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 Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:26 am
He was dark and looked dangerous but he was also beautiful in a cutthroat way, just like someone she once knew. So while the other waitresses shied away from his table she sauntered over and smiled, recalling the glimmering feral eyes of someone lost in her past. Mild surprise brewed in his eyes at the dreamy, faraway smile of the young, beautiful waitress.
“Can I get you anything to drink sir?”
Her voice was lively and he decided that he liked it, liked her with her trusting, worldly gaze and bright, doe eyes.
“Sake,” he grunted.
This garnered another smile and a small laugh. The laugh was reminiscent and indulgent, speaking of fond memories.
She swished away on long, shapely legs and disappeared into the kitchen.
She returned shortly with a bottle and small cup and wordlessly poured for him. He was surprised at her lackadaisical mannerisms towards one such as himself. He knew he was intimidating, yet this slip of a girl was completely unafraid. She took his food order and disappeared again.
She cut through the crowded teahouse with ease, bearing a steaming plate of dumplings for him and a bowl of miso. She set down his food and drifted away, unfazed by his dark eyes that had lost their hard edge and peered at her with unfettered wonder.
He waited outside until the lights in the teahouse went out and a small, pretty girl bustled out. Her voice was raised and she was whacking a kitchen boy over the head, spouting off words no pretty young girl should know. He growled at the kitchen boy and watched in amusement as he scampered off immediately. She beamed up at him and started in the direction of her small hut. He ambled along beside her, taking up the role of valiant protector, a fact which made him laugh.
“So, when did you get off the island,” she asked offhandedly.
“You know I am Ryukuyan and you calmly letting me walk you home?”
“You guys don’t scare me,” she laughed. “I was once very fond of one of your kind.”
“Oh? And what was his name?”
“He was a convict named Mugen and I miss him everyday.”
They had arrived at a small smattering of huts and she approached a small patched up one with a little garden outside. She faced him with a brilliant smile.
“Thanks for the walk back,” she smiled.
“You should be more careful. Take care girlie.”
The dark man grinned lopsidedly at the man who had just plunked down at his table. He nudged the bottle of sake towards the new arrival with a drunken shout of a Ryukyuian greeting. The newcomer took a swig and surveyed his new drinking buddy.
“Hey, if youuur goin through that town up ahead you should go to this one teahouse. There’s this young pretty thing that smiles at you like you grew up in a castle in Edo.”
“Yeah man?”
“Yeah, she ain’t the least bit scared of Ryukyuians. Said she knew one once. Shoulda seen the way she smiled when she talked about him. Lucky b*****d shoulda never left such a pretty girl.”
The man smiled and his feral eyes glimmered in the dull light of the bar. He idly scratched the back of his neck while he surveyed the drunken man.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah, some guy named Mugen. They musta been ********. I’ll tell you what, if she wasn’t so nice to me I might have had a go.”
The man’s face split into a lazy smirk and a chill went through the drunken man at the underlying promise of violence as the man crossed blue-banded arms across his chest.
“Good thing you didn’t buddy, I woulda had to cut your throat wide open.”
With an easy smile the man hoisted himself to his feet and meandered out of the bar, his geta clad feet shuffling him towards the next town.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:27 am
She moved through the teahouse with a grace free of almost any vestiges of the clumsiness that marked her earlier years. She still had her moments but in this town everyone knew the pretty young waitress who was occasionally clumsy, and just adored her all the more for it. Smitten young men would gather in the teahouse to waste their wages on food they weren’t hungry for because she wouldn’t go out with them. She never looked at any of the town’s men, her eyes dreamy and faraway. Some said they lingered on a past lover and some said she was just lost in world no one else could really see. Really the men of this town couldn’t compare to the one in her mind’s eye.
The rumors about her were far flung and colorful, but never mean. It wasn’t everyday that a young girl blows into a town with no relations or guardianship and takes up an abandoned hut on her own. She was their darling because she gave them something to talk and ponder about and because she smiled so widely and freely.
So it was a surprise when the girl known for such grace and a smiling countenance dropped a tea tray and let her jaw go slack as the teahouse flap was brushed to the side. She had heard his geta and their odd wooden-metallic thunking long before she laid eyes on that beautiful, beautiful face.
She was seized by an attack of near violent déjà vu as he breezed in, potent and dangerous with an aura so intense it seemed to suck in the room until it had condensed to just him and her.
His dark hair was still wild and shaggy and his skin was still dark. But the difference was that when his scintillating feral eyes slid to her they softened almost imperceptibly and a fondness smoldered in their dark depths.
They went wide, however, at the sight of what had indeed grown to be a very pretty girl flinging herself at him at a speed that made his chest swell with pride. He laughed at the horrified gleam in the patrons eyes when he brought swarthy arms emblazoned with his status as a convict around her lithe form.
“Hey brat,” he drawled sounding bored when inside he was anything but.
“Mugen,” she shrieked into his chest, happily engaging him in a hug like they did this all the time.
The dreaminess of her eyes evaporated and all that shone in them was adoration as she looked up at him. Every man in the joint felt a wrenching pain in his chest at the sheer levity of her gaze and every woman had a panic attack when they saw that the teahouse mascot was hugging a convicted felon. Under the intimidating façade, some older, wiser women noted the gentleness of his embrace and the fondness in his eyes. They were less then thrilled at the source though.
He was suddenly and painfully aware of everyone in the teahouse looking at him and the fact that he was being hugged by a happy, squealing girl.
“’right ‘right get off already,” he grunted, ruffling her hair just to annoy her.
“You a**! We just reunited and you’re already acting up.”
He merely made a face and dropped unceremoniously into a booth, looking up at the young waitress expectantly.
“Dumplings,” he grinned and watched as she smiled again and sauntered off to get his dinner.
What he wouldn’t tell her is how excited he was to see her and how he wanted to rip out the throat of every moron that was fawning over her, which was just about every man in the place. He wouldn’t say that she had grown from cute to the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and he certainly wouldn’t tell her he’d missed her. But he would walk her home to her hut and see to it that no other man stated nosing around and he would do his best to keep that adoring look in her eye. Because they fought like cats and dogs but it kept her occupied and he always could make her laugh. And she gave him something to protect and made him feel wanted and needed which was something he subconsciously craved. They were leeches the both of them, feeding of each other in symbiotic parasitism and it couldn’t have worked out any better.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:28 am
He was very much a stray and he felt as if he had been taken in by a princess.
To someone who grew up on the rough, dirty streets of Ryukyu the small hut was a palace he had free reign of. It was an orchid among weeds because it bore the formerly intangible promise of permanence, of home. He fixed up the hut, only mumbling something about mending boats when asked where in the seven hells he learned anything about carpentry.
Fuu was no princess.
She had no relations, no money and no connections. Her mother was dead and her father was a disgraced samurai who died leaving her very little. She was an orphan, but she was a very pretty orphan. She was hardy and enduring, repeatedly defiant in the face of danger. But to someone like Mugen she was a princess, she was nobility compared to his origins and it was something he was aware of.
So the mutt made sure to keep one keen eye on the princess, who shared the annoying tendency to get kidnapped with her fellow bluebloods, because a castle just isn’t castle without a princess. (And he was really quite fed up with fighting ugly a** dragons and pulling her out of towers.)
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:31 am
She had missed the odd spectacle that was Mugen in action. The impossible contortions he forced his lean body into while navigating the snarl of arms and legs with deadly precision. So as he spun like a deranged top, smashing steel-lined geta into the stomachs of two bit thugs, she didn’t decry his violence. Her stolen money had long since flown out of their grimy hands but apparently he didn’t take well to people stealing what was essentially his.
Stunned townspeople had begun to gather to watch him artfully wale on the cowering men, his body a blur of motion. Fuu could only thank her lucky stars that he hadn’t taken out his sword. That would have been a REAL mess.
A horrified gasp was drawn from a woman as a kick sent a thief sprawling into the crowd, Mugen snarling something about amateurs and dumbasses.
“Mugen.”
He continued to release pent up aggression on the stupid, stupid men. Fuu wondered who stole from someone with prison tattoos anyway.
“Mugen,” this time it came out firmer and laced with growing annoyance.
He ignored her and continued to play around, pulling punches and tossing them about like rag dolls.
“MUGEN!!!!”
At her ear-shattering shriek he abruptly stopped with an irritated expression and idly picked up the fallen money.
“What ya skinny b***h?”
Fuu just groaned and accepted her money back.
“Thanks by the way,” she said while she suppressed the urge to wring his neck for calling her a skinny b***h.
He stood a little bit taller at this, resuming his role of stalking along beside her like some great, scary predator.
“Yeah, whatever. Those dumbasses had it coming to ‘em.”
Fuu didn’t miss the pleased gleam to his eyes at her praise though and she happily led her predator through the market to buy dinner, ignoring the dumbfounded looks they got at the irony of an obvious felon beating on some punks for stealing.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:35 am
A shiver of some foreign uneasy feeling crawled up as he watched the soft eyes the man was making at a flustered Fuu. He smiled at her as he gently handed her the items of her dropped basket, slender hands delicately cradling her fallen goods. His whole demeanor was too soft and tender in regards to her. The look in the guy’s shimmering dark eyes made him agitated and this in turn caused ire to build quickly as he surveyed from a distance. She laughed at something he said while slightly edging away, shifting when he took her hand in his. Something in him snapped and he burst onto the scene.
The man dropped her hand, surprise and fear warring for dominance on his traditionally attractive face. He noted the bellicose acerbity in his eyes and the bright blue prison bands on his wrists. Languid, yet predatory movements brought him to loom beside Fuu who looked up at him with oblivious, innocent adoration still emanating from her eyes.
In a rare fit of possessiveness he flung a tawny arm over her shoulder after snarling foreign curses at the man, feral eyes flashing with malice. The man looked horrified that some convict was draped over the girl, and even more horrified that said convict looked set on tearing him to shreds. His concern for the girl fled when the felon’s fingers inched towards the hilt of his sword.
That soft-eyed man wasn’t good enough for his Fuu because she was troublesome and often in need of rescuing, he could tell the man wasn’t strong enough to take care of her. He found that no man was good enough to be entrusted with the often-imperiled Fuu. They were too weak, too ugly, and too sweet. They wouldn’t argue with her, something which she secretly loved. They couldn’t protect her, which was something he excelled at. And frankly, they would all look ridiculous next to her. She would be smothered in their homes; relegated to making dinner and babies. He refused. Subconsciously, he knew that no man would ever be good enough in his eyes if only because he wanted her. He wanted to be the protector and the lover. So he went with her to market and usually walked her home from work. He was more often then not her shadow, a shadow that was intent on diffusing male attention from her. And she never minded. She just smiled at him and thanked him for walking her home.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:36 am
She turned on her heel in a huff and flurry of pink. Her steps were harsh and so was her breathing as she retreated from the scene. Her gaze was rife with a violent mix of unpleasant emotions. Anger, jealousy and hurt shone through like beacons and she quickly fled the scene she had stumbled upon. Harsh breaths escaped her lips in ragged exhalations as she fought down scalding tears. She rounded a corner and felt her anger grow. He couldn’t have it both ways. She refused to be guarded like some dragon’s hoard while he went around and flirted with some stupid bimbo.
A lazy smirk split his dark face as he peered down at the woman that had sidled up to him. Her kimono was parted to reveal a brain-debilitating amount of cleavage that was being pushed together further by a rather conspicuous move of her arms. Hooded eyes gazed up at him while she cooed in dulcet tones. She was offering herself up like lamb on the alter; his for the taking.
She trembled with rage and a potent underlying current of betrayed hurt. He snarled like a starving dog at any man who made any pass at her only to run off to pick up some chick with huge tits. With a bitter sigh she looked down at her perky, but less then enormous chest. Maybe that’s why he never made any move.
Feral eyes widened with alarm as he caught a flash of pink from the corner of his eye. Swiveling his head in time to see Fuu bolt away, he instantly forgot the girl throwing herself at him as panic welled up in him. With his past reputation for picking up girls and whores, he could only imagine how Fuu would view this scene. Without any further acknowledgement towards the woman he sprinted after her, overcome with the desire to tell her he had no intention of taking the woman up on her not so subtle offer.
Scrubbing away at her tear stained face with her kimono sleeve, Fuu completely missed the familiar clanging-thuds of a pair of steel-lined geta. She was far too engrossed in her own turmoil to see Mugen arrived in a panicked flourish. He felt some dark rending in his chest at the sight of her crying over something he did. He was supposed to be the one that made her laugh in between stupid arguments, not the one that made her cry.
“Fuu,” his voice was hesitant and softer than she had ever heard it.
She jerked at the sound of his voice and turned away from him.
“Go away.”
“Fuu-”
“I said go away. I’m sure that you can shack up with that girl tonight so just don’t bother coming home tonight.”
Her voice was trembling, laced with her growing anger and hurt.
Real fear surged through him at this. She was kicking him out? She couldn’t do that. He was very attached to the idea of home now and to have it taken away was terrifying in a way that confused him. She was home and she was barring him from her ******** that, Fuu. What the hell is wrong? I’m not with the girl am I?”
A frustrated scream bubbled from her lips as she regarded him. She didn’t miss the veiled look of panic in his eyes but it did nothing to assuage her wrath.
“You won’t let any guy near me, but you just run off to some stupid girl! Why Mugen? Am I that horrible?”
He surged against her, his lean frame pinning her slight body against the wall. His hands, his beautiful hands, clasped her face between his rough palms. Long fingers wove into her hair as he pulled her against him. He buried his face into the top of her head, murmuring fiercely into her ******** that chick Fuu, I couldn’t care less ‘bout her. I ain’t gonna ******** her either. I don’t want her.”
Fuu suddenly found her face being tilted upwards and Mugen slanted his mouth over hers in a kiss riddled with need. His need for her, his need for her to accept him, the need for stability, and a need to feel cared for and loved.
Fuu let her fingers lace into his wild mane, curling them into the unruly mass to anchor herself against his onslaught.
“It’s always been you, Fuu, it’s always been you.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:37 am
Sometimes she feels like some weight that keeps him from taking off. He is such a vagabond by nature she wonders if wandering isn’t etched too deeply in his soul to make him grow bored and restless with his mostly domesticated life and leave. His days are peaceful and long, devoid of violence and adventure and this worries her greatly at times. It would hurt to come home and find him gone, now that she has grown used to him lurking about, glaring and cursing and eating all her food. Sometimes she runs home just to make sure he is still there and he’ll just snort and look at her askance as if she is mad. The worst is when they walk past the sea and he gets this lost look in his eyes, staring out at the open waters. It terrifies her. She’ll break if he leaves. She can’t be too clingy or he’ll get annoyed and leave, repelled by her actions but she fears if she is too distant he’ll lose interest and head out. So she is sweet as much as possible and only screeches at him when he really deserves it, she cooks him dinner and doesn’t demand that he get a job. His life is easy, she makes sure of it even if it complicates hers because he is someone and she desperately wants someone to be there.
He sees the fear in her eyes when she bursts into the house and in a way it pisses him off. Does she really think he would just skip town without so much as a ‘thank-ya ‘mam’? Another part of him delights in her attachment, pleased that she cares enough to be worried about him leaving. She even deviates from her normal behavior in an effort to keep him around. She needn’t bother, he isn’t going anywhere. And yet another part is upset at her distress, wanting to smooth away the furrows on her brow. So he lingers, ignoring the siren call of the sea that always brings death and pain. Instead he burrows his way even deeper into the stationary warmth of the hut, sinking his claws deeper and deeper. She thinks she is keeping him there but in reality he is slowly but surely binding her to him, desperate that she doesn’t leave him like everything else in his life. She is the small ray of hope in the abyss that was his life thus far. When she falls asleep on the futon he has just recently been allowed to start sleeping on he runs his fingers down the curve of her spine and pulls her close to him, enjoying the thrill of intimacy he had never allowed himself before, something more exciting then the regulation wham bam thank you ‘mam that has grown so banal in his life. It is exotic to wake up next to the same person every morning and even though his fingers itch to rip off her clothes he doesn’t yet because the time isn’t right. He steals kisses when doesn’t expect it, pinning her to walls and sweeping her off her feet, all to hear her breathless gasp or feel her eager response, heedless of their surroundings. He likes it here, and he won’t leave until she forces his a** out in the cold and even then he will probably b***h and scream about it. Sometimes he doubts he’ll ever leave though, when he sees that soft look in her eyes and his wandering soul feels sated and at peace in those brief moments and that is a feeling worth pursuing.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:38 am
She waited anxiously on the wharf, hands wringing and occasionally shaking with nerves. Part of her was terrified that the fishing boat was actually an undercover pirate ship and he was going to wash up on shore in a million waterlogged pieces. The sails of the ship appeared over the horizon and a wave of pure relief swept through her.
He sprung over the side of the boat to the dock in a typical display of agility, a shiteating grin on his face at her nervously relieved appearance. Loud accolades were shouted at him from the crew and captain, offers of permanent jobs and higher positions called out to him as he approached her, money and a string of fish in hand. He accepted his sword from her small hands and boldly slung an arm around her shoulders.
“Miss me?”
His grinning face seemed even darker from his days at sea. Pleased with his praise and the fact she was snuggling up under his arm with no complainant as to his most likely offensive smell.
“Yeah I did. I just knew the ship was gonna sink. The crew seemed to like you.”
“Capt’n says I got a full time job if I ever want it.”
Fuu wrinkled her nose; she didn’t want him gone for days and days at a time on a regular basis. He pulled her closer against him, tucking her against his lean frame.
“Look ‘a these,” he crowed as he proudly presented a string of massive fish.
Fuu beamed up at him, mouth watering at the prospects.
“They’re huge,” she exclaimed, enjoying his childish pride at being praised so much in one morning.
Once they arrived at the hut she took the fish from him, idly marveling at their sheer size.
“Go take a bath, I’ll start dinner.”
Mugen ruffled her hair with fishy fingers, hooting with glee at her squeal of disgust. He skirted her wildly swinging fists and darted out the door, heading towards the river.
He returned shortly, dripping wet and naked from the waist up, geta thudding merrily against the ground. Fuu remained outwardly impassive but nearly fainted when he burst into the hut all glistening with his dark hair plastered to his skull.
“Why aren’t you wearing clothes Mugen?”
“Their diiiirrrtttyyy,” he whined, presenting the grungy clothes to Fuu.
An exasperated sigh wrenched from her lips as she took them from him and flung them into the scant pile of laundry. Bending over the fire she stirred the soup and turned the fish roasting over the flames.
Mugen sidled up behind her, pulling her completely off the ground, her body folded over his forearm. Her body writhed in protest while she squalled loudly.
“MUGEN, YOU PUT ME DOWN YOU DUMB JERK!!!!!!!!!”
“Nope.”
A dramatic, prolonged sigh was punctuated by an elbow to the stomach.
“How about put me down or your dinner will burn, you fool.”
With a pathetic sigh he gently placed her back down sliding his hands down her sides much slower then need be. A cerise flush crossed her cheeks and she spun to the fire to hide it from Mugen. He perched his head on her shoulder, winding his lean arms around her svelte torso. Frisky and affectionate after a few days at sea, he was immensely pleased by her skittish blush. Planting a fond kiss on her cheek he inspected the food over her shoulder.
“Looks good,” he said reaching for the fish.
Without batting an eyelash Fuu’s hand lashed out to smack his hand away from the simmering food.
“Not yet.”
Nuzzling her with abandon he bit her earlobe before skittering away, bare chest gleaming in the firelight. Her surprised squeal made him strut more then walk around the house, emanating male pride.
“Ready when you are sweetheart,” he drawled with a smug cockiness.
Fuu merely rolled her eyes and ladled the fish stew into some bowls while handing him a skewer of roasted fish.
She grinned to herself at his satisfied moans as he tore into the food. It made her feel good to know that she could wrest those noises from him with only food. She didn’t think Mugen was a marrying man but dammit if she didn’t prove she could make a good wife (even if she could be a tad ill-tempered and not quite even-keeled at times.) Bah, fiery was good. And Mugen would make a lazy, unpredictable, unexpectedly affectionate husband with a penchant for growling and cursing and violence. Goody. He’s lucky he’s cute.
“Hey b***h,” Mugen grunted, rubbing his distended belly.
Poking him viciously with her foot Fuu glared in reply.
“What?”
Bronze arms pulled her over to him, tucking her against his body; blissfully ignorant to her feeble protests.
“I missed ya.”
Her protests immediately stopped and she smiled at him with startling sincerity, snuggling up against his clean, mostly bare body.
“I missed you too Mugen.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:39 am
Mugen had only one threat to his monopoly on Fuu’s affection. It was small and cute and often latched on to his face. So he set about remedying the hitch to his total domination of Fuu’s attention. First he thought he should just eliminate the annoying threat. Upon further review, however, he discovered that would be detrimental to his cause. So he decided that he would win Fuu’s undivided attention and affection by winning over the love bandit that was pilfering her love.
At first it grated against his very being, being nice to the vermin that liked to attach its furry body to his face. Many times he thought about just biting the thing’s stomach out, but Fuu would probably cry and he really REALLY hated to see her cry. So he nobly bore it (with loud, muffled complaints).
Soon the annoyance ceased to be so annoying, and grew to be almost disgustingly cute. It would curl up in his wild, unruly hair and peer out at the world from its follicular nest. To his growing disdain he found himself idly playing with more and more. His long fingers stroking and fluttering gently all over her tiny, furry body. Her chirps and squeaks became endearing instead of strident and today he actually found himself buying the little rat a bag full of sunflower seeds; her favorite treat.
Fuu was filled with the urge to giggle and squeal everytime she caught her big, tough, macho skirt-chasing pirate playing with a tiny, furry squirrel. It was cute beyond words and she just couldn’t contain the need to hug him everytime she did.
“Did you buy Momo sunflower seeds?”
Her excited squeal melded with Momo’s happy chirps as she scrambled all over his body in an attempt to pinpoint the exact location of the tasty smell of the seeds.
He merely snarled something crude and tough-sounding in response, hoping to save his rough image.
“Awwww you and Momo are friends! How precious!”
Appalled at being referred to as precious Mugen huffed and spun away from Fuu, Momo riding atop his head. She chirped merrily from her lofty perch, black eyes twinkling with delight at the prospect of precious, precious seeds. With hands sly from years of pick-pocketing Mugen slipped Momo a seed, cheering up at her happy squeak. He turned to face Fuu, Momo scampering down his arm to sit on the back of one hand. A single swarthy finger absently scratched her head as he leveled a bored look at Fuu.
“Yeah, well I’m still gonna eat the flying rat.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:40 am
Dark, dewy eyes gazed up into his and he stared back with a raised brow. Little hands clenched the hem of his shorts in tiny fists. He snorted in irritation, surprised at the lack of reaction from the little girl. That snort sent most grown men scrambling away. She just looked up and grinned a lopsided smile, squealing and gurgling with delight as she tugged on his pants. She abruptly latched on to his leg and cooed, nuzzling his knee with her little face. He chortled and bent to scoop her up.
He was sitting on the ground with a giggling toddler in his lap when she returned from the market. She froze before he noticed her presence and watched him play with the little girl.
“Yeah, well, I guess you’re pretty cute. I bet people tell you that all the time don’t they sweetheart?”
A giggle and squeal answered him as he simultaneously played peek-a-boo.
“Well I guess all girls just dig me no matter what age they are, huh?”
The little girl laughed and buried her face in his billowing red jacket. He ruffled her dark hair and leaned back against the wall, letting the girl play with Momo as she sat in his lap.
“Where the hell is Fuu? I mean come on, how long does it take to get some freaking groceries? Oi, princess, how long?”
The toddler merely cooed and played with Momo.
Smiling, Fuu entered the room.
“I see you took to babysitting after all Mugen.”
Alarmed at being caught red-handed, he simply snorted and continued to idly pet the little girl’s hair.
“No Fuu, I’m just good with women.”
His cocky grin didn’t diminish even as the girl started to tug on his hair.
“See she can’t keep her hands off me Fuu, you better watch out she’s younger AND more pleasant then you.”
A whack to the head only encouraged him as he and the little girl laughed, his deep bellowing laughter blending with her dulcet giggles.
“C’mon Emiko, let’s go away from that nasty old pirate eh?”
Emiko squealed and pointed at Mugen.
“Pirate Pirate!”
“Yes he is a big scary pirate,” Fuu lifted her arms into the arm and made claws with her hands.
“Pssssh, don’t listen to her sweetheart, she’s crazy from eating rotten food because she is a bottomless pit.”
An outraged shriek pierced the air as Fuu punched Mugen in the back of the head, ignoring his pained yelp as she deftly scooped Emiko from his lap.
“Stupid man,” she groused, propping Emiko in her arms.
“But I’m your stupid man… So feed me.”
A look of disbelief twisted her features.
“Are you joking?”
“What? You went to the market to get food didn’t ya?”
“This coming from the man that just called me an old, unpleasant, crazed, bottomless pit?”
“Don’t worry your cute enough to make it work, now feeeeeeed me. Look Emiko is so hungry.”
Fuu blushed at being cute, having always been susceptible to flattery. Mugen sidled up and untangled Emiko from her, jouncing her onto his back where she trilled in euphoria at the prospect at a piggyback ride.
Nuzzling Fuu’s neck he nudged her towards the fire to cook their dinner. Fuu smiled over her shoulder at the lean man walking away with a giggling three-year-old clinging to his slightly swaying back. Maybe he really did have a way with most women regardless of age but part of her wanted it to be him having a secret soft spot for children. Either way he was just about the most adorably out of place picture with a squirrel and toddler using him as a jungle-gym like some benevolent giant. Oh well she would just have to announce how precious he was tomorrow… loudly… in public.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:41 am
He saw it in the way she put up with his s**t and the way she beamed whenever he was the slightest bit complimentary towards something she did. It was apparent in the way she washed his clothes and cooked his food. In the way she let him kiss her and returned the favor with equal fervor. The naked fondness and adoration in her eyes alone made it obvious. She either loved him or was well on her way there. It made him struggle with years of ingrained bad habits. He tried not to drink so much and had yet to go to a brothel since he found her. His fingers were considerably less sticky these days and he found himself doing a slew of odd, but honest, jobs these days. For her he tried to live up to it. He jealously guarded that love, having been starved for it his entire life. He nuzzled and kissed and never, never pressured.
It scared him, this love that lived in her eyes. It scared him, but not nearly as much as the fact that on some level, he loved her too.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:42 am
His fingers looked dark against the fairness of her face as they stroked over her cheek. His back was resting against the wall of the hut as they basked in the warm sun, Fuu curled up in the lap. Large hands stroked over her hair, back, face and shoulders, very content to feel her there. He would often forget just how small she was until she was silent like this. When she spoke she did so with such fire she seemed larger then she really was. She was so very small against his lean, wiry form. He dropped a kiss on her forehead and smirked at the flush that bloomed on her cheeks. She was really just too cute.
He was solid and hard beneath her fingertips as she brushed them along his chest, her eyes fixated on the swarthy swath of skin that formed his neck. Her eyes drifted up to his, which had relinquished the exquisite belligerence that they normally held. They looked as docile as she had ever seen them as he lay back against the hut, cuddling her to his chest. Her fingers slid up his chest to sift through his surprisingly soft hair. He was so beautiful it broke her heart sometimes. She was so afraid he would leave; less now then before but old fears die hard.
He looked down at her while she looked up at him with such big soft eyes it made him scared. He knew nothing of how to make her happy. He had no experience with women beyond bedding them and he suddenly found himself with a girl he had no intention of bedding then abandoning. His new favorite game was to make her blush since it made him laugh. Dipping his head his brushed his lips long the gentle curve of her neck, settling at the junction were it met her thin shoulders. A shudder wracked her body and he grinned against her pale skin. Yes if there was one thing he knew it was bedding women.
Fuu’s fingers formed fists, clumps of dark, unruly hair caught in-between her slender fingers. A small broken whimper escaped, much to her embarrassment, and Mugen doubled his former languid ministrations on her neck. She wiggled around as the sensation overwhelmed her. Pearly teeth took an earlobe and nipped gently, and Fuu sighed so breathily she wondered if he even heard it. She finally moaned when she felt his calloused hands slide down her body to cup her rear. Her body arched like a bow into him and she almost missed the dark rippling chuckled he rumbled out at her earnest response.
His blood was steadily simmering into a riotous boil at her response to every fleeting touch. Abruptly he stood, easily catching her little form as it started to fall. Her surprised yelp went unanswered and he merely carried her inside, away from prying eyes. A tinge of fear entered her doe eyes and he placed a loud kiss on her cheek, trying to ease her. He pressed her into the unmade futon, his body tight and thrumming with excitement. It had been a long time for him to subsist on stolen kisses and he was ready to devour her whole. She was willing but scared and he nuzzled her neck with a gentleness she wasn’t aware he possessed, kissing and licking and sucking. Kissing her while he hovered over her, his perpetually nimble fingers made quick work of her obi. With hands almost quivering in anticipation he slowly and reverently unwrapped her first her kimono and then her juban.
A short laugh broke free and anger instantly leapt into her eyes.
“I guess you really do look slender in clothes princess, these aren’t half bad.”
“I told you, you dumbass,” she snarled back, her earlier fear replaced with a fervent desire to perform well and annoyance.
He smirked and watched her face flush as he captured a taut, binding-covered peak in his mouth. He purred in satisfaction at the mew she emitted as he began to suckle her. Her soft pants fueled him and with a terrifying swiftness he had run a tanto through her chest bindings. He laughed at her momentary fright and nipped the mound gently, laving it with his tongue. Her hips ground upwards, instinctively meshing with his and he shuddering from the strain of taking not ripping off his clothes and brutally taking her right there.
Her hands shoved at his red haori, pushing it down to where it hung shapelessly off hiss elbows as he leaned over her. Taking the (rather forceful) hint he quickly shed it and his under shirt and let her pale, dexterous little hands ghosting over his chest.
Clothes were peeled off and flung carelessly across the hut, and his dark skin was pressed against her fair skin. His mouth and hands were everywhere, sinking and probing and licking and biting.
He was feral and hot and he seared her as he lowered himself onto her. Kissing her neck gently as he pressed into her, he stilled at her pained whimper. Long forearms braced him over her, and he pressed his lips to her forehead as he arched his back and furrowed into her again, eliciting a prolonged moan. The mixture of pain and pleasure had her head spinning and tossing back and forth. Cries for increased speed brought him out of his uncharacteristic tenderness and pushed him into familiar territory. Utilizing his inhuman flexibility in a way that had her keening into the dim light of the hut, he twisted his hips and lunged forward at the same time. Fingers scored his back and dug into the oscillating muscles beneath his swarthy skin.
“M-mugen.”
He grunted in reply pistoning in and out to her continued delight. With an ebullient cry she arched up against him before sagging down bonelessly against the futon, her glazed dreamy eyes watching the wolfish grin that burgeoned on his face die as his thrusts lost their crazed finesse. Lowering himself down onto her he gathered her in his arms, nuzzling her neck.
As he laid there cuddling the small girl he wondered if she realized the enormity of what had just transpired. Whether she grasped that he had definitely transcended from transitory to permanent.
As she laid there pressing her sweaty body against his larger, sunkissed frame, she wondered if he realized that she would give herself to no one but him. That he had completely stolen her attention and would hold her captive to her dying day, regardless of whether he wanted said attention.
So they laid there, each wondering about the other and clinging more tightly, anchoring themselves subconsciously against the feelings of uncertainty that endeavored to sweep them apart.
She felt better when he gently kissed her forehead and tucked her under against his chest.
He felt better when she rubbed her head against his chin and smiled up at him in a wistful, adoring fashion.
So they fell asleep in the dim light of the hut in a tangled heap and couldn’t have been happier.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:43 am
She was late getting out of the teahouse and more or less dead on her feet as she began the walk home. Night ensconced everything in its tenebrous shroud, shadows staining corners and alleys even darker shades of black. She shivered; usually Mugen was there to walk her home at this time of night. Every shadow seemed to be shifting and reaching out towards her with gnarled fingers. She was being irrational and she knew it. She had made this walk many times under far worse conditions then she was currently under to no ill-effect. She had recently just become accustomed to having Mugen around and that was probably not wise seeing as how he had no real obligation to stay. She stared angrily at the sea as she walked down the road, her eyes suspicious and accusing. Stupid Ocean, she was pretty sure that if anything stole her away it would the freedom of the open sea. She was just as sure that the sea and Mugen didn’t always play nice and he was very likely to get hurt or shipped back to prison for piracy. Lately he had gone out with the fishermen a lot and had been bringing in a fair amount of money since they paid him well. Being a former pirate he was a skilled sailor and this made him invaluable when they could coerce him to come out.
The hut’s windows were soft squares of glowing light as she approached it. He had just overhauled the roof last week. The random talents and skills he had picked up in his twenty-three years never ceased to amaze her. Her hut was practically brand new with all the work he had done on it since he had gotten here. She wearily pushed open the door to see Mugen sitting on the floor with his back to her. He was staring at something in his hands while the fire cast flickering shadows over his face.
“Mugen,” she asked; concern evident in her voice.
He looked almost hesitantly over his shoulder at her, the object of his attention cradled in his hands which were resting in his lap.
“What’s wrong?”
His eyes looked wild and almost scared for a second before they cooled into their normal shrewd cunning. His hands furled around the item and he spun to face her, shoving the thing unceremoniously into her hands.
Fuu looked down at the bundle of silk then back to Mugen who offered no explanation only a mean look and his back.
She carefully opened the bundle and gasped in surprise. A long string of impossibly blue beads was nestled in the silk. Thin golden veins ran through some of the beautiful, opaque beads and she had never seen such beautiful beads. Large teardrop earrings accompanied them and she knew she had never seen this stone before. Another bracelet of braided rope was nestled amongst the finer jewelry and it drew her eye.
She crossed the room and plopped without pretension into his lap.
She smiled up at him with such a happy face it made him lose his macho scowl and smile back down at her, forgetting his embarrassment at being sweet.
“Where did you get these, I’ve never seen anything like them.”
His gaze became shifty and he smiled wickedly.
“Some old friends just came back in from an extended trip at sea,” he said dismissively. Fuu suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. So the goods came from pirates, which made them valuable contraband goods from some exotic providence far flung from little Japan.
“My ears aren’t pierced.”
“I can pierce them. I pierced mine.”
Fear spiked into her at the thought but subsided once she looked to his unmangled ears and how prettily glossy the stone was.
“What’s this bracelet?”
He looked to the side sheepishly.
“Sailors make them and give them to their old ladies when they go off to sea. Usually they wear them first and use them to wipe sweat off but I haven’t been out to sea to muck it up.”
A huge, touched smile graced her face and she eagerly worked the bracelet over her small wrist. She carefully looped the beads around her neck and snuggled into his chest her earrings cupped in her hand.
“You know you did something legitimately sweet and cute right?”
He grumbled dismissively but it was all for show since he wrapped her up in his arms and pulled her closer. An evil chuckle interrupted her peace as he propped his head on top of hers.
“What?”
“I get to pierce your ears.”
“I know, I’m scared.”
“I’ll be gentle,” he purred in a wholly unconvincing manner as he goosed her.
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:44 am
She sat rigidly still as he held the flame up to the thick needle. His face was placid and eyes had the same smoothness of a halcyon sea. She, however, was hardly suppressing her shivers of anxiety.
“Ready?”
He sounded like he was asking her if she liked rice, not like he was asking her if she was prepared to have holes punched in her ears by a bloodthirsty pirate.
“No.”
Wide fearful eyes greeted his and he pressed his lips to her forehead.
“I would never hurt you.”
His voice was laced with a somberness that spoke of greater meaning then suggested at face value.
“It will be uncomfortable but you’ve had worse.”
With a flick of his wrist she felt the metal pierce through her fleshy ear lobe and she felt Mugen slide in her earring with surprising delicacy.
Once the process was repeated he brought over the polished piece of glass they used as a mirror and she admired her beautiful earrings and newly pierced ears. She felt pretty and high class with her rare lapis earrings and necklace. But her fingers always brushed over the soft braided rope that he gave her.
He smiled. She really looked like a princess. Maybe he should work until he could buy her a new kimono; hers was looking a little raggedy lately. Maybe something low-cut. Nah he would buy her something a samurai’s daughter should wear because she wouldn’t buy it for herself. She would probably say they didn’t have the money. But really hime-chan needed a pretty kimono to match that jewelry. If she knew how much money that set was worth she might have a stroke. The jewelry had been bought a severely reduced price from some old buddies from Ryukyu who had gotten the jewelry from a ship heading to China from the Middle East. It was real lapis lazuli, a rare and expensive stone that brought huge profits when scalped. But he loved the way her fingers kept playing with the simple bracelet he had made her. If she was a princess then he was the illicit stable boy lover.
When he saw her sometimes he got angry because he knew she could do so much better then him if she looked at some lord with a hint of the look she gave him. But he knew that he couldn’t give her up. He knew she wouldn’t make him either.
“I’m not leaving. Ever.”
It was sudden and abrupt and spilled out in an angry, confused rush.
Fuu looked up from the glass instantly. Happy tears formed a film over her calf eyes and she flung herself into his arms, burying her face in him.
He felt the tears seeping into his shirt but ignored it, pressing her possessively into him. His fingers undid her hair and he raked them through her heavy locks.
She looked up at him with a heartbreakingly honest smile and pressed a chaste kiss to the tip of his nose.
“Mugen… I love you. So please don’t say that unless you really mean it.”
Fear and joy warred for dominance over his poor, beleaguered mind. He pressed a kiss to her lips and laughed against her neck, arms nearly crushing her in a vice so tight as to almost be worrisome.
“ I bet your mom woulda been thrilled eh? Pops too.”
She just smiled at him.
“I think mom would have liked you after a while. And dad owes you a lot… I.. I-I’m JUST SO HAPPY!”
He swallowed and steeled himself.
“This means I can keep you right?”
“I’ve been yours for a long time Mugen.”
“Hey brat.”
“Yes?”
“I love you too.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:45 am
Her eyes shimmered with tears as they gazed up at him accusing and wounded and overall petrified. He did his best to look surly and impassive and not panicked and remorseful. That wouldn’t do, he had to be big and scary and a jackass. You didn’t miss jackasses. When a jackass was lost at sea you don’t languished in despair over their death.
“Why do you have to do this,” she sobbed brokenly into her hands, her knees giving out. As she sank to the floor a broken crying mess he felt true remorse for the first time in the black stain that was his life. Pain swelled within him at the knowledge he caused this. This was something he had to do and her concern for him overrode her understanding.
Stooping down to pick her up he reeled backwards when her small fist smashed into his chest with heartbreak-fueled strength. The resulting pain was more emotional then physical and it worried him that he was so affected by her rebuttal. He backed off with upsettingly disturbed eyes like a kicked puppy and looked down at her seething form. Collecting her limbs she launched to her feet and glared at him. Shaking her head she pivoted and started off towards the teahouse.
Slow shuffling steps brought him to the shallow cove where the pirate ship as moored. A slew of familiar faces assailed him and called out to him, excited to have someone with his experience and reputation aboard. The heist was ambitious and dangerous and promised an enormous payoff for them all if it succeeded. He scrubbed his face with long tawny fingers and climbed aboard in a haze of confusion and guilt.
He watched the sea roll like the hips of a sashaying woman and wondered what she was doing. He missed her more then he cared to admit and had withdrawn from most of the crew; engaging in an uncharacteristic abstinence from violence. He made her another bracelet from soft, salty rope that he used to mop his brow and wipe sea spray from his even tanner face. He just stared at the clear liquid that was calling out to him, ready and willing to sear his throat and numb his pain. He roughly brushed aside hookers and women that were ready and willing to lie on their backs and slake the lust that burned like a funeral pyre. Her face haunted him and he ached to touch her. It seemed like years since he had seen her and he began to fear she wouldn’t accept him when he returned. Fuu would not care that he returned a much wealthier man, she would only know that he left her, not understanding he left for her sake alone. He was scared and it pained him that such a small, slip of a girl had brought him so low.
The sand made a soft crunching sound under his geta as he trudged up the beach. Shouts echoed behind him as his crew screamed their goodbyes and congratulations and accolades (because he was, in fact, an excellent pirate). Townsfolk whispered furiously as he trudged past like a man walking to the gallows. Gossip about him was rampant and many disapproved of his relationship with Fuu. They saw only that the town darling had taken up with riff raff that lived in her home and kissed her and made no move to marry her. They saw him suddenly disappear then sulk back in weeks later.
He couldn’t blame them for their concern; he was beside himself with the need to see her safe even if he wasn’t sure she would even let him in the hut.
As he approached the hut he heard a familiar chirp and looked into the auspices of the nearest tree to find Momo chirping merrily at him. He smiled ruefully at the little squirrel and held out his hand. The rodent immediately glided into his palm and scrambled up his arm to nest in his hair. He quietly slipped off his shoes at the door and slid it open, looking guiltily inside. He crossed the empty room to their futon, his nose full of her scent. Collapsing gracelessly onto the futon he nuzzled the sheets, taking in her smell and trying not to think about her possibly volatile reaction to his return. So he lay in the bed and played with Momo, completely lost in thought.
His head swiveled slowly to face the open door, his eyes glazed and not really seeing. She was frozen on the stoop and the rigidness of her little body gradually dissipated the anxiety-induced fog that had seized his brain. For once his feral eyes were not sharp and wild and cutting; they were mournful and longing and soft. He looked up at her from the place they had once slept in a snarl of arms and legs and he was stripped of all his walls of thorns. He looked young; at only 24 he still was fairly young. He looked tired and so alone and destitute of the fire and anger and violent passion that was Mugen that she felt a physical ache bloom in her chest.
Tears tracked down her cheek and she sank down to the floor, doe eyes regarding him as if she didn’t believe he was really there.
“I won’t ever leave again.”
He crawled over to her, spurred into action by her tears.
“I had ta do it Fuu, I needed to do this. I got paid for it and I’m alright. And I missed you and please don’t kick me out.”
His words were an earnest rush, uncharacteristic and scared. His hands gripped hers and one raised up to cup her cheek. He touched his forehead to hers, scared by her silence and overwhelmed with the need to just be near her. He was starved for love his whole life and after having a taste of someone caring for him he couldn’t imagine going back to the life of a loveless drifter.
“I could buy you a better hut now or build you one. I had to do it, I had to, I had to.”
She just looked at him with tear clouded eyes, one fair hand coming up to wind her fingers in his hair.
“Please don’t ever leave again Mugen, please please. It was so terrible, what if you had gotten caught. You can only cheat death so many times. I don’t care about new huts or whether you are a loaded prince or penniless pirate, I just want you with me.”
He crushed his mouth to hers, devouring her like a starving man. Swarthy hands were everywhere and he suckled hard on the juncture of her neck, staking and claiming.
In the haze of lust that she found herself lost in, Fuu could hardly tell up from down and she was yelling until her throat was raw and Mugen hammered away until she was nearly sobbing for release.
“MU-gen,” she cried out, arching up and sinking blunt teeth into his shoulder to belatedly muffle her screams.
As his hips surged against hers one final time he swore to make it up to her, even if he had to spend all day in the futon showing her how much he missed her.
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