An Audience

Shio grit his teeth, sharp canines grinding audibly together whilst his eyes roved over the large walled compound in front of him. There was a ginormous courtyard flanked on both left and right sides by small rectangular buildings. In the far back lay a larger main building decorated with statues, trees, and a varying mixture of foliage. Drop dead center of the courtyard standing tall and imposing was a black torii gate flecked with white patches around the base. The elegant features of Shio's face warped momentarily into the ugliest twisted scowl. Lines darkened around his eyes and the once beautiful heterochromatic liquid gold and moss green eyes bled red and black through the irises. His anger felt insurmountable, and he had rather a lot of difficulty pushing it right back down. His feet moved forwarded before he could even think, traipsing through the front gate with a dark purpose.

Bang!

The loud sound assaulted his senses, ears twitching atop his head, and he glanced behind him swiftly to see that the front entrance had been secured. As expected, he thought. He listened intently, left ear flicking to the side to catch movement as thundering steps passed by behind him and off to the side. It was never quiet anywhere he went. He sighed, the colour finally returning back to his irises as it had darkened in response to his emotions.

Hatsu, the green haired demon, magically appeared out of thin air with a hiss. Eyes shining in hidden mirth and arms draped down into a V over his legs, imitating a traditional bow. The male glanced up from the floor, tucking those very same hands back behind him and flashed the older kitsune a startlingly deceptive smile.

"My lord Shio. Please be welcome. You may follow me to the Maassster of the compound." It was a little odd, Shio thought, that his pronunciation of 'master' had suddenly deformed into a heavier, deeper tone inflected with a snakelike hiss. Supposedly their intention to call on him alone was to instil a sort of intimidation tactic, and by the looks of things they hadn't skimped on the personnel. Large, size of a brick house, types of men wandered between the buildings. You know, the type of men that were so tall, so wide and so full of goddamn muscle that in fact, they may as well be a bloody brick house…because no wind of any kind would knock them down. The very same men, Shio noted with narrowed eyes and mild distaste, were obedient to a fault. Black spiderweb patterns reaching outwards like claws from black, unassuming eyes. They were mortal, yes, but the white-haired demon felt an ugly power radiate from them…corrupted to the very bone, hooked into every fiber of being. It wasn't familiar, Shio could only rumble deep within his chest. Hatsu glanced sideways curiously.

"My lord?" the rumbling stopped as abruptly as it came and a voice as rich as chocolate smoothed over Hatsu's ears.

"Does Aoki truly believe all of this," he gestured to the troops idling by. "would intimidate me so?" He laughed derisively. "Perhaps you are not aware, your…'Master' certainly is." His eyes flashed. "After all, his predecessor made an attempt on my life…forgeiting his." He chuckled darkly. "One of my generals has his pelt hung across a wall in his war room."

"That is not the cassse my lord!" Hatsu babbled out, a little surprised and put off by the threat. They were just approaching the chambers of the lord of the compound. Hatsu could see it just within reach, and once he delivered the aggressive man, he planned to return to work in the shadows. Admiration for the old fox, however, climbed that much higher as he learned more of his past from him.

[This is not what I signed up for] he thought distractedly. [I will watch this progress. Lord Shio drips with power, and perhaps I was wrong with my assumption Aoki would be worth my time…]

"We are here, my Lord. Please enter." He bowed his green head deeply and watched just under the cover of his hair as the towering figure of Shio disappeared with a flourish through the sliding doors. He sighed deeply, straightening out and bringing a hand to rub at his eyes. "

Good grief."

Inside the room Aoki was waiting patiently, or as patiently as a man ready to burst could be. His emotions within were seething and bubbling, erupting, and rattling inside his head like a rabid animal in a cage. His long black nailed fingers halted their drumming once the door slid open. Anticipation seeped from his bones. Shio glided imposingly through the room until he came within distance of the sitting dark eyed male. Silence stretched between the two, only broken by the distant sounds from outside as it filtered into the closed room. Neither said a word, but Shio was having an increasingly hard time not teaching this cretin in front of him a valuable life lesson in staying the fuck away from another's claim. Aoki broke the quiet, coughing to clear his throat as his head all at once begin to calm. He was not stupid enough to make a mistake, especially since the threat was more than he was aware of…

He had to be cautious.

"Shio. Sit, we have some…unfortunate things to discuss." Gold and green narrowed, bu5t he acquiesced and lowered himself to sit with on knee bent up, foot flat and stable on the floor whilst the other hooked under it and faced the opposite direction. His cold stare met the depths of darkness attached to Aoki.

"Well then? What was so impertinent you deem it necessary to send out useless invitations?" A saucer of alcohol was set in his hand. He sniffed it idly, deeming it safe to drink and Aoki struggled to remain calm. Restraining his emotions proved to be severely difficult under the flippancy of Shio's attitude, but he really liked the way his head was set on his shoulders. So, he allowed Shio his dominance and let him finish his previous verbal assault.

"Humour me, will you."