a/n: drabble-y drabble for the lovely Nona on her birthday! c:
[kabuki]
It's not that he doesn't understand. He understands well and, he thinks, she must understand some part of it, as well. She speaks to him openly about the binding, about the circus, nonchalant as if she were God. She understands more than she lets on, in their spare time when they are alone and the only thing separating them is the distance between their chairs.
He likes best the way her skin flows across her muscles and bones, less like a covering and more like an extension of something else, something cosmic and mental and radiant. Her fingers are like petals; they dance, they open and close and paint the faintest pictures, drawn in the grace of her tendons, her ligaments, her joints. The contortionist is art, down to the sleek knuckles of her hands, the knobs of her ankles. It takes a keen eye to notice such things, and he's egotistic enough to think that he's capable of such observation.
When he tells her of his musings, she titters in her fine, airy way and clasps his cheek, looking at him with a glimmer of affection. "Marco," she purrs, and it does not hurt as much when she dismisses him after she says his name like that. He enjoys the way the syllables roll off her tongue like water.
There are some things it is impossible not to notice. It is impossible not to notice how she looks after a bath, hair falling down her back like a waterfall of black, skin still wet and a towel around her waist. She looks like she could be a river, speckled with dewdrops, and then, she is beautiful as a storm.
It is impossible not to notice her nails, a teacup, and the steam subsiding within a few seconds of contact. Tsukiko likes to drink calm things, teas and water and fine wines. Elegance, after all, permeates their business, and it is impossible to resist the infection of luxury, to succumb to debauchery once in a while.
They do not mind quite as much.
Occasionally, she kisses him on the mouth, her lips lingering as a promise of their youth, and that feels best, in his opinion.