Chapter Eighty-Six

Marital Chamber? Yes, Please!

 

 

Nekohiko lifted his eyes at Abihiko at last.

Sakami's personality had no choice but to shy away from looking at him upfront, and Nekohiko hadn't pushed it because of how guarded he was to even stand next to him.

What if the Dark Sisterhood's spells started acting up? What if he had to stop himself from attacking Abihiko in front of everyone all of a sudden?

He'd spent most of the time of the wedding speech listening to his inner reactions and sensations. But so far -- everything was as it should. Sakami's behaviors overruled his own. Like a suit of impenetrable niceness and gentleness, Sakami shielded all of his dummy body's urges from surfacing.

The Spirit Bond tie around his and Abihiko's hands shone dimly, and slowly, Nekohiko traced its length over to Abihiko's wrist. Pale, with only the barest hints of the Binder's corrupted veins peeking from within his emerald-green clothes. Abihiko's fingers were twined with Nekohiko's, but lay against him lifelessly, unmoving through the entire ritual.

Up his arm, over Abihiko's wide shoulders, up his slender throat -- Nekohiko's gaze studied him as though seeing for the very first time.

Then, to his proud chin and lips -- so vulnerably red that he'd had to cover them up with make-up, as usual. Nekohiko almost smiled, watching. Abihiko's eyes were half-lidded, his gaze unreadable as he looked straight before him without much passion.

He hadn't looked at Nekohiko once, and that hurt. A lot. Not for himself because Nekohiko didn't care. Not even a little bit. But for Sakami's sake. This was just rude on Abihiko's part.

Couldn't he show at least some respect to his future wife?

"His Majesty's of Utsuro acknowledgment and consent," Suminoe was announcing grandly to the gathering while Haehime walked around the Great Lords behind Nekohiko and Abihiko and gathered their seal imprints on the Imperial Wedding ritual document, commemorating this glorious event.

King of Utsuro, Sakai, leaned to the document and put the fingers of his right hand to the sheet. A small pulse of his Binder's aura surged up and died out, leaving behind it a brand acknowledging Sakami's marriage to Abihiko.

Okinaga and Iokirihime had already imprinted their seals on the document, and so would everyone, including Suminoe and Abihiko himself.

The document that asked everyone's agreement that Sakami would now have the claim to the Emerald Throne through Abihiko and that all the Great Lords had accepted the possibility of her becoming their ruler in due time.

The only thing was -- since it was Haehime who'd been handling all the documents for the wedding, the one she carried to everyone now didn't actually have Sakami's name on it.

It said, "this person I acknowledge as Sakami of House Hisome, before me" in the smallest of scripts. It wasn't a huge change compared to the usual wording so the majority of people didn't care to read. Most were bored with the wedding procedures anyway, so why bother?

Abihiko must be bored, too. Look at him. Look at his concentrated, pained scowl and his fidgeting with some trinket in his other hand while the one he was Bonded to Nekohiko with was as limp as a noodle.

Wait...

Nekohiko squinted to see better. That trinket of his...

It was the seashell! The wooden seashell. Wearing Sakami's disguise, Nekohiko had dampened his sensations of his other wooden body parts and couldn't feel it. But if he could, he would have probably been rubbed raw with how tightly Abihiko squeezed that poor Kitten's Paw seashell in his fingers!

Suminoe came over to bring cups of rice wine to Abihiko, then to Nekohiko. As the ritual prescribed, Haehime made the second round with the cup of wine she poured...

It was all very reverent and orderly, but all this time Nekohiko couldn't take his eyes away from Abihiko being much more obsessed with the seashell than with actual Nekohiko standing right next to him.

We are getting married, dummy! Stop playing with the smaller version of my body and make damn eye contact with the real me, damn it! What kind of a wedding ritual is this if you never look at me?

The Spirits of the Land could even reject their Bond if they felt the couple wasn't fit to be together. Nekohiko could not allow something like that to happen.

That said, Haehime behaved in such a languid, carefree manner that he repressed all of his urges to jitter. Haehime was connected to the Spirits most. If something wasn't going the way Nekohiko had planned, she would not be acting as happy as she did now.

"Twine your fingers together so that the Bond can be truly judged by the Spirits of the land," Haehime sang to them, lifting her arms with the evergreen branches in them to bless the couple.

As before, Abihiko ignored her. His hand was limp in Nekohiko's hold and Nekohiko even wanted to gloat at how pathetic a groom Abihiko actually was. He had no idea what Sakami liked about this person so much.

Instead, Abihiko curled his other hand with the seashell into a fist, then brought it to his chest. His chin was dipped, his eyes downcast.

Nekohiko was very annoyed with it all.

"My Lord," he whispered at Abihiko and forced his fingers into Abihiko's. "Let us take care of each other and go on appropriately. The wedding ceremony will end sooner if we are quick about it."

Abihiko nodded, his features still stony and cold. Disengaged.

But their hand hold had now grown tighter and sufficed for the Bond ritual to begin.

Haehime and Suminoe chanted prayers to the Spirits of the Land and of the Imperial House to bestow blessings on the couple. Nekohiko had heard of the Spirits rejecting the couples only rarely -- more often when the couple in question had offended some of the Spirits rather that because they weren't a good fit.

As with all mortal concerns, Spirits did not care much about which human belonged with one another and which didn't. They accepted most couples easily, the Spirit Bond rope fading into the couple's wrists to represent the eternal Bond that now tied them together.

But there was still a slim chance they might reject this coupling, Nekohiko thought, afraid. What if they didn't like the disguise? What if they hated that they were two men one of whom paraded himself as a woman? What if they hated that the contract had been toyed with?

Nekohiko trembled, shutting his eyes as he counted heartbeats till the Spirit answer would come.

"Nekohiko," Abihiko murmured so low only Nekohiko could hear him.

Nekohiko opened his eyes, but sure enough -- Abihiko was solely talking to the seashell in his hand. And yet, Nekohiko couldn't help but respond to that. He squeezed Abihiko's fingers in his just a little bit.

I'm here, silly, he thought. Exactly as you wish me to be.

The Spirit Bond glowed brighter for a brief moment, then softly dimmed into inexistence. Seemingly disappearing from the twined hands.

But of course the marital Bond didn't work like that, especially between practicing Binders. It had merely become invisible, but it was still there, tying two people together whether in health or in sickness, in happiness or in pain.

Nekohiko had heard that the particularly powerful Bonds would even forbid the partners to cheat or to hurt each other physically. But of course such stories were mainly told in legends for the little kids. The real marital Bonds were disappointingly formal and not all that magical, for all Nekohiko knew.

When the Bond sank into nothingness around their wrists, Abihiko's fingers dropped Nekohiko's immediately. The murmur of awed mirth came from all sides at having seen such a historical moment occur.

The new ruler added to the line to the Throne, and one directly next to Abihiko. The coronation back in the Emerald Palace was only a short journey through the city away, but it was only a formality. The official Spiritual union was sealed.

Nekohiko was the Emperor. As much as Abihiko was.

"May your reign and marriage last till the end of time and bless the Empire with its light," Suminoe ended the ceremony with the raising of his hands toward the newlyweds. The evergreen branches wafted off a woody, piney scent at Nekohiko, and Nekohiko smiled at Suminoe, unable to suppress his joy.

His ambitions... his dreams had finally come to be!

Exactly as Suminoe had once told him, years ago.

That he would see Nekohiko rise to the Emerald Throne no matter what.

Well, here I am, Suminoe! Here I am, the world!

Speaking of the "world". It was odd that the ceremony was already ended, yet nobody was congratulating or clapping or blessing them at the joyous occasion. Huh.

Haehime's own evergreen branch shook nastily into Nekohiko's face, then into Abihiko's. She laughed, silvery. "Now KISS!" she announced, to the blissful agitation in the back of the Shrine hall.

...

Kiss? Oh yeah.

Nekohiko had almost forgotten about something so insignificant.

He turned to Abihiko mechanically and waited till Abihiko would want to pull the bridal cowl from Nekohiko's face to see better what he'd be kissing.

But -- exactly as Okinaga had predicted, Abihiko just stood there, looking numb as a dummy. And was explicitly not looking as though he was going to kiss Nekohiko anytime soon.

Grrrr, you... log! Do I have to do everything? Nekohiko cursed inwardly, then pushed himself to rise on his tiptoe to reach Abihiko's lips.

Sakami's physique and personality revolted against doing something so forward as this, but Nekohiko contorted himself to overrule all these natural instincts. If both Sakami and Abihiko were so reluctant and passive to move on with this stupid charade of a wedding, then he'd have to spend hours longer on it than he wanted to!

Come on, don't stall me, please!

He caught Abihiko's face in his hands and pressed his lips onto his. The touch was swift and passing because Abihiko had actually tilted his head out of the way of Nekohiko's kiss and Nekohiko ended up kissing him mainly on the junction between his lips and cheek.

Nekohiko still hoped this counted as a proper kiss and that Haehime wouldn't demand a redo.

Yet because he was tiptoeing and all his dress layers and the wobbly sandals were such a poor outfit to do that in, Nekohiko almost crashed into Abihiko. Then hung off him, clinging to his head and trying desperately not to topple them both.

"Aaammnng!" Nekohiko gasped into their failure of a kiss.

Reflexively, Abihiko caught him by the waist and held. But now, instead of a chaste kiss most couples did in front of so many people, this looked like the most... shameless make-out session Nekohiko had ever imagined himself in.

He and Abihiko surely looked like lovers overridden by passion, and there was nothing more humiliating than this.

In front of Suminoe! In front of Okinaga!

In front of Kasuga and... oh, in front of Aomi and Kotone!

Aomi would think that she'd been right all along and that Nekohiko had indeed wanted to do such reprehensible acts with Abihiko, with or without witnesses!

The gathering of nobles and councilors had not expected such a turn of events. Least of all Abihiko.

He stared at Nekohiko, slowly prying his lips from him and drawing in a rigid breath. He seemed downright shocked.

"Are you all right, My Lady?"

Nekohiko coughed aside, masking his nervousness. "Ah, yes. Yes, I am very all right, My Lord. I was just... so happy. To be married."

"Congratulations!" Haehime chimed, and with her little cry, all the nobles in the Shrine began to chant their congratulations as well and throwing petals and golden rice and sparks of glamor dazzle spells in the air.

"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empress!"

"For the glory of the Empire!"

"Blessings!"

Applause, roars of joy, laughter, squeals, and even recited poems flew at the newlyweds from all sides. Along with petals, conjured butterflies, bubbles, snowflakes, and whatever the hell else.

The people had gone insane with wanting to blind or stun the new couple with their magic and the show of loyalty to the Emperor. Nekohiko was very much deafened and dazed by it all. And quite scared, too.

Gods, weddings were the worst.

If before, some of the guests had been taken aback by Nekohiko's straightforwardness with Abihiko, now they were ecstatic about that.

"The wife is very feisty," they murmured. "Who would have thought!"

"She always seemed so shy and timid. She must be a beast in the bedsheets," another chuckled somewhere out of Nekohiko's sight, making his blood boil and freeze over at the same time.

Ah, he wanted to kill someone.

For Sakami's honor, of course. Too bad he was the only one.

Even Morokata and Kiyoko did not seem that much befuddled by Nekohiko's lapse of dignity. When he and Abihiko exited the Shrine doors, Morokata kept hugging the two of them from the back and rambling all kinds of inconsequential crap about "fertility" and "longitude" and "marital paradise".

Nekohiko tuned most of that out. He was too shocked by everything he saw when the people greeted them outside and went on flinging decorative and congratulatory spells at him and Abihiko. Nekohiko let himself be drawn through the square by Morokata, so lost he felt at the kaleidoscope of high emotions around.

At some point, he panicked because he couldn't see Abihiko nearby.

But there he was -- standing beside Aomi and Kataji next to the splendid Imperial carriage in which he and Nekohiko would have to ride through the main street of Nara to the Palace for the coronation and the after-wedding reception. Aomi was hugging Abihiko, hanging off his neck and dangling her feet in the air. Kataji was smiling reservedly and only patted Abihiko on the back when Aomi unglued herself from him.

Then, dissatisfied with the meager show of love between the two brothers, Aomi jumped up and hugged them both together. She drew all three of them into one big pile of Abi family.

And this time, Abihiko genuinely looked happy.

Much happier than he'd been during the wedding or now -- after he'd let Aomi and Kataji go and was boarding into the carriage next to Nekohiko.

Nekohiko envied that.

He could not even look Sakami's parents in the eye when they came to kiss and hug her with their blessings. He preferred to keep to the corner of the carriage. As soon as Abihiko came in, he curled in beside him, hiding from anyone's attention as a shy bride should.

It was comfortable here, in the shade of Abihiko's height and wide-shouldered body. It felt... safe.

And quiet, at last.

The liveliness of the crowd still went on outside the carriage, but the spells that muffled the noises and the bright lights and the chaotic flicker of the festive city helped.

Nekohiko calmed down soon enough. He and Abihiko had to nod and wave at all the people who were lining the main street to see the Imperial couple pass by in their opulent carriage at the head of the procession. The rest of the guests and relatives and nobles followed in their own carriages. But of course all the eyes of the Nara citizens were solely drawn to the Emperor and the Empress.

At first, Nekohiko felt exhilarated to look out of the carriage at his subjects who were so openly happy to see him. He waved and nodded and smiled at them.

But he grew tired of it pretty fast.

His dream of becoming their ruler had come true -- on paper and in Spiritual Bond -- if not in actuality. But he had never wanted this.

He had never desired fame nor love of his people. Only to lead them all to a better future and peace.

What did it matter to him, really, that peasants looked at him with their eyes wide-open and their lips wishing him to reign over them for all eternity?

...

For all he cared, it was rather boring.

Overtired from both his spellcasting and now the frenetic procession, Nekohiko felt his eyelids beginning to droop once again. Surrendering, he closed them and wished that all this irrelevant social flutter would pass by him while he took a small nap.

 

 

---

***

 

 

"We have arrived," Abihiko's voice rumbled somewhere way too close for Nekohiko's liking.

Annoyed, Nekohiko squeezed his eyes open.

And realized he had dozed off while reclining onto Abihiko as though into a cushion. Nekohiko's head lay on his shoulder while one of his legs was flung over Abihiko's knee, in a somewhat indecent manner. Not that Abihiko minded, but...

Actually, Abihiko's eyebrow was curved in a very confused way as he looked at Nekohiko down. "My Lady, do you... purr in your sleep?" he asked, sounding stunned.

Nekohiko jolted straight, tearing some of the fine lace of his ribbons against Abihiko's collar. Despite himself, Nekohiko knew his face was flaming hot with shame and worry.

He had purred while sleeping?

Please no. Please--

"No. I just snore," he said, rubbing his face to wipe the flustered expression off it. He stared at Abihiko back in painful silence, then blurted. "Get used to it."

"It is all right," Abihiko said emotionlessly as he looked out the window. "I sometimes speak in my sleep. Let us descend the carriage, My Lady. Our coronation is waiting."

Nekohiko fumed as he doffed the white Purity outer robes from his gown and put on the red Knockout robes instead. Only Abihiko could now see his white inner clothes. The rest of the people had to see him in festive red as the wedding occasion implied.

After Nekohiko had dozed off the second time, his hairdo and his make-up had taken a hit, so he was annoyed at that as well. But mainly, he was just so pissed at Abihiko's throwaway line.

I sometimes speak in my sleep?

Sometimes?!

What about kicking, shoving, elbowing people, and also drooling! And... speaking? Nekohiko would call it rambling and never shutting up once through the night, if anything.

Liar, liar all through.

The rise up the horrible Emerald Palace stairs went by smoothly solely because Nekohiko was too sleepy and irritated to properly walk and kept tripping at every single step, tangled in his clothes hems and on his high wooden sandals. Thus, at some point -- which was around the twentieth step -- Abihiko got tired of dragging him up by the elbow. In one clean rush, Abihiko swept Nekohiko off his feet and lifted him up in his arms.

Then he continued the ascent, only now with Nekohiko safely tucked against his chest.

The nobles and courtiers who were following close behind were very impressed. Applause and gushing exclamations came from all sides. Nekohiko, on the contrary, was much less impressed.

But he didn't mind being carried. He hated this damned staircase. Being carried up it was much better than scaling it himself, so he reclined in Abihiko's arms and even closed his eyes, getting slowly used to the lolling sensation of being cradled like this.

Actually, he felt he hadn't slept all that well in the carriage, so now... also sounded pretty nice.

Yaaawn.

But he couldn't fall asleep. Mostly because he liked to dangle his feet and throw Abihiko's balance off while being carried. The Emerald Staircase was tortuously long, and the mere idea of Abihiko having to rise it while carrying someone in his arms gave Nekohiko so much pleasure to savor!

Abihiko endured his attempts to ruin his ascent, so Nekohiko even got bored of misbehaving and simply lay against Abihiko, waiting for this part of their wedding to be over. He waited for the coronation ceremony to be over just as drowsily as he had the staircase-march.

Suminoe droned on and on about the responsibilities and duties of the court, and because Nekohiko already knew better than anyone how bureaucratic this formality truly was, he did not have a lot of heart for this type of scene either.

Spirits mattered to him. The Land and the Empire mattered.

Posing pompously in front of peasants and nobles? Not so much.

He and Abihiko had bowed and knelt before the Emerald Throne and the crownlet of gold and true emeralds was fitted on top of Nekohiko's head, thus finalizing his crowning event. With distaste, Nekohiko noted that his own crownlet was smaller in size than Abihiko's but that was a separate issue.

Both these crownlets were only his to own. Abihiko didn't even deserve one. He would address this issue later tonight, for sure.

Then the appropriate visitation to the ancestral Shrine in the Palace, and the reading of vows from the Imperial House and House Hisome in front of all the witnesses.

The day was long and the ceremonies piled on top of each other like endless layers of dressing gowns wasted Nekohiko out more than any spell-casting he had done in the morning. Talking and receiving blessings from the never-ending lines of courtiers that came over to him were even more so.

... Slowly but surely, he felt like he would die or faint from all this tradition and convention-laden activity! And this wasn't even the end of the wedding celebration!

Because the actual reception and feast were next.

Songs, music, dances, some poetry reciting and legend sharing about the two married Houses in question. And drinking and feasting and tasting of fine delicacies from all over the world. What would be going on in the streets of Nara when the evening and the night descended, Nekohiko had a hard time imagining.

His Empire might just drink itself into oblivion from all the happiness about the Emperor finally marrying.

The only respite in all this painful celebration was that Aomi and Kataji had to sit down close enough to the married couple. And Nekohiko could spy on Kataji's well-being while exchanging some choice winking with Aomi at some point as well.

Kasuga didn't bother doing anything other than chew her food grimly. Mikawa was nowhere to be seen, probably already gone with Kotone and Haehime like Nekohiko and they had planned.

The two priestesses weren't needed in the festivities since they were mainly involved with the ritualistic and sacred stuffs. Arata also wouldn't be let into the dining hall where only the nobles and important courtiers could sit. Thus, the three of them would leave and go back to the Spring Sunlight Shrine to recuperate and wait for the Mirror Image spells to be released by Nekohiko when he was ready.

And he was so far away from being ready... ah.

He sat with Abihiko at the center dais at the far end of the great dining hall. The guest tables were strewn along the room, giving everyone an ample view of the blessed couple dining. The dancers and musicians held the center, while the artistic Binders kept to the corners, only manipulating the Bound elements that filled the hall with shimmer and glow and fragrant scents.

There were some newly-invented spells being cast, to the crowd's infinite enjoyment, and Nekohiko was even intrigued with some of them and the possible calculations behind their sequences.

But, truth be told, he was just too fatigued to pay attention. Not to the entertainment, not to the succulent dishes, not even to Abihiko...

Everything blurred and dragged his eyelids down. 

He was barely awake to note how the Great Lords behaved during the reception. That Iokirihime didn't eat anything -- which was pretty typical for her. That Sakai ate with the sourest expression on his face and that nobody who sat beside him could eat, their appetite forever ruined by his proximity. That Okinaga watched Abihiko as though expecting him to do something terrible any moment now. And lastly, that Morokata was the soul and essence of this party.

The Mist King was... enchanting.

Bewitching.

Magnificent -- he talked everyone up, made the most appropriate and funny jokes at the precise moments when they would be most welcome. Recited up to ten poems about the vagaries of married life and even a couple of the most romantically-sappy and heartache-inducing epigrams as well.

He even commented on the music and the dances in such a way that most of the courtiers around him seemed to take his words as just another poetry-reading.

Everyone was enamored -- Kataji, Aomi, Okinaga, Sakai -- everyone, even if they didn't want to. Morokata was just that good.

Only Abihiko was clearly disinterested.

And Nekohiko was falling asleep.

But other than that -- what a great party. Probably one of the best the recent history had ever witnessed in the last--

Yaaaaaawn.

"My Lady?" Abihiko asked Nekohiko again when Nekohiko almost nodded off at another tasteful joke from Morokata.

The room rustled in muffled, yet sincere chuckles and even some applause at Morokata's wit, and Nekohiko jolted, waking up.

"Mmm, My Lord?" He frowned at Abihiko blearily. "Did you want something from me?"

"Only the reply to the ceremonial play," Abihiko said, barely audibly.

When he realized that Nekohiko didn't understand what he was talking about, he sighed. And subtly nodded to the rest of the dining hall beneath their dais.

...oh.

Everyone was looking at the two of them expectantly.

"Dear Cousin-in-law has just asked us if we'd like to depart into our marital chambers," Abihiko said into his jade cup of wine as discreetly as he could. "It is your turn to answer, My Lady."

Ah. Yes!

The playful performance between the couple and the court. Nekohiko knew of this. Several times through the feast, some courtier or governmental councilor had to ask the groom or the bride if they were finally sated with the feast and wanted to depart and be together at last in their rooms.

And the appropriate answers to that were always -- "yes, please!" from the groom and "not yet! Ah, not yet!" from the bride. Then, to prove just how much more stuff there was that the bride wanted to do, the bride should begin another round of poetry-recital or music-playing or inviting the groom for a dance in front of everyone.

All that.

Abihiko must have said his expected reply already.

Now was Nekohiko's turn.

But, truth be told, Nekohiko did not want to postpone the departure to the marital chamber. He was tired and he was almost falling asleep with everything that had happened throughout the long day. He still had the releasing of the Mirror Image spell to cast and Abihiko to abuse when they would finally be left alone.

Why wait another two or even five hours before that? Nobody had that much time in their lives!

The sooner the better. Also, technically, he was not the bride but the groom as well. Thus, shouldn't his answer also be "yes, please"?

Morokata cocked his head to the side, looking at Nekohiko with his eyes slowly crinkling up into crescents.

Which meant Morokata was getting pissed. Very, very pissed.

No time to even think of what to do or say. Nekohiko just had to take the plunge.

"Depart to the marital chamber?" Nekohiko's gentle Sakami-voice asked in the expectant silence of the hall. Everything in him wanted to blush innocently and drop his gaze as he would mumble his ritualistic 'no, ah! Not yet, please!'. Sakami's personality and manners pushed him to do exactly that.

But he was a free person, no?

Struggling against his body's urge to be appropriate and against his better judgment, Nekohiko looked at Morokata straight and said with a strain over his disagreeable voice.

"Yes, please! Let us depart to the marital chambers now, Dear Husband!"

The collective confusion in the hall was palpable, so loud the hush was.

"It's still not even evening," Morokata said, at last, perturbed. "What would be the rush?"

Grrrr, you just asked me a question if I wanted to go and be with my husband in our rooms right now! Why did you ask it if you didn't care about my answer?!

Nekohiko had nothing to lose now, so he just went with it.

"The sooner the better, please," he repeated shakenly. "Let us depart, Dear Husband."

"There is no rush, really," Abihiko told him as well, taking another sip from his wine cup. "There are still so many meal courses and festivities awaiting us."

...

So many?

How many?!

"I really want to!" Nekohiko blurted, losing the last bits of his dignity. Or maybe his sanity. Aomi's face stood out to him clearly, especially her knowing smirk and the innuendo-filled gaze.

And that filled Nekohiko with such courage that he felt that it was "all in or nothing".

"Please let us go and consummate our marriage, My Lord! I can hardly wait!"

...

Abihiko sputtered his wine out of his nose, having choked on it.

Morokata's face went stony. Beside him, Okinaga's eyes widened at Nekohiko and a shade of queasiness crossed it.

Most everyone else just inhaled their breaths in gossipy bliss, their mouths and eyes already gleaming in the sheer fascination with what was going on before them.

"Please continue celebrating, our dear guests," Nekohiko told them, patting Abihiko on the back while Abihiko was still coughing after choking on his wine. Nekohiko leaned to him and tugged on his hand. "Now come on, please do not dishonor me with rejection in front of everyone, My Lord Husband. That will break my pure maiden heart so much."

"Mn," Abihiko croaked back and rose to his feet, swaying just a bit.

Nekohiko had to flee both Morokata's intensifying glare and the suggestive smirks of others as he rushed down the dining hall past the stunned dancers and musicians who bowed out of his and Abihiko's way. Uncertain applause started in the hall, and some people tried to yell out some more congratulations and blessings at the happy couple, but Nekohiko ran so fast, he missed most all of them.

The last of the merry music on the background died out and the painful confusion in the dining hall only grew from there.

Nekohiko only stopped running when he and Abihiko were out of the dining hall and caught in the middle of the lesser courtier, servants, and dummy crowd that was busy attending to the main dining hall from the side corridors.

Nobody really knew what to do now, Nekohiko could see. This small interruption of the usual, rigid routine was very unwelcome and gave people a hard time.

At the least, all the Great Lords had needed to escort the married couple to their chambers, but apparently -- now, that was off.

Many other rituals were off due to Nekohiko's improvisation.

But it didn't matter.

Nekohiko led the way, dragging Abihiko after him even though he began feeling the resistance from Abihiko at some point.

"Erm... My Lady Sakami?" Abihiko asked helplessly. A note of unexpected fear flickered in his voice. "Why are we rushing to the bridal chambers, exactly? Do you really intend me and you to..."

It pained him to even say it out loud, huh?

Nekohiko halted, abrupt.

The dummies and servants and Imperial bodyguards who had followed around them in an unsure procession also stopped. Everyone appeared stunned beyond belief.

Abihiko most of all.

He attempted to smile at Nekohiko, as though placating him. "We can still go back and enjoy the celebration the way it was meant to be. No need to hurry things up." His mouth quirked down in a thin, grave line. "We would have a whole month or maybe even three to attend to each other. Trust me, you will see me plenty of time then."

He wanted to pull Nekohiko back to the main halls, but Nekohiko stopped him.

"Now. I want to get into our rooms now," he said, not as firmly as he'd wanted to. But menacingly nonetheless. 

Sakami's sweet voice only added to the effect.

"Follow me," Nekohiko ordered Abihiko, then turned and went on without looking back once.

He shook with exhaustion. He wanted to be free of all these layered clothes and trinkets and sandals.

He wanted to take off his Sakami disguise, too.

Above all, he wanted to have Abihiko solely to himself. Nothing would stop him now, even if the earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, and heat strikes all came down crashing over the Emerald Palace right this moment.

The Imperial bodyguards opened the wide doors of the Imperial quarters and Nekohiko walked in as though coming back home. He didn't stop to regard anyone and didn't turn to check if Abihiko followed him.

He knew he did. He felt how the ritual spell arrays surrounding these quarters had lit up and sealed the premises inside them. That meant that both the married persons had now walked into the marital seclusion arrays.

That meant that Nekohiko and Abihiko were finally alone.

Together.

The doors clanged closed, even though that wasn't really needed anymore. The spell array would work much better than any doors in holding intruders out, whoever they were.

Morokata, Okinaga, Suminoe, Sakai...

Anyone.

Anyone at all.

"Forgive me, Sakami, but can't we first talk about it and--" Abihiko began from the greeting ante-chamber where the lounging benches and seats were.

He must have expected for him and Sakami to sit down in there and have a mature heart-to-heart about their marriage and what each of them wanted to get from it. Maybe have a bit of tea while they conversed. Maybe wish each other good-night politely, then depart each to their own rooms.

Ha.

Nekohiko went straight into the marital bedroom. And as he went, he shed his confining, restricting clothes one by one. Each and single spidersilk, glowing, embroidered, sparkling layer. Each sash and jewel and ribbon clinging to his hair. He dropped all his clothes on the floor and kicked off his painful sandals. Hopping on one foot, he peeled the aggravating stockings off his legs as well, then padded down the cool stony floor toward the bed.

A huge bed, this was. A bit more than a week ago this bedroom and bed had been incinerated by Abihiko in his fury flash. But of course it had been fixed now.

Prepared beautifully and garishly for the wedding night. All covered with silks and curtains and chimes and peacock feathers and evergreen branches...

Ugh.

What a vulgar place.

Nekohiko stepped into the curtained area and continued pulling apart the last of his robe layers and hairpins.

Behind him, he heard Abihiko come in and stop at the threshold, petrified.

"Sakami... is this really what you want from me?"

Nekohiko didn't even turn to regard him. Silently, he went on undressing, rushing so much, he actually tore some of the finer silk garments of his.

Abihiko held his silence for a while, then slowly, he walked over to the bed and sat down on it. He didn't have nearly as many layers or decorations on his clothes, so he wouldn't need to busy himself too much to undress. Yet his outer robes still jingled with some small jewels when he pulled it apart to take off.

"All right," Abihiko said at last, defeated. Even without having taken his clothes off, he already lost interest in that and simply reclined on the bed backward -- in the pose of a literal log as he resigned himself to his fate.

His eyes were closed, and Nekohiko used the moment to come a little bit closer.

He had taken all of his robes save for the thin inner layer. He was planning to take it off, too, to properly let Abihiko see whom he had married. The real shape of the wooden mannequin puppet with a dark core inside it.

But so far, Nekohiko still had Sakami's appearance wrapped around his own, and he wasn't comfortable fully stripping yet.

He stopped above Abihiko, watching him lay on top of the bed on his half-open outer robes and untouched inner ones. His crown still sat atop his head while Nekohiko had thrown his own small one away a while ago. Abihiko's features were particularly pale in this green room that sapped all color from his skin.

His eyelashes trembled along with his breathing, his lips, still colorless with make-up stretched into a thin, stiff line. To his chest, he held the seashell in his fist, never having let it go for the entirety of the wedding day. Like the stupid dummy he was.

A faint trace of a smile crossed Nekohiko's lips.

The last bit of a calm before the tempest. Wasn't it?

Everything he had come through ever since he had woken up inside the tree log had been solely for this one moment.

He assembled a finger formation of an Utsuro spell release. Several spells, actually.

One for Kotone and Haehime to know he was safe and wanted them to finish all their plans back in the Spring Sunlight Shrine. One for Arata's disguise over Mikawa.

And the last one -- for his Mirror Image of Sakami.

Like a breath of relief, the suffocation and swaddling tightness around his body and mind cracked and dissipated, the strands of the borrowed Bound aspects shooting away from him and coming instantly back to their original owners.

He felt as though being able to take a gulp of air freely for the very first time, so liberating this sensation was.

But more than that...

Abihiko's eyes shot open.

Wild shock sparked up within them as he looked up at Nekohiko, the way Nekohiko really was.

Of course Abihiko had felt Nekohiko's aura, so close he was to the released spell. Of course he recognized this aura and whom it belonged to.

With whom Abihiko was trapped now, alone, in these rooms.

And nobody there to help or protect Abihiko from whatever was bound to happen next.

But this wasn't nearly enough.

Nekohiko untied the last cords of the inner robes he had on and let the flimsy fabric fall down to the floor. His body was in the open, exactly as it had been made. Every ball-joint and every juncture. Every flaw and imperfection and wooden splinter he had to show off.

And the brimming rage and hatred that imminently rose up in Nekohiko until it wanted to burst.

Yet, absurdly, Abihiko did not look like he wanted to run or to beg forgiveness or even to prepare for a fight.

He looked...

...disbelieving. And awash with doubt.

And the shiest tint of a hopeful smile slowly widening on his lips.

...

Nekohiko glared back, getting more displeased by the second.

What are you smiling at?!

What do you think is going to happen to you now, you scum bastard?

This is payback time!

Not smiling-at-each-other-dumbly-time!

"Hello husband," Nekohiko told him as menacingly and sweetly as he could.