A Familiar Face [Burai, Hiro, Open]

[Gao Xia]

'Two weeks...' she thought. The face of a female figure was slightly hidden by an oriental, hooded cloak. The reason she was trying to keep her identity a secret for the time being is because she was supposed to have been banished from China by the forces of Wei. The woman had only reached Ye a few days earlier. She was looking for a familiar face, but memories and faces could change over such a long period of time.

'Surely, someone's appearance couldn't change so dastrically over just eight months...' she figured. It was mostly just to reassure herself, to help her keep hope that she would find her friends soon. She reached behind her to readjust the weapon on her back as she approached a small crowd that left a very narrow space to make her way through. Strapped to the woman's back was a long sword that was native to Japan. It was an odachi that was possibly a few inches taller than she was.

How would a chinese woman acquire such a weapon? When Wei had banished her from China, they threw her on a ship to Japan. 'The longest eight months of my life,' she thought as she began remembering her last moments in China. 'Hiroshi...' She had been fighting a small group of Wei troops along side Hiro.

'We should've been able to beat them, but I was too weak,' she told herself. She had wandered off to far from Hiro's side during the battle and had ended up being captured. But of course, Hiro wouldn't have been able to keep an eye on his fiance and defend himself against all of those warriors at the same time. When Hiro had finished taking the Wei troops down, there was no trace of his fiance. Not only that, but there was smoke rising into the air nearby.

Bodies from the battle were being burned as a Wei ship could be seen retreating in the distance. The cloaked woman lightly shook her head as she came back to reality. 'I'll understand if Hiro's moved on... he probably thinks I'm dead,' she thought as she let out a deep breath. She looked around, finally finding a tavern that she recognized. She could hear laughter, and yelling, and everything else that came with drunken men.

She walked in, seeing the owner of the tavern and immediately walked up to him, pulling her hood back. The owner looked at her, immediately recognizing her face, "Ah, Lady Gao Xia, long time no see." She chuckled with a warm smile on her face. 'Apparently news about me never got to him,' she said in her mind. She would've thought that everyone who knew her would either think she was dead or simply missing.

"Yeah, I've been... busy," she said, deciding to save herself and him the grief of explaining the long story.
"Oh, well that's a shame. Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked politely.
"Well I've been looking for Shigure Burai, have you seen him around lately?" she asked. She sounded as if she had only recently started looking for him, but in truth she had been searching since she got to China two weeks earlier.

"Is that so? Well chances are if you stick around long enough, he'll show up."
"Alright, thanks. I think I'll stay for a while then," she smiled. She decided to take a seat, she wasn't sure if waiting there would give her the results she wanted, but she needed a rest either way.

"Anything I can get for you, Lady Gao?"
"No, I'm fine. Thanks." She let out another deep breath as she enjoyed the time she had to rest. 'Hopefully I'll find someone eventually...'

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

Burai was wondering about Ye. He was trying to find a nice gift. For one of his newly acquired friends. Finding gifts for women, was always hard. They liked so many different things. Nothing that Burai was interested in. It was rare that he would find a woman that loved to drink. He seemed to get along with those women so well. Burai sighed as he walked around the searching for a gift.

He found a doll sitting on a stand. He hunched over and glared at it; his face looked sour. His bottom lip stuck out and was craved slightly downward. “Would she like this? How could something so repulsive. I think its missing an eye.” Burai slowly stood up straight. This was harder than he thought.

Burai began to wander around aimlessly. Searching for a gift, for that a woman was depressing. He took a deep breath and sighed he needed a warm cup of sake. The sound of laughter and Yelling could be heard off in the distance. Burai lifted his trident onto his shoulders and headed off in the direction where he heard the noise. A tavern came into view; this was perfect exactly what he needed.

Burai casually walked into the bar, the atmosphere was quite nice. He scaned the tavern for any ranchy women, but none came in his sight. He sighed, “Seems as if I’m going to be drinking alone tonight.” Burai took another deep breath and moved toward a table, which was close to a wall. Normally he would just move to the back corner of the room, but he decided to be different tonight. He lifted his weapon from off his shoulders, and placed it against the wall. Once it was secure he sat down.

He scanned the room once more, and saw a beautiful young woman. “Just my luck! I better go sweep her off her feet.” Burai grinned to himself. “I’ll be sure to tell Hiroshi about her. He’ll be so jealous.” Burai frowned, as he thought about Hiroshi. He was still heartbroken about what happened to Xia. There was no reason for Hiroshi to beat himself up.

Shaken those thoughts from his head, he waved at the woman who was talking with the owner. He continued to wave his hand franticly open to gain her attention, and come over and join him.

[Gao Xia]

Xia had just sat down and had a few moments to herself when she saw a man waving at her quite excitedly to say the least. She raised an eyebrow and then smiled. She was always kind, making sure to smile, so as not to hurt someone's feelings. 'He's probably just another drunk,' she thought as she chuckled, watching the man wave her over. "I'm fine, than--" she stopped herself, getting a better look at him.

She hadn't really taken a good look at him, just simply saw that he was acting weird and quickly decided to ignore him without taking anything else into consideration. But now that she was able to see him better, she started thinking that his face was becoming more and more familiar by the second. 'Is that... Burai?' All that looked familiar to her was his face though, and she didn't remember him having an eye patch. Her face began showing how deep in thought she was, wondering if it really was her comrade or not.

'Only one way to find out...' She decided to get up and made her way over to the man. She paid close attention to his facial expression to see if maybe he would show some sort of sign that he recognized her. As she got up and walked closer, she saw that this man seemed taller and more built than she remembered Burai. In her mind she felt a bit disappointed, thinking that this might not be Burai, and now she was going to have to deal with some drunk.

'I was usually never in a tavern if Hiro wasn't there...' she thought to herself. She never had to deal with drunk men because Hiro would do it for her. Although sometimes it was Burai looking out for her sworn brother's fiance instead. As Xia finally covered the short distance between her and the man who waved her over, her heart began beating a little faster as she got nervous. 'I'll just ask if he's Burai, and if not, he'll probably be too drunk to remember,' she told herself.

"Shigure Burai?" she asked in anticipation, hoping it really was him. She held her breath, looking into his eyes... or rather his eye.

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

Burai smiled,as the woman made her way over to him. He has been meeting quite the beauties as of late. He was going to enjoy his luck, until it ran out. The woman seemed to be slightly nervous, and he couldn’t blame her. Burai was quite the furious warrior. Though his laziness would mostly in get in the way of his prowess.

“Don’t worry, I won’t bite unless asked.” He said with a chuckled hoping that his joke would lighten the mood and calm her down. Burai winked at her, the mood was was rather awkward. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. What was troubling her he wondered?

She spoke his name. Burai slowly stretched his right hand behind hid back toward his trident. As his fingers made contact with the shaft; they slowly wrapped themselves around it. Burai made sure not to make any sudden movements. He didn’t want to alert her, that would end poorly. “Shigure Burai is what I go by here in china…Why does a beautiful woman like yourself know my name."

She looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t exactly pin it down. Who was she? Burai would never forget a pretty face. Especially one’s he flirted with. Burai slowly readjusted himself so that he could get a clean swing at it if he needed to. If he owed her money, she definitely wouldn’t be walking out of this tavern.

[Gao Xia]

Both of Xia's eyebrows rose, her cheeks slightly rosy thanks to Burai's comment. She chuckled, trying to hard her nervousness from his flirting. She put a hand up to cover her mouth as she laughed. Her eyes were closed for a second, but once she opened them she saw that this man now had his hand on his weapon. Her laughing quickly faded, and her hand went to her own weapon strapped to her back.

Her eyes narrowed, paying close attention to any movements the man made. Then the man confirmed that he was Burai.
“Shigure Burai is what I go by here in China…Why does a beautiful woman like yourself know my name?"
"Wait..." her hand came back down to her side.

"You are Burai?" she asked once more. "Burai, it's me!" she quickly got closer and threw her arms around him for a hug. "It's me, Gao Xia," she said, letting go so that he could see her face. "Don't you recognize me?" she laughed. She was wearing a smile on her face as her eyes began to get a bit watery.

She wasn't too sad, but mostly happy to see someone she knew after such a long time. After she was captured and sent to Japan, she hadn't had a chance to take a moment and let out her tears. But she didn't want to break down right there in front of everyone. Maybe later when she had some time to herself. Right now, she just wanted to be happy that she finally found a familiar face.

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

Burai could see that she was aware of his subtle movements. He slowly brought the trident forward. Burai watche her hand as it moved her weapon. "Tch...I won't give you a chance to wield it." He didn't like fighting women and would never do so if he had the choice. This time he felt as their was no choice and he would have to make sure to squeeze out any information she knew.

"Hmm?" Burai eyes widen as he watched her hand move from her weapon to her side. The woman said something to him before leaping forward and hugging. "Who are you?" Burai looked at the woman puzzled. "Lady Xia?" Burai was in some disbelief Lady Xia wasn't this beautiful last time he saw her.

He was still lost. "Oh brother, I can't believe I just tried to..um" Burai gave her a faint smile. "lets not mention the flirting to Hiroshi, I been woo'ing a few women as a late. He is getting rather sloppy..." Burai put his trident back and causally got on his feet. Burai quickly picked her up; wrapping his arms around her and twirling her around a few times. Before putting her down.

He ruffled her hair, "Its not nice leaving me alone..." He let out a sigh. "Hiroshi, has been rather sad, and blames himself for your disappearance. I know he will burst out in tears when he sees you.." A wikend grin appeared on his face. "Would you mind playing a lil trick on him with me?"

[Gao Xia]

Xia laughed as Burai hugged her once more after realizing who she was. "Yeah, I don't think this awkward moment has to be brought up again," she said with a chuckle. She listened intently as he spoke of Hiroshi. She had a mix of emotions, but mostly she was just happy to hear that Hiro was still around.
"Would you mind playing a lil trick on him with me?"
She chuckled. "Well that depends. What exactly do you have in mind?" she asked, curious as to what Burai was planning. "And where are your manners? Readying your weapon against a woman?" Xia asked jokingly, blinking back the slight tears that had threatened to run down her cheeks.

She put her hands on her hips as if getting ready to scold him but instead just laughed. "Let's sit and talk for a while," Xia said as she pulled out a nearby chair to sit in. "Did you really not recognize me at first?" she asked. "I didn't think I changed that much," she said. "But you look really different!" she started.

"Not only do you look like you got taller, but you look far more stronger than I remembered. And look at you, have you been spending too much time at sea? You look like a pirate with that attire and trident," she chuckled. "Also, you have no idea how hard it was to find you. You're not even in Wu. I just got to China about two weeks ago and immediately started searching for you guys..."

It seemed like Xia was rambling on and on, but she had so much she wanted to talk about. What else do friends do when they haven't seen each other in so long? By now, there were no signs of tears and she was simply happy.

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

Burai rubbed the back of his head, as she agreed with him. He took a moment to think about the prank he had in mind, but he decided against it. “I think that is beyond my cruelty.” Burai at Xia and smiled. “Don’t worry about the joke, I don’t think it would end well. You would be surprised who had tried to kill me the last few months, forgive my rudeness.”

Burai sat down quietly. He was surprised by her questions and response. “Yeah, you became so much more beautiful. I’m quite envious of my little brother. I don’t really see a big change with me.” He looked down at his clothes and his weapon. “I think I look rather nice!” He said with a chuckle.

A frown creased on his lips, as she said he looked stronger. Burai never considered himself as weak, perhaps when it came to women; they were truly formidable. “Yes, a lot of things happened, I no longer serve Wu. I have spent my last few months traveling the open seas. Sadly I found myself back in china.”

Burai smiled at Xia, he was curious where she had been during this time. “What about you? That is quite the exotic outfit. I imagine that you been through a lot since you been away.”
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[Hiro]

Gulp, Gulp, Gulp.

Bottles were scattered all around the room of the inn that he was staying in. The room reeked with the smell of sake and wine so bad to could be smelt from down the hall as he continued to drink and drink. The warriors lightly glided his fingers through his soft black hair after finishing yet another bottle. Lightly and slowly he gripped a handful of his hair, then he tightened the grip tugging on his hair hard to feel pain and try to forget his loss and disgrace. But it was to no avail, the image of his wife to be, circled in his mind the sound of he lovely and sweet laughter entered into his mind only to be cut out by her scream. He closed his eyes tightly and held back a scream. He felt he had nothing in this world, he felt like a useless child unable to help but to resist trying to cry. The quietly tossed his bottle aside, as he continue to sit in place, with the same hand he use to toss the bottle aside he picked up another. His white wolf rested peacefully to the side on his bed, her head on her paws.

Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp, Chug, Burp.

He chugged down another bottle before tossing it away with a slight burp and hiccup. He loosens the tightness of his eyes for a moment then back again, then loosens once more placing his head soft back on the wall he was leaning against. He drifts on and off from a quiet slumber. Then once he falls more deeply into the sleep her face enter his mind again. They were at the Koi pond in Wu, the night before the trials for her love, the night they were unexpectedly called off into battle. They held and cuddled quietly, peacefully. The feeling of overwhelm love and peace was in his heart where he felt so happy he made him want to relax. As he dreamed he closed his eyes tightly once more as his dream turned into a nightmare. The day his love presumably died in battle. He heard a noise from the back of his room where a window, he raised his head lazily, and looked.

'pant, pant, pant, woof.'

His black wolf entered the room panting harshly sounding annoyed with what he was smelling. He raised a brow at it because saw a pair of the wolves. "Well, this is rare, you almost never show up, unless..." He said drunkly to the wolf, cutting himself off looking outside, he saw the sun begin to set. "Unless it's time to rest...Oi... Today is still not over?" He asked himself, taking a moment to look around. While his wolf began to brush lazily against him trying to tell him to move from the wolf's self declared spot. In response of this, Hiroshi petted his wolf, and flopped over with his face glowing slightly red. "Why today isn't over yet?" He asked himself. His wolf whined and growled for a short moment then just rested his head on Hiroshi's thigh. Why was Hiroshi out of order, sot to speak, today? Today was the eighth month anniversary of what happened on that fateful day. And after all these months he blamed himself for the death of Gao Xia, his one and only love.

[Gao Xia]

“Don’t worry about the joke, I don’t think it would end well. You would be surprised who had tried to kill me the last few months, forgive my rudeness.”
"Oh? Have you been up to no good?" she asked. It was sort of a serious question, but she was simply asking in a light manner.

“Yeah, you became so much more beautiful. I’m quite envious of my little brother. I don’t really see a big change with me. I think I look nice!”
Xia chuckled, "yes, you do look nice." She was wondering about his eye patch, but she was always told that asking about such things was rude, so she refrained from asking.

“Yes, a lot of things happened, I no longer serve Wu. I have spent my last few months traveling the open seas. Sadly I found myself back in China.”
"You no longer serve Wu?" And here came the politics. It would probably have to be saved for a later conersation though, seeing as the two friends had too much to talk about.

And then came the inevitable question, "what about you? That is quite the exotic outfit. I imagine that you been through a lot since you been away.”
Xia knew the topic would come up eventually. She didn't really mind the topic, it was just that she knew it would bring back bad memories of the worse experience she had come across through her life so far.

"Well... what happened at our last battle was that the Wei troops captured me and banished me from China. The put me on a ship to Japan and I stayed there for about eight months," she explained. She unstrapped her weapon from her back and placed it on the table with a loud thud, causing it to shake a bit. "I was actually taken in by a war general who trained me to use this odachi. I was very fortunate considering the circumstances..." she said.

She was quite for a moment as her mind came back to Hiroshi once more. "Um, but at least I'm back," she smiled, trying not to let the moment get to her.

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

“Tch, lady Xia. I’m always well behaved.” He smiled at her with a look of innocence on his face. Burai haven’t been doing much recently. Just getting in a little trouble her and there. That wasn’t something new. “Lady Xia surely you wouldn’t think otherwise.”

He smiled even more, as she complimented him. He didn’t take too much time out of his day to be fancy; he just got up and left allowed nature to do the rest. Burai didn’t anyone in particular to look good for. So why would he try to put forth the extra effort?

Burai paused and stared at her, as she told him about that uneventful day that drove Hiroshi into that depression. After listening to her story Burai thought he would share his past with her. He hadn’t told many of it, it was so sacred to him. “I was taking in by a swordsman in japan, he adopted me into his family and trained me to use an odachi.”

He placed his hands on the table and sighed. “You never left our hearts. I’m glad you came back. Watching Hiroshi will be much easier now.”

[Gao Xia]

Xia laughed as Burai claimed he was always well-behaved. His facial expression only made her laugh harder. She attempted to cover her mouth as she laughed, but for the moment she didn't really care about being proper. Her laughs finally calmed down as the conversation continued.

"I was taken in by a swordsman in Japan, he adopted me into his family and trained me to use an odachi."
"Oh?" Xia wondered if perhaps they were taken in by the same man, but she figured that would be a conversation for another time.

"You never left our hearts. I’m glad you came back. Watching Hiroshi will be much easier now."
Xia smiled sweetly. "Thank you Burai. Speaking of Hiro, do you think you could take me to him?" she asked.

"Like I said, it hasn't been easy finding you two..." her tone of voice became softer as she thought about Hiro once more. She had this feeling that maybe things wouldn't be how they used to. She didn't know what things would be like once she and Hiro saw each other again. Sure Burai had been assuring her that Hiro missed her and would burst out into tears, etc.

But Xia would say the same thing if she were in that position. She just hoped that there wouldn't be another woman standing in between her and Hiroshi.

[Yen Wang (Burai)]

She wanted Burai to take her to see Hiroshi. Honestly he didn’t know where he was he assumed he would show up here and have a drink or two. Why did he have to leave the bar to do such a task? Burai wanted to drink and preferably with a woman. He looked over at Lady Xia. He truly didn’t want to do it. Her and Hiroshi would greatly appreciate it. This would probably get Hiroshi out of his depression and make him livelier.

He picked up his trident and moved toward the entrance, motioning to Xia to follow. He walked across the street inside another inn. “Oy you seen a man with red eyes?” A maid nodded. “Second floor, first door on the left.” Burai flopped down in a chair and got comfortable; prompting his feet up on the table and leaning back in the chair. “Go see husband, I’m going to take a nap.”
[/b]

[Gao Xia]

Xia knew that such a request probably wouldn't have been as appealing to Burai. He could probably figure that Xia wanted some alone time to catch up with Hiroshi. She felt bad for asking, Xia normally wasn't one to burden someone. She simply hoped that Burai would sympathize with how hard it was to find them. She didn't know what Burai had planned for the evening, but she hoped he wouldn't mind helping an old friend out.

Xia's eyebrows rose as Burai stood up from the table and began walking towards the entrance of the tavern. She looked at him with a small smile on her face as he motioned for her to follow. "Oh," she let out and got up, strapping her odachi to her back. She quickly covered the distance between herself and Burai and began following. She looked around, realizing that they hadn't traveled too far from the tavern.

'Would it really have been as simple as that?' Xia laughed in her mind with a small grin on her face. She followed Burai into the inn and looked around as he spoke to a maid.

"Second floor, first door on the left."

Xia smiled at the maid. "Thank you." She looked over to Burai.

"Go see husband, I’m going to take a nap."

"Alright." She nodded and turned to towards the staircase. She was about to head up to Hiro's room, "oh, Burai!" She turned back and gave him a warm hug. "Thanks... I'm glad to see you're still around," she said before letting go and heading up the stairs to the second floor.

Once Xia reached the second floor she turned to her left and saw the first door. 'Second floor, first door on the left, she said...' Xia's heart started beating slightly faster. She could feel butterflies in her stomach. She could smell the alcohol that seemed to be coming from Hiro's room. She didn't know what to expect once she opened the door.

Her bottom lip quivered as she wondered if Hiro was going to stay the night there with some other woman. She bit her lip to keep it from quivering and hesitantly reached out to open the door. Her eyes traveled across all the empty bottles on the floor, then to the two wolves in the room. They finally came to Hiroshi who was leaning against a wall. "... H-Hiro?" she fought the urge to let tear drops run down her cheeks, but apparently she didn't fight hard enough.

[Hiro]

While drowning himself in his own sorrow, he grew wary and weak. He was extremely drunk and extremely tired. His head grew heavy for his neck and lowered. His eyes cover with darkness, his face filled with sweat. He felt like he was asleep, but he could feel himself pet the soft fur of his wolf, the sweat drip down his skin, he could hear it's soft breathing as it rested on his thigh, the throbbing in his ears. He could taste the foulness in his sake and the sour of the wine. He could smell the stench of the alcohol mixed with the smell of sweat and tears. He could picture the room he was in but his state he didn't know what was a dream nor reality. The pain of Gao Xia floated in his heart and surge all over his body forcing out a cough from no illness. He pictured in his mind of her face once more, without actual movement of his body he placed a hand on her clear and gorgeous face. Yet he knew it was all fake it gave him a warm feeling, making himself blindly smile.

So in tranced with the feeling he didn't hear the noise of the door being opened. He didn't jump to attack the random person, he didn't show his strength, rather, he just sat their motionless with grief, almost as if he were dead. Then a voice called out for him, "...H-Hiro." The sweet female voice called with the sound of happy tears. 'What?What is this voice? Is it my head playing games with me, again?' Out of pure muscle memory his eyes opened and blinked a few times, he was disoriented of what was around him. He saw his wolf who raised his head as well looking at the women, with a tilt of it's head, it panted for a moment then nudge him after figuring out who it was. He looked to his wolf, then close the majority of his eyes to hide the color of his eyes from the presence of the voice. He wiped his sweat and tears for a moment, then finally looked. "Can I hel--" His sentence was cut off with the utter shock of what he saw. Gao Xia?! He wasn't sure if it was her or not. Then came to the conclusion that he was just another fantasy. "Gao Xia...M-My love....F-forgive....M-me.....F-for....N-not protecting you.....I-I f-failed....As a husband....I failed you....I've always wanted to let you know that I always loved you. That I cared for you, I loved your smile, your laugh, your kindness, your kisses. Hah....I loved everything about you. And there wasn't a day where I haven't missed you." He confessed to what he thought was a spirit. He fought hard to hold back his tears but in the end failed.

"I can never forgive myself for letting you die, I can never let this pain go away. The void you left in my heart was so immense just seeing your spirit gives me happiness." He said continuing to confess. He stood up with everything he had and wobbled and fell then stood once more and wobbled again to the what he thought was he spirit. He lean on to the wall and touched her softly with his hand on her chin, his arm resting on the wall so he lean rest his forehead onto hers like he used to do with her to show his affection and love for her, he smiled. "Even your soul is warm my love....You know....I would fight through hell and back for you just to see you, to kiss like we used to...Xia....My love, I miss you so much..."