Title: Pink Lotus Song

Author: Lotus

Pairing(s): Hakkai/Gojyo/Other(s)

Rating: NC17

Summary: Gojyo visits the red lantern district to celebrate his birthday, and drags Hakkai along with him.

Warning: Language, Sexual Situations, Hints of Yaoi, Het, Oral Sex, Mentions of Incest

Notes: Sequel to "Red Lantern Birthday"

Disclaimer: Kazuya Minekura's beautiful boys. If they were mine, there'd be more stops at onsens, secluded woodland bathing pools, shower scenes and overall general nudity. And fewer female wait staff.

Hakkai lay on his side, arm awkwardly draped over Misaki and tried to ignore the feminine moaning coming from the far side of the futon. Finally, unable to resist, he shifted a little so he could see past the top of Misaki's dark head. Gojyo was still laying on his back with Aika pressed against his side and they were kissing rather ardently. The coverlet had pulled halfway down the redhead's chest, so Hakkai could clearly see Gojyo was fondling Aika's small, round breasts, his tanned hands startlingly dark on her white skin. As he watched, those long fingers rolled a pink nipple, and Aika groaned, the sound swallowed by Gojyo's busy mouth.

Movement under the covers caught Hakkai's attention, and he realized Aika was pushing herself against Gojyo. He felt his face flush as the regular rhythm of her movements registered, and understood she was essentially humping Gojyo's leg. The redhead broke the kiss.

"That's it, sweetheart," Gojyo whispered, "Cum for me."

Hakkai's mouth went dry as Aika moved a little faster, then went rigid. She buried her face in Gojyo's neck and let out a little whimpering cry. Gojyo's large hand stroked down her front and side, disappearing under the covers. He squeezed her closer in a hug.

"That's a good girl," Gojyo's voice was warm with approval.

Hakkai swallowed. He couldn't believe Gojyo had just made a woman orgasm with such little apparent effort. In preparation for his first time with Kanaan, Hakkai had read every text he could acquire on the subject of sexual intercourse, ignoring the odd looks from the bookkeepers. It had taken two tries to get a hold of an illustrated copy of the Kama Sutra, because the first vendor refused to sell it to a fifteen-year-old.

Months of study and he had still failed miserably. Despite all his loving intentions, the incredible feeling of being inside a woman for the first time had ignited his passion and he lost the tenuous hold on his control. Hakkai still vividly remembered Kanaan's cry of pain when he broke through her hymen, pulling out of her with blood on his penis, her turning away to curl up naked on her side, crying.

Even though they slept side-by-side in bed every night, it had been six months before he dared to approach her again. Although there was no pain for her the second time, there also was no pleasure. After that, she never said no when he requested sex, but he was aware it was something she endured only out of love for him. She would lay still and passive while he pumped into her, carefully pulling out before ejaculation and spilling his seed into a towel in his hand. Afterwards, she drank her tea and was warm and tender when they kissed and cuddled until they fell asleep in each other's arms.

Certainly in the three years they were together he had never heard her moan in pleasure or cry out sweetly for him in orgasm.

Tonight was the first time Hakkai had been inside a woman when she came, and he didn't doubt it was because Gojyo had brought her to that point of ecstasy. Hakkai watched the redhead stroke and pet the content woman in his arms, whispering into her hair, making her smile. Hakkai's face burned when he thought about the things Gojyo had done to Misaki. The redhead had brazenly fingered her under the table until the black-haired woman came, nearly knocking over the sake bottle. Gojyo had then carried her off behind a screen that might as well not have been there for as clearly as Hakkai could hear Misaki moaning and crying out in obvious pleasure. Eventually, she actually started begging, and Hakkai was shocked to hear the woman plead with Gojyo to put his "long cock inside".

At that point, Hakkai's escort for the evening had decide to take matters into her own hands, literally. Regret stirred as Hakkai recalled the petite girl's terrified expression when he violently jerked away from her, inadvertently knocking over the low table. When she had opened his robe and grasped his penis, images of blood and tears and sad failure had overwhelmed him. And then, he had been angry at Gojyo for his thoughtlessness in dragging him to such a place on what was obviously a fabricated excuse for the redhead to indulge himself.

Or so he had thought. Hakkai watched his friend treat Aika with such gentle tenderness, a girl he would never see again after tonight. No, the generous-hearted redhead had brought Hakkai here to try to make him happy, if only for a short time. Because Gojyo was able to forget his worries in simple pleasures like a pretty woman or good sake, he mistakenly believed Hakkai could be likewise distracted.

Gojyo's head turned on the pillow and crimson eyes met his. Embarrassed at being caught watching, Hakkai blushed and started to duck behind Misaki. The redhead gave him a lazy smile and reached above Misaki's head to brush Hakkai's cheek with the back of his knuckles. Gojyo let his open hand rest on Hakkai's pillow and whispered something to Aika.

The petite woman peeked at Hakkai from under Gojyo's chin and smiled shyly. Hakkai politely returned the smile, wondering what Gojyo had said and why they were both looking at him. Aika sat up on her knees, blanket sliding down to her waist and pulling it nearly completely off Gojyo. The redhead rolled over onto his right side and kissed the sleeping Misaki.

"Hey, baby," Gojyo whispered, "I'm gonna move you, okay?"

"Mmm," Misaki responded, face tilting up toward him like a flower toward the sun.

Gojyo pulled at Misaki, who immediately went to him, draping herself over his body while he rolled onto his back. With twinges of misgiving, Hakkai watched Aika lithely crawl into the space vacated by the other woman. Hakkai was beginning to suspect another well-intentioned idea from his friend.

"Gojyo," he began, "if you need privacy with Misaki-chan, I can move to the other futon."

With fast reflexes considering he had an armful of wriggling woman, Gojyo grabbed Hakkai's hip under the covers.

"Not a chance I'm letting you outta my sight," Gojyo said with a wink.

Hakkai opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when Aika pulled the covers down, exposing his lower extremities. Hakkai's instinct was to snatch the covers back into place, but he resisted, images of the tearful girl fleeing the room still fresh.

"Ah, Gojyo?" Hakkai's hands twitched with the effort not to grab the blanket.

"'Skay," Gojyo assured him, stroking Misaki's back as she licked and kissed his tanned chest. "Aika's just gonna give you a blow job."

"That is certainly not necessary," Hakkai said, hoping his voice sounded calm.

Aika, who was kneeling next to Hakkai's waist, glanced back over her shoulder at Gojyo. The large, warm hand left Hakkai's hip and petted Aika's thigh while crimson eyes met his.

"Kai, just..." Gojyo stopped with a hiss, turning his attention to Misaki, who had one of his nipples between small white teeth. "Easy, firecracker," Gojyo chuckled, "or I'll have to tie you up again."

Hakkai jumped at the loud smack as Gojyo slapped the woman on the ass. He waited for the tears, but Misaki just laughed and resumed kissing and stroking Gojyo's torso. The redhead turned back to Hakkai, rubbing the buttock he had just slapped.

"Just trust me," Gojyo said. The handsome face lit up with a dazzling grin. "Hell, for your first time, I'm tempted to go down on you myself."

Hakkai's eyes widened, and in the moment between one thundering heartbeat and the next, he realized the redhead was teasing him.

"Ah, ha ha," Hakkai laughed weakly. The warm hand returned to squeeze his hip.

"Seriously," Gojyo's eyes were relaxed and warm, "just enjoy it."

Hakkai felt the blanket pull up over him and settle at his waist. He looked over at Aika, who sat with her hands folded in her lap, head bowed. She would have looked demure except for her nudity.

"If Hakkai-san does not desire my attentions," she said so softly Hakkai doubted human ears would have understood her, "perhaps Misaki will be of better service."

Guilt wrenched Hakkai's gut. When Aika turned away, he rose up on an elbow to grasp her wrist.

"Aika-chan," Hakkai said.

The girl sat with her face turned away from him. Hakkai sighed. He seemed unable to break the pattern of failing females. He looked down at his fingers, encircling Aika's tiny bird-bone wrist like a bracelet. If only she knew what cruel, vile things that hand had done; sometimes Hakkai was still mildly surprised when he glanced at his hands and they weren't stained red. He took a deep breath.

"Aika-chan," he tried again. "It is not that you are undesirable. It is simply that I do not wish to..." fail, ruin, taint, "...hurt you."

Aika's face turned part-way toward him, brown eyes meeting his through dark eyelashes.

"Truly," Hakkai smiled at her. "You are quite lovely."

Her smile was like the sun bursting free of the clouds. She leaned closer, laying her free hand on his stomach, well away from the scar.

"It was silly of me to startle so easily before," Aika said. "I am not frightened of Hakkai-san."

'You should be,' Hakkai thought, but kept his smile firmly in place.

Aika raised his hand to her face and rubbed her cheek against his knuckles.

"Hakkai-san listened so attentively to my poor singing," Aika said, "and poured the sake so gracefully."

Hakkai forced his palm open and cupped her cheek. Although he was quite pale in complexion, her skin was the color of fresh snow. So soft. Hakkai was not beyond the irony of such pure, flawless skin on a woman who sold her body. As his polite speech and veneer of civility camouflaged an incestuous murderer. He trailed his fingertips over her check and neck, sliding over a round shoulder. Hakkai almost expected to see the white skin darken beneath his sinful touch. A haiku drifted through his mind, and he spoke the words aloud almost before realizing it.

"Hana sasou," Hakkai said quietly, "Arashi no niwa no. Yuki nara de furi yuku mono wa, waga mi nari keri."

The fingertips moved down the inside of her arm, and here the white was marked with the faint blue lines of veins, like small streams frozen beneath the ice. Cupping her elbow, Hakkai rubbed his thumb over the place of convergence at the inside crease.

"Not the snow of flowers," Hakkai continued, "That the hurrying wild-wind drags round the garden court. Is it that here, withering, falls: That in truth is I, myself."

He felt her other hand slip under the covers and very gently grasp him. He was hard. Hakkai had been hard since hearing Aika's moans while she ground herself against Gojyo. Despite Gojyo's trepidation that had led the redhead to grope him when they were getting ready at the inn, impotence was not an issue for Hakkai. His issues were in other areas.

The small hand stroked him, not quite able to wrap all the way around the base, and began lightly pumping. It felt very good, that band of soft, firm warmth, moving his skin up and down, stroking him harder. Hakkai did not look down at her hand, nor up into her face.

Instead, he followed the frozen stream down her arm to her wrist, where it branched out into rivulets. He turned her palm over, the skin here a blush darker, and traced the clean lines of her hand. The skin was uncalloused, because that was not the nature of her labor. Hakkai set the hand down on the futon next to her knee and touched her thigh. Here, the river was hidden from him, buried deep in the snow. His hand slid up the gentle slope of her thigh, past the crease, dipped into the valley of her waist, and over the rounded lines of ribs like snow-covered branches. Above the branches, the small mounds crested with pink like cherry blossoms peeking through the early Spring snow.

"On that far mountain, on the slope below the peak," Hakkai said, "Cherries are in flower."

Long black strands of hair, fallen free from the loose bun on her head, draped over her shoulder and breast. Hakkai carefully brushed the strands back.

"Oh, let the mountain mists not arise to hide the scene," he finished softly.

Cupping the right breast, he grazed the nipple with his thumb. It peaked, and Aika leaned into the touch with a soft sigh as he rubbed the little bud. Then he released her and flattened his hand above her breast, smoothing up to her neck. He could feel her heartbeat below his palm, quick and light; a sparrow heart for tiny bones and fluttering brown eyes. He slipped his hand behind her neck. Keeping his gaze locked with hers, smile firmly in place, Hakkai pulled Aika's head down to his groin. She bent easily over him, a snow-laded cherry blossom tree with a little brown sparrow hidden inside.

He felt her warm breath on the head of his penis, and her mouth parted slightly, lipstick smeared from Gojyo's kisses. The brown eyes flicked up at him, and Hakkai moved his thumb to touch the corner of her eyelid, closing them. She stuck out her tongue, pointed and pink, and licked him. The warm, soft wet touch was exquisite. Hakkai lay back down flat as that exquisite touch moved all over his cock, bathing him with pleasure. Her mouth stretched over his head and she took him inside, tongue still caressing, pressing, stroking. Hakkai bit his lip to hold back a moan. He wanted to grip the back of her neck harder, hold her in place while he thrust up into the moist heat. Instead, he deliberately moved his hand away from her neck, sliding it down the curve of her back to cup her bottom.

Not quite able to close his eyes, Hakkai turned his head. And discovered why Gojyo had been so quiet. The redhead's mouth had been occupied. Gojyo was still laying on his back with Misaki straddling him, but the black-haired woman had turned around, in what Hakkai believed to be the sixty-nine position. Misaki's head bobbed up and down on Gojyo's cock, hand pumping the base while he had her bottom spread wide in his large hands, licking and sucking her clitoris.

The heat rose in Hakkai's face, and despite himself, his hips twitched. Aika sucked him harder, one of her hands fondling his balls.

Gojyo pulled his head back and kissed Misaki's right buttock.

"Hey, baby," he whispered, and she lifted her mouth off his cock, pumping him with her hand.

"Gojyo-san?" she rubbed her face against the inside of his thigh.

"Are you too sore to take my cock?" Gojyo asked.

Misaki twisted to look back over her shoulder. "At which entrance will Gojyo-san be knocking?" she asked with a smile.

Gojyo laughed and sat up, gathering her into his lap with her back pressed against his chest. He squeezed her breasts in his long-fingered hands, rolling her nipples. She arched back, head falling onto his shoulder.

"The one I haven't entered," he said, nuzzling her neck.

In response, Hakkai watched Misaki start to position herself to take Gojyo inside, but the redhead stopped her. He turned her around so she was facing him, and Misaki wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.

"Hold on tight, baby," he grinned, and levered himself to his feet.

She giggled, and he stepped backwards over the pillows and past the fu dog to the wall. Gojyo gave Hakkai a wink before he turned around and pressed Misaki's back to the wall. Trying not to be obvious, Hakkai angled his head up. Misaki braced herself with her hands on Gojyo's broad shoulders, her ankles locked around his waist. The redhead spread his legs, bending his knees slightly while he reached between them. Then his buttocks squeezed and his hips flexed as he thrust into her, hard enough to push her up on the wall. Gojyo grunted.

"Ah!" Misaki cried out, toes flexing.

Hakkai turned around, eyes closing briefly as his heart pounded in his throat.

Another grunt, another cry.

Before he could think himself out it, Hakkai sat up, gently pulling Aika away from his cock. He smiled, and she smiled back, glistening lips slightly swollen. He positioned her so she was facing the wall on her hands and knees. She obligingly lifted her bottom and spread her knees for him. Hakkai reached between her legs and touched her vulva, which was wet. Good. Probably more from Gojyo's earlier attentions than from Hakkai himself, but that really was not relevant at the moment.

Grunt, cry.

Hakkai rubbed his saliva-slickened member along her slit, then nestled the head against her vagina. Gojyo's buttocks squeezed, flexed, and Misaki's fingernails left a red trail across a shoulder blade.

Hakkai made several shallow thrusts, and Aika pushed back to meet him, so he gripped her hips and pushed all the way inside. A soft groan. So warm and soft and snug around his penis. Unconsciously, Hakkai's thrusts started lining up with Gojyo's, and Misaki's sharp cries were matched with Aika's softer ones. Hakkai tried to make as little sound as possible, listening for Gojyo's low grunts. The redhead's lean torso was beginning to glisten with sweat.

From the tilt of her head, Hakkai realized Aika was watching them as well, and for some reason, that bothered him. He pushed between her shoulder blades. She dropped the front half of her body down, pressing her cheek onto the futon, which also locked her hips up and gave him more leverage. Hakkai started thrusting into her more deeply, with more force, but still nowhere near as hard as Gojyo was fucking Misaki into the wall.

He began to feel the heaviness in his balls as they slapped up against Aika, and Hakkai realized he was close. He glanced around, and leaned over slightly to grab one of the towels on the mat by the washing bucket. He draped it over Aika's buttocks.

"No!" Misaki cried out.

Hakkai's head whipped up, and he realized Gojyo had stopped thrusting. Very slowly, the redhead was grinding his hips against Misaki in a small circle.

"Please, Gojyo-san."

Hakkai recognized the tone in the woman's voice from before when the other couple had been hidden behind the screen. It was the tone she had used when she started begging for Gojyo's cock. Without realizing it, Hakkai had stopped moving as well, watching the dimples on Gojyo's ass as he rotated his hips, Misaki's hands and feet twitching.

"What's the matter?" Gojyo teased. "Doesn't it feel good?"

"Yes, but..." Misaki gasped as Gojyo bent his head to suck on a nipple.

"But...?" Gojyo switched to the other one.

"Ah! Please, finish," Misaki pleaded, wriggling between Gojyo and the wall.

"All you gotta do is say it, baby," Gojyo's tone was one of gentle encouragement.

Hakkai didn't know how the redhead could sound so calm with a woman writhing on his cock while he played with her nipples.

Then Misaki said the words Hakkai knew he'd never hear spoken to him.

"Please, fuck me," Misaki begged.

Gojyo immediately rewarded her by pulling back and slamming his hips forward. If Hakkai thought Gojyo had been fucking her hard before, now each thrust shoved her up the wall, and her open-mouthed cries blended into one long wail. Hakkai automatically resumed pumping into Aika, and quickly felt himself approaching the point of no return.

Just as the tightening of his balls and the tingling at the base of his cock became intense, Hakkai pulled out of Aika. He reached between her legs and slipped his middle finger inside her wet hole, rubbing her clitoris with his palm as he pumped his cock in his right hand. She pushed herself back against him, moaning.

"Nnnh!" Gojyo's hips thrust forward one last time.

Hakkai came hard. He spurted into the towel, hand still pumping as Gojyo's ass unclenched, his body relaxing. Hakkai stroked his finger inside Aika and rubbed her harder, squeezing her ass with his other hand. Remembering what Gojyo had said earlier, he leaned forward.

"Cum for me," Hakkai whispered.

With a little moan, Aika ground herself harder on his hand. Yes, she definitely responded to that. What else had Gojyo said? Ah, yes.

"Be a good girl," Hakkai added.

And she was.

*************

The street was nearly empty when Hakkai and Gojyo left the Pink Lotus. Looking up at the half-moon hanging low in the sky, Hakkai estimated it was only a few hours on the dark side of dawn. Some of the women were outside with poles, taking down the lanterns, and as they passed, Gojyo gave them friendly grins and winks regardless of age or beauty. Hakkai smiled politely. Gojyo pulled out his cigarettes and lipped one out of the pack as they walked.

"Hey, Kai," he said around the cigarette, fishing in his pockets for the lighter. "You gotta teach me a couple of those sex poems."

"They were not sex poems, Gojyo," Hakkai said. "They were haiku."

He watched the lighter flare to life in Gojyo's hand, throwing the redhead's face into sharp relief and setting the crimson eyes to flame. The lighter snapped shut, and Gojyo took a deep drag, shoving it back in his pocket. The redhead grinned at him.

"Whatever. Aika totally got into it," Gojyo slung an arm around his shoulder as they walked.

"Gojyo?" Hakkai could smell the sex on both of them. It would be a good idea to bathe back at the inn before Goku saw them. "Why did you give Aika-chan and Misaki-chan your 'drunk' money? Didn't you already pay the establishment?"

Hakkai referred to the roll of yen Gojyo kept stashed in his boot. It was a holdover from the old days, when he would go drinking with Banri and wake up with all his cash gone. Hakkai had discovered it by accident one day retrieving dirty socks for laundry.

"Hm? Oh." Gojyo blew out a long stream of smoke and watched it dissipate against the dark sky. "Most of the money you give the matron goes to the house. They give part of it to the girls, but take out for rent, clothes, medical expenses, that kind of shit. So I always give the girls something extra on the side, to keep for themselves."

As they approached the wall, Hakkai noticed there was a different set of bored-looking guards. He nodded politely, and Gojyo flashed a palm.

"Night, pal," Gojyo said as they passed through the gate.

The main street was completely quiet, all the lanterns taken down, the shop norens rolled up and put away. As they passed a closed noodle shop, a light breeze stirred a furin, making the glass wind bell chime softly.

"Maybe I should've told you," Gojyo said softly, "the pleasure houses, they give the girls this tea made outta some kind of seeds, that you know, keeps them from getting pregnant."

"Daucus carota," Hakkai murmured. "Wild Carrot seeds."

Along with the sexual education texts, he had of course researched contraceptives. For him and Kanaan to have a child would have been disastrous. He could remember going to the fields around the college and collecting the hairy-stemmed flowers, carefully harvesting and drying the seeds. If Kanaan knew what he was doing when he prepared the tea for her every time after they were intimate, she never said anything, just took the cup from his hands and drank it. He put honey in it for her, because she liked tea a little sweet.

"...you pull out, then?" Gojyo asked.

Hakkai focused on the redhead, and although he had only heard part of what the other man had said, he could guess at the question.

"Habit. It is not one hundred percent effective," Hakkai answered.

"Habit?" Gojyo frowned at down at him, then the redhead averted his eyes as he remembered.

Of course, his friend knew the only woman Hakkai had sexual intercourse with before this evening was his sister. They walked in silence the rest of the way to the inn. Cigarette burned all the way down, Gojyo let the stub drop to the gravel path and and ground it out beneath his boot. The redhead pulled open the noren at the entrance to the inn and stood aside to let Hakkai pass. Hakkai stepped through, the taller man ducking to follow him into the empty entranceway.

Pausing, Hakkai turned and rested his hand on Gojyo's chest. The redhead stopped and smiled down at him in question.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said quietly, "thank you."

The smile blossomed into a brilliant grin, and Gojyo hugged him. The other man rubbed his cheek, slightly rough with morning stubble, against his and pulled back.

"My pleasure. Seriously." The grin became suggestive and Hakkai rolled his eyes.

Gojyo laughed loudly as they turned to the stairs, hushing at a look and a hand gesture from Hakkai to keep it down. The redhead glanced around the dark inn and gave Hakkai an "I'm sorry" half-shrug.

"Hey, Kai," Gojyo whispered from behind him as they walked up the stairs. "Did I tell you your ass looks hot in those leather pants?"

"Gojyo!" Hakkai whispered fiercely, feeling the heat rise up into his face as he threw the redhead a scolding look over his shoulder.

Gojyo responded with an unrepentant grin.

**********

The ikkou was camping out again. It had been weeks since they had been in a town large enough to have an inn. Hakkai crawled out of the tent and stretched, fists balling at the small of his back. A low-laying mist clung to the ground, and the sky was just beginning to lighten as birds chirped from the surrounding trees. Feeling a touch on the back of his calf, Hakkai twisted and looked down. Gojyo was blinking sleepily up at him upside down through the open tent flap.

"Everything okay?" the redhead asked with a yawn.

"Yes, Gojyo," Hakkai smiled. "I am simply going to fetch water for breakfast."

"Kay," Gojyo squeezed his leg and the arm withdrew back into the tent.

Hakkai retrieved the water canister from the stack of supplies by the tent and briskly set off for the small stream Goku had found when they were scouting for a camping spot last night. The ground was damp and soft, the woods so quiet, he could hear the dew dripping from the trees. A twinge in his bladder made Hakkai stop, and he set down the container to relieve himself. After he shook the last drops off, his penis was still hard. He had awoken with an erection. It was difficult sometimes, the four of them in the little tent, limbs tangled together, warm bodies touching each other, the soft sighs of dreaming...

Hakkai started stroking himself, closing his eyes, and she came to him right away. Her long, soft brown hair, braid coming apart in his fingers into gentle waves, the green eyes so like his own except there was no dark bitterness there, only light and love. She was like a mirror that reflected all the goodness and kindness Hakkai had lost. Her white hands touched him, and when they pulled away, they were red. Guilt and sorrow wrenched at him, and Hakkai felt the sobs heave up as his hand kept pumping.

Something light brushed his face, and Hakkai opened his eyes as a cherry blossom drifted down between his feet. Tilting his head up, Hakkai realized he was standing underneath a cherry blossom tree.

"On that far mountain, on the slope below the peak," Hakkai whispered, "Cherries are in flower."

He imagined the touch on his penis changed to two small hands gripping him.

She stuck out her tongue, pointed and pink, and licked him. The warm, soft wet touch was exquisite.

Hakkai's eyes slid closed, face tilted up toward the sky.

She bent easily over him, a snow-laded cherry blossom tree with a little brown sparrow hidden inside.

His hand pumped faster.

That exquisite touch moved all over his cock, bathing him with pleasure. Her mouth stretched over his head and she took him inside, tongue still caressing, pressing, stroking.

Hakkai felt the tingling pool at the base of his cock, the tension in his thighs as he approached his release. He reached behind him to brace himself with his left hand on the rough bark of the cherry tree.

"Ah!"

He came, continuing to stroke himself as he spurted out on the damp ground. Taking a step back, he leaned against the tree for a moment, inhaling deeply, pulling the fresh earthy scent of the woods into his lungs. Then he tucked himself back in and buttoned up his trousers. It was when he was stooping down to retrieve the water container that he heard the rustling in the bushes behind him.

Senses alert, Hakkai straightened and turned toward the sound. He held himself at the ready for a moment, but nothing came charging at him, and the birds sang peacefully around him. A small animal, perhaps.

Shrugging, Hakkai continued on to the stream. He felt wonderfully relaxed, and the woods were truly beautiful. Perhaps on the way back he would gather some cherry blossoms to mix with the morning green tea.

******

GLOSSARY:

"Not the Snow of Flowers"

Hana sasou

Arashi no niwa no

Yuki nara de

Furi yuku mono wa

Waga mi nari keri

Not the snow of flowers,

That the hurrying wild-wind drags

Round the garden court,

Is it that here, withering, falls:

That in truth is I, myself.

- Poem by Hosshoji Fujiwara-no-Tadamichi (1097-1164 C.E.)

Takasago no

Onoe no sakura

Saki ni keri

Toyama no kasumi

Tatazu mo aranan

On that far mountain

On the slope below the peak
Cherries are in flower.

Oh, let the mountain mists

Not arise to hide the scene.

- Poem by Oe No Masafusa (1041-1111)

Wild Carrot Seeds - Also referred to as Queen Anne's Lace. Women have used the seeds for centuries as a contraceptive; the earliest written reference dates back to the late 5th or 4th century B.C. appearing in a work written by Hippocrates. The seeds can be swallowed raw with a glass of water, or brewed into a tea.