Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Sakura Monogatari (Cherry Blossom Tale) ❯ Chapter 6

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Fake.

"Why can't we go NOW?" Dee demanded, hovering over Rose as he sat on the floor, attempting to concentrate on his game of Go with Ted.

The bleached blond sighed like a parent exasperated with an impatient child. "You just visited the Inn yesterday- we can't go everyday you know!" Rose said with some annoyance. He didn't like discussing this in front of his other students, and he could see Ted lifting an inquisitive eyebrow as they quarreled.

"I'm I witnessing a lovers spat?" Ted teased, enjoying the brilliant shade of red that quickly covered Dee's face as he glared at him in rage.

"Ted, shut your mouth!" Dee shouted in frustration.

The man smiled back in satisfaction. "If I'm wrong, then what's been going on? Where do you two disappear to so many nights?" Ted snickered. He knew that there was no truth to his insinuations, but it was just too much fun watching Dee fume.

"Stop it, Ted," Rose said calmly. "It's none of your business, you and Drake should stop gossiping," the samurai's tone was stern and Ted frowned and turned his attention back to the game. As much as he wanted to continued egging-on Dee, he knew well enough to listen to his sensei.

Dee, however, wasn't as respectful. "What does it matter if we go again tonight rather than waiting a couple days?" he whined, coming to sit next to Rose so the man couldn't ignore him.

"I have my own matters to attend to- we'll wait," Rose said commandingly.

"Fine," replied Dee, standing. "I'll go by myself," he said, heading for the door.

"With what money?" came Rose's voice from behind him.

Stopping, the dark-haired man turned and said defiantly, "I have enough for a night, I've been saving!"

But the samurai leader merely smirked at him, not even bothering to look up from the Go board as he told him, "You wouldn't be able to eat for a week if spent your earnings now."

Dee bristled and rounded on the man. "You're really enjoying this aren't you?" he said with a sudden, quiet venom.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Rose said in a warning tone, his patience wearing thin.

"You know what I mean, damn it!" Dee yelled. "You LOVE having so much control over my life! You love lording it over me and telling me what I can do and when I can't do it!" he said with heat and anger.

Lifting his head, Rose looked him in the eye, saying, "If it was not for me, you would never have been able to see Ryo at all. Nor would you even be wearing the clothes on your back."

Dee's brow furrowed and his anger slowly left him. He had no response to Rose's words. They were all true.

"However, if you feel you've been taken advantage of," said Rose, turning back to the game with casual ease, "you are by all means, free to leave at any time,"

Dee now felt he had overstepped his bounds. The samurai's reasonable, level words made him feel like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum. He watched Rose and found to his astonishment that the man actually seemed, well, hurt. If such an emotion was possible in a person so stern.

Even Ted seemed to sense it as he watched Rose moving his pieces with an unconscious stiffness and he glanced up at Dee with a look of surprise that mirrored his own.

"I... it's just," Dee began awkwardly in an attempt to explain himself. "There was something I should've said the last time I saw Ryo and... well, I just want to tell him... as soon as I can," he ended lamely.

Of course, he didn't have to explain, Rose could practically read his mind: he wanted to finally confess his love to Ryo. Sighing with deep resignation, the samurai stood. "I'm sorry Ted, I think we'll have to finish the game later," he said. Ted looked a bit startled at the man's sudden change of heart, but he simply nodded in acquiescence.

In response, Dee's face lit up, a broad smile spreading over his face in gratitude. Ted watched as the two men left and shook his head. He'd never be able to figure them out.

As eager as Dee was to get to the Inn that night, Rose lagged behind. The samurai had a bad feeling pulling at his gut that made him want to delay their arrival. But the more attempts he made to stall them, the more frustrated and impatient Dee became.

So it happened that they came to the Inn just before dusk and the Innkeeper greeted their appearance with some hesitation. "Well! Good evening! Did you come to make arrangements for tomorrow evening, Rose-sama?" he asked, bowing to the samurai and somewhat excluding Dee.

Before Rose could answer, Dee piped up, "We came to make arrangements for THIS evening."

At this the Innkeeper seemed to have an odd reaction. His face paled and he began to fidget.

"Tonight? But, this isn't you're usual evening..." he said, stumbling over his words.

"Why should it matter? Ryo doesn't have any other clients, just fetch him from whatever he's doing!" Dee said curtly.

"But- he's... not feeling well..."

"Nani?" asked Dee, leaning forward. "Then by all means I wish to see him and see if he's alright!" he said, pushing the bulk of the Innkeeper aside.

He hadn't gone two steps when a firm hand grabbed his arm to halt his progress.

"Dee-san," Rose said in a warning tone, "I think it's best if we come tomorrow... let Ryo rest."

There was something in the man's voice that Dee didn't care for, a kind of authority that grated at his nerves. He'd come all this way, and he WAS going to see Ryo. Narrowing his eyes at the samurai with defiance, Dee yanked his arm from the man's grasp and proceeded up the stairs to Ryo's room.

What was Rose's problem anyway? Why would he change his mind like that just because the innkeeper was being a little stubborn? The swarthy man was probably just fishing for more money! Why didn't Rose just pay the man already? He had the money...

As these thoughts sped through Dee's mind, he reached the top step and heard a curious sound. Something almost like a moan or muffled cry. Was it from Ryo's room?

Hastening up the hallway, he thought he could hear shuffling and then, distinctly, he heard an unmistakable, muffled cry.

"Ryo?!" Dee called, the worry evident in his voice. Reaching the man's door, he went to slide it open- but it stuck. "Ryo?" he called again when there was silence on the other side of the door. A sudden, unreasonable dread washed over him and, without further thought, he kicked at the door frame, cracking the wood at the lock and in a moment it was open.

Dee was struck dumb.

"Dee!" he vaguely heard Rose calling from the stairs as the man followed swiftly after him, the heavy footsteps of the Innkeeper close behind.

For a brief moment, Dee stood rooted in shock, then, whipping out his sword, he cried, "Get AWAY from him!"

Behind him Rose came running and then stopped, gapping at the sight before him.

Dee stood, sword unsheathed and pointed in the direction of a another, older samurai who kneeled above a half-naked body... bound and gagged and exposed.

It was Ryo.

And it was all too obvious what they had walked in on.

"I said GET the HELL AWAY!" Dee roared, advancing on the stranger.

Regaining his composure after being interrupted, the other samurai soon reached for his own katana and unleashed it, blocking Dee's swing.

The Innkeeper reached the room and gasped. "Dee-san, stop! This man is a client!" he shouted.

But the raven-haired man took no notice, all his thought was bent upon this disreputable man who had been violating his lover. He lunged once more, but his rage clouded his judgment and his swing went wide, giving the other swordsman an opening.

Glancing at Ryo, Dee saw him curled up on his side, his face hidden from him. But the moment he looked away a bright, shearing pain erupted along his shoulder and Dee nearly dropped his sword in an instinctual reaction to grab the wound and staunch the sudden bleeding.

"STOP!" Rose shouted, jumping between the two men. "Both of you! Lower your swords!"

The other samurai looked uneasy. It was obvious that Rose was a man of authority and prestige and he didn't want to offend him, but Dee, even with the blood trickling down his arm, showed no signs of backing down.

"Dee!" Rose growled threatening, "Listen to me!"

"Like hell!" the man said back through his clenched teeth. "Is THIS how you run your business?! Letting whomever you please bind and rape people if the price is high enough?!" Dee demanded of the Innkeeper, who stood looking pale and shaken in the broken doorway.

"This was simply a misunderstanding," Rose said, answering for the man. "Dee, see to Ryo," he said now, nodding toward the trembling heap of dangled limbs and bound cords.

Slowly, Dee stepped back and lowered his sword, and the other man did the same. When he was sure Rose had the other samurai under control, Dee turned and kneeled next to Ryo, quickly cutting free his wrists and ankles and pulling the gag from his mouth.

"Ryo, are you alright?" Dee said full of concern and worry as he leaned down to brush the hair from his eyes. He expected those luminous, dark eyes to open and greet him with loving thanks, but, to Dee's confusion, Ryo turned from him, burying his face into the floor mats.

Meanwhile, the other samurai was in a heated argument with the owner of the Inn and Rose was trying to mediate.

"I expect my money repaid in FULL!" the man demanded.

Rose nodded. "I'm sure that can be arranged... can't it?" he said smoothly, looking to the Innkeeper.

"Y-yes, you'll be compensated..." he finally said.

"Fine," said the other man, pushing past the men in a fury and stomping down the stairs.

"How greedy can you be?!" Dee yelled, livid with rage as he stood up to glare menacingly at the Innkeeper. "How could you do this to him?!" he screamed.

The Innkeeper was indignant. "You impudent little-!" he said, clenching a fist. "I never make an appointment without my employee's consent!" he said with obvious contempt. "Ryo wanted the work!"

"Lair!" Dee hissed, but he had a sick feeling in his stomach. Turning back to Ryo, who had pulled his robes tightly about him, Dee said, "Tell me, Ryo, tell me! I'll believe you! It's lies, isn't it?"

Ryo only lay there in silence.

"I think you better go," the Innkeeper said in a low voice.

Dee barely heard the words as he sat, watching Ryo simply lay there. "Tell me, God damn it!" he yelled, shaking Ryo beneath him.

He waited for the man's denial, but it never came. Instead, Ryo seemed to curl further into himself, huddling in a tight ball as if he could will himself to disappear into the floor and hide his shame.

"Damn, you!" Dee whispered as he kneeled over Ryo's trembling form, gripping at the man's kimono as his tears fought to spill down his cheeks. "I loved you!" he said bitterly.

"That's enough Dee. Leave him be," came a rich voice behind him. Dee felt Rose rest a hand on his back, urging him up, but he didn't move. "Dee," he said with more conviction, "You're bleeding, please, let's leave."

In a daze, the raven-haired man allowed himself to be lead outside.

What had just happened? As he stepped back into the street, Rose pulling him along, he replayed the events of the evening. The way Rose had been so reluctant to make the trip to the Inn and how calm he was amidst all the chaos in the upstairs room.

Dee stopped.

"You knew," he said in a dangerous tone, thick with disgust.

Turning, Rose looked at him questioning.

"You KNEW!" he repeated louder. "You tried to keep me from coming tonight! Just how long has this been going on?!" Dee demanded, his hands balling into fists at his sides, causing his wound to gush with fresh blood...

With a deep sigh, Rose passed a hand through his hair and answered, "Ryo has always had other clients, and I had always made arrangements so that you would never know. I'd hoped he'd be free tonight. However-"

He didn't get to finish.

"How could you keep this from me!" Dee screamed, swinging at the man, who sidestepped the blow easily.

Eyeing Dee with an infuriatingly calm attitude. Rose shrugged. "You were happy," he stated, "Ryo was happy, what cause would I have had to ruin it?"

Grabbing the front of the samurai's robes and smearing the fine silk with his blood in the process, Dee glared at the man with contempt. "I had a right to know! I would have put a stop to it! How could you know Ryo was being... treated that way and let it go on!" Dee said, the bitterness nearly strangling his words.

"I knew Ryo had other clients, I didn't know he was putting up with such- humiliations!" Rose retorted, staring back into Dee's eyes challengingly. "I cared for him once as well, if you remember."

Dee let go to his clothes, his shoulders falling under a sudden, heavy weight as the vision of Ryo, tied up, helplessly enduring such cruelty played once again before his eyes.

"Even if I had known," Rose went on, "there's nothing I could've done differently."

His cool, indifferent tone scraped at Dee's mind with irritation. "Well I would've stopped it! I wouldn't have let him keep WHORING himself like that!" he cried vehemently.

In the next moment Dee felt a sharp pain drive across his cheek as Rose backhanded him. Hard.

"You say this about the man you claim to love?! Do you think Ryo had a choice?!" Rose said surprising Dee his intensity.

"But the Innkeeper said-" Dee started, but the other man cut him off.

"Ryo does what he has to do to survive! You don't know this town's secrets like I do, so I'll excuse your ignorance just this once," Rose said as Dee's brow furrowed in confusion. "Ryo's mother has been ill for some time now- and the bills for her medicine aren't cheap," Rose explained with some heat.

"But- we visit at least once a week, isn't that enough...?" Dee asked hopelessly.

"Do you honestly think that's enough to pay for even Ryo's cost of living?" Rose said with severity. "You have no idea how these 'tea houses' are run! They keep people like Ryo indebted to them from the day they step foot through the door. Every kimono they have to wear to look presentable, every grain of rice that passes their lips, is tallied and taken from their wages!"

This new information stuck Dee as if he'd hit a brick wall. All this time he'd been deliberately blinding himself to the realities around him. "I had no idea..." he murmured.

"Of course not, all you were thinking of was your own selfish desires!" Rose reprimanded. "Not to mention that just now, by causing a scene you made Ryo endure that whole ordeal for nothing- he won't see a penny!" he said and Dee winced inwardly.

"But... I thought he was... hurting him..." Dee tried to explain.

Seeing the haunted look on the other man's face, Rose's temper subsided and he gave a deep, heartfelt sigh. "I would've explained if you'd given me the chance," he said.

Dee was silent. He didn't know what to think anymore; the whole world seemed to have turned inside-out. How had things gone so wrong so fast? His head suddenly felt dizzy from a mixture of heartache and loss of blood.

In an uncharacteristically soft gesture, Rose put a hand to dark-haired man's wounded shoulder. "We should dress this cut," he said gently, leading him under the canopy of the trees. Dee merely followed and leaned his back against a slender tree-trunk, allowing the samurai to tear away his ripped sleeve and use it as a bandage. To his surprise, Rose's hands were skilled and sure, wrapping the cloth carefully over the wound so as to trouble Dee as little as possible.

"It's not easy loving someone who has to sell themselves," Rose said after a moment of silence. "Believe me, I know," he said with conviction.

Lifting his eyes to meet the samurai's steady gaze, Dee was taken aback by the look of genuine openness and empathy he saw there. Then Rose's gaze turned away to glance up at the transient beauty of the sakura.

"When I was young, in a different village from this one, there was a girl I was hopelessly in love with," Rose said, his voice rich with nostalgia. Dee marveled, he'd never seen the man like this before. So honest and... vulnerable.

"At the time, I didn't realize that she was considered far below my station. I thought as soon as I was old enough, we'd marry. It wasn't until a certain day in the fall of my sixteenth year that I discovered all those dreams were in vain. Her family was on the verge of ruin and so they sold their only daughter to a local 'tea house'," Rose exhaled a deep breath. "I couldn't understand why fate would be so cruel. But I was determined to be with her, no matter how or under what circumstances. So I visited her and made love to her and played the same game you did with Ryo- fooling myself into pretending that I was the only one who had the privilege of her company," at these words, Dee's head dropped, the burden of his own delusions weighing him down.

Rose continued. "I didn't let myself think about how hard it was for her to have to indulge in my idea that I was her only lover. She was never able to be honest with me, never able to share her real hopes and fears with me. All she did was stay her exuberant, cheerful self." He paused, "Eventually, my family became worried over my obsession with her. They wouldn't ever pay to free her; they wanted me to marry within my station, but I would have no one but her. I thought, in my youthful zeal, that I was being true to her, that I would hold onto my love and somehow I could make things bend to suit me... I was wrong.

"The morning after a particularly vehement argument with my family, I went to visit her, but she wasn't there. She had been sent off to another house and no one would tell me where," he stopped, letting his words sink in before turning back to Dee to fix his eye on him.

"I never found her, Dee," he said in a voice deep with regret. "It didn't even cross my mind that my family would've taken such measures to deter me. But it had been my own fault."

Dee watched with wide eyes as the man before him closed his hands about a few fallen blossoms and Rose told him, "If I hadn't been so blinded by my own desires, I might have seen my family's fears more clearly, I might have been able to comfort Diana more, I might have been able to have her by my side even now." He opened his palm and the petals fell mournfully to the ground. "Then again," he said, "maybe having to share her would've gradually torn both of us up inside."

He stood up and looked down at Dee with an unwavering gaze, "But unlike me, YOU still have time to make your own choice, Dee. You can still try and be with your love, share in his hope and his pain. It's up to you now..."

And with that he walked away, leaving Dee alone by the road, a path beneath his feet, but which way would he choose?

********** How I do torture poor Dee and Ryo! I couldn't wait to get the chapter out and see people's reaction to this twist!

GLOSSARY

'Go': A Japanese board game similar to chess.

Tea house: Just a term for something in between a high-class geisha establishment and a low-class brothel.