The kimono, it turned out, was worth more than even Ikkaku expected, and made them a tidy sum that seemed to impress the brash, bald boy. Having spent more in one go at a festival, Yumichika could not agree, but wisely kept his comments to himself.
"So, how will I earn my keep?" Yumichika asked him, sitting outside beneath the shade of a small street vendor's stall, dancing his taiyaki from hand to hand so that it would cool.
Ikkaku bit right into his, cursed fluidly when he burned his tongue, then went right ahead and wolfed half of it anyway, just to prove that he could.
"Ah, Ikkaku, your manners are so poor," Yumichika chided him, watching Ikkaku from the corner of his eye. "It isn't beautiful to bolt your food down like that. How on earth can you taste it?"
"How could, I, eh?" Ikkaku asked, scowling. "Hot as hell and burning me! You want to earn your keep, Yumichika, you think of a way to cook things cold."
The smaller boy laughed, breaking his sweet cake in half and taking a dainty nibble. "So, what do you do, Madarame Ikkaku? When you aren't 'pounding people', that is."
"Sometimes I help girlie-boys in alleys, but so far that's not turned out too well," Ikkaku darkly told him, then grudgingly accepted the other half of the cake when Yumichika wordlessly held it out to him, eating it with more care. "Aside from fighting? I gamble sometimes. But mostly I just get into fights. Ah, but I forgot about that place."
"Which place?" Yumichika asked, curious about him. Ikkaku did a lot of boasting, and a fair share of teasing, but when it came to true substance about himself and his life, he was truly reserved. Yumichika felt it was more force of habit than anything...or, he liked to think so, at least.
"Well, there's this place," Ikkaku continued, looking uncomfortable and the teeniest bit defensive. "I worked there for awhile..." He turned his assessing grey eyes on Yumichika and his frown turned thoughtful. "Actually, we could hide you there."
"What? Hide me?" Yumichika asked, lost. "Ikkaku, what are you talking about? Hide me where?"
"Eh, never mind me telling you," Ikkaku decided, lifting his chin in an unconscious gesture of stubborn pride. "We'll just go there. That father of yours, is he a stickler for appearances?"
"Oh, you have no idea," Yumichika laughed, brushing crumbs off of the front of his kimono as he stood.
"Good," Ikkaku said, the word short and clipped. "Then even better. There's no chance he'll find you this way."
Mystified, Yumichika followed after him nonetheless, still smiling with every recollection of Ikkaku defending him against his father's investigators, of Ikkaku filing his nails with such concentrated kindness. He'd never had anyone remotely close to his age that wasn't either a servant or a member of his immediate family. It was novel to be friends with someone like Ikkaku, and even though they'd only known each other a short time, Yumichika just felt with surety that there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for Madarame Ikkaku.
Until they arrived at their destination some few days later.
"Oh, absolutely not!"
"Eh? What is it?" Ikkaku asked, baring his white teeth in a scowl. "What is it, I said?!"
"Ikkaku!" Yumichika hissed, and rounded on him with his dainty hands on his slender hips. "This is a whorehouse!"
Bright spots of color bloomed on Ikkaku's cheeks, but the resolute youth held his ground. "Yeah, that's right. And where's the last place your father would think to look for you, Yumichika?"
He opened his mouth to fire off a scathing retort, then closed it, thoughtful.
"I'm too young to do anything that goes on in there," he finally said, mulling it over.
"Not all of the work is on your back, Yumichika," Ikkaku said with the air of one who well knew it. He tapped his sword restlessly against his shoulder and gave the huge, quiet house a grim smile. "When I was young, I hauled water for the baths, cut wood for the fires. I wasn't big enough then to toss out the bad patrons but it didn't keep me from trying."
"They know you here, then?" Yumichika asked, wondering at the sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Yeah, some of them," Ikkaku said with a shrug. "I knew some of the acolytes when they were bathhouse girls. They probably remember me..."
Yumichika suspiciously watched him fidget, a frown flitting over the soft curve of his mouth.
"What?" Ikkaku asked. "What, I said?! Stop looking at me like that, Yumichika! I'm a man, aren't I?"
"Hardly," Yumichika scoffed, turning his nose up, pleased when Ikkaku growled his direction, fuming. He was spared Ikkaku's irate response by someone opening the gate for the day. The slender young maid took one look at the pair of them and started to say, "We'll be ready for service in half an hour's time, if..."
She trailed off, her light blue eyes landing on Ikkaku.
"Oh!"
"Yo, Maiko," Ikkaku said, covering his unease with familiarity. "You're still here?"
"Ikkaku!"
Yumichika watched in shocked dismay as that slip of a girl flung herself at Ikkaku, laughing in overjoyed surprise.
"Ikkaku! We didn't think you'd come back! Where've you been so long?"
Ikkaku caught her with obvious discomfort, but gamely returned her embrace, scowling at Yumichika when he raised one beautifully winged eyebrow at the exchange.
"Er...Maiko, I have a problem," Ikkaku said.
"I'd hardly qualify myself as a problem, Madarame," Yumichika said, retreating behind haughty coldness in the face of such emotional excess.
"Oh! Pardon me! I am so sorry!" the girl cried, releasing Ikkaku to bow towards Yumichika, the loose bun of her hair unraveling to spill wine-red tendrils over her shoulder. "I am Head Attendant Opunbara Maiko - I wish you welcome to the Open Rose."
"Is the old lady still alive?" Ikkaku asked, interrupting their exchange and actually taking a step between them to prevent Maiko from looking too closely at Yumichika.
"Oh, of course!" Maiko laughed, covering her mouth with one small hand. "Would you like an audience? She's in the garden. I'll take you, I know she'll see you. She always did have a soft spot for you, Ikkaku."
"Hey, get someone to take my friend, here, to the kitchen, eh?" Ikkaku asked, relaxing a little as Maiko closed the gate behind them. "Some food and water, a little rest, yeah?"
He flipped a coin her way and she nodded vigorously, smiling from ear to ear.
"Just one moment, I'll send someone for you," she promised, and tugged on Ikkaku's arm. "Just wait here!"
"As if I have a choice?" Yumichika asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He glared at Ikkaku, who merely glared back, and watched the pair of them vanish across a small footbridge into a latticework path. "What a horrible place..."
Actually, it wasn't terrible, it just wasn't anything like his home. Considering its position in the districts and its purpose, it was a respectably well-tended house. The gardens were meticulously kept and the pond was clear, brimming with fish. There were lazy feline house guardians lounging here and there on sunlit patches of stone, purring and bathing. Though shuttered, the house had a lived-in and loved air about it, and the paint was pristine.
"Ah! Hello! Forgive me, I don't know your name! Hello!"
He glanced over one shoulder to find a young boy barreling at him, a boy who skittered to a graceless stop in order to bow.
"Hello," he said again, panting. "Miss Maiko sent me! I'm Lowest Attendant Opunbara Katsuo! I am pleased to serve you!"
"Hmph. Do you all take the House as your surname?" Yumichika asked.
"Ah...yes!" the child said, bowing again. "Please follow me!"
"Don't you want to know my name?" Yumichika asked, amused.
"No!" Katsuo said, surprising him. "Senior Ikkaku said not to question you until Mistress allows you to stay!"
"Oh, did he?"
Katsuo's eager smile turned into a pained wince at the fury on Yumichika's face, but the child gamely said, "Please come with me! There is breakfast waiting for you, and a soft place to sit."
There was nothing for it, then. His only other option was to walk out of the gate, leaving behind virtually everything he had. Sighing, he followed the quick little boy back through what was clearly the servants' entrance and into an enormous kitchen where several people were already hard at work.
"Here, please sit," Katsuo offered, gesturing at a small, rough table meant for the staff. There was a soft cushion, however, and Yumichika lowered himself to it with graceful relief.
Katsuo poured tea for him, his small hands trembling a little and his anxious eyes on Yumichika.
"It's not much, but it's all we had yet this morning," the boy said by way of explanation, pushing a small bowl of rice and a side dish towards him. "The cooks got a late start today, because of some trouble."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" Yumichika asked, picking at the food despite his hunger. He hoped that Ikkaku was getting something to eat, too, then angrily rescinded that with a wish for the youth's discomfort. "That Ikkaku! I should have fought him on this!"
"Senior Ikkaku is your friend, isn't he?" Katsuo asked, settling back on his heels far enough away to avoid being struck, just in case.
"No, he isn't my friend!" Yumichika denied, fuming. "He's an insufferable, overbearing, bullying idiot!
Katsuo clearly didn't know what to make of it, and his confusion was evident on his round, young face. Instead of dwelling on it, he just smiled and said, "Miss Maiko is happy he's back! I've heard stories about Senior Ikkaku! I think you both will be welcome here!"
"Oh? Stories?" Yumichika echoed, intrigued out of his anger. "What kind of stories?"
"Eh...s...stories," Katsuo weakly offered, trying to backpedal.
"Eh?" Yumichika leaned closer to him, giving him a terrifying smile. "Tell me these stories, Katsuo, while I eat."
"I...I shouldn't..."
"I'm not hungry," Yumichika declared, putting his hashi down and turning his face away. "Ah, goodness! How angry Ikkaku will be when he sees I've not eaten!"
"Oh! No! No! Please," Katsuo hastened to say, scooting a little closer to entreat Yumichika, who was child enough to be gratified by it. "Please, eat! I will tell you one story, even if it's not mine to tell."
Yumichika relented with a pleased smile and took up his hashi again. He lifted a bite of rice to his lips, gave Katsuo an expectant look, and only began to eat once the child began to speak.
"Miss...Miss Maiko said when she was younger," the little boy said, wringing his hands in front of him as he tried to recall the details of what he'd been told. "She said that she cried when she came here, because she didn't know anyone and she was afraid of what she would be made to do. She said that Senior Ikkaku saw her hiding by the bathhouse when he was bringing the water, and he told her not to cry...He picked her up and swung her around until she laughed, and then he carried her on his shoulders to pick blossoms off of the trees. He got in trouble with the Mistress for not doing his work, but he said it was worth it, just for her smile..."
Yumichika put the hashi down again, this time with a true lack of appetite.
"He's a good man!" Katsuo said, nodding emphatically. "He took care of Miss Maiko! He took care of all kinds of people, here, even if he wasn't much older than us! Miss Maiko said that she always wanted to marry Senior Ikkaku when she grew up, but that he left last year without a word. Maybe, maybe now that he's back - "
"No more stories, Katsuo," Yumichika softly said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
The child nearly fainted from worry, but eventually resigned himself to it once no amount of begging or cajoling could get Yumichika to eat.
He just couldn't, not thinking about Ikkaku with that little Maiko girl on his arm. Would he be interested in her now, now that he was a year older, a year stronger, and more inclined to find females fascinating than he might've been a year ago? Yumichika's own elder brothers had grown interested in women at about fifteen years of age, and hadn't Ikkaku said that's how old he thought he might be?
"I shouldn't have come here," Yumichika whispered to himself, distraught, but unsure why. Only that the thought of Ikkaku with Maiko - with anyone - seemed to fill him with mingled anger and fear. He'd only just found a friend...would he lose him just as quickly to something he had no control over?
"Eh? Shouldn't have come here? Why's that, Yumichika?" Ikkaku asked, stomping into the kitchen with a glare. "Why aren't you eating, brat? Making everyone go to trouble for you, heh!"
"I didn't ask them to," Yumichika said with mild contempt that only deepened Ikkaku's scowl. "Why are you back so quickly?"
"She was busy," Ikkaku said, plopping down on the cushion next to Yumichika and taking up the hashi to eat his rejected food. "She said you could stay, though. She'll see you later. I told her you weren't for coin-service, so don't worry."
"As if I would worry," Yumichika flared, refusing to look at him. "Why, what an ugly place this is! Letting any ugly girl become an acolyte!"
Ikkaku snorted and meanly told him, "What do you mean, you're not a girl."
"How dare you!" Yumichika gasped, but reigned in his temper when he realized that Katsuo was avidly watching their exchange. "That wasn't what I meant and you know it!"
"Shut up, Yumichika," Ikkaku told him, shoving the half-empty bowl his way in a clear order for him to eat. "Why are you so angry, eh?"
"I'm angry because I'm in a whorehouse!" he hissed with enough venom that the cooks glanced over at him with angry disapproval. He took a breath to calm himself and said in a lower tone. "What, pray tell, do you intend to do, Madarame Ikkaku? Spend my coin on whores like Maiko?"
"Nah, not Maiko, she's not for sale," Ikkaku said, shrugging in that infuriating way of his. "Besides, I don't have to pay here."
"Oh!" Yumichika drew up, turning away from him, once more filled with that confusing and unwelcome anger.
"Stop being angry and eat this!" Ikkaku loudly told him. "Stop being angry, I said! What's wrong with you, brat? What's it matter what I do? I'll put your money somewhere safe, Yumichika. I don't need to rob you, remember?"
"Stop being so vulgar," Yumichika told him, trying to get a reign on his emotions. But just the thought of Ikkaku forming a bond with one of those girls...What would he do? He had no one else, and he couldn't go home again. He'd be alone in an ugly and hostile place with no working-class skills and no idea what to do. Yet Ikkaku - the boy who'd fought to protect him, the boy who'd gotten him a file just to mollify him - Ikkaku was willing to deposit him here like so much dirty laundry and what? Walk away? Forget him? Marry Maiko? "Ugh! How infuriating!"
Surprisingly, Ikkaku roughly ruffled his hair and told him, "You'll be okay, Yumichika, I promise. I'll take care of you, I said. Did you think I would leave you? Heh! As if I would do that to someone as helpless as you! Besides, she said you could only stay if I did, so that's that."
Startled, Yumichika looked back at him, his anger evaporating when his eyes met Ikkaku's.
"See? I'm taking care of you," Ikkaku smugly said, pleased with himself out of proportion. His cocky conceit coaxed a reluctant smile to Yumichika's face, but it was grounded in a fair amount of relief that Ikkaku wasn't going to leave him all alone here.
Well, not yet anyway.
"Now eat, I said!" Ikkaku ordered, giving the bowl a push. "And stop being so angry, brat! I told her you're tender, so you won't be worked rough."
Yumichika took up the bowl then, and delicately ate a few bites, trying to force down the bubbling upset so that he could swallow. It was funny, though, how comforting he found the heat of Ikkaku's body, how reassuring he found the pleasant, faint scent of his skin. He'd grown used to it since he'd met Ikkaku. After all, they'd slept piled together since that first night, sometimes for safety, sometimes for warmth, and sometimes because Yumichika found some way to complain until Ikkaku relented and allowed it. That wouldn't happen anymore, not now...
"Hmph. Good," Ikkaku said, satisfied that Yumichika had eaten at least a little bit. "Ah, Katsuo. Maiko says you're new here, eh?"
"Y...yes, Senior Ikkaku!" the boy cried, hastily inclining his head in a bow. "Miss Maiko speaks highly of you!"
"Ah, no, Katsuo," Yumichika said, forestalling him. "No stories for Ikkaku, if you please. He doesn't need anything else making his bald head bigger."
"Hey!" Ikkaku shouted, his raspy voice rising to a volume that made little Katsuo flinch. "I'm not bald!"
"And I'm not beautiful," Yumichika murmured, pleased when Ikkaku merely glared at him and called him a brat.
"Come on," Ikkaku said, standing with unconscious grace and dragging Yumichika up with him. "I'll get you settled and you can pout all you want."
Yumichika didn't have any choice but to follow him, considering that Ikkaku hauled him off by the arm. Katsuo anxiously shadowed them, but Ikkaku curtly told him to go away, and the boy fell back, crestfallen.
Ikkaku took him to a large barracks set beyond the screen of a tree grove. It was bustling with people hastening too and fro, all of them in identical, muted, dark dress with simple obi in the pattern of a blooming rose. They were all, Yumichika noted with growing ire, female.
"Ikkaku!"
"Yeah, I know," the youth said, pulling him to a stop at the door where a rather irate man was lounging with a pipe. "It can't be helped, Yumichika. I told her I was hiding you, and she said you could stay here."
"Why with the women?" Yumichika asked, appalled.
"Because there's always a guard on this door," Ikkaku told him, an answer that quieted Yumichika's protests. "Don't worry, brat, they know me here - I can come and go as I please."
"Ikkaku," Yumichika faintly said, uncertain that this would all work. "I...How do you know he won't find me here? How do you expect me...expect me to be a servant?"
"Eh? You too good for it?" Ikkaku asked, glaring down at him from the bottoms of his catlike eyes. "Eh?"
"No, it isn't that," Yumichika said, frustrated. "I don't know how!"
Ikkaku softened a little and roughed his hair, telling him, "You'll learn, Yumichika. It's not so hard. Just do your best. As for your father - as long as he's sending men out to search the districts for a boy on the run, they won't notice another girl in a whorehouse, no matter how pretty she is."
Pretty? Yumichika blushed, pleased by the compliment despite the fact that he knew Ikkaku had paid it simply to gain his compliance. As far as ploys went, it was obvious, yet highly effective.
"Here, come on," Ikkaku said, leading him past the grudging guard and into the interior, where a series of private cells gave way to a common area full of rolled and stacked futons. "Hey, Maiko! Where are you, eh?!"
"Here!" Maiko called, waving them over. She stood, flushed and smiling, and said, "Ayasegawa Yumichika, here is your bedding and a place for your belongings."
She indicated the meager bedding rolled up at her feet, and pointed at a space in a worn wooden shelving unit.
"Hmph. Is it clean?" Yumichika asked, feeling his hostility rise when Maiko beamed in Ikkaku's direction.
"Yumichika!" Ikkaku shouted, and thumped him, careful of his back. "It's fine, thank you, Maiko. Be grateful, brat!"
"Thank you, Senior Maiko," Yumichika mildly said, smirking as he delivered the subtle insult couched in his honorific. "I will learn as well as you can teach..."
She smiled at him, damn her, and said, "Yumichika, you're so well-spoken! It seems a waste to put you as a bathhouse attendant."
"B...bathhouse?" Yumichika faintly echoed, dismayed by the wolfish glee that suddenly suffused Ikkaku's lean face. "I beg your pardon?"
"Ah, every new girl starts out there," Maiko told him, then whispered conspiratorially, "Although I understand that you're...well...special..."
Yumichika bared his teeth in a pained smile and ground out, "You have no idea..."
"Heh heh, have fun, Yumichika," Ikkaku told him, enjoying his discomfort. "By the way, give me your sword."
"What? No!"
"Give it to me, I said!" Ikkaku yelled, holding out his hand for it. "You can't carry it around here and someone will steal it! I'll keep it safe for you, I promise!"
Reluctant though he was, Yumichika relented and turned it over, watching with pained sorrow as Ikkaku slid the weapon through his sash next to his own sword.
"If you are comfortable enough, Yumichika, I'll have you change and begin your duties," Maiko said, still smiling. Yumichika unkindly wondered if her stupid face had another expression. "We have three uniforms each, and do laundry on the last day of the week. Mark yours somehow so they don't get lost, okay?"
"Yes," Yumichika said, taking up the clothing she offered. The material was much finer than he expected, but then again this House had its own appearances to keep up. Shabbily clad servants gave a wrong impression, after all. "Excuse me, do you mind? I dislike having an audience."
"Here, we have a privacy room," Maiko said, leading him to a small cell with a screen. "You can change in here."
Yumichika did so, taking his time to put off the inevitable separation. Once he was settled, he knew that Ikkaku would be off for his own business, and he dreaded the idea of being away from him.
He folded the pinwheel kimono up carefully, trying not wrinkle it too badly, and carried the lot of it out...
To find that Ikkaku had already gone.
"Oh? All done?" Maiko asked, waiting for him to put his things away in his cubicle space. "Ikkaku said to tell you he'd see you for your evening meal. Are you ready?"
Yumichika willed away the distress he felt, and composed himself before he turned to face her. Smiling slightly, he said in a small voice, "As ready as I'll ever be."
Bathhouse dtuy turned out to be genteelly greeting the House's male patrons who came to refresh themselves either before or after their exertions with the Open Rose's variety of workers. It was staffed by a mixture of male and female servants, none of whom were expected to attend the patrons in any intimate capacity unless the lure of a tip was too great to resist. Yumichika himself, being so young, was given the only position where such a request was unable to be made with any measure of discretion, and he was grateful once he realized that most of the patrons thought he was a young girl.
Still, it was mind-numbing work for a boy used to exerting himself in training and otherwise idling about. Providing amenities and greetings didn't exactly require any intelligence, which left his voracious mind with far too little to do. Unfortunately, it chose to dwell on Ikkaku and what he could possibly be up to...
"Hey, you there! Yumichika, right?"
"Eh?" He glanced up, shocked to see the bountiful presence of a grown woman standing in the doorway. "Ah! Madam! I am afraid you have the wrong bathhouse! We provide separate facilities for - "
She laughed, and he cut off abruptly, scrutinizing her. She wasn't in the bloom of youth, but she was a young woman, and a very handsome one at that. She watched him with sparkling blue eyes, smoke drifting from between the curve of her full red lips. When she stepped towards him, all of her ample curves moved beneath the loose layer of her messily-donned kimono. She bent down to inspect him and he blushed to the roots of his hair when he saw straight down the cleft of her breasts to her white navel.
"Yeah, you must be Yumichika," she said, and gave another husky laugh. "Ikkaku said that you were soft. He didn't mention how lovely you are."
"Er...thank you..." he said, looking away.
She idly combed her free fingers through the tangled locks of her black hair and lifted her pipe to her lips with the other, taking a meditative pull of smoke.
"Does anyone know you're a boy?" she asked. Her overbearing, familiar way of speaking to him reminded Yumichika of Ikkaku a little bit, and he realized that she must be the "old lady" that his brash friend had spoken of.
"Maiko," he answered, uncertain how to address her.
"Hmph. Let's keep it that way," she ordered, blowing out a cloud of smoke. "Ikkaku, he's your friend, isn't he?"
"Yes, madam," Yumichika said, still gazing at the wall until she straightened. She looked down at him, measuring him, thoughts moiling in her blue eyes.
"Yes, madam, he says," she murmured, smirking. "Ikkaku, he's something, isn't he?"
Yumichika dared to look at her and he didn't like what he saw in her expression. He wasn't certain what it was, but it seemed too close to what he felt about Maiko to make him comfortable.
"Yes, he's something," he answered.
"Why does he protect you, eh?" she asked, nudging his knee with her bare toe. She looked like she'd just rolled out of bed, like she didn't care if anyone saw her half-naked and unkempt.
"Because he wants to," Yumichika said, the only answer he could give because he didn't have he first clue why Ikkaku had decided to protect him. It seemed nothing more than a whim, honestly. A whim turned to duty somehow, and an unhappy duty at that... "And Ikkaku does exactly as he pleases."
She chuckled, her eyes narrowing with calculation.
"While you're in my house, Yumichika," she told him, confirming that she was, indeed, the proprietress of the Open Rose. "You're mine, do you understand? Everything in this house is mine."
"Including Ikkaku?" Yumichika dared, quailing to see the possessive flare in her blue eyes.
"Especially Ikkaku," she purred, smiling unpleasantly. "I never thought he'd come back, let alone come back needing a favor. Thank you, Yumichika, for putting him in my debt."
He stared at her with stunned horror, coming to his feet in an abortive attempt to go find Ikkaku.
"Sit," she ordered, and waited until he'd done so. "You said yourself, he does exactly what he wants to do. However he chooses to pay his debt, remember that it's the way he chooses."
Yumichika felt sick to his stomach, ill to think that he'd somehow forced Ikkaku to return to a place and become indebted to someone who was so obviously willing to take advantage of him.
"Like all of the people in this house, Yumichika," she said, reaching out to smooth his hair. "You'll call me Mother. Do you understand?"
"Yes," he said, nearly choking on his anger, on his resentment. "I understand."
"Yes, I understand what?"
"Yes, I understand, Mother," he bit out, glaring at her.
She only laughed again, and patted his cheek.
"Be a good girl," she murmured, smirking when temper flared in his eyes. "As long as we're both getting what we want, I have no reason to abuse you."
Yumichika stared up at her so steadily that she lost her smirk.
"I swear to you, if you make him do anything against his will," Yumichika softly said. "I will leave this House and let you bear the consequences. Whatever his reasons, Ikkaku considers me worth protecting, and I doubt that he would take it kindly were you to misplace me in such a way."
"Ah, so young to be making such threats!" she said, but sounded oddly pleased. "We neither of us can force him to do anything, can we, Yumichika? If he comes to me, then he comes as he pleases. I'll take care of you as long as he's here, kid. If he goes...well, if he goes, then you'll be put to real work."
And with that, she turned in a swirl of loose clothing and strode out the way she'd come, leaving Yumichika trembling faintly in mingled anger and fear.
The unease plagued him through the day, and peaked during the evening meal he took with the other lower servants in their communal hall. He tried to take his meal alone, hoping that Ikkaku would show up as he'd promised, but Maiko and Katsuo insisted on sitting with him.
"Miss Maiko," he finally brought himself to say, too worried to keep silent. "I thought you said that Ikkaku would join me?"
"Oh, well..." Maiko looked uncomfortable suddenly, and deeply unhappy. "He, uhm. He decided to take his evening meal with the Mistress."
Yumichika flinched, thinking of that voluptuous woman and her hungry, possessive eyes. Ikkaku might not be a man grown yet, but there was enough about him to entice a woman who might otherwise be jaded to all else.
"He said he's going to take a position on the guard," Maiko reluctantly added, apparently sharing his dismay. "So he'll probably be spending most of his time with her..."
Yumichika silently gave his food to Katsuo, who was young enough to put it away with gusto.
"You have such pretty hands, Yumichika," Maiko softly said, almost consolingly. Her blue eyes were kind when Yumichika met them and she smiled a little. "And such nice nails! It's a good thing that she didn't put you to manual labor. It would be an awful waste. How do you keep them so nice?"
"Ik...I file them," Yumichika quietly told her. In a hesitant gesture of truce, he offered, "I can file yours, if you like?"
She nodded with an eagerness that shamed him. They were united in a common interest, at least, even if it was one loud, cocky, infernally frustrating and wonderful bald idiot named Madarame Ikkaku.
"Yes, I'd like that..."
It felt alien and strange to end the evening in such a large space with so many strangers around him. He retired with Maiko and Katsuo to unroll their futons next to each other, and they spent a little while tending each others nails in cautious conversation, mostly listening to Katsuo's animated chatter. There were other boys in the barracks, Yumichika realized, but all of them were less than seven years old - too young to go to the men's barracks where life was less gentle.
Eventually, though, the lamps were put out and darkness blanketed the room.
Yumichika lay in his borrowed bed, staring at the darkness until the contours of the ceiling began to take shape as his eyes adjusted. He hadn't felt homesick or lonely since leaving his own house, but he felt now, here, surrounded by strangers in a place that didn't feel welcoming. He felt young and out of his element, beyond his resources, and vulnerable in ways that terrified him.
He was so lost in his inner turmoil that he nearly shrieked when someone pulled his blankets off.
Sitting up in a flurry of startled anger, he struck out at whoever it was and nearly swallowed his tongue when his wrist was caught in a familiar, rough grip.
"Hey, stop it!" Ikkaku lowly ordered, and gave him a shake. "Stop it, I said! Are you trying to wake everyone, brat? Move over!"
"Ikkaku?" he whispered, weak with relief. He moved over as far as he could on the small futon, shifting as Ikkaku slid in with him. "What are you doing here?"
"Coming to sleep, stupid!" Ikkaku whispered, flopping back to get comfortable. "You haven't been by yourself this whole time, I thought you would feel better if I was here."
Yumichika could have hugged him, his relief was so vast. Instead, he settled at Ikkaku's side and cautiously draped over him, relaxing when the boy didn't protest.
"Hey, Yumichika," Ikkaku whispered, turning a little to face him in the darkness. "Are you okay?"
Yumichika shied a little, hiding his face beneath Ikkaku's chin. "I don't like it here," he admitted. "That Mistress...she's scary."
Ikkaku's soft chuckle rumbled through him, but the larger youth only said, "Nah, she's not so scary. She's just a perverted old lady is all, brat. Don't let her get to you."
"It's not me I'm worried about," Yumichika told him, thinking of what she'd said. "Ikkaku...What did you agree to in order to keep me here?"
"Eh? What's this, now? You worried for me?" Ikkaku asked. "Unlike you, brat Prince, I can take care of myself."
"Ikkaku," Yumichika said, brushing aside his teasing. He lifted his head and met Ikkaku's eyes, faint glimmers of silver in the gloom. "Neither one of us came here to be whores."
Ikkaku blinked, then grinned and gave him a rough squeeze. "Yumichika, don't worry, I said! You know me; no one makes me do anything. No one can make me do anything. You have a roof over your head, here, food, a place to sleep, clothes - be grateful, Yumichika, yeah?"
"I am grateful," the smaller boy said, and daringly added, "I'm grateful for you, Madarame Ikkaku."
Ikkaku loosed a gratified chuckle and urged Yumichika to roll over so that he could curl against his back.
"Brat," he sighed, twisting Yumichika's hair up over the edge of the futon so that it wasn't in his face. "Not too much, I said..."
"Don't worry, Ikkaku," Yumichika said, smiling as he relaxed, comforted by Ikkaku's nearness. "I won't change too much. I promise."
And finally, with Ikkaku curled around him protectively, safe in the circle of the youth's wiry arms, Yumichika was able to sleep.