What It Means To Be King

Chapter 35: The Hand That Reached Out But Never Grabbed

Somewhere along the way, the little group of pseudo camaraderie had stumbled upon two to three hordes of gangsters, some of which ambushed them with impetuous care, some sneaking around a juncture where both never expected to run into each other. All in all, it was a complete chaos when the princes had to watch as the demon that is Shao Long got caught up in a nasty brawl, with the random cracking noise that suspiciously resembled bones breaking, some blood splattered on someone's face, teeth knocked out etcetera. 

Screams filled the hallway, echoing through every corner of the building within 20 meter radius, be it from the princes — worry not, they are miraculously unharmed — or from the gangsters who were the ones having to suffer from Shao Long's pent up wrath. 

And Shao Long? Well.... How to say, how to say. He thought at some point that maybe getting the chance to fight could give him time to vent, but fuck. Fighting while having to think which way to go next, which mob to knock out, which technique preserves the most energy was hard. Harder than what he had originally planned out. He couldn't let any of the gangsters go past him and to the princes. He couldn't accidentally hit the princes in the process, and with the addition of how small the hallway was, Shao Long couldn't say he was having the time of his life venting. In any case, this only added to his exhaustion and somehow that swelling on his head had managed to slowly drive him to insanity. 

But this chapter wasn't entirely in Shao Long's point of view, so this is where we stop. 

Because Anubis was watching him. And it's not that he was saying he hadn't been watching the Chinese for the past six years they had known each other, it's just that he came here with more purpose of protecting Gion than looking at this brute kicking ass, and not looking away for a very very very long time. He saw every single hit that Shao Long failed to dodge and the sloppy punch he landed, completely missing the ideal places a fighter should be hitting, and the powerful kicks that missed its target and only ended up causing him to slightly lose his balance instead. He saw every single fuck-up Shao Long made and tilted his head in confusion.

At first, Anubis didn't even look at Shao Long, not even a single glance as he sat in one windowsill, hidden from the views of even Charles' bodyguard. He had had his eyes on Gion at all times, watching to see if even one of the gangsters had somehow managed to slip past Shao Long's fists and attacked him. It never came, and Gion, that elegant and composed prince just walked behind Shao Long, eyes never leaving his back and his steps never hesitating. 

Eventually, Anubis followed Gion's gaze, because it doesn't seem like Gion was having a hard time. In fact, Gion looked like he was in a good mood, for God knows what reason. When he saw that Gion was looking at Shao Long, the same Shao Long whose current state could be compared to that of a mad bull, as the Chinese slammed another guy's head to the wall, he raised a brow. Now, at exactly three seconds after Anubis stared at him, Shao Long somehow had a stray brick ready at hand as he smashed it on someone's nose, successfully breaking not only the brick, but the guy's face as well. 

Absolute chaos. 

Now, after 15 minutes of not taking his eyes off of Shao Long, Anubis stilled in confusion. He finally realized what had been bugging him since he first saw him, and that was the fact that Shao Long was doing this bad at fighting when both of them knew he could fight so much better than this. Okay, he did take note of his head injury, judging by the dried blood on his hair, and that cut too close to his eyes, and perhaps some bruises on his body, but Shao Long had been through worse and could still beat twice the asses in half the amount of time. To say that he might be out of shape did come across his thoughts later on, but honestly?