Can I?
Kanae ran the fuck away from that confrontation. Of course, because she was taught manners, she did bow and request to leave with her clan head. He nodded, and looked rather stunned when she saw him.
So.
Kanae is now at the riverside again. It’s calming. Or, really, the possibility of meeting her is calming.
….
Fuck.
Uchiha Obsession.
With a capital O.
Kanae is fucked.
The wind is pleasant. It was… calm.
Kanae lays on the riverside, listening to the rustling grass. She can feel the tears sliding down her cheeks. It hasn’t stopped yet, despite the multiple attempts of hers.
She can hear them approach. It must be her lucky day, Kanae decides, when she opens her eyes to the beautiful sight.
On her back, moments before this, all within her sight was the rustling leaf and soft sunlight falling through the cracks. It’s soft lime and sage green and lovely, unimaginably thin ribbon of lights. The wind blows, and it caresses her cheeks, drying away the tears.
Now, though?
Red, red river of bloody strands.
Soft green eyes full of concern.
Blue blue oceans of easily read emotions.
Two beautiful, beautiful smiles.
What did she do to deserve this, she wonders, to be allowed to open her eyes to such beauty.
“You look like shit.”
Ah, there goes the etherealness. Hana just has to say it in that tone, does she?
“You think?” Kanae snarks back, wiping at her face and the tear streaks. She hesitates for a moment, but pushes herself up with one hand. “… you're late.”
Kochou raises an eyebrow at the words, drawing out her own reply. “My apologies, I wasn’t aware we had an appointment.”
Hana just snickers. Childishly so. And shooting Kanae a rather superior look.
“Not… appointment.” Kanae shrugs, because really, they don’t even have a set schedule. “You normally get here earlier.” To be precise, their usual arrival time is somewhere from 2:40 to 3:25, then they spend their afternoon with her until sunset or roughly 5-5:30.
… yeah, she wasn’t supposed to know all that, was she?
Kochou hums considerately, while Hana makes a boggled face. Ha.
“You, what? Remember the normal time we get here? To the hour?” Hana asks, looking surprised. Why would she be surprised? “Are we that predictable?”
Kochou doesn’t even blink. “We do follow a schedule, imouto. Not to the letter, mind, but certainly not unpredictable.” There’s a small tilt to her lips, and god.
Kochou looks so… beautiful.
The light is hitting her face from that one angle that lights up her eyes. The softness. Kanae would kill to have it aimed at her for even a moment more. Sporadic shadows of the overhead lush grown doesn’t take away from it all.
Her eyes are warm, like melted ingots from this light, not quite glowing, but more. There’s fondness in there, Kanae wants to think. Fondness for her.
Kochou looks like an angel.
“Close your mouth, idiot! You’re drooling.” Hana’s voice cuts off her staring.
Kanae quickly reaches up to wipe her chin, but there’s nothing there. She turns to glare at the red head.
“What was that for!”
“You were staring at my sister, you know?” Oh, there’s a hint of hostility in her voice now. Kanae never really noticed, but Hana… She's rather territorial, isn’t she? Like a little huntress, staking her claim on things she owns. Little pebbles, books, her hairpins, her sister… everything.
Hana’s blue eyes are narrowed, staring at Kanae with an intensity people would be scared of, gaze belying dangerous thoughts. Most people would be unnerved.
Kanae just feels excited.
Oh, didn’t you know? Uchiha loves dangerous, lethal, graceful little things. People who can break them into pieces, but still look so damn elegant while at it.
And Kanae is sure Hana will grow into someone her clansmen will fight over, one day, with the sort of natural, sharp beauty she hosts. However-
“Girls.” Kochou’s voice stops their staring sections, calling both of their gaze back to her.
-Hana’s presence would be next to nothing compared to her sister.
There’s clear fondness in those emerald eyes, softening her whole complexion. Kochou’s natural paleness, coupled with her midnight black hair, is something Kanae will forever marvel at. Even more than an Uchiha’s complexion, really, but not sickening pale. Moonlight-like, in the middle of the day. Lovely.
It’s a surprise to Kanae that she’s never heard any story about these two. They are so fucking pretty, how the hell are they avoiding people? Oh, right.
They aren’t as open with others. And it’s exhilarating, for her, to be allowed so close, see this sort of softness to these two, something no one else has yet seen.
“Yes, nee?”
“Hai?”
They say at the same time. Kanae is even using honorifics.
Kochou looks so unassuming, even with her beauty. People’s gazes are drawn to her, but they never even guess she’s something more. But Kanae is close enough to feel the absolute beast of an aura she has.
If Kochou wanted to charm you, you would be in her bed before the day even ended.
Hell, even now, Kanae is reacting to her every word.
She has something that pulls you in and makes you stay. Never with force, never with violence, never through coercion. There’s just something about her that keeps Kanae here, close to her.
“Ah, how dare you copy me!” Hana shouts, flailing about. She makes such a cute picture too.
“Copying you? You’re copying me!”
“No way! I always use honorifics with nee! You never even said a polite word to me!”
“Show me something to be polite with then, Hana!”
“Oh, I’ll show you-!”
They tussle about a bit, nothing too much so as to dirty Hana’s clothes-
Kanae knows these kids aren’t well fed, nor are their clothes new. They wear almost the same thing every time she sees them. If something small like this helps them not get in trouble, Kanae is willing to do so.
-but enough to get her point across.
Yeah. Life’s pretty good right now.
Turns out, showing up to a friendly meeting with tear streaks on your face isn’t exactly… the most reassuring thing.
But it’s probably fine. Right?
The two girls haven’t said anything about it yet, and Kanae is well aware she looks terrible. But they treat her with an ease she doesn’t get in her clan, or the village.
The sisters treat Kanae like she’s just Anka. Not a little prodigy, not someone whose brother is holding her down, not a kid.
To them, to Hana and Kochou, Kanae is just Anka, someone they know.
It’s easier to breathe, when she’s with them.
But Kanae is aware it wouldn’t last.
The sun is setting, after all.
“Ne, Kochou.” Anka says, with her hands locking Ayaka in a headlock.
Which, fuck her. Ayaka is four and growing, she’ll be able to fight Anka off in no time at all! Just you wait!
Before that though…
Tap tap tap! She needs to breathe, damn it.
Anka’s hold slackens, but not enough for Ayaka to escape or run away. Not that she wants to. It feels kind of like a hug. Which, Anka’s is pretty nice. Warm and toasty. Like a little oven, complete with a smoky, oaky smell.
Nee’s is a bit different. Like a protective embrace, homey, accompanied with the softest fragrance. Not too much pressure, not too tight, easy to pull away from but is actually too tempting to do so.
But yeah. Anka’s hugs are pretty nice.
She perks her ears up so she can hear what’s going to happen. Coincidentally, the position she’s in puts her ears close enough to Anka’s heart that she can hear the beating.
Quicker than normal, irregular. Nervous, excited. Maybe a bit embarrassed?
Nee glances up from her book, partially hidden by the shade as she was. Ayaka doesn’t mind that nee doesn’t play as much, really. She’s almost always a little tired, and Ayaka is too hyperactive for her to match. Anka is a good enough playmate.
“Yes?”
Anka is staring, she can tell.
Yeah. Nee looks amazing like this, relaxed and in her elements, with only close friend and family nearby. All soft edges and fond gazes, little smiles that light up the damn world.
“Did I do the right thing? Doing what I did.” She can hear her heart thundering. Anxious for the answer. But there’s a sureness to her heartbeat. To her chakra. She’s not… confused, or afraid of the answer. Anticipatory, if anything.
Ann looks at Anka, really looks at her, like she’s judging and assessing at the same time.
“Why ask me a question you already know the answer to?” She drawls, bored tone but pointed voice. Anka never gave them a real question, actually. The question was asked for the sake of asking-there’s no problem to be solved, no puzzle to figure out, nothing. No information, not enough of it.
It’s a pointless question, only existing for the sake of being asked.
Ann-nee doesn’t like pointless things. Have even less care for useless questions. She wants answers, and questions based on those answers to continue on. Like the analytical coldness that comes from books and reports and profiles.
But this question is important to Anka-emotionally and rationally. Ayaka doesn’t have all the pieces-neither does Ann-but she can tell, from the hesitant beat of her heart and the flicker of her chakra.
Anka’s heart calms. Ann, even in her brutality, is reassuring.
Ayaka can relate.
“I want your opinion.”
Ann stares for a bit, before resumes flipping through her book.
“I think, whatever you did, you made the right choice.”
Anka’s chakra blooms. Beautiful.
Ayaka shudders with it, the heat almost too much in such close proximity.
Anka is like a flash fire. Something that burns wildly, careless of who it hurts so long as it can keep its blaze. But still so carefully tucked away into a barely there control, swirling but not spreading. Fire tornado, Ayaka thinks. Just as wild, just as unpredictable, just as fast. Pulling things in like a magnet.
Now, there’s a lightness to it that wasn’t presented moments before. Whatever she asked about, Anka had been worried about it for too long. Not that she would know. They never ask about private life.
(It’s a game, you see, to see who would give the earliest, and who can find information the fastest. An unnamed, unspoken game, but acknowledged all the same.)
Ann’s word is just that, words. But it is validation. Some form of acceptance. And it seems, to Anka, that that is enough.
Ayaka feels the pleased fire plastered to her back, the quiet calm coldness a little further away, and carefully tuck her thoughts away.
Their chakra would look beautiful mingled together.
Letting her mind jump back to reality, she put away those little fantasies. Anka is Anka, no one else. Ann is her twin, and she will continue to be.
Yeah. Life is good.