[JE] The Hills Are Alive (with the Sound of Magic) 5/6
Title: The Hills Are Alive (with the Sound of Magic) 5/6
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Kame x Jin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, fantasy, fluff
Word count: 41,500
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit
Summary: A renegade mage finds his quest goes in quite a different direction than planned when he winds up sharing a jail cell with an aspiring bard.
The Hills Are Alive (with the Sound of Magic) 5/6
When Jin bundled him out the door without breakfast, Kame thought the building was on fire and they were all being evacuated. Fortunately, the reason for the rush was to ensure both Kame and Nakamaru got decent seats at the trials, and there were enough foodstalls set up around the Guildhall that Kame didn't have to worry about any of them starving before the event. In his excitement, Jin treated them all to sweet rolls for breakfast before dashing off with Taguchi to check in with the Guild.
"I didn't expect that," Nakamaru said. "I thought you were the financial half of the team."
Kame smiled and swallowed a bite of his roll. Jin had good taste(sometimes). "He has his moments."
They got their second surprise of the morning when they arrived at the garden of the Bardic Guildhall. The Guild had cordoned off a large section for the audience, with a low barrier keeping them away from the stage set up at the far end. Adjacent to the stage on the left, they'd set up a table for the judges - three, based on the number of empty chairs - while on the right, more comfortable looking chairs for VIP guests were already occupied by the mayor and her entourage.
The bard on the door directed Kame and Nakamaru to the second row of seats, close enough to get a good view of the proceedings though should a stampede chance to happen, they'd both be flattened in seconds. Kame resolved to focus only on the trials for the time being. He had to keep a close eye on things, he'd decided, in case one of Jin's songs worked its strange, non-magical magic. It would be a great shame if he were to bring the house down for all the wrong reasons.
Kame's surprise - and Nakamaru's too, as it turned out - took the form of Koki Tanaka, who sat in the seat on Kame's left, reading a book on dressmaking. He'd traded in the set of black robes for a studded leather jacket, which Kame thought suited him much better, and augmented his accessory collection with several earrings.
"Koki!" Kame and Nakamaru exclaimed in unison, then turned to each other.
"Morning!" Koki greeted them. "Didn't know you guys knew each other."
"Likewise," Kame said.
"Penpal." Nakamaru answered Kame's unasked question. "Koki writes the sweetest letters, full of tender sentiments and updates about his dogs."
Koki beamed. "I mean every word, too. The dogs are staying with my neighbour."
"It helps to have contact with another mage occasionally," Nakamaru said. "So how do the two of you know each other?"
Kame quickly explained the somewhat painful circumstances of their meeting - Koki crashing into him - and hoped Koki wouldn't ask him how the dragonslaying business was going.
Fortunately, Koki left the subject alone. "All of us working on the ward repairs take it in turns to have a week off every now and then to rest and recharge ourselves, so I thought I'd come see the trials you mentioned," he explained to Kame. "I don't think I'd ever try out, but it's kinda nice to see what's out there, you know?"
"You could try out," Nakamaru said. "You play guitar and piano."
"I'm not sure the world's ready for a bard who raps."
"Maybe; maybe not," Kame said. "I think they're about to get one who has the drums as his secondary instrument - and one who plays jazz."
"And tapdances," Nakamaru added. "Today's trials should be entertaining."
The local Guildmaster opened the event promptly at nine, by which time all the audience seats were filled and so many people had crowded in the back that even the fire exits were blocked. The mayor made a quick speech, mostly praising the Bardic Guild for supporting the tourist industry, and the judges filed out from the Guildhall to take their seats.
Two of the judges were more or less as Kame had expected: one stern, greybearded gentleman in his sixties whose pale blue robes were marginally less starched than the man himself, and an equally severe woman who couldn't have been more than a decade younger. Quite possibly not Jin's target audience, then.
Of the third judge, little could be seen. He (Kame only reached this conclusion due to the flatness of the figure's chest) was short, on the slender side, and had his hood pulled low over his eyes. Since he also wore a large, chunky scarf, the lower part of his face remained a mystery too. He sat between the other two, and was the only one to prop his elbows on the table.
"Maybe he's here to execute the people who sing out of tune?" Kame suggested, keeping his voice low.
"I think he's just a judge," Nakamaru murmured back. "Without the 'jury and executioner' part."
Once all the officials were in position, the screens covering the stage were pulled aside to reveal all the instruments bulky enough that they were being borrowed from the Guild by the day's candidates. The drums sat in the middle, with a piano on the left - and, to everyone's surprise, a set of steel drums on the right. It was shaping up to be an interesting day.
The first two candidates were traditional Bardic Guild material. One male, one female, they sang songs of courtly love from days gone by, of knights in shining armour battling savage beasts to save fair maidens and win their hands in marriage. The woman played an instrumental on a flute; the man, on a clarinet, and their primary instruments were harp and lute respectively.
The woman made it through to the next round, but the man got a thumbs-down from the hooded judge and ran off the stage.
After struggling to stay awake for the first two candidates, Kame had no such trouble with the third. Jin's outfit alone set him apart from the others - while they'd worn robes in the style of the Guild members, he wore blue jeans, a white V-neck shirt and a stylish black vest shot through with silver, all of which only served to emphasise his fine figure. Kame wished he wouldn't hide it under baggy clothing so much, because the view really was quite enjoyable.
"That's Kame's partner," Nakamaru whispered to Koki as an explanation for why Kame was suddenly gaping at the stage. Kame didn't correct him.
For the first round, candidates played a piece on each instrument, one of which could be instrumental if it was impossible to sing while playing - a problem Jin didn't have - and one had to be a traditional song to prove the candidates had knowledge of history and culture.
Jin's first choice of song wasn't traditional so much as a classic, a beautiful rendition of 'Kimi wo Omou Toki', softly strummed on guitar. Kame sang along under his breath and looked around to find most of the audience doing the same. Not so the judges, two of whom wore frowns. Whether the hooded judge shared their expression, no one could tell, but it seemed unlikely since he was the only one actually swaying in time to the music.
"Now that's more like it," Koki muttered.
Applause wasn't allowed at the trials, as Kame discovered when he tried to get a round going, but he felt less embarrassed about it when Jin shot him a grateful smile from the stage.
If Jin's first song had been a well-known and much-loved classic, his second was a complete mystery to everyone save himself. He set his guitar aside, took a seat behind the drums, and sang in such a distorted falsetto that not even Kame, who was really trying, could make out more than one word in three. Something to do with snow, possibly.
No swaying from the hooded judge this time, but the female judge, who'd spent most of the performance watching Jin's arms with a predatory smile, gave him a nod of approval and like that, Jin was through to the second round.
They took a five-minute break to remove the drums from the stage - evidently, Jin was the only candidate to request them - and started up again with Junnosuke Taguchi.
For someone so perpetually happy, Taguchi's first choice of song was unexpected - a solo guitar version of that popular power ballad, 'Distance'. Also not particularly traditional, but mournful enough to get a faint nod from the male judge.
His second, a jazzy little number on the saxophone, finished with a short tap dance. Had he been able to dance while playing the sax, Kame was pretty sure he'd have done so. Taguchi's feet didn't stop moving during the song, tap shoes beating out a rhythm on the stage that Kame couldn't help but mirror with his own boots.
"Lively, isn't he?" Nakamaru murmured. "And he's easily the best-dressed candidate. I lent him that bow tie."
Taguchi wore a smart, shiny suit of the same pale blue as the Bardic robes - as a subtle tribute or simply a sign that the man was a dandy, Kame didn't know. He couldn't disagree with Nakamaru's statement, however.
They watched another six candidates before lunch, one of whom proved to have no little skill on the steel drums but still didn't make it through to the next round. Kame struggled to stay awake; Koki didn't even bother trying, coming to with a start when the male judge announced there would be an hour's lunch break.
It was like he'd set a cat loose in a henhouse. At the mere mention of lunch, the audience scattered, rushing as fast as they could go to the various food stalls set up around the Guildhall. Being near the front, Kame's party couldn't move very far until the rest of the crowd had dissipated and by that time, the others had found them.
"Did you like my performance?" Jin asked excitedly. "I wrote the second song myself."
He looked like a little kid checking to see if he'd done something good, all bright eyes and shy smiles. Kame resisted the urge to pat him on the head and tell him he'd been a good boy.
"The second one was interesting," Koki said, "but I didn't get what you were singing about."
"Sorry, but I couldn't really follow it either." Kame hated to admit it. "I thought it was very creative, though."
Jin refused to even consider Koki's opinion until they'd been introduced. As the only one who knew them all Nakamaru handled the introductions, inadvertently revealing that he'd met Taguchi on a group date.
"With girls," he added, just in case anyone got the wrong idea.
Koki snickered. "Was this at another one of your fancy gourmet restaurants?"
Nakamaru nodded. "But the girls didn't like it and they left early."
"So the rest of us went to play billiards," Taguchi said. "And I think that's my cue to leave for lunch."
The five of them split up to find the food stalls with the shortest queues and met back in the garden with an odd assortment of comestibles, most of which had no nutritional value whatsoever but tasted delicious. While they ate, they discussed the other candidates.
"The babyfaced guy with the fluffy hair - I thought he had a lovely voice," Kame said. "I don't know why he didn't make it through to the next round."
"I do," Jin said darkly. "The little creep was trying to cozy up to one of the judges before the event. Serves him right."
Kame collected his sapphire from the Guildhall after he'd finished eating. Once all the players were back in place, the trials continued. The final two candidates for the first round both made it through, increasing the number of second round candidates to eight.
The second round started immediately afterwards. This time, candidates performed one song only - an original composition. One of the most important attributes a bard should have, said the Guildmaster, was creativity. A bard who couldn't write their own material was no better than a common minstrel - mildly entertaining under certain circumstances, but by no means worthy.
Jin was second in line, this time, and Kame felt sure his performance would earn him his coveted spot in the Guild.
"This is a song I wrote to thank some friends whose love kept me going during dark times." Jin sat down on the stool, guitar in his lap. "I call it 'Care'."
Kame thought it was one of the most beautiful songs he'd heard in his life. Not just the lyrics, but the way they played out across Jin's face, gratitude shining in his eyes; strength, too, to offset the uncertainty, the fear of waking up alone without his identity. After hearing Jin's story, Kame knew who the song was for...and part of him hoped that one day, he'd be able to count himself of that number.
If he managed not to get them both roasted by the dragon, of course.
"I think he's the favourite," Nakamaru muttered as Jin bowed deeply and left the stage, the first candidate to make it through to the final round. "Did you see the way the female judge kept wiping away tears? They all liked that one."
Koki smirked. "Knew I put my money on the right candidate."
"There are people taking bets on the trials?" Kame asked, wishing he'd known earlier so he could've wagered on Jin.
"There's an informal betting shop behind the yakiniku stall," Koki said. "I found it while we were on lunch."
Nakamaru shushed them because Taguchi took to the stage in a peculiar, horned outfit, resembling a creature of myth rather than an acrobatic jazz musician. Kame spotted the hooded judge doubling over with laughter and wasn't sure whether this was a good sign or not.
"At least it's a creative performance?" Kame whispered to Nakamaru. "They can't possibly deny his originality."
"I suppose not," Nakamaru said faintly.
No tears from any of the judges, but the hooded judge picked up a large, folded fan, climbed up on the stage and hit Taguchi lightly over the head with it before giving him a thumbs up. The male judge groaned and clutched his forehead; the female judge offered him a painkiller from her handbag.
Another three candidates made it through to the final round, taking the total to five, and everyone broke for a twenty-minute teabreak. Kame found himself abandoned as the others joined the mad dash for the bathroom, but Jin popped out of the Guildhall to steal Nakamaru's seat for a bit.
"One more round to go!"
"I'm sure you'll make it in," Kame said. "What do you have to do this time?"
Jin grinned furtively. "Oh, I think you'll like it. For the final round we have to perform one song acapella. I'm going to do the song that got me arrested."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? If you land up in jail again I'm not bailing you out, just so you know."
"If Taguchi's 'Samurai Love Attack' didn't put him behind bars, I'm pretty sure I'll be safe. But thanks for worrying."
"Just don't..." What Kame wanted to say was, "Don't screw it up", but that wasn't quite what he meant. "Don't let anything stand in your way," was what emerged.
"I won't." Steely determination hardened Jin's voice. "There's no set number of candidates they can take in one day - they don't have to accept any if no one passes, or they could take everyone.
"And today, even if they don't take anyone else, they're going to take me."
And if they don't, I will, Kame thought, but he kept that one to himself.
"Good luck," he said. "I know you'll be amazing."
"If I don't make it in this time, maybe I should try out for the Mages' Guild instead?" Jin suggested with a laugh. "You tell me I'm not using magic but that I'm doing it anyway - that alone should make me interesting enough for them to let me in."
"Don't!" Jin looked shocked at his vehemence, so Kame attempted to explain himself. "I mean, if you go to the Mages' Guild, they'll want to study you - take you apart to find out what you're doing. You're lucky Nakamaru and I are the only mages who know about it, and that he's more interested in saving the planet than slicing you up."
"And what are you interested in?"
The question might have been playful but Jin's eyes were anything but, searching Kame's face carefully for any truths he didn't feel inclined to speak aloud. Under the intensity of Jin's gaze, Kame couldn't bring himself to say something flippant, not wanting the other man to get the wrong idea. (Exactly what the right idea was, he couldn't have said.)
Fortunately Koki reappeared at that moment, saving Kame from having to untangle every emotion Jin had evoked in him since they'd met and arrange them in some sort of order. They frowned on babbling in the Mages' Guild - it led to all kinds of unpredictable spells - and Kame didn't think he could string together a coherent sentence to answer Jin's question.
Koki handed him a beer, took one look at their faces and told them both to get a room.
The final round began with very little fanfare as the first candidate could barely be heard. She slunk off the stage after the second verse, rubbing her throat with one hand and her eyes with the other.
"But she was the loudest person out there earlier," Nakamaru said as they waited for the second candidate to appear. "I think there must be something wrong."
"Maybe that cheeky-looking guitarist sabotaged her?" Kame suggested. "Taguchi said he'd met the guy before and he's a practical joker."
When the aforementioned guitarist emerged to perform his own final number, singing about a secret, Kame felt pretty sure his guess was on the money. The guy's face had "cunning" written all over it. Saboteur or not, he impressed the judges enough to become the first candidate accepted into the Bardic Guild that day, and was promptly whisked off to be buried in paperwork.
The third candidate, another woman, secured her own spot in the Guild with an impressive aria - not to everyone's tastes, if the audience's reactions were any indication, but the two unhooded judges loved it. Kame tried to pay attention out of sheer politeness, but the third candidate down meant only two left to go, Taguchi...and Jin. Kame couldn't help feeling a trifle nervous.
Taguchi had traded in the horns for the blue suit again, looking far too suave and sophisticated for someone whose previous performance wouldn't have been out of place at a children's party. He announced his song as 'Love Music' and snapped his fingers through a smooth, upbeat tune that had Kame bopping along in time. Taguchi had a lovely voice, he had to admit, even if not as interesting to him as Jin's, and the judges evidently liked it too because their conference lasted less than a minute.
"He's in!" Nakamaru cheered under his breath, then added, "I hope that doesn't mean he'll charge me for performing when he comes to visit."
Koki stopped laughing at Nakamaru's concern when he spotted Kame holding his chair arms like grim death. "Nervous?"
"I just want him to get in," Kame said. "I think I understand, now, why he wants to have the Guild's acceptance, and I don't want to see what happens if they reject him."
Nakamaru patted him on the shoulder. "I doubt it'll come to that."
"Besides," Koki said, "between the three of us I'm sure we've got enough magical firepower to take out the Guildhall unless they agree to let him in."
Nakamaru's expression of horror served to relax Kame, at least enough that he could loose the stranglehold on his chair. Whatever happened, he couldn't affect it, couldn't do anything to help. Jin had to make it on his own.
The odds of that looked less likely when Jin arrived on the stage and attempted to introduce his song. "Um...this song's called 'Lovejuice' and it's...uh...not about what you probably think it's about. It's not about that, okay?" He accompanied this explanation with a hand gesture that made the female judge raise an approving eyebrow; Kame sighed and wondered if it would help sway her decision.
"Sure it isn't," Koki muttered, and clamped a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter down to a minimum.
Laughter bubbled up in Kame's throat too, as Jin's lyrics made him think of teenage frustrations and wet dreams - not that he'd had the confidence outside of dreams, as a teenager, to pick up hot women in clubs. But it wasn't the lyrics keeping Kame's eyes riveted to the stage; nor was it Jin's light, breathy voice, beautiful without any accompaniment.
It was the dancing, which gave Kame great appreciation for just how much control Jin had over his body. Kame didn't know dance, didn't know the movements, but Jin wielded his four limbs with the precision of a master swordsman, no action wasted and every move executed to perfection.
Hip rolls included. Kame flashed back to pressing up against Jin on Nakamaru's couch the previous morning and wondered what it would've felt like if they'd moved together, if their host hadn't been there to overhear soft moans and the rustle of bedding. He could see how Jin had managed to get himself arrested for solicitation - any innocent passerby would be hard-pressed (emphasis on the first word) to ignore such temptation. Indeed, the audience members were practically salivating, including those old enough to be Jin's great-grandparents.
"I think the judges want to do him right there on the stage," Koki whispered. "Witnesses and all. At least the two whose faces I can see."
"This is the wrong guild for that," Nakamaru said quietly. "And I believe pole-dancing is a mandatory qualification for that one."
Kame thought it best not to mention his pole-dancing experience. (Staying with Kimura had been extremely educational, though not always in ways of which his parents would've approved.) "Did he just sing what I thought he sang?"
"Probably," Nakamaru said. "I'm sure no one's ever mentioned that word in a Bardic trial before."
Scandalous lyrics aside, Jin's performance finished without incident. The judges didn't even bother to consult each other and Jin left the stage wearing a giddy grin, escorted by two bards who both tried to get a guiding arm around him - for his own safety, of course. Kame beamed for all he was worth.
The Guildmaster reappeared long enough to read out the names of the new recruits and close the event, inviting everyone to join them again tomorrow morning for the second day of trials. Kame had no interest in any of the other candidates - he'd seen all he wanted to see of the Bardic Guild for the time being.
Being near the front, they had to wait for the rest of the audience to file out before making a move. Taguchi turned up first. He had inkstains all over his hands from signing paperwork and his bowtie was crooked, but the look of ecstasy on his face said he didn't care one jot. Nakamaru took advantage of his blissful ignorance to steal the bowtie back.
They were so busy offering congratulations that none of them noticed the hooded judge sneaking up from behind.
"You should've told me you were coming," a familiar voice addressed Nakamaru. "I could've gotten you front row seats."
"Ah!" Kame clapped a hand to his mouth as the judge pushed back his hood. "It's you!"
"Not 'it's you'," Ueda admonished him. "Ueda. Did you enjoy the first day of the trials?"
"I didn't know you were going to be one of the judges today," Nakamaru said. "What's with the hood?"
Ueda grinned. "The first day candidates are usually boring; I thought if I covered my eyes, no one would notice they were shut."
"Take your position seriously!"
"You worry too much," Ueda said. "How's that recycling project of yours coming along?"
"If you ever need to write love letters to your groupies, I can offer you a year's worth of purple notepaper."
"My fanclub president takes care of that."
"Is this guy another one of your penpals?" Koki asked, looking from Namakaru to Ueda with interest. "How many bards do you know, anyway?"
Once again, Nakamaru had to make the introductions, with Kame adding his explanation of how he and Jin had run into Ueda before.
"There's something wrong with this picture," Ueda said to Nakamaru. "How did you get to be the social hub of the universe?"
"I'm a naturally friendly guy! I have lots of good qualities."
"He's a good host," Kame said.
"Always has biscuits," Taguchi added.
"Very conscientious," Koki said.
Ueda couldn't argue with that, being the travelling bard friend Nakamaru had mentioned previously.
"Jin told me you weren't really busking," Kame said. "We didn't realise you were already a Guild member, though."
"I like to travel incognito," Ueda explained. "It's easier to pick up good stories for songs if no one knows I'm a professional."
"And that way the Guild doesn't find out he's keeping a harem on the side," Nakamaru said smugly. "They frown on that sort of thing."
The subject of Ueda's harem, which he kept insisting he didn't have, kept them going until Jin reappeared, still with the giddy smile and just as inkstained as Taguchi. He high-fived them all until he reached Ueda, at which point he did a double take.
"I liked the dancing," Ueda said. "But you should be careful if you're going to perform that one in public. You might get arrested."
Kame smirked. "Been there, done that."
"I've given shelter to an ex-con?"
Laughter at Nakamaru's mock outrage covered Kame's hushed "Congratulations", meant for Jin's ears only, but Jin acknowledged the word with a silent smile.
-----
Kame had mixed memories of the victory celebrations. Ueda and Koki had both joined them at the Tipsy Panda for a meal, during which Koki taught all the bards present a thing or two about rapping and Ueda explained to the two new recruits how to go about advertising their availability for hire without anyone getting the wrong idea.
After the third Sendai resident had stopped by their table to buy Jin a drink, Jin had started handing them round to the rest of the group, though most of them seemed to end up with Kame. He'd lost count in short order.
Waking up next to Jin would've been a nice experience under any other circumstances, but not when Kame had both a headache and a decided lack of clothes under the blankets. Jin, in a similar state, faced the window, and Kame couldn't decide if it made it more or less awkward that they had their backs to each other. He didn't feel like he'd done anything last night, and it hadn't been such a long time that he'd forgotten the sensation completely...though with the amount of alcohol they'd consumed, he doubted they'd have been able to rise to the occasion in any case.
"Uh...Jin?"
He received a sleepy grunt in reply. Fine. Maybe he could discreetly wash and dress before Jin regained full consciousness, and hope the other man's memory was equally mangled.
No such luck. The floorboard creaked as Kame took a cautious step out of bed, and Jin rolled over.
"It can't be morning already," he grumbled. "We've only just gone to bed."
"I wish I could remember if that's true or not," Kame said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. However long they'd been in bed, it didn't feel like enough.
"Please tell me you don't want to go dragon-hunting this very minute, because if you do I'm going to kick you the rest of the way out of bed."
"You don't get to kick me out of bed." Just to be on the safe side, Kame slid the rest of the way off the mattress and dropped down in a crouch beside the bed, rummaging around for fresh clothes in his bag. He groaned when he found his outfit from yesterday.
"What happened last night? Did someone dump an entire barrel of ale over me?"
"Only half of one. The other half was over me." Jin flung a hand over his shoulder, towards his own heap of stained clothing. "Do you not remember the guy who kicked up a fuss when I said I wouldn't give him a private performance for his birthday?"
"No, but it doesn't surprise me. You attracted a lot of attention yesterday. Why did he soak me too?"
Jin smiled lazily. "You told him I wasn't available for hire right now because I was going with you...and then you said I was never going to be available for him, and definitely not for that, and he paid good money for an entire barrel just so he could empty it all over us."
"Good for me, I guess." Kame mentally congratulated himself for rising to Jin's defense. A good deed was a good deed, even he didn't remember it. "Er...did I say why you were going with me? Did I mention dragons?"
"Don't worry; you didn't say a word about your plans. You just grabbed my hand and held it till he got the idea. I think you were trying to be subtle."
"Oh." Kame knew he had a tendency to grab hands when drunk, especially if he was speaking passionately about something, but it was what he did afterwards that worried him most. "And...after that?" He prepared himself to hear the worst.
"Well, since we got completely drenched, we called it a night. Staggered in here, cleaned up best we could and collapsed. My hair still smells like a brewery, though."
Kame cautiously sniffed the air. "I don't think I'm any better off. We're not going anywhere yet."
"Good, then I'm going back to sleep." Jin burrowed into his pillow, lifting his head long enough to add, "Wake me when it's an hour that normal people might be up."
In exasperation, Kame reached up and batted him lightly across the back of the head. "Normal people are up; I can hear them outside. And what are you trying to imply?"
Jin's response disappeared into the pillow, so Kame gave up for the time being and went to wash his hair until it gleamed.
An hour later, Kame had already dressed and popped next door to see Nakamaru and Taguchi. (Koki and Ueda, he knew, would both be at the second day of the trials, assuming either of them had been capable of leaving the table last night.) He found Nakamaru alone, preparing to leave.
"Taguchi's dropping me off on his way back to Tokyo; he'll base himself at the Guildhall there," Nakamaru said. "He's tending to the horses at the moment. Do you two need a ride?"
"We're going further north, but thanks for the offer - and thank you for putting us up the other night."
"Not a problem. It was nice to have some company." Nakamaru straightened his jacket. "Kame?"
"Hmm?"
"How much do you remember about last night?"
"Not that much," Kame confessed. "I know some guy took a shine to Jin and drenched us both with ale."
"But do you recall what happened to your attacker afterwards?"
"I'm hoping he got a clue."
"He got more than he bargained for. Jin was singing along with the minstrel in the taproom at the time - a song called 'Fall Down'. Guess what happened to the guy with the barrel?"
"He fell down," Kame said flatly. "Could be a coincidence. Drunk guys carrying heavy barrels must fall down all the time."
"He fell down whenever he stood up, which he must've done about a dozen times. I checked - magic was moving in the atmosphere; I couldn't tell where it was going but I do know it wasn't to him. You need to be careful. I don't think Jin even realised what he was doing."
Kame sank down on the bed, legs temporarily going on strike. What was he going to do about Jin? What if Jin sang as they travelled and the ground suddenly opened up and swallowed them both? Was he going to have to ask Jin not to sing, hum or whistle? Was it even possible?
"I'm not..." Nakamaru tried again. "I'm not going to report him to the Mages' Guild. I won't tell anyone. But the two of you need to figure out why this is happening so you can control it. It was funny this time, but I can see it causing trouble along the way."
"You and me both."
Kame returned to his room to find Jin towelling off dripping hair, leaving a trail of splashes all over the floor. This wouldn't have been so bad if he'd bothered to dress, or even wrap another towel around himself.
"Don't stand there with the door open!" Jin said. "People walk through the corridor all the time."
"After your performance yesterday I expected to find them lining up outside to take a peek." Kame obliged him by closing the door and returned to sorting through his stained clothing from last night, now fit only for burning. No amount of cleaning, he felt sure, would remove all traces of ale. Busying himself in this way meant he didn't have to pretend he wasn't looking at Jin.
Jin didn't seem to notice. "Have the others gone?"
"Soon. They said they'd stop by to say goodbye, so you might want to get dressed, unless you want them getting an eyeful."
"You already have." Jin shrugged. "We were so out of it last night I didn't even bother trying to put us in clean clothes."
No time like the present. "Jin, did we...did anything else happen last night?"
"You tripped over your own feet a couple of times when-"
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
Jin finished with the towel and stepped into a pair of clean pants. "Yeah, I do know, and we didn't. Did you want to? You didn't say anything."
Kame choked on his response. "And if I had said something?"
"Look, Kame, I'm...I'm not very good at picking up cues like that, okay?" Colour flooded Jin's cheeks. "Whatever experience I might've had before I woke up in Aomori, I've forgotten; I had to start all over again. It wouldn't even have occurred to me if Ryo hadn't taken me to this bar where some girls from the Whores' Guild worked, and-"
Kame held up a hand to stop him. "I get the picture. Sorry, it's just I don't usually wake up in situations like this, and since I couldn't remember much about last night..."
"You got the wrong idea," Jin finished for him. "That's okay. I guess it did look pretty suspicious. Next time I'll try to get you dressed."
"There won't be a next time," Kame vowed. "Last night was a celebration, so that was special. If we drink that much every night we'll never get anywhere near the dragon."
What he didn't mention was that being in less than full control of his faculties around Jin was obviously not a good idea, and especially not if Jin persisted in randomly breaking out into song. Kame might have to intervene with magic to prevent an earthquake or something.
"Yes, boss."
A knock on the door heralded the arrival of Nakamaru and Taguchi, the latter sporting a jaunty straw hat that gave Kame pause for thought. Jin finished dressing during the thanks and goodbyes, not saying much, and at Taguchi's insistence went downstairs to bid farewell to the horses.
"Research is my speciality," Nakamaru said to Kame before they joined the others. "If I find anything that might help explain Jin, I'll do a sending. Do you have a mirror with you?"
"A small travel one." He needed it to keep his eyebrows nicely shaped. "Here."
Nakamaru inspected the black compact inside and out before handing it back. "It'll do. I should be able to target this if I have to send you a message."
"And if I need to return the call?"
"Do you remember the little oval mirror standing on my desk?"
"Just about. I have to warn you, though - I'm not very good at precision work. If I make your mirror explode, I'll buy you another one."
"If the mirror explodes while I'm looking at it, I'm not sure I'll need another one."
Once the horses had received sufficient petting Kame and Jin watched the wagon roll off into the distance, laughing at Nakamaru's pained expression every time it travelled over a bump in the road.
"Onwards," Kame said solemnly, and steered Jin back indoors because they were about to miss breakfast.
-----
A quick chat with Ueda the night before had confirmed the dragon's passage over Sendai on its way home; Kame still hadn't got around to acquiring a map but he could find his way north, and it would be familiar territory for Jin. It didn't take them long to resupply, though they did dally enough to replace their ruined clothing. They bought warmer things; for winter, still a while away, made her icy presence known earlier in the north and Jin had already proven himself sensitive to the cold.
"I just hope no one mistakes you for an animal and fires an arrow at you," Kame said, looking at Jin's fur-trimmed collection. "You look tempting to a hunter."
"As long as I don't look tempting to a dragon, that's fine."
"You're not wearing any gold or jewels so I think you'll be okay."
"I don't normally have the kind of money to buy any," Jin pointed out. "I had to sell my gold necklace to buy my guitar, and I never replaced it."
They broke off long enough to respond to the gate guard's farewell, then picked up the discussion again as they started on the road.
"I still find that odd," Kame said. "About the gold necklace. You say you didn't have anything else when you were found, not even clothes?"
Jin nodded. "Plain gold chain around my neck, with an empty stone setting. I don't know what was in it."
"Strange. Why would someone take the stone but leave the chain? Why not take the whole thing?"
"Maybe it fell out somewhere? One of the doctors suggested that I'd stripped off to go swimming - except for the necklace - and tired myself out, returning to land as soon as I could instead of wherever I'd left my clothes. They never did find them. The stone might be lying at the bottom of the bay somewhere."
"I could see that, but then what happened to your memory?"
Jin's shoulders drooped. "Your guess is as good as mine."
He shrugged off all attempts at further conversation on the subject so Kame dropped it, content to do the talking himself, telling stories about his apprenticeship to keep Jin entertained. He'd been quite a handful as a kid, always sneaking off to play ball games, and even though it had become second-nature by now, manipulating magic hadn't come naturally to him.
"How far do you think we'll have to go?" Jin asked after Kame had run out of stories. "I know the plan is go north, but..."
"Dragons live in the mountains," Kame explained. "They find caverns or make their own to hold their hoards, in places thieves find it hard to reach. But I don't know where this particular dragon makes his lair."
"So you keep asking. But how do you know it's definitely the right dragon?"
"Because this is the only one with red trim on his scales. One of Kimura's forebears turned all the rest to stone over a century ago, leaving only an unhatched egg behind. It's amazing what sort of books you can find when you're looking for something to read to your comatose mentor."
"Is transformative magic only illegal on humans, then?"
Kame smirked. "I didn't say he did it legally, did I? I read it was revenge for a dragon raid on his hometown. He left the egg because it was still unhatched, and according to the books I read, dragon breeds can't mix. The one we're after is the last of his kind."
He had no plans beyond finding the dragon, as yet, despite his bold words to Koki before. His magic would be useless against it the moment he drew it from the atmosphere to use in a spell, and though he considered himself to be in good shape, dragonslayers tended to be twice his height and three times as bulky and Kame just didn't feel up to wrestling with the beast. Stealth was a far better option. Infiltrate the dragon's lair, find the ruby, snatch it and sneak out - without magic. The dragon would detect them in a heartbeat if Kame cast any spells.
Jin didn't ask for details, and Kame got the impression his mind was elsewhere for the time being. He liked that, that they didn't have to fill every second of silence with meaningless chatter. After so long travelling alone Kame appreciated the moments where he didn't feel obliged to entertain - though Jin's brilliant smile and adorable high-pitched giggle made Kame want to amuse him constantly.
Night fell before they reached the next town, which meant they camped out for the night, leaving the road to find a clear spot near the river. Unfortunately, it was only as Kame took out his small travel tent that he remembered it was designed to hold a single person.
"It's going to be a tight squeeze," he warned. "Hope you're not too fond of breathing."
"Can't you magic it bigger?" Jin asked.
Kame cast a nervous glance towards the horizon. Surely no dragon was going to pick up a tiny little spell at this distance? "I can try, but I can't guarantee it'll hold its shape. Not anymore."
"As long as it keeps us covered, I don't care if it's got no shape at all - it looks like rain again." Jin suddenly brightened. "Hey, how about if I play for you? Nakamaru used me to help him focus, right? So maybe I could do the same thing for you."
"I've never tried using music as a focus before, but..."
"No good?"
"It's not that it's no good," Kame said carefully, trying not to sound like he was rejecting the idea. "It's just that your music is still doing strange things. Like making that guy fall down repeatedly last night."
"But I wasn't trying to do anything! I never try to do anything with music except make people enjoy it. Uh, not make them enjoy it, but-"
"I get it," Kame said, "but that doesn't change the fact that you're somehow working magic without working magic when you perform."
"Not all the time, though," Jin pointed out. "And I didn't have anything weird like that happen to me until I met you. Maybe it's all your fault."
"And maybe it did but you just never noticed," Kame shot back.
"I'm not completely hopeless, you know!"
"I didn't say you were!"
The cold spatter of raindrops brought an abrupt end to their squabble, as Kame scrambled to get the tent unfolded and bespelled before they both received a soaking. Jin helped him set it up and then stood back with their bags, giving him plenty of room to work.
Kame stared at the small blue bubble. Expanding objects wasn't like sliding a bolt into place, where he moved an object in one direction, or like creating a magelight, where he compounded magic into a ball. This required thought in all directions, or he'd end up with the tent longer on one side than the other.
First, he reached for the sparks in the atmosphere, relishing the tingling in his fingertips of power burning to be used. Next, he wielded that power as a blade, slicing the bonds between each thread of the canvas to create gaps at regular intervals. If he didn't hold the tent together by magic, it would collapse in a heap of loose strands.
Sweat beaded at Kame's temples from sheer exertion. The tent might've been lightweight in real terms, but magically holding the pattern took visualisation beyond his current level of focus - he might as well have been building a house with his mind. But if he let go now, the tent would be ruined for good.
"I don't think I can finish this," he forced out through clenched teeth. "I can't-"
He gave up on speech when he caught a snatch of melody in the air; a faint tune from behind, a few soft words, now growing louder as Jin approached.
"Don't you ever stop..."
As Jin fell into place beside him, still singing and tapping put a beat against his thigh, Kame felt a surge of clarity he'd been missing for two years. The lyrics swirled around his head in vivid colours, in stormy purple and bright pink backed with sunshine and a strength Kame recognised as his own, morphed and fed back to him by Jin's song.
Inside his mind the tent took shape and held, steady as a rock. Now he could begin the expansion. Slowly, Kame wove strips of magic between the canvas strands, pushing them aside in all directions to add extra cover to the body. Little by little, the tent gained material till he judged it large enough to fit them and their bags comfortably, and by then, Jin had stopped singing.
Kame released the excess magic into the atmosphere and examined his handiwork. The tent seemed sturdy enough when he prodded it.
"Told you I could help," Jin said, smirking. "My rhythm helped you keep your spell on track."
"I'm not so sure it was the rhythm...but let's talk about it once we're inside!"
They rushed to move their things inside the tent, which was now tall enough for them to stand up (provided Jin didn't mind his hair sweeping the ceiling) and easily wide enough to take their belongings. They spread their bedrolls side by side on Jin's blanket. Rain beat down but Kame's magic held, keeping them as dry as if they'd been in a house.
"I should've started travelling with a mage ages ago," Jin said. "You must be great company on camping trips."
"Wouldn't know; last time I went on one I couldn't use magic. If the whole thing collapses in the middle of the night, I'm sorry."
"It won't." The unshakeable faith in Jin's voice made Kame smile. "I believe in you."
It had been a while since anyone had said that to Kame, largely because the people who knew him best were in his past, now, and the people he met nowadays didn't know him very well, if at all.
After a cold meal (Kame didn't feel inclined to start a fire in the tent) Jin produced a surprise in the form of a couple of bottles of beer, part of his victory haul from Sendai.
Kame hesitated before accepting his. "After the last time I'm not so sure it's a good idea..."
"There are no demented stalkers with barrels out here, Kame," Jin huffed. "I don't think we're in any danger of getting drowned in ale."
"Not what I meant."
Jin sighed and took a swig of his beer. "I told you, I don't have much practice reading between the lines. If you've got something to say to me, say it, because I'm never going to know otherwise."
"I don't think you're human!" Kame blurted out.
Jin's beer slipped from his fingers, luckily landing intact on the blanket without spillage. "You don't..."
"At least, not completely. Jin, you just did something I've never encountered before - something you shouldn't be able to do.
"I drew the magic from the atmosphere - and you drew it from me, sharpened it with your song and fed it back for me to use. It wasn't the beat that helped me focus - it was you and the music inside you. Nakamaru and I couldn't sense you draining magic from the atmosphere because you were draining it from us instead. Even inside the anti-magic field; I couldn't use the little bit of magic I had stored, but after your song persuaded the guard to take us out, it had vanished."
"Um..." Jin licked his lips nervously, pale now at Kame's accusation. "But that doesn't mean I'm not human, right? Maybe I'm just a really weird mage who uses other people's magic."
"Humans don't do that," Kame said gently. "But dragons do. And demons granted human bodies do. Creatures of magic can't draw it directly from the atmosphere, so they take it from other sources."
"Do I look like a dragon to you!"
"I'm not saying you're a dragon! Jin, I have no idea what you are, I just don't think you're completely human."
When Jin abandoned his beer and headed for the exit, Kame realised he could've picked a more tactful way to explain his thoughts. (Not that there was ever a tactful way to tell a friend you're not sure about his species, but still...)
"Don't." He caught Jin's sleeve to make him stay, pulling him back down to the blanket. Jin's face was shuttered, lips clamped together in a thin line which no words could break, but his eyes glittered with anger. "It's raining pretty hard out there. You'll get sick."
"So I'm human enough for that?" Jin spat out, tearing his arm free from Kame's grasp.
"Yeah. You asked me to be straightforward, Jin, so that's what I'm trying to do. Did I say it would be a problem for me if you weren't human? No. I don't care." He laid a hand on Jin's wrist, resisting all attempts to shrug him off. "But I need to understand what you're doing because it might have something to do with your lack of memory, and I want to help."
"Insulting me is a funny way of helping."
"I could be wrong," Kame conceded. "And I didn't intend it as an insult."
Jin twisted on the blanket until he could lean back-to-back against Kame, Kame's fingers still wrapped loosely around his wrist. He spoke so softly his words were barely audible, even at that distance.
"But you could be right, too."
Fandom: KAT-TUN
Pairing: Kame x Jin
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, fantasy, fluff
Word count: 41,500
Disclaimer: Not mine, damnit
Summary: A renegade mage finds his quest goes in quite a different direction than planned when he winds up sharing a jail cell with an aspiring bard.
The Hills Are Alive (with the Sound of Magic) 5/6
When Jin bundled him out the door without breakfast, Kame thought the building was on fire and they were all being evacuated. Fortunately, the reason for the rush was to ensure both Kame and Nakamaru got decent seats at the trials, and there were enough foodstalls set up around the Guildhall that Kame didn't have to worry about any of them starving before the event. In his excitement, Jin treated them all to sweet rolls for breakfast before dashing off with Taguchi to check in with the Guild.
"I didn't expect that," Nakamaru said. "I thought you were the financial half of the team."
Kame smiled and swallowed a bite of his roll. Jin had good taste(sometimes). "He has his moments."
They got their second surprise of the morning when they arrived at the garden of the Bardic Guildhall. The Guild had cordoned off a large section for the audience, with a low barrier keeping them away from the stage set up at the far end. Adjacent to the stage on the left, they'd set up a table for the judges - three, based on the number of empty chairs - while on the right, more comfortable looking chairs for VIP guests were already occupied by the mayor and her entourage.
The bard on the door directed Kame and Nakamaru to the second row of seats, close enough to get a good view of the proceedings though should a stampede chance to happen, they'd both be flattened in seconds. Kame resolved to focus only on the trials for the time being. He had to keep a close eye on things, he'd decided, in case one of Jin's songs worked its strange, non-magical magic. It would be a great shame if he were to bring the house down for all the wrong reasons.
Kame's surprise - and Nakamaru's too, as it turned out - took the form of Koki Tanaka, who sat in the seat on Kame's left, reading a book on dressmaking. He'd traded in the set of black robes for a studded leather jacket, which Kame thought suited him much better, and augmented his accessory collection with several earrings.
"Koki!" Kame and Nakamaru exclaimed in unison, then turned to each other.
"Morning!" Koki greeted them. "Didn't know you guys knew each other."
"Likewise," Kame said.
"Penpal." Nakamaru answered Kame's unasked question. "Koki writes the sweetest letters, full of tender sentiments and updates about his dogs."
Koki beamed. "I mean every word, too. The dogs are staying with my neighbour."
"It helps to have contact with another mage occasionally," Nakamaru said. "So how do the two of you know each other?"
Kame quickly explained the somewhat painful circumstances of their meeting - Koki crashing into him - and hoped Koki wouldn't ask him how the dragonslaying business was going.
Fortunately, Koki left the subject alone. "All of us working on the ward repairs take it in turns to have a week off every now and then to rest and recharge ourselves, so I thought I'd come see the trials you mentioned," he explained to Kame. "I don't think I'd ever try out, but it's kinda nice to see what's out there, you know?"
"You could try out," Nakamaru said. "You play guitar and piano."
"I'm not sure the world's ready for a bard who raps."
"Maybe; maybe not," Kame said. "I think they're about to get one who has the drums as his secondary instrument - and one who plays jazz."
"And tapdances," Nakamaru added. "Today's trials should be entertaining."
The local Guildmaster opened the event promptly at nine, by which time all the audience seats were filled and so many people had crowded in the back that even the fire exits were blocked. The mayor made a quick speech, mostly praising the Bardic Guild for supporting the tourist industry, and the judges filed out from the Guildhall to take their seats.
Two of the judges were more or less as Kame had expected: one stern, greybearded gentleman in his sixties whose pale blue robes were marginally less starched than the man himself, and an equally severe woman who couldn't have been more than a decade younger. Quite possibly not Jin's target audience, then.
Of the third judge, little could be seen. He (Kame only reached this conclusion due to the flatness of the figure's chest) was short, on the slender side, and had his hood pulled low over his eyes. Since he also wore a large, chunky scarf, the lower part of his face remained a mystery too. He sat between the other two, and was the only one to prop his elbows on the table.
"Maybe he's here to execute the people who sing out of tune?" Kame suggested, keeping his voice low.
"I think he's just a judge," Nakamaru murmured back. "Without the 'jury and executioner' part."
Once all the officials were in position, the screens covering the stage were pulled aside to reveal all the instruments bulky enough that they were being borrowed from the Guild by the day's candidates. The drums sat in the middle, with a piano on the left - and, to everyone's surprise, a set of steel drums on the right. It was shaping up to be an interesting day.
The first two candidates were traditional Bardic Guild material. One male, one female, they sang songs of courtly love from days gone by, of knights in shining armour battling savage beasts to save fair maidens and win their hands in marriage. The woman played an instrumental on a flute; the man, on a clarinet, and their primary instruments were harp and lute respectively.
The woman made it through to the next round, but the man got a thumbs-down from the hooded judge and ran off the stage.
After struggling to stay awake for the first two candidates, Kame had no such trouble with the third. Jin's outfit alone set him apart from the others - while they'd worn robes in the style of the Guild members, he wore blue jeans, a white V-neck shirt and a stylish black vest shot through with silver, all of which only served to emphasise his fine figure. Kame wished he wouldn't hide it under baggy clothing so much, because the view really was quite enjoyable.
"That's Kame's partner," Nakamaru whispered to Koki as an explanation for why Kame was suddenly gaping at the stage. Kame didn't correct him.
For the first round, candidates played a piece on each instrument, one of which could be instrumental if it was impossible to sing while playing - a problem Jin didn't have - and one had to be a traditional song to prove the candidates had knowledge of history and culture.
Jin's first choice of song wasn't traditional so much as a classic, a beautiful rendition of 'Kimi wo Omou Toki', softly strummed on guitar. Kame sang along under his breath and looked around to find most of the audience doing the same. Not so the judges, two of whom wore frowns. Whether the hooded judge shared their expression, no one could tell, but it seemed unlikely since he was the only one actually swaying in time to the music.
"Now that's more like it," Koki muttered.
Applause wasn't allowed at the trials, as Kame discovered when he tried to get a round going, but he felt less embarrassed about it when Jin shot him a grateful smile from the stage.
If Jin's first song had been a well-known and much-loved classic, his second was a complete mystery to everyone save himself. He set his guitar aside, took a seat behind the drums, and sang in such a distorted falsetto that not even Kame, who was really trying, could make out more than one word in three. Something to do with snow, possibly.
No swaying from the hooded judge this time, but the female judge, who'd spent most of the performance watching Jin's arms with a predatory smile, gave him a nod of approval and like that, Jin was through to the second round.
They took a five-minute break to remove the drums from the stage - evidently, Jin was the only candidate to request them - and started up again with Junnosuke Taguchi.
For someone so perpetually happy, Taguchi's first choice of song was unexpected - a solo guitar version of that popular power ballad, 'Distance'. Also not particularly traditional, but mournful enough to get a faint nod from the male judge.
His second, a jazzy little number on the saxophone, finished with a short tap dance. Had he been able to dance while playing the sax, Kame was pretty sure he'd have done so. Taguchi's feet didn't stop moving during the song, tap shoes beating out a rhythm on the stage that Kame couldn't help but mirror with his own boots.
"Lively, isn't he?" Nakamaru murmured. "And he's easily the best-dressed candidate. I lent him that bow tie."
Taguchi wore a smart, shiny suit of the same pale blue as the Bardic robes - as a subtle tribute or simply a sign that the man was a dandy, Kame didn't know. He couldn't disagree with Nakamaru's statement, however.
They watched another six candidates before lunch, one of whom proved to have no little skill on the steel drums but still didn't make it through to the next round. Kame struggled to stay awake; Koki didn't even bother trying, coming to with a start when the male judge announced there would be an hour's lunch break.
It was like he'd set a cat loose in a henhouse. At the mere mention of lunch, the audience scattered, rushing as fast as they could go to the various food stalls set up around the Guildhall. Being near the front, Kame's party couldn't move very far until the rest of the crowd had dissipated and by that time, the others had found them.
"Did you like my performance?" Jin asked excitedly. "I wrote the second song myself."
He looked like a little kid checking to see if he'd done something good, all bright eyes and shy smiles. Kame resisted the urge to pat him on the head and tell him he'd been a good boy.
"The second one was interesting," Koki said, "but I didn't get what you were singing about."
"Sorry, but I couldn't really follow it either." Kame hated to admit it. "I thought it was very creative, though."
Jin refused to even consider Koki's opinion until they'd been introduced. As the only one who knew them all Nakamaru handled the introductions, inadvertently revealing that he'd met Taguchi on a group date.
"With girls," he added, just in case anyone got the wrong idea.
Koki snickered. "Was this at another one of your fancy gourmet restaurants?"
Nakamaru nodded. "But the girls didn't like it and they left early."
"So the rest of us went to play billiards," Taguchi said. "And I think that's my cue to leave for lunch."
The five of them split up to find the food stalls with the shortest queues and met back in the garden with an odd assortment of comestibles, most of which had no nutritional value whatsoever but tasted delicious. While they ate, they discussed the other candidates.
"The babyfaced guy with the fluffy hair - I thought he had a lovely voice," Kame said. "I don't know why he didn't make it through to the next round."
"I do," Jin said darkly. "The little creep was trying to cozy up to one of the judges before the event. Serves him right."
Kame collected his sapphire from the Guildhall after he'd finished eating. Once all the players were back in place, the trials continued. The final two candidates for the first round both made it through, increasing the number of second round candidates to eight.
The second round started immediately afterwards. This time, candidates performed one song only - an original composition. One of the most important attributes a bard should have, said the Guildmaster, was creativity. A bard who couldn't write their own material was no better than a common minstrel - mildly entertaining under certain circumstances, but by no means worthy.
Jin was second in line, this time, and Kame felt sure his performance would earn him his coveted spot in the Guild.
"This is a song I wrote to thank some friends whose love kept me going during dark times." Jin sat down on the stool, guitar in his lap. "I call it 'Care'."
Kame thought it was one of the most beautiful songs he'd heard in his life. Not just the lyrics, but the way they played out across Jin's face, gratitude shining in his eyes; strength, too, to offset the uncertainty, the fear of waking up alone without his identity. After hearing Jin's story, Kame knew who the song was for...and part of him hoped that one day, he'd be able to count himself of that number.
If he managed not to get them both roasted by the dragon, of course.
"I think he's the favourite," Nakamaru muttered as Jin bowed deeply and left the stage, the first candidate to make it through to the final round. "Did you see the way the female judge kept wiping away tears? They all liked that one."
Koki smirked. "Knew I put my money on the right candidate."
"There are people taking bets on the trials?" Kame asked, wishing he'd known earlier so he could've wagered on Jin.
"There's an informal betting shop behind the yakiniku stall," Koki said. "I found it while we were on lunch."
Nakamaru shushed them because Taguchi took to the stage in a peculiar, horned outfit, resembling a creature of myth rather than an acrobatic jazz musician. Kame spotted the hooded judge doubling over with laughter and wasn't sure whether this was a good sign or not.
"At least it's a creative performance?" Kame whispered to Nakamaru. "They can't possibly deny his originality."
"I suppose not," Nakamaru said faintly.
No tears from any of the judges, but the hooded judge picked up a large, folded fan, climbed up on the stage and hit Taguchi lightly over the head with it before giving him a thumbs up. The male judge groaned and clutched his forehead; the female judge offered him a painkiller from her handbag.
Another three candidates made it through to the final round, taking the total to five, and everyone broke for a twenty-minute teabreak. Kame found himself abandoned as the others joined the mad dash for the bathroom, but Jin popped out of the Guildhall to steal Nakamaru's seat for a bit.
"One more round to go!"
"I'm sure you'll make it in," Kame said. "What do you have to do this time?"
Jin grinned furtively. "Oh, I think you'll like it. For the final round we have to perform one song acapella. I'm going to do the song that got me arrested."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? If you land up in jail again I'm not bailing you out, just so you know."
"If Taguchi's 'Samurai Love Attack' didn't put him behind bars, I'm pretty sure I'll be safe. But thanks for worrying."
"Just don't..." What Kame wanted to say was, "Don't screw it up", but that wasn't quite what he meant. "Don't let anything stand in your way," was what emerged.
"I won't." Steely determination hardened Jin's voice. "There's no set number of candidates they can take in one day - they don't have to accept any if no one passes, or they could take everyone.
"And today, even if they don't take anyone else, they're going to take me."
And if they don't, I will, Kame thought, but he kept that one to himself.
"Good luck," he said. "I know you'll be amazing."
"If I don't make it in this time, maybe I should try out for the Mages' Guild instead?" Jin suggested with a laugh. "You tell me I'm not using magic but that I'm doing it anyway - that alone should make me interesting enough for them to let me in."
"Don't!" Jin looked shocked at his vehemence, so Kame attempted to explain himself. "I mean, if you go to the Mages' Guild, they'll want to study you - take you apart to find out what you're doing. You're lucky Nakamaru and I are the only mages who know about it, and that he's more interested in saving the planet than slicing you up."
"And what are you interested in?"
The question might have been playful but Jin's eyes were anything but, searching Kame's face carefully for any truths he didn't feel inclined to speak aloud. Under the intensity of Jin's gaze, Kame couldn't bring himself to say something flippant, not wanting the other man to get the wrong idea. (Exactly what the right idea was, he couldn't have said.)
Fortunately Koki reappeared at that moment, saving Kame from having to untangle every emotion Jin had evoked in him since they'd met and arrange them in some sort of order. They frowned on babbling in the Mages' Guild - it led to all kinds of unpredictable spells - and Kame didn't think he could string together a coherent sentence to answer Jin's question.
Koki handed him a beer, took one look at their faces and told them both to get a room.
The final round began with very little fanfare as the first candidate could barely be heard. She slunk off the stage after the second verse, rubbing her throat with one hand and her eyes with the other.
"But she was the loudest person out there earlier," Nakamaru said as they waited for the second candidate to appear. "I think there must be something wrong."
"Maybe that cheeky-looking guitarist sabotaged her?" Kame suggested. "Taguchi said he'd met the guy before and he's a practical joker."
When the aforementioned guitarist emerged to perform his own final number, singing about a secret, Kame felt pretty sure his guess was on the money. The guy's face had "cunning" written all over it. Saboteur or not, he impressed the judges enough to become the first candidate accepted into the Bardic Guild that day, and was promptly whisked off to be buried in paperwork.
The third candidate, another woman, secured her own spot in the Guild with an impressive aria - not to everyone's tastes, if the audience's reactions were any indication, but the two unhooded judges loved it. Kame tried to pay attention out of sheer politeness, but the third candidate down meant only two left to go, Taguchi...and Jin. Kame couldn't help feeling a trifle nervous.
Taguchi had traded in the horns for the blue suit again, looking far too suave and sophisticated for someone whose previous performance wouldn't have been out of place at a children's party. He announced his song as 'Love Music' and snapped his fingers through a smooth, upbeat tune that had Kame bopping along in time. Taguchi had a lovely voice, he had to admit, even if not as interesting to him as Jin's, and the judges evidently liked it too because their conference lasted less than a minute.
"He's in!" Nakamaru cheered under his breath, then added, "I hope that doesn't mean he'll charge me for performing when he comes to visit."
Koki stopped laughing at Nakamaru's concern when he spotted Kame holding his chair arms like grim death. "Nervous?"
"I just want him to get in," Kame said. "I think I understand, now, why he wants to have the Guild's acceptance, and I don't want to see what happens if they reject him."
Nakamaru patted him on the shoulder. "I doubt it'll come to that."
"Besides," Koki said, "between the three of us I'm sure we've got enough magical firepower to take out the Guildhall unless they agree to let him in."
Nakamaru's expression of horror served to relax Kame, at least enough that he could loose the stranglehold on his chair. Whatever happened, he couldn't affect it, couldn't do anything to help. Jin had to make it on his own.
The odds of that looked less likely when Jin arrived on the stage and attempted to introduce his song. "Um...this song's called 'Lovejuice' and it's...uh...not about what you probably think it's about. It's not about that, okay?" He accompanied this explanation with a hand gesture that made the female judge raise an approving eyebrow; Kame sighed and wondered if it would help sway her decision.
"Sure it isn't," Koki muttered, and clamped a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter down to a minimum.
Laughter bubbled up in Kame's throat too, as Jin's lyrics made him think of teenage frustrations and wet dreams - not that he'd had the confidence outside of dreams, as a teenager, to pick up hot women in clubs. But it wasn't the lyrics keeping Kame's eyes riveted to the stage; nor was it Jin's light, breathy voice, beautiful without any accompaniment.
It was the dancing, which gave Kame great appreciation for just how much control Jin had over his body. Kame didn't know dance, didn't know the movements, but Jin wielded his four limbs with the precision of a master swordsman, no action wasted and every move executed to perfection.
Hip rolls included. Kame flashed back to pressing up against Jin on Nakamaru's couch the previous morning and wondered what it would've felt like if they'd moved together, if their host hadn't been there to overhear soft moans and the rustle of bedding. He could see how Jin had managed to get himself arrested for solicitation - any innocent passerby would be hard-pressed (emphasis on the first word) to ignore such temptation. Indeed, the audience members were practically salivating, including those old enough to be Jin's great-grandparents.
"I think the judges want to do him right there on the stage," Koki whispered. "Witnesses and all. At least the two whose faces I can see."
"This is the wrong guild for that," Nakamaru said quietly. "And I believe pole-dancing is a mandatory qualification for that one."
Kame thought it best not to mention his pole-dancing experience. (Staying with Kimura had been extremely educational, though not always in ways of which his parents would've approved.) "Did he just sing what I thought he sang?"
"Probably," Nakamaru said. "I'm sure no one's ever mentioned that word in a Bardic trial before."
Scandalous lyrics aside, Jin's performance finished without incident. The judges didn't even bother to consult each other and Jin left the stage wearing a giddy grin, escorted by two bards who both tried to get a guiding arm around him - for his own safety, of course. Kame beamed for all he was worth.
The Guildmaster reappeared long enough to read out the names of the new recruits and close the event, inviting everyone to join them again tomorrow morning for the second day of trials. Kame had no interest in any of the other candidates - he'd seen all he wanted to see of the Bardic Guild for the time being.
Being near the front, they had to wait for the rest of the audience to file out before making a move. Taguchi turned up first. He had inkstains all over his hands from signing paperwork and his bowtie was crooked, but the look of ecstasy on his face said he didn't care one jot. Nakamaru took advantage of his blissful ignorance to steal the bowtie back.
They were so busy offering congratulations that none of them noticed the hooded judge sneaking up from behind.
"You should've told me you were coming," a familiar voice addressed Nakamaru. "I could've gotten you front row seats."
"Ah!" Kame clapped a hand to his mouth as the judge pushed back his hood. "It's you!"
"Not 'it's you'," Ueda admonished him. "Ueda. Did you enjoy the first day of the trials?"
"I didn't know you were going to be one of the judges today," Nakamaru said. "What's with the hood?"
Ueda grinned. "The first day candidates are usually boring; I thought if I covered my eyes, no one would notice they were shut."
"Take your position seriously!"
"You worry too much," Ueda said. "How's that recycling project of yours coming along?"
"If you ever need to write love letters to your groupies, I can offer you a year's worth of purple notepaper."
"My fanclub president takes care of that."
"Is this guy another one of your penpals?" Koki asked, looking from Namakaru to Ueda with interest. "How many bards do you know, anyway?"
Once again, Nakamaru had to make the introductions, with Kame adding his explanation of how he and Jin had run into Ueda before.
"There's something wrong with this picture," Ueda said to Nakamaru. "How did you get to be the social hub of the universe?"
"I'm a naturally friendly guy! I have lots of good qualities."
"He's a good host," Kame said.
"Always has biscuits," Taguchi added.
"Very conscientious," Koki said.
Ueda couldn't argue with that, being the travelling bard friend Nakamaru had mentioned previously.
"Jin told me you weren't really busking," Kame said. "We didn't realise you were already a Guild member, though."
"I like to travel incognito," Ueda explained. "It's easier to pick up good stories for songs if no one knows I'm a professional."
"And that way the Guild doesn't find out he's keeping a harem on the side," Nakamaru said smugly. "They frown on that sort of thing."
The subject of Ueda's harem, which he kept insisting he didn't have, kept them going until Jin reappeared, still with the giddy smile and just as inkstained as Taguchi. He high-fived them all until he reached Ueda, at which point he did a double take.
"I liked the dancing," Ueda said. "But you should be careful if you're going to perform that one in public. You might get arrested."
Kame smirked. "Been there, done that."
"I've given shelter to an ex-con?"
Laughter at Nakamaru's mock outrage covered Kame's hushed "Congratulations", meant for Jin's ears only, but Jin acknowledged the word with a silent smile.
-----
Kame had mixed memories of the victory celebrations. Ueda and Koki had both joined them at the Tipsy Panda for a meal, during which Koki taught all the bards present a thing or two about rapping and Ueda explained to the two new recruits how to go about advertising their availability for hire without anyone getting the wrong idea.
After the third Sendai resident had stopped by their table to buy Jin a drink, Jin had started handing them round to the rest of the group, though most of them seemed to end up with Kame. He'd lost count in short order.
Waking up next to Jin would've been a nice experience under any other circumstances, but not when Kame had both a headache and a decided lack of clothes under the blankets. Jin, in a similar state, faced the window, and Kame couldn't decide if it made it more or less awkward that they had their backs to each other. He didn't feel like he'd done anything last night, and it hadn't been such a long time that he'd forgotten the sensation completely...though with the amount of alcohol they'd consumed, he doubted they'd have been able to rise to the occasion in any case.
"Uh...Jin?"
He received a sleepy grunt in reply. Fine. Maybe he could discreetly wash and dress before Jin regained full consciousness, and hope the other man's memory was equally mangled.
No such luck. The floorboard creaked as Kame took a cautious step out of bed, and Jin rolled over.
"It can't be morning already," he grumbled. "We've only just gone to bed."
"I wish I could remember if that's true or not," Kame said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. However long they'd been in bed, it didn't feel like enough.
"Please tell me you don't want to go dragon-hunting this very minute, because if you do I'm going to kick you the rest of the way out of bed."
"You don't get to kick me out of bed." Just to be on the safe side, Kame slid the rest of the way off the mattress and dropped down in a crouch beside the bed, rummaging around for fresh clothes in his bag. He groaned when he found his outfit from yesterday.
"What happened last night? Did someone dump an entire barrel of ale over me?"
"Only half of one. The other half was over me." Jin flung a hand over his shoulder, towards his own heap of stained clothing. "Do you not remember the guy who kicked up a fuss when I said I wouldn't give him a private performance for his birthday?"
"No, but it doesn't surprise me. You attracted a lot of attention yesterday. Why did he soak me too?"
Jin smiled lazily. "You told him I wasn't available for hire right now because I was going with you...and then you said I was never going to be available for him, and definitely not for that, and he paid good money for an entire barrel just so he could empty it all over us."
"Good for me, I guess." Kame mentally congratulated himself for rising to Jin's defense. A good deed was a good deed, even he didn't remember it. "Er...did I say why you were going with me? Did I mention dragons?"
"Don't worry; you didn't say a word about your plans. You just grabbed my hand and held it till he got the idea. I think you were trying to be subtle."
"Oh." Kame knew he had a tendency to grab hands when drunk, especially if he was speaking passionately about something, but it was what he did afterwards that worried him most. "And...after that?" He prepared himself to hear the worst.
"Well, since we got completely drenched, we called it a night. Staggered in here, cleaned up best we could and collapsed. My hair still smells like a brewery, though."
Kame cautiously sniffed the air. "I don't think I'm any better off. We're not going anywhere yet."
"Good, then I'm going back to sleep." Jin burrowed into his pillow, lifting his head long enough to add, "Wake me when it's an hour that normal people might be up."
In exasperation, Kame reached up and batted him lightly across the back of the head. "Normal people are up; I can hear them outside. And what are you trying to imply?"
Jin's response disappeared into the pillow, so Kame gave up for the time being and went to wash his hair until it gleamed.
An hour later, Kame had already dressed and popped next door to see Nakamaru and Taguchi. (Koki and Ueda, he knew, would both be at the second day of the trials, assuming either of them had been capable of leaving the table last night.) He found Nakamaru alone, preparing to leave.
"Taguchi's dropping me off on his way back to Tokyo; he'll base himself at the Guildhall there," Nakamaru said. "He's tending to the horses at the moment. Do you two need a ride?"
"We're going further north, but thanks for the offer - and thank you for putting us up the other night."
"Not a problem. It was nice to have some company." Nakamaru straightened his jacket. "Kame?"
"Hmm?"
"How much do you remember about last night?"
"Not that much," Kame confessed. "I know some guy took a shine to Jin and drenched us both with ale."
"But do you recall what happened to your attacker afterwards?"
"I'm hoping he got a clue."
"He got more than he bargained for. Jin was singing along with the minstrel in the taproom at the time - a song called 'Fall Down'. Guess what happened to the guy with the barrel?"
"He fell down," Kame said flatly. "Could be a coincidence. Drunk guys carrying heavy barrels must fall down all the time."
"He fell down whenever he stood up, which he must've done about a dozen times. I checked - magic was moving in the atmosphere; I couldn't tell where it was going but I do know it wasn't to him. You need to be careful. I don't think Jin even realised what he was doing."
Kame sank down on the bed, legs temporarily going on strike. What was he going to do about Jin? What if Jin sang as they travelled and the ground suddenly opened up and swallowed them both? Was he going to have to ask Jin not to sing, hum or whistle? Was it even possible?
"I'm not..." Nakamaru tried again. "I'm not going to report him to the Mages' Guild. I won't tell anyone. But the two of you need to figure out why this is happening so you can control it. It was funny this time, but I can see it causing trouble along the way."
"You and me both."
Kame returned to his room to find Jin towelling off dripping hair, leaving a trail of splashes all over the floor. This wouldn't have been so bad if he'd bothered to dress, or even wrap another towel around himself.
"Don't stand there with the door open!" Jin said. "People walk through the corridor all the time."
"After your performance yesterday I expected to find them lining up outside to take a peek." Kame obliged him by closing the door and returned to sorting through his stained clothing from last night, now fit only for burning. No amount of cleaning, he felt sure, would remove all traces of ale. Busying himself in this way meant he didn't have to pretend he wasn't looking at Jin.
Jin didn't seem to notice. "Have the others gone?"
"Soon. They said they'd stop by to say goodbye, so you might want to get dressed, unless you want them getting an eyeful."
"You already have." Jin shrugged. "We were so out of it last night I didn't even bother trying to put us in clean clothes."
No time like the present. "Jin, did we...did anything else happen last night?"
"You tripped over your own feet a couple of times when-"
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
Jin finished with the towel and stepped into a pair of clean pants. "Yeah, I do know, and we didn't. Did you want to? You didn't say anything."
Kame choked on his response. "And if I had said something?"
"Look, Kame, I'm...I'm not very good at picking up cues like that, okay?" Colour flooded Jin's cheeks. "Whatever experience I might've had before I woke up in Aomori, I've forgotten; I had to start all over again. It wouldn't even have occurred to me if Ryo hadn't taken me to this bar where some girls from the Whores' Guild worked, and-"
Kame held up a hand to stop him. "I get the picture. Sorry, it's just I don't usually wake up in situations like this, and since I couldn't remember much about last night..."
"You got the wrong idea," Jin finished for him. "That's okay. I guess it did look pretty suspicious. Next time I'll try to get you dressed."
"There won't be a next time," Kame vowed. "Last night was a celebration, so that was special. If we drink that much every night we'll never get anywhere near the dragon."
What he didn't mention was that being in less than full control of his faculties around Jin was obviously not a good idea, and especially not if Jin persisted in randomly breaking out into song. Kame might have to intervene with magic to prevent an earthquake or something.
"Yes, boss."
A knock on the door heralded the arrival of Nakamaru and Taguchi, the latter sporting a jaunty straw hat that gave Kame pause for thought. Jin finished dressing during the thanks and goodbyes, not saying much, and at Taguchi's insistence went downstairs to bid farewell to the horses.
"Research is my speciality," Nakamaru said to Kame before they joined the others. "If I find anything that might help explain Jin, I'll do a sending. Do you have a mirror with you?"
"A small travel one." He needed it to keep his eyebrows nicely shaped. "Here."
Nakamaru inspected the black compact inside and out before handing it back. "It'll do. I should be able to target this if I have to send you a message."
"And if I need to return the call?"
"Do you remember the little oval mirror standing on my desk?"
"Just about. I have to warn you, though - I'm not very good at precision work. If I make your mirror explode, I'll buy you another one."
"If the mirror explodes while I'm looking at it, I'm not sure I'll need another one."
Once the horses had received sufficient petting Kame and Jin watched the wagon roll off into the distance, laughing at Nakamaru's pained expression every time it travelled over a bump in the road.
"Onwards," Kame said solemnly, and steered Jin back indoors because they were about to miss breakfast.
-----
A quick chat with Ueda the night before had confirmed the dragon's passage over Sendai on its way home; Kame still hadn't got around to acquiring a map but he could find his way north, and it would be familiar territory for Jin. It didn't take them long to resupply, though they did dally enough to replace their ruined clothing. They bought warmer things; for winter, still a while away, made her icy presence known earlier in the north and Jin had already proven himself sensitive to the cold.
"I just hope no one mistakes you for an animal and fires an arrow at you," Kame said, looking at Jin's fur-trimmed collection. "You look tempting to a hunter."
"As long as I don't look tempting to a dragon, that's fine."
"You're not wearing any gold or jewels so I think you'll be okay."
"I don't normally have the kind of money to buy any," Jin pointed out. "I had to sell my gold necklace to buy my guitar, and I never replaced it."
They broke off long enough to respond to the gate guard's farewell, then picked up the discussion again as they started on the road.
"I still find that odd," Kame said. "About the gold necklace. You say you didn't have anything else when you were found, not even clothes?"
Jin nodded. "Plain gold chain around my neck, with an empty stone setting. I don't know what was in it."
"Strange. Why would someone take the stone but leave the chain? Why not take the whole thing?"
"Maybe it fell out somewhere? One of the doctors suggested that I'd stripped off to go swimming - except for the necklace - and tired myself out, returning to land as soon as I could instead of wherever I'd left my clothes. They never did find them. The stone might be lying at the bottom of the bay somewhere."
"I could see that, but then what happened to your memory?"
Jin's shoulders drooped. "Your guess is as good as mine."
He shrugged off all attempts at further conversation on the subject so Kame dropped it, content to do the talking himself, telling stories about his apprenticeship to keep Jin entertained. He'd been quite a handful as a kid, always sneaking off to play ball games, and even though it had become second-nature by now, manipulating magic hadn't come naturally to him.
"How far do you think we'll have to go?" Jin asked after Kame had run out of stories. "I know the plan is go north, but..."
"Dragons live in the mountains," Kame explained. "They find caverns or make their own to hold their hoards, in places thieves find it hard to reach. But I don't know where this particular dragon makes his lair."
"So you keep asking. But how do you know it's definitely the right dragon?"
"Because this is the only one with red trim on his scales. One of Kimura's forebears turned all the rest to stone over a century ago, leaving only an unhatched egg behind. It's amazing what sort of books you can find when you're looking for something to read to your comatose mentor."
"Is transformative magic only illegal on humans, then?"
Kame smirked. "I didn't say he did it legally, did I? I read it was revenge for a dragon raid on his hometown. He left the egg because it was still unhatched, and according to the books I read, dragon breeds can't mix. The one we're after is the last of his kind."
He had no plans beyond finding the dragon, as yet, despite his bold words to Koki before. His magic would be useless against it the moment he drew it from the atmosphere to use in a spell, and though he considered himself to be in good shape, dragonslayers tended to be twice his height and three times as bulky and Kame just didn't feel up to wrestling with the beast. Stealth was a far better option. Infiltrate the dragon's lair, find the ruby, snatch it and sneak out - without magic. The dragon would detect them in a heartbeat if Kame cast any spells.
Jin didn't ask for details, and Kame got the impression his mind was elsewhere for the time being. He liked that, that they didn't have to fill every second of silence with meaningless chatter. After so long travelling alone Kame appreciated the moments where he didn't feel obliged to entertain - though Jin's brilliant smile and adorable high-pitched giggle made Kame want to amuse him constantly.
Night fell before they reached the next town, which meant they camped out for the night, leaving the road to find a clear spot near the river. Unfortunately, it was only as Kame took out his small travel tent that he remembered it was designed to hold a single person.
"It's going to be a tight squeeze," he warned. "Hope you're not too fond of breathing."
"Can't you magic it bigger?" Jin asked.
Kame cast a nervous glance towards the horizon. Surely no dragon was going to pick up a tiny little spell at this distance? "I can try, but I can't guarantee it'll hold its shape. Not anymore."
"As long as it keeps us covered, I don't care if it's got no shape at all - it looks like rain again." Jin suddenly brightened. "Hey, how about if I play for you? Nakamaru used me to help him focus, right? So maybe I could do the same thing for you."
"I've never tried using music as a focus before, but..."
"No good?"
"It's not that it's no good," Kame said carefully, trying not to sound like he was rejecting the idea. "It's just that your music is still doing strange things. Like making that guy fall down repeatedly last night."
"But I wasn't trying to do anything! I never try to do anything with music except make people enjoy it. Uh, not make them enjoy it, but-"
"I get it," Kame said, "but that doesn't change the fact that you're somehow working magic without working magic when you perform."
"Not all the time, though," Jin pointed out. "And I didn't have anything weird like that happen to me until I met you. Maybe it's all your fault."
"And maybe it did but you just never noticed," Kame shot back.
"I'm not completely hopeless, you know!"
"I didn't say you were!"
The cold spatter of raindrops brought an abrupt end to their squabble, as Kame scrambled to get the tent unfolded and bespelled before they both received a soaking. Jin helped him set it up and then stood back with their bags, giving him plenty of room to work.
Kame stared at the small blue bubble. Expanding objects wasn't like sliding a bolt into place, where he moved an object in one direction, or like creating a magelight, where he compounded magic into a ball. This required thought in all directions, or he'd end up with the tent longer on one side than the other.
First, he reached for the sparks in the atmosphere, relishing the tingling in his fingertips of power burning to be used. Next, he wielded that power as a blade, slicing the bonds between each thread of the canvas to create gaps at regular intervals. If he didn't hold the tent together by magic, it would collapse in a heap of loose strands.
Sweat beaded at Kame's temples from sheer exertion. The tent might've been lightweight in real terms, but magically holding the pattern took visualisation beyond his current level of focus - he might as well have been building a house with his mind. But if he let go now, the tent would be ruined for good.
"I don't think I can finish this," he forced out through clenched teeth. "I can't-"
He gave up on speech when he caught a snatch of melody in the air; a faint tune from behind, a few soft words, now growing louder as Jin approached.
"Don't you ever stop..."
As Jin fell into place beside him, still singing and tapping put a beat against his thigh, Kame felt a surge of clarity he'd been missing for two years. The lyrics swirled around his head in vivid colours, in stormy purple and bright pink backed with sunshine and a strength Kame recognised as his own, morphed and fed back to him by Jin's song.
Inside his mind the tent took shape and held, steady as a rock. Now he could begin the expansion. Slowly, Kame wove strips of magic between the canvas strands, pushing them aside in all directions to add extra cover to the body. Little by little, the tent gained material till he judged it large enough to fit them and their bags comfortably, and by then, Jin had stopped singing.
Kame released the excess magic into the atmosphere and examined his handiwork. The tent seemed sturdy enough when he prodded it.
"Told you I could help," Jin said, smirking. "My rhythm helped you keep your spell on track."
"I'm not so sure it was the rhythm...but let's talk about it once we're inside!"
They rushed to move their things inside the tent, which was now tall enough for them to stand up (provided Jin didn't mind his hair sweeping the ceiling) and easily wide enough to take their belongings. They spread their bedrolls side by side on Jin's blanket. Rain beat down but Kame's magic held, keeping them as dry as if they'd been in a house.
"I should've started travelling with a mage ages ago," Jin said. "You must be great company on camping trips."
"Wouldn't know; last time I went on one I couldn't use magic. If the whole thing collapses in the middle of the night, I'm sorry."
"It won't." The unshakeable faith in Jin's voice made Kame smile. "I believe in you."
It had been a while since anyone had said that to Kame, largely because the people who knew him best were in his past, now, and the people he met nowadays didn't know him very well, if at all.
After a cold meal (Kame didn't feel inclined to start a fire in the tent) Jin produced a surprise in the form of a couple of bottles of beer, part of his victory haul from Sendai.
Kame hesitated before accepting his. "After the last time I'm not so sure it's a good idea..."
"There are no demented stalkers with barrels out here, Kame," Jin huffed. "I don't think we're in any danger of getting drowned in ale."
"Not what I meant."
Jin sighed and took a swig of his beer. "I told you, I don't have much practice reading between the lines. If you've got something to say to me, say it, because I'm never going to know otherwise."
"I don't think you're human!" Kame blurted out.
Jin's beer slipped from his fingers, luckily landing intact on the blanket without spillage. "You don't..."
"At least, not completely. Jin, you just did something I've never encountered before - something you shouldn't be able to do.
"I drew the magic from the atmosphere - and you drew it from me, sharpened it with your song and fed it back for me to use. It wasn't the beat that helped me focus - it was you and the music inside you. Nakamaru and I couldn't sense you draining magic from the atmosphere because you were draining it from us instead. Even inside the anti-magic field; I couldn't use the little bit of magic I had stored, but after your song persuaded the guard to take us out, it had vanished."
"Um..." Jin licked his lips nervously, pale now at Kame's accusation. "But that doesn't mean I'm not human, right? Maybe I'm just a really weird mage who uses other people's magic."
"Humans don't do that," Kame said gently. "But dragons do. And demons granted human bodies do. Creatures of magic can't draw it directly from the atmosphere, so they take it from other sources."
"Do I look like a dragon to you!"
"I'm not saying you're a dragon! Jin, I have no idea what you are, I just don't think you're completely human."
When Jin abandoned his beer and headed for the exit, Kame realised he could've picked a more tactful way to explain his thoughts. (Not that there was ever a tactful way to tell a friend you're not sure about his species, but still...)
"Don't." He caught Jin's sleeve to make him stay, pulling him back down to the blanket. Jin's face was shuttered, lips clamped together in a thin line which no words could break, but his eyes glittered with anger. "It's raining pretty hard out there. You'll get sick."
"So I'm human enough for that?" Jin spat out, tearing his arm free from Kame's grasp.
"Yeah. You asked me to be straightforward, Jin, so that's what I'm trying to do. Did I say it would be a problem for me if you weren't human? No. I don't care." He laid a hand on Jin's wrist, resisting all attempts to shrug him off. "But I need to understand what you're doing because it might have something to do with your lack of memory, and I want to help."
"Insulting me is a funny way of helping."
"I could be wrong," Kame conceded. "And I didn't intend it as an insult."
Jin twisted on the blanket until he could lean back-to-back against Kame, Kame's fingers still wrapped loosely around his wrist. He spoke so softly his words were barely audible, even at that distance.
"But you could be right, too."