To See Again, and Know Anew

---13---
___“I thought we discussed this.”
___“You don‘t have to actually eat it,” Brian calmly assured his master. “It‘s purely for my own personal enjoyment.”
___“I’ll never understand your fascination with these bizarre traditions.” Winston sighed, shaking his head at the inelegant brown paper sack being extended to him.
___“Is it the bag, cause I thought about getting you a Poke‘mon lunch box?”
___A stoic stare was all Brian received in reply.
___“Oh come on, it‘s just some cheese wontons,” Brian sighed, smiling cheekily as Soketsu snatched the offering and stalked off. After two hundred years even the dullest of fools could figure out what foods the Great Shaman preferred.
___Today he was officially starting school though, albeit a few months later than everyone else in the 10th grade. He looked like a young prince, posture perfect and clothes uniquely foreign but beautiful all the same. At five foot three he was short even for the youths in his supposed age range, but hopefully he could work that to his advantage.
___Brian had only jokingly referred to him riding the bus back and fourth to Cimmerian High, which was met with a wave of power so cold and dark he wondered if his master ever put any value in his life. Soketsu could switch between playful doting and menacing rage so quickly Brian had given up on trying to track his moods.
___Still, they were both about to embark on a new existence, Brian’s small musty office patiently awaiting his arrival. His degree in Psychology and Sociology would serve him well as the new Guidance Counselor.
---14---
___Now of all the moments shared between them this was probably the only one in all of recorded history that didn’t appear to be anything other than ordinary. The tense line of the boy’s mouth, his eyes furious and steps a bit too forceful spoke volumes. He was small, adorably tiny even, and that meant he was likely the target of someone’s cruel attention. It wasn’t hard to assume he was the unfortunate tool a gangly bully had chosen to briefly forget their many teenage insecurities. It was all the more plausible when he barged his way into the new guidance counselor’s office.
___“I‘m done.” Soketsu dryly proclaimed, eyes locked on the back of Banyu’s head, further irritated by the grin he was yet to actually see.
___“You got here late, and the noon bell just rang for lunch…” Brian laughed, “Please tell me you‘re not finished with this charade already.”
___“My mind isn‘t capable of sustaining all this! I feel like I can‘t even breathe surrounded by all these chained mongrels.”
___“And here I am debating where to put all the family portraits?”
___“Banyu,” Winston commanded, wiping the jovial smirk of his servant’s face. “The emotional torrent is sweeping me away. Can‘t you feel it, the repression biting at your skin? There‘s just so much desire here, frustration and rage… It‘s a wonder there isn’t an orgy of blood every day?”
___“They‘re teenagers,” Brian stated matter-of-factly. “Did you honestly expect something else?”
___“…no.”
___“So what really brings you here then?”
___“I‘m here… because you‘re bored.”
___“Oh really, is that it?”
___“Yes, yes it is.” Winston smiled, mischief sparkling in his green eyes. “After all this time you don‘t think I wouldn‘t be able to single your frustrations out from the rest. My breaking point is you it seems?”
___“Well, I can‘t say my day has been quite as eventful as yours, but surely nothing to worry over.”
___“Nonsense. You know I never worry.” Sokestu chided. “Still, I feel this problem of yours warrants my attention. You have been such a good boy about this after all.”
___Brian merely arched a skeptical brow. He could never tell if his master was toying with him when he dangled such obvious compliments.
___“I think it‘s time we played a new game. How about you let me serve you for awhile? As long as we‘re here I‘ll answer only to you.”
___“Agreed.” Banyu breathed, always quick to accept such lies, fully aware this ploy would grant him no true power. Still, he would take it for what it was. “I would ask you to get me food, but I think I’d rather play now that you‘ve given me the option.”
___Soketsu only shrugged, already content with where this would end. It was a much desired distraction and the added possibility of real pain held a certain allure to it after all this time.
___“Come here, and let‘s see just how subservient you can be.”
---15---
___Frustratingly… tangy? For a supposedly nonexistent scent, the surgically sterile smell of fresh latex was actually beginning to truly irk Soketsu. Now, normally he could simply tune the world out, especially in this class, but for some idiotic reason the lab today required those nasty off-white hospital gloves. The pungent aroma was practically assaulting him, a faint snarl beginning to shape his mouth as he turned his attention to the cause. He wasn‘t even wearing them and still they irritated him. Even the sound annoyed him, the rubbery stretching squelch they made with every gesture. He’d be lucky if he didn’t end up massacring the entire class, or at least just that pompous bastard of a teacher.
___“Can you believe this thing is still alive?!” Zach exclaimed, grinning excitedly as he pinned the last slimy fold of skin down. “Look, it’s heart is going crazy!”
___He looked around the table for confirmation only to find Winston looking down at his hands with a look of the purest contempt. He couldn’t help but doubt himself for a moment, breathing a small sigh of relief when the small transfer student finally returned to just staring out the window. At almost twice the kid’s size he shouldn’t have even cared but something about him…
___“It’s gross!” Ashley grimaced, missing the moment entirely as she read her most recent text message. The neon yellow cell phone in her lap was definitely more important.
___“It‘s awesome, what‘re you talking about?” Zach laughed nervously, pushing Winston from his mind. He flashed a small smile as Ashley rolled her eyes without even a brief pause in her texting.
___“It feels kinda weird cutting him open while he‘s blinking at us though…” Ryan admitted, leaning in to take a closer look. “Hey lil buddy, how you feeling?”
___“You‘re so dumb baby,” Ashley sighed, grinning as she finally slid her phone closed. She had a whole seven seconds before it‘d be time to reply.
___“It‘s technically still humane since the sedatives don‘t allow the frog to feel any pain.” Jimmy quietly explained, his eyes never leaving the lab notes on the table as he wrote down the group findings. “We need to remove the intestines now.”
___“I hate Biology…” Ahsley muttered, glancing once more at the somehow solitary figure on the outskirts of their group.
___Soketsu sat confined to the communal desk, staring lazily out the same window he did everyday, head supported on his elbow as Mr. Phineas droned on further about amphibian biology. Currently, he was immersed in a ‘group’ project, clearly doing nothing but not bothered in the least for it. In fact, the beautiful ‘popular’ kids around him and the one socially awkward genius he’d chosen to adopt his workload all felt lucky to even be able to share the time with him. Somehow over the last two months he’d become ‘popular’ himself, a mysterious prince among the common and revered accordingly. At any rate the culmination of his work sat around him, the four students pulled into his inner circle of… friends, if they could even be called that?
___They all had their limited uses and the list broke down like this: Ashley Aquinas -a Water Sprite if Soketsu had ever seen one- with her radiant waist length blonde hair, crystalline blue eyes and the smallest red lips imaginable; Drama Club President and Chorus super star. Her talent seemed limitless and beauty unfair, much like her boyfriend Ryan Geolechski, which should have been a mouthful but instead was a sort of school mantra. Everyone said his full name, chanted it in the halls, and roared it in the bleachers for whatever sport he happened to be playing. The fact he was male perfection didn’t hurt either, his smile the kind of magic that lulled entire conversations to silence. Then there was the eternally smiling Zach Watkinson, the Indian Irish mix that kept every single class falling on the floor with laughter. He just happened to be darkly handsome himself even if rather skinny compared to the hulk of Ryan. Soketsu had made sure to have the sophomore beauty queen, varsity sensation, and class clown in his pocket along with the lesser needed up-and-coming valedictorian Jimmy San. In short, Jimmy could get the information no one else cared to have, and with the four Soketsu would find out what was so damn important for him to be here. He’d been having strange nudges at his lines of fate for quite some time and they all pointed at this particular moment. Something was going to happen here and now that changed the very fabric of his existence. He highly doubted it revolved around the sedated frog being dissected beside him though, and therefore didn‘t even bother to notice the Jimmy’s secretive gawking.
___What he did notice was the small girl walking to the administration office across the courtyard with a giant manila folder in her hands. She wasn’t exactly extraordinary, or at least from what little Soketsu could tell at this distance. Still he couldn’t take his eyes off her entranced by the subtle red glare of her dark brown hair. It was fashioned simply in a high ponytail with a sweeping bang across her forehead, the length reaching her lower back and ending in a gentle curl. She walked with reluctant steps, her pace unhurried and if possible… heartbreaking? It all seemed so familiar, and as she disappear into the main office Soketsu found himself truly excited for the first time in a century and for no reason he could even begin to imagine.
___He just, wanted her…