Anchor

Written by: RinoaDestiny

#20 – The Play

"Lend me thy handkerchief." Propped up on Iori's desk against some of their bound ancestral records was his phone, on which his recorded take on an abridged Othello played on. Kyo had decided to pick the best parts – not the boring beginning stuff – and so far, Iori hadn't said anything. Then again, Othello the character wasn't difficult to act. Desdemona was a different story.

"Here, my lord."

Iori snorted at his falsetto, fingers stopping on the page he was reading from. It was one of the earlier Kusanagi chronicles, falling around the time period when their clans became enemies. Since Kyo couldn't read it, his dad confirmed this for him. "A demure maiden you are not."

"Because I'm not?"

"Not pretty enough for it, either."

Sitting on Iori's bed, Kyo leaned forward and smacked his shoulder.

"That's a fault. That handkerchief / Did an Egyptian to my mother give. She was a charmer, and could almost read…"

Iori visibly winced. "Why are you stressing it there?"

"Because the guy's pissed off?"

"But why there? You –"

"'Cause it sounds right? Got more incoming."

Iori, who'd given him this challenge, had the best look of trepidation on his face Kyo had ever seen. Kyo couldn't refrain from smirking.

"Most veritable. Therefore, look to 't well. / Then would to God that I had never seen 't!"

Iori grimaced as if he'd tasted something awful. "She's exclaiming it, not shouting it, Kyo. You turned a Venetian maiden into…"

"But she's unhappy about it, right? They're having an argument."

"Doubt she'd be all into physical confrontation." For on the recorded video which continued playing, Kyo had stepped forward on that shouted line to stress his point. After all, if he was Desdemona, he'd be riled about this handkerchief and why Othello doubted and so on and so forth. Being pretty, proper and quiet just didn't…it wasn't his style.

"Tell me your class didn't choose you for the play."

"You're in luck. Was always asleep in class, so –"

"You spared their ears."

That warranted another smack on Iori's shoulder, which the man shrugged off.

"Fetch me the handkerchief! My mind misgives."

"You know…that Iago guy's quite something."

"Revenge served cold."

"All because he wasn't chosen as Othello's right hand."

"Got his comeuppance in the end." Iori's face made some interesting expressions while watching his acting on the phone screen. "What the hell are you doing, Kyo? He's not…you strutted out of the…"

"He exited, right?"

"He stalked out of there, not…" Iori groaned, which brought another smirk to Kyo's face. "I'd prefer you flounced out of there."

"Oh, so you want me flouncing now?"

Iori, fingers still on the page, made a face at him. "Tell me you did a good job on Iago."

"Why don't you listen? He's next."

"Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon / When it hath blown his ranks into the air…"

"It's passable," Iori said, begrudgingly. Kyo took it as a minor victory. "You didn't butcher him."

"Come to think of it…you can act him."

"Why?"

"Seems your type. Dramatic, angry –"

"Tricky and murderous. You trying to tell me something, Kyo?"

"Just think you can play him. Better than I can."

"He is interesting." Interspersed between watching the recording and making faces at some of his clunky delivery, Iori's attention kept returning to the volume on his desk. "Think I found something, Kyo."

"Oh?" He got off the bed and leaned in over Iori's shoulder. "What is it?"

Iori removed one of the volumes from the stack – it was one of the Yasakani chronicles – and flipped it to the middle of the book. Leaned back, long fingers pinning down a particular section in both books. "This is when the division occurred. It's towards the end of the Kamakura shogunate."

"1300s." He could read the numbers in both volumes. "What else?"

"The perfidy of the Kusanagi clan regarding the murder of our headman's wife shall stand as the reason for the choice we will make."

"We didn't murder anyone's wife."

"From your ancestral records, it says this: 'The treachery of the Yasakani clan in siding with our eternal enemy – for reasons unexplained – without any remorse, shall hereforth declare them our mortal enemy. All attempts at reconciliation prior to this have failed.'"

"Who murdered her?"

"Who knows?" Iori shrugged. "This doesn't show up in your clan's record, but it does for mine. 'While we disdain that certain techniques are shared with the Kusanagi clan, they shall remain as is. The Yasakani clan, now renamed as the Yagami clan, has other pressing matters to attend to.'"

"Other pressing matters. Declaring the blood feud?"

"Think that was done already. Perhaps the war got started next."

"Our ancestors had such great priorities."

"Lie?" His voice coming from his phone, with him trying to put on a serious yet devious expression. It changed immediately to disbelief, since he was now playing Othello. "With her?"

"Iago spreading his poison," Iori said, closing both volumes and placing them back on the stack. "Convincing Othello his pure bride is a whore."

"He's a wonderful villain, isn't he?"

"Lie with her? Lie on her? We say 'lie on her' / when they belie her."

"So many classical words, though."

"You still managed. Although…" Iori reached out and took hold of his phone. "It explains why you mangled so much of it."

"Not everyone's a scholar like you."

"Pity."

"You sound like Shakespeare now. Come on – gimme a few Iago lines."

"Good sir, be a man! / Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked / May draw with you."

"Your choice of stresses are still awful, Kyo."

Kyo took his phone from Iori, who proffered it to him. While his falsettos amused Iori, his decision to emphasize certain words and doing badly at it appeared to be Iori's last straw. "Regret giving me this?"

"Never."

"Hmm. Yagami," he said, drawing Iori's attention solely to him. "I'll be getting the contract by end of this week. Hit the bar next Tuesday?"

It was gratifying to see the sudden flush of color suffusing Iori's face. "So soon?"

"Yeah. We should be receiving those mysterious invites shortly, so…"

"I'll see you there. Same as last time."

"I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest…"

"Lay down my soul at stake." Iori picking up, not with a falsetto, but with his own voice, deep and solemn. "If you think other, / Remove your thought."

"That's cheating." Kyo shut off the recording, so he could hear more of Iori's recitation. "Should match it to mine."

"…For if she be not honest, chaste, and true, / There's no man happy."

"Good thing you're not Othello."

"Or Iago."

"Still think you should play him. You know the one about the mad king?"

"Lear? Yeah. You can play the Fool to my Lear." Iori rose from his chair in one smooth motion. Pushed the chair inward. "Unless…"

"Lear does suit you."

"Because he's mad?"

"Yeah. Hey…is that why I'm the Fool?"

"You are an idiot sometimes." Iori said this without irony, amusement in his eyes. His flush from before was gone. "He has some of the best lines."

"Ah, good. So you're not insulting me."

"Wouldn't think of it." A smile from Iori, which was becoming less of a rarity. "We're no longer dueling families. Or petty vengeance-fueled men. We're beyond all that."

"All the girls in my class loved Romeo and Juliet."

"Unless you're trying to doom us from the start –"

"That's why I didn't choose it."

"Good." Iori leaned over and kissed him, initiating this time. When they both came back up for air, Iori's tone was deliberately dry. "You'd make a terrible Juliet."

"So you're Romeo now?"

"Tch." Iori scoffed. "Rather play Tybalt."

"He dies, too."

"Still better."

"Then, I'll be Mercutio."

"Didn't realize you –"

His returning kiss cut off Iori's words and from the other's ensuing reaction, had redirected his thoughts. "Don't mind being killed in a play." Then, he stopped talking, for they had better things to do.

Iori seemed to agree.

Notes: The version of the Othello play I'm referencing for the lines quoted in this chapter comes from the Folger Shakespeare Library. The PDF can be easily found via Google search online. I'll be providing the actual PDF link on the AO3 cross-post, since AO3 allows me to do so.