Hina gathered up everything she needed for the picnic that she had Dai had planned for the day and the weather couldn't be better for it.
"Kiko-san, I'm going to meet Dai for our picnic." Hina called out to Kiko as she put her shoes on before leaving the house.
"Have a wonderful time now Hina-chan, maybe he'll surprise you today and propose to you." Kiko joked with a little chuckle.
"Kiko-san!" Hina said embarrassingly.
"I'm only joking Hina-chan, but do have a good time today." Kiko said nodding her head towards Hina as she left the house.
As Hina walked the path towards Dai's art studio, she couldn't help but think about her and Dai. Ever since they began their relationship a few months back, Hina was happier than she had ever been in such a long time. Dai was kind, could make her laugh or smile, even on rainy days, but what she loved about Dai most was that she accepted her for who she was. She didn't tell Dai about her past and he never asked, he loved her as the kitsune he fell in love with.
Hina now saw Dai's art studio coming up and a smile grew on her face, Dai would be thrilled to see her and he would close up his art studio for the day and they'd enjoy a nice picnic together. But when she walked through the door of Dai's studio, she heard a familiar voice talking to Dai, Chisai.
"They'll be put into your care for the time being until I might be able to find another home for them." Chisai said as Hina saw two children standing on both sides of his legs looking at Dai before they turned their heads and saw Hina coming inside.
Hina gave a little wave and smile to the two of them. While the girl turned away shyly, the boy gave a little smile to Hina. Chisai turned around to see Hina standing there with a picnic basket.
"Oh, good day to you Hina, I presume you've come to see Dai?" Chisai asked Hina nodded.
"Uh, yes, Chisai-san, forgive me, I didn't expect to see you here." Hina apologized and bowed quickly.
"No need to apologize, I was just dropping these children off with Dai. He'll explain their situation to you, I've got to be going now." Chisai said as he went out through the front door as Hina watched him leave, then turned her attention back to the two young children before her.
The girl looked to be a young child, but a young kitsune to be sure. The young boy didn't look kitsune, but did seem to sit like a dog. The girl and boy seemed to have been recently cleaned up and given a hakama and kimono to wear.
"Dai-chan, are you going to introduce me to these little ones?" Hina asked looking up at her boyfriend who still seemed a little baffled.
"Oh, yes, this young girl is Suzu, and this is her little brother, Okami." Dai introduced as Suzu bowed her head towards Hina while Okami just looked at Hina with a little smile still on his face.
"Her little brother? They don't seem to look too much alike." Hina noted.
"Well, they're not, not exactly. You see, Suzu lost her family back during the war." Dai explained as Hina now felt an ache in her heart. She hadn't been reminded of the war for some time. Seeing this young orphaned child just upset her again and brought up terrible memories for her.
"She got lost and somehow wound up in the mortal realm. She was able to survive there for a time on the streets by herself, then she found this little one, a little werewolf boy who she named 'Okami'. Okami didn't tell much of his life before he met Suzu, I don't think he remembers much anyway. They were recently rescued from a terrible place thanks to Lord Tatsu and Lady Shizen's grandchildren and brought here to our realm once again." Dai explained as Hina listened to the children's story.
"I volunteered the two of us to take care of them. I know we're not married, but you have been living here on and off with me for months now." Dai said with a little chuckle as Hina blushed.
It was true, not long after they began dating, Hina spent so much time over at Dai's place, that if it got too late, he would have a spare bed put out for her.
"Dai-chan, I...I...I don't know how I feel about this? I mean I barely know how to take care of one child, and now you and I will have to watch over two?" Hina questioned.
"Hina-chan, this will be a good experience for us, and we need to help these children, they have no one else. Please Hina, for me?" Dai asked Hina gently holding one hand as he gave her a kind smile.
Hina looked into Dai's one good eye and returned his smile and nodded, then gave him a quick kiss. She then got down onto her knees to look at the children at eye level.
"Hello there little ones. My name is Hina, this handsome kitsune is Dai, we're happy to have you here." Hina said as gently as she could.
The children looked a little bit shy at Hina, but then Hina looked at her picnic basket and had an idea.
"I had planned to go on a picnic today with only myself and Dai, but I think we would love it if you two came along with us, would you like that?" Hina asked as Suzu and Okami both grew a little smile on their faces and nodded.
"Alright, step outside and I'll lock up shop. I do have to stop by and see another artist for some supplies later on." Dai said as Hina stepped outside with the children to wait for Dai.
Hina stood with the children and noticed that Okami seemed to be jumping up and down at her. She was confused as to what he could be doing.
"He wants you to carry him." Suzu finally said looking over at her brother.
"He likes you, he wants you to pick him up and carry him." Suzu explained as Hina bent down and picked Okami up and felt his fur against hers on her chest. Hina looked into Okami's eyes and gave a smile to him as she helt him close to her chest.
"Okay, I think we're all set. Oh, Hina, that's adorable." Dai said as he looked at Hina and Okami.
Before they began their walk, Suzu held her hand out for Dai to hold onto, which he did almost immediately as they took off to go for their little picnic. They walked through town before heading to a nice cozy area of the park where Hina put out a blanket for them all to sit on. She then opened up her basket to see everything she had initially brought only for herself and Dai. But with the children here now, she saw that they would have to share their meal with them.
"Alright, let's see....Suzu, you may share some of my Katsu-sando, if you'd like." Hina said handing the little girl some of her sandwich.
"Yuck! I don't like pork." Suzu said crossing her arms.
"Well, have you ever tried it before?" Hina now asked her as Suzu glanced over at her.
"Uh....no, not really." Suzu replied.
"Well why donn't you take a few little bites to see if you like it?" Hina suggested as she handed the sandwich to Dai to pass to Suzu who held the sandwich in her hands and looked at it curiously.
"Okami, you may have some apple slices I prepared for a little snack." Hina said handing the slices over to Okami who munched on them happily.
Dai ate a little of the food Hina had brought for them and watched as Suzu slowly slowly ate her sandwich and chewed the food easily as a smile grew on her face from how good the food tasted to her.
"Hey, I really like this!" Suzu said triumphantly.
"I'm glad to hear it. I bet it's the best sandwich you've hand in a long time." Dai said not wanting to come off as sounding rude, but unintentionally did as Suzu now had frown spread over her face.
"Oh no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that, it just came out." Dai apologized.
"It's okay. It really is a good sandwich, and Okami and I haven't had a good meal like this in a while, it's true. We dug through the trash a lot before some mean people in the human realm caught us along with other kids too. But we were happy when those other kitsunes came and rescued us. Okami and I were really happy that we were going to come back here together." Suzu said as Okami's tail wagged.
The kids along with Dai and Hina ate more of the rest of their picnic but sat there talking about lighter subjects like about the rest of the realm and meeting with other children in the neighborhood. Not too long after Okami finished with his meal, he began to weep and shifted into his wolf form.
"Okami, are you okay? What's wrong?" Hina asked kindly as Okami came over to Hina and snuggled up next to her. "Don't cry, it's okay, it's alright, it's....OH!" Hina exclaimed in surprise as Okami while being in his young wolf form suddenly started sucking Hina's breast. Dai and Suzu chuckled at seeing little Okami do this.
"Okami really likes you Hina, he must already think you're his mom." Suzu giggled as Hina looked down at Okami to and saw him sucking on her breast and felt for the first time motherly love come over her.
A little while later, the four of them had packed up everything and was following Dai, who had said earlier he needed to stop at another artist's studio to pick up some art supplies. As they were walking, Okami was walking in his wolf form on all fours looking a little embarrassed.
"Okami thinks you're mad at him miss Hina." Suzu said as Hina looked a little surprised to hear this.
"Oh, no, I'm not mad at him at all Suzu. I admit it was....uh....certainly surprising that he did that, I just thought....he had grown out of doing something like that." Hina explained as Okami looked a little happier now as she shifted back to his human form.
"Ah, here we are. I'm going to ask for a few easles and brushes from this woman in here." Dai said as he headed in first followed by Hina holding onto Suzu and Okami's hands.
Okami, Dai, and Hina looked around in amazement at everything they were seeing. The art studio was filled with many magnificent pieces of art. Suzu and Okami were more taken in by all the bright colors of the paintings and just thought everything looked pretty.
"Hello there Dai, I'm guessing your supplier is late again?" The three tail kitsune woman guessed looking at Dai from behind her counter.
"Yeah, he is. I really can't blame him though, from what I heard he's been having some personal stuff going on." Dai said casually to the kitsune woman who glanced behind Dai to see Hina and the children.
"Looks like he's not the only one. Did you get married and have kids all within the last few months or so since I've seen you?" The kitsune woman joked as Hina gave a slight blush and hunched her shoulders looking away.
"Uh, no, not exactly. This is Hina, we've been dating for a few months now." Dai said giving Hina a quick gentle kiss on the lips.
"You look....a little familiar, have I seen you before?" The kitsune woman asked.
"Uh.....no? I don't think so anyway. I'm Hina, it's nice to meet you." Hina said holding out her hand for the woman to shake.
"Pleasure to meet you Hina, I'm Aiyo, and this is my art studio. So who are the little ones with you?" Aiyo asked looking down at the children.
"Ah, this is Suzu and Okami her little brother. Okami is actually a werewolf, Suzu found him not too long ago and basically adopted him as her brother. The two were given to us to take care of." Hina explained looking at the children.
"You're pretty, what do you look like human?" Suzu asked with a smile.
"Oh....uh....I actually can't turn human. It's sort of a birth defect or something like that. But I do like my kitsune form thank you. You know what? I think I have coloring pages for you two here to color in." Aiyo said handing the two kids coloring pages and crayons as they went to find a place to color.
Just as the children went off to go color, a male kitsune came out from the back. A male kitsune came out from the back office giving Aiyo some papers, when he saw Hina he was a little surprised to see her.
"Ah, hello Hina, I didn't expect to see you here." Takeo said a little surprised.
"Takeo-chan, you know this woman?" Aiyo asked looking back at Hina then to her husband.
"Yes, she's the war orphan I told you about that Chisai and Kiko had taken in before." Takeo reminded his wife.
"Oh, yes, I don't think I'd ever met her before. They brought in a couple of children with her, a little kitsune girl and a werewolf boy. They remind me a little of your niece and nephew. It's too bad they had to go home so soon, they're all such sweethearts. Speaking of, where did those two little ones go now?" Aiyo asked as they suddenly heard a loud crash as Dai, Hina, Takeo, and Aiyo went over to find little Suzu and Okami covered in wet paint on their fur and their clothes.
"Suzu, what happened?" Dai asked concerned.
"Okami wanted to finger paint, but the paint was up on a table too high for him and me, so we tried to pull it down carefully, but....we weren't careful. Sorry." Suzu explained as she bowed towards the grown ups and so did Okami looking sad.
"I'll grab your supplies, then I suggest you take these kids home and clean them off. Don't worry about the paints though, accidents happen." Aiyo said as she went to go get Dai's art supplies as Hina knelt down to Okami and Suzu's height.
"Suzu, Okami, I'm glad you told me the truth, but it was very bad for you two to do that. You should have come to one of us and asked about getting the paint and now you two are covered head to toe in paint. You both are going to have long baths when we get home. I'm very disappointed in both of you." Hina said quietly as Suzu and Okami both looked sad.
Dai and Hina left Aiyo's art studio and made their way back to Dai's home where Hina undressed Suzu and Okami and got a bath ready for the two of them and began washing all the paint off of them. Hina was cleaning Okami as he still looked sad and washed his face clean of paint.
"I'm sorry mommy, please don't be mad." Okami suddenly said sadly.
This surprised Hina, as not only was it the first time that entire day that Okami had actually spoken aloud, but Hina was almost taken aback at hearing Okami hearing him call her 'mommy'. They had only known each other for a day, but already Hina felt her heart melting for these children.
"Oh....Okami, I'm not....I'm not mad at you, I promise. But if you two are going to be living here with me and Dai, then you need to treat us like parents. You two are very sweet and I want you both to feel at home, so if you think you should ask us something, come ask us something. Okay?" Hina said sounding for the first time like a mother as the children nodded.
"Good, now it's almost time for bed. Do you two want to hear a bed time story?" Hina asked as they both nodded happily.
Suzu turned into her kitsune form while Okami shifted into his little werewolf form and Hina found a book to read to them that Dai happened to have and began reading the story of Momotaro, the peach boy to the children who fell asleep alongside her on her lap. Dai had finished putting away his art supplies and smiled to see the kids sleeping on Hina's lap and put a blanket over the three of them to keep them warm.
"Mommy." Okami silently said as Dai heard him and gave a little smile. Looking at the three of them sleeping underneath the blanket, Dai believed he had another idea for a painting.