Chapter 9: Under the Kotatsu, Again

"What do you eat?" Nanami asked.

Nanami lay on her side on the futon with a quilt up to her ribs.

Ria sat cross-legged beside her in the cardigan, hugging a cushion.

"Wanting," Ria said. "And tonight you gave me the best sip I have had in years."

"How much did you take?"

"A sip. A drop in the cup. Your grandmother taught me to take only a sip."

"I once took too much from a young man in Kyoto, in 1851, and he did not wake up for a month."

Nanami went still.

"He woke up," Ria added quickly. "He was quite cross. But I have been careful ever since."

"Fumie said a person can give everything and still be there in the morning. I never believed her."

"You've been taking sips from me."

"The first night I was so greedy that I almost cried. You are not a sip, Nanami. You are a whole river."

"I have been standing on the bank with my hands behind my back."

Nanami sat up, tucking the quilt around her.

"What do you want, Ria?"

"That is not a question I am used to."

"Try."

Ria looked at the cushion for a long time.

"I want you to say that I am good," she said in a very small voice.

"The way I say it to you. I have been saying it for two weeks, and I would like to hear it back."

Nanami's chest hurt.

She reached out and cupped the back of Ria's head.

"Come to the table," she said. "Sit on the cushion. Have your tea."

They made tea.

They put the old kotatsu back in the middle of the room.

The heater glowed red, and the light filled the underside of the quilt.

Ria sat on the floor cushion with her back to the wall and her legs folded under the blanket.

She had put on her long grey skirt and nothing under it.

She held a green teacup in both hands.

"I will drink my tea," she said, "and you will do as you like."

Nanami lifted the heavy quilt.

"Yes, landlady," she said, and crawled under the table.

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