おんどり

— ✿ It happened all too often now. As she rested her head on his chest, sitting on the back porch with her rooster, the god sensed that something was amiss.

         Akito tucked her hands around his waist, then leaned back into Kureno.

         Even clinging to his shirt, she felt unnaturally afraid, watching the birds fly away from him.

        -  Kureno gently rubbed Akito’s back as they sat on the porch in silence. Clinging to him  wasn’t at all peculiar, but it’s become frequent enough for him to sense that she’s in distress.  Not vocalizing it didn’t make him any less aware.

           Normally, he would wait for her to express how she felt on her own accord. However,  her fear was growing worse. He wondered if talking about would help ease her in some way.

“..Akito, I’m not so sure about this.” 

Normally Kureno would go along with anything if it made Akito happy, but when she came up to him with a bag containing makeup, he wondered if he could talk his way out of it. 

She had found the makeup bag lying on the bathroom countertop, then, after wondering briefly why it had been left there, had picked it up and brought it along with her to her room where Kureno sat, waiting.

“But..” 

He didn’t know how to persuade Akito to put the makeup back where she found it, or to at least spare him from getting a makeover. Who did it belong to anyway? And what if someone walks in and sees Kureno with makeup on? 

He hoped there was no lipstick.

Kureno regretted trying to navigate on his own. He had stayed behind so he could finish some important work, but didn’t expect to be in a completely different part of the city as a result of trying to reach where Akito currently was. He was already late, and soon the meeting would be starting. 

He hesitated, but pressed call anyway. He had to be honest with her. 

She picked up. 

There were a lot of people– people she considered strangers –around her at the moment, however, and their proximity was getting to her. 

“Describe where you are,” ordered the god flatly, trying to speak softly but with resolve. It wasn’t that what they were speaking about was strictly private; she just didn’t like being eavesdropped on, or simply the feeling of it.

Kureno examined his surroundings. There were several roads swamped with traffic on his right, and a large stretch of trees on his left. Over the bustle of the city, he could hear a train. 

Squinting against the sun, he spotted a sign. 

“Asukayama Park.”