Under the Knife

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Branch

Ink Burns

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This is a work of fanfiction, produced according to the principles of transformative fair use as put forward in US copyright law, and abiding by the custom and practice of fan-produced work in Japan, where the source texts were created. No author is in any way affiliated with any of the creators of the source texts, nor with the companies who distribute their products, nor any other rights holder, and these stories were not authorized by either the creators or the producers. Ink Burns is a fan site and the material here is freely provided for the enjoyment of fellow fan-community members; there is no commercial infringement.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 US license at the Ink Burns fanfiction archive (http://alltrees.org/archive/).

Published on 2005-01-04 21:40:41.

Attributions can be made by author's name and a link to the archive.

This ebook edition was published on May 16, 2012 by the Ink Burns fanfiction archive.

Under the Knife

Mad Hatter and Yukimura start to get acquainted. Drama, I-3

Seiichi was never sure what, exactly, alerted him to Mad Hatter's presence. Se moved like a shadow. He always knew when se arrived, though, as though the air pressure had suddenly dropped and painted the breeze with a hint of coming clouds.

"Experimental surgery, hm?" he asked without turning away from the window.

"One could just snap one's fingers." Hatter's breath was warm against the back of his neck. "One gets the impression from your other visitors that a miraculous recovery would be only what's expected from you."

"Miraculous?" Seiichi repeated in dry question.

"That was one's business, as a Virtue. His Majesty would probably forgive one moonlighting, just this once." Seiichi could hear Hatter's smile, and the darkness in it, delicate and raw. Dangerous. Which was fine as long as it didn't go beyond the two of them.

"And have you had much to say to my other visitors?" Seiichi inquired, turning slowly around and trying not to grit his teeth too visibly over the clumsy way his feet answered him.

Belial gave him a bright and charming curve of lips that didn't match hir eyes. "They are delightful boys, aren't they? But one finds you by far the most interesting." Mad Hatter ran a fingertip down Seiichi's cheek to trace his lower lip before falling away.

Seiichi sharpened his gaze to the edge that would hold Hatter. "Good."

End