Fic: Miss Holic (part 1)
Title: Miss Holic (part 1)
Fandom: xxxHolic
Pairings and Characters: Doumeki/Watanuki, Yuuko
Rating: PG 13
Note: AU, crossover to the musical, Miss Saigon. I wrote this about 2 years ago, when I saw Miss Saigon on stage. That was the height of my obsession, and the fandoms mixed in my brain, giving birth to this. Despite the age of this piece, I am still proud of it, considering I spent the longest time on it. Anywho, I now present to you the first chapter of Miss Holic. Enjoy!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Saigon, 1975
The Saigon night was unusually smoky as a group of American Marines travelled in large groups to the sleazy parts of the city. Among these men was one Shizuka Doumeki, a Japanese-born American drafted into the Vietnam War at age 18. That had been a year ago. The now 19-year-old male drifted with his comrades into one of the more popular “gentlemen’s clubs” of Saigon, “Wish Shop.”
Do not immediately assume that Shizuka was one to look for the prostitutes of these clubs. Instead, the boy, for the man was still so young, had a tendency to frequent these bars for the alcohol. He’d never been to this specific bar before, but had heard that they offered Japanese sake of quite high quality for the sleaziness of the area it was located.
It was this rumor that had drawn Shizuka from his quarters, and out onto the sweltering streets of springtime Saigon, into the sleaziest part of town. Despite the fact that this club had a large number of women selling themselves around him, and had many of his companions acting like total pigs, the boy’s bored expression never faltered as he ordered the sake, which turned out to be of much higher quality than he’d imagined.
While the man was sipping, the bar’s owner, a tall woman with long black hair, walked onto the small stage that normally housed the dancers. The woman had on a strangely elegant red kimono decorated in a black butterfly pattern that almost seemed alive in the dim lighting of the club. The woman held up her hand to quiet the bar down, and, without saying a word, managed to do just that. Shizuka could just feel the mysterious and powerful aura that surrounded her, even from his seat at the bar. It seemed this woman had a lot more to her than she let on.
“And now, Gentlemen, the one you all have been waiting for,” the woman spoke in a mysterious voice that seemed oddly fitting. “The best this club, and all of Saigon, has to offer, the one and only-Kimi!”
The woman moved offstage as a single spotlight focused on the curtains on the back of the stage, which parted slightly as the thin figure of a delicate woman stepped through. This woman looked to be about Shizuka’s age, but the boy didn’t think much of it, until the woman turned to face the bar when starting her dance.
If Shizuka Doumeki had been a more expressive person, he might have gaped at this girl, but, since he was a Doumeki, he did not gape, settling for a slight widening of his eyes. The girl, much like the owner of the bar, was clearly of Japanese origin, but had skin that was much paler than most of those with Asian heritage. The girl’s black hair fell to her shoulders, and curled ever so slightly at the end, accenting her heart-shaped face. The girl, even from afar, had a foreign sort of beauty about her that almost seemed to command the whole room.
It was easy to see why the girl was considered the best of the business. Even without the practiced skill the girl now exhibited in her sensual dance, the girl’s features alone could have men practically drooling at her feet. Even though her dress was slightly longer than the other girls’, which struck Shizuka as odd, it was clear this girl was no beginner in the business, and was damn good at what she did.
Despite the girl’s obvious experience, Shizuka could also sense an air of naïveté, and hidden power, about her. It appeared that this girl, much like the bar’s owner, was more than she seemed. And, for once, Shizuka Doumeki was interested in finding out what, exactly, this girl was.
“I see you’ve taken a liking to our star dancer,” the bar’s owner spoke from beside him. Startled, but not showing it, Doumeki turned to the woman leaning over the bar, one eyebrow rising in question. That mysteriously powerful aura the young man had felt before was even stronger close up. Shizuka noticed that the woman’s eyes were a strangely vibrant shade of crimson. The woman’s lips turned up at the corners ever so slightly as she surveyed the boy in front of her.
“If you’d like, you can reserve her for the whole night. It will come at a price, though,” the woman continued, refilling Shizuka’s glass of sake. The young man glanced back at the stage for a moment before speaking.
“How much?” he questioned, looking straight into the woman’s oddly colored eyes. The woman smiled in a strangely knowing manner, and told him the price. The man handed her the money just as the girl’s dance ended, and she left the stage to join the crowd. The woman behind the bar raised her arm in a wave, and called out into the crowd.
“ Kimi, come over here, darling.”
Despite the fact that the woman was speaking only slightly above a normal level of talking, and the girl was quite a distance away, and surrounded by loud, rowdy men, Kimi seemed to hear her employer, and appeared by the two a few moments later. She bowed to her master and the boy before speaking.
“Yes, Yuuko-san?” the girl asked in a high voice that, while seeming natural, sounded slightly off to Shizuka. The voice, like the rest of the girl, now that Shizuka could see her close up, seemed like a mask the girl had spent a long time perfecting. Shizuka thought that it probably worked on everyone else, but still seemed completely unnatural to him. He wondered briefly if it was his family’s spiritual background, or maybe his own people-reading ability, that gave him the ability to tell this about the girl.
“This young man, Shizuka Doumeki, has paid to have you to himself all night. Be sure he gets his money’s worth,” the woman informed her charge, motioning to the soldier sitting at the bar in front of her while she spoke. Shizuka found it strange that she’d introduced him. He couldn’t recall giving the woman his name, and only two glasses of sake weren’t enough to make him forget things like that.
The girl and her employer shared a look before the girl bowed towards her employer in a distinctly Japanese motion.
“Understood, Yuuko-san,” Kimi replied, before turning to the boy with a smile on her face and her eyes closed. “Shall we go dance then, Shizuka-san?”
The girl seemed to add the honorific out of habit as she offered a thin hand to the young man in front of her. Shizuka regarded her for a moment, before taking the offered hand, and allowed himself to be led to the dance floor by the girl with the strangely firm grip.
Once they reached the dance floor, the girl turned to Shizuka again, this time with her eyes open. The young man was struck breathless for a moment by the abnormal beauty held in her eyes. One eye was an amber color that matched Shizuka’s own eye color perfectly, and the other held a deep sapphire hue. Both colors, while completely abnormal for anyone of Japanese heritage, seemed to fit the girl strangely well.
The girl guided the boy into an almost waltz-like position, as a slower, more western-style song came on, bringing the other couples on the floor to assume a similar position. The young man paid little attention to the others as he observed this ‘Kimi’ in front of him. There was something odd about the girl, and Shizuka had a feeling about what it was that made her so unique. Usually his hunches were correct, and this one was particularly strong.
“You’re different than the other girls,” Shizuka spoke to the girl for the first time that night. He spoke quietly, but the girl seemed to hear him. She chuckled lightly at his words, seemingly unsurprised.
“Well, my heritage is Japanese, just like Yuuko-san’s, after all. And I know my eye color isn’t exactly common,” the girl began. It was clear many had told her these obvious facts before in their drunken stupor. Before the girl could continue, Shizuka shook his head slightly.
“That’s not what I meant.”
The responding look of confusion from the girl was almost priceless, and Shizuka had to resist the urge to smirk a little. He kept his voice low as he continued to speak.
“You’re different from the other girls because,” Shizuka started, before leaning down slightly to speak right into the girl’s ear, “you’re not really a girl, are you?”
Kimi’s breathing hitched in his ear, and Shizuka knew he was right. It was clear the slightly shorter girl, or rather, boy, could tell he’d just confirmed it by his involuntary reaction, because said boy pulled away slightly from the close embrace the two had been in before.
“What gave you that idea?” the person in front of him asked, feigning innocent curiosity. Kimi chuckled lightly, but Shizuka could sense the nervous edge to the laugh. The boy, girl, whatever, was clearly aware that he’d already practically told the soldier that he was, in fact, a male with his slip up moments before, but was still faking that he hadn’t, in the slim chance the other hadn’t noticed. Shizuka just stared at the dancer for a moment, before looking off to the side a little, never saying a word in response. The dancer sighed, and smiled again at the soldier.
“Why don’t we go to one of the back rooms, hm?” Kimi suggested, his voice lowering seductively. He didn’t wait for the other’s reply before pulling the American towards one of the doors in the back of the bar. Shizuka allowed himself to be pulled by this enigma of a person towards the dingy rooms. He wasn’t about to let the teen escape without explaining to him why he was here in the first place, and this seemed to be his chance to get some answers. Shizuka had never been a person to waste a chance when he recognized one.
When the pair finally made it to the room, and the door had been shut firmly behind them, Kimi let out a weary sigh. It seemed that Shizuka wasn’t the only one who wanted some answers before anything went down between them.
“How could you tell?” the shorter boy asked, his voice having dropped quite a few levels in pitch. It seemed as though the boy had given up trying to fool the other, though he seemed unable to look the soldier in the eyes at the moment.
Said soldier just shrugged in response. The other boy frowned slightly, clearly displeased with the lack of answer.
“I had a hunch. The whole girl thing just didn’t seem to fit you,” Shizuka expanded, causing the other boy’s frown to deepen. He crossed his arms over the strangely voluptuous chest, heaving another sigh.
“Great. I must be losing my touch,” the boy muttered, clearly irritated by this news. Shizuka regarded the sulking male for a minute.
“I don’t think anyone else noticed. I’m a lot more perceptive than my fellow Marines,” Shizuka assured the boy. This seemed to lift a load off the boy’s shoulders, and he grinned again at the other male.
“Really? I would’ve taken you to be an idiot, since you figured there wasn’t something right about me, and then hired me for the night, anyway,” the boy chuckled. It was a far more natural sound than any other Shizuka had heard from the boy all night. It was rather pleasant.
“You were interesting,” Shizuka explained, despite knowing that the other boy had not meant him to respond. He moved towards the lumpy-looking bed, and sat at the foot of the mattress. The other boy followed suit, sitting more towards the middle of the cheap bed.
“What’s your real name?” Shizuka inquired the other. ‘Kimi’ didn’t seem surprised by this question.
“Kimihiro Watanuki,” he answered. Shizuka didn’t say anymore, but the other boy seemed to sense the unasked questions in the air, and opened his mouth to speak again.
“I owe a debt to Yuuko-san. When I was little, my parents were killed in an accident while trying to protect me. I lived alone for a while, until I ran into Yuuko-san one day. She somehow knew my predicament without me telling her, and she took me in. We were in Japan until I was 10, and then we moved here. When I turned 16, I got a job here at the club to pay for my living with Yuuko-san. She never forced me to keep working here, though. I stayed here by choice. I felt like I owed it to her,” the boy explained, sounding almost defensive of his employer at the end.
“Oh,” was Shizuka’s only reply. The two sat in silence for a moment.
“I can’t believe I just told you all that,” Kimihiro chuckled, sounding surprised with himself. Shizuka looked at him again, deciding to ask the question most prevalent in his mind at the moment.
“How did you fool the others?”
The true meaning of the statement was easily translated by the cross-dressing boy, and he chuckled lightly again.
“Usually, the drinks are drugged. The effect wears off after a bit of sleep, usually enough time for me to make my escape, but the drug was designed specifically by Yuuko-san to make the men who pay for me forget what I am. I guess it’s more of a memory modifier, since the guys picture me as a female when they reminisce on the night, but that’s more of their imaginations working. You had the sake, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, the sake’s the only drink that isn’t drugged by Yuuko. Usually, no one really gets the sake, anyway,” the boy explained. He looked over at the young man next to him, his gaze curious. Shizuka could tell what the boy wanted to ask, but didn’t.
“My family was originally Japanese. My grandfather was a priest, and I would’ve been, too, if we hadn’t moved to the US right after he died. My parents still kept a lot of the Japanese traditions, though,” Shizuka explained briefly. Kimihiro seemed to understand, and he scratched at his head before speaking again.
“Do you mind if I take this off?” he gestured to his hair, “it gets really itchy after a while.”
Shizuka shrugged, while the other boy proceeded to remove the shoulder-length wig, revealing slightly messy, inky black hair that was in a distinctly male cut. Shizuka noted that it fit the boy’s features quite nicely, and he felt the slight stirrings of attraction start in his stomach. Well that was certainly an interesting development.
The two males never ended up doing anything remotely sexual that night. Instead, they spent most of their time simply talking. Admittedly, Kimihiro did most of the talking, since Shizuka was such a quiet person. Neither of the two really cared, though.
For the next few weeks, Shizuka would often leave the Marines’ base in Saigon, and go to speak to the cross-dressing boy. Most times, Shizuka would visit during the day, in an attempt to save some of the money he earned as a soldier. But Shizuka was also a frequent nighttime visitor, as well, usually “reserving” the boy for the whole night, during which time the two would follow the trend they’d set that very first night, and only spend the hours chatting.
Shizuka knew that Kimihiro was grateful for these times, though he never outwardly said so. Both boys had grown rather close during this time, and Shizuka wondered if, just maybe, he’d fallen in love with the other boy. He knew that, if someone ever found out in the Marines, he’d be immediately sent back home, and rejected from service he hadn’t wanted in the first place. However, Shizuka also knew that he didn’t really give a damn if he was gay, after all.
Shizuka wouldn’t go so far as to say he was gay for this other boy just yet, but he did know that he cared for the other, at the very least in a friendly way. Shizuka was certain that he would not want to lose this boy’s companionship if there was anything he could do to help it.
Unfortunately, based on the rumors that had been flying around the base lately, there was a very good chance that Shizuka would be forced to separate from this boy. Doumeki had heard whispers from the other soldiers and even some of the higher-ranking officers that the Viet Kong was closing in. It was a well known fact that American civilians and some of the Vietnamese and soldiers were being evacuated now. Rumor had it that all the soldiers would be evacuated by May, leaving South Vietnam to fend for itself.
It was already April 1st, when the rumors were proven to be true. Every soldier was told that they would be evacuated by April 30th, and the US Embassy in Saigon was going to be completely abandoned by the powerful nation.
Shizuka left as soon as the announcement had been made, and the soldiers were given a free day. Kimihiro had already told him that today was his 19th birthday, and Shizuka hated to ruin such a day with this news, but knew it couldn’t wait.
In the coming weeks, the two boys thought of a plan to avoid separation, since neither really wanted to give up the friendship, and possibly deeper relationship, they had. On the final day of evacuation, the two fully intended to execute their plan.
If all went well, the two boys, and even Yuuko, would be on that last helicopter together, leaving for the United States in order to be free and safe from the Viet Kong. But Shizuka still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease after they told Yuuko the plan, and she looked at the boys with an expression that was almost sad. That woman had always seemed to know more than she let on, and now was not likely to be an exception.
Still, the Marine didn’t ask, and allowed himself to hope that this would all work out.
On to part 2!
Fandom: xxxHolic
Pairings and Characters: Doumeki/Watanuki, Yuuko
Rating: PG 13
Note: AU, crossover to the musical, Miss Saigon. I wrote this about 2 years ago, when I saw Miss Saigon on stage. That was the height of my obsession, and the fandoms mixed in my brain, giving birth to this. Despite the age of this piece, I am still proud of it, considering I spent the longest time on it. Anywho, I now present to you the first chapter of Miss Holic. Enjoy!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Saigon, 1975
The Saigon night was unusually smoky as a group of American Marines travelled in large groups to the sleazy parts of the city. Among these men was one Shizuka Doumeki, a Japanese-born American drafted into the Vietnam War at age 18. That had been a year ago. The now 19-year-old male drifted with his comrades into one of the more popular “gentlemen’s clubs” of Saigon, “Wish Shop.”
Do not immediately assume that Shizuka was one to look for the prostitutes of these clubs. Instead, the boy, for the man was still so young, had a tendency to frequent these bars for the alcohol. He’d never been to this specific bar before, but had heard that they offered Japanese sake of quite high quality for the sleaziness of the area it was located.
It was this rumor that had drawn Shizuka from his quarters, and out onto the sweltering streets of springtime Saigon, into the sleaziest part of town. Despite the fact that this club had a large number of women selling themselves around him, and had many of his companions acting like total pigs, the boy’s bored expression never faltered as he ordered the sake, which turned out to be of much higher quality than he’d imagined.
While the man was sipping, the bar’s owner, a tall woman with long black hair, walked onto the small stage that normally housed the dancers. The woman had on a strangely elegant red kimono decorated in a black butterfly pattern that almost seemed alive in the dim lighting of the club. The woman held up her hand to quiet the bar down, and, without saying a word, managed to do just that. Shizuka could just feel the mysterious and powerful aura that surrounded her, even from his seat at the bar. It seemed this woman had a lot more to her than she let on.
“And now, Gentlemen, the one you all have been waiting for,” the woman spoke in a mysterious voice that seemed oddly fitting. “The best this club, and all of Saigon, has to offer, the one and only-Kimi!”
The woman moved offstage as a single spotlight focused on the curtains on the back of the stage, which parted slightly as the thin figure of a delicate woman stepped through. This woman looked to be about Shizuka’s age, but the boy didn’t think much of it, until the woman turned to face the bar when starting her dance.
If Shizuka Doumeki had been a more expressive person, he might have gaped at this girl, but, since he was a Doumeki, he did not gape, settling for a slight widening of his eyes. The girl, much like the owner of the bar, was clearly of Japanese origin, but had skin that was much paler than most of those with Asian heritage. The girl’s black hair fell to her shoulders, and curled ever so slightly at the end, accenting her heart-shaped face. The girl, even from afar, had a foreign sort of beauty about her that almost seemed to command the whole room.
It was easy to see why the girl was considered the best of the business. Even without the practiced skill the girl now exhibited in her sensual dance, the girl’s features alone could have men practically drooling at her feet. Even though her dress was slightly longer than the other girls’, which struck Shizuka as odd, it was clear this girl was no beginner in the business, and was damn good at what she did.
Despite the girl’s obvious experience, Shizuka could also sense an air of naïveté, and hidden power, about her. It appeared that this girl, much like the bar’s owner, was more than she seemed. And, for once, Shizuka Doumeki was interested in finding out what, exactly, this girl was.
“I see you’ve taken a liking to our star dancer,” the bar’s owner spoke from beside him. Startled, but not showing it, Doumeki turned to the woman leaning over the bar, one eyebrow rising in question. That mysteriously powerful aura the young man had felt before was even stronger close up. Shizuka noticed that the woman’s eyes were a strangely vibrant shade of crimson. The woman’s lips turned up at the corners ever so slightly as she surveyed the boy in front of her.
“If you’d like, you can reserve her for the whole night. It will come at a price, though,” the woman continued, refilling Shizuka’s glass of sake. The young man glanced back at the stage for a moment before speaking.
“How much?” he questioned, looking straight into the woman’s oddly colored eyes. The woman smiled in a strangely knowing manner, and told him the price. The man handed her the money just as the girl’s dance ended, and she left the stage to join the crowd. The woman behind the bar raised her arm in a wave, and called out into the crowd.
“ Kimi, come over here, darling.”
Despite the fact that the woman was speaking only slightly above a normal level of talking, and the girl was quite a distance away, and surrounded by loud, rowdy men, Kimi seemed to hear her employer, and appeared by the two a few moments later. She bowed to her master and the boy before speaking.
“Yes, Yuuko-san?” the girl asked in a high voice that, while seeming natural, sounded slightly off to Shizuka. The voice, like the rest of the girl, now that Shizuka could see her close up, seemed like a mask the girl had spent a long time perfecting. Shizuka thought that it probably worked on everyone else, but still seemed completely unnatural to him. He wondered briefly if it was his family’s spiritual background, or maybe his own people-reading ability, that gave him the ability to tell this about the girl.
“This young man, Shizuka Doumeki, has paid to have you to himself all night. Be sure he gets his money’s worth,” the woman informed her charge, motioning to the soldier sitting at the bar in front of her while she spoke. Shizuka found it strange that she’d introduced him. He couldn’t recall giving the woman his name, and only two glasses of sake weren’t enough to make him forget things like that.
The girl and her employer shared a look before the girl bowed towards her employer in a distinctly Japanese motion.
“Understood, Yuuko-san,” Kimi replied, before turning to the boy with a smile on her face and her eyes closed. “Shall we go dance then, Shizuka-san?”
The girl seemed to add the honorific out of habit as she offered a thin hand to the young man in front of her. Shizuka regarded her for a moment, before taking the offered hand, and allowed himself to be led to the dance floor by the girl with the strangely firm grip.
Once they reached the dance floor, the girl turned to Shizuka again, this time with her eyes open. The young man was struck breathless for a moment by the abnormal beauty held in her eyes. One eye was an amber color that matched Shizuka’s own eye color perfectly, and the other held a deep sapphire hue. Both colors, while completely abnormal for anyone of Japanese heritage, seemed to fit the girl strangely well.
The girl guided the boy into an almost waltz-like position, as a slower, more western-style song came on, bringing the other couples on the floor to assume a similar position. The young man paid little attention to the others as he observed this ‘Kimi’ in front of him. There was something odd about the girl, and Shizuka had a feeling about what it was that made her so unique. Usually his hunches were correct, and this one was particularly strong.
“You’re different than the other girls,” Shizuka spoke to the girl for the first time that night. He spoke quietly, but the girl seemed to hear him. She chuckled lightly at his words, seemingly unsurprised.
“Well, my heritage is Japanese, just like Yuuko-san’s, after all. And I know my eye color isn’t exactly common,” the girl began. It was clear many had told her these obvious facts before in their drunken stupor. Before the girl could continue, Shizuka shook his head slightly.
“That’s not what I meant.”
The responding look of confusion from the girl was almost priceless, and Shizuka had to resist the urge to smirk a little. He kept his voice low as he continued to speak.
“You’re different from the other girls because,” Shizuka started, before leaning down slightly to speak right into the girl’s ear, “you’re not really a girl, are you?”
Kimi’s breathing hitched in his ear, and Shizuka knew he was right. It was clear the slightly shorter girl, or rather, boy, could tell he’d just confirmed it by his involuntary reaction, because said boy pulled away slightly from the close embrace the two had been in before.
“What gave you that idea?” the person in front of him asked, feigning innocent curiosity. Kimi chuckled lightly, but Shizuka could sense the nervous edge to the laugh. The boy, girl, whatever, was clearly aware that he’d already practically told the soldier that he was, in fact, a male with his slip up moments before, but was still faking that he hadn’t, in the slim chance the other hadn’t noticed. Shizuka just stared at the dancer for a moment, before looking off to the side a little, never saying a word in response. The dancer sighed, and smiled again at the soldier.
“Why don’t we go to one of the back rooms, hm?” Kimi suggested, his voice lowering seductively. He didn’t wait for the other’s reply before pulling the American towards one of the doors in the back of the bar. Shizuka allowed himself to be pulled by this enigma of a person towards the dingy rooms. He wasn’t about to let the teen escape without explaining to him why he was here in the first place, and this seemed to be his chance to get some answers. Shizuka had never been a person to waste a chance when he recognized one.
When the pair finally made it to the room, and the door had been shut firmly behind them, Kimi let out a weary sigh. It seemed that Shizuka wasn’t the only one who wanted some answers before anything went down between them.
“How could you tell?” the shorter boy asked, his voice having dropped quite a few levels in pitch. It seemed as though the boy had given up trying to fool the other, though he seemed unable to look the soldier in the eyes at the moment.
Said soldier just shrugged in response. The other boy frowned slightly, clearly displeased with the lack of answer.
“I had a hunch. The whole girl thing just didn’t seem to fit you,” Shizuka expanded, causing the other boy’s frown to deepen. He crossed his arms over the strangely voluptuous chest, heaving another sigh.
“Great. I must be losing my touch,” the boy muttered, clearly irritated by this news. Shizuka regarded the sulking male for a minute.
“I don’t think anyone else noticed. I’m a lot more perceptive than my fellow Marines,” Shizuka assured the boy. This seemed to lift a load off the boy’s shoulders, and he grinned again at the other male.
“Really? I would’ve taken you to be an idiot, since you figured there wasn’t something right about me, and then hired me for the night, anyway,” the boy chuckled. It was a far more natural sound than any other Shizuka had heard from the boy all night. It was rather pleasant.
“You were interesting,” Shizuka explained, despite knowing that the other boy had not meant him to respond. He moved towards the lumpy-looking bed, and sat at the foot of the mattress. The other boy followed suit, sitting more towards the middle of the cheap bed.
“What’s your real name?” Shizuka inquired the other. ‘Kimi’ didn’t seem surprised by this question.
“Kimihiro Watanuki,” he answered. Shizuka didn’t say anymore, but the other boy seemed to sense the unasked questions in the air, and opened his mouth to speak again.
“I owe a debt to Yuuko-san. When I was little, my parents were killed in an accident while trying to protect me. I lived alone for a while, until I ran into Yuuko-san one day. She somehow knew my predicament without me telling her, and she took me in. We were in Japan until I was 10, and then we moved here. When I turned 16, I got a job here at the club to pay for my living with Yuuko-san. She never forced me to keep working here, though. I stayed here by choice. I felt like I owed it to her,” the boy explained, sounding almost defensive of his employer at the end.
“Oh,” was Shizuka’s only reply. The two sat in silence for a moment.
“I can’t believe I just told you all that,” Kimihiro chuckled, sounding surprised with himself. Shizuka looked at him again, deciding to ask the question most prevalent in his mind at the moment.
“How did you fool the others?”
The true meaning of the statement was easily translated by the cross-dressing boy, and he chuckled lightly again.
“Usually, the drinks are drugged. The effect wears off after a bit of sleep, usually enough time for me to make my escape, but the drug was designed specifically by Yuuko-san to make the men who pay for me forget what I am. I guess it’s more of a memory modifier, since the guys picture me as a female when they reminisce on the night, but that’s more of their imaginations working. You had the sake, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, the sake’s the only drink that isn’t drugged by Yuuko. Usually, no one really gets the sake, anyway,” the boy explained. He looked over at the young man next to him, his gaze curious. Shizuka could tell what the boy wanted to ask, but didn’t.
“My family was originally Japanese. My grandfather was a priest, and I would’ve been, too, if we hadn’t moved to the US right after he died. My parents still kept a lot of the Japanese traditions, though,” Shizuka explained briefly. Kimihiro seemed to understand, and he scratched at his head before speaking again.
“Do you mind if I take this off?” he gestured to his hair, “it gets really itchy after a while.”
Shizuka shrugged, while the other boy proceeded to remove the shoulder-length wig, revealing slightly messy, inky black hair that was in a distinctly male cut. Shizuka noted that it fit the boy’s features quite nicely, and he felt the slight stirrings of attraction start in his stomach. Well that was certainly an interesting development.
The two males never ended up doing anything remotely sexual that night. Instead, they spent most of their time simply talking. Admittedly, Kimihiro did most of the talking, since Shizuka was such a quiet person. Neither of the two really cared, though.
For the next few weeks, Shizuka would often leave the Marines’ base in Saigon, and go to speak to the cross-dressing boy. Most times, Shizuka would visit during the day, in an attempt to save some of the money he earned as a soldier. But Shizuka was also a frequent nighttime visitor, as well, usually “reserving” the boy for the whole night, during which time the two would follow the trend they’d set that very first night, and only spend the hours chatting.
Shizuka knew that Kimihiro was grateful for these times, though he never outwardly said so. Both boys had grown rather close during this time, and Shizuka wondered if, just maybe, he’d fallen in love with the other boy. He knew that, if someone ever found out in the Marines, he’d be immediately sent back home, and rejected from service he hadn’t wanted in the first place. However, Shizuka also knew that he didn’t really give a damn if he was gay, after all.
Shizuka wouldn’t go so far as to say he was gay for this other boy just yet, but he did know that he cared for the other, at the very least in a friendly way. Shizuka was certain that he would not want to lose this boy’s companionship if there was anything he could do to help it.
Unfortunately, based on the rumors that had been flying around the base lately, there was a very good chance that Shizuka would be forced to separate from this boy. Doumeki had heard whispers from the other soldiers and even some of the higher-ranking officers that the Viet Kong was closing in. It was a well known fact that American civilians and some of the Vietnamese and soldiers were being evacuated now. Rumor had it that all the soldiers would be evacuated by May, leaving South Vietnam to fend for itself.
It was already April 1st, when the rumors were proven to be true. Every soldier was told that they would be evacuated by April 30th, and the US Embassy in Saigon was going to be completely abandoned by the powerful nation.
Shizuka left as soon as the announcement had been made, and the soldiers were given a free day. Kimihiro had already told him that today was his 19th birthday, and Shizuka hated to ruin such a day with this news, but knew it couldn’t wait.
In the coming weeks, the two boys thought of a plan to avoid separation, since neither really wanted to give up the friendship, and possibly deeper relationship, they had. On the final day of evacuation, the two fully intended to execute their plan.
If all went well, the two boys, and even Yuuko, would be on that last helicopter together, leaving for the United States in order to be free and safe from the Viet Kong. But Shizuka still couldn’t shake the feeling of unease after they told Yuuko the plan, and she looked at the boys with an expression that was almost sad. That woman had always seemed to know more than she let on, and now was not likely to be an exception.
Still, the Marine didn’t ask, and allowed himself to hope that this would all work out.
On to part 2!