Lilly Epilogue; Part Two

Lilly Epilogue Pt. Two
A Sortie of Sorts

- - -

Normally, I'd have taken a mid-afternoon nap, especially after the jet lag of travel. Right now, I'm wired on adrenaline and the prospect of what I'm doing. I should probably review everything. Hanako, that sweet girl, helped me write out my plan of attack.

She seemed to get into this a little more than I thought she would. I suppose she feels like it's a story that's come to life. I was always under the impression she had a bit of a crush on me, but I guess not. Hanako knows Lilly better than anyone I had at hand, so we've been scheming. In this little black notebook in my pocket, I have the details of my conspiracy.

Lilly's past, her family's history of corporate conquest, and a lot of secret feelings Lilly has kept well protected and hidden behind her practiced gait and guarded expressions. I'd scratched the surface of some of these during our relationship, but Hanako decided it was for a good cause to betray a little of Lilly's trust in her, if it'd bring Lilly back to us.

After all, I'm not the only one who Lilly's departure has effected. Hanako's lost and struggles daily without having someone to help her cope. Since we've both been abandoned, for lack of a better word, we've been looking out for each other ever since.

Still, we want our Lilly back.

I'm hoping somehow, this trip can win us that. I have a week. I have a few possible tricks up my sleeve. Best case scenario; I can win her father's favor with my stay here, without him knowing who I am. That way I can prove to him that I'm not as weak and feeble as he imagines. That I'm good enough for his daughter. I know I am.

How long has it been since that phone call? Since that unclean break from one another.

Little over a year.

I flip through the pages of the notebook. Hanako proved to be damn near Sherlock Holmes with all this information. Fine details that border on obsessive, broken down into psychological components. In short, the formulaic pieces to "How to win over this family", Lilly included.

I snap the notebook shut, pocketing it. According to this, they often eat dinner around this time of the evening. I should go and ask if I can help out in any way. Be a gentleman.

I open my door quietly, moving to close it behind me. To my surprise, I see that Lilly is in the hallway. She stops, having heard the sound of still air being stirred. The manor is silent and I know how keen her hearing is.

I don't close the door. Instead, I walk towards Lilly as quietly as possible.

Mere steps from her, I speak.

"Yes, Lilly?"

She starts a little, surprised at my voice and how close it is. She blushes briefly, before composing herself. "Mother wished for me to fetch you. Dinner will be ready soon."

"Ah. She could've sent one of the help. No need to send the beautiful youngest daughter of the Satou household to fetch a common courier such as myself."

Her frown informs me that she isn't taking to my joke, which I enjoy.

"It seems mother has taken a liking to you, for some reason."

I tap my chin. "Hmm. I wonder if all of the Satou women are attracted to me. Must be this goofy hair of mine. Your sister seems exempt from my charm, though."

A huff from Lilly. "Well, I've relayed the message, I don't need to trade witty banter with you."

"So cold, after I came all this way. You're not going to entertain your guest? What manners."

She brandishes her cane towards me. "You have no right to speak of manners. Arriving unannounced, with falsehoods, deception and unsavory intent, I don't doubt."

I put my hands on my hips. "Unsavory? When did love become something so impure to you?"

She struggles to find an answer to this. "Just behave yourself and come to dinner."

"As you wish, m'lady." I answer, adding a sweeping flourish of the hat Akira gave me to wear to my bow. Lilly sighs. "You're having much too fun with this little ruse of yours, Hisao." I'm glad no one's around to hear my real name, lest the ruse end abruptly.

"Maybe I am. Shame you couldn't see the bow I just did, it was wonderful."

"I could hear it, I can use my imagination." A brief smile.

"Ah!"

"What?" Lilly seems startled.

"You smiled. Not all is lost, yet. I can still win you from your father's horrid influence."

A soft giggle as she turns away from me. "Maybe. You've got a long week ahead of you. Now be quiet and come with me already."

I do as she asks, letting my hand briefly brush hers as I pass. She stops, but quickly follows. When I arrive in their dinner hall, I'm fairly surprised. It's really like I'm sitting in some kind of storybook home. A long table, with some candles. They're for decoration, though---it looks like the entire manor has been retrofitted to have electricity and similar modern comforts.

The maids and butlers set and place the food, standing at attention briefly after finishing their duties. Mary dismisses them, to which they bow and leave the room.

Mary says grace, which everyone at the table, myself included, folds their hands and says the practiced 'amen' at the end of what Mary states she's thankful for. I had almost forgotten the family is Christian and with that, comes a few little practices.

Everyone digs in, the family making small talk amongst themselves. Akira has paperwork at the dinner table, which Ichirou complains about. Akira waves it off, saying these patent cases are important and she doesn't really have time to put off reading about them.

In a moment of opportune silence, I take the chance to ask Ichirou a key question.

"So, Mr. Satou, may I ask you a question? It might be a little personal."

He swallows the food he shoveled into his mouth and nods. "Sure, I suppose."

"How did you end up here, in Scotland? There must be an interesting story behind it and how you met Misses Satou. If you don't mind me asking."

That grin of his says he doesn't.

"Ah, that's a good one. It was back when I was just a whelp in a company, trying to get my start in the corporate world. One of the business trips were to Scotland to close a deal. At the time, I was part of a company whose focus was international real estate, we were looking to open a hotel."

"I wound up meeting Mary by chance. Looking back at it, I was a fumbling goon. Got lost trying to find the meeting place for the deal and met Mary. Couldn't speak a lick of English at the time."

"My, my. This story always feels embarrassing to hear, I was so young then." Mary says, placing a hand to her cheek.

"She knew I had no idea where I was or what I was asking her, even though I showed her a map, pointing to where I needed to go. She just looked at me with those big blue eyes, pretending to be clueless."

"Instead of sending me off to my meeting, she took me sightseeing."

"Oh? That sounds fun."

"At first, I was seething, but I wound up enjoying myself. I went back every summer, eventually learned English so I could speak to her." Ichirou laughs.

"Her father hated me, because I was a foreigner and some cold-hearted businessman." Well, I can sort of relate to that sensation. Strange that he'd impose some sort of similar pain on someone else.

"I didn't let that stop me though. Never let anyone stop me from anything. Not in love, not in business."

I laugh a little.

"Oh, I wasn't aware I made a joke." He quips, shooting me a dangerous glare.

"I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at myself. I wasn't expecting to have much in common with you, but I guess I was wrong. I've never let things in life stop me, either."

He pauses, narrowing his eyes at me. I think he's trying to analyze whether there's truth to my words or if I'm trying to brown-nose. I maintain my confidence and it seems to convey that I'm being honest to the man I consider my arch-enemy.

A bellowing laugh from the man. "Akira! I like this kid of yours. Why isn't he on the official payroll again?"

Akira flips through a few pages of paper. "Well, he's trying to avoid being in a certain tax bracket. Being a substitute teacher, he doesn't make a ton of money. With this job, he fills in the gaps, but if it's official, he'll lose a lot come taxes."

"Ah, so he's smart, too. What subject do you teach, boy?"

"Business courses. Usually, administration and accounting classes at a local college. I'm still working on my MBA at the school, but they let me be a teacher's assistant for a while and then let me teach some of the freshman business classes, seeing as I've been studying there for a few years now and have been acing honors courses." Ichirou's eyebrows arch at my words and even Lilly seems surprised.

"Akira, why in the hell do you have this kid as a courier?"

Akira grins to herself, even though she's clearly displeased by the paperwork she has to work through. She still hasn't touched her meal. "He's the one who wanted to be a courier. He seems to enjoy sightseeing."

Another loud laugh from Ichirou. "Well then, I suppose that's another thing we have in common, though I think my love for it was given to me by Mary."

"What else do you like to do, Hibiki?"

"I enjoy reading and playing a bit of chess. Other than that, my interests make me seem a little plain if I have to summarize myself by them." I tell him, taking a sip of my drink.

"Maybe you should date my daughter Akira, then. She's fairly plain too."

I cough into my drink and Akira sighs. "Stop trying to marry me off already. Plus, Hibiki has his heart set on someone already."

It's a good thing no one's paying attention to Lilly's expressions, or they might start to suspect something.

"Ah, does he confide in you often? Maybe he's trying to trick you so he can get closer to you." Ichirou puts on a smug smile, thinking he's on the right train of thought due to my reaction to the suggestion.

"Nope, I'm not that dense. Trust me." Akira informs her father. Ichirou seems indifferent to the statement and we all return to our dinner.

- - -

After we finish, Ichirou asks if I want to go sight-seeing around the nearby city. I politely decline, telling him I'm a bit tired from travel and will probably turn in for the night. He does tell me that there is a small library of books he's collected in his study, if I want something to read. Before he leaves, I ask if they have any internet here. I state it'd be a little unlikely, due to the fact that the manor looks like it's a remodeled castle.

Surprisingly, they do have wireless internet, satellite apparently. I ask if there's a password and when he gives me it, I thank him and decide that I'll go check out his study after I return to my bedroom.

I open my laptop and punch in the password details, pulling up a video chat program. Like I expected, Hanako is online. Almost instantly, the program starts ringing, stating that Hanako's requesting a video call. I accept and wave when she pops up on-screen.

"H-Hey! How's the op going?" She's wearing a cute little smile, to go along with the humor in her voice.

"Pretty well, I think. I might've impressed Lilly's father tonight."

"That's g-great! How's Lilly reacting? Is she excited you're here?"

A heavy sigh. "She doesn't approve of my little visit. She's pretty unsettled that I actually came out here, lied to her family and am masquerading as Akira's employee to try and get her back." It's strange. I expected her to be excited, happy, something but how she's been. It was in my list of possibilities, but it was one of the unlikely ones, I thought.

"Th-That's not good... do you think it's because of the worst possible scenario?"

I lean on my hand. "Maybe. She's made no mention of another man in her life, and neither has her family. Although her dad tried to set me up with Akira tonight at dinner." Hanako laughs at this. Glad she finds it funny.

"Ichirou has a study with some books in it, so I'm probably going to do a bit of reading tonight before I go to bed. How's things on your side?" It looks like the sun's just starting to rise on her half of the world.

"Things are f-fine." She works at a library inbetween taking online classes. She's still a bit too shy to go on campus, or get a job somewhere that there are more people.

"Hm. That's good. Try to take it easy over there while I'm gone, alright? I don't want to get back home and find that you've been arrested because you clubbed someone with a heavy book due to an anxiety attack."

She pouts at me angrily, not appreciating my joke.

"I'll send word if anything interesting happens."

"Alright."

I end the call and close my laptop, heading to this study that Ichirou informed me of. I get there and find that it's more than a study and more like a small library, only slightly smaller than the one at Yamaku. There's a desk front and center in the room and to the left there are rows of books and a small stepladder for reaching the higher shelves.

"Jeez, rich people." I sigh and thumb through the selection, finding a few interesting books. Most of them are of history or business, only a few being novels outside of those selections.

I grab a few and place them on the desk. I'll admit, despite my smooth operating, I've been panicking internally this entire time. The concept of Ichirou finding out who I am is frightening, considering his stature and hatred for me. I also don't have enough money for an inn like I originally said, so I'd be in trouble if they threw me out and I wasn't put in a hospital.

The first book I find doesn't hold my interest, so I move onto the second one, which is much more interesting. Time passes quickly as I read, until I hear a knocking on the room's door. Looking up, I realize that the room's dark minus the little lamp on the desk.

It's Lilly, wearing silk pajamas and carrying a small dish with an unlit candle on it.

"Hello there, Miss Satou." I go back to reading and she approaches the desk, putting the candle on it and standing to my left, leaning against the desk.

"Why are you here, Hisao?"

"I had a package to deliver."

"No, why are you really here?"

"Do you honestly not know?"

"I want to hear it from you."

"I want you back."

Silence between the two of us for a while. The candle is obviously of no use to her. "What's the candle for?"

"The lights in the halls are dim and spaced fairly far apart. We have potted plants on small tables in the halls, and I don't want you to get hurt walking into them." She then pauses, deciding to add to that statement. "I also don't want you knocking over the vases on the tables. So please use the candle when you're done here."

"Is that all?" I ask. I'm being short with her for a reason. I'm not exactly pleased to have been treated the way she has so far today. I think she knows that, due to the conflicted look on her face.

"You sound different."

"Pain changes people."

"You sound stronger."

"I had to become stronger."

She puts a hand on my arm, starting to put together a new image of me in her mind's eye. Her hand feels my forearm, then up to my neck and face.

"You've certainly gotten stronger, too. I don't remember your arms being this big. You feel tired, too." Her hand's warmth is welcoming, but it also puts me off. What if this warmth isn't mine anymore? What if it belongs to someone else, and that's why she's reacted so negatively to me showing up?

I take her hand and pull her down towards me, into a kiss. If these lips are someone else's, I'll steal them back.

"You... shouldn't do that, Hisao." She whispers, her breath playing on my lips.

"Why not?"

Her eyes dart away from mine.

"I just can't."

"There's someone else, isn't there?"

She bites her lip. I can see the facade crumbling around her.

"It's tradition in Scottish history to marry a daughter to another family to curry favor with them. Even in Japan, it's common. I've been promised to someone else recently, so that my family's company can grow stronger."

I'd imagined something like this hundreds of times in my head, but I've never expected to get so angry hearing it.

"So that's why you ended it." My voice is filled with venomous anger.

"Hisao, don't be angry. I didn't have a say in the matter."

"You always have a say! It's your life, your body! You're just going to get married off to some fat asshole from some company because daddy says so?"

"Please, Hisao. He's a nice young man, even if he is older than I am."

"But you don't love him."

"How am I supposed to, after what we had together? Even now, you continue making this hard for me. Why do you have to torture me like this?"

"Says the woman of my dreams, wearing little more than a silk dress."

"Oh... I didn't intend to bother you in any way, I'll g-" Her sentence is interrupted by a yelp as my hand finds its way to her bare leg. "H-Hisao, please."

"Oh, now you're asking nicely for it?"

"That's not what I meant!" My hand wanders its way up her leg, causing her to gasp and bite her hand. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" My hand finds its destination, rubbing gently along the place I'd practically forgotten the feel of.

"Hisao, not here---this is my father's study, he'll notice something." Yet, she's not stopping me between small gasps of pleasure. "Nnnn..."

"This is your fault if we get caught..." She whispers as she pushes me back and straddles me in her father's chair. "I'll make sure to tell them that when they walk in and see you on my lap." I kiss her neck gingerly, running my hands through her loose hair and out of the way of her delicate skin.

"I've missed you so much and had just finally stopped thinking about you, Hisao." She tells me as she places her hands on my face, drawing herself close to me for a deep, passionate kiss.

"Such a shame that I have to come and reel you back in." I tell her, slipping the dainty straps of her silk dress off of her shoulders, running kisses along her collarbone.

"He's going to be coming by in a few days," She tells me between kisses.

"Well, I'll have to do something about that." I tell her, as I pull her dress up around her waist. She's already undoing my pants' top button.

"Please don't do anything rash, Hisao."

"I won't do anything as rash as cheating on your betrothed." Lilly huffs at me. "I am not cheating and I'm only promised to him. We aren't dating, nor am I engaged to him."

"Oh, so this is totally acceptable?" I ask her as I pull aside her panties. She fishes out what she's seeking from within my undergarments and positions me accordingly.

"My heart never stopped being yours, as much as I wished it would." She whispers in my ear as she lifts her hips and slides me into herself with a sharp gasp.

She pulls herself close to me, shuddering gently against my body. The rush of pleasure washing over me is unrelenting. I had forgotten how good this felt. With a sudden burst of strength, I hook my arms underneath her legs, hoisting her onto the desk, tossing aside the books.

"Hisao! Don't strain yourself, I don't want your having an attack." She barely manages out between gasps as I begin thrusting into her.

"I'm not straining myself." I take her hands and place them on my arms again. "You said my arms seem bigger because they are. I felt weak when you left. All I could hear in my head was why your father couldn't stand me, because I was weak, frail, because I had a defective heart."

My thrusts pick up in speed and she strains herself to not shout in pleasure. "I started exercising, I wanted to prove him wrong. I'm going to prove him wrong and I'm going to win you back, one fight at a time."

Her hands find their way to my hair, gripping it tightly. "Hisao, I love you."

I respond with a kiss as her legs wrap around my waist, pulling me deep into her. She's moaning into my ear as we make love, our hips bucking rhythmically as we long to be as close to one another as possible.

She lays back, her back arching as I continue pleasuring her for as long as I can manage. Her body shakes and trembles as I force her to her limit again and again, fingers pressing against the desk.

I groan, feeling myself reaching my own limits. "Go ahead, finish..." Lilly sits up, running her hands through my hair and sighing ecstasy into my ears. My heart skips for a moment as I climax, my mind only able to focus on the sight in front of me, Lilly half clothed, pressed against me, face filled with seductive enjoyment.

Then my heart continues its normal pace, beating regularly as it had been earlier, albeit a bit fast.

"Are you okay, Hisao?" Lilly presses her hand to my chest, looking worried. "Never felt better," I tell her, kissing her.

Lilly sighs, half contentedly and half troubled. "It's going to be... problematic walking back to my room like this." She admits, fixing her dress and undergarments. "I suppose I'll take a bath before sleep."

"Would you like me to join you?"

Lilly gently shoves me. "No, we're risking too much as it is."

After that little escapade, we're left in awkward silence. "Good night, Hisao." She leans forward and plants a light kiss on my lips.

As she goes to walk away, I gently take her wrist. She turns back to me. "Yes?" I kiss her hand. "Good night, Lilly."

She blushes, not expecting my show of courtliness.

"Would you have breakfast with me tomorrow?" She asks, lacing our fingers together for a moment.

"I'd love to."