Of Silk And Lace

Cap'n Coree

Chapter Five: Oh What Marvelous Things

Mothers coffin was showered in roses. All colors and assortments of them hung from doorways, from windows. It was getting to the point where you couldn't cross a room without bumping into them or stepping on a few. The stench of roses was so strong the fumes followed you for several blocks after leaving the brothel. Even then they couldn't overshadow the stench of death. Fuu closed down the whore house for three days, and spent the time arranging Mothers funeral. It was to be one of the most expensive funerals the town had ever seen. It was the kind of funeral Fuu would have arranged for her own Mother, had she had the funds.

Fuu now sat outside. In the evening, Mothers funeral was to be held. Visitors were already gathering, finding seats before the coffin, and volunteers were coming to offer a hand in carrying the coffin, and then burying her. Fuu was resting her head in her hands, dozing off slightly. The last few days had been hectic. She had to make so many plans, handle the accounting, it was all stressful. She nearly missed being just a common whore. At least they got to sleep. Fuu hoped fervently that it would be easier when she didn't have to deduct the cost of so many expensive purchases. In the last three days she had bought not only the needs for Mothers funeral, but new kimonos, one for each girl personally, and a few for the house itself to be used alternatively. She was trying to win the girls over.

The vacation and the kimonos had just about done it. Even girls who had hated Fuu before now had a grudging respect for her. Especially since the bags under her eyes hug heavier then any of their own. Perhaps being Mother of the house wasn't as easy as they all thought it to be. Fuu was certainly less strict then Mother had been. Where several beatings would have been handed out within the last three days, none were given. Girls were caught stealing food and sake, and Fuu would just look at them sadly, sigh, pretending that she hadn't seen anything at all. Marvelously, this didn't lead to an increase in theft but a decrease. Many of the girls respected Fuu to much to steal, and portions had increased since Fuu took over.

In fact, many girls were starting to love her in a way they never loved the previous Mother, fair as she was.

Mame snuck out of the house, carrying a pipe with a sack of tobacco and plopped down next to Fuu, holding it out.

"Here Ki- Mother! I brought you this. I know how stressed you are."

"Ugh," Fuu looked at Mame warily, "Not you too. Please don't call me that, it makes me feel old."

"But that's your title now!" Mame protested.

"Come on," Fuu groaned, "It's me Fuu." Fuu gasped, covering her mouth, "I mean Kiyo." She felt embarrassed by the slip. Momentarily she thought of Jin, wondering where he might be at the time, and thought with bitterly, that he must have went to that woman. Let him go, let him live happily ever after, Fuu could manage by herself.

Perhaps the change from Fuu, to Kiyo, to Mother had been to much for Fuu. She certainly felt exhausted.

Mame stared at her for a moment, then began to chant. "Fuu…Fuu.." she rolled it around on her tongue, tasting it, "FuuFuuFuuFuu."

"Cut it out." Fuu demanded, glaring at her slightly.

"Fuu Fuu Fuu…"

"I said CUT IT OUT!" Fuu hollered, growing angrier with every syllable. Without thinking, her hand jumped up, striking Mame across the face. Mame recoiled, shocked at the outburst of rage, and touched a hand to the angry welt growing on her cheek.

"Yes.. Mother." she whimpered, her eyes began to water. Fuu felt her stomach churn with guilt and wrapped an arm around Mame's shoulder, heaving a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Mame."

"That's what he called you, isn't it?" Mame said, locking her dark eyes on Fuu's hazel. "Why can he say it and I can't?" Mame's voice was laced with jealousy and she shifted beneath Fuu's arm.

"He was an old friend," Fuu said sadly, "Someone I knew before all of-" Fuu waved a hand in the air to stress her point, "this.. He helped me find something important.. Something I had lost long ago." Fuu thought about her father for the first time since she saw him, and felt a stab of grief deep in her heart. Back then she had been so careless. Only planning ahead to the point when she would find her father, when she should have been settling down, making a life for herself.

Maybe then she wouldn't have been in this situation.

"Kiyo, did you love him?"

"Maybe, once upon a time.."

"Hm.." Mame rested her head against Fuu's shoulder and shuddered, "Why didn't you leave then? I would have."

"I wouldn't have blamed you either, but the past is the past, and I've found that I can never go back. No, I feel the only escape for me is death." Fuu lit the pipe and inhaled, filled with fear for Mame's sake. She opened her mouth, letting the smoke seep from her lips, and sighed.

"You should run Mame. I'll let you. I have half the mind to let everyone run, and burn this place to the ground, but I'm afraid Mother would haunt me forever."

Mame shook her head. "No- I have to stay here, and protect you, Kiyo."

"Protect me from what?" Fuu asked, her question hanging in the air like the veil of smoke. It went unawnsered, however, because at that moment a crowd of well-wishers began to file into the house for Mothers funeral.

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Jin heaved a sigh, staring at the doors infront of him. He was reluctant to knock, although he knew her time was up and she'd be given back into his care. He knew more then three years had passed, and he feared that Shino would be angry with his tardiness, but it wasn't doing any good stalling here..

Gathering his compouser he knocked on the temple door, a small shriveled woman opened the door, eyeing Jin suspiciously.

"I'm here for Shino."

"Shino- oh, yes," the old woman replied, "well, she left some four months ago sir. You can still find her though, she doesn't live far."

"Can you give me the address?" Jin asked. The old woman signaled for him to wait, and rushed off to retrieve paper. She came back, the address scrawled across a ripped sheet of rice paper, and handed it over to Jin.

"Tell her I said congragulations!" she called, and as Jin headed to the boat, he didn't have the heart to ask what for.

--

It was a tiny house. Not much, but he suspected Shino might not be able to afford much. Outside there was a woman tending the garden clumsily, her swollen stomach getting in the way of her movements. Her hair was tied back and hidden beneath a green patch of cloth. Jin approached her from behind, his heart tightening with fear.

"Does a woman named Shino live here?" he asked, and the woman turned. Her face was alittle worn, and her hands were no longer smooth and long as he remembered, but calloused, and covered with dirt. When their eyes meant she let out a small gasp, and went to rise, but fell back onto the ground, her belly getting in the way.

"Jin," she breathed, low, filled with shock, as if she were looking at a ghost.

"Shino?" he replied, "Why, you've seem to put on weight. What are you doing here?"

"Jin- I-"

"Shino," a voice called from within the house, "Is somebody here?"

"It's no one honey," she called back, looking distressed.

"Jin, I- I left the temple months ago, I thought you were dead."

"Hn," Jin replied, looking away, "what gave you that idea?"

"I felt it," she replied, then motioned to her chest, "I felt it here. It took me sometime to realize that it wasn't that at all, but perhaps.. the dying of an idea."

"Hmm."

"When you didn't come I almost started to believe that I made you up. That you were some figment of my imagination. After awhile, thats all you were.. When I left, I met someone-"

"Hn."

"He's a simple man-"

Jin shifted, staring at the bulge beneath her shirt.

"We fell in love Jin."

His eyes probed the alien object, trying as hard as they could to make it go away, to make this a bad dream. Out of all the possiable outcomes of his visit, he never imagined this to be one of them.

"I realized it could never work out between you and I.. You're just.. We'd always-"

Jin reached up and removed his glasses, cleaning them, hoping it might fix the problem.

"We'd always be on the run."

Jin replaced the glasses, and looked Shino in the eye, unable to look at the swell anymore. "I hope you live a good life." He turned back down the path he had followed, closing his ears to the sound of his name as she tried to call him back.

He knew if he looked again, nothing would have changed. He elected to spare himself the pain.

His feet drug him on, although he had no destination, deep down he knew where he was headed.

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An: Thank you everyone who offered support/advice. I fixed it. The whole contol panel add remove thing worked great. Thanks AznGrrrl and Dee Kaui and everyone else.

Im going camping so I wont be able to update for alittle, monday earliest if I don't work.