OMG IT IS AN UPDATE WITH A FIC!!! CHAPTER 9 HAS ARRIVED!!!
Title: Kaidoh and the Seven Tennis Players: A Tenipuri Fairytale, Pt. 9
Rating: PG-13 for language
Pairings: Mainly MomoxKaidoh, mentions of others
Summary: Kaidoh was found as a baby by seven men living in the woods and was raised by them. He is now eighteen, and a prince has stumbled into his home, but that creates more problems as a certain people become aware of Kaidoh's existance - people who will do anything to keep Kaidoh from becoming more than a fairytale.
Current Chapter: Everything seems to be looking up, but......
Author's Note: And yes, I do an apology to some people for not getting this done sooner, but I did get it done! And here it is! Sorry for the wait!
Previous Chapter / Next Chapter
Part 9
The next few days passed in what, for Momoshiro, was nearly total bliss. There was no more rain, and by all reports Kaidoh’s parents were making excellent progress on the bridge. During the day he and Kaidoh would take care of the horses and other household chores.
Ever since their initial love making, Momoshiro felt the difference between them. Kaidoh was still touchy, and they still fought, but the make-ups came quicker, and were usually followed by a kiss (when Kaidoh’s parents weren’t around, of course). Even though Kaidoh wasn’t much one for touching, Momoshiro found Kaidoh allowed him to give him an affection hug, a brush on the cheek, or some other form of contact every now and then, and only in private. Of course, any touching he didn’t get during the day came at night. Once everyone else was abed, they spent their nights making love. Each time was better than the last, each finding new ways to bring pleasure to their lover, and making for nights that were never dull. For whatever reason Kaidoh did not want to bring up the change in their relationship to his parents, at least not yet, and Momoshiro was fine with that. It added a sort of dangerous flare to it all, having an affair with the son of his hosts, all right above their heads.
But at the same time, it had opened his eyes a little. He found he didn’t mind doing chores and menial work if Kaidoh was there. The food tasted even better than before (and it had tasted wonderful to begin with), and living in what was pretty much the backwaters of nowhere seemed a far more pleasant thing than he had first imagined. All of it showed how much he had taken for granted in his life as a prince - how much luxury he had, but truthfully didn’t need, and the little things he tossed away because of that luxury that he now found essential (like the attentions of the man he knew, without a doubt, he was in love with). He had been so miserable as Prince, to be honest with himself, but here he found he was happy.
So that was why, four days after the storm cleared, he found himself staring in stone cold shock at Oishi, who was grinning ever so happily as the news spilled from his lips that Momoshiro could leave as soon as tomorrow, because the bridge was complete at last!
“We know you must be anxious to get on your way,” Oishi said. “And probably the entire royal guard is looking for you, no doubt.”
“Of course,” Momoshiro managed through his shock, glad Kaidoh wasn’t there to hear the news (his lover was currently in the barn while Momoshiro was in the pasture with Duncan and Akutsu). “I’ll tell Dan the good news.”
”Do you want me to make a lunch for you tomorrow then?” Oishi asked. “If you leave early, you can make it to the capital a little after midday.”
“Yes, yes thank you,” Momoshiro smiled graciously even as his stomach twisted itself in knots.
The bridge was finished? He could go home? He knew that this shouldn’t be as much a surprise to him as it was, but somehow he had gotten used to the idea of being perpetually stuck here, declared dead by his father, and freed from his life as the Prince. He wouldn’t have given a damn if he never set foot in court again if he could wake up each morning to Kaidoh in his arms. But now…what choice did he have? He had a way to get to the capital, they were expecting him, and he was, first and foremost, the Heir Apparent of Hyotei, Crown Prince Momoshiro. He could do nothing about that, except perhaps abdicate, but he simply didn’t have the courage to tell his father to stuff all his royal lessons someplace unpleasant and be done with it.
He tried to keep this sudden rush of emotion and thought off his face and actions whenever he saw Kaidoh, and he must have done a good enough job (he should have, being a Prince had taught him many things, including how to fake being happy). Kaidoh didn’t ask what was wrong, and Momoshiro did not offer, unsure he could keep his composure if he had to discuss the sudden shattering of his merry dreams. With a single sentence his fantasy of spending a quiet, happy life with Kaidoh had come crashing down, crushed beneath the weight of his station.
Their lovemaking that night blocked most of it out, allowing Momoshiro to simply enjoy the pleasure of Kaidoh’s body, thrilling in how delightfully responsive he was, shuddering as his name dripped from Kaidoh’s lips in pleading moans. But as they lay there afterwards, a tangle of limbs and covers, Momoshiro couldn’t escape it anymore.
”Kaidoh,” he murmured.
”Hmm?” Kaidoh shifted against him, looking up from Momoshiro’s chest.
Momoshiro stroked Kaidoh’s hair, gulping. “I’m leaving. Tomorrow.”
He felt Kaidoh’s body stiffen, could see his eyes widening and the quiver of Kaidoh’s lips in the dim moonlight. “For the capital.” It wasn’t a question.
”Yes,” Momoshiro admitted. “I have to. I probably have them all scared to death that I’m dead. Not good for international relations.”
”Of course,” Kaidoh hissed. Momoshiro knew that hiss. It was the hiss that meant Kaidoh was upset, and likely to get very, very angry very soon.
Momoshiro didn’t want to deal with an upset Kaidoh, as much as he probably deserved it. But the thought of an upset Kaidoh made him upset, if for no other reason than it doubled the realization he didn’t want to leave Kaidoh. Imagining a life without Kaidoh was nearly impossible for Momoshiro. It just…it never even occurred to him that that was a possibility. He felt Kaidoh begin to shift away, and he reflexively held Kaidoh against him.
There were times that Momoshiro knew he should think before speaking. This was not one of them. “Come with me!” he blurted.
Kaidoh froze against Momoshiro, Momoshiro feeling Kaidoh’s muscles physically stiffen to the point he felt like he was holding a statue. He gulped and looked down at his chest, meeting Kaidoh’s wide eyes with his, putting every ounce of seriousness into the set of his lips and the glint in his eyes. He was serious. He wanted Kaidoh to come with me, to be with him. Damn having to marry Anne Tachibana. He didn’t care. Ryoma was probably nearer her age anyways, and it was more appropriate for her to marry him since he was Second Prince, not the Heir. He would just show up at the palace, politely decline the wedding, but still manage to work out peace agreements (or so he hoped). But that was a side issue. The issue now was still frozen against his chest, staring at him with mouth slightly parted in a look of shock and surprise Momoshiro was sure he would never see on Kaidoh’s face again.
“Come with me,” Momoshiro repeated, sitting up and cupping Kaidoh’s face in his palms. “I have to leave, but if I can’t stay then I want you to come with me.”
Kaidoh shifted with him automatically, though Momoshiro halfway believed it was because cupping his face probably hurt from the original position. He felt Kaidoh’s calloused fingers place themselves over his, still staring at him.
”Momoshiro…,” he murmured, his eyes suddenly casting themselves downward.
“Please,” Momoshiro said, his throat tightening so that his words came out in a harsh whisper. “Please, Kaidoh.”
Kaidoh’s eyes remained looking downwards for what seemed an eternity. It was the kind of eternity that is, in reality, a span of few seconds. Momoshiro hated those moments. They gave him to much time to think. His mind ran through all the ways in which Kaidoh could say yes and which ways to say no - more ways to say no appearing than yes. Those seconds were a twisted, convoluted thing of agony for Momoshiro as he held Kaidoh’s face, as he prayed to whatever gods or forces that be that Kaidoh would say just one, simple, simple word - Yes.
Kaidoh’s eyes rose and met his.
“Yes.”
~*~*~
It was perfect. Simply perfect.
Fuji breathed sighs of sheer pleasure as the snake he held in his hand slithered up his arm, coiled around his neck, and kissed at his ear with its forked tongue. The snake’s skin was the color of a garden snake, yet richer, a more seductive green. It’s eyes were bright and intelligent, staring at the world with curiosity and deadly determination.
He held out his arm and the snake slid down the length of the appendage and to his palm, coiling there and looking up at Fuji with eyes that were mere slits, tongue flickering as it tasted the air.
Fuji caressed its head with his slim fingers, shivering at the cool feel of the scales and the twist of power he got from touching it. And there was power in this little creature. Once it had been nothing, a garden snake making out a meager existence in the gardens, about to be killed like its brethren when the matriarch of the kitchens decided it was their time to leave this plane. But Fuji had gone to expel the snakes, not the head cook, and this snake, this one little insignificant creature, had been chosen by him to perform a task so monumental in stature the snake would live on in infamy for all time. And all because of the little bit of power he had inserted into the snake - more specifically in its fangs.
“Are you ready, little one? You have a very big day ahead of you,” Fuji purred to it as he set the snake within an inked circle on his worktable.
The snake just looked at him and hissed once.
Fuji chuckled, stroked it one last time, and invoked his spell.
~*~*~
As soon as Momoshiro was out of sight that day, Kaidoh made his escape from his parents on excuse of needing to do the laundry.
The next three days were going to be the hardest of his life.
He was still in a bit of shock over the night before. Never in his life had he imagined that Momoshiro would ask him to leave everything behind and travel with him to the capitol, to stay with him forever. Even more shocking to him had been that he had said yes.
A smile twitched at his lips as he carried the laundry down to the now calm river. He could see the delighted shock on Momoshiro’s face still, the wide eyes and the open mouth that quickly turned into a beaming smile and a deluge of kisses and promises that Kaidoh only half understood around the kisses and the touches.
Some of the excitement had been drained when Momoshiro told him he couldn’t come right away. He said he needed to go get another horse, for one thing, to bring Kaidoh and any personal items he might want to bring with him. He also said Kaidoh should tell his parents about all of this, about what they had decided. Kaidoh almost snapped back he didn’t need their permission anymore, but he didn’t when he realized how that would crush his parents if he just left. What was more, Momoshiro explained he would need the day to tell the court he did not plan to marry Ann Tachibana, that he instead planned to spend his life with the love of his life, whether or not they like it. Kaidoh had to accept that, and it would be easier to tell his parents all of this if Momoshiro wasn’t around for one or more of them to take their anger out on him and ultimately move the issue from Kaidoh to Momo. With him gone, they had no choice but to listen to him, with no other outlet for their possible shock and even anger.
And while the laundry did need to be done, Kaidoh was mostly using it as an excuse to think about what he would tell his parents, how he would get them to accept everything.
He set the basket down and rolled up his trouser’s legs and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, wading into the stream and turning back to grab a pair of loincloths. He took a seat on a mostly dry rock and began to process of scrubbing and whipping the cloth, though his mind wasn’t on the task.
When it came to telling his parents about his love affair with the prince, he supposed telling Oishi first would be best. Oishi tended to be the most level headed of his parents. Yagyuu would be another good option, though he would be less inclined to understand Kaidoh’s view of the thing and probably give him a lecture on that political aspects and repercussions. Niou was utterly out of the question, as was Inui, and Eiji. Takeshi could possibly be a good starter, since he hardly ever got angry, but Oishi still stood out as the best choice. Either him, or Choutarou.
But how did a person start such a conversation? ‘Oh, and by the way, Papa, I’m leaving in three days with Momoshiro, who became my lover during the flood.’ Yes, nice opening. Why did he have to be so socially inept, even with his own family?
He supposed it didn’t much matter, since his mind was made up. Even if they got angry or upset, he was going, and nothing they said could change that. They had to let go of him sometime, didn’t they? They didn’t expect him to spend his whole life in their little cottage in the back woods did they? Certainly he had never displayed any desire to ever leave, but that did not mean he did never wondered what lay beyond the forest he called his home. Momoshiro was merely the catalyst that got him to truly, truly start thinking about what lay beyond the river and the trees.
He let out a thunderous sigh as he laid out the laundry to dry and reached into the bottom of the basket for the last bits, gasping and drawing his hand back like he had been burned as something slithered against his knuckles. He leaned cautiously over the side of the basket, peering down at the gorgeous garden snake that sat among the last of the shirts. Its scales glittered intoxicating emerald green, lantern slit eyes peering at him as it lay coiled among the folds.
Kaidoh had never been afraid of snakes, not even when he was a child. They never had any poisonous snakes slip into the clearing, just the regular, nonlethal garden snakes. Kaidoh had found them beautiful, and Niou even teased him of spending too much time with them and picking up their habits. That, at least, was not true, but the amount of contact he had with the creatures made him distinctly unafraid of the one now sitting in his laundry.
“Come on then,” he hissed, reaching both hands down to try and grasp at the snake. “Out of my laundry.”
The snake put up no fuss as his hands clamped around it and lifted it from the basket. That was odd, but Kaidoh thought nothing of it as he rose and paced off from the river towards the undergrowth to release the creature. He knelt and opened his palms near the underside of a bush.
“There you are,” he told it, sliding it out of his hands.
For a moment the snake hesitated on the ground, seemed to be turning to slither away. But then it turned, faster than anything Kaidoh had ever seen, its jaws opened wide. He grunted in pain as the snake’s fangs found his hand, sinking deep into the flesh. He could see the blood welling up around the fangs, could see the muscles in the snake’s jaw twitching as it wriggled the fangs, pumping venom.
But wait. It was a garden snake, wasn’t it? How could it have fangs long enough to sink this far into his flesh? And venom? There was no way.
Yet all of that seemed irrelevant as the snake retracted its fangs. Kaidoh could actually feel the venom running through his veins, a feeling like fire slowly burning up his entire body. Breath burst out of him as he hit the earth, grass tickling his ears and cheek. His vision was darkening, and insistent tugging at the edges of his eyes, urging him to close them to sleep. But if he slept he was a dead man. He needed help. He needed his parents. He needed Momoshiro…
Slowly, he lost the battle. His eyelids slid closed, and still searing his sight as the darkness finally claimed him was the image of the snake wreathing in agony as its body burned to ash.
~*~*~
“Thank you, Yuuta,” Fuji purred.
The mirror in which Fuji had been watching the demise of his sister’s bastard clouded and turned clear. Yuuta did not appear this time, retreating into its depths. Fuji frowned a bit at this. He would be more careful of using Yuuta’s power in the future, and he did need to devote more time to finding a counter spell. But without a physical body to put Yuuta in, there was little hope.
But, in light of that, Fuji could rest in Tezuka’s arms tonight, safe in the knowledge that Tezuka would never become aware of the bastard his sister had birthed and thereby destroyed his King’s chances at a son of his own. Damn woman. And to be sure that not even the Prince could change the facts, the spell was now out of his hands and utterly permanent. The boy would sleep for all time, ageless and timeless, but never waking. A perfect punishment for the bastards who dared to the save the wretch when he should have died.
Fuji shrugged out of his wizarding robes and into court robes, pleased with himself. Yes, tonight would be most fun, indeed.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Pairings: Mainly MomoxKaidoh, mentions of others
Summary: Kaidoh was found as a baby by seven men living in the woods and was raised by them. He is now eighteen, and a prince has stumbled into his home, but that creates more problems as a certain people become aware of Kaidoh's existance - people who will do anything to keep Kaidoh from becoming more than a fairytale.
Current Chapter: Everything seems to be looking up, but......
Author's Note: And yes, I do an apology to some people for not getting this done sooner, but I did get it done! And here it is! Sorry for the wait!
Previous Chapter / Next Chapter
Part 9
The next few days passed in what, for Momoshiro, was nearly total bliss. There was no more rain, and by all reports Kaidoh’s parents were making excellent progress on the bridge. During the day he and Kaidoh would take care of the horses and other household chores.
Ever since their initial love making, Momoshiro felt the difference between them. Kaidoh was still touchy, and they still fought, but the make-ups came quicker, and were usually followed by a kiss (when Kaidoh’s parents weren’t around, of course). Even though Kaidoh wasn’t much one for touching, Momoshiro found Kaidoh allowed him to give him an affection hug, a brush on the cheek, or some other form of contact every now and then, and only in private. Of course, any touching he didn’t get during the day came at night. Once everyone else was abed, they spent their nights making love. Each time was better than the last, each finding new ways to bring pleasure to their lover, and making for nights that were never dull. For whatever reason Kaidoh did not want to bring up the change in their relationship to his parents, at least not yet, and Momoshiro was fine with that. It added a sort of dangerous flare to it all, having an affair with the son of his hosts, all right above their heads.
But at the same time, it had opened his eyes a little. He found he didn’t mind doing chores and menial work if Kaidoh was there. The food tasted even better than before (and it had tasted wonderful to begin with), and living in what was pretty much the backwaters of nowhere seemed a far more pleasant thing than he had first imagined. All of it showed how much he had taken for granted in his life as a prince - how much luxury he had, but truthfully didn’t need, and the little things he tossed away because of that luxury that he now found essential (like the attentions of the man he knew, without a doubt, he was in love with). He had been so miserable as Prince, to be honest with himself, but here he found he was happy.
So that was why, four days after the storm cleared, he found himself staring in stone cold shock at Oishi, who was grinning ever so happily as the news spilled from his lips that Momoshiro could leave as soon as tomorrow, because the bridge was complete at last!
“We know you must be anxious to get on your way,” Oishi said. “And probably the entire royal guard is looking for you, no doubt.”
“Of course,” Momoshiro managed through his shock, glad Kaidoh wasn’t there to hear the news (his lover was currently in the barn while Momoshiro was in the pasture with Duncan and Akutsu). “I’ll tell Dan the good news.”
”Do you want me to make a lunch for you tomorrow then?” Oishi asked. “If you leave early, you can make it to the capital a little after midday.”
“Yes, yes thank you,” Momoshiro smiled graciously even as his stomach twisted itself in knots.
The bridge was finished? He could go home? He knew that this shouldn’t be as much a surprise to him as it was, but somehow he had gotten used to the idea of being perpetually stuck here, declared dead by his father, and freed from his life as the Prince. He wouldn’t have given a damn if he never set foot in court again if he could wake up each morning to Kaidoh in his arms. But now…what choice did he have? He had a way to get to the capital, they were expecting him, and he was, first and foremost, the Heir Apparent of Hyotei, Crown Prince Momoshiro. He could do nothing about that, except perhaps abdicate, but he simply didn’t have the courage to tell his father to stuff all his royal lessons someplace unpleasant and be done with it.
He tried to keep this sudden rush of emotion and thought off his face and actions whenever he saw Kaidoh, and he must have done a good enough job (he should have, being a Prince had taught him many things, including how to fake being happy). Kaidoh didn’t ask what was wrong, and Momoshiro did not offer, unsure he could keep his composure if he had to discuss the sudden shattering of his merry dreams. With a single sentence his fantasy of spending a quiet, happy life with Kaidoh had come crashing down, crushed beneath the weight of his station.
Their lovemaking that night blocked most of it out, allowing Momoshiro to simply enjoy the pleasure of Kaidoh’s body, thrilling in how delightfully responsive he was, shuddering as his name dripped from Kaidoh’s lips in pleading moans. But as they lay there afterwards, a tangle of limbs and covers, Momoshiro couldn’t escape it anymore.
”Kaidoh,” he murmured.
”Hmm?” Kaidoh shifted against him, looking up from Momoshiro’s chest.
Momoshiro stroked Kaidoh’s hair, gulping. “I’m leaving. Tomorrow.”
He felt Kaidoh’s body stiffen, could see his eyes widening and the quiver of Kaidoh’s lips in the dim moonlight. “For the capital.” It wasn’t a question.
”Yes,” Momoshiro admitted. “I have to. I probably have them all scared to death that I’m dead. Not good for international relations.”
”Of course,” Kaidoh hissed. Momoshiro knew that hiss. It was the hiss that meant Kaidoh was upset, and likely to get very, very angry very soon.
Momoshiro didn’t want to deal with an upset Kaidoh, as much as he probably deserved it. But the thought of an upset Kaidoh made him upset, if for no other reason than it doubled the realization he didn’t want to leave Kaidoh. Imagining a life without Kaidoh was nearly impossible for Momoshiro. It just…it never even occurred to him that that was a possibility. He felt Kaidoh begin to shift away, and he reflexively held Kaidoh against him.
There were times that Momoshiro knew he should think before speaking. This was not one of them. “Come with me!” he blurted.
Kaidoh froze against Momoshiro, Momoshiro feeling Kaidoh’s muscles physically stiffen to the point he felt like he was holding a statue. He gulped and looked down at his chest, meeting Kaidoh’s wide eyes with his, putting every ounce of seriousness into the set of his lips and the glint in his eyes. He was serious. He wanted Kaidoh to come with me, to be with him. Damn having to marry Anne Tachibana. He didn’t care. Ryoma was probably nearer her age anyways, and it was more appropriate for her to marry him since he was Second Prince, not the Heir. He would just show up at the palace, politely decline the wedding, but still manage to work out peace agreements (or so he hoped). But that was a side issue. The issue now was still frozen against his chest, staring at him with mouth slightly parted in a look of shock and surprise Momoshiro was sure he would never see on Kaidoh’s face again.
“Come with me,” Momoshiro repeated, sitting up and cupping Kaidoh’s face in his palms. “I have to leave, but if I can’t stay then I want you to come with me.”
Kaidoh shifted with him automatically, though Momoshiro halfway believed it was because cupping his face probably hurt from the original position. He felt Kaidoh’s calloused fingers place themselves over his, still staring at him.
”Momoshiro…,” he murmured, his eyes suddenly casting themselves downward.
“Please,” Momoshiro said, his throat tightening so that his words came out in a harsh whisper. “Please, Kaidoh.”
Kaidoh’s eyes remained looking downwards for what seemed an eternity. It was the kind of eternity that is, in reality, a span of few seconds. Momoshiro hated those moments. They gave him to much time to think. His mind ran through all the ways in which Kaidoh could say yes and which ways to say no - more ways to say no appearing than yes. Those seconds were a twisted, convoluted thing of agony for Momoshiro as he held Kaidoh’s face, as he prayed to whatever gods or forces that be that Kaidoh would say just one, simple, simple word - Yes.
Kaidoh’s eyes rose and met his.
“Yes.”
~*~*~
It was perfect. Simply perfect.
Fuji breathed sighs of sheer pleasure as the snake he held in his hand slithered up his arm, coiled around his neck, and kissed at his ear with its forked tongue. The snake’s skin was the color of a garden snake, yet richer, a more seductive green. It’s eyes were bright and intelligent, staring at the world with curiosity and deadly determination.
He held out his arm and the snake slid down the length of the appendage and to his palm, coiling there and looking up at Fuji with eyes that were mere slits, tongue flickering as it tasted the air.
Fuji caressed its head with his slim fingers, shivering at the cool feel of the scales and the twist of power he got from touching it. And there was power in this little creature. Once it had been nothing, a garden snake making out a meager existence in the gardens, about to be killed like its brethren when the matriarch of the kitchens decided it was their time to leave this plane. But Fuji had gone to expel the snakes, not the head cook, and this snake, this one little insignificant creature, had been chosen by him to perform a task so monumental in stature the snake would live on in infamy for all time. And all because of the little bit of power he had inserted into the snake - more specifically in its fangs.
“Are you ready, little one? You have a very big day ahead of you,” Fuji purred to it as he set the snake within an inked circle on his worktable.
The snake just looked at him and hissed once.
Fuji chuckled, stroked it one last time, and invoked his spell.
~*~*~
As soon as Momoshiro was out of sight that day, Kaidoh made his escape from his parents on excuse of needing to do the laundry.
The next three days were going to be the hardest of his life.
He was still in a bit of shock over the night before. Never in his life had he imagined that Momoshiro would ask him to leave everything behind and travel with him to the capitol, to stay with him forever. Even more shocking to him had been that he had said yes.
A smile twitched at his lips as he carried the laundry down to the now calm river. He could see the delighted shock on Momoshiro’s face still, the wide eyes and the open mouth that quickly turned into a beaming smile and a deluge of kisses and promises that Kaidoh only half understood around the kisses and the touches.
Some of the excitement had been drained when Momoshiro told him he couldn’t come right away. He said he needed to go get another horse, for one thing, to bring Kaidoh and any personal items he might want to bring with him. He also said Kaidoh should tell his parents about all of this, about what they had decided. Kaidoh almost snapped back he didn’t need their permission anymore, but he didn’t when he realized how that would crush his parents if he just left. What was more, Momoshiro explained he would need the day to tell the court he did not plan to marry Ann Tachibana, that he instead planned to spend his life with the love of his life, whether or not they like it. Kaidoh had to accept that, and it would be easier to tell his parents all of this if Momoshiro wasn’t around for one or more of them to take their anger out on him and ultimately move the issue from Kaidoh to Momo. With him gone, they had no choice but to listen to him, with no other outlet for their possible shock and even anger.
And while the laundry did need to be done, Kaidoh was mostly using it as an excuse to think about what he would tell his parents, how he would get them to accept everything.
He set the basket down and rolled up his trouser’s legs and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, wading into the stream and turning back to grab a pair of loincloths. He took a seat on a mostly dry rock and began to process of scrubbing and whipping the cloth, though his mind wasn’t on the task.
When it came to telling his parents about his love affair with the prince, he supposed telling Oishi first would be best. Oishi tended to be the most level headed of his parents. Yagyuu would be another good option, though he would be less inclined to understand Kaidoh’s view of the thing and probably give him a lecture on that political aspects and repercussions. Niou was utterly out of the question, as was Inui, and Eiji. Takeshi could possibly be a good starter, since he hardly ever got angry, but Oishi still stood out as the best choice. Either him, or Choutarou.
But how did a person start such a conversation? ‘Oh, and by the way, Papa, I’m leaving in three days with Momoshiro, who became my lover during the flood.’ Yes, nice opening. Why did he have to be so socially inept, even with his own family?
He supposed it didn’t much matter, since his mind was made up. Even if they got angry or upset, he was going, and nothing they said could change that. They had to let go of him sometime, didn’t they? They didn’t expect him to spend his whole life in their little cottage in the back woods did they? Certainly he had never displayed any desire to ever leave, but that did not mean he did never wondered what lay beyond the forest he called his home. Momoshiro was merely the catalyst that got him to truly, truly start thinking about what lay beyond the river and the trees.
He let out a thunderous sigh as he laid out the laundry to dry and reached into the bottom of the basket for the last bits, gasping and drawing his hand back like he had been burned as something slithered against his knuckles. He leaned cautiously over the side of the basket, peering down at the gorgeous garden snake that sat among the last of the shirts. Its scales glittered intoxicating emerald green, lantern slit eyes peering at him as it lay coiled among the folds.
Kaidoh had never been afraid of snakes, not even when he was a child. They never had any poisonous snakes slip into the clearing, just the regular, nonlethal garden snakes. Kaidoh had found them beautiful, and Niou even teased him of spending too much time with them and picking up their habits. That, at least, was not true, but the amount of contact he had with the creatures made him distinctly unafraid of the one now sitting in his laundry.
“Come on then,” he hissed, reaching both hands down to try and grasp at the snake. “Out of my laundry.”
The snake put up no fuss as his hands clamped around it and lifted it from the basket. That was odd, but Kaidoh thought nothing of it as he rose and paced off from the river towards the undergrowth to release the creature. He knelt and opened his palms near the underside of a bush.
“There you are,” he told it, sliding it out of his hands.
For a moment the snake hesitated on the ground, seemed to be turning to slither away. But then it turned, faster than anything Kaidoh had ever seen, its jaws opened wide. He grunted in pain as the snake’s fangs found his hand, sinking deep into the flesh. He could see the blood welling up around the fangs, could see the muscles in the snake’s jaw twitching as it wriggled the fangs, pumping venom.
But wait. It was a garden snake, wasn’t it? How could it have fangs long enough to sink this far into his flesh? And venom? There was no way.
Yet all of that seemed irrelevant as the snake retracted its fangs. Kaidoh could actually feel the venom running through his veins, a feeling like fire slowly burning up his entire body. Breath burst out of him as he hit the earth, grass tickling his ears and cheek. His vision was darkening, and insistent tugging at the edges of his eyes, urging him to close them to sleep. But if he slept he was a dead man. He needed help. He needed his parents. He needed Momoshiro…
Slowly, he lost the battle. His eyelids slid closed, and still searing his sight as the darkness finally claimed him was the image of the snake wreathing in agony as its body burned to ash.
~*~*~
“Thank you, Yuuta,” Fuji purred.
The mirror in which Fuji had been watching the demise of his sister’s bastard clouded and turned clear. Yuuta did not appear this time, retreating into its depths. Fuji frowned a bit at this. He would be more careful of using Yuuta’s power in the future, and he did need to devote more time to finding a counter spell. But without a physical body to put Yuuta in, there was little hope.
But, in light of that, Fuji could rest in Tezuka’s arms tonight, safe in the knowledge that Tezuka would never become aware of the bastard his sister had birthed and thereby destroyed his King’s chances at a son of his own. Damn woman. And to be sure that not even the Prince could change the facts, the spell was now out of his hands and utterly permanent. The boy would sleep for all time, ageless and timeless, but never waking. A perfect punishment for the bastards who dared to the save the wretch when he should have died.
Fuji shrugged out of his wizarding robes and into court robes, pleased with himself. Yes, tonight would be most fun, indeed.