Author's Note: I've been reading Natsume's Book of Friends. It's an awesome series. I highly recommend it.
Bouquet
"Hey. Hey! Can ya hear me?"
Seto scowled. He'd
just managed to fall asleep. He was going to kill whoever was bothering him—
"…Can you hear me…?"
The brunet let one of his eyes squint open, frowning a little when he saw the boy sitting next to his bed.
'What the…?' He was blond, and appeared maybe a couple of years younger than he was. He was wearing nothing but a short, thin yukata of a deep green color. His hair fell messily about his shoulders and fell into his eyes, which seemed an odd cross of red and brown. Extending from his skull were two long, black horns, and he saw a long, black, reptilian tail curled around his legs.
Oh
God. It was another
demon. The blond frowned and sat back, suddenly looking so sad that the human felt his heart twinge with the hurt in his expression. "…I guess ya can't hear me…"
Seto sighed quietly, knowing he was going to regret even acknowledging the demon near him. "…I can hear you."
The demon gasped, jerking backward in surprise, then smiled hopefully and leaned toward him. "Really? I was told that you could hear us! I—"
The brunet rolled onto his stomach and glared at the clock. "It's two o'clock in the morning. Why are you here? What do you want?"
"I was told ya could help demons because you could hear them. Can ya help me?" the blond asked, leaning toward him hopefully.
"Since you came and woke me up in the middle of the night…
No."
Seto turned so his back was facing the demon and smirked as he heard the quiet whimper. Served him right, coming in uninvited and waking him up in the middle of the night.
.-.-.-.-.-.
Seto raised an eyebrow as he found the blond waiting just outside his door, pausing beside him even as his brother rushed ahead. "…You're still here?"
The demon smiled brightly and offered him the bouquet of white tulips he'd been holding in his arms. "I brought these to say I'm sorry. Will ya please help me?"
"Listen, I don't know what you've heard—" the brunet began, sighing in annoyance.
"I've heard that you can help me, 'cause you can hear us and see us. That means that ya have the ability t' break seals and stuff like that. I need help," the demon cut in.
Seto sighed again, aggravated by the blond's rude behavior. He began walking after his brother, who'd had the driver honk at him. "Listen, demon, I—"
"Joey."
"
Joey, I—"
"Aren't ya gonna take the flowers I brought ya?"
"Listen!" the brunet snapped, turning toward him. "I don't care what you've heard or what people have told you, but I don't help demons! I don't have time and even if I did, you've given me no good reason to help you! Now if you don't mind, I'm
busy and you've made me
late!"
Joey frowned as he watched the brunet storm away, then sighed, brows furrowing together in frustration. Momentarily defeated, he set the bouquet on the ground and turned, disappearing from sight in a puff of smoke.
Mokuba frowned as his brother slid into the car, already irate. "What's wrong, Seto? And who were you yelling at?" He leaned around him and frowned. "Where'd
that come from?"
Seto frowned as he glanced back and saw the bouquet, then schooled his face back into a blank mask. "Never mind. We're going to be late."
"…I think you should start seeing your therapist again," the younger boy mumbled, frowning in concern.
.-.-.-.-.-.
"I told you, Joey! I'm not going to help you! I don't have time! Stop bringing me your flowers, stop asking me for help, and
go home!" Seto roared, frustrated.
The demon just didn't know when to quit! He'd returned every day before he left in the morning and just when he was returning home, offering him a bouquet of flowers and nearly begging for his help. He wanted to be left alone. All of the other demons had left after a few days, but it was going on the second month the blond had been pestering him!
Joey flinched a little but offered him the bouquet again. "Please? I'll owe you three really big favors if ya help me."
Seto glanced down at the violet anemones being held out to him. "Oh? And why would you do that?"
"That's what humans like, isn't it?" the blond asked uncertainly. "…They… they like someone more powerful t' be in their debts?"
It annoyed him that the demon believed he was just some ordinary human that just
happened to be able to see demons, but he had to admit that, especially in the business world, having someone more powerful in your debt was the ideal situation. Snatching the bouquet out of the blond's slightly trembling arms, he sighed in frustration and stomped into the house.
Joey went to the window immediately, hoping that it had just been the human's way of saying he'd at least think about it.
'Oh, please say you'll help me! Please!' He held his breath as he watched the brunet pause in entryway, staring at the bunch of purple flowers he held. He examined them carefully, then sneered in disgust and threw the bouquet on the ground carelessly.
Joey felt his heart break.
'…Then you won't help me?' He frowned as he saw another boy stumble over the flowers, then smiled a little when he saw the boy pick them up. He'd tried the younger of the two brothers first, if only because younger children were more willing to help demons (usually without knowing it) and because they usually had the ability to see things like the supernatural. He sort of wished that it had worked.
He was losing hope. He desperately needed help, but the only one that could help him didn't want anything to do with him.
.-.-.-.-.-.
Mokuba was sick.
Seto scowled, trying to figure out how his brother had been so healthy and then fallen so violently ill that the doctors warned him that he may need to go to the hospital for help. The doctors had explained that it was almost like a bad reaction to an allergy, so he carefully scanned his brother's room for anything that could have caused it.
His heart skipped when he saw the striped carnations sitting in a vase on top of his brother's TV; he recognized it as the bouquet the demon had given him two days ago—the last one, because he hadn't showed up since. He knew that his brother would usually keep the bouquets, because it seemed like a shame that they go to waste, but Mokuba had never been allergic to carnations before… so why…? Why was he getting sick now?
Seto growled quietly as he suddenly noticed the dark aura around the flowers, narrowing his eyes at the seemingly innocent flora as he stalked over to it. After a few more moments of examination, he cursed and grabbed the partly-dry flowers quickly, stalking over to his brother's trash bin and throwing them in. Then, grabbing his lighter from his pocket, he lit a scrap of paper on fire before dropping it into the bin and watching everything slowly burn away.
He made sure the fire was out, even going so far as to wash the bin out in the tub, before going back to his little brother and checking his temperature hopefully. He'd burned the flowers that had cursed him. He should get better, right?
Mokuba's temperature had gone up point three degrees.
Seto gritted his teeth angrily and slammed his fist onto the bed, knowing it wouldn't disturb his brother while he was suffering from feverish dreams. "Damn it!" If it hadn't been the flowers themselves that were cursed, and a curse had just transferred from the flowers to his brother, he'd have no choice but to go beg the demon that had cursed him for mercy.
He really didn't want to have to do that, especially to a demon that had begged him for three months for help. Joey would probably just laugh in his face, tell him he got what he deserved. He didn't understand why, though. Joey hadn't seemed vindictive enough to curse his
brother for his unhelpful nature. Why would he…?
…He'd just have to find him and ask.
.-.-.-.-.-.
"Damn it—ow! I hate my life!" Seto grunted as he struggled out of some bushes, only relaxing when he saw Joey sitting on a stump before a decrepit little shrine, sipping a cup of what he could only assume was tea. He frowned when he heard the roar of an engine and looked around in confusion.
…Why was Joey calmly sipping tea when there were bulldozers revving up to tear down that old, falling-apart shrine!
Joey blinked as the brunet stumbled up to him, then offered him his cup. "You look like you've been runnin' forever. Have a drink."
Seto glared at him. "Shut up! Don't act so calmly! There are bulldozers right over there, about to run over you because they can't see you, and you want to give me tea? Get out of the way!"
The demon scowled when the brunet tried to pull him away and yanked his hand free. "Even if I
don't get crushed by those things, I'm still gonna die. If you're here for any other reason, please get t' the point or leave."
The brunet frowned in confusion. "…What do you mean?"
"I
mean that my soul is sealed in an amulet inside the shrine. It's been fortified with monk prayer, so I can't touch it. I came t' ya to ask if you'd come and release my soul," Joey explained, then took another sip of his tea. "But you refused. So here I am. The amulet will probably shatter as soon as it hits the floor, so at least I'll have a swift death."
Seto felt his stomach twist with guilt. The demon had only wanted him to remove something from a shrine, something so simple, that probably wouldn't have taken more than a half an hour, and he'd turned him down saying he didn't have enough time. Now, the demon was going to die, and his little brother was sick—
"Wait! What about Mokuba? I saw those flowers you left! They were cursed, and—" If Mokuba
and the demon were going to die, he didn't know
what he would do!
Joey snorted bitterly. "I'm not that mean. If he survives the fever, the curse I put on him will die as soon as I will. I just wanted ya to come see what ya damned me to." He turned the cup in his hand, frowning, then sniffed and took another sip of tea. "'m a terrible guardian. Humans keep coming and tearing up my forest, killing my servants, and I can't do anything that scares them away for long. They always come back."
Seto couldn't help but cringe at the sound of tears in the demon's voice, the helplessness. Over the three months Joey had come, day after day, he'd only seen him calm, inquisitive, hopeful. He'd never seen him so bitter and anguished. It didn't seem right.
It didn't seem right that Joey would never leave him another bouquet, that he wouldn't be there in the morning to wish him a good day or welcome him back home from a long day of work. Mokuba had grown accustomed to the bouquets that were left, too. He'd ask why they stopped so abruptly, and he'd be hard-pressed to answer 'the demon that kept bringing them is dead now.'
He didn't want to tell his brother what he saw. He didn't want to tell his brother that he'd killed the demon, too. He didn't want Joey to die. He didn't want to watch him sit here, so resigned to death that he faced the bulldozers and merely waited.
He didn't want to lose Joey.
Joey squeaked as the brunet shoved past him, nearly toppling off his seat, then straightened and huffed at him. "Jerk! I'm about t' die, you could at least be a little respectful-! …What are you doing?" He stood up as he watched the human kick in some of the moldy, weak boards of the shrine, squeaking again as he began to squirm inside. "Where are you going! The bulldozers are comin'! You're gonna get crushed in there! Seto! Seto!"
"Oh, shut up, Joey. I'll be back out in a minute," Seto snapped, glaring at him from inside the shrine, before he turned and examined the area around him.
Most of it was a moldy black, like the wood protecting it, and that was probably why it was condemned. There were gaps in the ceiling letting in small shafts of light, giving him just enough to see by. Spotting something that glittered, he frowned and made his way over to it.
There were scratch marks all around the wooden box—the only pieces of wood that seemed to be healthy and rot-free—as if something had been clawing at it frantically. Eventually, he realized it must have been Joey. The latches glowed with a faint sheen of powerful magic from the monks that had long since abandoned it, so he'd probably tried to claw his way through the wood, despite eventually realizing that the magic had probably fortified it, too.
Seto unlatched the box carefully, watching the wood rot and the metal latches rust before his eyes as the magic dissipated. He picked up the amulet and looked at it for a moment, unable to help thinking that the roiling gold-black inside the gem suited the demon outside. Underneath all of that feigned calm, he was passionate and powerful.
Gently lifting the amulet out of the box, he tucked it into his pocket carefully before turning to head back to the hole he'd come in through. He was momentarily disoriented as the building shook until he remembered the bulldozers that had been closing in on it. He looked up as the roof began to cave in. "…Damn."
He grunted as he suddenly felt a sucking sensation, as if he was being squeezed into something too small for even an ant, and then that feeling ended abruptly. He gasped and glanced around again, wondering if that's what being buried and dying felt like, only to frown as he realized he was outside, safe, as he watched the bulldozers smash into the shrine. The wood crumbled and fell.
Seto pulled the amulet out of his pocket and frowned as he looked at the dimming glow, then scowled. He had
not just gone through all of that trouble just to have the demon die in his place!
.-.-.-.-.-.
Joey mewled helplessly and tried to shift under the rubble he'd been buried under, whimpering as it just settled on him more firmly, crushing his chest uncomfortably to the ground. He couldn't breathe, couldn't see, couldn't do
anything! He was dying here, being slowly suffocated, and he had nothing to show for it but a human that would probably forget about him as soon as he walked away! Was this the thanks he received for trying to protect the forest?
If it was, it was terrible thanks!
He gasped as he felt a surge of power, trembling as he felt himself slam into the ground. He was still breathless, but more from having the breath knocked out of him than from being crushed under anything. Lifting his gaze in confusion, he blinked at the hand being offered him, then hesitantly slipped his own shaking hand into it.
Seto pulled him to his feet, making sure he could stand by himself, then scowled, carefully brushing the hair out of the demon's eyes. "You could have been killed."
Joey took stock of his injuries, already healing because of his own powers and the forest's want to protect its own protector. Comparing them to the frailty of the human body, he frowned. "You
definitely would've been killed." His eyes brightened as they landed on the amulet he'd given up as a lost cause. "You found it!"
"Yes, I did." Seto scowled. "And I'm not going to give it back."
Joey blinked, then frowned in confusion. "But… but why? It's mine, and…"
"God knows what would happen to you if I gave your soul back." The brunet huffed and shoved the amulet into his pocket. "I've grown accustomed to certain pains in my ass, and unfortunately, you've become one of them. So, to keep you safe, I'm keeping your soul locked safely in my house. Nothing will happen to it there."
"But… but it's
mine! I should be the one controllin' it, not
you—"
"And I would be very grateful if you'd go and take the curse off of my brother."
"—So I should—" Joey paused, then frowned in confusion. Once he realized what the brunet was talking about, however, he squeaked and hurriedly made his way back to the human's mansion, disappearing from the human's presence in a burst of smoke.
If he didn't die, the curse on Mokuba wouldn't end, so he'd have to go take it off manually. But he'd
for sure argue with Seto about his soul later, once his brother was no longer sick!
.-.-.-.-.-.
Joey stroked the younger boy's forehead, unable to help a smile as his brow relaxed; his fever had broken immediately after he'd lifted the curse, so he'd be fine now.
Now, all he had to do was convince Seto that he should have his soul back. He wasn't sure how he would do that, since the human was a stubborn ass, but he would use all of the explanations and excuses in his arsenal (which was quite large, considering he'd been alive for six centuries already). He'd just start with his strongest excuse and work from there.
Turning, he squeaked in surprise when he found Seto leaning in the doorway. "How long have you been standin' there!"
"Long enough to see you take care of my brother, even though his fever has already broken. You're a real softie, aren't you, Joey?" Seto smirked and motioned for the blond to follow him out into the hallway. "Not that I mind, of course."
Joey huffed and crossed his arms in embarrassment. "Whatever." He glanced around the hall and frowned, then schooled his face into a glare. "Gimme back my soul."
The brunet stared at him for a moment, then raised an eyebrow and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "And just why should I?"
"Because if ya don't, I'll just kill ya and steal it!" the demon snarled, waving his tail threateningly, before letting out a quiet, disgruntled mew when the other boy grabbed his horn. "Hn!"
Seto smirked. "You've already said that you can't touch the amulet. It would burn you. And we've already come to the conclusion that you're a big softie." He gave the horn a little wiggle, grinning when the blond could only whimper and allow his head to be moved about. "So what's your next move? Threaten to hurt my brother? We both know that that will just give me even more reason to not give it to you."
Joey tried to jerk away, whining when the brunet refused to let go. "Let me go! Damn it, ya bastard, why are you doin' this t' me?"
"Hmm." The human shrugged "I assumed it would be obvious." He slid his hand from the demon's horn into his hair.
"Ah-!" Joey gasped as he was yanked up against the brunet's body, blushing as he was forced onto his toes by the grip on his hair so that their noses brushed slightly. "Ah…?"
Seto hummed quietly, then dipped his head a little, closing the distance between their lips swiftly. He swallowed the blond's startled squeak and immediately plunged his tongue into his mouth.
The blond squealed in confusion, every instinct telling him that suddenly he was the less powerful prey of the human in front of him, and he didn't like that. He tried to free himself, tried to move away, but then that tongue was doing something strange—a curl, or a swipe, or something—and he was unable to do anything but lean against him, legs trembling as he was gently pushed back against the wall.
The human broke the kiss slowly, brushing his lips over the blond's jaw a few times, then leaned back to comb his fingers through the golden hair. "I'll keep your soul safe, Joey. Trust me."
Joey stared up at him in confusion, brows furrowing together, then turned his gaze on the brunet's lips. Lifting his hand to his own lips, he traced them with his fingertips before he slowly nodded his head. "Okay."
