Something about Boys with Braids

Series: Monochrome Factor

Time line: Immediately after the fight with Nanaya (probable AU)

He sucks. I absolutely, positively cannot stand him! Argh!!

The rest of the team watched in fascination as Akira flailed, hands on his head, somehow managing not to fall off his bar stool. "Hey, you think he's ok?" The blonde high school student asked the table.

Aya looked at Akira and then at Kengo, the blonde seemed genuinely concerned for his friend, but she merely scoffed the question away. "He's always like this, I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, if something was really wrong, Shirogane would have told us." Speaking of the Shadowy Shin, she glanced down the other end of the bar.

Master was pouring another glass for the silver-haired man. She grimaced slightly as the man downed the drink and motioned for another. Master waved his hand, cutting him off, but the Shin looked so dejected he poured one more before putting the bottle away. She quickly glanced away, "Well, maybe..."

Shirogane pressed his face against the cool counter of the bar, his long silver braid curling around his feet. He sighed heavily and looked at the brown-haired teen on the other side of the bar. Akira hadn't talked to him since they got back from the warehouse battle with Nanaya. He knew Akira thought he couldn't trust him, and in some ways he was right, which made this all the more difficult.

Akira had stopped flailing for the moment. He ran his hands through his hair and then hopped down off the stool. Swinging his jacket over his shoulder he nodded to Master and walked out of the bar, not bothering to speak to either the group, or Shirogane.

Kengo jumped up and ran after him, tossing a few coins down as he left. "I swear, I don't know why he bothers, Akira won't tell him anything. He'll probably just get hit for his troubles." Aya shook her head and finished her drink. Walking over to the counter she asked for another one. She sipped the soda as she sat down by the dejected shadow. "So, you gonna tell us what happened, or not?"

Shirogane looked up at the girl. "Umm...Akira-kun hates me now."

She glanced at him without pity, "Why, because he won't talk to you? Did ever think about why he's mad at you?"

"Because I didn't trust him," he mumbled.

"Yeah, that's one reason, why else?"

"Huh? That's it, isn't it?" The shin looked up confused.

"Boys sure are stupid. You didn't tell him anything else except to trust you, right? And you're always telling him how much you love him and stuff, but you don't trust him at all. How is he supposed to grow-up if you keep coddling him?" She half-glared at the man beside her, "He went there trying to protect you, even if he got his ass beat you should have stayed at home! He was only concerned with your safety, if he really hated you he would have told you to go by yourself. But no, instead you not only don't trust him, you squash that monster ego of his and then get yourself kidnapped! What the hell do you think he was like while you were gone?! He was a wreck; I've never seen him like that, ever!"

By this point Aya was on her feet, grasping the front of Shirogane's jacket in a vice-like grip, fingers stark white against the black fabric. "I'd hit you if I thought it'd help! Seriously, both of you are so stupid sometimes!"

"Aya, I think he gets it, you can put him down now..." The Master's soft voice wafted through the dead quiet bar. She hadn't meant to lose it like this, but maybe it was for the better. Pushing the Shin back against the stool she stomped off towards the front door, "Well, if he really understood he sure as hell wouldn't still be sitting there, would he?" Glaring over her shoulder she pinned the Shin with a look, "He'd be out there! Finding that moron and telling him, wouldn't he?"

She slammed the door open and left, heading in the opposite direction that the boys had taken. See if she ever got involved in their stupid little spats again! Morons! She sighed heavily as she walked home.

Shirogane slumped down on the stool, glancing from face to face. The rest of the team slowly mumbled their thanks to Master and departed, sliding out into the darkening night. "Well, what are you planning on doing now?" Master asked into the now relatively empty room.

"I think...I think I made a terrible mistake." The silver-haired man pushed his gloved hands through his bangs, "I'm not sure anymore Master. I was sent for a reason, but now..."

The Master of Bar Still put down the glass he was drying and sat down opposite his friend. "Akira-kun is young. Not only that, but it doesn't seem like he has a lot of experience with relationships of any kind. Add in that he has to fight a battle he doesn't know anything about, and that he's now a Shin, and it seems to be the one person he should be able to trust doesn't trust him...well, maybe you can see where he's coming from, eh?"

Shirogane looked up at the slightly smiling face of Master, "Master, what should I do?"

"What do you want to do? Do you want to leave, never to talk to him again? Or do you want to be with him?" At his friend's confused look he continued softly, "He's a Shin now, he'll never be a Rei, he'll never be Ryuko...do you still want to have him involved in this battle?"

Shirogane's shocked face betrayed deeper emotions, "I know that, I know he's not Ryuko, but still..."

"If you know that and you don't care, then maybe you should listen to Aya." He patted his friend's shoulder and walked back to the bar, getting ready for the long night ahead, completely ignoring the Shin as he ran through the door and out into the night.

--

"Akira! A..Ki..Ra!! Come on! Wait up!" Kengo shouted after his friend's retreating back. He knew that this really wasn't going to end well, if he annoyed Akira too much he'd be limping home, but he couldn't help himself. He knew the boy didn't feel anything other than 'Oh, you're there' towards him, he wasn't even sure if Akira thought of him as a friend, but he couldn't just leave him alone. He wasn't sure why, just that they'd been together since elementary school and he was comfortable with the steady knowledge of where they stood with each other.

Shirogane had changed that though. Kengo scowled a bit. It wasn't that he didn't like Shirogane, he did, mostly, kinda... He just didn't like that someone was able to get close to Akira when nobody else could, himself included. He shook his head; he was just worried about his friend, that's all, nothing more.

"Akira! Hold up already would you?! Aré?" He had been blindly following Akira for several minutes now and when he looked up, realized Akira was nowhere to be seen. "Oh man...now where'd he go?" Hurrying along, he headed for Akira's place.

Akira stepped out from between the houses, shaking his head as he watched Kengo run on down the street. "Moron," He mumbled under his breath. Detouring to the right, he headed for the little park a few blocks away. He always went there to think things through, and today he definitely needed to think alone.

He climbed up onto the slide and just sat there, staring up at the darkening sky. As the stars peppered the evening he sighed heavily. Face propped up in his hands he looked around, this is my world, I'm human, not some stupid shadow, why the hell do I have to fight with one? He let out and exasperated breath, it's all his fault! Everything would be back to normal if it wasn't for him! Stupid Shirogane!

The more he thought about everything, the angrier Akira became. He just wasn't ready for all this, why did he always get stuck fighting? What else would you do? That stupid little voice in the back of his mind was yapping again. It was getting louder lately, that stupid part of him that was on fire during the battles, that took great joy when a Kokuchi dissolved into dust around his blades, that sent small shivers of electricity through him when Shirogane whispered in his ear at night...

"No!! God damn it!! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Akira held his head in his hands and shook himself back and forth, he did not think that way about that back-stabbing liar! He didn't!

"Akira-kun?" that lilting voice in his ear made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

"Gahh!! What the hell!" Akira spun around, falling over the edge of the railing hard.

"Ah!! Akira-kun! Akira-kun?! Are you alright?" Shirogane's face was inches from his as he blinked slowly. The fall wasn't a big one, but it did manage to knock the wind out of him for a moment.

"Yeah" he coughed, "I'm fine. What the hell do you want?" He glared up at the worried Shin, pushing him out of the way as he sat up.

"Umm...I want to talk to you..." Shirogane glanced at the boy enviously before quickly glancing away.

"Yeah? Well, I'm not exactly in the mood to talk." Akira pushed himself off the ground and knocked the sand off his clothes. As he started to leave Shirogane roughly grabbed his arm, pinning him to the side of a tree.

"Akira, I need to talk to you." His voice was cold, almost detached as he peered at the younger boy.

"Let..go..of me." He hissed through clenched teeth. Akira was tired of this stupid game, tired of Shirogane, and just tired. He slumped to the ground and Shirogane let go of his hands.

"What? What do you need to tell me? I'm so tired of all this..." he felt dejected, completely cold and tired to his core. Whatever it was he didn't care anymore.

Shirogane looked mournfully at the crumpled boy by his feet, kneeling beside him; he sighed and laid his cane on the ground.

"I can't trust you like this." Sighing deeply he leaned forward and gently brushed the hair out of Akira's hurt eyes. "Not because you're weak, but because I am." Akira glanced up at the man confused.

"I was once a king in my world. A body completely made of shadow, but like in our world there are those here that are completely made of light, and they also have a king. We are opposites of each other, but inseparable at the same time. Something between brothers and lovers, we're that close. Mine was killed and I was exiled here to slowly die alone."

Shirogane took a shaky breath and continued, "When we die, sometimes, we can come back, reincarnate if you will. Sometimes we can't. Sometimes the royal powers get passed along to someone else, someone who isn't a part of our worlds at all." He paused again and looked up at the sky.

"My partner left his powers to another, a young boy who should never have been pulled into this conflict, but without whose help we will not win this battle. I'm not saying it's right, but it's what happened. When I first saw you I couldn't figure out why he did it. And then you fought so bravely and I figured that must be why, you'd be a good fighter. But that wasn't it."

"I just couldn't understand why he left you as his replacement, you only fought seriously when others were at stake, you never cared about yourself and it didn't seem like you cared about me either, so why? Why would he leave me with you? And then at the warehouse I understood." Shirogane leaned in closer to Akira, fingers gently outlining his cheek bones.

"He left me with you. He realized that I needed something he could never give me, a partner that would fight me as much as the enemy, one that could teach me about this other world and would allow me to be able to teach as well. We were partners in the roles that had to be fulfilled, but we could never be anything more."

Shirogane glanced at the boy's face, confusion plainly written across it. "Akira-kun, I came here looking for a replacement, but I found a partner; one that I very much want to stay with." Shirogane leaned down and slowly kissed the confused boy, expecting to be pushed away at any moment.

Akira wasn't sure what to do, normally he'd push Shirogane away and storm off, but after all that, he just wasn't sure. He understood most of what Shirogane had said: his partner had been killed. The person he loved, that could never love him back, had been killed. And that person, somehow, chose Akira to take his place.

Akira's eyes jerked open and he pushed the Shin back, roughly holding onto his shoulders. Face flushed he stared at the man, "I'm not him. I'll never be him. If you want him, you're not gonna get him from me. So, what am I to you?" He wasn't sure he was making sense, but he needed to know where he stood, things couldn't stay the way they were.

Shirogane looked at the boy in front of him. He knew he'd never be Ryuko, that he was just Akira, was that enough for him?

Akira was starting to get angry again, what was the point of Shirogane telling him all that if he was just going to confuse him even more?

Shirogane smiled gently down at the boy. "I have already mourned his loss, Akira-kun...and I know you are Akira-kun. I know that you can only be you. It was somewhere in between all the fights that I fell for you. Not the you that I thought could become him, but the you who will one day be a king in your own right. I know you only fight when you have to, when the people you care about are in danger. I want to be one of those people. Please, Akira-kun, I want you to fall for me too."

As the last words died on his lips Shirogane reached out and pulled Akira against him, kissing him hungrily, their bodies pressed against each other. Akira clutched at the Shin's back, one hand grabbing a fist full of jacket, the other tangling up in his braid. The teen was having a hard time thinking straight at the moment, but the cool touch of Shiroganes' hair in his hand helped ground him a bit.

As they pulled apart, Akira laughed slightly, raising the hair between them he explained, "I'm not sure what will come of this, but you know...I always did have a thing for braids." He smiled mischievously as he tugged on the braid, forcing the Shin into another passionate kiss, this time a willing partner until the end.