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Kagami chews on his lip as he laboriously wields his brush.
It's a little bit big for him, father said so, but he'd begged and begged until he'd gotten one from father's own desk. He's determined to be worthy of it and so he bends his head over the paper, copying out his own name for the eighth time this morning.
It's not easy to be the son of an imperial scholar, a man everyone says is learned and wise.
Father sits in judgement over their village, makes notes of the taxes, tells people what to do, and is always sending letters off to the capital. Uncle Itama says that his father even met the emperor once.
That's so amazing!
Kagami can't imagine what that would have been like!
But maybe, one day, if he is good, he will also become an imperial scholar and meet the emperor.
"Ah, a very good effort." Father's long fingers pluck the paper out from under his hands. "I will hang this on the wall tonight."
"You will?" Kagami can feel his eyes going big and round. "Really?"
"Yes, of course." A big hand comes down on his head, stroking through the curls that annoy him so much. "But now it is time for a bath."
Ugh.
Baths.
"Do I have to?" Kagami tries on his best pleading expression. "Can't it wait until later?"
"No, I am afraid not." His father's smile is gentle but firm and Kagami sighs as he's pushed towards the bath house. "We'll need the extra time to prepare for the meal tonight."
"We will?" Kagami knows that this is a distraction - bait, as uncle Kawarama would say - but he doesn't care. "Why?"
"Because important people are coming home, and we must be ready to welcome them." The words are like magic and Kagami bounces in to the bath without complaining.
Important people!
That can only mean one thing!
Oh, father is visited by many important people, lots and lots, but Kagami doesn't need to dress nicely or have his hair combed for them.
Instead, there are only two people in his life who are truly important.
It's a story that he's been told every night before he goes to bed, how his father once defeated a mighty army with a single rocket and then went on to rescue the emperor with the two generals of China's best armies.
Uncle Itama is a wonderful story teller, and it is his favourite tale even if he wasn't there for any of it.
Kagami's too.
And so he sits through the washing, doesn't move when ink is scrubbed off his face and hands, and doesn't even squirm when the tangles on his head are tugged. It's only when father says he's ready that Kagami races out, running to the gates that look down over the road to their house.
It's all bare and dry, nobody is there, and Kagami squats down into the dirt to draw his name with a stick. He gets as far as writing it twice before he hears the fast hoofbeats that always mean a horse.
It could be a messenger from the capital, but - somehow - Kagami knows that it isn't.
And he's right.
For, charging out of a cloud of dust, are two warhorses, huge animals that tower over his head.
But they're somehow small beside the men that they carry.
"Kagami!" Daddy whoops, "Look, brother! It's Kagami!"
Papa doesn't reply, instead swooping down like a hawk to pluck him out of the dirt and pull him onto the horse. Kagami squirms, making a space for himself against armour that is sunbaked and hot, patting Papa's hands in their leather gloves. Daddy laughs to see it, and Kagami waves, happy to be so tall once more.
Papa and Daddy are not home very often, away fighting the emperor's wars, but when they are...
Father steps out of the shadow of the house, his smile the same gentle one that he greets visitors with, but Kagami knows that it's somehow different.
And, when Daddy swings down off his horse to kiss Father, Kagami grins.
Yes, it's good to have all his parents home again.
It's very good.