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CHANGES
?
After some time, Byakuya-sama returns her to her quarters, leaving her in the care of Ume, who pretends she isn’t completely floored in the presence of the master of the house hours before sunrise, once he has ensured his wife’s various minor injuries are well taken care of.
Satoko is feeling slightly chilly from the night wind on the roof that went right through her thin yukata, despite how Byakuya-sama was warm and comfortable against her side. Strong beneath the tilt of her head. He had been able to tell immediately, hadn’t he? Before she managed her first shiver, he’d taken her down onto the ground.
Before he can leave, a flurry of fabric and his hair dancing around his shoulders, unstyled because she really did chase him out of bed, didn’t she, Satoko thanks him for his efforts. Only with his eyes does he respond, a wordless, long, sideways look. She interprets it easily, seeing as it’s a language she also speaks.
Ume’s eyes, in turn, would have popped right out of her skull, if she hadn’t composed herself visibly, focusing on preparing a bath for her mistress’ feet. Watching the entrance for a long moment through which Byakuya-sama had disappeared, Satoko finally smiles, small but in plain sight. Ume calls for her only in the politest of terms.
So, she goes to wash her feet, dirty from climbing the north wing rooftop, rinse out her array of little cuts and scrapes that are nothing but proof of her aspirations. While the servant girl rubs at her ankles, she wonders whether the moon will ever be an everyday object to her again.
If not something has irrevocably changed its status now.
*
The following day, she lives the life that the Kuchiki House has shaped for her, but noticing suddenly the many doors and opportunities left open to her. Does Satoko-sama wish to try one of the new calligraphy brushes that have been gifted the Clan just this week? Would Satoko-sama like an entourage to take her shopping? Has Satoko-sama any desire to go see the new carps in the southern garden pond?
Suddenly, the kind of existence that she has otherwise regarded as closed-off and alienating feels not unlike an invitation, liberating, and she thinks of Byakuya-sama as much as she thinks of the moon, deciding that perhaps, in the end, it comes down to the same thing.
Nearness transforms all that it touches, after all, and Satoko did come close to the moon last night. At this distance it has a face and a personality, too. Would she really ever have dared to believe so, before?
Before the moon showed it to her himself.
That day, she stays at home and practices her calligraphy, for the first time in the seven months she has been Kuchiki Satoko, considering what she wants her new seal to look like. Since it bore her old family name, the one she made use of prior had to be left behind at her parents’ home.
Writing the words ”to listen, fine not to listen, fine too…” in slow, deliberate brush strokes down the front of the parchment, Satoko frowns, makes a small error just then and pauses in her otherwise fluid movements.
Is it late to feel like a woman for the first time in the seventh month of your marriage?
Is it too late?
Satoko is feeling slightly chilly from the night wind on the roof that went right through her thin yukata, despite how Byakuya-sama was warm and comfortable against her side. Strong beneath the tilt of her head. He had been able to tell immediately, hadn’t he? Before she managed her first shiver, he’d taken her down onto the ground.
Before he can leave, a flurry of fabric and his hair dancing around his shoulders, unstyled because she really did chase him out of bed, didn’t she, Satoko thanks him for his efforts. Only with his eyes does he respond, a wordless, long, sideways look. She interprets it easily, seeing as it’s a language she also speaks.
Ume’s eyes, in turn, would have popped right out of her skull, if she hadn’t composed herself visibly, focusing on preparing a bath for her mistress’ feet. Watching the entrance for a long moment through which Byakuya-sama had disappeared, Satoko finally smiles, small but in plain sight. Ume calls for her only in the politest of terms.
So, she goes to wash her feet, dirty from climbing the north wing rooftop, rinse out her array of little cuts and scrapes that are nothing but proof of her aspirations. While the servant girl rubs at her ankles, she wonders whether the moon will ever be an everyday object to her again.
If not something has irrevocably changed its status now.
The following day, she lives the life that the Kuchiki House has shaped for her, but noticing suddenly the many doors and opportunities left open to her. Does Satoko-sama wish to try one of the new calligraphy brushes that have been gifted the Clan just this week? Would Satoko-sama like an entourage to take her shopping? Has Satoko-sama any desire to go see the new carps in the southern garden pond?
Suddenly, the kind of existence that she has otherwise regarded as closed-off and alienating feels not unlike an invitation, liberating, and she thinks of Byakuya-sama as much as she thinks of the moon, deciding that perhaps, in the end, it comes down to the same thing.
Nearness transforms all that it touches, after all, and Satoko did come close to the moon last night. At this distance it has a face and a personality, too. Would she really ever have dared to believe so, before?
Before the moon showed it to her himself.
That day, she stays at home and practices her calligraphy, for the first time in the seven months she has been Kuchiki Satoko, considering what she wants her new seal to look like. Since it bore her old family name, the one she made use of prior had to be left behind at her parents’ home.
Writing the words ”to listen, fine not to listen, fine too…” in slow, deliberate brush strokes down the front of the parchment, Satoko frowns, makes a small error just then and pauses in her otherwise fluid movements.
Is it late to feel like a woman for the first time in the seventh month of your marriage?
Is it too late?