Categories > Anime/Manga > Inuyasha > 30 Kisses

Perfect blue (kiss #15)

by kirayasha 0 reviews

A series of related short stories based on Live Journal's 30 Kisses

Category: Inuyasha - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Romance - Characters: Other - Published: 2006-05-02 - Updated: 2006-05-03 - 2836 words

0Unrated
Perfect blue (kiss #15)

By kira

Author's note: more LJ kisses based on "Moonlight" featuring Izayoi and Inutaisho.


Izayoi sat there, looking at the many bolts of silk she had arranged on her futon, trying to pick the right combination of colors, as well as wracking her brain for an idea of what to embroider if anything on it. She wanted to make her beloved Inutaisho a new kimono as a present and everything seemed too colorful, too garish in its patterning, or too plain and in need of lavish embroidery to liven it up. Sighing, the sixteen year old human was just about to give up when a flash of indigo caught her eye. However, when she dug the fabric out from under the pile, she noticed it had a large mark on it from water damage. Growling in perfect imitation of her beloved, Izayoi silently fumed when she realized she was given all the old or poorly dyed or damaged silks because she was human. She then decided she would just have to paint some dye on the plain white silk instead. But since she didn't have faith in her ability to work with dye she decided she would do something simple like a splash of blue near the collar and the ruined indigo bolt was the perfect color blue too. As she sat there, Izayoi wondered if one of the cloth makers could brew up a dye in that shade of faded blue.

She had to start working on it a week later than she wanted to, because her charge, Hitomi, had fallen into the okugata-sama's koi pond while playing with her cousin Sesshomaru. The little youkai princess had caught a chill and became sick. Izayoi spent the next couple of days looking after her while she got over her cold. Entertaining Hitomi-chan by herself would not have been bad in Izayoi's humble opinion, but her cousin insisted on visiting her all the time and there was no way Izayoi could refuse him. At first, Izayoi found herself catering to his needs, until help came from an unexpected quarter. Hitomi simply put him in place with a gentle rebuke as she loved her human nursemaid. Izayoi learned early on that treating the little princess as if she were her little sister got much better results than all the prodding and prompting and, Izayoi suspected, pinching that her previous nurse gave her.

So, while the bolt of silk waited to be cut, Izayoi looked after the royal cousins, sighing with relief when the waka-sama left, and enjoying the quiet time alone that she had with Hitomi-hime. Once the little youkai princess was over her cold, Izayoi cut the bolt of plain white silk into the sections needed to make the kimono. She even had a small amount left over, after fashioning the collar, for her to use to experiment with the dye. These scraps she carefully put away.

As soon as Hitomi-chan went outside to play with her cousin the waka-sama, Izayoi set to work sewing. First she sewed the okumi or front panel to the main part of the kimono's front sides. Afterwards she started sewing up the long back seam and after two weeks' time, she had the whole thing finished. Instead of feeling happy and proud of her accomplishment, Izayoi felt a chill, for the plain white garment had the look of mofuku and the thought that she had made a kimono for mourning saddened her. After she had hung it up, she decided to go to the cloth makers for the dye, as it was now time for her to get to work dying the fabric.

Izayoi stepped outside the room she shared with the little youkai princess, and spotting her playing in the courtyard garden with her cousin, she came over to her. "Konnichiwa, Hitomi-chan, Sesshomaru-waka-sama," Izayoi said as she greeted them with a bow, which only Hitomi returned.

"Konnichiwa, Izayoi-chan!" Hitomi said. "Is it time for me to come in for my lessons?"

"Iie, I was just wondering if you would like to come with me to see the dye-maker," Izayoi asked, hoping that the waka-sama would want to stay behind and play. Izayoi could just imagine all the trouble he would get into and she dreaded the thought of bringing both children along.

"Why do you want to go there for?" Sesshomaru asked, annoyed at the possibility of Izayoi taking Hitomi away with her.

"Izayoi-chan is making a kimono, Sessho-chan," she said to him, before turning her attention to nursemaid. "Are you going to paint stuff on it? Can I help? Please, Izayoi-chan!"

"Gomen nasai, Hitomi-chan, I'm not sure how to work with the dye and I wouldn't want you to get all stained and dirty..."

Hitomi pouted. "Hai..." she grumbled, her disappointment very apparent to everyone there.

"Keh! Why do want to go do something stupid like that for anyway, Himi-chan?" Sesshomaru said, feigning an air of boredom that made Hitomi think twice about wanting to help.

"Hai...Ummm, Sessho-chan, want to go play dolls with me?" Hitomi's pout quickly turning into a smile; she grabbed her cousin's hand and pulled him towards her room.

"Hitomi-chan! Please don't touch my kimono," Izayoi said softly as she trailed after them.

"Hai! We promise not to, ne?" Hitomi poked Sesshomaru who growled his assent.

After seeing that the kimono was stored safely out of reach, Izayoi set a bowl of dried plums on one of the low tables in the room, before getting ready to go to the servants' quarters.

"I am going past the kitchens...would you like me to see if there's any dango, Hitomi-chan? If there is, I can bring some back as a treat..." Izayoi said, knowing perfectly well that is was the waka-sama who loved the sweet dumplings rather than her charge.

"Ummm... Hai," Hitomi shrugged as she gathered her dolls together. "Sessho-chan, you'd like some, ne?" she asked and he nodded sullenly.

"Hai, then I will do my best to get back here quickly with some dango, ne?"

"Hai!" the royal cousins chorused.

Izayoi left the room, and hurried down the maze of corridors that made up the palace. As much as she wished she could run there and back, she had to walk and as quickly as she could while making it seem she was going as slowly and sedately as possible. Aside from the fact that running around the palace was frowned on, Izayoi knew she had to hold herself up to a higher standard as the only human living amongst youkai. So after what seemed like hours to the impatient girl, she finally arrived at her destination.

"Konnichiwa, Kouyako-san," Izayoi said as she bowed to the old woman in charge of the dye house.

"Konnichiwa, Ningen-hime. What can I do for you?" Kouyako replied as she returned the human girl's bow.

"I have this piece of fabric and I was wondering if you had any dye that matched it..." Izayoi said, handing the small scrap of silk to the dye maker.

"Hmmm...I don't know. What do you need this for?" The old woman looked at her questioningly.

Izayoi seemed to wilt under the old woman's questioning stare. "I, ummm...I need it because I...I want to decorate a kimono..."

"You can't just paint it on the fabric like you do with watercolors and paper. You'll need several old brushes that you no longer want for painting and some rice starch for the resist." At Izayoi's questioning look, she clarified, "Resist is what you paint around the areas you want to dye so that it doesn't bleed. I take it you're doing something simple..." she left the "I hope" unsaid.

"Hai...I'm just going to paint a couple of stripes near the shoulder..."

"Odd choice for a kimono pattern, ne?"

"Hai, but it's not for me, I wish to make it for the Dono-sama, he's been so kind to me and I want to repay that kindness..." she trailed off softly as her cheeks turned pink under Kouyako's scrutiny.

"Hai...come, Ningen-hime, let's go see if I have what you need..."Kouyako sighed. The old woman shuffled along towards the dye house as Izayoi trailed along behind her. She patiently waited outside, when told to do so, all the while wondering if this was a good idea after all. A few minutes later, Kouyako came out with a small earthenware flask. It looked like an old chipped sake flask, which it was, and the old dye maker explained what she needed to do.

"Domou arigatou gozaimasu," Izayoi said, before saying goodbye. Clutching the flask tightly, she made her way back to her room, pausing only to stop long enough in the kitchens to get a plate of dango for the Waka-sama and Hitomi and a small pot of liquefied rice starch.

Once she had the children occupied with tea and dango, Izayoi set to work on dying the kimono. First she carefully painted the rice starch on the areas she didn't want to dye. Izayoi then took an old chipped teacup and carefully poured some of the dye into it. After picking up her brush, she took a deep breath and found that she couldn't set the brush to the silk. Somehow the thought of possibly making a mistake and ruining all her hard work made her tense up. Sesshomaru, hoping to get up to a bit of mischief, walked over to where she sat, and while pretending to shoo a fly away, knocked her hand in such a way that Izayoi dropped her brush. "Waka-sama!" she wailed.

"Hai...? Didn't you want put the color there?" He smirked as he quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Ummm...hai, but I could have ruined it..."

"It doesn't look ruined." He looked over at the kimono, before turning to address his cousin. "What do you think, Himi-chan?"

She got up, from where she was playing, to come over to them. "Ummm...it looks like a big splotch of blue. I like it, Ningen-hime. Are you going to leave it like that?"

"Hunh?" Izayoi looked up at her and smiled. "Iie, I was just thinking that if I go like this," she carefully filled in the smaller stripe, "it'll look just fine. Domou arigatou, Waka-sama, I appreciate the help." She smiled at him.

"Keh! Come, Himi-chan, this is stupid. Let's go play outside!" Sesshomaru said, annoyed that Izayoi was not upset.

"Ummm...?" Hitomi looked from her human nursemaid to her cousin and back.

"Go ahead, Hitomi-chan, I'll be fine by myself," Izayoi said. Smiling, she watched them leave. Picking up her brush, she loaded some of the dye onto it and gently started painting the left shoulder with broad strokes until she had filled in the area. Izayoi then picked up a smaller brush and repeated the process, creating a smaller stripe as a border. When she was finished, she smiled to herself and carefully hung it up to dry, before going outside to check on the waka-sama and his cousin. She sat there on the low veranda that surrounded the courtyard, watching them play, until the okugata-sama arrived and the children ran over to spend time with her.

It had taken two days for the dye to dry and another two days to finish the kimono by setting the dye, washing it, to remove the resist. Izayoi, with the help of a couple of servant girls, hung the kimono to dry in the far end of the courtyard's garden. Everyday she would come outside to check on its progress and when it was fully dried, Hitomi helped her bring it back inside. Once in their rooms, Hitomi sat and watched as Izayoi carefully folded it, before wrapping it in a large cotton square. Now all she had to do was sit and wait until Inutaisho summoned her to his rooms.

The gods must have taken pity on her, for Izayoi only waited two days before he sent for her. After leaving Hitomi-chan in her mother's care, Izayoi went back to their room to get the present.

As she walked down the corridors that led to Inutaisho's rooms, Izayoi became more and more filled with doubt about the suitability of the kimono as a present. By the time she reached her destination, she had convinced herself that he would hate it and not only that, she now had to worry about where she was going to put while she visited her lord. Unfortunately, she could not find anywhere to leave it, so she timidly kept it by her side as she knocked on the inner door to his room. Izayoi hoped against hope he would not notice the large bundle when he slid back the door.

"Koishii...? Are you alright?" Inutaisho asked.

Izayoi had by now worked herself up into being an inch away from a good cry, nodded mutely as she pushed the bundle ahead of her, before following it into the room.

"Are you sure?" he asked as they knelt, facing each other. In the soft glow of the candle light that lit his room, Inutaisho studied her face, looking for signs that his wife may have slapped her. When Izayoi bowed her head and looked away, the dog general gently cupped her check, before sliding his hand down to grasp her chin, titling her face up to look at it. "You're not sick are you? Iie? Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing...I'm...ummm...being silly. I ummm...made you something, but I...ummm..." Izayoi said softly.

"You what?"

"I... ummm, made you something...Here, I hope you like and if you don't it's alright..." She handed him the bundle as the tears slipped silently down her cheeks.

Inutaisho, a puzzled frown creasing his brow, took the proffered bundle and opened it. He carefully removed the kimono and with Izayoi's help, they opened it up so that he could see it. "You made this for me all by yourself?"

"Hai..." she said as she hastily wiped away her tears.

"Domou arigatou! It's beautiful!" He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "I really like it! How did you know I wanted a new one?"

Izayoi smiled, before giggling into her sleeve. "I don't know, I just decided one morning to make you one..."

"I'm glad that you did. Now come, would you like some tea, or some sake, or perhaps I can send for some plum wine if you'd like."

"No thank you, but I will pour for you if you'd like."

"Hai...but I'm not thirsty right now, I'm rather hungry..." he grinned wickedly at her, pleased when she giggled again. "You know, this really is a great gift. How did you know that I love the color blue...and not only that, this particular shade of blue? It's perfect! Arigatou..." He set the kimono aside, and leaning forward, he kissed her again.

Izayoi let herself be gathered into his warm embrace, her fears about the kimono evaporating like dew on a summer's morning, as he kissed her more deeply. She giggled when his breath tickled her neck as he trailed a line of little kisses down it, pausing only to move the many layers she wore off her shoulder. It was not long before she ended up naked, sitting in lap, letting his hands wandered over her body as a prelude to their pillowing. It was in these rare moments with him that Izayoi felt truly happy and at home here. She loved how with a look and a touch or a kiss, she knew exactly what he wanted of her and it made pillowing with him a dance of devotion.

As they lay entwined together after their coupling, basking in the love they felt for each other, and enjoying the physical closeness, Izayoi thought how a simple ruined piece of silk could turn out to be the inspiration for so perfect an afternoon.

Several days later, when Izayoi was summoned to attend a dinner for one of Inutaisho's friends, she noticed he was wearing her gift. Her heart filled with joy to know that he really and truly did like and appreciate her gift. Stealing quick glances from where she sat across from him at the low table, Izayoi thought how perfectly the touch of blue suited his coloring as well as made his amber eyes seem all the brighter. So happy was she, that she barely noticed the dark looks the okugata-sama sent her way, and when did see them, Izayoi found she did not care. The human girl sat there; lost in her memories of the day she gave it to him, hoping against hope, that he would choose her to spend the night with him. When he did ask her at the end of the meal, to attend him, Izayoi rose happily and walked over to him. Even the okugata-sama saw how perfectly well they suited each other, shaking her head sadly, as she watched them go...
Sign up to rate and review this story