Chapter 6: The Lake
Fuu awoke the next morning refreshed, mentally, emotionally, and physically. She yawned and pinned back her hair before noticing that Jin wasn't stirring by her side. Her brows furrowed, her face concerned. He had said that he'd return by dawn, but it was well past then…
She quickly dressed into a clean, sky-blue kimono and went to the guestroom to see if Mugen was still sleeping. When she opened the door, however, she saw that Jin was fast asleep on the futon, his chest barely rising and falling with each breath. She rose an eyebrow and was about to go wake him when she heard a loud snore from the living room.
She closed the door and walked down the hallway into the living area. Mugen was fast dead asleep, half on the couch, half on the floor, snoring softly and giving a loud grunt on occasion. She smiled softly at him, before she noticed the empty sake bottles on the floor and rolled her eyes. Then she noticed the blood on Mugen's clothes.
"Mugen…?" she said loudly, though he didn't hear her at all and just snored on. She went over and shook his shoulder, shoving him hard, " Mugen!" she yelled. When he didn't move, she did the next thing she could think of- she broke one of the sake bottles.
Fortunately, it had the intended effect.
Mugen jerked awake, giving a yell and falling to the floor with a loud crash. His head popped up, "Sake!" he said groggily.
Fuu grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. , "Mugenwhathappenedwhat'sgoingonareyouhurtiseverythingokwhydoyoujavebloodonyourclothesisJinokaywhatthehellhappened!" she said all in one panicked breath.
Mugen looked at her as if she had grown another head- he obviously had no clue as to what she was talking about. He then glanced down at his shirt, grimacing at the sight of the dried blood and entrails. He reached down and pulled the soiled garment up over his head, tossing it on the couch. The man smirked at the look that overcame Fuu's face for half a second and she took in the sight of Mugen's naked upper body, before blinking and regaining her panicked expression,
"Mugen, what's going on!"
Mugen grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her tightly, "Fuu, chill out, everything's fine."
He then proceeded to tell her the whole night's events, from when he found Jin, to when he put him in the guestroom. He didn't leave out any of the gory details, either. He had smiled evilly at her look of disgust as his story had come to an end,
"Well, you got some money out of it, so you should be happy. I had some fun too."
Fuu sighed, but glanced up at him and laughed softly. Mugen smirked and bent down, kissed her squarely on the lips, before letting go and picking up his shirt.
"Hey, my clothes done yet? Need to get outta these things, they're driving me crazy."
Fuu began to gather up the trash from previous night, "Yes, they're in the laundry house. You can leave the ones you're wearing in there."
She proceeded her cleaning when she felt fingers wrap around her wrist. She turned and found herself staring into stray dog eyes, a serious face gazing back at her. She looked at him, her expression soft. They both straightened, Mugen's hand slipping into her own, and the two walked out to the laundry house, their fingers interlaced and fitting much like the pieces of a puzzle would.
Fuu dumped Mugen's stained clothes into the washbasin, after having rubbed the stains with a hard stone and some herbs to help remove them. Behind her, Mugen had donned his old apparel quickly, and now watched her back with an intent gaze. When her back straightened, he came over to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, kissing her neck softly,
"We've got to watch where we're together," He said suddenly, half murmuring the statement. "Jin smelled somethin' funny in my room, but he thought I'd just jacked off or something weird like that. Lucky for us, huh?"
Fuu gagged, "Yuck! Ew, Jin, how gross!"
Mugen laughed and walked outside, leaving a thoroughly disgusted Fuu. Once inside Mugen flung himself down on the couch, leaning back with a stupid smile on his face. After about fifteen minutes, Jin came limping into the room, fully dressed and looking a bit more pale that usual. He went into the kitchen, rummaged around for a kettle and proceeded to make a pot of tea. By the time he was finished Mugen had drifted into the kitchen and poured himself a cupful. Jin leaned against the counter as he sipped his tea while Mugen sat atop one opposite of his old friend.
"How's your side?"
"Better. I lost a lot of blood so I'm still tired."
"You should take it easy"
Jin nodded, "I'd planned on it."
Just then Fuu walked in, and gasped at the sight of Jin. She ran into his arms.
"Jin, are you alright!"
"I'm fine Fuu, it's alright…"
"I was so worried!"
Fuu looked up into his face and rested her cheek against his chest, "Thank god Mugen was here…I don't want to think about what could have happened if he wasn't…"
Mugen coughed strangely and looked away as Jin and Fuu held each other, taking a long drink of his tea. Strangely he wasn't angry, or even jealous at the sight of the two. Actually, he couldn't help but smile to himself, almost like he was carrying a great secret and he coulnd't contain his excitement. Once they had let go, Mugen hopped off the counter and stuck his hand inside his pockets.
"So, what's there to do in this little hick town? Getting' kinda boring just sitting around."
Fuu put a finger to her chin, thinking, "Well, there's the market…Oh! There's the lake. It's really beautiful this time of year, and we haven't been in so long!"
Mugen sighed, "Not much, huh?"
Behind her, Jin gave a slight smile before he shook his head.
"Well I guess we could go there."
"OK! I'll pack us a lunch and we can get going!"
She turned and stopped suddenly when she looked at Jin. He looked so weak and fragile now, like any movement or passing wind could break him in half. She felt fear grip her heart and stomach, for a reason she did not quite know. She hated seeing Jin like this. She hated it more than anything.
"No Fuu," Jin said, placing a hand on her shoulder before she could say anything, "I'll be fine. You two go, I'm much too tired. I need rest."
"But Jin, I could stay with you-"
"I'll be fine. Besides, he doesn't know the way and I'm sure you two could catch up."
Jin gave Fuu a small smile before taking his tea into the living room. Mugen smiled widely and mischievously while Fuu turned to go pack a lunch. Mugen walked out and found Jin in the guestroom, his pot of tea of the nightstand, settling back into his futon. Mugen looked at him from the doorframe, arms crossed.
"Yo, Jin."
The samurai glanced at him.
"If it were me, I'd be a bit more uptight of it were my woman."
Jin laid down, "It's fine."
"You really trust me?"
"Of course not. It's Fuu I trust. And if I hear you've laid a finger on her, I won't hesitate to kill you."
Mugen suppressed a laugh, satisfied with his answer, "Yea, Yea, whatever. We'll be back, cya."
Mugen and Fuu left through the front door, their lunch packed in a fair-sized cloth bag. After padlocking the front gate-door, they took a left down the dirt street. After about half an hour they reached the woods and followed a trail that Fuu said would take them to the lake.
"Good, we're been walkin' for forever, how far we gotta go?"
"About twenty minutes," replied Fuu, smiling, taking Mugen's hand in her own.
They hiked hand in hand, the trees lacing together above them, casting shadows in the forest floor where they walked. It was strange, thought Mugen, walking here beside this woman whom he hadn't been able to keep out of his mind since the day he first saw her. Now Time seemed suspended, like they were moving in-between space then actually through it. They were left with these shells, these bodies, in a world that Mugen would have cared less about. But right now, all that existed was him and this woman. Nothing else could have mattered to him.
'Maybe I'll learn how to live forever,' thought Mugen. The idea of living in this world with Fuu sounded much better than any other option he could think of.
The trees began to clear and suddenly opened up to the shores of a massive, sparkling lake.
Mugen sighed in relief- the sun hanging overhead had grown extremely hot- and ran down the beach, kicking off his geta shoes and pulled off his shirt, running head long into the water. Fuu laughed and settled down near where the trees met the sand, watching from the shade.
After ten minutes or so, Mugen came trudging back up the beach and stopped in front of Fuu. She glanced up and found herself blushing- his lean, tan, toned body was dripping and glittering in water, and his hair was sticking to his face and cheeks.
'Wow…. That's hot,' a voice in the back of her head said.
Mugen smirked as if he'd heard the thought, and before Fuu could blink, she was hanging slumped over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?" she shrieked.
"You actually thought that if you came I wouldn't end up dragging you into the water?"
He laughed and kept his grip firm as she flailed about and futilely beat her fists on Mugen's back, shrieking, calling him foul names. Which, of course, were drowned out when Mugen tossed her into the water. She came sputtering up, arms and water flying, before Mugen lunged and jumped on top of her.
"Mugen, what're you doing, my clothes are soaked!" She yelled.
"So're mine- guess we'll just have to lay 'em out in the sun for a few hours-"
Mugen smiled coyly and grabbed her shoulders, pushing her under. She retaliated by swinging her fists and landing a good punch to Mugen's face, and grabbing his neck to shove him down into the water. She laughed triumphantly as bubbles swirled all around where Mugen's head was. Her victory was cut short, however, when Mugen's legs suddenly wrapped themselves around her waist from underwater and forced her forward where she lost her balance and tumbled on top of him. His head broke surface and he gasped, grabbing Fuu and holding her tightly to them as she wriggled about. She finally calmed and contented to lay relatively still in his arms, until he stood and tossed her further out.
An hour later the two walked back up to the forest line and sat down in the shade. Fuu wrung out her hair and the sleeves to her kimono before unpacking their lunch, throwing a rice ball at Mugen. They ate in mutual silence until Fuu said, "Jin and I used to always come here. Of course, we never played in the water."
Mugen snorted, rice on his face, "Wouldn't surprise me if that guy ever did anything fun in his life," he said with a mouthful of food.
Fuu laughed but her eyes began to cloud over in memory. She leaned her back against a tree, "You know…Jin is really a great guy…He's smart, calm.." She eyed Mugen who was drifting off, "and a helluva good kisser."
Mugen coughed and sputtered, "Yech! Whatever, I'm a totally better kisser than him, ug!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot, you'd know all about the way Jin kisses," she replied coolly.
"Whatever!-"
"Anyway, I'll leave yours and Jin's secret love life alone."
There was a long silence, disrupted only by Mugen's inaudible mutterings.
".. I've always felt safe around Jin," she said gently, breaking the quiet. "I could never explain it. But..last night…him getting hurt like that…" she shivered slightly, "I guess it hit me that he's not all-powerful. He's not a god. You know, when we were on our journey those years ago, I used to think that you two were invincible, that nothing could ever hurt you. But you can get hurt. He can get hurt. He..can die..I hadn't seen him hurt like that since three years ago…But even then, I didn't worry, I felt safe…"
Mugen gazed at her, "Fuu, you know I'd never let anything hurt you," he said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle and quiet. "Do you feel safe around me?"
Fuu nodded, "Of course I do. I really felt it, though, last night..when we were together…And I think how perfect it is. But then, I wonder how long will this last? How long will it be before you nearly die again, like you did so many times on our journey? Every time you did that it broke my heart. How long will you stick around? You're a wanderer Mugen…how long will it be before you leave again?"
Mugen sighed heavily, turning his head and staring out at the lake, eyes like stone, "I never stay in one place too long. My mind can't settle on just one thing. That's me; just my style. That's how I've always lived. Don't stay in one place too long or you're an open target- anything can get you. That's what you learn on the streets. I've been wandering for three years. I wandered before I met you and Jin. And I'll probably keep on wandering. I've been running, Fuu. And I still couldn't drive you from my head, no matter what I did. I hated it."
He turned and stared at her, his eyes dark and feral, "You're my only weakness. For a damn long time, too. Why else do you think I stuck around for so long?"
He moved over to her, taking her face in his hands, "I think this is the only thing I can settle on," and he kissed her deeply.
She tore her wet kimono off- he tossed it onto the beach into the sun; shorts came off and they joined the discarded clothing. For hours they made love, in the sand and shade; wild, passionate, uninhibited, with sweat mixed with blood, loud cried, soft sighs, touching and feeling every inch of their bodies. Nothing was left undone, nothing untouched. Later, they laid on the beach, naked, Fuu fast asleep in Mugen's arms. The sun shone down and warmed his body which was tired and fatigued form the day's events. The discarded clothing lay a few feet away, now completely dry. BY the light Mugen could tell it was somewhere between 5 and 6 o'clock.
"Shit.." he mumbled.
He didn't move but felt Fuu stir. Soon he heard her sleepy drawl,
"Mugen, when you're ready to leave this place, or any place, I'll follow you. I'll follow wherever you go.."
She yawned and settled back into her nook. Mugen couldn't help but smile to himself.
Damn. And he was just getting comfortable with this town, too.
He gently nudged Fuu awake again, "Hey, we gotta go. You're boyfriend'll get pissy soon if we're not back."
She grumbled but hoisted herself up, half-asleep, and reached over him to grab her kimono. They dressed quickly, grabbed their shoes, and left for the trail back.
"Hey, let's get something to eat. I don't really feel like cooking tonight."
"Whatever you say, Fuu."