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Well.
Here they are, and wonderfully trapped, unless he’s sorely mistaken.
Okame looks around his room, stressed out and miserable. It is fancy, he has to give it that. In fact, it’s entirely too good for someone of his station, and if the circumstances were even slightly different he might rejoice in the sudden luxury. As things are, however, he hates it here. Hakumei Castle is one giant trap if he ever saw one, and he feels about as comfortable as a stray dog in a cage.
And then there’s the memory of the Path of Shadows still lingering on his mind. The guilt…the shame…the debilitating terror.
The feelings he’s trying very hard not to think about, even if that’s proving a little difficult sober. And extremely difficult while he’s confined in this room.
In short, he needs to get out. The sooner the better.
Okame doesn’t think twice after coming to that conclusion. Grabbing his belongings, few as they are (they’re not worth much, but he’d rather not leave them unattended in this castle of creeps, thank you), he paces across the room and opens the door, wondering where to go from here.
“Okame-san!”
He jumps, recognizing the voice at once. The Taiyo noble. Fantastic. Yet another thing he’s not nearly drunk enough to deal with right now.
“Taiyo-san,” he says, turning around to face the figure in the neighboring doorframe. “What brings you out here?”
“I could ask you the same,” the noble replies. “But as for myself, I wished to step outside for a little, get a breath of fresh air. It does get rather stifling in this castle.”
So basically, they’re both planning to do the same thing, at the same time. This is just getting better. “You find it stifling?” Okame mocks. “This is a castle! I thought you’d feel right at home in here.”
A shadow passes over Taiyo’s face. “A castle it may be,” he says, “but not home. Besides, I miss the sunlight.”
“Try not to get too much of it, or you’ll ruin your pretty noble complexion.”
Taiyo blinks, and Okame flinches. Did he just call him pretty…out loud? Today is rapidly going from bad to worse. Then again, it’s not like he noticed, did he? Okame’s tone was probably sarcastic enough to make him believe he was making fun of him. Probably. Hopefully.
Oh, damn it. He’s definitely too sober for this.
The noble, infuriatingly, doesn’t show what he thinks of the comment; he just smiles. “I can wear a straw hat, if that reassures you,” he says, and Okame’s face feels too warm all of a sudden. “But that aside—what I actually meant to do was ask if you want to join me.”
Okame resists the sudden urge to look over his shoulder and see if Taiyo is talking to someone behind him, like a hidden shinobi or something. “You’re inviting me to join you outside?” he asks instead. “Taiyo-san, you should really work on your jokes.”
“I wasn’t joking,” the noble answers, furrowing his brow, looking mildly puzzled but somehow still refined. What kind of unearthly abomination looks confused with dignity? “You wish to leave the castle, and so do I. Why not go together? It will be less lonely”—he lowers his voice—”not to mention safer.”
“Ah.” Understanding hits Okame. “So basically, you figured out I’m planning to get pass-out drunk tonight, and you’re worried about me ending up face-down in a gutter. Got it.”
“Not exac—”
“Save the excuses, Taiyo-san, I feel pretty damn sorry about me too.” Okame shrugs, then does something impulsive he’ll likely regret later. “If you’re so keen on it, whatever, watch me embarrass myself. But just so you know, my plans for tonight won’t be fun for a noble like you.”
The noble’s face lights up in a way Okame would probably appreciate a lot more if he wasn’t so busy trying not to have a heart attack. Off limits, he reminds himself. He is off limits. And you know that.
“I doubt that,” Taiyo Daisuke says, falling into stride beside him. “It may be new to me, but if you find enjoyment in it, then perhaps so will I. Excuse me,” he says to a passing servant. “My friend and I”—Okame snorts at that, but he carries on, unfazed—”would like to see the town. Can you recommend any notable places for us to visit?”
“Places to have fun at,” Okame pipes in, lest the poor servant girl start recommending actual sightseeing spots. “If you know what I mean.”
The girl looks flustered. “Well,” she says, “there is a geisha house, if that’s what—”
“No, thank you,” Okame says bluntly. Too fancy for someone like him, too many manners required that he can’t be bothered with at the moment. Besides, how can he possibly focus on talking to a woman with that right beside him?
“Oh! A-And then…well, there are inns.” The servant girl looks down. “And a gambling hall, called the Lucky Frog, but…”
Okame leans closer.
“Tell me more.”
—
Not much later the two of them are walking through the town, following the directions the servant gave them in search of the gambling hall. The sun is slowly setting, dyeing the streets and buildings around them a shade of orange that is just a little too intense for comfort. Okame isn’t sure what to feel. On one hand, he already feels a lot better about Hakumei Castle and the Path of Shadows with the Taiyo noble around. On the other hand, his company has given him a whole new reason to panic.
For the entire way Taiyo Daisuke has walked close to him, almost unsettlingly so. Every so often their hands will brush together, seemingly by accident, though Okame is seriously questioning how often a person can accidentally do such a thing before it stops being an accident. He locks that thought into the deep, dark closet of things he doesn’t think about and hopes desperately he won’t take too long to get drunk tonight.
“Try to keep your face low in there, Taiyo-san,” he remarks as they approach the telltale sign with the frog on it. “It’s no place for respectable samurai. If anybody recognizes you in there, you’ll be the shame of your whole clan.”
“I am not worried,” the noble says easily. “So you have gambled before, I take it?”
Okame cracks a grin. “Oh, lots,” he says. “Probably lost fortunes on it. It’s no fun unless you end the night broke in a ditch somewhere.”
“I see,” Taiyo answers with such honest fascination that Okame can barely believe it. “Then perhaps you can teach me how it goes.”
Okame nearly trips over his own feet. “You want to be taught gambling?”
“Not participate in it myself, necessarily,” the noble replies. “But I would like to learn it. One can never have too many skills.”
“What, just in case we ever get challenged by a stray gambling yokai?”
The noble gives a quiet laugh that makes Okame’s heart skip a beat. Oh, he really can’t handle this sober. “Who knows,” he says. “Perhaps we might run into a stranger who guards a bridge, refusing to let us pass unless we beat him at a game of dice.”
Despite his nerves Okame bursts out laughing. “Now that’s something I’d like to see!” he exclaims. “Oni no Mikoto, but with dice! You don’t have a twin with a gambling addiction, do you?”
“Not to my knowledge,” the noble jokes back, “though my house does hold many secrets.”
Still laughing, Okame leads them into the gambling hall. It isn’t too crowded yet, and he makes his way towards one of the quieter corners, seating himself between the Taiyo noble and the crowd as if to shield him. Just to avoid trouble, he tells himself. As a friend. Besides, Yumeko-chan would hate it if something happened to him.
Grabbing a fistful of dice, Okame begins to explain the game and whatever few rules there are. Once he’s done, he goes on with the more unofficial details: how people usually cheat at it, how to catch them cheating, and how to use all the common and uncommon cheats to your advantage. The Taiyo noble listens intently, taking everything in with wonder and fascination. Okame feels uncomfortable. He was almost certain the cheating part, at least, would be dishonorable enough to repulse him, but here he is, seemingly more intrigued than ever.
“So,” Okame says at last, at his wits’ end. “Want to give it a try?”
They play a few rounds. Without betting money, obviously; the only thing they’re betting is buying the other the next drink, and for whatever ungodly reason Taiyo Daisuke wins several times. The bastard learns too fast, Okame thinks, but he can’t really complain. Not when he gets some much-needed sake out of it for free.
And he needs it badly, he thinks, what with that guy’s tendency to keep brushing their fingers together while playing at every accursed opportunity.
He does win a few times too, but the Taiyo noble has no desire to drink the sake he wins. At first he takes one sip, pulls a face, then continues to push the rest of his cups over to Okame. “I am in no mood to drink tonight,” he says. “Besides, one of us needs to stay sober.”
Okame briefly hesitates when lifting the cup Taiyo has already taken a sip from. The two of them sharing one feels…wrong, definitely inappropriate, and entirely too good for both of these things. The same cup these lips touched, these soft, smooth, beautiful—
He downs the contents in one go to avoid finishing that thought.
It takes him a few shots to finally feel that familiar sluggishness seep into his veins. Okame relaxes a little. The memory of the Path of Shadows is slowly fading, though a tingly, jittery feeling remains. More specifically, it remains every time he looks at a certain noble sitting beside him.
“Are you all right?” Taiyo asks him, eyeing him with concern. “You are looking rather red.”
“It’s the alcohol, noble,” Okame shoots back, hoping that’s truly the only reason. He pushes himself up. His legs are uneasy, though from what, he can’t say. “Well, I’m off. Time to lose another fortune.”
“Good luck,” the noble answers, smiling again. “I shall remain here, watching from a distance. And, Okame-san?”
Okame cocks his head. Taiyo Daisuke extends a hand to place it smack-dab on top of Okame’s own.
“If you need help,” he says, “you can come to me anytime.”
So not drunk enough for this.
Okame downs another cup of sake. His body feels hot, from the alcohol or…something else, he doesn’t want to know. The Taiyo noble’s hand is cool against his skin, smooth and pale and so unbelievably beautiful.
Oh, great.
He’s not drunk enough to handle these feelings, but he realizes he can’t get too drunk around this person either. If he drinks too much and loses control of himself, he might just end up saying something he’ll regret a lot later on.
“Oh, please,” he tries to snark. “I’m more worried you’ll need help in here, princeling.”
That didn’t come out the way he wanted it to. Okame turns around and all but flees into the crowd. Off limits, the sober part of his mind keeps pounding into his head. Off limits, off limits, off limits!
He can’t keep doing this. He’d have to fear for his head if Taiyo Daisuke was just a normal samurai, but the stupid bastard just has to be nobility. Stupid, beautiful bastard. No, worse. Stupid, beautiful, kind bastard, attentive and respectful, so much so that he can’t even hate him. It would be so much easier, hating him. But the Taiyo noble isn’t so merciful. He is wicked, just cruel enough to be kind, charming, gentle, giving him hope where there cannot and must not be any.
And the grim reality is that Okame can’t even hate him for that.
He sighs. Bringing him here was a mistake he’s not likely to make again.
Oh well. At least, right now, the day can only get better.