Kotori had stopped playing eight breaths before Yukino slid open the door. The piece was unfinished, but she had filed it away in her mind. The footsteps had told her someone was coming, and it was only polite for her to cease her music-making in order to greet whoever it was properly.

"Ah, Kotori-chan, gomen, gomen," the woman apologized, and Kotori recognized her for who she was. It seemed the mistress of The Firefly House was breathless from the quickness of her pace. "It seems I have the wrong room again." Kotori listened as Yukino seemed to swallow her words, the manner reminiscent of that of a swimmer gulping in air right before plunging back into the water. "That's the third time tonight. Where is that damned Asano."

The blind koto player allowed herself a small smile as she drew one hand away from the strings beneath her fingers. To Yukino's statement she answered as if to a question: "Asano-san said he would return within the hour, Yukino-san," she informed her mistress, "The sake ran short so he took it upon himself to retrieve new kegs."

"Please," Kotori continued, gesturing slightly off the mark to the pillows set opposite her. "Sit awhile, Yukino-san. I will play for you until he returns. I doubt that he will be gone for very long."

She didn't see Yukino nod, though the woman did. Instead, Kotori heard the shifting of fabric as the youjo folded her legs under her to sit upon one of the pillows. Kotori did not see her turn her gaze to the open window and the world that lay beyond that, but the words that followed informed her as much.

"It's a beautiful night, Kotori-chan," Yukino seemed to breathe in awe, "the moon is especially full, and the sky is incredibly bright."

She wove the music about them, and Kotori tilted her head to one side, giving the brief impression that she would lose herself in the notes that her fingers seemed to braid. She did not see Yukino smile, but instead heard the sigh that accompanied it, wistful as the fog that snuck under the doors in the winter months. "I've lost count now, how long he's been gone."

"I have no doubt that Shichiroji-sama thinks often too of Yukino-san."

Kotori did not need to see the curious look that woman saw her, her handicap had taught her other senses to pay attention well to other things in order to compensate for her lack of sight. The momentary pause in Yukino's breath told her that she had touched upon the topic of her thoughts, and the soft hiss of fingers brushing away something from the cloth of her kimino told Kotori confirmed that it indeed was the former samurai that Yukino was thinking on.

Habits betray people. Kotori could not see them, but she had learned to listen.

"Shichiroji-sama will return." She spoke with absolute certainty. "Sometimes promises can be enough."

When Yukino's soft laugh reached her, Kotori could almost touch the twinge of sadness that laced her words. "How did you know my thoughts, Kotori-chan?"

"Doubt has a certain sound to it, as does every other emotion." Her fingers plucked daintily at the strings, a small, new song coming to life at their tips. "Each breath has a weight all it's own, and Yukino-san's has been heavy with worry, regret and loneliness."

"You sound like you know what it's like to be inlove, Kotori-chan." The simple statement halted her song, and Kotori felt her lower lip quiver just a little. Old memories flashed in her mind in time to the metronome of her heart; another lifetime, another place -- one where the world and it's colors were still hers to behold.

"Even I have a price to pay for my music, Yukino-san." She answered simply, and they both understood that their conversation had come to it's proper coda. Kotori's fingers resumed their little dance, and the blind girl inhaled deeply, pouring all her old wishes and all Yukino's new worries unto the fledgling piece. "Tell me again about the sky, Yukino-san," Kotori asked simply, the music taking seed and blooming forth into the flowers of a home she could only conjure up in memory. "Tell me about the first time Shichiroji-sama taught you about the stars."

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written to: her most beautiful smile // iwashiro taro (rurouni kenshin)
prompts: wrong room, the price to pay;