Sunflower

Disclaimer: I, of course, do not own any of the characters herein, nor do I really want that kind of responsibility. That\'s not to say I wouldn\'t welcome any proceeds.... but yeah. On with the show.

Good Food and Good Friends

“Mugen!”

“…what?”

“Get off me.” Fuu growled at him, trying her best to stand upright and sound angry. He could tell that she was about as angry as a kitten, but Fuu felt that she had to keep up appearances. “Mugen, if you don’t let me up…. Ack!” She cried out suddenly as Mugen rolled off her mid-sentence and jerked her to her feet.

“If I don’t let you up… what? You’re gonna stick me with that damn girly knife of yours? Kami, I mean, it’s PINK,” he snickered. “What…no hug? Where are your manners?” He held his arms open, and when she made no move toward him he grabbed her and held her close.

“Not like you ever HAD any…” Fuu grumbled into his chest, but she couldn’t resist hugging him back. They had never shown any real interest in acting like close friends before the ongoings on Ikitsuki island, and Fuu marveled at how two years had developed Mugen into a man who didn’t shun human contact. As they hugged, Mugen felt the physical manifestations of her growth, and though they’d never hugged like this before, he was sure that she’d filled out slightly. He smiled to himself ‘She’s still got small tits though.’ Some male characteristics don’t change, and Mugen still preferred large breasts to none, or in this case: freakishly small… well maybe not freakishly. Just then, the little furry thing popped out of Fuu’s yukata. It chirped angrily at him for squashing it.

“Momo-san!” Fuu yelped, a little ashamed that she’d forgotten about her friend. She started to make an apology to both Momo-san and Mugen, but stopped mid-phrase when said fuzzball jumped onto Mugen’s shoulder hopping up and down while chirping. “It looks like Momo-san missed you too.” Mugen thought she looked a little sad for a moment, ‘that baka’s probably wondering where Jin is, I bet…” Once again chipper, her voice broke into his thoughts. “Are you hungry Mugen?” True to form, his stomach chose that very moment to answer her question.

“Hell yes!” She giggled, remembering the various other times when the very same thing had happened on their journey. Fuu grabbed his sleeve and began to lead him toward the outskirts of Edo-proper toward her home. “You mean…we’re not eating here?” Mugen said disappointedly. He planted his feet and refused to move, while he stared longingly at the enlarged menus over her place of employment. Fuu glared up at him, and when he continued to ignore her persistant tugging, she huffed indignantly.

“Yarou…the food here’s not so good—and I know how to cook. We’ll eat at my cottage, you’ll see.” He still looked more than a little unsure, so she played her trump card. “…I’ve got plenty of sake….” That did it. Fuu now had Mugen’s full attention, and he trailed her like a new puppy out of Edo toward the liquor.

Her “cottage,” as Fuu called it, was actually more of a nicely sized house in the middle of a field of tall grass and spartan wildflowers. Mugen was amazed at her resourcefulness. Obviously, this was no derelict hut that she’d found and patched up. It had the air of a well-loved home. The little house backed up to a small grove of trees, and he thought he saw a patch of sunflowers planted at the rear of the hut, where he imagined there would be a window. ‘Dork’s probably planted them where she can smell them,’ he thought.

Fuu chattered brightly as she led Mugen up the path toward the front door. He vaguely registered that she seemed to ramble about lots of little things; it almost seemed that she was trying to cover something up. Where had this home come from, anyway? Never one to beat around the bush, Mugen set about getting answers.
“So Fuu… whose house IS this?” Fuu gave him her best wide-eyed and innocent look. Never once had she actually thought he was stupid, and she had been expecting the question. “Is this your husband’s house? There’s no way you could get a place like this all on your own. What’s the deal?” His mode of interrogation raised her hackles and she lashed out at him.

“Husband’s house…?! Why can’t this be my house? And no… I’m not…. married… All the men around here are hentais… kind of like… YOU.” She exclaimed all this with her hands on her hips while serving up her most remonstrative glare. Mugen kept waiting for her to answer his question. His aggravating grin was not lost to her, and she finally broke. “Fine… bastard. This house belongs to the master of the dojo off in those woods—“ she pointed off toward the grove “and he used to live here with his wife and daughter. They died, I guess.”
“Yes, but what are YOU doing here?” He could be so damn irritating, wasn’t he listening?

“Baka! Not that it matters, but in exchange for some self-defense lessons, I keep up his home and live here. I make him the occasional meal too. He lives at the dojo now, though. Too many bad memories here, he says.” Satisfied with her explanation, Mugen allowed himself to ponder the other question that she’d answered ‘So there’s no man, eh? She lives alone? She’s still waiting for him?’ Mugen was a little upset at this revelation. He’d thought that after two years, if nothing happened, she’d have the presence of mind to move on. But that was Fuu: determined to the end. Mugen suddenly found himself angry with both of his former comrades; one for her unfailing faith, and the other for his seemingly callous disregard for her other’s feelings.

After a short “tour” of her three room home, Fuu set about making supper. She agreed to make shabushabu for Mugen on the condition that he would eat the vegetables she prepared as well. And while they ate in amiable silence, Fuu took a moment to take in her old “body guard.” ‘He looks the same,’ she noted, but there was something different about his demeanor. He seemed a little happier, a little less reckless, perhaps a little more—reserved? However, the sloppy eating machine that was Mugen, was spitting minute pieces of rice in her general direction as they talked idly about their lives over the past two years. He was, she decided, pretty much the same old dumb-and-lucky Mugen.

She almost let herself think about Jin—but quickly rememberd to push his visage out of her head. Eventually she’d break and ask Mugen for news, she knew; maybe she would be able to hold onto her indifferent façade until tomorrow morning. Fuu did her best to keep up her show of moving on: you know—independence and all that shit.

The strange pair talked on while Mugen downed no small amount of Fuu’s mediocre, (but passable) sake. She didn’t drink much, as she remembered vividly her first encounter with rice wine. In fact, drinking sake just made her think of the abduction and the poor creature Oniwaka. Fuu didn’t like sake that much when it came right down to it. The only reason she kept any was the off chance of entertaining a guest, occasionally the dojo master would drop by and he’d have a bit with his dinner. The more Mugen drank, the louder he got. She’d forgotten about the monster known as drunk Mugen; loud, vulgar, and hentai.

“Sooo, just exactly what does this old man TEACH you?” Mugen snickered at her with a lecherous gleam in his eye, while she blushed to her roots at the insinuation. In his inebriated state, Mugen couldn’t for the life of him think of any reason why anyone would teach a girl to fight.

“HENTAI!” Just who did he think she was? Sure, maybe Fuu wasn’t the most demure and innocent woman in Edo, but she was certainly no whore. She’d been waiting for someone special, as cliché as it sounded.

“What?! Why would anyone teach you how to use that stupid….pink…” he paused searching through the drunken haze for the right word, “…thing.” She wanted to yell at him, but the triumphant look on his overly-rosy face made her want to laugh more than anything else.

“He says… he says I remind him of his daughter—poor man. I told him about chici-ue, and now we kind of let each other pretend to be family. I look after him, keep him fed and keep the house up, and he just… lets me love him like I wanted to love my father. He’s really… nice to me.” Mugen did his best to grasp the concept of solace, and he made a mental note to stop by the dojo and check out the old man—just to be sure. He still had not been able to truly trust anyone but Fuu or Jin. And for her, he would not trust a strange man who sounded suspiciously kind. Mugen knew a little something about men, they always did things for a purpose.

Those were the last clear thoughts that ran through his head. Fuu had to help him to the guest room which adjoined the main room off to the right. She was mindful of the paper doors, remembering more than one instance where Mugen had crashed right though instead of opening it. He was fairly easy to lead and he made no arguments when she told him in no uncertain terms to “Sleep.” Afterall, he’d had a long trek which culminated in a good meal and a copious amount of liquor. ‘Sleep sounds like a good idea’ Mugen silently agreed. Fuu left him to pass out on her spare futon while she tidied up. Satisfied, she went on to what she liked to jokingly call the “master” suite to turn in for the night.

Her chamber was off the common space to the left, across from where Mugen now loudly snored. He had been correct in assuming that the sunflowers had been planted in such a way that she could smell—and see—them through her window. The small space was cozy with a kimono rack and box for her various acoutréments. She changed to her night kimono and layed down to bed. It was a pipe dream to think that she would find sleep easily that night. And as she lay there, listening to the sounds of Mugen’s sleep, memories of her trip flooded back to her. She sighed and decided not to fight the onslaught. All the talk of their fun over dinner exacerbated her need to see Jin’s face, even it was only in her fantasies.

to be continued...

A/N: It\'s funny how I never planned to do more than like.. three chapters. But upon closer inspection, I\'ll need to put a plot together and stuff, because I can\'t just allow this to be pure fluff, though I do enjoy it. So rest assured knowing that, yes there will be a reason for all these characters to come back together, even it\'s really only love. Thanks for your patience, and a slightly lemony chapter is already under-way.

--arbute