Title: Very
Series: "Samurai Deeper Kyo"
Disclaimer: Akimine Kamijyo owns.
Warnings: N/A.
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Hotaru, Yuan.
Rating: PG

Looking up at the dilapidated house, Hotaru felt a spark of recognition. He knew this house. The only question was: where, though? He made a soft sound in the back of his throat and approached the house, stopping about twenty feet from it to look up, his yellow eyes blinking slowly. "Hm."

"Yo, Keikoku," he heard someone greet. Turning, Hotaru saw a man in red and white, a blindfold around his eyes approach, stopping about arms length from him. His hair was weird... white, like a cloud.

Or his shirt. Or maybe his teeth...

He stared blankly at the man for several long moments before the man grinned. "Don't tell me you forgot my name again."

Hotaru tilted his head to the side.

Yuan laughed, grinning widely. He could practically see the gears turning in his idiot student's head. Any minute now...

Oh, that's right. "Maa. How've ya been, Yun-Yun?" He greeted rather belatedly, waving to his master.

"That's Yuan-shishou," he corrected lightly, punching Hotaru gently above his temple. They'd done this several times and it had become second nature.

"But, Yuan's so long and complicated!" Hotaru protested, smacking Yuan's hand away.

"Yun-Yun's longer," Yuan muttered, brushing aside that annoying feeling of déjà vu he got every time they repeated those lines.

Hotaru blinked. "It is?" He shrugged it off – he didn't want to get hit for real!

"Hey, Yuan!" A feminine voice called, stilling both master and student. A head of light coloured hair poked out from the doorway. "Oh, Keikoku!" Anna grinned. "I didn't know you were there. Are you staying for dinner?" She asked.

Nodding, Hotaru said, "Hey, Anna," which translated to yes, I am staying for dinner. Yes, Anthony and I are going to race again. Yes, you should make more rice. And don't forget the soy sauce.

"Well, dinner is almost ready, so, come inside when you're done!" And she slipped back inside leaving a rather irritated Yuan.

"You've known me longer than most of the people in the Mibu and yet you remember Anna's name," Yuan grumbled.

Turning his yellow eyes to Yuan, Hotaru said, "She would hit me if I forgot."

That made Yuan pause. Oh. Hm, that made sense given who his younger sister was. She scared him. "Eh, anyway, how'd you end up here?" Not that he wasn't welcome, Yuan was just curious.

"I don't know," Hotaru said, turning away to give his attention to a caterpillar that was making its home on a plant. "I'm leaving."

"Again?" Yuan frowned. He didn't like it when Hotaru left 'cause he tended to do stupid things when he came home, like fight his family. "Where?"

Hotaru didn't answer for a long time – the caterpillar was munching on a leaf and walking at the same time. Then, he said, "China."

Laughing, Yuan pressed his palm to his forehead. "Ah, jeez. Why China? Isn't that a little... far?"

"Is it? I thought it was near Edo..."

And Yuan's fist connected with Hotaru's cheek – not lightly, not hard. Yuan felt the urge to desperately beat some sense into his adopted son's brain. Then again, only death could cure stupidity. He wondered absently if Hotaru's mother dropped his as an infant.

That thought brought him up short – it was nearly impossible to think of Hotaru as a baby. Remembering him as an angry child was bad enough. Yuan nearly rolled his eyes from underneath the blindfold. "No, Keikoku," he said with exaggerated patience that even Hotaru noticed – and was annoyed by. "No, China is very, very, very, very... very far!"

Hotaru blinked, tilting his head gently to the side. "That's a lot of verys. Maybe it's very, very, very, very, very, very far?"

Yuan's eyebrows wrinkled together as he counted the verys. "Oi, forget the verys! It's far!"

"Or maybe it's just very, very, very, very far?"

Inhaling deeply, Yuan counted down from ten slowly, his hands clenching and unclenching. "Maybe. Don't care. Are you gonna go inside or not? You know how Anna gets."

"Aa, okay."