Chapter 3
Yesterday had been a complete disaster. As he awakened in the morning and showered he couldn't help but think today would be good. His sour mood had left him with the morning light. Not a single thought of Lory's new section had entered his mind. His coffee had tasted exceptionally good. He had managed to avoid traffic. His manager was waiting for him when he picked him up. His meeting with Director Shingai had gone exceptionally well. His photo-shoot had gone smoothly and his interview at Fuji TV stayed professionally oriented.
As he was walking to his dressing room to let Yashiro know they were done for the day, he saw the glimmer of a little gold coin on the floor before him. What is this? He pondered as he knelt down and picked it up. He held it up to the fluorescent light and noted the face of a female that decorated one side and the strange little symbols on the other. The coin itself was only the size of an American dime. Curious...He smiled to himself and tumbled the little coin across the back of his hand, flipped it and placed it in the pocket of his jacket closest to his heart.
Finally, he arrived to his empty apartment after delivering his manager to his home. He removed his shoes, tossed his jacket over the back of the sofa and made his way to the kitchen with hunger gnawing at his stomach as it hadn't in quite some time. He opened the refrigerator and drank orange juice directly from the carton as the soft light bathed him in the twilight of the evening. He pulled a half full takeout container opened it and sniffed. He judged it safe to eat and heated it in the microwave, silently pondering how well his day had went, it was better than it had been in a while. Yet something was still a little off about his day and he couldn't pinpoint the source of his unease. Something was missing. He brushed it off and took his dinner from the microwave, grabbed a fork and his carton of orange juice and placed everything on the coffee table in front of his television. He switched it on out of habit to break the deadening silence of his empty apartment and sat down to enjoy the meager repast. While mindlessly taking his first few bites he noticed the glint of the small coin that had fallen from his coat. He leaned in its direction, plucked the coin from where it had fallen, reached up and twisted on the lamp next to his sofa then examined the small coin in the light of his living room.
In the dim lights of his lonely apartment, in the hours of the evening his heart was making a wish that his mind had not yet grasped. An impulse to place a gentle kiss on the face of the female side of the small coin flooded his mind and he obliged. In that moment a tiny pulse of electricity traveled from his lips and spread throughout his body. Before the world faded around him, he heard the soft sigh of a female and what felt like the gentle touch of delicate fingers caress through his hair just after his eyes had closed.
She knelt before the interesting young human male and watched for a few hours out of curiosity. She couldn't fight the impulse to gently rake her fingers through his soft dyed locks. "Hmm... I wonder." She murmured as her magical fingers gently stripped the dye to reveal the diamond shaded strands. Her golden eyes widened. "Why do you hide it, young one?" She whispered. She caressed the sharp masculine lines of his jaw. "Share with me..." She murmured softly into his ear. He mumbled something in his sleep and in a shower of gold, the raven-haired Djinni entered his dreams.
At the end of a dark hall she found the door leading into what seemed as an endless expanse of darkness, thick and black. It reminded her of the prison that she had recently been freed from. In the center of that darkness sat the green-eyed, blond that had allowed her entrance into his dreams. Cold, quiet and alone, sitting on the ground with the darkness pressing in around him with only a tiny light emitting from a small blue stone he held in his palm.
She sat directly before him and looked up at him then at the stone. "Oh my... That is a very powerful healing stone that you possess. You are very lucky to find one, those were once very rare." She told him.
Kuon looked up at the small, beautiful, unusual young woman clad only in gold jewelry pieces in surprise. "Who... Who are you? Where are we?" He looked away from her bare skin and blushed. He'd never had a dream this vivid of a unknown naked woman.
"My name would be difficult for you to know but you may address me as Kyoko... And what is thy name young one?" Her voice was soft and inviting, body distracting.
He looked at her a little confused. "My name is Kuon... You speak strangely." He told her.
"Corn?" She asked innocently.
He chuckled at how cutely his name was mangled by her. He smiled. "No...it's Kuon... Ku-on..."
"Ku-on... Kuon..." She murmured to herself then looked up at him again and clapped. "Kuon! Thy name is Kuon!"
He reached out to touch her soft silky looking skin.
She gasped. "Oh! I have forgotten myself. I do not wish to offend you with my form. Forgive me." She quickly stood, twirled around and in a whirlwind of dazzling purple she was clad in silk the same color as his stone with her face hidden by a thin veil, only revealing her perfectly lined, beautiful golden eyes and long thick black lashes.
He murmured something as his eyes fell discontentedly to the ground.
"Forgive me... Did you say something?" Her voice rang musically and echoed in his mind.
"I... I said that I really don't mind." He looked up at her and she saw a look that was familiar to her but never acted upon. "You are quite beautiful to look at."
She chose to ignore the compliment. "Are you imprisoned here as was I for many years?" She waved her hand around them and colorful silk cushions, not unlike Lory's, surrounded them. She waved her hand again and two, jewel encrusted goblets and an earthen jug filled with wine appeared before her. She poured and offered. She waved her hand again casually and a platter filled with various fruits appeared between them.
He took the offered cup and they both lounged back on the cushions and began to enjoy the perfectly sweet wine and the fresh fruits. They were impressive. They were the best he'd ever tasted. "It's all very good." He commented with awe. "So... Why are you here?" He asked after taking another sip of the wine.
"Ahhhh..." She sighed and nibbled on a fig. "I suppose to learn. I have spent most of my existence catering to the whims of shallow mortals and I would like to learn what drives them. I have seen them love, like, grow sorrowful and hate. Thus far I have only felt a few of these emotions and only just recently." She explained as she took another sip of her wine and leaned back into the soft cushions holding a cluster of grapes.
He looked on in interest. "So... What have you learned about so far?" He asked out of curiosity.
She tapped her slender, well manicured index finger on her blood red, plump lower lip. "I suppose I felt what you would call happiness or, elation when I was released. Perhaps hatred or, dislike for my former master... He was a spoiled, selfish child, but he was loved by his father... My master before him." She pondered. "I'm sure there are many others I've yet to experience."
His brow furrowed in thought. "So, what would you be, in order to never experience human emotions until recently?"
She giggled. "Oh! I suppose that is what you would refer to as amusement." She beamed.
He looked at her in confusion.
"My apologies, as I said I am still learning. To answer your question, I suppose I should use the term your great king, my enslaver used. I am of the Djinn. We are an ancient race that lived side by side with humans until he decided we were too powerful to roam freely as we had been for millennia." She revealed.
Through the night, in his dream they talked. They exchanged stories although, hers were far more interesting than his and infinitely more ancient, but enjoyable nonetheless. At the end of their time as the sun began to rise in the east she sat up and brought their time together to an end.
"Are you leaving?" He asked not wanting to let her go. She had been the first person that he had spoken so freely to in so very long.
She smiled sweetly to him. "Not to worry, we will meet again. For now though, your servant has come to fetch you." Her mastery of the modern language had improved greatly since last night. She crawled to him, reminding him of a feline and sat before him, took his face in her palms and kissed him sweetly on the lips, stood then began to walk away.
He scrambled to catch her before she disappeared. "Wait! I... I want you to have this." He removed the small stone he had been holding, from his pocket and presented it to her. "So you won't forget me."
His gesture was not taken lightly. No one had ever given her anything in her long life. She looked at him and then at the small stone he had placed in her hand and closed her fingers around. "But... But it is yours. It is special to you."
"And you are special to me." He said softly to the woman he had just spent several hours just talking to.
"Thank you." She whispered and in a shower of glittering silver and gold she was gone. She turned to the sleeping man on the floor and returned his hair from its natural state to how he had dyed it. "There..." She kissed his lips to hide her memory and returned to her home in the coin.
"Ren!... Ren! Wake up, you're going to be late!" Yashiro Yukihito shook his client from his deep sleep.
Ren awakened with a heavenly smile firmly cemented on his lips. He wasn't sure why or, how but this was the best he had felt in years. He tried to remember the dream he had as he slept on his living room floor with the small coin in his hand, but only a pair of enchanting golden eyes peered at him in the fog of his mind. He firmly kept the small coin in his grip, sat up and nodded. "Sorry Yashiro-san. I'll hurry." He stood and left for his room.
Once in the privacy of his bedroom, he opened his palm and stared at the coin. There was something special about it. He vowed to himself to keep it unharmed. He opened his small hidden floor safe and placed it inside with his jewelry and important documents. He closed the safe, locked it and finally prepared for his day.