I have no explanation for this, other than the fact that I intended to start this story on a serious and dramatic note. Well, that didn't happen. One brainstorming session with HoneyBadger - over making a chocolate cake - later, my brilliant plan for a fabulous desert romance had been reduced to... THIS!

This whole thing came from a picture that I saw in the back of a manga book. I even drew a picture for this story! (Well, actually, I traced it and then HoneyBadger put heads on top of the people to change them into Toushirou and Karin. Heh. Check it out on our DA account, okay?)

Enjoy!

Title: Genie in the Teapot - Chapter 1

Author: MeteorLeopard (SugarFox)

The heat was sweltering, and for an individual like Toushirou, it was his worst nightmare. He hated the heat, and it was somewhat problematic when you lived in the middle of the desert. Long stretches of hazy sand and the sun beating down on you like a drum. Who wouldn't want to live in a large stone city in the middle of all this? The answer would be him.

He preferred to spend every day hiding in his living quarters at the palace, cowering from the heat. The only upside of being the son of the King's most trusted advisor was that there were always servants on standby to bring you icy cold fruit punch while you muttered incorrigible curses about the blasted weather.

The downside of being the son of the second most powerful man in the kingdom, would be your father and aunt's determined efforts to get you to 'settle down with a nice girl'. This seriously hacked Toushirou off beyond reasonable proportions. He was so irritated with Matsumoto trying to set him up with some high society girl that he had fled to the streets for the day, only dressed in his peasant clothing reserved for his escapes and a thick piece of cloth hiding is head of unusual white hair.

Now if there was anything that indicated how badly he didn't want to get married, it would be the fact that he would rather brave the midday sun than meet potential suitors. Did he mention just how much he hated the heat? He hated it so much that he would rather swim in an oasis full of deadly, poisonous scorpions! That at least was quick and relatively painless, while the torture of the blistering heat – or meeting potential suitors – seemed endless.

Matsumoto was his overbearing and motherly aunt who didn't seem to understand that he didn't need a wife! He needed a new fan to keep him cool, he needed a new camel, and perhaps some new ceremonial robes for parties and whatnot, but a wife? Not in the slightest. So he had fled, and found himself wandering the dusty streets of the market place.

Disheveled merchant's children braved the heat and played jovially amongst the stalls and there was a sweet spicy smell in the air from the honey, cinnamon and dried figs that the humble merchants were selling with booming voices. He moseyed past baskets filled with fruits, piled high with spices, and even a stall selling Persian carpets in shades of mahogany and beige.

He suddenly felt very hungry, and recalled that he had skipped lunch in order to make himself scarce from the palace. Toushirou pulled a silver coin from his light linen robes and proffered it to the merchant. He requested a bag of roasted cashew nuts and a flask of water and the man obliged with a toothy grin. The merchant that Toushirou was dealing with was a humble and world wise man who had travelled great distances to acquire his goods, and his experiences were carved into his deeply wrinkled and weather-beaten face.

Toushirou wondered what it would be like to be a general merchant and travel the world. He would be able to see so many things, and meet so many new people. He wouldn't have to be house-bound to the palace, and he wouldn't have to find a wife. The thought was so tempting, and Toushirou wondered if he would be able to make a success of being a merchant. Now that he thought about it, he knew absolutely nothing about being buying and selling things, and the second he settled down to sell anything he would be discovered and dragged back to the palace. Images of him being found and hauled back to the palace by Matsumoto and a dozen soldiers did not sound like a particularly enjoyable experience. Hmm. Oh well.

Toushirou continued to wander and look for a place to sit and enjoy his impromptu lunch. After wandering for ten minutes, he found himself at the edge of the huge city. Large walls surrounded the granite and marble buildings and at night they closed the doors as to keep out the bandits and crooks. Alternatively, it may have been built to keep people inside. You could never be quite sure about these things.

Toushirou wandered out of the gates and barely spared a nod for the guards at the gate who gave him a glare before allowing him to exit. He found a spot along the wall on the outside of the city that had gained a small slice of shade in the afternoon sun.

Settling down, he began to munch through his bag of nuts, and he was glad for the refuge that the tall granite wall offered. He sat there and began to attempt to think out an ingenious plan to escape the palace and travel the world. Although no matter how many ideas ran through his mind, he was unable to think of one that could prevent him from being recognized by locals and deported back home after he had managed to escape. Lost deep in his planning, he was suddenly flung from his mulled thoughts when a slovenly dressed beggar threw himself at Toushirou's feet and began pleading for a drink of water.

Toushirou looked the haggard man up and down, and deduced that he had probably come from the middle of the desert. What kind of man in his right mind went walking into the desert on a day like this? Certainly no man who had a least a dried fig's worth of common sense. Toushirou reached to the flask on the ground beside him and extended the cool water for the man to drink. The man grabbed the water so fast that he nearly dropped it and drank greedily, rivulets of water running down his bearded face. After drinking his fill, the man took a deep gasp of the thick, humid air and wiped his mouth on his torn sleeve.

"Many thanks, kind stranger," he told Toushirou, who just nodded as the beggar handed him his flask back. "I have been trapped in the desert for days, lost and unable to find civilization. I am ever grateful for the kindness you have shown me. If there is anything I can do to repay you..." He rambled on, and Toushirou just raised a hand to silence him.

"No thanks will be necessary," he began to say, but the man was very insistent that he had to give Toushirou something. Toushirou had barely had a chance to breathe again – or utter o word of protest – when the man shoved something into his hand, and left as if he had pack of rattlesnakes on his heels. Toushirou blinked and noted that he was truly alone. The man was running away for dear life on a one-way path for the city gates.

Curious now, Toushirou began to examine the item in his hand. It was a teapot. Rather small, probably only for one or two cups of tea, and made of what appeared to be bronze. It was decorated with large precious jewels and stones all over it's surface with the exception of a small rectangle on the one side. It was a beautiful teapot, rare and absolutely exquisite. It was probably a collectable, and worth its weight in cinnamon at the very least. Why the beggar man would have it – and be so eager to get rid of it – was just slightly worrying.

Giving the teapot another glance, Toushirou realized that the small, clear space on the bronze had something engraved on it. Squinting closely, and raising a hand to shade the glare of the sun, he read the small message on the side. It was simple, a mere two words in fact: "Rub me."

"How strange," Toushirou muttered to himself in a captivated undertone. "Why would someone want to rub a teapot?" He asked this question to no one in particular, and it might have been his imagination, but he was almost sure that the little pot wriggled a bit in his grip. He inspected it again, and nearly dropped it in shock when he realised that the writing on the side had changed to: "Just do it, idiot."

He blinked twice and shook his head. This was crazy; he had to be suffering from hallucinations or something. Yes, it must be a mirage. There was no way that a teapot was attempting to communicate with him! He'd probably just misread the message the first time. Although the thought of why somebody would engrave such a peculiar message on the side of a teapot left quite enough for him to ponder on.

Just to make sure he was not completely losing his mind, Toushirou raised his arm and rubbed the teapot to clear any dust off it, and to make sure that he wasn't missing any of the message. As he rubbed, the little teapot began to shudder and shake in a violent fashion. Strange purple smoke billowed out of the spout and bright sparks leapt out at regular intervals. Toushirou dropped the pot into the soft sand at his feet and stared, horrified. Edging away from it, as if it were a rabid camel, he gazed at it from behind raised hands.

The smoke cleared and Toushirou was surprised to find the smoky figure of a young girl dressed in light desert attire. Her face held a cheeky grin that was framed by a cropped bob of raven black hair. She was very pretty and had she not just emerged from a teapot, Toushirou might have attempted to strike up a conversation. However, you could never be sure what type of girls jumped out of teapots, so he refrained.

So Toushirou ended up just looking at her, completely bewildered, and beginning to wonder if the heat had finally addled his usually sensible mind. It might very well be true.

"You-! You just came out of that teapot!" He stumbled over his words, spluttering, and the girl looked amused, gazing at him with her hands crossed over her chest.

"Do you have a problem with me emerging from a teapot?" She asked, her voice holding the slightest hint of a teasing and challenging tone. Toushirou took a deep breath, muttering that this must be a mirage, and then closed his eyes and shook his head furiously before opening his eyes again.

She was still there.

"This is just wrong," he said to himself, muttering like mental asylum patient. "It must be the heat. Dehydration. That's it!" He seemed to have an epiphany. "Teapots aren't home to strange girls! This is all a figment of my imagination!" Toushirou rattled off, his talk seeming to assure himself that he had not in fact gone stark raving mad. "A dream! I am going to wake up at the palace and the servants are going to bring me breakfast. Yes, that's it. Just a dream." He continued to mutter and the petite dark haired girl was trying not to laugh at him.

"You know, I have had a lot of reactions over the last five thousand years, but yours is truly the funniest. You look like an idiot." She told him bluntly, laughing, her hands holding her sides, and he glared at her.

"You don't exist." He seemed to tell himself, more than her, and she seemed to take offense to this comment.

"Excuse me. I assure you that I am quite real. Would you like me to turn you into a desert rat?" She swooped closer to him, and jabbed him in the chest with a finger. "Would that be proof enough for you?" She said her tone indignant, and her proud chin in the air. His eyes widened and after that comment. He had no desire to become a rodent, and the mere fact that she had touched him and he had felt it was proof enough that this was no mirage. Even if she was floating and attached to the teapot by a long wisp of purple smoke.

"Who are you?" He asked her hesitantly, and she grinned widely, showing him all her pearly white teeth. Her presence was obvious, and it was clear on a closer inspection that she wasn't a completely solid entity. She looked sort of like a desert spirit, and definitely not human in the slightest. Raising her arms above her head, causing the bangles on her arms to clang loudly, she took a deep breath and then spoke.

"My name is Kurosaki Karin. The Genie of the Teapot! Master of Events of Great Consequence!" She told him smugly and procured a round of mini fireworks around her head from where she floated in midair.

Toushirou looked amazed. She was a genie? But genies were a myth! One hadn't been recorded in over five hundred years! She couldn't be a genie, it was impossible, he though stubbornly.

"You cannot be a genie. I have read books on genies. They are supposed to live in lamps," he told her with fierce determination, trying to convince himself more than anything else.

Karin the Genie looked irritated with him, and slapped her forehead with her palm. "Of course, everyone has to point that out!" She began to rant angrily. It was clearly a sore point for her. She threw her hands into the air and began to pace… well, float back and forth with vigor, and shrieked in a mocking voice. "You can't be a genie, Karin, genies live in lamps! No Karin, you can't possibly be all powerful because you live in a teapot! It never ends! I swear, the next one who points out that I can't possibly be a genie because live in a teapot will find themselves trampled by a herd of dung beetles!"

Toushirou had clearly rubbed her up the wrong way, if you excuse his pun. "Just a question. Why do you live in a teapot?" He asked her curiously and she sighed and gazed at him as if she was wondering if summoning the beetles was worth the effort to get rid of him.

"I live in a teapot," she explained through clenched teeth, "because the sorcerer who placed me in there had a sick sense of humor for the irony of it." She told him rather huffily, and he nodded as if he understood. Now that was one cruel, yet ingenious, sorcerer. Nobody would ever look for a genie in a teapot!

"Any specific reason for the choice of a teapot?" He asked, and she rolled her eyes as if he had asked a horribly silly question.

"Not really, but I hail from England. So it was the teapot or an umbrella stand. Take your pick, I preferred a house with a roof." She snapped and then shrugged, as if she was tired with the conversation. "Anymore silly questions for The Genie of the Teapot, oh master?" She asked with a lazy sort of sarcasm.

Toushirou looked at her amazed. He was the new master of an all-powerful genie. Upside: Free wishes. Downside: From a teapot. Though beggars couldn't be choosers, and that would be the near perfect solution to his predicament. He had a genie from a teapot. Frankly, he was still rather confused. Oh well, he guessed he should just go with it.

REVIEW PLEASE! :D

Chapter 2 is already almost finished!