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Yakusoku ~promise~ by VanillaMint
VM: *crawls from under rock* hi^^~ this is an alternate universe fic! it'll probably be a 2-part fic. sorry for posting another fic when i have so many unfinished ones! Eep! *hides back under rock and peeks out* comments pls=p?
Part 1
As the clouds parted ways with each other, the full moon emerged, casting its serene luminance on the land. In the bamboo forest, a handsome man looked up at the sky. Slender leaves of the bamboo made whistling sounds as a breeze blew past. The man stood there, still, as he stared up at moon and made a promise to the beautiful princess Kaguya.
The sun was glaringly hot today. Kaoru squinted, wiping off a trickle of sweat from the side of his forehead with the back of his hand.
“ How far more do we have to go?” the redhead behind him groaned as he trudged along with a grey backpack almost half his body size on his back.
“ Oh, shut up, Die! We’ve just only started out journey for today-_-;;”
Die was furious at being told to shut up. After all, he didn’t have to come on this trip. “ You ungrateful b**t***d! What idiot would spend his precious holiday hitch-hiking in the countryside while he could be partying all night long back home>o<!”
“ I’m a writer. I need inspiration. And I’m a poor writer at that. So be a good friend and share the lodging and food money with me on this trip~ so come along now=p!” Kaoru slapped Die’s shoulder heartily with a laugh.
‘…I’m a super-sucker.’ß Die’s thought bubble.
3 hours later, finally, to Die’s joy, they stopped for lunch at a small town. They slipped into a quaint-looking ramen shop(it seemed there were only ramen and BBQ restaurants in that town). They were dying of thirst. In winter, they prayed for hot, sunny weather, forgetting all the misery of last summer. But when summer came, again, they wished they could just jump into a pool of ice and stay there…it was so hot!! Gyahh!
“ One miso ramen and one ramen-with-everything-in-it!” The middle-aged lady served up their lunch. “ And two large watermelon juice~ Bon appetit.”
The hot steaming noodles made Die and Kaoru sweat as they gobbled it down. Of course the ramen-with-everything-in-it was Kaoru’s since he’s such a glutton(VM:XD). (((Kaoru: VM, stop putting your comments all over the place and concentrate on the story!))) Kaoru sighed as he took a gulp of his ice cold drink. Rustling sounds came out of his bag as he dug for something inside. “ Ah, there’s the map~” Pushing the drink and empty bowls aside, Kaoru splayed it on the table.
Die leaned forward on his elbows, teeth gnawing at the end of his straw. “ So where’s next?”
“ East from here, there’s a town called 'insert random town name'(=_=). But I don’t think we’ll be able to get there by night…so maybe we should take a rest here then?” Kaoru frowned.
“ Yatta^o^!” Die rejoiced.
*** “ A lodging inn?” The middle-aged lady stood back with the empty bowls stacked in one hand and the other hand holding the glasses. “ Well, there would be one down in the street but they are closed for renovation.”
Die: oh goodnessT__T
Kaoru: …
“ Perhaps you can go a bit further. There’s an old inn there. It’s not too far from here. If you follow the signs to Shioma Temple, you’ll come to cross-junction, stop following the sign and turn left. The path through the forest will bring you to the inn^^”
“ Oh, okay, domo arigatou,” Kaoru said.
“ Be careful not to wander off in the forest though…”
*** The columns of bamboo allowed ample sunlight to reach the ground. Kaoru walked up the shallow steps of cement paving a path through the forest.
“ This place seems familiar…” Kaoru whispered to himself.
“ Huh?”
“ Remember when we were kids, I told you about the bamboo forest that always appears in my dream?”
Die laughed. “ Haha, and princess KaguyaXDD?! I remember laughing my ass off.”
“ Yes, and then I punched the living daylights out of you. Funny huh??”
“ Ow…it hurts now even when I think about it…” Die pouted. “ But it feels nice now, coming on this trip with you.”
Kaoru nodded. “ The greenery around is very soothing ne. And the rustling bamboo leaves seem to want to tell us something…”
After a few more miles, the mood have changed.
“ Are we on the right track?” Kaoru frowned, fanning himself with the folded-up map.
“ We must be! We followed what that woman said, didn’t we?”
“ But the cemented path has trailed off…” They have been following the dirt path for more than half an hour but still no sign of any inn or anyone. Kaoru sighed. Above them, clouds seemed to have gathered. Then Kaoru felt a tiny drop of water fall on his forehead.
Kaoru: >_<
True enough, it started pouring.
“ Waah, a summer storm now?!” Die wailed as they increased their speed along the path.
“ Hey, wait, I think we found it!” Kaoru stopped, causing Die to bump right into him from behind.
“ What?”
“ The inn.” Kaoru pointed. A few steps ahead, the path gave off a flight of pebbled stairs sloping down towards a traditional looking inn. Their shoes slapped noisily against the set pebbles as they bounded down. By the time they reached the door of the inn, they were drenched anyway.
Die slid open the door which, for a lodging inn, was strangely closed. “ Konichiwa!” he invited himself in.
“ Stop!”
Die and Kaoru froze on the spot.
A short, spiky-blonde-haired punk with multiple facial piercings rushed towards them with a mop. With frenzied swoops, he mopped dry the pool of water they dripped off them.
“ That won’t help.” A gentle-looking young lady with auburn hair came out from a room with two towels. “ Please dry yourselves with these.”
“ Oh, thank you~” Both men accepted the towels with gratitude and thought to themselves, ‘Wow, I wanna bag a girl like her…*drool*’
“ Um, we’re looking for a place to stay an…”
“ Oo, welcome then to the Bamboo Inn. come sign in here~” the girl said as she slipped behind the desk. “ My name is Shinya. Can I have your details please? And how long would you like to stay?” She filled in the forms for them and asked them to sign. “ So Kaoru-san, Die-san, you are from Tokyo? That’s so wonderful…I mean, to be staying in the city.”
“ Tokyo’s a very interesting place. You should come some time. If you don’t have any friends there, I would be glad to bring you around^_^” Kaoru offered.
“ That’s very nice of you^^”
“ Yea, Kaoru. That’s so nice…what motives do you have asking sweet Shinya to go to the city all alone?” Die said. Then he moved closer to Shinya. “ Shinya-chan, if you do go, don’t forget to call me. I’ll make sure Kaoru doesn’t do anything bad to you.”
Kaoru: Diee!! Grrrr!!
Shinya laughed. “ You guys are so funny. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your stay. What a pity you will only be staying for one night. Although it seems quiet here, it really is very nice. You can go trekking in the forest, there’s a very nice waterfall not far away.”
“ Maybe you can bring us there,” Kaoru said.
“ Well…I can’t. I need to look after the inn. Maybe Kyo can bring you tomorrow?” Shinya smiled and motioned to the punk boy with the mop.
“ Uhh…”
“ And do take bath before dinner. Dinner will be served in the dining hall at 7. Ja.” Shinya waved and went off, leaving them with Kyo glaring at them.
“ What?” Die asked defensively.
“ I’m not free tomorrow,” Kyo said.
“ We don’t want you to bring us there either, kiddo.”
“ Grr. I’m not a kid. I’m Shinya’s older brother, idiot-_-||!”
Die+Kaoru: older brotherO_O?!
Kyo turned around. “ And a word of warning, don’t get to close too Shinya, or you’ll be sorry.” With that ‘warning’, he left the two to look for their rooms themselves.
*** Kaoru sighed in content as he sunk deeper into the water of the bath. It was an open air bath surrounded with a landscaped stone and bamboo garden. And the water was just nice. Not too hot but hot enough to soak away the chill from the rain. But it’s time he got out and see what Die is up to.
They were staying in a single room each. Kaoru changed into clean clothes and went to the room next to his.
Die was still in the room, though changed into a dry yukata that came with the room. It had light brown prints on it. Lying on his side on the floor, propped up on one elbow, he was eating chips and flipping through a magazine.
“ Still haven’t bathed?”
“ Huh, ok, I’m going now.” Die got up, whistling as he made his way to the bathing area.
*** Shinya let the yukata slide down onto the floor. Long strands of auburn hair unravelled from the bun as the pin was pulled out.
*** Die pushed the sliding door aside and stepped in. There was someone inside. Auburn hair stuck to a smooth fair back and shapely round buttocks.
“ Shit.”
*** “ Shit.”
Shinya heard someone swear and turned around.
*** “ AAaaaaaaAaaAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Kyo was shocked out of his evening nap. “ Wat the…”
*** Kaoru rushed out of the room when he heard the screams. As he ran down the long hallway, he saw Die shielding his head from a flying pail coming from inside the bathing room.
“ You pervert!” Shinya’s scream came from inside.
“ What happened?!”
“ Nothing! I didn’t know there was someone inside and it wasn’t locked.” Die said.
A towel-wrapped Shinya came out.
“ You saw?” Kaoru felt envious.
Shinya cried. “ How can I face anyone after this?!”
“ There was nothing to see,” Die said.
“ What?! What do you mean, you sick pervert? You saw everything!” Shinya screamed at the redhead.
“ Me? Sick? Why would I want to look at you!?! You’re a guy!” Die screamed back at the other ‘guy’.
“ That’s why you’re sick!” Shinya wailed.
Kaoru stood aback. “ Wait. What did you say?”
“ He’s a guy.” Die pointed at Shinya.
Kaoru eyes quickly went down to scrutinize Shinya’s chest. And for the first time, he realized it was flat, totally! “ Impossible!”
Kyo: that’s why I said not to get to close to him-__-;; + to be continued back to deg fics page 5 |