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Miwaku no Zakuro	By : Tcharlatan Category: > Kyo/Kaoru Views: 2861 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of pure fiction. I do not personally know any of the members of Dir en grey, X Japan, or KISAKI, and do not profit from this work.

Chapter List
- 31
- 32
- 33
The past couple hours may not take the record for the worst time in Kyo’s life – that honor remaining firmly held by the two days spent in Time Out – but they were pretty high up on the list. Curled into as small a ball as he could manage on a cushioned seat, his head pillowed on Kaoru’s thigh, the blonde had spent what felt like an eternity trying to steady his breathing enough to keep his stomach from forcibly vacating breakfast. He hadn’t known where they were going, told only that Kaoru had business in another prefecture for the next week and that he would be going along to keep his master company, but he didn’t have long to worry about it before he found himself focused entirely on fighting to retain some small shred of dignity through his nausea. The motion sickness bag kindly provided by the bullet train attendants had, luckily, never become necessary, but it had been a very close thing for a very long time.
Kaoru had spent the trip dozing, one hand stroking absently over his pet’s hair, periodically peeking one eye half open to watch the terrain speed by through the window to his left or to check on the massive dog sprawled out and snoring on the floor of the private car. The dog – Epyon – was Kaoru’s favorite of the guard dogs reared on his property; a dark brindle bitch of only two-thirds the bulk of any of the males, but no less competent a protector for her smaller size. She also had the papers and credentials necessary for a service dog, so she was allowed to accompany Kaoru wherever he might go and he had indicated that her services were all the escort he would need on this particular trip. Her imposing presence did nothing to sooth Kyo’s nerves; he got the feeling she would be serving as his leash on top of her sentinel duties.
It wasn’t until they were well off the train and partway through the station that Kyo had been able to get himself steadied again; had looked up and realized where they were. It took a long moment of staring for him to fully register and believe what he saw. The very modern architecture of the immense, multi-story complex of highly geometric storefronts, open air but covered overhead by a heavy arch of steel and glass webbing, was unmistakable as anything other than Kyoto-eki. Without any demands or negotiations or bargaining, Kaoru had taken him home.
It had been, for the better part of an hour, too much for Kyo to take in. They stopped at a coffee shop for drinks and lunch; outside the station, they caught up with a man holding a sign reading only “Niikura” and were loaded into a limo; they drove out of the city and across the countryside. Through all of it, all the blonde could do was stare about himself in numb incredulity, cheeks flushed with astonished gratitude as he soaked up the sights, sounds, and smells of his homeland. Kaoru was terribly amused. Finally, when they parked at the end of a winding driveway in front of a home that was somewhat smaller than Kaoru’s mansion – though no less magnificent – and a jovial voice called out to them, Kyo snapped out of his trance.
“I thought I smelled a sewer rat!”
Startled, Kyo turned away from staring at the grove of cherry blossom trees sprawling out across the lawns to look for the speaker. Descending the front stairs was a man who so flawlessly matched the elegance of their surroundings – even dressed as he was in a casual black button-down shirt and fitted jeans – it was impossible to believe he was anything but the lord of this land. He was a few years older than Kaoru and slightly taller, with purely aristocratic features framed by dark, red-gold hair, the regality of his appearance dulled only slightly by the blinding grin pulling incessantly at his lips. Kyo gaped a little when he saw that the man was looking straight at his master.
‘Did he just… call Master Kaoru a sewer rat?’
Kaoru flashed an answering grin. “Yoshiki, you useless fop, don’t tell me you’d already forgotten I was coming?”
“Forgotten my favorite piece of guttertrash? Never!” The man beamed, wrapping Kaoru into a back-slapping hug that the shorter man was unusually tolerant of. “It’s been far too long, Kaoru, welcome to my home.”
“It wouldn’t have been so long if you’d showed up for Christmas, you poncey bastard,” Kaoru scolded, not unkindly.
Kyo was completely lost. He’d never seen Kaoru speak to anyone so rudely, and he’d certainly never seen anyone insult the man to his face. Even Die’s customary teasing never went quite this far, yet his master seemed entirely unfazed by what seemed like a terribly offensive greeting. Then that aristocratic gaze fell on Kyo and he froze, staring up at the man like a startled prey animal caught unawares.
“And who is this, now?” Yoshiki wondered, still smiling.
One corner of Kaoru’s mouth quirked up a bit. “This is Kyo Nishimura. He’s my current companion.”
“Is that so? Rather unlike your usual attendants, if I may say so. What manner of creature might you be, Mr. Nishimura, to have fallen into this rogue spider’s web?”
Kyo faltered. He almost never had to deal with people beyond Kaoru’s little inner circle since the Christmas party, and he had no idea how he was supposed to behave around Yoshiki. Was he friend enough to be honest with? Or was he just a business contact? Were he a more practiced courtesan, Kyo would have known exactly how to flirt and engage in playful little word games with any and all of his master’s associates, but as he was, he could only be as diplomatically vague as possible until he established a better understanding of the situation.
Shifting his weight, he tilted his head a bit and spoke uncertainly. “I am… whatever my master needs me to be. I have been a banshee, a peacock, a butterfly, and a prophet for him.”
Yoshiki laughed, delighted. “Truly? How charming!”
“He can also be something of a hen from time to time,” Kaoru added, sparing Kyo a faint wink, “And a warumono when the mood strikes him. But he suits me well enough. Now, are you going to invite us inside or keep us out on your lawn all day?”
“Of course, of course! I’ll have the help tend to your things.” Yoshiki turned, leading them back up the stairs and into the house. “You know you’re always welcome in my home, but I have to wonder what brings you all the way out here out of the blue?”
“We require some assistance. You remember the gentleman I have overseeing my holdings in the entertainment sector of the business?”
“Mr. Hara? That delightful young man with the blue hair and the odd laugh? Of course.”
“He was attacked a few weeks ago – a botched hit.”
“Oh my! That’s very serious, is he alright?” Yoshiki looked worried as he led his guests into his den, settling onto a massive plush couch as an admirably discrete butler served drinks.
“He’s doing well enough now, but he’ll be undergoing physical therapy for a while yet.” Kaoru scowled as he settled into a seat across from the older man. “We were able to catch his assailant, but we still haven’t been able to track down who hired him in the first place. Since then, we’ve caught three more assassination attempts; all of the mercenaries Russian, and all telling the same story of a man in a mask calling himself the Falcon, calling for the death of any one of my lieutenants.”
“Is that so… Well, you know I’m always happy to help where I can, Kaoru. But something like this will take at least a few days, and you typically call me with such jobs rather than visiting personally. Do you distrust someone in your home?” Yoshiki wondered. If so, it was going to be a much more delicate job to try to smoke out the rat.
“Hmm? Oh no, not at all. It’s a convenient excuse for a vacation, is all.” Kaoru’s scowl faded into a faint smirk as he nodded to Kyo. The blonde had found his way to the large window overlooking the gardens and was gazing out over the grounds excitedly as a gust of wind blew sakura petals into the sky. “Plus, my pet was missing his homeland, and he can be rather difficult to say ‘no’ to.”
~*~
Days passed, and Kyo wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t dreaming it all. Since October, he’d been in something of an emotional freefall, caught occasionally in viciously spiraling whirlwinds and thrown about so much that he couldn’t tell if he was still falling, or had crashed and broken apart long ago. But he’d been so completely, unequivocally happy since coming back to Kyoto that he was almost certain he was flying, and nothing could put a damper on his spirits. And somewhere along the way, he found his regard for Kaoru shifting from acknowledgement of a symbiotic bond, into a vague sort of adoration and gratitude.
On vacation – away from work and Kaoru's three "brothers" – he had his master’s undivided attention, and while the basic dynamic of inequality defining their relationship never changed, part of him was blossoming under the older man’s affections. He found himself speaking to Kaoru more often, more openly than he had before; allowing himself to expose a little more of ‘Kyo’ rather than always hiding behind the encompassing pretense of ‘Kaoru’s pet.’ He worried less and less about his boundaries, more secure in his place at his master's side, and a lot of the strain and tension he’d been carrying around for the past six months started to fade away, minute shades at a time. The corner of his mind railing for freedom had dwindled down to an almost-inaudible whisper anymore; something easily ignored when its cries hurt too much to tolerate, when the delusion was so much sweeter than any life he'd ever known.
And Kaoru was more than content to spoil his little pet rotten, obliging the younger man’s every whim whenever he built up the nerve to voice one simply because he enjoyed seeing him happy. They spent a lot of their time in Gion, watching the geiko dancing in their annual Miyako Odori, and visiting kimono weavers. Kyo got his white miso, as well as kyo kaiseki meals, obanzai and countless other local specialties on which Kaoru spared no expense to obtain only the highest quality. They went to Minami-za for a kabuki performance, watched cherry blossoms shed their flowers and fed koi from the Togetsu-kyo Bridge, and shopped endlessly for souvenirs for Shinya, Die, and Toshiya.
Kaoru had also indulged himself in a bit of shibari, and Kyo was in such a jubilant mood, he couldn’t even think of denying the man a little bit of exhibitionism. He’d found himself suspended a few meters off the ground, bound in a massive web stretched between two ancient maple trees on Yoshiki’s property, his modesty maintained only by a black cloth wrapped around his hips. The height and exposure would normally be terrifying for Kyo, but he’d come to find a strange sort of peace within himself during such sessions; similar to the feeling he got during heavy thunderstorms. Where storms freed and opened up his mind, the rope play seemed to bare his emotional core to the elements, and it was an exhilarating experience so long as his master was nearby to keep him anchored and protected. The fact that Kaoru so dearly loved to see him bound that way was no small motivation, either.
“Master?”
Kaoru, hands tucked comfortably in the pockets of his casual black slacks, glanced from behind his sunglasses to where Kyo was walking beside him. Today, they were running a circuit of various shrines; Kaoru watching with amused curiosity as Kyo left lovingly-prepared offerings at each before praying to the enshrined deities. The blonde looked wholly and absolutely content with life, balanced on the low wooden barrier along the edge of the sidewalk, his bag of offerings hanging from one wrist. From his other wrist, the dangling tail end of a new string of ornate metal spheres and loops swung jauntily with his every movement. The spring sun was absorbed by the muted grey silk of his summer yukata – a souvenir from their visit to the Gion weavers – but was catching and dancing on the scales of the golden dragon dyed across the back.
“Yes, pet?”
“You and Mr. Hayashi are… friends, aren’t you?”
“Oh yes. He’s a good friend of mine from college, and a very valuable ally at times. He’s not directly affiliated with any particular organization, but he has more contacts and access to delicate information than anyone else in the country.”
“Why are you two so rude to one another?”
Kaoru chuckled a bit. “Yoshiki is from a very wealthy, important family, while I… am not. So he calls me filthy guttertrash and I call him a worthless snob, and things between us remain light-hearted. If we take each other too seriously, we both tend to be somewhat controlling, and we just end up bickering over ever last petty detail.”
One side of Kyo’s mouth hitched up in a half grin, his own thoughts dripping with sarcasm.
‘My master? A control freak? Never!’
Kaoru saw the look and nudged the younger man with one elbow; not enough to knock him off the wall, but enough to stagger his balance a bit. “Don’t be a punk.”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“You thought it plenty loud.”
Kyo wrinkled his nose and shrugged sheepishly, then lifted his attention a bit from the area directly in front of his feet, where he tended to focus when he was walking. Spotting something interesting further along the wall, he picked up his pace to an eager trot, putting a couple of meters between himself and his master before crouching over the curiosity. At Kaoru’s other side, Epyon perked at the sudden movement, ready to give chase if issued the command, but the man held her leash just as calmly as before, so she quickly settled back down.
When they caught up with the blonde, they found him mulling over a furry little insect crawling over his fingers and periodically stretching up the front half of its body to swing about in the air, searching with near-useless eyes for something that looked more like food. Kyo was frowning thoughtfully, as if the little creature had reminded him of something important.
“Ne… Master?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think all caterpillars want to become butterflies?”
Kaoru cocked his head a bit, contemplatively. “I don’t presume to know what caterpillars want out of life, but I can’t imagine why one wouldn’t. Don’t all ground-bound creatures envy those born to flight?”
“Maybe, but… does flight make butterflies better? I mean… the butterfly is almost a parasite, isn’t it? They’re not the same animal at all; the caterpillar basically dies in order for the butterfly to live. Maybe some of them would rather stay furry little worms than risk life being blown around in the wind on tissue-paper wings.”
Kaoru thought on that, taking the insect from his pet with a careful hand and watching it climb over his palm. “…I think that regardless of what it might want, or what it stands to lose in the process, the caterpillar is destined to become a butterfly. What you want is rarely – if ever – what you need, after all, and fate is never concerned with the former. I think it’s a universal truth for all creatures that we must become just who we are meant to be, regardless of our own wishes on the matter.”
Kyo watched his master place the caterpillar on a shaded leaf in a nearby bush, fidgeting with the beads on his wrist. He suspected, on more than one occasion, that while Kaoru didn’t necessarily regret the way his life had gone, it wasn’t anything like what the man had wished for himself. What he’d learned of his master’s past from Toshiya certainly suggested as much, and he knew from his own observations and subtle hints in previous conversations that Kaoru hoped one day to start a family – to get married and have children and provide for his offspring all that he had grown up without. He also knew that Kaoru viewed that as a pipe dream; an idle fantasy that would probably never be realized simply because of who and what he was.
Kyo wondered if the Kaoru of the past had fought the silk cocoon that instigated his metamorphosis into the spider the way the caterpillar in his dream had. If the solemn look on the older man’s face was any indication, he had; right to the bitter end.
“Kaoru?”
“Hm?”
“Do you ever pray?”
Kaoru gave him an odd look, at once amused and surprised. “No. Why would I? You said yourself, I’m practically a god.”
“You should try it,” Kyo asserted, slipping his hand into the older man’s and tugging him back into movement towards their destination. “Come on, you can pray to Inari with me. We’ll give fried tofu to the kitsune standing watch out front, and they’ll help make sure She hears us.”
“You really believe in that kind of thing?”
“Well… I believe in what I can see and touch and experience for myself… but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope for more, right?”
“I suppose. I’m not sure I would know what to pray for.”
“Guidance. Strength. For tomorrow to be better than today. Whatever you feel you need, and even if you’re not sure, Inari will know. Usually She looks after things involving prosperity and the harvest and such. Hey, you know, She turned into a spider once!”
“Is that so?”
“Mmhmm, to punish a man named Raiko for being a selfish prick.” Kyo frowned a little then, looking over at his master. “Don’t be… you know… bossy with Her or the kitsune, though, okay? She won’t like it. And don’t tell Her I called you a god, I don’t want Her to be mad at me.”
Kaoru smiled indulgently. “I’ll be on my best behavior.”
Epyon let out a faint grumble as they walked; ears perked a bit, tail held stiffly, ready to defend her master. She was on the alert, sensing some undefined menace nearby, but not distressed enough to call attention to herself until she could spot whatever it was. A steady gaze watched the pair pass, the watcher blending easily into the surroundings with nondescript clothing and a casual air about him. Once they were out of earshot, he pulled out a cell phone and dialed a familiar number. Two rings, and an aristocratic, yet gruff voice greeted him.
“Hello?”
“It’s me. I think I may have found an answer to our issue with the spider.”
“In Kyoto? What might that be?”
“A softer target.”
~*~
“You’re certain you can’t stay a bit longer? Honestly, I was getting used to the smell of sewage coming from my guest room, and I’m sure your little pet was enjoying the time spent in nicer surroundings than that hovel you live in.” Yoshiki was sulking a bit as his servants loaded suitcases into the trunk of the limousine.
Kaoru chuckled and bowed politely. “My apologies, friend, but I do have to be getting back to my business. Besides, any longer here and I’ll run the risk of your triviality and vanity rubbing off on me, and we all know the world doesn’t need another worthless dandy prancing about.”
Kyo couldn’t hide a slight grin as the men exchanged another hearty, pointedly masculine embrace – a decidedly Western custom both seemed particularly fond of. It was funny because Kaoru’s house and property were both larger than Yoshiki’s, and all three of them knew it. And Yoshiki was a bit vain, to be sure, but certainly nowhere near as narcissistic as Kaoru, and they all knew that too. Watching the two men interact over the past week had been as entertaining as it was fascinating; a constant exchange of outrageous insults masking their underlying respect and fondness for one another.
Yoshiki tilted his head a bit, slightly more serious. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of any more help. Too many people are too restless right now… something is happening, and whoever’s in charge of it is being uncommonly covert about the whole thing.”
Kaoru nodded sagely. “You’ve done more than any of us could. Shinya and I will look over what you’ve found and see if we can’t make sense of any of it.”
“Of this much I can be sure; more than one family is involved, and this isn’t a simple grudge. I suspect the assassination attempts on your three advisors are an effort to blow sand into your eyes, not the ultimate goal. Watch your back, Kaoru.”
Kaoru snorted a bit. “Don’t I always?”
Yoshiki frowned, worried. “You’re too cocky. You’re awfully young to be playing with the stakes you are, and I know that you’re more competent than most, but you’re not invincible, and neither is your family.”
Kaoru’s expression darkened, and Kyo knew he was thinking about Toshiya; how suddenly catastrophe had struck them, how close they’d come to losing him, how helpless they’d all been to protect him. “That much has become abundantly clear to me of late. I will not be cowed by this cloak-and-dagger bullshit, but I will be careful, Yoshiki.”
“Excellent. And give my regards to Toshiya and Die for me, won’t you?”
“Of course. Not Shinya?”
Yoshiki gave a sly grin and winked. “My regards for that boy would be improper to pass along second-hand.”
Kaoru rolled his eyes. “I’ve told you before; you’re barking up an entirely unoccupied tree. He’s never shown interest in anyone, let alone your old, poncey ass.”
“A man can dream.” Yoshiki turned to Kyo. “And you.”
Kyo just blinked up at the older man. They hadn’t spoken much, but what words they had exchanged had been pleasant enough, and he was reasonably comfortable around him after a week in his house. Yoshiki put his hands on the blonde’s shoulders and regarded him intently.
“You take care of this ego-maniacal street punk for me, alright? You’re the strangest courtesan I’ve ever met, but you seem to be doing him some good. Don’t let him run himself into an early grave.”
Kyo bobbed his head. “Yes, Mr. Hayashi.”
But as Kyo and Kaoru settled into the limo, Epyon curling up on the floor at their feet, he couldn’t help but wonder over the parting instruction.
‘How much longer will He need me, anyways?’
‘It’s been… 188 days… just over six months.’
‘I feel like any minute now, He’s going decide He’s bored with me.’
‘Isn’t that what I want?’
‘I’ll be free but… where will I go?’
‘I’m not sure I know how not to be His anymore…’
A nudge against his side brought his attention back to Kaoru momentarily. He accepted a motion sickness pill from his master with a small, grateful smile. Curling up against the older man’s side, he stared out the window with unseeing eyes, watching the last cherry blossom petals of the season rain sedately around them on a gentle breeze.
‘I can’t help but feel like something bad is about to happen…’
- 31
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- 33
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Miwaku no Zakuro