Title: 'Temporary Escort'

Author: FireDemon

E-mail: Ken_Dai_

Rating: PG13

Category: Original Manga. High Fantasy. Action/Adventure-ish, Romance, Fluff.

Warnings: Shounen-ai.

Summary: After the death of his mother sharp-tongued 'pretty-boy', Keiichi Takahashi, finds himself under the temporary escort of local 'playboy', Hikaru Tomikawa, until they reach the Tamashi orphanage - Keiichi's new home.

Chapter Four: I Think About You All the Time.

Keiichi turned away, jade eyes watery, "So you should be."

Hikaru mentally cursed the boy, this, this whatever it was, this playing with his feelings was killing him.

The boy seemed to blow hot and cold, sometimes opening up and acting like a regular human being and then pulling away, and other times acting as if he couldn't stand Hikaru while he snuck looks at him.

His actions didn't add up, and what had first attracted Hikaru was beginning to annoy him. Perhaps it was because he wasn't human, but the boy seemed completely determined to destroy him.

"How much longer?" Keiichi asked softly, breaking Hikaru from his thoughts.

"Another couple of hours till we stop for lunch, then another 3 or 4 hours after that till we stop for the night. We're not making the best time so we can't afford to waste sunlight."

"Of course not," Keiichi agreed faintly, his eyes falling shut as he sank into his memories.

//Flashback//

Keiichi laughed, ducking behind one of the trees, his jade eyes playfully watchful. Shadows darted through the trees, his cousins, those he felt closer to than he ever could to the children in the village.

A warm body crashed into his, knocking his to the ground. Yukito.

Seductive sapphire eyes caressed his face as the older dryad straddled him gleefully. "It seems I've won, my pretty one."

Keiichi laughed, "It seems so. What do you plan to do with your prisoner?"

Yukito caught his lips victoriously; "I'm not sure... yet..."

"Oh..."

The playfulness disappeared for just a second; "I had a dream last night."

"What about?" Keiichi threaded his fingers through his lovers pale ash hair; eyes focused adoringly on the boy above him.

"About you. With a human. He hurt you. He tried to dance with you, and then you kissed him."

Keiichi's brow wrinkled, "I... what?"

"You kissed him. I didn't like it. You're mine Kei, only mine. You know that?" Yukito's voice rose in pitch worriedly, tears gathering in his eyes, "You would not break our bond so... I know this."

"I would never." Keiichi pulled his pale haired lover down, kissing him reassuringly; "I would never break our bond."

"Good. You are my lovely sprite, for all of eternity."

"For all of eternity," Keiichi agreed, his fingers tracing patterns on the dryads back, "Will you take me now Yuki?"

"Only because I love you, my pretty Kei."

//End Flashback//

~~~

Hikaru stared at the apparently slumbering boy, his entire body trembling with longing. How could one boy be so infuriating, yet at the same time so beautiful?

Nervously, almost guiltily he leaned over to check that the boy was still sleeping, and tenderly placed a kiss on the soft pliant lips of his slumbering companion.

Green eyes opened and Keiichi's cheeks flushed as he shoved Hikaru away, horrified by the invasion and the unwitting violation of the promise he had more than once made to Yukito.

It didn't matter that his lover had passed, he should not have broken such a promise. Irrational fear filled him.

"Don't touch me! You have no right to molest me in such a way! You are not my bond mate and you never will be! Your very presence is vile!" Keiichi spat to make his point.

Had he not just relived his memory perhaps he might have reacted more calmly, but the rough unwanted touches seemed to pale in comparison with his dryads remembered caresses.

"I... I'm sorry."

Keiichi stared at him mistrustfully, "I think in future I will sit in the back of the wagon Tomikawa-san."

"Keiichi-kun, please, don't be like this. I won't touch you again, I promise, just don't hate me!" Hikaru's voice held a note of panic too similar to Yukito's for Keiichi to ignore it.

"Very well. Your word that you will not touch me I accept." Keiichi glared at him, "But I have no desire to speak to you Tomikawa-san."

~~~

"Keiichi, we're stopping here for the night."

Keiichi's jade eyes fixed on his companion and he nodded, "Very well."

"Hungry?"

"I'm fasting, I told you that."

Hikaru nodded, watching as Keiichi climbed out and sat by the roadside watching the forest with the most heart-breakingly melancholic expression on his face.

'There's something about him, what is it that he's so afraid of? Why won't he let me love him?'

~~~

-Dream Sequence-

"Are you here to stay Keiichi?"

"Yes, forever, I want to be with you forever..."

Hikaru watched wordlessly as Keiichi stared enrapt into the eyes of the boy holding him close.

There was something so... wrong, so... perverse about watching this. It seemed so personal.

A hand touched his arm, amethyst eyes burning into his,

"You are dream-walking 'Karu," Thin lips quirked into a smile.

"Oh." Hikaru tried to process the sentence, "Why are you here?"

Slender fingers entwined themselves in his hair, "To see you. Your father misses you dear one."

"My father hates me." Hikaru corrected wistfully.

Lips touched his neck, "No, he was disappointed. We were all disappointed, but we do not hate you, dear Hikaru."

"Are you seducing me?" The question rolled off his tongue glibly.

"Not at all." Another smile, typical of it's owner, sly and seductive, "I'll leave you to your dream-walking. Goodbye Hikaru." Lips on his, hand tilting his head up, amethyst eyes glittering.

"Goodbye 'Kuya." No melancholy in that reply. No wistful remembered emotions.

Hikaru's eyes snapped back to Keiichi; to his surprise the younger boys chocolate hair was loose, and so long that because he was kneeling with his head slightly tilted back it touched the ground.

He looked beautiful, almost girlishly so, and his jade eyes were wide with an emotion and an innocence that Hikaru had never seen.

The blond boy claimed his neck possessively, yet the hands that held Keiichi in place were gentle and looked protective.

'So this is what his Yukito looked like. He was beautiful... inhumanly so.'

There was a sound, and the whole mood of the dream seemed to change, suddenly jolty as if someone was melding together half memories to tell a story without filling in the blanks.

Hikaru stared in helpless shock as Yukito lurched over, an arrow poking out of his chest. Keiichi shook, tears flowing from his eyes as he tried to help his lover.

Hikaru's entire body shuddered as Keiichi let out a keening cry.

A shadowy figure stepped out of the woods, bow in hand,

"Maiden, are you well? This wood-spirit has not harmed you has he?"

Keiichi's jade eyes flickered to the man, just briefly, "What have you done to my Yukito?"

"Yukito...?"

Keiichi turned back to the blond boy, pitifully, like a child who could not understand the concept of death.

"Yuki... My bond mate... wake up!"

And like that Hikaru jolted awake. Keiichi shuddered under the blankets on the other side of the wagon to him, sobbing softly as he sat up.

Without even thinking about it Hikaru crossed to perch next to the boys bed. Gently he brushed Keiichi's tears away; his eyes fixed on those beautiful jade orbs. A muted kind of wonder seemed to suffuse the boys features as he stared at Hikaru,

"I could love you, so easily, I could love you... right now."

"Keiichi?" Hikaru whispered.

"But... I'm afraid."

"Afraid?" This was what he had wanted to know, but now, after that dream, he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Keiichi faced his hand palm up, and traced a finger over the scars on the wrist and arm, long pale white scars, newly healed, "I'm not human Hikaru, if I fall in love with you, if I lose you, I won't survive. Once was luck, twice would be impossible."

Hikaru caught Keiichi's hand, running his fingers across the cuts serenely, "What happened?"

"After I lost Yuki... after I saw him die, I wanted to die myself. If I'd been full-blood I would have, like my mother died after my fathers death. We sprites literally die of broken hearts. I tried to kill myself. I didn't eat, I didn't drink, I tried to slit my wrists to hurry the process along."

"Keiichi," Hikaru breathed.

"That's why I won't love you. I could, so easy. You remind me of him - of my Yuki. I will always love him. But if I loved you and you died, there would be nothing left of me to salvage."

Hikaru leant forward; so close he could feel Keiichi's breath of his lips, "But..."

"I could love you, but I don't. I don't love you Hikaru."

Hikaru pulled back, his sapphire eyes wide, "How do you hurt me like this? No one else has ever hurt me."

"Because until me, you never lost yourself enough in them to give them that power."

"I'm a fool."

"Yes, you are," Keiichi agreed, his fingers trailing across Hikaru's cheek, "You are the king of fools."

Authors Notes: I'm sorry this took so long to get out, and that it's so short, but I had the worst case of writers block for this one compounded by the fact that I totally lost control of the characters and got sick, and ended up writing the most hideously written chapter yet. I need a beta reader... is anyone (at all) interested? If I acquire one I might be able to get chapters out quicker, so any volunteers?

Keiichi is still being a, I don't know the words to describe him, but he's damn near impossible to put in a relationship. The character interaction between him and Hikaru was fun to write, but Keiichi just loves spoiling the mood. *sighs*

Anyway, moving along, a lot of you expressed interest (okay so it was only a couple of you, but my ego needs to be fed) in my little tripped out fantasy world, so, I thought I would do a little explanation this chapter, for anyone who's interested.

There are over a dozen different species of sprites, but for the purpose of my story, only about 6 of them are really important.

Dryads: Dryads are driven by the instinct to mate, and rarely mate for anything other than life. They are completely and utterly possessive of their mates and protect them with their lives. They are mistrustful of humans (like most woodland folk) and live in the tree, which brought them into the world. They rarely if ever travel far from the forest their tree inhabits. They are sustained by their trees but can eat human food. As a general rule they are playful, but not to the same extent as most other 'sprites'. This is what Yukito, Keiichi's kitobi was, and what Keiko, who was simply introduced last chapter as a means for Hikaru to find out about Keiichi's heritage (yes I use contrived means for plot development - *wails about her failure as an author*), was.

Air Sprites: Air Sprites, occasionally called Fae, are childlike, naively selfish creatures. Their instincts lead them solely to mischief. They are given to random acts of both kindness and cruelty as the mood takes them. They are above all whimsical, yet lovely creatures, concerned only with themselves. Rarely will you find one life-mated to a Dryad. It must also be noted that they are *not* Fae and both Fae and Sprites find the insinuation insulting. This is what Sakura, the sprite who showed an interest in Hikaru was.

Fae: Fae are mystical winged creatures, older and wiser then Air Sprites. They spend their lives searching for meaning. Much of their time is spent in meditation. Occasionally they will mediate disputes. Their contact with humans is on a far more intellectual and mature level than that of any other woodland species.

Water Sprites: Water Sprites, more often called Nymphs, are generally shy, and rarely leave the water body they were born in. They are obsessed with emotion, and often try to use song to mimic the emotions of those who actually have their own. They tend to romanticise life and look like beautiful young teens. They tend to be female, and male nymphs are fairly androgynous. They aren't bothered by the sex of whomever they 'pretend' to love and are taken with the idea of romantic tragedy.

Wood Elves: Wood Elves are considered to be the guardians of the forests, are not afraid of humans and often act as mediators or translators when a disagreement takes place between a human and a woodland creature. Far more human-like in their habits, yet still removed because they inhabit the forest rather than a town. Can be distinguished by their slanted eyes, elvin ears and unusual height. Elves are taller than humans, and tend to live approximately twice to three times as long. Keiichi's father, and Keiichi himself are both part wood elf, but no where near full blooded.

Light Elves: Light Elves are distant cousins of both the Fae and the Wood Elves, live high in the mountains, rather than the woodlands. They rarely have anything to do with Sprites, or any of their woodland cousins. Occasionally they will crossbreed with humans, but it is far rarer then a pairing between any other species and humans, and Light Elves consider themselves to be above all other species. Their hair tends to tend towards gold and copper shades, rather then the brown or auburn of the Wood Elves. This is what Keiichi suspects Takuya, who will play a larger part, is.

Sprites, including dryads and the like, are generally far smaller than the average human, and tend to look young for many years longer than humans. This characteristic is often evident in half-breeds, despite the fact that their blood will not allow them to live much longer than an ordinary human. This life span on a sprite is tied to the feature, which brought them into being. Half-breeds are born the human way, and so a half dryad will not have a tree and will not live much longer than its human parent.

Keiichi's mother is ¾ dryad, but grew up relatively 'civilised'. She lived in a stone hut, along with her mother and father. She spent a lot of time around her mothers tree, and she is very shy of humans. Keiichi's father was very soft spoken, part-air-sprite, part-elf, mostly human. He was Hikari's 3rd cousin, and grew up in the woods as a caretaker. He was a brilliant archer, and loved his family dearly. His death killed Hikari, as a close to full blood-dryad she could not bear to be without her mate.

Sprites only ever fall in love completely and utterly. They can't fall in love without surrendering themselves completely. Keiichi doesn't want to risk losing himself again. It was only his human side that kept him alive after Yukito's death, and his human side is jaded and bitter now.

There we go, that's my explanation and spiel for like the whole story. I hope that clears up a little bit about my fantasy world, and explains some of my character actions better. It helps to remember Keiichi is not human, not even half, and wasn't raised human.

All done.

Please read and review.