A little bit of Shuri/Visnu, a lot of ANGSTANGSTANGST (and some answers). Currygom wrote in her trailer that Kubera is "a story where someone has to cry." That's probably why it appeals so much to me.

Quick updates will be quick. I want to finish this before going back to school. (Ending is currently set at 30 Chapters.)

Disclaimer: There are many things in this world that do not belong to me. Kubera is one of them.

S-C-N-D

Courtship of a Phoenix

…

Her nails, her claws, her feathers were black.

Black with the sins she'd committed.

Black with the sins she was committing in order to hide the sins she'd committed.

"Avifauna," she panted, dripping blood. "I hope you're happy now."

…

Chapter Twenty: Threads of Blood
N0 - approx. 5000 years

…

In a field of reeds and wildflowers, Shuri enjoyed the gentle breeze as she hugged her hips tightly. Billions of years ago, Isholy had been as uninhabitable as the Sura Realm. Just as Visnu promised, it became a present sanctuary for the Yaksha Clan. Unfortunately, humans also took notice and started inhabiting this beautiful planet. More than a few conflicts arose between Visnu's race and her own.

Perhaps she had been too full of herself to assume that his offer was exclusive to the Yaksha Clan. She came here to mediate, but the presence of a Nastika only resulted in high tensions. Now Shuri was deliberating whether she should stay or leave and wait for the problem to sort out on its own.

Before she reached a conclusion, her ears twitched at the sound of bare feet crunching down on small, dry weeds.

"The only Primeval God to ever be confused for a Hobo," she teased, dusting off the dirt caked figure with her tail. "Visnu, what am I ever to do with you? Why don't you get some shoes?"

Visnu himself wiped away a trail of crusty blood from a scratch on his face. "Force of habit, I suppose." He shrugged. A new droplet of red blood trailed from the reopened wound.

Sighing, she leaned down to clean his face with her sleeve. Visnu tidying his appearance was as easy as Kubera summoning a curry mushroom. He just never bothered to. For reasons beyond her, he liked to call himself a rugged man of the wild. Shuri cuffed him for his stupidity every time. As much as she loved him, something was seriously off with this man.

"Wish I had a mirror so you can take a good look at yourself," she grumbled.

Indeed, Visnu approached her almost as wild as the land itself, his clothes torn and hair flying off in every direction. Not only did Shuri dust him off, she also had to pick sticker grass off his entire body. All the while, Visnu stood dazedly.

"Shuri?"

"Yes?"

"You really were created with a motherly instinct, weren't you?" He grinned.

"…" She clutched his head in her sleeved hands. "Visnu?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Why do I even bother? Shuri sighed, dusting down stands of flying hair. "There, now you finally look less like a ditsy hobo and more like an occasionally homeless panhandler."

Visnu pressed his lips together.

"What brings you to Isholy?"

His smile faded into a line and he scratched at a flying cowlick as if he'd already forgotten. Knowing they'd be here forever if this persisted, Shuri picked him up and carried him to a more convenient location. A tree would do. That way, if he accidentally fell, he might hit his head and finally come to his senses. After dropping him on a branch, she sat leaning against the trunk.

After staring at his dangling legs for ten minutes, Visnu suddenly exclaimed, "that's right!" He tap a fist down on his palm for extra emphasis on his temporary stupidity. "I'm on Isholy! I was wondering where I traveled to after all this time."

"…" She shook her head as he surveyed his surroundings with wonderment. "Sometimes I really do wonder how you don't accidentally end up on the inside of a whale or something. Where were you intending to go in the first place?"

He spaced out for another minute before answering, "I was going to find Garuda. I think."

"You think?"

"Mmm." He cocked his head. "Yeah. I probably was going to find Garuda."

"Why?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows at his semi troubled expression. "Is something wrong with his clan? I thought we sorted that drama out thirty one thousand years ago." Visnu might be an oddball, but for him to interfere in anything personally was rather rare. If it was something banal, he would have asked her or Gandharva to help in his stead.

The frown on his face became much more eminent. Visnu straightened his back and rubbed circles against his temple. "Ah, I remember now. Long ago, I saw an Insight of the Garuda Clan falling apart. I wanted to prevent that, but I think it's already been averted."

"What do you mean?" Shuri got the feeling that he was talking about the Garuda-Vinata warring days, but those were long past, weren't they? She was his wife now, so shouldn't all be peaceful?

Visnu, however, was in no hurry to reveal his troubles. Tilting his head back, he mused, "when I first met Garuda, I was surprised by how many trials his name was burdened with. He was a lonely king, so I offered to give him a companion to help him out. But he looked me straight in the eye and refused my help. I saw his entire future the moment our eyes met."

Shuri wasn't sure where he was going with this. "So Garuda is a special Nastika?"

"Not special, per se. I doubt anyone would envy him, except for his wife, strangely, but that's all in the past. How should I put this?" He tapped a finger against his lower lip. "The name Garuda is a necessity in the recipe for disaster—an unstable chemical, shall we put it? I couldn't leave him alone, but I had to choose his allies very carefully."

"So you manipulated all of us," Shuri sighed. She'd long accepted the fact that Visnu was an entity above them all. A close friend he might be, but a friend that existed on a completely different plane. To coexist with the creator of all beings, She, Garuda and Gandharva were forced to recognize that he had his duties to carry out just as they had their own—even if his methods were soiled.

"Not really. I just wanted a few friends to have a drink with."

It was moments like these that completely confounded her. Visnu could be totally shady sometimes and then completely ditsy and honest at others. "So? You just made friends with three kings for the heck of it?"

"No, no, no! It wasn't you guys I gave to Garuda. How could you ever accuse me of such a thing! I really did gather you three for my own entertainment, I promise on my physical body!" he exclaimed, patting his chest. "The one I gave him is Vinata."

Shuri scratched her furry ear. "So you thought it was wise," she concluded, even more puzzled, "to just pair him together with the Nastika who had been destroying his clan?" Now she was a little ticked off. "Instead of doing that, why didn't you find me a husband instead?"

"That was then!" he dismissed her accusation with a flip of his hand. "But really, I'm surprised at how well it all turned out! Don't they look cute together?"

She smote him.

"…" Clutching his head, Visnu placed his chin in between his knees. It was quiet, but Shuri swore she heard him sigh heavily. "I didn't want you to suffer, Shuri. The only way you would have gotten a husband is if I planned out every meticulous detail of your future. Everyone whose fate I tamper with suffers in the end… Garuda, Gandharva, Taksaka… Even when I try to fix my own mistakes, I just end up projecting their suffering onto someone else. That's the real reason I married off my friends: to make them happy by letting someone else bear their pain."

Though he was right next to her, Visnu had never seemed more aloof.

"I had a hunch early on in the universe. In fact, I knew from first glance that only Vinata can put a stop to this political instability. Because it's impossible for a riot this big to cease peacefully, I made her mend Garuda's clan with threads of blood. So I gave him a wife, since I was in need of a plan and that was the most befitting one. That's their marriage in a nutshell. There's no one else crazy enough to beat fourteen Nastikas of their own clan into submission, just her."

"And that's why you asked me to save her?"

"Yep." His voice regained its usual cheeriness.

Despite the rather cruel and candid explanation given, it made a lot of sense: why Garuda got his wife first, why Shuri never had a lover, why Gandharva was so utterly obliviously happy. Ananta may be the strongest entity in this universe, but in the long run, he had nothing on Visnu.

Shuri turned away. "Why?" she asked quietly. "Why go to such lengths to keep her alive? Aren't you basically saying that Menaka and Vinata were doomed from the beginning?"

"It's like this in every universe, isn't it?" he deadpanned. "The queen dies so that the king doesn't have to."

S-C-N-D

N0 - approx. 2000 years

S-C-N-D

Myna shrieked at the Chaos Sura that suddenly appeared before her. Why was there such a creature in the Garuda Mountains? And for goodness sake, weren't Chaos Suras supposed to target strong prey? She was only an Upani, one that couldn't even develop any further! If these unlawful creatures could kill a Nastika like Cepphus, what chance did she have?

Its claws clamped over her mouth. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

"Don't speak." Her heart pounded. Wait, those things could talk? "It's just me."

She nearly shrieked again, this time for a completely different reason. "Oh my god, Vinata-nim. What happened? Why are you…" Unable to find the right words, Myna crazily gestured up and down the queen's body.

Vinata wiped the left half of her face clear and whipped a handful of black Sura blood aside. Even as she stood, blood pooled in a small puddle at her feet. It was making Myna exceptionally nervous.

Even one of Avifauna's looks at me like I'm a monster. Defeated, the queen plopped on the floor. "I'm horrible, aren't I? Whether to get my husband off the throne or keep him on it, I still bathe myself in the blood of my own kin. What do you think he'd say if he saw me like this?"

"I—uh—tension's been running high within the clan?" she asked meekly.

Vinata laughed once. "You have no idea."

Myna fidgeted. Despite her loquaciousness, she had no idea what to say in times like these. Why was this feeling so familiar? Oh yes, it was similar to those anxiety attacks she got when talking to her grandfather. "Well, um, I think you're a good queen regardless. You love Garuda-nim enough to shed blood for him and, um… we're all Suras so it's natural to have a little bloodshed at times." She scratched her red horn stiffly. "At least you didn't kill anyone?"

Oh how wrong the flustered Upani was. But Vinata didn't tell her. The number of lives lost by her hands was for her and her alone to know.

"But, um, maybe we should get you cleaned up before Garuda-nim or grandfather sees?"

To that, Vinata had no answer. She wasn't foolish enough to hope for the impossible. Both Avifauna and Garuda knew that rebels dedicated to a billion year old cause didn't just back off without a reason. Incidentally, both of them were also smart enough to turn a blind eye to their movements. These days, it was far from unusual for her to lie beside her husband merely hours before engaging in a violent brawl with another Nastika.

"Vinata? Are you in there?"

Myna jumped at the voice of her king. In panic, she scurried around the cave, trying to somehow cover up the sight of the bloody Nastika. Curse her earth-fire-sky combination! Why hadn't she been born with a Darkness attribute?

Vinata gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay," she assured before hollering, "I'm not decent!"

Myna scrambled into a corner at the first flash of white.

"You don't have to yell. I'm right her—" Garuda cut himself short as his eyes fell on her figure. Briefly, they flickered from her head to her toes back to her head. Seconds ticked by as his expression remained unchanged.

"I told you I'm not decent," sighed Vinata.

"Well, make yourself decent."

"No," she huffed stubbornly. "I want a kid."

From behind tall stalactites, the red-pink Upani blushed and covered her ears. This really wasn't a conversation she should be listening to, and it certainly didn't bring any comfort to know that her queen was aware of her eavesdropping.

Garuda shot Vinata a dirty look. Harrumphing, he stated a little too loudly, "I don't understand how you arrived at that conclusion. Please explain your train of thought."

"I don't have any." She opened her arms wide, exhibiting her entire body. "My train has been derailed. Can you not see my current state? I think I may be a lunatic."

Scoffing at her childishness, Garuda lifted his bloody wife to carry her out of the cave. Oddly enough, as soon as he touched her, all the blood crusted and flaked away. She clasped her hands together and smiled like it was any normal day.

"Don't be silly," he told her, tapping their foreheads. "There's only one Visnu."

S-C-N-D

Random proposals of children seem to be quite common within my romance stories. (Cue fifteen facepalms.) I was trying to set the mood for the next chapter and then I gave up.

Well, there you go: manipulative!Visnu, violent!Vinata and stoicslashuncaring!Garuda

Thank your for reading! Please leave a review!

-SCND