Under a Sculpture of Ice

Eka's blue eyes immediately went to Harumi's face whenever the Japanese girl turned around. When she had first landed in Tokyo, there were very few attractions that would have ripped her attention from the bright neon lights of the city, but now there were few things that would have been able to draw her focus from Harumi. As she was being led around, her eyes darted around the crowd. The crowd had a few interesting folks in it. There were a few kids and adolescents who were approaching the ice palace with stars in their eyes. Then there were a few like Harumi and Eka, wandering home full of giggles or loving sighs as they cuddled their way on home.

Eka too, was getting a hug. As Harumi wrapped her arm around Eka, Eka gladly accepted the embrace. She poured the love that she bore towards her girlfriend into the hug. There was something that lingered as Eka held on to the hug a little bit longer than she probably should have done in a public place. No one else mattered to her, not right now. She was radiating happiness, and the warmth emanating from her heart would have provided enough heat for a skyscraper, in her estimation.

Harumi had stumbled upon something that had made Eka very excited. Cooking. "I would like to make you very many things, yes? First there must be the khachapuri. This is a given, yes? More important than the plate itself. And nice Georgian wine to go with it! It is very hard to find here but if you ask I will find it for you, yes? And I do not know if I can make barbecue in the Alabama style. It is very thick." Eka squeezed her fist, as if to demonstrate how thick it was exactly. She was speaking quickly now. "And people eat it during the middle of the day, outside. Whenever I tried eating it I would pass out for the rest of the day, but these Alabama folks, they can eat it and keep going. And that is amazing, yes? After I make it for you, we can take a nap. And you should bring sweatpants, that day, yes?" Eka joked. "And I would very much like to go around the country, wrestling people like you did. You must be like a ronin samurai, yes? Will you let me be your squire Miss Samurai?" Eka leaned in and kissed Harumi on the cheek.

When Harumi wasn't looking back, Eka was looking forward. She recognized where they were, now that the streets were clearer. The lampposts were Harumi's haloes as they were bathed in light in between the cold chill of the Tokyo nights. Eka's legs were pumping hard, and her breath rose in the air as she let herself be lead closer and closer to Harumi's apartment. Eka knew that soon they would be close and cuddling and enjoying their time together. She seemed to get less cold with every passing step. Eka was walking a little faster now. Some of that was her desire to be indoors just that bit quicker, but for the most part she wanted to just get closer to Harumi.

“Ka-chan-pury?”

Harumi had never even heard of such a thing. The way Eka described it, the recipe sounded rather difficult, and time consuming. Of course, this was mostly just judging it by the name, which Harumi had unknowingly failed to pronounce correctly. Wine was next up on Eka’s list, which made Harumi feel a bit better about the surprise that she had waiting in her fridge at home. It wasn’t exactly Gerogian, but she was hoping Eka would like it nonetheless. Harumi knew little about wine, and simply selected one at the store that sounded like it would be rather tasty. A spanish rose, or something like that. It sounded romantic, and Harumi had devilishly planned on surpring Eka with a drink or two, as the stoic woman had never had such an experience before.

Eka brought up the idea that Harumi was a bit like a classic tale of a ronin samurai traveling from place to place, an idea that made Harumi a bit nervous and shy. Truth be told, she had been called similar things by the announcers back at the federation, and even once or twice in the judo competitions, but it was something she never thought she herself embodied. It was a fun, interesting title, and somewhat of an accidental gimmick of hers, but most of it came from her history of judo and the stoic expression she often wore. Eka had made it sound much cooler then it actually was.

“Heh heh...to be honest, it was the announcers that came up with the Silent Samurai name...I didn’t have any real part in that. It was mostly my Father. He would take me all over those places, but if it were up to me, I would have probably just stayed home and studied with my Mother.”

Another cold and nervous chuckle escaped from Harumi’s lips before walking Eka further along. Up the steps and down the railed hallway was Harumi’s apartment door. With a quick draw of her keys, the two were inside in a flash.

The biggest difference since last time Eka had been to Harumi’s apartment was the new Kotatsu table set up near the kitchen. Due to Harumi’s ignorance on the new appliance, she had left it on since before she left. While not the safest thing to do, it meant that the table was toasty warm and ready for the cold occupants that scurried inside. The soft, blanket-like exterior trapped the heat inside, and Harumi was quick to show off the piece of modern comfort to her girlfriend.

“T-this is my new Kotatsu...like I said, it's like a warm table, but mixed with a bed...of sorts. It heat you up while you eat, or read...um, why don’t you get warm and I’ll bring us some drinks?”

Eka listened patiently. Here in Japan, she had gotten acclimated to people butchering her name. Georgian was not the easiest of languages, and she understood that quite early, given how badly people in Alabama stumbled their way through all of the swear words that they insisted that Eka teach them. It was an indignity to have one's name mispronounced with such consistency, but a slight one. It was not like the ravenhaired girl had flawless Japanese herself. "Khachapuri. It is okay if you do not say it right, it is a very hard word to say, yes?" Eka kept walking along, the thoughts of that warm bread keeping the cold at bay during the long dark Tokyo night.

Eka held onto the rail as she tread on the stairs. "It is a very good nickname. I am not famous enough to have a cool nickname, yes? But I would very much to have one as cool as yours. And I am very glad that your father dragged you all over the country, because that meant that I could meet you. It would have been very hard to meet you had you just stayed at home and studied all the time, yes?" Eka finished the idea before she entered into Harumi's apartment once more.

It was just as flawless as it had been when the Georgian girl entered for the first time, those many moons ago. Eka moved to take her jacket off and dump it on the floor, just as she would have done had she been at her home place. But she tried to limit how much snow hit the floor somewhat unsuccessfully as she hung her jacket alongside Harumi's. With a shiver, she played with her hair until it was cascading down either sides of her face. Her nose was still red, but that did not deter her from smiling brightly.  

"Wow." Eka was impressed with the kotatsu before she had ever felt it, and that level of joy increased tenfold once she laid across it. The second that she found herself ensconced in the kotatsu, she was in heaven. The Georgian girl moaned softly just as a reflex with her face down to the blanket. Then Harumi said something that attracted her attention. Drinks. She lay on her side with one socked foot on the kotatsu. Like any decent grad student, she spent more than one weekend a month drinking like it was the end of the world. She very much wanted to keep her composure when she was around Harumi.

"Drinks?" She queried.

Eka cozily crawled under the kotatsu with the enthusiasm of a young child. The Georgian seemed to relish the feeling of the appliance’s warmth as it surrounded her body and enveloped her in a blanket of comfort and security. The delighted moan that carried it’s way through the normally quiet apartment building brought a slight smile to Harumi’s face as she hung up her jacket. Bits of snow had found its way onto her jacket’s shoulders, which she brushed into her hand and brought to the kitchen sink. She didn’t want to slip should the snow melt and drip to the floor.

The kitchen was only separated with the living room area by a simple counter made for serving food, providing Harumi a window to see inside the adjacent room. Eka had made herself comfortable underneath the Kotatsu, her beautiful sky-blue eyes peering over at Harumi with a hint of curiosity. It was clear what Harumi meant when she mentioned drinks, but it had only just occurred to Harumi that there were some people who did not drink at all for various reasons. A part of the Judoka wondered if Eka might be such a person, but if so then the tone Eka had was completely off. She sounded more surprised, and possibly excited.

“Drinks.” Harumi confirmed with a nod as she opened up the cupboard that held her glass cups. She didn’t drink much herself, this actually being her first bottle of wine she purchased herself, and so the types of drink glasses she owned were not exclusive wine cups. Quite a few of them were simple drinking glasses of various sizes. Even the smaller ones were still rather large. But, Harumi made due with what she had and collected two of the smaller cups and turned towards the refrigerator to retrieve the bottle of Spanish Rose. The store she purchased it from told her to “let it breath” for a moment before serving. Apparently, that just meant she had to open it. Thankfully the bottle she got came with the cork screw to pry it open and, after a minute of fiddling with it, she managed to crack the cork out of the bottle.

With that ordeal finally out of the way, Harumi grabbed the bottle by it’s neck with one hand and the glasses in the other. She swiftly returned to the Kotatsu and set everything down, moving one of the glasses towards Eka.

“I wanted to...to thank you. You went through all the trouble planning the ice sculpture visit, and since you passed your test last week...I thought we might celebrate a little. Something to show I appreciate you and all of your hard work.”

Silently, Harumi would fill Eka’s glass with a moderate amount of wine. Even the simple movement of pouring the glass seemed practiced, with Harumi seemingly acting like a hostess towards their favorite guest. There was a hint of warmth as she poured Eka’s drink, followed by her own. She set the bottle down in the middle of the table when she was finished. Her emerald eyes watched Eka with a soft gaze, curiosity and hope hanging behind her eyes that her darling would enjoy the surprise gift. Or at least understand the well intentions behind it.

A smile spread across Eka's face. She was terribly surprised to find that Harumi even knew what alcohol was. Everything that she knew about Harumi revolved around their talks that she had and how orderly apartment was. The Georgian girl recognized that she ought not to speak too much about how many nights she spent out of her mind with her college friends at house parties or in cheap bars. Like most grad students, Eka knew 10 ways to open a bottle of alcohol, and she took quiet delight in the fact that it took Harumi a second of fiddling with the small corkscrew that looked like it came with the bottle. It was only a rare weekend where alcohol didn't flow through her veins, but Eka did not want to appear too eager to get into drinking with Harumi. That side of her was going to come out sooner or later, she knew, but it was better to slow roll that.

Eka grabbed her glass with one hand, and with the other, grabbed Harumi's. "Harumi, it was no trouble at all to organize a trip and get the tickets to the ice village. I had a wonderful time and I really hope that you did too, yes?" Her smile was not the one that was giggling at her friend for bringing up drinking, but rather a genuinely warm one as the twinkle in her eye showed. "It is very good to spend time with one another, yes? If you wanted to go to the moon, I would try my best to get us on a space rocket together," Eka joked. "But now is not the time for such proclamations," Eka said as she rose to her feet.

She really didn't know what she was doing. What Harumi probably wanted was something simple, to just drink a little wine with a woman. But a rush of inspiration was coming over the Georgian girl, and she was not one to deny her impulses. She extended her arm out, as her blue eyes went from Harumi to the wine. It was a miracle that she did not spill any, as the sudden thrust forward was done with the same level but inverse amount of care that Harumi used when she poured Eka a glass. Her movements were practiced too, but in the exaggerated way of a drunk aunt who enjoyed family gatherings a little too much.

"It is traditional to raise a toast before you drink," Eka began, using a voice that was far too loud and far too projected for Harumi's apartment, "and I will offer a toast!" Eka's glass was far above her head now, and she was already a tall woman. "To you, darling Harumi, for everything that you do, and your hard work!" With her declaration finished, Eka took a swig of her wine. She drank a little bit too much, and a little bit too clumsily, and had to wipe a bit of wine off the edges of her bright and wide smile.

When the Judoka finished pouring the glasses and settled the bottle into the center, she was imagining a simple scene with her and Eka gently sipping their wine and cuddling up close with each other on the cold, snowy night. The image had made a warm, embarrassing feeling embed itself in her chest ever since it popped in her head after first purchasing the wine and no matter how much she thought about it, the feeling had never gone away. So when the two of them had reached for their glasses, it was a bit of a surprise when Eka suddenly shot up to her feet with her glass in hand. As Harumi watched with a surprised gaze, Eka’s arm suddenly shot skywards! The wine in her cup sloshed about in the tall glass, but miraculously didn’t spill out anywhere onto the floor and remained in the glass. Eka was suddenly a bundle of excited energy, swinging the glass around in an exaggerated manner but clearly being careful not to spill a drop.

Such an action took grace, and probably lots of practice. Harumi couldn’t help but smile as she wondered if Eka had possibly had any experience in drinking in a rather excited manner. The Georgian insisted on making a toast with a gleeful holler, Harumi already climbing to her feet in order to reach Eka’s glass. Harumi’s emerald eyes met with Eka’s beautiful sky blue orbs as her girlfriend raised her glass way over her head to the point where Harumi couldn’t quite reach, and offered a toast to the Judoka. The sentiment brought a shy chuckle out from the silent samurai, and with what seemed to be a single gulp downed the glass of wine! The sweet, goofy smile of her girlfriend paired with the slightly messy way she wiped the excess wine turned Harumi’s shy chuckle into genuine laughter! It was a soft, warm laugh that surprised even Harumi as her hand whipped over her mouth as she tried to compose herself, but repeatedly failed to do so.

After a few moments passed, Harumi finally managed to hold back her laughter, miraculously keeping the wine in her glass the entire time. She wiped the small tears from her eyes as she began to calm down, a smile still settled firmly on her face as she also raised her glass towards Eka.

“And to you, Eka. The woman who conquers tests in the class, opponents in the ring...and..um...”

Harumi’s eyes flicked between Eka and the floor, debating whether or not to finish her speech. She steeled her resolve, and finished with a loud “A-and conquered my h-heart in love!”

With her feelings being known, Harumi mimicked her girlfriend and downed the wine glass in a similar manner as Eka did. The sour taste of the wine hit Harumi’s taste buds like a truck, and the Judoka almost gagged on the wine were it not for how quickly she drank it. Harumi was even more clumsy than Eka, and some droplets of wine landed on the hard tile of her apartment floor. Almost immediately, a red hue began to appear on Harumi’s cheeks as she chuckled at her mishap, and smiled fondly at Eka.

Eka was being very silly right now, and she was aware of that. Harumi and her had gotten along very well for the last little bit. They had shared so much so far, but Eka wondered if she were maybe pushing things a little bit too far. For a few brief seconds there, she was worried that Harumi was laughing at her, and not with her, as Eka was making a fool of herself. When she turned to look at Harumi, she saw the red in her cheeks and the light in her eyes and at once all of the negative energy dissipated. Harumi's quiet chuckle turned into ringing peals of laughter. Warmth filled the room. Eka had accomplished one of the most sacred missions that she had, which was to say making her lover happy.

The judoka offered a counter toast, which made Eka practically melt. She tried to hide the fact that her knees were knocking together to save herself some dignity. Eka watched as Harumi gulped down the glass of wine. The impressed look on her face showed what Eka was feeling. Eka was pretty reticent to bring Harumi out to all of the bars that she spent too much time and far too much money in, but that would be over time. For right now, Eka was far more interested in the fact that Harumi said that she had conquered her heart.

Eka put the glass down. She wanted to concentrate entirely on Harumi, and let her girlfriend feel the full embrace of both her hands on her skin. Something as paltry as a glass of wine was no match for what Eka was about to do. Harumi was so red, nearly as red as the wine that was in her hands, and Eka found her all the more beautiful for it. In the blush on her cheeks, Eka saw Harumi's intense passion in the moment. In the blush of her cheeks, Eka saw a flashback of Harumi working hard in the ring and in the gym. In the blush of her cheeks, she saw a good place to put her hands, which is exactly what she did.

She caressed Harumi for a second. "Do you really mean it?" Eka asked.

The Georgian girl did not wait for an answer. Well, not a verbal answer. Eka's question did have a response, but she did not want the response to come in the form of words. She moved in to plant a kiss on her lover's lips. Her mouth still had some wine lingering in the back of her throat. She wondered, as she went in closer and closer, if Harumi would be able to taste it, because Eka did not intend to make this some quick little peck on the lips. Eka was going for it, and she was holding nothing back. When she smiled as she kissed, she always hoped that the other person felt it. And she hoped more than she ever had right now.

Harumi had never drank wine before, especially not a brand that had a high alcohol content. It was only a minute or so after she downed her glass with a few large gulps, and already her face was feeling warm. Her vision was just a bit blurry around the edges of her sight, and it felt as though something were pressing down on her mind. It felt as though she could still think, she was still aware of her surroundings...but it was like walking through a haze. A fog in her head was making Harumi just a bit slower. Her confession had yet to register in her own mind for a few seconds after it flew from her mouth, but soon a fierce blush made the Judoka’s entire face bright red. Her heart began to beat as loud as a drum as Harumi’s alcoholic mind told her to bury her face into a pillow and scream, and possibly knock herself out due to embarrassment.

However, before she could properly think through her embarrassing urges to flee, Eka would catch Harumi with a soft grip. Eka’s hands were so cold on Harumi’s flushed cheeks, but the warm look she gave made the samurai forget any discomfort she felt as the two stared into each other's eyes for one long moment. A comfort that Harumi had not felt in a long time began to impede itself in her chest as Eka held her cheeks softly, her beautiful eyes like the summer sky. So full of hope, promise, and beauty. When the Georgian asked her question, Harumi moved to answer, but Eka would not accept a verbal response.

Without wasting a second, Eka would lean in and kiss Harumi’s soft lips with her own! Harumi’s eyes widened in surprise, the normally stoic and calm woman dropping her glass and letting it fall to the floor with the small droplets of wine that remained. Eka pressed on, and continued her affectionate kiss, the warmth of her lips comforting Harumi. Slowly, Eka would feel her partner reciprocating her kiss with her own, Harumi’s hand moving up to Eka’s own cheek as she kissed her deeply. Harumi moved closer, and she began to taste the wine the Georgian had just drank on her tongue. The samurai’s heart continued to race, as her free arm began to wrap around Eka’s waist, holding her lover close as she continued to show her feelings to the Georgian.

No words needed to be said. Actions spoke much louder, and Harumi, as inexperienced as she was showing how she felt, wanted there to be no doubt left in Eka’s mind about her true feelings.

Eka felt all of it. The pounding of her heart, as she could hardly believe that such a thing was really happening after they had spent such a lovely evening together. The feeling of Harumi kissing her back, embracing Eka's impulsive action with the entirety of her being. The warm nuzzling of two girls against one another, lost in the reverie of a winter's evening. Somewhere a clock was ticking, and somewhere there was the physical form of Eka. But right now, the raven-haired girl was lost in time and space, totally giving herself over to the raw and untarnished pleasure of kissing a pretty and wholesome woman who happened to like Eka back very much.

There was a hand on Eka's face. There was an arm around Eka's back. Both body parts nearly sent Eka into a tizzy. At the moment, it seemed possible to her that her heart would beat itself right out of her chest onto Harumi's body, which all things considered would not have been a bad way to go. But Eka was very thankful that all of her organs stayed inside her because that meant that she got to linger in her lover's arms for another moment. The wine on Harumi's tongue was the sweetest thing that she had ever tasted, aged in the eternity that they were spending together and sweetened by the dollops of heartfelt emotions.

Eka would not stand not to have Harumi's actions reciprocated. The samurai had cut her deeply, and Eka wanted to prove that a tough mountain girl could give it just as good as she took it. Her icy cold hands, getting warmer by the second from Harumi's radiance, left the beautiful face for greener pastures. Both arms wrapped around Harumi's back. Eka was holding her closely now, the same way that the light of the streetlights bent down to embrace them as they walked home together in the cold and inky black night of Tokyo. She wanted to feel the light that Harumi had inside her, and feel it with every fiber of her being.

After a second, Eka pulled back. Her eyes had been closed for a while, which was a shame, because she was not able to behold the sight of Harumi. She blinked once, and then twice. The Georgian girl desperately wanted to say something, anything, some profession of love that would be written about in poems and in song for eons to come, but no simple words of man would be able to sum up how she was feeling. She looked down for a second, ashamed of herself for not finding anything to say. But when she looked up again, her blue eyes twinkled with unabashed joy, wild and free. That moment and that look were all the words that Eka could not say.

The warmth of Eka’s feelings warmed Harumi’s lips, and the feeling travelled down into her chest. The rhythmic sounds of Harumi’s heart beat were once wild and quick, but it began to slow down as the warmth of the Georgian touched her. All of the cold from the snow, from the outside, it all disappeared in an instant. Eka was like a heavy, familiar blanket being wrapped around Harumi. As she was enveloped in her girlfriend’s arms, Harumi felt as though she were vulnerable, but still safe inside Eka’s embrace. Such a feeling was so...alien. It had been years since she had felt such a luxury. As the two continued to kiss, the wine in Harumi kept her wits subsided, and she did not notice the single tear rolling down her cheek.

Harumi had no idea how long the kiss lasted, but when Eka pulled away the samurai was shocked at how sad she suddenly felt. Never had she done something like that before in her life, and it seemed that now that she had the chance to taste such sweetness she was greedy for more. The shameful desire weighed heavily on her heart, but not nearly as much as her desire to embrace Eka once more. The feeling of wanting somebody in such a manner was new to the usually stoic woman. Eka was more than a friend at this point, and it was a struggle for the Judoka to put her feelings into words.

It would only be when they finally exchanged glances that the two seemed to share something. A spark, of sorts. Without a single word spoken, they shared how they felt about each other. Joy, envy, happiness, excitement, freedom, and above all, love. Such a feeling sent a ripple of excitement through Harumi’s body, her lustful emotions slipping away into something much purer, and much more innocent. Perhaps it was the foolishness of love, but at that moment, Harumi couldn’t think of a world without Eka. It was that feeling of devotion that made Harumi break the silence by uttering the first few words.

“U-um...do…you have any tests tomorrow?”

The shy tone was unbecoming of her Father’s training. He had taught her to speak clearly and proud, but for some reason all of her training, her stoic mask, all of it melted away as the true Harumi peeked up at the Georgian.

“If not...m-maybe we can...spend the night together...in my room?”