=Only logical reason for two chapters in one week: internet was down today and I had nothing better to do. Maybe I should update Gilded Chocolate while I'm at it.=
Recompense for Treachery
Chapter 6, "Don't Forget Your Shoes."
***
"Hello?"
"Ah, hello. Is Makino-san available?"
"Tsukushi?"
"Yes. Who is this?"
"I'm her brother Susumu. I'm here for the weekend. Sorry, she's at Hanazawa-san's tonight, she probably won't be back until tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, she called me a while ago and said she's staying the night. Oh, I think she's going to Doumyouji-san's wedding, as well."
"I... see. I'll try back then."
"Do you want me to take a message?"
"No, thanks."
"Bye!"
Junpei hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, pensively tapping his pen on the desk. She was staying at that rich boy's house for the night? He furrowed his brow in puzzlement. He was sure that she would have told him if she were in a relationship with someone already. Maybe it was because of the wedding, he thought. Deciding that there had to be a reasonable explanation, Junpei got out of his chair to get ready for his shoot.
***
"Hey. Wake up, sleepy head."
Rui groaned, slinging one arm over his head so his eyes were shaded from the bright light by his elbow. He pulled the blankets up to his chin with his other hand and turned over. "Sleepy head!" a voice sang, "Sunshine! Up and at 'em!"
"'don wanna," he grumbled. Before he could grasp the sheets in his fingers they were pulled away from him, revealing him in all his shirtless glory to the world and leaving him freezing in the sudden chill. Deciding to give in, Rui threw his arm off of himself and opened his eyes to see Tsukushi hovering over him, her face flushed with excitement and her eyes bright.
"Come on! Get up!"
Yawning, Rui sat up and slowly tried to blink the sleep out of his eyes as she grinned happily and jumped off his bed. "What's all the commotion about?" he asked and rubbed his face with one hand.
"Ah, Rui!" Tsukushi said, appalled. "The wedding's today."
Rui furrowed his brow and looked down at his hands, then up at the energetic girl who was now seating herself at the foot of his bed. She was excited about her first boyfriend's involuntary marriage? Cautiously, in case he might find that she really was sick, he asked, "Are you feeling well?"
Tsukushi stared at him and replied with confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Come over here," he commanded, and she quickly complied, sitting down beside him. He lifted one hand to her forehead and lowered his eyebrows. No temperature. "Are you?"
Taking her head away and putting her hands on her hips, she replied indignantly. "I feel fine, Hanazawa Rui. Now get up so we can get you dressed." Tsukushi clambered off the bed and stood, watching him as he slowly pushed off the rest of the blankets and yawned, brushing back some of his unruly bed-hair before he set his feet down on the cold floor. He looked up at her, and sure enough, she was already in her dress, her outfit completed except for shoes and makeup. It was a rather simple blue dress, but with a subtle flare at the hip, two thin straps to hold it up and a light blue scarf to match, she turned it into something elegant. After looking her up and down, he let out another yawn and got up.
Before long Rui found himself in the shower, with Tsukushi bustling about outside the bathroom door with something that made odd tinkling noises. He sighed and rinsed his hair, turning over his position in his head. He had a few options: he could take her to the wedding, sit through the whole ordeal with some comforting words, and leave it at that; he could take her to the wedding, tell her about his father's proposal, and that would be it; he could take her to the wedding, tell her about his father's proposal, try to win her over, and run away somewhere with her; he could tell her about his father's proposal, skip the wedding, and then try to run away somewhere with her; or, last but not least, he could take her to the wedding, not tell her anything, encourage her relationship with the Oribe guy, and disappear. The only choices that appealed to him at all involved leaving her with the best memories possible.
But he knew he could never just disappear. He was in his last year of college and though he had hoped his family might treat him differently, problems in the company were calling attention and he was expected to fulfill his duty as heir.
Rui realized with a choke that he was going to abandon her the same way Tsukasa had. It made his chest ache.
And he had thought he had done so well in suppressing his feelings.
After he had gotten out of the shower and toweled off, Rui stepped out of the bathroom, towel around his waist, and glanced around. "Hey, Tsukushi, are you here?"
"I'm in your room!" he heard her call through the door. With a sigh he took off his towel and, checking to see if the dressing room door was still closed, rifled through his chest of drawers for some underwear.
"Is my suit out there with you?" he shouted to her.
"Yes!"
Mumbling under his breath Rui picked up his towel and put on his boxers, slung his towel back around his waist, and went back into his bedroom. Tsukushi was sitting on his bed with something on her lap and was fiddling with it and some wrapping paper. "Where is it?"
Without even looking up she pointed to the chair, where the outfit was folded neatly and hung over the back. He took it and disappeared back into the bathroom.
When he came back she was still bent over some project. He came over to the bed and sat down next to her, noting how she didn't even flinch when he leaned over her shoulder and rested his chin there, watching her fingers untwisting the strings of a rather large, intricate wind chime.
"That's pretty," he commented. Tsukushi nodded her head. "What's it for?"
"I decided to give it to Shigeru-san and Doumyouji as their wedding present."
Rui raised his eyebrows. "What happened to the monkeys?"
"It was too silly." Seeming to give up on trying to untangle the chime she set it on the bed beside her and straightened her back, forcing Rui to sit up as well and look at her. She raised her eyes and sighed. "I'm going to give it to Shigeru-san after the reception." He nodded his head.
"That chime must have been expensive," he commented, looking at each dark teal stone-washed piece, which had the kanji for the four elements etched into the four pieces that made up each circle along the string. Tsukushi only nodded her head in response.
After a brief moment of silence she stood up and turned, picking her purse up off the floor, and smiled. "I'm going to go put on my make up. I think we should leave in about forty-five minutes if we want to be there on time." Rui agreed and she disappeared into the bathroom.
He forgot to ask her to tie his tie. He was surprised that she didn't notice.
***
By the time they got into the car, it was fairly obvious to Rui that Tsukushi's nerves were completely rattled and that she had merely done a good job of hiding it. She had her hands clenched around the strap of her purse, her knuckles turning white from her grip, and her eyes were focused intently on her lap without so much as a flinch when he poked her shoulder. "Hey, Earth to Tsukushi." She didn't respond. He poked harder. No response.
With a sigh Rui sat back and lightly patted her arm. "Now, don't freak out. When we get there, the actual ceremony should be over. You just need to mingle for a while, give them the present, and then we can leave, all right? I'll take you out to dinner afterwards."
Tsukushi slowly nodded her head and raised her eyes, and she brushed her bangs from her eyes and smiled. "And I have to talk to Doumyouji."
"Right. I'll be there the whole time if you need me."
"Thank you." Rui only nodded and pinched her arm affectionately.
The rest of the car ride was uneventful but to Tsukushi irritatingly long. She fidgeted, squirmed, wrung her hands, checked her face in the mirror, and rifled through her purse not looking for anything in particular. Rui was glad his patience had infinite bounds. When they finally pulled up to the immense building where the wedding was being held, Tsukushi leaped free of the car and took a deep breath once she was out as if she had been suffocating. With a chuckle Rui stepped onto the curb beside her, offered his arm, and smiled. "Come on," he said. "Let's go in, shall we?"
Tsukushi nodded and took his arm, not in the least surprised to find that the huge, white, intricately-designed building was marked by a large maple leaf at the top. The green, manicured lawn and outlying full-blossom gardens reached from the twin sets of double doors down the long, tree-lined walk to the curb, at the end of which were parked a set of at least a dozen white limousines. People left and entered the hotel, loitered on the lawn, chatted on the benches, and got in and out of fancy cars all dressed in lavish formal attire and speaking in low, refined tones.
At once, she felt completely out of place. Rui sighed when he saw her roughly gripping the wrapped gift in her other hand. The moment he saw Akira and Soujiro talking idly with a pair of completely enthralled women just outside the hotel doors, he flagged them down. Leaving their acquaintances with promises of return and possible later retreats, the two men approached them and grinned.
"Ah, Makino!" Soujiro greeted, jovially taking her hand and kissing it. She blushed and frowned at him indignantly when Akira did the same.
"Good to see you, working girl," he said, taking the rose from his pocket and putting it in her hair just above her ear. "See what I meant about armed escort? Every woman will faint out of your way!" At this he and Soujiro laughed, but Rui only stared at them and Tsukushi skeptically raised one eyebrow. Akira coughed and cleared his throat.
"Well then," Soujiro announced, "shall we go in?" Tsukushi nodded and Soujiro snatched her package from her--despite her protests--and Akira took her free arm in his own, the four forming an entourage as they went into the hotel.
Even as they were swarmed by women, business associates, and celebrity guests, Tsukushi found her eyes drawn to the vast, open lobby of the hotel. Huge, intricate murals decorated some of the further out, bare walls, while tapestries, photos, and portraits hung with stylish modern frames in a sparse, post-modern fashion. Those who hadn't risen to greet the three handsome heirs were sitting in large, lavish furniture, setting their cups on glass tables and resting their feet on Persian rugs and stone tiles. Even the light fixtures were fancy, the hanging shades made of steel chrome and the wall lamps of semi-transparent white paper.
Tsukushi was startled by a familiar loud voice calling, "Tsukushi!" over the crowd. She raised her eyes and glanced around, her grip on Rui and Akira's arms tightening when, between two tall blonde models, Shigeru came barreling through. Tsukushi hardly saw any of the woman's wedding dress before she was caught in a hard, tight hug, and she almost lost her wind. She gasped and Shigeru quickly let her go, holding her by the shoulders and smiling brightly.
"I'm so glad you're here!" Shigeru cried, practically bouncing from exuberance, "You brought a present! Oh, Tsukushi! Here, let's put it on that table and it'll be the first one we open!" Before Tsukushi could respond Shigeru had taken one of her arms, freeing her other from Rui in the process, and dragged her out of the circle of socializing over to a table against the wall that lead into the hotel's first hallway. Shigeru carried the wrapped gift that she seemed to have somehow taken from Soujiro with neither he nor Tsukushi noticing. Shigeru put the gift on the table where it was clearly visible to everyone in the room.
"It's good to see you too, Shigeru-san," Tsukushi said with a smile once the other girl had calmed down somewhat. Shigeru nodded happily and took her friend by the arm, leading her away from where the mob hovered around the entryway, and down toward a brightly-lit hallway. Her wedding gown had obviously been downsized some since the wedding, for though it was quite fancy, there was neither an extravagant, puffed out waist nor a train. "You look great," Tsukushi commented.
Shigeru grinned widely as they walked down the hall toward what was most likely a ballroom. "You do too, Tsukushi!" The girls laughed.
Tsukushi raised her eyebrows as they approached the tall, arched doorway, for a familiar-looking woman stood just outside, standing with a perfect, straight posture. Tsukushi hardly noticed when Shigeru dropped her arm. As she approached, Doumyouji Kaede turned and looked straight at her. Without faltering Tsukushi walked up to her, as close as she dared, and looked the woman right in the eye.
"Hello," Tsukushi greeted, her voice emotionless. Doumyouji Kaede's face was unreadable.
"Hello, Makino-san," the woman replied in much the same tone. The staring contest continued until Tsukushi suddenly smiled and tilted her head.
"It's good to see you again," she said brightly, lifted one hand for a brief wave, and went in through the large door into the ballroom without once looking back. Shigeru joined her inside.
"Wow," she told Tsukushi, "you are so brave, Tsukushi!"
Tsukushi laughed and shook her head. "Not really." Shigeru opened her mouth to respond, when the two women suddenly found themselves in a rather tall, broad shadow. Tsukushi raised her eyes, her eyebrows raising and her body going stiff at the sight of Tsukasa, dressed in a black tuxedo, standing in front of her. With a familiar deep voice, he greeted her.
"Hello, Makino."