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"Where are we going?", Akemura asks as he and nee-san exit their family's small house on the edge of the compound that makes up the Soga estate, "Are we doing something bad?"
Nee-san had asked over breakfast if he wanted to play with her today, and Akemura's been desperately curious what she has in mind since . So much so that he had barely refrained from asking inside where mother might hear and disapprove. After-all, sure nee-san often tells Akemura he is welcome to come along when she goes to hang out with her dumb friends, but it's rare for her to specifically invite him like she had today.
Not to mention nee-san had gone out of her way to be especially agreeable with mother when she's extended the invitation - not just reminding her that Akemura didn't have any lessons in swordplay today but also demurring to mother's wishful fantasy that he'd keep an eye on his sister instead of their oft-mocked other way around.
"To the clearing in the mountains on the east side of town." Nee-san answers as she rearranges a small bag hung comfortably over her shoulder, "And no, we aren't doing anything mother would disapprove of. You can relax."
"I am relaxed." Akemura insists, even as he forces himself to stop fidgeting, "And, I wouldn't be scared even if you wanted to do something that might get us in trouble. I'm not a baby."
Nee-san smiles as she pats his head, "I guess ten is pretty grown-up. That's a whole decade after all."
"It is." Akemura agrees, aware she's teasing him a bit but not minding when it's this gentle.
"Unfortunately, even if you're not a baby you'll always be my baby brother." Nee-san's tone wanders out of being teasing and into affectionate, "You can't grow out of being four years younger than me."
She lifts her hand, "Now come on. This will be more fun if we get there before the sun's directly overhead."
Nee-san lets Akemura grab onto the hand she's used to pat his head and starts leading them out of the compound. Luckily, even though there's only one 'official' entrance and exit - large and grand and sitting opposite the mansion where the main family lived and nee-san and mother worked - there are a lot of side entrances for stuff like deliveries. Also, if you don't mind climbing or crawling, there even more ways to escape the estate.
Despite her insistence that they aren't doing anything bad, nee-san leads him through one of those more unofficial exits, ducking their heads down to slip out through a hole cut out of the surrounding walls for a drainage ditch. Maybe she'd just wanted to avoid their cousins though, which Akemura gets. He doesn't like most of their family either after all.
From there, it isn't hard to to slip through the surrounding trees and onto the road that will lead them into town. At first, Akemura isn't too suspicious about that. It will be faster to get to the east side of the mountains if they cut through the upper part of town rather than circling it.
At least until he sees one of nee-san's friends waiting on the side of the road right at the town's edge.
"Hi Chiaki." Rokuhira greets, before tilting his head, his thick eyebrows furrowing down. "Oh, and hi Akemura-kun. Is he coming too?"
"Good morning." Nee-san returns with a smile. Akemura waves slightly with his free hand, trying not to let his disappointment show too obviously on his face. "And yes, it will be us three today, if that's okay?"
Rokuhira shrugs, "That's fine."
Well at least the other two aren't coming. Shiba was the worst - loud, pushy, and prone to saying whatever rude thought crossed his mind, smug in the knowledge he was strong enough to get away with it. Azami was a little better in that he was usually quiet and polite, except he had a mean sense of humor, a bad temper, and the annoying habit of lording being two years older over Akemura as if to make up being two years younger than nee-san and Rokuhira himself.
Rokuhira was mostly just coarse with a slightly unsettling habit of staring. Even though mother and other grown-ups whispered about him being violent or 'just like that father of his', Akemura had never see him do anything scary. He's probably the the one Akemura least dislikes out of the three of them.
Still, Akemura can't figure out why nee-san hangs out with any of them. She disliked their male cousins, the mean pushy boys who liked to swagger around with their practice swords between lessons as much as Akemura did. How were her friends that different?
"That's good." Nee-san says, waiting patiently as Rokuhira ambles over to join them, "I thought Sou-can and Tougo might get bored since we're mostly just going to be sitting still today."
The three of them start walking. Akemura keeps his grip on nee-san's right hand, and Rokuhira naturally falls into place at her left side.
"You think shopping is boring, but that doesn't stop Azami and Shiba from dragging you to the shopping center with them. They probably owe you some boredom." Rokuhira points out.
"It's fine. Shopping can be kind of fun." Nee-san hedges in the way she does when she doesn't want to outright lie, before admitting, "And they both say it's lame to look at clothes by yourself or with another guy when you're a boy, so they won't go without me."
That sounds stupid since everyone has to wear clothes, but Akemura's not really the expert. It seems like there's always some new thing that will make his male cousins shove him around and call him a 'girl' or a 'crybaby' in jeering voices and make his female cousins look at him with cold eyes and tell him to 'man up' already.
Still though, "Your friends sound pretty lame themselves." Akemura mutters, ignoring the prickly mild guilt of saying something rude mixed with the fearful spike of having said that in front of Rokuhira.
Surprisingly though, Rokuhira just laughs, "Yeah, sometimes they are. Really dependable guys though."
"Mmm, even if they're a bit immature, they're really sweet." Nee-san agrees.
Neither of them are focusing too much on where they're going, their faces tilted towards each more than the road, as they continue to chat about their friends - moving onto some reminiscence of a different trip in the woods with all four of them. Akemura has to pull on nee-san's hand at one point when they almost walk past the turn that will lead them back out of town.
Though despite the boring conversation topic, Akemura doesn't find himself too annoyed. When he cuts into the conversation, nee-san turns to him with a smile and Rokuhira takes it in stride with an easy good humor. It is a decently long walk to clearing nee-san wants to visit, but the time passes quickly.
The clearing on the east side of the mountain - well, there are couple, but the big one - is beautiful in the early spring. It is formed by a natural break in the dense woods of the surrounding forest, and the abundant sunshine allows for a lush riot of wildflowers to grow. The bright dots of color against the lush grass make the clearing look like something out a dream or painting.
Unfortunately the thick grass and abundant flowers that make up that pretty view also mean that it is filled with bugs.
Akemura stops at the treeline, held back by a sort of fearful revulsion triggered by the subtle buzzing and the dark bobbing and darting shapes he can make out in the clearing. The flowers are pretty enough he wants to wander in and take a closer look (even though that's another 'boy's aren't supposed to like stuff like that' thing), but the bugs are too gross.
They should probably should stay on the edge like this.
At the sudden feeling of nee-san letting go of his hand, Akemura looks up quickly in alarm, but fortunately instead of leaving him she's just freed her hand to dig around in her shoulder bag. After a second she pulls out a half-empty jar with something golden-brown and crystallized along the along the bottom and sides - honey? - and then a slightly tattered old-blanket mother's been saying she wants to throw out.
"Okay, ready. Sorry, Kunishige, could you hold this?" Nee-san passes the blanket over to Rokuhira who takes it with a nod, and then hold her free hand back out to Akemura. He grabs it quickly.
"Do we have to go in? Can't we just stay outside?" Akemura asks. He's not afraid of bugs. He doesn't shriek like mother does when she sees one in the house, he just really, really doesn't want to be near them.
"We don't have to," Nee-san tells him, "but I think you'll have fun if we do. You want to see the flowers more closely right?"
Akemura nods, then remembering they aren't alone, cuts a glance over at Rokuhira. However instead of teasing him - either for his hesitance or his interests - the older boy just gazes out into the clearing, his eyes flashing red as they catch the light, and says, "The flowers do look nice. Lots of, um, white and purple ones?"
"They're irises and lilies." Akemura tells him, a little amused despite himself when Rokuhira nods seriously like he's been told something important.
"And I'm sure they look really nice, smell really good, and the petals are really soft up close. Also I brought a blanket so we wouldn't have to sit directly on the grass." Nee-san points out, though even as she tries to lure him forward she makes no move to force Akemura or yank at their joined hands. She stays patient even as he hesitates for several long seconds that tick into minutes.
In the end, that gentle patience is what decides it. Akemura nods, and nee-san smiles at him before leading them forward with Rokuhira following closely behind.
The free scent of grass crunched then rebounding beneath their feet complements the subtle sweetness of the surrounding flowers. It is almost enough to make up for the increased volume of the buzzing that has gone from subtle to un-ignorable and the bees that fly by in lazy drunken circles so close Akemura has to lean back to avoid a collision. He does his best not to think of the spiders likely crawling about unseen in the grass beneath their feet or how he'd be too slow the dodge if one of the dragonflies above their heads chose to ram into him.
Finally, they come to a flatter section of the clearing where nee-san asks Rokuhira to lay their blanket down. He opens it, letting the cloth flutter int the light breeze, and nee-san lets go of Akemura's hand to catch the the other end, so they can spread it out on the grass.
Once they've all sat down, the blanket feels safer than standing up. Nothing from underneath can crawl through and everything flying about is farther away.
Nee-san stretches out, her face tilted towards the sun, eyes closed and relaxed. Rokuhira lies on his side watching her.
After a minute or two, Akemura feels secure enough to scooch over to the blanket's edge and admire a nearby patch of purple-blue irises. Up close the colors are even prettier and he can run a gentle finger across the petals, soft and cool despite how they face the sun.
"Do you like them?"
Akemura glances backwards at the sound of Rokuhira's voice. He would have have thought Rokuhira was addressing nee-san, except his reddish-eyes are focused on the patch of flowers Akemura had been admiring.
Hesitantly, but slightly more confident now that Rokuhira won't tease him, Akemura answers him, "Yeah, do you also like flowers?"
"Never really thought about them before." Rokuhira answers easily, "The colors are really nice though. Sometimes you can see colors like that in the forge, but everything there's way too hot to touch like you can a flower."
Oh right, he was a sword-smith's apprentice or something.
"What about you, Chiaki?"
Nee-san's eyes blink open and she pauses in thought for a bit at the question before responding, "I guess I like flowers okay while they're alive. The ones in bouquets or in the flower-arranging displays the ladies in the main house sometimes make are just sort of sad though. If it's just for looking, fireworks are better."
"They smell like soot though." Rokuhira points out.
Nee-san shakes her head, "Soot doesn't smell that bad. Don't you think?"
"I usually smell like soot." Rokuhira replies.
"You don't smell bad." Nee-san says, which makes Rokuhira glance away his face going red.
Curious, Akemura leans over and sniffs him, his nose tingling at the smell of ash and fire, "Oh, you really do."
"Not smell bad or smell like soot?" Rokuhira asks a bit desperately.
When Akemura just shrugs, because the answer is kinda both, he groans and lets himself fall backwards with an obvious pout in a way that makes nee-san giggle.
"Alright, enough please." Rokuhira rolls up so that he's sitting again, "Let's talk about something else. Like, uh, what did you bring that jar for?"
Nee-san lets the topic go easily at his request, gentle as always, twisting on the blanket to grab the previously ignored jar with an undercurrent of excitement, "Oh, that's honey. This jar's lid didn't get closed properly and it started to crystalize, and so the kitchen in the main house was going to throw it out. I asked if I could have it instead."
She starts to unscrew the jar as she speaks, and Rokuhira tilts his head curiously to watch before asking in return, "To eat?"
"No. Well, I mean you could reheat this honey to make it fully liquid and good to eat again, but I wanted it for this." She pulls of the lid and dips her left hand into the jar, running her fingers across the partially liquid edge in a way that's sure to make them sticky.
Just as curious, Akemura watches as nee-san then pulls her hand out and sticks it over the edge of the blanket. The curiosity turns to alarm as a couple of second later, a bee buzzes over and lands on her fingers, attracted by the sweet scent, then another.
"Nee-san!"
"It's fine." She smiles at the bugs swarming and bumbling over her fingers, "They're just taking back some honey. Besides, aren't they cute?"
Akemura eyes the bees, too many legs, weird eyes, and worst of all stingers. "How are they cute?"
"Mmm, they're fuzzy, I guess?" Nee-san says thoughtfully, "Kind like Shirotachi. You liked him, remember?"
Shirotachi had been a kitten, some very expensive breed with downy white hair, that had been given to the Soga clan's princess by the clan's current heir about a year ago. Hiroto, even though he was technically the princess's nephew, was a few years older and tended to dote on her like an older brother.
It was true Shirotachi had been very fuzzy and fun to pet, though maybe the princess hadn't liked him as when the cat had runway after a few months of being doted on by everyone in the main house, the princess had asked for Hiroto not to bring her another. Though on the other hand, nee-san had once come home with a large box of expensive the candy she'd been given after trying to comfort the princess by saying she was sure Shirotachi was living wild and free as the king of cats on the mountain, so maybe she'd loved her pet after all. It was hard to say.
Either way, a cat's a cat and a bee's a bee. Akemura eyes the bugs critically as they fly off.
"I guess they are kind of furry-looking." Rokuhira says. Akemura shoots him a quick glare for being a traitor, before he's distracted by Rokuhira asking, "What's cute about that one though?"
Akemura shudders, scooting back on instinct as some sort of hornet lands on nee-san's still outstretched fingers.
"The wings are pretty! Also their faces are actually pretty cute when you look closely." Nee-san answers unconcerned.
Rokuhira squints at the hornet on her fingers, then makes an unconvinced sound.
"Bugs are cute." Nee-san insists with subtle undercurrent of laughter, "Just like frogs and fish and dogs and cats."
"Dog and cats, sure I guess." Rokuhira allows, before pursing his lips in thought, "Fish are … delicious?"
"Cats are definitely cute." Akemura adds, more firm, "Dogs are okay." The rest were slimy, gross, and maybe a little bit scary.
"They're cute." Nee-san insists, pointing upwards with her sticky hand once the hornet has flown off, "Look, don't the dragonflies remind you of Tougo? They move so quickly, it's almost like they're teleporting."
Rokuhira looks up at the dragonflies darting far above their heads with a thoughtful face. Even though the sun's risen high in the sky now, he barely squints at the bright light, "Mmm, I guess. They sure bump into each other a lot, so they at least like trouble as much as Shiba does."
He looks back at nee-san with a grin, a new sort of understanding on his face, "Then I guess Azami reminds me of a spider, cause he likes to hang back and be quiet, but if you mess with him too much he'll make you regret it."
"Also they're both very skillful and meticulous." Nee-san plays along with a nod, "Sou-chan's not just good with his sorcery, he's also got very lovely hand-writing you know."
None of this is really endearing Akemura to bugs.
"Here, I wanna try too." Rokuhira says grabbing the honey jar from where it rests on the blanket and running his finger down its sticky inside.
"Ah, Kunishige-", nee-san starts, but then pauses, watching as the thrusts the hand over the edge of the blanket. However unlike when nee-san had done the same, nothing flies over to investigate, the insect life in the clearing giving him a wide-berth.
"A lot of bugs don't like the smell of smoke, " nee-san explains, "so they probably won't fly up to you."
Rokuhira's face falls a bit, before he schools it back into a slightly try-hard grin, "Wish that worked for cockroaches and riceworms." He sticks the honey-coated finger in his mouth to clean it, then makes a face, "Ugh, I really do still have soot on my hands."
Nee-san huffs a out a silent laugh, "You can see it beneath your fingernails. Also even if smoke doesn't work on bugs like that, other stuff does. The cockroaches are telling you to throw away your trash, and the riceworms are telling to eat your food before it goes bad."
"I'll try to listen to their teachings." Rokuhira says solemnly. The image of him nodding along like an attentive student to a beetle is funny enough that Akemura can't help but giggle.
"How about you, Akemura, want to try?"
"I don't really …." He's not afraid, it's just. Akemura grimaces, "What if they sting me?"
"Mmm, well I can't promise they won't." Nee-san answers, once again holding fingers -freshly swiped in honey - out. She looks fondly as another bee lands on her hand, lured over by the sweet smell. "You are a lot bigger and more powerful than them, so it wouldn't be surprising if they got scared."
It is weird to think of something as smaller (as more scared) than him. To mother's constant disappointment and their extended family's constant scorn, Akemura is not as intimidating as a man of the Soga clan should be. He flinches back at raised swords and harsh words, and worse, his hands shake when it is his turn to deliver a blow. There is a reason he doesn't like lessons in swordplay, and it isn't just his cruel classmates.
Still, "Why would I want to get close if they might sting?"
"You like this place a lot, right?" The bee on nee-san's hand doesn't seem to mind the slight gesture towards the clearing, "I think you would like it even more if you weren't afraid of the bugs. It'd be sad if you couldn't admire the flowers because of them, right?"
"I'm not scared." Akemura lies, before biting his lip in thought. It would be nice to be able to come here without nee-san; it was always better to be together, but sometimes he had lessons, or she had chores, or her annoying friends (maybe sans-Rokuhira) would steal her away to play with them instead.
"It's fine if you are scared." Nee-san says lightly, before grimacing a tiny bit, "I mean, I like most wasps, but even I'm afraid of sparrow-hornets."
"Leeches freak me out." Rokuhira adds, "And centipedes."
"Only one of those is a bug, I'm pretty sure."
"Really? Leeches aren't an underwater bug?"
"Really. An underwater bug would be something like shrimp."
"But those are food, which makes them fish, right?"
Akemura tunes out nee-san and Rokuhira's meandering circular conversation as he works on gathering his courage. It is an easier task here in the sun where his refusal will have no consequence than it would be back in the dark-wooded walls of the estate.
"I'll try." Akemura announces, and nee-san and Rokuhira pause their slowly devolving into nonsense conversation about fish to watch him.
"Good job being brave." Nee-san praises, as she holds out the jar, "The trick is to keep very still. Don't jerk your hand back, even if it's too much, just-"
"Scoot over closer to me or something." Rokuhira cuts in, puffing up with a playful, goofy, bravado, "Me and my bad smell will keep you safe."
"-or just tell me, and I'll flick the bug off you." Nee-san adds, causing Rokuhira to deflate slightly.
"Yeah, or that. Either way, we've got you, Akemura-kun."
A bit reassured despite how silly Rokuhira was being, Akemura swipes a single finger through the gritty texture of the partly crystallized honey, and after a deep breath, thrusts it over the edge of the blanket.
Part of him wants to close his eyes as he waits, but part of him is busy eyeing the various bobbing, buzzing, darting spots of color around his distrustfully.
It is only because the muscles of his arm are locked, that Akemura does not startle back when a blue-green form flutters onto his fingers.
"Oh, I didn't know butterflies were out yet. How lucky."
Hand held rigid in shock, Akemura takes the insect in. Its wings are an iridescent blue-green, and this close he can see the color comes from shiny, near-fish like scales. Its body is covered by what looks like soft fur, though that does not extend to its thin legs that brush and tickle against his sweet-coated hand.
It closes and opens its wings. Once, twice, then alights as quickly as it had landed.
Akemura is so entranced he barely notices the hornet that buzzes over to take its place on his hand, despite his prior fear.
"It was so pretty." He murmurs, mostly to himself, before grabbing again at the jar of honey as soon as the hornet flies off to nee-san's obvious amusement.
Unfortunately that's the only butterfly they see that day, the rest of their visitors being mostly bees, hornets, and a curious beetle that Rokuhira gently shuffles off their blanket. It isn't too disappointing though, there is something endearing about the ticklish feeling of bees and hornets crawling over his fingers, even if Akemura wouldn't go so far as to call them beautiful like his butterfly or cute like nee-san seems to find basically every small, wild thing.
Eventually however the sun starts to reach its peak, and nee-san points out that while they aren't hungry right now, they will be in the half-an-hour or so it takes to get back to edge of town. They get up, nee-san packing away the honey jar and blanket, and then handing the bag over to Rokuhira when he insists on carrying it.
"Did you have fun?" Nee-san asks, smiling when Akemura nods his head.
She goes to pat his head fondly, but them stops, "Ah, our hands are sticky. I should have brought some water."
"Oh, I can help with that." Rokuhira says cheerily. He reaches out to catch her wrist and brings her middle and index fingers, tacky with honey, to his mouth. Nee-san's eyes go very wide and her face very red.
Still, she doesn't seem upset or anything, so Akemura just watches dubiously as Rokhura eventually lets nee-san's fingers go from his mouth. When he catches sight of her expression, his face also goes really red.
"Ahh, ummm, sorry." Rokuhira mutters, his eyes darting away.
"No, it's okay." Nee-san says quickly, before schooling her face back into a more regular expression and waving her hand as if in demonstration, "Thanks, actually. All clean now, see?"
"Nu-uh." Akemura objects, "Your hand's got drool on it. Don't pat my head like that, please."
This seems to startle Rokuhira out of his embarrassment, and he sticks his tongue out at Akemura.
Akemura sticks his own tongue out in return, going so far as to scrunch up his eyebrows to make a rude face. It makes nee-san laugh, and Rokuhira drops his own expression to smile.
"Well if it's so gross, guess you don't need to hold my hand on the way back?" Nee-san teases, though she still offers him her clean hand.
"Nope, you two can hold gross hands with each other. "Akemura replies confidently, before spinning around, ready to lead the way back through the beautiful clearing teeming with life without a trace of fear.