Entry tags:

weiss kreuz

The Road Towards Kamakura, part V (Weiss Kreuz, Nagi/Mamoru)
Title: The Road Towards Kamakura
Fandom: Weiss Kreuz
Pairings: Nagi/Mamoru, Crawford/Schuldig, Mamoru/OFC, Nagi/OFC
Rating: R
Summary: In exile in a distant and unimportant post for his family's crimes, Mamoru builds himself a new life.
Word Count: 61000 words.
Author's Note: Thank you so much to toscas_kiss for beta-reading, and to puddingcat, for her wonderful illustrations! This is a sequel to Sailing to Hirugashima, a science-fiction AU in a space-opera setting. Like that story, it takes its title from place names important to the founding of the Kamakura shogunate.
Sections: I; II; III; IV; V; VI; VII







The second anniversary of Mamoru's arrival on Alcmene came and went, peaceful and observed only by him and Nagi. Two months later, Claudine gave birth. Mamoru held the baby in wonder, and had to be reminded to give him back so he could be fed. He'd thought a lot about names, thinking he should honour the father he had never known, but that perhaps that name should go to a son by a future wife. His elder brothers also deserved to be remembered, he thought, and so the baby was named Hirofumi. For once the press seemed united in favourable stories, and the few photos the embassy released were shown again and again. Mamoru felt a deep pleasure and peace at the thought that his family had another generation, even if he never found suitable allies for a marriage. He felt even deeper satisfaction at the news that the doctor who had made the insulting report had lost his footing and fallen down a stairway, breaking his neck in front of several witnesses, none of whom saw anything suspicious. For long months the embassy sank back into the obscurity it was used to, of interest to the rest of the world only when it celebrated the festivals and there were pictures to be had.

Thereafter things began to change. The news that another imperial merchant ship, the Fukurou Maru, had docked was cause in itself for surprise; that it was larger and sleeker than the ship Crawford and Schuldig had forced to carry them was even more surprising.

"What's it doing here?" Mamoru fretted. "This isn't a sane trade route for any ship to take."

"It's an independent," Hayashi said. "Perhaps its captain likes a challenge – if he could get a monopoly on trade with Alcmene it might be economical for him, and it could only improve."

He did not sound hopeful, Mamoru thought. Still, it was perhaps not suspicious that a ship had arrived; Hayashi had said they might expect one once in every two years. If Crawford and Schuldig's arrival were discounted as a disruption of that expected pattern, then the Fukurou Maru's arrival could be seen as something to be expected and desired. He couldn't deny that everyone was cheerful when a communication came from the ship that they had supplies to sell to the embassy. Mamoru looked at the manifest, reckoning that it would give month upon month of familiar food.

"Can we afford any of it?" he asked Ishikawa. "The prices seem high."

"They've brought it a long way," Ishikawa said. "I'll see what the discretionary budget will allow. We can probably buy some of the rice and tea at the very least." He looked at the list of more luxurious foods with longing, and went to check his calculations. He was back within a quarter of an hour.

"Sir!" he said. "Ambassador Takatori!"

"What is it?" Mamoru said, as Ishikawa seemed too shocked to say more. "Tell me!"

"Our budget, sir – it's been doubled!"

"What?" Mamoru said.

"The Fukurou Maru contacted the banks here – our accounts have been credited with the new allowance. And it's been backdated by six months!"

Feeling his legs weaken, Mamoru was glad he was already sitting. "What does that mean for our finances?" he asked.

"We can afford to buy everything the ship is selling," Ishikawa said happily. "It brings us up to the level most embassies of this size operate on."

"We could afford to give the staff bonuses?" Mamoru said, and as Ishikawa nodded, "Pay raises?" He imagined the difference it would make to the staff to feel they were able to save for the future. "I'll leave the exact details in your hands," he said, sending a message to Hayashi as Ishikawa left that he should buy the food the Fukurou Maru had for sale. Where they would store tons of rice was a problem he would leave for others, he decided, and went to find Nagi.

"Have you heard?" he said, coming in to Nagi's office and finding him at his desk, reading from his screen.

"Yes," Nagi said, distracted. "There are messages for almost everyone, let me vet them."

Mamoru waited impatiently as Nagi skimmed message after message before finally marking them to be sent to the recipients. When Nagi finished at last and turned to him, stretching, Mamoru seized him in a tight embrace.

"Apparently we've been living on half the standard budget," Mamoru crowed. "Now we're wealthy! Ishikawa is beside himself at the thought of more complicated accounts! This is good news – isn't it?" he finished, looking at Nagi's expression.

"Yes," Nagi said. "It certainly indicates Crawford and Schuldig have been speaking on your behalf. I still want to know who sent that ship, though. Here, there are message for both of us –" He called up files, transferring some to his pad and letting Mamoru sit at the desk.

"Have you read these?" Mamoru asked.

"No," Nagi said absently. "I'm trusting enough to assume you aren't getting politically chancy messages – and that if you are, you'll tell me." He smiled at Mamoru quickly, and lent over to brush his lips across his forehead. "Read your post," he said, and leaned against the wall to decode and read his own.

Mamoru read the two official messages and the four private ones over once quickly and then again, slowly, savouring the contact with home. The official messages merely confirmed his position on Alcmene, and gave notice of the increased budget. He saw the condensed packet of information marked as 'current events' and decided to read it later to make it last. Three of the private messages were from men he remembered his grandfather mentioning – one he was sure he had met. They were anodyne greetings and wishes for his good health and success. They were nothing such men would have sent if he were still in the deepest of disgrace. One message ended with fond memories of his relatives and the deepest regards of the writer, his wives and "those daughters still living under their father's care."

Mamoru sat back, eyes wide. All this time he'd thought he would have to approach someone humbly, a petitioner begging for a wife, and here was one of his family's friends practically inviting him to make the request. He tried to remember what his grandfather had said about the man. Not the most powerful of our allies, Mamoru, he heard the dry tones of his grandfather's voice whisper in his mind. He is loyal, however, even in these unfortunate days and willing to gamble that our fortunes will be restored. If I had not sworn to your grandmother that I would not marry again – Yes, Mamoru thought. That was the man. Grandfather might not have broken his promise, but he and this man had been friends and he had taken one of his friend's less-valuable nieces as a concubine. Mamoru saw her in a brief flash of memory, smiling sidelong as he blushed at one of her jokes he hadn't quite understood, tapping his arm sharply with her fan to make him drag his gaze up from the floor. Her uncle would very certainly not have changed to be a friend of Mamoru's enemies. He had revenge to seek, just as much as Mamoru.

Nagi was still reading, he saw, and turned to the final message, the one he'd had the heart only to barely skim at first. It was from Ken, a short, awkward message he imagined had cost his friend hours of frustration to write. You're a hard guy to find, Ken wrote. I thought you were crazy to go off with that old man, and I guess you have to admit I was right. What the hell did you get yourself mixed up in? You never had any sense. The shop's doing all right, if you want to come back and earn an honest living and see your old friends. I know this message is just going to get lost, but I hope it gets to you so you know none of us believe any of that shit. I'm sending it care of the civil service, you know the address if you want to reply. Mamoru felt his eyes prickle as he looked at the date. Ken had sent it two years previously, before he'd even set off for Alcmene.

"Look," he said, and Nagi came to read over his shoulder.

"If you'd had more friends like that who actually mattered," Nagi said. "Still dreaming about being a shopkeeper?"

"Only if you want to be one too," Mamoru said, and called up the previous message. "What do you think of this one?"

Nagi read it carefully. "He kept quiet enough when you were in trouble," he said. "He didn't care enough about his niece to try to get her out of there."

"My grandfather said he was a good friend," Mamoru said, looking up at him.

Nagi grimaced. "Maybe he's remembering he was, once. Maybe you should write to him."

"If this man Nakagawa was a friend of my family, are you sure I should be associating with him? I don't want to be seen as an ally to criminals."

"He survived your father's fall, and wasn't seen as worthy of investigation," Nagi said. "Therefore, he's innocent. Don't look at me like I'm cynical, it's just how things work."

"You don't think it's a trap?"

"Here, read this." Nagi slid his pad onto the desk in front of Mamoru. It was a long, involved message from Crawford, full of names and references he didn't understand, but in the middle of it were a few paragraphs about Mamoru's situation. The increased budget was mentioned, and then Crawford noted that one of the Takatoris' enemies had overreached himself and was himself under investigation. Tell Takatori no Mamoru, Crawford wrote, He will have some satisfaction in the downfall of an enemy, no doubt, and will have hope that he will be lifted up as his enemies' fortunes fall. Tell him not to be too over-confident, but that these circumstances have caused his case to be looked at with fresh eyes.

"That's ominous," Mamoru said.

"Keep reading," Nagi said. "The fact that you were investigated by an inexperienced officer is noted, and my mediocre official record is referred to. Perhaps I was easily misled and led astray in my conclusions by your enemies."

"Oh, Nagi," Mamoru said.

"It's all right," Nagi said. "I knew I was giving up everything. I just hope it's not going to be messed up. It looks like the fall of an enemy has encouraged the appearance of a friend. Write to your grandfather's friend, I'll write to Crawford." He looked as if he wanted to say more, then gently took the pad back. "You can read it later," he said. "Let's plan your reply together. Make me sound like an ideal son-in-law."

"We'll have to tell the staff at some point that you've joined my family," Mamoru said. "We don't want embarrassing gasps of shock in front of our potential brides, do we?"

"Hmm, I suppose it's something to consider," Nagi said. "No doubt we can come up with an explanation that will suffice."

They spent the afternoon drafting a reply, sometimes laughing at the ridiculous phrasings Nagi offered.

"You have to stop reading those terrible novels," Mamoru said.

"But they tell me so much about our rich culture and heritage," Nagi said innocently. "All right, take out the stuff about his daughters being like flowers."

"And the bit about longing to pluck them," Mamoru said. He read the resulting letter and decided to sleep on it. "Are you all right with this?" he asked.

Nagi shrugged, like he could think of no reason he wouldn't be. "It's more complicated than I'd thought, being in a family," he said. "But you're worth it." He smiled against Mamoru's lips as they kissed. "You should talk to Claudine too," he said, which was more gracious than Mamoru had expected. "Go on," he said. "I need to write to Crawford."

Mamoru did as he was told and went to the residency. It was very pleasant to know he could drink the tea he was offered without feeling guilty he was taking more than his fair share, and pleasanter still to have little Hirofumi crawl over to him.

"Such a big boy," Mamoru said fondly. "You've heard about the ship, Claudine-san?"

"Yes," she said. "Is it true it has every food from home for sale?"

"A lot of them," Mamoru said. "Did you have any post?"

"My former parents-in-law and some friends," she said, looking at him as if he'd be annoyed. "They hope I'm doing well."

"You must write and tell them everything," Mamoru said. He cleared his throat. "Friends of my family wrote to me, it seems I may not be such a terrible person to know any longer. One of them made a point of mentioning his unmarried daughters."

"Oh," she said, and looked almost without meaning to at Hirofumi.

"Claudine-san," Mamoru said, "You have nothing to worry about. It takes months to get here – I must write to him, he must consider the matter and write back, then I would need to write to him again and finally he would send them or not. If ships were available easily to us it would all take at least a year, and ships are not so easily available. This is sooner than I expected, but it still will not happen overnight. You'll never have to worry about leaving my household, and you needn't worry about your status within it in the future. You never have to worry for Hirofumi – you don't think I could stop loving him, do you?"

"No. Thank you," she said quietly.

"You know I'm not like those journalists claimed," he said. "Claudine-san, let's have another child." She looked at him in surprise. "We can do what we want out here," he reminded her. "I can tell you right now I prefer someone I know and I can talk with to some girl I've never met, and who probably has rarely set foot outside her father's house."

"People will be scandalized," she said.

"They should have learnt to keep their opinions to themselves by now," he said. "What do you say?"

"Yes," she said, and put Hirofumi to bed.

"You'll be unassailable," Mamoru promised, taking her in his arms. "You needn't worry." He would be well-provided with children, he thought. Enough to weather any uncertainties that could be thrown his way.

* * *


Nagi had something weighing on his mind, that much was clear. Mamoru spent time wondering if he could see it because he was now so familiar with Nagi's moods, or if there was something beneath it, from which he was being distracted.

"What's worrying you?" he asked, tired of Nagi's apparent attempt to bore holes in furniture with his gaze. He pushed the bowl of rice over closer to him, hoping he'd eat some breakfast. A day when Nagi hadn't eaten enough was a day everyone would suffer through.

"It's Schuldig," Nagi said after such a long silence that Mamoru was sure he was simply being ignored. "He's not happy." He frowned at the incredulous noise Mamoru made. "I know you didn't like him, but he's my friend. And he has a tendency to do very stupid things when he's upset."

"All right," Mamoru said, thinking he wouldn't much like it if Nagi mocked his friends from when his life was ordinary. "What's wrong with him? What makes you think he's unhappy now, anyway?" he added in confusion, for it had been months since the Fukurou Maru had departed, and Nagi had said nothing about his friends' states of mind since.

"That official mail you got from the embassy at Semele," Nagi said, and stopped.

"Yes?" Mamoru said. It had been a happy surprise to have received anything from what he thought of as a real embassy, even if it had been merely stilted formalities and a gift of Semele's apparently famous liqueurs, all of which Mamoru had found undrinkable. The horror of finding anything on Alcmene worth sending in reply had given him weeks of occupation, and had horrified Ishikawa at the expense involved in shipping.

"There was an encoded message for me attached," Nagi said, not quite looking at him.

"You're only telling me this now?" Mamoru said.

"It wasn't anything to do with us, it was private," Nagi said, sounding guilty. "I promise, no one will have noticed."

"What was he doing on Semele?" Mamoru asked.

Nagi looked even guiltier. "I think he was trying to –" He stopped, and looked away for a moment. "Anyway, Crawford stopped him, and he's all right now."

"Trying to what?" Mamoru said. Nagi looked terrible.

"Defect," he whispered.

Mamoru felt his jaw drop. He couldn't believe what he'd heard. "I think – I think you must have misunderstood something," he said. "Psi-Corps officers just don't. Do they? And it's such a terrible risk for him to take – you said yourself things would go harder on a disloyal member of the Corps than on an ordinary person." That Nagi could even think such a thing made him dizzy.

"He never got to so much as say the word," Nagi said, as if he wanted to convince himself as much as Mamoru. "He didn't mean it, it's just –" He looked sadder than Mamoru had seen in a long time. "He likes being what he is, he likes people being scared of him but sometimes – You know, I think he's tired of being a tireless servant of the state, and I think it's my fault."

"What?" Mamoru said. "That's not right – let me see the message?"

"It's personal," Nagi said, and, "All right."

Mamoru understood very little of it, a series of reminiscences (I felt like that time when - and Brad said I reminded him of that bastard - and we don't all get to run off into the sunset -) but it felt heavy and depressed, ending with the flat note that there's not one shithole here or there that's any better than another.

"It doesn't actually say he tried to defect," he said hopefully.

"He's not that stupid," Nagi snapped. "Look, if you know what he refers to – maybe he just thought he wanted to, maybe he tried to make a joke about it to Crawford, but it's dangerous for him."

"So what upset him?" Mamoru said. "You? Me?"

"They don't let you have families in the Corps," Nagi said. "There's nothing official to stop someone joining someone's family, or marrying, but you know you're saying goodbye to promotion and anything like a decent career. It sends a nice message, don't you think? Freaks like us are for only one thing, and if we try to act like real people we're shown the error of our ways. It's easier to have no friendships, or to have something unofficial, within a team. I've done the impossible; I may have destroyed my career, but I got what I really wanted, no one's sending me away from you. I think he's jealous, I think he's worried he and Crawford might find themselves on separate assignments – hiding our real capabilities worked on our favour when we had a good four-man team that balanced nicely in the records. It's not so good when the team breaks up. Crawford's last message said Farfarello simply decided he was marrying some woman from another team, and put in for immediate reassignment away from ours. He wouldn't have done that without my bad example."

"This could all be an attempt to manipulate you," Mamoru said. "You know they were up to something, you know they were working on your emotions when they were here." Try as he might, he could not imagine a distraught Schuldig, worried about being separated from someone he loved. He imagined Crawford helping him draft the message, knowing what memories they should evoke in Nagi. "They must have considered you'd tell me at least some of this, and they know my feelings on family. They've been leading up to this, I know you've had messages from them that unsettled you before. Don't you think this may be constructed to appeal to poor family-haunted Takatori no Mamoru as much as it is to you?"

Nagi took the pad back and read the letter over. He was still miserable, Mamoru could see, but now he was thinking. "Bastards," he muttered. He turned it off at last, with just the faintest curl of disgust about his lips. "Do you object to me writing to them?" he asked.

"Not at all," Mamoru said. "They're your friends."

Nagi leaned across and took his face in his hands, kissing him slowly. "I very much like having a family," he said, his breath faint against Mamoru's skin. "Don't think I'd exchange that for my friends' desires."

Mamoru kissed him back, not letting him go. I'm in a battle, he thought, seeing again Schuldig's anger over Nagi's choices. It was a choice Nagi had made every day in his favour for years. But I am not without weapons.


* * *


Negotiations with his grandfather's ally Nakagawa were as slow as Mamoru had promised. Little Hirofumi could run and his new brother Masafumi was sitting up and fascinated by the world by the time the next ship arrived. Hayashi took control of buying its offered sales goods while Mamoru and Nagi pored over the messages each had received.

"Maybe you should finish with the letters to the staff first," Mamoru said. "Most of them are ready to explode with impatience." Ito had come in at least four times to ask if they wanted coffee. The man had taken his life in his hands, Mamoru thought, and really should be allowed read his mail.

"All right, all right," Nagi muttered, calling up the staff's post and scrolling through it so quickly Mamoru doubted he'd read a single word. "I'm forwarding it on," he said. "It's not like any of them are subversives."

"Nakagawa congratulates me on discovering another relative in you, and after a lot of hot air about a father's duty to protect his innocent daughters from the hazards and temptations of life all too prevalent in the modern world –"

"Sounds like he has the same taste in novels I have," Nagi muttered.

" – basically says he'll be more than happy to ship two of them here," Mamoru said.

Nagi looked up. "Really? Just like that? What does the small print say?"

"You are so cynical," Mamoru said, reading on. "The small print talks a lot about the old friendship between our families, how people of good families should treat one another with courtesy even in times of hardship, and so on. He seems to think I look a lot better than I think I do. What does he know that we don't?"

"Possibly nothing," Nagi said. "Make sure he isn't talking about daughters he'd be happy to sacrifice if need be. Tell him you'll want ones from an important wife - you can bet he didn't give your grandfather too valuable a niece."

"We'll just have to be a little trusting," Mamoru said, ignoring Nagi's eyeroll. "What does yours say?"

"It's cheerful, doesn't show any of the despair of the last one," Nagi said. "Maybe Schuldig was drunk when he wrote the last letter, maybe he was just venting frustrations."

Maybe he likes hurting people too much, even his friends, Mamoru thought, smiling as if he gave a damn about the worries either Crawford or Schuldig went through.

"Dear Nakagawa-san," he said, typing. "Please send your most valuable and prettiest daughters. Also, please don't run and hide the next time your friends are in trouble."

"You should send that just as it is," Nagi said.

"Perhaps just a little editing," Mamoru said, glad to have made him smile.

"When they arrive, people are going to be even more scandalized about me," Nagi said. "I mean, if we're both married men –"

"Let them be," Mamoru said. "I'm past caring. Everyone on the staff is used to you, as for the locals, well, what do they care? Another scandal in the press? I might ask you to kill people openly."

Nagi looked wistful, as if missing the atmosphere of fear that had surrounded him in the latter part of their voyage to Alcmene. "If we went home," he said. "I mean, if you could return without a stain on your name, back to your family's wealth and power, would you care about the scandal then?"

"Not at all," Mamoru said. "No doubt some people would be jealous of my having tamed a Psi-Corps officer." He ducked as Nagi threw his stylus at him. It looped round and caught him on the back of the head before flipping back to Nagi's fingers. "Who would dare say anything, if I really had my family's old power?" Mamoru said, rubbing his head. "Why ask something like that anyway? Are you suddenly worried I might like it too much, being married?"

Nagi raised an eyebrow at his grin. "I think not," he said primly. "I'm sure a properly brought up girl will keep herself even less in evidence than Claudine. I'm sure mine will, anyway."

"You eternal romantic," Mamoru said, and ducked the stylus again. He went back to his letter, assuring Nakagawa he wanted nothing more than to reaffirm the friendship between their families. It was funny, in a moving way, he thought, that Nagi should have such a worry suddenly surface. There was nothing to be alarmed about – his grandfather had spoken approvingly about Nakagawa's old-fashioned principles, which almost certainly meant the kind of daughters Mamoru had only ever known of as tragic heroines in boring dramas.

"You'll have a long time before you need to fight for my affections," Mamoru said. "There won't be another ship again for a year, I bet – throw that again and you'll be sorry."

"If he really wants your friendship he doesn't need to send them like parcels on an independent merchant ship," Nagi said, tapping the stylus against his teeth and visibly calculating trajectories Mamoru would find hard to evade. "He can afford to buy them a nice, comfortable passage on a better ship."

"If he's that rich I really will have to keep his daughter happy," Mamoru said. "You'd better start praying she's not the jealous sort."

The stylus hit him square between the eyes.


* * *


Nagi was, Mamoru discovered, quite right. Fourth months later Nakagawa's daughters arrived in the care of, to Mamoru's great disgust, Crawford and Schuldig.

"I didn't know," Nagi hissed when he brought the information to Mamoru. "I just asked them to find out what sort of man Nakagawa really is." He glared at Ito, clearly unwilling to argue in front of him.

"Fine," Mamoru said. "You didn't know. You just thought it was a wonderful idea to tell them our business."

Ito fled on the flimsiest of excuses, leaving Mamoru and Nagi to look at each other in annoyance.

"I really didn't," Nagi said.

Mamoru paced back and forth. He was glad he hadn't delayed on having the residency redecorated. The private rooms had been rearranged, a sitting room and an odd-shaped room no one had quite known how to use being lost to what had become the women's rooms. Claudine had lost some of her space too, though Mamoru had so far resisted moving her to the building that had at first provided the accommodation for most of the embassy staff. He should have had that whole building converted, he thought, it might make Nagi less snappish if he didn't have to worry about suddenly living in a household of women. "We'd better put the kitchens on red alert," he said. "All we need is for everything to run smoothly for a week, and then let the ship go with their letters home saying how wonderfully quaint everything is here and how happy they are so Nakagawa doesn't think he's made some sort of mistake."

"Happy," Nagi said. "Right. No handcuffs on the wedding night."

"Sorry," Mamoru said. "I've no sense of humour just now. Can you deal with Crawford and Schuldig?"

"Yeah," Nagi said.

Mamoru stopped pacing and clutched his head. "What the hell have I got us into?" he said. "I should have been content to molder away here unnoticed for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah," Nagi said, rather more fervently. He pulled Mamoru to him. "Stop acting like a child. We can't change things now, not without turning an ally into an enemy." He indicated the screen on which he had called up the ship's transmission of the passengers' arrival, and they both looked gloomily at the pictures. "They don't look like sulky girls who'll write home to complain right away. I'll vet their letters to be sure."

"Suddenly I do care about the scandal all this is about to cause," Mamoru said. "Purpose of visit, Ms Nakagawa?" he said as haughtily as he could in the local language. "To get married to the Ambassador, tee-hee! Damn it, by the end of the day the press will be back to insulting me, and pretending to champion Claudine-san's rights."

"At least they can't go after you under their bigamy laws," Nagi said.

Mamoru looked at him from between his fingers. "Thanks for the effort, but that really doesn't help. Why the hell are you laughing?"

"I could distract them by going to the press with my story," Nagi said. He sat down abruptly. "I think your hysteria is catching. Look, they're just a bunch of Alliance backwater hicks who latch on to anything to make this damn planet seem more interesting. Ignore them. Remind yourself that by the time a year has passed all this will be old news, and you'll have another three Takatori children to grow up and trouble the Empire for years to come."

"Two, don't you mean – assuming the most favourable outcome?" Mamoru said.

"Three. I checked Claudine's bathroom," Nagi said unrepentantly.

Mamoru closed his eyes. "I'm so glad I don't actually bother trying to keep things from you," he said. "Please do me the favour of not making drunken jokes about my private life with your friends."

"It's my private life too," Nagi said. "Let's get everything ready."


The embassy looked as good as it could, Mamoru thought. The staff were elated at the news, even at such short notice; the reception rooms newly decorated in imperial style were very pleasing; the private rooms were as bright as the small windows allowed and no longer smelled of paint. Mamoru stood fretting in the centre of the largest of them, wishing he could turn back time.

"I'm ready."

He turned and smiled at Nagi, who looked boring and unremarkable in Alliance-style clothing, just one of the ordinary embassy staff as far as most people would be able to tell. There had been no illegal trips on shuttles this time, and Crawford had sent word just before the party had boarded the space elevator. Nagi would go with Mori and Hayashi to make sure that no reporter got too close to the women. Nagi stepped in close and kissed him lightly.

"See you soon," he said, and was gone.

Mamoru sighed and went to see those of his family who were least likely to be celebrating. The moment he went into Claudine's rooms Hirofumi cannoned into his legs.

"Up, Papa!" he demanded.

Masafumi was a little slower, and gave the impression he was holding on to Mamoru's legs for support. "Up!" he echoed.

"Leave your poor Papa be," Claudine said. "He's very busy."

Mamoru knelt and produced the sweets they weren't supposed to eat so early in the day. "Be good for your mother," he said. "Hey, now, don't chew with your mouths open, boys." They grinned stickily and tickled him till he produced the rest of the sweets they were sure he was hiding.

"Nagi's headed off to meet them," he said, looking up at her. "I'll need to wash and change soon." He stood and looked around. "You know I'll keep my promise, don't you? Nothing will change for you or the children, or as little as possible. I'm sorry about you giving up a room."

"I know," she said.

"I need allies," he said, as he'd said to her before, knowing it was for his own conscience's comfort. "If I could follow my own preference – well, you know how things are, with Nagi and me. But my family needs –"

"Please," she said, embarrassed. "I have my work, and I have a family. You've always been very kind to me."

"It doesn't sound like much. You could have had a handsome local sweep you off your feet, someone you didn't have to share."

She laughed then, surprising him. "I'm not like Ishikawa-san, shy only at work," she said. "I don't know that I would have liked such complications. And my friends write to me and say they're jealous, because you're famous."

"Infamous," Mamoru said, smiling. He gently disentangled the children from his legs. "I should go. Oh – Nagi, um, searched –" he stopped, embarrassed, gesturing in the direction of her other room.

"Searched my bathroom?" she said. "One of these times I should like to be the one to tell you the news."

"He means well," Mamoru said. "And he's really, really nosy. Congratulations, and thank you." He looked at his watch. "I have to go, I need to be ready to face his vile friends. I'll come back as soon as I have time." He paused, embarrassed, then touched her face briefly. "I'm very fond of you," he said, feeling it inadequate, and watched her cheeks turn scarlet.

He went as quickly as was polite, waiting till he was safe in his own shower before groaning in frustration and worry.

It had all been so much simpler when he was still a shopkeeper.


* * *


Nagi was back by the time Mamoru was starting to dress. He came in, his hair gleaming wet, to help Mamoru on with his second-best set of clothes.

"The press is going to be furious," he said lightly, settling the line of the kimono more neatly on Mamoru's shoulders. "There were no reporters at all. Someone on the station has finally learned it's rude to pass on information. Did you try to tie this while drunk? Tch. All we got were a few turned heads, but no one was so ill-bred as to acknowledge the presence of anyone outside our party. They seem very quiet girls – they each come with a person described as a companion, by the way, just in case either of us feels the need of variety once the honeymoon period is over." Mamoru gave him a dirty look and he smiled sharply. "There now. You look less like a sack. You look – very formal."

"I'll help you," Mamoru said.

"I could just wear my uniform, let the poor girl know what she's getting right from the start."

"She can know after she's married. Anyway, I'm sure your friends have terrorized her with it for weeks. Come on, don't just stand there."

"We have plenty of time," Nagi grumbled. "They'll be getting ready for hours." He let himself be helped into his clothes. "Not bad," he said, watching Mamoru make sure the hem was perfectly level.

"Tomorrow's will be better," Mamoru said, walking round him to check everything was perfect. "All right. I need a drink." He led the way down to the newly redecorated reception rooms, annoyed to find Crawford and Schuldig making themselves at home, kneeling on the mats like ill-omened, black-clad spiders. Schuldig let out a low whistle at the sight of Nagi's formal clothing.

"Knock it off," Nagi muttered, and knelt to one side of Mamoru.

"I trust you had an uneventful journey?" Mamoru said, finding himself far more interested in the flask of sake a thoughtful person had left ready.

"Let me taste it," Nagi said in a pointed tone. "Someone might have poisoned it."

"I'm hurt," Schuldig said. "As if I'd poison anything you'd share, Nagi-kun."

"We had no trouble at all, Takatori-sama," Crawford said, "A relatively fast and pleasant trip." He glanced over at Schuldig, who stopped looking like he was about to cause trouble. "We were glad to help, though you no doubt find it hard to believe."

"You weren't asked to deliver them yourselves," Nagi said.

"Just doing you a favour," Schuldig said. "Making sure they got here fresh and unspoilt."

"Captain Crawford," Mamoru said. "No more such tasteless remarks, please."

"No," he said, shooting another quelling glance at Schuldig. "I sent Nagi our report on Nakagawa, I hope it was useful? He seems much as he has presented himself to you, a friend of your family who was clever or lucky enough not to fall with your family. He was quite impressed that you had Psi-Corps officers as your emissaries."

"We helped him settle his mind," Schuldig said. "At the last moment he vacillated a little, wondering if you weren't perhaps too young to marry straight away, but we told him how terribly disappointed you'd be, not to get what he promised."

"They threatened our ally," Mamoru observed to Nagi glumly. He drank another cup of sake.

"Ignore him," Nagi said, not bothering to lower his voice.

They sat drinking in silence for some time longer before Hayashi came in to tell them the women were ready. Mamoru knelt up straighter, and took as deep a breath as he could without being very obvious. He wished he were as used to wearing formal clothes as Hayashi seemed to be. He felt more and more ridiculous.

"All right, Hayashi-san," he said.

Hayashi went out again, and returned moments later leading in the women. "Nakagawa no Shizuka and her younger sister, Nakagawa no Hiroko," he said, bowing.

Mamoru looked at the two of them and their companions, who did not rate an introduction, it seemed. They were both dressed brightly, their red outer layer of clothes heavily embroidered, the layers beneath showing colours that must, Mamoru supposed, be in the current fashion, their hair in simple styles. They looked younger than their pictures and the information given him had suggested, and he wondered if they were all that happy to exchange their bright clothes for the more sober styles of married women. They and their more plainly-dressed companions all bowed deeply and neatly.

"You're very welcome, Shizuka-san, Hiroko-san," Mamoru said. "Won't you sit?"

They bowed again and folded themselves into ladylike kneeling positions their companions a little behind them, chaperoning them against the terrible roomful of men, Mamoru thought. "You've already met my kinsman, Takatori no Nagi," he said, gesturing to where Nagi knelt. "I hope your journey to Alcmene was not very tedious."

"It was very interesting," the elder girl said. "We were very glad of the officers' help."

"I'm glad they were of assistance," Mamoru said, seeing she was going to say no more. "You must tell me if you need anything, or if anything seems strange to you here. This world is very distant from others, and things will not necessarily be arranged as they would be at home." He paused, but apart from murmured thanks they were silent. "You would perhaps like to rest, and prepare for tomorrow?" he said.

"Thank you," the elder girl said, and they all waited in silence for Hayashi to escort them to their rooms.

"Not great conversationalists," Schuldig said when they were gone. "Get them drunk, however –" He grinned at the identical annoyed expressions on Mamoru and Nagi's faces.

"We should let the ambassador and Nagi rest as well," Crawford said, eyes narrowed in irritation.

Mamoru waited till they were gone, then let himself topple slowly over backwards till he was lying flat on his back on the mats. "Gah," he said.

"You're creasing your kimono," Nagi said absently.

"Yes."

"We can't back out now."

"No."

"Come on," Nagi said, standing abruptly. "Let's get changed, have something to eat, and then only think about ourselves for the rest of the night." He bent down, offering Mamoru a hand.

"Sounds perfect," Mamoru said, hauling himself upright. "Let's not spend too long on the first two of those."


* * *


They were married the next day in front of all the staff. Mamoru looked at his reflection beforehand. He had more formal clothing with him than he had at first ever thought he'd wear, his wardrobe sent into exile with him because an ambassador, even such a one as him, needed to look the part. He'd thought such things came from expensive shops once, the kind he could never have afforded to enter, let alone actually buy anything in. He heard again his grandfather's dry, scornful laughter at the thought people like them should buy decent clothing in a shop. What a terrible snob, Mamoru thought, running his fingers over the subtle pattern in the heavy, hand-sewn silk. I'm going to die of heat exhaustion in this.

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

He turned and nodded in satisfaction at Nagi's appearance. His clothes were better perhaps even than Mamoru's, as they dated to when the family had really been wealthy. Nagi didn't mind wearing second-hand clothes, and it wasn't as if Mamoru's eldest brother would come looking for them.

Nothing untoward happened, to Mamoru's relief. Neither the brides nor grooms had a last-minute change of heart, so he supposed Schuldig was on his best behaviour. The kitchens provided enough food to feed three times the number of people present. As he drank sake with his bride Mamoru distracted himself by thinking how lucky they had been in the local workers who maintained the smooth running of their everyday needs. Not once had information or pictures in the press been linked back to them, even though he was sure that at times the tabloids must have made tempting offers.

By the end of the day he was exhausted, rather over fed, and longing to fall into bed and sleep dreamlessly. Which he knew he could not do, as he had a stranger lying in his futon, looking at him a little warily. She was now wearing only the innermost layer of her kimono, he saw. It looked as if she had tied it as tightly as her whole outfit had been earlier. I wasn't brought up to the idea of a political marriage, it's odd for me too, he imagined saying. It was stranger for her, he thought, sent off into exile in the Alliance to someone her father thought might be useful many years in the future. He knelt by her side, taking her hand.

"Shizuka-san, you really are very welcome," he said. "I hope you'll be happy here."

"Thank you," she said quietly.

He smiled at her a little helplessly, every reassurance he wanted to give her sounding gauche or insulting in his mind. "Would you like me to turn the lights off?" he asked, obeying as she nodded.

He was as careful as he could be to neither hurt nor offend her, and was glad at last to fall into sleep.

The next day was better for all of them, Mamoru hoped, with fewer formal demands. Those of the staff present were introduced again, in case their names had been but a blur the previous day, and he put names to the girls who had come with Shizuka and Hiroko.

"Our friends, Yuriko and Tomoko," Shizuka said, managing without words to convey that mentioning their family names was a pointless exercise.

Mamoru smiled politely as they bowed, noting how similar they all looked, and wondered if Nakagawa had taken the opportunity to rid himself of unacknowledged daughters. Tomoko smiled up from under her lashes at Nagi, and Mamoru resolved to sound Ito out on the subject of marriage as soon as possible. Ishikawa was still as opposed to marriage as ever, though thankfully now more discreetly than before. Maybe one of the older men would take the other one off his hands, he thought.

All that was left to him then was the introduction he'd been dreading. Claudine had not been much in evidence the previous day, a tactful gesture he'd been grateful for. Now, watching her bow in front of Shizuka, he was suddenly assailed by images of feminine warfare from every family drama he'd ever been stupid enough to watch.

"This is Claudine-san, for whom I have the very highest regard," he said, wondering if he'd said it too firmly, if he was reassuring or making declarations of war necessary. "And these are my sons, Hirofumi and Masafumi."

"Who's the pretty lady with Papa?" Hirofumi asked.

"That's Shizuka-sama," Claudine said. "You must be polite to her –" She gently made him bow down to the ground. Masafumi cheerfully tried to imitate his elder brother and rolled over, giggling.

"What lovely children," Shizuka said. She smiled at Claudine. "I'm sure we shall be the very greatest of friends." It was politely said and meant nothing, Mamoru thought.

He conveyed Shizuka back to her sister and friends and went back to his own room, searching out Nagi on the way. If he never saw any women ever again, he thought wistfully –

"So, last night?" Nagi said. "Don't leave anything good out."

"Nagi!"

"I'll go first, then. Mine is a very well-brought up girl. I've never felt so ignored in my life."

"Maybe you should have done some magic tricks or broken into song," Mamoru said waspishly. "What're you looking at me like that for - oh, all right. She was, um, quiet. Very quiet, just like her name."

"Pfft, women," Nagi said scornfully. "When can we stop sleeping with them?"

"Not just yet," Mamoru said dryly. "I took her to see Claudine and the boys," he went on. "Those poor children, they've no idea what I've just done to them."

"You haven't done anything," Nagi said. "Their future hasn't changed, they'll still be brought up to good, useful roles in the family just as you always planned. Nothing's been taken away from them."

"I suppose," Mamoru said. "You don't think she'll poison them, do you?"

"Oh for – I'll use my official status as the damn scary one of the family to terrify everyone into good behaviour if you want."

"Yes, please," Mamoru said, knowing he sounded ridiculous. "I'm glad you're not taking all this badly, Nagi."

"Oh, the things I endure for you," Nagi said mockingly, pulling him close. "Such horrific ordeals –" He kissed him. "Hmm, that felt vaguely scandalous, now I'm a respectable married man." He kissed him again. "Definitely scandalous. I like it."

"Would it be scandalous if I tore all your clothes off?" Mamoru said, nuzzling his neck. Nagi's familiar, solid warmth in his arms was comforting, he thought, and very good.

Nagi glanced at the door and Mamoru heard it lock. As a visual underlining a chair slid over to jam itself under the handle.

"I seem to be in your power," Nagi said. "Scandalize me. Repeatedly, if you have the energy."

Mamoru was glad of the residency's thick, stone walls. It would be embarrassing, he thought, if their laughter reached their wives.


* * *