New Years Party Continued

January 1, 2001

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The CD player was turned off in favor of a radio station that would count down the seconds to the New Year.

Within minutes the count was rippling loudly through the crowd of teenagers, "FIVE.... FOUR.... THREE.... TWO.... ONE!!!"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

The volume was enough to make Kesu wince, but he was smiling happily just the same as the temple bells began to ring. One upon the other the sounds slipped and echoed, mingling with the happy laughing and cheering of the kids. For nearly three minutes the hundred tolls echoed, mirrored around the land by other temples, some of which Kesu's keen ears could pick up.

Kesu closed his eyes, listening to the gorgeous tones of those bells. Some of the other students, the more religious ones, bowed their heads, prayed, spent a moment quietly among the rest of the jubilant crowd.

Then everything returned to normal. The bells fell silent, the echoes dying away. Some of the students smiled at Kesu and said farewell, getting ready to leave, curfews no doubt. The CD player was started up again and the party continued.

Amadeus leaned against a wall watching with interest the goings on at the party. He frowned as he noted the presence of several man-beast beings but decided that he should at least *try* to not to stir up trouble. He had never liked those creatures.

He listened as they counted down the new year. Having lived through many a new year during his life he was only slightly impressed by the music of the millions of bells. At least that's what an outside observer might have thought.

His eyes scanned the people once more, a bit irked that people were leaving *already*. After all, he had just gotten there. Then his eyes settled a student whom Amadeus had first assumed was a girl. Now that he had turned around Amadeus realized it was a boy in his later teens. Much taller than himself, and he was, well, pretty.

And he had just noticed the vampire standing alone...

Kesu slipped through the remaining crowd, in a sort of casual way of reaching his 'goal' without being obvious. He chatted as he went, but his eyes were focused.

Pretty soon Kesu ran out of crowd to mingle with in the direction he'd been taking. He was a social creature, why was this situation unsettling him? Kesu resolved the difficulty, this was his party, this was his job to make everyone feel welcome.

He smiled and stepped delicately toward the lone figure, lowering his eyes in a respectful greeting. "How is the night finding you?"

Amadeus looked the boy up and down and decided he would like to pursue this conversation. "The night has found me very well indeed. "My name is Baron Amadeus Damien," he spoke with an English accent and made a graceful bow before Kesu.

"I have just recently come to the Temple. I have heard many wondrous things about this place, though some are hard to believe, but we'll see. The new year has a way of making one believe in almost anything. And you, how does the night find you?" He smiled, showing his fangs ever so slightly.

"Baron," the slightest tinge of a question, but highly respectful, "it is a pleasure," Kesu bowed in return.

He clasped his hands behind his back and took a few small steps toward Amadeus. "Mine may be a subjective opinion since I've spent half my life here, of course, but I think this place is wonderful in so many ways."

Kesu braved another step, still wondering why he was so... nervous. "It's been an interesting night, for certain, but not entirely unpleasant," he tilted his head slightly in that cute way of his, hair tumbling over one eye, thinking it was getting more pleasant with every new person he was meeting.

Amadeus grinned inwardly as he sensed Kesu's nervousness. He was aware that he could intimidate people but he had a feeling that wasn't what Kesu was so nervous about. Glancing around the courtyard he knew it had nothing to do with him being a vampire, not with all these stranger beings about. For all he knew there might be a roomful of vampires just behind the door over there. He shrugged imperceptibly.

"You need not be so formal, you can call me Amadeus. One gets tired of titles after a while....." He said the second phrase in a rather snobby way - old customs are hard to break, even when you're trying.

"Perhaps you could show me about?"

He wasn't about to let this one out of his sight just yet, even if it meant being friendly and polite to a mortal....yet something in the back of Amadeus' mind was saying that Kesu was not exactly mortal, at least not in the normal sense. But what he was, Amadeus wasn't quite sure. What he was sure about was that he didn't really care about that detail right now.

"I apologize, formality is something that follows me around like a shadow. I understand about titles, I've had some in my life I could do well to never hear again," he didn't seem to hear the tone at all.

If a shy smile could brighten and remain shy, Kesu did it exceptionally well. He glanced around for a moment, chewing slightly on his lower lip. The same tour he'd given Sanjiyana just didn't seem right, he'd gauged what she would have wanted to see, but this fellow...

Kesu's eyes landed on the temple proper, but dismissed that. That was entirely inappropriate. He sighed quietly and stepped off toward his right, toward the tea room and away from the remaining crowd of teens.

"Most of the buildings around the central temple are for the students here, living and training rooms," Kesu paused at the eastern gate of the garden and smiled back at Amadeus. "I've lived here a few times, but I don't live here right now. I like the gardens that surround the temple myself, especially compared with all this," he motioned toward the dancing and the music, hoping he wasn't boring Amadeus.

Boredom was not something Amadeus was experiencing at the moment, though you could say he was admiring scenery other than that of the gardens.

He leaned against the gate and asked, "Shall we go in? While you give me a tour of the gardens, perhaps you will tell me what goes on here? You spoke of training for example, training for what?"

He was sincerely curious, for he had his reasons for being here and he hoped his coming hadn't been a waste of time...."well, not a complete waste anyway", he thought as he watched Kesu lead him into the gardens.

Kesu nodded and led Amadeus down the stone path with his eyes intent upon it, thinking about how to appropriately answer him as well as listening for anyone else around.

"The students here often need training because they have certain... abilities that require a degree of control and concealing," Kesu accentuated his points with motions of his hand, a habit he'd never been able to break.

"Some of them may or may not know it, but that training also includes the ability to defend this temple when the time comes... or the special few who are adept enough may pass the training needed to become the next Temple Keeper," Kesu paused at a break in the trees to his right as the path curved north, a cold breeze from the eastern cliffs lifting his hair.

Amadeus was silent a moment, lost in his thoughts created by Kesu's words as the chill wind played about them. His mind was elsewhere, and when he spoke it was as if he had forgotten the presence of the kitsune.

"Yes, the control of one's....abilities."

He looked up and seemed surprised that Kesu was still standing there. He looked away as their eyes met and shook his head, obviously not in the mood to explain anything.

He turned and looked out over the cliffs for a moment and frowned. When he turned back, he seemed to have regained his composure.

"Lead on. I am sure there is more to show me."

Kesu clasped his hands behind his back in an attempt to quit talking with them, smiling and continuing northward. He was starting to relax a little bit, starting more to disregard any doubts and trust his judgment.

"Some of them are ningen who find they have certain gifts, but most this temple attracts from many different realms. Perhaps since you've heard of the temple you may have heard about the Gate," Kesu paused for a moment at a fork between the stone path and a worn path, the meditation garden with its large sitting stones just ahead. He nodded toward the left and the temple proper.

The little walkway between the temple and the training room was obscured by trees as Kesu stepped off both paths and into the meditation garden. "Truthfully I threw this party to find more people with gifts," Kesu looked at Amadeus with worry in his eyes.

He ignored Kesu's worried look. "Why would he be worried about me anyway?" he thought to himself. Where he was from, the only time a human would worry about a noble was when they were worried about being eaten by one. Which reminded him that he was kind of hungry, but the night was still young. That's what he liked about winter - long nights/

They reached the meditation garden, and as he looked around Amadeus replied, "So, do you think I'm *gifted*?" he asked with a smirk and a wink. But before Kesu could answer, he sat down on one of the rocks and looked up at his tall guide.

"You have told me much about this place, now, tell me about yourself." He crossed one leg over the other and grasped his knee with both hands. Leaning back against a tree he studied Kesu with a strange gleam in his gray eyes.

Kesu looked to one side, a silver cascade of hair hiding that little blush. Dammit why was this so hard for him, he normally loved to talk... not just for the sake of hearing himself talk, but talking with a purpose. He nibbled on his fingertip absently. About himself? Where to start? Damn absent-minded kit, just start somewhere.

"Well, I have a ningen mother... two baby sisters... and it's not like I don't love them dearly, I do, but it's hard to play at all this normality," he found his eyes wandering to Amadeus' feet. "I've been so much in my life, playing teenaged ningen just gets... boring," Kesu smiled, finally meeting those eyes, locked there by something. He wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered a little bit.

He realized that in all likelihood, Amadeus didn't know what he was, besides absent-minded and nervous. He lowered his eyes, "That probably sounds strange since I forgot to say I'm a nearly five hundred year old Kuko Kitsune," no tone of pride, just a little embarrassed, humbled.

Amadeus had known that there was something different about this human, but he would never had guessed. Kitsune. Fox spirit. Somehow it didn't bother him as much as he thought it should, it didn't bother him at all. "Must be the fact that I'm in unfamiliar territory" he decides and leaves it at that.

"You are not cold, are you?" Amadeus says in response to the shiver which obviously had nothing to do with the temperature.

Just the same, he stands up and offers Kesu his jacket. "I am aware of the cold but I am not affected by it. Please, allow me...." He steps forward and places the jacket upon Kesu's shoulders. He then gently freed Kesu's hair so that it would fall over the coat, rather than be tucked underneath.

He knew he was affecting the kitsune, he could see the nervousness, hear his heartbeat. He was enjoying it, and when finished with Kesu's hair, didn't step back, though it meant he had to crick his neck back to look into Kesu's face

The chill in the air wasn't half as noticeable to Kesu than the heat of the flush in his cheeks. Of course his body stiffened a little bit, reflex, but quickly relaxed, even more relaxed than he'd been a moment before. He'd always been a sucker for having his hair touched.

His mind was fluttering about as fast as his heart, 'Why the hell am I behaving like this.. this isn't who I am. I'm lively, joking, cheerful, sometimes a bit sinister and cruel... but definitely not this... timid.'

Kesu was normally very good a judging people, he'd had plenty of practice especially since he'd been at the temple, but he couldn't for the life of him get beyond his own feelings at this moment. 'Who is he that he can do this to me... why? Dammit, I am Kesu Kamaitachi Hato, right corner guard of Kiro, I... wow look at those eyes...'

"Thank you," he whispered, managing to find some little breath enough to say that.

Yes, things were definitely going in an interesting direction. Amadeus reached up to stroke Kesu's hair.

"Soft, so very soft...." he whispered.

Kesu closed his eyes, thoroughly enjoying the attention. There was just nothing quite the same as that simple little touch. He shifted his stance in a way that stole a few inches from his height, moving slowly to rest his forehead lightly against Amadeus', grasping the jacket from within it with both hands.

He opened his eyes a little, a sort of smoldering compassion, gazing right into those pretty eyes. Kesu lifted his head slowly, lips casually brushing against where his forehead had rested.

Amadeus enjoyed Kesu's soft kisses as he continued to touch his silvery hair. He stepped closer, breathing in his scent. Then reaching his hand around the back of Kesu's head, pulled him down....closer....till their lips could meet......

Faint voices can be heard not so far away - or at least one. There was a sudden rustle of a large, clipped hedge across the way. A muffled curse in Japanese rang out in the near silence, and a small, pale girl wrenched herself from the brush and tumbled out, staggering to keep her balance. Straightening out her kimono and fiddling with a large floral obi that seemed to tie in the front, the girl, without looking up, said with strained politeness, "Konban wa, my friend and I are looking for a seedee gamer, have either of you -"

She glanced up, and somehow went paler than she had previously been. Her mouth dropped open, and the obi, which apparently had not been tied, fell from unclenched hands, amidst the clattering of a few pins on stone.

Gaping, she finally managed to collect herself enough to splutter "G-gomen!" Ducking her head several times in a frenzied bow, she crouched and hastily collected her pins and obi while continuing to sputter on occasion "Gomen! Sumimasen!" and looking quite panicked. Finally, with her arms full of floral cloth and pins, she backed away, her kimono catching on the bushes as she attempted to make an escape through the way she came. Tangling herself in the branches in her haste, the girl tripped and fell, finally crawling through on her hands and knees. From the other side of the hedge, a hurried clop-clop-clop sounded as the girl made herself as scarce as possible.

Kesu heard the girl coming - who couldn't - but he really didn't care. He enjoyed that serene moment with Amadeus for as long as he could, one delicate hand emerging from the jacket to caress his jaw.

Kesu gave the girl a sideways look when she tumbled through the brush, smiling at her as she sputtered apologies, a tremor of silent laughter passing through his willowy form. As she fled he turned his attention back to Amadeus, an almost painful look in his eyes. Kesu was not looking forward to the fact he had to be awake in six hours.

"It's been wonderful... and I don't want it to end... but honestly it's been a long exhausting night and I have an early morning," he whispered, sighing.

Amadeus winced as he heard the approaching pair "sounds like a herd of elephants", but did his best to ignore them. That plan was thrown to the wind when one of them burst out from the bushes in a flurry of flying pins, kimonos, arms, legs and various other things.

He glared as the girl collected her stuff and fled back into the woods.

He turned back to Kesu only to hear him sigh. "Morning?" Amadeus asked then realized the time. "Drat." he thought as he gave the direction the girl had left in a particularly withering glare.

"Yes, of course," he added. "Perhaps I could find you again tomorrow night?" He reached up once more to stroke the silvered hair.

Kesu leaned and pressed a kiss to those wonderful lips, "Yes please... I'll wait all night for you," he turned and strode away, with a fair amount of quickness simply because if he stalled there too long he'd never be able to tear himself away.

He trotted into the courtyard through the alley between the temple and the training room, wincing at the look he received from Yotaka. Kesu went to the CD player and shut it off, glancing around the yard to see there were only a few people left anyway, and they were leaving. He lifted the radio, and stood there for a minute realizing he still had Amadeus' jacket.

Ty glanced up at Kesu-who seemed kind of restless, and rose both eyebrows as he shut off the music. "Finally." She muttered, pushing herself off the tree. Ty strolled up to him, cocking her head slightly, ah yes, there was definitely an odd scent that was not Kesu's - on Kesu.

"Ahem." Ty cleared her throat, glancing to him. "You have a new jacket-I see?"

Kesu looked up at Ty and laughed, "Ummm.. yeah..." he tried to recover from the embarrassment, but really too tired to try very hard. "Isn't it wonderful? We should get to bed if we want to humiliate Kino and Tanji properly in the morning. Mom should be here about eight with the car," he smoothed the topics together to keep himself from blushing too badly.

Kesu stepped onto the walkway and started down towards the room where he often spent the night.

Ty nodded, grinning evilly. Okay, so yes, she was devious and cruel...but she loved it. "Ahem, yeah, it's just great Kesu, uh huh...can't wait to embarrass someone..." With twinkling violet speckled black eyes, Ty watched him swiftly walked away...

Tyger stretched and yawned, making way to her own room. She slipped in quietly, peeling off the skimpy dress and pulling over a huge t-shirt over her head. Ty took out the band from her hair, kicked off her shoes and flung herself into her bed-or huge mass consisting of a mattress, of a big sleeping bag and many pillows. Yawning, Ty easily drifted into a deep sleep...

Kesu stumbled into the room without turning on the light, setting Tanji's radio down by the door and slipping it shut behind him. He settled himself down on the pallet of blankets, sitting cross-legged for a moment with his eyes closed, pulling the jacket close and taking a deep breath. Slowly he collapsed onto his side. To hell with digging out that nightshirt and the hassle of changing, he was exhausted. An absent hand reached out to make sure the alarm was set, and he fell promptly into sleep. ~*~*~*~

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