"Tenpou? Oi, you in here?" Kenren could feel the grime from the military manœuvers gritting in every crack of his body. He hated bathing out of helmets, never got decently clean. He scrubbed every square inch until his skin was as red as his hair. Anxious as he was to see the Marshal, he gave in to the luxury of a soak.
"No, no, no. That can't possibly be what he was thinking. He should have known that the scent of horse blood would be enough to drive the elephants insane, making them go rogue. It's not as if he had no access to horses, after all."
The cigarette ash fell far short of its destined target, with no notice of its owner. Long, tapering fingers furiously turned text pages, comparing them to one another. Pulling out a codex with illustrations, an ink and nicotine stained digit traced pictures along, following a fairly obscure language of Down Below.
"This account has to be faulty." He emptied the last of the large jugs from yesterday. "This is the best tea the Emperor has ever served."
General Kenren shook the road out of his black, leather duster, it reminded him of Tenpou. Lighting himself a smoke, he decided to see if Tenpou were at home or one of his other haunts.
Making his way to the slightly neglected building, he could tell immediately that the long, dark haired man was not there.
Nothing stirred there, dust was still thick on the door-sill, it had been a long while. His next place was the library, then Konzen's, then the bar, then his office, providing he himself could remember how to get there.
He'd only been there once, which was probably only one less time than Tenpou himself had been there. He patted the duster's pocket to be sure his gift was still there. Once satisfied, he ambled easily off toward the central building, housing the library.
A tentative knock sounded at the solid oak doors. "Field Marshal Tenpou? Sir? Are you there, Sir? We have your 'tea' Sir, from the Emperor..." Several minutes of silence followed. The sound of slipped feet on stone approached the door. The bolt was drawn back and the rumpled Marshal permitted entrance.
"Eh, what's that? Tea? Wonderful, please, come in." He smiled broadly.
Ten pages in livery, each carrying an earthen-ware jar half his height, were ushered in, being directed where to unload their burdens.
Arranging the new soldiers with the others that littered the book filled floor, Tenpou was pleased with himself. He had finally found a fool-proof method of marking time. Taking one of the jars with him he settled down on the floor behind the desk, drawing his knees to his chest.
He balanced the book on his knees where he could comfortably read it, on one side he had the now opened jar, nearly shoulder high since he made the floor his seat of choice with a small sake bowl. On the other side were his cigarettes, lighter and ashtray, still full of butts and ash. He dipped the jade sake bowl into the jar, filling it.
Draining it on the first drink, he smiled in appreciation. Exquisite. Without even looking, he shook out a brown papered stick, which he lit and inhaled deeply from. He filled the bowl again, exhaled through his nose slowly and began caressing the pages of the book with his eyes.
Kenren was sent out on patrol yesterday and would be gone for at least a week. He sighed. Sad to say, he truly did miss his unruly General. Walks in the garden, avoiding official duties together, stealing kisses and touches. He forced his attention back to the leaves in front of him. A new approach to war. Fascinating.
Kenren passed the ten pages on the way in. Huh, must be looking for Tenpou as well. Must be something terribly important, as they rarely sent out entire search parties for him until he had destroyed something or been missing for a week.
For a moment, his stomach dropped, what if something had happed to Tenpou, surely they would have told him when he reported back, right...? He pull a swig from the ever-present bottle of rice wine (non-regulation™).
Laughing, he waved his hand, shaking his head, what could Tenpou do in this short of period time? He thought of the number of destroyed items and quickly thought of something else... anything else.
Arriving at the impressive, thick doors of ornamented oak, he first tried to determine if they were locked... a library for public use, locked... now there was an oxymoron.
"Oi, Tenpou, you here?" He pushed, and met with resistance, but not a locking mechanism. Probably more books. This place had to be cleaned on a weekly basis, else Tenpou would take all the books off the shelves and arrange them in neat stacks where only he could find things.
The resistance hadn't been books, they were huge sake jars. Dozens of them. "Ten-chan?" Perhaps if he had been drinking, he had passed out. "You drunk, or you honestly passed out, Ten-chan?"
"SLURP." A wisp of smoke rose from behind the book encrusted desk.
"Oi, you just ignoring me or are you making it a point to not share whatever you're drinking with your pal?" He threaded his way through the standing earthen-war soldiers to the desk.
Making a calculated sortie, he chose which side would be best to approach the engrossed Marshal. "Ten-chan, are you going to continue hiding away in your book, or are you going to talk to me?"
Bending down on his knees, he took the book that so occupied the attention of Gensui Tenpou. The Field Marshal's head snapped up in alarm and surprise.
"Kenren, did they cancel your manœuvers?"
The red-head smiled wistfully. Leave him to loose all track of time. "How long do you think I've been gone? And what's with all the sake jars?"
"Eh? I ordered ten tea jars to be delivered every day you were gone, so I could keep track. Oh, pardon my rudeness."
Tenpou opened a drawer and brought forth a mate to the bowl he was drinking from. Filling it he handed it to Kenren, who drank from it gratefully.
"Mmm. Damn good shit."
"I thought my tastes in tea had improved."
"Ten-chan, that's not tea. It's rice wine. And from its taste, from the Gods' own table."
"Aa, that would explain a few things." Tenpou blinked in playful surprise.
"Yeah. I would think." Brilliant in all but the most obvious things. Or was this one of Tenpou's little games?
Kenren did a count of the empty containers. "Ten-chan, if you got ten for every day I was gone and there are sixty of them, how many days have I been gone?"
Aa, that's simple. Then of course the answer is six. Have you really been gone that long?"
"Yeah, and I even brought you back a little souvenir from the Mortal world. I thought it would amuse you." From his pocket, he removed a small, crystal globe showing a mountain cottage scene, which, when shaken was assaulted in a flurry of white shavings.
Immediately Tenpou's eyes riveted upon the mathom. "Oh, this is clever. What do they use as... Oh, I see... " His face was taught with the glee of a child.
"Something worthy of your curiosity?"
"I am interested in everything, Kenren. This is a wonderful little diversionary item. I am pleased that you thought enough of me to spend what little time you had on leave there to get it."
He continued to shake it, watching as the blizzard settled time after time. Soon, he got out his watch and was busily timing the length of each settling.
Kenren kissed the nape of Tenpou's neck. "It would be a shame if all this sake went to waste, so, tell you what. You grab one of those jars, I'll grab one, we go home, have a little party of our own and I'll show you exactly how long I've been gone."
Tenpou's eyes dilated in a flush of emotion as Kenren leaned forward gently, kissing him.
"I believe that to be a most excellent suggestion, General. I will take you up on that offer."
Grabbing a jug each, the left the building, arms around one another's shoulders, loudly singing a bawdy drinking song.