So, here it is! The feudal AU fic for Big Hero 6 that I've had stuck in my head for a while now. This is supposed to be sort of historical with some artistic license, but hopefully not too much, as the time period for this is meant to be the Edo/Tokugawa era. It's also probably one of the few fandom AUs where Tadashi is actually dead. Sorry, folks, but I promise it's for good reason.
And...wow, I really don't think I can let go of Hiro/GoGo, or at least the idea of it. I'll be honest, I'd ship it if it weren't for the age and maturity differences and the fact I like their canonical relationship the way it is, but I just like them together in general—platonic or romantic.
Very important note: Honey Lemon's name is Aiko Miyazaki in this fic, but only to fit into the time period and setting. I'm only using her comics name because it's from some form of canon (although a very alternate one), not because I think it's her actual name in Disney's movie.
Also, Hiro is older in this fic, obviously, and is 18. So is GoGo, sort of. Note the "sort of", here. I imagine her as roughly 18 in canon, so she and Hiro would have a 4 year age gap. Here, she's 22 in accordance with said gap, but it's not canon as far as I know. And for convenience, most of the main characters are Japanese as they were in the comics (ex: Honey Lemon and Wasabi). Hiro and GoGo are still biracial and Korean, respectively, for plot purposes.
Warning: This fic will most likely get really cheesy and sappy and maybe a bit OOC (but I promise I'll do my best not to make it horribly, drastically OOC). Also, it has quite a lot of OCs (only there to be plot devices, though).
On another note, GoGo's name is Ethel according to a tweet by Jamie Chung (you can find the link for it on TV Tropes in Big Hero 6's trivia tab). However, for this fic's purposes, her name is different. Just a heads-up (unless you didn't see the tweet).
The morning air was uncomfortably cool, still moist with the rain from the night before. Leftover water, gathered in shallow puddles, splashed under GoGo's geta sandals and onto the hem of her kimono as she carried a basket of laundry into the yard.
She set it down next to the washbasin and the stone for the fulling block, pushing back the dark gray tenugui tied in a kerchief over her head with one hand. But she had barely finished scrubbing a shirt when a shrill voice pierced the air.
"TOMAGO!"
It was enough to send the birds scattering from the yard's trees, branches rattling in their wake. GoGo rolled her eyes, internally bracing herself as she soaked the cloth and began to wring it out.
Sure enough, a squat old woman in a green kimono came storming out of the house, a scowl in her wrinkled face and graying hair falling loose from her bun. Aunt Chinatsu—only considered an aunt through marriage to a distant cousin of GoGo's father—had clearly seen better days, and this was not one of them.
"Where is Aiko's shamisen!? I know you've put it somewhere, you insolent girl, and you can't be so stupid as to have lost it like Momoe!" For such a small lady, Chinatsu had a voice loud enough to put even the most hot-blooded war cries of samurai to shame.
GoGo resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. "I put it in her room. With the fans. If you look th—"
"Speak to me like that again and you'll be going to bed hungry for the rest of the week, girl!" Chinatsu shouted. "I'll ask you only one more time: where is Aiko's shamisen?"
"In her room," GoGo repeated slowly. "With the fans."
If Chinatsu's face was any redder, GoGo thought it could be mistaken for a dried tomato. "Ungrateful tramp!" she spat. "I take you in out of the generosity of my heart, and what do I get? A spinster in the making!"
And of course, GoGo thought wryly, there she'd go again. She had heard this sort of tirade so many times before that she was sure at this point, she'd be the richest woman alive in Japan if she had a koban for each one. It'd be a waste of breath to talk back. Tuning it out, she pressed the shirt over the stone and reached for the fulling block.
"—twenty-two years and still no husband, no dowry! Why, your mother—"
The last two words were all it took. GoGo stiffened, not realizing the block was falling from her fingers until it had hit the ground. She whirled, taking in a short, stiff breath.
"Don't. Talk." She bit out the words, teeth clamped together. Without the cloth to hold onto, her fists clenched together hard enough for the knuckles to begin whitening. "About. My. Mother."
Something about her glare must have been enough for her, because it only took another brief, cold second for Chinatsu to blink and then turn away, excusing herself to interrogate Harumi and Sakura instead. GoGo watched her leave, almost stumbling once over her sandals before she slid the door closed behind her.
Shakily, GoGo let out a long breath. Then another, trying to calm down. Then a third, maybe a fourth, until she picked up the fulling block and began beating the cloth against the rock with it—maybe much harder and more viciously than usual.
It didn't matter what Chinatsu would've said about her mother, she told herself. What would Chinatsu know about what her mother would've thought? What did anyone know?
This shirt, that dress. This dress, that shirt, then another shirt and another dress. It was merely another chord in the rhythm of chores that went around in the geisha household, and GoGo knew every note of it by ear.
Dimly, she could still hear some shouting in the house and what must have been the clattering of pots and sandals. But she tuned it out as she did with most things, trying to focus on anything else but Chinatsu—the vegetables that would have to be chopped, the market trips, the dish washing, making sure Momoe didn't forget her hairpins or the like.
Same routine, same time. GoGo knew it by heart.
With the gradually rising sun beating down on her back, it must have been noon by the time she was able to straighten up without having to bend back down again. Stretching out her arms and rolling her shoulders back, she would have surveyed her work if it weren't for the second interruption from the door—but far less unpleasant this time.
"GoGo?" Aiko, quite possibly the only geisha in the house who paid more than a passing glance in attention to GoGo, was leaning out of the halfway opened door. In her hand, GoGo realized, was the shamisen.
"You put my shamisen in my room, right?" Aiko's expression was more than a little sheepish. "Sorry about...that. I was just really kind of nervous and forgot it was there for a bit, because you know the performance for Yama is on tonight and I've got more paintings to make and if I don't have my shamisen then there's no performance and if there's no performance—"
"Aiko." GoGo cut her off simply. Aiko blinked before she grinned nervously, and GoGo had to smile back slightly. "I get it. It's okay to be nervous."
She picked up the fulling block, placing it against the stone. "You'll be great," she continued. "As always, remember?"
Aiko let out a laugh, although it still sounded nervous. "Yeah, I know—being nervous is natural," she admitted, briefly rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand. "It's just—it's going to be really big, you know? My clients will be watching! I mean, how embarrassing would that be, if I, like, just...just dropped a fan, or something? I mean, come on..."
GoGo had heard this kind of self-deprecation prior to performances before. Normally, she turned a deaf ear to it as much as she could—it just sounded like fishing for compliments most of the time. With Aiko, however, it felt different—it felt sincere, all the rambling just another form of natural nervousness.
True, she couldn't see why anyone wouldn't want to pose for or buy Aiko's ukiyo-e woodblock prints—they could give several of the more famous painters a run for their money, in her opinion. And Aiko wasn't a bad dancer, either. Being taller and longer-legged than the other geishas only appeared to add to her sheer energy and exuberance when she performed. Her skin tone under her makeup, darker than what was considered normal, was a subject of some malicious gossip—but as far as GoGo was considered, that was all it was.
But Aiko wasn't snobbish or haughty. She had her share of self-doubts when she wasn't confident, and she had more at stake if she failed. GoGo had seen her at her weak places and seen her rise from them. This was only a small moment.
Aiko paused. "But...I can do this. Right?" She looked at her almost pleadingly.
"Right." GoGo had gone through this with her before. They'd known each other long enough.
"I've done this before," Aiko went on more firmly.
"And you'll do it again," GoGo responded.
"I can do this." Aiko's shoulders were set in determination.
"You can do this." GoGo reached out, gripping the other girl's shoulders. They stared at each other, faces set in resolution.
"I'm the woman," Aiko continued.
"You're the woman," GoGo agreed firmly.
"I'm the WOMAN!" Aiko screamed, flinging back her hands to throw them in the air and only barely avoiding dropping the shamisen.
"Quiet!" Chinatsu's voice screeched from within the house. They paused before promptly dissolving into silent laughter—Aiko was noisier, but that wasn't the point. GoGo used her laughs sparingly, but it was impossible not to even crack one grin when around Aiko.
Aiko wiped the corner of her eye with one finger, still giggling slightly. "Okay, okay. That...that was good."
"You could've been louder," GoGo deadpanned, and Aiko playfully shoved her shoulder.
"...Hey, you know," Aiko commented lightly, "Yama's request came in really late last night. Chinatsu only accepted it because of the gift for the trouble."
To say GoGo was unsurprised was tantamount to saying water was wet. Chinatsu was one of the most opportunistic in doing business with in Shitamachi, to the point that her pouncing on chances for more profit could be compared easily to a cat with a fish.
"And?" GoGo raised an eyebrow. There had to be more to this.
Under her stare, Aiko suddenly looked gradually less comfortable with each passing second. She grinned nervously again, all white teeth exposed, and started to pluck at the strings on her shamisen. GoGo thought she would have started rocking back and forth on her heels if it weren't for her sandals.
"Well, I was...wondering," she went on, "if...okay, GoGo, hear me out on this. Ayame, and Harumi, and Sakura just left. And Momoe and Chouko went out really early, you saw them go, right? And you know Edo's not as strict about geisha as Kyoto, and dressing as one temporarily. So, I still need someone to just...carry my fans, and my shamisen—"
"No." GoGo didn't even hesitate. Even with the relative laxness about geisha rules in Edo and the popularity of onna geisha nowadays, the idea of going through those too-bright, too-crowded halls where the shows were put on, stuck with crowds of always moving strangers, was enough to put her on edge. She'd never been good at social gatherings—but she wasn't afraid of them. She just hated having to go to them a lot of the time.
There were exceptions, but GoGo didn't know what those could be, mainly because she'd never gone to an actual social gathering in the first place. Contrary to what most of the geishas seemed to believe—she'd heard enough gossip from them about her to last two lifetimes—she didn't despise hairpins and pretty dresses. It was less about hatred and more about simply not caring when there was work to be done and Chinatsu's shouting to evade.
"GoGo, please, you're the only one left here who can go with me!" Aiko practically pleaded. "All the other servants are busy, or they're too old or too young to be an apprentice just for tonight, or they don't know about the shows like you and they might get lost or hurt, and—it's only one night, GoGo! One night—"
"I'm not going." GoGo's voice was flat. "You are not putting me in that—those clothes. Or that makeup."
She knew Aiko wouldn't be pleading in the first place if it wasn't for the new trend with the onna geisha—namely, the one that involved the geisha's apprentice carrying her instrument and fans for her to highlight her experience and skill in her work. With such high-ranked clients like Yama Manabu, they needed every sign of good status they could get.
"It's only one night!" Aiko clasped her hands together, or as closely as you could with a shamisen's neck in one of your hands. "Please, please, GoGo, just one night and I swear I'll never, ever bother you about this again! I promise!"
GoGo sighed. "Aiko—"
"Please?" It hadn't taken even more than a minute for Aiko to look barely a step away from falling on her knees and prostrating herself. "I promise. I swear. I really promise!"
As much as GoGo hated to admit it, even if only to herself, this could be her only chance at taking a break from work for a little bit. How could she waste it? It would at least be a change from what she did every day.
Besides, she had to confess that the idea of pushing against rules was far more than a little appealing—even if those were only really in Kyoto. Here in Edo, they were more relaxed in practice, but it did still sound an awful lot like a thrill.
"Well." GoGo paused. "So. You promise?"
"Yes!" Aiko stared at her so imploringly, it could put a puppy's eyes to shame. Even GoGo was starting to doubt if she was tough enough to endure more of that.
"Okay. I'm in." The moment the words left GoGo's mouth, Aiko swept her up into an embrace and swung her off of the ground. GoGo couldn't even protest as Aiko's arms wrapped tightly enough around her to crush.
"Oh thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" Aiko gushed, squeezing even harder and starting GoGo's wondering if it was seriously possible for one to be asphyxiated by a hug. "You won't regret this, I swear! It'll be so awesome and I can show you everything about it and maybe we can meet up with Harumi and Ayame, they could be there! Or Momoe, or Sakura, or Momoe and Sakura and maybe Chouko—"
"Aiko!" GoGo choked out. "Kind of—trying—breathe—!"
"Oh!" Aiko released her just as quickly, letting her back on her feet. "Sorry about that, I'm just—this is just amazing! We're actually going together! I'll help you get ready first, you're going to look great!"
"Only one night," GoGo reminded her pointedly as they headed back into the house, Aiko nearly skipping. Inwardly, GoGo was seriously debating if this was a good idea. She didn't care so much about the risks of getting caught impersonating a geisha—rules didn't intimidate GoGo Tomago, of all people—but acting like one in the first place sounded...well. She couldn't remember the last time she'd dressed up in anything nicer than her current brown dress and gray kerchief, for starters.
"Aiko!" Chinatsu barked, and GoGo could've sworn she said it the very moment their feet had touched the floor. "An hour till your show, and you still aren't ready. GoGo, help her dress!"
"Oh, uh, actually," Aiko began a little sheepishly, "GoGo's coming with me. To carry my, um, shamisen. And fans."
There was a very pregnant pause. If Chinatsu's jaw had dropped any inch further, GoGo thought, it would've hit the ground. "But—but why not take Harumi?"
"Harumi just left," GoGo put in dryly. "With Sakura and Ayame—"
"Oh, alright, alright!" Chinatsu's expression changed almost immediately, shaking her head in exasperation as she waved her hand. It'd be startling to anyone else who didn't know how she ran things—with Aiko being the only one in the house to hail from a place as fine as Kyoto, Chinatsu couldn't exactly afford to refuse what she wanted. If anything, GoGo thought, Aiko only stayed because she wanted to. If she left, it wouldn't be hard for her to find other lodgings.
"Just get dressed," Chinatsu added crossly, turning to bustle away, "and hurry, for heaven's sake! And don't do anything embarrassing."
The last part was specifically directed at one of the two, and they both knew whom she was addressing.
"And...there."
GoGo blinked.
In the mirror was another person entirely. Her face had been powdered white enough to make snow appear silver in comparison, her eyelashes now dark as charcoal and her lips painted a dark shade of red. Atop her head was her short, choppy hair tied together into a small twist, kept into place by two iris hairpins. The kimono, the silk heavy on her skin, was violet and embroidered with white and lavender flowers. The obi sash, to complete it, was palest gray.
Every inch a geisha.
"...Well, I look...nice," GoGo managed to say, if only for lack of anything else she could think of.
"Exactly!" Aiko pushed back a strand of her own hair, grinning widely. "But not just nice. You look great!"
Aiko was already dressed and ready to go for her performance, her hair pinned up with plum blossom hairpins. Her kimono was magenta, complete with a pale pink obi sash and patterned with more plum blossoms. Both of them looked far from out of place as geishas, but GoGo couldn't have felt more like a fish out of water.
"We should really get going," Aiko added, a little anxiously. "Come on—to the Yoshiwara!"
She handed her the shamisen, now wrapped in thick coverings that would protect it from water, and the pair of closed fans. GoGo managed to hold on to them tightly, feeling a little silly, while they both hurried towards the entrance and into the streets.
In the noise and chatter of the perpetually busy district, Aiko wove her way in and out around vendors and pedestrians and the like as an expert would. Behind her, trying to stay as close as possible and constantly dodging people, GoGo walked quickly while clutching the fans and instrument as if her life depended on it. Which, in a way, it did—if Chinatsu ever caught news of her ruining a geisha's belongings, GoGo would be tossed out onto the street faster than one could say "apprentice geisha".
With every step, however, GoGo was losing more confidence in the whole idea of the thing than dropping or damaging what she was carrying. It wasn't fear, of course it wasn't—yeah, right, a voice in her head sneered—but the more they walked, the more stupid the concept of her pretending to be a geisha sounded. She didn't even have the nationality of a geisha, for crying out loud. How had she let Aiko talk her into this?
The pleading and the puppy eyes. Obviously, that same voice snapped.
"Aiko, just—how am I going to do this?" The words came rushing out of her before she could stop them, as incredulous as she felt. "How?"
"All you have to do is sit and watch," Aiko replied. Her walk seemed to becoming a little faster. "I swear, that's all. You're just going to act like an apprentice. That's what they do."
"Okay, what if a man comes up and starts flirting with me?" GoGo questioned, annoyance creeping into her voice. The way Aiko put it sounded far too easy, and if GoGo knew one thing about life, it was that the simplest-sounding task could easily get so complicated it'd go horribly wrong.
"You make really polite conversation and then excuse yourself," Aiko answered easily, ducking a vendor's pole as she went. "Like—uh. Literature! Yes, literature. Talk about poetry trends. The classics. Things like that."
"Aiko, I haven't read poetry in years," GoGo said wryly, ducking as well.
"Then you can't fail with the classics! Make things up, it's not like they've actually read them all either." Aiko turned the corner and onto the bridge that would lead to Yoshiwara, sandals clacking against the wooden planks as she walked.
"What if he's drunk?" GoGo continued, following.
"Just say you have to go to the lavatory, or something like that, and slip away," was Aiko's response. "Take it easy. He won't remember it in the morning when he's got the hangover."
"I can hope," GoGo muttered in response. Aiko gave no indication of whether or not she'd heard, but GoGo suspected she had.
Once at the gate, they got into line behind other performers as needed. The line wasn't quite as long as GoGo had anticipated, something she wasn't sure if she was disappointed by or not. There were geishas in groups or pairs, a few troops of male dancers with costumes and painted faces, a noisy party of nobles accompanied by samurai bodyguards—all enough for quite a clustered line.
Inexplicably, as they stood there, GoGo's fingers beginning to lose feeling from holding on to the shamisen and fans so tightly, she thought of her mother. What would she think if she could see her there now, waiting in a line to get into a pleasure district?
It felt less like a genuine thing to wonder about and more like an internal reprimand. GoGo briefly squeezed her eyes shut. Thinking of her mother really wasn't going to do her any good right now.
Yet, she still did. She thought of her mother when the guards, after glancing over Aiko's invitation paper and token for passage, waved her on without even sparing GoGo a glance. She initially realized the customary weapons check was skipped over because of their gender, at least before remembering her eunjangdo—the only possession she had left from her mother. She still had it wrapped in a cloth in her quarters.
She thought of her mother when they entered the district, and Aiko whispered for her to stay close—as if GoGo needed any reminder—before they passed down the street below the seemingly dead eyes of the young women on display, sitting behind the wooden bars of windows to brothels. She thought of what her mother would say, how she would pity them as if pity could actively help them, when she averted her eyes.
She wondered how Aiko could have the patience for being here. GoGo wasn't sure if she'd want to set foot in a place like this in normal circumstances, no matter how much money she was promised. A few men not so discreetly ogled them as they passed, eyes raking over them from head to toe in a manner unnerving enough to make her flesh crawl. She glared at them as menacingly as she could, but they were either too drunk to care or not looking at her face to see it. Or her glare wasn't menacing enough somehow, but she didn't like to think that.
Aiko, for her part, seemed to be pushing herself very deliberately to ignore everything but the path to their destination—there was no smile on her face now, no words of reassurance from her. She knew more than any of the geishas at Chinatsu's house about how this place was.
The sound of festivity and revelry from within the brightly lit banquet hall was easy to hear from outside in the street, and even more so as Aiko and GoGo stepped up to the entrance. The sign hung near the door read, in a slightly crude inscription, "Shining Mountains".
Aiko showed her invitation to the guard, and they were in.
And that wraps up the first chapter! Next chapter, Hiro shows up with Fred, Wasabi, and Baymax. Yes, Baymax. He'll show up in a different way, but it's still him.
A list of the Japanese and Korean vocabulary I used:
Geta: A type of traditional Japanese wooden sandal, with a raised base.
Tenugui: A cotton hand towel, often used as a washcloth, dishcloth, headwear, or a decoration.
Shamisen: A wooden string instrument, which was frequently played by geishas.
Koban: An oval-shaped gold coin, used as currency in the Edo/Tokugawa period.
Fulling block: A wooden mallet used to beat washed laundry during the Edo era.
Eunjangdo: A type of silver knife used by Korean women for self-defense.
Onna geisha: Term for female geisha.
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