glossary:
hashi = Japanese chopsticks
obachan = aunt, in a very affectionate/informal form
kanzashi = hair ornament
ojousan = young lady, young woman (younger than the speaker)
washi = rice paper
shoji = movable wood and paper panels
Mune no Monogatari
by Mirune Keishiko
Two: Over Lunch
As it turned out, perhaps Megumi had forgotten a little too much in the two years she'd been in Aizu. Now, she remembered too late, Aoshi made an incredibly boring dining companion. Given a life-or-death mission perhaps, surrounded by enemies armed to the teeth and trying to figure his way out of a booby-trapped castle labyrinth, he would have been in his element. But as the courses wore on and Megumi grew tired of racking her brain for things to say, she realized the grievous mistake she'd made.
Not only was the man clearly uninterested in casual conversation, he was also clearly not much interested in cuisine for its own sake. He nibbled at the pickled vegetables, sipped delicately at the soup, ate sparingly of the meat and fish. Only the tea received much attention from him at all. Megumi prided herself on her impeccable table manners and restrained diet, but beside Aoshi, she felt like an uncouth glutton. How on earth does he maintain a physique like that without eating anything? she fumed inwardly.
It was a good thing the food was decent and he was still cute as hell to look at, or the cheerless meal would have offered no saving grace whatsoever.
"Takani-san, I must ask you," Aoshi said suddenly, his words breaking another long and awkward pause, "not to sabotage your own eating habits on account of mine."
Megumi started guiltily. She had indeed been taking much less of everything since she had noticed his minimal intake.
"Thank you for your concern, Shinomori-san," she said, amused. "I think I did need such a reminder." As if to make good on his advice, she took a generous bite of her rice and oysters.
He shrugged. "You have hardly seemed to me the type to curtail your own will to conform with that of others."
Megumi hesitated, her hashi halfway to her mouth. This man who was much more than an acquaintance but certainly not quite a friend—they were meeting again for the first time in two years, and she hated to ruin what had so far been a civil meal with a show of anger. But this cryptic statement...
"I apologize. I meant that not as an insult, though you appear to have interpreted it as such." Deep blue eyes stared at her unabashedly.
The intensity of his gaze, the clear blue that suited the cleanly handsome face with its cold beauty—it took all of Megumi's courage not to look away. Not just because his intense way of staring never failed to unnerve her, but because—in a sudden flurry of dimly sensed memories—she suddenly remembered all the other times he had unnerved her so: his blue eyes seeming to pin her in place, scrutinizing the very depths of her soul. The cold white walls in Takeda's mansion, the coarse laughter and muttered comments among his men, the insidious fragrance of poppy flowers...
He must have noticed something of her sudden reaction, for he blinked, once, and lowered his gaze to his plate, leaving her staring into space, faintly trembling.
"Perhaps we have both made a mistake, Takani-san."
"Wh... what are you saying, Shinomori-san?"
And she realized, belatedly, that she was tightly gripping her hashi with nerveless fingers.
Keeping his gaze lowered, he reached over and quietly mopped up with his napkin the rice she had spilled. "I'm saying that perhaps there are certain matters best left asleep, never to be awakened. Again, I must apologize."
Megumi laid down her chopsticks—she had suddenly lost her appetite—and bowed her head to hide the cheeks she knew were stained with crimson. Intuitively she knew that he was not referring to her dietary habits.
"Perhaps you are right." Her own voice, as it left her reddened lips, surprised her with its coldness. Yet as inexplicably angry as she was at him, she knew the anger was also directed against herself. Half an hour ago, coyly inviting herself along for his lunch, she had failed to foresee all of the unpleasantness of meeting him once again. "You have always been a perceptive man, Shinomori-san. Albeit a blunt one." She paused, gathering the remnants of her strength—firmly shutting out the memories before they could weaken her further. "I must apologize as well."
He was gazing at her again with those impenetrable eyes, and seemed about to open his mouth to reply when a tiny voice broke into the tension.
"Obachan!"
Something soft and heavy plowed into Megumi's side, almost knocking her over, sending one kanzashi clattering to the floor. Aoshi half rose from his seat, as a young woman hurried over to collect the little girl who was enthusiastically glomping a laughing, if somewhat disheveled, Megumi.
"I'm so very sorry, sir!" The young mother, trying unsuccessfully to disengage the child, bowed hastily to Aoshi, who had moved to pick up Megumi's fallen ornament. "My daughter and I truly didn't mean to intrude. We'll be off as soon as I—"
"Do not trouble yourself, ojousan." Sensing the younger woman's increasing embarrassment, Aoshi thought it best to cut her off. "It seems your child is not entirely unwelcome."
Indeed, Megumi had tucked the girl under her arm in a hug and now beamed at the flustered young woman who was her mother. "Tsukimi-chan! What a nice surprise to see you here. Is Jiro-kun here as well?"
"Yes, he's way over there arranging for a table." Sanada Tsukimi smiled in the direction of her husband, who was some distance away talking with a waitress. "Again, I'm sorry for disturbing your meal. But Yukino-chan escaped me before I could get ahold of her." She playfully tweaked her daughter's ear and the child promptly screwed up her face—but before she could fully launch into imminent bawling, a glittering gold-inlaid kanzashi was placed in her chubby small hands.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Tsukimi covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Megumi-san..."
"Daijoubu. Yukino-chan actually did me a favor." And laughing, Megumi pulled out the matching ornament from her hair. Rich black tresses unfurled down her back, gleaming in the soft refracted midday sunlight through the washi panels. Yukino-chan crowed in delight as she suddenly held not one, but two ornately decorated kanzashi.
"Shinomori-san..." Megumi caught Aoshi's eye; he had seemed content to fade into the shoji throughout the conversation, but now glanced up at the sound of his name. "This is Sanada Tsukimi-san"—she hesitated; she had almost called the young mother her sister-in-law—"a good friend of mine."
Aoshi made a deep bow and a formal greeting; Megumi was amused to note the blush that flowed across Tsukimi's cheeks as she returned his politeness. "Shinomori-san is..." Is what, exactly? mused Megumi. "...an old friend from Tokyo."
"I'm very honored, sir." Tsukimi gathered her child close, trying discreetly to pry the kanzashi from tenacious little fingers. "We've long wished to meet Megumi-san's friends from Tokyo. She always seems so happy when she talks about them."
Megumi glanced at Aoshi. This man had, in fact, not been one of the "friends from Tokyo" she sometimes casually mentioned to the Sanadas, but of course Tsukimi would not know. If Aoshi found any of this odd or even ironically amusing, he certainly did not show it as he bowed again.
"And I am honored to meet one member of Takani-san's newfound family here in Aizu. You and yours have been so kind to her since the day she returned to her true home."
Wh-what? Megumi shot Aoshi a bewildered look over Tsukimi's shoulder. He seemed to notice it—he was staring straight at her—but made no discernible response. How does he know? So far she had told him next to nothing about her situation in Aizu. Despite her preference for conversation, she had been too uncomfortable with his own incommunicativeness to go on at length about herself.
"Oh, it's nothing," Tsukimi was lilting, a little suspiciously to Megumi's ears. The young woman had given up trying to detach her daughter from the kanzashi and was now smiling at Aoshi a little too widely. "Even if the Takanis and the Sanadas hadn't been family friends for ages, Megumi-san is a treasure who deserves to be cared for."
Tsukimi did have a penchant for gushing, remembered Megumi with a silent groan. And though she had been married to Sanada Jiro for over three years now, she was still very appreciative of attractive young men.
"Tsukimi-chan—" began Megumi quickly, not knowing what to say but that she had to interrupt before the other woman's gushing got any worse.
"Tsukimi. Ah, Megumi-san." Jiro had approached, and now bowed to Megumi and Aoshi in turn. Tsukimi quickly joined her husband, little Yukino in tow, the latter reluctantly conceding the pretty hair ornaments to the hand Aoshi silently held out. "I hope we have not intruded on your private meal."
Megumi repeated her introductions; Aoshi repeated his greetings.
"We shall leave you to your lunch," said Jiro solemnly. "However, before we go, Megumi-san, Okaasan wishes to let you know—you're invited to the farewell dinner tomorrow evening for Weber-san and his colleagues."
Megumi looked up. "They're leaving already?"
"Yes, the day after. They said they still had to go on to Hong Kong. We do hope you can come, and an escort would not be inappropriate."
Megumi glanced sharply at Jiro, but he appeared absolutely innocent. Always the serious, no-nonsense one in contrast to his flighty wife, Jiro soon excused himself and his family and left Aoshi and Megumi to themselves at last.
It was certainly shaping up to be a day of surprises. Megumi blinked numbly as a waitress hurried over to replace the tea that had gone cold.
"Per Himura's requests, I have been keeping some watch on your activities since you left Tokyo." Aoshi sipped his tea. "I believe he was concerned that certain... undesirable elements would find you here in your hometown. He wanted to make sure you were left in peace."
Megumi let out a long breath she hadn't known she was holding. "He did, did he?" She glanced at him, but he was imperturbably eating a piece of fish. She felt a relieved smile curve her mouth despite herself. "Well, if Ken-san asked for it, I can't imagine myself complaining."
"Would you have indeed complained had it been someone else?"
She arched an eyebrow at him, but his tone was utterly bland, and he devoted himself to his rice with apparent concentration. Was the man actually stimulating conversation? "I suppose so," she murmured after a moment. She smiled. "I suppose I would permit Ken-san, if no one else, to know my personal affairs."
"Not even your adopted family, it seems."
Her smile vanished. "Shinomori-san, I am aware that you used to make other people's business yours for a living, but I must ask you to refrain from doing so with me. I know you can understand, being such a private person yourself."
The glint in his eyes told her she had hit home. Megumi averted her gaze, feeling vaguely ashamed. It had been so vehemently instinctive to her to hit back—but she could hardly explain why.
He said nothing and merely sipped his tea as she fumbled with her hashi, trying to resume her meal despite the restlessness that was suddenly consuming her. Megumi bit her lip. She couldn't name her feelings—but she sensed that she was getting dangerously close to something that would destroy her, destroy the life she had so painstakingly built in this peaceful town she called home...
...and that it was all, somehow, connected to this huge, hopelessly beautiful man who sat silently across from her, nursing his tea.
"I shall inform Himura immediately of your wishes." His cool voice slid clean through her hearing. She gritted her teeth against his subtle correction of her—she had, in fact, misinterpreted his statements. "Incidentally, I did not have to engage in any espionage to learn of your relationship with the Sanada family. It is common knowledge that the origins of the onna-sensei are shrouded in mystery in these parts. I'm sure you already know that there has been much speculation as to your three years away in Tokyo."
That was the most he had said to her today—perhaps, thought Megumi dryly, the most he had ever said to her. Inexplicably irritated, she laid down her hashi and sat up straight on the cushion without another word, pointedly turning her gaze away from the half-eaten lunch to the sun-bathed garden outside.
"You are finished with your meal?"
"Yes." With nearly any other companion, Megumi would have lied and said something about work awaiting her at the office. But Aoshi, she felt, was above such petty deception; she chose instead to rime her tones with ice. "It was all very well made, but I find I simply can't take another bite."
"Very well. We will call for the bill."
A waitress rushed over, and as she left with his payment Aoshi sank back in his seat, closing his eyes. In the face of his apparent disinterest, Megumi felt the annoyance and unease slowly ebb from her body, leaving her feeling drained—and apologetic.
"Did you find it to your liking, then, Shinomori-san?"
That took an effort, the carefree tone in her voice that made the earlier tension between them seem like a mere dream. But she was well rewarded when he opened his eyes to look at her with... was that amusement?
"It was an excellent meal. Kyoto cooking will be hard put to prove itself." His gaze caught and held her. "But you don't appear well, sensei."
Megumi felt her eyebrows rising as of their own accord. She hadn't expected her weariness to be so obvious. But this was Shinomori Aoshi after all.
"I'm a little tired, that's all. First the o-miai, then... all this excitement." She glanced wistfully out at the early afternoon. "It's a shame to ruin such a lovely day with a lack of energy, I know."
"Are you expected back at the hospital very soon?"
He rose, and she rose as well. As they made their way through the restaurant to its doors, Megumi shook her head. "I keep no clinic hours this day, but there's still quite a bit of paperwork to finish before evening."
"Perhaps you would like to join me on an hour's walk around town. I will be visiting various businesses and no doubt will make very dull company, but you might wish to reinvigorate yourself in the meantime by looking around the shops."
They were out in the street by now, and Megumi shaded her eyes to look up at him in surprise. He met her gaze evenly, as if there was absolutely nothing unusual about what he had just done.
Megumi hid a sudden smile. "That would undoubtedly restore my spirits. Thank you, Shinomori-san."
He bowed slightly and said no more, and they fell in quiet step together along the street.
~ tsuzuku ~
A/N. Sorry for the while it took me to update. But I do think I've made at least some progress—getting a bit more of a grasp on exactly what it is I'm trying to accomplish in this fic. Thank God, though, that school is finally over...! In the couple of weeks I've got before my summer job starts up, you guys can bet I'll be putting a lot of time and effort into this story. This is so much more fun than schoolwork, definitely. ^.^
On that note: wheee!!! Reviewwwws!!! ^.^ Thankyouthankyou to Candace, Trupana, Kichi-chan, eriesalia, Cherie Dee, and mij. Wow, looks like the A/Meg pairing does have a, um, vociferous fan base. So very glad you're liking this. ^.^ I hope the Darth Vader/grandfatherish tendencies don't alarm you too much, Trupana-dono, though I really can't object to the Rhett Butler ones; Scarlett O'Hara is a personal hero of mine. And as always, kudos to eriesalia-dono for her excellent Aoshi-caliber perceptiveness. Sharp, very sharp indeed...! ^.^ I'm also very honored to have some of the most respected names in fanfic-dom on my reviews page. Your reputations precede you. Believe me, as I mentioned in the previous chapter, I've been doing "research," and that means rummaging through all the A/Meg fics I can find. Well, as Trupana-dono said: I will try very hard indeed not to disappoint, that I will. ^.^
Last note: I'll be out of town for an org seminar thingie from Sunday to Wednesday, so that's kind of why I've updated at this rate. I hope I haven't sacrificed quality for expediency. But I'm sure you clever readers will make sure to let me know if that's the case. ^.^ And truly, I'll be hungering for the feel of the keyboard every moment I'm at that four-day writing sabbatical. Probably trying to perfect my fanart, at any rate. ^.^
Thank you for reading! Hope you follow this through to the end! ^.^