Tekishozen march-april 2023 prompt: Calm

Above her the wind chimes catch a small breeze, “its warm” she thinks to herself.

“Ah right its the festival” she can hear it in the distance its loud and people sound happy, Yuki looks back up at the chime staring at it dances in the wind. The sun was warm so she had moved herself outside, she had been cooped up in her room attempting to control her new abilities for too long. She held her hand up to the chime and thinks to herself “I’m one of the lucky ones aren’t I.. I have no memories of how it happened but at least its just my powers going haywire” she felt bad for the others in her situation who didn’t have something as easy to deal with, granted with being a mercenary by the other groups she was told she was lucky to get such amazing ability from it, she frankly wanted to freeze their tails for saying that, that ability it really hurt and not only that the chill to the bones she felt with it. She put her hand down on the pillow next to her and sighed

Yuki just stared up at the sky, she had placed a few blankets on the ground to make it more comfortable for herself, She had been watching the clouds in between napping for her she was gonna spend the festival at home asleep just in case her newfound ability had another flare up like when she went to the castle with her farther, on her side anyone who had been affected was meant to go and not to mention she is the daughter of one of the largest mercenary leaders so she was right to be there! That still didn’t save her from her brother’s lecture, Haruki had kept her there for half an hour as he scolded her for her choices. The bakenomew was currently assumed asleep in his room, he finally had gotten a day off during this and had elected to celebrate in the same way: napping, though Yuki was considering if she could get her brother to get her normal order of festival food since she was exhausted from trying to keep her ability under control and couldn't go out herself. This was gonna be a struggle if she wanted the food, the thoughts of curry buns filled her mind and oh she wanted them when the festival was happening they always seemed to taste better, Haruki was a deep sleeper and would refuse to move maybe if she just tickles his ears with cold- as she thought this a pillow came flying at her from behind, “oh” her brother was awake and listening to her thoughts “morning?” she continued. 

Beside her Haruki appeared picking up his pillow “Its the afternoon Yuki”

“Oh, well never mind that I want food” her tails waved excitedly

“I know, you have been thinking about it for the last hour”

“I’m just hungry, and you know those buns taste better during festivals”

Haruki rolls his eyes while whipping away the last traces of sleep “I’ll go get some”

Yuki had won the battle for her curry buns as she was internally celebrating she noticed Haruki was staring at her “you remember I can hear your thoughts right” he placed his hand on her forehead checking if she had a fever or the chills, after a few seconds he seemed satisfied nothing was wrong and chuckling at Yuki’s expression that was slightly embarrassed that she was caught “I’m kidding it’s written on your face” at this Yuki decided to hit her brothers weak point and jabbed him in the side with a sight chuckle at the baken’s yelp and jump. She chuckled even more at the fact his tail had fluffed up to twice its normal size. 

Defeated her brother sighs whale trying to de fluff his tail “That was a cheap shot” he looked unimpressed

“Cheap but effective dear brother” the grin on her face could of easily told her thoughts, and she noticed her brother grin and she knew what was coming

“It seems that I am too hurt to get your precious curry buns” the gasp and look of hurt that came from Yuki gave more betrayal then could be known “how can I ever walk having faced this deadly mortal blow” Haruki played it up holding his side he had been jabbed, trying desperately to hold in his laugh
“You! Your faking it” as she runs over to try and grab the bakenomew ears, which was thwarted by Haruki using his tail to keep distance between them, Haruki now in a full laugh unable to contain it “I want those buns!”

After Haruki’s laughter had died down he wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing too hard he continued what he was originally going to say “I’ll go grab my wallet, is there anything else you want?” he got up and walked over to her playfully ruffling her hair,

Annoyed and attempting to get him to stop “if they are there get me some soba please” she thought to herself figuring her brother was actively reading her mind waiting for a response

“I’ll see if they are there then before I head back” he began to walk back towards his room “oh by the way Yuki” Her ears perked up at this as she attempted to fix her hair “your looking better than you did earlier” 

“Well thats some good news at least” she lied back down onto the blanket bellow “I really hate being stuck doing nothing, and hearing the festival outside just makes me jealous” 

“Well I’ll be back soon and I promise not to have too much fun” he gave her one last headpat as he left 

“all your doing is looking at books, while you wait” she said knowing that was his plan

“That's fun to me” he turned around as he walked away

“I know it is” as she heard her brother’s footsteps get further and further she felt sleep creep back to her as she shut her eyes to the sound of the windchime above. 

“Hello Yuki” she heard above her, She gently opened her eyes to her mother standing above

“Hello mum, your back” Yuki stretched she didn’t know how long she had shut her eyes for “I thought that those sales would have taken longer” she didn’t bother to speak just think of the things she wanted to say

“It did take awhile yes but I wanted to check on my little escape artist” Shinhu’s smile expressed annoyance but amusement at Yuki’s forceful instance to join her father at the castle

“to my credit the door was already open?” Her mother face didn’t change 

“I saw your brother head out to grab food a few as I returned” so she hadn’t been asleep too long haruki had left recently huh “He was on his way to get you both food, you both eat well I need to check in on Makkuro since I am back” Shinhu gave her daughter a hug “I’ll be back for dinner I just wanted to see you first” Yuki nodded giving her mother a wave as she left towards the barracks where her farther would be. Yuki opted this time to stay awake while she waited for Haruki’s return. She played around counting leaves as they fell from the wind and attempted to catch them as she waited. 

Eventually she heard the gate open, Haruki was back and she could smell the food across the yard. “Yuki your mouth is watering” shocked she wiped her face and noticed he was playing a joke on her, in response she glared “your in luck by the way, they still had the curry buns and the soba” Yuki’s ears perked up and her tails began to wave in excitement and the promised food, Haruki chuckled as he raised the bag of food, Yuki couldn’t grab it fast enough she has been given food all is good she might not be able to go to the festival but all is well! 

“Oh one of those buns are for me so hand it over” yuki was reluctant to give up one of her precious curry buns but understood that it was only fair since Haruki went out to fetch the food. She handed over the bun with a sad look on her face “You have plenty there Yuki” Haruki chuckled . It was only one bun and yaki soba she had to herself she wanted more “we’ll get more when you get better and at the next festival”  Yuki accepted the answer and sat down on the blanket she placed earlier and began to eat and was joined by her brother.

“Find anything interesting?” she thought, hoping haruki was reading her mind,

“Sadly not” he was listening “only the worlds worst rip off book of a book from the royal archives”

“How bad?” she was amused haruki wasn’t normally this frustrated 

“It nearly disintegrated in my hands from how much tea they attempted to stain it with” Yuki laughed at the thought of Haruki picking up a soggy book they were trying to sell him. 

They made small talk as they ate, it was quiet mostly other than the sparse conversations they would have and the windchime above them giving the occasional pleasant ring as background noise. They both felt that the peace of this would not last long, Yuki wanted to hold onto it for as long as possible. Just a little longer she can pretend everything is fine, but she knew she's lying to herself.