A/n.: Thank you for your interest in this one-shot. Let me shortly explain why I wrote "Reason for it" in this way. I have become too fond of dialogue, so I thought I should try something new. This one-shot is also to vent my frustration on people who tend to pull the wrong conclusions out of the most innocent situations. Also, I wanted to show a different side to Sano and Meg's relationship.
Please enjoy and don't forget to review. Your comments are highly appreciated.
Rumour has it
Rumour has it - I
Everyone knew about him and her and how they dealt with each other. Often, some of the locals would smirk knowingly whenever they would meet either of the two. As if they knew something that they did not, which was rather curious, for everyone was informed as much about them as the other. Some of the things were true, but all too often they made up things by drawing conclusion from incidents involving one of them.
They peered at them from the corners of their eyes, slowed their pace in order to fall behind the man or woman in question and inquired around in whispered voices if there were any new developments.
If she grumbled, they assumed that he made her angry. If he stalked through the streets wearing a boyish grin, it was natural for them to think that he had teased her just a while ago. Were she to treat a patient with an absent look, they would deduce from it that she was thinking about him. A sad smirk on his face while gambling would mean for his friends that their previous fight did not end well.
Everything they did and everything they said could be explained by the information that everyone shared with everyone. Even the youngest of children had heard: those two were in love, but did not realise their feelings. Lately, the rumour had been going round Tokyo that the physician and the ruffian might have confessed to each other.
Why else, reasoned the nosy people of the neighbourhood, had his visits become so frequent? Why else would her face be decorated with a smile of sheer joy for no direct reason at all?
Some people even went to the extent of following the young man to the clinic and strain their necks to see if anything unusual was happening. If the neck could not handle the abnormal use, then they press their ear against the shoji or the wall to hear some noises, any kind of noise. Seeing that a noise, were it a moan or a shout of anger, could act as fuel for their gossip.
On one evening, a sighting of him near the Oguni clinic had been reported. It was said that he had entered the location for a very long time. He had gone in just before sunset and, hours later, was yet to come out. Interesting for them was that for everyone else the clinic was closed on that day and Gensai-sensei was not in town.
Could it be, discussed the women excitedly while sipping from their green tea, that they have taken advantage of the situation? And that they were busy doing things that only married couples should?
Blushes appeared on their cheeks as they hid behind their fans and giggled in high voices. They clacked their tongues in feigned disdain, speaking of the shameful behaviour of the immensely discussed couple, only to sigh about the romantic situation they never had. In hushed voice dripping with excitement, they spoke of the signs they had seen of the secret romance that dominated their minds.
While the women's mind were filled and refilled with midnight rendezvous and lust on the operation table, the local men had a different approach of the rumoured love affair. They spoke of the lucky bastard that got laid by the attractive lady doctor over a lukewarm bottle of sake. They laughed at each other's crude jokes about the couple's assumed experiences, in the back of their bitter mind their own lack of excitement in their married or single lives.
Rumour has it - II
Across the street, opposite the hide-out of the gossip informants, was the Oguni clinic. The door that usually was open for any patient, was closed firmly. All the lights were out with the exception of the lit candle in the small living room that had a pleasant view on the garden of Oguni clinic. Cicada's were ambitiously singing their songs while a cool breeze swept across the room on this summer night. There were barely any clouds in the sky and in their stead were stars scattered across the dark sky like fine embroidery on a kimono rich in its deep blue shade.
The playful breeze teased the flame, causing its illumination to flicker across the two humanly figures relaxing at the engawa. Their shadows danced across the polished woods, the shapes drastically altered and yet so familiar to them.
The figure on the left had round shoulders, hidden away in a lavender kimono and long straight hair. Her face, flawless and calm, was as pale as expected from a beautiful woman and her eyes slowly were blinked as a butterfly folded and unfolded its wings gracefully. Her head was turned upwards to the sky while she rested her weight on her slender hands, while a content smile danced on her painted lips.
A short but respectable distance away from her was a slumped, manly figure. He was half lying on the cool wooden floor, his long legs folded over each other and a bare foot rocked slowly as if to beckon the stars to come closer. His white clothes seemed as bright as the moon in the relative darkness, while his dark brown hair slow-danced, a few locks dangling in front of his face. His eyes too, were focussed on the never-ending span of sky above his head, reflecting the constellations in the sky that remained to be discovered.
The two of them were well-known for their bickering, the sexual tension between the lady doctor and the brawler, their shouting and the passion they seemed to put in everything. However, it would be ignorant to say that those things were everything to their relationship.
Often, people would see only the things they wanted to see. What they see and what actually is are two different things.
True, they bickered, they flirted, they grumbled and they teased, but there were also moments in their lives in which they would enjoy the other's company in silence. Moments in which perhaps the loudest sounds were the sound of their slightly irregular breathing.
Furthermore, they did not care about what people said about them, nor did they feel the need to tell that they had their own precious stretches of peace in time. Simply because those special times were not meant for the old lady across the street or his gambling mates. They were his, Sagara Sanosuke, and hers, Takani Megumi, special moments only, confirming that in the presence of the stars.
Owari
A/n.: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed "Rumour has it". Please review!