WHISPERS OF A BUTTERFLY • Kamisato Ayato

two. 二

The sentence, the prompt, the attitude of the voice. You could shut your eyes and suddenly you'd be taken back to the Grand Narukami Shrine, so many years ago, pink sakura falling in your hair as you'd whisper your prayers to the Electro Archon. Being prodded by your mother to meet the children from the Yashiro Commission, and suddenly you were bowing in front of the Kamisato siblings, and they were doing the same. It might have started there.

Maybe it started when a purple onikabuto crawled from his pocket, and he hastily pushed it back in. You were — and there was no other word to describe it — thoroughly disgusted. Bugs were not encouraged pets in your household. It was a mystery as to why the Yashiro Commission allowed it. You could grow to like him, though. From the light cornflower blue of his hair to the little mole at the corner of his mouth. Then, within weeks, you could learn to dislike him and you'd stay acquaintances forever.

Maybe it started when he began frequenting his attention on you every time you'd cross paths. When your family would dine at the Komore Teahouse, and he coincidentally happened to be there with his mother and sister, and approach you, the color of his kimono the same shade of indigo as his eyes, and he'd order tea for both you and him. Passive-aggressively, much like your two commissions.

Back then, it was a well-known fact that the Yashiro Commission was falling apart. Who better the savior than their eldest son, Ayato? He was a master in his own right, a politician who led with tenacity. In the meeting rooms of Tenshukaku, he'd effectively turn down the suggestions of the Kanjou Commission.

You didn't know why, but a small part of you resented him for it.

And what irked you all the more, was that he had taken a particular interest in you. Did it start then? Perhaps it was during one of the Shogunate's meetings in Tenshukaku, and you'd pass the time by playing with one of the cats that lounged around the gardens, Ayaka and Ayato with you, and sometimes his touch spread fire on your skin that you didn't try to push away.

You didn't remember when you realized you'd liked him, all you knew was his face, his smile, his laughter growing up. It wasn't often you'd see kids your age other than Chisato. Soon enough it was hot gossip in the Shogunate. People eyed you to see if you would ever go any further. Would you cause a scandal? Announce marriage? Neither of you were ill-intended for that. Every moment he was with you, you felt a rushing in your throat, something so big and great that you couldn't put it into words.

But no matter who you were when you'd cross paths, you were ultimately from different worlds. Maybe that was why it was easy to hate him when he cut you off.

So why was he here now, taking your hand in marriage?

"Is it alright with you?" your mother asked, breaking your train of thought. You knew it wasn't a question. It was a plea, a command.

"Of course, it's alright with me," you answered after a while, lips shifting as you swallowed back what you really wanted to say. "It is our duty, I suppose."

"Right, duty," Ayato repeated, the eye contact between you still refusing to break as you agreed to tie yourselves together for life. It was just business. Nothing personal. That was how it worked with people of your status.

Nobility didn't marry for love, they married for alliances, for profit. Like one of the many contracts Rex Lapis issued to his warriors, this was merely a business transaction. If he were anyone else, you wouldn't feel anything about this, but it was Ayato. This was the man you had once played with in the Kamisato Estate, the man who'd once brought light into your world, the man you'd once confided in, and it was fitting that he'd also be the man you'd marry, but it was all in the past.

Your mother seemed relieved. She placed a gentle hand on your shoulder. "We'll leave you two to it," she said before they both exited the room. "Please see to it that the Kanjou Commission sees you together, it will quell the... malevolent rumors."