A series of one-shots about Idate and Tatsumiya.
Content may range from romance to something more unsettling, but nothing should go beyond a T rating.
This story will always remain in a "Complete" status, even though I may or may not add more chapters, due to the fact that I'm not going to ever promise any sort of continuation. This could be the first of many Tatsumiya-Idate one-shots, or it could be the last.
"Guess your hubby kicked it? ... I see, I see. Suppose that he did die, then."
1
A knock, a haughty grin. They would talk a little, go back and forth with some banter, and then leave for a stroll through the sea.
That's how things normally went when Tatsumiya would find Idate at her door in the middle of the night with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Of course, there would normally be a few palace guards following closely behind him, just to make sure that such a suspicious person would go nowhere near Princess Uomi's chambers, but they stayed silent and left as soon as Tatsumiya was in sight. She was, after all, a court official, and if she wanted to take a stroll at night with one of the shadiest strangers in the entire kingdom in her spare time, then who were they to argue?
Of course, the orca's visits were irregular, never planned, and Tatsumiya had no way of knowing when he would show up next for a nightly stroll. Because of this, he oftentimes caught her at inconvenient times, whether it be when she was about to head out for council with the Princess or when she was already dressed for bed.
Still, it normally ended with her inviting him inside her home for a few moments so that he wouldn't have to stand outside her door while she grabbed her shoes, and then a quick get-away into the dark night waters. That's how it always panned out. Just a walk, maybe a kiss or two, and then his leaving her at the foot of the castle. She knew he was too dangerous of a person to ever try anything more.
Or... That's what she had thought, before she had invited him in for tea.
He'd caught her with a kettle on the stove, and she wasn't going to just leave it there, but at the same time, she hadn't wanted to be rude and shoo him away. So, he let him into her home for what must have been the millionth time since they had begun their unscheduled rendezvouses three months ago.
And, somehow, the night had ended with her, lying naked in bed, and Idate, equally unclothed, hanging one arm around her shoulders and using other to hold a cigarette to his mouth.
Tatsumiya rested with the top of her head touching his chin. Tiredly, she watched a trail of smoke snake its way up to her ceiling. The room was going to reek for weeks, but she was too exhausted to ask him to stop. Instead, she adjusted herself into a more comfortable position and found Idate's tie lying on the bed, next to her thigh. She distinctly remembered how she had nearly strangled the man next to her trying to get it off of him, and how he'd been rather cross with her before she gave him another kiss.
Lazily, she tossed the offending object off the bed and heard Idate snort in a form of almost-laughter. Tatsumiya smiled lightly.
She worried, though, not of the consequences of her actions (though she would certainly worry about that later), but at how well she had done, and if she had done well in the orca's eyes. Idate had obviously been very skilled at this sort of activity, and it made Tatsumiya nervous to think of where he would place her in ability. She feared that he may not have enjoyed their night, and that this was why he was smoking his cigarette so quietly. He'd been talking quite a bit just before their adventures in the bed sheets, after all.
Embarrassed, Tatsumiya buried her face into Idate's neck and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, if I didn't perform too well," she muttered quietly. "I haven't done anything like this since..." She hesitated, and then decided to forget it. "Well, not in a very long time."
The hand Idate wasn't using to hold his cigarette squeezed her arm, and then began rubbing at her skin with a its thumb. "You did beautifully, Sunshine."
He called her lots of things. Sunshine, Golden Eyes, Princess, Oarfish... Idate had so many nicknames for her that he almost never just called her "Tatsumiya." This made her almost as nervous as his quietness.
He continued to say nothing, and she kept just as silent, with her head in the crook of his neck and her face against his shoulder. She could feel it any time he inhaled or exhaled, sending more smoke billowing into the room. With each minute that passed, Tatsumiya could feel her heart sinking a little deeper inside of her chest.
After nearly five minutes of silence, Idate's thumb stopped stroking Tatsumiya's arm, and she thought for a moment that he may have fallen asleep. But then he was moving, putting his cigarette out and placing it on the end table next to the bed. Tatsumiya noted that she probably should have gotten an ash tray some time ago, even if only for the five minutes that Idate was normally in her home. It made her wonder if she would ever see the orca again after this. Something about this meeting seemed final, somehow, and it made her feel sad to think that she would never find him in her doorway again, grinning like a cat.
And then Idate's arm was fumbling about, trying to locate the pack that he had put there nearly an hour ago, only to give up. Instead, he sat up, pushing Tatsumiya off of him. She looked over at him nervously. "Are you-"
She silenced when Idate crawled on top of her, a hand on either side of her head, and began kissing her neck. Almost instantly, Tatsumiya melted into his touch and tangled her fingers into his hair.
He was tired; she could tell because his kisses weren't as heated as they had been earlier. He was simply kissing her because he wanted to, not because he wanted anything more.
"So, Oarfish," Idate took pauses between his kisses to speak. "What were you saying earlier? You haven't done anything like this since when...?"
He wasn't digging for information, she knew, but just wanted to say something. Even so, Tatsumiya became stiff at the question. "Well... Not since my husband-" She cut her words short as she felt Idate's sharp teeth nibble at her skin. She let out a small gasp, and she could feel his smile against her throat. After the small interruption, though, she'd lost her confidence and merely let her sentence drift off vaguely.
"Husband?" Idate lifted his head from her neck and looked at the woman skeptically, an eyebrow raised. "Huh, didn't take you to be that type of person."
He apparently didn't care whether she was married or not, though, as he went back to kissing her, this time moving down to her collar bone.
"I..." Tatsumiya briefly lost her voice and instead pushed the man away from her, face and body inexplicably burning with shame. "I-I'm not... I'm not a cheater. I can't... I mean, he's..." Tears pricked at her eyes. Idate looked very much like he had no idea what to do, as he merely scratched at the back of his head. "My husband, he's dead. He died, at the end of the great war a hundred years ago. And just before Lord Meikai..."
Tatsumiya covered her mouth with her hands as a loud sob escaped her throat. Idate, not knowing what else to do, leaned down on the bed, dragging Tatsumiya down with him so her head rested on his chest.
"We fought a lot before it happened, too," She blubbered out, wrapping her arms as tightly around the man as she could. "It was because he thought I... No, he knew how I felt about Lord Meikai. And I think that's what made it worse for me, even after all this time. The fighting, how we never made up. His last thoughts were probably about how he thought his wife was off, swooning over another man."
She sniffled and shook her head as Idate began to stroke her hair. "I don't even know why I'm telling you all this. It's not like you actually care."
For a few moments, the room was silent. Tatsumiya was about to get up and kick Idate out of her home when the orca let out a short chuckle.
"Dealing with all this shit, and you still manage to be such a charming, classy lady... That's precisely what I like about you, Tatsu-Chan."
Tatsu-Chan. She'd never heard that one before. And, somehow, it only made Tatsumiya cry harder than before.
Idate simply ignored the sobbing and continued stroking her hair. "You're pretty smart, for a fish, and plenty strong, too." If she wasn't so choked-up from her sobbing, Tatsumiya would have scoffed at such an insulting compliment. "That strong will of yours is probably the most attractive thing about you, and I'd love to see more of it."
She continued to cry silently, just letting him continue with his speaking and stroking.
"But you know, I've been away from home for four months now, and I think it's time I bring my little vacation to an end and head back up north. I was planning on just leaving in the morning and not saying anything, but would you like to come with me?"
Honestly, Tatsumiya had no idea what had drawn her to Idate so much in the first place. He was arrogant, had a violent personality, smoked too much, and if he ever cared, he had some funny ways of showing it. Essentially, he was the opposite of the type of man she was normally attracted to, like her worry-wart of a husband, or the humble Lord Meikai.
She could make up a thousand excuses not to leave and travel north with him. She hated the cold. She had important business to attend to with the princess. She needed to stay with Wadanohara, as moral support for the girl while she await Samekichi's return. She wasn't fond of the idea of being led into possible traps by orcas...
But none of these seemed right. She didn't like the cold, but she didn't dislike it, either. There were others that Princess Uomi could rely on in times of need, like Pulmo and Helica. Even Wadanohara, with the help of her familiars, seemed to be slowly recovering from the shock of her love leaving in an attempt to save them all.
It could still be a trap, though.
She knew Idate was dangerous. His sharp teeth were obviously used for more than playfully nipping at a lover's skin, and orcas weren't exactly known for being kind to their food. And whenever she saw him walking about in the kingdom, he often looked like he was trying to pick a fight. And if she were being completely honest, all she knew about Idate was his name.
Even so, Tatsumiya couldn't help herself from nodding vigorously at the proposal, fighting back any more tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. "Yes!" She cried out, pulling back from his chest and locking eyes with him. "Yes! Of course I'll come with you!"
Idate grinned, pointed teeth glinting from a light on in the hall. "C'mere, Golden Eyes." He pulled Tatsumiya forward, wrapping her in a tight embrace that nearly suffocated her but felt good, nonetheless. When she wrapped her arms around him in return, Idate briefly pressed his lips against hers, and then led a trail of kisses down from her jawline to her collar bone.
Still wiping at her tears, she looked at him in mild amusement. "What is it with you and kissing my neck?" That was how he started the entire process of getting her into bed in the first place: surprising her by coating her throat in kisses while she had been reaching for tea cups from her cupboard.
The man shrugged and smiled impishly. "I guess you could call it a fetish."
Tatsumiya rolled her eyes and pushed him off of her as he softly bit the side of her neck. Idate, now without Tatsumiya in his direct line of vision, managed to spot his pack of cigarettes, which had fallen sometime during their escapade from the end table to their pile of clothes lying on the ground. Ignoring Tatsumiya's protests, he still reached for them.
"Oh, please no. The room already smells enough as it is. I'll never get the stench of that smoke out."
"You're leaving with me tomorrow, though, right? Why's it even matter?"
"Oh, come on, now- seriously, Idate."
She groaned as he still lit the cigarette and laid down on top of the pillows, anyway, again pulling her on top of him with an arm around her shoulder. Gleefully, Idate let out a puff of smoke, which Tatsumiya watched float up to the ceiling with disdain.
"I just got one question for you, Princess."
"Hm?"
"You're husband, and that other guy... I'm not anything like them, am I?"
Tatsumiya almost burst out laughing. "Oh, no, no. I actually don't think you could be any more different from them."
Idate sighed in relief. "Good. 'Cause I was just thinking that it would be really weird if you were using me as some sort of substitute for them."
"Trust me, if I wanted a substitute, I would have had plenty of better choices."
"But none of them quite as attractive, right?"
"Don't get too full of yourself. Arrogance is a great weakness in even the strongest of men."
"Yes, but it's not arrogance if it's the truth, correct? I'm just stating facts."
"Your vanity truly is deplorable. I'm starting to think that I should fall for men of better character in the future."
"Oh? What was that, Oarfish? Did I just hear a confession? Perhaps a declaration of pure, undying love? I'm touched. I think I may cry."
"I- Well, I meant-"
"Well, no time for chatter, Tatsu-Chan. I'm tired, and I want to leave as soon as possible tomorrow. As much as I love seeing blood flush your pretty little face, we'll have plenty of time to write our vows on the way to Iceberg Isle."
Face still burning a bright red, Tatsumiya nodded silently and closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Idate."
"See you in the morning, Sunshine."