Daughter Figure
6 of 8
It took two weeks to locate the troublesome ninja girl. By that time he had nearly arranged everything for his upcoming marriage to Misao. He had everything except the girl in question. She hadn't been that far away and when word had been sent back to the Aoiya it had been very simple.
"Subject: Makimachi Misao located in -----. Subject seems to have been shopping for clothing. Subject is currently being escorted via guard back to the Aoiya."
Shopping? Shopping for what, he wondered. He could only imagine her outrage once she was returned. He expected her soon as it was currently nearing sundown. The sun set on the other side of the Aoiya leaving his office dim. He had yet to light his candles.
"JIYA!"
His lips quirked upward; she had arrived. Escorted via "guard" typically, meant armed guard and restraints for the 'subject'. He stood and made his way toward the front where he could see Misao struggling in the hold of a much larger man. She looked furious.
"We have found her, Aoshi-sama," the man, who Aoshi couldn't readily identify, stated in a clipped voice.
"Aa, good."
"YOU did this!" Misao shrieked, glaring at him as though she wished to strike him dead on the spot.
Aoshi stepped forward and gripped her shoulder, gently pulling her out of the restraining grasp of her guard.
"Come, we have things to discuss."
He left her wrists tied as they were behind her as he led her into the Aoiya. Okina would handle the men and their reward, he only wanted Misao back and he now had her.
"Untie me!" she demanded. "Why am I being carted around like a prisoner?"
No doubt they had had to hide from the police lest they draw suspicion. He pushed her ahead of him into his office and she kept right on glaring at him.
"Why did you run away?"
"I didn't run away!" she snapped. "I went shopping!"
"For two weeks?"
"I went to town looking to get some new clothes, the lady there said for what I was looking for it was in the next town over. I didn't think anyone would mind."
Aoshi shook his head briefly. "You are not allowed unexcused, unannounced absences."
She struggled, trying to get her wrists free. No doubt her kunai had been stripped from her.
"Being a member of the Oniwabanshuu your first duty, Misao, is obedience to our code and to me. Yours is doubly important because not only do you serve me, you are marrying me."
She scowled. "I did not agree to that."
He motioned her around the desk and she came, albeit with a glum face. He grabbed her arm and turned her back to him. Sliding open a desk drawer he withdrew a small dagger and cut through the ropes at her wrists. Her skin was red and burned from the rope; no doubt she had struggled the entire way. She pulled her arms forward, sighing softly as they were freed and he pulled her into his lap. She yelped, started, and tried to get back up.
He pulled her flat against his chest and leaned so his mouth was near her ear. "I understand you're no longer a little girl, Misao."
He cupped his hand against her narrow kneecap and started sliding it up, against her thigh. He dipped his hand, letting his fingers graze the skin along the inside.
He whispered his voice husky. "Are you ready to be a woman?"
He gently pushed her off his lap and she looked back, eyes wide, surprised. She just stared at him as though she couldn't quite figure out what had happened to him.
"Eh-"
She blinked in amazement. She stared there and looked at him before moving toward the door dazedly. She slid open the door just wide enough to squeeze out and disappeared.
Midnight was her favorite time of day. She liked to sit in the window and stare up at the sky when the moon was bright and full. She especially liked when it was semi-cloudy and she got to see the clouds illuminated by the light of the moon. Okina had told her just after dinner that they were set to be married the day after tomorrow.
Misao couldn't figure out how she felt about it. One on hand, this was what she wanted. On the other hand, it wasn't what she wanted. It was against what she'd decided to do. She didn't understand what had caused his sudden turnabout and that was causing even more apprehension.
She sighed unhappily. What should she do? Maybe she should try to talk it out with him? To see what he said about it, perhaps? Did he want to marry her? Did he have some other reasons? Did he just want the title of Okashira back? Did he think she couldn't handle the job? Why weren't there any easy answers to anything? Did she want to marry him?
Yes.
Did she want him to feel obligated or responsible for marrying her?
No.
Was it too much to ask to be wanted?
She didn't think so, maybe she was being unrealistic? Too emotional? Too romantic or girlish She turned away from the window and moved toward her bed. She might as well try to get some sleep.
Morning brought a sense of dampened excitement. Omasu and Okon were humming with anticipation as they prepared Misao's garments. They had neither the time nor the money to afford the elaborate wedding kimono of traditional weddings, but the white silk kimono procured for her was lovely all the same.
The wedding was tomorrow. The two women of the Aoiya had gone overboard, procuring heaps of white flowers of all types. Misao eyed it all with uneasiness. How was she supposed to feel? She had gotten her stuff from her shopping expedition back from Okina and dressed now in purple and blue. The hakama had been a brilliant idea and she found she liked it.
Though she liked the fancy western clothes, she found she was partial to the traditional wear of her own country for everyday life as it was less bulky and easier to move about in. That hadn't stopped her from browsing every western shop she'd passed by just for fun. With a virtual thundercloud over her head, she headed down the hall toward the Okashira's office.
She had visited this very room as a child and sat in Aoshi's lap while he read mission reports. Often times, she fell asleep there. It was that memory she thought of as she knocked on the door. She hadn't asked anyone if he was in there, but she assumed he was. When there was a call from inside, she realized her guess was correct.
She peeked and then stepped in, sliding the door mostly closed behind her. There was some cautious part of her that remembered his hand on her thigh, touching her so intimately that made her think both of the thug from Tokyo and of her own blossoming feelings toward Aoshi that were less than innocent.
Far from it, in fact.
She had few innocent thoughts about him, but there was a wide chasm between fantasy and reality most times.
"Aoshi-sama?"
"Aa?"
He peered up at her as she came to stand in front of his desk. She didn't know what he was reading and she didn't care enough to ask, but she was a little curious about it.
"Um… " She frowned. How was she supposed to address this?
He just stared at her.
She fidgeted. "About tomorrow…"
His gaze seemed to soften. "Are you uneasy?"
She nodded.
He sat back in his chair, pushing his shoulders back and moving his hips forward in the seat. "About what?"
"Just everything, what does it have to be one thing? Why do you want to do this? Why don't you have to be the one giving reasons for stuff?"
He took a moment before answering. "We are best suited for one another, Misao, the kind of life I can provide for a woman wouldn't fit anyone outside of our organization."
She blinked in quiet surprise.
"You decided to get married because you couldn't marry anyone outside the Oniwabanshuu? That's a stupid reason. You could get a job with the new government and leave here and have a perfectly normal life."
The silence that fell between them was stifling to Misao. Was he considering that? Why didn't she ever keep her mouth shut?
"It wouldn't work," he answered.
It would, but she bit her tongue not to argue it.
"Misao…" he stood and walked around the desk where she was standing.
He rested against the edge of the desk, reaching for her. She didn't struggle as he pulled her gently toward him. He lowered his head to press his mouth to her ear and she trembled faintly. She didn't know what to do as she felt him press another kiss to her temple. "Do you want me to leave?"
With her face almost pressed against his chest and nearly surrounded him, she felt warm and comfortable. "No."
"Do you want a life without me?"
"Of course not," she snapped.
The heavy arms wrapped loosely about her waist tightened fractionally. "Do you want someone else to touch you?"
"…"
"Do you want forceful hands touching you roughly in places that are meant to be treated tenderly?"
"…" She shuddered at the thought.
"Would you feel uneasy in my hands?"
"No…" she murmured, pressing her cheek against the warm cloth covering his chest. Her face felt like it was on fire, did he have to ask these kinds of questions?
He clenched the bow at her back and pulled her back from him. She was reluctant to part from him and his warmth. One large hand slid up the smooth pane of her back to cup the back of her head. His fingers slid into her semi-loose bound hair above the braid, pulling, and she gasped at the unexpected sting. He leaned close touching his nose to hers.
"Do you want anyone but me?" he murmured, his voice silky.
Misao was lost, how could she win like this?
"I only want-"
"No," he cut her off, pressing a long slender finger to her lips. "Do you want anyone but me?"
"No, Aoshi-sama," she answered.
"Do you want to marry me?" he asked.
"I-"
"Do you want to marry me?" he asked again.
"Yes, I want to marry you but not-"
He put his finger over her lips again to quiet her.
"Go. Prepare yourself for our wedding."
She frowned but he pushed her back and she had no choice but to move or fall down with his pushing at her. She sighed and left.
She dissolved into a fit of nerves and spent the rest of the day in her room.
Morning brought chaos as it was discovered Misao was gone. Panic over ruined plans caused everyone to become jittery. Okon and Omasu were torn between outrage and sorrow. Shiro and Kuro took the news with frowns and confusion; even Okina hung his head in disappointment.
Aoshi did nothing.
There was no call for her immediate return. There was no reward, no notice of her status as missing at all. When presented with the news that Misao was nowhere to be found, Aoshi sat a moment in silence and then retreated to his office and closed the door. He hadn't been seen almost seven in the morning and it was waning toward two o'clock.
The denizens of the Aoiya were unnerved by Aoshi's dispassionate reaction and his ensuing silence. Okon and Omasu had taken to pacing, muttering angrily to one another about Misao's audacity at ruining all their plans and her show of immaturity.
They bitterly scorned everything from how she refused to appreciate their fashion advice to her "so-called love" for "Aoshi-sama". Shiro and Kuro kept their mouths tightly closed and only nodded in accordance whenever one of the angry women dared to include them in the conversation.
Okina sat alone reading, stroking his beard as he worried and contemplated Misao's strange behavior. Running away was the most unexpected course of action... Perhaps if she'd been engaged to a stranger, but for her to run away from Aoshi?
Had he gone too far by speaking with Aoshi behind her back and stripping her of the Okashira's title without including her? Had that been too much? Was she too affronted, hurt by his refusal to acknowledge her as the victor of the battle, no matter how underhanded she had managed it...?
Yet, he could not deny that it had been a decent idea, had she been able to execute the idea in a more controlled way. She was a ninja and she had used what she thought was her only viable option and he respected that, but she had done so poorly without fully thinking over the consequences.
He sighed, saddened. Had Aoshi no plans to recover her? What did he mean by this inaction?
Absently, he pulled the tie from his beard and retied it. He could barely contain his restlessness. Abandoning his book, he stood and headed for the back garden. Some weeding would do his mind some good.
Aoshi sat in the office alone, searching through office drawers finding and running his fingers along her few possessions.
Was he being rejected?
He had felt so sure that she would want this... That this was his future.. Yet again she left him feeling as though he had erroneously taken one step forward and off a cliff without realizing it until he was halfway to the ground.
He had no plans to go after her. He couldn't on good conscience force her to return when it would be returning to him. He could not, in any capacity, force something on her she didn't want and certainly not a marriage to him. He was willing to insist only to a certain point.
When and if it became so intolerable to her that she needed to runaway from him then he had pushed too far. He had pushed her away by trying to draw her close, perhaps too fast, perhaps closer than she was ready for… Perhaps he'd finally shown her that he was wrong for her? Perhaps his nagging doubts about her love for him being an infatuation had truly come to fruition? He didn't know.
He felt as though he didn't know anything. He was reeling in bewilderment over her hasty departure. The only things left in his rattled brain were three hollow echoing questions.
Would she come back?
What would he do if she did?
Worse yet, what would he do if she didn't?
AN: Almost over. Chapter 7 is really the best I think, I hope you'll like that one. As soon as I finish chapter 8 I'll post 7 and it'll be all over. I'm doing 8 today I just need to figure out what's happening in it.