, eyes centered on Mei because she has hunched into herself, not exactly red in the face but more like ominously pale. Her porcelain Yato skin only amplifies the effect; her eyes appear sunken in and she looks devilish. To put it simply, Mei looks like she wants to kill something.
And so, none of them realize when Zenshi silently strides up to the Yato folk and offers his hand.
"You must be Mei's parents," he greets with such gallant warmth and chivalry that both mother and father of the tangerine-headed Mei are delighted and charmed. He has never quite liked this skin, the skin that Linter had passed onto him, and is rather dismayed to find that he is completely comfortable in it nonetheless, but he's quite good with first impressions and uses his skill to its fullest extent. "I'm her classmate, Zenshi."
The boy with midnight hair turns graciously to Mei's mother after shaking the hand of Mei's reverent father.
"I see where Mei gets her beautiful hair," he says with jovial grace. Mei gags, and he flashes a dead look so sardonic that she returns to her green state. His face morphs immediately back into his moderate but appealing smile, and he greets Aina with a momentous flash of handsome nobleness. "And you must be the star."
He's struggling now, and Mei can tell. Zenshi, never one for words, is evidently suppressing his inimical desire to just shut up. The only thing going for him is the fact that he can humiliate Mei; currently, their ongoing clashes have been tied, and if Mei can dye his uniform pink then he can return the favor and embarrass her by simply talking to her family.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," gushes Aina. She places her hand delicately in Zenshi's own when he offers, and he kneels genteelly to place the lightest of gentleman's kisses on her knuckles. She is malleable, charmed. Mei gags again.
"The pleasure is all mine," Zenshi returns.
I'm going to kill you, Mei mouths. He is all but horrified, and flashes her an inscrutable smile that she loathes at that moment with her entire being.
.: AUGUST, PRESENT :.
There was awkward silence within the energetic animation of the women and their tagalong male companions. Shinpachi offered him a wan smile, but was miffed when Tsukuyo caught him and sent him spiraling into depths of self-contained stiffness.
He watched Kagura wolf down platter after platter of barbecued meat; his stomach growled, but was determined to see his silence through. Tsukuyo cast him resentful glances from time to time, but he never quite reciprocated — he was, simply and secretly, comforted by the fact that she seemed relieved.
Though she'd never tell him, and he'd never tell her he saw.
hoW.
A/N: my keyboard is sticky and gross and aHHHHHHH.
(sticky as in the keys are not pressing down all the way and it's annoying me...maybe because I ate a box of cookies nearby hehehe)