The Challenge

 

by KatiKat

 

 

Tomomasa pulled the bowstring tauter then released the pent up tension. The arrow shot forward, swishing through the air. When it burrowed into the painted target, the feathered end vibrated for a moment longer, then became still.

 

The General frowned. Two inches from the center. That was not his best peformance.

 

"You need more training, Tomomasa-dono."

 

Tomomasa whirled around in the direction of the amused voice. There at the steps leading from his house into the garden Takamichi stood, his hands hidden in the wide sleeves. A slight smirk was pulling the corners of his mouth upwards.

 

Raising his eyebrows, the General said: "Oh, and you think you can do better?" There was a note of challenge in his voice.

 

Takamichi raised his eyebrows too, accepting the dare. "Of course I can."

 

When Tomomasa held the bow out to him with 'prove it' written on his face, Takamichi walked down the steps and headed towards his friend. That was what he liked in his relationship with the General, the uncomplicated camaraderie. And when the tiny voice in the back of his mind whispered 'Oh really? Just that?', he stomped it mercilessly in the ground.

 

Takamichi accepted the bow and the single arrow and raised his arms to let the long sleeves bunch up at his elbows. Then he took a deep breath, laid the arrow against the wooden arch of the bow, caught it there with his index finger of his left hand and pulled at the string. He cocked his head to the right, closed his left eye and focused on the target.

 

The string hummed with tension, the bull's eye was right in the center of his line of vision. Now to just pull the string tauter and...

 

"Tomomasa-dono? What are you doing?" Takamichi asked, his tone suspicious, without taking his eye from the target.

 

The General was leaning close, his breath almost ruffling the hair on the left side of the young official's head. "Nothing, my friend," Takamichi whispered, his voice deep and sensuous.

 

Takamichi shuddered, as the velvety tone sent shivers up and down his spine, making butterflies flutter in his stomach. Determined not to lose the challenge though, he used every ounce of discipline he had ever learned and focused on the target. Just a moment and...

 

Tomomasa touched the arch of Takamichi's neck with his lips, his tongue flicking out and licking the soft, sensitive spot under the ear.

 

The green-haired man started, his hands jerking, the arrow flying wild, missing the target by miles.

 

Takamichi turned to the General, pushed his glasses up and glared at him down his nose - which wasn't really easy being half a head shorter. If he hadn't found it unmanly, he would have stomped his foot too. "General Tachibana! That wasn't fair!" he berated the blue haired man indignantly.

 

Tomomasa, looking smug, flipped his fan open and hid the lower half of his face behind it. "Looks like I'm not the only one who needs to exercise." He fluttered his lashes. "But obviously, you need a training of another sort, my friend."

 

The green-haired official blinked quickly, feeling his face growing hot. But before he could retort something, the bushes behind the target parted.

 

Both the men turned to the intruder and blinked in surprise.

 

"Priestess," the General greeted Akane as she stepped out of the foliage. "What brings you to my humble house?"

 

The red-head girl looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Ano sa... Is this possibly yours?" She pulled her hands from behind her back, revealing an arrow and from its end...

 

... The little red-head and loudly protesting Kotengu hung, the arrow having pierced the bottom of his blue trousers. He was swinging from side to side wildly, waving his little fists at them, screaming his lungs out with promises of slow, painful death.

 

Tomomasa howled with laughter, while Takamichi blushed a deep, deep red. "I see that you manage to hit something after all, my friend," the General forced out before barking out with laughter again.

 

Takamichi groaned. He will never live it down.

 

The End