The bath house was lit by candles, empty save for a single form as a silhouette in the darkness, a shadow cast by the dim light. I was silent as I approached her, discarding my geta at the door and floating across the floor barefoot. It held the dampness of the afternoon still, and reminded me of treading over the grass in the mountains as the snow melted. She had wrapped fabric around her waist, covering her lower body from nakedness but letting her upper body be kissed by the humid chill in the air as the water evaporated from the floor. I took up an available length of drying fabric and dropped it over her shoulders to cover her from my sight. Her body shuddered with surprise, and I let my hand rest heavily atop her shoulder to steady her.
"Seishin-sama." Her voice came in only a breath. She lowered her head in a bow to me, reaching to grasp the edges of the fabric I had placed over her shoulders.
I dragged a hinoki stool closer to take a seat behind her. She was trusting as I began to work at the red silk holding her hair in an archaic updo, something she had fastened herself after she had been permitted to wash out the signature Maiko style. She would have her hair done freshly in the morning, I knew. I took up her bamboo comb left on the side of the basin. "Don't ever let your guard down for anyone, not even me, understand?" I worked the comb through her hair, still wet from being washed.
"Seishin-sama, I thought…"
"You misunderstood me, child. I offered to teach you to dance, nothing more." I reached around her, hooking my fingers around her jaw, grasping tightly to make sure she was listening. Her eyes were terrified as she looked into mine, and I recalled how perfectly they had been curved with laughter in the mirror only hours before. I couldn't take that happiness from her. I couldn't allow myself. "I have more than enough, I don't need to steal from you, child."
Her body melted for me. I felt it all the way to the tip of her hair as I resumed combing. "If I may ask, how did you come to earn the trust of two Kitsune?"
"How old are you?" I ignored her question. I braided her hair from the nape of her neck, down the length until I reached the bottom of her shoulder blades. It was smooth, thick, and though it had been mistreated by the styling of a Maiko, it bounced back to health just as easily and it succumbed. How fitting a metaphor, I thought, for how I myself had been mistreated and so luckily was able to heal. It had taken the magic of two Kitsune to begin the removal of the stain from my heart, but begun it had, and so there was hope still for me.
"Fifteen." I turned her away from the basin to face me, reaching to take a large candle. She didn't move even as I leaned close to her. I took up a thing stick of bamboo, carved to a gentle point at one end, and held out my hand to her. She eagerly placed the tips of her fingers into my palm, a relaxed motion, and the first time since I had laid my eyes on her, I was able to see the shape of her fingers individually. It was not only the shape of her fingers, I saw, but the fact that under the strict Maiko training, she was human after all.
I used the bamboo to skim under her fingernails, taking great to be gentle in my motions. "I was sold to my Okiya in Edo when I was a child. On my seventeenth birthday, one of my patrons did something horrible to me that changed my life forever. I became a worthless being, I was blamed for it, and I became an outcast. I sold my body alongside my dances to survive." As I held her hand in mine, I felt responsible for her, taking care enough to disregard her state of undress, her clean face, her undone hair. Just like a mother would. And, she was beautiful. "I couldn't bare to see any one of you under my roof to end up the same way as I did." I reached to grasp her chin between my fingers, an act of control, to force her to listen as a warning. "I am here to make sure. To train you properly."
"Why did you chose me, if not for the way I look?"
"I chose you for the way you look. For the way you remind me of myself when I was a child." For the need to save you.
I reached for a small bucket of hot water on the floor next to the stool she sat upon, and draped a length of fabric over her hand and arm to mimic a kimono sleeve. I felt her eyes on me, seeking, like Mori did, but she obeyed the barrier of me. Another downfall of her humanity, and mine. When I was with Mori, I could see her everywhere, feel her more, and I played with the thought in my mind that I could never be satisfied with a one dimensional human experience in love. She didn't have a chance.
"Pour the tea."
She transformed before my eyes. As she took the handle of the bucket, the length of fabric draped over her arm in the other hand, I could have almost forgotten the warm glow of light was cast from a single candle, the fabric covering her skin was simply used for drying after the bath. I was transported by her skill, captivated by the beauty of her motions, and I could have believed I was a guest at a private affair in a teahouse. I could see the bright red silk of her kimono. I could smell the aroma of the tea. As she poured the water into another bucket at my feet, I cupped the top with my hands, testing if she would stray from the stream of water falling directly in the centre, or if the force of her pour would create a splash. The steam rising from the water warmed me, dampened my skin, and so too I felt my judgement dampened.
"Who taught you how to pour tea?"
"Sakura-san did."
"She taught you to pour tea like a man."
I took the bucket from her, moving the one at my feet to hers. I put intention into each of my movements to demonstrate the critical points she should pay attention to. A whisper of my wrist was shown as I grasped the handle of the bucket, my thumb pointed upward. It was not an obvious display of skin, and if my patron happen to notice, he would feel that it was a display only for him. I would win his attention. I curled each finger one at a time around the handle, leaving my index finger straight for balance. When I poured the water from the bucket, I was in control. The stream of water was unwavering, consistent, strong, but graceful. I moved behind her, allowing our bodies to touch as I reached my arms forward, and took her wrists in my hands.
"This is how a woman should pour tea. You can tell Sakura-san that for me."
Like a ghost, I stood and removed my presence from her, exiting the bathhouse before she had time to speak or protest. The words I left her with were harsh, and I knew she would be forced to repeat them to her appointed sister. It would cause chaos between them, but I felt the need to test the bonds created under the roof I would be managing. If they would not hold, I would not struggle with them. I was worth more. I did not earn the trust of two Kitsune, I thought as I recalled the question she had asked me. I had taken it.