The smell of cheap alcohol mixed with food wafted through the air. Matsu Akane had better places to be than here, better things to be doing. Yet she was here, to find the man who insulted her and punch his face in.
The door opens with a small creak, as Akane walks into the seedy inn. Every step forceful, powerful proclaiming for all the world that she was a Samurai. The inn itself was a typical in found on the outskirts, it was for those whose dignity was nonexistent, and just wanted a place to stay.
A badly strummed biwa stops as Akane continues past the poor doorman without even glancing at him, he was beneath notice. No there was only one person here that Akane could see as worth her time.
There sitting at the back, in a languid half reclined pose sat Kakita Motonari. His white hair was splayed out, as he drank from a saucer of sake.
Akane took another step, her finely honed body that could break most men with one hand loomed in the room.
Motonari's blue eyes met hers.
"Matsu Akane-sama...I would think you had better places to be than here." The Kakita says shifting his position so that he could bow.
"You know why I am here, Kakita-san.":
A flash of emotion across those far too pretty eyes.
"Let's take it outside...I like this place."
"Running won't do any good." Akane snarls.
"Matsu-san have I ever run from you?"Motonari said wryly.
Akane only snorts in response.
The two samurai leave the main room onto the street. The cold autumn wind blows down the avenue as the full moon hangs overhead.
Motonari tilts his head in question, Akane nods.
No swords, jiujutsu only.
The two slide into martial art stances. Akane's low, powerful, meant to use her core to the best of her abilities. Motonari's is more slim, graceful, to be the wind not the earth.
Akane strikes first, her fist surging towards, Motonari's face, to end this in a knock out blow.
Motonari flows around it, spinning down her arm before swinging his backhand against Akane's temple.
Akane's elbow pushes out forcing Motonari away from her.
Her other hand reaches out and pulls him by the back of his neck into a wall.
Motonari swings his legs backwards, so that his feet hit the wall first. \
He pushes off it a knee aimed for her chest.
The Matsu slams her hands together catching the knee between them.
She raises the caught knee up intending to slam her opponent into the ground.
The Kakita launches a quick, weak kick out, slapping his sandal across her face.
First blow struck.
Akane drops the knee and roars as she gives a brutal headbutt to Motonari.
The second blow struck.
Motonari staggers a bit before shaking it off and again standing in a fighting stance.
"Why are you so worked up?"Motonari asks.
Akane's on does nothing to suppress the death glare.
"You missed my wedding"
Something sags out of Motonari as his hands fall.
"Oh…"
He bows to her
""My apologies to you Matsu-sama, I was unfit to attend such an august event"
"I invited you personally, in my own hands...and you rejected me" Akane says.
Motonari's eyes widen, as the hurt in Akane's voice filters through air.
"It wasn't like that."
"Then what was it like Motonari?" Akane asks softly,
Kakita Motonari looks back at the seedy inn, and then at her.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes"
Motonari sighs looking up at the fool moon.
"I didn't go to your wedding Akane, because it should have been me."
Akane blinks owlishly as she tries to process her best friend's words.
"What? I don't…"
The Kakita looks straight into her eyes.
"I should have been the one wearing the white robes and marrying you."
A small sensation curls in Akane's gut. Not satisfaction surely, that her friend, her enemy wanted her to be his wife?
"But...why Motonari-san?"
A soft bitter chuckle.
"It's insane isn't it, we've fought on countless battlefields, your spear has drunk my blood even as my sword marked your body...but in spite of all of that…"
Akane's face is still as a board as she holds back the trepidation, the worry that gnaws at her.
He won't say it, he can't say it.
"I love you Akane."
Four words, four words that echo across the empty street. Four words that ring in Akane's ears louder than any tako drum. Four words that are shattering her comfortable world. Four words she can't accept.
"TAKE IT BACK!" Akane throws a punch.
Motonari shifts his head, as the fist of an angry Matsu shatters the wooden wall behind him.
"I can't, I won't lie, not to you"
"You can't love me!" Akane shouts throwing another punch.
Motonari dodges another punch.
"I do Akane, Heaven's help me I do."
"No, you can't throw away your heart on me!" Akane screams trying to headbutt the infuriating Crane.
"...What?"
Akane isn't sure where the words come from.
So she doesn't answer.
This time it's Motonari's turn to go on the offensive. The Kakita grabs Akane's wrists and swings her around into an unruined part of the wall. Holding her arms above her, Motonari steps forward, they're close enough to kiss, close enough to hear each other's heartbeats.
"Akane...loving you isn't throwing my heart away."
Akane tries to shift out of the grip but Motonari knows her too well, blocking her escape with his elbow.
"...Yes it is you baka, I'm married, I can't...I can't give you what you deserve. I can't be your wife, I can't take you to my bed and give you children." She whispers.
"I know...but you are still the most strong, beautiful...passionate woman I have met…" Motonari whispers back.
"But it can never work. I am married to a good, strong, honourable man, it's a match that my ancestors can be proud of...I won't shame them."
"I know you wouldn't. You'd die before you broke your honour...and if that wasn't true, I wouldn't be in love with you. I'm not asking you to leave Matsu Tadahiro-san, I know that he's a fine samurai...but he's not me, and to my heart that's unacceptable."
"Baka.." Akane says, without heat.
Taking a deep breath, Akane looks at her...well she didn't know what he was.
That feeling in her stomach was warm, happy, but the rest of her was in despair over his revelation.
"Why me?" she asks.
It's a fair enough question. Motonari is handsome in that classical Crane way, long hair, deep soulful blue eyes, a face that's just harsh enough to be masculine without losing its appeal. Realistically, her...friend, her...something, could have any woman he wanted.
"Because you understand me, like no one else...that's all there is to it." Motonari says.
His blue eyes blink, holding back the immense sadness that she knows he feels. How she knows is never in question, because Motonari is right, Akane knows him.
Knows his hopes, his dreams, knows that he made war his art and was magnificent at it. Yet, for all his skill for all his virtue Motonari would never rise high in the Kakita, too warlike, too Lion for his kin. He could have any woman he wanted...but none of them would truly be with him in spirit, not like she would be.
She can't give him relief, she can't proclaim that the feeling of joy in her stomach is love.
All Akane can say is,
"...I'm sorry Motonari."
"What's done is done...maybe in the next life." Motonari whispers.
He lets go of her arms and turns to leave.
In a story, Akane would say to Fu Leng with it, and grab him by the collar and kiss him soundly.
But as Akane watches her soul mate leave, she knows this is no story, there will be no stolen kiss here.
Just an empty night and husband who she knows will never quite match up to the man that her heart holds most dear.
Matsu Akane, one of the fiercest Bushi in the East, leaves the street back to her room.
There in the darkness as she reflects on what she learned...she notices that roof needs fixing. The water on her face had to come from a leak.