Chapter 2
"Stand over there please." Ruka's voice jolted Mikan.
"Be still, my heart." she reprimanded herself. Pull it together.
Ruka looked her way briefly before returning to his task of getting the garments ready. The piece he selected was a treasure, first thing he ever created once he finished his training. For so long he kept it inside a glass case, hidden away from the view of his customers. Why? He didn't know at the time. But seeing her today, it all made sense. It belonged to her.
The brief moment he left Mikan to prepare the changing room, he managed to get his wits back and looked at the situation more logically. Tsubasa's earlier spoken words filtered back to his mind, "It's been a while since you had a fine woman in your bed."
Ah, that must be it. This would definitely explain the sudden interest. Of course, any woman who was easy on the eyes would have the same effect on him. She's nothing special, she's just like the rest of them. He repeated over and over until he convinced himself.
Mikan stood over to the spot where he pointed, a raised platform with a full length mirror in front. She unconsciously brought a hand over to her rapidly beating heart, "Damn it, calm down. Breathe in, breathe out."
Her gesture didn't go unnoticed. Ruka said with a gentle smile, "It'll be all right. This is standard procedure, I went over this hundreds of time. Nothing.. untoward will happen to you."
"I bet its his round about saying he's not interested." Mikan thought to herself. "I'm so close, the closest I've ever been towards reaching my dream." She'll be damned if she'll let the nerves get the better of her.
Ruka stood behind Mikan with a studious expression. Most of his clients were pretty mature, touched in ways far beyond their age, confident and 9 out of 10 would send sultry looks darted towards him. But the woman in front of him now looks very different from the rest. She was standing with perfect posture but her hands were definitely trembling. So innocent and shy but in her eyes, the look of determination.
"To do what?" He wondered.
"I suppose I was rather harsh on her." he thought to himself.
With a polite guarded smile, "I'll put my hands on you. Don't be nervous."
She looked at him and nodded.
With steadfast movements, Ruka made short work with her yukata and had Mikan undressed in minutes. He made sure not to look anywhere that would make her uncomfortable and kept his expression neutral.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Mikan looked at herself in the mirror, and then to the man busy behind her, holding up the piece he chose for her.
Mikan couldn't stop the breath that escaped her, "So beautiful." she gasped, her wonder and awe apparent in her face.
Ruka looked at her, to the genuine appreciation on her face and found himself blushing and gruffly said, "Eyes to the front."
Mikan felt herself flushing also, suddenly aware of her nakedness and the male right beside her. "I do not need these thoughts right now."
As Ruka began to dress her, asking her to raise her arms and such, her eyes were glued to the kimono Ruka picked out for her. Flowers, dozens of flowers adorned the pale pink kimono in different colors. She vaguely felt Ruka's hand on her small waist steering her towards a chair to do her hair and make up. Before she knew it, she felt tears stinging her eyes and she hastily wiped them away.
"Why are you crying?" Ruka couldn't help himself from asking. The tears were a surprise, yet again. Something entirely different from what his other clients would do. Sultry inviting seductive gazes, always. Tears? Not so much.
Mikan shrugged her shoulders and sheepishly answered, "I just can't believe it. This has always been my dream. To have it so close.." she trailed off before she suddenly burst into tears again.
Ruka awkwardly reached out a hand and before he knew it, he was patting her head in a comforting manner.
Mikan glanced at him above her lashes, "Such warm hands" she thought to herself. He might not be so bad after all.
"No more tears, alright? It'll ruin such a pretty face." Pretty? Pretty doesn't justify her face. No word could bring it justice. Ruka offered her a smile, suddenly realizing his compliment and looked away and blushed again.
"Ah. L-Let's get started on your make up, shall we?"
Mikan gave him a full blown grin then nodded her head.
Under a few minutes, Ruka finished her make up. You can't do much more to a face that's beautiful by itself already. Less is more, so they say. He did go all out for her hair. Intricate braids crossed over her hair up do with pieces of her hair framing her face. A cherry blossom hair ornament was the finishing touch to his masterpiece. Ruka looked at his finished work, never in his life has he felt this satisfied.
Mikan was positively beaming. She can't recognize the woman in front of her, she looked like a shiva. No, she will be a shiva.
Mikan turned to Ruka, "Thank you, I don't know how I can ever repay you."
"Don't mention it." After all, you are paying for it. "May I ask you a question? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Mikan was still beside herself with glee, she found herself nodding instantly.
"Why are you so eager to be a shiva?"
A flicker of emotion passed on her face, so quick Ruka couldn't comprehend what it was.
"I want to show everyone what it means to be a shiva." Her voice was strong, confident. Her eyes were blazing with determination. Entirely different from the nervous girl in front of the mirror just a while ago.
Ruka smiled genuinely now, no longer torn up with what he was feeling. Mikan looked up just in time and felt her face heating up, "Damn that smile can kill someone."
In all his years, Ruka Nogi was finally interested. If Tsubasa can look at him now. "I can imagine punching his smug face already." he thought before asking "I understand. Does this shiva have a name?"
Mikan smiled brightly, "Mikan, Mikan Sakura"
"Sensei, do I look okay?"
Chiyo glanced briefly at her before going back to the magazine she was reading, "Passable"
"So cold." Mikan sighed to herself.
They were on the car on their way to the event.
"Sensei, shouldn't the blonde man be the one bringing me to the event?"
"Only when I permit it, may he do so. You are still my ward and therefore, under my protection." Chiyo studied her from her seat, "You are attracted to that man?"
Mikan blushed yet again, damn it. Why does her face turn red so easily.
"N-No. I was just curious." The blonde man, at first she thought he was mean but his gentle hands and his smile were different towards the end. Nope, definitely just curious.
"You better get rid of those thoughts. There are high expectations for you. Once they heard I took in an apprentice, it made such an uproar. I am sure there will be many who will watch you closely tonight."
"I see. Your friends go way back sensei."
Chiyo closed the magazine with a snap and stared at Mikan seriously, "Not just friends Mikan. Enemies. They'll watch you for any signs of weakness and they won't hesitate to use it against you. You must not let that happen."
Mikan nodded, her focus sharpening and the fire in her doubled. No one is getting in my way "I understand sensei."
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIING. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING.
"Mr. Hyuuga, a call just came in for you from Ruka Nogi."
Natsume pinched the bridge of his nose. He was exhausted, all day he had to fix a major mess one of his associates made. He swung his chair around from the desk and stared at the view outside provided by the glass windows that occupied the whole wall of his office. The sunset always calmed him. Another day he wasn't dead, he mused to himself.
"I'll take the call."
Moments later, Ruka's voice filled the room. "Hey man."
"Yo." Natsume replied.
"Tough day at work I see. I didn't have an eventful day, not at all. Well, stupid Tsubasa dragged me to a local bar and there were these annoying girls. Ah, I only had tea of course. Tsubasa drank good for five grown men. He's going to have liver and kidney failure when he's old. And he'll probably go bald soon"
"..."
"My, did I already mention Tsubasa possibly going bald?"
Natsume narrowed his eyes to the phone on the side of his table. Something was up. Ruka was babbling.
"You're babbling." Natsume voiced his thoughts, he could picture Ruka flinching over the phone.
The line went silent for a few seconds. Natsume began stacking up the documents, preparing to call it a day. He didn't get much sleep last night, the nightmares kept him awake.
"You got something to say?" Natsume fought to keep the irritation off his voice. Ruka was his longtime best friend, one of the few people Natsume can stand to be in a conversation with. They had each other's backs through everything, more than he can say about his fucked up family. He loosened the tie around his neck before running his hand through his messy hair.
"I uhm, had a client today." Ruka managed to say after a while.
"You always have clients."
"Yeah, w-well, I do." Ruka let out a nervous laugh.
"You trying to make a point here Ruka?" Okay, now he was getting pissed. Its one of those greedy shivas again, they'll lure you with their pretty faces, suck everything valuable up until you're dry and leave you hanging.
"..." Silence
"I just... she's different Natsume." came his quiet reply.
"Bullshit."
"She is, I'm telling you. Not once did she seduce me the whole time I had her naked. She was shy and innocent."
"It's a ploy. Don't be a fool."
"It's not. I'm not. Listen, I know its hard to believe but you haven't seen her, met her."
"How long was she in your shop?"
Ruka's voice turned sheepish, "About an hour or so?"
"That fast and she has you wrapped around her little finger"
"Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you and-
"I wonder what lies she told you"
"-if you have the spare time later, maybe-"
"Hhm, did she act innocent because you looked like the type to dig that?"
"-we can watch her debut performance at-"
"I bet she covered herself shyly to entice you"
"-ShinomotoGala,itstonightat8pm." Ruka rushed to finish.
Natsume glared at the phone, as if it can reach the person he was talking to. "Listen to yourself. Shinomoto Gala? Seriously?"
"I know it sounds bad."
"Bad is an understatement." Natsume muttered to himself while shrugging on his coat.
"Listen Natsume, I just have a feeling."
"Shove it in a box and send it far away Ruka."
Ruka sighed after a long pause, "Look, I'm going whether you're going or not. I just wanted to let you know."
Natsume paused. Ah, shit. He was serious about this and there's no stopping to it. Natsume contemplated his options. He can leave Ruka be to sort this "feeling" and go straight home, have a nice long soak in the tub and get a well deserved rest or go to one of the most disreputable places ever in Japan to accompany Ruka and protect Ruka from this bitch he had a "feeling" with.
Damn. He didn't even need to think about it.
"Fine. I'll meet you at your place in an hour." the words tumbled out of his mouth like he drank acid. He brought his hand to his forehead, foreseeing a major headache coming in.
"I knew you'd come around." Ruka said with relief. "I can't wait for you to meet her. See you soon Natsume." The line went dead but Natsume still stared at the phone imagining himself throwing it out the window or crushing it with his bare hands.
"Oh, I'll meet her alright." Natsume thought to himself. By the end of tonight, Natsume vowed to himself he'll get rid of her with whatever means necessary.
"Fuck feeling." was Natsume's last angry thought before making his way to Ruka's place.
Author's Notes: Here's another chapter for you. It's so hard because I'm not Japanese and since I based this on a Japanese setting and Japanese culture, there's a lot of things I don't know about like yukatas and kimonos so bear with me if I make any mistakes.
Like I said, shivas are more like geishas and maikos. I just used the word shiva to give me more freedom on the way I can write them in this story. As for the swearing part, I'm sorry. I read a lot of novels and there's a lot of swearing, it rubbed off on me.
I appreciate reviews a lot. I don't exactly have the whole plot yet and I'm still reviewing and revising the plot constantly so your thoughts on the chapters really help.
R x R please. Thank you!