And the culprit is...

[keire_ke]

Finished! OMG, I actually wrote something that has a plot! I am just so proud of myself. A little light on the romance side, but hey. We can't all be perfect. *grins*

Random thing: why so many Saiyuki fics have 'plutonic love'? It's running in the fandom, it seems. Is Sanzo that much like the sun, that he actually is radioactive?

“By all means, if you find one, I would very much wish to hear it. Until then, I’ll rely on my magic tricks, that works with you?” The only answer he got was a low growl. “Now we might as well walk.”

 

“Walk where?”

 

“Doesn’t really matter,” Duo said cheerfully. “We need something to occupy ourselves, and sightseeing seems like the way to go, for the moment. I forgot my cards,” he explained forlornly. Heero turned his back to the other man and started growling under his breath.

 

It didn’t help matters, when Duo casually started petting his head. The exorcist was a good two inches shorter than him, a little more slender and obviously lighter by a few kilos. The fact that he dared to just *pet* his hair, as if he was a dog of some sort, made the architect want to scream.

 

And purr.

 

“Now, now, no reason to get mad, Mr Yuy. I’m sure we’ll be out and about in no time at all.”

 

“What makes you so sure?” Heero growled in return. “You yourself said that no one would bother with setting this up for a prank only. If that’s not a prank, why would they bother?”

 

“Dunno. Hey, not my fault you moved to a spiritual centre of the country, so don’t glare at me!”

 

“Oh, fuck off, will you,” the blue-eyed man groused and sat cross-legged on the ground. “I’m not moving until you get us out.” Duo gave him a strange look, but complied by sitting right next to him, silent for the time being.

 

Seconds passed, without a sound being uttered. Then, almost simultaneously, both men opened their mouths to start a conversation, only to change their minds at the last moment and yell ‘duck!’.

 

Another fire ball hit the spot exactly between the spaces they were occupying, scorching their spots as well. When it dissipated, Heero and Duo stared at each other wide-eyed.

 

“I assume this one only wanted to say hi as well,” the blue-eyed man stated crossly, getting to his feet, followed closely by Duo.

 

“You could say that,” the exorcist replied cautiously. The look in his companion’s eyes quite clearly posed the ‘WTF’ question. “I think this one was trying to get our attention.”

 

“Whatever the hell for?”

 

“Uh… These,” Duo said gesturing lamely to the ring of burning spheres surrounding them. Heero blanched.

 

“You sure get on people’s nerves,” he muttered to the black-clad man, never taking his eyes off the menacing fires in front of them. “They make the effort to raise from the grave to do you in.”

 

“Oh? You mean you would follow me even after you died?”

 

“If I got in writing that I would kill you,” the short-haired man snorted. They were now pressed back to back, trying to keep track of the situation. The situation made an effort not to comply, shifting the flames around, twinkling and sparkling and shining.

 

“Aww. That’s kinda cute, you know.”

 

“Idiot.”

 

“Could be, could be. Try and stick to me, ‘kay? I still think they don’t actually want to kill us, but being careful wouldn’t hurt.” Though Heero desired nothing more than to smack Duo for insisting the balls of flame were merely wanting to make friends, he bit back the instinct.

 

“You’ve brought a fire extinguisher?” he asked instead.

 

“Not really,” the exorcist admitted. “I was hoping for an in-and-out thing. Obviously, things have gotten a little out of hand here. I kind of didn’t bring much of my usual gear.”

 

“Can’t you scribble rain in your notepad, or something?”

 

“It’s hardly time and place for occultism lecture,” the exorcist yelled, ducking to the side along with his client, as one of the flames attacked suddenly. The rest stood to the side, waiting.

 

“Now I’m prone to believing,” the man stated.

 

“Good point.” The braided man paused briefly, to gaze at the first page he scribbled. “The thing with the notebook is,” he started with the explanation, “I can use it for spells that don’t need to interact with reality. It’s admittedly easier in here than outside, but even so, they simply can’t affect anything physically. They are easy, light on the energy required and quick, if you need to find the way, or whatever.

 

“Fighting though, that requires a considerable amount of energy and more powerful incantations. You’ve seen how long it takes to create a sprite out of paper – one that could fight would take about ten minutes, at the very least.” In between an occasional dodge, drop and a duck, Duo managed to whip a different piece of paper from his trousers. Heero looked at it sideways. It resembled vaguely the scribbles from the pad, only a lot neater. Obviously, this was something that had taken those ten minutes, to be prepared.

 

“I’m going to stop them in place. It won’t hold for long, so prepare to run.”

 

“Run exactly where?”

 

“After me, of course.” Once again, Heero’s firm belief in logic and science was shaken off its core, never mind the sub-dimensional he was in and floating balls of fire occupying said space. The exorcist chanted in a low voice, his eyes, from what Heero could see, flashing.

 

It was scary, yet strangely enticing.

 

With one final yell, Duo released the paper, which disintegrated in mid-flight, the particles flying to the sides, attaching themselves to the fire-balls. He would be more than happy to stay still and observe as the flames seemed to be frozen momentarily, but the black-clad man was gripping his hand and pulling him into a dead run.

 

“Any clue as for the direction?” he managed to below.

 

“Yeah, dead ahead!” was the only answer he got. Chancing a glance behind, Heero wished he hadn’t. the universe seemed to be full of balls of flame, and they were dead set on pursuing him at the moment.

 

Then, completely unexpectedly, the white dragon-sprite-whatever thingy Duo had created out of paper flashed before his eyes and he found himself back in his study, trying to slow down frantically and failing.

 

The resulting crash was probably heard in all of the neighbouring houses. It took Heero several seconds to gather himself and realise he was back home, though seen from an unusual perspective: he was laying on the floor, on a strange mixture of hardness and softness that exuded warmth, topped by several books and random papers. Running his décor through his mind, he realised that whatever he was laying on definitely was not planted there by himself, and therefore required inspection.

 

“Oh, fuck,” someone breathed, dangerously close to his ear. Turning his head only a little, the architect found himself face-to-face with the exorcist also known as the mysterious warm thing.

 

All in all, this seemed to be a pleasing ending.

 

“So, is the house clean?” he asked raising a brow,

 

“Hell no,” the violet eyes executed a perfect roll. “We just escaped the illusion. There’s a whole bunch of procedures I need to go through to get you permanently rid of it, not that I think it will be much of a nuisance, and…” Time passed, and the only sound permeating the room were the repeating soft thuds of books dropping from a small height.

 

“… yeah, anyway. So, does tomorrow work with you?” Duo finished, his voice sounding uncertain for the first time since Heero met him, a delicate blush colouring his face.

 

“I’m still willing to bet there’s a logical explanation for all this,” the architect informed the exorcist, finally rolling of him and standing up. The other man took the offered hand and stood up as well.

 

“How much are you willing to bet?” he asked, smiling mischievously.

 

“Enough,” Heero whispered, closing the distance between them once again.

 

xxxXXXxxx

 

Wind ruffled the gold, red and orange leaves outside the small house. Occasionally, several would be torn from their branches and flutter to the ground without any noise. One of the leaves from the very top of the tree floated down from its perch, lower and lower, though still close to the trunk, until it landed in raven-black hair.

 

An impatient hand pushed it further down.

 

“Told you,” the man heard a feminine laughter right next to his ear. He didn’t bother turning – he knew he wouldn’t see anything. He snorted instead.

 

“They will make a good couple,” he admitted gruffly. “Though we must keep an eye on them, if we want the house to keep standing.”

 

The wind carried the amused, unearthly chuckle up into the sky.