(D2 Entry) Butterflies of the Night, ch. 2

[Fallen Angel]

Title: Butterflies of the Night
Author: Fallen Angel, fallen_angel_2012@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13 for the most part, but contains LEMON in ch 13
Categories: Alternate Universe, Series, Romance
Disclaimer: I don’t own Gundam Wing and am making no money from this. Don’t sue.

Chapter 2: Hilde

{


It was late at night when a single figure rose from her futon in the Po okiya and dressed. As silently as she could, she pushed a pile of laundry under her blanket and prodded it into the shape of a sleeping girl. Then, with feather light footsteps, she tiptoed past Noin and Sally’s rooms, then past the maid’s rooms and down the stairs. She was in the kitchen and a breath away from lifting the latch on the back door when a voice spoke.

“What are you doing?”

“Relena,” Hilde whispered as loudly as she dared. “What are you doing awake? Why are you sitting in the dark?”

“I felt a little ill. I came down to get some water but didn’t bother with the light since it would hurt my eyes.” By the light of the half-moon, Hilde could see Relena was indeed holding a glass of water and her eyes were rimmed, her skin pale. “But this isn’t about what I’m doing here. Where were you going?”

Hilde couldn’t find an answer better than a meek lowering of her head and Relena sighed.

“Not again, Hilde. I thought he’d gone to Tokyo.”

“He came back last week,” she murmured. “And I’ve missed him so much. Please, Lena, don’t tell.”

“Hilde, don’t do this. You know what Noin will say, and what Sally might do. Even her patience won’t stretch this far.”

“I know, I know. That’s why you have to cover for me. Please?” the girl pleaded.

Relena sighed again. “Why don’t you just stop seeing him? Or at least wait until you’ve finished your training and he can pay to see you…”

“I can’t. I can’t wait that long and you know he’ll never have the money. And I don’t want it to be that way. I don’t want him to have to pay to see me. Don’t you understand, Lena? I love him.”

“Geisha aren’t supposed to love,” said Relena, the sorrow in her voice as much for herself as anyone else.

“I’m not a geisha yet,” muttered Hilde defiantly.

“If you’re not careful, you never will be. No one will train you if they find out you’ve already been with someone. No one will pay for your mizuage if you’ve already got a boyfriend.”

“You make it sound like I’ve slept with him,” said Hilde, a little hurt.

“I know you haven’t, but that’s not the point.”

“Please?”

With a small nod that ended in her hanging her head, Relena relented. “Go. Just go. But don’t say I didn’t warn you if you get caught.”

“Thank you,” whispered Hilde in reply. Then she lifted the latch and disappeared into the night.

Hilde slid along the side of houses and ducked in between alleyways as she made her way along Pontocho, the street where they - and many other geisha - lived. At the end of the street, she turned left and found herself looking out upon the Kamo river, which ran behind the houses of Pontocho. But she didn’t cross the bridge, instead ducking beneath it.

“Duo,” she whispered urgently. “Duo, I’m here. Where are you?”

The light of the half-moon didn’t reach it’s influence under the bridge and in the darkness, Hilde’s excitement at seeing Duo was quickly replaced by her fear that she may be alone under here.

“Duo?” she whispered, more tentatively now.

“Hiya babe.”

Hilde held back a squeal as two strong arms wrapped around her middle and lifted her off the ground effortlessly. She soon recognized the feel and voice of her boyfriend though, and relaxed into the embrace. “You startled me,” she whispered over her shoulder.

“Sorry,” he replied, in good Japanese. Of course, the American had been in the country for years now, so he was practically fluent. But he still insisted on calling her by weird words such as ‘babe.’ One day, she would have to ask just what exactly that meant. “I just wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, you certainly did,” she said, smacking him playfully on the shoulder as he put her down. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, babe,” he replied, kissing her briefly. “Tokyo was an empty city without you.”

“Aw, Duo, that’s so sweet.” She took his hands in hers. “But I hope you got enough stories for your American newspaper.”

“Oh, heaps. That’s one advantage to being the friend of General Yuy. You get to be right in on the action.”

“So you’re friends again? Last time I saw you, he was threatening to cut your hair and strangle you with it.”

“Hey, that’s just Heero’s way of showing he likes someone. Hell, when we first met he punched my lights out - it was all a big misunderstanding, of course - and after we’d sorted it out we became best of buds.” Duo said it lightly, so Hilde wouldn’t get a hint that he was more than a friend to Heero…he was his spy. As a journalist and as an American he was able to get info for Heero others couldn’t: he was his eyes and ears amongst the people. One, because he had a sixth sense for it and two, because it was incredible what people will say right in front of you if they think you can’t understand their language. Duo had fun proving them wrong.

“Duo, you’re so funny,” she admonished, placing a light kiss on his nose and playing with his incredibly long braid with one hand.

Maybe it was the way she’d kissed him, maybe it was something in her voice, but Duo knew she was holding something back and said so.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she replied, but he knew that was a lie too.

“Hilde. C’mon. I know you. What’s wrong?”

“Relena saw me sneaking out.”

“Your sister? Oh no. What did she say? Will she turn you in?”

“She wouldn’t. I would be in so much trouble. She just said the usual: how she was disappointed in me, how I shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Hilde,” Duo put one finger under her chin and tipped her face up to his. He knew she couldn’t see him in the darkness, but he did it anyway. “Hilde, I don’t want you to risk your security by meeting me. Maybe Relena’s right. Maybe you should wait until I can be your da…”

“Don’t even say it!” commanded Hilde in a stern voice. “I won’t have it. I’ve seen how things change once a girl takes a danna and even if you were him, it just wouldn’t be right.”

“That bad, is it?”

“I don’t know from personal experience, but you should see Relena since…whoops!” Hilde clamped a hand over her mouth but it was too late.

“Since what?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough anyway. Sally and Noin are planning to find her a danna.”

“Well, you’ve known that for a while.”

“It gets worse,” continued Hilde. “They’re hoping it will be General Yuy.”

Duo was caught midway between laughter and fainting from shock. “Heero? A patron? To your sister, of all people? Never. She wouldn’t have it and he’s…well, it’s hard to explain. He’s just…Heero.”

“I know,” Hilde said and he could tell she was nodding from the way her hair brushed against him. He breathed in deeply - she smelt vaguely like jasmine and…strawberries.

“Duo, are you okay?”

“Oh,” he hadn’t realised he’d been quiet for so long. “Um, yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how I have a sneaky suspicion you had strawberries for desert tonight.”

“Duo? How on earth did you know that?” she sounded shocked, but he could tell she was smiling. Smiling in kind, he leaned in and breathed deeply.

“Oh yeah, that’s strawberries all right.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “Maybe you should check.” There was a playful note to her voice and Duo grinned from ear to ear. This was just one of the reasons he loved her - her amazing ability to keep him on his toes. When he thought she’d be mad, she was forgiving. When he thought she’d be bashful, she was far from it. His mind went back to when he’d first met her, almost running her over with his bike when he swerved to avoid a cat in the road. Instead of fainting or apologising or crying like he expected a young girl would, she yelled at him, arguing so passionately that by the time she was done Duo didn’t just want to apologise. He wanted to kiss the little pixie until she was blue in the face and those enticing lips of hers were silenced.

Just like he had dreamed about on that day, he leaned in now and tasted her lips.

“Yep,” he murmured, even as he moved in for another kiss. “Definitely strawberries.”


{ { {


Back in the okiya, Hilde’s sister was fast asleep.

She had planned on staying up until Hilde returned, just to make sure she didn’t get caught returning, but sleep was beckoning loudly. Relena had decided to just rest her head on the table for a moment, closing her eyes for the briefest of seconds. But soon a second became a minute and a minute became a half-hour and she was well and truly asleep.

Though her dreams were anything but peaceful.


…“I’ll kill you.”

Relena couldn’t see his eyes beneath his cap, but something in the soldier’s voice told her he was certainly capable of slitting her throat if he wanted to. And who would care? She was nothing but a simple country girl, after all. They had easily taken her brother, why wouldn’t they take her life?

“Fine, do it,” she said in false bravado. “Kill an unarmed woman.”

Sure, it was low to bring up her gender and weakness, but when you’re a hair’s breath away from death, you tend to forget about things like that. It seemed to work too, because a moment later the soldier released her and stepped back. She didn’t fight him again, though, since his knife was still in plain view, hovering between them like an angry snake that had been denied its dinner.

“You fight well,” he admitted finally. “I’m sorry we had to take your brother.”

“I’m sorry too,” she said, but with a sarcastic edge. “I’m sorry you and your comrades are so incompetent that they cannot yet achieve peace with our enemies across the ocean.”

The soldier froze but did not move. Relena couldn’t tell if he was feeling angry or guilty. She hoped it was the latter.

“What would you know?” he retorted finally.

“I know that peace is not as impossible as you say it is. I know you soldiers fight because you believe, as soldiers, that is all you are good for.” She raised her head defiantly.

For a moment, the soldier stepped forward, holding his knife high. It seemed she had really angered him this time and he was still willing to use brute force on her. And she should’ve backed down, she should’ve made an apology and run. But she stepped towards him, feeling the cool point of the blade at her throat. Yet she remained calm. Something was brewing in her veins now, brewing in her mind and forming itself into words. She couldn’t give a name to these new feelings yet, but she was almost praying for the soldier to argue back so she could release these pent up words.

But he did no such thing. Instead he lowered his knife and returned to his horse. Mounting it, he rode over and looked down at her.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Because you live here in peace while we fight in the real war. If we were to accept your notions of ‘peace’ you would die. Be grateful I have let you live to learn this lesson.”

And with that he was gone.

Only then did Relena allow herself to cry.
{ { {

The sun was already high in the sky when Relena awoke, surprised to find tears dried on her cheeks. Quickly she raised her head from the kitchen counter and wondered why none of the maids - who were always up at sunrise - hadn’t woken her. Nor Sally or Noin for that matter. Then again, she was often awake until after midnight, attending parties in teahouses. On top of that, Relena was well-liked in the okiya and it would have been possible for the others to think she deserved a sleep in. After all, her earnings supported them all so they tended to dote on her whether she wanted it or not.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Noin, entering the kitchen and preparing some tea.

“I did,” said Relena, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Oh, and do you know where Hilde went this morning? I saw her return, but didn’t see her leave.”

Relena kept her face impassive. She would have to remind Hilde to be back earlier next time. “I think she mentioned something about going to the temple to pray.”

“That’s good,” said Noin. “Perhaps you should think about spending some time in quiet prayer too: it might help you relax.”

Relena nodded, accepting a cup of tea gratefully. She didn’t admit that the only way she would go to pray would be if it would stop the general coming to Kyoto. Noin sensed this though, and brought him up.

“The General is arriving today. You’ll be expected to entertain him at the Ichikoko teahouse tonight.”

“The Ichikoko? That reminds me, I must go visit Dorothy.”

Noin frowned, but said nothing, only turned to heat more tea.

“I know you don’t like her,” said Relena softly. “And I know to most she seems sharp-tongued and cold, but it’s only because she’s so strong. And she’s been a good friend to me.” She stared down into her tea. “I only wish I had that kind of strength.”

“Oh, Relena,” Noin took a seat opposite her and covered one of her hands with her own. “You are strong. Ever since we fell on hard times and had to come here to work as Geisha, you’ve been the strongest of all of us. You’ve learnt so much - how to entertain men, how to play the shamisen, how to dance - and all for us. Without you we would have to work in…well, I don’t want to think about it!”

“But Noin, learning shamisen and dance were hard. Entertaining the General will be impossible. Even worse since I need to entice him to be my danna. When I think of what soldiers did to us…they took Milliardo and not just that, but with him, our livelihood. They destroyed everything we had…”

“Relena,” Noin gripped her hand tightly. “You can do this, I know it. You can hide your passion just as well as you show it and it’s all about your strength. Please, be strong. There hasn’t been a man yet who can resist your kind innocence. The General will be the same. Once that happens, we will be free to leave this place and find Milliardo. Can you do this, Relena?”

Noin’s face was so hopeful, so trusting, that there was only one answer for Relena to give.

“Yes.”

“Good girl. Now don’t spend too much time with Dorothy. I want enough time to prepare you for tonight. It’ll be a big night for you. I can feel it in my bones.”

Relena shivered. ‘So can I…’ she thought. ‘Unfortunately.’




Translations

Pontocho: an actual street in Kyoto which is a geisha district

Teahouse: a place where parties etc. are held and geisha entertain. Usually in traditional, tatami room style.

Shamisen: a traditional Japanese instrument


A/N: I know it seems like, without men, the girls are totally helpless. But think about it - this is the early 1900’s. Females were: they couldn’t have jobs or own property, etc. I’m not being sexist, just realistic.