AN: Um. Hi... Ehehe -sheepish smile- I'll just... not talk.

PLEASE READ: Just something you guys might need to know before reading this story:

Let's all pretend that in this universe, it's perfectly normal for guys to love each other, and for them to have nice little kids together. Sorry. Oh, and I messed up the nobility titles a bit. So, it's like English nobility in Japan, sort of. Again, sorry.

A Scandal in Tokyo

Prologue

Sanada Genichirou had always had a bad sense of timing.

He came out two weeks too early, for example, and his mother had been in painful labour while she had been riding in the carriage moving full throttle towards their ancestral home. When he first learned kendo, he'd always blocked too late, causing bruising in his shins and his arms where his sparring partner got to him. Whenever he decided that he wanted to sit down and have a serious talk with his parents, who were not very young but still very much in love, about a lot of important things like going off for college and travelling to Europe, he'd do so in moments that he would walk in on them doing things that are not usually done in polite society, or really in front of anybody but one's lover, and are most emphatically not done in front of one's own children who would rather believe outrageous stories about storks rather than imagine their esteemed parents in such compromising positions as those that Sanada always had the misfortune to walk in on.

Yes, Sanada Genichirou had a bad sense of timing.

Although the mothers of every unmarried young lady (or young man) of the season would disagree. They'd rather say (gush) that Sanada Genichirou was a viscount, amongst many other things, heir to an earldom, was wealthy and handsome beyond belief.

Oh, and he was the catch of the season.

And, he had just came from his travels from Europe (Europe!).

And, he was the cousin of the equally-wealthy, equally-handsome, equally-well-connected Duke of Tezuka.

But those mothers of the ton deserve a different story altogether, and so we return to Sanada Genichirou and his woefully bad sense of timing.

So of course, when he decided to fall in love, it was not unexpected that he did it when the apple of his eye was getting married.

To his own cousin.

Don't get Sanada wrong; he favored his cousin. Sanada, like his cousin, was an only child, and they had spent their years growing up together, talking (or grunting, or telephatically talking to each other... really, they just usually stood side-by-side) about completely sensible things like college and travels, and plans to be absent or go away conveniently at the start of the season, when all the Matchmaking Mothers and Batting-Eyelash-Young-Ladies or Young-Men-With-Unfair-Femininity would come out and start to resemble hunting wolf packs.

But, again, they are a different story altogether.

Yes, Sanada liked his cousin, so when Tezuka Kunimitsu, the Duke of Tezuka had sent him the invitation to his wedding (his wedding, how did that happen, when Tezuka liked to be conveniently absent during Tokyo's Mating Season like Sanada, how was he getting married already?), Sanada felt dutifully happy for Tezuka before he started feeling betrayed.

Kunimitsu was only twenty (and so was Sanada). That was a little bit young to start thinking about getting married, what happened to all their grand plans?

Kunimitsu could never travel far enough now, he would have a family to take care of, and surely, his wife wouldn't appreciate his long-term shogi competition with Sanada (as no lady ever did).

And more importantly, who would Sanada have to hide with now, when all the wolflike mothers of the ton come out and force young ladies (or young men) to his side?

And, perhaps, most importantly, his mother would be using this against him!

Because, like all mothers, Sanada's dear okaa-sama wished to see her son happily married off so much so that whenever he returned from his travels, there would be a compilation of eligible young ladies (or young men) waiting on his bed (complete with pictures, like a zoology textbook). Kunimitsu often received such similar compilations, and he and Sanada had long since dubbed it, The Lineup.

Inspiration for the name had been retrieved from The Lineup of Criminals, but they do not mention this to anyone.

Of course, when Kunimitsu had yet to turn over to the dark side, it had been easier, because at least then, Sanada could, very reasonably, point out that his mother's sister's own child was also, conveniently, completely unattached.

Now, the pestering would get a thousand time worse. Sanada could almost see it in his head. ("See, Kunimitsu's done it. You can, too!" Sanada fails to see the logic of this argument, because once upon a time Sanada had learned to dance the tango and Kunimitsu... had not. Just because they were cousins did not mean that they would be equally skilled in love-maki... finding a bride, ehem. Or dancing, as it turns out for Kunimitsu.)

But Sanada was nothing but a good and dutiful cousin, and good and dutiful cousins did not whine, or try to convince their cousins out of what seemed to be a suitable match, or go running to the church, putting on a mask and kidnapping his cousin's bride until he found a suitable match of his own just because he has been so wrongfully betrayed by said other cousin.

Sanada could certainly think it, he could dream of it, he might even make detailed escaped routes for when he fled the scene with his cousin's bride, but he couldn't do it.

Because he was a good and dutiful cousin.

So, Sanada cleared his schedule, notified his secretary, his butler and his housekeeper, and made sure that a carriage was ready during the all-important wedding day.

And during the all-important wedding day (also, rather infamously, known as the day Kunimitsu gets sucked by the dark hole of betrayal), Sanada sucked it up, actually took off his all-important hat (that had long since been proven to protect him from Matchmaking Mothers) and fixed his hair, and learned, from his chirpy mother that Tezuka's bride wasn't a she but a he.

It was a bit surprising considering, well, it was Kunimitsu, but his mother says, with all the radiance of the excitement of a wedding, and fresh from her "See, Kunimitsu's done it!" talk with Sanada, that Kunimitsu's bride, a certain Earl Fuji Syusuke (who was joining the Tezuka family records, and reliquishing his title, and his claim to the Fuji Marquessate, to his younger brother), was often mistaken for a woman because of how he looked.

So, Sanada supposed, that must be why.

And then, Sanada's whole world stopped turning, or at least, that was how it felt, because the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life had stepped into view. She had pretty, glittering blue eyes, complete with the lush long lashes, high cheekbones, a rosebud mouth and honey hair, curled daintily at the tips. There were flowers in her hair, blue ones, that match her eyes completely, and she was fingering them with slim, elegant fingers as she laughed at something or another, her eyes twinkling joyously.

And that was when he noticed the veil in her hair.

And the white, white, dress with its long, long train and... good merciful god, this was Kunimitsu's bride.

The she that was actually a he that was the Earl Fuji Syusuke, who, in a few hours was not going to be an earl any longer, but a duchess.

And not just a duchess, but the Duchess of Tezuka. And he was becoming the Duchess of Tezuka because he was marrying Kunimitsu, the Duke of Tezuka.

Kunimitsu, the Duke of Tezuka, who happened to be Sanada's cousin.

This Earl Fuji Syusuke was marrying Sanada's cousin.

And Sanada had just fallen in love with him.

It was strange, how Sanada had just had the most amazing epiphany any man of his intelligence could have gotten, and yet no volcanoes erupted, no earthquakes or typhoons or meteors had acted up to stop this suddenly god-forsaken wedding.

His mother, in all her matrimonial glory (really, it was almost like she brought the Earl Fuji and Kunimitsu into the engagement herself), peaked up and started waving the radiant bride over, completely oblivious to Sanada's sudden end-of-the-world revelations.

As Earl Fuji glided towards them, Sanada noted that he was graceful, too, even after he was forced to put on what seemed to be a two-hundred-pound white gown (now dubbed: monstrosity, Sanada's bitter mind helpfully added). His mother hugged him, they were so familial now, how the hell had Sanada missed all this? (Oh right, he was too busy trying to avoid The Lineup and everything else that came along with it.)

"Syusuke, I thought you said there was no way you would ever wear a wedding gown today!" his mother exclaimed.

The earl gave a small, tight smile. "Ah, yes, well, Yumiko convinced me otherwise."

Earl Fuji's form was lithe and slender, and he really did look like he should have belonged in the fairer gender. He had a soft voice, that was really nice to listen to, and a tinkling laugh, like bells, only better. And he looked like he was-

"Genichirou." His mother stepped, ever so subtly, on his foot, her smile ever so poisonously sweet. He shot her a glare, keeping the shooting bits of pain to himself before turning back to Earl Fuji, and his proffered hand that had obviously been in the air for far longer than Sanada had noticed it.

"He's not mute, Syusuke, don't worry," his mother's tone was steel on steel. "And he's usually more responsive."

Sanada shot his mother another glare, but his mother only glared at him in return, levelling him with a Don't-You-Dare-Embarrass-Me-Or-Else look. She obviously seemed to like Fuji, more than, Sanada daresay, she liked her own son, and she would probably not be beyond disowning him if he did something so apparently wrong in Fuji's eyes.

Sanada bent and kissed the knuckles of the gloved hand lightly, "Earl Fuji," he murmured.

The earl smiled, brighter this time, and more genuine. "Viscount Sanada," he replied, a blush spreading on his cheeks. Clearly, he was not used to having his hand kissed. The part of Sanada's mind that Sanada liked to pretend did not exist, high-fived itself in his head. "I've heard so many things about you," Earl Fuji added, glancing at Sanada's mother.

"Don't believe any of it," he said, firmly.

"Not even the ones of your flour-bombing days?" Earl Fuji asked, obviously amused. "I thought that was pretty brilliant myself."

"It was brilliant," Sanada told him, completely straightfaced and serious, and felt even better with himself when Fuji burst out in laughter.

Sanada thought he could live like this, just watching Fuji and listening to his laugh, and making him laugh, because he had such a very nice smile and laughing voice.

But that was before he, once again, remembered reality.

A lady, from the fair end of the chapel, called to Fuji, a lady that did not look like him precisely, but was almost there. That must have been the matron of honor, the Lady Yumiko, who had married a Marquess all the way from Kyoto. Fuji excused himself, and his mother turned to him, raised an eyebrow and said, "Well?"

I'm in love with Kunimitsu's soon-to-be-wife.

Sanada sighed. "Please don't tell me that you told him I used to run around in only my undergarments until I was five."

Sanada's mother only smiled.

And so, Sanada endured the wedding, and the grand celebration that came after; Kunimitsu and his now wife looked very much in love with each other, and Fuji, now a Tezuka, has somehow managed the impossible feat of putting a permanent smile in Kunimitsu's face, if only for the wife that Kunimitsu so obviously adored. He had a talk with (stood around side-by-side with) Kunimitsu and danced with the bride not once, but twice, but was completely formal and completely the dutiful-and-good-cousin.

He had contempated going on with his kidnapping plans, but he restrained. Even as Tezuka Syusuke laughed and smiled, and twirled in his arms, Sanada restrained.

After all, this was Kunimitsu's wife. He might have to remind himself that frequently (every time Fuji deigned to smile at him, actually), but it wasn't something he'd be likely forget on a permanent basis.

Sanada was no stranger to reminders, after all, he'd lived by them ever since his mother had drilled them into his head when he had been young and his mother was not much obsessed about finding him a wife (yet). He was a perfect gentleman, because he lived by those reminders everyday.

There were rules that governed and dictated what a perfect gentleman should be, and Sanada had the perfect example: A Perfect Gentleman Shalt Not Lust After His Cousin's Wife.

It was the most important reminder of them all.

But when Sanada had taken Kunimitsu aside one last time before the happy couple went on to their honeymoon, and he said, "You are lucky," he meant everything it meant and more.

Because he could have said I am in love with your wife.

But he didn't.

That was a secret Sanada had to keep all on his own.

Yukimura Seiichi was illegitimate.

Of course, Yukimura Seiichi might want to say he was something else (anything else), like how he was great at numbers, how he had a passable enough face that might even be beautiful in some circles, how he was a devoted son to his mother, and how he could cook, clean, wash, and at some periods, nurse a person back to health.

Oh, and he made for a great footman, or butler, but more the former, because everyone had ancient butlers with white hair and bent backs, and he was simply far too young to contemplate dyeing his hair white.

But society, as it often turns out to be, was cruel, and often more interested in your defects than your strengths, and because Yukimura Seiichi was great at numbers, had a passable-sometimes-beautiful face, was a devoted son and a great footman who could cook, clean, wash and at some periods, nurse a person back to health, the best defect society could taunt him for was the fact that he was illegitimate.

Once upon a time, it didn't matter, because once upon a time, Yukimura Seiichi's father was still alive. He didn't marry Yukimura's mother; he couldn't because he was a duke and she was the upstairs maid, but they lived in the manor house in the country and his father loved his mother and they were happy.

Yukimura hadn't even known that he was illegitimate. He called the duke, 'Father,' and his mother, 'Mama' and everybody else called his parents 'Your Grace' as if they really married, and Yukimura's mother was really the duchess.

But Yukimura's mother wasn't the duchess. And when his father died in a carriage accident when Yukimura was about five, the dukedom was passed on to a distant relative, and they were forced out of the only home Yukimura had ever known, branded as the mistress and the bastard.

And so began the rest of the hell that was Yukimura Seiichi's life.

Yukimura's mother worked as a maid once again, and Yukimura worked, too, as anything a young boy could be hired for by his mother's employers. He was charming, and he had his father's coloring, and his father's hair and eyes, and he looked very regal indeed, so much so that his mother's employers adored him and sometimes showered him with small delights, as much as they were able to for a boy of his station. Their children weren't particularly pleased by Yukimura's presence, however, and Yukimura used to spend all night trying to plan how to get from Point A to Point B with the least amount of injury. He never told his mother, she had enough to worry about all on her own.

It was okay, for a while, though Yukimura's mother still cried. Sometimes, she took Yukimura's hand and told him stories about the man she loved who did not love her enough to marry her.

She would tell him in a sad, sad voice that even though he had inherited the shape of her face, and her form, he had his father's eyes and hair, and sometimes, when she looked at him, she could see his father all over again.

She would say, "You are beautiful, because you are your father's son."

She would say, "Oh, you can't imagine how happy he had been to have a son."

Note: son, not heir. Because his father hadn't been happy enough that he could damn society and marry his mother.

Yukimura hated it. But he let it be, because it made her happy.

And then, in one of the childish pranks of the children of the house that Yukimura had grown so used to, Yukimura broke his leg. His mother left her employers' house with him on tow, and she worked all day and all night long as an assistant to a seamstress just so she could have Yukimura's broken leg looked at. By then, it had started healing wrong, and his bones had to be rebroken all over again.

Yukimura did not cry, his mother was crying enough for the both of them. She kept saying 'sorry, sorry' even after the whole ordeal was done, promising Yukimura that she'd work even harder and they would get back to the life they once had. Yukimura let her lie, because it made her feel better. He told her he was sure she would find a better job, and Yukimura would help her, too.

She did not find any better job.

And when Yukimura turned fifteen, she died. Yukimura didn't even have enough money to bury her properly.

Scratch that, Yukimura did not have money.

Period.

But that was before an eccentric lady caught sight of him in the streets. She was looking for someone to attend to their parlor, she said, and people who look after the parlor (usually parlor maids) were hired not because they were terribly bright or terribly recommended, but because they were terribly, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

And Yukimura, with his mother's face, his father's coloring, and his high-society bearing, was terribly, heart-wrenchingly beautiful. He would be the talk of the town, she said. And when he was, she continued, he would be hers.

And he had been the talk of the town, he was too beautiful. He had also been the talk of the household, and, probably more importantly, the talk of his employer's eldest son.

He courted Yukimura, like a proper gentleman would, to a proper lady, and gave him gifts and wrote him poetry (Yukimura's father hadn't ever done that to his mother, Yukimura remembered). He had gentlemanly manners, and a heavenly face, with a slow wicked smile that could make Yukimura forget how to breath.

Yukimura had all of one kiss before he realized he was living his mother's life. Because his employer's eldest son could pretend to love him all he wanted, but he would never marry a bastard. And then, before long, Yukimura would be a mistress, and then he'd have children who would be bastards too, just like he had been, just like he still was. And then, his employer's eldest son would marry someone who was deemed suitable and proper by society, and Yukimura would be booted out of the house, and so would his children, and he would be condemning those children to hell, just because he couldn't control his hormones.

No.

Yukimura Seiichi might be a bastard, and might never ever be proper for polite society, but he would not live his mother's life.

He resigned, got references and left without saying goodbye to the first boy he had loved like that.

Now, he worked for a family in the country. They had no title, but they had come into a fortune, and that had been enough for them to go about in society, pretending they were more than they really were.

They also had a son, who was smitten with Yukimura, but luckily this time, Yukimura didn't love him. Unluckily, he had to start plotting ways to get from Point A to Point B once again, so he could avoid being molested by said son.

Sometimes, Yukimura would take out a gold locket, his mother's only remnant of the old days, and he would try to remember how it used to be, but most times, he couldn't really grasp it anymore.

And then he would think.

He didn't know what it would have been, if his father had really married his mother.

She would have been the duchess, then, and he would have been a marquess, and the heir to his father's dukedom. The title would not have been passed on to a distant relative, but to him, and he would have been a duke. They could have continued living in the manor house in the country, and Yukimura could have grown up in polite society, even if they would consider him a bit shabby because his mother was a nobody.

But he would still have been the duke. He would still have been respectable.

And maybe someday, he could have found a girl, courted her and married her. He wouldn't have a mistress, he would have a wife and kids, and his eldest would be a boy, and he'd teach that boy to be proper and good, especially to ladies because.

His mother would have had a better life, and maybe, she might not have died so early.

But his father didn't marry his mother, and she was nothing more than his mistress, and Yukimura was nothing more than his bastard.

Yukimura Seiichi wasn't respectable, he was illegitimate.

There wasn't a day in his life since his father died that he hadn't been reminded of that fact.

So that was that. I really don't know what to say for myself, I know I have two other stories, but I can't seem to help it. But... um, well, if you guys have time, drop by and tell me what you think?

/silverglitters