InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Purity Redux: Vivication ❯ Slowing Down ( Chapter 28 )

Wandering along the waterfront as she adjusted the thin, black irridescent satin shawl that she’d brought along to warn away the chill in the crisp evening air, Saori couldn’t help the contented little smile that turned up the edges of her lips as she shifted her gaze out over the water, as she bit her lip, her eyes taking in the glowing moon, so high overhead.  “That was . . . amazing,” she breathed, almost more to herself than to Fai.  “You know, after I’d heard that Covington-sama threatened to have my second-cousin’s mate hunted if he ever stepped foot in Australia again, I thought he was mean, but he isn’t, really . . . I’ll have to send him a thank you note in the morning . . .”

Fai didn’t quite chuckle, but she could sense his overall amusement.  It was quiet, subdued, but there, nonetheless, and she couldn’t help but to feel a certain happiness that she was here to share it with him.  “It was very nice of him,” he agreed.  “Why did he threaten to do that?”

Saori shrugged.  “Well, the man who had kidnapped my second-cousin, Jillian-san had been exiled from the United States, and Australia agreed to take him.  He knew Jillian-san’s biological parents, and when he went missing, her mate, Gavin-san came to see if he could figure out what was going on, only to break into the man’s apartment.  His people found Gavin-san there, and they arrested him while they tried to find out what connection, if any, they had to each other.  Anyway, when Zelig-sama went there to free Gavin-san, he and Covington-sama had an altercation that led to Covington-sama insisting that Gavin-san would be hunted if he ever stepped foot in Australia again.”

Fai thought that over for a long moment as they continued to wander along the path.  “So, basically, those two ended up in an international pissing war,” he concluded.  “I’ve heard the rumors before.  It’s best to be a little extra mindful of one’s manners when approaching Jude for any kind of favor in his jurisdiction.”

Saori nodded slowly.  “So, you’re suggesting that Zelig-sama wasn’t as diplomatic as he could have been?”

“His son-in-law, being detained on suspicion of murder?  I don’t imagine he was, no.”  Shaking his head to get his long bangs out of his eyes, Fai shrugged, as though the entire thing was simply par for course.  “I’ve dealt with Jude before, and he’s always been decent to me.  Actually, he tends to be very magnanimous with people who he doesn’t perceive to be stepping on his toes.”

They’d been surprised when they’d returned to the hotel from their day of exploring Sydney, only to be stopped by the concierge, who wanted to deliver a large bouquet of flowers, along with a thick envelope, all from Jude Covington.  The Australian tai-youkai had seen fit to arrange an entertainment package for them.  They’d just left the opera, having been privileged enough to attend opening night of la Traviata at the Sydney Opera House.  Tomorrow, there was a private harbor cruise, followed by dinner with Jude and his generals with family, of course, and then there were a pair of tickets to see The Reckless Ones, a new and very popular musical that had been sold out, worldwide, since it had opened on Broadway a few years ago.  It seemed that Jude owned boxes at both the Sydney Opera House, where they’d just seen la Traviata, as well as the People’s Theatre, where The Reckless Ones was being performed, so they were pretty much open-ended invitations.

Thinking about the opera they’d just seen, however, made Saori sigh, even as a melancholy sort of sadness returned.  As beautiful as the opera was, the story behind it was so tragic: Violetta, the courtesan who found love with the dashing Alfredo, leaving her life behind to start over again, only to be confronted by Alfredo’s father, who wants Violetta to leave his son alone, to the point that he breaks down her resistance, and she complies.  In the end, though, true love wins over all, and the two are united, only for Violetta to die in Alfredo’s arms as the stage faded to black . . . “Do you think that Violetta was truly happy?”

Fai considered Saori’s question for a second.  “At the end?  Yes . . . They say that . . . that true love can overcome everything.  In that moment, she was loved, and she knew it.  That’s not the real question, in my opinion.”

She blinked and turned her attention away from the water in favor of peering up at him in the glow of the gentle lamplights that lined the path and cast such stark shadows as it contrasted with the night.  “What is?”

Offering a nonchalant shrug as he dug his hands deep into the pockets of the tuxedo that he’d bought for the occasion, Fai’s gaze darted around them, as though unconsciously looking for any sign of a threat—a direct contradiction to the ease of his gait.  “Well, it makes me wonder just how miserable Alfredo was when she died—how long he mourned . . . if he ever found anyone else to make his existence worth anything . . .”

“If he were youkai . . .”

Fai nodded sagely.  “For us, there’s only one true love—one chance, one hope . . . For humans?”  Suddenly, he chuckled, shook his head.  “Who knows?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds so shallow,” she grumbled.  The pragmatic way he’d stated it had managed to shatter the overall romantic notions in Saori’s thoughts, even though she rather doubted that it was his intention to do so.  “Are you one of those who believes that humans are inferior?”

Fai grunted.  “No, not inferior,” he told her.  “Granted, I can’t say that I’ve been around too many humans, but the ones I knew in school . . . It always seemed to me that they were a little more focused on the here and now and less interested in the longer term.  It probably has something to do with the limited lifespan, but it always struck me as a little tragic, I guess . . .”

She considered that, her face contorting into a thoughtful scowl.  Had she ever considered anything like that?  No, she supposed she really hadn’t.  After all, she had been raised with human relatives, and they hadn’t quite fit into the same mold that Fai was describing, but, thinking back now, she could see the truth of what he’d said.  Of her friends she’d made at the university, she recognized the same thing.  It just hadn’t really been something that she put a finger on at the time.  Now, though?

“My human relatives aren’t like that,” she ventured instead.  “Maybe because they married into the youkai and hanyou lines . . . Maybe their ways of thinking were broadened from that.”

Fai shrugged.  “Because we live longer lives?  Maybe . . . That’s how it’s supposed to be, anyway.”

Something about the way he spoke, about the almost sad sort of lilt to his voice . . . She frowned.  “You’re thinking about your parents, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.

He shot her an almost surprised kind of look, and then he rasped out a short laugh. “I guess I am,” he admitted.  “They weren’t old when they died, but they weren’t young, either . . . I suppose it’s natural to wonder what things would have been like, had they lived longer.”

“Of course, it is,” she said.

Letting out a deep breath, he looked entirely irritated.  “I’m ruining the mood, aren’t I?” he mused.  “I don’t mean to.”

She quickly shook her head.  “You’re not,” she insisted gently, hooking a long strand of hair behind her ear that had escaped the careful chignon she’d arranged her hair into.  “I . . . I like hearing your thoughts, your feelings, even if they aren’t always happy.”

He snorted.  “Except that I sound entirely whiny,” he grumbled.

She laughed softly.  “You don’t.  Besides, I get the impression that you don’t talk much about your feelings . . . Am I wrong?”

“I . . . I don’t,” he admitted.  “To be honest, I’m not sure why I am now.”

“Would it make you feel better if I told you something that I’ve never told anyone else, ever?”

The look he shot her was almost suspicious.  He arched an eyebrow at her.  “I don’t know.  What kind of something?”

She sighed, stopped to lean on the railing, resting her forearms on the cool metal, her shoulders pushed up slightly as she shifted her gaze back out over the ever-moving water.  “Just something I’ve never talked about, either . . . something I wouldn’t talk about with anyone back home . . .”

Pondering that mystery of her words for a moment as he mirrored her stance.  “All right.”

She smiled faintly, a little sadly, savoring the feel of the slight breeze, stirring her hair, the freshness that seemed to seep into her pores as she gathered her thoughts.  “I . . . I never quite felt like I fit into my family,” she said quietly.  They’re all so accomplished—so . . . so, ‘together,’ that I . . . Well, I’m not like that.  All my life, I’ve been the one who never did things the way I was supposed to—not on purpose, but . . .” She sighed, slowly shook her head.  “They love me because I’m their daughter, sister, cousin . . . granddaughter . . . but . . . but I don’t think I’ve ever known if they love me . . .”

“Saori—”

“That sounds so dumb,” she blurted, thankful for the darkness that hid the painful blush on her face.  “Really, really dumb . . .”

“I don’t think it does,” he told her.  “But I think you’re wrong.”

“How?”

He let out a deep breath, an almost impatient kind of sigh, turning just enough to frown at her, leaning on one elbow atop the railing.  “They love you—of course, they do.  How could they help but to love you?  Someone like you . . . You’re different.  You’re special.  You’re nothing like anyone else I’ve ever met!  For you to think that they would feel some kind of perfunctory sense of . . . of whatever . . . is madness.  Your family loves you.  Hell, I—”

She blinked when he bit off his words abruptly, and when she dared to shift her gaze to the side, she could only stare when she realized that he was scowling out over the water once more, but it was the blush that stained his cheeks that made her heart jerk to a crazy halt, that stopped time, even if just for that moment.

Without stopping, without thinking, without questioning what she was doing, Saori shifted, reached out to cup his cheek in her hand, to turn his face toward hers as she rose on her toes—as she pressed her lips to his.

He stood still for a second, as though he wasn’t entirely sure how to react.  Suddenly, though, he reached out, pulled her close, his arms wrapping around her as the electric connection between them seemed to crackle in the air.  He uttered a terse sound, caught somewhere deep in his throat, and she answered in a breathy whimper as a violent shiver rattled through him—she felt it under her fingertips, resting against his chest.

The softness of his lips, the tenderness that he afforded her, shot straight through her, made her knees buckle, but Fai was there to catch her, to hold her, as his youki wrapped around her, cosseting her and buffering her, even as her hand curled around a fistful of his immaculate tuxedo jacket . . .

She could feel the emotion surging through him, and yet, his kiss remained gentle, almost teasing, yet filled with such yearning that she felt tears, stinging her closed eyelids . . .

“Saori?” he whispered, a hoarseness in his voice that she didn’t quite grasp as he broke the kiss, leaned back just enough so that he could see her face.  “Saori, are you crying?”

She shook her head quickly, choking out a half-laugh, half-sob, followed in quick order by a little sniffle.  “N-No,” she lied.

“Why . . .?”

She sighed, letting her temple fall against his chest.  He didn’t try to push her back.  If anything, his arms tightened around her just a little more.  “I . . . I can’t explain it,” she admitted.  “I don’t know why . . .”

He let out a deep breath.  It wasn’t a sigh, exactly, but it wasn’t not a sigh, either.  Then he shook his head.  “You confound me,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry,” she said, moments before she giggled.

He grunted, giving her a little squeeze in the process.  “Somehow, I don’t think you are,” he complained rather dryly.

She smiled to herself as she savored the feel of his arms around her.  No, she supposed, she wasn’t sorry; not really . . .

‘You could set it on fire.’

Snorting indelicately as she scowled at the very nice bed in the very nice hotel room, Saori crossed her arms over her chest and made a face.  ‘Be reasonable, won’t you?  I can’t set the bed on fire, and if I did, then I probably would end up in jail for real, and I don’t think even ojii-chan could get me out of that kind of mess!’

Her youkai-voice sighed.  ‘Well, it’d do the trick, you know.  Okay, so if we can’t do—you know what?  It could just be a small fire—purely an accident.  Just enough to make it so that you can’t sleep in here tonight.’

Saori rolled her eyes.  ‘And this would be how I end up in trouble so often.’

‘It’s not like you had any better ideas, you know!’

‘How on earth did you think that setting anything on fire would be a good idea?’ she fumed.

‘You’re the one who wanted to come up with a reason why your room wouldn’t suit, just so you could go, crawling into Fai-sama’s bed!  I was just trying to help you come up with a good plan!  Besides, if you did set the bed on fire, then at least you would have a good reason not to return to your own room, at all . . . Did you think about that?’

‘Except they’d throw us out if I did that—if I didn’t end up in jail for arson!’

Her youkai-voice uttered an offended, ‘hrumph’.

A curt knock on her door drew her attention, and she turned to yank it open, pinning Fai with a rather mutinous scowl as he blinked and took a step back in retreat.  “Saori?”

She snorted.  “You’re tai-youkai.  Tell me something.”

He narrowed his eyes, but slowly nodded.  “Okay . . .”

Crossing her arms over her chest, she stomped across the room to wrench the window locks and throw it open.  “How is it that everyone else’s youkai-voices give them good ideas while mine seems to want to turn me into an international felon?”

“Huh?”

She snorted again, whipping around so fast that her oversized tee-shirt billowed out around her, only to jerk back and slowly float down around her once more.  “I was trying to figure out how to get you to let me sleep with you, so my youkai-voice suggested pouring water all over the bed—which would be fine for one night, but water dries out—so then, it decided that the best thing to do would be to set the bed on fire—fire—and now, it’s mad at me for pointing out that that would likely get me tossed into the clink for . . . Well, for a very long time.”

His expression, which had started out as guarded, at best, had slowly morphed into the strangest kind of incredulity that might have made her laugh—if she weren’t so agitated.  “. . . Pardon?”

It was only then that she realized just what she’d blurted out of irritation, and she gasped, hands flashing up to flutter over her lips as her eyes grew wide, as an explosion of embarrassed color detonated under her skin.  “Oh, kami, I . . . I said all that out loud . . .”

Fai stared at her for another long moment.  Then he burst out in laughter—great gales of laughter—laughter that ultimately doubled him over as he gasped for breath and wiped his eyes.

Saori didn’t really see it, though.  Too busy, covering her face with her cupped hands, she groaned softly, wondering how possible it would be for the floor to open under her and swallow her whole.

It took him a minute to wind down, to regain control of himself, even though he chuckled a few more times as he crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat.  “So . . . You’re trying to figure out ways to . . . be invited into my bed?” he said, managing a much more diplomatic tone than Saori might have thought possible, given the situation.  “Why don’t you just say that you’d rather sleep in my room?”

She blinked, daring to peer at him from between her fingers.  He looked like he might be serious—maybe.  He also looked like he was two steps from dissolving in laughter once more.  “I . . . I thought that was a little too . . . too forward . . .”

He shrugged.  “Maybe, but definitely better than setting your bed on fire.”

She groaned again, which made him laugh, and that made her blush even darker.  It was a vicious cycle, damned if it wasn’t.

In the end, though, Fai sighed and stepped toward her to take her hand, gently pulling it away from her face despite the token resistance she tried to offer.  He was persistent, though, and he shook his head, tugging her gently behind him as he headed for the doorway.

“What are you . . .?”

Sparing a quick glance over his shoulder at her, he arched his eyebrows, but didn’t stop moving, pulling her across the short hallway to the other bedroom of the hotel room suite.  “You wanted to sleep in my room, right?” he asked, his tone a little nonchalant.  “I sleep better with you near, anyway.”

She blinked, bit her lip, and finally dared to peer up at him.  He wasn’t looking at her, but the lazy sparkle in his eyes spoke volumes, as far as she was concerned.  “You do?”

He shook his head, letting go of her hand so that he could close the door and hit the light panel on the wall.  The lamps beside the bed brightened, but he lowered them a little bit, too.  Then he stepped over to the windows on the other side of the room, digging his hands, deep into his pockets—he was still clad in the tuxedo pants and white shirt, but he’d removed the jacket and bow tie.  Sleeves rolled up a couple of times, the white cotton fabric, accentuating the corded muscles of his forearms.  In the dimmed glow of the lamps, she appreciated the way the warm light played in the strands of his hair, the reddish sheen, the almost golden, but not quite, highlights . . .

He let out a deep breath.  It wasn’t a sigh, exactly, but he didn’t turn to face her as he stared out over the landscape of the city below.  “Vasili said that he told your father and grandfather that I was out of the country on business and that he wasn’t sure when I would return.  He said that they would be leaving,” he told her.

“Kaa-chan called and told me that nii-chan told them that I’ve left,” she said.  “I guess they’re going home . . .”

“Do they know you’re with me?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, folding down the blankets on the bed and slipping between the sheets.  “I mean, kaa-chan said that she and baa-chan thought that it’d be better, not to say anything unless they were asked directly.  Apparently, nii-chan didn’t think to ask her if she knew where I’d gone.”

“Your mother’s not going to get caught in the middle of this, is she?”

That question made Saori sigh since she’d thought that, too.  “I . . . I really don’t know.”

Fai considered that for a long moment before digging his cell phone out of his pocket and staring at it for a long second.  She watched as he dialed a number and waited.  To her surprise, she could hear the call ringing.  He’d put it on speaker.

After the third ring, the call was answered.  “Inutaisho.  Faine.  Is there something I can do for you?”

Turning slightly, but not enough to face Saori, Fai frowned.  “Sesshoumaru, my butler says you were at the castle . . .”

The sound that Saori recognized as the soft squeak of the imposing desk chair in her grandfather’s office came through the line.  “We were,” he replied.  “Saori’s father and I wished to speak to you in regards to my granddaughter.  You wouldn’t happen to know where she is right now, would you?”

“I do,” Fai stated.  “I went there to offer her a job.  She has background knowledge of the children at the orphanage, having worked there, so I thought she would be an excellent choice to help me since I’m attempting to find placement for some of them, even if it means placing them in homes outside of my jurisdiction.”

There was a very long, very pregnant pause on the other end of the call.  He was likely considering Fai’s assessment before responding.  “And you’ve forgiven her for . . . kidnapping you . . .?”

“Given that I parted ways with her briefly when the van broke down and came back on my own, then I’d say the issue of her . . . appropriating me . . . wasn’t really a problem,” Fai said.

“You . . . left her and then went back?  I see . . .”

Fai sighed.  “Anyway, I didn’t want anyone to worry.  I had a meeting with Jude Covington about the orphans, so we’re currently here in Australia.”

“I shall ask Toga to look into couples, looking to adopt,” Sesshoumaru responded.  “I do not need to emphasize just how important Saori’s safety and well-being is to her family and to me, do I?”

Saori grimaced when Fai’s expression darkened.  “Oh, I think I understand perfectly well,” he said, sounding much more agreeable than the look on his face would suggest.

“Good, then.  I’ll be in touch.  Do tell Saori to behave herself.”

Rolling her eyes, she uttered a terse, ‘hmpf’.  Luckily for her, however, the phone call cut off, and she made a face.

“I assume you heard your grandfather?” Fai asked in a remarkably dry tone.

She made the sound again.  “It’d be much easier to behave if my youkai-voice didn’t suggest such outrageous things and then make them sound logical.”

“Blaming your youkai-voice isn’t really logical, either,” he pointed out, setting the phone on the dresser and slowly working the buttons on the front of his shirt.  “I’m going to take a quick shower.  You’re not going to set that bed on fire so you can come in the bathroom with me, are you?”

She blinked and wrinkled her nose at the teasing, even though she couldn’t quite staunch the blush that rose in her cheeks, either.  Then she lifted a hand, flicking her fingers to indicate that he should go on, opting not to respond to that, in any case.

His chuckles echoed in the room after he’d dropped his shirt over the back of a nearby chair and stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

‘How embarrassing,’ she moaned to herself, shaking her head, wishing that she could go back in time and curb her overzealous mouth.

‘Okay . . . so, setting the bed on fire wasn’t my best idea, but you have to admit, the end result was worth it . . .’

She snorted since she wasn’t really in the mood to concede anything to her annoying voice.  ‘The humiliation, you mean?  I could have done without that.’

‘Not that . . . You heard him laugh, didn’t you?  And not just a little, cute laugh.  A huge laugh . . .’

She considered that as a hint of a smile tugged at her lips.  Staring across the room at the closed bathroom door, she finally giggled, flopping down against the mattress.

Her amusement died away, though, when she drew a deep breath.  The bed didn’t smell like Fai.  It smelled more like detergents with an underlying hint of bleach, but not at all like him, which shouldn’t have been as jarring to her as it ultimately was.

Pushing herself up on her hands, she frowned.  What she really wanted was to surround herself with his scent, and the strange bed did nothing to offer her that.

Staring around the hotel room, she let out a long, deep breath, but when her eyes lit on the shirt he’d just left, hanging on the back of a chair, her frown turned thoughtful.

Before she could talk herself out of it, she hopped out of the bed, shedding the tee-shirt, scurrying across the room and yanking the abandoned shirt from the chair.  She couldn’t suppress the light giggle that slipped out of her as she pulled it on and buttoned it up, savoring the feel of the cotton cloth against her skin.  Flipping up the collar as she shuffled back to the bed, she buried her nose in it, breathed in Fai’s scent as she slipped back into the bed once more.

Funny how different the bed felt to her.  Comfortable and inviting, she held the collar against her face as she settled in, as she closed her eyes.  She’d just wait for him and endure whatever teasing he tossed her way for what she’d taken upon herself to do.  She didn’t care at the moment.  In fact, there was a good chance that Fai wasn’t going to get this shirt back, ever . . .

‘I’ll just . . . just relax till he’s done . . .’ she thought as a huge yawn brought tears to her eyes.

She was fast asleep when Fai stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later.  Spotting her tee-shirt on the floor, he frowned and slowly looked over at her, only to blink, to smile when he saw her, curled up on her side in the bed, the collar of his shirt, pressed against her face as she slept.