A Marriage of Convenience
Chapter 1
Hiro had always been a dutiful son so when his parents had told him that they had arranged a marriage for him, he hesitated only briefly before fully accepting his filial duties. Having never met his future partner, he was eager and more than nervous to hear about his betrothed.
It came as a great shock that his future mate was the heir of a Buddhist temple and devoted most of their time to temple duties. It absolutely floored his that his would-be spouse was male.
"A marriage of convenience" his father explained.
"More of a peace offering" his mother tried. "Not so much a marriage but a unity of families"
Hiro was not happy
When the day came when his parents told him he was to meet his future husband, Hiro had adamantly refused, offering instead to marry a young girl from a different monk family instead of the man his parents had picked.
"Already engaged"
Hiro frowned.
"But I'm not gay" Hiro tried to explain to deaf ears, conveniently forgetting the slight crush he had on his male best friend just months prior.
"It'll grow on you" his parents claimed.
Hiro wanted to hit his head against a wall. "I don't think it will"
"You won't know until you try, dear" his mother said happily.
So he was taken to see his fiancé. Again, Hiro was surprised by his betrothed when he laid eyes on him.
"He's kinda... young"
"He's 16 right now"
Hiro was confused. "Isn't that illegal, mother?"
"Why yes, dear" his mother assured.
Hope gleamed in Hiro's eyes.
"Don't worry, the wedding won't occur until he is of age. What do you take us for? Deviants?" his mother giggled. "Anyway, it'll give you time to get to know one another. We'll be staying at the temple for this purpose."
The hope instantly disappeared.
"Isn't it too much of an inconvenience…" Hiro tried.
"Nonsense, it was his father's idea. No problem at all."
Crap.
Hiro gave a tired sigh; this wasn't one of his better days. Not only was he now officially engaged to an underaged boy, he had to spend a minimum of 2 weeks in said boy's company, alone. His parents had decided to take the elder monk to the Kyoto hotsprings for the remainder of their stay to let "the boys have some alone time together" as his mother had put it.
Not only had Hiro been completely frustrated at his parents' manipulative plan but he had yet to even speak a word to his fiancé. He had seen glimpses of the handsome young man – and yes, Hiro had to admit to himself (and only himself) that his affianced was quite handsome – throughout the day but had yet to gather up the courage to go talk to him.
"You can look, you know" his young betrothed muttered with his back towards Hiro. The dark haired beauty was dutifully sweeping up the pristine garden.
Hiro gave a start at the sudden, melodic voice. Clearing his throat, he squeaked out a soft "sorry?"
His future husband turned around, gazing impossibly dark, hypnotizing eyes upon Hiro. "I said, you can look" he gave a small smirk, leaning casually against the broom "I know, it's a great view."
Hiro didn't like him already. Impossibly smug and arrogant was not his tastes.
"So, honey, we should introduce ourselves. I'm Uesugi Tatsuha."
Being the ever polite man his parents raised him to be, Hiro didn't hesitate to say "I'm Nakano Hiro. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tatsuha." He hated how Tatsuha's name practically rolled off his tongue.
Tatsuha's grin widened at the sound of his name flowing out of Hiro's mouth. "Nakano huh? I think you should take my last name. Uesugi Hiro sounds better don't you think?"
Slightly offended and trying to hide the shudder of Tatsuha saying his name, Hiro could only frown.
Tatsuha gace a soft chuckle, moving closer and sitting next to Hiro. "It was a joke. Lighten up a little, honey."
Hiro shuffled in his seat slightly. He could feel Tatsuha's body heat radiating off the young monk. It felt good and that made him nervous.
After what Hiro took to be uncomfortable silence, he gave a nervous cough. "I'm uh…sorry about all of this."
"About what?" Tatsuha smirked again.
Hiro got the feeling that he was being teased but continued with "the whole…marriage thing. You're probably not happy about this whole thing either."
"I don't know" Tatsuha snaked an arm around Hiro's shoulder "Dad could have done worse."
"You're not upset about any of this? I'm sure you have some girlfriend at school..."
Hiro was very confused.
"A few. But like I said before, Dad could have done worse." Tatsuha gave a wicked grin unbefitting a monk. Grabbing Hiro by the back of the neck, Tatsuha gave him a hard kiss on the lips.
Hiro struggled lightly. Right when he began to relax into the kiss, Tatsuha abruptly let go.
"Ah, almost time for dinner. I should go check on that. We're going to have fun together... honey." Tatsuha grinned once more before swooping down for a quick peck.
For what felt like the hundredth time since he heard of his engagement, Hiro was absolutely floored.
"What did I just get into?"
A/N: Alright. It's been a really long time since I've written anything so please bare with me. There are probably a bunch of grammatical and verbal tense errors but I just threw this together as quickly as I could. I can't make any promises that I'm going to continue this story but I like it so far so it may just happen. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Constructive criticism and comments always welcome.
