Loyalty
by Jennifer A. Wand
a Gravitation fan fiction
Warning: this chapter contains explicit sex. I don't know if that should be a warning or an advertisement. ^_^;
V. Super Drive
"Last year at a great conference there was a certain man who explained his dissenting opinion and said that he was resolved to kill the conference leader if it was not accepted. His motion was passed. After the procedures were over the man said, 'Their assent came quickly. I think that they are too weak and unreliable to be counselors to the master.'"
- from the pages of the HAGAKURE, the handbook of the samurai
Eiri had never known pleasure like this before.
He had known pleasure, of course. He remembered surrendering, helplessly, deliriously, to an embrace, to earnest words spoken to him that made him want to die from joy. Rough hands pressed against his, his body opening up to accept a lover's penetration, the heat and pain that somehow translated into beauty. But those moments had been strangely one-sided -- not because he wasn't receiving any pleasure, far from it! But he had no control over when and how he did.
Now he was the one in control, and Shuichi was in his position -- young, innocent, eyes misty with pain but glowing with affection, submitting himself completely and totally to the experience. They lay naked on the futon in Eiri's room, Eiri's body covering his, Shuichi's head tilted to the side so Eiri could examine that delicately perfect profile. Their eyes were open - Shuichi's kept widening in surprise as Eiri made love to him, and Eiri's watched every twitch and tremble of Shuichi's features as though afraid to miss a single reaction.
He wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much if it was simply taking control. That, too, was one-sided and one-dimensional, as fun as it would have been to reverse the power play in a sort of revenge against his past. But that wasn't all Eiri was feeling tonight. As Shuichi winced and moaned slightly beneath him, Eiri felt a tremendous rush of emotion. He wanted to give this boy all the pleasure he was taking from him, wanted desperately to do anything and everything that would keep this moment from ending. The beauty of Shuichi's hazy eyes made Eiri dizzy. The taste of his skin intoxicated him. Eiri was in control, but he was also deliriously out of control. That duality was like nothing he'd ever felt before. When he reached climax, he couldn't help throwing his arms around Shuichi's waist and murmuring his name into the soft skin of his back. "Shu...ichi..... oh."
Afterwards, they lay together on the futon, Eiri leaning back comfortably with Shuichi cuddled up to him like a baby animal to its mother. His hands wandered lazily over Eiri's skin, feeling every crevice, his lips darting along Eiri's collarbone. Eiri felt each touch as a hazy tingle amidst the clouds of bliss that had settled over him like smoke. His first instinct was to sleep, his second to start all over again. Muted excitement ran through his veins and he wished he had the energy and staying power to make love to the boy again right at that moment. His body had reached its limit, but his mind wasn't satisfied. He couldn't get enough of him.
"Yuki," Shuichi murmured with a goofy smile.
Eiri said nothing.
"Yukiyukiyukiyukiyuki," Shuichi said.
"What?" Eiri finally burst out.
"Just saying your name," Shuichi answered. "Yu-yu-yuyuyuyuyuki."
"Cut that out," Eiri scowled, trying to shift Shuichi's weight off of him and turn onto his side. It was unsuccessful - Shuichi sprang at him the instant he started to move and wrapped his arms around his neck. His chin dug into Eiri's chest and he smiled winningly. Eiri frowned in complete puzzlement.
"Yuki!"
Eiri snapped at him, "Don't say my name without a reason!"
"Tell me about yourself..!"
This was completely unexpected. "Eh...?"
Shuichi extracted a hand from the back of Yuki's neck and started counting on his fingers. "Like.... where were you born, what's your family like, how'd you meet Seguchi-sama..." His voice put a loud accent on the last sound of every phrase that made it seem like he was dropping heavy sacks of words in a row. Eiri began to feel uncomfortable. Anything that connected his name with the past tense tended to do that to him.
But before he could say anything, Shuichi had more to say. "My family's farmers. You know, like most of the people around here. We have a rice field on the north side of town, about a half day's walk. I have a sister, Maiko. She's crazy." Eiri thought about making a comment, but restrained himself. "The battles have been coming closer and closer to home and I've seen a lot of my friends become foot soldiers. I thought any minute now, someone would come along and drag me off to war too."
Eiri felt a frightening jolt move along his spine. Something about the way this narrative was going rubbed him the wrong way. He couldn't put his finger on it until Shuichi continued, "So my first thought was to dress up like a woman. I could pull it off! You know that, don't you? But Hiro talked me out of it. Oh, Hiro is my best friend. He's in the kabuki troupe with me and..."
One of Eiri's hands came up from his sides and extended a finger to cover Shuichi's lips. "You wouldn't fight?" he said. After that length of silence, his voice sounded strangely hoarse.
"Well, naturally." Shuichi didn't notice the strangeness in Eiri's tone. "I'm not cut out to be a soldier like you are. Who wants to go out and die just because some person you've never met your whole life says so?" Shuichi went on, but Eiri stopped listening there. The words struck him as the strangest paradox -- completely true and utterly wrong all at once. This child did the unthinkable. He thought of himself, not of those to whom he owed loyalty, not of those who protected him and made his life safe to live. Eiri had a notion to scold his parents for reckless child-rearing.
And yet the truth of what he spoke was unmistakeable. It was the truth that warriors like himself were conditioned, practically from birth, to conceal. If they were afraid of death, they were taught to welcome it. If they had personal desires, they were taught to despise them. Samurai life turned one completely against one's selfish nature and raised one to a higher plane. Eiri had often looked down from that plane onto the smaller lives he protected. But never had he gotten this close. The views that were quaint from a distance were somehow repugnant up close. Repugnant and strangely thrilling, like this boy in his bed was a native of some savage land, where the life of a man was no one's but his own. Eiri felt a rush of desire to civilize this savage, and another to join him.
And in loving him, he found the answer to both.
Eiri reached his arms around Shuichi and pulled him in again. Possessed by the superb energy, the super drive for living that this boy held, Eiri found himself renewed. Perhaps this was wrong, this strange, untested desire that could lead him into ruin. But when Shuichi's cries rang out again in the small room, his reservations melted into a rush of passion that crashed violently onto the long-abandoned shores of love.
-
When Hiro next saw Shuichi, he knew at once what had happened to him. Perhaps it was the healthy glow that seemed to pervade his skin; perhaps it was the new musicality of his voice when he greeted him. But most likely what clued Hiro in was the fact that Shuichi was grinning like a fool and absolutely refused to tell him what was going on. "Hey, Hiro... ask me if something good happened to me last night," he'd said. When Hiro humored him, Shuichi's only answer was "I'm not telling!"
"Something good happened with Yuki Eiri, right?"
"How'd you know?" Shuichi's hitherto unshakeable grin drooped into a pout.
"How could I not!?"
And soon it was the whole court that knew. Despite Eiri's efforts to keep silent and unobtrusive, Shuichi's behavior was so transparent that even the blindest of the old court matrons could see the truth. It was ladies' gossip at first -- it's women who enjoy most the affairs of handsome men, be they with women or with each other -- and was seen as a source of amusement. Attendance at the kabuki performances tripled, though the audience seemed more distracted than usual: the buzz that spread quickly throughout the room was seldom related to kakegoe or any other traditional method of audience participation. But none of these women had the right to start a conversation with a man, much less a stranger, and so Eiri and Shuichi went right on not knowing that everyone knew.
Not that they could be bothered to care. Shuichi watched Eiri intently as he practiced the sword, bounding up after a workout to ask him questions. The two took long walks and picnic lunches under the shade of gracefully arching trees. They argued hotly almost every day, and both their favorite insults for the other - "high-and-mighty!" "damned kid!" - were well-known in the court. When their eyes met in a room, visible electricity seemed to jolt between them. And Eiri met Shuichi after every kabuki performance, though the rumor was that every night Eiri told him, "I won't be waiting for you next time, you damned kid."
Shuichi was the epitome of a starry-eyed kid in love. His temper flared easily but dissolved just as quickly, and Eiri's taking his hand or patting him on the head was enough to erase an entire day of harsh words from his mind. With Hiro, it was "Yuki is amazing," "Yuki is so handsome," "I want to make Yuki happy," "What do you suppose Yuki sees in me?" To his audiences, he was even more effervescent, if a tad less serious, than he'd ever been before. And to Eiri himself, Shuichi was mercurial. One night he'd attack him with kisses, the next night be coy and hesitant, and on yet another night he'd look at him with serious eyes until Eiri cut off his stare altogether.
For Eiri, Shuichi was like a fountain of youth. Everything was new to this nimble, unpredictable boy, and that made it all feel new again to Eiri, too. He constantly found that he felt impossibly romantic, so much so he hardly knew how to express it. What was this power that kept drawing him back to the actors' door each night to meet him? Again, it was like falling... a direction so natural one hardly thinks to question why it is one goes that way.
And yet Shuichi was so disturbing, too. In a way Eiri couldn't quite articulate. Sometmies, little nagging questions took root in his head and made it hard for him to sleep. Why had Shuichi pretended so hard to be a girl when they had first met? To get close to him? It wasn't as if onnagata usually made a secret of their sex, even when they were partial to men themselves. And even if Shuichi had played the girl during their first meeting, why had he continued the charade? Eiri didn't like being lied to. And though he didn't admit it, more than a little of his frustration was probably due to the fact that he had been completely and utterly fooled.
-
Looking back, Eiri realized Tohma could have known about it from the very start. It certainly seemed like he didn't, but who could tell how the mind of that cunning man worked? After all, Tohma had called him in for an audience, and when he arrived, he'd been instructed to wait in the adjoining alcove while his lord held another conversation in the chamber... a conversation which Eiri could hear every word of.
"...friend of mine, a man named Sakano. Sort of flighty, but a good sort, and a patron of the arts if there ever was one. You may have seen him here last week. He was the one with the matted hair and nervous expression."
"Oh, I remember. I was afraid he'd jump from his seat any minute." Eiri cocked an ear... the voice was Shuichi's.
Tohma laughed an obliging, false laugh, and Eiri could practically hear the smile that crept to his lips like a thieving cat across a ledge. "He told me he was quite pleased with your performance and that he thought your energy and presence was, frankly, wasted in kabuki. He'd like to bring you to Nara to train you as a Noh actor."
"M..me? In Noh?" Shuichi stuttered. Eiri felt a brief quickening of his pulse.
"According to Sakano-san, your presence is strong, but needs discipline. The subtlety of Noh is much preferred to the melodrama of kabuki these days, anyway. And as a Noh actor you're likely to get more exposure. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if you were asked to entertain the shogun, at that."
"Th..the shogun!?" Eiri laughed to himself, imagining Shuichi flailing wildly, not sure what to do with his hands at such an outrageous suggestion.
"So, I'll make arrangements for you to leave for Nara in the morning. It's just as well, really. There's a threat from the north and I'd hate to see you caught up in a battle for our land. Art may have a place in war, but artists certainly do not. That's what I think." Eiri almost laughed out loud at this. Did Tohma consider himself an artist now? Is that why he'd become so ridiculously soft?
But his thoughts were halted when Shuichi spoke again. "No."
"I... beg your pardon?" Tohma stuttered in disbelief.
"I refuse to go," Shuichi said, louder.
Eiri's cheeks flushed with anger. He wanted to go in there and pound on the child's head until he showed some respect. It wasn't a question of whether Tohma deserved that respect, of course; he was a lord. It was due him. One didn't say no to one's lord unless one wanted to be sentenced to disembowel oneself. Did Shuichi know what he was getting into here?
Tohma seemed to have recovered. "And what on earth," he began, his words deliberate and measured, "causes you to refuse such an offer? Surely your ambition flies high enough to know its generosity."
"I know," Shuichi said. "I'm sorry." Well, at least the damned kid knew to apologize, Eiri shrugged. "But I won't go."
"But why not?"
"I won't leave Yuki."
This time, Eiri's face reddened with more than anger. This damned, straightforward, unabashed, shameless child! Eiri simultaneously wanted to box his ears and kiss him silly. Sometimes the brat seemed to have courage and honesty beyond anything Eiri could ever muster up. But at the same time, what good was courage if it invited selfishness? Being willing to stand up for yourself was a dangerous ability. One had to know when as well as how to employ it.
"Yuki...? You don't mean...Eiri-san?" Tohma stuttered. "Why, has he been 'employing' you?" Eiri scowled at the implication. Many kabuki actors were also part-time male prostitutes, but Eiri had the feeling Shuichi wasn't the type. He had too much of the starry-eyed child in him.
"He's not employing me," Shuichi went on defiantly. Eiri cringed, knowing what would surely come next from this foolish, loose-lipped child. "He and I are lovers."
Eiri heard a rustle of garments, as though Tohma had moved forward quickly. He pictured him bolting to his feet in a rage. When he spoke, his voice was livid. "You? Eiri-san's lover!?" He boomed in the most frightening tone he could muster, "I should have you killed!" And then, Shuichi's passionate reply...
never came.
Eiri took in a sharp breath, waiting, but there was nothing. He clenched his fists. What was going on? What had happened to Shuichi? The boy still had to retort, still had to triumph over Tohma's meddling and declare he would not be moved. Caught up in the anticipation, Eiri didn't even notice he had switched sides and was now rooting for Shuichi's continued rebellion.
Finally, Shuichi spoke.
"Th... that would be a problem too," he said weakly.
Tohma's voice slid back into its normal drawl. "Then you'll go to Nara?"
"Give me one more day," sighed Shuichi. "I'll go the day after tomorrow."
"Granted," Tohma replied, sounding just as tired. "My word... Eiri-san's lover..."
But by this time Eiri was already through the door and advancing on the pair. Shuichi whirled, his eyes lighting up, and Tohma looked slightly offended. One didn't just barge in on a daimyo in a private audience. But Eiri wasn't here to disturb him, though it was Tohma he faced when he pointed a finger at Shuichi and announced, in a roar of rage:
"This child is not my lover!"
Both men blinked. Shuichi stuttered a moment, then lapsed into a familiar whine. "But Yuki...."
Yuki silenced him with a glare.
"Not anymore," he said.
----to be continued-----
Author's notes:
1) Oh, stick with it. How many times did Eiri try to dump him in the original?
2) Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. It's my policy not to post a chapter until the chapter after it was done, and Chapter 6 gave me merry hell. Chapter 7 should be fun to write, though, so hopefully 6 will be posted soon.
by Jennifer A. Wand
a Gravitation fan fiction
Warning: this chapter contains explicit sex. I don't know if that should be a warning or an advertisement. ^_^;
V. Super Drive
"Last year at a great conference there was a certain man who explained his dissenting opinion and said that he was resolved to kill the conference leader if it was not accepted. His motion was passed. After the procedures were over the man said, 'Their assent came quickly. I think that they are too weak and unreliable to be counselors to the master.'"
- from the pages of the HAGAKURE, the handbook of the samurai
Eiri had never known pleasure like this before.
He had known pleasure, of course. He remembered surrendering, helplessly, deliriously, to an embrace, to earnest words spoken to him that made him want to die from joy. Rough hands pressed against his, his body opening up to accept a lover's penetration, the heat and pain that somehow translated into beauty. But those moments had been strangely one-sided -- not because he wasn't receiving any pleasure, far from it! But he had no control over when and how he did.
Now he was the one in control, and Shuichi was in his position -- young, innocent, eyes misty with pain but glowing with affection, submitting himself completely and totally to the experience. They lay naked on the futon in Eiri's room, Eiri's body covering his, Shuichi's head tilted to the side so Eiri could examine that delicately perfect profile. Their eyes were open - Shuichi's kept widening in surprise as Eiri made love to him, and Eiri's watched every twitch and tremble of Shuichi's features as though afraid to miss a single reaction.
He wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much if it was simply taking control. That, too, was one-sided and one-dimensional, as fun as it would have been to reverse the power play in a sort of revenge against his past. But that wasn't all Eiri was feeling tonight. As Shuichi winced and moaned slightly beneath him, Eiri felt a tremendous rush of emotion. He wanted to give this boy all the pleasure he was taking from him, wanted desperately to do anything and everything that would keep this moment from ending. The beauty of Shuichi's hazy eyes made Eiri dizzy. The taste of his skin intoxicated him. Eiri was in control, but he was also deliriously out of control. That duality was like nothing he'd ever felt before. When he reached climax, he couldn't help throwing his arms around Shuichi's waist and murmuring his name into the soft skin of his back. "Shu...ichi..... oh."
Afterwards, they lay together on the futon, Eiri leaning back comfortably with Shuichi cuddled up to him like a baby animal to its mother. His hands wandered lazily over Eiri's skin, feeling every crevice, his lips darting along Eiri's collarbone. Eiri felt each touch as a hazy tingle amidst the clouds of bliss that had settled over him like smoke. His first instinct was to sleep, his second to start all over again. Muted excitement ran through his veins and he wished he had the energy and staying power to make love to the boy again right at that moment. His body had reached its limit, but his mind wasn't satisfied. He couldn't get enough of him.
"Yuki," Shuichi murmured with a goofy smile.
Eiri said nothing.
"Yukiyukiyukiyukiyuki," Shuichi said.
"What?" Eiri finally burst out.
"Just saying your name," Shuichi answered. "Yu-yu-yuyuyuyuyuki."
"Cut that out," Eiri scowled, trying to shift Shuichi's weight off of him and turn onto his side. It was unsuccessful - Shuichi sprang at him the instant he started to move and wrapped his arms around his neck. His chin dug into Eiri's chest and he smiled winningly. Eiri frowned in complete puzzlement.
"Yuki!"
Eiri snapped at him, "Don't say my name without a reason!"
"Tell me about yourself..!"
This was completely unexpected. "Eh...?"
Shuichi extracted a hand from the back of Yuki's neck and started counting on his fingers. "Like.... where were you born, what's your family like, how'd you meet Seguchi-sama..." His voice put a loud accent on the last sound of every phrase that made it seem like he was dropping heavy sacks of words in a row. Eiri began to feel uncomfortable. Anything that connected his name with the past tense tended to do that to him.
But before he could say anything, Shuichi had more to say. "My family's farmers. You know, like most of the people around here. We have a rice field on the north side of town, about a half day's walk. I have a sister, Maiko. She's crazy." Eiri thought about making a comment, but restrained himself. "The battles have been coming closer and closer to home and I've seen a lot of my friends become foot soldiers. I thought any minute now, someone would come along and drag me off to war too."
Eiri felt a frightening jolt move along his spine. Something about the way this narrative was going rubbed him the wrong way. He couldn't put his finger on it until Shuichi continued, "So my first thought was to dress up like a woman. I could pull it off! You know that, don't you? But Hiro talked me out of it. Oh, Hiro is my best friend. He's in the kabuki troupe with me and..."
One of Eiri's hands came up from his sides and extended a finger to cover Shuichi's lips. "You wouldn't fight?" he said. After that length of silence, his voice sounded strangely hoarse.
"Well, naturally." Shuichi didn't notice the strangeness in Eiri's tone. "I'm not cut out to be a soldier like you are. Who wants to go out and die just because some person you've never met your whole life says so?" Shuichi went on, but Eiri stopped listening there. The words struck him as the strangest paradox -- completely true and utterly wrong all at once. This child did the unthinkable. He thought of himself, not of those to whom he owed loyalty, not of those who protected him and made his life safe to live. Eiri had a notion to scold his parents for reckless child-rearing.
And yet the truth of what he spoke was unmistakeable. It was the truth that warriors like himself were conditioned, practically from birth, to conceal. If they were afraid of death, they were taught to welcome it. If they had personal desires, they were taught to despise them. Samurai life turned one completely against one's selfish nature and raised one to a higher plane. Eiri had often looked down from that plane onto the smaller lives he protected. But never had he gotten this close. The views that were quaint from a distance were somehow repugnant up close. Repugnant and strangely thrilling, like this boy in his bed was a native of some savage land, where the life of a man was no one's but his own. Eiri felt a rush of desire to civilize this savage, and another to join him.
And in loving him, he found the answer to both.
Eiri reached his arms around Shuichi and pulled him in again. Possessed by the superb energy, the super drive for living that this boy held, Eiri found himself renewed. Perhaps this was wrong, this strange, untested desire that could lead him into ruin. But when Shuichi's cries rang out again in the small room, his reservations melted into a rush of passion that crashed violently onto the long-abandoned shores of love.
-
When Hiro next saw Shuichi, he knew at once what had happened to him. Perhaps it was the healthy glow that seemed to pervade his skin; perhaps it was the new musicality of his voice when he greeted him. But most likely what clued Hiro in was the fact that Shuichi was grinning like a fool and absolutely refused to tell him what was going on. "Hey, Hiro... ask me if something good happened to me last night," he'd said. When Hiro humored him, Shuichi's only answer was "I'm not telling!"
"Something good happened with Yuki Eiri, right?"
"How'd you know?" Shuichi's hitherto unshakeable grin drooped into a pout.
"How could I not!?"
And soon it was the whole court that knew. Despite Eiri's efforts to keep silent and unobtrusive, Shuichi's behavior was so transparent that even the blindest of the old court matrons could see the truth. It was ladies' gossip at first -- it's women who enjoy most the affairs of handsome men, be they with women or with each other -- and was seen as a source of amusement. Attendance at the kabuki performances tripled, though the audience seemed more distracted than usual: the buzz that spread quickly throughout the room was seldom related to kakegoe or any other traditional method of audience participation. But none of these women had the right to start a conversation with a man, much less a stranger, and so Eiri and Shuichi went right on not knowing that everyone knew.
Not that they could be bothered to care. Shuichi watched Eiri intently as he practiced the sword, bounding up after a workout to ask him questions. The two took long walks and picnic lunches under the shade of gracefully arching trees. They argued hotly almost every day, and both their favorite insults for the other - "high-and-mighty!" "damned kid!" - were well-known in the court. When their eyes met in a room, visible electricity seemed to jolt between them. And Eiri met Shuichi after every kabuki performance, though the rumor was that every night Eiri told him, "I won't be waiting for you next time, you damned kid."
Shuichi was the epitome of a starry-eyed kid in love. His temper flared easily but dissolved just as quickly, and Eiri's taking his hand or patting him on the head was enough to erase an entire day of harsh words from his mind. With Hiro, it was "Yuki is amazing," "Yuki is so handsome," "I want to make Yuki happy," "What do you suppose Yuki sees in me?" To his audiences, he was even more effervescent, if a tad less serious, than he'd ever been before. And to Eiri himself, Shuichi was mercurial. One night he'd attack him with kisses, the next night be coy and hesitant, and on yet another night he'd look at him with serious eyes until Eiri cut off his stare altogether.
For Eiri, Shuichi was like a fountain of youth. Everything was new to this nimble, unpredictable boy, and that made it all feel new again to Eiri, too. He constantly found that he felt impossibly romantic, so much so he hardly knew how to express it. What was this power that kept drawing him back to the actors' door each night to meet him? Again, it was like falling... a direction so natural one hardly thinks to question why it is one goes that way.
And yet Shuichi was so disturbing, too. In a way Eiri couldn't quite articulate. Sometmies, little nagging questions took root in his head and made it hard for him to sleep. Why had Shuichi pretended so hard to be a girl when they had first met? To get close to him? It wasn't as if onnagata usually made a secret of their sex, even when they were partial to men themselves. And even if Shuichi had played the girl during their first meeting, why had he continued the charade? Eiri didn't like being lied to. And though he didn't admit it, more than a little of his frustration was probably due to the fact that he had been completely and utterly fooled.
-
Looking back, Eiri realized Tohma could have known about it from the very start. It certainly seemed like he didn't, but who could tell how the mind of that cunning man worked? After all, Tohma had called him in for an audience, and when he arrived, he'd been instructed to wait in the adjoining alcove while his lord held another conversation in the chamber... a conversation which Eiri could hear every word of.
"...friend of mine, a man named Sakano. Sort of flighty, but a good sort, and a patron of the arts if there ever was one. You may have seen him here last week. He was the one with the matted hair and nervous expression."
"Oh, I remember. I was afraid he'd jump from his seat any minute." Eiri cocked an ear... the voice was Shuichi's.
Tohma laughed an obliging, false laugh, and Eiri could practically hear the smile that crept to his lips like a thieving cat across a ledge. "He told me he was quite pleased with your performance and that he thought your energy and presence was, frankly, wasted in kabuki. He'd like to bring you to Nara to train you as a Noh actor."
"M..me? In Noh?" Shuichi stuttered. Eiri felt a brief quickening of his pulse.
"According to Sakano-san, your presence is strong, but needs discipline. The subtlety of Noh is much preferred to the melodrama of kabuki these days, anyway. And as a Noh actor you're likely to get more exposure. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if you were asked to entertain the shogun, at that."
"Th..the shogun!?" Eiri laughed to himself, imagining Shuichi flailing wildly, not sure what to do with his hands at such an outrageous suggestion.
"So, I'll make arrangements for you to leave for Nara in the morning. It's just as well, really. There's a threat from the north and I'd hate to see you caught up in a battle for our land. Art may have a place in war, but artists certainly do not. That's what I think." Eiri almost laughed out loud at this. Did Tohma consider himself an artist now? Is that why he'd become so ridiculously soft?
But his thoughts were halted when Shuichi spoke again. "No."
"I... beg your pardon?" Tohma stuttered in disbelief.
"I refuse to go," Shuichi said, louder.
Eiri's cheeks flushed with anger. He wanted to go in there and pound on the child's head until he showed some respect. It wasn't a question of whether Tohma deserved that respect, of course; he was a lord. It was due him. One didn't say no to one's lord unless one wanted to be sentenced to disembowel oneself. Did Shuichi know what he was getting into here?
Tohma seemed to have recovered. "And what on earth," he began, his words deliberate and measured, "causes you to refuse such an offer? Surely your ambition flies high enough to know its generosity."
"I know," Shuichi said. "I'm sorry." Well, at least the damned kid knew to apologize, Eiri shrugged. "But I won't go."
"But why not?"
"I won't leave Yuki."
This time, Eiri's face reddened with more than anger. This damned, straightforward, unabashed, shameless child! Eiri simultaneously wanted to box his ears and kiss him silly. Sometimes the brat seemed to have courage and honesty beyond anything Eiri could ever muster up. But at the same time, what good was courage if it invited selfishness? Being willing to stand up for yourself was a dangerous ability. One had to know when as well as how to employ it.
"Yuki...? You don't mean...Eiri-san?" Tohma stuttered. "Why, has he been 'employing' you?" Eiri scowled at the implication. Many kabuki actors were also part-time male prostitutes, but Eiri had the feeling Shuichi wasn't the type. He had too much of the starry-eyed child in him.
"He's not employing me," Shuichi went on defiantly. Eiri cringed, knowing what would surely come next from this foolish, loose-lipped child. "He and I are lovers."
Eiri heard a rustle of garments, as though Tohma had moved forward quickly. He pictured him bolting to his feet in a rage. When he spoke, his voice was livid. "You? Eiri-san's lover!?" He boomed in the most frightening tone he could muster, "I should have you killed!" And then, Shuichi's passionate reply...
never came.
Eiri took in a sharp breath, waiting, but there was nothing. He clenched his fists. What was going on? What had happened to Shuichi? The boy still had to retort, still had to triumph over Tohma's meddling and declare he would not be moved. Caught up in the anticipation, Eiri didn't even notice he had switched sides and was now rooting for Shuichi's continued rebellion.
Finally, Shuichi spoke.
"Th... that would be a problem too," he said weakly.
Tohma's voice slid back into its normal drawl. "Then you'll go to Nara?"
"Give me one more day," sighed Shuichi. "I'll go the day after tomorrow."
"Granted," Tohma replied, sounding just as tired. "My word... Eiri-san's lover..."
But by this time Eiri was already through the door and advancing on the pair. Shuichi whirled, his eyes lighting up, and Tohma looked slightly offended. One didn't just barge in on a daimyo in a private audience. But Eiri wasn't here to disturb him, though it was Tohma he faced when he pointed a finger at Shuichi and announced, in a roar of rage:
"This child is not my lover!"
Both men blinked. Shuichi stuttered a moment, then lapsed into a familiar whine. "But Yuki...."
Yuki silenced him with a glare.
"Not anymore," he said.
----to be continued-----
Author's notes:
1) Oh, stick with it. How many times did Eiri try to dump him in the original?
2) Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. It's my policy not to post a chapter until the chapter after it was done, and Chapter 6 gave me merry hell. Chapter 7 should be fun to write, though, so hopefully 6 will be posted soon.