“Wanna take a shower together?” he offered. While it was impossible for them to get back into the mood, it didn’t mean that Huxian didn’t feel any less a desire to care for his partner. Helping to preen and primp her for the day and receiving the same attention seemed like a nice way to start the morning, especially considering they would be having a rather busy few days ahead of them.
The shy smile she cast him lit her face brighter than the morning sun through the blinds.
“S-sure.”
Smiling back, he held his hand out for her, gently helping her from the bed with the ease of lifting a feather, gently setting her on her feet. Hand still clasped in hers, he lead the way to the bathroom. Like the Valkyrie had said, it had been a long time since he had spent time with her. Huxian wanted to make the most of it. Any time he spent at her side, be it in a carnal dance, a loving embrace or simply in comfortable companionship, was time to be cherished.
Rodessa was a treasure, after all. One that was worth more than all the gold in the world.
---
As the two had expected, the promised expedition day had arrived.
In the Pandora Agency, when one was to become a fully fledged Agent, the candidate was sent on a mission that would test the potential Agent in various fields such as leadership, their knowledge of the rules and laws, their ability to negotiate, their capabilities in dealing with both the Mystic and Mundane worlds and their creativity in dealing with the unknown that might arise. There were different levels that the prospective Agent might be tested on, depending on what rank they hoped to achieve within the Agency. The higher the rank achieved, the higher the responsibility (and, of course, the higher the pay grade).
The mission itself was a week long, including time to prepare and travel to and from the location, ending in a meeting that would cover just how well the agent performed and their final ‘score’ achieved, which would count towards their performance level.
For Rodessa, this post-mission meeting place was in one of the Agency Hotels, situated on a small island in the Baltic sea. Thanks to the various protections, both mundane or otherwise, the island was safe as both a base, and a place for Pandora Agents and trainees to relax post missions.
The room that Rodessa was assigned was a private one that had been booked by Engetsu, her father (who had also ‘accidentally’ made sure that she was not roomed anywhere near to Huxian and had also ‘accidentally’ made sure that said man would also be held up with meetings for the evening in some kind of desperate attempt to keep his baby girl away from his friend/Second in Command/the enemy that was a threat to his baby girl’s heart). It was a well kept room - unsurprisingly, considering that anything owned by the Pandora Agency had to meet the high standards of its Mistress - tastefully furnished and artfully decorated-
Crash!
-and currently being ransacked by a rather displeased individual.
Anyone curious, or concerned enough to have attempted to investigate quickly decided to have other places to be as snarling archaic curses snapped through the air, loud enough to be heard throughout the corridor. Certainly, no one wished to be on the receiving end of the explosive temper of the one on the other side of that room’s door.
Eyes ablaze with a feral gleam, Rodessa stormed through the room, fingers flexing as if they wanted to squeeze someone’s neck, or perhaps itched to tighten around the trigger of her trusty guns. Completely at odds with the other two in the room with her. The first being Huxian himself, sitting regally on the bed, cross legged, and a young child - the altar of Rodessa. Both of whom were surprisingly calm in the face of the young woman’s ranting rage, merely watching as Rodessa herself stalked the room like a feral caged wolf spitting profanities.
“Mother fucking-! Realy. Really?!” She screeched, finally running out of ancient curses to turn the air bluer than it had already become. Her teeth bared in a snarl, “I got the team in and out of there. No civilian casualties. No mystic casualties. Any recognition of the mystic by the mudaine was kept to the bare - no, a pitiful minimum. We were in and out of there faster than planned. I scouted out all the other issues to the mission other than the damned misunderstanding that caused the mess in the first place and I still failed?!”
She yelled out in frustration, fingers threading through her hair. “Aaaagh! Ten marks off from becoming a team leader for an official team! You’re shitting me, right?! Oh heavens fucking forbid that my third eye isn’t working so I couldn’t miraculously see the past and future! But noooooo, I was supposed to just magically know that one of the mundane people had one of the fae children in their care! Oh yes, like at that age you can fucking see the wings on a damned fairy and because they look sooooo different from regular mortal children!”
Whipping around she gestured in the air, a sneer painted on her lips. “Oh, and Gods forbid that the sisters in the abby take more than a single look at the special snowflake of a child for more than a few seconds to figure it out when they have two-three hundred kids to look after between seven or eight of them. Minus the fervent mother at the top who’s barely there with her blind ass. Like, don’t get me wrong, she’s doing ‘the lord’s’ work, bless her, but you’d think that with all the money the church has they’d have thrown a little her way, ‘let the blind see’ and all that?”
The rant was interrupted by a low chuckle. Ignoring the way the young woman bristled, Huxian lazily flicked his wrist, the room moving itself at his command back into its correct order, not even disturbed when those rage-filled eyes rounded on him.
“Blasphemy,” the Fox Lord drawled with an almost mocking concern. “Careful with who you speak such words to, dear heart. The Church might just stone you as a Heretic.”
Utterly immune to Rodessa’s near spluttering wrath, Huxian merely lifted up her small child self, settling her against his side on the bed, tucking her under the blankets and gently smoothed her hair to lull her to sleep in spite of her other self’s raging. Though it didn’t stop him from chucking at the almost petulant shout of “Shut it, you!” from the fuming Rodessa, even as he placed a kiss on the child’s forehead with a hint of magic for sweet dreams.
Charge now resting soundly, he straightened again, meeting Rodessa’s blazing eyes with his own calm gaze.
“Joking aside, I’m not going to baby you-”
“Technically, you just did...” Rodessa shot back flatly, eyes dropping to her alter who had latched onto one of his tails like a furry teddy bear, sucking on her thumb contently.
“Pft!” He breathed a laugh, appreciating both the irony and the adorable sight, even as he reached over fondly to gently ease the thumb from the child’s mouth. “That’s how you get crooked teeth, pup,” he scolded warmly.
Rodessa huffed.
“Who do you prefer, me or the pup?” she grumbled, lips curving into something edging on a petulant pout.
“Yeah, us or the brat?”
Ho? That was a surprise. He hadn’t been expecting a third female voice in the room. However, he similarly wasn’t too surprised that the third persona had also made herself known.
“And a good evening to yourself, too, Thorn,” Huxian greeted without missing a beat. “And to answer the question: Yes. I adore you all equally and in different ways. Now, my spiky friend, would you mind joining the little one in the sweetest of dreams? Mǔqīn and Fùqīn are talking.”
Despite the playfulness of the words, his tone had an underlying authority to it, leaving the girl no room for interjection or protest. Without another word, the alter climbed onto the bed, curling around her youngest self and drifted to sleep a short time later (with a little encouragement from the nine tail’s sorcery.
“As I was saying,” Huxian continued once he was certain the two younger selves were unconscious, “I’m not going to baby you here. What you missed was something that you shouldn’t have. Had a senior Agent not already noticed, the results could have been catastrophic-”
“But I did notice!” Rodessa protested. “And I did sort it out as soon as I saw the child! An-”
“Rodessa.”
Huxian’s voice was stirn. The use of her full name, rather than Huxian’s habit of buttering it with pet names bringing her up short. Seeing he had her attention, the man continued, tone akin to that of a teacher.
“Be that as it may, the call was far too close and could easily have turned to all out hostilities had you acted a fraction later or a single spark had complicated the matter in the time it took for you to pick up on the issue. It should have been one of the first things noticed. You spend enough time with the children at the orphanage that you should have picked up that something was amiss within the first twelve hours. Yes, Fae children don’t have wings, but there are other features that you could have noticed. Examine the large eyes, the shape of their ears. Though subtle on this particular child, the points remained, as did the larger than human eyes.”
Hands slipping into his sleeves, the Huli Jing regarded the young woman seriously. “You’re usually very perceptive…” he noted slowly. “However, this week your judgement has been compromised and your ‘correction’, if we can call it that, was sloppy by your standards. Still, this was your own mistake. To improve oneself, one must take responsibility for those mistakes. You made a bad call and, thus, only you have yourself to blame. You are no longer a child, thus you can no longer be held accountable as such.”
He closed his eyes with a sigh, before meeting her eyes again, one leader to another. “Rodessa, as a leader, one must be vigilant with even the smallest of details. Think like a detective, be the diplomat, stand your ground, yes! But above all else, be the leader that you were raised to be. This was your chance to show off these skills...yet throughout that mission, I’m disappointed that I saw none of that promise in your actions. Your only saving grace was that madam Povell is your godmother and, knowing this, has given you another chance in a year. But only one chance. If you ‘fuck up’ again….that’s it. Point blank. Period.”
It was as if all the hot air had suddenly left her, his words a near physical weight. No words able to pass her lips.
It hurt to see her look so diminished. However, as harsh as it might have sounded, he was trying to help. Sighing once more, he let his tone ease away from the stirn tone of the Lord of the Mountain into something a little more gentle.
“Honestly, I think you, yourself, are aware of this, that you let yourself down,” he reasoned softly. “Otherwise you would not have been throwing such a temper. You’re better than this, after all.”
His eyes twitched back a little when she finally found her voice, quiet, cracking. “I’m so-”
He held up his hand.
“Don’t,” he warned, though not without sympathy. “Do not apologize. Instead, learn from this. Be the Valkyrie I see when you fight for your kin, when you want something. Be the Wolf that I lost my heart to. Not this. You are far better than this mockery of yourself.”
Not expecting a reply - Rodessa took his criticism to heart, even if her worst critic was generally herself once words had settled in - Huxian eased himself carefully from the bed, managing to stealthily slip his tail from the youngest Alter’s grasp, before approaching the silent young woman, resting his hands on her shoulders, even though her head didn’t raise, nor her gaze meet his own. He sighed, ignoring the tug of guilt in his heart, and gently slipped his hand behind her head, drawing it against his chest so that her forehead rested against his warm shirt. His fingers smoothed the silky strands of her hair - a silent comfort, since any other words would sound like useless platitudes after such a scolding, but one to let her know that, despite everything, he was still there for her, to help her, to support her, or simply to allow her to take out the last of her frustrations on before she picked herself up and moved on stronger than before.
“It’s getting late,” he said finally. “Get some sleep, alright? Tomorrow is another day.”
She nodded, losing the will to argue. He was right after all.
It didn't take long for her to be drawn to the land of dreams. A kiss on her lips, the soft click of a door and the world went blissfully dark.
---
In another time, another place, another door opened.
The usually peaceful grounds of the temple, usually only broken by the sounds of people training or going through meditations was shattered as the shoji door slammed open and the very air seemed to flinch away from the fuming young woman, a proverbial inferno compared to the icy priestess that followed behind - if one could call it that when it was obvious that neither of the two seemed particularly interested in following the other anywhere.
The Grandmaster of the temple merely sighed, long ink stained fingers rubbing at his temples to stave off what felt like the fiftieth oncoming headache since the FBI agent turned Pandora Operative had been near forcefully pared with the promising yet antisocial Demon Huntress. The two were like day and night, yin and yang. But whatever harmony one would usually associate with such things seemed to be practically allergic to being anywhere near these two.
Thus, yet again, the two were at loggerheads.
“You were supposed to follow my lead,” The younger of the two spoke shortly, her eyes narrowed icely against the stubborn back of Rodessa, who whirled around with a bitter laugh.
“Ha!” she sneered. “You couldn’t lead a fish to water!”
Rather than bite back with equil fire, the priestess simply stared back flatly, contempt colouring her otherwise emotionless tone. “Are you saying that you could have done better?”
“Well, I-”
Not about to give her an opening, Mizuki continued, “Because, from what I have read of your performances thus far, the only thing you are capable of leading is the rise of your former agencies collateral bill.”
The taller woman’s lips curled into something near feral as she stared down at the doll-like demon hunter. “Oh? Did you want to be part of that bill?”
Eyes narrowed. “Is that meant to be a threat?”
A glint of teeth gleaming like fangs. “I don’t make threats, dear.”
Mizuki’s head tilted up. Despite her smaller stature, she seemed as unmoving as stone. “Such an attempt will only see a swift end.”
This time it was Rodessa’s turn to narrow her eyes. “Is that a threat?” she sneered.
“It is merely a fact.”
Yea gods, these two were going to end up killing each other faster than any enemy at this rate!
“That will be quite enough,” the Grandmaster interrupted finally, trying to ignore the way that ice and fire now focused on him hard enough to make him wonder if it was possible to get chill-burns through glares alone. “This is a sanctuary,” he reminded them sharply. “Let us keep it as such, if you please. This means-” he interrupted quickly before Rodessa could open her mouth to speak, or Mizuki could set her jaw in that mulish way she did when she was silently objecting “That one of you will stay here, and the other goes for a walk to find calm.”
“I am staying,” Mizuki stated, closing her eyes as if dismissing Rodessa then and there.
“Ha!” Rodessa snorted, tossing her hair. “Anywhere away from Cranky McNoTits is heaven to me! Didn’t even wanna be here no way.”
It was almost amusing that, despite their rampant hate, the fact they could both simultaneously let out a loud “Hmph!” and whip away from each other. Almost comical, in fact. Even so, Mizuki retained her uncaring ice until Rodessa had long moved out of both visual and hearing range.
Finally-
“How insufferable…”
The master raised his brows to look at his young student. Despite the lingering headache, it was...interesting to see someone get under the younger’s skin in such a way. Mizuki was similar to her namesake, cool and distant as the moon itself. No one before had ever reached her in such a way. For better or worse…well, that remained to be seen.
“Quite so,” he said finally, deciding not to voice his true thoughts on the matter. “The both of you are. My poor head hasn’t stopped aching in days…”
“Master…”
Yes...even under the cool disapproval of his student, the Grandmaster had a feeling that, chaotic as the two reluctant partners were, they were surely the harbingers of change in the future to come. Whether they all survived the fall out...well, one thing at a time.
[END]
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