A/N. So sorry to everyone who thought the last chapter was, um, the last!! ^.^ Yep, gotta keep tabs on our blushing couple yet. Which will be so fun that... the rating's gone up! From PG to a near-R. Let's add a bit of fruit to our diets. Mustn't miss out on those vitamins. ^.^
glossary:
mou = general expression of frustration/annoyance. In the series, originally a Kaoruism.
onegai = please
yokatta = Yay! That's great!
naze = why?
Kami-sama = God
Yoake Mae no Yami ni
by Mirune Keishiko
Sixteen: Infinitely High and Crystal-Clear
A tall, lean man lounged at the window, drawing occasionally on a freshly rolled cigarette, narrowed eyes scanning the pavement far below and the various men walking to and fro.
His secretary's droning filled the background, as it did everyday. A twenty-four-year-old hired more for his guileless loyalty, ready industry, and instinctive obedience than any particular skill or ability, he was reading reports out loud one after another—a dull and tiring task, but one he dared not neglect; his boss seemed to hear every word even asleep, and pounced on him in the most trouser-wetting way if he skipped so much as a sentence.
"Ahou."
The young man stopped, his mouth still open in mid-read. His boss was still at the window, but he had stopped leaning against the frame and now stood gazing out alertly, his muscular build, still impressive at forty-eight, taut with an obvious tension.
"Go down and ask Asuhito what's become of his new recruit."
The secretary vanished precipitately, and soon returned puffing with a few papers clutched in a trembling hand; for he had been running all the while.
"Feh." Ash flicked into a little white bowl as his boss took the papers from him. "Tomorrow onward you'll wear gloves in this office. You get sweat on everything."
He turned abruptly away to read by the window as his flushed secretary plopped back into his seat, hastily wiping his brow with a handkerchief.
Moments later, he dropped the handkerchief with a start upon hearing, for the first time, what would be one of the most blindingly frightening sounds in his life.
His boss was laughing.
Feral yellow eyes narrowed to black-fringed slits, guttural, menacing laughter coarsened by years of nicotine and tar—it was a nightmare that conjured visions of spattering blood and glittering steel. Thankfully, it was a nightmare soon over. The secretary—having resumed sweating—jumped slightly as the sheaf of papers landed on his desk.
"Ahou, stop twitching at every little thing. When I get annoyed, I tend to get violent." A long drag on a fresh cigarette; sharp canine teeth bared in a rare grin. "Now take down a message for Asuhito. Tell him I want reports every two weeks on the new recruit—his training, his missions, his investi... no, forget that, he shouldn't be given any investigations." The secretary hesitated in his scribbling; his boss had said the last words with a quiet amusement, as though to himself. "Emphasis on training," his boss barked, seeing that the young man's hands were no longer moving. "Tell him to make sure the recruit knows defense. And if he passes muster—which is a big 'if'—then to station him in Aizu, if that's what he asks for. We lack manpower over there anyway."
The secretary waited a few more minutes to see if anything else was forthcoming. His boss had turned away again, smoking imperturbably at the window. The young man wondered if he were smiling; he shivered at the thought.
"Tell him the higher offices will be quite interested in the progress of this new addition."
When the eerie laughter began again, the secretary quickly decided that immediate personal delivery of the message would be best.
"You're leaving?!"
Megumi looked somewhat dazedly around her at the varied responses that met her announcement. Misao was openly disappointed, while Aoshi nonchalantly munched on his rice; Takako and Akiko looked ready to cry. Even Kenji seemed mildly upset. Yahiko merely appeared resigned, and Tsubame's smile was doubly cheerful as she passed the doctor's newly filled rice bowl back to her, as if to say, "Well, best to make your journey on a full stomach, then." Sanosuke, to whom the news was no longer news, went on picking at his dried radish.
"I thought you were going to spend the winter here with everyone," said Misao mournfully.
"Sumanai desu yo. But winter is always busy for the hospital, they need all the help they can get; and six months' leave is all I can afford to take." Megumi sighed near-inaudibly as she ate; she was trying to convince herself as well as them, but the truth was that she would have preferred the noise and warmth of the dojo over her solitary apartment back home.
"Akira will be disappointed." Yahiko grinned. "First it was you and Sano, and now you're leaving."
"The dear boy has been preparing my tea and running all my errands for the last three months. I suppose he deserves a proper goodbye. Ohh-hohohohohoh!" And Sanosuke glared over his fish and everyone else sweatdropped as the kitsune's ears—which had not been seen in some time—popped into sight.
"I've half a mind to go to Aizu too," volunteered Misao. "They say the swans on Lake Inawashiro are really pretty! Ne, Aoshi-sama?"
At first, Aoshi perplexed the others with the warning look he lifted to his wife; but then Takako's eyes lit up at the thought of swans, and when both mother and daughter began pleading with him to see Aizu, suddenly everyone understood. Seeing a similar enthusiasm spark ominously in Akiko's eyes, Yahiko hastily sought to change the subject.
"Ne, Sanosuke, you went to see that government guy this morning, didn't you? What's up with that?"
"Oh, that!" Smiling sheepishly, Sano scratched his head, trying not to look too pleased with himself. "Well, I've got to start training by next week. The guy said it usually takes around six months for a fighter like me, but if I do really well, I could be done in maybe half that time, so..." He trailed off with a meaningful look at Megumi which she pretended not to see.
"Mou! Aren't you going to get married already?" Misao shook her head at them disapprovingly. "Don't you two think you've waited long enough?"
"Anou... well... ahahaha..."
Seeing that a bright red blush and a huge shit-eating grin were competing for space on Sano's face, Megumi decided to speak up. "We're quite used to waiting, so a few more months shouldn't hurt." From the looks everyone else was giving her, Megumi realized she herself was blushing. All this talk about marriage is so embarrassing. "We still need to plan some things out. But of course you're all invited to the wedding in the summer."
Misao was getting shimmery-eyed and sniffly, clutching at Aoshi, who quietly laid a hand on hers but otherwise seemed as perfectly undisturbed as usual.
"It's so nice to have a wedding to look forward to!" she sighed happily.
"And will we see the swans, 'tousan? Onegaaaaai?" pressed Takako.
Aoshi hesitated, then smiled down at his daughter. "Aa."
"Yokatta! Arigatou, 'tousan!" And Takako hugged her father as far as her short arms could reach, looking very like a miniature Misao. "But Akiko-chan and Shin-ya-chan and Heishiro-chan should come too!" she added as an afterthought, smiling across the room at the children who had been her untiring playmates.
Yahiko sweatdropped for the umpteenth time that lunch as Akiko began to plead with her mother to let her go with the Shinomoris.
"Must be Jou-chan's ghost still floating around here," Sanosuke muttered to her out the corner of his mouth.
Megumi smiled and nodded. "Must be."
One evening a week later, the Akabeko closed off their upper floor early for a party to send off Megumi. Sanosuke surprised everyone by insisting on paying for some of the provisions—and surprised no one when his part of the bill turned out to be the sake. Tae, mindful that some might find such festivities inappropriate after the recent tragedy, made sure to keep the affair quite secret—a feat that amazed those who knew her. She and her family joined the fun before the night was over.
Aoshi walked the children home well before midnight. Yahiko and Tsubame decided to spend the night at the inn, but there was no more room for the others; and so Misao, Megumi, and Sanosuke walked home under the high moon. When Misao vanished soon after they arrived at the dojo, Sano simply shrugged, winking at Megumi; she smothered a laugh, went to her room, and pointedly shut the door in his face.
Sanosuke, too, retired, smiling to himself in resignation. He had held back somewhat at the party, not wanting Megumi's last memory of him for some months to be that of a hung-over sleepyhead; but as soon as his head hit the pillow, he wondered if he had perhaps overdone it. He was wide awake.
For long minutes he lay staring at the ceiling, wondering if he should go back and follow up on the bottles he had stashed away for future use. He tossed and turned every few minutes, the fact of his undue alertness nagging at him quietly. Beneath him the wood very slightly creaked with every movement.
Outside, bamboo squeaked and groaned in a brisk breeze.
Something else groaned. Sano froze.
After a moment, he shook his head ruefully. Bamboo. Funny how sometimes it still sounds like a human being, even though I've been hearing it nearly all my life...
He froze again. That had definitely not been bamboo. It hadn't been a groan, either—it had sounded more like... a short, soft cry. And it came from Megumi's room.
He sat up and then held still, uncertain what to do. Megumi didn't sound as though she were in trouble. From what he had heard of that abrupt, brief sound, it was more of frustration and anger than any fear. And the slightly inebriated kitsune-onna would not appreciate him barging into her room in the dead of night intending to play hero. For another few minutes he sat still in the darkness, ears pricked for any further signals of distress.
None came. He let out a snort of derision at his own imaginings. The wooden boards protesting mousily underneath him, he flopped back down on the futon and pulled the covers up around him, determined to go to sleep before it got any later.
Scarcely had he shut his eyes when he heard light footsteps stop outside his door, a light hand knock softly. For a moment he thought about lying still and feigning sleep—but changed his mind. After all, it would be months before they saw each other again, and it wasn't like Megumi to wake people with trivial concerns.
He opened his eyes again and got to his feet, trying to ignore the ideas that kept popping into his head, making his heart pound as he strode over the door.
He slid open the door. Megumi stood outside, limned in cloud-dusked moonlight. Her long straight hair looked the way a stream did in the darkest midnight, waters shifting in slight degrees of shadow. Peeking out from slightly mussed strands, her pale face bloomed like the full moon, radiance punctuated by her unpainted, unsmiling, rosy mouth and her dark shadowed eyes staring straight up at him. Sanosuke would never forget her like this.
"Gomen ne, toriatama," she said quietly. "I know it's late, but I thought you were still awake."
"I was. Naze, daijoubu, kitsune?"
A smile haunted her mouth for a moment, when he said the old nickname, then it disappeared. Her hand was a flash of white movement, and then she shocked him to the core of his being by curving her palm around the back of his neck and gently pushing him down for a kiss that he intuitively knew was far different from that of a week ago.
Soft lips met his as his mind stumbled around in abject astonishment. Was Megumi this drunk? Was she doing what he thought she was doing? And—ah, Kami-sama—did she have to smell and taste so good?
She would have pulled away after only some moments of light, breathtaking kiss, but he held her in place with large strong hands angled along her jaw. At that moment all Sano knew was that this kiss was too damn good to stop. And though apprehension shot through his befogged brain for a split second, it melted away when she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her mouth even harder against his.
Sanosuke's body had bypassed the shocked daze of his mind and gone straight to arousal, his skin tingling wildly wherever it encountered hers, his nose savoring every breath of Megumi's rose scent. When her hot, wet tongue moistened his lips, he felt his body flash hot and then cold.
Somehow he managed to push her away. She stumbled only very slightly, but enough for her full, unfettered breasts to bob beneath her yukata.
Kami-sama. He cursed the masculine instincts in him that hadn't failed to notice this enticing detail as he forced himself to look up at her face. Her mouth was set in a firm line, but her eyes were smoldering with something he found he liked altogether too much.
"Megitsune..." His voice was rough from the late hour and the desire that pulsated in every inch of his skin. "Please tell me just what the hell you're doing."
"Why, what does it look, toriatama?" She smiled up at him coyly, tracing his jaw with her fingertip till he shuddered. "I'm seducing you. We've waited long enough, I think."
"Che, Megumi, this isn't..." He made himself look away, look anywhere else but her and the way the moon came out of the clouds at that precise moment to shine through her flimsy robe, neatly outlining her sublimely curved body. "You know I want this too, but..."
"Sano." She stepped toward him, dangerously close. With an effort he looked back at her, into her cool, clear eyes. "I trust you. I love you. And I'll marry you. Now will you let me in before I die of cold, or do we have to stay frustrated for another three months?"
Cold fingers met warm palms as they pressed into his hands the ends of her tied belt.
He looked down at the ends of the belt, up at her pure white face, and made up his mind.
Megumi's muffled laughter as he tugged her inside was not of the fox this night, but of the very happy woman.
~ tsuzuku ~
A/N. Whee! First a little comedy, then a little smut... Your reward for sticking with this very dramatic/angsty romance to this near-end! ^.^
Unfortunately, the very kind people at FFnet don't much like lemons anymore. For a purely gratuitous chapter with more than enough of your recommended daily allowance of Megumi/Sano-brand Vitamin C, reorient your browser to www(dot)geocities(dot)com/la_puente/yoakemaelemon(dot)htm . I promise the page will be up shortly. ^.^ If you're not the lemon-loving type, feel free to not read it. It's not that integral to the story. (Although a tiny little secret will be revealed about Sano, but it is, again, not integral to the story.)
