Time

"WAKE UP!"

Hira was rudely awaken with a slap on his face.

"I'm awake," he muttered, with a stinging pain on his right cheek, "Chisa."

The little girl giggled at the mention of her name.

But it was the dark silhouette of a figure that got him scrambling to a kneeling position. "Captain!" He bowed.

"Be ready." The silhouette disappeared as he caught a glimpse of his Captain's departure through the room door, accompained by the all-too-familiar giggle.

It was then he realised he was not dressed at all.

The peaceful morning sky was almost sliced with a high-pitched male holler of revenge.

"CHISAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

---------------------------------------

"Sir."

With a slight bow, a fair-skinned male with chin length blonde-hair set the teacup gently onto the red-clothed golden table as the figure gently lifted his teacup for a sip. There was no expression on the captain's face except for a tensed strain of a thin fibre his facial muscles unknown to even the sharpest eye - unless one has gone beyond one's state of actualisation to achieve a higher perfection of skill - to which the young male's eyes shone with warmth at the captain's approval.

"From the High Mountains of Grove, Sire," he bowed, noticing the unseen transition to the silhouette to the window - while the same figure had relaxed - almost daintily - crossing his leg over the other, eyes staring at its own silhouette by the window.

The resting lounge was huge. Walls of rosewood colour stood tall and stretched, protecting everyone within. The windows stood twice a man's height, its golden sills laying across the thick pane further fortified their protection. On the left was a curiously off-coloured turquoise velvet curtain hanging from the ceiling.

However the silhouette chose the conformed velvet curtain colour of deep red.

Sunlight poured into the lounge, spilling its rays, illuminating the silent, heavy - yet peaceful - atmosphere.

"Thy mother.." the silhouette spoke.

"She is well -" Hans fought back the depressing lump in his throat and added - "Sire."

It was a lie but a way to break the atmosphere. Being forced to marry an exiled Captain and raped to bear two sons while being in a family of high nobility was the shame that caused endless slanders and gossips until one of the Captains - in anger at the honour that was tarnished to his lover and her children - commited the highest offence of any Captain - to kill a mortal life before its destined time of death. Yet spared the Captain was - as the reason was of the numerous atrocious deeds of a notorious an exiled Captain who wrecked a mortal family's livehood whose punishment had risen and approved to an execution - only after its death.

The same thoughts that run through their minds everyday, everytime.

"If only I had.."

"No, Sire," Hans' voice gently consoled. "You did what you must." No Soul Captain is allowed to have any relations with mortals even when a Captain is assigned to appear to humans in the mortal dimension.

It was love at first sight.

Captain Bai Shou towered a good height which every woman would be wiling to be with him, even for a second. Gazing into his grey eyes related a story of a lost love while he lived in his Spirit dimension further drove all female - spirit or human - to a swoon. His long black hair streaked with white bore the pain of his lost, framing his slightly angular features. His fair skin pales in the white of snow - as if beckoning to end its existence - as it was when his love had passed away.

It was forbidden to love a princess. Bai Shou accepted his punishment to stay in the dark void of seperation - in a dimension of silence and darkness, except for a few visits from Hira.

But it was not the princess that Hira and Hans were borned of.

"Magdeline.." the voice by the window softly broke in grief. The figure at the table - the eyes have closed and jaw clenched.

"Sire -" Hans would run to the Captain but stopped as he sensed Hira's aura after he appeared in honourary position towards his Captain. A glower from Hans - and he disappeared immediately before Hira's full presence.

The silhouette turned, revealing his full form - the figure at the table had disappeared.

"Hans would be a better soldier." The Captain looked at his 2nd Vice-Captain.

"Captain." Hira acknowledged.

-------------------------------------------

It was the strangest of assignments to Hira - there was no assignment.

All he had to do was to walk beside his Captain while baby-sitting the First Vice-Captain who was squealing with girlish delight as she ran along the flower fields and chasing butterflies. That girl would cause the worst irritation of him someday.

"More than 20 years."

Hira's attention re-focused to his Captain. "Captain?"

The sharp glower from his Captain halted his steps.

"Sorry..father.."

If only his Captain would acknowledge.

But his Captain has left a good distance away from him. He knew the only one his Captain would acknowledge was - Hans. Hira reminded himself to excel as much as his younger brother as he tried to catch on his Captain's pace.

"More than twenty years, has it not?"

"Yes, Captain. Thank you for your protection and guidance. I -"

"You have improved."

Hira realised he was alone. Chisa had gone too.

The wind blew up from his back, whipping up his long ash blonde fringe as he stood alone, confused at the sudden disappearance of whom he called his surrogate father, his wracked sobs echoing, crying out for comfort as he spent the remaining hours of the anniversary of the death of exiled Captain Xue - his biological father.