AN: I do not own Legal Drug. All characters and references are the property of CLAMP. Please enjoy and feel free to review as I am of the strange breed who loves being publicly praised and loathed.
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Prologue: Exchange
Kakei lounged back on a red velvet, Victorian couch eyeing the Japanese art that adorned the opposite wall. The room was a study in contradictions, but then, so was the woman who owned it.
Kakei turned his head at the sound of the panel doors being slid open. Two small girls twirled into the room and opened their arms to showcase the woman behind them.
"The Mistress is here! –is here!" they chimed together.
"The Mistress" was indeed here, Kakei thought. The woman was easily twice the height of her servant girls and draped in layers of colorful kimono that barely concealed her well-endowed nature.
"Thank you girls. Why don't you go help Watanuki with the snacks?"
"Watanuki!" "Snacks!" The girls danced off sing-songing the words back and forth to each other as the doors slid shut behind them.
The woman drifted through the room to an ornate chaise lounge across from Kakei, surrounded by colorful, draping fabrics. After arranging herself on the chaise, she looked up to gaze into Kakei's eyes.
"Well, it has been a while, Kakei."
"Yuuko," he inclined his head, "far too long. Your company is always so … delightful."
Smiling Kakei drew out a pack of cigarettes and raised a questioning eyebrow at his companion. She leaned forward and retrieved her more traditional pipe from a small table. Kakei rose and crossed to her, to light her pipe and then his cigarette, before reseating himself.
"So," she said releasing a plume of smoke into the air above her, "you have a payment for me today?"
Kakei nodded, "One antique, consecrated vase, blue, with flowers as requested."
"You always manage so well, Kakei. Though, really, if you didn't make a habit of bringing me such basic items you could be through with your payments much sooner."
He paused, seemingly contemplating the possibilities of contractual freedom, then shook his head. "That may be Yuuko, but I find it best not to rush things unless absolutely necessary. Besides, were I to pay up, I would no longer have an excuse to come share these lovely conversations." One side of his mouth quirked up, "And, there's no point in wearing out my employees."
A full-throated laugh spilled from Yuuko's throat. "How are the boys?" she asked.
"As rambunctious as ever. It's wonderful to see such liveliness; it makes me feel young."
"Well, you're hardly old, but I know what you mean." Yuuko drew deeply on her pipe and released the smoke in long ribbons that curled around her. She stilled and the air around her seemed to hang immobile as well. "It's good that you keep them."
Kakei held Yuuko's gaze for a long moment, then, barely audible, "Yes, and necessary."
After another tense second in which the witch stared deeply into Kakei's eyes, she nodded then leaned forward to the table to tap out the ash from her pipe.
"Obligation is of one's own making, though some are more honorable than others."
With this, Yuuko stretched up and as though by some unseen signal the panel doors once again slid open to reveal the two servant girls and a lanky young man wearing an apron and carrying a tea service.
As he watched tea being laid out on a low table, Kakei wondered how much longer he would be able to maintain the delicate balance between two such powerful entities now that all the players had entered the stage.
