Haku paced nervously around the futon in his room, glancing out at the waning moon, sure now that Kii wasn't going to come, hadn't intended to come at all. I'm a fool, Haku thought darkly, finally sitting down on his futon, bare soles of his feet together. I let him set me up. He should be punished for mocking me—
He froze as he heard a quiet step outside his door, the rustle of heavy fabric. Someone knocked: two beats, exactly in time with Haku's pounding heart.
Haku opened his mouth to invite Kii inside, but his voice stuck in his throat. He closed his mouth as the door opened and Kii stepped into the room, holding his lute by the neck. "What is it you called me here for?" Kii asked softly. His voice sounded gentle and caring, but his eyes were like lead. He stepped into the center of the room and took one glance around, then focused on Haku again.
Haku shook his head to clear it; Kii's kimono was slipping off of his shoulder again and he could just see one pale, bare foot peeking out from underneath the bottom hem. "I—" he cleared his throat. "I've been having trouble sleeping," he managed, feeling his ears go red. "The customers say your music is very relaxing—I thought—"
Kii cut him off. "You want a lullaby." In one fluid movement, he sat down on the wooden floor next to Haku's futon. He brought one knee upright to support the lute while he played, letting the other lay flat on the floor. Haku stole a glance at the place where Kii's kimono was lifted because of his odd position, but the room was already too dim to see anything clearly. In the scarce light of the sliver of moon outside, Kii's bare leg was hidden in a black shadow. Haku wasn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. Stop thinking like that, he told himself angrily. All I want to do is go to sleep. Besides, he does it on purpose. He's been taught give glimpses of his skin to keep customers coming back for more. But he had to admit that he liked the way the moonlight played on Kii's skin, like a peach blossom under the stars.
Kii lifted his lute. "Lay down. Shall I play?"
Haku lay back on the futon, drawing the blanket up under his arms. He turned on his side so his back was to Kii, feeling anxious and jittery. This had definitely been a bad idea. How was he going to get to sleep like this?
Then Kii struck a note on his lute, and everything else seemed to melt away. He heard Kii hum the same note he'd just played, then pluck another clear tone out of the lute. Haku realized he was just making sure the instrument was still in tune, but the sound sent chills up his spine all the same. He remembered that earlier that day he'd hated the lute's music, wanted to destroy it, but now he couldn't bring himself to dislike it. Kii finally started to play a song, and after the first few notes he began to sing.
The words were unfamiliar to Haku, but the tune was one he felt he'd heard a thousand times before. Kii's voice was high and clear, and Haku imagined him swaying to the music, his eyes closed, concentrating on his art.
"Poor maiden who stands on the river's edge," Kii sang in the musical-poem style that had gained some popularity in the spirit world over the past few months. It was a difficult style to master; most musicians to attempted it ended up sounding like dying cats, but Kii sang the twisting, complex melody perfectly, his voice blending one note into the next. "She cries for her lover. Hide your face, poor maiden, while your tears wash the blood away. Hide his corpse, O maiden, and suffer not another day…"
Haku saw in his mind's eye a woman clad all in white, the color of mourning. Blood stained her hands and her sad, round face like sakura petals, and she wept while the quick currents of the river carried away the body of her abusive husband. She was not sad because her husband was dead, nor guilty because she had killed him, but afraid of what might happen next.
"Hide your face, poor maiden, don't let them see your tears of joy. Find your place, O maiden, mend the life that man destroyed…"
Poor maiden…
O maiden…
You mustn't let them see…
