Work Text:
To Asa, writing is like love.
She writes for her father, her hand moves with such precision that she is considered gifted. She writes for herself, weaving words together with ease, the brush’s bristles not ever being uneven, not leaving a single stroke undone. Her letters are clear, neat, and easy to read, whatever she writes, people leave a compliment.
Arriving at the Ooku did not change this factor. When she stepped foot inside its walls, she still wielded a brush, she felt drawn to it like she had been since she was a child.
“Asa!”
Asa turns her head up, looking over to the girl who has accompanied her. For both of them, this is life changing, an opportunity to not let fall down the well. Kame smiles down at her, teeth showing, the smile reaches the edge of her eyes and she hops on one foot, gasping as she reads what Asa has scribed.
“Kame,” Asa finds herself smiling softly, more faint than Kame’s, but it still reaches her own eyes, as it tugs on her cheeks.
She writes for Kame.
☼
“Do you have any supernatural beliefs?” Kame blurts out.
Asa’s brush pauses midway through a stroke, and she lifts and tilts her head. “What?”
“When I was getting ready to come to the Ooku,” She begins, Asa listens, “My grandma told me about omikuji—it’s a type of way people get their fortunes told, you know?”
“Oh, yes.”
“It reminds me of you.”
Asa blinks.
“See, the way omikuji works; you pull a random fortune from a box, it’s written on a strip of paper. It predicts the chances of something coming true, like health, fortune, marriage, all the good stuff!” Kame grins. “And you write!”
“I do.” Asa nods slowly.
Kame grabs her hands so quickly, yet so gently, hope practically echoes through the shine in her eyes.
“What if you wrote omikuji for us, for every morning we’re here?”
Asa frowns slightly. “I feel it would be biased, though, if I write the fortunes—”
“Well, silly, you can just jumble them up so we both have an equal chance!”
When Kame laughs, it rings out like rays of sunshine.
“It’ll make drinking the bad tasting water more tolerable if we get a fun fortune everyday, don’t you think?” She tilts her head, Asa thinks her smile has never known being a thin line.
“Yeah,” Asa hums, “Alright, Kame. I’ll write some fortunes for each morning.”
☼
✿
“future blessing in business dealings”
sue-kichi
akinai
❀
“half-blessing in romantic relationships”
han-kichi
ren’ai
“Oohh!” Kame practically kicks the blanket off her futon as she waves her legs around, giggling. “Romantic relationships? Gee, good luck Asa…”
Asa laughs a little, grabbing Kame’s hand in hers. “Stop, stop, they’re gonna hear us giggling—”
Kame suddenly tickles Asa, making her laugh louder, pushing Kame in return in a playful manner. Kame keeps giggling, covering her mouth with her hands as Asa rolls onto her stomach and catches her breath, her heartbeat in her throat going thump, thump, thump, she is so precise until she talks to Kame, then she unfurls like a blossoming flower, laughing so hard her ribs ache and her heart is racing like a rabbit being chased by hounds.
As the two quiet down, there’s a moment where they stare into the other’s eyes.
“I think,” Kame’s expression becomes less eccentric, more subtle, more like Asa’s. “The real blessing has been being able to start here with you.”
Asa clasps her hands together, eyes widening as she grins. “I think so too.”
Kame then sits up, holding her hand up to her mouth as she clears her throat. Asa stares at her, curling up slightly before pushing herself up too.
A clap breaks the brief silence.
“Asa’s gonna find a boy~friend~ Asa’s gonna find a boy~friend~!” Kame starts in a sing-song tune, clapping in between words and giggling as she does so, Asa rolls her eyes, starting to clap along too. However, she does not focus on the words Kame keeps repeating as she begins to rock herself as she continues singing. Instead, she looks at Kame’s face, the way her hair bounces, the way she lifts herself up as if nothing could hold her down, the way her face moves as she lets out a laugh; Asa finds herself constantly getting lost when she looks at her.
“Asa’s gonna find a boyfriend!” She makes one last clap, then bows down and—thunk—her forehead lightly hits right onto the floor. Asa pauses as she looks down, for a moment, she’s concerned.
Kame pops right back up, rubbing her forehead with a pout, no blood, except maybe a possibility of a bruise. So Asa lets herself break out into a laugh, holding a hand over her chest as her heart itself feels like it’s what’s aching instead of her ribs. She gasps for air after a few moments of laughing, and composes herself within seconds.
Kame stares at her with wide eyes, almost impressed by the quick change of expressions and mood. Asa gets up, offering her hands out, receiving a smile as Kame grabs them and pulls herself up, humming, before swinging whose leading right around and walking Asa down the stairs, hopping on one foot at a time down the stairs and then right out the doors and out into the Ooku.
Asa’s eyes remain on her.
☼
“Say, if you’ve got a— half-blessing in romantic relationships, do you know anything about flowers that represent everlasting love?” Kame asks, swinging her legs as she sits on the fence. Asa on the other hand leans on it, staring off in the direction where the scribe is rumored to hide herself.
“Mm, hm, maybe a little bit?” Asa says, her gaze moving to Kame. “But not much.”
“I used to pick flowers when I was younger.” Kame hums, crossing her arms and pouting a little as she continues on. “But I got yelled at for doing so, so I decided to learn things about them!”
She stretches backward, and Asa feels her heart skip a beat when she almost falls, but she leans right back forward, landing back on the ground with relative ease besides a scrape or two. This does not deter her, as she sits up and proudly announces. “And of course, I wanted to learn about the ones used for love!”
Asa nods, glancing at the scrape Kame has gained, but Kame bounces over to her and cups her face in her hands. “Red camellias are often associated with love and passion, four white roses means something, like, I dunno, till death do us part, I guess? Or unable to be together with love, or everlasting, y’know. Then, the primrose, or madame butterfly, in some cases, means long-lasting love and desire!”
She pinches Asa’s cheek and steps back, causing Asa to lightly tickle her and make her let out a string of giggles before she smacks her hand away.
“That’s interesting.” Asa finally finds the words to reply, smiling in return at Kame as she quickly darts out of the way of some other girl who was walking by. “Say, Kame, If I had a wedding…”
“Oh, I’d get you a bouquet full of blossoming madame butterflies.”
☼
✿
“great blessing in moving or changing residence”
dai-kichi
tenkyo
Kame squeals, leaping out of her futon and spinning around in a circle, beaming at every corner of the room as she twirls, collapsing when she becomes too dizzy and she claps. “I bet this is a fortune for my future! Oh my gosh, do you think I’m gonna get to talk to the emperor? Oh my gosh!” She squeals again, rolling around and waving her arms around. “Asa, Asa! This is one of the best ideas we’ve had! Read yours!”
Asa is still waking up as she pulls hers out, covering her mouth as she yawns before reading over, in handwriting she barely recognizes as her own;
❀
“misfortune in lost article(s)”
kyo
usemono
She is unsure what to make of this fortune.
Kame headbutts her to read her fortune, tilting her head as she squints and reads it. “...Huh.”
Asa’s mouth feels dry.
Kame seems to notice and she picks the strip of paper up, shrugging it off and letting it drift to the floor. “Maybe these fortunes just aren’t worth our time right now!” She gets up, putting her hands on her hips and looking determined as she begins to talk about Lady Fuki, Asa feels herself slump slightly, staring blankly at the paper.
She didn’t write that.
No, she only put good fortunes in that box, she swears—
☼
Kame is hunched over the bridge, face pale, her face looks like a desperate goldfish at the moment. Neither of the two had gotten any more fond of that dirty water they had to drink, and Kame had almost thrown up through all of the strict schedule they had to follow. A hand was over her mouth, and she gagged, but nothing came out. Asa stood by her, hand carefully placed on her back, and she sighed.
“Blahh— If I knew I had to sign up for all of this, I would’ve never come here.” Kame states, a bit dramatically, but some truth underlines it, Asa can tell.
☼
“I feel like all the girls here are against each other.” Asa frowns as she speaks, hand running through Kame’s hair who had laid her head down in Asa’s lap, and Kame purses her lips.
“Yeah, It’s kinda weird.” She stretches her legs out slightly. “You think at least some of them would have friends, like us two, you know?”
She looks up at her, and Asa nods in agreement, her own head hanging a bit low as she leans forward, beginning to braid some of Kame’s hair, so she continues on talking.
“Like, at least one friend. Someone to talk to regularly, someone to giggle at night with, someone to talk about the Ooku itself with. Just in general, conversations! None of them talk about anything, it feels like they all speak at the same time and act the same way, none of them even complain about the water to each other in hushed whispers! That’s so stupid.” Kame huffs. “And unrealistic, like, seriously! Nobody says anything about the water, but we both agree it tastes like literal dirt, right?”
“Mhm, definitely.” Asa brushes some hair out of Kame’s face, humming a quiet tune as she listens to her ramble.
“And then nobody compliments the ones who’ve managed to get so far and so close to the emperor! That’s an achievement! They’re so pretty, too, it’s like they’re setting the standard for us here. I can’t wait to possibly become one of them, oh my gosh, that’d be so cool—to talk to Lady Fuki in person? I’ll squeal myself to death!”
Asa laughs a little, “But then you won’t get to experience talking to the emperor.”
“Shoot!” Kame groans. “You’re rightt…”
Kame goes quiet as Asa leans close to her face to finish the braid off, it’ll unravel by itself, she doesn’t have anything to keep it tied with, but Kame smiles as she watches it twirl a little bit once Asa lets go.
“I hope we don’t become like them.” Asa says to her, voice soft, some concern laces it.
Kame sits up, and she faces Asa right-on. “We won’t, we can, uhhh—pinky swear!”
Asa blinks. “Pinky swear,” She says, then repeats it again. “Pinky swear what?”
“That we won’t let any emperor, boys, girls, women—ANYONE tear us apart and make us be mindless zombies like the rest of them!” Kame says, leaning closer to Asa, offering her hand out, pinky finger held out.
There’s some silence between the two, the walls creak, Kame starts chewing on her lip, and then, Asa’s pinky finger intertwines with Kame’s.
“Pinky swear.” They both say, watching each other’s lips move. “Whoever lies will be made to swallow a thousand needles.”
☼
✿
“great misfortune in disputes”
dai-kyo
arasoigoto
Kame sniffles, right as snot bubbles up and out of her nose and she begins to sob, walking down the stairs with her shoulders slumped, and she tries wiping it away, to clean her face off—but none of it works. Her normal smile that tugs on her cheeks and makes her eyes light up is replaced by a frown that drags her face down like someone drowning.
❀
“blessing in one’s wish or desire”
kichi
negaigoto
“I let her go.” Asa says, she smiles, it does not tug on her cheeks like it does with Kame, it falls flat, thin, like a perfectly calm surface of the ocean.
☼
“You’re so lucky.” Kame states, she does not speak as if to have a casual conversation, she just states what seems to be a fact. “Omikuji really likes you.”
Asa looks at her, and for a moment, she feels what others in her position have felt; a brewing bitterness.
(Bitterness feels like it’s supposed to be brewing, but all she feels is sorrow.)
“It does. I hope your fortune is just as great.” She does not even smile, she feels like she should, and Kame slowly turns and walks away, aimlessly swaying as if she’d forgotten her own purpose.
☼
All eyes are on her as she picks the brush up, this time it is larger, larger than she is; but since she was a baby she knew how to hold it. She begins to use it, to command it, to use it the way the scribes before her must’ve; for there is a joyous new life that has been brought into the world, one that has his majesty’s own blood flowing through its veins. She writes like a painter, she flows like a stream, she hits the end of a stroke like the blunt end of a rock.
She has seen many corpses, ones that have been drowned and drained, crumpled like pieces of paper of imperfect writing, with imperfect strokes, imperfect words, things that were no longer needed in the everchanging Ooku.
Yet a part of her feels lost, unsure where to go, she writes, yes, but she’s lost a muse, a goal. Her goal at first was to see the end of the horizon she saw in front of her, now, it felt like there was nothing. She could write, and write, and write.
Kame had been kicked out of the Ooku on her word, her writing, what else did she expect? She had finally obeyed what she had been told when she stepped foot inside;
“You must sacrifice something dear to you.”
As she stops, as she receives applause for a ceremony most longingly denied, she holds this brush with ink stained hands, and in her mind, they’re not stained with ink, they are instead cursed with blood. Blood of the previous scribe before her, blood of Kame, despite how she still walks, blood of…
Her mind goes blank at that.
She has a duty to fulfill, a role to take, a place to fill, a place to live in.
At this moment, the Ooku is her home, her only place left, the only place she will ever be.
Her ribs will no longer ache with laughter, she will no longer write hopeful fortunes for her and someone else, she will no longer feel a smile tug at her cheeks and she will no longer bare her teeth with pride and joy, she will no longer write with someone headbutting her, face planting, or peeking over her shoulder like a curious cat.
She is in the Ooku.
She is alone.
And she says the same words as those before her.
“I will serve my duty in the Ooku.”
☼
Asa sits leaning over a table, her pen trailing off as she finishes the final letter. She hears a shoji screen slide open, but she lays the paper delicately to the side to dry, and she pulls a fresh one off of the blank stack. As she begins to write, she hears someone clear their throat, and her eyes slowly move up as she raises an eyebrow, she is in the middle of something that requires precision, quiet, no distractions—
Kame smiles at her, and she feels like she’s felt the sun on her skin for the first time in eternity.
“Kame,” Asa manages out, laying the pen on its side and sitting up.
She giggles a little, Asa feels the urge to break into laughter, to feel her ribs ache for the first time in forever. “Asa!”
“What brings you back to the Ooku? You were told to leave, last I was informed.” Last I wrote, it is a murmur to herself in her mind, she maintains the professional attitude she had been taught, that Kame commented she was always good at; being what the Ooku needed her to be, no, wanted her to be.
“I’m just visiting.” Kame hums, and she makes herself at home, like she always seems to do. She sits across from Asa, her hands clasped together, her nails are uneven, untrimmed, allowed to grow. Asa’s are trimmed, relatively short in comparison. “I’ve been exploring all kinds of different careers, in the meantime.”
Asa smiles, her lips tug her cheeks up. “It’s nice to see you again.”
She has not known longing since she has known Kame. Every flower she sees reminds her of the night Kame explained to her, the night Kame told her—
“I missed you, I gotta be honest!” She pouts. “We may not work together in the Ooku anymore, buut, I think it worked out.”
Asa nods.
“It’s like our fortunes really did come true!” She snaps her fingers with a grin, and Asa lets out a small giggle, covering her mouth and blinking. She has kept up such an image for so long, serious, focused, that she forgets how freeing it was to talk to Kame, how her smile made you smile, how she bounced off of your energy no matter how much or little you had. It was always enough for Kame.
“Mhm. What have you been doing now, outside of the Ooku?” Asa tilts her head, “I’m sure you can guess what I’ve been busy with.”
“Well obviously you’re still writing, better than ever too.” Kame puts her elbows on the table, a bit impolite on the manners, however, Asa finds herself not scolding her for it, and instead, she sits and listens. “Basically, I’ve just been travelling— kinda almost wanted to go with the medicine seller who helped the Ooku out, you know? Learn some practices from him, but he’s hard to keep track of.”
“Oh, the medicine seller, yes. I remember.”
“Yeah, so, I did get interested in medicine for a bit, but I decided it wasn’t for me! I considered becoming a Geisha…”
As Kame goes on, Asa is reminded just how expressive she is. Her eyes go wide and her entire face seems to move with it, her lips purse, her lips stretch right out into a perfect smile, her eyes light up as she talks, her claps somehow move her entire body and not just her arms, her hair has begun to finally grow again after it was cut. It’s styled in a cute way though, for the length it’s at, Asa’s own hair has only gotten longer.
Kame imitates the voices and expressions of the people she’s met since her leave, as well, that’s another thing Asa notes. She pouts to represent grumpy old men she had to talk to, even dragging her pout to further dip down, and as she talks, she repeats herself more and more, until she gets so tangled up in her own words she takes a moment to just breathe.
“Are you thriving as a scribe?” She blurts out, leaning forward as her nose touches Asa’s own. Asa blinks, and she thinks. She wouldn’t say she’s not, she still writes, she fulfills the duties a scribe must, she talks to the newcomers, she sees girls with the same aspirations as her—ones with even the same as Kame’s. She nudges them in the right directions they’re supposed to be, she’s seen friendships form and then break apart, she’s seen their faces all become the same as the others.
But she still can write.
She still knows, loosely, what love is to her. So, she nods.
“I have never been better.”
Because at that moment, she tells the truth.
“Have you married yet?” Kame teases.
Asa covers her mouth as she holds in a laugh. “Well, have you received an invitation yet?”
Kame lightly kicks the table as she lets out her own laugh, it causes the whole Ooku to be full of sound, and feel like the world still spins around it, with it.
“Either way!” She claps her hands together, looking at Asa very seriously. “I’ve come to give you a gift.”
Kame bends backwards and reaches inside the bag she wears on her back, rummaging around it and pulling out a messy bunch of flowers. She holds them all together with her hands, some are bent, their petals aren’t perfect, but they’re beautiful when held with Kame’s kind face, and she holds them out.
“Madame butterflies.” She says. “It’s not your wedding day, I thought you’d appreciate this anyway, I’ll get you them in tip-top shape on your actual wedding day, obviously, but—”
Asa gently cups Kame’s hands in hers, breathing in the smell of the flowers as she repeats; “Madame butterflies.”
“Mhm!” She perks right up, and Asa grasps the flowers and lifts them out of her hands. She notes how there is some dirt under Kame’s fingernails, and the lingering smell of the primroses remains on her hands. Asa lifts herself up, moving over to an empty vase, and she places them inside it neatly, tucking them inside as if taking a child to its crib. She then turns to Kame.
“Thank you, I needed some decoration here.” Asa returns to her seat at the table, she feels herself grinning almost. “I have a gift for you too, I must admit.”
Kame blinks, her eyes widening—out of genuine surprise, which confuses Asa, for a moment. However, the way the two had departed could’ve easily left her wondering, Kame would’ve pulled Asa out of that well if she had slipped in, but would Asa have pulled Kame out?
Asa picks up a box, and she places it on the center of the table, tapping it. “Reach inside.”
Kame hesitates, and she pulls a strip of paper out, her gaze darts to Asa’s, as if questioning if it’s really what she thinks it is, and she reads the words on it.
“great blessing for your wish”
dai-kichi
negaigoto
She would’ve pulled Kame out if it meant she could always feel like this. Her heart is in her throat, and she’s ready to let it fall out. Kame looks at her, and her whole face lights up as she darts forward and wraps her arms around Asa as she murmurs; “I love you.”
Since Asa arrived at the Ooku, she wrote the names of people she met.
Kame’s was the one she found herself having to take the most time to perfect, to make unique, to truly capture who she was, her laugh, her smile, all of it, in just ink.
Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame,
Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame,
Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame,
Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame, Kame,
Kame.
She thinks she finally knows how to write Kame’s name.
She wraps her arms around Kame, as she closes her eyes, she whispers back in her ear. “I love you too.”