What's Best for Fuu

Is this Love

The steely eyed criminal murmured to the servant he still held, “I’m gonna let ya go. Don’t scream, I’m leavin’, so there’s no need.”

He waited for some sign of confirmation that the servant understood, and it was given in the form of a frightened nod. As he loosened his grip slowly, ready to clamp a hand over her mouth again if she failed to listen to his request that she keep silent, he heard Fuu utter a single soft word, “Arigato.”

“Tch.” With more irritation than he’d had when he came in, he swiftly made his way out the window, breaking into a run towards the wall as he heard the Servant let out a screech as soon as he was out of the kitchen.

___

“Ahhhh!” A shriek erupted from the kitchen as a rather plump, middle aged servant burst into the dining room through the narrow door that separated the two chambers, “A...a criminal! He...he was in the kitchen!”

It was Fuu’s first reaction to immediately widen her eyes, and stand. Criminal? Was it Mugen? What was he doing in the kitchen of her fiance’s home? Hiroshi stood just as swiftly, placing himself between his betrothed and the room where the danger had apparently been.

“Relax,” The samurai master of the house spoke, trying to calm her enough to make some sense out of her words, “How do you know he was a criminal? Did he hurt you? Did he take anything?”

“B-blue rings!” She murmured, gesturing around her wrists, indicating the tattoos that had ringed the swordsman’s appendages, “H-he grabbed me! Put his hand on my mouth...I...no, he didn’t take a thing...just came in, listened, and left.”

At blue rings, Fuu had instantly known. It was Mugen. The last thing she heard was Hiroshi shouting her name, telling her to wait before she rushed out into the pouring rain. She intended to demand answers. What had Mugen been doing there? Had he followed them? Just to eavesdrop on their conversation with his parents? What the hell was he up to?

Inside, Hiroshi was being told to investigate the kitchen, while his father insisted on searching the surrounding area. The women were, of course, to remain inside until it was certain all was safe. But Fuu was already gone. When questioned, Hiroshi made up an excuse, not wanting his parents to know the part of the story that she had left out. That one of her bodyguards had been a criminal.

Silently, Fuu was searching the area outside the kitchen for any sign of Mugen, though she knew he would be long gone by now. He wasn’t stupid enough to hang around after the servant had shrieked. From the window she heard a voice, “Fuu-chan!”

Blinking, the twenty year old looked up to see who was addressing her, though she should not have been surprised to see Hiroshi leaning on the window ledge, looking at her with a small frown, “You know it was him…”

A nod shifted the loose bun against her neck as she sighed, “I know...but why would he…”

Her fiance had a notion of why Mugen might have been spying, but he didn’t dare put it into words. If he said it, if he acknowledged that there might be something there, then he risked losing her! She had nodded when his father asked if she loved him, but the samurai’s son couldn’t help thinking there was someone else with a finger hold in her heart. And if he suggested that there was even the slightest chance her former bodyguard might have the same feelings...his frown deepened at the idea.

“Ohhh!” At the sudden sound of realization from Fuu, Hiroshi blinked up at her. Her brows were knit together in irritation and her hands rested on her hips as she scowled. Not the reaction he would have expected if she’d just put the pieces together the way he had, “That….that JERK!”