Fukutsu Inochi (Enduring Life)
By: Rubi A.K.A. "Phi-Dono" - 7/31/o5 sun.

Summary: two men: one a mellow fighter, one a big headed mage. two girls: twin sisters with different personalities... it all equals total chaos... so how are they all supposed to live happily ever after again?

Disclaimer/Claimer: these characters are not mine... well, Phoenix /is/ mine, but everyone else and the entire concept to this fic doesn't belong to me...kind of... the characters, buildings, animals and anything you've never heard of belong to whoever owns them. The characters in this fic are owned by the people who use them to role play, so yea...

Ok, so I really dunno where I'm going with this, or what the hell I'm gonna do with this fic. All you need to do is just enjoy the unsure ride, and be a good reader and leave a review. Btw, yes, the title "Fukutsu Inochi" is Japanese. It means "enduring life", which is pretty much what this fic will be about. Mostly revolving around four people's lives, who just happen to be intertwined. Anywho, enjoy...I know I already said that, but I mean it, lol

Japanese translations will be at the bottom, in order of appearance. Please RnR – thx! :)

"talking"
'thinking'
/emphasized/
(- authoress notes/actions in the authoress notes -)

–xXx–)(–xXx–

Chapter One: From the start

Staring up at the ceiling was /definitely/ becoming repetitive.

'Mou...'

She supposed she could go out into the bar room and see if anyone was awake. But then again...she really didn't want to see anybody right now, because she was feeling a bit irritable at the moment. After all, if one kept thinking about that fight earlier in the evening, then how would they ever expect the thought to leave their mind?

'Mou indeed...'

Phoenix sighed, closing her amethyst eyes and seeing nothing but total darkness. The seventeen year old tried to fall asleep again – for what must have been the tenth time that night. After a moment of unsuccessful slumber, she opened them again, staring at her bedroom ceiling.

Some time had passed before she pushed her sheets away, and swung her legs off to the side of her bed. She had been mentally struggling with the decision of leaving her room, or staying in the safe haven. Figuring no one was up at two in the morning (besides her, of course), it must be all right. 'After all,' she thought as her socks touched the wooden floor and she stood, 'all I want is some juice anyway. I'll be back in no time.'

With her mind made up, she walked over to her door, grasping the brass handle and turning her hand, then opening the old wooden door. As she made her way down the stairs, she tried her best to be quiet and not wake anyone up in the tavern. She didn't even want to rouse her sister.

Phoenix and Miaka Satome were identical twins. They looked almost exactly alike, minus a few things here and there. Both had skin the color of mocha, with bright amethyst eyes and long hair. Mia's hair barely reached past the end of her shoulder blades, while Phi's hair was about an inch or two longer than her sister's. Mia's hair was a beautiful mix of warm brown hair, and would shine a dark pink – almost red color. She had usually kept her hair in a high pony tail, positioning two black chop sticks to keep it up. Phinny's hair was much darker than her younger sister, and was colored midnight black, and the light would shine off in dark blue. Her hair was also tied up in a high ponytail, except she used a white sash to hold it in place.

Their clothes were the same, and yet slightly different. For example, Miaka would usually wear black, long sleeved shirts with dark blue jeans that hugged her thighs and flared out down from the knee. Her white sneakers, however, totally contradicted her mostly black attire. Phoenix, on the other hand, wore white long sleeved shirts, and the same kind of jeans her sister wore, except bought them a bit baggy. Her black sneakers seemed as though they had belonged to Mia, even though the sister's had intentionally bought their footwear as such. At the moment, however, Phoenix wore a simple large, white T-shirt and a pair of ankle high socks. No one but Mia has seen Phi in her nightie, and she was glad everyone was sleeping so that she wouldn't have to be caught sneaking around, dressed in such a way.

Really, the only difference between Mia and Phi, was their individual personalities...and bust size. While Mia, at seventeen (coming a whole five minutes after Phi during child birth), had managed to sprout a nice D cup, her sister, at the same age, only managed to fill up a B cup. Anything else was almost alike – the way they thought, what they ate, what they watched, how they talked, and their hobbies.

Phoenix and Miaka had been taking good care of their family's bar, grill, and inn. They made good money, charging thirty dollars a day – fifteen for the room, the other half for food and drink. Everything back then was simplistic, until two fateful strangers sauntered into their tavern.

They came as a pair, both seeming to be very good companions. Although the one man seemed to have his eye on Phi's sister, Mia. After they had boarded a room, one for each of them, they had lounged around the bar room, doing nothing in particular there.

One of the men was named Trace Undersun, as the sisters had found out later. He was a twenty-three year old fighter, with seemingly no place to go to. Trace had a light skin tone, and dark brown hair that fell a little past his dark brown eyes. He wore a white, buttoned up long sleeved shirt, with a pair of faded, worn jeans. Inside one of the pockets to those jeans rested his pack of cigarettes and matches, which were two items he used frequently. His past was shady, as well as his character, but he had seemed nice enough – and since the sisters allow pretty much anyone within their doors – the traveler had stayed.

His partner, a nineteen year old mage named Marsuro Hendigo, was also another man who held a suspicious aura around him. The mage had almost seemed like a complete contrast to his companion, so it was interesting to find out that they were best friends too. Marsuro was also of a light skin color, his hair that reached a little past his cheek bones, seemed a mix of gray and light purple (she could never choose between either color). His icy blue eyes always studied the world behind the frames of his glasses, which always rested on the perch of his nose. He had worn a dark blue cloak that day, covering most of his body with the clothing. Although he wasn't a smoker like Trace, he /did/ request apple cider quite often...

The thing about Trace and Marsuro which was confusing, was that they were close companions, and yet so totally different.

Trace, for example, had always been something of a care free guy. If something didn't happen the way it should've, he would just shrug it off, light a cigarette, and take a long drag of his beloved tobacco. Marsuro was more of a self center sort of guy, one who would rather do things his way, or not at all. He also seemed to think he was much higher up on the social ladder than anybody else, because he had come from an exclusive school of some sorts for wizards.

Like she really gave a damn about that. Tch.

Day after day, the two had stayed at the tavern, Trace helping out with cooking and chores whenever he could, while Marsuro just argued with Phi and studied in his room. Trace had started hitting it off with Mia from just about the very beginning. Her sister had seemed happy, and Trace would smile more often. Right away, she could tell they were falling in love with each other. And she was happy for them.

Marsuro, on the other hand, was being his same old self – obnoxious...

So when the day came that Phi had explained to both her twin and Trace, that they were /obviously/ in love, she had just opened up the flood gates and no sooner had they confessed, had she heard that they were now officially involved romantically. It had felt good giving her sister a boyfriend.

However...

That feeling quickly diminished when the two of them decided she was to play the mage's new lover. Trace and Marsuro would never part, and since Trace wanted to stay here, at the tavern, /forever/, that meant that Marsuro had to stay too. And, by their thinking, that meant that /she/ had to agree to kept him here, and make him fall in love with her.

As if /that/ was ever going to happen...

Phoenix scoffed as she recalled that memory, padding across the empty bar room (thank Pie) and gently pushing open the swinging double doors to the kitchen. As she grabbed a glass cup and opened the heavy door to the gigantic metal fridge, she began to let her mind wander to all the times she tried to be nice to the wizard. And time after time again, she was shot down as he made a negative remark about this or that. It was always one thing or another when it came to them. It's not like she actually /liked/ the mage, she was only trying to be friends with him on account of her Miaka's pleading.

Even so...she found herself thinking a lot about him when she was alone. When she would realize that the mage had consumed her thoughts, she always pushed it off, saying something like, "The only reason I was thinking about that arrogant, selfish loser is 'cause I'm thinking of the many ways I should torture him..." Or something to that effect. Even when she found herself blushing in his presence, she denied it and made up some remark about the room being too hot.

In any event, she didn't care a thing for him and that's how it was always going to be. Right.

Sighing as she poured the last of the pineapple juice from the plastic container, she kicked the fridge door shut with her foot and grabbed a straw on her way out of the cooking area. As she started back upstairs, she stopped and figured why should she stay cooped up in her room all night, when no one was awake at this hour to bother her? With that thought in mind, she climbed downstairs again and unlocked the large, front doors to the tavern.

She needed some cool, night air. Thinking about torturing that mage again had made the room hot...

Phoenix closed the door with her behind, walking over to the side of the large inn and sitting down on the cool, yet prickling grass. With her knees draw up comfortably against her chest, she took the end of the straw in her mouth and sucked. Her mouth filled with the fruity juice, and when she swallowed the liquid, she smiled in gratification at the sweet taste of her cherished drink. Tilting her head up, light purple eyes gazed up at the bright blinking stars. In town, one could never see the stars this clearly. So clearly, that they appeared to be within arms length, so one could simply pluck them off of the velvety cloth of the midnight sky.

"What are you doing up so late?"

She gasped loudly, nearly jumping out of her skin as the voice scared her out of her wits. She looked over to the man standing next to her sitting form, placing a hand over her thundering heart in an attempt to try and calm her racing pulse.

"And why are you out here – alone?" Marsuro asked, lifting an eyebrow in curiosity. "It's dangerous out here, next to the woods and all. Not that I /care/, but I doubt your sister would be happy if you had got eaten."

Phoenix glared at him, her eyes narrowing into slits. "Why are /you/ out here anyway? Were you /following/ me?" she accused, regaining her regular heart beat.

"No, why would I waste my time doing such a thing?" he countered, surprising her as he sat down next to her, sitting Indian style and placing his hands on his knees. In truth, he had been exiting the rest room and drying his hands on a towel, when he had seen her tiptoe out of her bedroom. Curious, he followed, and it had lead him out here.

The mage wasn't wearing his all concealing cloak this time, which, for some reason she found she enjoyed seeing him without it. She ignored that thought, and let her eyes take in his plain white T-shirt, gray pants that looked a lot like jogging pants, except much more thin, and casual flip flops. She supposed dressing down for bed was the only thing that made him normal like other people. She didn't speak again as she felt his arm brush up against her own bare arm. Her cheeks were heating up, and so she looked away from him.

A lapse of time had passed between the two of them. Marsuro meditating (or so she figured), and Phoenix staring at the blades of grass off to her side. When she had had her fill of silence, she cleared her throat and spoke up again.

"Listen, Marsuro..." she began, unsure of how to word what she was trying to say.

"Yes?" he prodded, when he heard nothing but silence follow his name.

"...About our argument earlier..."

"...Yes?" This time, the mage's response didn't come as sure as it normally would have been.

"...Well... I just wanted to say that I was sorry that I called you a 'wacko wizard wanna be'..."

"...I also need to apologize that I called you a 'two dollar tramp'..."

"Okay, apology accepted," they seemed to say at the same time.

Another minute of complete nothingness passed between the two, before the seventeen year old spoke again.

"It was your fault anyway..."

"What?!" Marsuro gapped, turning to glare at the young woman who sat beside him. "You're the one who /started/ the whole mess!"

"Well you /could/ have just given me the spare bottle! You didn't have to be such an /ass/ about it – you weren't even using it /anyway/!" Phoenix countered, facing her body toward his and returning the glare with just as much venom.

"I was /planning/ on using it sometime in the near future, you loud mouthed wench!"

"What did you call me?!"

"I don't have to repeat myself!"

"You're such a–!"

"–Just like /you/ are!"

Just then, they seemed to realize that they were getting into another argument, and turned away from each other. Another while passed, before either one of them talked.

It was the girl who spoke first. "Sorry...again..."

And then came the slightly older man. "Yes...sorry..."

Phoenix sighed, and looked over her shoulder at him. She found him gazing up at the stars, like she was doing earlier, with his arms crossed over his chest. She studied his face, and found herself unconsciously thinking about how handsome he was. Too bad he had such a bad attitude – that had ruined his good looks. When he rose to stand up to his full height, she didn't even noticed he had moved until he had called her name.

"Oro?" came her famous question. She always seemed to utter the word when she was confused...

"I said, I'm heading off to bed now... You should do the same..."

"Oh... Well, I'll be going in shortly..." she informed, waving a hand at him in a dismissive manner.

"Alright." And with that, he turned his back on her and started heading for the front of the tavy.

"Hey Marsuro...?" she called, not wanting him to leave just yet. Wanting his company just a little bit longer. After all...it could get boring out here with no one to fight with...

"Hmm?" he questioned, stopping just before he turned the corner of the building. He looked back at her, and for once, she was glad that his face didn't carry a scowl.

"Uhm... I, uh..." With nothing coming to mind, she said the only logical thing two people in this situation could say. "Good night..."

The wizard seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he made a reply. "Good night..."

And then he left, leaving her with her thoughts.

'...Maybe...' she began to think as she settled her head on her raised knees, closed her bright eyes, and smiled as she thought about the man who she had just bid a good night. 'Maybe...he's not so bad after all...'

XxX

Next Chapter: You and I
Summary: Miaka and Trace wake up in the wee hours of the morning, and start to kick the day off with some romantic interaction. Yes, because as every owner of a bar/grill/inn knows...ya just can't start the business day without a little fluff.

XxX

Japanese translations – among other things – in order of appearance:

Fukutsu Inochi - Enduring Life
-Dono - more respectful than San; today would be used as 'Milord so-and-so' (- though I don't use it like that. I'm not /that/ egotistical... -) As used by Kenshin, it indicates both respect and humility.
X) -San - mr., miss, mrs., ms.
Mou - something like 'geez', a 'soft' curse, such as 'crap' or 'darn'
Thank Pie - this is an inside joke. Mia and I really like pie – especially apple pie, so instead of saying things like "for pete's sake!" we would say "for pie's sake!" it's weird, I know, but it's just how we are... if anyone would like to make donations so that we can be normal people, my e-mail is in my bio ;)
Oro - huh?

xXx

ok, so there ya have it – the first chapter in this insane randomness fic, also known as my friends and I role playing... if you're interested in this fic, or want to comment on anything, please leave a review then. Because if I don't get at least 3 reviews, I'll start to think no one is reading this... anywho! Please review on your way out! Thank you everyone and see ya later!

Phi-Dono rox