“You did what!?” Tamahome misstepped and Tasuki took advantage of his momentary distraction and swung his tessen at Tamahome’s stomach. Recovering from his surprise, Tamahome leaned forward and backed away. As the tessen was about to hit his stomach he grabbed it and backflipped behind Tasuki.
“Nani?”
“Honto ni..”
Nuriko and Miaka couldn’t believe as Mitsukake recapped this morning’s events. The tree were seated on the stairs going out to the palace grounds, where Tamahome and Tasuki were practicing. Nuriko, Tamahome and Miaka were in the garden when the events at the study occured.
Nuriko was trying to patch the two lovebirds up. He saw how distracted Miaka was last night when he and Tasuki took her to the Star Watching Festival. Early morning, he physically woke Tamahome up from his bed and reprimanded him to apologize to her. Nuriko couldn’t bear to see Miaka hurt and would do anything just to see that smile on her face again. Nuriko was quite astounded to learn from Tamahome that everything was well with Miaka and him. However, Nuriko accompanied the couple around the palace gardens watching over them, scrutinizing Tamahome as he fawned over Miaka. Once in a while Nuriko would grunt or cough his displeasure or encouragement at Tamahome’s actions. Other times Nuriko would silently advised to Tamahome who was new to all this courting. Miaka smiled at his lover and best friend as Nuriko chastised Tamahome for refusing to do one of Nuriko’s counsels.
“In front of the emperor too.” Nuriko scowled in the direction of the sparring figures.
“There he is,” Mitsukake announced as they saw a man, Ayanosuke, approach the two figures on the field. He briefly talked to Tasuki and shook Tamahome’s hand. As he spotted Miaka on the stairs he made his way to them.
“How is your jaw, Ayanosuke.” A concerned Mitsukake greeted the approaching figure.
“A little sore but it will be fine. Thank you. Mitsukake-san.”
“Miaka-san.” Ayanosuke looked at the girl seated on the steps. “Uhm...” Ayanosuke flushed as Miaka stood up and descended the two flight of steps to stand before him. He bowed and started apologizing for his temper.
“Daijoubu. I can be a clutz at times.” Miaka smiled merrily as Ayanosuke’s blush deepened. “But we’re all friends now so it’s okay.” She took Ayanosuke’s hand started to introduce him to her other friends.
“You’ve already met Mitsukake,” Ayanosuke nodded to the tall healer, “and this is Nuriko, another Suzaku seishi.” Miaka motioned Nuriko as he descended the steps to join the two.
Ayanosuke’s eyes widened as he finally noticed Nuriko. “You!!” He hissed as his vehemence showed in his voice and face. “So this is where you’ve been hiding!?”
Nuriko startled, stopped at the last flight and looked at the figure.
Forgetting all, Ayanosuke grabbed Nuriko’s right arm and roughly pulled him forward. A stupefied Nuriko couldn’t do anything as his face came closer to Ayanosuke’s. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for the shooting pain of a breaking leg or neck or worse his head. He was yet again surprised to feel soft lips on his. He opened his eyes and gasped his surprised into the kiss. “There’s something familiar about this,” Nuriko thought. Then it was done and Ayanosuke was gone.
Author's Note's: Well...that was kinda short. But don't worry it gets interesting. To all those Tasuki fans (no pun intended here, but laugh anyway) you might be dissapointed to know that this is actually a Nuriko fic, being a Nuriko fan and all. I was just using Tasuki to introduce my character Ayanosuke. As you might have surmised Ayanosuke is kinda of a fickle charater. Let's see he's a cross (would that be a spoiler?) between Nuriko, Chichiri, Mistukake and scarily enough Nakago and Tomo. He can be understanding, sensitive and playfull like Nuriko but he can also be cruel and painfully playfuly like Tomo and Nakago. He can also be very cruel like Nakago, which happily isn't often enough. He is about Tasuki's age but he think's like Chichiri, who can also be plainful one minute and serious the next. He can get impatient especially with people who don't know that what he wants he usally gets. He can be cold and calculating one minute and be brutal and annoying the next. When he becomes quiet like Mistukake, he's usually thinking about either killing someone, business or you might just never know. I guess he's like Hotohori too. He had to grow up faster than everyone, accounting for his really rude and unexpected behavior when meeting people for the first time. However unlike Hotohori..Ayanosuke has met a lot of people and so he's not as lacking in attention as him...he would actually rather draw as much attention away from himself. And he also doesn't take kindly to other people and trust them right there and then. But since Hotohori is emperor and all, Ayanosuke kinda makes an exception of him and the people around him. Unlike Nakago he still respects authority, which sorta goes much more into his upbringing so I'll just end it right here. You'll probably get to understand him better in the next chapters.
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