=Ah! Pardon the lateness! Tardy as charged, due to spring break vacation and much pondering. Could have been longer, but I rather liked how it ended. Gives me something to work with... Pyon!=
Gilded Chocolate
-Part Four... (guilty with numbers like fairy wings) Welcome to Manhattan.-
***
Dear Yuuki,
How are you doing? I'm great! This cruise is full of really rich people, but it's okay, they don't know who I am really. It's strange spending so much time with Doumyouji, but even though he's a jerk I am kind of enjoying myself.
Today we arrived in the Caribbean and it's beautiful here! There are a lot of strange people, but they all speak English so I can't understand them. I think Doumyouji can, though. We have a luxury suite in a giant hotel—I don't think I've ever seen something so big. We certainly don't have places like it in Japan.
Please tell Kazuya-kun, Makiko-chan and the others 'hello' for me. I hope you're okay at work without me! I'll try to write again when we stop in Europe.
Your friend,
Tsukushi
***
For a reason that was beyond Tsukushi, the main room had a large, extravagant, pull-out bed.
"I'm sleeping here tonight," Tsukasa told her, pressing the soft, expensive-looking mattress with one hand and nodding with satisfaction at the response he received. Tsukushi only nodded, quickly setting about to finding a linen closet somewhere in the massive hotel room. She opened the closet, looked inside, saw nothing but coat hangars and closed it once more.
"They're here," Tsukasa called from across the room. A small door was tucked in the corner, and its shelves were loaded with various types of sheets, blankets, pillowcases and linens of the sort. Tsukushi furrowed her eyebrows; linen closets were supposed to be cupboards, she thought, not actual closets. The suite was really much too big for her tastes.
In silence the pair took out the sheets and blankets, joining forces to make the bed in record time. By the sour look on Tsukasa's face, Tsukushi knew for certain that he rarely had to do such menial tasks and it was not sitting well with him, but he raised no complaint and before she knew it the pull-out was ready.
Stepping back to admire their work, Tsukushi felt a brief pang of guilt. Though it did look extremely comfortable and luxurious, it was still a couch-bed and she knew from experience that even the best rendered its resident crippled with back pain the next day. Brushing it away, she merely considered it Tsukasa's choice and stood, smiling at him and nodding toward the bathroom.
"I think I'm going to take a shower before bed," she informed him, returning to the same linen closet to find a towel. Unable to locate one, she squeaked when she felt a sudden tap on her shoulder. Tsukasa stood behind her, one eyebrow cocked, arms crossed, and pointed toward the bathroom.
"They're already in there," he said humorlessly, following her with his eyes as she blushed with embarrassment and nodded her head.
"Thanks," she mumbled, quickly darting into the room and closing the door behind her. Tsukushi blinked rapidly, walking across the large, tiled floor toward the fancy, glass shower door. She shivered briefly as she remembered the dark, intense look in Tsukasa's eyes as he stared at her--almost as if he were looking into her. He had seemed a bit strange after the incident in the elevator, but remembering the sensation of his lips on her neck and the strong, deep look in his eyes caused her heartbeat to quicken and her very fingers to tingle. Resolving to forget it and get on with her shower, she turned on the water and waited, one hand under the faucet, for the heat to come on.
Tsukushi found a new set of familiar-looking pink pajamas laid out on the bed when she went into the bedroom through the bathroom's side door. It looked as if someone had arrived with their bags, for she looked into the closet briefly to find her wardrobe from the cruise ship already hanging inside. Changing quickly, she left into the main room to inform Tsukasa the shower was available, but heard the water go on as soon as she stepped out of the bedroom door.
Tsukushi yawned, finding that the long, hot day was finally taking its toll on her in the form of exhaustion. She slumped into an especially large, fluffy chair in front of the television, intent on waiting for Tsukasa to finish before she went to bed. After discovering the remote on top of an unreadable television guide, she pressed the only button that remotely resembled 'power' and left her fate to whatever channel came on.
Of course, it had to be a newscast. Letting out a yawn, Tsukushi sank farther into the chair and let her mind wander, only her eyes focusing on the slowly-blurring screen in front of her. Before long, she had slipped into darkness.
She was moving. Slowly coming back to her senses, Tsukushi suddenly yawned and blinked her eyes open, her body, though lying down, was somehow bobbing up and down. She found herself with her face softly pressed against a muscled chest, a strong, masculine smell sedating her mind and familiar arms keeping her body aloft.
"Mm... Doumyouji?" Tsukushi asked, raising sleepy eyes to the tall man who was carrying her across the main room. Tsukasa glanced down at her, turning his body so he could fit her in through the door to the bedroom. Turning on the light with his elbow and still not having responded, he raised his eyes to the task at hand and quickly arrived at the bed, where he laid her down in the middle with her head resting on one soft, fluffy pillow.
"You were asleep when I came out of the shower," he told her. "I couldn't just let you sleep there and risk you complaining all day tomorrow about a sore neck." His eyes twinkled with mischief at his words, though his face remained straight as he sat down on the bed beside her with his feet on the floor. Tsukushi was distracted from her attempted glare by a large yawn. "That's extremely attractive," Tsukasa commented sarcastically, brushing her bangs from her eyes at the same time. She smirked at him and sat up enough that she could tuck her feet under the blankets, where she slid down and drew the sheet up to her neck.
Tsukasa rose from where he sat and turned to leave the room, when his exit was halted by a hand on his arm, fingers wrapping with a feather touch around his elbow. He turned his head back, his eyes regarding Tsukushi questioningly and she blushed at her sudden action, releasing him from her grip.
"Er, sorry," she apologized, voice still groggy from sleep, "Goodnight, then."
Tsukasa smiled at her and leaned down toward her, his smile quickly turning into a mischievous grin. A blush quickly spread across Tsukushi's face as he drew his nose close to hers, his breath tickling her lips. "Do you want me to stay?"
She inhaled sharply at his words, her eyes widening just as his narrowed. "Well, I, uh... I mean, I... er-"
"Is that a yes or a no?" Unconsciously, her eyes traveled to his lips, but she quickly averted her gaze when she saw him tense to chuckle.
"That's a--" Tsukushi was silenced by his lips suddenly on her own, her response lost in an overwhelming, warm haze. His touch was as gentle as ever, with his mouth coaxing her pliable lips and his fingers brushing her cheeks. At the sensation of his hand lightly taking her neck in his palm, she murmured something incoherent against the kiss and felt herself slowly melting into his welcoming touch.
Before she could react she found herself in Tsukasa's arms, his grip holding possessively onto her hips, his lips breaking from her own. Tsukushi inhaled, her breath hitched, and looked up, her eyes foggy from the wave of emotions that washed over her. "...Doumyouji...?"
He rested his forehead against her own, his eyes shining brightly even in the rather dull glow of the room. Tsukushi swallowed, forcing down the incredible urge to leap up, wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him 'til he turned pink. Almost seeming to read the look in her eyes, Tsukasa brushed his fingers through her hair and never once allowed his gaze to wander.
"You do know, Makino," Tsukasa said, his voice much deeper and throatier than she was used to, "that I love you, right?" Tsukushi's large, brown eyes grew wide as he spoke, her fingers trembling until he took her hand in his and squeezed. She slowly nodded her head, earning an unusually broad, playful smile from him. "Goodnight, then," he said, kissing her forehead before lifting himself off the bed. Tsukushi, still slightly dazed, didn't react until he had already tucked her back under the blankets and walked across the room to the door.
"Wait, Doumyouji," she said, her voice quiet, her eyes focused down on the quilt. Tsukasa paused, glancing back at her. "Thank you."
He only nodded his head and turned, turning down the light until the room went black, and left back into the main room.
***
Tsukasa tapped his foot against the floor of the residence hall, his face screwed up in annoyance and impatience. He had a bag slung over one shoulder, just unzipped enough that a shoelace fell out into the open, and was dressed much differently than he had in the Caribbean. He wore a corduroy jacket with a soft, white, fleece padding on the inside and a pair of dark jeans--quite unusual for him, if he went that casual, he generally at least kept some respect by wearing khakis--with a pair of earmuffs and a beanie hat tucked into one pocket.
"Hurry up, Makino!" he shouted at last, rapping his knuckles on the door and earning a hollow clack. He heard a frustrated growl back at him.
"I am, you dope! I thought we weren't leaving until noon!"
"Well, I decided to leave early. Now get out here!"
"Shut up and go away!"
"No! If you don't come out in one minute, I'm going to come in there and--"
"You just hold your horses, Doumyouji Tsukasa! I'm... I'm having some issues. Just go away and I'll be out in a few minutes."
"I've already waited long enough, what the hell is the problem?" Tsukasa, mouth still ready to snap, blinked when he heard no response. He knocked the door again. "Makino? What's wrong with you?" Still silence.
"I told you I'd be out in a minute," came the hushed reply. Tsukasa raised one eyebrow and leaned down, pressing his ear against the door to listen for anything that would clue him in to what was causing the delay, but could hear nothing but a bit of shuffling. At last he heard a door inside open, and a few more loud noises before he jumped back and Tsukushi stepped out of her room and into the hallway. She carried a small bag in one hand, wore a large, pleather coat and a pair of long pants.
"What took you so long?" Tsukasa growled, and then reached over in an attempt to take her bag from her. Tsukushi drew it to her protectively, shrugging her shoulders and walking ahead toward the stairs leading up on deck.
"Nothing," she said in a non-committal tone, not looking back as Tsukasa walked up beside her. He leaned forward just a tad in an effort to take a look at her face, but she merely walked ahead without expression and he was halted from his endeavor when they began their ascent up the stairs.
"Well, our bags will be waiting for us at our hotel, as usual," he informed her as they crossed the deck toward a large group of people standing on the far end. A walkway began its descent toward the dock, where the base settled on the cement and the crowd began merging into it. Tsukushi only nodded her head as an acknowledgment of his words.
Tsukushi raised her eyes as they waited to leave the ship, regarding the immense city before her with skepticism. The massive buildings and skyscrapers seemed to stretch on into eternity, spreading out before them in every direction, their various-colored structures decorated with story after story of small, black windows.
It was not that different from Tokyo, she noted sardonically.
A chauffer waited below, but Tsukushi found herself mesmerized with the much clearer massive, brown fog lingering in the distance. At first she had thought it to be some trick of the light, but the sun was still high in the sky. The cloud's identity struck her as something not completely unfamiliar, but it stood out in a strange place more than it ever would in her home country.
"Hurry up and stop daydreaming," she heard Tsukasa mutter from inside the rather gaudy black car. Blinking out of her daze Tsukushi quickly dropped into her seat and closed the door.
As they drove, she found the city to be a thousand times less interesting passing by quickly than it may have walking through it--seeing the people, feeling the sidewalks under her shoes, smelling and seeing and hearing all the things unique to the city itself. Glancing over at Tsukasa, she knew it would be completely lost on him anyway. He would insist on some road tour complete with a full lunch course and very little time actually looking at the scenery.
So Tsukushi wasn't in the least surprised when they pulled up to a massive hotel, complete with a fancy maple leaf logo and overly extravagant garden furnishings, and were escorted into the lobby. She let out a heavy sigh as Tsukasa led her to the reception desk and let his bag drop with an audible clunk to the floor, where a busboy hurriedly took it, then approached her and tried to take her own. She drew it back, and he gave her a confused look before taking his one charge and leaving to the elevator.
Tsukasa, having missed the entire exchange, looked at her and nodded his head. "Come on, we're checked in. I have a car waiting for us," he supplied, motioning toward the door. "Full tour."
Tsukushi let out a sigh and only nodded her head, following as they once more left the building and were met with a completely different, much fancier car with a small Japanese flag attached to the hood. She paused, watching as Tsukasa opened the door and looked back at her.
"Hey, come on! We need to get started," he said, his tone gruff as usual.
Her voice was soft when she responded, and Tsukasa had to strain to hear her. "Doumyouji, do you really think you can see a place that way?" she asked, eyes traveling over the surrounding area inquisitively. He looked blankly at her.
"What are you talking about? Come on."
"Really. You just see the streets and hear the engine--that's not what makes a place what it is. You don't know how to sight-see very well, do you?"
"You're crazy, woman," he growled, coming over and grabbing her hand in an effort to drag her to the car. Despite his efforts, she refused to move.
"If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it my way. You can do whatever you want," she told him, pulling her hand away, and she glanced up. "It's how ordinary people do it."
Tsukasa threw up his hands--still obviously not really hearing anything she was saying--and huffed in frustration. "Fine, do whatever you want," he told her, "but I'm leaving. Call me." Hastily pulling a phone out of his pocket, he grabbed her hand, pressed the object into her palm, and stiffly walked back to his car. He pulled open the door and got in, and after slamming it loudly, crossed his arms. Tsukushi stood dumbfounded as he pulled away, a black cloud clearly visible above his head.
She shrugged. It was his business how he did his sight-seeing, she decided, so she would just do it her own way. "Besides," she said out loud, straightening her shoulders and turning to scout out the nearest bus stop, "I can have much more fun on my own. It's an ordinary people's date, just me and myself!" With that self-assurance, Tsukushi slung her bag over one shoulder and started off down the sidewalk away from the overstuffed hotel.
Her first stop was a park, one which she had seen during the drive to the hotel, and if her memory served her was within walking distance and would only require a bit of backtracking navigation. Kicking her walk into gear, she set off.
After only half an hour, Tsukushi already felt she had absorbed some of the city, even if she herself was walking in a relatively suburban area. The fog seemed less prominent near the hotel, but the never-ending sea of skyscrapers, office buildings, and towers rose above her like giants, passive in their non-intrusion but still looming just on the horizon of her vision so they were constantly distracting her attention. The people she passed barely seemed to acknowledge her existence as they pressed by, speaking to her in broken, rapid-fire English if they happened to bump into her and conversing amongst themselves as they traveled in pairs or small groups. As she walked Tsukushi marveled at how freely they acted, flirting openly with one another and even kissing or holding hands on park benches near the wide sidewalk.
The grass was really quite green, springing to life in every direction and seeming to stretch to the various intersections that all surrounded the small haven. A grove of trees grew to one side, providing a calm shade and giving the park the ethereal feeling of a small piece of nature stranded inside a bustling, overpopulated city, a feeling that one could retreat there and forget, even if only for a few moments, about everything that very city represented. People threw frisbees for their dogs, walked their strollers, had picnics on blankets, and relaxed on the grass all around, giving the park a peaceful, cheerful mood.
By the time Tsukushi heard her stomach give a little grumble, she checked her watch to find that she had passed over an hour walking around, through, and past the rather large park. Intent on finding some cheap food, she set off toward the larger buildings, quickly passing the last of the grass into a much more crowded, bustling part of town. The flow reminded her vaguely of home, when people would amass on corners and wait until the light turned so they could, in one massive group, cross each street only to walk for a short time and stop again at the next traffic signal to wait.
As she progressed farther into the depths of the city, Tsukushi looked into the various clothing boutiques, salons, shops, restaurants, and cafes lining the rather busy street and marveled at how at one moment, she would see a style on display that had appeared in a recent fashion magazine at home, and later would catch sight of some brightly-colored, bizarre fashion she never dreamed someone could actually wear. She found the strange mixture of familiarity and alienation rather enthralling, and she soon lost herself in admiring bright restaurant logos and large advertisement banners as she went.
Eventually she found her way to a small market, located in a few buildings on an obviously less well-known street corner. Like small markets at home it was swarming with the activities of sellers and buyers, vendors calling out their wares and customers sifting fruit or admiring a cut of pork, while the entire establishment seemed alive under one large, tin roof. It didn't take Tsukushi long to spot a small hot dog stand, where she bought a relatively cheap item with some of the "pocket change" that Tsukasa had insisted she have with her at all times. "You never know when you'll need it," he had said, rather wisely.
The cultural differences in the market as she passed through astounded her. There were no casual squid-on-a-stick sellers, no fish auctions, no hogs sitting in corners, and the smell was much different than anything she was used to. But as she passed she noted faithfully that vegetables were vegetables, and at least produce wasn't all that different even in another country.
By the time she left her watch read three in the afternoon, and Tsukushi briefly wondered what time Tsukasa had meant when he merely said, "Call me." She growled, pausing on a street corner to glance around as her brain tried to work around the strange anomaly that was Doumyouji Tsukasa. So touchy, she thought with a faint smirk.
She only wandered for another half an hour--doing as much window shopping as she thought any normal girl could handle--before she turned around and started off in the opposite direction, knowing that her road would eventually take her somewhere near the park. Streets had at least that much logic, Tsukushi just had to keep her own mental map.
As she continued, she briefly paused at a smell floating on the air, one so familiar she swore she could taste it. Pausing on the corner she turned and peered down the intercepting street, taking in a long whiff of whatever it was.
Sure enough, the scent of miso emanated from a small store down the rather dark alley, which had a modest Japanese sign to one side so she could read the large letters. "Noodle stop," she said out loud, taking one glance around before taking a turn and heading down toward it. Some sticky rice and chilled noodles couldn't hurt, she thought to herself, she could really do with some genuine Japanese food after all the various ethnic dishes of which she'd had nothing but for the last month or more.
Tsukushi paused for a moment, thinking back to the small phone resting in her pocket. It was already three thirty, so she decided to give Tsukasa a call and tell him her estimated time of arrival, as he was most likely planning some kind of extravagant dinner arrangement. She pulled out the small object and searched the list of numbers for something she could use to reach him. After trying a few different cell combinations, she got a familiar, "What?"
She laughed. "Such a great greeting," she said sarcastically.
"Ah, Makino, it's you. Where are you?"
Tsukushi glanced around, taking a few moments to read the street names before replying. "I'm at Morris and 113th street," she told him. "I'm stopping for a while, then I'm going down 113th to the park near the hotel."
"Don't take too long, you silly woman," he prodded. "I'll see you at the hotel at four fifteen."
"All right, I'll be there then. Bye bye." Hanging up, she slipped the phone back into her pocket and lifted her head, only to find her vision blocked by three rather large shadows and her breath suddenly cut off through her mouth by a hot, scratchy cloth. Lashing out with one arm automatically, Tsukushi let out a muffled scream and stumbled when one of the shadows grabbed her hand, the man grinning and saying something in mumbled English to one of his partners. A tall redhead leaned his face down to hers, his pale face still light even in the dark of the alley. He spoke to her, but she found herself too wild with a racing heart and pulsing blood to even remotely focus on his words as she struggled against the strong, thick-fingered arms holding her restrictively. The middle man laughed and grabbed her by her collar, twisting it in his fingers as he tilted his head to look her up and down with a kind of dark appraisal. Tsukushi fidgeted and squirmed, feeling her chest tighten with each passing moment as she found it harder and harder to breathe through her nose. The man to her right, a shorter, buffer character with dark hair and glasses tightened his hold on her, shifting positions so he was behind her, and took the gagging responsibility from her previous captor, a muscular, imposing blonde. He pushed her forward from behind, the redhead dragging her by one arm down the sidewalk and farther into the alley where the light grew dimmer and a few large dumpsters sat, discarded, against the brick building that rose high to the left.
Tsukushi, still struggling frantically against her captors, stumbled on one foot as she pulled against the much taller, stronger man holding her from behind in a rough, obviously very sexual way. Her pulse began to beat faster and faster, pressing her blood into her head and causing her very eyes to throb as she tried in vain to scream against the tight cloth blocking her mouth. The men laughed and the redhead tugged her harshly, seeming to delight in tearing her long, white sleeve as she was pulled around the side of one tall, rusty, dirty brown dumpster. The top had slid off and lay on one corner, every edge of the metal apparatus seeming to shine with a dangerous kind of sharpness.
Tsukushi gasped and let out a gagged cry of pain as the dark-haired man released her and shoved her against the brick wall, sending a sharp pain up her spine, and she felt herself slump unconsciously against the force. Lifting her eyes, she felt a surge of fiery anger carouse through her veins, and as she looked at the dirty grins and greasy hair of her attackers, she felt bile rise in her throat against her will. Maybe if she threw up on them, she thought, they would be too grossed out to rape her. But she knew she probably wouldn't be able to summon such a technique until it was already too late.
Things always seemed to work that way.
Still shivering lividly, she watched with narrowed eyes as the blonde moved towards her, the two others grabbing each one of her arms and the redhead holding her gag tightly enough that she found it difficult to breathe past the wrist blocking her nose. As a long, familiarly gross smile crossed the middle man's chapped, skinny lips, Tsukushi felt something snap inside her.
She had seen that smile before on too many men for her tastes. She would wipe that sick grin right off his face.
In a blur her leg flew up, her leg bending at a strange angle as the toe of her shoe jammed right into one of her captors' calf, just behind the knee. The dark-haired attacker let out a shriek of pain--inadvertently releasing her arm--and grabbed his injury, hopping rather comically to one side as he momentarily distracted his two other partners. Taking the opportunity, Tsukushi swung her arm with incredible speed, slamming it without prejudice for what part made the actual interception into the redhead, who still had a tight grip on her opposite wrist. Her clenched fist collided with his opposite ear, her forearm most likely breaking his nose if the resulting crack was any indication. Crying out in pain he released her as well, just in time for her to jerk away before the blonde or her first victim could try anything to tranquilize her. Fueled by a surging pain in her spine and a red, throbbing anger, Tsukushi lunged at the startled man in front of her, raising her knee and arm in one motion; her kneecap faithfully jammed itself into his crotch and her elbow swung around, slamming into his neck and her wrist smacking with a resounding slap against his cheek. At the same moment she felt a hand curl around her opposite arm, but she instantaneously swung her unoccupied, fisted hand and guided it from the corner of her vision with incredible force into the dark-haired man's eye, earning herself another agonized shout.
"Kyaaahh!" Tsukushi reeled back, her vision spinning from the massive blow landed to her chest by the redhead, who was still clutching his neck and was obviously in fairly better shape than his comrades. She sagged back, feeling as if all the bones in her shoulder and collar were broken, including a few ribs. In retaliation she swung one leg, her foot digging with a jarring crunch into his abdomen. In one swift movement she turned to face her last upright opponent, the brunette, and continued with her momentum, her arm bending so her elbow crushed against his jaw with a sickening slap. Stumbling back from the impact and the echoing pain in her chest, Tsukushi leaned against the wall and watched with sudden dizziness as the blonde struggled to get to his feet, one hand clutching his groin, the other his face, and tried to move towards her before falling on top of her unconscious dark-haired attacker. The redhead was still up, but was clutching his face as blood seeped steadily from his fairly destroyed nose and he bent over from the blow she had issued to his lower body.
"Fuck," the blonde cursed, leaning against the dumpster as support to pull himself back to his feet. Just as he seemed to start moving toward her, Tsukushi looked down to the dumpster's top--the only thing between she and her attacker--and shoved it with her foot. It knocked into the man's already weak stance and surprised him, sending him crashing against one rather sharp, metal edge, the point slicing with a slow drag into the skin of his arm. The man let out a scream and leaned back--from pain or shock, she didn't know--and fainted to the ground.
Feeling herself weaken she turned, only registering the tallest man's back as he retreated down the alley, his red hair disappearing behind a corner on the opposite end of the street. Relief draining her last ounce of strength Tsukushi slid down the wall to the ground, hardly registering her two fallen enemies as she barely acknowledged the crippling pain in her back, shoulder, and ribs. Her breaths hurt and she could only inhale with much effort on her part to ignore the sharp pain it drove up her neck and into her already pounding head. Leaning her head against the brick her vision began to swim. She realized the little Japanese store had closed, and was probably already closed, when she tried to go toward it. The smell was residue, she thought rather incoherently, and she wondered briefly what those three men were doing prowling around a restaurant of all things. Maybe they knew easily tempted little Japanese girls like her would come...