#arpw19

[seasaltmemories]

Shadow

Rating: T

Summary:  It was something out of a fairy-tale, what a noble knight would ask of a beautiful princess.  Deals between demons and scrawny redhead girls didn’t go this way.

~

Back when Mieru swore to the gods she would search the ends of the earth if it meant reuniting with Yuya, she hadn’t thought she’d actually have to travel the entire world.  When she first set out from their small village, her plan had been simple.  She would head in the general direction the king’s guard had escaped in, and then when faced with a fork in the road she’d call on her magic crystal to show her the right way to go.

But after a weak of trudging through the forest, such shiny, idealistic notions had begun to lose their luster.  It wass hard to feel like a brave heroine when you’re covered in twigs and bug bites--when the only way you can reliably clean the dirt from your skin is rub your smelly sweat in.  She was starting to have to ration the food she had brought, and for all as dutiful to the gods as she had been, they seemed to have  no problem with sending her wandering in circles.

With a sigh, Mieru plopped on a nearby tree-stomp.  She told herself she was only taking a break, because her Darling was expecting her, and she couldn’t let him down.  He’d love her and smother her with kisses when they found each other, no matter how tangled her red curls were.  After all, true love was stronger than any evil king or inconvenient fiancee.  

However once she tried to force her aching legs to stand again, they decided that no, turning to jelly was better than pursuing romance.

The scar on Mieru’s left hand began to ache.  She had tried to ignore it for so long, yet it’s pain was becoming sharper and sharper with each passing day.  For the first time since leaving home, she confronted the shadow that trailed behind her.

“You know you don’t look a thing like me.”  Where the afternoon sun should have produce a dark doppelganger of herself, the silhouette of something inhuman crept.  At her words though, it stood and coalesced into a young boy the spitting image of Yuya himself.

“I don’t see the reason to play pretend.  Self-delusion is far from a good look on you.”  No he wasn’t exactly like her Darling.  Her studies should had prepared her to recognize the signs.

Demons were never able to get the eyes quite right.  No matter what, they always mirrored the slits of a predator.

“I don’t see how being prettier would get me out of this mess.”  She groaned as she cupped her face in her hands.  It was better to embrace tiredness.  Acknowledging her physical weakness might mask the her true unease at his presence.  “Demon, do you have any suggestions on the course of action I must take?”

He chuckled slyly at the question.  “Like I said, playing dumb does you no favors.  You know the contract we made together.”

Technically she didn’t.  When she had called on the gods to bring Yuya back to her, no matter the cost, she hadn’t expected to find this copycat bound to her instead.   With much cursing and complaining on her part, slowly she had come to understand that her prayer might have been answered indirectly.

“I can do many things to make myself useful,”  A shadow had slithered down the curve of her calf at this suggestion.  “No heart can hide its desire from me.  I will satisfy them all.”

“Can you return my Darling back to me?  He is waiting for me to take him home, I just know it!” Mieru lied.

“If you’re willing to pay the price I name, I shall do anything for you.”  The darkness seemed to almost revel at the mere notion of servitude.  “But know loyalty can only be bought by blood.”

She had allowed the demon to slice open her hand himself--even let him greedily lap as the blood that trickled slowly from the wound.  In the end, it would all be worth it if it meant Yuya would return to her side.

Since then she hadn’t summoned him.  She hadn’t wanted to risk any more mutilation if it wasn’t necessary.  Mieru told herself that she wouldn’t become another Faust.  She wouldn’t bleed herself dry to save Yuya, only to lose herself in the end.

“What would it cost for you to guide me to a safe village so that I can buy some more food that won’t poison me.  It has to be in the direction Yuya is, you can’t just dump me on the opposite side of the country.”  Mieru rattled off every possible condition she could think of, hoping to avoid any loopholes in the process.

“Let me think about it for a moment,”  He tapped a clawed finger against his chin. “What would be equivalent to your safe passage?”

Grisly images consumed Mieru’s mind.  Would he curse her so that every step she took felt as if she walked on burning coals?  Would he cut out her eyes so that she would be forced to depend on him for the rest of the trip?

“How about you privilege me with the opportunity to kiss your hand?”

Mieru blinked twice as the request registered on her ears.  “My hand?”  It was something out of a fairy-tale, what a noble knight would ask of a beautiful princess.  Deals between demons and scrawny redhead girls didn’t go this way.  “What’s the catch?  Will you eat it?!”

The demon laughed loud and long.  “Oh you are such a delight, my dear.”  He closed in on her until they were barely a breath apart.  “I simply wish to show my mistress respect.  I have not had such an honor in decades.”

Mieru tried to stay calm, but her cheeks heated all the same.  She had to regain control of this situation, before he tried to press even more boundaries.

“As long as it is just a kiss, and just on my hand, then I agree.”  She took a step back, but before she could generate much distance between them, he had already fallen to his knees and gripped her left hand.

This time as his lips traced the scar he had created, no tongue followed.  It was as pure and as chaste as that of an innocent schoolboy’s, but when his eyes looked up to meet hers, she found a very different hunger consuming them.

“Yuri...”  She hadn’t meant to say a word, yet the name fell unbidden from her lips.

“My calling me by my true name, how obscene,”  He gave a cat-like grin.  “Well it is better to know what is truly yours and what isn’t.  Follow me, it should take less that an hour before he return to civilization.”  He transformed back into his shadow form, only this time he extended towards the sun, creating a path before her.

Mieru paused to study the scar one last time.   As irrational as they might be, demons always had a motive for what they chose to steal.  Flattery and adoration didn’t change that, even if there was something nice about the attention and interest and...

She slapped her cheek.  How dare she let her mind fall right into the gutter.  What would Yuya think if he saw her wavering like this?

“Wait for me, Darling.  I’ll be there soon,”  She whispered to herself as she finally took off and followed the demon.

Still she wondered if more than simply physical exhaustion could explain why she continued to feel breathless for the rest of the day.

[seasaltmemories]

Regret

Rating: PG

Summary: Romance had never been a top priority in her life, but a part of herself had always wondered if she has chosen to focus on other pursuits only because she wasn’t used to being seen as desirable.  To lose that fondness now, Himika wondered if she her heart could take such a betrayal.

~

When Himika awoke at 5am to the sound of vomiting, she was almost ready to call the marriage off.

She had gone in knowing it would be a rocky start.  Neither had wanted to marry until Leo Corporation had gotten on its feet, but extenuating circumstances had made it necessary to push the ceremony earlier than expected. That also meant breaking the news to her family that, yes, she was marrying the mad scientist that more or less lived in his garage.  As expected, Mother and Ichika did not handle the news well, but at the very least, the quick wedding meant they had to get over their patronizing protection of her all the faster.  It had been like balancing out a set of accounts, a bit of a headache, but the pro’s and con’s should all cancel out in the end.  If that had been her only problem, then she would have put up her hair, gritted her teeth, and made it all work somehow.

It was this honeymoon that was falling apart.

Neither Leo nor she were too attached to the idea.  Again, considering Leo Corporation hadn’t been in business for even six months, it seemed illogical to go vacationing now.  But it was here where her family put their foot down.  Hasegawa’s had a reputation to uphold and suddenly running off with a broke foreigner without having a honeymoon was just a step too far out of line.  And it was difficult to argue against taking a break, so Himika had relented fairly easy.  She scheduled a week in Kyoto, figuring the trip would be fairly simple and romantic, before life caught up on them again.

But then they had misplaced their tickets, their hotel didn’t seem to have gotten their reservation, it rained for half the trip, and now what little sleep she had gotten had been interrupted.

Reluctantly, she rose to check on the situation.  The lights were on in their bathroom, and as she thought, Leo was currently hanging off the side of the toilet, as he clutched his stomach.

“Oh don’t tell me that you’re sick!”

Leo looked over his shoulder with a weak grin.  “Afraid so.”  It was such a pitiable expression, all her frustration faded into shame.

“I’m not upset at you for being ill,”  Himika pinched her brow.  Apologies had never been her strong suit.  “It’s just...do you have any idea what it might be?”  Something to go on, anything that might let her do more than just sit around and do nothing.

“I think it was the shellfish I ate last night.  Don’t worry, get back to sleep.”  He stiffened, then leaned back over the toilet in expectation of another spasm.

Himika groaned.  Sleeping was the last thing she could do at a time like this, so instead she sat down next to Leo.  As the youngest of the family, she had little experience tending to others (and doubted she was disposed to such qualities anyway) but she did her best to try and comfort Leo.  She felt like half a fool as she rubbed circles against his back, yet when he was done throwing up, he looked up at her and seemed a little less pained.

“You know I thought this might happen, but I figured the roles would be switched.”

Unconsciously, Himika glanced towards her own stomach.  With that right clothes and an unknowing eye, her new guest was still undetectable, but in a few weeks it would become impossible to hide.

“Most women around this stage began to lose their morning sickness,” She replied, unsure what else to say.

“Good to know,”  Leo gave a quiet laugh.  “Still I just want to take proper responsibility for you.”

Funny, Ichika’s biggest complaint had been his perceived lack of responsibility.  She had done things right, found a stock-broker husband, married, and had two little boys before she had even reached Himika’s current age.  The sisters were only five years apart, but to her well-respectable eye, it must have seen as if Himika had decide to have her rebellious phase at thirty.  Accidental pregnancies and hasty weddings were the things of couples a decade younger than them.

Himika remembered Mother’s scrutinizing gaze at Leo’s graying hair.  For him it was the stuff of a man two decades younger,

“Dear?” The affectionate nickname brought heat to her cheeks and her consciousness back to the present.  “You grew quiet, are you upset with me?”

“I would not have married you if I did not want to.”  The words come out like the sharp declaration of a queen, (although in the back of her mind she wondered how regal she could look on a bathroom floor).  “Responsibility or no, I would not have married a man or chosen to bear his child on a whim.”

A soft smile spread to his face.  “I wanted to marry you too.”  It’s such a simple statement, but with it, Himika could feel a week’s worth of tension drain from her being.

Before their wedding day, she had heard him mutter something in his sleep. “Ray...” It could have passed as another woman’s name.

Romance had never been a top priority in her life, but a part of herself had always wondered if she has chosen to focus on other pursuits only because she wasn’t used to being seen as desirable.  To lose that fondness now, Himika wondered if she her heart could take such a betrayal.

But they were married now, and if this Ray really did exist, she wasn’t here, taking care of him now.

“Why don’t we cancel our morning plans?”  A smile of her own matched his.  “We can relax some and see if we’re ready to go out by lunch.”

“That sounds amazing, thank you, Dear.”

Heat rushed to her face again, and Himika considered how the pair of them must look to outside eyes.

She thought hard about it and decided that if he didn’t regret his decision, than she had no reason to either.

A.N. Shotgun wedding Instituteshipping started out as a crack headcanon and now you’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands