Disclaimer: All characters and anything related to Fushigi Yuugi belongs to Watase Yuu. I am not making any money from this so if anybody should decide to sue me for anything in my pages I'm just a poor student and you may just be wasting your money. And so forth and all that good stuff.
Tasuki and Miaka were watching a puppet show as they waiter for Nuriko to come back with Miaka s fifteenth snack. It was late into the night but the streets were still filled with people taking advantage of the good food, bargains and shows that were on display. The Star Watching Festival was a good way for Miaka to stop thinking about Tamahome. She smiled at Tasuki as he was shouting his complaints to the puppets who were doing their best to ignore him and go on with the show.
"Excuse me sir," a finger tapped Tasuki stopping him in the middle of yet another outburst. "But I m going to have to ask you to leave."
Tasuki turned around and eyed the man that the intrusive finger belonged to. He was a big man, bigger than Mitsukake. His ugly face was covered with bruises and when he smiled, Tasuki could see that he was missing a few teeth. Tasuki grimaced. He could take this guy. No one can stand against Tasuki-sama's almighty tessen.
As his hand was reaching for his trusted weapon strapped to his back, two small hands caught his arm and stopped their progress. "Gomen, ojiisan," Miaka apologize. "My friend s just a bit carried away." She pulled Tasuki away from the man, not wanting to see the guy burned to a crisp.
Miaka slowed down as she suspected that they were out of sight of the big man.
"Heh!" Tasuki grumbled. "You didn't have to pull me so hard you know. I can walk by myself."
Miaka looked up at Tasuki and stuck out her tongue at him. "He would have beaten you up. And then I don t think Mitsukake will be willing to put you back together again."
"Hn. I coulda taken him with this." Tasuki took the tessen behind his back and brandished it in from of him preparing to defend himself from some imaginary adversary.
"Heh, Tasuki," taunted Miaka, "you always have to flame everyone you meet." Miaka took the tessen from Tasuki s hand and cried "Lekka Shien" pointing it at him.
Tasuki blink. "Hey give that back that's not a toy you know."
"Come and get it." She stuck her tongue out once again and ran.
"Oi! Miaka!" Tasuki could do nothing but run after her.
Miaka ran trying to keep one step ahead of Tasuki. She waved Tasuki's tessen and cried, "Oh, Tasuki s tessen is so big like his ego...", Miaka snuck a glance behind her and caught sight of a red faced Tasuki trying to get a hold of her. Miaka smiled and continued forward.
"Ugh!!" Miaka suddenly found herself sitting on the street. "Itai..."
"Miaka!!" Tasuki breathlessly caught up to Miaka. "Are you okay? You should watch where your going."
"You idiot!!" A harsh voice exclaimed.
Miaka looked up to see a dark haired man brushing the dirt off himself. He was dressed like Tasuki in clothes that were foreign to Kounan. He was wearing a dark brown overcoat over a white tunic. and brown pants. His shoulder length hair was tied in a pony-tail behind his back.
"Ah...Gomen ne...", Miaka started.
The man s beautiful features, Miaka thought he looked as beautiful as Hotohori and Nuriko, sneered and looked down at Miaka. "Stupid girl. Your should watch where the hell you are going."
Miaka was taken aback. How could such hateful words come out from such a beautiful face. She was thankful that Tasuki was with her to steady her as she was about to breakdown and cry.
"Oi!! Don t be so hard on her. She didn't mean it," Tasuki told the man off. Tasuki was gripping his tessen hard, which he had recovered from the ground where Miaka left it when she fell.
"Heh." He sneered at Tasuki as he saw the his grip tightened on what looked like an iron fan. "Your clumsy girlfriend shouldn't be allowed on the streets." He taunted Tasuki testing the edge of his patience. He fingered the sword beneath his coat and prepared himself for this orange-haired man s reaction.
"Kisama."
"Tasuki," Miaka cried trying to stop him from attacking.
"Hn." The man smiled to himself. "I didn't come here to fight but it ll give my sore muscles a good workout." The man brought his sword and blocked Tasuki's advance. "Is that your weapon?" The man asked playfully. "Hm, aren't you ashamed? Do they call you fan boy or something?" Tasuki gritted his teeth as he tried to overpower the man with sheer strength. Then he jumped back, breaking away from the stand off.
Simultaneously the man jumped back and looked down at the two. A crowd had formed around the three and everyone was cheering on their chosen hero.
"Oh hey, is this another show?"
"Cool. I bet you the guy with the sword will win he looks pretty cool."
"The other guy's pretty cool, too," another commented.
"Is he holding a fan?"
"Is this a lover's quarrel? Ohhh, how romantic."
"Hn. Idiots," the man with the sword thought to himself.
"Tasuki." Miaka grabbed Tasuki's arm and pleaded for him to stop. "You don t have to do this. He's good. You ll probably just get hurt again and you haven t healed completely yet."
"Miaka. It's ok. I have to protect you in Tamahome's place." Miaka audibly gasped reminded of Tamahome. "I don t know what s going on with you two. But while he's not here I have to protect you. Trust me." Tasuki smiled and ran towards the man.
The man watched as Tasuki headed for him. He sneered and put his sword in front of him thinking of just running the foolish man through. He gasped as Tasuki disappeared before his very eyes and reappeared behind him putting his fan around his neck and was preparing to crush it. "He s fast," he thought. He elbowed Tasuki surprising him, loosening his grip on his tessen. The man twirled and raised his foot to Tasuki s face. Tasuki flew a few feet towards Miaka.
"Tasuki," Miaka cried as she ran toward him. Tasuki pulled himself off the street and wiped the trail of blood coming down from his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You should be more careful too, Tasuki-san." The man said with false concern and meekness. "Or you might mess up that pretty face of yours."
"Omae ra--" Tasuki tried to get Miaka s arms off of him as he start at the man's annoyingly taunting face.
"Ayanosuke-sama." The man turned to the source of the voice in the midst of the crowded audience. "Ayanosuke-sama." Another man pulled away from the crowd and approached the man with the sword. He took a moment to catch his breath glancing at the two figure huddled before him. He looked at the smaller man before him and bowed. The taller newcomer looked bigger, older and stronger than the other one but he looked at him with respect and reverence.
"Ayanosuke-sama, we've been looking all over for you." He quickly resumed as he saw the look of impatience on his master s face.
"What's wrong? What happened now?" Ayanosuke asked suddenly concerned and all hint of bitterness faded from his voice as he tried to calm his man down, "Shuu-kun..."
"No sir. But everyone s been waiting for you. He s really getting impatient."
"Hn." Ayanosuke looked at Miaka and Tasuki again as the latter was off the ground, prepared to fight him again. He sheathed his sword and grin at the pair. "Well, it s been fun Tasuki-san. But I have some business to attend to. If you will excuse me." Ayanosuke turned and prepared to leave.
"Matte," Tasuki challenged. "We're not done yet. What kind of guy would run off on a fight."
Ayanosuke missteped and smiled. He composed his face as he turned around to Tasuki. "As I recall I won. But we can discuss that later. Hmmm? Ja na." Ayanosuke turned his back on Tasuki and left with his man.
Tasuki start at the spot Ayanosuke inhibited a moment ago. The crowd was dispersing and Nuriko finally appeared.
"Hey, Miaka, Tasuki." Nuriko called cheerily. He gave the snacks he was carrying to Miaka, who suddenly forgot the recent fight as she happily gobbled everything down.
"Oi, Tasuki. What s the matter?" Nuriko snapped his hand in front of Tasuki s face.
"Aho, Baka," snapped Tasuki as his inert brain refused to cooperate with him.
Author's Note's: I was gonna call this one "A Romp in the Night" but
I think that brings up way too many connotations. Hey, hey get your minds
out of that gutter. This fic or any other fic that I will be writing will
not have any sort of yaoi stuff. Well there are some implication because
one can't really help the way Nuriko is. But everything still works out
right. Not that I have anything against yaoi. Hey I can get perverted as
the next person but I don't think I'll be able to write one of those with
a straight face. Anyway...How do you like my fic? Ayanosuke is a character
I made up I don't know if it's even a right Japanese name since I don't
know that many but if you recognize where I got this name email me...:P
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