A/N: ScriptAngel, thank you for your review! I hope this update gives you the time to come out of your burrow and talk to me. -_-
My Mentalist fanfiction readers, I am sorry but the next update on The Angry Princess and the THief Who Stole Her Tiara won't be coming soon. I was going to abandon that story but my Muse says I must go on. We'll see.
Disclaimer: I do not own City Hunter or its characters.
SINCE I SAW HER STANDING THERE
Chapter: 6
'Here he comes'
Saki kept her focus on Onoda-san's movements as he stepped out of the bathing rooms and walked to the wardrobe in his towel. She heard him hum and saw him taking out a suit and a pre-knotted tie from the wardrobe.
'There!'
Onoda-san must have seen her squirrel-like expression because he looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Saki smiled and got up from the bed,
"Nothing"
"See anything you like?", he smirked.
Saki almost laughed,
"Don't flatter yourself"
She went into their common room, which also served as Onoda-san's study, to give him some privacy to change his clothes. Or wear some. She had been observing his daily activities and mentally taking notes. If he came into the study after putting on some clothes and took the newspaper Hina had laid on the table for him, her suppositions would be confirmed.
"Ready for breakfast?"
He came into the room and picked up the newspaper from the table. Saki muttered a 'darn' and shook her head.
"Are you alright?", he asked her.
She nodded,
"Yes. Let's go break our fast"
He really was a big invalid! She had hoped it weren't true. Even as they walked down the stairs together, Saki kept a vigil on Onoda-san's slightest actions. They reached the breakfast table and he took the seat next to Sakura, pulling her cheek as he did so. She winced and called him an idiot.
"Good morning, Auntie", Sakura smiled from across the table.
"Good morning, Saku-chan"
Two of the maids brought breakfast to the table and Onoda-san waited for them to serve him. He said 'Thank you' as they left.
'Why did he have to be like this?'
"Oji-chan?"
"Hm?"
"Why does Aunt Saki look so glum today?"
Saki sharply glanced up at that remark and saw Sakura and Onoda-san observing her. The latter said,
"I don't know. Why don't you make a guess?"
"Mm", Sakura said, "Maybe you two had a fight"
Saki assured her,
"We do not fight, Saku-chan"
"Maybe you are angry with Oji-chan"
Onoda-san asked his niece,
"Why do you suppose that I have to be involved when there is a change in your aunt's temperament?"
Sakura shrugged and ate a chunk of food,
"You are the only annoying thing in her life. Everything else is pretty constant"
Saki and Sakura shared a chuckle as Onoda-san eyed them both with amusement. He said,
"Ask your aunt what's bothering her"
"What's bothering you?", Sakura promptly asked.
Saki lied,
"Nothing"
Sakura frowned,
"Then why do you keep peeking at Oji-chan for every bite you take?"
Water washed down a rising cough in Saki's throat. She found Onoda-san smiling at her but talking to Sakura,
"Is that true?"
Saki narrowed her eyes at him,
"No, it isn't"
Sakura teased her,
"We were just taught in grammar yesterday that two negatives in the same sentence make it a positive"
"That is not true!"
Sakura high-five'd Onoda-san and pushed her chair back,
"Sorry, Auntie, but Oji-chan said he'd give me a 1000 yen every time I made you blush"
It was Onoda-san's turn to almost choke and wash it down with a glass of water. Saki asked in a warning tone,
"Did he?"
Sakura grinned,
"Yep!"
She patted her uncle on the shoulder,
"I will be in the car. Enjoy your breakfast"
Saki twisted her lips into a weird yet cute pout to make sure she didn't smile at her husband. Onoda-san said, looking absolutely guilty and cornered,
"I was just trying to teach her basic economics"
"Is that so?"
"It's nothing really"
"We'll see about that when you get home"
Onoda-san wiped his mouth against the napkin and said to a maid coming in with a jug of water,
"Get me the black briefcase from my study, Sana"
"Yes, Sir"
'There he goes again'
Saki stood at the door with Onoda-san as he was about to leave for work. He said to her,
"The evening batch today?"
"No", Saki explained, "It was their last day yesterday. Today, I only have three batches in the afternoon. Then they are going to assign me another evening batch for a month"
"I see. Well, I am off and I will be late for dinner today. Don't wait up like last night"
She nodded but knew that the night would have her falling asleep on the couch in his study as she waited for him to come home.
"And", Onoda-san's teeth showed themselves in a sigh as he looked up at the ceiling and then at his wife, "It is really fun to see you blush"
"Is it?", Saki raised her eyebrows.
Onoda-san said,
"The pink goes nicely with your black hair and white skin"
"Go to work!"
He grinned as she pushed him out of the doors. Sakura poked her head out of the car window and called,
"Oji-chan, stop flirting already! I am going to be late for my practice!"
Saki waved at her and said to him,
"You heard her"
She felt like touching her hair and giggling on seeing him smile like that. She soon checked herself and repeated the words in her head: Invalid! Big baby!
Over the course of three months of being married to Onoda-san, Saki had come to an unpleasant conclusion. It was that Onoda-san was extremely dependent on his servants. She had always recognized self-reliance and independence as two of the most respectable virtues a person could possess. Hideyuki had possessed them; she did too. Granted that Onoda-san was a busy man and time was a luxury for him, but this was too much. The man required his ties to be knotted beforehand and hung in the wardrobe! Saki believed she had to break him off these bad habits, that it was part of her duties towards him as a spouse to do so. The opportunity presented itself to her two days later when Onoda-san walked out of the bathroom after his bath. Saki was reading an old novel in bed and peeked over the paperback as Onoda-san got his work clothes out. He laid the suit and the shirt on the bed, and stood looking at the wardrobe for a few seconds. Saki saw him pick the shirt and the trousers and storm into his study. When she was about to immerse herself in the novel again, she heard Onoda-san yelling at the top of his voice –
"FUTABA!"
Saki rushed into the study, hoping that Onoda-san had not called for a servant while he was wearing only a towel. She was wrong. He was buttoning the light pink shirt she had bought for him after the wedding and looking at the door with impatient eyes. Futaba panted on reaching the door of the study; he must have run all the way up. He was panting and shaking at the same time.
"Y-yes, Sir?"
"Where the hell are my ties?", Onoda-san grunted.
Futaba turned pale,
"I had s-some of them ironed yesterday, Sir-sir"
At this, Onoda-san's expression and voice turned fiercer.
"Yes. I saw them rolled up in little pretty bundles I could shove up your ass"
Sweat poured over Futaba's face and he stammered even worse,
"I-I-I am-m truly sorry, Sir. I forgot to..."
"Your forgetfulness is going to cost me some big money if I waste my time fucking with ties. You have one job to do for me and you can't even do that. Now get in there and bring me my dark blue checkered tie the way I should have found it a moment ago"
Futaba bowed and scuffled past Saki into her bedroom and appeared minutes later with the said tie, knotted as poor Futaba's own face.
"Get out", Onoda-san said to him.
Once Futaba was gone, Onoda-san walked past Saki into their bedroom, saying,
"I am sorry you had to see that"
Saki walked into the room and watched him with her mouth agape while he put his tie on and the coat as well. She said,
"You should be sorry that you treated Futaba like that"
He said without looking away from the mirror,
"He knew that I had to go to work early today, which is why I asked Hisame to not cook my share of the breakfast this morning"
"You were so mean to him!"
"Miss Saki..."
"No", Saki frowned and advanced towards him, "This is not acceptable. You almost gave the poor fellow a stroke! He might be working for you but you can't treat people like that. And over what? Something as trivial as a tie? It takes two minutes to tie a knot. Good God. I never realized you were so utterly handicapped, Mr. Onoda"
He shamefacedly listened to every word she said. Saki was disappointed that someone she adored should be so verbally abusive towards others, and so dependent on them. When she was done scolding him, Onoda-san quietly left the room with a folder tucked under his arm and walked down the stairs.
"No breakfast today, boy?"
Saki's stepmother-in-law had come out of her bedroom in a silk night gown which was too tight for her puffy, little figure. Onoda-san said,
"I have a meeting in a while. Have a good day, Mother"
"You too, boy"
Saki was standing against the wooden railing of the first floor as Onoda-san looked back at her from the doorstep. She understood he wanted her to see him off, but she wouldn't. He left and Madam Onoda looked up at Saki, who eased her stern expression and quickly began to walk down the stairs,
"Good morning, Mother"
Madam Onoda slammed the door to her room from within in reply. Saki turned meek and walked back to her room to prepare for work.
Standing in the train, teaching a class, walking back to the Onoda Estate – Saki Makimura kept going over her skirmish with Onoda-san in the morning.
'Maybe I was too harsh on him. On second thought, that must have made him realise how Futaba felt'
She was strolling into the mansion by herself. Sakura and Hikoro were watching TV. Aimi and Tadashi were gone to a funeral. Madam Onoda was gone God knew where she went to. The servants were too busy to indulge in a conversation; not that they wouldn't have, had new Mrs. Onoda said a word to them.
'Why does he have to be like this?'
She arrived into the laundry room while wandering, and was greeted by Mona loading the washing machine and by Futaba scrubbing some sports shoes.
"Whose shoes are these?", she asked.
Futaba said,
"Onoda-sama's, Madam"
"Oh"
Tadashi had revealed to her that before coming home, Onoda-san did an evening workout at the office gym. Saki had been satisfied with the fruits of his labor, judging from what she saw every morning as he walked to the wardrobe in his towel. His gym shoes were peculiar though.
"Why don't his shoes have laces on them?"
Futaba replied,
"I don't know, Madam. None of his shoes have laces"
Unknown to her, that fact registered itself in Saki's mind. She was unaware of its significance when she said,
"Futaba?"
"Yes, Madam?"
"I hope you didn't take Onoda-san's scolding too much to heart"
"Oh no, not at all, Madam", Futaba smiled, "Onoda-sama apologized to me before leaving for work"
"When?"
"When I was talking with Bora, one of the gardeners. Onoda-sama is very kind, though it doesn't seem so. Of course, Madam already knows that. Silly me"
Madam didn't. Madam had called him 'handicapped'.
They were having dinner that evening without Onoda-san. Tadashi had informed Saki that his brother had to tag along with the company's American guests to dinner.
"Normally, I do the socializing but those Americans were pretty taken with Oniisan, especially that beautiful blonde lady, Miss Julia"
Saki smiled at the twinkle of mischief in Tadashi's eyes but did not reply. Aimi did it for her.
"Oniisama would never cheat on her. Saki, don't you listen to him"
Tadashi shrugged his shoulders.
"I was just saying, you know. She saw that Oniisan had written a 'b' instead of a 'p'. When he apologized for that, she gave a little feminine giggle and said it was 'heck darn adorable'. What I don't get is - why did Oniisan not call in Shouta today? There was..."
Onoda-san and his alphabet. She had known it for years that he often wrote a few of them upside down. And she had learned the same day that his shoes never had any laces, that he was furious because a servant was negligent enough to not tie His Highness' knots.
"Tadashi, we don't talk about Tsuyoshi's affliction, don't you remember?"
Saki looked at Madam Onoda delicately forking a small morsel and putting it in her painted mouth. Aimi nudged her husband,
"What affliction?"
"It's not an affliction, Mom", Tadashi said, somewhat irritated, and answered Aimi, "His dyslexia"
Saki perceived a vacuum in her body and had to expel a sharp rush of breath. She put her fork down and asked,
"He is dyslexic?"
Madam Onoda said,
"Oh dear. It's a shame you did not know something so important about your own husband. You should have spent more time getting to know him better, shouldn't you have, girl?"
Saki was too dumbfounded to observe the scornful looks Aimi and Tadashi threw at Madam Onoda. How could she not have seen it?! His alphabet, why he needed his ties to be pre-knotted, and his shoes did not have laces because he couldn't tie them! She had been an unobservant fool. On top of it all, she had scolded him that very day about his ties.
'Why, oh why... and I called him an invalid adult'
Sakura asked,
"What's dyslexia, Mom?"
Before Aimi could answer her daughter, Saki mumbled out,
"He never told me"
Madam Onoda rolled her eyes and tried to finish her meal. Saki asked Tadashi,
"Why did he not tell me?"
He came up with the best possible answer,
"Well, Oniisan has always been made to feel like it was a handicap. The nuns at his school gave him a really hard time about it. So did everyone"
Madam Onoda said,
"I believe that Tsuyoshi's condition actually empowered him to fight against the odds and shine as he does in everything he undertakes. Seriously, could you imagine a mentally deformed child accomplishing so much at a..."
"For God's sakes, Mom, he is not mentally deformed!"
"Thank you for the meal"
Saki pushed her chair back and briskly walked out of the room. She heard Madam Onoda's voice receding behind her,
"Did you see that? She's upset because her husband is a dyslexic"
'I AM UPSET BECAUSE I SCOLDED HIM OVER SOMETHING HE CAN'T CONTROL!'