The room was silent as Drew and Mika saw each other for the first time. She giggled, eyes locked on him as she stepped into the room, followed by the mysteriously radiant boy. Drew glanced slightly over her shoulder, begging silently for the boy to just look up, so he could see his eyes.
Miss Anna Mapleton cooed over the girl, admiring her long hair and porcelain features, while Drew could not have cared less. He saw her as plain, expected, and far too girly—exactly what he had always expected her to be. Expected, and more realistically, feared.
"Hello," she greeted quietly, voice too gentle, too breathless, for Drew's liking. She bowed her head down to him, a lock of silky hair slipping over her shoulder. The blonde gave a timid smile, eyes darting from the boy to her as he replied to her hello, noticing the twitch of the silent boy's eyebrows raising upwards as he spoke.
They stepped closer, and Drew forced himself to be kind, polite and refrained; like his mother had told him to do. He took her hand, soft and miniscule in his own as he brushed his lips against her knuckles. He peeked up through his eyelashes at the girl, noticing her cherry red blush. But the one thing that more caught his attention was the shining eyes of the boy starring him down from behind his wife-to-be.
"I'm pleasured to meet you," Drew whispered, his glance now turning towards the boy with a small smile. "You're more beautiful than they described to me."
She giggled again, a noise the blonde knew that he would soon get annoyed of. She did that far too often for his liking. It had only been five minutes, and the young heir could already not fathom the idea of spending another fifty years with that childish giggle.
"You're very handsome," she noted. Her English wasn't as strong as Drew's, but it was the most advanced of anyone in the room. "Your hair is so…blonde."
"Yes," he confirmed, slowly shaking his head. He looked down at her as though he was talking to a child.
The boy standing behind her let out a quiet cough, his hair falling into his eyes. It caught Drew's attention, causing his eyes to flicker back to him. But this time, as Drew looked, the boy smiled. The squeeze that he felt in his heart was one he knew should have felt for the girl, but no one could deny the instant connection he felt. It happened in a split second, but it stayed for much longer.
"I welcome you to our home," said Mika, removing her clammy hand from Drew's grip. "I hope you'll be very comfortable. Tea will be served in the living room in fifteen minutes, and in the drawing room for us in ten."
Her words were directed at Drew, but he didn't hear a word of them. He nodded faintly, offering a small genuine smile. The boy, still unnamed, glanced down at his feet, an obvious blush spread across his cheeks.
"I can assure you, I will be comfortable wherever you rest me," Drew chuckled. "Though I must admit I'm quite tired, so tea sooner than later would be best."
"Of course," she replied with another bow of her head. Mika turned slowly, making to walk through the door again. The fabric of her light pink kimono slide across the tiles of the room, the sound of her shoes clacking with every move she made.
The boy, around the same height as her, with a more masculine build, stood there with his hands held in front of himself, eyes glued to the floor. Drew wished he would look up again. His eyes were dazzling the last time the blonde had seen them, and he had the feeling they would be just the same again. The boy must have been related to Mika in some way, yet he held a quality she could never posses.
Someone cleared their throat, and Drew realized he was supposed to have followed Mika out of the room. He blinked, stepping towards the door where the boy stood. He passed him, turning his head to look at his pink-tinted cheeks as he did. Mika stood waiting for him in front of a couch, a maid pouring tea into two small china cups to her left.
"Come sit?" She uttered with a gesture towards the sofa.
He sat down, the atmosphere growing in awkwardness with each second. They barely spoke a word to the other, the only sound being that of their heavy breathing. Drew let his eyes close for just a moment as the tea was set out in front of them, picturing his days back on the ship with Theo. He thought of home, where none of the girls he saw would one day be his wife. Still, even with the beautiful girl sitting beside him, Drew wished he did not have to marry.
"So," she finally whispered, sipping from the cup. "Tell me about yourself?"
Drew cleared his throat, looking at the cup of warm brown tea that stayed before him. The twenty year old honestly had no idea what one was supposed to tell the woman that in a week he would marry. The formality of it all made him shift in un-comfortableness, not sure what he was willing to share with the stranger. So he kept his focus on the tea, letting the color bring back flashes of the bright brown eyes that he got the opportunity to see for a just a moment. He wanted to see them again.
"I quite enjoy the sciences. Medicine and technology, for example."
"Like the automobiles?"
"Not exactly," Drew replied. "While that technology has already developed, I dream of inventing things no one has seen before."
"So you create?" Mika quipped. "It sounds to me like you've got quite the imagination."
"You sound like my mother."
Her awkward laugh made him realize it probably wasn't bright to compare your future wife to the stiff, unfriendly woman who raised you. "W-What about you? What interests you?" He backtracked, hoping to change the subject as soon as possible.
"Me? A girl of my status doesn't do much. But I do like to entertain."
"Entertain? How so?"
"Parties, actually," she declared. "There is nothing I enjoy more than a party. Everyone is so full of joy, so lively."
"Interesting," he responded. He forced a smile to hide the fact that he found her interest incredibly dull.
"How old are you?"
"I shall be turning twenty in a month. How about you?"
"Eighteen. Tell me more about yourself?"
"What is there to know? I don't have experience enough to make a good story. I was born, I went to school, I studied, learned, watched, read, explored…I played, got into trouble," she laughed at that, "then I stopped playing. I learned all I'd need to know. My father's business is my future. School wasn't ever necessary, all the knowledge I'll ever need is how to wear a suit—and even then, I've got people to help me with that. Then, before I knew it, I was on a ship coming here. The list of accomplishments I sport is short, I'm afraid. I'm not a man of interest."
"I'm sure you are," the small girl smiled.
Mika Kogo was not one of many words. Every question he asked was replied to with a one or two word sentence, sometimes with a giggle haphazardly tacked on to the end of her answer. They had run out of topics to discuss before the tea ran dry. The room was silent. Each movement made by the either of them moved them more towards the edge of the couch, like magnets repelling against an incorrect match.
This was exactly what Drew had feared. His breath came out in a huff as he looked around the room. The night sky made everything darker, the only light source in the area being a candle-lit chandelier. It created shadows across her plainly beautiful face, and Drew wished he could retreat into the dark, and away from the dull girl who would soon be his bride. She was pretty, to say the least, but with the intellect of a small child. He wanted someone who challenged him, who made him think. Obviously, that was something the girl could not offer her.
He thought about the boy with the pale pink lips, perfectly shaped face, and overall angelic essence. The way his lips curled up as he smiled, showing a small flash of bright white teeth, made Drew smile in the awkward, heavy silence. Their first meeting had barely lasted a minute, but he hoped to see him again.
Almost an hour of near silence passed, only the minimal amount of conversation being held as they sipped endless amounts of tea. Finally, the clock bell rung eleven times, the sliding door opened.
"Mika?" A soft, but evidently confident voice called, and Drew looked up from his cup.
Nothing could have stopped the smile that braved its way across his cheeks, or how the blue in his eyes began to sparkle as the boy re-appeared to him.
"Sato-chan?" She smiled, standing from her spot. "Did Father send you?"
are they siblings? Drew wondered.
The boy nodded, glancing at Drew. Mika set down her cup and straightened out the fabric of her outfit, looking to Drew. "Well," she said with a small giggle, "I'll see you in the morning?"
"Of course," Drew whispered, his voice barely above a whisper as he headed towards the door of the room. He bowed her head towards her, smiling politely as he turned to the door. The boy stayed standing there; glance travelling from the floor up Drew's long, lean stature to look him in the eyes.
"Follow me," he mumbled, "I'll show you upstairs."
Drew followed behind the gorgeous boy in silence for awhile before he couldn't take the quiet anymore. The unfamiliar layout of the house made him anxious as they walked in the near-dark.
"I'm terribly sorry," he sighed, "but it seems as though I've missed your name."
"Satoru," the boy said quickly.
"Satoru." Drew reiterated. "Well now I'm curious, is Mika…my…future betrothed, your sister?"
"Cousin," Satoru announced. "Yet no matter the family relation, you don't seem to impressed by her."
"Bold of you to say," Drew scoffed, blinking his eyes in disbelief as he followed him.
"Men fall at her feet. But you, sir," he smiled at the ground again, wringing his small hands together. "You don't look at her like the others. Forgive me, maybe American's look at women differently."
"I couldn't be sure. Your cousin is a beautiful girl, Satoru, and of course it shocks me not to hear that men hold such a fancy to her. But, alas, I don't find her as…wonderful as I should. Between you and I, that is."
"Why don't you?" Satoru questioned, opening the door to a decently sized room. At the foot of his bed sat his trunk, and Drew wished nothing more than to change out of his tight clothing and crawl into the bed there.
"You ask far too many questions."
"Maybe you're simply too obvious. An easy target."
"Easy, am I?" He chuckled, leaning against the doorframe. Satoru gave a small chuckle in response, shrugging his shoulders. He had removed his jacket from earlier that night, standing simply in his nearly transparent white shirt. Drew didn't dare himself to eye him over, knowing all to much that he'd like what he saw. But, he wasn't allowed to like what he saw, so he didn't allow himself to.
"It could simply be that I see too far into things, or maybe it is just you. Whatever the cause, it would be best of you to start to appreciate her. That, or be more convincing. Mika is my cousin, her future is something I hope she treasures."
"If I were you," Drew whispered, leaning a little closer to the shorter boy, "I'd keep my nose out of my cousin's love life."
"love life? I'm sorry, Mister Mapleton, but that is far from what I'd call a love life."
Drew's eyes widened at the boldness of the boy. His honesty astonished him. However, Drew could understand. He was loyal about his family, as well. He was about to reply when the sound of someone walking down the hall interrupted his thoughts. Satoru's entire self changed in an instant, his smirk changing to a small, polite smile as he bowed his head, looking up through thick eyelashes at the blonde.
"I hope you sleep well."
"Thank you."
He left without a word, the light of the candle he held disappearing with a puff of air as Satoru blew it out.