20. Fateful Finding (1/2)

title: of the darkness||chapter: fateful findingcharacters: ryou, shou, camulachapters: 20-25||words: 1,118||total: 22,460genre: 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.

kenzan sniffed the air, fingers flexing as he analyzed what he could smell. from the first moment he'd entered the mansion, he'd known there was something wrong there. far too much blood and death hung in the air. he hadn't liked it then and he liked it even less now, when he knew what was going on. he wanted to find shou and help him and his

other get out of there before whatever it was happened to him. he refused to leave his friend in this kind of place, no matter what.

he didn't recognize every scent, and he didn't know if that was because he didn't know every servant in the place or because of something that vampire had done. he could find that scent easily enough. vampires smelled of death and blood. even ryou had smelled of it, though it had been kind of faint.

there's another one, though. closer. stronger. another scent ghosted under that, one that teased and taunted at his nostrils and memories, telling him that this was one that he knew, and knew well also. and that scent could only belong to one person in this place.

for the most part he ignored what everyone else was doing and sniffed around, trying to locate where that undertone scent came from. the vampire scent was stronger, but he didn't care about that. finding that scent, shou's scent, was far more important.

he turned a corner, only mildly aware that he'd left the others behind. he could still hear them; they weren't that far away. but now he could scent shou that much closer and he could hear him, too. tiny little movements, little more than someone

eathing, but it all clicked in his mind and he darted forward to one of the alcoves, yanking the concealing curtain aside.

"shou!" he knew shou always hated his toothy grin but he didn't care about that now, far more delighted by the fact he'd found him. "what're you doing in here?" shouldn't he have been in bed or something? kenzan's nose told him the other wasn't completely well, and the way those wide gray eyes widened further at the sight of him confirmed that.

shou tried to inch back into the alcove, his mouth working a little, but nothing coming out of it. kenzan held out a hand.

"come on, everyone else wants to see you." he leaned in closer when shou didn't take it, whispering. "it's okay. we know about that vampire. we're gonna get rid of her."

shou's eyes had always been large, but now kenzan thought for certain they'd expand right out of his head. what was his problem? kenzan stared down at him, trying to piece this together.

"don't you want to come out of there?" there had to be a reason for this. he wasn't the most intellectual of beings, but kenzan knew that there was no way shou would choose a random alcove and hide himself in it for the rest of time. something just wasn't right.

granted, nothing seemed right in the marufuji household right now.

shou's nod was tiny but noticeable even in the dim lantern light. kenzan kept his hand held out.

"then come on. let's go." something about this began to nudge at the edges of his awareness. he wished he'd studied vampires and what they could do more. maybe that would've helped him figure it out.

shou bit his lip a little. he looked paler than kenzan remembered seeing him, but he didn't have the scent of death and blood that marked a vampire. kenzan didn't think that was the problem.

shou's lips moved a little. he didn't make noise at all, but kenzan recognized he was saying something. lip-reading wasn't his best skill either, but he tried. it helped a lot that shou wasn't saying anything very complicated.

i can't. she told me not to.