Waiting

Disclaimer: I don’t own Harutoki or the lovely Tomomasa and Takamichi.

Waiting
by Michalyn
Pairing:Tomomasa +Takamichi

Why haven’t I
thought of it before?
This body,
remembering yours,
is the keepsake you left. [1]

Where are you this morning? The dew wet upon your ankles as you move through the grass. Which way are you going?

I am waiting for you.

The rain is falling softly with a murmuring like the vows shared between lovers. Hush, hush, can you hear it? The pitter-patter pitter-patter of rain drops under the eaves….

Or is that my heart longing for you?

The nights are too short. Through the window I can see the sun creeping above the horizon, but what need have I for dawn when that color there, spreading across sky cannot rival one of your blushes?

The scent of your perfume is still upon my pillow, the space next to me warm from your body. You are shy. You worry that the others should find out about the time you spend here and you have forgotten your book in your haste to leave. I thumb through it, seeing the pages that you have marked. When have I not found you with one of these in your hands? Whether in the library or bent at your desk, these little tomes are never far from your reach. I wonder, do you think I will not notice the way your fingers tremble as you turn the pages?

Has no one ever told you that words are a precarious shield?

When you lose yourself to me in the darkness neither of us can speak, yet nothing remains unsaid. The suppleness of your hip beneath my palm, the hitch of your breath as you lean into my caress…. These moments of beautiful incoherence are what I hold dearest.

Yet, here your General lies in wait.

Not by siege or in ambush, for you have conquered me. I am defeated, not by dagger but the precision of your brush, by dusty books and musty bureaucracy.

By your gentleness and your smile.

How shall I resist them? I have never learned this art of war-making. My defenses are weakened, battered and blasted by heart’s fire.

It seems only fitting to surrender.

The rain is softly falling and I wait.

Your prisoner.

Your lover.

Counting the hours till you return.
————
Notes: [1]This beautiful poem is by Izumi Shikibu, a famous Heian poetess.