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Part 5
Page 19
You could adjust to a lot of things, when you lived
as long as Kougaiji had. War? Murder? American ethnocentrism? You got used
to it with time.
One thing he felt it would be just fine never to
have to adapt to was to phone someone up and be screamed at from the other
end.
"I don't really think I deserve this tone from you,"
he told Shujuan severely. "It's not like this is the first time I've called.
You'd think I'd interrupted your doomsday preparations."
"'Scuse me if we've got some'un bleeding over here!"
the girl snapped back, though in a slightly less shrill tone than before.
Kougaiji cringed. "Don't you usually keep your phone
off for that time of the--"
"Not that!" she roared. "Jian! Is bleeding!
So call back in ten minutes or something!"
So he did.
"And why is Jianmin bleeding?" he asked when she
picked up the second time.
Shujuan's voice was only slightly higher than normal
when she answered, "It doesn't have anything t'do with you."
Ah-ha.
"What's happening?" the youkai pressed. "Are you
all right over there? Is someone after you?"
"I gotta go," she answered, sounding distracted.
"Bye."
"Wait--"
One thing you did get used to was the sense
of crises going on just outside your reach. Though it didn't make it any
easier to deal with.
Kougaiji realized he was holding a barely-contained
urge to chuck the phone against a wall.
It figured, with that goddess. Leaving on a hint
of something very big and broad and completely unreadable until after the
fact. History repeating in ways not just due to the nature of societal
development. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
The hutong agents were coming back with reports
even faster now. It was like someone had thrown a switch. Or opened floodgates.
He chewed a claw, a habit he really shouldn't have
had. It wasn't nervousness, really, he was sure he'd more or less
gotten that out of his system by now, but the situation was just getting
so agitating and...
Dokugakuji soon keyed in on his lover's aura and
went to his side on the bed to set about distracting him, as any dutiful
spouse would. This involved the rather mechanical removal of clothes and
a reorientation of various body parts.
(It wouldn't be fair to say Doku could do this blindfolded.
He'd mastered that in the first hundred years. Now it didn't even take
muscle exertion.)
Yet still, as Kougaiji should rightly have been
occupied getting his thighs pushed up until the knees were pressed even
with his chest, he was still hearing that damnedable Goddess in his head--
"Kou..."
"Sorry," he murmured, and attempted to refocus himself.
An attempt that didn't get very far, when the bedside
telephone rang a few minutes later.
Dokugakuji sighed, settled himself down onto his
lover's chest. He pinned the hand Kougaiji brought up and picked up the
phone himself. "Yeah," he said, shutting off panting for later. "Right.
Really?
"Well," he told Kougaiji with unmasked irritation,
as he set the phone back onto its receiver. "Your agents found out why
that boy was bleeding."
"And?"
"And it looks like Kannon wasn't talking shit out
of hir ass," he deadpanned.
That sprung the king immediately into action. He
nudged his lover out of the way and sat up, not even bothering to collect
his clothes before making to stand. "I have to go."
"I wouldn't try that yet--"
Thud.
"--yeah."
"..."
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