(co-written by Liquid O)
The day after Hina had helped Kiko with errands, she was excited to go meet with Dai at his art studio in town. Hina looked through some of the kimonos that Kiko had provided her and Kiko couldn’t help but smile at the sight of Hina getting excited at meeting this artist. After a little while of choosing between the Tsukesage or the Komon, she finally chose the Komon to wear. Looking at her reflection, she fixed her hair and then thought something looked amiss, and realized what it was as she grabbed the flower that Dai had given to her the other day and placed it on her ear and smiled hoping on the inside that Dai would compliment her on her appearance. Hina then heard and saw Kiko giggling from the reflection of the mirror she was looking in.
“Kiko-san, is there...something amusing at what I’ve chosen to wear?” Hina asked sounding a little concerned as Kiko did her best to keep from laughing anymore and controlled herself but still gave a smile.
“Hina-chan, wherever did you get that flower you wear in your ear?” Kiko asked.
“Oh, Dai-san gave it to me the other day as a gift to let me know he had a good day with me.” Hina explained.
“Well....I don’t think he explained what that flower means. The flower may be known as a ‘forget me not’ flower, but it also represents finding one’s true love.” Kiko explained as Hina’s face now flushed a bright red.
“True love? I...I don’t know what to say to him about that? I mean....I do really fancy him....I mean LIKE, I like him, but true love? Oh, Kiko-san whatever am I to do?” Hina asked worriedly.
“I think, you should go see that young man again and spend the whole day with him. By the end of the day, you’ll know if you really like him or not.” Kiko suggested.
Hina took the flower out of her ear for a moment, but then put it back on her ear. Many thoughts ran through her mind about Dai. She thought he was quite handsome, even if he did have one eye. He also was a very talented painted from all the paintings she had been able to glimpse. He was also one of the most polite kitsune she had met in a long time.
“It could never work.” The vixen said softly.
“Nonsense. Of course it will” Kiko reassured.
Hina then revealed the other of her tails, now all eight were visible.
“He doesn’t ever know who I really am…what I’ve done…” Hina said.
“Hina-chan” Kiko sighed to the vixen as Hina hide six of her tails, leaving two.
“But I’ll…I’ll try.” The black and white vixen said as Kiko smiled at her.
She cautiously approached Dai’s art studio and entered the studio as there were some customers that were buying some of Dai’s art from him. He motioned that he would be only a moment as Hina examined some of the paintings a little more closely.
She saw some of the same ones she had seen the other day, but two paintings caught her eyes. There was one of a young kitsune boy standing next to his father on a field. The father looked proud while the boy looked sad. The other one that caught her eye was one of two kitsune parents with their backs turned away from their son who tried to show them a beautiful portrait he had done of the two of them.
“I see my life story has caught your eye.” Dai said from behind her, sort of startling her.
“Ah, Dai! I mean that is....Kon’nichiwa, it is very nice to see you again.” Hina said politely bowing towards Dai sounding a little embarrassed.
“Yes, it’s nice to see you again too. Oh, you’re wearing the flower I gave you.” Dai noticed.
“Oh, yes, I thought you might notice that.” Hina quickly replied.
“Yeah, it really compliments your kimono.” Dai complimented as both he and Hina gave a little blush at the awkwardness between the two of them. Hina decided to change the subject and looked at the paintings.
“Oh! What...what do these paintings represent?” Hina asked looking at the two paintings.
“Well, as you heard me mention a moment ago, it’s my life story. I come from a family of farmers. It’s actually why my parents named me ‘Daichi’ initially so I could follow in their footsteps. But as I told you, I didn’t really want to follow in their footsteps and when I told them I wanted to be a painter instead, well, they turned away from me and I haven’t talked to them since.” Dai explained as Hina looked at the two parents in the painting who looked ashamed.
“Have you....have you tried speaking to them recently? I mean, to find out if they were still alive? After the civil war.” Hina asked hoping that this sweet man’s parents weren’t harmed or killed in her war.
“I....was told by a neighbor of theirs that they were spared and that neighbor had also told them that I survived with only an eye lost. My parents told the neighbor that I should have died with honor for my people not gone back to pursuing my foolish passion.” Dai explained with a sigh.
“I’m sorry, I can’t imagine what it must be like for your parents to disown you like that.” Hina said apologizing to Dai.
“What about your parents? I’m sure they loved you more than anything in the world.” Dai asked.
Hina was now silent at this and wasn’t sure whether or not she wanted to tell Dai just yet about her parents or tell him anything at all.
“I…lost them when I was very young. But I was taken in by a man—a soldier I guess you could call him. This is his sword.” She said and showed him Moonslayer that was tucked into her obi. “He trained me and raised me…I lost him around 24 years ago.”
“I see…I was wondering what a lovely vixen like you was doing carrying around a sword…it’s not very common for vixens to do so.” The artist commented.
“I see.” she said slightly sad.
“But I like it! I mean—it’s very unusual.” He said.
She appeared more sad at his clarification. He saw this and put his hands up.
“No! I-I don’t mean that in a bad way! It’s nice, I like that you’re not like other vixens.” He blushed.
Hina gave a little smile.
“Actually, maybe we could go somewhere else to talk? There’s a....a nice tea shop just a little ways down from your shop I saw as I came here the other day.” Hina suggested.
“I suppose I wouldn’t mind that. I’ll put a sign saying I’ll be back in an hour or so, that may give us plenty of time to talk.” Dai said as Hina went to the front door waiting for Dai to come as he went to get his sign.
As Hina was waiting, she saw a painting of two lovers laying in a field together without any clothing on. Hina looked away as her face turned red hoping Dai wouldn’t see her.
“Alright, I found my sign, are you....”
“I’M READY, LET’S GO!” Hina said rather loudly as she cupped her mouth and waited outside the art studio as Dai put up his sign and locked the door.
Hina still walked on the side where she could see Dai’s good eye as they occasionally glanced at each other but looked away before the other could say anything. They entered the tea shop and found it to have plenty of people inside of it. They were directed near a window where a waitress took their tea order and would be right back.
Now that they were in the tea shop, Hina and Dai sat there in silence unsure which one of them would speak first.
“How do you like living with uh....Kiko, was it? She seems like a very polite and kind woman when I saw her the other night.” Dai asked finally breaking the silence.
“Oh! Oh, yes, yes. She has been very kind to me. I didn’t know I would find such kindness from strangers like her after the war, but she has been nothing but kind to me. There was another boy I met who was also kind, and then....I met you.” Hina explained rather shyly.
Dai and Hina were slightly interrupted with the waitress bringing them their tea which they thanked her for. Hina took her cup and gently sipped her tea, as did Dai.
“I love the tea in this realm.” She said absentmindedly.
“Oh. I think you mentioned being raised in the human realm. You must of stuck out there huh?” Dai said.
“Not really. I assumed my human form while I lived there. It was 17 years ago when I arrived in this realm.” She explained.
“Oh wow. I’ve never even used my human form before. Our people only used to do so before we came to this place, you know to interact with the humans. But that was a long time ago.” Dai explained as Hina nodded.
After they were finished, Dai led her to another place. Dai had asked that she wear a blindfold and at first she was hesitant to wear it, but he assured her he meant no harm and that it was a very good surprise for her. Dai and Hina must've walked for a few minutes and Hina could have sworn she remembered the path they were going on, but it had been so long now that seh could scarcely remember what lay at the end of the path.
"Alright, you can take the blindfold off now." Dai said as Hina slowly took the blindfold off and opened her eyes to see that Dai had brought her to the cherry blossom trees.
"Oh! Dai, I...I don't know what to say, I haven't been back here in so long....I think the last time I was here was...." Hina recalled as the last happy memory she had of cherry blossom trees were with her parents when she was very young. She tried to bury the memory, but a few tears dripped from her eyes.
"Oh, oh no, Hina-san, please....please don't cry....I just....I just wanted to show you a place where I liked to paint sometimes. Please forgive me, I did not mean to make you cry." Dai apologized feeling ashamed for what he had done.
"You just....you seemed a little down at the studio when I asked you about your parents, I thought....I thought this might make you happy, because it makes me happy." Dai explained as he put his hand on Hina's shoulder as she jolted away.
"Why?" Hina asked softly crying through her tears.
"Why what? I don't understand."
"Why do you have to be so kind? Especially to someone....someone like me. If you knew....if you really knew....about my past....about what I've done......you would hate me." Hina said through her tears as she continued to softly cry and she fell to her knees.
Dai approached her and he knelt down to her level.
"Hina-san, if I have learned anything, it is that our past is not always what defines us. We may learn from it and we can use those lessons to teach others. But if there's anything we need to do about our past, we need to accept the person we were, so we can be the better person later. I don't know what you were in the past, but I....I know who you are now. This is the you I like, I don't need to know another Hina." Dai said as he wiped the tears from Hina's eyes.
They both stared into each other's eyes before Hina touched Dai's face gently and before she knew what she was doing, she was kissing him on his lips. He didn't pull away, he didn't say anything, they just kissed there as a few cherry blossoms fell around them. After a moment or two, Hina and Dai separated as Hina looked into Dai's good eye and smiled.
"I....I've had a pleasant day Dai-san. If you would, you may walk me home?" Hina suggested as Dai nodded and they walked together back to Kiko's.
Hina didn't know what to think as she walked back, was this love, or was this just excitement? She really didn't know, all she knew was that Dai was kind, and that was enough for her.