Raptor's Shadow, Owl's Umbra

[madimpossibledreamer]

Aklak shupash shun shutya-A saying in Pashu directly translated as 'raptor's shadow, owl's umbra'. Translated less literally, it is the basis of their whole philosophy of 'this-life karma'. For every bad thing that happens, something good will also happen, though the time between is not prescribed and it can sometimes be very difficult to trace one event to the other.

Main Points:
Buffy/Devil May Cry
Chapter Summary: Buffy finds Syuvai and Xander getting things ready for Syuvai's room.
Word Count: 525
Rating: Teen

 

        Buffy’s getting really annoyed now, since father and son went and vanished on her. They had better be safe and sound in the hotel, and even then—
        She opens the door, and a voice she seared into her mind just in case she needed to hunt the owner growls, frustrated, “I speak over one hundred languages and these instructions make sense in none of them.”
        Xander’s voice, on the other hand, has the amused, annoyed quality that says he’s either going to start laughing or stabbing things any minute and the percentage chance of each is about fifty-fifty. “Welcome to the wonderful world of Ikea. Aklak shupash shun shutya.”
        “Somehow I’m not seeing the owl’s umbra,” the legendary devil disagrees.
        “Did you guys ditch me to…” she takes in the scene. The couches are pushed to the walls, Syuvai’s taken off the outer jacket and pushed up his sleeves, and the two are sitting on the floor surrounded by pieces of wood. The boombox is set to the rock station, and now and then one or both of them start humming along before getting back to the task at hand. “…steal Ikea furniture?”
        The two glance at each other before simultaneously pointing at each other and saying “It was his idea,” in perfect symphony.       
        Buffy’s suddenly feeling a lot more sympathy for Giles. This is what he feels like, all the time. “Yeah, I can see the family resemblance,” she mutters dryly, coming over to join them on the floor.
        “I apologize, but there would be far more wood splinters in your path without the ice cream,” the legend explains, nudging the giant tub sitting beside him—it looks like they’d also lifted the largest size ice cream container they could find. Containers. There’s one next to Xander, too.
        “Much of humans’ patience can be found in a tub of ice cream,” Buffy explains sagely, and that goofy, charming grin? Yeah, that’s also inherited.
        “I can see why. I haven’t had any since the 1700s. It’s certainly changed since then.” As if to illustrate, he fishes for the spoon in the container like a heathen, fitting a large scoop fully into his mouth.
        “I’m slightly concerned about his addiction to the coffee one—I did offer to trade him the other half of my strawberries and cream—but he was having none of it. But then, if he starts bouncing off of walls, he’s the one who has to fix them,” Xander confides in a stage whisper.
        “Where’s mine?” she asks, picking up one of the papers—whoops that’s upside-down.
        With a sly grin, Xander reaches out, hand disappearing into the shadow (show-off, but then, maybe he’s trying to impress his dad) and brings back a tub of Cookies & Cream, cold spoon sitting on top—he’d just gotten that from the freezer. “I figured that might save me a stabbing or two.”
        “Depends on how homicidal this makes me,” she shrugs, noncommittal.
        “The Celtic berserkers would’ve loved this,” Syuvai agrees, picking up a piece of wood and tilting his head almost completely sideways, then glancing back at the sheet of paper in his hand.