Chapter 21

Even though they had said they'd head south, Fuu, Jin and Mugen made their way southwest and wound up roughly following the coast west. Only Fuu couldn't tell because she hadn't traveled as much as they had and couldn't tell the direction without a map or a major landmark to orient her, but it didn't matter anyway. Their goal had been to move away from the direction of Edo. The men didn't bother telling her. They didn't care were they went, and she'd find out soon enough so it didn't matter.

After skirting towns for a while, they stopped in the small farming village of Azo to find shelter from a sudden rain storm. They discovered an abandoned house on its outskirts and had decided to stop there until the rain dissipated.

The trio hadn't spoken of what had happened since they had parted ways, each lost in thought and in the desire to put ground between them an Echizen. It wouldn't be long that the shogun would get word of the rebellion, and none of them wanted to nearby when the army swept through the place or when the authorities figured out they had been there and informed the shogunate.

Jin was cooking the last of the rice they had bought in the last town, and Fuu was sweeping out the floor so they could sleep on it. Mugen was lounging in a corner, studying his unsheathed sword. "Getting dull. I gotta find a blacksmith soon." "You should sharpen your sword on your own. A good swordsman does." Jin said this last with the intention to rile the vagrant. "You wanna have a go?" Mugen raised the weapon in the ronin's direction. "Jeez. Give it a rest. The last thing we need is you two busting up this place." Fuu frowned at them. Jin smiled slightly. Mugen shrugged and resheathed his sword.

Jin had missed his friends, for all their bickering, and now their inability to keep their hands off each other. He used to want to fight Mugen at the drop of a hat, but now he wasn't interested in killing the man. But he discovered that poking at him could be fun sometimes. And Fuu was always energetic and as naive as usual, despite not being as naïve in the ways of men anymore.

Of course he was glad Mugen had finally gotten over his hang ups and finally gotten with her, but Jin was unprepared for all the constant 'accidental' touching, the not so subtle sexual innuendo, and Mugen's frequent open leering at Fuu. All were new and all were disturbing to the ronin because he didn't want to think of them going at it, and he had already heard them enough.

Part of him was a bit jealous of their closeness. He missed Shino, and it was a constant reminder of what he couldn't have until she was free.

He poured out the rice for them, and listened to Fuu tell him what had happened while they were separated, speaking sadly when she told him of the child she had lost. Jin noticed Mugen's knuckles were white during this, his hands clenched tightly. "She was dead." He said lowly, glaring at Jin. Jin glanced at Fuu alarmed. "But I came back. I'm fine." She looked pleadingly at Mugen. "You can't have kids no more. You wanted some and you can't have 'em no more. What's fine about that?"

Jin startled Fuu by suddenly leaning across to her and grabbing her chin in a flash, looking into her eyes as if searching for something. Mugen grabbed the ronin's wrist. "Hey! Hands off! She's my woman now, you can't just grab her whenever. You got that? No midnight rendezvous, no whispered secrets, no hugs. Got it?" He turned to Fuu. "And as for you, if you got a problem, you come to me now not him. Got it?" He glared and crossed his arms.

"Sorry." Jin said, more to Fuu than Mugen, surprised by the man's outburst. Both he and Fuu were startled by the realisation that he had been awake during those times during their search for the sunflower samurai and listening to them. But both were equally startled to now realise just how jealous of them he'd been.

"Okay." Fuu replied softly, blushing. Then she got mad. "Why didn't you tell me you were jealous? How could you just tell me that now?" "I wasn't jealous. And what'd it matter? You liked Jin then, not me." "Whaaat?" You could fairly see the steam coming off the young woman. "What the he..." "You...ass!" She got up and began to pace. "So that's it, isn't it?" She glared at him. "That explains everything. Everything." She walked up to him and poked him with her pointer finger as she spoke. "It was you I liked, not Jin. You." Mugen was speechless. Jin resisted the urge to laugh at the situation and at Mugen's expression. Barely. It was priceless.

Then Mugen got mad. "You were the one all lovey dovey. 'Oh Jin I'm so sad, why don't you hold me?'" "It wasn't like that! He was just being kind. That time I was sad because I didn't want you to kill each other, since he's my friend and…"she lowered her voice and looked away in embarrassment over the memory "I loved you." She glared at him again. "How could I be happy that one of you was going to kill the other? You… dummy!" She exited the shack and almost slammed the door.

Mugen gaped at the door, before looking at Jin with a poleaxed look. "Go after her. Dummy." He smirked the vagrant.

Mugen got up and followed her, not even noticing the insult.

When the door closed, Jin's mind went back to Fuu's revelations and Mugen's angry reaction to her words about losing a child, dying and not being able to have more children. They were shocking, hard revelations. It was why he had examined her face. She seemed fine, but knowing her it was an act.

What's more, he saw just how deeply Mugen loved her for the first time ever. And while he suspected it; seeing it on the pirate's face was equally as shocking as Fuu's revelations. Like Fuu, he hadn't known the man was jealous of their relationship. He had that feeling on a rare occasion or two, but not for certain until now. Jin's astute mind now picked up that Mugen must have felt inferior to Jin because she had seemed to be choosing him over the vagrant and also because he wasn't what he imagined she deserved. But in the time they had been searching for the sunflower samurai, Jin could never have guessed such things about the man. He was too good at keep his poker face about these things that he had accidentally just elucidated, which mattered the most to him.

He hoped he didn't have to talk to Mugen about this. The pirate wouldn't thank him for putting it under a spotlight, or want to admit to it, but Jin wanted Mugen to not hold onto some bullshit idea that he was not good enough for Fuu or inferior. Especially to him. Once he might have thought so, but Mugen was different now that he was with Fuu. He'd never seen the man care for anything but food, sex and causing trouble before. And in his absence the man had change even more. A lot more.

He was now a man with something to lose. No wonder Mugen had reacted that way when he grabbed her chin. A man with something to lose was often more dangerous than one with nothing to lose. Jin couldn't help but grin.

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