Shades of Time

Tenpou was staring at the maps spread out before him without really seeing them. His mind was elsewhere and for once it wasn’t wandering over battle tactics or the inclination for a nap. He was half daydreaming over yesterday afternoon, which he had spent the vast majority of with Shi and the boys playing and picnicking. He really couldn’t remember when he’d had a better day. But it still hadn’t turned out the way he’d wanted it to. He and Shi had talked but not about anything of real consequence, mostly arguing politics and battle tactics, which he’d found her arguments to be sharp and logical. At the end of the day though he hadn’t gotten around to anything really personal but he supposed it was a start.



A sharp rap on the door brought him out of his musings and he looked up to see Kenren coming in and closing the door behind him.



“You busy?”



Tenpou looked at the maps spread out in front of him and realized he didn’t remember a damn thing of what he’d had planned before shrugging and saying, “No. Not really.”



“Okay,” Kenren said, pulling up a chair and propping his feet up on Tenpou’s desk. “Look, about what happened yesterday . . .”



“No,” Tenpou said, holding up a hand. “It’s your business who you do what with and where. You know I’ve never ordered any of my subordinates to live celibate. Gods know you’d just ignore that order and do what you pleased anyway.”



Kenren smirked a little. “Yeah, probably. I wanted you to know that we weren’t hiding it or anything. It’s sort of a new thing and the office bit kind of just happened. Otherwise, it really never came up.”



“From what I can gather about yesterday, there was no problem with it coming up,” Tenpou said dryly.



Kenren cackled and nearly rolled backward out of the chair. “Shit, man, that’s the truth. She just . . . hell, I don’t know, she just does it for me and I can’t fucking keep my hands off of her sometimes.”



“Well, you always were a hornball.”



“Yeah, but she’s something different. I do occasionally have some self control around other women.”



“Occasionally being the operative word.”



“Yeah, well.” Kenren leaned back and regarded Tenpou shrewdly for a moment. “I’m guessing you found Shi yesterday.”



“What makes you say that?”



“Because you weren’t here or anywhere else you usually are when I came looking for you so I’m just guessing you were with her.”



“Yes. I was.”



“Soooooo? Get anything interesting accomplished?”



Tenpou sighed. “Not really. We talked a little and played with Goku and Nataku but that’s about it.”



Kenren looked thoughtful for a minute. “Maybe that’s a good thing.”



“How so?”



“Well, think about it. If you’d been chasing someone around for a hundred years and they kept refusing to acknowledge that you existed . . .” Kenren paused when Tenpou winced at his words. “It’s true, man. Sorry.”



“No. It’s fine. I know it was a far less than honorable action. Go on.”



“Anyway, if you had that kind of history and background with someone and they suddenly turned around and started pursuing you, wouldn’t you think that was really weird and try to stay away from them?”



***



Half an hour had passed with Shi and Thies poring over reports from their last covert mission. Certain things were getting sneaky and nasty, taking on human or youkai flesh and pitting one against the other. They had no idea what to call them for they were neither human nor youkai but what seemed to be a strange combination of both living and dead creatures. Shi shook her head and sighed before raising her eyes from the work to her second, whose head was still bent over paperwork.



“So,” Shi said, barely hiding the smirk. “How is he?”



“How’s who?” Thies asked, not looking up from her paperwork.



“You know very well who I mean. Now spill it!” Shi said, staring at the top of her second’s head because she refused to look up because she was blushing.



“He’s . . . fabulous,” Thies said, raising her head and planting her chin in one hand, smiling dreamily.



“Dear gods! You have it worse than I ever did,” Shi said with a laugh. She vaguely wondered what the big deal about sex was. The few times she’d had it, it was messy, your body made all kinds of weird noises and it was seriously overrated in her opinion.



“You aren’t mad?”



“Why would I be mad? What you do on you own time is your business, not mine. Though if he hurts you I’ll gleefully gut him and hang him with his own entrails.”



“Not if I get to him first,” Thies said with a smirk. “Speaking of love lives, how’s yours?”



“What’s a love life?”



Thies laughed a little. “Seriously. Kenren said Tenpou has been missing you the past few weeks that you haven’t been around.”



Shi thought about the day they’d shared yesterday playing with the boys then shook her head. “He’s probably just missing the background noise Goku and I usually make in his office. That’s all.”