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Meet me on my vast veranda

My sweet untouched Miranda

And while the seagulls are crying

We fall but our souls are flying

The sun broke over the long green grass and low thatched roof on an isolated cliff of Ikitsuki island. The soft crash of the ocean below the cliffs echoed over the landscape, still in the golden morning. A small animal crawled down the rough wooden planks of the walls and slipped through a crack, cooing softly in a young girl's ear.

Fuu stretched her skinny sixteen-year-old arms over her head and swung her thin legs over the low bed, her feet skittering and her toes grasping for her sandals along the floor. She made a low whine in the back of her throat when she got a splinter in her big toe for her trouble and forced herself to sit up to take it out.

Maneuvering around her swollen belly, she tilted her foot to the side and squinted her eyes to see the splinter. Using her long fingernails as tweezers, she grasped the slight piece of wood and tugged on it gently, her breath hitching a little at the sting. In her silence, she could almost imagine that there was another body in the bed, a lean form of a samurai. When she turned her little head, though, all she saw was her own hair and an unused blanket tucked neatly over a futon filled with dry grass. She tilted her head and her thick hair filled her vision.

Standing up, she shrugged off the open robe, it was too small to be able to tie over her stomach. She used to wear the rough orange kimono around town before she grew too large. Her pink one was folded and wrapped in tissue, she couldn't bear to look at it. It just brought back memories of a strong form over her, quick hands opening the lurid pink silk to touch her budding little breasts…she shuddered just thinking about it and told herself it was from disgust.

After all, that yielding pink silk was what got her in this mess in the first place.

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After a small amount of difficulty, Fuu managed to tie the lemon yellow obi over her deep olive kimono. She smoothed out the fabric and Momo chirped an approval before he snuggled down in between her soft, ripe breasts. Fuu gave him a small smile and rubbed her fingertip over his little head. He kept watch during the night and slept in her shirt during the day. She appreciated that.

Tucking a large woven basket under her arm, she stuck her worn pink purse in her obi and pushed open the door with her shoulder. Her smooth wooden sandal caught gently on the frame for a moment before she shook it loose. Tucking her foot neatly back into the sandal, she thought for a moment that her feet were getting bigger, they were dangerously close to the back of the shoe.

She shuffled her way down the worn path, small puffs of dust in her wake. The tall grass got taller and gave way to the forest of sunflowers that she'd run though on her first time on the island. She still couldn't help but look around, expecting a scythe-wielding villain to be wearing a sunflower mask. She picked up her pace and waddled quickly into town, almost tripping over stones twice. It had only been seven months since that encounter, not enough time for paranoia to really die.

A few of the women in town had taken pity on Fuu in her husbandless state, (abandoned, she'd told them, by the bastard that had promised to marry the orphaned girl after she gave him her virginity) and had somewhat frostily agreed to give her enough rice and vegetables to keep her alive, and they had given her a fishing pole and a basket to put oysters and crabs into. The daughter of Kasumi Seizou-san was no more welcome than the man himself, it seemed, no matter how hapless she had been. But the island was the only place she could go to, the shack the only sure protection she had.

A tall, thin woman by the name of Utada stood near the entrance of the town with a small basket full of vegetables. Fuu awkwardly held out her basket and Utada silently placed a big daikon radish, a small package of dried potato skins, four small carrots and one small eggplant neatly inside. She whispered, "Ayumi-san is up ahead, near the large tree, with the rice." Fuu nodded and bows as much as she could, thanking Utada profusely.

It was always like that. The women would often switch positions and goods. Sometimes Fuu would get the vegetables first, sometimes the rice. The one by the entrance always had the directions to the next woman. A few times, there had been directions to a third woman, who would graciously give Fuu a few eggs or a part of a chicken. She always thanked them with everything she had, but the promises to pay them back had dwindled as the months passed.

Ayumi was a few inches taller than Fuu but was broader of hip and chest. She set a good sized bag of rice in Fuu's basket, pushing the more delicate vegetables off to the side. "Hana-san has a gull and a few eggs for you farther ahead, closer to the docks. She's wearing a deep blue kimono, she's very delicate looking." Ayumi avoided her eyes and didn't respond to her profuse gratitude.

Fuu shuffled further into the town, one hand on her swollen stomach. She didn't know how much longer she would be able to keep walking to town. Her feet were hurting something terrible and she wanted nothing more than to stretch out her back, but she kept walking. She didn't want to make any of the women wait. They were kind enough already, she could barely expect them to wait around for her while she popped the soreness out of her back.

Hana was indeed waiting by the docks, patiently adjusting the gull and a small bag in her arms. She gently placed the dead bird on top of all of her other purchases and she tucked the eggs gently in beside that. "I'm...I'm sorry that it's not cleaned already, Fuu-san, but I thought it might be easier to carry if it still had the feathers…" She stumbled a little in her speech and looked at the ground.

Fuu smiled gently at her, "The gull is more than I had hoped. Your kindness has helped to feed me and my little one for another few days at least." She rubbed her stomach fondly.

Hana looked up shyly and said, "Ano, Fuu-san, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind bring your food up to you for the last few months of your pregnancy. It's too much for you to walk around in your condition."

Fuu was struck. "That is more than I had dreamed, Hana-sama. Your kindness is touching. I would greatly appreciate your help." She bowed as deeply as she could and started her way back to her hut when she heard a voice.

"Have you seen a loud-mouth flat-chested girl in a pink kimono in this area recently?"

Fuu turned to stare at Mugen, who only looked at her in disbelief. He looked at her swollen stomach and her basket of food and then at her wide brown eyes. They were silent, staring at each other for a heartbeat, before Mugen reached over and took her basket of food. He put a hand on her back and propelled her forward slightly.

"Where're you living?"

"My father's old house."

"Then that's where I'm staying too."

She shot him a dirty look but didn't protest.

They got some stares as they walked through town. Fuu looked down, ashamed, as Mugen just ignored them as he always did and urged her to go faster by means of a slight pressure on her back. She complied, but tripped a little at the newer pace. Mugen sighed and she braced herself for an insult or a rough hold on her arm as he dragged her back to her house, but he only slowed down and evened his pace with hers.

When they were alone in the sunflower forest, he glanced over at her stomach and up at the clouds. "Is it mine?"

She glanced away, "You know it is."

He shifted the basket. "Ah."

When they got back to the shack, she took the basket from him as he opened the door and followed him inside. The warmth of the sun was replaced by the chilly interior of her home, and she had never felt the furry body of Momo as strongly as she did then. She placed her sandals next to Mugen's geta by the front door and set the basket on the table. He was standing in the middle of the room and looking at her, "What now?"

Fuu avoided his gaze as she said, "Now we look for crabs and oysters and fish." She grabbed the basket and the fishing pole and toed her shoes back on before walking out of the door.

There was a heavy pause before she heard the clatter of the steel-enforced geta following her. She led him to the narrow path that led down the cliff to the small beach that was there. She picked her way carefully through the sharp rocks and grit, walking up to where the tide did not reach and placing her sandals on the rocks. Mugen did the same. She handed him the pole and said, "See if you can catch anything. I usually can't, but I suppose that this is just a bad area."

Bad area his ass, he'd crawled up onto this beach almost eight months before and saved her life, and he was quite aware that he was very near the spot where he'd almost died. He wondered if he could see the blood stain in the sand if he looked close enough. There were fish in that water, he'd swum next to them. He cast the line and watched her out of the corner of his eye. She looked ridiculous like that, all fat and trying to bend over. He couldn't help but think of the pleasing way the silk clung to her bottom, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

She came back an hour later with a few small crabs she'd found caught in tide pools, three clams and five oysters. He looked down at her feet to see a few dabs of orange-tinged blood on her feet. She didn't appear to feel the sting, or maybe she was used to it, as she raised an eyebrow at the four fish he had speared on his sword.

He shrugged, "Practice, I suppose."

She just glanced up at him before saying, "Let's go back, I'm hungry." and turning back to pick her way to her sandals. She tossed him his geta as he shouldered his sword and the fishing pole.

"Do you want me to carry the basket?"

Another glance and she slipped into the familiar smoothness of her shoes. "No, I'll manage."

"Ah."

It was awkward, the entire situation was awkward. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't very well be rude to her, she was carrying his child. So he tried questions instead.

Keeping a steady eye on her as she slowly made her way up the path, he asked, "What ever happened to the old man that was here?"

She glanced down at him. "He died before I came back. One of the women from the village told me that they tossed his body into the ocean from a boat and left the house to rot. They'd do the same to me, she told me." She stopped for a moment, winded.

When they pressed on, he said, "Well they wouldn't dare now."

They didn't say anything else until he was cleaning the fish and she was plucking the gull.

"When did you know?" He had his back turned towards her, his sword out and a small pile of fish guts next to him.

She stared at the back of his head. "I had traveled just past Nagasaki, I was working in a restaurant again. I started to feel sick, so the wife of the cook came over to look at me. She felt my stomach and did some weird thing with a rabbit and told me that I was pregnant. They gave me a bonus and my last payment and told me to leave. That was a few months ago." She let another few handfuls of feathers fall into a little basket. "The wife took pity on me and gave me an orange kimono, it was bigger than my pink one, but it was old and stained and patched in some places. She gave me this obi too, and told me that it'd be enough to get me through the first few months." Another handful. "And then I came here, because this was the only place I could think of where I wouldn't get kicked out or have to work for."

He grunted.

Her dark eyes stared at him again, only this time he turned around and met her gaze. She blinked once and said, "I missed you."

He scowled and turned back to his work.

There was silence for another half an hour while they finished their respective works. Fuu neatly sliced the feet and head off of the gull and speared it on a stick. She settled it over the fire in the corner that she had stoked as soon as she and Mugen had come back from fishing.

"So what have you been doing?"

He glanced at her, not surprised by the question. He laid the last fish flat on a woven mat of dried seaweed and shrugged, "Not much. Kohza came after me, the bitch, so I killed her this time. She was really irritating me, hiring men to hunt me down. She tried to kiss me before I stabbed her through the stomach. Jin didn't show his ugly face at all. I earned some money killing some people for this warlord…I killed some more people just because they looked strong, and then I decided to find you because I was bored and it was something to do. So here I am."

She'd be looking at him in a steady manner when he started talking, and then she asked, "Are you going to leave again? If you were, I'd prefer that you do it now. You could be a large inconvenience if I started to rely on you and you left suddenly."

He stood up and lazed over to her, dominating her with his shadow. He leaned over, pressing her back against the wall as stared deep into her eyes. "If I'm leaving, you're coming with me."

She stopped, suddenly irritated. "The hell I will. I have a house here, with lots of land and plenty of food. Why would I leave it to go vagabonding with you? I'm about to have a CHILD, idiot, and children need homes."

He scowled at her. "Then I'm staying."

She raised her eyebrow at him.

He sighed, suddenly awkward. He straightened up and put his arms behind his head. "I'm not saying that I own you, idiot, or that I own the kid. I'm not saying that you need me either. You got this far on your own and I know you could do all of it by yourself if you had to. I'm just saying that I want to be here, with you, and you can't make me leave."

She was silent for a moment before she nodded. "Then you can stay."

He growled at her, "What did I just say, ugly! You couldn't make me leave if you wanted me to!"

She stood up, bracing her hand against the wall. "Oh yes I could! I could make you leave right now if I wanted!"

He laughed, "With that big belly? I'd like to see you try."

She lunged at him and he easily caught her wrists. She growled at him and he smiled back. Fuu pushed up against him, but Mugen just pressed her into a wall. She realized his sudden closeness and remembered the feel of his body. A bright cherry blush flooded her face as she felt the area between her legs dampen. She quickly looked away at the gull, to see the skin crispy brown, almost getting ready to blacken.

"Ah!" She yelped, pulling away from Mugen's strong grip.

He let her go easily and watched her pull the bird from the fire. She tried to pull it off and almost dropped the entire thing. She wound up comically waving the entire stick around to cool off the fowl. When she could touch it without burning herself, she pulled a leg off.

She glanced over at him and said, "Dinner's done."

He had just been waiting for an invitation.

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So that's it for now, I hope to write the second chapter tomorrow!

The lyrics at the top are from the Decembrists, We Both Go Down Together. Wonderful song, I love that entire band. This is my first Samurai Champloo story, please let me know if I'm getting it right!