Drawer Space
Kain set down a small ceramic cup, now empty of sake, and stared sidelong at Izayoi.
She had her feet propped up on his thigh, and while she wasn't normally fond of overt displays of affection, she was peculiarly receptive to foot rubs.
It gave Kain something to do with his hands; and Izayoi stared back at him, bemused, as he refocused his attention to the bottoms of her feet and not on his empty cup.
"Why do we always end up here, and never in Baron?" Kain asked, picking up their conversation from where they had last left it.
"Because," Izayoi sighed, gesturing at the wide room they were sitting in. "Baron asks too much if it thinks it can house every world meeting, and solve every world affair."
"You're saying I think too highly of myself for even asking," Kain said, frowning.
Izayoi grinned, an expression she quickly hid. "Don't you?" she teased.
He popped one of her toes and she made a face. "You do know what you're doing, don't you?" she asked with a grimace, as he stretched her foot completely forward, bending the arch at a severe angle.
"You've never complained before," he remarked, looking back at her.
"You've never tried to take off my foot before," she answered, squirming. "Stop, before I kick you."
He chuckled and released her foot, and then lifted his empty cup after a moment; swirling it, as if to make a show of its emptiness.
"And I suppose you want me to find more sake," Izayoi sighed, drawing her legs beneath her and standing up.
"It would be rude of a guest to help themselves to your stores," he said, grinning.
She shoved him as she strolled past. "Didn't anyone tell you it's also rude of a guest to make demands?"
"That didn't stop you the last time we were in Baron," he pointed out.
Izayoi ignored him, as she stepped up to a cabinet engraved with mythical beasts and birds. Kain hadn't been paying attention when she'd first opened it, but he watched her now—at how many switches and levers she pulled before opening a drawer.
"Secret compartment for your stash?" he asked.
She looked over her shoulder at him. "Do you really think I'd leave the good stuff laying around?" she remarked, incredulously.
"You're right," he replied, catching the bottle that she tossed at him. "I should know better."
She sauntered back with a bottle of her own and plopped down beside him on the floor.
"Where exactly—are we?" Kain asked, pouring himself another.
"My dojo," Izayoi replied, entirely at leisure.
Kain nearly choked on the clear liquid in his cup. "That's only a comical reference to your wealth and connections—not an actual fact," he ventured, making a face.
Izayoi paused with the entire bottle of sake lifted an inch from her lips. "That's an actual fact," she said simply.
Kain said nothing for several long minutes strung together, and glared at her as he downed not one, but two, glasses of sake.
"You own a dojo," he clarified.
"I am technically a member of the royal family," she pointed out, with one brow ironically raised.
Kain frowned, glancing down at his cup as if his sake had gone bad. "Is this why we're here so often—in Eblan?"
Izayoi shrugged. "Wouldn't you rather be here than in your cramped apartments in Baron?"
"At least I gave you a drawer," he said sullenly.
Izayoi scoffed and pointed to the far wall. "I gave you a space on my weapon rack!"
Kain slammed his cup down onto the floor mat. "What's wrong with my apartments?"
Izayoi curled her lip and stared at him. "I'm sure they're lovely in their own dark, drab, 'depressed bachelor', sort of way."
"What, not enough space for you to cartwheel and do back flips?" he asked, unimpressed.
"The 'tiger pouncing elusive shadows' requires a significant amount of running space to execute properly," she answered as if it were obvious.
They each took a swig of sake and glared.
"What do you mean 'depressed bachelor'?" Kain asked suddenly.
"What?" Izayoi asked, surprised.
"You said 'depressed bachelor'," Kain repeated. "That implies that I'm a bachelor."
Izayoi took a slow swallow. "Aren't you?"
Kain squinted at her. "What exactly is this?" he asked, gesturing between the two of them.
"A night of drinking," she answered, uncomprehending.
"What about the past year?" he asked, annoyed.
"A drinking problem," she replied, thinking this was some kind of game.
Kain stood up and strode over to the weapons rack.
"A spot on—on the wall?" he blustered.
"What more could you want!"
"I don't know—you," he answered, nearly tripping on his own foot as he turned around.
"Whoa, you should sit down," Izayoi suggested, sounding genuinely alarmed. "This is serious."
He walked toward her again, pointing menacingly; when suddenly she grinned.
"Oh," she laughed. "You want a definition of what we are to each other. Oh," she said, drawing out the last vowel impossibly long.
"We've been doing this dance for long enough," Kain continued. "I think we should choose—Baron or Eblan."
Izayoi blinked and then squinted. "Your apartments or my dojo—this is the question you are asking?"
"I have good connections in Baron, I'm well respected—"
"—Well—" they both amended in unison.
"—At least I have a position as Captain of the Red Wings," Kain went on, flustered. "You could live in Baron for most of the year and send news to Eblan by courier, or by crane, whichever was easiest—"
"—And kill myself within a month," Izayoi retorted. "Your apartments are dull stone with so few windows, and you don't even have a view of anything interesting out of them. There aren't even any ledges to crawl along the exterior walls…"
Kain furrowed his brow suspiciously. "Wait—you've tried to escape out the window?"
"Better out the window than through your chamber door with Cecil practically waiting there each morning like an automaton."
"I am not so entirely at his mercy."
"He'd say—'pilot an airship to Eblan this instant, I must have an answer to this tricky ferry lane negotiation' and you'd say, 'absolutely!'—oh wait, you already have," she teased.
"I could move," Kain groaned, looking more annoyed by the minute.
"That would make our late night sojourns more easily disguisable," she mused.
"I'll move, then," Kain decided.
Izayoi nodded. "To Eblan."
Kain stared at her dead-on. "Why should I move to Eblan—I don't speak the language, I'm unfamiliar with your customs—"
"Because in Eblan we'd have the added benefit of my dojo."
"I fail to see any benefit to that other than fitness."
Izayoi's lips curved into a wicked grin. "What do you suppose everyone thinks we're doing right now?" she inquired.
"Drinking," Kain answered with a shrug.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but, do you think they'd suspect anything else? Anything other than a sparring match, and perhaps, yes, a drink or two?"
Understanding began to dawn on the dragoon's face. "We could conceal our relationship," he realized. "In peace and quiet—in uninterrupted—"
"Hey," Edge interrupted from the doorway, poking his head through it with a painted on serious expression, "When the two of you are finished drinking, could you be sure to clean up afterwards? Other people use those mats," he said, letting slip a grin, before he disappeared again.
Izayoi spewed out a shower of sake and nearly threw the bottle at her cousin's head. Almost—because it would have been a shame to waste such good sake.
Kain sighed. "Great. Now drinking is a euphemism," he muttered.
"Annoyance tax," Izayoi fumed, still a little stunned. "An annoyance tax."
Kain tilted his head at her. "A tax?"
"Where else did you think I stole the sake?" she asked, smirking.
"Right," he said, drawing out the vowel incredulously long.
"Speaking of euphemisms…" Izayoi mentioned, giving Kain a suggestive look.
Kain stared back expectantly.
"Shall we spar?"
"Mmmm."
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A/N: ….Ummmmmmmm. Once again, a story that started off one way…and ended another XP
HERE YOU GO, Moonclaw! I told you I'd get this posted eventually!
And no, they still haven't defined what they "are" ;)
This story brought to you by "she who is procrastinating on a particular cover letter"…perhaps if I fold it as a crane, I'll get a job…hmmmm
Thanks for reading!
~Myth