http://clampfix.fanworks.net/rgv-fix/smile2.txt </head><body><pre>AND TO SEE HIM SMILE PART II A RG Veda Story "I am going to kill him." Ryuu-ou announced finally, coming to a halt in mid-pace, sea-green cloak swirling around her athletic legs, her eyes taking on a distinctly cold glint of steelly determination. "Ryuu-ou," Ashura-ou began, and was cut off by an involuntary wince as the healer tending to his rather minor wound pressed a bit more enthusiastically than was strictly necessary under the Western Queen's glare. "Don't say it!" The ferocity in her voice actually succeeded in rendering Ashura mostly speechless--for a few seconds, at least. "Do not say it. I am not overreacting--" "Ryuu--" "The rest of the court may be laboring under the delusion that you let him land a blow--but you can't fool me with that, Ashura, we trained with the same swordmaster!" Her color was rising so fiercely her cheeks were nearly as red as her hair, her eyes overbright with fury. "Naga--" "I can't believe you even accepted that--that--thunder-twit's--" "Nagaina." His quiet voice finally managed to penetrate her boundless fury and reach the part of her that still actually listened to him occasionally. "It is nothing. I am hardly injured..." "Ashura, that is not the point. He shouldn't have been able to so much as scratch you!" Ryuu-ou's eyes flashed one last time before settling into an aquamarine smolder. "What if the blade had been poisoned? What if he had come here to kill you?!" "But it was not--and he did not...come here to kill me." Ashura-ou's mouth was suddenly dry as he met Ryuu-ou's eyes, his throat working for an instant without sound. Yet. Not yet. "You were distracted." Her tone was matter-of-fact, her looking-for-an-explanation tone that inevitably retrieved an answer, even when there was no question asked. "I was." Ashura-ou allowed as the healer gathered his medicines and departed as silently and efficiently as he had arrived. Ryuu-ou's eyes softened slightly, some of the rage draining from them as she gazed at length into his own, and he knew she was reading the weariness in them, the strain about them. "Did you...See something?" She asked delicately, reaching out to rest a callused hand on his cheek, wonderfully cool and soothing against the near-fever of his own flesh. It also served to hold his head up, to keep his eyes upon her so that she could read his gaze. Ryuu-ou was more sensitive--and more subtle--than some gave her credit for. "I did." His throat was still dry, and it gave him an unusual huskiness as he spoke, stopping abruptly before he said more than he wished. If only, Nagaina. If only. But you will never have a cold enough heart--this is a secret I cannot share, even with you. Ryuu-ou nodded slowly, letting the subject go, her free hand resting on his other cheek and holding his face a soothing cradle for a long moment, his eyes closing for a moment and relieving their exhaustion. "You haven't been sleeping well, I think. No, don't bother to deny it, Ashura--I know you too well, and know also that you could fall asleep on your feet at court without anyone else noticing. You feel fevered." The back of one hand rested on his forehead. "Very well. I will submit to the fact of your distraction today. I will even refrain from puncturing Taishakuten's more important organs." "And the ones of lesser importance?" Ashura managed to ask wryly, an expression that was not quite a smile flickering across his lips. "Am I not to have any fun?" Ryuu-ou asked lightly, and bent to press a sisterly kiss to his cheek. "Find your bed, my brother. Close your eyes and let no visions trouble you for a time. You need your rest." "If I could prevent them from coming, Nagaina, I would in a moment." He heard, for an instant, the bottomless fatigue in his own voice. "I know." She said quietly. ************************************************************************** *** Ryuu-ou left Ashura-jou in a substantially more thoughtful mood than she had been in when she entered--which wasn't difficult, given the circumstances. She had enjoyed, in rapid succession, the unusual emotions of shock, horror, and fear, beginning with Taishakuten's outrageous challenge to Ashura-ou, Ashura-ou's equally outrageous acceptance of said challenge, and the course of the fight, in which she saw far more than most of the rest of the observers. Unlike many, she had not been functioning under any illusions concerning Taishakuten's skill with weapons, or the man's tactical ability, both of which were superb, and an able complement to--or rival for--Ashura-ou's own. Her heart had nearly stopped when Ashura had brought forth Shuratou, and it lept into her throat when Taishakuten's lightning-wreathed blade had met it stroke for stroke. The blow that had actually injured Ashura-ou had occurred so quickly that even she had barely seen the strike, for Taishakuten was as fast as he was strong, and Ashura-ou had not initially reacted to it. Ryuu-ou had almost doubted that he had seen the Raijin's strike himself, and now she knew that he in fact had not....had been, for the briefest of instants, looking upon something that no one else in the court had been privy to, and it had been strong enough to distract him in the midst of battle. A "friendly" battle, but a battle nonetheless. She sucked her lower lip back, working it with her teeth in a gesture that a long succession of servants had attempted to train out of her, the only sure sign of the depth of her concern. When they were children, Ashura would tease her that her face would freeze that way, his golden eyes sparkling with pure mirth, his wicked smile throwing his fey beauty into sharp relief. Oh, he had been beautiful even then, as fair as she had felt herself plain when next to him, and together they'd committed acts of childish sabotage to the dignity of both their houses, falling out of trees and into ponds and from one adventure to the next and no little amount of trouble. The heir to the sword of Ashura had been a hellion full of fire, as well as plots and schemes and plans, the definite ringleader and she his willing follower and faithful knight-defender. She could even pinpoint, in her mind, the precise moment when he had begun to change, the terrible night that her father had come into their rooms, wearing his armor and bearing his sword, to tell them that Ashura's parents were dead and they must return to Zenmi-jou at once. Ashura had ridden the entire way wrapped in shocked, disbelieving silence; he had not wept, nor made a sound, and her young heart had broken for him, and she had cried all the tears that he did not shed. He had descended into Ashura-jou as the boy she knew so well that he was nearly her brother--and he had emerged Ashura-ou, bearing Shuratou and the responsibility of protecting both the body of the Tentei and the lives of all who dwelt within the Heavenly Realm. Whatever he had seen there, whatever he had learned in the chamber where his father's body had lain in state, had mortally wounded some deep part of him, and she had watched helplessly as he withdrew further into himself as the years passed. There were places in him that the rest of the court barely suspected, satisfied with his perfect surface, and the elegant masquerade he carried out for them. Ryuu-ou could not remember the last time she had seen him grace anyone but herself with a true smile--an expression of pleasure, of joy, rather than one of his more pleasing masks. She could not remember the last time she had heard him laugh, or show some sign that his heart was not dead within him. But today....today, she had seen it. She had seen it in his eyes, gazing past the illusion of space and time that had not encumbered him since the day he had taken Ashura-jou for his own, and inherited all the power of his father, and his clan. She saw his eyes smiling as Taishakuten cut him, saw a flare of emotion in them that was neither pain nor anger, and had seen it directed at the Raijin, vision or not. Oh, little brother, if you knew what your eyes were saying.... END PART 2 </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>