Kendo no Go
In the Language of Kendo:
A Fanfic in 100 Chapters
by Akai Kitsune
83: Errand
~*~
It is one
of those days where Kaoru just wants to scream.
She is in the market of
downtown Tokyo, Kenji at her side yanking on her arm at every opportunity.
They are shopping for tofu, rice, seasoning, tabi because her son has torn his
again, and a new pot because she had burned a hole right through the one they
had.
She would very much prefer to
be somewhere else at that moment - is in fact supposed to be at home doing
something unproductive - but she had offered to do the errands, just to be
polite. Instead of thanking her graciously and refusing, Kenshin had smiled,
said, "Oh, Kaoru, would you? There's a lot to get done here..." and walked off,
muttering about chores to finish and meals to plan. So she went shopping.
It is unfair to be resentful,
she knows. She offered, and he accepted knowing how much work there was left.
He would never have asked her to do it for him.
As she passes a clothing
store, she hesitates. Kenji still pulls at her arm, pointing at the sweet shop
across the street. Ignoring the tantalizing scents, she enters the clothes
store, tugging him with her.
The shopkeeper is at her side
instantly, smiling and cooing over the child below her, encouraging her
towards the kimonos for sale. Kaoru tries to object, to say that they require
a few pairs of tabi and nothing else, but the rack of hanten catch her eye.
She has wanted a new hanten for a long time, now. Kenji looks at her
quizzically, already bored. A smile crosses her face, and he suddenly realizes
they won't be leaving for a while.
Half an hour later, she
marches out of the shop with a new hanten, a scowling child, and the smile
still broad on her lips. To make Kenji feel better, she does go to the
sweet shop, purchasing a package of chocolate and sharing a few pieces with
him. He smiles, then.
On the way home, she buys a
newspaper, a new scent of perfume, and a jingling hairpin from a street
vendor. She does not buy tofu, tabi, or rice, which are the things they really
need.
When they reach the dojo
Kenshin is hanging up the cleaned laundry, whistling to himself as he does so.
Kenji lets go of her hand to tackle his father, curving chocolate-stained
hands around his hakama.
Kenshin blinks at the
chocolate, gently tugging loose the hands to wash them in the laundry tub. He
looks at Kaoru, considers saying something, then thinks better of it. She
walks past him, mumbling a brief "tadaima" and vanishing into the house. She
can feel his puzzled eyes on her.
Kaoru heads straight for her
bedroom, packages in hand. She puts on her best kimono, unwrapping the dark
hanten and pulling it on as well. The cloth settles over her skin, smooth and
silken and gorgeous. She pulls her hair free of the ragtag ponytail she had
hurriedly arranged that morning, and replaces it with the most
elegant, folded hairstyle she can manage, holding it in place with the
hairpin. The glass beads chime softly as she moves her head back and forth,
testing the look and feel of it in front of her mirror. A quick dab or two of
perfume to her neck sends the faint scent of wildflowers drifting through the
room. Taking the newspaper and chocolate, as well as a cup of chilled green
tea from the kitchen, she moves to the back porch and relaxes on the engawa,
flipping through the articles in the paper with a detached interest. She can
hear, vaguely, the sounds of her family laughing and wrestling at the front of
the property, but she pretends not to.
Eventually Kenshin and Kenji
peer around the corner of the house, clearly baffled by her disappearance.
Kenji immediately rushes
over, wrapping his arms around her neck, and exclaims, "Kaasan, you look
beautiful! Kiss me!" He is not, she thinks to herself, always this good at
saying exactly the right thing.
She obliges, kissing his
cheek with a graceful smile, and he skips away, smelling the perfume where it
had rubbed against his skin.
Kenshin merely blinks at her,
and says, "Oro? Kaoru-dono, where did you put the tofu?" He is not, she thinks
crossly, always this good at saying exactly the wrong thing.
"I didn't
get it," she responds simply, without the guilt she really ought to feel, and
tosses aside the newspaper, heading for the kitchen. He follows her, wary of
her mood.
When she begins opening cupboards, searching for a proper meal to
cook, Kenshin intervenes. "Never mind," he says quietly, a gentle smile on his
face, "I'll cook tonight."
"It's my
turn," she argues half-heartedly, knowing she should agree, that any meal she
cooked would be charred and reeking of perfume, and they would end up eating
chocolate and cold tea for supper.
Kenji pads into the kitchen
and grasps her sleeve, eyes wide and pleading. "Kaasan," he urges, "Can you
play with me? The kitty ran away."
But I'm cooking dinner,
she wants to say. She wants to scream. She wants to scream and never stop
screaming, but Kenshin's eyes are still on her, those big, beautiful, utterly
clueless eyes as he wonders what on earth is wrong with her, when even she
doesn't know the answer, and Kenji is still tugging at her kimono, so she
supposes it would not be a wise idea.
Instead, she follows Kenji
into the yard, playing his newest game as her husband cooks dinner with no
tofu and very little rice, and she gets dirt all over her new hanten and the
lovely kimono, in her elegant lady's hair, and very soon she realizes she
doesn't care at all, not at all.
That thought makes her smile.
~*~
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