Totally gratuitous A/N. Teensy note about the title. Browsing through the wealth of Aoshi-romance fics, I find that most of them have at least some semblance of plot—usually banking on the Okashira's obvious talents. So... I tried, I promise... but ultimately I really don't think I'm much for plot. @.@ So instead of any exciting cut-'em-up Oniwaban-shiki combat-plus-espionage action.. sorry folks, but this I think will be my usual fare: love, angst, and just about every other attraction that the human emotional carnival has to offer. ^.^; A tale of the heart then, and not much of anything else. ^.^
glossary:
o-hairi = "Come in."
o-hisashiburi = "long time no see!"
shimatta = S**t!
-nee = casually short for "-neesan", suffix denoting older sister (or older sister-type figure)
konnichi wa = Good day
-basan = suffix denoting aunt, or aunt-type figure
o-miai = a meeting for a prospective arranged marriage between two families, mediated by a mutual friend or a professional matchmaker. Among the things discussed is the lineage of the two prospective spouses (has to be immaculate) and how well the wife-to-be enjoys cooking and childrearing (has to be very well indeed). @.@
Kami-sama = God
noren = the curtains hung over the entrance to a shop or restaurant, to help keep out the sun and dust
tabi = split-toed socks
Okaasan = formal "Mother"
kitsune, kitsune-onna = "fox" and "fox lady" respectively; Megumi, of course ^.~
Tsurara-san = literally, "Mister Icicle." Yahiko irreverently calls Aoshi this in the manga. ^.^;
tonkotsu ramen = Chinese-style noodles in creamy white broth, flavored with pork bones
Mune no Monogatariby Mirune Keishiko
One: O-hisashiburi
She had thrown the windows as far open as they could go, and a summer breeze toyed with short strands of her hair that had escaped the neat bun low on the back of her head. Takani Megumi took a moment from scanning the patients' reports to tuck her hair behind her ear and smile out the window at nothing in particular. It was a hot and sunny day, but a constant wind relieved the warmth and brought the delicate scent of roses from the lawn into her office.
As she propped up her chin on her hand and gazed out at the clear sky, a scrap of crimson, borne aloft on the breeze, caught her eye. In through the window fluttered a single perfect rose petal. Drifting slowly in contrary wafts of air, it settled at last, very daintily, on the surface of the cup of stone-cold tea on Megumi's desk.
Megumi chuckled. She had, after all, completely forgotten about her tea.
A knock came on her office door as she sipped from her cup. The petal she had fished out and now lay, slightly sodden, on her desktop, beside a stack of papers that was the morning's workload.
"Ohairi," Megumi called, setting down her cup.
Ayano, the receptionist from downstairs, peered in with a toothy grin. "Takani-sensei! It's Kiku-san come to get you!"
Megumi very nearly dropped her cup. Shimatta...! "Tell her I'm busy, Ayano-chan," she forced through gritted teeth, alternating her pointed gaze between the cheerful young woman and the paperwork on her desk.
"Now, Megumi-nee, you know she won't take that excuse again," clucked Ayano, hovering indecisively in the doorway.
"She took it the last three times, she'll take it now!" Megumi grabbed a sheaf of papers at random. As she knit her brows over them, it took a few moments before she realized she was holding them upside down. "Tell her I'm positively buried in work and... and that people's lives are at stake!"
"Takani-san?" came a lilting voice from the corridor. Megumi leveled a glare at Ayano, who, at a mere seventeen years of age, could only cower before the older woman's anger.
"I told her to stay in the lobby! I did!" whimpered Ayano.
"Takani-san! It's time, you know! You'll be late!"
And sailing smoothly past the mortified receptionist, enveloped in her customary cloud of expensive, heavy perfume and tinkling jewelry, Oshihara Kiku entered Megumi's office with a huge, vividly painted smile that was both beatific and determined as hell.
Ayano hastily vanished. Megumi was not one for visitors who entered her office without permission.
Megumi felt her eyebrow twitch.
"Konnichi wa, Kiku-san," she said as calmly as she could, making a deep bow. The imperious older lady chuckled, sending fresh waves of annoyance through the young doctor.
"With such impeccable manners, darling, you make up for everything," she cooed. Megumi decided to simply smile at her as frostily as she could. "Now, hurry up and leave those dry, uninteresting papers behind. We must get you ready for the meeting with Mizuaki-san and his family. You are fortunate that you really don't need much primping"—nimbly she reached behind Megumi and plucked out the clip holding her hair bun in place—"but even so, we are running late."
Megumi sighed, restraining herself from violent impulses. "Kiku-san, I'm sure Mizuaki-san will understand if we—"
"Postpone this? For the fourth time? Not on your life, darling." The veteran matchmaker smiled at her, eyes glinting fearsomely. "You obviously don't understand what a rare find Mizuaki Keiichi-san is. I went to a lot of trouble to set this up. I am seriously recommending that you make this appointment before some other, inordinately lucky, ageing woman snatches him up."
That does it. Trembling with fury, Megumi reached behind her for the bell that would summon Ayano. So much for manners...
"Besides, your Aoi-basan is so very worried about you, darling. You know she has only your best interests at heart. Be a sweet girl for once and stop disappointing her, ne?"
Kiku-san's eye was still gleaming.
Megumi sighed, letting go of the bell. This lady knew too much.
Some time later, elaborately coiffed and made up, her clothing transformed from her plain smock to an ornately patterned kimono, Megumi sat at the low table and smiled icily at the young man across from her. For a moment he seemed dumbfounded by the deadly look in her eyes—and then returned a faltering, hopelessly captivated smile.
Quickly Megumi lowered her eyes back to her untouched teacup with a silent curse. Kami-sama, not another one. Beside her, oblivious to her discomfort, Kiku-san was busy matching wits with the young man's hawklike mother, who was frowning over Megumi's having her own career.
In the two years she had been living again in Aizu, the young doctor had been to four o-miai like this one, and had deftly eluded several others. Most other women who were still unmarried at the age of twenty-four were usually dismissed by society as spinsters forever, fit no longer for anything other than tending their ageing parents or their married siblings' children. But as Megumi soon realized, for good or evil, she was different.
Certainly her remarkable beauty singled her out from the crowd. She occupied an administrative post at the well-known Sanada hospital in Aizu, but continued to practice; as a result, reports of the lovely as well as skillful lady doctor spread far and wide. She was also of an old, widely respected family that conferred upon her, if not exactly riches, then prestige and honor. And if all these alone hadn't had would-be suitors lining up, her family's old friends Sanada Hiroshi and Aoi would have seen to it that she found herself a good match. As the old man liked to say, the least he could do for the only surviving Takani, after ensuring that her talents were used and developed in his hospital, was to find her a decent husband.
And so Megumi found herself yet again sitting in a private room at one of the better restaurants in Aizu, with a reasonably handsome, relatively prosperous young wife-hunter goggling at her over the table. Mizuaki Keiichi, nineteen years of age, the third and last son of sake merchants in Kitakata to the north (father over seventy and surely kicking the bucket soon, no doubt leaving his booming business to his sons and their {wink} families, if his {rolling eyes} mother would just get her youngest boy a wife)...
That was all Megumi heard before she finally tuned out, refusing to learn no more of this useless information. Apparently Kiku-san thought nothing of pairing her with a husband five years her junior.
And one ill-bred enough to openly gawk at her, too. Sparing him one last thought—Thank goodness he doesn't live here—Megumi firmly ignored the glassy-eyed stare he was giving her and steered her mind to the latest research on consumption instead.
Thus distracted, she was only dimly aware of the slow and agonizing pace of the o-miai grinding at last to its end. Megumi's straying thoughts were called back by Kiku-san's discreet elbow in her side. The young doctor affixed a properly demure smile to her face, keeping her eyes daintily downcast, as she and the matchmaker bowed farewell to the enamored boy and his hawklike mother.
As soon as the two disappeared from the restaurant, Megumi heaved a relieved sigh. She was surprised to find it echoed by the matchmaker.
"The nerve of that woman!" huffed the older woman, patting her hairstyle to make sure it was still well in place. "The way she carried on... One would think you were a common criminal, my dear!"
Megumi winced, but it was well obscured by the woman's hand as Kiku-san patted the doctor's cheek condescendingly. "Of course, Orihara Kiku doesn't take just any clients. That woman saw your lineage is pristine. And it does seem"—the eyes took on a familiar, devious gleam—"that Keiichi-kun was totally and completely smitten with you, darling. It looks like we've finally got something at last!"
Before Megumi could respond with a scathing retort she had lovingly composed over the last hour, the exultant matchmaker whirled and left, babbling something about another appointment on the other side of town and, more ominously, about having to set up a follow-up meeting for Megumi.
Dazed by the sudden turn of events, Megumi simply stared at the swishing noren for a long, wordless moment.
Then she shook her head with a small smile. At least—with Kiku-san and her perpetual miasma of perfume gone—she could now breathe slightly less polluted air. As if to savor this new fact, she drew a deep, fortifying breath.
One that speedily wheezed back out of her lungs when she saw Mizuaki Keiichi looming in the restaurant doorway.
Her heart sank straight down to her colorful tabi as he hurried up to her. His gaze, when it fell on her, had not lost its starry-eyed quality.
"I'm sorry to trouble you again, Megumi-san," he said, giving her a slight bow. She felt herself stiffen in irritation—not only did this boy have the temerity to address her by her first name, he apparently also lacked the courtesy for a bow more appropriate for her seniority and station. "But I couldn't help noticing how ill at ease you were at the meeting. I must say I completely sympathize." Megumi curled her fingers into fists, longing to wipe that patronizing look off his face with a well-placed punch.
"So I was hoping we could meet in less formal circumstances," he continued, gazing down at her earnestly—despite his youth, he was taller than her. "Okaasan and I will be in town for another week—would it be possible for us to meet again somewhere? You know, to—to get to know each other."
He looked down at the floor as he spoke, blushing all over his face, scuffing the point of his Western shoe against the wood. As he glanced back up at her shyly, Megumi sighed. He was a picture of boyish bashfulness she found not endearing at all.
"Takani-san. We meet again."
The low voice swept abruptly over her like a wave of icy water. Startled, Megumi glanced up at the figure that was suddenly at her side, towering over her slight frame. Wide cinnamon eyes met cool blue ones.
"Shinomori-san!" In ordinary circumstances, the sight of him would have been decidedly unpleasant for all the memories it brought. But for now, Megumi was only thankful for this unexpected way out of the conversation. Before her, Keiichi shifted awkwardly on his feet, eyeing the handsome, formidably built newcomer with uncertainty. "O... o-hisashiburi!"
"I apologize for interrupting your conversation. I'm afraid that in my gladness at seeing you again, my dear, I forgot my manners." As Megumi reeled from the endearment—which was shocking enough even with the utter lack of sincerity in his voice—Aoshi bowed to her and Keiichi. Watching him suspiciously as he straightened back up, Megumi thought she detected a spark of amusement breaking the blue calm in his eyes. "Forgive me, son. My name is Shinomori Aoshi."
Well, if he can do it... "An old friend, Mizuaki-san," smiled Megumi, edging the formally framed name with frost, primly tucking away her kitsune-like delight at the way blood flared across Keiichi's face—not least at being called "son" by this stranger.
Stammering through the necessary formalities, the boy excused himself quickly enough. He hastily left, apparently having forgotten all about his proposal to Megumi.
She heaved another sigh and sagged against a nearby post, past caring about the obviousness of her relief. Her elaborate hairstyle itched; she thought how delicious it would feel to take all the pins out. "Arigatou, Shinomori-san."
"I did it to save his life." Again, a current of quiet amusement underlying his even-tempered words.
Megumi gave him a faint smile. "You understood correctly, as always."
"It was fairly easy to read."
She shook her head, smiling ruefully. "I take it you're by yourself? May I ask what brings you to Aizu?"
"Business."
"Scoping out the competition?"
Aoshi paused. "May I ask why you say that?"
"Business," she replied archly, smiling at the annoyance that flashed across his face. "Patients do talk, and the owner of the Sugi thinks nothing of holding business meetings even in his hospital room. I've heard of the Aoiya's expansion plans. I'd hardly expected you yourself to stop by in humble little Aizu, though."
The amusement was back. "What would you recommend in this restaurant, then, Takani-san?"
Megumi knew better than to show the surprise that was rapidly mounting within her. Still... Tsurara-san, playful—almost flirting? She wondered what had happened in the last two years to change him so.
"First of all, I'd recommend you bring me to lunch." Eyebrow arched, she met his gaze directly. "Then we'll see what's on the menu."
He said nothing, merely stared down at her with unreadable eyes for several moments, as if measuring, calculating. Steeling herself against that dark, mirrorlike gaze, Megumi remembered herself, inwardly cursed her attempts at rapport. What on earth had suddenly possessed her to be so bold toward him? Her coy ways worked fine for ordinary people, but Shinomori Aoshi was certainly no ordinary man. It seemed that since they last saw each other two years ago, she had already forgotten how truly impenetrable he chose to be.
She was already opening her mouth for a dismissive statement—one that would excuse the both of them from the embarrassing predicament she had so audaciously, so foolishly set up—when he abruptly turned away, toward the inside of the restaurant.
"One of the strengths of the Aoiya is Omasu's tonkotsu ramen. Shall we try it here, Takani-san?"
Megumi longed to laugh her kitsune-onna laugh, but whether at him or at herself she wasn't sure. And so she gave him a demure smile instead and followed him into the Sugi, where the beaming waitress gave the well-matched couple the best table in the house.
~ tsuzuku ~
A/N. As "Yoake Mae" readers might note, I've appropriated here some fictitious, purely incidental elements I originally set up in that piece. So in this story, Megumi is what we would now call a resident doctor at a rapidly expanding hospital in Aizu. The hospital is run by the Sanada family, old friends of the Takanis who have sort of taken her under their wing since her return from Tokyo two years previously. Megumi considers Sanada Hiroshi and Aoi uncle and aunt respectively.
I apologize in advance for what I foresee will be a rather slow update rate. I'm still trying to get a good grasp of what the relationship between "fire and ice" will be like. Rest assured I am conducting research (i.e. reading delicious Aoshi/Megumi fanfic! ^.^) toward this end.
Deep gratitude to all who read and all who graced this unworthy authoress with reviews. I regret that for reasons of, aherm, artistic license (?!) I will refrain from answering reviewers individually. Ohh-hohohohoh!! But please be so kind as to keep 'em coming... I do appreciate all your input and try my best to put them to good use. ^.^
Just this for now, though: So far I've got one reader voting for Sano showing up; and one reader vehemently wanting the toriatama totally left out of the picture. Lessee... who shall prevail, ne? ^.^ As for the rest of the Kenshingumi making appearances... must say I'm stumped on this one. Awaiting your comments and suggestions.
Silly little last note. How on earth do you make a text-only smiley with fox ears? This? ^*.*^ (looks like a bat on methamphetamines) ^-_-^ (looks like a bat on depressants) ....arrggghhh!!!