Author’s Notes: *wakes up* three. That’s right, Touma! Clever, clever little reviewers. (you are all reviewing, right? right?) And how many of you have figgered out which yaoi pairings its gonna be yet? If you know, tell me. =_= all I know is its gonna have loooooove. And probably the most definite pairing is gonna be SeijixTouma....but I wun give away the circumstances. o_o *shushes instantly*

-----finding.five.2.

An uncomfortable silence settles over uncomfortably silent groups. An acute observation worthy of Ryo himself.

The foursome was slipping both uncomfortably and silently out of the spread-out little town they had boarded in the night before. A sparsely furnished room, with two beds and thin blankets on the floor; a lone bottle of cheap wine most of them had indulged in despite themselves; and an empty, cold fireplace that cost extra to light. Shin tugged at his robes, wrapping the extra layers around his arms and watching his breath mist in the predawn chilly air. Aside him, Shuu rifled through his bag, checking again as they moved that they had all their papers. The rustling from his hands and the dry echoes of their footsteps echoed tiredly. Shin yawned, shivered and blinked away sleep.

“Why do we need to move out so early?” he whispered tiredly towards Shuu. The younger boy shrugged a bit nonchalantly.

“Hell’f I know.” He offered Shin a roll, saved from last night’s dinner, while chewing thoughtfully on his own. “Guessing Sanada wanted to get a head start?”

“There’s no rush,” Shin noted, nibbling on the hard bread. “We’ve got three weeks to travel into Jualn. More than enough time.” He kept his voice quiet, half-afraid of annoying Ryo, who was leading them by a full ten yards. The guide had a hand on the hilt of his blade, as always, and the other in his pocket; his eyes were focused straight ahead and he paid no heed to the whispered exchange between his customers.

“Probably just wanted to make sure we got to the next town by dark, en?”

“There’s no chance of that,” Seiji interrupted, his voice smoothly breaking into their conversation as if it belonged there. “Filn’s a far way off. More than a day. Maybe even two.”

Shin made a face. “Two night’s on the road? Again?” he sounded morose. Seiji patted his shoulder comfortingly.

“I’ll do my best to see that you’re not taken advantage of during those long...cold...dark...nights....” his voice was almost teasing, although a bit hollow. Shin’s expression was priceless.

“Seiji.” he snapped, while Shuu indulged in a loud guffaw.

Ryo shot a look over his shoulder at the three, who seemed to share a fragile sort of comradeship in the waning darkness. He didn’t let his eyes betray his emotions, and turned them back to the road, ignoring when Seiji stepped out of his place at the back of the line to walk alongside him.

“You’re sulking, Ryo.” the blonde admonished. Ryo shrugged in response.

“Am I? What’s it matter?”

Seiji rolled his eyes a bit, exasperatedly, and pinched the raven-haired guide’s arm. “Why? Are you still upset...?”

“About that kaef trash? Yeah, did you expect me to let it slide?” His voice thick with frustration, Ryo shot a fiery look towards the detached blonde guardian. “You let it go, Seiji. You know how much I wanted to kill it. You knew how much it woulda meant.”

“If I had let you, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself.” Seiji replied stiffly, glancing back to their charges to make sure the two hadn’t inadvertently led themselves into trouble yet. Reassured, he continued. “I’ll hold you back from letting that rage consume you whole as long as I can, even if it makes you hate me.”

Ryo’s eyes chilled and he stared back out at their path. The rocky trail was slowly taking shape amid the green and brown of the dirt road through thin trees. Winding through the foothills of mountains, they would be today. He didn’t like it. It was too cold, and far too strenuous. He doubted a pretty thing like Shin would be able to scramble over the craggy steps with as much ease as his companion. Shuu was hardy and tough, and the rocks would prove no battle for him.

Seiji watched his morose companion’s progress for a few minutes before pushing his hair back from where it threatened to overtake his other eye, and falling back to his place at the end of the line. Two days before he had refused to let Ryo kill an innocent kaef boy, and he wondered how many more days it would be before he was forgiven.

***

Shuu didn’t like this place. He had at first; when they had first entered the mountanous regions he had been cheered by the solid grey strength. But now, as he sat by the flames and dished out some food to last his companions the night, he felt slightly unnerved by the shifting in the rocks that should have seemed natural. Pebbles clattered from higher peaks and his companions cast them no eyes, but this wasn’t regular. He could sense that much.

A fine feast of jerky sandwiches appeased them that rapidly-darkening evening. Shuu sulked a bit as he bit into it and tore at the hard meat. A downside of these lengthy trips was the lack of decent food-- it was a wonder he wasn’t as slim as Shin by now, after years of this, and a wonder in itself that Shin himself hadn’t thinned into nothing. He laid an extra half-strip of jerky on Shin’s bread before handing it to him. Fatten him up, last him through the cold mountain nights without having to share someone’s bedside.

Ryo had been moodily silent since the kaef had run off. Shuu knew the dark boy was upset that they hadn’t killed it, and he understood that. A strong majority of his instincts told him killing it when it had first appeared wouldn’t have been a bad idea. There was still a little piece of him that Shin seemed to share in more abundance, though, that felt something unjust in killing the little thing when the oppertunity was there. Seiji had never strayed from his resolve to spare its life, despite the peculiarlarity of such a notion. Shuu had to commend his blonde guardian for taking a stand against Ryo’s pure rage...but the two were friends, and had been for a while. Long enough to brave each other’s wrath, he supposed.

But Ryo in that fit where he had beaten the kaefriinlin, the mad-with-pain look his eyes had held, wasn’t something Shuu thought he could ever dare to face.

***

Uneventful night, uneventful morning. Seiji combed his hair briefly, not attempting to really tame it- just brushing it back enough so he could see with at least one eye. No breakfast, though, since Shuu had restocked their supplies without knowing how far it was until Filn, the next town on. They had barely enough to tide them over, and midday meals were reduced to nothing.

Shuu himself was looking rather down, not at his best. Seiji watched the glum-faced miir over the dead fire, observing the sullen countenance with a raised brow. Shin looked equally concerned, occasionally brushing his fingertips against Shuu’s forearm with a question in his eyes, only to be shrugged off by the bigger boy. Seiji frowned imperceptibly and surveyed their campsite.

Ryo had gone off, to scout for a fresh stream he had said, although Seiji suspected strongly it may have been to sulk some more. He refrained from sighing in frustration at the stubborness of the dark boy, who still adamantly refused to give Seiji forgiveness for holding him back.

But he couldn’t exactly let Ryo kill the kaefriin, could he? Those startling sapphire eyes were innocent of all crimes Ryo had judged him for; in fact Seiji would suspect the boy had been no more than an infant when Ryo’s racism had first been justified in his eyes. The boy had looked younger than all of them, almost childlike in his naivety.

But not so in his skill in a fight, he amended. Far be it for he to judge by appearances. As a trained body guard, such actions were inexcusable. The most innocent of all was easily and oftentimes most likely the guiltiest, and he could not let bias interfere with his responsibility.

Yet he was convinced, irrevocably, that to let that kaefriin die would have been a worse crime than any murder the blue-haired being had committed.

He was startled out of his thoughts by Shuu suddenly gripping his arm, eyes glinting.

“Somethings off,” the big boy said stiffly, looking about. “Something’s wrong; something’s off and I think we should--”

He was cut off by the distantly echoing thunder that made the earth tremble. Seiji’s eyes glanced up sharply, and as Shuu released his arm with a low cry of warning he grabbed at the startled Shin’s wrist and pulled him against his chest even as the mountain cracked and shuddered beneath their feet and rocks began to crash down around them.

***

He hadn’t fucking expected an earthquake, for chrissakes.

Ryo swiped at the blood that trickled from his temple and forced his vision to focus. He wasn’t seriously wounded, he determined; a bump to the head (or two), scrapes and cuts from the falling rubble, and his shoulder had been wrenched a bit...his arm screamed in pain. He sat up slowly and leant against the cliff wall, drawing shaky breaths to catch his bearings.

Seiji. He stiffened. Was the blonde allright? What about the two miir’s, Shin and Shuu? Fuck...he smothered the panic in his heart by focusing on his own pain. The blood helped him focus, slinking down his cheek. Don’t jump to conclusions. They were probably fine. Seiji knew what he was doing, and was probably more worried about him.

He probably should have told them where he was going in more specific terms, he thought, flexing his hand experimentally and ignoring the flashes of pain it sent up his arm. It wasn’t all that bad, and his legs were okay, so no problem getting back to them. Climbing over rubble would be a pain in the ass, especially with his shoulder, but he could manage.

He sat for another moment, silently making sure he and his weaponry were both allright (he was relieved to see that his blade’s sheath had protected it from any nicks), before hesitantly resting his good hand on the ground and pushing himself up. He winced and put a hand to his temple, feeling the wound stretch when he wrinkled his brow. Have to have Seiji take a look at that, he decided, drawing a pained breath.

He set to picking his footing cautiously through over the disarrayed mountain trail, having trouble concentrating over the sting in his head. He barely noticed it until he was literally upon it, and a sharp breath and cry of pain followed his feet. He glanced down slowly, not quite sure what he had stepped on/in, and stiffened.

A vaugely familiar body was sprawled between the downed trees and rocks, azure eyes shut tightly in pain and blue hair tinged red with blood from an unseen wound. Ryo’s gaze rested on the kaefriin for a full minute before he slowly stepped back and took his foot from it’s back. The narrow frame relaxed as some of the tension was relieved and one eye fluttered open slowly.

Ryo met the kaef’s gaze and his eyes slowly turned to stone, watching detatchedly as the creature’s expression changed to one of recognition and immediatly henceforth, fear.

Seiji wasn’t there to hold him back this time.

-----finding.five.2.

Author’s Notes: :D I love writing sometimes...it’s all that Dir en Grey I’ve been listening to lately....s’made me more articulate. ^___^ *dons her Kyo outfit and poses* *coughs* ^^;; not really related o_o; normally dir en grey just makes me angsty.

Back to Chapter One||On to Chapter Three [NOT UP YET]