8. Rising Risks (1/2)

title: of the darkness||chapter: rising riskscharacters: ryou, shou, camulachapters: 8-25||words: 1,169||total: 9,216genre: family, supernatural||rated: pg-13challenge: diversity writing challenge, ygo gx, j6, multi-chapter with 15-25 chaptersnotes: it's an au. it involves vampires.summary: shou invites his

other in after ryou returns from a long trip away. that is his first mistake. it only gets worse from there.

shou watched as the messenger carrying his letter to kenzan and ryou's letters to fubuki and yuusuke vanished out of sight, riding under a clear sky and with dry roads. with any luck, they would receive answers inside of a few days, a week or two at the most, depending on how the weather ran. ryou insisted that it would remain fair, and shou didn't have much reason to doubt him. ever since that last storm ended, there had been barely any clouds in the sky at all.

"shou." his

other stood behind him, having once again arrived without a single footfall to betray him.

"how do you do that?" shou whipped around to stare up at his

other. "i mean, you are just so quiet these days!" it wasn't fair! ryou was so much taller and heavier than he was, shouldn't he at least make a sound when he walked?

ryou's lips moved upward. it wasn't much of a smile, but then he'd never really made very big ones to start with. "it's a habit, that's all."

shou grumped a little at that. "the letters are on their way."

"i know. i came up for something else. someone from the village wishes to speak with one of us." was that worry in his voice? what did ryou worry about?

"what do they want?" he hoped that would give him a clue about whatever troubled his

other. sure, they most likely had a vampire running around somewhere in the mansion, but was it that big of a problem to make ryou genuinely worry? when he'd already dealt with one of that type?

ryou's shoulders moved in a small shrug. "i don't know. they would give no messages to the servant, only that they wish to speak to me or you. would you? i'm still checking for signs of that vampire that's been feeding on the servants."

that made sense. shou nodded. "i'll take care of it." he set off right away. the sooner this was dealt with the better.

he found the messenger right where he expected them to be: in one of the side rooms, guided there by one of the increasingly more nervous servants. squaring his shoulders and reminding himself that he was a marufuji and thus held a responsibility here, he stepped into the room.

then he ducked quickly as the messenger leaped up and struck toward him. "what's going on!?" shou shouted, scrambling off to the side.

the messenger stopped in her tracks, staring at him. "oh. i'm sorry, sir." she bent her head respectfully. "i've been a little edgy after what happened."

shou nodded and moved a bit farther into the room, making certain there was room enough between her and him that he could get to the door if she decided to try anything else. he learned from his mistakes, or at least tried to. "is what happened what

ought you here today?"

"yes," she nodded. shou took a longer look at her. she was about ryou's height, with a long spill of snow-white hair, and wore tight-fitting leather. a whip hung coiled from a notch on her belt, with a dagger on the other side. wrapped around her left arm was a ribbon etched with the symbols of mourning.

"what is it?" he prodded, eyes flicking to that ribbon. he wondered if that had anything to do with why she was here today.