To address the unavoidable disclaimer: I don't own Samurai Champloo, or Shino, or Jin.

Where We Left Off

Shino peered listlessly out of the only window in her tiny room. Clouds blanketed the night sky as far as she could see into the distance, covering the stars. Of course, it wasn't as if she could see them very clearly when the skies were empty either; the yellow lanterns that lined the rooftops in the lane below permeated her room even when she pulled the shade and covered the window with a sheet. Still, she much preferred the yellow lights blocking her view than red ones.

It had been three years, two weeks, and five days since she had seen the crimson lanterns that lit the street outside her cadge as a prostitute. The years she had spent in the convent, where she was protected from her husband and his debts, had too been like a cadge, but at the same time it was her shelter against the world. It had served as a womb – covering her, feeding her, consoling her. But like a womb, there had been a time limit.

She remembered feeling the rush in her stomach at the thought of her release date. She had both craved it and feared it, terrified of being on her own but trilled by the thought that her life would finally be hers to control. The two weeks and five days since her time became her own had held similar mixed emotions.

Presently, Shino propped her chin up on her curled knuckles and sighed as she turned her eyes from the heavens to the people milling about on the street. The smell of crab meat infiltrated her room even more than the amber light. It was in the wood, the tatami mats, the linens, everything. She smelled like crab too, because she worked at the restaurant below her rented room. What respectable man would want a woman that smelled like sea food?

She snorted a short laugh at the thought. Screw any man who didn't want every bit of her, crab smell or no. If anything, her life had certainly taught her that. She was done being a man's property. Her father had sold her to her husband, and he in turn had sold her to the brothel house, where any man could buy her for an hour or two, paying for her husband's gambling habit.

However, she wasn't ready to swear off the opposite sex just yet. After all, her freedom had come to her in the form of a tall, handsome, bespectacled man.

No, she didn't think Jin would care that she smelled like her work place. The first day they spent together had left both of them smelling like grilled eel. A smiled pulled at her lips again as the memory played blithely through her mind. She could still taste the charred flavor of the eel he had slaved to prepare for her.

A pang much bitterer than burnt eel poked and prodded her heart then. However much Jin had cared for her in the time they had spent together, he hadn't been there when she stepped onto the dock after leaving the convent – of course, he had never actually promised to.

She wasn't sure why it should hurt so badly. In his defense, it had been three whole years and they'd only spent a few days together back then. Could she truly have fallen that hard for a man in such a short time? Even if she had, she couldn't expect his infatuation with her to survive for so long. He may not have ever loved her – some men did equally crazy things as break a woman out of a brothel for a crush.

Still, it had felt like more to Shino. They had shared more than a spark of love between them when he visited. Like the other men, he paid to see her, but the money was an unavoidable necessity, not her payment. He had needed the funds, but he sacrificed them to spend time with her, keeping the groping hands and slobbery mouths of the other men at bay for a while.

When was the last time he'd thought of her, she wondered? Did his memories of her bring out that faint smile on his mouth? It certainly put the grin back on her face when she thought of how many times she had ravaged that mouth during their visits.

She had not given up on him, but she tried not to fool herself into thinking he would show up and take her away like before. Because of him the reins to her life were grasped in her fingers and it would be showing him little gratitude if she didn't hold on tightly. She couldn't pine away for him all day and end up destitute again. She was no longer helpless and she never intended to become so ever again.

However, she hoped he could find her if he did come looking. She couldn't bring herself to step back into the town where her ex-husband was undoubtedly still losing money, and where the whore-house had certainly made up for her loss with another unfortunate woman. Instead, she walked to the next town and had since taken up at her current residence and job. It wasn't far from where she and Jin had last seen each other, but this town was much larger.

Shifting so that her back was against the window sill, she stretched backward and slumped down, propping herself up on her elbows. It was time for bed – she could tell by the dwindling sound of people outside. The general rumble of the crowd below had become only a handful of voices slowly fading as their owners shuffled home for the night. Shino allowed herself one last wistful sigh before hefting herself up and pulling down the shade.

As she undressed, she could hear the wispy voice of her boss, Daichi, drift through her wall as he spoke to a customer in the hall. Her room was not the only one for rent over this man's restaurant and people often stayed their when the local hotel filled up.

She didn't have to strain her ears to hear them as she slipped a night robe on and rolled out her bed on the floor.

"So you'll be staying how long," asked her boss.

In her room, Shino picked up a cup and a tokkuri that she kept some water in now that the sake was gone from it.

"I'm not sure," replied the customer to Daichi. "It depends on how long my business takes."

Shino's fingers went slack and she dropped the flask of water and her cup. They both shattered on the floor and the men outside seemed to pause. Ignoring the ceramic shards and water around her feet, she listened very hard when they started speaking again.

"Not to be nosey, Sir," said Daichi, "but what sort of business? Will this be a long engagement? I only ask because I have another customer arriving in a week's time who is expecting this room…"

"I'm looking for someone," said the other man, his voice measured and rather dry.

Under normal circumstances such tones would not make her heart beat double-time in her chest and cause goose bumps too spread over her skin – but surely her ears were playing tricks on her. It was as if her longing thoughts had manifested themselves into being and brought that voice to her door. It couldn't really be him… could it?

"Ah, well, let me know if I can assist you in any way," Daichi was saying as doubt rooted Shino to the spot.

The light of the lamp in her boss's hand shown under her door and she knew they were just beyond it, about to pass by on the way to a neighboring apartment. A little breath caught in her throat and she hesitated for a fraction of a second longer… then she leapt over the remains of her flask and darted across the room. She slid the thin door open with desperate force and lunged into the hall.

Mere paces from her, Jin turned toward her and stared. Her hand went to her lips as her mouth fell open in disbelief. Daichi peered around his guest, confused, but neither of them paid him any mind.

Shino was very aware of how indecent she looked standing in the middle of the hall in only her night robe, but she didn't care. Jin had seen her in less.

"Don't bother with that room, Daichi," she managed to breathe at last. "He can stay with me."

That wonderful, telling little smile appeared on Jin's lips and Shino grinned back. She moved forward and snatched up his hand before guiding him back to her room. "By the way, Daichi, I'm afraid this means I have to quit."