Beautiful Disease

Joy

Ren rummaged through the wide sleeves of her white floral-patterned emerald kimono for a cigarette and cursed beneath her breath when she came up empty-handed. She caught the head priest staring and murmured an apology as she lifted her chin upward to the star-scattered violet sky. The lights of the old Takudaiji shrine were dim—tiny flames smothered in opaque paper orbs. Trees crowded the shabby shrine, weeds pushed through the cracks in the concrete walkway, and wildflowers grew aplenty in the area. Nobody maintained the place since the fire that consumed the main house. She alone bore the Takudaiji name, yet the death of her family had resulted in an unexpected fall from noble grace. So, the small structure at her back had grown old, worn down by the seasons, the wood rotted and splintered, the tiled roof was no longer complete—several pieces had broken and crunched underneath her sandaled feet as she paced.

The bearded priest produced a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and offered her a single stick. His dark eyes gleamed underneath the pale light, his voice gruff as he spoke, "You sure you want to stink like smoke on your wedding day?"

She considered it briefly. Wrapping her painted lips around the end of the cigarette and inhaling that first puff of tobacco after lighting it, the smoke filling her lungs and easing the convoluted nerves that tightened her muscles.

She shook her head, dropping it almost immediately. She smothered it underneath her foot. "No," she said, the thought and feel lingering, "you're right. I'm just nervous."

"Why? 'Cause your boyfriend hasn't shown up?"

Ren glared at him, grumbling, "I'm early, you dick."

He arched an eyebrow at her as he sank into a seat on the bottom step of the shrine, the wood creaked noisily under his weight. "That anyway to speak to a priest?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, when you said it was a secret ceremony, I didn't expect it'd be just you and your man. There're usually a few close friends."

Ren lost contact with her drinking buddies from Fifth Division. Even if she hadn't, she figured it'd be bad manners to invite the one that she used to sleep with, so she supposed it was better like this. Well, Tetsuya would've likely been the only invitee, but he was so against it that she didn't feel comfortable letting him know.

"I don't have any close friends," said Ren. Kohana and Chinatsu briefly came to mind, but one worked under her and the other would've come because of her family name. If she thought about it, honestly, she didn't have that one person that she could go to for help or advice or to unwind or to simply be herself. She had Gin. That was enough.

"Wanna talk about it?" he asked, taking a cigarette out for himself. "Can't be healthy for a woman yer age not to have at least one friend."

"Thanks, but no."

"So, how'd you meet this husband-to-be with your sorry social skills?" The priest lit the cigarette pinched between his lips. "You sure he ain't just after your money?"

Ren returned her gaze to the stone path dividing the tall cedar trees casting a shade on the broken concrete. "I'd be disappointed if he wasn't."

Gin appeared at the end of the path, his white face illuminated strangely by the moonlight that slid past the tangled cedar branches. He stopped in front of her still dressed in his uniform. "Evening." The ends of his smile rose a little and he twirled the end of her ponytail in his finger. "You're wearing all of your sparkly hairpins today."

"Someone had to look good since you obviously planned to show up in your ratty old uniform to your own wedding."

He opened up his haori as if to show off its blue lining. "Here I thought this made me look pretty snazzy. You don't think so?"

The head priest nodded, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "He's a captain, dear, that's as official as he's going to get." He rose to his feet, complaining about the pop of his bones. "Well, are you ready?"

"Maybe drop the cigarette."

The priest smashed the cigarette on the bottom of his sandaled feet. "Good?"

"So, how do you know each other?" asked Gin, pressing his shoulder to hers.

"He used to run the shrine," said Ren.

"I've known this one since she was a brat," replied the priest. "I'm sure you're all types of charming, Captain Ichimaru, but what do you see in this anti-social brat?"

Gin chuckled. "Oh, you mean she's always been this bad at socializing?"

"I'm surprised she's fooled you into marrying her with her skills."

Ren stood between them and huffed. "You're here to marry us, not talk about me."

The head priest waved her off. "Fine, fine."

As the priest positioned himself at the front of the broken shrine, Gin took his place at Ren's side. She wrapped her arms around his arm, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Tetsuya confronted her with tears in his eyes, sobbing and begging her to stay with him—to leave Gin behind because he feared that she would die.

She held onto that, but she didn't think that Gin would kill her when he had shown her that he was doing everything in his power to keep her safe.

Ren watched Gin's expression as the priest cleared his throat to start with the rituals that comprised of the ceremony. She searched for even a hint of an emotion that something was amiss—a shadow of doubt, anything, but Gin caught her looking, leaned forward and bumped his forehead against hers gently.

"Yer making me nervous," he whispered.

She smiled and faced the priest. The only thing that she could have told Tetsuya was the truth, that she was in love with Gin. She would regret not doing it. Not binding her life to his. Even in a secret ceremony where they wouldn't be able to be in their own family registry.

As the blessings and prayers were recited, Ren's anxiety dissipated. Gin threaded his fingers with hers before the san-san-kudo when he released her. They each drank three times from each of the three sakazuiki cups and did so smiling at one another, their eyes locked.

The ceremony concluded in a timely manner and Ren took Gin to the villa by the lake. She hadn't had the time to spruce it up, but had been grateful to know that it was kept clean and very much as her mother had left it the last time Ren had visited it.

The villa was not far from the shrine where the lake sat close by and the water could be seen through the tall narrow trees around the house from the second-floor balcony in the master suite.

Gin cupped her face and brought her in for a chaste kiss after entering the villa. She hummed, relishing in the press of his mouth to hers, a smile curving her lips against his, and drew back. She brushed his hair back. "I know it's a little late, but are you hungry?"

"How 'bout you show me around first?"

"Oh, right, yes, of course," she said nervously turning down the hallway.

Ren offered him a brief tour. The ground floor held the kitchen, a sitting room, a guest room, and a bathroom. Up the narrow steps in front of the main entrance were two more guest rooms, a library full of her father's favorite books—tomes that he had spent years collecting from shinigami with posts in the human world—a second bathroom with a tub, and the master bedroom which sat at the end of the corridor.

There was nothing special or glamorous about their evening dinner. Gin offered to cook and waved around a spatula touting his wonderful culinary skills. He gestured her forward to one of the kitchen counters and handed her ingredients that he himself questioned whether the meal he had planned to prepare would require them. She laughed at the feigned pensive scrunch of his brow, but offered to cut up the vegetables, even though she ended up cutting herself when she tried figuring out how to properly dice them.

She sat back to watch him work on his own with a handkerchief pressed hard against her bleeding finger to staunch the bleeding and he ended up burning the meat. He opted for tamagoyaki, considering it an easier alternative, but the end result was several oddly shaped portions. They didn't taste bad.

"They are a little burnt though," she told him.

"That's a load and you know it." He picked one oblong-shaped tamagoyaki and stuffed it in his mouth, savoring every bite. "These are delicious."

"Hah, the meat on the counter would like a word." The evening breeze filtered in through the opened kitchen window and carried in the dewy smell of night—of the lake water, the moist earth at its shore, the fragrant trees enveloping the villa—but the smell of charred beef lingered.

"Yer making me nervous," he said, looking away from her face. "Watching me intently."

She brushed her fingers along his jaw. "You get nervous?"

He held her hand to his skin and brought his lips over it. "Yes."

She flushed.

Ren and Gin walked upstairs together, crowded in the narrow steps, their shoulders touching. Her heart accelerated. She flexed her hands and avoided looking in his direction until he called her name upon reaching the second-floor landing. The kiss surprised her, but she adapted and molded into his body as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

Her body flared with a sudden heat. She pushed his haori from his body and welcomed his cold touch on her thigh, the caress of his fingers outlining the curve of her ass. He pushed her into the wall, his cock rubbing against her, hardening. He took a handful of her hair, his other hand bruising her skin, as he whispered into her ear that he wanted to taste her. Panting, she agreed, swallowing thickly when he went down on his knees and dragged her leg over his shoulder. He drank deep of her. Spread her open with his fingers. His glorious tongue made her cry out, her hands pushed into his hair. His name fell from her lips like a desperate prayer.

Her stomach fluttered, knotted. Tightened like her contracting insides. He thrust his fingers in and out. In and out. Faster and faster still until her mind blanked, blinded by the sheer pleasure mounting. She rolled her hips, twitching. The orgasm built inside of her like a slow fire, crackling, curling her toes, and as her voice heightened to indicate her coming release, he stopped.

She protested, unable to walk without stumbling when he pulled her into the nearest room. He pushed her down, pressing into her tight, twitching insides. She winced, the pain of his sudden entrance rattled through her with a mix of pleasure. He kissed her and whispered in a puff of warm breath, "You're too tight."

Ren needed all of him inside. She shook her head and guided him further in by the backside. "Just fuck me, Gin."

Gin thrust into her hard and deep. She shuddered in his arms, coming almost immediately. She wrapped around him, slow to move with him as she reeled from her climax. She rode the pleasure, meeting his every thrust, extending it. She kissed his neck. He nipped at her shoulder. She tired of the wooden floorboards growing warm and slippering on her back. The rhythmic slap of skin turned her on more. The sounds of their bodies meeting, hers accommodating his—becoming one. She switched their positions, bouncing on his dick, her voice a strange sound in her ears.

He sat up to wrap his arms around her and focused his attention on her chest. Kissing the top of her breasts, his hands running up the curve of her back as she adapted the speed of her movements to enjoy the length of him—the way he filled her so perfectly and throbbed inside of her, burning hotter than the heat from a stove.

That night, they were insatiable. Moving from one room to the next unable to take their hands off one another and rested in short intervals until the rising sun peeked through the window of the master bedroom, highlighting the drying sweat on the curve of her body as she rested against Gin's body afraid that if she released him, he would go.

Gin twirled a strand of her hair in his finger, kissing the top of her head every so often, inhaling the scent of the mixed berry shampoo in her hair. "Tell me 'bout this place."

"This was my father's great romantic gesture to my mother the day that he married her."

"Oh, you rich folk and yer romantic gestures are pretty interesting."

Ren smiled at him, staring up at him a moment, memorizing the lines of his face as well as the way the shadows cast on his skin. "It's yours now."

"What am I gonna do with a big ol' place like this?" asked Gin.

She shrugged. "Whatever you want. Live in it. Don't live in it. Use it as a vacationing home."

He hummed against her forehead after she lowered her face.

Silence converged around them. She heard only the sound of his breathing and felt the beat of his heart under her palm. It calmed her. And Gin. She felt him at peace.

"Ren."

Something about the way he called her name made her heart sink. "Hmm?"

"If I…"

"What?"

"If I left this place, what would you do?"

Ren rose a little, facing him. Leave? She dwelled on the meaning of the word and the tone of his voice. The quietness that dragged it under the surface of a strange sadness.

"Are you coming back?" she asked, and it seemed like the wrong question. He hadn't gone anywhere and had not expressed a desire previously until now. Even the way that he phrased the question made it seem like a "what if" sort of query than anything. She didn't think before she spoke. It seemed like the right thing to say. Instinctively.

Despite that, her heart quivered.

Gin touched her face, his smile unwavering. "Would you come with me?" The question startled her and she parted her lips, as if willing herself to speak before she was able to form any words. He noticed this and shook his head. "No, forget it. Yer better off here."

Ren rolled onto his body, straddling him, and held his face. "I'll wait."

Thank you for reading!