I hope we can find all needed information about the demon and see you soon, I don't think I can take another night without you.
Suma's letter came with too many wet spots, the words blurry and almost unreadable. This was her 5th tearful letter in a row.
Don't you miss us? I hate how quiet my days are, without you, Hinatsuru, and Makio. We meet sometimes, but we can't be too familiar with each other otherwise it gets suspicious.
Tengen smiled softly. His life indeed feels significantly less now without his 3 beautiful wives nearby. Less flamboyant, less exciting, less delightful.
He hates it. They've been together for almost 8 years now, and he's so used to having them nearby so he can easily check on them and protect them from any harm. Even when doing missions, no matter how far, he'll bring his girls with him.
Now he had to sleep with no one to cuddle, take baths alone (so drab, not fun at all), he even started talking to himself.
If he misses his wife like crazy, Suma must feel much worse. She always feels a little too much, his little Suma. For herself, for everyone near her.
He wondered what he could do to ease her heart. He came up with a brilliant, flashy idea.
He would spend one night with each of his wives as a customer to avoid suspicions. Since they enrolled themselves in the houses while he watched from afar, the owners wouldn't recognise him as their husband. It should be easy, he just need to
First destination : Tokito House.
It was fairly a simple job — a whole night with Suma-Oiran, two nights from now.
He had to restrain himself from punching the owner right in the face for talking about his precious wife like some kind of disposable goods.
"She's a little bit pricey, since she's an Oiran. But don't worry sir, her body is as beautiful as the night itself. All the previous customers even said the night with her almost feels like a dream."
Oh, he knew how beautiful she was. But no one has the right to talk about her that way except himself.
He can't wait for all of this to finish so he got her precious self all by himself, treating her as she should be treated. He quickly paid the owner (no amount of money could reimburse her, dammit) and threw a little explosive to the owner's seat.
Just a little, not as flashy as he'd like. But it should be enough (for now).
Suma was facing the wall, stirring the warm tea containing sleeping powder they prepared for avoiding unneeded intercourses. Her hair was woven into datehyougo, an oiran hairstyle. She's truly magnificent, rising into the highest rank at Tokito in just a short amount of time. Not surprising considering her incredible skill and talent in infiltration. She's also gorgeous so her popularity has been increasing rapidly.
The owner picked me as the new oiran, because Koinatsu-Oiran is getting married soon. One of her recent letters said. Her soon to be husband already paid a large amount of money, but she's planning on staying a little longer. I'm happy for her, she looks truly in love. I hope her husband will treat her well, so she can settle into life-long marriage bliss, just like I do.
"Welcome, sir." She said, her voice calm and controlled. Very unlike the Suma he knows. Tengen thought he liked his cute, expressive, flamboyant Suma more.
"I prepared the finest quality tea and wine. Please enjoy these drinks first to unwind a little."
She started turning around in a very graceful way. (Again, not very Suma-like.) Tengen prepared his best smile, confident and charming. The one that never failed to make his girls blush.
"Hmm. You look particularly flamboyant tonight, aren't you my love?" Suma doesn't usually wear make-up, but tonight her lashes were longer and more pronounced, her lips were painted deep red, looking exceptionally soft and kissable.
As her gaze fell into his face, her jaw dropped and eyes widened. Gone was her sombre and calm facade, replaced with genuine longing and relief. Water started filling her big blue eyes, lips trembling, forming an adorable pout.
There she is. His Suma.
"Twengen-samaa…" she whines, tears flooding her face. She threw herself to his chest, pressing her whole face into him, and cried loudly wetting the front of his yukata.
It felt comforting, feeling her familiar weight in his arms after so long. Her heart beat loud and near, distracting his ears and mind from the chaotic noises outside and inside his brain.
Suma mumbled incoherent words to his chest, even with his flamboyant hearing he only catched some Is, yous and misses jumbled together. He just held her, caressed her back and undid her hair, letting it fall into its natural state on her back.
She then lifted her face and rested her chin to his sternum to look at his eyes, "You look so much better than my imagination". Her lower lip jutted and cheek puffed, she looked entirely precious; he wanted her to look at him that way forever.
Tengen pressed their foreheads together, their noses brushed each other, "Oh? Do you imagine me often?"
Suma's eyes started creating another batch of tears, "Of course, how else would I manage being far from you for so long?"
Fondness overflowed his chest as he cupped her cheeks with both of his hands, wiping her tears gently with his thumbs. Moving his head forward, he placed a kiss on her button nose and squeezed her cheeks.
"So what am I doing in your imaginations?"
He moved them to a more comfortable position, lying down on the futon and leaning into a pile of pillows. Her side pressed to his front, her head on his shoulder in kiss-range.
She looked up to him with big, sparkly, beautiful eyes and said, "This. Cuddling and talking, but I can smell you easily." She pressed her nose to the crook of his neck, inhaling his natural scent. Her left hand mindlessly caressed his abdomen in circular motion while her right playing with the hair behind his nape.
She pressed her soft lips to his, her lip rouge added a new, unfamiliar texture. He opened his mouth slightly, moved his tongue to deepen the kiss. He swallowed her low moans and whimpers, using them together with her heartbeat as a reference on where to touch and caress unhurriedly. Kissing Suma has always been gentle and sweet, like slowly diving a sea of warm black sugar syrup.
Tengen felt arousal plunging through his stomach and his manhood stir. He didn't want to give the impression that he's here just for sex, he moved Suma a little so she wouldn't feel his half-hard shaft and direct her hand from his abdomen to his chest.
He slowly deepened the kiss, tongue parting her lips and explored her mouth, tasting the sweetness from the candy she usually eats whenever she's nervous. They keep kissing until she's out of breath (he's not, his breathing techniques came in handy).
Looking at his lips as they part, messy and red from her lip rouge, she giggled and tried to wipe them with her thumb.
"Just use your tongue to lick them clean," he suggested with a provocative grin. She just gave him a shrug and casually laid on him, pressing her breasts to his.
Suma started talking about anything and everything, even the things Tengen already knew from her letters. But hearing her voice, how her tone changed every word, her steady heart beat filling his ears while caressing her long hair and kissing her temple every once in a while, feels like home. She always talked animatedly about her day, the world from Suma's perspective seems much more flashy and interesting. She appreciates little things in life he took for granted, like fresh sheets and the first dip to hot springs and strokes his ego everytime with the way she seeks comfort and protection from him.
I like being with you, she whispered on their first night as husband and wife, curled up next to each other in the coldness of the night. It feels like nothing can harm me because you'll protect me, right?
Growing up as the eldest of three kunoichis, she's so used to using herself as a human shield for her younger sisters and male shinobi who're seen as more valuable. Even as her family planned to marry off one of their daughters to the Uzui family, they picked her younger sister who 'has better emotional control' and 'less likely to embarrass the family'.
No one expected Suma to barge in, hit her head to the floor until it bleeds, and begged in front of her family and his to marry her instead in the place of her sister.
"Please take me as your wife, Uzui-sama! She's still so young! I'm sure I can be a better wife! I'll even do whatever you want! I-I'm in love with you! I'll die a miserable death from a broken heart if you marry my sister!"
He announced that he won't marry anyone from their family except Suma. Definitely one of the best snap decisions he made in his life. Initially he did it out of curiosity and to piss off his father, but falling in love with her was fairly easy. The circumstances of their marriage were unusual, but he wouldn't change it for the world.
She was in the middle of retelling a moment in which she found an insect in her futon and made the whole house panic when a set of knocks from the door.
"Suma-Oiran, we're here!" two girly voices can be heard from outside.
Suma practically jumped out of his arms. "Ahh! I forgot to tell the girls not to come here! Wait a second, Tengen-sama."
She opened the door a little and said, "Thank you for coming tonight, but I'll be fine by myself tonight."
One of the girls peeked inside and looked at Tengen, tilting her head with the look of confusion in her face. "Oh, he's not asleep."
Suma smiled gently, she put her hands on the girls' heads. "Yeah, he's …" turning her head to look at her husband with adoration, "... the man that I love."
The girls' eyes widened as sparkles filled them, questions surged out of their mouths at once.
"He is?"
"How exciting!"
"How did you two meet?"
"Do you plan to marry him and leave us?"
"Now, now. I'll tell you in the morning, okay?" Suma took two candies from her pocket and offered them, putting her finger on her lips to make a silent gesture with a cute, teasing wink. "Here. Don't tell anyone, okay? It's our little secret."
"Don't forget to clean your teeth before sleeping. See you, girls!" She looked at them fondly as they walked back to their quarters.
She'll be a good mom someday, a voice deep inside his head whispered. He knew his girls wanted kids, but the situation, their job, their nomad life is simply not an ideal situation to raise kids.
He wondered how many kids they would have now, had they married someone else. Would they be happier? With cute kids and a stable house, away from the looming threat of demons or shinobi paid to kill them.
Suma crawled back into his arms, placed a kiss on his jaw, pulling him back from his thoughts. "They're such good girls, aren't they? I got scared every night, with a foreign man in my room. So I invited them here to sleep with me. I still sleep during the day, so mostly I just watch them sleep while making sure the man doesn't wake up."
Her eyes started watering (again), "It's so scary, Tengen-sama! Some of them snored very loudly, and some moved too much, I almost got crushed! You never moved that much! And sometimes it gets cold but I have nobody to hug or cuddle with!"
She kept rambling on, and when she finished Tengen asked, leaving a kiss on her hair. "I'm so sorry, my girl. Are you not happy right now? Do you want to get out? You know your safety and comfort are much more important than any mission."
She looked right into his eyes with determination, pouted. "No, I can hang out a little longer for you and Oyakata-sama. Let's finish this mission, then we can go to that hot spring you tell me about."
It reminded him of their early marriage days, when it's just the two of them choosing the other wives candidates. Suma in private was a little different from the Suma in front of the other wives. She saw her co-wives almost like an older sister and she took comfort in Hinatsuru's hugs and Makio's scolding, that's why she unconsciously tried hard to maintain that dynamic they have.
"I just learned the legend of dragons," she said, resuming her flash tales, "I wanna be a dragon, pretty and strong and can fly anywhere. Do you think I can be a beautiful dragon?"
He responded automatically, as if he always had the answer in the back of his head. "I think you'll be beautiful in any form."
She blushed furiously, nuzzled her face to the crook of his neck. "Don't say such embarrassing things!"
Tengen just laughed softly (that deep, hearty laugh she loves so much) "What? I'm not allowed to tell the truth?"
Still flustered, she whined. Her chest was brimming with that sublime feeling, unable to integrate this sweet, loving man with The Pillar whose mere presence sent lower demons running, scared.
She moved her body closer to his so all of her curves pressed his solid, warm front. Dawn would come before they know it and they'll have to part soon, but for now she'll take no matter how little time they have.
"Tengen-sama, you know the other day, I…"
