fic: White Butterfly 12
Title: White Butterfly 12/?
Author: Seraphim Grace
Archive: http://www.geocities.com/taliasen1256.html, http://www.mediaminer.org, http://www.Seraphim-grace.livejournal.com. if you want it ask.
Feedback: Always appreciated and replied to.
Rating: 18.
Pairings: Crawford x Ran others to be notified later.
Warnings: historical au
previous chapters
prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Following his poisoning Aya was deathly weak. He was carried about by two of the guards on a cushioned board because he lacked the strength to walk. This amused Fuji to no end who referred to him as the baby he never wanted spoon feeding him whatever they were eating. Fuji confused Aya because despite seeming like an airhead, and bowing down to whatever Tezuka told him, it was clear that not only was he the dominant party in their relationship but Crawford trusted his counsel.
It was also apparent to any who saw them that Fuji and Tezuka were that most mythical of matches, a love match.
Saya and Maya sat beside him as Naoe haltingly read from the book of verse, “the Tale of Genji”? that Crawford had selected. Crawford himself sat at the window and watched the rain sheeting down. He was listening, as the servants kept them supplied with tea and sake and other sweets.
“In the summer evening, Genji stopped to inquire after his old nurse, Koremitsu's mother, on his way from court to pay one of his calls at Rokujo mansion. His carriage was simple and unadorned and he had no servants. Beside the nurse's house was a new fence of plaited cypress. The four or five narrow shutters above had been raised, and new blinds, white and clean, hung in the aperture. The white flowers of Yugao, which meant "evening faces", were in bloom on the board wall. Genji sent his man to ask the name of the flower. That was the beginning of the encounter between Genji and Yugao.”
Crawford stood up, “I must go,” he said a little woodenly, holding his head and biting at his lip. “Something is happening, Naoe keep reading, I will be back before dawn.”
“Master,” one of the servants said, “the rain is coming down something awful, perhaps.”
“Bring me a heavy cloak and a hat to keep off the rain.” Crawford corrected her before she even finished. He stopped and tilted his head as if listening to someone as one of the servants whispered the word oni, and that he was speaking to demons. Baba hushed them with a glare. “I’m only going to the house of Shuichi, Hikarin is playing her game and I can’t miss the opening gambit.”
Then he turned to Naoe, “I leave you in charge during my absence, continue to read.”
Naoe took a sip of his tea before clearing his throat and continuing. “Koremitsu passed the flower to Genji on a white fan. A little girl of the house handed it to him. As he finished his visit to the nurse, he asked for a torch, and shone its light on the fan on which the evening face had rested. It was permeated with a lady's perfume, elegant and alluring. On it was a poem, "I think I need not ask whose face it is, so bright, this evening face, in the shining dew." Genji ordered Koremitsu to make inquiries about the woman.”
Aya frowned but turned his attention back to Naoe’s halting reading of the poem and tried to ignore the whispers of the servants that his master was a demon, or in league with them. His master was an Onmyoji, a sorcerer, of course he had access to knowledge that they did not.
Although he thought no one was noticing Tezuka was softly stroking the back of Fuji’s hand. Aya desperately envied them and their complicity.
He sat there for what must have been a few hours, listening to Naoe haltingly read with plenty of errors, drinking tea and basking in the warmth of the hearth. He even suspected he drowsed for a while, because since he had been poisoned he had been prone to falling asleep.
When the person entered the room he assumed that it was Crawford returning. However the rain soaked figure wasn’t nearly that tall or imposing. He wore a black kimono and hakama and his face was covered with a reed hat. There was a large katana blade strapped to the thin waist.
Fuji got to his feet in a scramble. “Neesan!” he exclaimed, climbing over the prone people to get to the figure as he removed his hat. The hair underneath was wet and slicked back to a slender face with large eyes that were as deep and dark as pansy hearts.
Yohji and Schuldig, who had been quietly getting drunk in one corner, turned to look at the figure. “Rukia-sama.” They said bowing.
“I’m looking for my husband.” She said firmly.
It was Baba that recovered first, as Saya and Maya tried to stand but ended up tripping on the folds of their kimono, everyone was bowing. “Well then, my lady, you are disappointed as Lord Crawford is out for the evening, but let us get you into some dry clothes and some warm food into you.”
Rukia’s gaze was as cold as ice as she turned on Baba. “I do not care to be talked to like a child.” She said, Baba bowed.
“Neesan,” Fuji scolded softly, “Ba-chan talks to everyone like that. Where is your,” he stopped looking for the word, “train.”
“The weather was foul so I left them at the post-house. I couldn’t take their complaints” She said. “My apologies, Ba-chan,” she tested the word, “my brother mentioned you in his correspondence, I understand you have been lord of this manor during my absence.” She turned to Sena who was resting on her hip and sucking his thumb. “Is this my little Naoe.”
“No,” Naoe said sharply, “I’m Naoe.”
She turned to him and then frowned, “It is true, they do grow up so fast. I was away too long.” She sounded regretful.
“Five years.” Fuji said with a smile. She lowered her eyes to the ground for a moment. “Saya, Maya,” she acknowledged them with an easy familiarity, “Yohji, Schuldig, you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Rukia-sama,” Yohji said, “you cut your hair.” Rukia’s hair was short, like a boy’s, instead of the flowing tresses the other women had.
“I didn’t want lice.” She answered calmly. “Now, Ba-chan,” she was obviously still hesitant over the name, “please escort me to my husband’s room, Saya, Maya, if you can find me something to wear, it looks like Naoe’s clothes will fit me.” There was another fleeting look of sadness, “and then when I have eaten and had some tea, bring me the concubine that has my husband so confused.”
When Yohji carried Aya he always made sure to hold him by the ass. Neither of them spoke of it because it was the only time Yohji even noticed his presence, Aya had been the one to suffer Crawford’s jealousy before and it was possible that Yohji even felt guilty for it.
He carried him into the library and placed him on a pile of cushions. Lady Rukia had been dressed in one of his own kimono, highly decorated, and tied rather roughly in such a way that her legs were totally naked, and her feet were bare. Her hair turned out to have a single thin long braid over her shoulder and she stood at the futon cupboard going through Crawford’s papers without care. “So you are Aya,” she said without turning, “the twins told me about what happened, how Hikarin was asked to train you and what she did instead. Fuji asked Crawford to ask me to train you properly.”
“Were you a courtesan, my lady?” Aya asked.
“No,” Rukia shook her head, “I was a princess of the house of Fuji,” she smiled, “and I was an imperial negotiator. I spent three years in Europe at the emperor’s request less than a year after my marriage. I,” she stopped, “I know some of the premier courtesans in the world,” she said then smiled, “and you will be my triumph. You will be my gift to my husband.”
“Why?” Aya asked, “if he’s your husband, I mean.”
Rukia sat down then and looked at Aya as if measuring each and every one of the faults of his skin, “my husband and I serve the imperial household. We are negotiators with all that that means.” She cupped Aya’s face, “so soft, I cannot guarantee my husband anything of my time or life, but you,” she smiled then, “you can travel by his side for me. Can you think of a better gift for him?”
“But my lady,” Aya protested.
“You cannot bear him children, you cannot use your blood to coerce him, he will never throw me away for you. You are a silly boy, Aya, but when I am done with you,” with one fingertip she traced the rose design on his kimono, “you will be Aya no Bara. You will be the envy of the empire, and I will have trained you.”
She turned to the twins who sat on either side behind her like gargoyles, “Saya, will you help him to stand, Maya, undress him.”
Aya was always surprised by Saya’s strength as she helped him to stand. “This is your first lesson, my Aya no Bara.” As Maya stripped him efficiently of the kimono and juban she lifted a bowl, soap and a cut throat razor. “Hold as still as you can.”
Aya screwed his eyes shut as his lady began to shave his crotch and balls, with Maya and Saya holding him upright. She was quick and deft and the blade sharp.
He was amazed just how naked it made him feel, how exposed, then when she had done she pressed a soaked cloth against the skin and it tingled maddeningly.
“Your first lesson,” she said, “is that hair deadens sensation, keep yourself shaved,” Maya lifted his left arm and quickly Rukia pulled the blade over the skin pulling away the cut hair, then again with the hot cloth. Then she did the other quickly. “Your second is that when it grows back, it itches.”
“Will he, I mean, will the master like this?”
Rukia’s laugh was disdainful. “It doesn’t matter, Hikarin really taught you nothing, did she?” She cupped his face again, “then this will be your first lesson, you choose him, you can refuse him, you are not a wife, and even if you were he’d want the fire in your belly. A courtesan is not a prostitute, she chooses whom she lies with and when and then what they do. Syuusuke said you didn’t know better and I think that is disgusting, if I get my hands on her.” She stopped and calmed herself. “You can say no, you always could.”
And for some reason that hurt Aya more than if she had run him through.
next
Glossary
Ameratsu - The Sun goddess of Shinto
Aneki - older sister
Bikiko - Hel
Buchou - Captain
Dairai - imperial court
Daimyo - a landowner or lord.
Danna - a patron
Doitsujin - German person
Ecchi - pervert
Edo - another name for Tokyo
Fundoshi - a wrapped loincloth worn by men
Gaiden - legend
Gaijin - Foreigner
Gei - art
Genkan - small area in front of the door where shoes are kept
Genki - chipper
Geta - a type of sandal, named for the sound they make
Hakama - split culottes
Hanzubon - shorts
Hikarin - Schoen
Horimono - Japanese tattooing
Iki - sense of style.
Juni Hitoe - Lit twelve layers
Kaasan - Mother
Kawaii - an exclamation of something’s cuteness.
Kimi - she who is without equal.
Kimono - a decorated robe
Konketsu - half-breed.
Kyu - the lowest ranking in Go
Minarai - a time of learning by imitation
Mizuage - a deflowering ceremony
Moku - two corresponding lines in go - marks one area
Monogatori - lit: story of a person; romances or stories
Nagajubon - a light white kimono worn under the more ornate robes
Natto - fermented soybeans
Neesan - Sister
Nigiri - a pressed rice ball
Niisan - brother
Nihonjin - Japanese person
Noh - a type of drama performed with masks
Obi - the wide belt used to fasten a kimono
Okaasan - mother
Omemie - Neu
Omusubi - wrapped rice balls
Oni - demon, see also youma
Onmyoji - sorcerer
Ouji-sama - your highness.
Seppuku - ritual suicide by disembowelling
Seppun - the act of pressing mouths together- the worst of all perversions.
Shibari - the art of rope tying
Sumimasen - the most formal way of apologising
Tabi - split toed socks
Takoyaki - fried balls of octopus and flour
Tansu - a Japanese chest. This is a distinct style
Tanto - a short bladed sword, usually used by women, part of a set
Tatami - a mat, rooms are measured by tatami
Tayu - a very high-class courtesan, also called an Oiran
Usagi - Todt
Yukuta - a light cotton kimono worn for sleeping or festivals
Author: Seraphim Grace
Archive: http://www.geocities.com/taliasen1256.html, http://www.mediaminer.org, http://www.Seraphim-grace.livejournal.com. if you want it ask.
Feedback: Always appreciated and replied to.
Rating: 18.
Pairings: Crawford x Ran others to be notified later.
Warnings: historical au
previous chapters
prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Following his poisoning Aya was deathly weak. He was carried about by two of the guards on a cushioned board because he lacked the strength to walk. This amused Fuji to no end who referred to him as the baby he never wanted spoon feeding him whatever they were eating. Fuji confused Aya because despite seeming like an airhead, and bowing down to whatever Tezuka told him, it was clear that not only was he the dominant party in their relationship but Crawford trusted his counsel.
It was also apparent to any who saw them that Fuji and Tezuka were that most mythical of matches, a love match.
Saya and Maya sat beside him as Naoe haltingly read from the book of verse, “the Tale of Genji”? that Crawford had selected. Crawford himself sat at the window and watched the rain sheeting down. He was listening, as the servants kept them supplied with tea and sake and other sweets.
“In the summer evening, Genji stopped to inquire after his old nurse, Koremitsu's mother, on his way from court to pay one of his calls at Rokujo mansion. His carriage was simple and unadorned and he had no servants. Beside the nurse's house was a new fence of plaited cypress. The four or five narrow shutters above had been raised, and new blinds, white and clean, hung in the aperture. The white flowers of Yugao, which meant "evening faces", were in bloom on the board wall. Genji sent his man to ask the name of the flower. That was the beginning of the encounter between Genji and Yugao.”
Crawford stood up, “I must go,” he said a little woodenly, holding his head and biting at his lip. “Something is happening, Naoe keep reading, I will be back before dawn.”
“Master,” one of the servants said, “the rain is coming down something awful, perhaps.”
“Bring me a heavy cloak and a hat to keep off the rain.” Crawford corrected her before she even finished. He stopped and tilted his head as if listening to someone as one of the servants whispered the word oni, and that he was speaking to demons. Baba hushed them with a glare. “I’m only going to the house of Shuichi, Hikarin is playing her game and I can’t miss the opening gambit.”
Then he turned to Naoe, “I leave you in charge during my absence, continue to read.”
Naoe took a sip of his tea before clearing his throat and continuing. “Koremitsu passed the flower to Genji on a white fan. A little girl of the house handed it to him. As he finished his visit to the nurse, he asked for a torch, and shone its light on the fan on which the evening face had rested. It was permeated with a lady's perfume, elegant and alluring. On it was a poem, "I think I need not ask whose face it is, so bright, this evening face, in the shining dew." Genji ordered Koremitsu to make inquiries about the woman.”
Aya frowned but turned his attention back to Naoe’s halting reading of the poem and tried to ignore the whispers of the servants that his master was a demon, or in league with them. His master was an Onmyoji, a sorcerer, of course he had access to knowledge that they did not.
Although he thought no one was noticing Tezuka was softly stroking the back of Fuji’s hand. Aya desperately envied them and their complicity.
He sat there for what must have been a few hours, listening to Naoe haltingly read with plenty of errors, drinking tea and basking in the warmth of the hearth. He even suspected he drowsed for a while, because since he had been poisoned he had been prone to falling asleep.
When the person entered the room he assumed that it was Crawford returning. However the rain soaked figure wasn’t nearly that tall or imposing. He wore a black kimono and hakama and his face was covered with a reed hat. There was a large katana blade strapped to the thin waist.
Fuji got to his feet in a scramble. “Neesan!” he exclaimed, climbing over the prone people to get to the figure as he removed his hat. The hair underneath was wet and slicked back to a slender face with large eyes that were as deep and dark as pansy hearts.
Yohji and Schuldig, who had been quietly getting drunk in one corner, turned to look at the figure. “Rukia-sama.” They said bowing.
“I’m looking for my husband.” She said firmly.
It was Baba that recovered first, as Saya and Maya tried to stand but ended up tripping on the folds of their kimono, everyone was bowing. “Well then, my lady, you are disappointed as Lord Crawford is out for the evening, but let us get you into some dry clothes and some warm food into you.”
Rukia’s gaze was as cold as ice as she turned on Baba. “I do not care to be talked to like a child.” She said, Baba bowed.
“Neesan,” Fuji scolded softly, “Ba-chan talks to everyone like that. Where is your,” he stopped looking for the word, “train.”
“The weather was foul so I left them at the post-house. I couldn’t take their complaints” She said. “My apologies, Ba-chan,” she tested the word, “my brother mentioned you in his correspondence, I understand you have been lord of this manor during my absence.” She turned to Sena who was resting on her hip and sucking his thumb. “Is this my little Naoe.”
“No,” Naoe said sharply, “I’m Naoe.”
She turned to him and then frowned, “It is true, they do grow up so fast. I was away too long.” She sounded regretful.
“Five years.” Fuji said with a smile. She lowered her eyes to the ground for a moment. “Saya, Maya,” she acknowledged them with an easy familiarity, “Yohji, Schuldig, you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Rukia-sama,” Yohji said, “you cut your hair.” Rukia’s hair was short, like a boy’s, instead of the flowing tresses the other women had.
“I didn’t want lice.” She answered calmly. “Now, Ba-chan,” she was obviously still hesitant over the name, “please escort me to my husband’s room, Saya, Maya, if you can find me something to wear, it looks like Naoe’s clothes will fit me.” There was another fleeting look of sadness, “and then when I have eaten and had some tea, bring me the concubine that has my husband so confused.”
When Yohji carried Aya he always made sure to hold him by the ass. Neither of them spoke of it because it was the only time Yohji even noticed his presence, Aya had been the one to suffer Crawford’s jealousy before and it was possible that Yohji even felt guilty for it.
He carried him into the library and placed him on a pile of cushions. Lady Rukia had been dressed in one of his own kimono, highly decorated, and tied rather roughly in such a way that her legs were totally naked, and her feet were bare. Her hair turned out to have a single thin long braid over her shoulder and she stood at the futon cupboard going through Crawford’s papers without care. “So you are Aya,” she said without turning, “the twins told me about what happened, how Hikarin was asked to train you and what she did instead. Fuji asked Crawford to ask me to train you properly.”
“Were you a courtesan, my lady?” Aya asked.
“No,” Rukia shook her head, “I was a princess of the house of Fuji,” she smiled, “and I was an imperial negotiator. I spent three years in Europe at the emperor’s request less than a year after my marriage. I,” she stopped, “I know some of the premier courtesans in the world,” she said then smiled, “and you will be my triumph. You will be my gift to my husband.”
“Why?” Aya asked, “if he’s your husband, I mean.”
Rukia sat down then and looked at Aya as if measuring each and every one of the faults of his skin, “my husband and I serve the imperial household. We are negotiators with all that that means.” She cupped Aya’s face, “so soft, I cannot guarantee my husband anything of my time or life, but you,” she smiled then, “you can travel by his side for me. Can you think of a better gift for him?”
“But my lady,” Aya protested.
“You cannot bear him children, you cannot use your blood to coerce him, he will never throw me away for you. You are a silly boy, Aya, but when I am done with you,” with one fingertip she traced the rose design on his kimono, “you will be Aya no Bara. You will be the envy of the empire, and I will have trained you.”
She turned to the twins who sat on either side behind her like gargoyles, “Saya, will you help him to stand, Maya, undress him.”
Aya was always surprised by Saya’s strength as she helped him to stand. “This is your first lesson, my Aya no Bara.” As Maya stripped him efficiently of the kimono and juban she lifted a bowl, soap and a cut throat razor. “Hold as still as you can.”
Aya screwed his eyes shut as his lady began to shave his crotch and balls, with Maya and Saya holding him upright. She was quick and deft and the blade sharp.
He was amazed just how naked it made him feel, how exposed, then when she had done she pressed a soaked cloth against the skin and it tingled maddeningly.
“Your first lesson,” she said, “is that hair deadens sensation, keep yourself shaved,” Maya lifted his left arm and quickly Rukia pulled the blade over the skin pulling away the cut hair, then again with the hot cloth. Then she did the other quickly. “Your second is that when it grows back, it itches.”
“Will he, I mean, will the master like this?”
Rukia’s laugh was disdainful. “It doesn’t matter, Hikarin really taught you nothing, did she?” She cupped his face again, “then this will be your first lesson, you choose him, you can refuse him, you are not a wife, and even if you were he’d want the fire in your belly. A courtesan is not a prostitute, she chooses whom she lies with and when and then what they do. Syuusuke said you didn’t know better and I think that is disgusting, if I get my hands on her.” She stopped and calmed herself. “You can say no, you always could.”
And for some reason that hurt Aya more than if she had run him through.
next
Glossary
Ameratsu - The Sun goddess of Shinto
Aneki - older sister
Bikiko - Hel
Buchou - Captain
Dairai - imperial court
Daimyo - a landowner or lord.
Danna - a patron
Doitsujin - German person
Ecchi - pervert
Edo - another name for Tokyo
Fundoshi - a wrapped loincloth worn by men
Gaiden - legend
Gaijin - Foreigner
Gei - art
Genkan - small area in front of the door where shoes are kept
Genki - chipper
Geta - a type of sandal, named for the sound they make
Hakama - split culottes
Hanzubon - shorts
Hikarin - Schoen
Horimono - Japanese tattooing
Iki - sense of style.
Juni Hitoe - Lit twelve layers
Kaasan - Mother
Kawaii - an exclamation of something’s cuteness.
Kimi - she who is without equal.
Kimono - a decorated robe
Konketsu - half-breed.
Kyu - the lowest ranking in Go
Minarai - a time of learning by imitation
Mizuage - a deflowering ceremony
Moku - two corresponding lines in go - marks one area
Monogatori - lit: story of a person; romances or stories
Nagajubon - a light white kimono worn under the more ornate robes
Natto - fermented soybeans
Neesan - Sister
Nigiri - a pressed rice ball
Niisan - brother
Nihonjin - Japanese person
Noh - a type of drama performed with masks
Obi - the wide belt used to fasten a kimono
Okaasan - mother
Omemie - Neu
Omusubi - wrapped rice balls
Oni - demon, see also youma
Onmyoji - sorcerer
Ouji-sama - your highness.
Seppuku - ritual suicide by disembowelling
Seppun - the act of pressing mouths together- the worst of all perversions.
Shibari - the art of rope tying
Sumimasen - the most formal way of apologising
Tabi - split toed socks
Takoyaki - fried balls of octopus and flour
Tansu - a Japanese chest. This is a distinct style
Tanto - a short bladed sword, usually used by women, part of a set
Tatami - a mat, rooms are measured by tatami
Tayu - a very high-class courtesan, also called an Oiran
Usagi - Todt
Yukuta - a light cotton kimono worn for sleeping or festivals