[Log of old thread]
Lightning scraped his toe along the patch of stone floor outside Air's study toe, worn from where he had scraped it countless times before. He had been
summoned, of course - it was rare any of them went without being summoned. Air shut himself away in there with paper, which Lightning assumed was boring and
didn't think to be suspicious of. To him, it was just something Air liked to do. Earth had his books, and his plants - the latest of which Lightning had
not-quite-accidentally upset some acid on earlier in the day. He was awaiting Earth's discovery of it with a mixture of apprehension and glee.
He wanted to impress his eldest brother, as he always did. It hardly ever worked. He usually ended up showing off shamelessly and making himself ridiculous, or
lapsing into a sort of muted silence, as though he were embarrassingly grateful Air wanted to see him at all. Although he loved all his brothers equally, he
could never quite shake off feeling like a school-child about to be beaten for doing something wrong - Air had that way of looking at you.
He knocked on the door. He had learnt, over the years, that Air didn't find spontaneous visits endearing.
It had been three months since Fire had rejoined the Batsu, although one could hardly count it, as Fire had spent little more than a week
in the HQ itself. His time was taken up largely with being Sohma's lapdog and training their current 'new member', Takayama Daiichi.
Takayama. Air frowned, setting aside his ink brush to sit back from the desk. Takayama - his thoughts always drifted to the dilemma at hand. It would have
become depressing if Air was the sort of man who dwelled on things.
A knock sounded at the door. The man's black eyes flicked up. That would be Lightning. "Enter."
The door slid back, silent as it would have been on a mission, and his footsteps matched it. His feet were bare, which he belatedly recalled was something
which annoyed Air, but he hated wearing shoes when he didn't have to, just as he hated wearing dark colours; something else he had temporarily forgotten
was best to do in the presence of his elder brother.
Air was sitting as his desk, which was reassuringly as expected. Lightning smiled, a bright, nervous smile. "You sent for me,
nii-sama?"
Air gestured at one of the cushions sitting in front of his desk, blatantly ignoring the lack of proper attire his youngest brother was
sporting. "Sit. I have an assignment for you."
He slid to his knees on the cushion, sky blue silk puddling around him, and waited, bright eyes fixed on Air. He was humming
with excitement at this meeting, and at the prospect of an 'assignment'. They all knew what that meant. A chance to prove his loyalty, again, as Air
always liked to put it. A chance to impress him, as Lightning preferred to see it. And another crimson homecoming and that look in Earth's eyes he never
quite understood and always shied away from.
Air liked to keep his desk clear of clutter, piling his important work on a mat on the floor next to him when it could
not be filed and put away. This was to make room for the calligraphy that he enjoyed, which was present now. However, Air rolled up the sheet and set it aside
as well. He rarely did this, preferring to multitask.
"There is a warrior named Masayuki Koji that lives in the barracks at the
palace," he said, as soft spoken as the wind itself. "He is brown haired, dark eyed, five-ten and wears the Ozawa crests. I believe that he has
uncovered hints to the existence of the Batsu through watching Fire's movements. I want you to find out what he knows and then dispose of the
remains."
The sunny expression Lightning wore would have been better suited to someone who had just been informed they were going on a
picnic. The end of one long white finger peeped out from under the fold of his too-long sleeve and clawed thoughtfully at the fabric. The scratching his nail
made on the silk filled the momentary silence. "Of course," he said softly. "I'll go tonight."
"You will bring Fire with you," Air added, as though this thought should be obvious.
His attention was brought back from drifting consideration of exactly how he was going to make Masayuki Koji tell him everything from his mother's
favourite colour to the meaning of life with a sharp snap. Confusion hung in bright eyes. "Fire?" he asked, as though Air had suggested, out of the
blue, something silly. Then, indignation flared. "I don't need him!" he exclaimed. "I can do it!" He stared at Air accusingly.
"You know I can do it."
Air lifted a hand to quiet Lightning's temper-tantrum before it could begin. "Hold your tongue," he instructed, the
sharpness of his voice no weaker for his soft spoken ways. "I am well aware of your capabilities. Bringing Fire is for his benefit, not yours. He has lost
his way and it is up to us to bring him home on the right path, as brothers. Do you not agree?"
Lightning's lower lip stuck out, and he looked sulky. "Ye-es," he said, unwilling to actually voice any sort of disagreement with Air, although
he hadn't given up yet. "But I don't see why he has to come with me."
"As I said, Fire has lost his way. He has ceased to find the same delight in death as he previously enjoyed. Fire even claims that
he dislikes the act of taking a life. You and I both know that the Fire we knew would never claim such ridiculousness. He has merely forgotten what it is like.
That is why I want him to go with you. Who else to help him reaquaint with his real self? The world outside has spoiled him."
He was silent, taking it in. It seemed impossible that Fire could have changed so much. The brother he remembered, from before Fire had gone and left them, had
been most at home bathed in the colours of a vivid sunset, hair and skin and eyes tinged red with the light of bloodlust. Lightning didn't believe that
that person could have gone. But then there had been the way he had just left them without a word, and the lord who had put his mark on Fire, and the woman.
His hands started to tremble violently. It was all their fault. They had taken his brother away and made him into somebody they didn't know any
more.
Besides, said the other side of Lightning's mind, which was essentially optimistic, he
would get to spend time with Fire, which had been a rare enough event in the last few years. "Alright," he agreed suddenly, with the air of one
granting a great favour. "He can come."
Air smirked. It was not a kind expression. "Many thanks, Lightning. You are dismissed."
It was a completely foolish thing to do, and he knew it before he had got halfway around the other side of the desk, but something in him
drove him to try it anyway. He did not (or at least, he should not) demand affection from Air. Air didn't like it, and he ought to have known better. But
whenever he was alone with one of his brothers memories of past repulsion vanished. He put his arms around Air.
He had been mid-reach for his scroll of calligraphy when he sensed movement inside his personal space. Do not do it, the little voice in the back of the
Batsu's mind warned, as though Lightning might be able to hear his mental command. But his brother ignored his wishes and wrapped his arms around him,
invading his personal boundaries and actually touching him.
The dark haired man went very still, his arm freezing in the air.
Silence followed, then a very short and crisp "get off."
Lightning did not immediately remove his arms, and part of him was certain, just for a moment, that death was very close. But of course,
Air was his brother, and Air would never hurt him, or not seriously. He squeezed tighter for a moment, and then let go, reluctantly. Air was as hard and
unyielding as a marble statue, but one moment of almost-warmth had been enough. "I love you, nii-sama," he whispered softly. There was
little point in saying that, either, but it slipped out as easily as a dying breath.
Air refused to allow himself the breath of relief that came almost unbidden when Lightning let go.
He brushed himself off, taking a moment to flick an imaginary particle of dust from his shoulder, and settled more comfortably. Lightning had always been more
clingy than the others.
It was grating - almost enough to make Air
want to kill him. I love you nii-sama. There was the tiniest twinge of something deep in the cob-webbed recesses of where his heart was supposed to
be. Air poured proverbial sand on top of it and went back to his own amusements as his brother walked out, never giving the smothered, near-dead emotion a
second thought. Whatever it was, it did not belong in him.
