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 Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:25 am
Donalbain nodded softly and sighed. "I'm sorry I brought that up, I was simply curious," he said with a sad sort of smile. He rose and dusted himself off, letting the rings of flowers fall, pulling his kimono right he untucked the two wooden sticks from his obi and fixed his hair once again. He looked down to the other Hanze with a small sort of smile. "Come with me," he said gently. "I need an escort to pick up my servant."
He offered his hand to the other, glad they were out of eye and earshot of the other Hanze. This wouldn't be taken kindly to. This whole talk or his whole attitude towards him. "Or should you run to your home? It is rather late..." he trailed off and bit down on his bottom lip gently, working it between his teeth. "If that is the case, you can go ahead."
He had heard a trace of a lie in Amikai's words, but who was he to say he was? If he didn't want to talk about it then Donalbain wouldn't press. He honestly wouldn't go out of his way for gossip.
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:07 am
Amikai winced slightly, but took the offered hand up anyway. Careful not to exert too much force on the offered leverage (one never knew exactly how strong or delicate these haka were - alot could be said for the masking qualities of a kimono), he lurched to his feet. He released Donalbain's hand quickly thereafter though, as if hesitant to keep contact with the other for too long. Though, admittedly, it seemed like an almost unconscious, instinctual reaction on the gehaka's part rather than a clearly thought out jerk of the hand.
"I would be happy to escort you," he said, voice clear of any rough sentiment expression in his previous statements. "It's early yet and I have no pressing engagements either this evening or early tomorrow morning." He smiled dully, the expression slightly crooked and all too brief. "I apologize, Donalbain, for snapping at you. I -- it's... I can assure you that I didn't mean to offend or startle you. It's complicated."
And, for the most part, had almost nothing to do with Tensa himself. Old wounds maybe, still open and tender and unlikely to scar after so long a time hidden from the sun.
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:33 am
Donalbain nodded and smiled. "Worry not. I was prying. It is only in one's natural instinct to snap back, isn't it?" he asked with a wry little smile. He rubbed at his face a moment and gave a wide yawn. "Oh my... It might be later than I though. Come, I sent him to the spa!" With that said, Donalbain began down the cobblestone path.
He understood about old wounds. Well, his wasn't so old, but it was still a wound that left a deep scar on his heart. He'd never open up like that again, and never propose a marriage unless he knew the Gehaka wasn't going to... He sighed and laughed bitterly to himself. "You have probably never seen my servant before. He's an interesting thing. Almost fully albino. Beautiful, actually."
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:43 am
Lapsing into silence for a time, Amikai nodded and trailed after Donalbain. The silence, on his part at least, was filled with obvious thoughtfulness - the sort in which a man in clearly thinking on matters he doesn't particularly wish to be thinking on, but finds it is the case despite this. Frowning, he latched immediately onto the offered subject, gaze following the path they trod rather than looking to Donalbain, out of habit rather than necessity.
"Albino?" he murmured, head cocking minutely in one direction. "I've only seen alibno mice - the little red eyed ones." Amikai excepted to say he'd only seen even those because someone had been feeding them to an exceptionally large looking snake, but... well. That wasn't really on topic, was it?
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:23 am
He nodded and smiled. "Well, he's mostly albino. His hair still has some colour to it, as do his eyes. Why, I'm not certain of. But he is an interesting creature none-the-less. We find him so delicate my Mother had him trained in the ways of a Haka." He gave laugh at that and looked around at the rest of the flowers. To Donalbain, it seemed as though Amikai didn't flirt. Which was a good thing. It was nice to finally just talk to someone and not worry about that.
"Naomi, that's his name, is very good at playing music. He's a very talented artist as well. But writing ....he still has problems. He also lets his tongue slip often." He gave a small laugh. "One time, I had just taken him home from a late night walk, and he told Father he thought his hair was ugly looking that day."
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:21 am
Flirting was probably an art lost to the older gehaka - in the way adults forget why it's so important to stuff sweets into their mouths and instead begin to savor it. Sweets stuffing was a vastly lost art form, and just as adults seem to forget that they once had the ability, so Amikai wasn't particular aware that he'd ever been truly capable of flirting - much less that he'd lost the ability somewhere along the way.
Maybe he'd never really had it in the first place.
Lost or no, he smiled and laughed despite himself. "It sounds as if your servant may be a far better haka than yourself, Donalbain - in so far as speaking his mind openly, ne?" If it could be constrewed as an insult, it was clear the gehaka didn't intend it to be that way.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:20 pm
"You little flounder!" He said with a gasp and laughed shortly, shaking his head. "Yes, go ahead. I've told you already you don't have to go on with the formatlities of titles. That includes biting your tongue. If I feel insulted, you'll know it." He gave a cryptic smile as looked over him with a side-long glance. "Yes, he is a better Haka. However, he is a very poor Gehaka. He's not good with a sword, nor is he good with simple tasks. His needle work, however. And his kimono dying. They're simply beautiful! I want to help him open a kimono shop, but, alas..." He sighed and shrugged.
"But, that aside, I do believe you'd get along with him. He's a very ..open Hanze. So friendly and always smiling." He laughed and nodded happily. "I've had him since I was small, but he's only 17.."
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:00 pm
"It is good then," Amikai said, smiling slightly against the cooling evening air. "That he is in a family where such things are allowed, if not welcomed. Not all households would tolerate such a temperment in their Gehaka."
The carefully cultivated garden path ended in an archway that send them out into a wide cobbled side street. The soles of Amikai's sandals scraped against the stone, and he paused a moment - instinct, rather than suspicion - to cast a glance up and down the night-shadowed alley before turning on to it. The lamps, dispersed along the length of the street, had been lit, creating little bubbles of light all the way down the length of stone until it came back to the main track of the real street.
Amikai looked wordlessly to Donalbain, waiting for some indication as to which way they were headed.
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Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:41 am
Donalbain nodded a bit and laughed. "Yes... But we did bring it upon ourselves, don't you think?" he asked, looking over to Amikai with an odd look.
"You're a very well behaved Gehaka..." That comment was almost random, but he couldn't help note the difference between the Gehaka he knew to this one. It was almost a relief not to be worried about hitting the other or scolding him for talking out of line.
He turned left, a very good indication of where they'd be going. The spa wasn't too far from here, and it was high time he picked Naomi up. Idly, he brought one of his hands up and rubbed at his eye with a heavy sigh. It was so tiresome having a servant who could only go out at night.
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Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:15 am
Amikai bowed his head absently in thanks for the compliment - he could only assume that was a compliment. "Thank you; I believe it comes with age." He grinned briefly, a slight and crooked expression. "After so many years, one learns the value of keeping his mouth shut when it's not important." Chuckling, he drifted forward, a mere half-step behind Donalbain, no doubt out of habit rather than conscious thought. Years of being told where to stand, how to act, when to look about the corners first particularly when the night was beginning to set - by now, it was almost inate instinct rather than a weighted sense of task or responsibility.
Ah, to the spa then. More likely than not anyway; there weren't too many places Amikai could imagine a Gehaka being at time hour of the evening, particularly in this direction.
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