I'm back, Baby! Booya! Yesterday, I should have worked on this. I was quite unproductive…cleaned up the yucky spots on the floor from slushy, salty shoes, wrote a letter and 2 birthday cards. Ate a lot of sunflower seeds…Not much else ^^;;

Anyway, here's da new chapta!

@--,---'---

Harusame froze outside the door.

Had she heard correctly? Was Sojiro in there practicing how to…? Her face flushed an incredible shade of red and her hands flew up to her mouth. Dear Buddha…He was really going to ask! She wanted to squeal with glee but refrained herself for fear of scaring him off.

So she stood there, her ear pressed up against the door, listening to him talk to himself.

"…I know I don't have anything….Not much at all to offer…But Harusame…I love you…I want to…Forever…" His words drifted out of the room, some of them muffled by the door. It sounded as if he were moving around in there; the words were sometimes louder or softer depending on his proximity to the door.

She listened to him as he continued to practice, sliding silently to the floor and sitting with her back up against the wall. This was too much. She had told Gessho that she wished he'd just get it over with and ask already, but now that it was a possibility…

She was terrified.

Hearing his footsteps approaching the door and the sound of the knob turning, she jumped to her feet and all but ran stealthily down the hall and around a corner, praying all the while that he wouldn't see her. So preoccupied with remaining unnoticed was she that she ran headlong into some one as she rounded the corner.

"Geez, watch where you're going, Harusame!" Sonomi groused as she straightened her clothes. She was still tired from chasing after Kietsu the previous night and her present physical condition put her in a unpleasant state of mind.

"I…I'm sorry." Harusame blushed profusely as she blushed, "I wasn't paying attention…"

"Well maybe you should!" Came the peevish response.

The younger woman's eyebrows knit together and she frowned. "I have a lot on my mind." She replied defensively, "A lot of things you wouldn't understand." Like how it feels to know some one is going to propose to you…

"Oh?" This woke Sonomi up a little. She looked at her friend with interest, hoping Harusame would further explain this comment. Her mind was racing…What does she mean? Something involving Sojiro, no doubt…I wonder what.

But Harusame just brushed past her, leaving her standing there to ponder.

@--,---'---

Gesshoku had fallen asleep.

Kamatari didn't mind his wife curled up and sleeping on him, per say, but the fact that they were still in the spring when she fell asleep made him slightly uncomfortable. He looked at his fingers. They were shriveled and prune-y. How long had they been there? No clock was kept in the spring and he knew this was because Kumori carried a pocket watch everywhere and it was her private spring.

He sighed, slightly exasperated. He wanted to wake her up, but then, he didn't. In her…condition…it would be best to let her keep sleeping. But he was stiff from sitting the same way for so long.

Shifting slightly, he tried not to wake her. She simply snuggled closer to him, her hand moving down near his waist, resting on his bare abdomen. He blushed lightly, glad she hadn't subconsciously gone any lower. She was allowed access, of course, but, well, he was easily flustered by her, to say the least.

He rearranged her slightly, holding her securely in his arms. She smiled, sighing blissfully, and he felt very content. Nothing made him happier than knowing his wife was happy.

His wife. Even after five years, that still sounded so odd to him. He was a man no one would have ever expected to have a wife, yet there he was, married, with a daughter, and her pregnant again. How had things turned out like this?

It was all Gesshoku. He would have still been miserable if it weren't for her. Any other girl, he would have stayed hidden. But there was something about Gessho…She allowed him to be whoever he wanted to be. He had decided to make the changes in his life of his own accord; she had never asked him for anything. He was the one who had decided not to run away, he was the one who had realized he needed to change his appearance for Kietsu.

It was his fault they even had her in the first place.

He distinctly remembered that and it upset him. Gessho had been shy and reserved when it came to the more intimate matters of their relationship. He had to keep reminding himself that she was younger and didn't know what she was doing. But that night…

They had been traveling around and were somewhere in the Tokyo area. It was a chilly, rainy day and both of them were feeling restless. A bath…Gessho had wanted to take a bath. She loved lounging in the tub and he'd asked if he could join her. At first, she'd been shocked, but she had shyly agreed, saying "after all, they were married."

One thing had led to another.

"Mmm…Kamatari…"

He snapped back to the present as she whispered his name, shifting in his arms. His face reddened and he looked down at her. "Did you have a nice nap?" One finger ran across her cheek, stroking it gently, she leaning into the caress.

"Yeah." She nodded slightly, her brown eyes heavy with sleep. It was then that she noticed his blush. "Did I make you uncomfortable?"

"No…I was thinking about the first time we did this." The scarlet hue spread further across his face.

"Ah." She grinned, "I remember…I was so shy…" She snuggled against his chest, "I'm a lot different now about it, ne?"

"Yes." He kissed her damp hair, his hand resting on the small of her back. She was cuddled against his chest, her head rested over his heart. He loved the feel of her in his arms, loved the way it felt to be with some one who truly cared about him. Shishio…there was still a fantasy. But the man had never cared for him. Never, not once. With Gessho, there was no denying the mutual attraction.

She reached up and kissed him.

He smiled.

Then she sat back, stretching, her arms rising from the water. Droplets hung suspended from the damp hair curling around her face and her eyes fell shut. "I'm so relaxed." She said softly. Not having a care in the world…She wished she could stay with him in the present moment for the rest of all time.

He watched her casually, his gaze sliding downward, taking in her soft curves through the silvery-clear water of the spring. She was by far not the most petite, attractive girl he had ever met, but she had a nice body and he knew how to appreciate her. She kept herself in good shape and her skin was always slightly tanned; she spent so much time outside. All those curves…He'd wanted that for himself.

And he had gotten it.

He sank down beneath the warm water, ducking beneath it's glassy surface. There was something exciting about being in the bath with her; something incredibly arousing. He came up before her, drawing her back into his arms, holding her close and kissing her gently. A happy sigh escaped her lips and she settled into his embrace, her arms around him once more. "I love you." She breathed, her cheek up against his.

He nuzzled against her neck. She was so warm; alive; inviting. So in love with him. All of the things Shishio had never been. He couldn't help himself. She made him want her and she didn't even know it. And damned if he didn't enjoy it.

That was the part that scared him the most.

@--,---'---

Harusame had come to the conclusion that the best place for privacy -the best place to think uninterrupted- was in the hot springs. She could relax and let her mind wander, running over and over any and every little detail of her confusing life.

Currently, Sojiro was the one thing her thoughts kept settling on.

She stole down the path towards Kumori's bathhouse. Gessho had told her that she, Sonomi and Sojiro were allowed to use it whenever they wanted, provided the matriarch herself wasn't there. Kumori kept herself on a tight schedule and the young woman knew she would not run into her at this time of day.

She had a lot of thinking to do.

So preoccupied with her dilemma was she, it never occurred to her that she might knock before just entering the small room.

Had she been thinking clearly, she would not have walked in on such a compromising situation.

Kamatari and Gesshoku were twined around one another, sunken down in the spring. Harusame stared openly for a moment, never having seen anything so shameless in her life. It was hard to tell where one of them began and the other ended; they were a tangle of arms and legs, totally caught up in each other.

Extremely embarrassed for all three of them, Harusame blushed a deep scarlet hue, backing a step away. She couldn't tear her eyes away from them, no matter how much she wanted to. Never before had she seen…

It was then that Gessho realized they weren't alone. "Kamatari…" She whispered, burying her face in his shoulder, "Stop it." He was kissing her neck, his arms around her waist, his hands splayed on her lower back, just above her bottom. She was flat on top of him; their bodies were practically melted together and she wanted to sink down into the water and hide forever at the thought of some one catching them doing the deed. "Stop."

A frown flickered across his face as he wondered why she had suddenly changed her attitude. This was very unlike her, unless…He immediately turned pink. "We're not alone any more, are we Darling?" He whispered into her ear. He sounded as if he would be ill. He felt her head nodding against his neck and he sank down further into the spring, taking her with him until the water came up around both of their chins. "It's not…Kietsu, right?" He prayed to every conceivable god that their small daughter wasn't the one who had found them naked together.

"No…" Her voice was no more than a dry whisper as if it had caught in the back of her throat. "Harusame."

As soon as she said the name, she felt Kamatari stiffen. Harusame finding them there was almost as bad as if it had been Kietsu in his mind. Now he was mortified. What would she think of them? This was not good.

"I…I…I'm really, really sorry!" Harusame finally managed to squeak out. She was backed up against the door, her eyes still wide and her expression one of both shock and discomfiture. "I didn't know…I thought…I didn't know you were in here." She stammered quickly, "I'm sorry…" Her face was an incredible shade of red and she was toying ceaselessly with a long lock of her hair.

Both of them just stared at her for a moment, neither one able to say anything. The silence was dreadful as she waited for them to explain in any way possible. So terrified was she, she would have accepted any class of explanation, so long as they didn't say they were doing what she thought they were doing.

"No, it's our fault." Kamatari finally recovered his ability to speak, "My fault, actually. I shouldn't have let myself get carried away and I apologize to you, Harusame, for having to see something so…immoral. I apologize to you as well, Gessho, for putting you in such a position and embarrassing you."

"It's not your fault." Gessho clung to his arm, trying to hide behind him and keep her bare chest covered. Her face was still flushed and she couldn't look Harusame in the eye, rather, she stared at a point above her head. "I'm as much to blame as you are. Sumimasen, Harusame." Her head bowed in shame, damp hair falling around her face.

Harusame nodded dumbly. Her gaze had come to rest on Kamatari's chest when he had risen from the water. Damn, but that man was nicely built. For some one who was so lost about himself, he had taken good care of his body. His skin was perfect; not a single imperfection, despite all the battles he had participated in, and his muscles finely toned. She had a sudden curiosity to see Sojiro undressed, wondering if his body was as finely tuned, and her blush deepened at her own brazen thoughts.

Kamatari looked at her, his head tipped to one side. An extremely flustered look had just crossed her face and he had a striking suspicion it had nothing to do with either of them. Taking her momentary distraction as an opportunity, he snatched a towel from the edge of the spring and handed it to his wife, who immediately wrapped herself in it, climbed out of the water and went scurrying off in search of her clothes.

Then he grabbed a towel for himself and secured it around his waist. Poor Harusame stood there still, as if she were in shock. No one would know it to look at him, but Kamatari was extremely embarrassed. He was dying on the inside. He felt like such a heal, putting both girls in such an awkward position, even if it hadn't totally been his fault.

He began pulling his clothes back on, wrapping himself in the layers of silk and cotton. He was dressing mechanically, not paying any attention to what he was doing. All he wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die of humiliation. Or maybe hide in bed.

With Gessho.

The hormones weren't totally gone yet. He frowned, mentally slapping himself for even having that thought. What the hell in wrong with me? She's already pregnant; we shouldn't be carrying on like this in the first place. And here I am, acting like some kind of crazed animal in heat.

Harusame couldn't help but watch as he pulled on his yukata, covering up that flawless chest. He moved fluidly, even though he was embarrassed and angry with himself; his movements weren't at all jerky like most people's when flustered. He was beautiful, no matter what he did. But he was so surreal in his beauty. She suddenly understood why Gessho had fallen for him in the first place.

Gesshoku appeared then by his side, her gaze still averted to the floor. She had dressed hastily; her clothing was just sort of tossed on. She waited for him to step into his sandals, then clutched his arm once more, her face hidden away in his shoulder.

There was an awkward silence, then Kamatari apologized to Harusame again, who murmured her own vague "I'm sorry" as the man lead his wife from the building. Still standing rooted in the same spot, the young woman could hear more apologies as the couple moved away from the spring.

She almost laughed.

The two of them were ridiculous sometimes.

But then, it wasn't really a laughing matter.

@--,---'---

So, that scene there in the spring was inspired by my walking into my dorm yesterday afternoon and…yeah. Matt, Drew, a bed…Figure it out yourself. It wasn't anything quite like what I wrote, but walking in and seeing them making out is good fodder for a chapter…

Sorry 'bout the long wait between updates…Inspiration comes and goes. -_-"