Over Him
by Mirune Keishiko
chapter twenty-one
Turning to Salt
She was a pretty young thing, simply clad, with a serious look to her. The college student looked up briefly from her notebook to adjust something on her music player and Megumi glimpsed sharp green eyes, an unmade-up mouth pursed in concentration—which broke into a broad grin as she waved at a group of young men and women walking past the window, who enthusiastically waved back. The girl gave a short, easy laugh as her friends pretended to have to shout to make themselves heard through the glass, forming their mouths around words with slow, exaggerated movements.
So, that was the hot springs girl, eh? Megumi quickly turned back to her cup of tea and pretended not to have seen Tae's brief look of sympathy from behind the bar. Well, she was attractive, she was young, she was obviously popular and friendly. There were any number of ways she and Sano might have met. And Sanosuke would turn any woman's head. Tall, handsome, sexy, funny, flirtatious Sanosuke...
...who's just like every other guy I've ever met.
She grimaced and sipped her tea. Nobody had told her anything, but it had been clear from the panic that had flickered across Tae's face when she'd first come in, and the restaurateur's warning glances at Yahiko and meaningful nods in a certain direction when Megumi had pretended to be busy with the new menu, that there was something about the lone figure seated by the side window and briskly stirring one of Tae's trendier green tea concoctions.
Megumi hadn't seen or heard from Sanosuke since the fight in the car almost a month ago; it had been over two weeks since the birthday that she'd completely forgotten. It figures, sighed Megumi to herself, that the one time I finally dare to unbury my head from work, I run into her.
"So, I take it you're finally getting a break from all that research stuff you were doing?"
Walking up, carrying a tray of salads to put in the display fridge, Tae was, consciously or not, putting on her "let's change the subject" voice. Megumi smiled at her well-meaning friend.
"Yeah, he took care of the rest already. He submitted the paper this morning."
"Oh, a he!" And that was her "I smell testosterone!" voice. Megumi groaned inwardly. She'd never mentioned anything to Tae about her research partner—or more precisely, her boss—before, and for good reason. Tae's eyes sparkled at her over the display case. "Sounds like you were working pretty closely together. Do tell!"
"There's not much, really." And Megumi found herself dropping words as reluctantly as though she were being made to talk about top-secret research findings, though her mind lingered pleasantly on Tae's excited conclusion. "He just used to be my professor, is all," she finished lamely, groping for more to say under Tae's eerily intense gaze; the woman was always all ears for even the barest hint of relationships and even their aftershocks, which was one reason her restaurant and bar never wanted for customers. "And I just needed the experience. I learned a lot," she added, hoping that Tae would take the hint and move on to ask about, say, immunohistology.
Tae didn't. "You should go out with him!" she chirped, cheeks pink from the chill as she shut the display refrigerator, salads safely stowed. "He sounds cute and I think you could really build something on what you've already started..."
Megumi couldn't help chuckling as her friend bubbled over with suggestions, eyes as wide and starry as though she were planning her own lovelife. The arrival of a group of tourists mercifully distracted the young matchmaker, however, and soon Megumi was left in peace with a dish of a new experimental green tea panna cotta that Tae wanted her to test.
Megumi had always prided herself on her self-control, but it took her a while to realize—as she raised the first teaspoonful to her mouth—that she was staring again at the oblivious girl. Hastily she looked away, but the noise and chatter between Tae and her new customers failed to drown out the echoes of a merry peal of girlish laughter inside her head. Had the hot springs girl laughed that way when Sano clowned around? Whenever Megumi had been focusing hard on schoolwork, the roosterhead had always cracked a joke or two, wanting her to smile. Relax, kitsune, he'd always used to say. The world's not gonna end yet. Megumi bit her lip, staring down at the dessert which was undoubtedly delicious if she could only taste it past the bitter tang in her mouth.
How long had they known each other before they'd gone together that weekend? Megumi had never seen the girl before; was she an old flame of Sanosuke's? What else did one do at hot springs anyway, besides—and Megumi's grip tightened on her cup. Had they shared a room? Had they shared a bed?
She remembered that it had been Sano who had made the bar in Tae's restaurant. The wood was lightly stained, and with Tae's meticulous care even the inevitable water damage from years of use did not mar the beauty of the polished surface, the silky grain snaking under and through the occasional natural spot of shadow. Megumi ran her fingers along the curved edge, remembered an early morning when she had been hungry and hung over and had stopped on the staircase to watch him work, his muscles sleek, his body smoothly rhythmic as he bent over a chair whose wood he'd been smoothening.
Remembered blueberry pancakes on the bank of a morning's river. The tentative gentleness of calloused fingers, hushed whispers in the warm darkness beneath her sheets. She had been surprised, then, that such deliberate, careful tenderness could come from a man, could come from a man like him—someone she'd dismissed early on as rough, unheeding, unthinking. It had, in fact, been the visible rawness of his strength and his quick, instinctive ways that had drawn her to him in the beginning. What she hadn't expected, and what had brought tears to her eyes those first few times, was how finely he reined in his strength, how considerate he was in following his well-honed instincts.
When she'd blinked back her tears—though two had escaped before she could do anything, and spotted the counter, his counter—she thought to look: the girl's seat was empty.
Megumi sighed and finished her panna cotta, grateful, at least, that Tae hadn't seen her momentary emotionality. The kind woman would undoubtedly have come bustling over and raised a fuss. Megumi scribbled a short note to her friend, enthusing on the quality of the dessert, and left, the note and her payment tucked under her empty plate.
She had a dinner to get ready for.
tsuzuku
As always, I am deeply grateful to all who have read and reviewed, and especially to those who have kept up all these years (gah, I never thought I'd say "years" about a fic of mine...!). Special special regards to Akanke, whose career choices I very much envy, and to Crewel the indefatigable SxM fan!
The next update should take a few more days, because of real life and all that crap that we put up with when we can't escape into our fantasy worlds. Sigh. But I do hope to finish this by June. Send me the Force, guys! Hehe!