Another story (sigh… what can I say?)… so, what else is new?
My greatest challenge ever… here, let me explain:
1) The main pairing in this fic is Eniishi + Misao… Whee!
2) I'm pairing Aoshi with Megumi (yikes!)
Charm, Poise, Allure, Grace
Baile
Chapter 1: Charm
She supposed that charm would suffice. Not that she had enough of even that to begin with. It was the simple truth. Out of the three sisters, she was undeniably the most plain. Her eldest sister Megumi was an exquisitely sophisticated beauty, her poise and wit making her all the more radiant in person. And substance? She had plenty of it—in the shape of a Stanford undergraduate degree in biology and a Harvard PhD in medicine. Her second sister Kaoru was no less formidable. She had natural grace and a prettiness that revealed the image of a wholesome, down-to-earth woman. She did as she pleased with a well-ingrained sense of morality and not a jot of worry as to how others seem to perceive her, and, as a result, she was the first of the three to be wedded.
Marriage. She was twenty-four and unmarried. And there was no rush for her to do so… not for the next five years, anyhow. Besides, Meg was already twenty-eight and still single. What had her worried was that she had no possible suitors in sight. Misao fitfully drummed her slender fingers against the window, her breaths fogging up the glass as she watched the raindrops break onto the smooth surface from the outside. She was in a restless mood… yet again. Seriously, how long had it been since she had even had a boyfriend? High school. And it had only been one boyfriend… ever. The petite woman leaned against the wall, her head lolling back so she could see the ceiling as she held a heavy silence.
Screw this. I'm going to fix myself a cup of cocoa. She pushed herself off the wall with a mild frown cast over her shoulder at the foul weather outside. Was this God's idea of a picturesque San Francisco spring? A strident buzzing crashed upon Misao's ears, making her cringe inadvertently. "Goddamn," she muttered in a vicious undertone as she ambled over to the door, "first thing I'll do when Kate gets back is get her to make the landlady fix the doorbell." Misao pressed her nose against the door to peer through the entrance spy hole: "Hello?"
"Misao."
There was only one person who called her and her sisters by their birth names. That same person also was the only one who used names as a form of greeting. Never "hi", or "what's up?" or even "let me in". Just "Misao". And that man was Aoshi, Meg's fiancé, yet he referred to her with more formality than their own landlady did. It was always the full-blown "Megumi"… for God's sake, couldn't he even shorten it for affection? Then again, Misao was quite sure by now that Aoshi was not able to express affection in a normal manner.
Misao let out a sigh before she shook her head in an attempt to relieve herself of her heavy thoughts, pasted a smile on her face and opened the door, "Aoshi… it's nice to see you."
The tall man merely nodded, causing beads of water to scatter from his long trench coat and hair onto the floor: "Is Megumi here?"
Misao's lip twitched before she answered, "No, sorry."
"And Kaoru?"
"No, Kate isn't here, either.
Aoshi either did not register the emphasis she had put on her second sister's nickname, or chose not to. Misao restrained the urge to roll her eyes and kept looking up at him with a polite smile, even as she felt the back of her neck get sore as she continued to strain herself to meet Aoshi's eyes. He was a friggin' six feet something! Most unusual for a Japanese man—even a Japanese American one. Would he do her a favor and come away from the doorway and sit down?
"Er… Aoshi, would you like to have a place to sit down? I'm making some hot cocoa; would you like some?"
"No, thank you. I'll leave shortly. Just make sure either Megumi or Kaoru get this." He slipped a large hand into his coat pocket and brought out a small package, his dark eyes indecipherable as he extended his arm to her and dropped it into her hands without any explanation. Misao arched an eyebrow as she opened her mouth to question about the contents of the parcel. Aoshi interrupted her smoothly, "It was… ah, a good-bye present from their friend Saitou Tokio."
At the name, Misao grimaced—urgh, Tokio was decent, but her husband… whew, he was a totally different matter altogether. At her sour look, Aoshi merely looked down at her with intent eyes, eyes that seemed to lighten slightly as his thin lips pulled upwards in what could be called a semi-smile. Misao gave him a rueful grin in turn, "I'll do it. Do you want me to tell Meg to call you when she gets back?"
Aoshi's gray-blue eyes flickered over her face with illegible intensity. Suddenly, Misao felt uncomfortable under his piercing gaze—what was he looking for? The bout of discomfort was short-lived, however, when his voice cut through the silence coldly, "No, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Okay… I guess I'll see you sometime around then, right?"
The tall man turned to walk out the door, his darkly cloaked body upright and unyielding against the cream tone of the entrance walls and the warm cinnamon of the wooden door, "Yes."
"Take care, Aoshi."
"Bye."
Cold, cold man… what did Meg see in him? Misao grinned dryly to herself, wrapping her arms around herself unconsciously. She was one to talk. When Megumi had first introduced Aoshi to her sisters, Misao had been smitten by his fine features. Aoshi was exceptionally handsome, and the fact that he had chosen someone as perfect as Meg only made Misao more aware of her own imperfections. No—she wasn't too faulty overall; it was rather the fact that she just was given less of everything in comparison to her older sisters that made her fidget. Anyhow, after spending a few guilty yet dreamy months trailing after Aoshi in her mind, Misao found out enough about him to ward off the unwonted feelings within a short period of time. He would not talk, a fact that bothered Misao not in the least. And he seemed to be, at times, almost lifeless. If it were one thing that Misao insisted that any of her loved ones, friends or significant others had in common, it was passion. All three sisters inherited fiery tempers, although it seemed like Kate had the most explosive one. Meg had a true passion for her calling as a doctor; her self-discipline and drive had earned the respect and affection of many of her patients. And she… she was most determined at being happy.
Compared to her family, Aoshi seemed… well, barren. Besides money, status and security, what was it that drew Megumi to him? For the last year, from what Misao and Kaoru could tell, Aoshi was an expert at locking his emotions away. Not once had they seen any sign of endearment or warmth from Meg's boyfriend, even to her herself. He took everything from her as a duty. The carefully packed lunches, their dates… even the casual kisses Meg pressed on his cheek. The man was frustrating, and he made Misao helplessly mad whenever she saw Meg with her head in her hands, crying as she troubled over the enigma that embodied her fiancé. With coldness to that extent, what did Meg have to hold on to?
With taxing thoughts on her sister and her fiancé clouding her mind, Misao absentmindedly tugged her jacket on. She might as well go to the Lavanda now and immerse herself in bills and paperwork. Professor Helado would throw a fit if he found out that she hadn't done all her hours for her business internship. Grad studies at Berkeley weren't easy—if she wanted that PhD, she would have to put in the hours.
UC Berkeley. When Kate and Meg had figured out she had gotten into the prestigious public university, and so close to home as well, they had been overjoyed. Misao had been pretty self-satisfied herself; from UCSD undergrad to Berkeley grad, it was a big jump. Her sense of achievement had been driven to the ground, however, at the utterance of one word from her cousin Yumi.
"Berkeley," she had said with barely hidden contempt and smugness evident in every syllable. Misao had wanted to grab her pretty neck and choke her to death. Her cousin smirked cattily, "How… nice."
That bitch. She had been uppity ever since she had first been accepted to Princeton. Misao bristled at the mere recollection of Yumi's slanted, violet eyes. There were few people Misao would claim that she disliked (Mr. Hajime Saitou being one of those few), but Yumi was the only person she really disliked.
Her footsteps could be barely heard through the honking of cars and the pattering of rain. Misao tugged her jacket collar closer to her chin in an attempt to keep her body as dry as possible. Her chin was tucked in; her eyes settled on the sidewalk before her as she walked hurriedly down the street to catch the train. The downy warmth of her pea coat protected her from the onslaught of bitter, San Franciscan wind that tore at her cheeks and threatened to freeze her nose and ears off. Misao let out a long-suffering sigh and reached both arms over her back to grasp at her long, unruly hair. When she managed to slip a hair elastic off of her wrist and over her hand so she could braid her windswept hair, she made contact with a firm obstacle and fell without any trace of the grace her sisters seemed to emit with ease.
"Ouch!"
Misao clutched her stomach—the wind had been knocked out of her. Wincing slightly, she looked up, trying to see who she had bumped into, "I'm sorry, I really should have looked where I was going."
Two pairs of eyes met hers, one of a grievously recognizable mix of lavender and gray, another of an astonishing deep turquoise. The owner of the turquoise eyes leaned over, his brow furrowed in what could have been irritation or concern, "Miss, are you—"
"My dear cousin Misao! How lovely it is to see you!"
Misao couldn't help but cringe yet once more at the saccharine-sweet tone her cousin took on when referring to her. Misao abruptly stood up, ignoring the hand the young man had offered her as she turned on her cousin with flashing ocean-tossed eyes: "Yumi," she said briskly, "I'm surprised to see you here."
Her elegant cousin was striking in a crisp midnight business suit, scarlet lips and pale skin. She turned abruptly to the teal-eyed stranger and twittered gaily, "Oh, what will we do with you? Missy's ever so refined."
The young grad student restrained the urge to roll her eyes at the biting sarcasm her cousin had slipped out—if Yumi had a stick up her ass, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. She turned with a drawn out sigh, ready to walk out on the pair of them without a word, when her eyes landed on the man standing by Yumi's side. Wow. That was all she could think when she looked at him. Wow. For starters, he had a head full of shocking, snowy hair. She found herself wondering stupidly if it was dyed. Idiot, she admonished herself, of course it's dyed! How else would he get such a peculiar hue? The man also had wonderfully chisled features… he was a true depiction of Grecian beauty. Misao suddenly felt infinitely more clumsy and ungainly before the eye-catching pair her cousin and this man made—she was wearing a huge gray pea coat with clunky heels. Luckily, Misao also was almost immune to such unearthly beauty; she had grown up surrounded by it, after all. She would not allow herself to be caught staring open-mouthed, and thus save herself any further embarrassment by hurriedly looking elsewhere. Ah, there. A random skyscraper point would do nicely. Perfect. Now, if she could excuse herself soon—she had no time to lose with unpleasant company.
"Yumi, I really have to go."
"Oh, you busy little thing! Why don't you—"
Misao heaved out another suffering sigh before cutting her "perfect" cousin off with an airy look and addressing the man by her side with a deadpan look, "I'm sorry I bumped into you. Now, if you'll excuse me…" With that, Misao turned around abruptly, brushing her coat clean with her hands as she melded into the crowd within seconds.
"How insufferably rude!" Yumi had taken a few seconds to recover, and her feathers were still quite ruffled. The ivory-haired man merely allowed a languid smile to emerge.
*
She was thirsty. Grabbing the carton of milk from the fridge, Misao opened it and drank out of it directly.
"Eww… I don't understand how you can stand that stuff, Missy." Oh, and that was another thing. Megumi was Meg, and Kaoru was Kate. She was Missy. It wasn't bad whenever it came from any of them or some of her friends, but when Yumi called her that, she could barely conceal the urge to scowl.
She gave her sister a milk-moustached grin, "I like fatty milk!"
Kaoru shuddered, "But whole milk is just too creamy! Why can't you just save money and drink nonfat?"
Misao squared her shoulders, the familiar light of battle glistening in her cerulean eyes, "It's because you won't compromise and drink low fat! I might as well drink what I want if none of you will go for anything we can share in between. Besides, chocolate chip cookies taste much better when they're dipped in whole milk. When they're dipped in nonfat, it tastes like soggy cookies in water."
Kaoru rolled her eyes dramatically and threw her hands up in the air in defeat, "I give up!"
Misao wiped her mouth off with her sleeve before thrusting the carton back into the fridge and shutting it solidly, "Oi, Kate—the doorbell's busted. Get Mrs. Higgins to get her large rear end here and fix it up."
Her slender older sister glared at her from the kitchen doorway, "Stop nagging me about it already, okay? I've already asked… and be more respectful!"
Misao shrugged before giving her a grin, "Nah, that's what you're here for. I'm just here to make a mess out of things."
"Sure, sure… Hey, what's this?" Misao spun on her heels, her braid whipping over her shoulder as she looked over to see what she was referring to. Kaoru was holding the bag Aoshi had delivered earlier that day.
"Oh. 'Oshi wanted me to give it to you or Meg." Kaoru let out a light giggle—Misao was the only one who could get away with calling Aoshi "Oshi" in front of Meg—and she had only given up when Misao had refused to listen to her older sister's admonishments. To save Meg's face, however, Misao consented to refer to him in a formal manner whenever he himself was present.
"What is it?" Kaoru's slender fingers held up the parcel gently, "It seems like a compact solid." Misao sighed—leave it to Kaoru to bring the classroom back home with her.
"Stop trying to nerdify me, Kate. It's a 'goodbye present' from Tokio."
Kaoru smiled, "How sweet."
Misao coughed, "They say that opposites attract."
The smile vanished within an instant, "Missy, I don't want you to badmouth Tokio's husband any more."
"It's not my fault that he's 1) creepy, 2) mean, 3) sinister, and 4) planning to bring down the Golden Gate Bridge for some obscure terrorist reason!"
"Missy! Act your age!"
In response, Misao stuck out her tongue in the most undignified manner she could adopt.
**
"Pass the salad."
"Don't forget 'please', Missy, or else we won't give it to you."
I ignored Meg as I reached over the table to grab the bowl. Meg's lovely face scrunched up in a frown as Kate shook her head at me admonishingly. What? I was too hungry to deal with etiquette. Why the sudden brushing up on table manners?
Megumi and Kaoru exchanged looks amongst themselves before Meg opened her mouth and said, "Misao," (oh, this was something serious—she never called me by my given name unless she was dead serious), "Kaoru and I have to attend an event on Saturday that means a lot to Jiya's business. We decided that you have come of age to accompany us."
I nearly sputtered my wine all over myself, "What?"
"Please," Kate pleaded, her sapphire eyes large in her heart-shaped face, "It would mean a lot to the both of us, not to mention Jiya."
I raised an eyebrow in suspicion—my sisters had never specified the details of these routine events, nor did I express any curiosity on the matter. I opened my mouth to inquire on the nature of the event when Meg and Kate stood up abruptly, jostling their plates together and going about in a great hurry, "Please say you'll do it, Missy."
"Well, I—"
"We're getting awfully late. Missy, I know you'll be an angel and do it, right? Kate, have you seen my purse?"
"Where are you guys going?"
"It's right here, Meg. So, what do you say, Missy?"
"Yes, but—"
"Wonderful! You are such a sweetie! Now, Kate and I have to go now."
"We'll clue you in on the details later."
Details. That was precisely what I was afraid of.
***
When had I ever agreed with Meg to attend to a black and white event? I was still muttering curses to herself as Meg and Kate dragged her out shopping in Union Square. Shopping had never been "recreational" for me. In fact, glamour and beauty had never been my forte. When deposited at the makeup section, I was as blind and lost as a newborn baby. How was one to know that some products were blush, lipstick and eye shadow all in one? And that some mascara containers looked like lip-gloss? Or that one had to wear sunscreen underneath the concealer? By the end of the day, my head was spinning and my nose was fatigued by all the perfumes her sisters made her smell. What had ever possessed me to take part in such foolery?
"Hmm… they would look good, if her feet weren't so flat."
"Weren't ours like that when we first started wearing heels?"
"True, but we got used to them over years. She only has until this Saturday."
"Better stick to the low heels, then."
Yup. Next they had gone shoe shopping.
Heels. Do my Docs count as heels?
"Hey… those look nice!"
Both of them turned on me: "Missy, do you like these?"
They were horrible—black leather platform with a suede violet flower wedged between the toes. Ugh. At the sour look on my face, both my sisters sighed. Meg bit her lip daintily as she threw up her head in despair, "What are we going to do with you, Missy?"
Funny. That was the second time someone had asked me that this week.
Kaoru let out a sigh as she looked at my feet. Then, she did a double take, "Gah! When was the last time you cut your toe-nails?"
Author's note:
Names are a recurring motif in this story, if any readers had noticed. Hmmm… maybe color will be, too.
Oh, and if anyone is still confused with the name changes, Kaoru=Kate and Megumi=Meg. I will use them interchangeably throughout the story. Often when their nicknames are used, it will denote familiarity or a change of POV (like from Aoshi to Misao, or something).
Also, I seemed to find that the moods in my stories were often quite consistent… in this story, I hope to brush up on humor as well as drama, angst and romance. Adventure? Argh… I'm not sure if I can pull it off in this one. The switch on the POV's was on purpose this time.
To the Aoshi and Misao fans: Sorry to disappoint this time. I am still keeping up with nearly all my A+M stories though. A Whisper of Grace is next on the list.
