| Never What I Expected [Chihiro, Ginta] |
[Feb. 8th, 2010|01:29 pm] |
Takes place April 6th, immediately following Meant to Live
Chihiro gave her grandson three hours. Three hours to talk to Sakumo's son, calm himself down, and get over his unspeakable rudeness. She used her three hours for a social call on an old friend, who agreed completely with Chihiro that Ginta had been far out of line, but he was Gousuke's grandson, what could you do? At least he was recovering. But after all the worry he'd put Chihiro through...
The matter of Ginta's choice of friends also came up, though not, thank heavens, his deviance. Still, Sakumo's son all grown up, imagine that. How far had that particular apple landed from the tree?
She went by her kimono maker's shop, and looked through the bolts of summer silk that had just arrived, choosing a sedate blue with a subtle pattern of koi at the bottom for herself. In memory of Gousuke, of course. For her daughter she picked something a little more vibrant, grass green with darting purple dragonflies. Yukari would like it, and it would make a nice gift. And she would give last summer's mauve kimono with the geometric pattern to her maid Suki. Suki had liked that one, she remembered, especially with the dark green obi. So the dark green obi with it. Yes.
By the time she had finished, she judged that Ginta had had more than enough time to visit with Sakumo's son, especially so soon after surgery. He should be resting not confronting his... What was Kakashi? An ex-lover, or at the very least a boy that Ginta had been pining over. Her lips twisted at the thought as if she tasted something sour.
It was time, she told herself, that Ginta stopped this nonsense. He had obligations as a Sakamoto. If he was adult enough to speak to his grandmother the way he had that afternoon, then he was old enough to take his responsibilities seriously. This rebellious little game he was playing, experimenting with other boys, had to come to an end.
She stopped by the Eight Mountains sweet shop, the finest in Konoha, and purchased a box of cinnamon-sweetened tea cakes. A bribe for Ginta, to ease the coming discussion. She planned it out carefully: today there would be no talk of marriage, merely of propriety, and the need for Ginta to step into the place Gousuke had vacated as head of the Sakamoto family. Ginta disliked his mother's husband, which would be an excellent point of leverage. Surely he wouldn't want to see his stepfather taking on the role of Gousuke's heir. Though the fact that Gousuke had never formally adopted the man was surely something Ginta was aware of.
When she re-entered the hospital, the receptionist at the front smiled and bowed to her. The elevator was crowded with visitors coming to have their evening meals with their ill loved ones. Chihiro and one other visitor, a drab-looking woman with a lined face, got off at the fourth floor.
"Your son is in ANBU?" Chihiro asked her.
"My daughter," the woman replied. She pressed her lips together and looked down. Her cloth coat was stained and threadbare, her shoes unstylish.
"I hope she recovers quickly," Chihiro said, not unkindly.
The woman made a rough noise, coughed, and turned away.
So it was like that. Chihiro offered the woman her handkerchief. "Keep it," she said, when the woman tried to refuse. "Give it to your daughter when she is feeling better." She turned away herself, to give the woman privacy in which to dry her tears.
"Sakamoto-sama, welcome back," the woman at the desk told her. It was the older woman with the long shoe-shaped scar cutting across her cheek and lip. Chihiro smiled at the woman, who asked, "How is Ginta-san doing?"
"Much better," Chihiro told her. Probably the woman already knew. It was likely she knew the status of every ANBU agent behind those closed doors she guarded, taking visitors' thumb prints and signatures, and doling out badges printed with numbers rather than names. But the woman smiled back and nodded, and told Chihiro she was glad to hear it. To enjoy her visit with her grandson.
Chihiro's visit, however, turned stunningly short. She passed a nurse, who nodded politely at her. She came to Ginta's door, found it standing ajar. The lights inside were turned off, the room painted in cool shades of blue from the gathering twilight. In the bed...
In the bed were two figures, curled together with an intimacy that shook Chihiro to the bone. Ginta lay on his back, with his cast-encumbered leg propped on pillows. Across his belly rested two arms, his own and Kakashi's. The Hatake boy was fitted so close to Ginta there was no space between them. He was taller and broader, with his arm around Ginta, but somehow Chihiro couldn't tell who was protecting whom. They looked exhausted and innocent, and not innocent at all.
It was time Ginta stopped this nonsense.
It was time, whispered a treacherous voice in her head, that she realize this wasn't rebellion, and Ginta was never going to stop.
She turned as silently as any ninja, and left. |
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