Part IV -- More Than Words

     The day dawned slowly on a restless Megumi.  She went through the motions of waking, though she'd had little sleep the night before.  She'd spent too much time lying awake, rereading the note she'd received years before...  If what her friends had been teasing her about was true, and she was reading the situation correctly...
     "It can't be," she told herself.  It struck her as odd, though, that he'd been as forward as he had.  Aoshi didn't seem the type to be that forward about anything.  She'd finally decided to speak to someone with more experience with this sort of situation before her exhaustion could overcome her.
     The morning was uneventful, and she was glad not to be needed for the lunch rush.  As soon as she finished her afternoon rounds, she made her way through the streets to her last stop.  The small school was well taken care of and seemed to be doing well.  Classes didn't seem to be in session at the moment, so she took a deep breath and walked in.
     "Megumisan!"  A voice she hadn't expected to hear rang out.  Fortunately, Cho sounded happy to see her, and the smile with which he greeted her gave no lie to that.  After a quick look around, he swept her into an exuberant hug, swinging her around delightedly.
     "Chosan," she smiled back, but as her feet left the ground, the smile left her face.  "Chosan!!  Put me down!!!"
     He did so with reluctant, still smiling as Kamatari emerged into the yard.  "Konbanwa, Takanisensei."
     She nodded in return.  "Honjousensei," she said with a smile as she straightened her hair.
     "This is an unexpected visit," Cho noted.  "Everything okay?  You look like you haven't slept."
     Megumi nodded.  "I'll admit I've not gotten as much as I'd like," she conceded.  "But generally all is well, thank you.  How are you two?"
     Kamatari smiled.  "I never would have thought the simple life could be so fulfilling.  Oh, that reminds me, I've been so unmannerly.  Please, let me get you some tea."  The former Juppon Gatana member walked back inside, the picture of contentment.
     "He is way too into this playing house sh..tuff.  Stuff."  Cho made a face, and Megumi raised an eyebrow.
     "Interesting choice of words."
     The tall blond shrugged.  "He's trying.  Very trying," the grin returned.  "But it ain't so bad, really, the home life.  It ain't like Kamatari makes all these demands or anything, and he looks out for me."  It was obvious that Cho returned the favor in kind, with interest.  "He's a good person...  I gotta say I'm glad things worked out this way. " Even if," he said with the merest tinge of regret.  "So.  What brings you by here.  You ain't tryin' to steal him from me, are you?"
     "Hardly," Megumi said.  "Actually, I came looking for advice," she admitted softly, unable to look at him.  It was rare that she could admit she didn't have all the answers at all, much less ask for help.  Cho was impressed, though he didn't show it -- he knew how much it would hurt her pride.
     "To us?  You must be in some serious trouble, if your Oniwa Banshu friends can't help," he said sympathetically.
     Kamatari returned with a well-laden tray.  "Cho, you know we're not in that business anymore, and I'm sure Megumisan knows it too.  What's the problem?" he asked as he turned to the downtrodden doctor.
     "I want to go back to look for my family in Aizu."  She pulled the note out of her kimono.  "Chosan...  When I left here, remember you had written me a note?"  When he nodded, she held the paper out.  "You weren't the only one.  This had been slipped in with it."  Silently he accepted it from her, his brow furrowing as he read.
     "Even when you can't see clearly, huh?  Interesting."
     She held up a hand.  "That isn't even half of it."  She told him then of Aoshi's odd behavior, of the way the rest of the Oniwa Banshu members at the Aoiya were supporting him and dropping unveiled hints.
     As she wound down, the two men shared a glance and moved to either side of her.  "You know, Megumisan, you really do need to relax," Cho teased.
     "Let your hair down, so to speak, and go with the flow a little more.  You have amazing hair, by the way.  What do you wash with anyway?"
     "Kama...  You can talk hair secrets later.  Right now we have to get her to relax, ne?"  He slipped a casual arm around the woman's shoulders, leering at her.  He was clearly having a difficult time trying not to laugh at the vague panic she seemed to be undergoing.
     "What are you doing...?"  She looked from one to the other.
     "Come with us, Megumisan... We'll give you the full treatment."  Kamatari smiled, though not quite so lasciviously as Cho.  Rising, he led the way out of the school bearing the tea tray.  "I'll wash this later," he said as he took her teacup.  Cho led her, bewildered, back to the apartment the two shared.
     "Take off your jacket," Kamatari said.
     "But..."
     "I promise you, Megumisan, we will not do anything to hurt or compromise you in any way.  No matter what it sounds like."   Cho was suddenly serious.
     Kamatari was less somber but just as deadpan.  "Actually, the truth is we're pretty well known in certain circles for our methods.  Guaranteed to ease your troubles for at least a little while, free of charge.  You just have to be a friend of the family, as it were.  In fact, there are a few who have become closer with the family since coming to our sessions."  The lewd grin he gave her suggested something more than friendship was required, but something in the crossdresser's body language reassured her.  She allowed him to take off the blue jacket.
     "An apron too?  What are you expecting?"  Cho shook his head, smiling.  He still had fond memories of her in that rather skimpy Oniwa Banshu outfit, but he had never talked about it with anyone outside of the small group that had been there that day -- except for once, with Kamatari.  "Come on, off with it."
 "We'll stop there, I promise," the brunet added.  He assisted her with the apron strings before folding that neatly atop her jacket.  "And you simply must let down your hair."  He fingered the tape that held it in the loose ponytail she'd taken to wearing.
     "Stop trying to ferret out her hair secrets, will ya?"  Cho rolled his eyes.  "Now, come sit here."  He beckoned her to the cushion in the middle of the floor and she sat gingerly.  Kamatari sat across from her while Cho stood back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and a wickedly knowing grin on his face.  Kamatari kept focused on the woman before him.
     "Hold out your hands like this," he said, demonstrating with both hands in front of him, one raised and palm down with the other facing up, held lower.  She did so,  and he reversed directions, slapping her hands lightly with his own.  "Switch," he commanded, and did the same.  "Now like this," he continued, holding both hands straight out in front of him, palms facing her.  When she did, he gave her a double high five.
     "Are you serious?" she demanded.
     Cho nearly doubled over with laughter at the incredulous look on her face.  "Very," he choked out.
     "Children's games??"
     "Ne, Megumisan, careful or your eyes will pop out!" Kamatari giggled.  "Why not children's games?  I don't know of too many better ways to relax.  Going back to the carefree days of youth is the best remedy for having to be a grownup all the time," he said, becoming more serious.  "Especially if you didn't have much time to be a kid when you were young."
     She mused over that for a while.  It was true; as a physician she was well aware of the healing abilities of laughter and relaxation.  It was so much easier to get better when things LOOKED better.  How often had she said so, to how many patients?  It was only fair, she supposed, that she follow her own advice.  "I suppose that's true," she finally admitted.  "And with the girls so far away, and as old as they are now..."  She couldn't help the wistful tone that crept into her voice.
     "Exactly," Kamatari said, not without sympathy.  "Something I learned from being a teacher is that play is every bit as important as work.  If you lose sight of your sense of fun, then everything becomes work, and you become miserable."
     "And who wants to be miserable?  Come on, Megumisan, relax a little, hnn?  And then we can figure out your boy problems."  Cho snickered again at the look she shot him.  "I promise you, it's okay.  We won't tell."  Even Megumi had to smile at the silly grin he flashed her, and she held her hands out to Kamatari a little less stiffly.
     The afternoon passed quickly, and anyone passing by would have heard laughter and the occasional shriek (mostly from Kamatari, and usually of joy) as though children were playing.  They might have smiled indulgently, or shook their heads in bemusement.  They would certainly never have imagined that behind the closed doors frolicked the stern but beautiful lady doctor, the sharp, sullen blond investigator, and the gentle, quiet schoolteacher who had once been a killer as well.  Such serious, mature adults would certainly never behave so frivolously!
     It is a wonderful thing to be young, to be able to laugh so freely and to set aside troubles with ease.  It is even better to be young again, even if only for a little while, to let free that part of yourself that cannot survive cooped up, the part that laughter thrives upon.  Even the harshest master must be able to laugh with his student if a lesson is to be well learned and absorbed fully.  No doctor can lose a patient and feel nothing, any more than saving a life would leave her unaffected.  To forget how to laugh, or to cry, is more than shameful, it's inhuman.  Sometimes, even the slightest excuse to laugh must be seized before it is lost.
     Megumi found herself thinking about it as she made her way home, having had a light -- and light-hearted -- dinner with Kamatari and Cho.  The moon was already high, in fact, and she knew that the others wouldn't be worried since she did occasionally have emergencies, needing to stay late with patients and was not always able to get a message home to them.  They'd have kept dinner for her, just in case, and the truth was she really did feel better for her afternoon of relaxation and recreation.  "Perhaps I ought to prescribe that for some of my patients," she mused to herself.  They hadn't gotten to talking about her dilemma of the heart, but the simple fun of their escapade had made the whole thing seem less daunting.  It was funny how much good a little laughter could really do.
     "Megumisan!  Where have you been?  Is everything okay?"  Ochika looked up as the doctor walked into the yard.
     "Would you believe me if I said I was visiting friends?"
     Ochika blinked.  "You have friends?  Other than us?"  She struck a wounded pose with a melodramatic sigh.  "Alas, we are betrayed!"
     Megumi made a face, which Ochika returned in kind.  "I'm glad everything's okay.  We figured something had come up with a patient and you'd gotten stuck again.  We kept dinner for you, in case you're hungry."
     "That depends on what's for dinner."
     Ochika shrugged.  "Leftovers, really.  There was extra sukiyaki, but I think Aoshisama did that on purpose."
     "I see.  I suppose I'll make do," she grinned conspiratorially.  Everyone loved Aoshi's sukiyaki, and with good reason.
     There were many who strongly suspected that a majority of his meditations were spent pondering recipes.  They weren't entirely off; his purpose was to better himself in every way, and that included his domestic skills.  More than once, for example, he'd heard Megumi and the others talking about how much more attractive a man was when he could take care of himself and his surroundings.  He'd once overhead Ochika saying something about how it was, "Not JUST because it means he can take care of me, too, but it's so much fun to watch the way their butts move!"  It wasn't too difficult not to laugh at that, but he'd felt his cheeks -- that is, his face growing warmer...
     He smiled at the memory and moved on; having heard Megumi returning, he wanted to know what had happened.  Nor was he the only one, as Omasu, Shirojo, and Kuro had all been hanging around to listen.
     As she ate, Megumi related a little more of where she had been, though not about the therapeutic "treatment" she had undergone.  Ochika shook her head as she listened; something about Megumi remaining friends with Cho, she didn't like at all.  She managed to be tactful about saying so, however.
     "Ne, it isn't like he's the last great love of my life," Megumi said a little condescendingly.  "He isn't without his good points, and he's certainly more man than some tori-atama I've known, but the fact remains that he and Kamatari are living together.  Even if I had wanted something more with him..."  She shrugged, tossing her hair back over her shoulder.  "Besides, I was there with both of him, and Kamatari is certainly not my type.  Though I suspect I can't say the same about him for Jiya," she added mischievously.
     "Megumisan!!  That was pretty funny, but still!"  Though Ochika tried to sound scandalized, the effect was rather spoiled by the fit of giggles she couldn't quite get under control.  "Ne, I'm glad you're all right.  You seem more relaxed than you did this morning.  I suppose none of us ought to get in the way of your friendship with the Katanagari.  Still, please be careful."
     Megumi shook her head.  "Ochikasan, trust me.  There's nothing to worry about -- I'm as safe with them as with you.  Possibly more so," she said teasingly.
 The other woman made another face at her, and they laughed again.  "I should probably take offense at that," Ochika grumbled.
     "But you won't," Megumi laughed.  "At any rate, it is late, and tomorrow will be no less busy than today."
     Ochika nodded as they rose.  "Oh, I almost forgot.  Aoshisama got a letter today."
     "It was from Aizu."
     Megumi's eyes widened.  "I think I'll find him now."