Chapter Fourteen: Favor

I.

"Eek!"

Have.

*Whap!*

Had.

*Thonk!*

Enough.

"Oooof!"

My reaction had been instinctive, and I responded with an elbow to my attacker's gut, and a knee to a sensitive area and only then did I recognize…

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" My hands went over my mouth in guilt as I looked down on the floor where Shingen was doubled over.

Alerted either by my initial yelp or Shingen's muffled "oof," Mitsuhide stepped out of his room. He took in the situation with a raised eyebrow, snickered, and went back into his room, sliding his door shut with a firm click.

Still apologizing (and feeling a bit guilty – if I hadn't turned away at just that moment, I would have seen who grabbed my arm), I helped Shingen into an empty room where he collapsed on a futon. I knelt on the floor while I waited for him to regain the power of speech.

… and waited.

Having never experienced this particular injury myself (although once Toshiie and I got into a long debate about which was worse, taking a hit to the groin or putting up with monthly cramps… an argument I won by pointing out that he didn't take a hit there every month, but if he wanted to keep arguing, I could arrange for that to happen) … In any case, I had no idea how long it would take him to recover but figured I ought to stick around in case I had seriously damaged him.

"Angel, if you didn't want to see me, a simple 'no' would have sufficed," he finally said in a strangled tone of voice.

"Don't creep up on me like that." But since I still felt guilty, I apologized again.

He groaned softly then settled himself into a more natural sitting position. He gestured to a candle sitting on the desk. "Light that, will you, Angel? If you've the inclination to attack me again, I want to see it coming."

I hurried to light the candle, positioning it far enough away to keep my face in the shadows. "I really am sorry."

"Yes, I heard you the first three times."

Considering I was Katsu, Kaya, and "Angel" simultaneously, three apologies about covered it. I still hadn't even apologized as Katsuko. I was losing track of who I was supposed to be when I was with him.

"If you really want to help, instead of apologizing, you could let me rest my head in your lap – your nearness would make me feel better." He did the whole look-into-my-eyes-and-hold-the-stare thing that I had witnessed during that disastrous Teahouse excursion.

Ok, he's undamaged.

"It's not like I hit you in the head." Even so, I scooted next to him and let him put his head in my lap.

He tugged gently on a lock of my hair. "If I asked to put that part in your lap, you might hit me again."

Walked into that one, didn't I? At least he hadn't asked me to kiss it and make it better. And I wish I hadn't let that thought cross my mind… I could feel my face turn warm. He gave me an I-know-what-you're-thinking smile, then shut his eyes. I tucked my hands behind my back so I wouldn't be tempted to play with his hair. It always looked so soft and fluff-

Oh, to hell with it.

I tentatively ran my fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead. It immediately sprang back into place, as if saying, "Tag, you're it." Yeesh. Even his hair flirts. I paused. Soft and fluffy confirmed. I paused, trying to convince myself to sit on my hands this time.

"Don't stop now, Angel, I've been dreaming of your touch for days." I rolled my eyes at that one, which was a waste of a good eye-roll, since his were shut. But I couldn't keep my fingers out of his hair anyway. He was smiling, but it was a relaxed, almost blissful smile now, that was ten times more deadly than the one he used when he was attempting that mind control thing. I had put that look on his face, and I wanted it to stay there.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, when it occurred to me that he must have had a reason to grab me in the first place.

"Looking for you. The Innkeeper is a … friend… and let me know you were skulking around." He reached up and took hold of my hands in a firm, authoritative grip. "The question is, what were you doing here?"

Oh. We're going to have that conversation. If the Innkeeper was one of his spies, or a contact of one of them, then he would already know that I'm not a servant here. "I thought I saw someone I knew come in here. But I was mistaken."

"You were in that room a long time for someone who didn't find the person they were seeking." It was all said in that genial tone, but he obviously already knew whose room I had been in.

"I didn't find who I was looking for but may have found something you were." I paused for a moment, reminding myself that some of the things Katsu knew, "Angel" wouldn't. Then again, he already thought "Angel" was a spy. I could work with that—and in doing so, I would tie up a loose end. "In any case, you've saved me the trouble of writing you another message. That boy of yours almost caught me last time."

"Then you know whose room you walked into." He had not let go of my hands. Apparently, he was still stuck on the fact that I had been in Mitsuhide's room for a considerable amount of time.

"I do now." If Shingen had been aware that Mitsuhide was lurking in Kasugayama, why hadn't he done anything about it? "I didn't when I opened that door."

"Would you have done so if you'd known?" This was beginning to feel like an interrogation – in fact that is exactly what it was. I had to remember that when he wasn't 'Katsu's boss,' Shingen was a ruthless warlord. But I could do nothing less than brazen it out at this point.

"Well," I glanced toward the corridor. The walls in this inn were basically paper. I had no doubt that Mitsuhide was lurking and listening to everything we were saying. "I would have knocked first."

"You don't work for him?" His eyes were open again, staring into mine, not his flirtatious gotta-love-me look, but something stern and cold. This was not a man who would take any kind of betrayal lightly.

"God no." I didn't even need to pretend horror. "I'd have a permanent migraine."

"You wouldn't lie to me, Angel?"

"Absolutely I would lie to you, but as it happens, I'm not lying about that." I shrugged. "I can't tell you what I was looking for because it was a private matter, but I can tell you what I found, since it concerns you. Maybe someday, you'll be able to repay the favor."

"Let me rest a while longer, Angel, then I'll be able to do just that." He pressed a kiss into my palm that I felt along every nerve from my hand to the core of my body.

I snatched my hand back, resisting the urge to press it to my chest. "Exactly how am I going to be able to relay this information if your tongue is in my mouth?"

"Interesting." He sat up and shifted closer. "I didn't say I planned to kiss you. Is that what you're imagining?" He reached over and tucked my hair behind my ear. Brave man. After running around searching the rooms, my hair was a snarled mess. He could lose a finger in there.

But instead, he gently untangled it with slow determined strokes. The soft brush of his fingers against my head and neck did wonders to ease the headache that had built during my excruciating encounter with Mitsuhide. I allowed myself a moment to enjoy that before returning to the original issue. "Do you want to hear what I learned or not?"

He leaned closer and spoke into my ear. "Everything about you is captivating, including the words that fall from your lips." He punctuated this statement with a flick of his tongue on my earlobe, causing me to bite my lip to avoid gasping loud enough for him to hear. "As I have just demonstrated, my tongue can be applied to a number of places that are not your mouth." He paused and playfully tapped the side of his head, as if struck by a thought. "Although I seem to recall you owe me two proper kisses of a suitable duration."

"Maybe you should apply yourself to mathematics instead of kissing. I owe you one kiss, not two." I don't know why verbally fencing with Mitsuhide had made me want to pitch him out the window, while debating with Shingen was nearly as fun as kissing him.

"Two kisses. I kissed you." With his finger, he drew an invisible line from his mouth to mine. "You didn't kiss me." He drew the line back to his own lips.

"I kissed you back. Simply because I didn't initiate the kiss, didn't mean I didn't participate in it, therefore, two kisses, minus the one at the lake, equals one kiss. Our bargain didn't state I was required to initiate." Aaaand, I can't believe we're having this conversation now. I slapped myself in the forehead to try to get things back on track. "Stop trying to distract me. I would think you'd be interested in information." Before he could reply and ping the discussion in another direction, I relayed what Mitsuhide had told me about the attack in Azuchi that someone tried to blame on Yukimura.

Shingen finally settled back and gave my words his attention. "Yukimura hasn't left Kasugayama for the amount of time it would take to go to Azuchi and back."

I scooted a bit further away from him. "They're aware of that, and they caught the person responsible."

"Who?" Shingen eased closer, erasing the distance I had just put between us.

"He said it was a paid assassin who, k-k-killed himself when caught. They're still investigating who hired him, but Mitsuhide wanted to pass along the warning that there's probably at least one of them here as well." I considered scooting away again, but I'd likely end up scooting myself right off the futon, which would be embarrassing.

"He wanted me to be told?" There definitely a note of disbelief in his voice.

I shrugged again. "I'm paraphrasing."

"Anything else?" Even though I hadn't scooted away, he moved closer.

"No." Nothing I could tell him anyway. The information about the arrow would need to come to Shingen through Katsu, presuming I could get him to talk to Katsu – to me as Katsu. I wished Shingen and this version of me had the sort of relationship where we could bounce ideas and theories off each other.

I wished Katsu could have that relationship with him again.

"Excellent. Now, about returning that favor." He hooked one finger around the neckline of my ugly brown kimono and eased it off my shoulder. With the back of his hand, he marked a route from my collarbone to my ear. It was the lightest touch, like a feather duster, which was an odd thought, considering that feather dusters haven't been invented yet. Thank God. Imagine what this man could do with a feather duster, and… augh. Just stop that. Shingen was enough of a distraction without my imagination getting involved.

I took a deep breath that ended in a sigh when he kissed a spot below my ear. "Most people repay information in kind," I managed to say. I would have liked to have said it a bit more nonchalantly, but I settled for putting together a sentence that included a subject and a verb. And an object. Small victories.

He pressed a kiss slightly below the first, apparently intent on reverse the route back down to my collarbone. "This is more fun, isn't it?"

"It's fun, although more fun, I can't honestly say, but if information is being exchanged for kisses, then wouldn't the information I gave you pay off my kiss debt?" I had vowed to myself that I wasn't going to do this again… and here I was. I hadn't sought him out, but here we were.

"No. A kiss bargain is a kiss bargain, while a favor implies a completely different set of rules and regulations. I did not ask for the favor, and although I was glad to receive it, I ought to be able to repay it how I see fit." He cupped my face in his hands and drew closer.

"That doesn't even make any sense. Shouldn't the recipient of the favor choose? Otherwise, it might not be a favor at –." Once again, he put his finger over my lips, but I was sort of annoyed by that point, so I bit him… which didn't have the effect I'd intended because he only smiled wider.

"Challenge accepted. By tomorrow morning, you'll be thoroughly convinced that you've received a favor." He kissed me, hot biting little kisses, each one lasting slightly longer than the one before, then captured my lower lip between his teeth and lightly soothed it with his tongue.

Alright, I can see how this might be considered a favor. Definitely it was more enjoyable than trying to game information out of Mitsuhide.

Wait… tomorrow morning? No, that's not happening.

Is it?

He deepened the kiss, pressing me back against the futon, and I reveled in the weight of his body on mine. Without permission from my brain, my hand wandered under his kimono to trail across his chest and stomach, enjoying the play of his muscles rippling as I touched him. His body was a miracle.

I felt like I was in a museum and had sneaked up to run my hands over a Greek sculpture. Never had I touched anything so perfect. But unlike the cool of marble, there was warmth and kindness. Maybe a guard would soon chase me away, but at the moment, I allowed a feeling of wonder and awe to wash over me.

My explorations seemed to encourage him. His hand drifted to my breast, cupping it lightly through my clothing. When he rubbed his thumb over, it, the friction caused by the fabric slipping across me sent an electric charge through the center of my body and I convulsively grabbed a handful of his kimono.

"I love that you're so responsive, Angel," he murmured. He slipped my kimono off my shoulder, kissed it, then froze. "What happened here?"

The sudden change in tone threw me, and it took a moment to realize he was looking at the large greenish bruise across my shoulder. I'm so used to being bruised from training injuries that I never think about it, and barely notice them. "Huh. No idea."

He traced the outline of the bruise, barely putting any pressure on it. "This is about ten days old. Did your master do this when you failed to bring back information after we last met?"

"What? No." Ten days ago… I remembered diving out of the way of the arrow shot at Mai and landing on a rock. That was probably how that happened, but obviously this was not a detail I could share.

"You're not being abused, are you?" He put his hand on my face, turned me to look at him.

"My horse was startled by a rabbit and threw me." That actually had happened … three years ago.

He didn't look like he wanted to believe me, which was annoying, given that as Katsu, I'd told him much bigger whoppers. "If you say so, Angel." He kissed the bruise. "Now, where were we?"

Why did he take Katsu more seriously than "Angel"? Was I jealous of… myself? Or rather, the part of me that was Katsu was jealous of the fact that "Angel" received his physical attentions. And the me that was Katsuko, or I guess "Angel" (although, I'm not an angel) was jealous that he actually listened to and believed in Katsu. I wanted some mental space to sort through all of it. As fun as this had been – and it had been fun – I knew I needed to leave. Despite his 'by tomorrow morning' talk, I wasn't sure if my disguise – or more specifically, my current lack of disguise – would hold up to daylight.

Of course, as soon as I got out the door, he'd probably be right behind me, and alert his … friends… to follow me.

Unless he was delayed. Somehow.

How quickly or far could he follow if I had his clothes? Hm. I liked that idea - it would be perfect payback for the towel. Punishment fitting the crime so to speak.

Getting his clothes off – while managing to keep mine on – that might be trickier.

"Angel?" He turned me to face him. "Are you still with me?" He sounded slightly put out that my mind had wandered.

"I was worrying about your injury, but it's pretty clear I didn't damage anything … important."

"You wound me, again." He put his hand on his heart. "I'm weak and in need of your tender care."

That was my cue. "Are you in pain? You should lie down again… just in case." I took his sandals off. "Let me make you more comfortable, so you can rest easier."

If I dragged this out, he'd get suspicious, so I hurried him out of his kimono, then pressed him back onto the futon. He half pulled me down with him, kissing me again, and that rush of intense desire almost distracted me from my purpose. Almost. "Hold on, let me get the candle."

Two seconds after I blew out the candle, I was out the door, his clothes and sandals bundled under my arm. I nearly collided with Mitsuhide, who, as expected, was lurking in the courtyard. He grandly stepped aside with an 'after you' gesture. I made a slight detour to toss Shingen's clothes into a patch of sand in the dry garden…

…and then I was gone.