The Wandering God

51 Part With What You Treasure 2/3

忍痛割愛
Rěntòng gē'ài
Part with what you treasure.
Part reluctantly with what one treasures.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Less than a half hour later, Kageyama found himself walking out of the archway to Willow House in one of his finer black yukata.

The wooden geta on his feet echoed on the alley stones. Beside him, Ao and Sanli were also dressed in borrowed yukata. Sanli's was all black, like his own, while Ao's was a dark navy, patterned with white checks. A thin men's belt was fashioned about her waist instead of the thick obi women traditionally wore, and the girl's hair was drawn back in a tail. She looked like any other boy youth out for a night.

"Oh my Ao, you look simply dashing," said Sanli with a playful nudge. "How many pretty heads will you turn tonight?"

"All of them," said Ao confidently. Kageyama was glad the dark hid his smile.

They made their way along the dark alleyway to another alley, and then along that to a broad thoroughfare, crowded with night revelers and strung with red lanterns.

"You two, stay close to me," Kageyama slipped his hands into his sleeves, eyeing the crowd around them warily. "It will be difficult enough to protect you as is. I am not searching the crowd for you-" But Sanli had already grabbed Ao's hand and dashed off to a nearby stall selling candied fruits.

Sighing, Kageyama followed after them. 

Sights, sounds, and smells threatened to overwhelm his senses. The laughter of the people around them, the many-layered scents of the dishes. The bright lanterns that swayed over head, first red, then after turning onto another street, colored in every color of the rainbow. Their light caused everything beneath them to turn into a fantasy of patterned colors.

Kageyama watched as Sanli dragged Ao to yet another stall and held a paper mask to her face. It was painted with blue carp. Ao laughed and pushed it away, reaching for another mask painted with the red whiskers of a cat. She held it to Sanli's own face, and the prince made a cat like sound.

"Hmph." These two. But Kageyama was glad to see them both laughing. Ao's smile had been rare, and forced at best, since she had returned from the north without Zakhar. And lately Sanli had had the same forlorn look, as though it was he who had lost a lover.

They're both sad idiots, Kageyama thought. But perhaps they are less sad together.

"Sho Sensei! They have a fox one! Come try it!"

*~*~*~*~*~*

The evening passed quickly, filled with food from food stalls, the whirl of the crowd, and much laughter. Toward the end of the evening they stopped in one of the quieter tea houses for wine and to watch the colored lights of the lanterns playing on the water.

Sanli, of course, had too much wine, and Kageyama had to throw the prince's arm over his shoulder and guide him along the now emptying alleys home.

"Walk straight, or you will find your own way back to the house!" Kageyama ordered, after Sanli's knees crossed and the prince almost dipped to the ground again.

"Go back?!" Sanli cried mournfully. "It is lover's night! I cannot go home without a kiss!"

Here the prince pushed away from Kageyama and draped himself over Ao. The girl swayed unsteadily on her too big geta and almost fell.

"Ugh you reek of alcohol," she said, prying Sanli's arms from her neck and pushing him back to Kageyama. "Come near me again and I'll throw you into the canal."