Chapter 31 - Forced Zipper

Yuki had read, once or twice, about a thing called love at first sight. Some literary thing where, supposedly, the world stopped—or began spinning, it varied from book to book, story to story—when you first laid eyes on the person you were going to spend the rest of your life with.

When he first laid eyes on Hakaza Kou, Yuki began to wonder if such a thing as hate at first sight existed. Because the world sure felt like it was spinning, but his head was throbbing with anger as soon as the boy made himself known.

The Hakaza clan had arrived in the evening, and Yuki had gone with Nobuhiro and Boss Tensho to greet them. Kiine and Lady Mikan were there, as well, standing opposite of all the men in the hall, dressed in their best kimonos.

Kiine had not asked for Yuki's help in getting her prepared, and he had not volunteered his services. She hated him. He didn't want to make her suffer any more. Though some part of him wanted her to call him to her, so she could yell at him, hurt him, make him pay for all the pain he had caused her. He certainly deserved to suffer. She didn't.

(He thought she looked absolutely lovely, though. Even with her beloved hair cut short, they still managed to shape it and comb it into a beautiful style that suited her.)

Hakaza Shin was a very pale man made of sharp angles, cheekbones like Nobuhiro's and sharp yellow eyes and slicked-back black hair. He was dressed in blacks and whites, and his shoulders were very broad.

"Boss Tensho! Thank you for receiving us on such short notice!" He bowed, first, and then shook Boss Tensho's hand. His nails were well cared-for. "Really, I can't thank you enough."

"Well, you were the one that came up with the idea," Boss Tensho said, and both of them laughed. "I just agreed with you, that this meeting should occur sooner, instead've later."

"Oh, yes," Boss Shin said. "Much better, sooner."

There was a moment of silence, sacrificed so that neither of them would say anything about Kiine's disappearance, which was what the meeting had been about in the first place. Hurry up the engagement, before something else could happen.

"Now where is that fantastic girl of yours?" Boss Shin finally said, clapping his thin hands together. "It's been forever since I've seen her."

"Kiine," Boss Tensho said. Mikan had been holding Kiine's hand, but Kiine pulled away from it to bow to both of the men.

"Boss Shin," she said. Her voice was clipped and falsely perky. Yuki could feel her annoyance, and it stabbed him in the gut. He tried to keep his eyes off of her, keeping his hands on his sword.

"Ah! As pretty as your mother," Boss Shin said.

"Oh, come on," Mikan said. Her impeccably-painted lips, a shiny red, curled into a smile, her round cheeks blushing just the right amount.

(Mostly because there was absolutely no reason for anyone to believe that Kiine resembled either her, or Tensho.)

(Then again, people always made assumptions.)

Boss Shin then gestured behind him, and a very young boy was pushed forward. He had blue hair that curled inward and toward his potato-shaped nose, and he wore a sheepish expression and well-made clothes of grey and blue.

"My son, Kou," Boss Shin said, almost clearing his throat in the middle of his words.

"A pleasure to meet you all…" Kou said. His voice was very quiet, lessening in volume with every word.

Kou had a round face, and if Yuki had not been told otherwise, he would have mistaken the boy for maybe only eleven or twelve, even though he was almost Kiine's age. His eyes were a clear, glassy yellow, like his father's, but they were round instead of sharp, and they still didn't suit his face; they looked like marbles shoved into a wad of clay, or dough.

Hate at first sight. Yuki glanced sideways and he could see Kiine breathing through her nose as she tried not to look at him.

(What he didn't notice was that Kou was trying just as hard not to look at her, either.)

Boss Tensho then invited them in, father and son and associates, for dinner. "Excellent timing, we just finished getting the dining room ready."

"I can't wait," Boss Shin replied. They walked, side-by-side, together, flanked by their bodyguards. Mikan followed—Shin had no wife, Yuki didn't know why. And Kiine and Kou came behind them, and then Yuki, and Kou's bodyguard, a much larger man with an eye-patch that sneered at Yuki, once, as if to say "Are you kidding me?" and paid him no other mind.

Yuki sat behind Kiine in the dining room, as usual. And Kou sat beside her. Not as usual.

He began thinking of something she'd told him, on that night when she had poured out everything to him, all of her hatred and fear about the situation. "I'm sure he's a totally nice guy," she had said. "As nice as guys can be with dads like his and mine, anyway."

(Strange, how Yuki had once been willing to give Kou the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was at least a decent person. For some reason, it seemed so much more difficult to feel that way, now. Not after what had happened.)

The kitchen had gone above and beyond in creating an excellent feast for the first night of the Hakaza clan's stay. Meat dishes, vegetables, soups, served in beautifully-crafted courses. The Taki clan had an excellent kitchen, after all. They could afford the best.

A toast was raised during the second course, by Boss Tensho. He sat beside Boss Shin, like an equal, at the head of the vast dining room, Taki clansmen and Hakaza clansmen lined up, sitting on the floor, backs to the wall. "To the union of our two families!" he said.

"Here here!" Boss Shin replied, and the two of them clinked their sake cups, and drank to their families' good fortune, and so did everyone else.

Yuki just thought of Kiine as he sipped gingerly at his small cup of sake. "I can't help but feel like I'm nothing but a bargaining chip to them," she had said.

He didn't have much of an appetite, that evening, so Yuki concentrated mostly on watching Kiine, and worrying, and feeling awful while the Bosses and the bodyguards and everyone else began to talk.

And he hated Kou for existing. If only he hadn't said anything. Yuki couldn't apologize enough. He'd ruined her life. And now this jerk was going to make it worse.

"I'm really sorry about all of this…"

Kou was speaking. Yuki looked at him for the first time in a while, his mouth slightly open. Why was he apologizing?

"…what are you apologizing for?" Kiine, herself, said, primly. She didn't look at him.

"You probably don't really want to be here. I can tell. You hate me already. Frankly," Kou added, "I don't blame you…" He was looking at his lap, so Yuki couldn't see much more of his face. "I'm just really sorry you have to go through with this."

Those weren't the words of a bad person. Not even remotely. Yuki's mind floundered.

He listened, leaning forward slightly. His heart began to beat faster.

"…I don't… hate you," Kiine replied, grumbling as much as the situation could allow. She turned her head, slightly, toward him. "It's my papa that's at fault, not you."

"Well, I suppose that's true… It's my father's fault too…" Kou replied. "I didn't exactly ask for this, you know..."

"Yeah? Well, me neither." Kiine raised her chin, sighing. Her voice lost a little bit of the artificial softness she put on for guests. "I just got told that we were going to get married and that was that."

"Makes you feel kinda helpless, huh…"

She looked at him fully, there, and Yuki did as well.

"I mean, they're not even giving us a choice. I didn't even get a choice. I feel like… I don't know, like I'm not even a person in this whole matter. Don't know if you feel the same way, but…" And Kou's voice trailed off again, and he poked at the blob of wasabi on the side of his plate. "I just can't imagine how awful you must feel. I'm really, very sorry…"

Yuki didn't understand.

And then Kiine said, sharply, "Listen, stop apologizing. It's not your fault, yeah?"

She was speaking like how she normally spoke, and it astonished Yuki. She never lost her composure like that around guests. Not even when she had gotten caught, back in Konoha. She had stayed in her role the entire time.

Kou turned to face her, fully, for the first time. His glass-marble eyes were wide with shock.

Yuki saw Kiine's expression soften, slightly. "So you feel bad about this, too, huh?"

Kou nodded, with a strange reluctance. "I don't know who to feel worse for, you or Dad or me."

"Why the heck would you feel bad for your dad, yeah?" Kiine asked, narrowing her eyes, her mouth tilting sideways in an expression of confusion that Yuki knew all too well. "I mean, come on. Neither of us would be here if it weren't for him."

Kou blushed. He looked at his lap, again. "He had to get me into an arranged marriage to get me a girlfriend, how pathetic is that…"

And Kiine laughed. But it wasn't a cruel laugh—and Yuki knew when she was being cruel. She was honestly amused—sympathetic, of all things. "Aww, man, you can't be serious, yeah…?"

Kou still didn't look at her. "I'm not exactly boyfriend material," he said, with a slight veneer of bitterness on his words. "Much less husband material… I'm sorry."

Behind him, the bodyguard with the eye-patch scoffed slightly, but he was smiling. Yuki looked at him only for a moment, before diverting his attention back to Kou and Kiine

"Bull. I don't believe you. Not for a moment."

Why was Kiine smiling?

"And stop apologizing!" she added, when he finally looked at her. "None of this is your fault, how many times do I have to tell you? I know that none of this is your fault, yeah?"

"Sorry for apologizing…" Kou said, quietly.

She laughed, harder than she had before. Yuki's head felt almost hollow.

"So what, exactly, makes you 'not-boyfriend material'?" she asked. There was a subtle playfulness in her voice, almost mocking, but not quite. "If it's because you don't like girls or anything then I don't care about that. I mean, that'd definitely be a reason to not wanna get married, yeah?"

Kou made a sound that was something like a sneeze or a cough, and he gave Kiine a strange, surprised look. The eye-patch guard was chuckling, now, quietly.

(Contrary to his appearance and Kiine's occasional teasing, Yuki very much liked girls.)

"No! No, no, I'm not like…!" And Kou was looking at his lap again. "I like girls a lot! I mean, um… Oh, jeez…"

"Hey, hey, no need to get so flustered, I didn't really mean it," Kiine said.

Kou shook his head. "No, no, it's… Well, I am kind of a wuss, so... Dad tells me all the time."

He had to have been lying. Nobody would lay themselves that bare so early on. Yuki knew people, and he knew how they worked. He'd been taught very, very well. His suspicions grew, and the hatred in his stomach stewed and fermented even further.

"Oh, come on. Really?" Kiine said. She leaned forward, tilting her head at him.

Yuki felt a vague comfort in her words. She didn't believe him, either.

"Yeah, I mean… I can't use a sword." A pause. "No, strike that. I can't fight, period," Kou said, his voice rising slightly in volume, gaining strength with his sarcasm. "I'm a coward, I give up way too easily on stuff… I can't even disagree with anyone. 'No better than a yes-man,' Dad always says." He exhaled, loudly. "I'm sorry, this is really awkward, me going on like this, I should probably shut up…"

It was awkward for Yuki, for sure. He wished that Kou would just be quiet and eat, and leave Kiine alone. He was causing her enough pain as it was.

But Kiine tilted her head the other way, and she said, "No, no, it's okay. It's just… you can't be serious, you can't even fight?"

"Yeah, some heir to the clan I am," Kou replied, with a bitter exhale of a laugh. "I feel bad killing spiders, can you believe that?"

And suddenly Kiine was smiling even wider. "Spiders are cool. But it's still kinda wimpy that you don't wanna kill even a bug, yeah."

"Yeah…" Kou began poking at his food again. He was quiet, for a while.

Kiine went back to eating, to Yuki's relief.

And then Kou was talking again. "Y'know, you think I could've done something about this, given my status. But I can't even abuse that," he said.

Yuki gripped his chopsticks even tighter. Why was he still going?

"Okay, now why are you saying this?" Kiine said. She held her bowl of rice delicately, like she was supposed to.

"Well, I'm the only son my dad's got. He's banking everything on me—no other guys in mind to take over, see. I got a lot of power. I could've asked for another bride but I couldn't even do that." He stopped himself suddenly and looked at Kiine with a very distressed face. "That's not to say that I don't think you're perfectly lovely, Kiine-san! I just think it'd be a little fairer to you is all…!"

She started laughing again, and put down her rice bowl. "Why are you trying so hard to be so nice to me, yeah?" she said.

Yuki's thoughts exactly. He narrowed his eyes.

"Because I could have done something about this…" Kou said, quietly. He didn't lower his eyes, this time. "It's unfair to you, and it's my fault. I'm sorry."

"Why do you keep saying that? I told you to stop," Kiine said. She frowned, a little. "We both know that neither of us are at fault, here, okay? It's our stupid dads."

"I still could have done something about it," said Kou. He looked at his food.

"Y'know, even if you had done something, I doubt it would've made much of a difference, yeah," Kiine said, flatly. She reached for her tea. "So stop beating yourself up for it."

Yuki's heart ached at how disappointed she sounded, and how much he knew he was at fault here.

"What do you mean by that…?" said Kou.

"Look, you know what kind of people our parents are, I'm sure," Kiine said. She put down her teacup, almost slamming it. A hard edge entered her voice. "Do you really think they're the type of people to give up once they get an idea in their heads?"

Yuki already knew the answer. He watched Kou think, waiting for his response.

"…I suppose you have a point," Kou said. His marble eyes glossed over with something that Yuki couldn't quite identify, but it looked like disappointment too.

"…besides, I already tried to do something, and that worked out freakin' beautifully," Kiine said, very quietly.

For the first time in days, she looked at Yuki.

Yuki had to close his eyes and bow his head, slightly, apologizing, apologizing.

"…what did you try to do?" Kou said. His voice was hushed.

Yuki still had his eyes closed.

"I… dressed up like a guy and ran away to a ninja village," Kiine replied. Her voice was mixed with an unsavory blend of pride and embarrassment. Yuki could tell. "I had to cut my hair to do it. Hard to believe now, but it used to be down to my waist, yeah."

"No way."

Why was there such reverence in his voice? What was this, more sucking up?

"Yeah, way," Kiine replied, with vague sarcasm. "But they caught me after a few weeks and dragged me home."

"That… man. I wish I had the balls to do that."

Yuki had to open his eyes for that, because Kiine had started to laugh again, in a sort of disbelief. "Balls? To do what, yeah?" she managed to say, between her giggles.

"Well, to do anything, but mainly to do something as… as extreme as running away!" Kou said. He had an enormous smile on his face. His voice quieted again. "You really dressed up as a guy?"

"Eh, it wasn't that big a deal…" Kiine shrugged, looking away from him. "I mean, I'm used to passing for a guy, it helps in sneaking out of the house."

"You sneak out of the house?"

Kiine blinked. She looked at him, blue eyes wide. "Well yeah, don't you ever?"

"Oh no, never," Kou said. He shook his head. "I kinda… like staying inside."

"Wow, you really are sheltered," Kiine said. Kou's face turned slightly red. "Hey, maybe while you're here, I should sneak you out. Though…"

"Oh, you don't have to—though what?" Kou caught himself mid-sentence, blinking.

Kiine smirked at him, giggling through her teeth. "You'd stand out an awful lot, with those clothes of yours. I mean, Yuki attracts enough attention, with that face of his."

"Oh! Um, I, well, I…" Yuki's face felt uncharacteristically hot. He tried not to look at Kou, who continued to be flustered as he asked, "Um, who's Yuki?"

"Oh, Yuki's my bodyguard. And he's pretty much my partner in crime, yeah," Kiine said. She jerked her thumb backwards at Yuki, her smile lessened, but still present. "That guy back there. Say hi, Yuki."

"Huh…? Ah! Hello there," Kou said. He bowed, quickly, awkwardly, from where he sat. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Yuki said. It was all he could manage, keeping his chin low, his expression as blank as possible. Kiine still wasn't smiling, but at least she didn't look angry at him.

"I'm… really sorry, Yuki-san, but I honestly thought you were a girl, at first," Kou continued, with an uncomfortable smile.

"Yeah, he gets that a lot," Kiine said, laughing. Yuki said nothing.

(At least Kou didn't say anything about it right away, like most people did.)

"Um, well, this is Shankusu, he's my bodyguard," Kou added, gesturing towards the eye-patch man. "We've never sneaked out or anything, but…"

"A pleasure to meet you, Lady Kiine," Shankusu said, chuckling, bowing a little, himself. His voice and his laugh were low and growly, the obvious product of years of some sort of smoking, Yuki could tell.

"Strange name you got there," Kiine replied, with a charming smirk.

"It's pretty fancy, I'll admit," Shankusu replied.

"Shankusu speaks Amerikan! Um." Kou ran his hand through his bangs, self-consciously. "Dunno why I said that, but..."

"Haha, well, that's cool, I guess," Kiine replied. "Hey, Shankusu-san, can you say something for me?"

"In Amerikan?" Shankusu said.

"Yeah, go for it," Kiine said.

Shankusu cleared his throat, and said, "サンキュウベリイマチイ。"

Kiine clapped her hands a few times, nodding, smiling. "Very impressive, yeah. Where'd you learn that?"

"I spent a few years on a few ships in the Northern waters," Shankusu replied, casually. "How I lost my eye."

"Oh yeah? Wow, that's cool," Kiine said. She suddenly put on a strange, posh air, in reaching for her tea. "You know, Yuki's got a few tricks of his own. Don't you, Yuki?"

Yuki nodded, slightly. He did.

"Really? Like what?" Kou asked. He leaned forward, eagerly, round little lips open slightly. Shankusu had a similarly interested look on his face, though it was tainted with skepticism, his eyebrows and his smile uneven.

"Why dontcha show him something, Yuki?" Kiine said. She looked over her shoulder at him. Her face was neutral, now, but there was expectation in her eyes.

Anything for her. Even if it was for him.

Yuki made himself feel better by telling himself that doing something would be showing up this invader and his companion, with the tumbling words.

"What would you like me to do, Master Kiine?" he said, voice perfectly measured, a solemn smile on his face.

"Go ahead and freeze something," Kiine said. Ah, yes, there was a tiny smile, in the corners of her mouth.

"Freeze…?" Kou said.

Yuki was not fond of showing off. But this would be a treat. "Hand me your soup, Kou-san, if there's any left," Yuki said. Kou did. It was still slightly warm.

Yuki made sure that it wouldn't be the case for very long. He concentrated, imagining his hands growing colder, imagining that coldness extending past his hands and into the bowl, into the liquid.

He handed the soup back to Kou, still wearing that smile. Kou nearly dropped it from how cold the glass was, fumbling it with his fingers. "It's cold!" he said. He managed to get a grip on the bowl and began tilting it sideways. "No, it's… frozen!" His eyes blinked in amazement. "How did you do that?"

"Yuki can just do things like that," Kiine said, almost proudly. She gave him another glance before attending to Kou again, who was holding the bowl nearly entirely upside-down, examining the contents.

"Wow, and the tofu's been frozen too…! That's really remarkable," he said. There was true appreciation in his voice, to Yuki's surprise. "Really, how did you do it?"

"He just does, yeah?" Kiine replied. "I dunno how it works."

Yuki didn't mind too terribly when she spoke for him.

"That's really something…" said Kou.

"So what else can you do with that little trick of yours, child?" Shankusu said. His soup was still warm, and he sipped it with thick lips that looked like they had been carved out of flesh. "Make it snow indoors? Give someone frostbite?"

Yuki glanced at him, sharply, sideways. "There are many things I can do, but I prefer to only do them when I need to, Shankusu-san," he said.

"Barring parlor tricks for your young mistress?" Shankusu said.

"Shankusu, please, be poli—AAH!"

It was such a shame that Kou's bowl had been upside down when its contents suddenly unfroze. But the liquid within it was still very cold.

In an instant a multitude of eyes were upon their little side of the dining room. Shankusu's eye wide, lunging for Kou; Kiine's halfway closed between a laugh and a gasp; Kou sputtering, soup getting into his eyes and all over his fine clothing; Yuki, closing his eyes, lessening his smile into an enigma. For Kiine's sake.

"What's going on over there?" Boss Tensho said. Shankusu was already at work wiping off Kou's face with his napkin.

"Kou? Son?" said Boss Shin. His bodyguard, Hikawa, was likewise leaning sideways, worry on his leather-like face.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kiine was off of her seat, leaning over with a smile on her face that was in a losing battle with a worried expression. "What happened?"

Yuki's smile shrank. Why wasn't she laughing? Even thought it was an accident—it really was an accident—he'd have thought that she'd surely…

"Pfuh! I'm fine, I'm fine!" Kou said, waving across the dining room to his father; Shin was already half risen, though Boss Tensho wasn't. "I guess I was a little careless with the soup! Don't know what was doing…"

Boss Shin shook his head disapprovingly, but he was smiling, and he sat back down. He went back to conversing with his bodyguard, whose eyes wrinkled with a returning smile of his own.

"Careless with the soup? The hell does that even mean, yeah?" Kiine said. She was inches away from him, now. She was laughing, now.

"Well, I suppose that even if something's frozen, then I shouldn't go tilting it upside down. I don't think it was quite frozen solid!" Kou kept one eye closed as Shankusu continued his rub-down with the napkin. "Ow, Shankusu, I think I'm fine…"

(But it had been frozen solid, only moments before.)

"We'll have to get you into new clothes," Shankusu replied, gruffly. "Your father will insist on it."

"Oh, it's not so bad…" Kou sighed. "But yeah, you're right…"

"Your dad's pretty big on appearances, huh?" Kiine said, glancing at Boss Shin, gesturing at him with her hand. If Kou's clothing was well-made, Shin's was absolutely spectacular. The fabric almost shimmered when the light hit it at the right angle, from the silver thread embroidered into the pattern of snakes on the sleeves and shoulders.

(She was still sitting so close to him, why was she so close to him?)

"You should see the wardrobe they packed…" Kou replied, softly.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad, yeah," Kiine said.

"Oh, trust me. It's bad."

"Prove it."

Kou inhaled, exhaled, his cheeks turning pinks. Shankusu returned to his post, folding the soiled napkin and putting it to the side of his food tray. He glared at Yuki, very choice words in his eye, but he didn't say them.

Yuki kept his head down.

"Well, for starters," Kou said, "I have three different robes for each day of the week, and then all the extras, just in case…"

Kiine had to stifle a laugh. "How many is that, yeah?"

"I didn't count…"

"I have to see this," Kiine said.

Yuki didn't eat as they continued their conversation, completely ignoring him. He didn't really hear what they were saying, anyways, too well-folded into his own thoughts to notice much of anything else.

Kou hadn't even thought to blame Yuki for a thing. He hadn't even mentioned him, blaming himself, even.

…it was all an act. Clearly, all an act, to get on Kiine's good side. What else could it be? The sons of people like Boss Shin were not nice people.

(Kiine was the exception to the rule.)

How could any person be so cruel? Yuki thought. And more importantly, what was he really like…?

This Hakaza Kou was smarter than he thought.

And Yuki hated him.

And as the evening wore on Yuki tried to think of ways to make his heart hurt less, even with the fact that Kiine was now sitting so close to Kou, that she had shifted her food tray to be nearer to him, so that they could talk more.

(And at the end of the dining hall, Tensho leaned over to Shin with a smile. "Would you look at that," he told his ally, watching his daughter laugh. "I think it's a good sign." And Shin had to agree, watching Kou smile more and more widely.)

(But Yuki's expression worried Nobuhiro. It was an expression that meant that things were about to get very cold, and very soon.)