Puits d'Amour
Encounter, Pt 1
The morning was chilled, a whisper of the coming autumn, but Café du Ciel's kitchen was pleasantly warm. Sora removed a tray of croissants from an oven and announced her movement to Mochizuki Meiko, who had just arrived to knead the dough Sora prepared earlier, and another baker drizzling glazes on fruit pastries.
At five in the morning, an hour before opening, the kitchen was a flurry of activity. Sora dropped off the croissants at the main café, where Mimi was arranging pastries in the display case, then paused in the foyer on her way back to the kitchen. Yagami Hikari, a local woman who recently completed her undergraduate degree, faced the flower displays on the tables along the foyer walls. Hikari was petite on all scales, a tiny personage who was easy to overlook in a group- until her light, a kindness both soft and like iron, suddenly shone through.
When Sora stepped closer, Hikari turned and grinned. Her face was sweet and charming, with traces of soft color that matched her pink informal kimono. She had brown hair and red-brown eyes. "Sora-san! Good morning."
Sora smiled, always pleased to see her. "Good morning, Hikari-chan. How are you feeling?"
Hikari's smile faltered, and Sora struggled against wincing. She didn't mean to remind Hikari of her intermittent health problems, which no doctor seemed able to diagnose. Sora just worried about her, and always hoped she was feeling well. Scrambling for a different topic, she blurted, "Would you like a croissant? They're fresh from the oven."
A new smile blossomed, as pink and delicate as a flower petal. "Thank you, but..."
"Ah," Sora grinned. "Something sweeter? Take your pick."
"Thank you! I will, when I'm finished." She tilted her head to indicate the flower display she was creating.
"It's beautiful," Sora replied. "I've never seen so many blue flowers in one place."
According to Sora's mother, the crown prince made blue flowers the focus of his ikebana pieces as a boy. Toshiko claimed that his aesthetic tastes developed nicely as he grew, and he came to gravitate towards sophisticated blooms: irises, lilies of the Nile, gentian flowers, scabiosa flowers, and columbines.
Hikari's displays were normally eclectic, designed to appeal to a range of potential customers, a mix of simple, happy flowers like daisies and more elegant offerings, like roses and lilies. Today, the display was sleek and coherent, all in blue, white, and charcoal. Even their collective scent seemed refined.
"This makes the crown prince feel so grown up and fancy," Hikari said.
"You did an amazing job. But the prince is the same age as me- don't say he's grown up!" Sora laughed.
Hikari's mahogany eyes widened with faux innocence. "But you are grown up, Sora-san! You own a business!"
Because my mother funded it. Sora ignored the intrusive thought and said, "You're plenty grown up yourself. This is an incredible tableaux."
Hikari kept her hair in a simple cut, hanging straight to her chin. It was pulled back from her face with a clip, which made the thinking furrows on her forehead obvious. "I feel like something is missing… Is there anything you'd change?"
"It's your display."
Hikari shook her head. "The only reason I can create nice displays is because you and Takenouchi O-iemoto taught me so much. I'm always interested in your input."
"You have your own skill and touch," Sora replied, which was true. Hikari wasn't talented in ikebana art, as they discovered when Sora tried to teach her. But then, ikebana wasn't her job. She was a display artist, skilled at grouping a variety of flowers for sale in a way that made them sing as a whole, and as individuals. That was who Hikari was: someone who brought out the best in every group, and in every person, in her quiet, subtle way.
Still, if her friend wanted her opinion, Sora would try to give it. She stepped back and slowly turned, taking in all of the flowers in the foyer. Even with the cohesive color scheme, there was one specimen that stood out. It was a hydrangea in shades of blue, assembled from plants grown under different soil conditions, then replanted together for an ombré effect.
"I would make this one the focal point," Sora said.
"A prince of flowers?" Hikari grinned. "It does have that luxurious feel. A lot of care and expertise went into making all these shades."
"It has to be expensive. All the better for me if someone buys it!" And if no one did, Sora had a lovely console table beneath a mirror in her quarters upstairs, just begging for this beautiful piece.
Hikari stepped back once more, visualizing how to move the hydrangeas to best effect. Sora was about to walk away when the foyer door opened, and Yagami Taichi entered.
"Hey," he said- or at least, that's what Sora assumed his yawned greeting was. He paused and blinked, staring around the foyer. "Gods, I didn't know there were so many blue flowers."
Taichi was tall, athletic, and tanned by outdoor activity. He had bushy brown hair, somewhat tamed compared to his younger years, and warm brown eyes. His chin, jaw, and nose were firm, granting him a masculine appearance softened by his frequent good cheer. He was around Sora's age, and had recently earned a graduate degree in public administration. Like Hikari, Sora was always pleased to see him, and she greeted him warmly, even if his hello was nearly unintelligible.
Hikari half-spun, still holding the hydrangea. Sora smothered a laugh at her aghast expression. "What- Onii-chan, we run a flower shop!"
Taichi shrugged, indifferent. He ruffled Hikari's sleek hair. "You want your usual?"
"Onii-chan!" Hikari scolded, batting his hand away.
Taichi lifted a brow with mock surprise. "No, then?"
Hikari sighed. "Yes, please."
"Sora?" Taichi added. She nodded, indicating that she also wanted her usual drink: medium roast coffee with cream.
Yawning again, Taichi stepped towards the pastry counter, where the coffee supplies were stored. "Hikari, you shouldn't drink such sweet drinks everyday."
Tonelessly, Hikari replied, "You eat cinnamon rolls everyday."
Sora laughed, but Taichi walked off without comment. She meant to say goodbye to Hikari, but when the girl stared after Taichi without returning to her work, Sora murmured, "Hikari-chan?"
Hikari shook her head. "Sorry. I just..."
Worried, Sora stepped closer. Hikari moved in, too, and lowered her voice. "Everyone loves working at your café," she said. "It's not that I think he's unhappy. I just... I wish he'd find what it is he wants to do."
Ah... What could Sora say? The success of the flower shop and delivery/display service established by Hikari's grandparents had elevated the Yagamis to the upper middle class, and earned them modest renown and respect in Nagano. The Yagamis and Takenouchis met and became friends through flower supply for the Takenouchi ikebana school.
Each morning, Hikari delivered flowers to shops around Nagano and set up displays. She seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but Taichi had no interest in the family business. For a while, he worked in the Yagami flower shop, helping customers. But when he approached Sora, wanting to work in a different environment, she gave him a job as a barista. She assumed his enjoyment of the job had more to do with space from his family situation, from the guilt of disappointing them with his disinterest in the business they built themselves, than it did with making coffee. But, as Hikari hinted, she suspected that he worried about his future.
"We can't figure that out for him," Sora said gently.
"I know. I've asked him why he doesn't pursue the political career he said he wanted, but he goes silent when I do." Hikari sighed and turned back to her work. "I should finish up."
Sora patted Hikari's shoulder. "Don't forget your drink and pastry."
She said goodbye to Hikari, then backtracked into the café's main room. Someone had dropped off more pastries, and Mimi looked up from arranging them while Taichi checked the coffee supplies.
"Sora-san!" Mimi chirped. "The prince will give an address nearby tomorrow! Isn't it exciting?!" Sora grinned. Did Mimi think she had forgotten such a huge business opportunity?
Taichi groaned beside Mimi. "Him again? I'm already sick of the guy."
"No, no! Bad!" Mimi cried, wagging a finger at Taichi. "This is money, Taichi-san! We need to squeeze more tables in here for the next few days!"
"True," Sora agreed. "It's all hands on deck, especially tomorrow. Can everyone make it, Mimi-chan?"
"Yeah!" Mimi cried, pumping a fist. "It's going to be so busy and fun!"
Taichi groaned again, and their friendly bickering became a pleasant background sound as Sora surveyed the café. Flames danced in the fireplace beyond the sales cases, a cozy spot surrounded by arm chairs. A piano and acoustic guitar were stationed near it, awaiting musicians that Sora hired to draw customers. Warmth flooded outward, along with light that flickered playfully on the instruments and chairs.
Sora sighed, contented- and enjoying the buzz of excitement for the activity and profit that would soon arrive with the crown prince.
XXX
Jyou sat at the desk in the study in Yamato's private suite at Nagano palace, reading reports on the status of local private practices, elderly care facilities, and hospitals. Usually, when Jyou returned to Nagano, he lived at the Kido estate. Now that Yamato had relocated to the palace, Jyou had his own small suite near his, featuring a bedroom, bathroom, a modest dining area, and a sitting room/study. But the prince's suite, complete with a bedroom, bathroom, study, sitting room, dining area, exercise room, and private garden, was far more luxurious. More pressingly, Yamato preferred sharing space with him and Takeru to inhabiting a suite larger than most homes by himself. Therefore, Jyou would likely spend most of his time at the palace in Yamato's quarters.
Like Yamato's Autun study, the space was masculine, but furnished with a blend of Hakone styles mixed with other influences. It lacked a seaside vista beyond a cliff and forest, but a glass wall offered views of the garden in the center of the suite, with its bamboo, greenery, koi pond, and fountains. The shoji doors beside the glass were open, allowing mild September morning air inside. At Yamato's request, sent ahead of him by phone, the room featured a large desk, a comfortable sofa, bookshelves, a pair of armchairs facing the garden, and another pair by the newly-installed fireplace.
Jyou twitched, startled, when Yamato clomped into the study with Roncier at his side. His fingers rumpled his papers as he absorbed the prince's appearance. He wore an informal nagagi kimono in navy blue with slippers, which made Jyou feel out of place in pants, a shirt, and a blazer, his preferred attire. Yamato was flushed and fidgety, with stiff shoulders and an irritation about the face. Not rare, unfortunately, and not good.
"A bad walk?" Jyou hazarded. Yamato wandered early each morning, drifting along the coast, hills, and villages of the Côtes d'Armor, often for two to three hours, returning home around seven or eight to begin his studies or duties. It might have seemed like a strange habit from the outside, but it was Yamato's way of spending time with himself and managing his emotions. A prince wasn't permitted to be irritable, to snap, or to brood- all things, alas, that Yamato was prone to. His emotions ran strong, and he needed releases that wouldn't tarnish his reputation, and the nation's through it. And so, he walked, walked, walked, until some combination of private time, the presence of Roncier, light exertion, playing the harmonica, and the scenery eased his strain.
The palace was surrounded by impressive gardens, but there was an end to the estate. The city loomed beyond it, an endless swath of buildings, people, and activity. Even if Yamato could safely walk the streets of Nagano, which remained to be seen, it wasn't the sort of place to soothe. The way Yamato collapsed on a leather armchair attested to that.
"No," Yamato grunted, even as he parked his forearms on his knees and slumped with exhaustion. "It's not the walk's fault." Roncier ambled to the plush dog bed beside the sofa and busied himself with the large chew waiting there, whose animal origin Jyou would rather not know.
Jyou drummed his fingers along Yamato's enormous desk. He just spent two weeks aboard a ship with an increasingly pent-up and irritable Yamato, and had frankly hoped for some calm following their arrival in Nagano. Which was foolish, of course. Yamato's obligations were just beginning, including a public address a mere day after his arrival in Nagano- his first full day here in about sixteen years.
"How did seeing your parents go?" Jyou asked, guessing at the source of Yamato's frustration.
Yamato grunted dismissively- but Jyou saw a grimace pass his face, there and gone. "I didn't get much time with them. Father was between meetings, and Mother had an event to attend. I'm just glad I wasn't asked to join either of them."
Jyou hesitated, wary of saying the wrong thing. Yamato's family situation was complicated. His parents had a working marriage, each of them serving their countries, Hiroaki by ruling Hakone and Anne by making a life there to support peace between countries for her homeland, Autun. By Yamato's account, and from what Jyou had seen himself, the King and Queen were more like coworkers who respected each other and were committed to the same cause than a couple.
Worse yet, running the country superseded raising their children, especially after they were old enough to manage on their own- by Autun boarding school standards, anyway. Jyou grew up traveling between countries, but Yamato and Takeru spent most of their lives an ocean away from their parents.
Until Yamato was summoned to learn how to take up their mantle someday, of course.
Jyou ignored the impulse to sigh. As a third-born child, he tended to view Yamato as having the best of everything, a crown prince who did not have to create a niche for himself. But watching him return home, seeing the burdens of ruling come knocking... It was a lesson for Jyou, who previously saw Yamato enjoy the perks of being royal without many of the duties.
"Are you going to see your family?" Yamato asked.
"I'm planning to stop by the hospital and the school today, but it's more for work," Jyou replied. "I'll join my parents and brothers for dinner tonight."
"I guess you'll be making the rounds."
"Yes." After eight months in Autun, Jyou was itching to check the status of the local medical and care facilities. There was so much to observe, so many things learned in Autun to share in Hakone, and to learn here and send back via letters and phone calls, paid for by the royal family.
But as Jyou observed Yamato's strained expression, his mind gradually shifted from work to friendship. "Unless you need me?"
Yamato rubbed his forehead, suggesting a headache. "You have your own life, and I'll be busy with orientations. But... I'm hoping we can find some time together, most evenings, at least?"
You're my boss, Yamato. Thankfully, Jyou kept that bald statement of fact to himself. He recognized that Yamato was asking for support and companionship, not his skill as an attendant.
"Of course," Jyou murmured. "Are you prepped for your address? Do you need anything?"
Yamato slouched forward again, holding his face in both hands. "My parents' address, you mean. Well- actually, I have no idea who wrote it."
"Takeru?" Jyou joked, hoping to lighten the mood. Yamato grunted.
"If only. Some adviser or statesperson. There's no life to it." He lowered one hand and shifted the other, cupping his cheek. The fatigue in his eyes was startling. "I hate having someone else speak through me. I'm no good at giving speeches, regardless..."
Prudently, Jyou left that statement alone. Yamato was stiff at a podium, and tended to speak straight through or over an audience, rather than to them. Sometimes, Jyou wondered if he was trying to emulate his father, whose orating style was dignified and serious. But where Hiroaki engaged the crowd, Yamato seemed to be pretending they weren't there.
"At least it's a short address," Jyou consoled him. "There were originally talks of a parade."
Yamato jerked upright. "A what?!"
"See?" Jyou replied, grinning. "You're getting off easy."
Yamato tsked, but he conspicuously stopped complaining about the address. "I had better get ready," he said, motioning to his casual nagagi, slightly ruffled from the walk.
"Me, too. I'm due at the hospital before too long. Good luck, Yamato."
"Thank you," Yamato sighed. "I hope I can find some damned coffee..."
Jyou hesitated. If Yamato wanted coffee, or anything else, all he had to do was ask. But even in the Autun estate, he seemed hesitant to ask for particular foods, or even for a drink. Jyou often asked for them both, and Takeru requested his brother's favorites in the kitchen. Yamato seemed far more stiff and out of place with the Nagano palace staff than the estate staff in Autun, so the situation was likely to be worse here. Jyou made a mental note to talk to a staff coordinator about helping Yamato adjust and identifying contact points among them for guidance.
Sensing that Yamato wanted to do whatever he could for himself, Jyou offered, "I heard there's an Autun-style café near the main square. It's apparently popular with young people from Nagano University."
"Young people," Yamato snorted. "You're twenty-seven, Jyou. Even if you dress like you're-"
"That's the last time I give you a helpful suggestion," Jyou said loudly, uninterested in hearing what age group Yamato thought his clothing suited.
Yamato grinned, and though he still looked exhausted, it was nice to see him smile. "Thank you. I'd love to see what pastries they offer. Good luck at the hospital."
"And good luck to you." Jyou stood, gathered his papers, placed them in a leather briefcase, and patted Roncier on his way out.
A long day of visiting awaited him, but Jyou had to admit... It sounded far better than reading someone else's speech to a crowd of strangers.
Author's Notes: Next chapter is the long-awaited meeting of a lovely café owner and a ruffled prince! I can't wait to share it with you! Your feedback would mean a lot to me, I'm so excited about this story and happy to share it 3 Please take care!