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Part Fifteen: All's well that ends well...we hope...





"Come on; let's see if we can salvage the herbs," Suikotsu said as he stood up. He walked over to the low table where Jakotsu had sat grinding the herbs into a fine powder. Chuckling softly, he said, "Amazingly you didn't spill it, and considering what just happened... that's good."

"Thanks... Ummm, anything else I can do to help?"

"As a matter fact, yes. You can go get me some water," Suikotsu said as he handed the cross-dresser a pot. "Fill it up all the way if you can..." he said distractedly as he gathered a few other dried herbs from his chest.

Jakotsu hurried off to do as he was bidden. Coming back he asked, "Are you making that vile smelling soup thing again?"

"Yes... It'll help keep Oo-Aniki's lungs clear."

"Oh... so what's it called?"

"Vile smelling soup, why?" Suikotsu looked up at him and smiled.

Jakotsu rolled his eyes and grinned. "Just wondering, that's all. I figured something that nasty must have a fancy name to go with it."

"Nope... Now hand me that whisk over there..." The good doctor placed the water on top of the brazier and as it heated up, he sent Jakotsu scurrying around for the various items he needed. Before too long, the room was reeking of the pungent concoction.

"Good, it's ready. Let's go," Suikotsu said as he poured it into a small, yet deep bowl.

"Okay," Jakotsu said, crinkling his nose in disgust at the smell./ You don't have to tell me twice... Gagh...if I don't get out of here soon, I think I'm going to be sick... Poor Aniki-chan!/

The two silently made their way back to Bankotsu's room. After seeing the face Jakotsu had made, Suikotsu carried the soup while he had the cross-dresser bring along a piece of cloth to tent over it.

As they approached their leader's door, Renkotsu quietly exited from it. He glared at the cross-dresser, although his gaze softened when Suikotsu said, "Good, you came out of there unscathed."

"Yeah..." Renkotsu smiled a tired half smile. "Oo-aniki let me off easy after seeing, you know..."

"Good," Suikotsu said solemnly.

Jakotsu wilted under Renkotsu's gaze. "Ask him..." he said anxiously to the claw-bearer.

Renkotsu looked from his would-be lover to the cross-dresser and back. "Ask who, what?" he said wearily as he was tired of Jakotsu's nonsense.

Suikotsu cast a quick glance at the cross-dresser as he heaved a weary sigh. "It would seem I'm not the only one plagued by nightmares, Jak is plagued by them as well and since Ban is indisposed, we wanted to know if he might sleep with me tonight."

Renkotsu laughed. "You've got to be kidding..."

"Noo!! We're not! I swear, Ren, I really do get nightmares!" the cross-dresser added anxiously.

"It's just for tonight only, Ren, and I promise all clothing will remain intact."

Renkotsu glared at the cross-dresser. "It had better remain that way..."

Jakotsu looked at him wide-eyed. "I swear on Oo-Aniki's life, I'll keep my clothes on!!"

Suikotsu sighed loudly, forestalling an argument between the two. Catching Renkotsu's eye, he said softly, "At least I had the courtesy to ask you first..."

The fire-breather looked as embarrassed as Jakotsu felt. "True... Alright, you have my blessing. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to go... that shit smells worse than ever..." Renkotsu made a little face of disgust and started walking away.

Suikotsu nodded as he passed.

"Night, Ren!" Jakotsu said.

The fire-breather paused briefly and growled something in reply, before continuing on his way.

"What?" Jakotsu called out to him.

"You don't want to know," Suikotsu said softly. "Let's go."

"Okay..." the cross-dresser said as he followed him to their leader's door. Once there, Suikotsu entered without knocking. "Hey, Oo-Aniki, how are you?"

The young leader of the Shichinintai looked up tiredly. "I've been better, but at least I'm not hurting so badly anymore..."

Jakotsu smiled. "That's great, Aniki-chan!! Guess what?"

Bankotsu sighed. "What?"

"So you can get some proper rest and all... ummm... Sui said he'd sleep with me tonight," Jakotsu said as if it were a perfectly natural thing for the claw-bearer to do.

"Come again?" Bankotsu said incredulously.

"I'm sleeping with Sui tonight so you can get some rest."

"That's what I thought you said..." Bankotsu said wearily. "Please tell me your clothes are staying on..."

"Of course! The last thing I want to do is sleep with scary-Sui!" The cross-dresser shuddered. "Aniki-chan, I made a promise to Sui to keep them on and I swear they'll stay that way even if I can't really sleep!"

Bankotsu looked over at the claw-bearer and sighed. The effects of the opium tea were starting to catch up with him and he was beginning to feel tired and unable to concentrate. "Why is he sleeping with you again? I feel like I'm missing something here..."

"To calm his nightmares, or else he'll be waking you up every hour with his screams."

"I see..." Bankotsu said and turning his head, he addressed his paramour, "But why don't you just let Sui give you something to make you sleep peacefully and then you can sleep how you like?" he asked in what he had hoped was a reasonable tone.

"Because I don't have anything powerful enough to suppress all nightmares or at least something strong enough that won't mess him up," the good doctor said.

"And I'm deathly afraid I'll be dreaming about scary-Sui..." Jakotsu whimpered, leaving Bankotsu to wonder what went on between them.

"I see... then I have no other choice but to agree..."

"Now that's settled, you need to inhale this, Oo-Aniki," Suikotsu said as he held out the bowl of vile soup.

Bankotsu crinkled his nose up in disgust. "But I don't have a cough."

"It's also for preventing them."

Bankotsu looked at the steaming concoction. "Okay..." Reluctantly giving in, he asked, "How long do I have sit here and breathe this shit for?"

"Until it stops steaming."

He sighed. "That's what I was afraid of..."

Jakotsu smiled encouragingly. "It's good for you Aniki-chan! And the quicker you get better, the quicker we can be together..." He reached for his lover's hand, and taking it, he raised it to his lips and kissed it.

Suikotsu, catching Bankotsu's eye, nodded.

Bankotsu sighed. "Here's to a quick recovery, eh?" He took the bowl and sighed while Jakotsu and Suikotsu draped cotton fabric over his head, tenting it and the bowl.

"Jak, I think we should make preparations for sleeping. We've all had a rather traumatic day and the best thing for that is a good sleep."

"But I didn't have a traumatic day; I just had a scary one..." He looked at Suikotsu saucily. "But if you're that eager to hop in the futon with me..."

Suikotsu gave Jakotsu an 'I not in the mood for your antics right now, Jak...' look and it was enough to shut the cross-dresser up. "Come on, we need to go find some extra bedding."

"Oh! I know where some is!" Jakotsu chirped, happy to be of use to get back on Suikotsu's good side. Literally. "Follow me."

The doctor and the cross-dresser exited their leader's room and made their way down the hallway. Finally Jakotsu stopped in front of a room that did not have a number on the door; instead there were a couple of characters that read "storage."

Jakotsu was about to open the door so they could both go in and collect the extra bedding, when he realized allowing Suikotsu to enter the very closet where the he and the doctor's lover had had their liaison might not be such a good idea. It might trigger the scary side of Suikotsu, the side that wanted Jakotsu dead.

"You don't need to go in there, Sui, I'll get it. Just wait here." Jakotsu opened the door and quickly slipped inside.

"Are you sure you can carry a futon by yourself?" Suikotsu stepped toward the door.

Jakotsu poked his head back out, preventing the doctor from entering. "Yes, I'm not some delicate little flower of a woman, you know. So if you'll give me a minute, I'll go get one and if it'll make you feel better, Sui, you can carry it back to Aniki-chan's room while I carry the rest of the bedding."

"All right, but..."

Suikotsu was interrupted when Jakotsu slipped back in to the room and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving Suikotsu standing out side looking quite confused.

It wasn't long before the door opened again and Jakotsu pushed a rolled up futon out. "Here," he said, shoving it toward the claw-bearer. Suikotsu shrugged and picked up the futon roll while Jakotsu went back inside the room to get the rest of the bedding.

The claw bearer sighed impatiently, though he did not want his violent side killing Jakotsu, he was still annoyed with the little cross-dresser over what happened, and even more so that Bankotsu had let him off so easy. Suddenly a small smile crept across Suikotsu's face as the idea for mean joke popped into his head.

"Jak," the doctor called out to his teammate in the closet.

"Yeah?" The cross-dresser came out his arms loaded with bedding.

"I just want to get one thing straight between us before I forget."

"Hm?"

"I want you to know that Scary violent Sui wanted me to tell you that if you ever sleep with Ren again, you're going to be wearing your intestines for a necklace," Suikotsu said very calmly but firmly.

Jakotsu's eyes went as wide as saucers. "He does?" the cross-dresser tittered nervously. "Tell him I said I'll never ever do that again not even if Aniki-chan orders me to! Okay...?"

"Well I'll tell him," Suikotsu shook his head in false nervousness. "But I can't make any guarantees."


"No...?" Jakotsu squeaked out, looking as though he might faint at any moment. "Well...ummm... yeah... ummm... hadn't we better get back to Aniki-chan? What if he needs us?"

"Yes we had better get back." The doctor nodded, and began walking back toward their leader's room.

"Good, how's the futon? Too heavy... I could help you?" Jakotsu asked nervously.

"I've got it. Ren is heavier than this," the doctor answered quietly.

"Yes he is..." Jakotsu murmured.

"How would you know?" Suikotsu stopped suddenly.

"I helped him into the storage room last night..." Jakotsu trailed off into silence as his mind screamed 'SHIT! I'm dead meat now...'

"So that's why you didn't want me to go in there," Suikotsu stood, not looking at Jakotsu, his voice growing a little darker. "That was the same storage room. Huh...suppose I didn't recognize it..."

"Ummm... Yeah..." Jakotsu tittered nervously. "Ummm... just kill me quickly... and wait until Aniki-chan is all better before you tell him... okay..." The cross-dresser's tittering quickly turned into panic.

Suikotsu stood silently for a moment, and then continued walking.

"Sui...?" Jakotsu squeaked out, terrified the scary Suikotsu might take hold and turn on him at any moment.

"Are your intestines hanging about your neck, Jakotsu?" Suikotsu glanced over his shoulder at his petrified teammate.

"N...No..." Jakotsu answered quietly, and he held his breath as he wondered what game this Suikotsu was trying to pull.

"Then Scary Sui is not going to kill you," the doctor answered simply.

Jakotsu let out the breath he had been holding in relief. "Thank Kami-sama..." He shifted the weight of the bedding in his arms and jogged to catch up to Suikotsu. "Come, before Aniki-chan thinks I dragged you off to the closet for a bit of fun..."

"Well we'd simply explain to him that there was no possible way that could have happened." Suikotsu looked back and smirked.

"Oh yeah, scary Sui..." Jakotsu giggled. "I've always wanted to ask, how many of them are there? Do you always talk to each other?"

"Three, When I am in control the other two are 'asleep' but they still send out vibes, on whether or not they like someone or something," the mentally fractured doctor answered.

"Oh... and Scary Sui hates me, hunh?" Jakotsu said dejectedly.

"Well he's sending out 'I don't like him' vibes but not 'attack and kill' vibes. So you're safe for now." Suikotsu grinned.

Surprisingly Jakotsu laughed. "That's good... right? But the others...they like me, right?"

"Well, my extreme good side is sending out both 'he's not so bad after all' vibes and 'I'm scared he's going jump me and rip my clothes off 'vibes." Suikotsu chuckled.

Jakotsu laughed even harder, and then a sly, flirtatious smile crossed his lips. "Oh... But while I promised I wouldn't touch you, Sui, I didn't say anything about what I was thinking..."

Suikotsu cast a glance up to the ceiling, and let out a small laugh, before looking down again. "Oh dear, I'm naked right now aren't I?"

"Huh?!" The seductive smile disappeared from Jakotsu's face and his eyes widened. "But you still have all your clothes on..."

Suikotsu chuckled. "I meant the mental picture of me in your mind."

Jakotsu's seductive smile returned. "What do you think?" he purred.

Suikotsu smirked and looked over his shoulder at his cross-dressing teammate. "I think your eyes just ripped my kimono off."

"Maybe..." Jakotsu's smile broadened. "But you're still wearing your hakama...Oh wait there it goes." He giggled.

"Huh, longer than I thought it would take..." Suikotsu smirked. "Well it's not the first time someone has undressed me with their eyes."

"Really?!" Jakotsu lit up at this little bawdy tidbit. "Who else has 'undressed' you?"

"None of your business," Suikotsu said in mock prudishness and tapped his pointer finger on Jakotsu's forehead for emphasis.

"Ooooh." Jakotsu pouted. "You're no fun..."

"That's not what he says..."

"Really...?"

"Yup..."

"He's lucky he gets to undress you for real..."