(no subject)

[choseanidiot]

The man was impossible! Apparently not even being adbucted to some strange place was enough to at least have him up at a reasonable time; admittedly, though, Enki had been sleeping late too, this past week, but not this late! And if he didn't sleep until lunch, then Shōryū didn't get to do that either!

Enki was a kirin on a mission, and not even his faintly growling stomach would deter him. Did he look like some babysitter, anyway? In full annoyed mode, Enki barged into the dorm room where Shōryū was still sleeping. Or at least lounging in bed, Enki wasn't sure. And why was that? Because the moment he'd marched up to the bed and viciously tugged the covers off, he'd been hit by a wave of warmth that made his knees weak. Literally.

What the---!

Knees, meet floor. Luckily, he didn't prostrate himself fully, due to Shōryū lying in bed and his feet now being at the same height as Enki's head while kneeling. Taking a deep, quivering breath, Enki tried to get the elation under control.

They thought this was funny huh? Well, even if they didn't, he was sure he knew someone who did.

"Not. One. Word." Enki ground out as he sat up properly.

Comments

[goodtobetheking]

"None needed." Shōryū didn't move from where he was lolling; his only acknowledgement of the sudden, violent loss of his covers was one eye opening to watch his kirin topple.

It never got old.

He smirked at the ceiling, once he was sure Enki was looking again, and closed both eyes. Arms crossed behind his head, he didn't look like he planned on moving anytime soon. "Did you want something?"

[choseanidiot]

Enki opened his mouth, then closed it. Because why was he really here? As embarrassing as it was, he was worried. Had they been at Kankyuu, it wouldn't have mattered. Had they been anywhere in the twelve kingdoms, he couldn't have cared less. But here? What protection he had to offer had been stripped from him, and while Shōryū obviously could protect himself better than Enki could hope to do, the man had just arrived. He hadn't been here for a week and seen this place.

"What did I say about appearing useless, Fuukan?" Enki finally managed to dredge up some sort of reply, voice acidic as he stood up and brushed the front of his hoh.

Of course, of the two of them, Enki was probably in the greatest danger of being punished at some point. He still had no intention of participating, especially as others would have to take the pain for him.

[goodtobetheking]

"Appearance isn't everything, Taiho." Which was true. Previously out of sight on the bed was the manual and a stack of reference books apparently filched from the campus library, all with a truly impressive number of bookmarks. Either he'd been working earlier that morning, or he just hadn't moved them off the bed to sleep. "You just have to look at your king to see that."

An added bonus of all the books being scattered over the mattress was the bedside table being entirely clear.

[choseanidiot]

Shōryū's only reward was a huge, (over-)dramatic sigh as Enki jumped up on the table, crossed his ankles and grabbed them. It was a very familiar position.

"Perhaps you're more like the king than I thought... Quicker about things too. Maybe he had a twin?" This was, of course, not really possible with ranka, and they both knew it.

Giving the books a baleful stare, Enki wasn't sure he wanted to talk about that. It was much too alike the talk of war and battle he preferred to avoid as much as possible. They couldn't not talk about it, no, but...

"Did you filch the king's clothes while he was playing with the covers before you ended up here? Are you gonna go around dressed like that?"

So instead of doing the best thing, Enki turned to the matter of clothes; no matter how unused their fellow 'prisoners' were with the clothes of En, anyone could tell the clothes Shōryū had come dressed in yesterday was not the clothes of a shiftless drunk.

[goodtobetheking]

Granted, he didn't actually have a problem with changing. As much as he didn't mind the hoh - didn't he? There was a moment of indecision there. How odd - it was far too ostentatious for day-to-day wear, and impractical for anything but sitting around in.

Then again, Enki was still in his usual clothing. His kirin, a hypocrite? Never. He demured. "If the Taiho doesn't think the uniform is acceptable, I must follow his example."

[choseanidiot]

Enki's eyes narrowed to slits. Leaning forward dangerously, Enki stared. Something was wrong. There was only the two of them in here, and while he could concede to play along with Shōryū's silly idea out in the halls, he saw no reason to do it in here.

"The Taiho has had enough of hearing his title," Enki snapped, yet again leaning a bit more forward, to succeed in something seldom achieved; looming.

"And my clothes are simpler than yours, anyway. It was you who started this charade."

[goodtobetheking]

"After five hundred years? How sudden." But the fact that Shōryū's eyes didn't remain closed even when opening them meant looking up at Enki was the first hint that all was not right. Truth be told, he couldn't remember the name he usually used for the kirin. His human name, the many derogatory nicknames he'd collected over the years; they were all obscured by the same mist that clouded his memory of the kingdoms.

"Well," and his eyes closed again, act set back in motion smoothly, "I don't mind making a deal with you."

[choseanidiot]

Sudden? What was the idiot talking about? He never used his title (er, the 'taiho' one, considering 'Enki' really was a title as much as his name...) unless he was being correct during very formal occasions or other such crap.

"That's not--- A deal?" Enki's eyes narrowed again and he frowned. Don't think you've gotten away Shōryū, but Enki assumed he could be indulgent. He'd get to the bottom soon enough.

But there were two faint flickers of worries; one, that Shōryū really was angry with him for some reason, but even then he never really used 'taiho', and two, that one of Shōryū's memories taken had been his name. But couldn't he just use Enki then?

... They better not have taken all of it, because he wasn't sure he could listen to Shōryū addressing him as 'Taiho' all the time. That was just wrong.

[goodtobetheking]

"You sound so suspicious," he grinned. A few moments later, and he was sitting up, leaning against the headboard and adjusting the sleeves of his nightshirt. Another, and he'd tugged the mess that had been a ribbon out of his hair to untangle it. "I'll wear that uniform if you do. Don't you think that's a fair solution?"

[choseanidiot]

Raising an eyebrow, Enki wondered what this all was about, because he'd have thought Shōryū would have been all over the uniform. Because while it might be a bit formal, it was certainly leaps and bounds beyond (beneath) what he, even at minimum, had to wear at Kankyuu.

"I thought you'd be all over the chance to change clothes, and here you're making deals with me? Why do you care what I wear, anyway?" Enki said, narrowing his eyes. He didn't trust Shōryū to not have some ulterior motive.

Besides, he didn't like the uniform. He wasn't sure why, but the colour was putting him off.

[goodtobetheking]

"I'm not the one you have to placate," he pointed out, as he smoothed out his hair ribbon across his covers and began to gather his hair into a tidier ponytail. "Here we are, captives in a strange land... I think I'd choose my battles more wisely."

And then he had to stop, because he'd started to tie up his hair. Started being the key word here. His hands stilled around the ribbon, and he frowned at nothing in particular as he crossed the ends over each other in various ways.

Well. That was just cruel.

[choseanidiot]

Enki had opened his mouth to reply, but then paused to watch Shōryū tie his hair back. Or, attempt to. Leaning his elbows on his knees, Enki rested his chin on his interlaced fingers as he followed Shōryū various attempts.

Served the idiot right. (Not that he was gonna mention the chopsticks thing.)

"No deal," Enki said, face stern, before continuing. "Unless you say my name." Because he needed to know. And after that, he might help with the ribbon. Might. If Shōryū asked.

[goodtobetheking]

Caught. Shōryū slumped, to signal his defeat, and let his hands drop to his sides, ribbon still loosely tangled into his hair.

"What kind of deal is that, Enki?"

[choseanidiot]

... Well. At least he remembered something. Having to listen to 'taiho' from Shōryū in private conversation just wasn't right. But him being unable to use Rokuta was almost as bad.

"Better than you think, old man." It was practically a favour, after all. He still didn't want to wear the uniform but... Shaking his head, Enki leaned forward and pulled out the ribbon, resulting in the hair being completely freed from its half-contained prison.

"What're you gonna do about this, then?" Swinging the ribbon like a captured prize, Enki grinned. Maybe Shōryū would resort to not tie it back, but he didn't think so.

[goodtobetheking]

"You mean you weren't planning to take pity on this poor 'old man'?" He ran his hand through his hair a couple of times to get it even a little tidy again, and then leant back against the wall again.

Which then messed it up. Such were the trials of kingship.

[choseanidiot]

"You know that word, 'please', Shōryū? Maybe I should teach it to you sometime." Enki rolled his eyes and then jumped down from the table. Giving a considering look to how Shōryū was sitting up against the wall, Enki smirked.

"But for the moment, unless you want to be pretty like one of the women you like to lose money on, move. Or I give you two tails." Or loops, even, as Enki suddenly came to think of Shoshun, one of the immortals who'd cared for him at Mt. Houzan.

[goodtobetheking]

"I didn't know you could arrange hair," he managed to sound honestly surprised, which was quite an achievement with a smirk as wide as the one he was sporting at the same time. The two of them matched perfectly. "Will you really?"

He didn't move.

[choseanidiot]

"I can tie a knot. What else do you want?" And since Shōryū wasn't moving, Enki got up on the edge of the bed, gathered the hair closest to him and collected it at Shōryū's skull.

Closest hair. About half was still lying over Shōryū's opposite shoulder and back. For all that Enki was in the process of giving Shōryū a hair-arrangement usually meant for girls (especially in modern-day Hourai), he looked very concentrated.

Hey, it's not as if he ties back his mane.

"Right. Should I do the other side too?"

You could have moved, Shōryū. Or perhaps have found someone else to do your hair for you.

[goodtobetheking]

He should have expected that. And, in fact, had. So he didn't so much as blink as his hair was gathered into a messy side-tail. Instead, he leant forward, resting his chin on one closed hand.

Enki was too cute when he thought he'd gotten the upper hand.

"I'm afraid I don't have another ribbon."

[choseanidiot]

Annoyed, but now that there's enough space to wedge himself between his idiot of a king and the wall, he did so, and undid the tail. It would probably not end up looking as neat as Shōryū usually wore it, but, well.

Don't expect this sort of treatment regularly, old man.

"You could have said so," Enki grumbled as he redid the tail, properly this time. The ribbon was even tied in a bow, instead of a sloppy knot.

With a sigh, Enki leaned back against the wall, hands behind his head and frowned at the books spread out on the bed. He couldn't avoid seeing them now. He doesn't want to have this conversation.

It's too much like the talk of war and battle he'd always preferred to avoid before.
"... Found anything?" Enki finally spat out, because he's read the rule book, and doesn't like it one bit.

[goodtobetheking]

"That whoever created this game has far too much time on their hands."

He shifted to give Enki more room and less temptation to kick him in the back of the head, and then leant over to grab some of the other books and pass them to Enki. "You might want to read these when you have the time," a sentence he said with heavy irony, "In the meantime, we're going to 'upgrade' you."

[choseanidiot]

Too much time, too little respect for life, too enamoured of people as things... So many things to think of this whole thing.

"I've already read the rulebook," Enki protested, though he did take the books... putting them on the bedside table (for now). Whatever else Enki was going to say, got interuppted by Shōryū's last sentence.

"Why?" Enki hissed as he leaned forward, hands on Shōryū's shoulders, though not enough to actually see more than the side of Shōryū's face. Now that Shōryū was here, wasn't it much more logical to just... well.. 'upgrade' his weapon?

His wasn't any good anyway (though he wished it was not a weapon at all), and the only thing he might need was one of the 'abilities'. But he didn't want to think about that. Had steadfastly not been thinking about it this past week.

[goodtobetheking]

"It's our best option," Shōryū pointed out, voice slightly edged, "There are abilities in this book that would mean you didn't have to fight, and upgrades are based on our essential natures. The chance that you have at least one of them is too high to ignore."

[choseanidiot]

Of course Shōryū would find something like that. But the point wasn't that he didn't have to fight, the point was that someone else would, routinely, for no reason other than someone's 'pleasure' have to take the pain for him.

He wouldn't have done this to his shirei, either, since one of the abilities his weapon had would allow someone else to more or less function as a temporary shirei. It was just...

"I know I have one. There was that dream, or whatever," Enki muttered as he slid down behind Shōryū, crossing his arms, back against the headboard, and staring at Shōryū's broad back.

"But this is... I wouldn't--- I can't," Enki hissed, but he had a feeling that right about now one of Shōryū's rare 'you will do as I say, because I am king' was going to the smacked on his head.

[goodtobetheking]

"But you'd force others to watch you get hurt?" His voice was almost conversational, light and friendly, but there was a hidden blade within his words. He stayed facing the end of the bed, not looking around at his kirin. Almost idly, he opened one of the books and flipped through it at random. "Don't you think that's selfish of you?"

[choseanidiot]

That wasn't--- Enki had been braced for an order, but what came out instead... Eyes widening, he almost reflexively drew a foot back (the space was really too narrow for that, especially as he'd almost curled down behind here). Then slowly and deliberatedly, put that foot down.

"That's not--! Someone would get hurt anyway, and I don't care abou--" Enki's mouth snapped closed, both beacuse of the 'selfish' comment, and didn't that drag up something that was just ancient history, and because he didn't feel like hearing what Shōryū had to say about 'I don't care about me'.

Probably something about chunks of flesh again, and couldn't he come up with a better metaphor?

"There was nothing else?" Insufferable idiot. Didn't even need to use his stupid orders.

[goodtobetheking]

At the very least, Enki knew his king. With his effective surrender, Shōryū turned to reward him with a smile.

"We could pray a thousand times that you never be selected as a Player, but I doubt Tentei sees this far."

[choseanidiot]

Cute. Enki rolled his eyes and sighed as Shōryū gave him a smile. He was hardly going to admit that it almost, almost made up for all this crap.

It wouldn't get better, anyway. If he was honest, he was worried Shōryū's presence here would be noticed. As in, noticed by Shōryū not being where he ought to be, somewhere in the twelve kingdoms if not in En.

"I feel sorry for the people here; they're all gonna get tricked into thinking you're this nice and pleasant person," Enki said with a raised eyebrow, mocking that smile just as he tucked it away in the back of his head.

"And it's a ring that I'm supposed to give to a Weapon. They can then wield their own weapon and fight instead of me," Enki shrugged and laced his fingers behind his head, finally bowing to necissity and explaining what his sparkly, special ability ring would do.

Shōryū, at least, definitely needed to know, as he was probably the one who'd be the first to attempt it.

"We need a link charm..."