Oroku Saki lounged in his chair in his rooms, his hand absently stroking the head of Hachiko, still caught in his thoughts from his Throne Room. He had wished Nikka happy hunting when she had set out on her mission this night, and knew that her late arrival back was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. He knew that she and Casey Jones had met up, Hun had reported to him as soon as he'd gotten back. Nikka's handmaid had come to his Throne Room once she'd returned homeā¦
He chuckled. Home, interesting choice of words, Saki.
Her handmaid had come to him and with all the deference he was sure the woman could falsely muster, informed him that Mistress Veronika suggested he go to his rooms, her report was a long one. When he stood up and dismissed her with a wave of his hand, heading toward the door, the look of shock on the woman's face had been very satisfying. They all thought him made of stone, a statue that could not move or be moved. But he was not stone, he was a living mountain, based in stone, but filled with life, and wind, and water. It was all of these things, together, that made him greater than anyone else in his presence. Just because his lowly Foot soldiers did not see the life that lay on the mountain, did not mean it did not exist. It only meant they did not understand the meaning of power, which was why they were only Foot soldiers, and not something more.
Hachiko tilted his head slightly to have Saki's fingers find an itchy spot behind one of his ears.
He could feel her presence as she came toward his door, and then he could hear the light clomp of boots, then the rustle of clothes, then the click of the doorknob turning. Her head poked in the crack that slowly emerged, just as it had in the Throne Room the other night, a delighted smile on her face.
He stood up from his chair as she entered. "Your night went well, I take it?" he threw her previous question back at her.
She fully emerged, and closed the door behind her. She was wearing an awful costume to make her look like a grunge rock band groupie. Who knows what her hair and face had looked like. He could tell she'd must have been made up in some fashion, her face was free of makeup and her hair was still parted in three sections, indicating she'd put it up to wear a wig. "It went fabulously!" she said quietly, before looking down and seeing the dog at Saki's side. "Oh, hello you," she bent down and stretched her hand out to him, but the dog didn't move. "Where have you been hiding?" The dog remained at Saki's side. She looked up at him with an annoyed smirk, and then snapped her fingers and said, "Hachiko, come!"
The dog's tail immediately began wagging, and it padded over to her. She began to rub his fuzzy neck vigorously.
"Where have you been keeping him, Saki? I didn't know you'd brought him with you."
"In his kennel," he said, walking over to her.
"He's been here the whole time, and I haven't seen him?" She turned to Hachiko, and in a baby voice said, "Has de mean ol' daddy been keeping you locked up? Poor baby!"
Saki scowled, but said nothing.
She kissed the dog on the top of his head, "Oh," she looked up at him, "I spoke with Miyabi-shishou today. She says hello."
"And how is Asakami Miyabi?" he asked.
"She seems fine. Every time I talk with her, she seems a little older." Frankly, it worried Nikka. It seemed that her life was ebbing from her too quickly. She seemed more frail and weak every time she saw her on the phone, which was at the very least once a week, usually more.
"She is a little older," he said simply.
She pouted, and kept her eyes on Hachiko. "You know what I mean."
He wondered what Nikka would be expecting. The woman was ancient. She was old when he had met her, and Nikka had not come to her but a few short years before that. The fact she was still alive at all was quite an accomplishment in and of itself. "Tell me about your successful night," he said.
She stood up, the delighted smile back on her face. "We had an excellent start tonight," she told him, "I wouldn't doubt he doesn't tell me all about the Turtles and Hamato before long."
He motioned her to a seat, and sat down across from her, and poured her a glass of water. "What did he tell you tonight?" Hachiko came back to his side, and again, he let his fingers gently caress the dog's head.
Nikka suppressed a smile, and while pouring him his glass of water, she looked him up and down again. He was wearing that black spandex stuff that he wore under his armor, which left so little to the imagination. And one did not need an imagination to see what lie underneath it was magnificently built. But then, he'd always been magnificently built. She guessed he must have had to beat the girls away with a stick when he was a teenager. His fingers gently stroked the dog's head, who seemed to be in heaven from the touch. Despite the eye candy in front of her, she yawned, putting her hands to her mouth. "Pardon me," she said, before continuing. "He told me that he got in a fight with his best friend, and they hadn't really made up yet. He likes a girl, but doesn't know if she likes him. He likes music, and hockey, and he's an artist. The graffiti kind," she winked, as she bent slightly to untie her combat boots. .
Saki raised and eyebrow.
She giggled, "Normal stuff that a teenage boy would say in order to impress a pretty girl." She slid her boot off, and then peeled off the teal sock, revealing a bare foot with pale pink toenails.
"Were you impressed?" he asked. He wasn't sure what the response would be. He was surprised to find himself not sure what he wanted her response to be.
She rolled her eyes and let out a huff of air. "He's so typical, Saki. It's pathetic." The smile was gone, replaced with a disgusted curl of her lip. She tugged off her other boot, and peeled that sock off also, tucking the socks in each boot. "Nothing original about him at all."
"That was my assessment," he agreed.
"I figure I will text him for the next month or two, until we meet up again," she started.
"Month or two?" Saki sat up straight, his hand leaving Hachiko's head.
Nikka pursed her lips together, "Yes, a month or two." Before he could growl out a response, she continued, "Ashton's birthday is in two days, Greta's in two weeks after that, I have a symphony concert sometime next month, I can't quite remember the day, and if David won an award, then we'll have to do the rounds for all the award winning things. He won't know he's won an award until the last day of the conference."
He scowled, taking in the woman in front of him.
She tilted her head to the side, and clucked her tongue. "Saki," she drawled, taking out her mobile phone. "I got his phone number," she sang. "We will be keeping in touch. The bait has been set, I do not intend to take the hook out of the water before the fish bites. Texting, it's the rage, you know," she said with a slight Brooklyn accent. "Us old folks don't know anything about that kind of thing."
He grunted.
She laughed, and shook her head at him, "Oh, Saki, it will be alright. I won't lose him, I promise." She got that pretend innocent look on her face, and batted her eyelashes. When his look did not change, she sighed, and shook her head, "I am flying home tomorrow," she looked at him tired and defeated. "I do not want to fight with you, Saki."
He moved his hand in front of him in a conciliatory gesture, bringing it back to Hachiko's head. It was his plane that was taking her home, and he decided when and where it went.
She stood up, grabbed the laces on her combat boots, a tired smile on her face. "It's almost morning," she said, heading toward the door. "I have no idea how you stay up all night, and then stay up all day. There is no way I can do that."
"You've never been able to do it," he told her, getting up also.
"And you have always been able to," she said, turning her head and smiling at him slyly. She stopped walking and looked at him, her mind buzzing for a moment. He was smiling at her, that tiny smile, the only smile he had, half cocked on his scarred face, as if he was in a poker game, revealing his royal flush against everyone else's four of a kind. The look took her by surprise, and the relaxation in her vanished, the fatigue being replaced by a tingle. She dropped the combat boots and spun around the face him.
He didn't move as she came toward him in a rush, he knew he didn't have to. As soon as she stopped when walking to the doorway, he knew he had her. Despite David, despite two children, despite the orchestra, despite Miyabi, he had her. He couldn't help but smile in recompense, the look on her face was consumed, just as her face had been when she'd been a girl. All he had to do was be patient, he reminded himself. Be patient and be present.
She flung her arms about his neck, and pulled him down to her. Her entire body constricted on her as she did so, like a coil about to be let go to leap to the ceiling. She felt like a girl, she always did while the curtain was being whisked away between them. Her mouth pressed desperately against his, sucking at his bottom lip. When she backed her head away, she breathed his name.
He did not put his arms around her in return. He did not push her away. With her face so close to his, and her breath carrying, "Saki," to his ears, he waited. I am patient, his calm mind said, I am present. Her eyes moved from his good one to his blind one, as if he could see out of both of them. At his reticence, fear began to cloud her features, as if she was realizing she'd made a terrible miscalculation, that before 2+2=4, but for some reason now it equaled 5. Her body stiffened and her breath hitched in her throat. He was patient, and he was present.
He felt the briefest of movements in her arms on his neck, the firing of muscles, stirring them away to release him. It was only then that he moved, at that moment when her arms were about him and not about him at the same time. One of his hands came to the back of her head, the other to her waist, and his lips returned the kiss she'd just given him with the same consumption she'd given it.
She felt her groin tighten at his embrace, a primal feeling and it made her heart race and her limbs tremble. His kisses were rough and open mouthed, and they always set her aflame, he seemed to know how to kiss her just perfect. He pulled away from her, looking her in the eyes. She immediately felt the absence of his body heat near her face, and her blue orbs were bright and lined with wet just at her lashes.
He couldn't feel her kisses on his lips, the burns having deadened the nerves too severely. But he could feel pressure, and he pressed hard against her, to feel her mouth on his. The inside of his lips and his tongue, however, still had full feeling capacity. She scraped her upper teeth on his lip as she sucked on it. The feeling made his belly contract, and he had to consciously control his breathing, lest it match hers in her urgency. With an intake of breath, he snaked his tongue into her mouth. She met him greedily, her own tongue spinning around his, starting inside her own mouth until she was fully extended. He couldn't feel her breath on his face, but he could feel the rise and fall of her breasts against him, he could feel her heart beating in her chest, and they were like a drowning woman clinging to life. He slowly, deliberately, moved the hand at her lower back...
This is the truncated version, to stay in compliance with the TOS. If you want the full romance-novel version of the chapter, head over to my AO3 account. A special shout out to Lexifer666 for helping with the steamy stuff. Go read her stuff...but be sure to have some shower time available afterward. You're going to need a cold one.
