krystalkatzficz | Aiba Masaki and the Lost City part 2

“Nino-chan! Good morning!” Masaki shouted hurrying up behind him and slapping him hard on the shoulder. It had been a week since Masaki had saved him from being hit by the car and the billionaire had decided that they were going to be bestest friends for life because of it. Nino didn’t mind so much, Masaki was interesting to be around, but he didn’t like the way people assumed he was talking to the man for his money. “Did you sleep well? I did! I dreamt I was a robot and was dating Deny from Game of thrones. You were the bad robot that wanted to shoot me with laser beams from your eyes”

“And that was a good dream?” Nino chuckled rolling his eyes at his friend. Masaki had one hell of an imagination and as such had an amazing subconscious which left him often telling him fantastical stories about what he had dreamt the night before. Sometimes though it overlapped with stories of his adventures with his parents and Nino would have been convinced that he was lying about all the things his parents had done but after that first day he had read everything he could about the Aiba’s and found that they wouldn’t be out of place in a video game or a movie.

They were genuine tomb raiders like Indiana Jones and Masaki was as intelligent as he made out. He had brought his book out of curiosity but to his embarrassment he hadn’t managed to read more than half a chapter without getting a feeling of wanting to travel. Something that he wasn’t used to feeling. He was something of a home body and the idea of doing the things Masaki’s parents did chilled him to the bone though he wished he could stand at the top of a Mayan pyramid, like Masaki had done in the photo in the book.

“Yup, because instead of shooting me you liked me enough to be friends with me and helped fight all of the other bad robots!” Masaki said happily smiling at him as though he really had helped him to fight off a hoard of rampaging bad robots. Nino rolled his eyes shrugging as he said;

“At least I helped”

“Yup! Are you free this afternoon?”

“I guess, my class finishes at one, I don’t think I have anything planned after” Nino sorted through his mental calendar for a moment thinking he had a dentist appointment but that was next week. “Yup, I’m free, why?

“Mary-san said I should invite you to dinner!” Nino stopped dead at the words that slipped easily out of Masaki’s mouth. Mary was a name that the other man used a lot and Nino recognised it as being the woman Masaki said was his housekeeper though judging from his stories she was more like a friend than a servant.

“Mary-san? She’s your housekeeper?”

“Yup! And my cook! You’ll like her! So, you’ll come, right?”

“Yeah, okay, it’s not like I’ve been in a mansion before” Nino shrugged with a small smile and Masaki beamed at him slamming his hand on his back before heading off in the direction of his class calling over his shoulder;

“I’ll see you later!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Nino rolled his eyes and hitched his bag further onto his back wondering what the mansion would be like.

*~***~~**

The mansion was the very definition of sprawling. It was a huge complex combining period western and classical Japanese almost flawlessly and Nino felt as though his eyes were going to bulge out of their sockets. As he walked he noticed things that were out of place, the walls of the building seemed to be decorated with coloured stones, and there were large rocks at varying heights around along with a large pool of water which should have been a swimming pool but looked more like a small lake. He was about to go over to it when Masaki stopped him by sticking out his arm and resting it over his stomach area.

“Sidney doesn’t like people getting too close unless you’re about to feed him of course”

“Who’s Sidney?”

“The alligator in the swimming pool. My Dad named him Sidney”

“Why the hell do you have an alligator in the swimming pool?”

“Practice” Masaki shrugged guiding him up a flight of stairs before pushing him to one side and doing an impressive back flip. Masaki had told him that he was a gymnast the day after they had first met but Nino hadn’t really believed him until he had seen him in the college gym. It had been impressive. The intense look on the heir’s face had done strange things to his stomach but right now he was angry until he saw a crossbow bolt come flying out of the house where he had been standing Masaki caught it and then threw it down onto the ground.

“Not fair Seto-san!” Masaki huffed as another bolt came and grazed passed it leg “You said you weren’t going to do it today!”

“You always have to be mindful of dangers Master Masaki. Welcome home” An aged voice said softly and Nino blinked in surprise as an old man wearing a smart black and white suit carrying a crossbow came into view. The man looked to be in his 70’s with deep set wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, his hair was an almost dirty grey colour but his eyes were bright and sparkling as he set the cross bow down against the door. Masaki ignored his greeting and came over to help him to his feet asking;

“Nino-chan? Are you okay?”

“No! I’m not bloody okay! What the hell was that?” Nino shouted able to hear his heart pounding in his ears. Masaki gave a little shrug and once again muttered;

“Practice, but he promised that he wouldn’t today because you were coming to visit! I’m going to tell Mary-san!”

“Sorry, Master Masaki, and Master Nino. The bolt wouldn't have done more than bruise you if it hit”

“That’s not the point! You’re not meant to go around shooting my friends with crossbows!” Masaki shouted and Nino was sure that his legs had been replaced with jelly. It was the only explanation for the way it was wobbling around. “Nino-chan? Are you okay?”

“You’re crazy! This is crazy!” Nino gasped before starting to laugh for no reason at all.

TBC

A/N: Hmm…I hope that this is okay >.<