The Color of Chinese Bellflowers
Chapter three: The power of currency
Disclaimer: I do not own Loveless.
A/N: This is an original AU fic. I've tried my best to keep everyone in character. And everyone's hair is the same as in the anime/manga.
WARNING: This chapter contains touchy material, so reader discretion is heavily advised.
Ritsuka sat on his knees. Warm water droplets tumbled down his bare tan skin. His eyes watched the water pour from the spicket, down into the wooden bucket but he did not see it. Actually, he wasn't even registering his vision in his mind. Ritsuka had retreated deep inside of his head. Confusion held a tight grip on his brain. So, he'd had friends before hadn't he? Yamato was his friend, at least he thought so. He didn't like to think that Yamato could actually be talking to him to drill the same elegant tendencies in his brain that Mieko did. But why would Yamato waste her time like that? Yamato has a beautiful girl, sixteen years of age with an already promising career as a popular geisha. She was all the things he could not be. Outgoing, talkative. She could stand all the men and their subtle need for her. She knew just how to use her words in a witty dance to keep up a conversation, or to tell jokes and stories that made people laugh. Ritsuka couldn't stand that. He couldn't stand the false facade he needed to present to a room full of people just to keep up their interest in him.
Parties were fun, they were even nice. Only on occasion though. He never understood how these wealthy men with homes, lives, wives and children could stand going out every night drinking and chatting with geisha who they knew would never get close to them even if they wanted to. Yamato always told him, "These men come to escape from their daily lives. Maybe his wife is no longer attractive and his children have all moved away from home. A geisha can make him feel like he has renewed the spark of youth in him. A spark commonly put out by working day after day. Responsibility takes a lot out of men, and that is what we are here for. To put the life back into them." Ritsuka always knew since he was very young, that this was the kind of life perfectly suited for Yamato. Maybe one day he when he was older he would understand why all of that was important.
Soubi. Agatsuma Soubi ... He repeated the name in his head. If all these men knew they could never get close to a geisha then why was Soubi so persistent? And what about him did Soubi find so adorable? These questions had been bombarding his head lately. Every time he went to serve at a teahouse his heart thumped wildly when he would glance around the room, wondering if he was going to be entertaining Soubi that night. In a strange way his heart always sank when the older man wasn't there. He wasn't sure why. It ignited something inside of him, whenever Soubi asked him questions. Even simple things like, 'what is your favorite color?' or 'your favorite food?' Simple trivial things like that felt like it indulged his brain. Never before had he gotten to talk about himself to someone who was actually interested. Yamato never asked him those things.
Snapping out of it, Ritsuka gripped the overflowing bucket and dumped it onto his head washing away the soap that begun to sting at his eyes. He sat it back down under the spicket, and began scrubbing himself with soap. He hadn't noticed that over the past year his body matured greatly. The curve of his jaw seemed slightly more jagged, his chest a tiny bit broader. The reason he didn't know, but it didn't necessarily matter to him. As long as he was clean, and able to entertain is all that mattered if he wanted a roof over his head. Ritsuka took a deep breath, and poured the bucket of water over his body.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Natsuo's hair hung down, freely over his shoulders. He sat with his back against a wall, facing Youji. In the morning sunlight that cascaded through the window, Youji could swear Natsuo looked like an angel. "Hey, Natsuo why do you think we are how we are?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Why are we so inseparable? I wonder ... when that all started?"
Natsuo's eyes turned downcast to the floor. "Probably very early on. The first clear memory I have of you, I think we were about four years old then ... it was when Nagisa took us in. Do you remember that night?"
"The memory crystal clear, like it happened yesterday! Besides, how could I forget?" As he spoke the words, his voice lowered. It wasn't a pleasant memory for either of them.
"Youji? It's cold." A very young Natsuo pouted, his hair only around chin length then. His big bright eyes looked into Youji's. "I know, and I'm hungry..." The redhead nodded, "I'm hungry too." As soon as he finished speaking tears began to well in his eyes. They both sat, huddled together for warmth in an alleyway. The snow fell from the sky, blown on the wind. Arms wrapped around each other they shivered. Natsuo began whimpering. "No, no! If you cry I'm gonna cry too!" Youji watched as his counterpart began sucking in breaths, and finally began to sob. The mint haired child had tears brimming over his eyes, some gently escaped and slid down his cheeks. The cold and bitter air almost froze the salty trails to his face. A black man approached them, "what's wrong little ones?" Youji looked up, compared to him the man was very tall. "We're hungry, and it's cold." He held back the burning tears threatening to spill.
"Come with me then." He held out his hand, which seemed bony and witch-like. Youji's naivete slowly let go of Natsuo and he reached up to take the larger man's hand. Before he could blink the man's hands snapped out grabbing Youji's wrists, yanking him up to meet his eyes as if he were a doll. Youji's face frozen in fear, the tall man roughly sat him on the top of a trashcan. "Hey! What are you doing to Youji? Stoppit!" Natsuo sucked in his tears while his tiny fists beat against the man's legs.
"Brat, if you don't shut up I'll just kill him when I'm done." His strong leg reached out and kicked Natsuo in the chest, throwing him back against the ground. The stranger reached down grabbing a small empty glass bottle, and chucked it at Natsuo causing it to break over his right eye. The class had cut it, and Natsuo was screaming in agony. The man turned his attention back to Youji who now was sobbing, hiccupping occasionally from crying so hard. Paying no attention, the man grabbed the bottom hem of Youji's tattered shirt ripping it over his head and tossing it to the side. His hands shaky with anticipation began groping Youji in a place he was always told was sacred. A shrill voice rang in the night.
"Hey! What are you doing to that kid?!" A woman with wild pigtails screamed at him. The man fumbled off of Youji and he sped off running into the night. "Come back here pervert!" She attempted to run after him but stopped, turning her attention to the side. Youji was still shirtless on top of the trashcan. Thankfully his pants were still intact. He was crying so hard she had trouble getting to him, if she tried gently touching his shoulder to calm him down he only jerked back in fear. She picked up Natsuo who was struggling and screaming.
"I need to get you help quick! At least the both of you are lucky enough to still have your ears." While rushing the boys to a nearby doctor she observed them both noting that for a young age they had potential. "You're both staying with me, once you've healed."
"It was that night that Nagisa saved the both of us." Natsuo said, he smiled weakly trying to keep the mood light. Once Youji was down it was pretty hard to get him back to normal again.
"It's a good thing she did, I might not have been able to help you. Losing vision in one eye, well loosing it really renders one helpless..." His eyes wandered to the white eye patch Natsuo always had to wear.
"I'm not helpless now though. And I'm glad Nagisa came along." Natsuo closed the few feet of space between them by crawling on his hands and knees. He reached up feeling one of Youji's soft ears. "Or else, these beautiful ears wouldn't be mine for the taking." That ever present hint of mischief flickered more than ever in eyes.
That was one of the rare things that made Youji blush. If it had been anyone but Natsuo making a comment about taking his ears he would have gotten angry, but this was different. He laughed softly. "I wouldn't give them to anyone else." Natsuo's lips softly pressed against the one cat ear, and his nose nuzzled the soft fur. He let out a noise that sounded slightly like a purr. "Thank you."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"Wow! That's amazing, it's so pretty! Don't you think so too, Ritsuka?" Yuiko smiled a too bright smile, in her hand she held up a brightly colored flower.
Ritsuka had just met Yuiko, earlier that day. Now they were sitting on the side of a busy street. She was another strange person, like Soubi. She even had an odd hair color, an almost pink orange. Personality wise she was bubbly and giggly, to a point that baffled him. No matter what she constantly smiled. And again like Soubi, she asked him weird questions. It seemed like she was easily entertained. By the way she was dressed, he guessed she was a maid.
He nodded. "It's very pretty. But did you have to pluck it out of the ground? You took it away from it's home!"
Surprisingly her smile faded and she stared at the flower in sudden terror. "Oh no! I killed it." She frowned.
"Don't worry, there are plenty of other pretty flowers you haven't picked out of the ground. Ano, Yuiko? Do you belong to any okiya?"
"Yes, I do actually. But," she smiled sadly, "I'm only a maid. I wasn't skilled enough to handle things like shamisen playing or dancing. I'm too much of a klutz!"
Ritsuka gave her a reassuring face, "don't worry. I barely made it into being a geisha. I'm not bad at those things and I'm not clumsy, they're just things I don't really enjoy doing."
Yuiko gasped. "You're a real geisha?! That's so amazing, amazing!" Like a child, she began clapping.
Embarrassed, Ritsuka stopped her clapping by covering her hands with his. "Please, it's nothing big. And people are staring." Sure enough her excited banter had gained a few sideways glances.
"I'm sorry. But what is it like, to be one? It must feel so glamorous wearing makeup and those pretty hair ornaments. And especially the kimono! I bet you're even more pretty than the flower I killed when you're all dressed up."
Ritsuka laughed, he was dressed rather plainly in a cotton kimono and his hair down. "I wouldn't say that, even the butterflies are prettier than me."
"The butterflies?"
"Yeah. The only things pretty enough to drink from flowers. I saw one a few weeks ago."
Yuiko's brow knotted in confusion. "But it's almost fall, you saw a butterfly that late in the summer?"
"I was surprised too, but I did. He was the color of fire."
"He must have been amazing to see!"
Ritsuka nodded, "he really was."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"Greetings, Mieko." Soubi smiled at the middle aged woman through the front door.
"A-Agatsuma! What is a rich man like you doing here at my little okiya? If it's a request for Yamato, she's booked for the next few days." Suddenly she tried to straighten her kimono and patted at her hair, trying to look presentable.
He shook his head. "No, I'm not here requesting anything. And not anything about Yamato."
She tilted her head slightly in confusion, "oh? What are you here for then?"
Without invitation Soubi stepped in, closing the door. "More like an offer."
"What kind of offer?" Mieko was skilled in business language.
"I want to buy one of your geisha."
She was flabbergasted. Selling off your geisha wasn't a normal thing to do. "You want to buy one?! They aren't for sale!"
"Not even Ritsuka?"
She paused. It was clear, keeping Ritsuka was more trouble than what it was worth. "I don't think you have enough money."
"My dear," he learned forward to whisper in her ear, "I have far more than you can imagine."
Mieko's head battled with the completely unorthodox thought of up and selling one of her geisha, versus the spring of money that Soubi was offering her for troublesome Ritsuka. "Just why would a wealthy man like you want with him anyway? He isn't popular, he doesn't bring in any money or patrons. Practically a failure as a geisha."
"Even more reason to get him off of you're hands correct? And if you must know I've started my own okiya." He smiled. "I already have one maid, and now I need a few geisha."
Mieko's mind exploded. "You? Opened an okiya?!"
"Is that wrong?" He made a mock sad face, when Mieko had every right to be shocked. Men didn't own okiya.
Soubi dug into his pocket and handed her a small sum of yen bills. "This money is unrelated to Ritsuka. It's just something to make you think. I'll stop by again sometime, to get your answer." Opening the front door, he smiled, "Have a good day, Miss Mieko." And with that he closed the door behind him.
So now you know Natsuo and Youji's intensely disturbing past, and Soubi's completely insane way of breaking tradition. Please review nicely minna!
PREVIEW OF CHAPTER FOUR - September 28th, 2007
Ritsuka's eyes fluttered open, and he looked around slowly taking in his surroundings. Rememberance gripped him though and he remembered. Even through his makeup his blush was still visible. That's right, he had fallen asleep next to Soubi.