Of Mice and Men

or

The (not-so) Great Mouse Hunt

*grins* Just for fun, Male bonding at its worst.  Yeah, there's that little war coming up *rolls eyes*  But can't we still have a little fun? Pretty please?  X_x This makes little sense, by the way, and was written because I'm hell on a sugar high.  No mice, rats or spiders were harmed during the making of this fic.  *thinks* Yeah-Kanzas is more laid back in this, the first part anyway.  ^-^;;;;

"—understand WHY you had to wake me up…"  The slighter blond man groused sleepily.  Behind thick spectacles, sea green eyes were set balefully on the back of the man before him.  "It's not even dawn."

"Stop whining." Clad in a light-eating black, the violet dragoon merged with the pre-sunrise shadows like a wraith.  Kanzas tossed a smirk over his shoulder.  "Breath that fresh air."

"Since when did you care about fr—ghaa!" A clumsy stumble led into frantic wind milling on the jade dragoons part, through which Kanzas watched with an expression bordering on amused derision, and tugged on the blue sleeve of the others shirt to balance him back out.

"Thanks for the help." Syu gasped, hugging to the stairs with a fearful grip, rolling eyes over the edge that loomed so close by.

"You're welcome."  With that same mocking smirk that turned up the corners of a thin mouth, Kanzas continued up the steep incline with an uncaring ease.  At the top, his destination was the small box left of the arched doorway, and when lifted into his rough grasp, an angered squeaking erupted. 

Syuveil stood shakily on the platform outside the violet capped tower, squinting against the ponderously rising sun with a irritated glower that denoted one not of the morning persuasion.    

"What is so important that it couldn't wait until later--?"  the bespectacled scholar was muttering as Kanzas emerged, reaching into the box and withdrawing its furry occupant.

"Hey, is this the kids' rat or wha…?" 

Syuveil had turned at the sound of his voice, widening eyes riveting at once on the thrashing rodent in the others hand with a look of absolute horror.  

"Is it or not?" Reddish hair caught faint rays of dawning light as the sinewy dragoon urged the 'pet' upon the blond for identification. 

Syuveil yelped inarticulately and batted the proffered animal away with a wild swing.  Smacked from Kanzas's grasp, still squeaking in offended outrage, it sailed over the edge in a blur of sleek white fur. 

"What is WRONG with you!?" the dragoon of wind yelled, rubbing his hand frantically on his hastily donned shirt as if to remove the feeling of the even touching the furry creature.

Kanzas stared at him, lean features warring between amazement and disbelief.  "Me?  You're the whackjob who just chucked it overboard!"  A quick glance to follow the mouse's first and final flight, a quirked eyebrow over dark eyes.  "You better hope that wasn't the kids' furball."  Not that he cared whether it was the ludicrously named long-tail or not, had it NOT been, well…fair game for punting.    

Syuveil echoed a weak, "Kid…?"

A thumb jerked in the general direction of Damia's silent tower.  "Her and the giant were keeping one as a pet…I think…"

Syu followed the others gaze, growing steadily whiter with a sinking expression.  "Bubbles…the mouse…"

An incredulous dark eyed look.  "You're afraid of a mouse…?"

Both peered down the winding path down the seven towers, back at each other. 

"Huh," Kanzas commented off-handedly.  "Wonder if they bounce."

Syuveil, swiftly coloring a shade aptly suiting the hue of his dragon spirit, looked positively ill.  Even more so when observing the…remains at the tower base, and it did NOT help his churning stomach when Kanzas uttered a low whistle and gave the jade dragoon a wicked look after saying, "Guess they don't bounce."

Whimper.

"I thought you were used to, you know," A quick gesture to….Bubbles.  "Ghoosh." And looking like a man generally not accustomed to saying the word "ghoosh" Kanzas rocked back on his haunches with perverse glee.  Boredom would be a long time coming today, it seemed.

The back of his hand tight against his mouth, Syu swallowed, glanced at the rising sun, back to the…splotch that was…had been Damia's 'pet' and finally back to Kanzas.  "Come on, we don't have a lot of time."

Warily and a suspicious glimmer hinting in dark features, the thunder dragoon rose.  "For what?"

Syuveil, swiping a short fall of blond from determined eyes, announced grimly.  "We're going mouse hunting."

Heavy wood creaked open with infuriating slowness, revealing in the narrow opening an inky sub-cellar painted in murky shadows, highlighted with gossamer and intricate spider webbing.  Kanzas thrust a lighted torch into the gloom and was rewarded with the rapid scuttling/scurrying of a myriad of crawly critters. 

"There's gotta be hundreds of rats in there." And the black-clad mans grin was not without a sort of hilarity wrought from his companions obvious reaction.  

Syuveil emitted a low whimper, blanched a particular shade of grave-readied white—

--and scraped a step backwards, shaking his head.  "I-I can't go in there…"

 "Yes you can."  Kanzas answered blithely.  "You killed the rat, Squealer."

"I did NOT squeal!"

Leaning casually against the open door all the while bouncing a leather satchel against his leg, the other dropped a blackly scornful gaze to the blond scholar, who fidgeted uncomfortably under the hard stare.

"Okay! So I'm afraid of mice!  Can we get this over with?" 

Kanzas crossed his arms, jerked his head curtly in response, and steeling a shiver as the shadow of the cellar pooled at his hesitant feet, Syu snatched the proffered torch away from the snickering other and plunged in.

Cold, damp dirt lent a stagnant and unpleasant odor to the air.  Syuveil lifted a corner of his mouth in a snarl of disgust, turned to ensure Kanzas was indeed following, and was rewarded with a clinging web and the unshakable feeling that something was crawling through his hair. 

"You lived a very sheltered life."

"Oh shut up."  

"Squeak squeak." And Kanzas strayed from the pool of light with a cackle benefiting a madman. 

Syu muttered at his retreating back, inching along the way and bringing a sleeve up over his nose to cover a particular malodorous REEK that wafted on a stale air current.  What SANE person keeps a RAT for a pet?  Carriers of plague--one bite could KILL someone.  Soa!  I thought Belzac was a teacher…

"Think fast!"  Something warm, furry and thrashing thumped solidly to his chest and clung with grasping paws, to snarl and clamber up. 

Syuveil's inarticulate yelp and ensuing actions of frantically swatting/beating at the snarling creature brought an amused bout of sniggering from the thunder dragoon.    

The torch fell, dousing the golden haze and sending the damp shadows into play once more.  Syu emitted a low whine…. but kept the twisting rat in one tightly clenched hand, while Kanzas' chuckles subsided into perverse snickers. 

"Kanzas…you…." Syuveil sputtered, blanched and spat out, "ass!"

"Bwah," the other guffawed, and the bespectacled blond saw only a phantom outline in the dimmed light of the shorter man striding closer with the leather satchel being tugged open.  "Fork it over, snag some dye from the wash rooms an—"

"Who said anything about DYE--?"

"And 'poof!'" The wiry fighter plucked the snapping 'Bubbles' replacement from Syu's death-grip and plopped it carelessly into the bag.  "New rat.  Kid's happy.  The giant's happy—"

"His name is Belzac—"

Kanzas jabbed his sharply enough to draw a pained 'whoof.' "And YOU can move on with the knowledge that the kid is stupid enough not to realize that you killed her rat and had to go digging around in the—"

Angrily, the jade dragoon spun and stalked away from the lilting voice.  "Learn a new song and leave me alone!"

Over the crunch of bug husks and scuttling legs, the shadows rolled with the sound of "Oh, nothing makes me sadder than the Jade who lost his blad—"

"Shut up Kanzas!" Syu snarled over his shoulder.  A brief moment passed, and another before he realized that he had been walking too far, and that the door, just a tiny pin point of light now at the far side of the cellar, seemed a lot farther as well.  Maybe then, he'd just gone further that he realized while mentally ranting. 

"Hey, Squealer!" 

Syuveil ignored him, but heard the rapid crunching of insect shells as Kanzas strode after him.

"Wrong way book-boy."

Psh, the light was stronger and the door was closer, the sooner he got OUT of here, the better.  Kanzas was an infuriating son-of-a-bitch ninety-nine percent of the time, and this ungodly morning had not spared him the tolerable one percent. 

Kanzas made a disgusted sound, whether from the smell of the cellar or Syuveil's continued silence, he did not know.  "You. Are. Going. The. Wrong. Way. Idiot." Steely fingers clamped vice-like on the scholar's lanky shoulder.  "THIS leads OUTSIDE of Vellweb."

From inside the tied bag, the captured rodent set of a round of squeaking, to which Kanzas answered with a hard shake.  "C'mon, we got the critter, let's go."

Stubborn human pride, call it that.  Syuveil folded his arms, spun on the thunder elemental and opened his mouth to speak, to DEMAND apology, when another voice abruptly sliced through his words.

"Mmnih vican?" Elegant, silken and undeniably—

"Wingly." Kanzas stated thickly.  Demeanor changed as quickly as a lightning strike, mirth folded away like a change of clothing as a sort of darker hate replaced it.  Syu crouched in the dampness of the cellar, listening to the words echo closer, and to the harsher breathing of the man beside him as he continued with, "Assassins?"

Whatever they were, Syuveil clenched fists, readied, while a hunting growl escaped in the shadows and the killing edge of steel claws rose in uncertain light.  Kanzas echoed a fierce, "Wingly bastards." And Syuveil had no choice but to trace his fleet path to the doorway outside.

X_X  Blah.  Yes-I stole a portion of that song from con-air.  STOLE.  STOLE. STOLE.     This has a point.  O.O New term.  Point?  What point?  PWP!  X_x Maim I.