[Yami no Matsuei] "The Harvest of Her Heart" (PG-13)
Title: "The Harvest of Her Heart"
Entry Number: 01
Author: matrixrefugee/mtxref_fic
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Rating: PG-13 (family turmoil, period-specific homophobia,
Genre: Drama/pre-canon/backstory
Spoiler Warnings: Possible spoilers for Tsuzuki's back story
Word Count: 1,125
Most married couples do most of their communicating in bed -- not just in a physical way, but by words as well, after the day's hustle and bustle has passed and the children put to bed. Mineko and Takashi Tsuzuki were no exceptions.
Takashi had just come into their bedroom after his late supper following a long day in the fields, seeing about the rice harvest, but from the concerned look in his eyes and the crinkle between his brows, Mineko could tell that something weighed heavily on his mind.
"What's bothering you, Taka-kun?" she asked, still using that irritating but endearing nickname she had called him since childhood.
He drew in a breath as he knelt beside her on the tatami covering the floor, then looked at her with a serious, even solemn look in his eyes. "Mineko, it's time we did something about that lazy son of yours," he said.
She looked up from unrolling their futon. "Asato? " she asked.
"Of course I mean Asato," Takashi replied, gruffly but softly. "He's the only son you gave me." Asato had not turned out as well as Noburo, Takashi's son by his first wife, who had died bringing their fourth daughter into the world. Unlike Noburo, who was studying business at the university in Kyoto and who stood to inherit the family fortune, Asato had barely finished his last term in high school with a passing grade. And while Noburo was applying himself to his studies with all due diligence, in order to learn all that he would need to know in order to manage the family's finances with care and to better maintain the farm lands, Asato was usually to be found goofing off, wandering the hills, or sleeping too late, or flirting with the village girls -- and even with one of the village boys, to his father's disgust. Mineko said it was likely just a phase, but the boy was eighteen now, old enough that he should start to take life more seriously and apply himself to learning a trade or finding some way to make himself useful. The times when he puttered about in the garden did not count as making himself useful. The closest he came to applying himself to anything was when he helped tend the mulberry trees.
And then there were the wild stories that the youth told, of seeing spirits in the hills and the forests and the ponds, and hearing voices in the night. The boy was clearly touched in the head. This was the twentieth century: seeimg spirits and hearing voices was for old women and children, not young men who should have a future if they would stop frittering it away. Mineko claimed these stories were a clear sign that Asato should be an onmyodo, but Takashi would not have any charlatans in his family.
To say nothing of how different the boy looked from the rest of his family. While the rest of them had dark hair and dark eyes -- even Ruka, Asato's twin and elder by a half hour, who had gotten a job as a maid in the Imperial household -- the boy was taller than the rest of the men in the family, with violet eyes and paler skin. When the boy was smaller and his eyes had first turned this strange color, Takashi had accused Mineko of cheating in him while he was away from home on business, seeing about the sale of some horses, but Mineko had been adamant: no one had shared her bed while they were apart. Granted, a drifter had spent three days at the house during that time, but she had had no recollection of anything unseemly happening, and the drifter had slept in the barn with the goats he was tending. If anything, Mineko had dreamt of Takashi lying in her arms every night till he returned home.
"We can't keep filling that always empty belly of his," Takashi grumbled. "He'd eat up half the rice crop, if we left him to his own devices."
"He's still growing," Mineko argued.
"He's already a head taller than I," Takashi retorted. "When will he stop growing?"
"Asato is Asato, we can't really expect hin to measure up to Noburo: he takes after my side of the family," she replied.
"You apply yourself to your work," Takashi insisted, patience wearing thin. "Asato was born lazy." He paused, drawing in a breath, looking away to the lamp. "I've read of a special school and home for young people like him. Perhaps the doctors there can put his head to rights and cure him of seeing these spirits he talks about constantly."
Mineko looked up at Takashi with a frown, her eyes wide. Sending her son away to live with strangers? Even it helped him, it could not help by much: the youth needed his family's support and care. "Takashi, that would destroy him," she pleaded.
"We have little other choice," Takashi argued, spreading his palms, but his tone brooking no argument. "I am not wasting money on sending him to university when he barely made it through high school. What else would you do with the lout?"
Mineko rose to her feet. "He is my son as well."
"But it is my money that we've wasted, trying to make something useful out of him," Takashi replied, refusing to be moved.
"What if I brought him to the shrine, to learn with the priests there? What then?" she pleaded.
"We spoke of that before, and I told you it would be a waste of our time and theirs, as well as a waste of the offerings we would make," Takashi replied, patiently. "But it would only give the wretch more excuse to continue to be lazy and unproductive."
She bowed her head. "How much longer will you let him stay here with his family?" she asked, defeated.
"Till the harvest is over and brought in," Takashi replied, tiredly.
Mineko nodded and left the room, going into the next room where the youngest children slept, the two girls left at home lying curled up together under their comforter, Asato lying alone on his futon. The girls lay as if they had been whispering to each other, but now were pretending to have fallen asleep. Asato lay sprawled under his covers, his feet sticking out. When had he grown so tall? Mineko knelt beside him, stroking his tousled brown hair, trying to smooth it out. "My bright, beautiful boy," she murmured. He turned over, mumbling in his sleep. And she prayed that they would not see the end of the harvest, prayed that the guardian spirits which Asato claimed to see would protect hin, even if that meant protecting him from his own father...
Entry Number: 01
Author: matrixrefugee/mtxref_fic
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Rating: PG-13 (family turmoil, period-specific homophobia,
Genre: Drama/pre-canon/backstory
Spoiler Warnings: Possible spoilers for Tsuzuki's back story
Word Count: 1,125
Most married couples do most of their communicating in bed -- not just in a physical way, but by words as well, after the day's hustle and bustle has passed and the children put to bed. Mineko and Takashi Tsuzuki were no exceptions.
Takashi had just come into their bedroom after his late supper following a long day in the fields, seeing about the rice harvest, but from the concerned look in his eyes and the crinkle between his brows, Mineko could tell that something weighed heavily on his mind.
"What's bothering you, Taka-kun?" she asked, still using that irritating but endearing nickname she had called him since childhood.
He drew in a breath as he knelt beside her on the tatami covering the floor, then looked at her with a serious, even solemn look in his eyes. "Mineko, it's time we did something about that lazy son of yours," he said.
She looked up from unrolling their futon. "Asato? " she asked.
"Of course I mean Asato," Takashi replied, gruffly but softly. "He's the only son you gave me." Asato had not turned out as well as Noburo, Takashi's son by his first wife, who had died bringing their fourth daughter into the world. Unlike Noburo, who was studying business at the university in Kyoto and who stood to inherit the family fortune, Asato had barely finished his last term in high school with a passing grade. And while Noburo was applying himself to his studies with all due diligence, in order to learn all that he would need to know in order to manage the family's finances with care and to better maintain the farm lands, Asato was usually to be found goofing off, wandering the hills, or sleeping too late, or flirting with the village girls -- and even with one of the village boys, to his father's disgust. Mineko said it was likely just a phase, but the boy was eighteen now, old enough that he should start to take life more seriously and apply himself to learning a trade or finding some way to make himself useful. The times when he puttered about in the garden did not count as making himself useful. The closest he came to applying himself to anything was when he helped tend the mulberry trees.
And then there were the wild stories that the youth told, of seeing spirits in the hills and the forests and the ponds, and hearing voices in the night. The boy was clearly touched in the head. This was the twentieth century: seeimg spirits and hearing voices was for old women and children, not young men who should have a future if they would stop frittering it away. Mineko claimed these stories were a clear sign that Asato should be an onmyodo, but Takashi would not have any charlatans in his family.
To say nothing of how different the boy looked from the rest of his family. While the rest of them had dark hair and dark eyes -- even Ruka, Asato's twin and elder by a half hour, who had gotten a job as a maid in the Imperial household -- the boy was taller than the rest of the men in the family, with violet eyes and paler skin. When the boy was smaller and his eyes had first turned this strange color, Takashi had accused Mineko of cheating in him while he was away from home on business, seeing about the sale of some horses, but Mineko had been adamant: no one had shared her bed while they were apart. Granted, a drifter had spent three days at the house during that time, but she had had no recollection of anything unseemly happening, and the drifter had slept in the barn with the goats he was tending. If anything, Mineko had dreamt of Takashi lying in her arms every night till he returned home.
"We can't keep filling that always empty belly of his," Takashi grumbled. "He'd eat up half the rice crop, if we left him to his own devices."
"He's still growing," Mineko argued.
"He's already a head taller than I," Takashi retorted. "When will he stop growing?"
"Asato is Asato, we can't really expect hin to measure up to Noburo: he takes after my side of the family," she replied.
"You apply yourself to your work," Takashi insisted, patience wearing thin. "Asato was born lazy." He paused, drawing in a breath, looking away to the lamp. "I've read of a special school and home for young people like him. Perhaps the doctors there can put his head to rights and cure him of seeing these spirits he talks about constantly."
Mineko looked up at Takashi with a frown, her eyes wide. Sending her son away to live with strangers? Even it helped him, it could not help by much: the youth needed his family's support and care. "Takashi, that would destroy him," she pleaded.
"We have little other choice," Takashi argued, spreading his palms, but his tone brooking no argument. "I am not wasting money on sending him to university when he barely made it through high school. What else would you do with the lout?"
Mineko rose to her feet. "He is my son as well."
"But it is my money that we've wasted, trying to make something useful out of him," Takashi replied, refusing to be moved.
"What if I brought him to the shrine, to learn with the priests there? What then?" she pleaded.
"We spoke of that before, and I told you it would be a waste of our time and theirs, as well as a waste of the offerings we would make," Takashi replied, patiently. "But it would only give the wretch more excuse to continue to be lazy and unproductive."
She bowed her head. "How much longer will you let him stay here with his family?" she asked, defeated.
"Till the harvest is over and brought in," Takashi replied, tiredly.
Mineko nodded and left the room, going into the next room where the youngest children slept, the two girls left at home lying curled up together under their comforter, Asato lying alone on his futon. The girls lay as if they had been whispering to each other, but now were pretending to have fallen asleep. Asato lay sprawled under his covers, his feet sticking out. When had he grown so tall? Mineko knelt beside him, stroking his tousled brown hair, trying to smooth it out. "My bright, beautiful boy," she murmured. He turned over, mumbling in his sleep. And she prayed that they would not see the end of the harvest, prayed that the guardian spirits which Asato claimed to see would protect hin, even if that meant protecting him from his own father...