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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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 Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:15 pm
Baikou immediately feels regretful, pulling back from Hitsuga as he scrubs his face. ... A few moments after he finishes, though, she reaches for the brush again, running it through his hair.
... It didn't look that bad, she says softly. In fact, she...
... Hitsuga keeps saying that he's failed, but if this is a failure, Baikou doesn't think it's that bad.
She likes wet and runny-faced Hitsuga too, he knows.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:25 pm
But Baikou deserves better than that. he argues sullenly, flinching only a little as the bristles return to his hair, the gentle pull on his scalp and the soft whispering hiss as it runs through, quieting him as if its some sort of magic.
Perhaps, in her hands, it IS some sort of magic.
His breathing, fluttering and frustrated, begins to slow again.
Baikou deserves the same shows of adoration and displays of beauty that any proper potential husband would be able to show her. Not someone who runs and hides at the first sign of trouble.
....surely not someone who trips over the @#$%^ cat into the tub.... he adds with more than a little disdain.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:32 pm
Is that what happened? Baikou asks, making a sound as if she is stifling a giggle.
... ... ... Hitsuga says that, and it is a kind sentiment. She understands where he is coming from, but...
She continues brushing for a while, her head tilted to one side as she thinks. Another pause to pull a piece of torn flower from his hair, and...
"I don't need that," she says. Strangely, her voice sounds choked even as her projections are quiet and pleasant: Surely, every woman must feel a little rush of pleasure at receiving that kind of treatment, but... Baikou, he knows? Feels a rush of pleasure when he wrings his hands, or when he runs about the house in a frenzy, when he's scowling over his work pinching at tiny vials, or when he's wet and cranky and dripping five colors down his face. Those are all different faces of Hitsuga, and it gives her pleasure to see them all.
"I don't want... a good man," she says softly, "but Hitsuga," and to receive all his failures, all of them wonderful new memories for her.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:46 pm
...........
He is quiet for a long, long time, the only sound, projected or otherwise, passing between them being the soft sounds of bristle-on-hair.
A few projections, start and stop themselves before they can form anything coherent. So too, does his throat work as if he means to speak, but isn't having much luck there either.
Privately, he wonders how it is she can really mean all of that. How it is that everything he was told would be exactly the sorts of things that would repulse any prospects of marriage from his life can be the very things that draw her nearer.
At long last he finally dares to turn and look back at her, forgetting for a moment to be ashamed of the remaining smudges of gray and pink that were once mascara and rouge on his cheeks and the corners of his eyes.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:51 pm
... ... ...
Baikou, biting back her grin, sets the brush aside and picks up the rag, finding a clean corner, then... placing a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she rocks up onto her toes, dabs at the remaining smudges.
It's easier with two pairs of eyes, right?
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:00 pm
He...he supposes it is, yes.... sweatdrop
And for a moment he allows her to fuss at the remaining mess on his face, as this gesture, in the face of so much strangeness since her arrival, is at least a familiar one. ....but he does not allow himself to bask in its comfort for long as at length, a hand reaches up to stop her, his own fingers folding over hers carefully.
He had done all of this because....he'd wanted to tell Baikou....
His gaze twitches momentarily to the floor though he forces it back to meet her eyes, seeming to take a great effort on his part.
.....because he'd wanted to tell Baikou..... he begins again, trying to keep his thoughts steady.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:06 pm
At the gentleness of the touch, Baikou quietly gasps. Even that is enough to cause pain -- or, perhaps, something, but not something she would call 'pain' any more.
... But even though she does think there are not many other possible explanations for his outfit and behavior than the one she is hoping for, she still lowers her eyes and smiles, her expression slowing just the slightest bit of fear and melancholy.
... Whatever he wants to say, she tells him, she wants to hear.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:20 pm
For a moment it seems there will be a replay of their last encounter, where he could do nothing except stare at her until the awkwardness drove her from him.
He knows what he wants to say. Putting it to words however....
He fidgets, and then draws away from her to cross the workroom to the refrigerator humming against the wall. It is not what's in it, but on TOP of it, however, that interests him as he fumbles for something, and then returns to her, his step slow and careful, his hands obscured by his sleeves.
He wanted to tell Baikou.... he says one last time, hesitating and then leaning in to fleetingly brush his lips over hers, even as something cold and metallic is urged into her hand.
....that he has made his decision. he finishes at last.
As his sleeve draws away, it is to reveal the silver glint of the pair of scissors he uses to trim leaves, petals, and stray stems from the blossoms he prepares for expression.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:29 pm
The woman Hitsuga returns to is not the one he left a few seconds earlier -- either the effort of holding up all those walls is no longer sustainable, or his momentary absence was enough to symbolize something else to her, but she stands slightly hunched over, holding the rag one tight fist, the other gripping the opposite sleeve, as if she is cradling herself. The eyes that look up at Hitsuga this time are truly terrified, the apparent confidence crumbling under the weight of her anticipation and--
The tiniest touch of his lips makes her almost stagger, either from the sensitivity of the skin of her face or from the weightiness of that gesture.
She is in such a state of wound-up emotion and confusion that she doesn't seem to understand what the scissors in her hand mean at first, and looks up from them to him again, uncertain...?
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:36 pm
He looks back to her, making a vested effort to keep the tremor out of his hands as he does so. It is not this he is uncertain of, but of her reception of it.
At the look of confusion she favors him with, he tries to remain a grasp on himself. It feels as if they both are facing one another on a rickety bridge at the moment, its ropes worn by years of uncertainties and traumas....and if one or the other are to rock it too heavily, it will send the both of them spilling into the chasm below.
Will Baikou.... he asks carefully .....honor this maiden....
this silly, twitchy, failure of a maiden....
....by making him hers?
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:42 pm
... ... ...
Ah...
Baikou pauses, shifting the scissors to her other hand as her right comes up to her mouth, pressing on her lips as if in an effort to quell the trembling there before it starts.
... But Hitsuga has always been Baikou's.
She breathes slowly, then transfers the scissors to her right again, and, hesitantly, tiptoes around him.
She reaches up to pet his long hair, still wet, but smoothed from the brushing. It must feel so silky, she thinks to herself, gazing at the luster on the dark, almost-black strands -- she wishes she could feel it rather than the wires that are currently cutting into her palm.
... Well. It will grow back, she thinks, this time aloud, as she raises the scissors... ... ... and... tilts them from side to side, not sure at what angle she should be doing this.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:47 pm
Hitsuga remains obediently still, having expected the first snick of the blades by now. As she hesitates, however, anxieties which are never quite gone, begin to reignite once more. Thoughts that perhaps now, at the threshold of finally finding resolution together, it will now be her that falters.
That maybe her feelings, after all, did not withstand his floundering and hesitation.
....is Baikou all right? he inquires at last, worriedly.
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Imperial Princess Rika Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:52 pm
Well, Hitsuga understands... He's a bit taller than her, and she can't quite reach. She supposes she could come at it from below, but then he will have strange triangular holes in his hair... ... ...
... ... ... Perhaps they should do this sitting down, so it's easier for her to reach? The table is a little too high for Baikou, so maybe the bed?
Though first, Hitsuga had better finish taking off all those wet clothes so he won't get the sheets all cold and soggy.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:15 pm
....and while this suggestion, and the veiled implication with it, sends the usual flush to his cheeks, and the usual tension to his chest, this time, it is without the accompanying stammering and panic.
Hitsuga thinks...
....that maybe that's not a bad idea, after all.
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