A.N. You uh. You might wanna grab a glass of water and a snack. This one weighs in around 10,000 words, but I kept my word. :)
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The fourth time Kaoru woke in her new room she noticed the flower: night-blooming jasmine. It wasn't blooming, but that meant nothing at all without any sunlight. She quickly bundled up her futon and crawled over to the flower, fingers playing through the leaves. She had no way of knowing how long it had been since she had seen green, growing things.
She suspected it was meant for a gift; those had been appearing every day since she had demanded her own room. A deep scarlet tie for her hair made of the softest material she had ever felt, a flowing kimono with an itomaki mon pattern. A red thread wove in and out in spiraling waves from the hem to twine about the scattered red and white camellias. Kaoru ignored them; she was sure they had some meaning, but she had never had time for all the subtle intricacies of patterns or flowers.
This flower was her latest gift.
Every other gift she had deposited outside the door and it had been gone by the time she woke again. She lifted the flower to do the same, but couldn't bring herself to leave it. Who knew how much longer she would be here? Having something in her room to remind her of the world outside was already lifting her spirits.
Kaoru set it against the center wall where she would see it as soon as she entered the room and dressed before heading out.
The nightingale floor chirped beautifully beneath her feet no matter how she adjusted her weight or angled her steps. There had to be a way to silence or at least muffle the sound, but she hadn't found the trick of it yet. She had nothing but time to learn.
Battousai's chambers were closed to her as they usually were throughout the day. Or night. Kaoru wondered where he spent his hours, wondered why he looked so weary whenever he joined her for supper. He never volunteered to tell her, and she had never asked. She tried her hardest not to speak over supper at all, and sometimes he obliged her.
Perversely she hated it. He could eat in peace, unaffected by her plight and thoroughly unconcerned that she was glaring daggers at him from a mere arm's length away. She wasn't a threat, and she hadn't found a way to leave, between her room and the food her needs were seen to; he could afford to rest on his laurels and wait for her to come to him every time. At least it was teaching her to curb her unruly tongue that had so often landed her in hot water.
Her stay had been educational in more ways than one, but Kaoru was certain she would rather have remained ignorant her entire life than have to live through the last handful of days again.
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"Open." Kaoru muttered, pressing against the wall with all her might, imagining the wall opening like a door to let her out.
Nothing.
"Move." Stillness.
"Do something you useless lump!" She had repeated the experiment in every part of the building, wall after wall after wall until she saw them in her dreams. Whatever magic Battousai called, it wouldn't leap to do her bidding.
She put her back to the wall and sank down on her heels, breathing deep and trying not to lose her temper again. Sometimes she thought she heard laughter echoing just behind her, usually at her expense. Kaoru was at the end of her tether, and just about ready to call for Megumi and try striking another bargain.
What could she have that the fox would covet though? She had her own room now, and Megumi had liberated all her pretty trinkets. Briefly Kaoru considered stealing one of those hairpins again, pressing it to the delicate skin of the woman's throat and demanding her help…That might yet be her only way out, but it was a bluff and she was sure Megumi would know it. Which left her with nothing to do but wander aimlessly, testing every wall and floor for a weakness she could exploit until the headache behind her eyes became a constant companion.
Yet no matter how far she roamed Kaoru had to return to his rooms to eat. The sumptuous meals laid out before her were unlike anything she would have been able to afford at home, and she hated Battousai all the more every time she caught herself enjoying it. Today her explorations held a new urgency though; last night, as she had picked through the fruit laid before them, Battousai had very quietly cautioned her away from the peaches.
She had pulled her hand away as if stung, appetite deserting her in the blink of an eye. After all his assurances that the food was safe, to have it brought home once more that she was never safe had been too much. So. She needed to find a way home. Now.
A heavy sigh escaped her, and with it a name: "Megumi."
The fox was before her in a flash, tail bristling and eyes flashing with offense. Good. Kaoru was tired of being the only angry one here, tired of her temper being treated like a child's tantrum.
"You dare." Megumi sounded annoyed more than angry, a pure white tail flicking behind her like an offended cat's, snowy ears pinned to dark hair. Kaoru wished she could pretend it was the strangest thing she had seen in her forays, but the wall scroll that had hissed and flown away at her approach claimed that honor. After being dragged from her path home by a demon, Kaoru hadn't managed more than a shocked gasp.
"There's a way to make sure I don't dare again." Kaoru offered cheekily.
Megumi deflated, hands settling on her hips in a way that reminded Kaoru of the stern mothers at market, watching their children with eagle eyes. Compared to everything else here she was a child, Kaoru thought despairingly.
"If it involves showing you the way out, Battousai would have my hide. You have nothing to offer me that could tempt me enough to defy him." She arched a brow, "Do you?"
"Do I?" Kaoru perked up, but Megumi's expression was answer enough; a cruel trick in a strange world already full of them.
"There comes a time to accept your fate and adapt to it." Megumi's voice took on the gentlest tone Kaoru had heard since she arrived, unfortunately the words were nothing that she wanted to hear, "That time is now."
"Not likely." Kaoru blew her bangs out of her face.
"Then why summon me?" Annoyance again. Megumi didn't care for being anyone's lackey, let alone some Human slip of a girl.
"I thought I would be in danger here."
"You are. But this," Megumi tapped her foot on the wooden floor, "Is your fortress. Venture to the wrong part of it and you'll make a decent meal for something, venture outside and you might find someone even Battousai wouldn't cross lightly. Stay where he's put you and…" Megumi gestured to the air with a bored expression.
"Is there a way out?" Megumi had no reason to tell her the truth, but Kaoru got the sense she was more of an impartial observer. Foxes were mischievous spirits after all. Perhaps for her own sake she would offer some answers.
Megumi pursed her lips, "Yes, but you won't find it like this."
"Like what?"
"Following the paths he set for you. All the charming little walkways, the baubles and pictures and pretty things to draw your eye. You're looking, but you're not paying attention."
Of course.
Kaoru leapt to her feet again, "Thank you!"
"Tut-" Megumi grabbed for her collar before she could run off, this time armed and prepared with the secret she had learned. "Thank me by taking a bath." She wrinkled her nose, "Our sense of smell is much more sensitive than yours, and you're beginning to offend."
Following Megumi with as much docility as she had shown since waking in a demon's kingdom, Kaoru tucked that information away for later.
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Lounging against the wall outside the bathing room, Aoshi waited patiently for Megumi to emerge. He descended as soon as the door slid shut behind her, hiding him from the Human woman's eyes.
"What are you plotting, Megumi?" It wasn't usually his custom to demand answers; he far preferred to carry out his orders efficiently and with as little chatter as possible, but it hadn't escaped his notice that she had been tailing Kaoru the same as he and Soujirou. For Megumi to notice anyone outside her sphere of influence was an unusual thing indeed. He would be remiss in his duties if he didn't learn why.
"Would you prefer I hadn't offered a bath?"
Each morning Kaoru had awoken to a new yukata laid beside her bed, and each morning she had dutifully donned it, grouching about her hakama even as her palms smoothed continuously over the soft cotton garment. She had a weakness for pretty things, for soft things. Once Aoshi had told him of it, Battousai had carefully recrafted their surroundings for her.
Once barren walls now bore hanging scrolls. Dark corridors were bathed in bright firelight, and her room had acquired a few flowers overnight. Aoshi paid her the respect of leaving her alone in her room, so he had yet to see whether she cared for it. Bathing was something they had all overlooked. Judging from the sound of splashing and pleased hums, it was exactly the tack they should have taken to begin with.
"She is not your charge."
"Battousai made me her companion." Megumi combed long, well-tended nails through her hair, smirking as Aoshi's eyes unwittingly followed them. He had made the unfortunate acquaintance of her claws on their first meeting and still had a healthy respect for them.
Her expression turned serious the next moment, mercurial as ever. "You're keeping watch certainly, but you've done a poor job of taking care of her. She is Battousai's mate; I won't tolerate any harm coming to him for her sake."
Aoshi acknowledged the justice in the rebuke with a shallow dip of his head. Megumi's loyalty was unimpeachable if occasionally unorthodox; she was a fox, and they made allowances for her troublesome nature.
He couldn't resist a barb of his own, though. She had pricked him enough times to earn it. "Do you think she wants your pity, or are you assuaging your own conscience?"
Megumi flinched minutely, but didn't dignify the question with an immediate response.
"Boorish as always, I see." Her smile returned, a touch brittle but still genuine. Megumi had learned to shoulder the weight of her sins mortal lifetimes ago and had nearly made her peace with them. "Sanctimoniousness doesn't agree with you. The brooding, however…"
Megumi looked him up and down in an insolent assessment. "It suits you rather well."
She smiled with a hint of fang and Aoshi was powerless to keep his face from relaxing into lines of satisfaction. Megumi and he could usually be found at each other's throats, but she was always a worthy opponent.
"Are you really planning to take her outside?" He would need to bring Soujirou along just in case. Battousai had said the yokai he kept along the fringe of his barrier were getting restless; they felt a Human's energy and were powerless to resist the pull. He divided his time between shoring up their defenses and rebuilding the ruins Shishio had left with his passing.
He hardly had any time to worry about mending the splintered factions in their own world, let alone protecting a woman from another, but that was the hand fate had dealt him and Aoshi did what he could to shoulder the latter burden.
"Not far. I won't teach her how to find it, but this is her home now." Megumi's gaze hardened. "She'll have to learn something of it. You can't neglect your first duty forever."
Aoshi nodded his agreement, but when Megumi conjured a yukata and ducked back into the bathing room, he took the opportunity to report it to his lord.
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"Outside." The seal he had been at such pains to craft began to fade and Battousai hurriedly spoke his word of power again, forcing it back to blazing life.
Working from the center out in all directions, he had yet to completely repair the barriers between his own world and Kaoru's. Since he had brought her back that had become a priority. There would always be cracks here and there, no barrier could ever be complete, but it would have been irresponsible to leave a gaping wound where any mere Human could trickle through and sow chaos.
Aoshi didn't speak again until Battousai turned from his work, carefully concealing the simile of the landscape from his gaze. Aoshi had given his loyalty, and Battousai had bound him to the promise, but they had all learned that the price of even an unwitting betrayal was steep. Battousai could count on one fist the people that had seen his simile and knew all the realms as well as he; he wanted to keep it that way.
"I have been meaning to take her myself." The time had gotten away from him, locked up in his rooms day after day with nothing but supper with Kaoru to mark the passing of time.
He wanted to tell Aoshi no, he could not take her. He wanted to see Kaoru's first glimpse of his world, was even looking forward to finding out how she intended to escape. She was growing restless again in between her hours of despondency where she cursed him and everything like him while she knocked on the walls looking for secrets.
She had even begun trying to command his home, demanding that every wall and tatami mat bend to her will. She had the willfulness for it, he was sure, but she still didn't have the sight. Battousai glanced to the thread on his finger; Kaoru had asked for her a room away from him and he had created it. She had wanted him away from her and he had offered her his word that he would only come when she summoned him.
"No. That is my privilege." There was a limit to his generosity and he had found it.
"I will tell Megumi-"
"Where is Kaoru now?"
"The bath."
Bath. Battousai sighed quietly. Another failing on his part. He was glad he had chosen to put Kaoru in Megumi's rooms her first day, glad that he had made Megumi her companion. He was so tired lately he had forgotten even such a common courtesy.
"I will go to her. You are excused." He made the decision on the spur of the moment, dowsing the slim thread of his power to dissolve the simile. "Take Megumi with you."
"And Soujirou?"
Battousai considered a few seconds, "We will not need him."
Aoshi bowed, lips pursing as he struggled not to smirk. Jealousy was an emotion all their kind was well-acquainted with. Except Battousai. Until now.
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Kaoru ducked her head under the steaming hot water, enjoying the way her hair splayed around her in the water. Clean, fed, rested. She felt human again and even that thought didn't chill her blood the way it would have elsewhere. She surfaced, sucking in a breath and relaxing against the back of the tub.
Maybe, and it was a very thin maybe, not all yokai were as wicked as she had thought. Megumi, for instance, was turning out to be quite decent whatever her proud airs. Battousai. He had fed her at least, had spared her whatever traps the peaches concealed, and despite staying up each night waiting for the inevitable knock he had treated her room as though it was hers alone and never trespassed.
Save for their meals she hadn't seen him, but he did insist on taking those meals together. At first she had rebuffed every attempt at conversation, but he was nothing if not persistent. He pried into every corner of her life, and Kaoru allowed it if only because she hoped to kindle some sympathy in him.
If she had he gave no sign of it and her search had still proved fruitless.
A knock on the door and she ducked beneath the water again, hands flying to her chest and knees tucked in. It was only Megumi, returning with yet another yukata. Kaoru blew frustrated bubbles in the water; she wanted her own clothes back. The fabric here was so soft against her skin, the colors so vibrant… like everything else it tempted and beckoned her fingers to touch.
"Soak much longer and you will turn into a prune."
Kaoru blew bubbles in the water, declining to answer..
Megumi rolled her eyes. "The sooner you climb out, the sooner I will take you outside."
Facade of indifference forgotten, Kaoru sat up. "You'll take me out?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why? I thought you said nothing could tempt you. Won't he have your hide?" Clever fox. What manner of game was she playing now?
"I said I would take you outside. I never said I would let you go, or even out of my sight." Megumi sniffed, "I know where my loyalties lie, and it's certainly not…" Megumi eyed her skin, flushed from the hot water, the tangled hair not yet combed and the way Kaoru defensively hunched in the bath. "With you."
Kaoru snorted indelicately, grabbing for the linen Megumi had left her and stepping out of the bath, stiff with offended dignity. "May I dress privately at least?" She snapped waspishly.
Smiling her secretive smile, Megumi laid the yukata at her feet and left Kaoru to her own devices.
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Megumi froze just outside the threshold, sliding the door to behind her as an afterthought. Before her stood Battousai, and beside him his ever faithful lap dog. Megumi shot a speaking glance at Aoshi before meeting Battousai's eyes.
He spoke before she could, "You're dismissed, Megumi. Stay with Aoshi while we are away."
"We?" Megumi's eyes widened. "You will take the girl, then?"
"I thought you meant to take her outside for a kindness." Battousai's voice dipped to dangerous register Megumi hadn't heard since the last days of the war, sharp as his blade. "Or did you mean to force my hand?"
Megumi hissed with annoyance, "Every day she prowls the halls pushing and prodding. I hear her footsteps all through the night, and I am not the only one tired of it."
Aoshi shifted tellingly.
"As long as you keep her inside nothing will change. It's too like a prison and she cannot live in a cell the rest of her days. I only thought to take her out for a while, show her the world. It would ease her restlessness. She might learn a thing or two."
"It was a good thought." Battousai conceded, "But not your place to decide."
"Well, and did you not tell me I was her companion? Is this not something a companion should do?"
"I will choose my words more carefully next time." Battousai said shortly, plainly done with the discussion.
The door clattered open and Kaoru strode out, "Are we-" She stumbled over thin air when she noticed the man before her, wide eyes flying to Megumi in disbelief.
Megumi smiled thinly, her face struggling to hold the expression, "I will take my leave, my lord. Aoshi?"
They vanished in a flash of white hot fire and Kaoru recoiled from the heat though it didn't singe her.
Taken aback, Kaoru couldn't do more than gape open-mouthed at where the fox had stood. Until the demon before her shifted, frustratingly unperturbed by the whole affair.
"It's too soon for supper." Kaoru's brows drew together in a scowl, "Did you think you would catch me in the bath?"
"I thought you wanted to go outside once you had finished. If I was mistaken…"
"No!" Kaoru cleared her throat, trying for a softer tone, "No, but I thought you wouldn't let me."
"Not alone." There was a playful undercurrent to his tone, something inviting her to share in his amusement though she was sure she was the butt of the joke.
Kaoru's expression hardened. "Oh? Then we're just going to stroll outside together after days of you keeping me in here like a trapped rat."
"Yes." He offered her his hand, palm up and welcoming. Kaoru was tempted to smack it away, but the tilt of his head said he expected her to do just that. But the gesture was a familiar one- he meant to take her outside just as Megumi had taken her to his rooms the first day of her captivity.
She seized on it like a lifeline, clenching her eyes shut… and opening them again to a twilit landscape of dying grass and stunted, barren trees.
She thought she heard Battousai catch his breath beside her, his grip loosening before her clenched her hand tight enough that she swore she could feel her bones grinding together.
"Let go!" Kaoru yanked roughly and surprisingly he obeyed without protest. She cradled her hand to her chest, glowering at him, "There's no need to hurt me." She growled.
"I never meant to." He blinked a few times as though disoriented himself, thumb playing with his littlest finger again. "I'm sorry."
Kaoru could have choked on her tongue. He had unapologetically abducted and imprisoned her, refused to return her to her home and family, but he was sorry for crushing her hand. She didn't say the words; it would only have been a variation of things she had said to him over supper again and again, and would have just about the same effect she was certain.
She was outside at last and she wasn't going to waste her precious freedom arguing in circles.
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Battousai couldn't remember the last time he had seen anything but unending night here- even the moon itself forever stuck in its darkest phase and only the stars to cast pitiful light. The world around him now could have been any summer's evening; the sky was cast in shades of periwinkle and peach, a slender quarter moon on the horizon and the occasional star.
He wondered if Megumi had known, if she had deliberately goaded him into venturing out tonight just for this. He drew a breath, taking in the scent of dry dust and withered grass. Still nothing growing, but now he had cause to hope it would in time.
His ears pricked to the sound of a sniffle only to catch Kaoru subtly turning her face from his. He pretended not to see her scrub her sleeve across her eyes quickly, pretended not to hear her deep breaths as she took in the air and scents around her for the first time. Timidity was not a quality he associated with her, but she didn't venture far from his side even as he was caught in his reverie.
Battousai had half-expected her to begin running as soon as her feet touched the ground; instead she glanced all around her, at the sky and ground and the trees. She didn't speak, and he was loathe to break the first peaceable silence between them.
It didn't take her long to find her usual boldness. Even when he stopped, Kaoru ventured a little farther, hands clasped defensively at her waist. He soon forgot the changes in the landscape around him; he could explore that later once she was safely abed. For now Kaoru had his full attention.
She was beautiful in the evening light. Her hair was pulled up in a pony tail with her rich, blue ribbon but otherwise left to tumble freely down her back, still wet from the bath. He could smell the faintest scent from her, one of the musky scents Megumi favored. Tomorrow he would leave rose oil for her, something sweeter and lighter.
Megumi had chosen the yukata to complement her ribbon; a dark blue shade with yellow petals sewn about the hem. She was the very picture of a lovely young woman as she picked her way over the grass, still taking in the sights as though it would be her last glimpse of the world. Perhaps she thought it would be.
Kaoru turned, "Is this…" her hands took in the world around them, unsure how to finish the thought. "Are we near Edo?"
"No." Battousai finally broke his silence, already regretting its loss. "This is not your world. We are not near anywhere."
Kaoru frowned, glancing tellingly at the cherry trees that hadn't borne blossoms in years. "Hm. Why worry about me slipping out then?"
She didn't believe him, but she didn't have to. "We are not near anywhere, so we may go everywhere."
Silence again while Kaoru considered. He could almost see her deciding the path she would take, debating whether she had a chance of escaping him. Battousai toyed with the thread about his finger; so long as he had that, so long as he had her name, there was nowhere she could go that he could not follow.
"Why are you doing that?" Her eyes focused on his hands, and she slowly picked her way across the grass and back to his side. She wouldn't run today then. He was relieved though he wouldn't show it.
"This is where our thread binds us." He pulled on it, noting the dubious moue of her lips. Their bond was still fledgling and weak yet; it was little wonder she didn't sense it as acutely as he.
Kaoru vividly remembered the scarlet thread about her finger, but it wasn't there now. She had dismissed it as a figment of her imagination, something conjured from high emotion the night he had taken her from the path. Yet he said it so nonchalantly, as though she ought to know what that meant.
"Binds?" She didn't like the sound of that at all.
"The string of fate." He continued, copper eyes warming to limpid amber. Kaoru struggled not to look away, perturbed at the sudden warmth there. "Binding you and I together."
Kaoru didn't want to believe it, but the suspicion had been taking root ever since she had found the illustrations in the book on his desk. After everything else she had seen and experienced, it wouldn't make sense not to credit it. Particularly not when her own failing eyes had seen it. What was it Megumi had said? That she was looking but not seeing. Kaoru wondered idly what else she did not see.
"When I escape-"
Battousai snorted, frustration and amusement mingled in a sound. Kaoru pushed on despite it.
"When I escape, will it sever our bond?"
"Nothing will." He spoke the words casually, with a hint of resignation. Kaoru was a little offended; she wasn't the most beautiful woman in the world or the smartest, but to abduct her and pretend that thread had inconvenienced him? It put her hackles up.
He must have noticed her bristling because he held up a placating hand, "I meant no offense."
"I'm sure you never do." Kaoru hissed.
"Kaoru."
He spoke her name intimately, and Kaoru hated the way even her skin prickled to hear it. As though he had whispered it in her ear rather than from several footsteps away.
"There has never been a bond between one of my kind and yours. It should have been impossible; we should never have been evenly matched."
"Agreed."
"Is it so strange then that I would be as puzzled as you?"
"If I'm the first human to be bonded like this how can you be sure we can't sever it? Just because it's never been tried-"
"I won't permit you to try. You will only hurt yourself and me."
"Do you really want to spend a lifetime bound to a woman that hates you? Do you want to keep me under lock and key forever, constantly worrying about when I'll next escape?"
"You haven't even managed it once."
A hit. Kaoru winced. "With a lifetime of practice, I'm sure even I could figure something out."
Battousai softened almost imperceptibly and she resented him for it. So patronizing all the time, like an indulgent master watching a recalcitrant puppy frolic. She gritted her teeth.
"You are no fool, Kaoru, and no coward." Battousai leaned against the tree behind him, deathly graceful and thoroughly unconcerned. "But it will be many lifetimes before you can challenge me."
"I only have one, so I'll have to make do."
He shook his head and her stomach sank, "You have an eternity, Kaoru. We are bound."
She hadn't run. He didn't fool himself that she wouldn't though- her eyes had taken in every aspect of the world around her and more than once he had caught that considering glance settling on him. He did not flatter himself it was because she found him handsome, though he couldn't help but stand a little taller when her eyes had lingered on his face.
Not that it made much difference with his short height, but she was smaller still and today she had done everything she could to exaggerate it. To make herself seem small and unobtrusive when he vividly remembered the feel of her sharp nails raking the vulnerable skin of his back. No, he was not fooled, but he had enjoyed their time together such as it was.
"I'm not hungry yet. You should eat alone." Kaoru spoke, hovering on her threshold.
"It won't be supper time for hours."
"It was evening." Kaoru was surprised again, and annoyed if he was reading her expression right. She had an honest face, not one given to keeping secrets.
"It is always evening." It wasn't quite a lie. Informing his one-day bride that the world itself mirrored his moods and that she was the one being here not subject to his power was not the way he cared to end their tryst.
Kaoru wilted a little at that. "I see."
She rallied when the silence stretched on and he gave no sign of leaving, "Thank you for taking me outside."
Of all the things Battousai had expected, thanks hadn't been among them. He gave a shallow bow of acknowledgement. "I will take you again."
He saw how her eyes lit up, saw the cautious hope dawning in her eyes… and the cunning she tried so hard to hide. "Soon."
"Thank you." She bowed quickly and ducked into her room, sliding the door to but not before he caught a glimpse of the single flower still sitting on the floor.
At last one of his gifts had pleased her enough to keep, and he had earned at least a smidgeon of her gratitude all in a single day. Heart far lighter than it had been when he awoke, Battousai made his way to his rooms and set about his work once again. Once their boundaries were secured, he could make those trees blossom again and keep the grass green and soft enough for bare feet. Another gift he was sure she would accept.
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Something changed between them. Kaoru couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly, but she felt its effects immediately. Battousai spoke to her over supper, at times about the world she lived in and the creatures she shared it with, other times about the thread around their fingers. She listened more too, even venturing questions rather than sitting in frigid silence.
It was a truce they had tacitly agreed upon where the day's hours were hers to explore, always seeking a way out without him, but they could share a quiet evening without it devolving into an argument. They simply didn't touch on her captivity or the way she had found herself here; it was an uneasy peace, but peace nonetheless.
Her guardians no longer bothered hiding themselves. Megumi had introduced her to Aoshi the very night she had returned from her first venture outside. A dark and quiet man, colder even than Battousai, his gaze had thawed slightly every time it fell upon the fox.
Though Battousai wasn't always cold either. Every so often Kaoru saw a spark of curiosity in his eyes as he watched her, nothing like the detached calculation of the man that had first abducted her. He seemed less tense now that they spoke of their 'bond' openly, and a time or two she thought she had seen his lips try to curve into a smile.
She wondered why his face had resisted the expression, though she no longer questioned its genuineness.
Soujirou though… He smiled all the time as so few of her acquaintances here did but she never felt anything approaching warmth from him. His entire persona was a mask and Kaoru struggled with the impulse to rip it from him and the concern for what she might find beneath. Where Aoshi was her shadow, always near but never seen unless she called to him, Soujirou was a constant companion whether she liked it or not.
He spoke to her as though they were old friends, but she had learned quickly there was a barb in nearly everything he said. He seemed entirely unaware of it, but she didn't think he would care even if he knew. Kaoru stepped lightly around him and spoke as few words as she could within his hearing.
"Are we not searching for a door today?" He chirped, taking gleeful delight in making the floor squeal and creak beneath his feet. He seemed to enjoy it best when it sounded nearly like a dying scream. Kaoru shuddered.
"Not today." Not with him. Soujirou's moods were like quicksilver and she had no desire to see what his genuine fury looked like. If he was capable of it.
"It's not such a bad thing to be Battousai's pet, I suppose." He smiled wider at Kaoru's glare. "Did I misspeak?"
"I am not a pet." She ground out past her gritted teeth.
Soujirou pretended to consider her words, "He feeds you, clothes you, gives you a bed close to his own and takes you for walks in the evening. You spend your days listening for his call and run to his side as soon as you hear it. How are you any different from a pet?"
I hate you. "You should ask your lord."
Soujirou laughed, "He would not like it, but it will take more than that to get me in trouble, Miss Kaoru."
"Like what?" Kaoru asked, venomously sweet.
Soujirou hummed noncommittally and for awhile they walked in blissful silence, meandering down corridors she already knew like the back of her hand.
"It's tiresome, isn't it. Retreading the same ground again and again."
"I haven't found the doors to the other wings yet." Kaoru admitted, lulled into a false sense of security for all of a minute before she remembered who she was speaking to.
"Would you like to explore them?"
Kaoru was sure there was something nasty hidden in his words. Remembering Megumi's warning about the dangers of straying beyond the pretty cage Battousai had woven for her, Kaoru almost lied and said no. Almost.
She had never been a coward before though, nor one to shrink from an adventure. She broke the silence again with a single word after a few minutes of careful thought.
"Yes."
At first Kaoru tried keeping track of all their many twists and turns. She had a head for directions and had spent enough time wandering these halls that she had been certain she knew their every secret. Soujirou lost even her though after the first dozen or so turns.
"Are you sure we're not walking in circles?" Kaoru instinctively kept her voice low. An eerie stillness had crept up on them sometime during their journey and it made her wary.
"We're nearly to the South wing. See how much darker the halls are?"
She did, and it did nothing for her nerves. Would there be any light left in the South wing? Kaoru wasn't about to back down though; she followed Soujirou without any further questions until she noticed the hallway beginning to wind downward.
"Are we going underground?"
"Yes." Soujirou said simply, a skip in his walk that hadn't been there earlier. Kaoru didn't trust it, and not for the first time wished she had her shinai to hand.
"The Southern wing." He proclaimed proudly when at last they came to a large hall flanked on either side by doors painted with fearsome masks of demons with fangs.
"What's here?" Kaoru asked, venturing out a little farther into the open. It went against her instincts as a swordswoman to cross such an open space without first taking in the lay of the land, but Soujirou was her guardian after all, and Battousai's name was already burning on her tongue.
"The things we cannot allow in the other wings." Soujirou confirmed, and Kaoru slowed a little to take stock of her surroundings.
The floor beneath her feet was old and worn, not near as clean as the hall Battousai kept her in. The doors could have used a little patching themselves, and if her eyes had not already adjusted to the shadows she would have struggled to make out the characters on the scrolls above the door. There were a couple she couldn't read, but those she could had her hair prickling again.
"Do you want to go?" Soujirou offered, and Kaoru couldn't hear a shred of amusement or fear in his voice. It was devoid of any emotion, like the man behind her, so lacking in spirit she couldn't even sense him.
Kaoru strengthened her resolve and dared another handful of steps, ignoring the creeping feeling of dread. Halfway across the room she finally conceded there were some battles she didn't need to fight, beginning with the struggle against her own instincts, which had been screaming at her to go back to the well-lit hallways ever since she had laid eyes on this strange little room.
"Let's go back-" She turned only to find the room deserted but for her. "Soujirou?"
He didn't answer. Fine. She would make her own way back, and with him no longer dogging her footsteps perhaps she could even use this new path he had taught her to find a door that led out.
Her gut clenched with fear a moment before she spotted movement from the corner of her eye- the door on her right flying open as some beast skittered out to make right for her. Kaoru swallowed bile, the fetid stench of rot and death hitting her nose before it was even halfway across the room to her. Its legs were unnaturally long but twisted in every direction, wrenching the creature as it ran toward her.
Kaoru kept it in sight as she dashed for the door- she recognized the clicking, scrabbling sound of claws and had no desire to see what it would do to her unprotected skin. She was fast, but the beast was faster and it cut off her escape route just before she reached the door.
Dammit. "Out of my way!" She snarled, but there was no spark of comprehension in its glittering eyes. She could have taken it for a toad if it weren't for the fangs and claws, or the way those legs stretched toward her. She kicked viciously when it reached for her and it squealed loud enough that she had to fight to keep her hands from her ears.
It swiped at her and Kaoru narrowly dodged, circling to the side rather than falling back. She didn't want to sacrifice all the ground she had gained.
It howled when it missed her, and her blood curdled when she heard an answering baying in the distance. More of them bound for her, and her back to the room at large. Desperate, she tried to bolt past it, but it caught her legs and sent her tumbling to the floor. Kaoru ignored the ache in her knees and scrambled for the door anyway, yelping when she felt claws tear at her skin. She stopped to turn and kick again, battering it until it released its hold on her ankle and scrambling to her feet.
"Soujirou!" She didn't want to call for Battousai, not yet, but when her damnable guard didn't respond she swallowed her pride, wet her throat and-
The creature screamed fit to wake the dead, sword metal suddenly sprouting from its head. Kaoru gasped in disbelief, glancing up to see Soujirou, ever smiling Soujirou, digging his blade deeper before giving it a vicious twist. Black blood dripped onto the floor, smoking where it landed. Kaoru imagined what it would have done to her skin and swallowed tightly.
Another howl, another dying scream as Soujirou severed the head of the next beast to appear from beyond the door. Kaoru looked away from the gasping mouth, the eyes that still seemed to be looking for her.
"What were those?" She gasped out, struggling not to lose what little food was on her stomach.
"Two of the reasons Battousai keeps you confined to his wing. Do you understand?"
Kaoru couldn't do more than stare at him in stunned silence, and all the while that smile she had grown to hate never dimmed.
!
!
"That son of a bitch." Kaoru whispered it under her breath, casting a searching glance over her shoulder. It was Aoshi's turn to watch her, but she had a decent idea now of who had been laughing at her for days while she tried to find her way out. Her ankle and knees still throbbed with pain but she was careful not to show it. She had cleaned the cuts and abrasions herself before wrapping it in a cloth Soujirou had provided, mentally cursing the smiling man and his damned imperfect timing.
She had an earful for Battousai this evening, and he wasn't going to know a moment's rest until he heard it and actually listened for once. So much for being bound, she thought irritably. Of course she could have called for him, but it had been his appointed guard that had failed her and she held him responsible for it.
Screaming at him wouldn't do any good, she knew that much from experience. She would have to be calm and collected, just like him. Kaoru drew a breath, releasing it on a soft sigh and forced the scowl from her face. She could never manage his perfectly unperturbed expression, it was entirely foreign to her nature, but she would try not to let her fury show so plainly.
She pulled her hair back into an even tighter pony tail as she marched across the nightingale floor, delighting in the noise for once. With one final glance at her yukata to make sure she had smoothed the wrinkles out she strode boldly into the dragon's lair.
He was waiting for her as he always was, food already set before him and a tray for her set across from him. She stumbled with surprise on the threshold: tonight his hair fell loose about his shoulders, shimmering strands of autumn reds and oranges tumbling freely down his back. He combed his fingers through it roughly, pulling it back and up once more. His face looked haggard and gray, the hollows under his eyes pronounced in a face that seemed to be gaunter than it had been last night.
Kaoru took the final few steps and knelt in her place, eyes roaming over him. "You don't look well."
So much for her intentions, but he looked like death itself. What would become of her if he died? That was all she was concerned about, Kaoru assured herself.
He huffed a laugh and Kaoru gaped in astonishment- while she had become accustomed to his weak smiles, each one was still a rare and unexpected sight. She had never thought to hear a laugh from him.
"Perhaps I only need a little outside air. Will you join me tonight?"
Takes you for walks in the evening. Kaoru ignored Soujirou's words, "Of course."
She had never yet passed up an opportunity. After all that had occurred this afternoon, she would have to take her chance on running tonight if she couldn't make Battousai see reason. She had bided her time, had made note of every aspect of the landscape she could see, but finally her patience was at an end. He was so weak tonight she thought even with her injuries she might be able to outrun him. And Aoshi. And Soujirou.
Kaoru swallowed, forcing the thoughts out of her head. No sense losing the battle before it had even started.
She waited until he had poured their tea before she tried her first foray. "I visited the Southern wing today."
Battousai hesitated, chopsticks hovering in the air while his eyes fixed on her.
"I encountered a few of the things you keep there."
"Souji," he spat, and the sheer malice glinting at her from those eyes would have made her fear for Soujirou if she wasn't so angry herself.
"I asked him to take me." Even angry as she was, Kaoru couldn't bear to see an injustice done.
"I expected you to, just as I expected him to deny you." Battousai rumbled. "You will not go there again."
Perfect. "Then you will keep me here for an eternity. In my little room, seeing you only over supper, wandering the halls while I search for an escape. Taking me for walks in the evening." She finished.
"Someday you will stop searching." Battousai managed a few bites of his rice, but he never lingered over his food. Kaoru wasn't sure she had ever seen him enjoy anything. "And, of course, you are free to share my rooms whenever you please."
"I will never please, and I will never stop looking for a way out." Kaoru bit her tongue hurriedly. That was ground they had already trod and if she tried again he would only close his ears and dig his heels in. "If we are bound, if it lasts an eternity as you've said, why do you begrudge me a single lifetime with my family?"
Battousai laid his chopsticks aside, and for a second Kaoru dared to hope. She had struck home, she could read it in his eyes when he looked at her, head tilted and jaw working as he considered what to say.
"You don't belong with them any more." He said finally, and Kaoru wasn't sure whether she was imagining the edge of pained understanding in his voice. "You are not a spirit, but you are no longer entirely human either."
"The food-"
"Not the food." Battousai hastened to assure her, "The thread between us has only grown stronger. Whether you can see it or not it exerts its influence on you. From the moment we met you would never have found a home in your world again. Perhaps you should not have been there to begin with."
Kaoru opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that but Battousai pressed on. "You will not age, Kaoru. Not in the same way as the rest of your kind." His lips quirked, "And eventually you will find your power. I cannot say how long that will take, but sighted Humans rarely fare well among their own kind."
"You can't tell me I belong in your world and then show me only a tiny fraction of it. You're keeping me in a cage-"
"For now." He agreed so casually it set her teeth on edge. "Our world is unsettled and my grasp of it is not as firm as it once was. Once my work is seen to you can wander wherever you like."
"I've seen war." Kaoru pressed, "It's everywhere and no one escapes it, but no one has ever dared to tell me I didn't have the right to live my life in spite of it."
"Human squabbles can't be compared to our conflicts, and whatever skills you learned before won't do you any good here."
Kaoru shifted, reminded of her pain and the creature that had caused it. Battousai's gaze sharpened, "Were you hurt?"
"No. Yes. A little." Kaoru damned herself a dozen times over for her clumsy tongue.
"Let me see."
Battousai shuffled around the food, kneeling next to her. Slowly, Kaoru lifted the hem of her yukata, trying not to blush though his gaze held nothing but concern. "It's just a few scratches."
He seized the wound and Kaoru yelped as white-hot heat scalded her, followed by a sudden absence of pain. She gaped at her skin where seconds before the claw marks had been.
"Always come to me when you are injured," he commanded, but Kaoru noticed his skin was paler than it had been when they began their meal and his fingertips shook with either emotion or fatigue. Perhaps both. Either way, she couldn't hide her worry.
Kaoru didn't agree or disagree, determined that this would mark the last time she was hurt in his keeping.
They finished the rest of the meal in silence, Kaoru eating only sparingly. She didn't want too heavy a meal on her stomach when she made her escape tonight.
Battousai was lost in his own thoughts, and even she could not pull him from it. After a couple unanswered questions, Kaoru finally gave up; she had her own troubled thoughts to occupy her.
!
!
There were streaks of blue in the sky outside, Battousai noted idly. The sky had lightened even since he had last made time to bring Kaoru outside. She didn't seem to notice, and little wonder when it was plain she had chosen tonight to make her bid for freedom.
He hadn't felt her pain through their bond at all, neither her fear. Kaoru hadn't called for him even when the beast had obviously had her in its jaws. Why? They spent evening after evening in each other's company, and if she wasn't fond of him then at least her hatred had thawed to anger.
Her sapphire eyes had lit up with all the warmth of a summer day when she saw the new grass beneath her feet, soft and cool and welcoming. Blossoms had appeared on the trees- pink cherry blossoms and purple wisteria; the wind carried their sweet scent to her and Kaoru tossed her head back to draw it in, luxuriating in the frozen moment in time.
He had been distracted today, pulling on the dregs of his reserves to give this to her. He was weary to the bone but he could not rest; she was only distracted, not deterred.
"It's beautiful!" She called over her shoulder; he smiled in return though it was a melancholy expression. She would be furious when he caught her again tonight.
Battousai glanced to the thread on his finger, red as heart's blood and more vibrant these days. It had grown only a little stronger in all the time he kept her. As much as he wanted to keep her, she did not want to be kept. As long as they stood at this impasse their bond would remain a fledgling one. He thought back to her plea over supper- a single lifetime without him, a brief return to her own world in the grand scheme of things.
It wasn't safe though. Particularly not with the enemies he had made still loose on the earth. Her own kind would sense that she didn't belong among them, but his…If she left him she would always be fair game, and sooner or later she would meet a bloody end.
Even so he couldn't help but contrast the angry waif that wandered his halls each day with the woman before him, vibrant and alive and so blissfully unaware of the choice she was making when she decided to run. This was the Kaoru he preferred, the one he had glimpsed from time to time in their heated arguments over supper.
"Kaoru."
She was a few yards ahead, wandering toward the trees. He almost expected her to bolt at the sound of her name, but she paused to glance back at him, still as a deer caught in the hunter's sights. The comparison didn't sit well with him.
"Join me." Then, because he knew nothing angered her so much as his orders, he added a soft "Please."
It was the please that did it. Kaoru turned toward him, trying and failing not to look over her shoulder the way she thought freedom lay. Still, she turned and hesitantly strolled toward him, struggling to keep the confusion from her face. He sat in the grass, pulling his sword from its place at his hip and laying it across his lap, one hand on the hilt as always.
Kaoru approached anyway, and he couldn't hide his startlement when instead of sitting before him she came right to his side and knelt there, thoroughly unconcerned with the grass stains already soaking into her clothes.
"What is it?"
She thought this was a farewell. Battousai leaned haphazardly toward her, testing to see whether she would allow it. Testing to see how far she trusted him.
"I knew it. You're ill." She grumbled, yanking him unceremoniously into her and resting a hand against his forehead. "You're running a fever."
"Not a fever." Battousai murmured, but with his power so eager to be used his skin was burning with the effort of suppressing it.
Kaoru snorted, "I have a little brother, I know all about fevers."
"Brother?" Not a son.
"Not by blood." Kaoru added, a hint of sadness in her tone. "But we've been together so long he might as well be. He helps me run the dojo supposedly, but usually he just eats my food and complains I don't cook well enough." She sniffed and Battousai caught the salty tang of tears in the air. "He likes to pretend that's why he spends all his time lurking around the hot pot restaurant, but really he's just sweet on the kitchen girl."
She giggled, though he heard the hitch in her breath that heralded a sob. "I think she's sweet on him too. He begs for scraps like a stray mutt, but she cooks entire meals for him sometimes. He gets so embarrassed, I can't help teasing him."
Kaoru had never spoken about her family to him before. Battousai didn't dare interrupt her; she was careful not to use names, he noticed with a flash of pride, but she shared small glimpses into what her life had been like before. He understood a little better what she was fighting so desperately to return to. Lulled by her warmth and the steady drone of her voice, Battousai sank into a light doze.
Kaoru felt the moment he drifted off by the way his weight sank into her, his head resting heavy on her shoulder and breaths turning deep and steady. She didn't stop speaking for a long time, retelling her stories for herself, hoping some of them reached him wherever he went when he dreamed. Yahiko and Tae and Tsubame, faces she would be seeing again soon. Even that freeloader Sano could count on a meal at her table as soon as she was home.
Her legs were going numb by the time she finally moved, inching out from under Battousai's weight centimeter by agonizing centimeter. His breathing became shallow but he didn't wake to stop her. Finally she stood again, quietly stretching. She had arbitrarily decided to head West. It seemed fitting the way this world was always caught in the minutes just before sunset.
She glanced down to Battousai almost pityingly. His cheeks had regained some of their color as he slept, maybe from the fever. He almost looked harmless as he was now, if not for the blade still lying across his lap. Kaoru had briefly debated trying to steal it, but that would certainly wake him. Ill as he was she still didn't want to fight him; she knew she would lose.
Kaoru shook off the last of her guilt- he was sick, not dying, and caring for him was not her duty. She had just turned to go when his hand shot out and caught her, holding her in place effortlessly even when she tugged with all her weight behind it.
"Don't go."
"I told you I would." Kaoru countered, but something in his voice made her pause and reconsider the blow she had been about to deal him.
His eyes caught hers and held, not with mute command this time but a plea. There was an edge of determination in the set of his chin that made her wary. His next words knocked the last of the fight out of her.
"What if I agreed to send you home?"
Kaoru tumbled back into the grass next to him, hand seizing his own in a vice grip. "Do you mean it?"
"Not for a lifetime-" Kaoru's fist clenched and he had the distinct impression she meant to strike him with it.
"Forever."
Kaoru was stunned, mouth agape and eyes wide. The next second they narrowed in understanding. "What would I owe in exchange?"
"Strike a bargain with me- a wager. If I win, you will stay here with me and never attempt to return to your life. If you win then you stay in your home and I will never come to you unless you call."
Her eyes flashed to his blade, considering. That was a wager she could not win and they both knew it.
"I don't mean to fight you, Kaoru. I will return you home right now."
"And?"
"If you can find a man you love more than I love you within a year and a day then I will leave you to your happiness."
"You don't love me."
"Then it is hardly a challenge." He bridled to hear the untruth from her lips, but explaining the future the thread had assured them would do nothing but anger her.
He saw the naked cunning on her face; she thought he had not chosen his words carefully enough, that her family, her brother, could be her salvation. Weak as it was yet their bond was still stronger than blood, but he would not deprive her of her hope.
"You will send me home immediately, and I have a year and a day?"
"Yes."
Kaoru's smile was fiercely triumphant, face alight with pure joy. "I agree."
He spoke a word of command and she disappeared as though she had never been. He could still feel her warmth in the palm of his hand.
Battousai sat outside a few minutes longer, watching the sky darken and once more turn to night before he stood and willed himself back to his rooms. A year and a day he had promised her, but he had never promised she would return alone.
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!
!
The bright morning sunlight was disorienting when only a moment ago it had been twilight. Kaoru stood on the road a few minutes, collecting her wits. She pinched herself roughly and squealed with delight when she felt the pinch of pain. It wasn't a dream, she was home.
She hurried down the path as fast as her feet would carry her, running through the stitch in her side while her lungs greedily sucked in air, staler the closer she drew to the city proper. She was red and panting by the time she reached the gates of the training hall, legs trembling with the effort of running so long.
Kaoru didn't hesitate, just pushed on into the yard…
Yahiko was beating a rug as though it had personally wronged him, kerchief tied around his face and skin nearly as red as her own with exertion. The switch dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers when he saw her, tan skin draining unnaturally pale.
"Yahiko!"
He ripped the kerchief from his face, tears already leaving streaks through the dust all over him. Teary herself for once Kaoru didn't tease him; her legs shook so hard she stood still and let him rush to her, laughing when he nearly bowled her over, touching and squeezing her arms, yanking her face down to look at him.
"Are you real? Where the hell have you been? Are you all right? I hate you, Kaoru!"
She squeezed until he squeaked with distress, "I hate you more, brat, but I'm home."
Her mask finally cracked and she heaved a wracking sob, burying her face in his dirty shoulder and letting her tears fall in earnest. Kaoru pretended not to notice the way Yahiko's shoulders heaved in her arms or the patch of wetness on her yukata.
"Welcome back." He managed, voice muffled in the cotton.