Alternative Ways To Wake Up

phhh…

 

a/n: I’ve basically given up trying to spellcheck this… I know there’s some quotation marks in here somewhere that aren’t supposed to be here…^^ sorry Draven I couldn’t remember where they were…but I fixed the youf tho…too bad for u ^^…well..this chapter is just plain bizarre. ^^;;;

 

Yaoko walked out of the room and shut the door behind him, closing off the sounds of conversation between his friend and the youkai.  He was hungry, but he also didn’t think he could be around Ryo for too long right now without yelling at him.  He decided to see these humans up close and personal, it wasn’t the same watching them from a mirror.  The angel padded quietly down the hallway, looking in doors as he went.  Bathroom…closet…ah…  Yaoko finally located the master bedroom and poked his head inside.  He smiled at the scene laid out before him.  The female human was sleeping in the bed and the male human had pulled up a chair to watch over her.  However he had nodded off and was now resting his head and arms on the edge of the bed, both of them were snoring lightly.  Yaoko wondered if he should wake them…or rather how he should wake them…Food came before sentimentality in Yaoko’s mind.  Looking around the room, his eyes rested on a few possible props.  Suddenly he smiled as he thought of something.

 

            Tesha slept soundly, and dreamed only dreams of the mysterious young boy from the stone prison.

 

            She laughed as he waved both of his hands, a single finger from each pointing to the ceiling of the cell and the rest folded into a fist.  No matter how many times he did this, she never tired of it.  As he waved his hands, they crossed paths, and suddenly there were two fingers up on one hand and all were folded on the other!  She laughed again, a happy sound, lighting the dark dampness of the cell.  To the two children it was no longer a prison, but a playpen.  They were like the fingers in the trick that her companion performed so deftly with his small hands.  Separate and alone waving separately, confused, then suddenly they were here together and it was less confusing, all the fingers were on one hand.  And as he had all the times before, as the finale of the trick, her companion made the Victory sign with the two fingers that were now together on one hand.  ** Together we can get through this…** The small girl thought with hope, they could turn their lonely wavering into victory…Just like in her companion’s trick.  The girl felt safer knowing this.  ** I can do anything if we’re together.**  She thought, and laughed once more in the cell/playpen that was now her home.

 

            Tesha woke to an odd sound.  Someone seemed to be yelling.  Groggily she opened her eyes and lifted her head to see Marl doing the same thing beside her.  At first she couldn’t see the source of the yelling.

            “What…?” She asked Marl.

            “I don’t-“ He started to reply but obviously began to wake up at that point and merely gestured, what was making the noise seemed to be behind her, and Marl was facing that way.  An odd expression was on his face, something between horror, fright, amusement and being extremely disturbed.  Tesha turned around and immediately understood the look.  There was a spiky haired boy running back and forth on the other side of her bed, screaming blue murder.  He also had something covering his head that he was tearing at as if it caused him terrible pain.

            “AAAHhhhh!!! Get IT oFf mE!!!  Its got SHAaaaRP teeth!!!”  He howled, thrashing as he ran in circles and still unable to remove whatever was covering his head.  At this point Tesha frowned because what was covering his head….

            “IT’S KILLING ME!!!  EaTinG MeeeEEeeee!!!  NoooooOOO! SaVe mEEEEee!”  Tesha realized suddenly that the thing covering his head, and distressing him so, was a pair of white cotton panties.  Tesha could do nothing but stare as the boy ran back and forth frantically trying to remove a pair of underwear from his head.  Marl spoke first.

            “Umm…excuse me…?”  He seemed just as disturbed as Tesha.  Maybe this was all a dream.  Maybe she had finally cracked…too much stress from all the weird things happening lately.  She was only convinced of this more when the boy suddenly stopped dead and quite easily removed the undergarments from his head.

            “Oh hey, you’re awake.  I think these are yours…I mean unless they’re his…” The grinning boy tossed the underwear at her.

            “Umm….thanks….” Tesha didn’t quite know how to respond.  The boy didn’t seem to notice, he hoisted himself up to sit on top of her dresser.  Something about him was familiar although Tesha was sure she had never seen him before in her life. 

            “Soooo…  You guys got anything good to eat around here?  I’m starving and I don’t know a thing about human food.  Tesha blinked.  Human food?

            “Umm…who are you?”  She asked.  More like what…

            “Me?”  The boy pointed to himself, eyes wide.  Tesha nodded.  “You don’t remember me?  Geez…  some thanks I get for saving that sorry youkai’s ass.  I’m the one who showed you guys where he was.  You know..,the Youkai sleeping in your bedroom?”  The blond boy looked expectantly at them.

            “Aishin?”  Tesha blinked.

            “Yeah!  That’s his name!  Remember the voice that told you what to do when you found him?  That was Meeee!”  The boy crowed triumphantly.

            “Ohhh…”  Now Tesha remembered…  There had been that weird bodiless voice that insulted them, claiming that it was an angel.  “That was you?”

            “Mmm-hmm, give the girl a prize.” The boy grinned even more widely and hopped of her dresser.  “Now c’mon, let’s eat!  Whaddaya think I woke you two sleepyheads up for??”  The boy capered out of the room.  Tesha and Marl just looked at each other before shaking their heads, life was sure strange these days.

            “Y’know I’m suddenly starting to appreciate my alarm clock….” Tesha said slowly.  Marl nodded emphatically.

            “I know what you mean.”

 

            “So why didn’t Ryo or Aishin wake up when you…umm…woke us up?”  Tesha asked the boy after she had cooked some scrambled eggs for him.

            “Mmph.  Weren’t asleep when I saw them.  But I still shielded them, so they couldn’t hear it.  Not too good with Shield work, not like Ryo, but good enough.”  The boy spoke through a mouthful of food.  Tesha had almost no idea what he was talking about so she changed the topic.

            “Soo….umm do you have a name?” She ventured.

            “Yaoko.” The boy replied, nearly finished his first helping.

            “I assume since you call Ryo by his name and you refer to Aishin as ‘Youkai’, that Ryo is not a youkai, but…an …angel…like you?” Marl asked Yaoko, amazed at the rate at which the boy could eat, and somewhat dubious about referring to him as an angel.

            “Yup.”  Yaoko paused to gulp the last of his eggs, then looked up at Marl and Tesha.  He winked at them and suddenly huge white wings unfurled themselves from the boy’s back, filling the kitchen and narrowly missing several dishes and jars.  A crooked halo appeared above the boy’s head, hanging lopsidedly like a puppet with all but one of its strings cut.  The angel looked at them proudly.  “See?” He said before the halo and the wings disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared.  “Are there seconds?”  He asked as if nothing had happened. 

 

            Ryo only rolled his eyes when he heard odd noises coming from down the hall.  Yaoko had gone to wake the humans up, which inevitably meant something odd would happen.  He could tell that Yaoko has shielded them because he could sense the energy and because he was sure he would have heard more than just some muffled yells.  But that had been several minutes ago, who knew what could be going on now.  Turning in the chair he occupied, Ryo studied the ‘sleeping’ youkai.

            “I know you’re not asleep.  Want to go make sure Yaoko didn’t terrorize the humans too badly?”  He asked Aishin.  As he had predicted, the youkai’s catlike eyes snapped open at the sound of Ryo’s voice, narrowing when he heard what the boy had to say.”

            “Hnn.  Not really but I smell food.”  The youkai replied as he got up.  The blond boy just smiled and followed his silver-haired friend out of the room.  The youkai did want to see what was happening, whether he showed it or not, Aishin did feel some loyalty to those who saved his life. 

 

            “Phh…” Yaoko stared at Tesha like she was an alien when she asked why the youkai and angels didn’t keep their wings out all the time.  “’Cause it’s bloody inconvenient!  Did you see the size of my wings?”  Pride touched his voice, perhaps wingspan was something to be proud of….Tesha didn’t know.  “They took up the whole kitchen almost, how would we ever manage?”  Yaoko looked at her quizzically.  Tesha shrugged.

            “Just asking…”

            “Hello.”  Said a blond boy who had just entered the kitchen, trailing behind a silent Aishin.

            “Hey Ryo!” Yaoko waved jovially.

            “I’m sorry we didn’t get the chance to properly meet last night.”  The boy smiled ruefully at Marl and Tesha.  “My name is Ryo and I’m an angel.”  He held out his hand for Tesha to shake, then for Marl.  Both of them stared at the boy before shaking his head.  He actually seemed slightly…normal…  Unlike Aishin, the live statue, and Yaoko…who had odd ideas for waking people up.  As if he had read her mind, Ryo blushed.  “I hope Yaoko didn’t frighten you too much with his methods of waking you.”

            “Umm…noo….” Tesha said politely.  “It was just a little surprising…  Thanks for healing me by the way, Marl just told me what you did.  I’m pretty sure you saved my life.” She said honestly.  The boy merely nodded his head.

            “You’re welcome.  I save lives whenever possible, and yours was doubly rewarding since now I know I can heal not only angels and youkai, but humans as well.”

            “So you have wings, just like Yaoko and Aishin?  And you can make them disappear like the other two?”  Tesha asked.

            “Yes.” Ryo nodded.

            “How did you… get here?  All three of you for that matter…we never were able to get Aishin to say much about anything.” Tesha was extremely curious about the odd people who had invaded her life.

            “Well. it’s a long story, but to summarize it, I was exiled from the Spirit world for helping a youkai…”

“I’m sorry…” Tesha said wondering if the youkai had been Aishin.  For some reason Ryo pointedly did not look at Aishin while explaining this. 

“No, it’s okay…the Spirit world was no place for me to live anyway.  After I was exiled, somehow Yaoko followed me..”

            “Despite your underhanded efforts to ditch me!”  Yaoko growled around a mouthful of eggs.  Ryo looked pained.

            “Yaoko I told you I meant well, you don’t seem to understand that being exiled is a disgrace…”  He tried to explain but Yaoko cut him off with a wave of his hand.

            “Yeah, whatever, just finish the story.” The spiky-haired boy said rudely.  Ryo frowned slightly, looking troubled, before sighing and continuing.

            “And Aishin escaped execution in the Underworld by transporting himself to the Human world.”  Ryo finished, looking to Aishin for confirmation on the last.  Aishin nodded.

            “The man who was chasing you was an assassin sent after Aishin.”  Ryo explained.

            “A dead man…” Aishin muttered.

            “What?” Ryo blinked.

            “Nothing…” Aishin growled distractedly.  “Hnn…”

            “Anyway…I’m sorry, but I would like to ask if I can also stay here…with Aishin…I don’t know where else I would go…”  Ryo continued.

            “Oh that’s fine, you can stay, I mean you saved my life and all…”  Tesha smiled at the blond boy.

            “If Ryo’s staying I am too!”  Yaoko piped up.  Ryo closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.

            “Yaoko asks if he can also stay.”  The pained angel said patiently.  Tesha laughed.

            “Yes, he can stay too, just as long as he leaves my panties alone.”  Yaoko had the grace to look slightly embarrassed.

            “Okay.”  He agreed.  Ryo managed to look pained, confused, exasperated and embarrassed all at the same time.

            “I don’t want to know…” The blond boy rubbed his temples again.  Aishin just looked emotionless as usual, except for one of the corners of his mouth twitched, as if a smile might have formed on any other person except Aishin.