Scenes from Shibuya
Disclaimer: The characters of Ghost Hunt do not belong to me and are the property of their respective creators.
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5. Entendre
Sleep is a many splendored thing. There is a beauty to lying supine on a down-soft mattress, enveloped in clean white sheets and a liberating of the mind and body from the strictures of daily living. And the best part comes last. Waking up, the slow flickering of eyelids, the adjustment to conscious sensations of colour and sound and warmth, the scent of feminine skin…
Wait. Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon –
He had somehow fallen asleep with the book over his head. Something warm beside him wriggled under the sheets and then muttered fretfully. Peeling back a corner of the sheet, he stared down at her sun-kissed hair, the tips bronze-highlighted in the ray of light poking in through her curtains. How had he gotten into her bed? They were both mercifully still more or less dressed, though he'd discarded his jacket and both of his socks were lying in an untidy mound in the middle of the floor. His mouth was dry. As he moved, his foot connected with cool glass, which rolled with a soft clink to the floor. He picked it up blearily. Wine. They'd emptied it out between the two of them, along with whatever sobriety they had the night before. And the legal drinking age in Japan was twenty-one. His lips cracked painfully when he quirked a smile.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief…
Her eyes narrowed at that. "What does it mean?"
"It means he loves her."
"Don't be stupid. I know how to say 'love' in English."
"It's metaphorical."
Her nose wrinkles. "Really."
"Do you want me to read it or not?"
"Okay, okay. I was just checking," she huffed.
"I'll translate if it'll give you a better appreciation of how difficult it is to say all these lines with a straight face."
Mai chuckled before snuggling closer. "Okay, genius. Get this right and I'll consider not calling you an idiot scientist anymore."
He pretended to consider for a moment but all she does is smile enticingly. He never could resist an open challenge.
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green…
"Ahahahaha"
"Is it so funny? And I thought you'll appreciate a little poetry since we couldn't make the real play."
"Iit reminds me of Masako." He rolled his eyes. "Jealousy is a green eyed monster."
"I don't remember that line."
"I'm surprised you remember anything at all. In any case, it's from another play."
"Geez. I'm a good deal smarter than I look alright?"
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
Mai nodded wisely. "Yup." He looked at the next two lines and then stopped. She nudged him, grinning irritatingly. "I want to hear you say that," she said, pointing at the particular word. He sighed.
It is my lady, O, it is my love.
O, that she knew she were.
He said it very quickly and unrhythmically and in English. Mai frowns before draining her wine. "He were," she corrects, confirming his suspicions that she'd been secretly improving her dismal grasp of the language.
"These are Romeo's lines," he said when she leaned her head on him drunkenly.
"I always knew I was in love with you," she said sleepily. "Even when – even when you didn't…"
He stroked her hair affectionately.
She speaks yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses…
Equally drunk, he leaned down, burying his nose in her honey scented hair, "and I will answer it..."
He flipped idly through the rest of the book, reading a passage here and another there as he reflected that it was just as well his legal guardian was out of the country at the moment. That man, he could swear, possessed an inner radar for misappropriate behaviour. Slow minutes passed, as he sat companionably next to her. A bird landed on the rain-spotted window ledge, fluttering away as soon as her landlady's cat pounced after it with a heavy thump. Giving up, it peered incuriously at him before squeezing back onto the fire escape.
Mai yawned and rolled over. "Ugh," she groaned and then blinked at him.
"About time you're up," he stated. She continued to stare at him and then suddenly, with a shriek, bolted out of the bed.
"We didn't do anything."
It was meant to be reassuring but she only turned as red as the wine they'd consumed.
"Who-who said I did anything?" she mumbled suspiciously at his smirk before wincing. "I think I've a hangover."
"I'll get you a glass of water," he offered. She sat back down on her side of the narrow bed despondently. "How come you don't have one?"
"It's one of my talents."
"No it isn't," she griped before flopping over. It took him awhile to navigate her kitchenette and when he came back in later, he found her lying on her stomach. Mai was watching the light play on her fingers as she swung her legs casually, unconsciously, not having noticed his return. He smiled, knowing she wouldn't catch him at it. Arise fair sun.
A/N: The other play referenced in this chapter is Othello. I doubt I need to say whom it's by. heh heh. ^^ Hope you enjoyed it and it wasn't too OOC.