[Day 7, Early Evening] Rumours

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Their impromptu guests having departed and the sickbay well scrubbed and ready for action, all that was left for the bishi doctor and the Man-Mountain to do was wait. Fuichi, whose role in life was meant to be that of a cloistered priest, was exceptionally good at remaining still for long periods of time. In some ways, it was his finest skill.

With measured interest and an even pace, he silently counted the swabs on the table to the tune of "Little Old Lady of Asahina." It was an old favorite.

[Isawa O-Washi]

Water was meant to flow. Even when it was ice, it waited only the slightest provocation to crack or to slide, seeking always to be in motion that was it's right. Being rather attuned to his chosen element, it was therefor not surprising that O-washi was a pacer. Up to the door, turn, wind around the berths, turn, past Fuichi and his counting, turn, and back to the door again. That his rhythm followed the Crane's song had quite escaped his notice, the gunso's mind on other things.

After perhaps his tenth rotation, he stopped. This was ridiculous. Like the Crab he so phyiscally resembled, O-washi got swiftly and bluntly to his point(s).

"So, which thing from yesterday would you prefer to discuss first, the 'dying for five years' comment or the liason and it's conotations?"

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi fell silent and slowly turned to face the Isawa. "Ah...well, I think the first might be easier, unless you would rather the other. I'm not...I mean, I don't..." He looked down. "Both are equally important, so whichever you prefer."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"Let us discuss your health first, then, because I would be a liar if I let you think it won't affect my thoughts on the other matter."

One of the berths was flipped down and O-washi sat on it, legs danging over the side. Space was left for Fuichi, should he wish to take it, but the Isawa wouldn't pressure him one way or another.

"Starting at the beginning would be best, I imagine."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

"When I was young, I had four siblings. Sanzaemon and Kosui, my older brothers, and Shizuka, my sister, all took after my father. Tall, powerfully built, freakishly healthy. My little brother and I took after our Kakita grandmother: average height, slender, classically beautiful...sick more often than not."

He took a deep breath. "It was my little brother's first year at the Daidoji Training Grounds, and he fell sick. Air Imbalace, fairly serious. I was home at the time because Sanzaemon was getting married, so I was asked to take care of little Daigoro. He just kept getting worse, he coughed constantly, often with blood involved, couldn't eat much. Eventually he couldn't catch his breath at all." Fuichi's face clouded, and for a moment he was a frightened teenager again, telling his kid brother about the splendors of Yomi.

"About a week after the funeral I started coughing. Naturally, mother panicked. My siblings were forbidden to see me and I was kept in my room. However, my training with the Air kami made them unwilling to abandon me as they had my brother. So...I don't eat much, and if I strain too much I start to show some of the problems that are happening inside. The Air kami refuse to carry the sickness, so I am not contagious, but most everyone agrees that I will not live to see my twenty-fifth year."

He paused. "The gaijin priestess who trains Isawa-san is looking into a treatment, but I confess that I don't have much hope."

[Isawa O-Washi]

O-washi's brow furrowed but he nodded, slowly. "You are sure it is a disease?"

It was a rather important question...as an experienced tensai of water, O-washi could beg the kami to aid him in the casting of some very powerful curative spells.

[Daidoji Fuichi]

"Hai, very much so."

[Isawa O-Washi]

One of the man's large hands rose to rub over his goatee.

"And have the kami been invoked for you in prayer of the higher circles?"

[Daidoji Fuichi]

"As befitted my station. Or rather, as befitted my Father's station, which is roughly equivalent to Yoritomo-sama's."

He sat down next to the big gunso. "It makes every new experience that much sweeter, and gives meaning to every action. In that way it is a gift, and if there is also a drawback or two, then that is the way of gifts, no?"

[Isawa O-Washi]

"At least you haven't grown maudlin. Many of the more militant friends I have behave the same, knowing very well that all it takes is one good swordblow or a well-aimed arrow to send them to Meido."

Considering it, O-washi shifted to better look at his slight companion. "And what does your strategy of 'embrace the moment' mean in terms of bedmates?" He smiled reassuringly. "If it was meant as a fling, so be it. I will take my memories and continue to enjoy our friendship as I did before. If you want more than that, though, we're going to have to discuss a few things."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi chewed his lower lip. "Well, I wouldn't mind pursuing it further. I...you've been very kind to me, among all of your good qualities, and I can see this developing into something serious very easily. On the other hand, I certainly wouldn't want to...to impose on you, or to become the 'ball and chain.'"

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I've loved before." The larger man reached to touch a small ivory sun that was dangling from his scroll case today. "Loved, despite knowing that she was going to die...she was Moshi and it was early in the War of Fire and Thunder and she would not stand to be hostage, preferring to die honorably instead. We had little time, but it was long enough...she is why I do not hate the Mantis but respect them instead."

O-washi's blue gaze darkened and for a moment he was silent, in tribute to the fallen. When he went on again, his tone was softer, more thoughtful.

"I thought it worth the cost then, and I still think so now...but it was much harder than I thought it would be. I spent a full season not myself, pining and nursing my damaged heart as much as the wounds that I had earned in the battle where the woman and I had met. If this is to be more than a season's dalliance, I would want to do my own work with the water kami for you because I have no wish to tie my heart once again to one betrothed to Emma-O. It may seem callous of me, but I've my Duty to think of, and I can't do it properly if I'm heartsick."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi reached up to caress his cheek. "How could I refuse such a kindness? If you wish to help me, how could I turn it aside? I do not know if you will succeed, but I hope that in the meantime you will let me be a comfort to you as you have been for me. I would not want to leave you heartbroken; it would break my heart in turn."

[Isawa O-Washi]

The cheek under the caress twitched as O-washi's smile reappeared.

"I have the power, I should think, or soon will. I've almost mastered the full circles of influence with the mizu-kami known to the Phoenix. My bloodline runs deep with tensai and it's lead to influence...which leads to another possible few problems we should discuss, on my side this time."

Sighing, O-washi turned to his lover.

"I will be married. In the next few years, I imagine. It will be a matter of politics and power and while I have no intent to mistreat my wife, I do not anticipate anything more than friendship with her unless something incredibly surprising happens. It will keep me from the Legions for several months in a year, I should think, and even if we were lucky enough to secure a posting in the same area it would make the time I could devote to you less, particularly if the first child shows talent. Should that happen, the Clan will want me to sire more and that will demand me at home more often. They'll also likely try to get me back to teach, out of the Legion entirely, should that happen. It might very well bring an end to all but very occassional meetings and I know from experience that letters are insufficient substitutes for time together to keep a tie strong." He shrugged. "If we manage to end your illness, likely your own situation will be similar and so it may be less painful...but it may not. It is worth thinking on, before one decides to risk a tie."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi smiled. "It is better to have it end that way, amicably and for duty, than cursing my cowardice for not properly expressing my love for you at all. It will be devastating, but would it be more so than my death from this sickness? Or either of our deaths in battle? I find that hard to imagine."

He chuckles. "Benten's smile is a challenge as well as a blessing, but I am willing to risk a broken heart in a year's time if it means that you will hold me now, and tomorrow, and all the days until we are made to part."

A sly smirk. "Who knows? Perhaps we're both sterile and all of this worrying is for nothing."

[Isawa O-Washi]

That startled a laugh out of the larger man, distracting him for several minutes. Slowly, however, it faded, solemnity taking humor's place.

"There is one other matter you need to be aware of, even if we're just going to be close friends, close enough for you to visit I mean." O-washi ran a hand through his hair. "My family, as I said, is strong. The plain fact is, we're kuge. Now, I myself don't put on airs for who my family is, as it was not my doing...but my mother is an entirely different matter."
His town deepened and his fingers began to clench into fists.

"It is disloyal to speak ill of one's parents and I try to avoid doing so but you deserve to know what you may deal with. My mother is a tensai of air and she is fully intent upon becoming the next Master. She has always had ambition but as she has grown older, it has grown more consuming. I do not think it is too out of hand to consider it a madness by now, though she hides it very well, being as silver-tongued as any of your Clan. She sees her children as nothing but go pieces to use in her attempts to rise and sees our friends and things that matter as nothing more than ways to make us bend to her will. She will try to use you to make me bend...and I will not, for I fear her ambition means more to her than the good of the Clan."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi's expression becomes stern. "I won't become a weapon against you. My clan is committed to the alliance with the Phoenix, and my father would certainly not permit any action that could bring harm to your clan. Your mother may be kuge, may be silver-tongued and suffused with power, but I rather doubt she could handle an angry Wall Crane, and Father is a grizzly when it comes to his children."

He shook his head. "And even if Father could do nothing, I would never allow any harm to come to you on my account. I love you, and I won't see you hurt."

[Isawa O-Washi]

"I put nothing past my mother."

O-washi's tone was darker still.

"She had my next-eldest sister's Kitsu husband killed by maneuvering him into a place where his honor would condemn him, hoping to respend the coin that was my sister's hand in marriage. She expected that my sister would return to the Phoenix, for she had loathed her husband and fought mightily to avoid the marriage entirely." A muscle twitched in his jaw. "Hiromi-chan thwarted her by swearing her renewed loyalty to her new Family. My mother underestimated her desire to get out from under her thumb. I expect to hear of her being sent to help 'clean up' the remaining yobanjin and dying gloriously any month now. If she won't be used one way, she will be used another."

[Daidoji Fuichi]

Fuichi's brows knit as he tries to comprehend that sort of violence toward one's own children. "That is...reprehensible. However, it is an eventuality that I am willing to face, if it should come to that."

[Isawa O-Washi]

For a few moments, it seemed as though O-washi would say no more, simply nodding his agreement. At last, however, he whispered, "I think...should the position come open and she fail to gain it...that my mother may resort to blasphemies for the power she craves."