Tsukushi stumbled out into the darkened gardens, letting her misery direct her feet. Anywhere, away, where she wouldn't have to listen to the accusations, laden as they were with the sting of truth, or feel the weight of his wounded eyes upon her. . . And why had he kissed her? If not to emphasize that which she'd so thoughtlessly cast away. Did he think she didn't realize already! Couldn't he see that she was miserable enough, without him rubbing it in? Or maybe. . . Maybe he just didn't care.
Tsukushi paused, and took a deep, cleansing breath of the pure mountain air. It was colder out here than she thought, and she shivered, clad as she was, in only a pair of soft flannel pajamas. Maybe it hadn't been such a great idea to come out here, but in her headlong flight from the kitchen, she hadn't noticed or cared where she was going-- she just to wanted to be away from him; and, since she was even less tired now than when she'd first left her bed, there had seemed little point in returning to that room to toss and turn even more. . .. Still. . . maybe she'd be better off going back indoors?
Tsukushi looked around nervously, trying to figure out where exactly, her wandering feet had brought her. Umm. . . yeah. . . it was dark. The trees were dark shadows against a dim sky. This high in the mountains, no city lights stained the empty night, and here under the shadowing trees, Tsukushi could hardly see anything, not even the flagstone path beneath her feet. The wind rustled the branches above her head, a lonely whispering sound. Tsukushi fought the urge to curl up into a tight little ball of misery beneath the tall pines. If she did, who would miss her? Would they even notice until the morning? She wasn't sure she wanted to find out. So she did the only thing left to her, she continued slowly down the pathway, hugging herself to keep warm, pretending that her steps, like her life, had meaning and purpose.
In the dark, she failed to realize where the path led, until the narrow paved way widened suddenly into a clearing, with a hot spring pool as its centerpiece.
"Oh." Tsukushi gasped in surprise, for she was no longer alone. Wrapped up as she had been in her own unhappy thought, she had not heard the low murmur of voices ahead. Fortunately, for Tsukushi's sense of decency, the darkness of the unlit night, combined with the steam rising from the waters, adequately concealed the two figures that lounged comfortably in the warm water.
"Hmm . . .Is that a Makino I hear?" Akira swiveled his head trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from.
"Hey, Working-girl!" Soujiro called out cheerfully, "Have you come to play with us? We were getting bored out here without any girls."
"What? No!" Tsukushi babbled, "What are you two doing out here? Didn't you already bathe once already today? Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Whoa, easy there." Akira waved his hands in dismay. "Not so fast."
"He means to say, we didn't feel like sleeping." Soujiro clarified, "We've got some bottles of sake around here somewhere. Want some?"
"Err… No." Tsukushi shook her head, forgetting for a moment that they probably couldn't see her this far away in the dark. But as the two boys continued to cajole and tease her, she did find herself inching closer to the pool, eventually settling herself precariously on the edge, and dangling her bare feet in the water, letting the comforting warmth sooth away the chill in her freezing feet.
"Hey Makino?" Akira asked cautiously, his voice sounding out of the dark a lot closer than Tsukushi had expected, "Are you all right?"
Tsukushi tried to muster a smile in answer, but she failed, then shrugged realizing that in the dark, he probably wouldn't be able to see her face anyway. She settled for delaying tactics instead, "I'm fine, really. Why do you ask?" Her voice sounded shaky, even to her. She never was any good at lying.
"You're wearing your pajamas." Soujiro pointed out, materializing in the water almost at her elbow.
"And you're out without any shoes." Akira pointed out. "You've got to be cold."
"So. What happened?"
"You fight with Rui?"
"Shigeru? Sakurako?"
"You know better than that." Tsukushi hung her head miserably.
"Well of course." Soujiro agreed, "but a nice cat-fight with Sakurako or Shigeru would be So much more exciting." Even in the dark, Tsukushi could almost imagine the wicked grin lighting up his face.
"And besides." Akira cut in, "Your fights with Tsukasa always used to be so much more. . ."
"Spirited." Soujiro finished.
"Yeah. I mean sure, it was annoying as all hell, but still, the yelling,"
"The kicks to the head."
". .. the threats. . . At least you weren't running from the confrontation."
"Why are you running now?"
It's not true. I ran plenty. Tsukushi thought, staring down at her toes swishing in the water, I ran from myself, from my feelings. I hid behind my anger. Isn't this more honest at least? But she found that she could still not meet the boys' eyes as she replied hesitantly, "That was the old me? I changed. This is who I am now."
"We liked the old you better." Akira said seriously, causing Tsukushi's head to jerk up, an angry retort on dying unsaid on the tip of her tongue, as she noticed, for the first time, that the two boys lounging in the water so close to her, weren't wearing a damned thing.
One would think this would have come as no surprise -- this was after all, a hot spring. But somehow, Tsukushi had managed to delude herself into thinking otherwise, right up to the point when her eyes, in the process of jerking up to meet Akira's, had to traverse across a great deal of sculpted anatomy-- quite a lot, in point of fact, since most of Akira was above the waterline, as he stood, arms crossed, regarding Tsukushi with a fixed gaze.
Tsukushi stammered something, flushed deep pink (unnoticeable in the dark night.) and quickly buried her face in her hands.
"Huh?" The two boys exchanged glances, then seeming to realize, at last, just what the problem was, burst out laughing.
"Oh come on Makino, don't you want to play with us?" Soujiro inched closer, spying a perfect opportunity to unleash a bit of trouble. . . and maybe, just maybe, cheer up the huddled figure on the pool's edge.
"No." Tsukushi's voice was muffled by her hands.
"But Makino." Akira wheedled, "This is perfectly natural. You can't tell me you didn't like what you saw?" His voice feigned hurt.
"I. . .No!. . .Pervert!"
"I think, Makino," Soujiro began, pretending seriousness, "that if Anyone here is the pervert it's you. I mean really, we were happily alone here, enjoying a soak, when you burst in on us, and joined us here in the water's edge. Are you sure you didn't come here for a peek?"
"After all, It's not every girl who gets to see these bodies," Akira added, smug in the knowledge of their perfect physique.
At this Tsukushi managed a small snort of disbelief. Akira and Soujiro exchanged confused glances, and when they looked back over, Tsukushi' shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.
For a moment, she forgot her regrets, and her unhappiness as merriment overcame her and she choked out, "I. . I thought, Nishikado-san, that your goal in life was to have every single woman on the planet experience that "perfect physique" of yours. I was hoping to end my days among the privileged few who never ever did. Damn it. . . . Besides," After saying so much, she just couldn't resist one last gibe, "Doumyouji is hotter." She blushed as she admitted the last; she didn't know what came over her, sweeping away her normal reticence about such things in a flood of gasped laughter ad scarlet cheeks.
"What did she just say?" Soujiro gaped at Akira.
"You heard."
"I did. " Soujiro groused, "That's it Makino, you're going down. Akira?"
Akira was apparently in agreement, for, in an instant's time, the two boys moved as one, converging on Tsukushi, and half dragged, half threw, her struggling form into the deepest part of the spring. That done, Akira wiped his hands in satisfaction, and high-fived Soujiro, even as Tsukushi's growling and spluttering head emerged from the water.
"You. . .You." She stammered.
"Yeesss?" Soujiro drawled, "You were saying?"
"You Assholes! I'm going to get you." In another second, Tsukushi had managed to forget not only the boys' state of undress, but her own bedraggled appearance, as her sodden pajamas clung wetly to her painfully thin frame.
"Ah Makino!" Soujiro exclaimed joyfully, "You Do want to play, after all!"
It didn't take long for a full scale free-for-all water-war to emerge, as the three friends regressed into juvenile antics, splashing, shouting and pushing each other under in the steaming water, their cries and laughter echoing in the quiet garden like a memory of better days. In the noise and heat, none of the three at first noticed the slow and quiet limping footsteps on the path, until a low and oddly plaintive voice cut through the air.
"Makino?"
To be continued. . . .