Pomegranate 4:
Asphodel
3 AM. Politicians dozed on cushions, leaning against walls. The housemaid, Aiko, scurried around on her knees with a tray of cold water and a pot of coffee, half the time refused. Some were still listening, however. Scribbled-on sheets of paper lay in heaps around the carpet, interspersed with sleepy junior councilmembers and assistants. They rubbed gound from their eyes, blinking blearily to pay attention.
Kiyosato-san was still talking.
His voice was mostly gone. But it was imperative that they all know what was going on, that they all see the greater picture and be prepared to act in concert...
The crime bill was going to pass. It was legislation that could actually make a difference and Kiyosato Akira was going to push it through and see it working if he had to strain to his last breath to make it happen.
He looked to the back of the room and met her eyes.
Tomoe was tired as well. Her hair, slightly dissheveled, feathered around her face and head. She...sprawled, almost, sitting up, her long legs bent at angles instead of neatly arranged beneath her torso. The time had passed midnight before she had relaxed her prim, rigid posture.
But Kiyosato was staring at her again. For a second, just moments, she drank in the sensation of watching him, looking into those eyes, dark in the mild light, feeling as though there were no one else in the room and they had things to tell each other. But then she looked down, made an effort to smooth out her skirt, sit up a little straighter. She was certain her notes hadn't suffered from her drowsiness--nothing sloppy or relaxed about those. She wanted to show him... his every word, every intimation, all jotted down and organized in her precise, legible shorthand, no difference in handwriting from the first page to the last. She hadn't missed a single detail of the plan, even though phrases and meanings and ideas ebbed and flowed and sometimes poured out of him, changed from one thing to another in flashes as he tried to express what he wanted to do. No, her notes were impeccable, though she could only imagine how she must look.
"Miss Yukishiro." She must have been more tired than she thought because she hadn't seen him get up and move closer to her, stand over her and murmur, with his hand stretched out. "Forgive me. This has gone on very late, and it's so far beyond your required duty. Please allow me to take you home."
Once more, she rebelled at the kindness, the softness in his gaze. He looked at her as though he would protect her, save her, but couldn't he see she had no need of love, had no comprehension of it?
Somewhere through her muddled thoughts, a response came, pulled itself out of her as she took his hand and he pulled her up. "No, Kiyosato-san, I'm perfectly fine. I want to stay until the meeting is over. I think you'll find, I've taken quite comprehensive notes."
"Miss Yukishiro." His hand was cool in hers, his grip firm, insistent. She imagined she could feel his low voice moving the air between them. "The meeting is over."
Oh. She felt giddy and exhausted. She felt a fool and beyond wisdom. She noticed that he hadn't let go her hand and was bending over, hiding his face, bowing, an odd mixture of eastern and western custom.
"Perhaps... It might be easier... I have spare rooms... Perhaps you'd like to sleep here and in the morning my driver could take you home."
And because she could not fathom that he had anything other than pure intentions, and because she was so tired, and because it seemed right to do as he asked, to sleep in his house, she pulled her hand from his grasp, and when he looked up, nodded her assent.
*~*~*
The phone next to her bed destroyed Kaoru's deepest sleep. It slaughtered it. Growling and seething, grimacing in the beyond-darkness, she smacked the offending object until the receiver tumbled onto her leg.
She retrieved it. "GNNNNNNH." Which translated into: You'd better have a damn good reason for waking me up.
A whispery, inhuman voice came from the region of her jaw. Kaoru frowned, deciding to hang up before she realized she was holding the thing upside-down.
"...aoru?"
"Nnh."
"Kaoru. It's Nichi." His said his name with such... heaviness. Sounded so... empty and sad. It frightened her.
"Nichi? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Sitting up now, aware of the phone and Nichi's soft breathing and actually able to construct complete sentences. She waited with the calm her father had taught her in case of an emergency.
"No. At least... I don't think so. ...Tomoe hasn't come home yet."
Kaoru glanced at her bedside clock. 3:45 Her breath caught. From what she knew of Tomoe, it wasn't like the woman to stay out late at night, not at all.
"Did you call the police?"
"No, but-"
"I'll get my father."
"Kaoru, NO. Wait."
Slowly, she sat back down on her bed, one foot already in a fuzzy slipper, her free hand clutching her robe.
"Tomoe was home, earlier. She said she had a meeting to go to. She didn't know how long it would last. Past midnight, maybe." He sounded strong, certain. He sounded in control and not panicked at all and she wondered how much he kept inside. "She said... not to worry. She would be back before I went to school."
"So you think she was planning..."
"No, it's just like her. She always accounts for every possibility, and she's always home, even if she says she'll be late, it's never... this late." There it was, the seeping-in of hysteria. Kaoru sighed.
"Are you worried about her?"
"...I... don't know. She always... Tomoe can always take care of herself. Not physically. But... she's always so cautious. She always knows what she's getting into." Kaoru leaned back against her headboard and closed her eyes. Half of her mind was listening to Nichi and the other half was planning on telling her father that Tomoe was missing. No matter what Nichi said now, it wasn't like her to disappear like this, not so late at night.
"It's just... she used to talk to me, before. She used to tell me everything." She could hear him crying--she could hear Nichi crying, just tiny sniffles in the middle of his phrases, not enough to distract him. "...Not, like, important stuff, just whatever was going on in her classes or her job... Now she doesn't... she's so distracted all the time."
He had reccovered now. She could imagine him wiping the tears from his eyes, from his cheeks, barely acknowledging them.
"And it doesn't... matter... with most people. I don't care... Kaoru, you could break my heart, but I wouldn't... I would get over it." Did he notice his confession? Did he even think of what he said? "But Tomoe... After Mom and Dad died... She's all I have."
She's the only thing I've learned to count on and I don't know what would happen if I lost her.
"Nichi... Do you want me to talk to my father? He can have people looking for her, right now. He'll go out himself." Her heart was thumping in her chest; Kaoru wanted action. She wanted to go to Nichi's apartment and fix him tea and wrap something warm around him and wait with him for Tomoe.
"No, it's... it's all right. She told me she'd be out. She would be unhappy if I worried... I'm sure she's fine. She'll be back before I leave for school; that's what she told me."
So easily swayed... Kaoru could see, now, Tomoe talking in her quiet, even voice--she would be out very late, all night, and you had to trust her because she was Tomoe. Nichi's emotions... but then she only knew Tomoe through Nichi's descriptions... and the few times she had picked up the phone at Nichi's place, his sister's placid voice floating into Kaoru's ear. Tomoe would be fine. Tomoe knew what she was doing. Some kind of politician thing, no doubt. "Nichi, do you want me to come over and wait with you? I can. I can ride my bike."
A short laugh, nothing but mirth in true Nichi fashion. "Kaoru, I live miles away from you. No. Don't worry. I'll call you in the morning to tell you she came home."
Another sigh. Two hours until her alarm would go off... "All right, Nichi. But call me again if you need anything, or if you get worried."
"Sure, Kaoru. And... thanks."
He should know... She wanted him to know this... "Any time."
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Author's Notes:
Nope, we're not at the Acheron yet. I hope we get there. This story seems to be meandering every which way. :-{
Ah well. Perhaps it will all turn out... some sort of way in the end.
HA ha ha... the end....
Respondens ad responsa. (dear god that was probably horrible. i haven't tried to do latin in ~months~)
Enishi/Kaoru... yes yes yes... I'm a K/K person at heart, but E/K ~certainly~ has just about as much meat to it. I sincerely believe a relationship between them would work, which might be why I like it together with K/K. It adds spice to life. :} Kenshin with his mega-ego (humility my ass) can certainly use some competition. And poor Enishi... I just wanna hug him. Which is probably why I'm not an E/K person - no one is good enough for Enichi!!!! He is doomed to loneliness and suffering that make him just that much more adorable.... *-* ahem... yeah...
Uhmm.... Void wastes yet even MORE hours of her life fooling with Photoshop:
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And to anybody reading Yuki Onna: Chapter 2's gonna get a MAJOR rewrite, and I'm thinkin' about future chapters, so expect updates.... soon. ;}
And, uh, coz I FEEL like writing more here:
"Recess" by Muse
Resuscitate
In my sleep
Awake to see
You're never here
But the losing yields
Another year
Facing hopes and fears
And I wish
I could believe there was more
Hopes suffocating
You've kissed my life
And the planes and trains
Are to blame
For tempting us
To refrain
And to cut the chord
Dis every word
Of the truths absurd
And I wish
I could believe there was more
Hopes suffocating
You've kissed my life
Hopes suffocating
Hopes suffocating
Hopes suffocating
And you've kissed my life
I think it's rather Tomoe-ish :}