Bleed the Tears

by D-chan

Note: Done for Chevira-san and Chrysan. Because they kick ass.

Warnings: Very odd. Slight hint of boy/boy. You may want to read what’s up of BtT so far before reading this, otherwise some things may confuse you. Okay, a lot of things will confuse you. So go read it. Anyway, just a fun idea Chrysan gave me, and I turned it into a quick fic. Sorry I haven’t updated KS or BtT lately, but I promise I’ll try to get work done for them when I can! Love you all. ^_^;

Side Story: Cooking

It was a fairly quiet, actually pretty pleasant day. Raanan hadn't left the room at all; he had been reading books pretty much since he had woken up. Soushou had watched at first -- something that still unnerved the boy, especially since the demon lord couldn't see -- then quietly left.

Nearly an hour later, Raanan had finished his book. He got up to put it away and get another when a pretty thick book with yellow and white bindings caught his eye. Strange how he had never seen it before. Frowning, he pulled it from the shelf and turned it to the cover.

"Demon's Cuisine," he read aloud, wrinkling his nose at the uncreative title. "Recipes for the Culinary Inept." Well, at least that was a little bit better. Despite himself he flipped the book open, skimming the recipes. It seemed strange for Soushou to keep such a book; it couldn't be any fun to have someone read it to him, after all. Raanan would have to ask about that later.

Later came sooner than he expected. Soushou came in right as the demon boy was ready to put the book back. Raanan paused, bit his lip to quell his nervousness, and finally turned. "Hey... Soushou."

If the demon lord was surprised, he didn't show it. It was rare, after all, for Raanan to speak to him without being spoken to first, unless he had a burning question. Soushou had been trying to get the boy to relax around him, but it wasn't working right away. Of course, the boy needed time to adjust: he wasn't used to being treated with such kindness, and it only naturally made him suspicious.

"Yes?" he asked gently, inviting the question he knew was to come.

"Why... in the world... do you have a cookbook?"

Soushou paused, pale blue eyebrows coming down in thoughtful concentration. "I forgot that I did," he admitted, tilting his head slightly. "It may be Naolin's."

Naolin was one of Soushou's closest friends; from what Raanan understood, they were like brothers to each other, with Naolin being the hyper, loud little brother and Soushou being the calm, cooly collected big brother. That sort of relationship was rare between demons.

The explanation did make sense, though. Raanan nodded, turning to put the book away.

The door slammed open.

"Soushou!" As though on cue, Naolin came tearing into the room, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he nearly tackled his lord. Only he had the audacity to do that, and Raanan knew full well Soushou didn't mind, as long as they were in a private place. "Can Raanan play? Huh? Can I play with your pet? Hi, Raanan!" the brown-eyed demon said cheerfully, waving to the smaller demon. Raanan shrank back; Naolin was almost as unnerving as Soushou.

Soushou seemed to sense his charge's reluctance. "Maybe he doesn't want to play, Naolin," he said calmly, tugging on the hyper demon's single braid.

Naolin tilted his head, releasing his self-proclaimed brother and bouncing straight over to Raanan. "Ya sure? He looks like he wants to play. Hey, is that my cookbook? Cool!" he exclaimed all in one breath, snatching it from Raanan's surprised grasp. "I've been looking everywhere for this!"

Raanan stared; surprisingly, he turned to Soushou for help, looking positively hopeless. He wasn't used to Naolin's type at all.

Fortunately, the door opening again distracted Naolin.

Unfortunately, it was Ena that entered.

She paused in the threshold, shooting Raanan a quick look before turning to Soushou. "I'm sorry, my lord," she muttered, looking positively rumpled. "I didn't mean for Naolin--"

"Ena!" The grinning teen fairly tackled her in a hug. "Raanan found my cookbook! Isn't that awesome? Hey, Raanan, wanna be my brother, too? Oh! I just got a great idea!" Naolin certainly seemed to be at his peak, because he was bouncing around so much, going from Soushou to Raanan to Ena and back to Soushou. "Let's go cook! It'll be fun!"

"Naolin!" Ena hissed, looking positively fearful.

Soushou frowned slightly, tilting his head toward her. "What are you afraid of, Ena?" She couldn't seem to answer; her pretty mouth opened, then shut, then opened, then shut again as she shook her head. Raanan thought she looked like a salmon.

"Let's go, let's go!" Naolin cheered, grabbing Raanan by the chain and tugging him forward. The boy winced and stumbled but thankfully wasn't choked; it was the magic on his collar at work there. "C'mon, Soushou! I've never tried your cooking before!"

Raanan wasn't sure how it had happened, but somehow Naolin ended up dragging them all along to the nearest kitchen. A few demons were there, but they grew quiet when Soushou entered, then started murmuring when Raanan came him right after Naolin. Soushou looked up sharply, his pupil-less eyes holding the barest hint of warning, and the silence fell instantly. Uneasy, the few demons filtered out.

Naolin seemed unaffected by the silence, and Raanan wasn't, but Ena also looked unnerved. "Right, that makes it easier," Naolin said cheerfully. He quickly looked around, pulling out a stool for Raanan. "Okay! You sit here!" He pushed the boy down without waiting for an answer. "And you can read the directions! Ena can help Soushou with the ingredients and stuff!" Nobody needed to ask why. "And I'll work on my own."

Raanan glanced nervously at his master, merely because he was supposed to follow no one's orders but his. Soushou felt his stare and nodded once.

Clearing his throat, Raanan spoke hesitantly. "What... are you going to make, then?"

Ena shot him a glare before flinching; Soushou had apparently just prodded her mentally-- and quite painfully. "Don't know," she muttered, frowning. "Lord Soushou, I must object. It's bad enough he wears that shirt in your room, but here..."

Soushou's response was calm. "He needs it in case we have any accidents. I don't want him getting dirty."

Ena gave up.

Naolin was leaning over the boy in question, flipping through pages over his shoulder. "Ohhh, I dunno. They all look really good," he said, licking his lips. "Um... how's about spring rolls? They look really good!"

"Those take hours to make," Ena protested. "We can't possibly stay here that long; the workers will be needing this room before we're halfway through!"

"Workers?" Raanan asked, his dark eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Soushou promptly answered. "There are other young demons, like yourself, who work elsewhere; cleaning, cooking, pretty much doing housework four the whole place. They're kept in a different cell than you, and are a lot less than the demons you lived with."

Well. You learned something new every day. Raanan accepted this quietly, storing that information away for later use.

"Right," Naolin said, oblivious to everything but what he was most concerned with-- and that, obviously, was food. "Ohhh, human cookies!" He started to whine. "We never get to have those, ever! Can we make them? Please?"

Soushou nodded. "I don't see why not."

Naolin grinned broadly. "Sometimes being soul-brothers with a demon lord rocks," he crowed, pointing to the recipe for Raanan. "Okay, that one! Help us out here, will ya?"

Nodding, unsure of what else to do, Raanan shifted in his seat. He focused on the recipe and that alone; he didn't want to feel Ena's eyes boring into him. "Umm... says you need two eggs," he said, narrowing his eyes at the paper. He could read just fine, but sometimes had difficulties. He was getting better at it, at least.

"Right, two eggs," Naolin said cheerfully, going for the huge freezer box in the corner. He opened it and was blasted with a puff of frost; when he emerged he was shivering and staggering with that seemed to be a very large, very heavy egg. It was nearly four feet big and mottled. Raanan's jaw dropped.

Ena caught it. "Stop staring," she snapped. "Haven't you ever seen a dragon's egg before?"

"No," he said weakly, still staring in disbelief. "I... don't think the recipe wanted one that big..."

"S'okay," Naolin grunted, setting the huge frozen object on the counter. "I like improvising."

Shaking her head, Ena went for the smaller, less freezing box. She came back with two chicken eggs-- though why they were blue and what sort of chickens they had come from, Raanan didn't want to know.

"Five fourth's cups of sugar," he read, quickly turning his eyes back to the recipe. He heard a loud crash come from Naolin's counter, but was afraid to look up. "Half a cup of brown sugar..."

A few more crashes and one of Ena's startled shrieks later, they had all the needed ingredients. Raanan glanced up briefly, blanching at the mess around Naolin, and quickly looked down again. "Um... Mix the sugars, salt, and baking powder in one bowl, the vanilla extract and eggs in another, after beating the eggs..." He paused and looked up to make sure they were following. Naolin was happily mutilating his eggs -- he had thankfully not gotten any eggshells mixed in -- and Ena was holding Soushou's hands, helping him crack the eggs. Raanan stared at the latter two in particular, not missing the light blush on her face, nor Soushou's absence of a reaction. He felt something stir inside him, but was unsure what it was.

Soushou suddenly looked up, staring in the boy's direction with unseeing eyes. Flinching, thinking he had done something wrong, Raanan looked back down; a slight stammer worked its way into his voice. "U-um... After that, mix all the ingredients in the larger bowl..."

Naolin had obvious difficulty with his; the dragon egg had been huge; he'd needed to thaw it in the oven, then he'd managed to just barely get all the yolk on one big bowl. Now he had a problem. He tilted his head to the side, scrutinizing the yolk, before carrying his bowl to the sink and cheerfully pouring out three fourths of the contents. Ena shook her head in disbelief.

As both parties were beating the batter into a creamier mixture, the door opened. Raanan glanced up on instinct before wincing.

Donovan arched an eyebrow. "Well. This is unusual."

"Hello, Donovan," Soushou said calmly, still stirring his mixture.

Snickering softly and pushing a mess of blonde and red hair from his eyes, Donovan allowed the door to swing shut behind him. "What's this? A cooking contest?"

"More or less," Ena said stiffly. She didn't trust this man at all, despite the fact he and her lord got along surprisingly well.

Donovan leaned against the wall, not appearing ready to leave anytime soon. "Sounds fun."

Soushou didn't look up. "Donovan, you know full well you shouldn't be in here if you have no business here."

"True," the other demon agreed, looking thoughtful. "Anything I can do?"

When no one said anything, Raanan looked up. Ena was still helping Soushou, her hands guiding his where they needed to go. Naolin was humming cheerfully as he shoved a wooden spoon into his mixture, stirring vigorously and splattering bits of dough on his face. Lastly, he looked at Donovan, who seemed to still be waiting for an answer.

Raanan bit his lip. He had an unspeakable urge to say something but was apprehensive; Donovan was also a demon lord. Though he had no control over Raanan while he was in Soushou's care, he was still a high authority. But the nudge persisted, so much that Raanan suspected he was getting outside help. He glanced at Soushou, who seemed very immersed in his work, before slowly turning to the other demon lord. "We... still need a taste-tester," he said softly.

Donovan turned his attention to the boy, cocking his head to the side. He grinned, showing off his fangs. "Sounds good," he agreed. "That all right with you, Soushou?"

"It was Raanan's idea," Soushou said calmly. Ena flinched; she must have had a surge of bad emotion, one that Soushou had obviously quickly objected to.

After that it was up to them to decide what sort of cookies they wanted to make. Soushou settled for something simple -- peanut butter that was an alarming shade of purple -- while Naolin went straight for the chocolate chips-- as though he needed any more sugar in his already hyperactive system.

While the cookies were in the oven, Soushou stepped back, trailing his hand over the counters until he reached Raanan. The boy stared at the recipe book, not wanting to look up; his heart was pounding. Soushou still frightened him, even after nearly two weeks living with him.

One clawed finger tapped the side of his face. "Raanan," Soushou said quietly, only for him to hear. "Are you ill?" Raanan quickly shook his head, mumbling a negative. His master tilted his head slightly, the few strands of blue and lavender hair that escaped his ponytail brushing over his blank eyes. "You felt strange earlier, didn't you?"

"I'm okay," Raanan muttered, growing increasingly uncomfortable. Soushou quickly backed off, obviously sensing it. His empathic powers were commendable. Raanan felt eyes on him and he quickly turned the page, pretending to be fascinated with the book. He heard Ena snort softly and Donovan muffle a snicker.

They were all strange. That was why he hated them... or at least, one reason why.

At least the timer went off. "Cookies are done!" Naolin sang, skipping over to his oven and pulling his cookies out. Despite the ordeals he had gone through to make them, they looked pretty good. Soushou's did as well, despite the slightly off, mottled purple-and-green colour. They smelled good, too.

Calmly, Soushou said, "Donovan, you try Naolin's. Ena was a wonderful helper; she ought to try mine."

Donovan arched an eyebrow, seeming amused. Raanan had no idea why. "Fine with me," he said. He waited a few moments, quickly touching one cookie. When it didn't burn him too badly, he picked it up and bit into it. He said nothing but finished the entire cookie rather quickly, then started on another. It seemed they had passed his judgment. Naolin positively beamed, bouncing over to Raanan and slinging an arm over the boy's shoulder, not noticing him stiffen beneath the touch. "See! I can cook real good!"

"Yeah, I see," Raanan said weakly, trying to scoot away, but to no avail.

Ena looked at her lord, seeming nervous. Suddenly her pretty dark eyes hardened. Steeling her resolve, she picked up one of Soushou's cookies and bit into it.

Raanan wasn't looking, but when he heard a faint squeak and the loud thud following it, he instantly knew that trying Soushou's cooking would most definitely not be the wisest idea.

Nighttime found Raanan pretty much the same way morning had: in Soushou's room, curled up with his back against his master's bed, eyes fastened on a book on his lap. He was once again alone, and once again heard the door shut softly to signal that it was no longer so. He refrained from looking up until there was a gentle creak of bedsprings behind him.

"Lord Soushou?"

"We're alone now," the demon lord reminded him, his voice mild as always. "I've told you several times. Please drop the formalities here."

Raanan nodded but didn't apologize. "You knew you were..." He paused, unsure if he should continue.

The pause didn't escape his master. "Go on."

"You knew you... were really bad at cooking, didn't you?" the boy finally asked. He glanced up, startled to find Soushou's usually set lips curved slightly upward into a semi-smile.

"Yes," he agreed. "I did. And this wasn't the first time Ena has passed out." He paused momentarily. "Last time she was out cold for a month. I don't think it will be nearly as bad this time."

Raanan shook his head, rubbing his eyes a bit. "That's horrible," he muttered, though he found he couldn't keep from smiling.

A gentle hand descended onto his head, into his hair. Raanan stiffened, but Soushou didn't pull away this time. "Do you disapprove?" he asked.

Raanan chose not to answer.

"I did it because she kept thinking bad things about you," Soushou continued, massaging the boy's scalp. Despite himself, Raanan couldn't help but enjoy it. He barely nodded. "Do you disapprove of that?"

"Why'd you do it?"

Soushou ruffled his hair, a startling sign of affection, before pulling away completely. His voice lost the bit of warmth Raanan hadn't realized had slipped in until it had left. "Keep asking that and you'll never find out," Soushou said. "Just trust me, and you'll know all you need to know."

Raanan set his book aside, sighing softly and knowing he wouldn't be able to finish it. Soushou's last words for the night, however, were most alarming.

"I don't want to have you try my cooking someday, do I?"

Raanan shuddered.