I have no use for rings of gold;
I care not for your poetry.
I only want your hand to hold;
I only want you near me.
(For the Dancing and the Dreaming)
Yamazaki stirs first, of course. He always does. He's rarely up much later than the sun, and by his usual standards, he's overslept. By the time he reluctantly opens his sticky eyes, the day has already broken, sunshine spilling onto their bed. A soft golden glow illuminates their tangle of bare limbs, half hidden beneath a hopelessly twisted futon.
It's just another morning, long after the honeymoon phase, but that's not to say this isn't a special occasion in its own right. Any day he and Chizuru can lie in one another's arms, drifting through dreams together, is a good one… and after the colossal stress of living with the Shinsengumi, the day-to-day difficulties of life as a pair of small-time doctors are nothing short of a blessing in comparison.
Taking a deep breath as shallowly as possible so as not to disturb his wife, Yamazaki glances down to evaluate the situation. Chizuru is holding onto him even more tightly even than usual today; it's going to take significant effort on his part to disentangle himself without rousing her. But he's willing to try his hardest. After all, he kept her up late last night, so she deserves to sleep in at least a little longer…
As soon as he so much as twitches, however, Chizuru's grip tightens still more, the tips of her fingers digging gently into his back. He must be slipping if that's the first inkling he has of her wakefulness. "Stay," she orders, mumbling into her chest. "Just a… little longer." She yawns, and Yamazaki can't help but smile faintly as she squeals in the back of her throat, wrinkling her nose.
Nonetheless, their livelihood takes precedence over their comfort, and there's as much to do as ever, or perhaps even more. "There's work to be done," he protests, halfheartedly trying to push his lazily amorous wife away. Chizuru only clings to him more tightly, giggling faintly, and he gives a resigned sigh. "One more minute," he says, running his hand up and down the length of her smooth back.
"One more hour," says Chizuru petulantly, scooting impossibly closer, her voice muffled against his skin. He can feel her eyelashes flutter faintly against his bare chest, and his breath catches before he forces himself once more to inhale and exhale properly. "Maybe even one more day."
"One more day?" echoes Yamazaki disbelievingly, shaking his head. "What am I going to tell our patients? That my wife refuses to let me out of bed?" His words could easily be reproachful, but he can never muster the will to talk to Chizuru like that. Not since he fell for her, anyway.
She only nods, smiling into his chest. "Work can wait," she says, and she sounds so certain that Yamazaki almost believes her. "And if you won't take it from Chizuru, here's an order from your lady." Her tone becomes more playful as she employs the title she'll never let him forget. "Stay here, my ninja."
Her voice is soft and low, and Yamazaki lets out a long breath half-voluntarily, leaning his forehead against hers. He's never wanted to stay in bed more, but he already put off arranging their vast array of medicines last night in favor of going to bed early and staying up late. One way or another, he has to make up the difference.
"A ninja can vanish at will," murmurs Yamazaki, pressing a quick kiss to Chizuru's head by way of good-morning and good-bye. "And no matter what my lady says, I have a mission to complete." Gently, he pries her fingers away from him and gets to his feet, tugging on some clothes in a hurry. (He'll never get the hang of getting dressed in front of a woman, even if she's his wife—but somehow, the same qualms don't apply to getting undressed.)
Chizuru props herself up on her elbows and throws an exaggeratedly indignant glance in his direction, her messy silken hair falling around her shoulders. Yamazaki doesn't realize he's smiling at her till the spark in her eye kindles into laughter. "See, I make you happier than sorting herbs. And that means there's only one thing to do." She rolls over to sprawl in a luxurious feline stretch. "If you're not going to stay in bed with me, I'm going to get up with you."
"No, you're not," says Yamazaki, beginning the lengthy process of combing out the knots in his ponytail. "Go back to sleep. You had a long night."
"So did you," says Chizuru, raising her eyebrows, and Yamazaki narrowly resists the urge to roll his eyes. He tells himself he hates it when she's right, but really, he doesn't know what he'd do without her. "So why don't we compromise? Go ahead and get up to do whatever it is you think is so important, and then come straight back to bed. Okay?"
Yamazaki makes the mistake of pausing to look her up and down, the comb sliding to a halt in his hair. He'll never understand how such a shy girl could have turned out to be so shameless over the years he's known her. Those bright brown eyes positively beg him to come back to bed, and she hasn't even bothered pulling the futon over half her chest.
Sorting herbs suddenly feels much less important.
Realizing with a jolt that he hasn't moved in who knows how long, Yamazaki hastily resumes his morning ritual, yanking his comb through his hair at double speed as if to make up for lost time, though it is his humble opinion that no amount of time spent in contemplation of his lady's beauty could ever be lost. Either way, Yamazaki can't very well say no after a moment like that, and Chizuru knows it. He just wishes he were a little better at saying yes.
"I'll take that as an agreement," laughs Chizuru teasingly, as if she's reading his mind. "Anyway, I'll make us breakfast whenever we're ready. You're doing more than you have to already, and I want to help however I can."
Yamazaki shakes his head, but know better than to argue. Chizuru has already made breakfast for the last week straight, but she's stubborn enough that she'll probably make every one of their meals for the rest of her life, rain or shine, in sickness and in health, unless he physically restrains her. But then, their good-natured altercations rarely end well for him. Not since Chizuru discovered his ticklishness.
"How do you expect to get anything done like this?" she asks mildly, drawing Yamazaki back out of his thoughts, and he realizes that she must have said something else. "I don't think I've ever seen your focus so scattered. Are you okay?" An affectionate smile tugs at his mouth at her question, and there is an undercurrent of sweet and genuine concern in her voice, underneath her lighthearted laughter.
Yamazaki takes a deep breath, nodding, and sets down his comb. "Better than ever," he says, and she smiles over at him in something like relief. His heart pounds in anticipation of the words to come, quite as though he's never said them before: "I love you."
Chizuru seems momentarily surprised that he's the first to say it for once, but then beams at him with such radiance that it takes Yamazaki's breath away; there is no hesitation in her response. "I love you too, Susumu," she says, her soft voice full of sparkling sincerity and borne on a light spring breeze; smiling, Yamazaki moves to crouch by Chizuru's side. Her voice lowers to a whisper, her eyes compelling him toward her again—both mischievous and pleading. "I'll be waiting for you. Come back soon, my ninja."
"As my lady commands," murmurs Yamazaki, bending to bestow a brief and tender kiss on those cherry-blossom lips. He's always been better with actions than words, anyway. But he pulls away as swiftly as he leaned in; the more time he spends around her, the less he feels like working. He's disarmed plenty of traps in his time, but he's never been able to figure out Chizuru.
Getting to his feet reluctantly, Yamazaki stretches and turns his feet toward the office that used to be Kodo's. As he glances back at his wife, he almost walks straight into the door before he faces forward again and remembers to open it first.
Chizuru giggles from behind him, but by the time he checks back one more time, she has already turned her back. Yamazaki would like nothing more than to stand there and admire the soft contours of his wife's back and shoulders, but shakes himself out of his half-dazed thoughts and opens the door instead.
Once, even as recently as this morning, he had thought that duty would always call more loudly than his heart, but Chizuru has forced him to reconsider. And so, he swears to himself—his private thoughts bearing all the strength of their wedding vows—once his mission has been accomplished, no power on this earth can keep him from returning to his lady's side.