In the Woods Somewhere (Tsukkiyama)

Don't Look Back

**OMG I am so sorry, I had chap 7 saved in drafts and I forgot to post it last week! Hope this makes up for it!!

Tadashi should've known better than to think such a delightful evening could last. Usually, he had the clarity to hide Tsukki's gifts before he entered the village. Usually, he knew to take the backroads and not let anyone see him leave the forest. Usually, Tadashi wasn't a massive idiot. Usually.

So enamored was he, with Tsukki's well thought out gifts, with Tsukki's face so close to his, that Tadashi completely forgot that he and Tsukki were never supposed to know each other. A simple mistake, really. A simple mistake that had the misfortune of sending Tadashi's meticulously crafted narrative crashing down around him. Love had made him careless in a time where caution was most needed.

Everyone saw everything. The entire village, they saw him. They saw Tadashi exit the forest, well past nightfall, with a stupidly smitten smile on his face and a fine ribbon in his hair. He could've tried to craft an excuse about a secret lover from another town, but the craftsmanship was too fine to be of human make. Really, what other assumptions could people make?

It only took a few days for the gossip to spread, but the fallout afterward was horrendous. Everyone and their mothers had a different story about what Tadashi had been up to. The fine details, all made up by the town gossips, varied widely, but the broad strokes were still there. The general story went as follows.

Tadashi had been out late searching for herbs in the forest months before (wrong) and had stumbled across a beautiful woman (also wrong). This woman had offered to show Tadashi the herbs in exchange for a kiss (what?), and he had obliged. What resulted was a summer fling with a Kitsune, who would help Tadashi and gift him things for affection (Who thought of this?). The story had changed from Tadashi walking out of the forest to him stumbling out, disoriented, and heartbroken by a faerie that wanted to consume his soul. The whole thing was ridiculous and borderline amusing.

Unfortunately, Tadashi's father did not agree, a fact he made very clear the next morning. After a long series of arguments and plenty of bruising, truly, a wonderful way to wake up, Tadashi was up and frogmarched to the local priest. The resulting afternoon was nothing short of hell.

The town had gathered in the sanctum for a full inquisition, a quest to purify Tadashi. He spent hours in that accursed chapel, being probed with questions and exorcised. The ordeal lasted hours, with no breaks for food or water. Question after question, accusation after accusation. Throughout the entire mess, despite the stress and pain, it put him under, Tadashi made sure to give out no real information.

Although it brought him pain, the safest option was to agree with the stories of the townsfolk, that he had been duped by a wandering Kitstune and nothing more. But Tadashi knew the truth, and so did his father.

Everything that Tadashi had, things given to him by Tsukki and other personal effects, all of them destroyed. A watch around the village perimeters was kept throughout the night; no one could enter or exit without being seen. Not that Tadashi could've tried to sneak out anyway, not now that his father had him on such a tight leash.

He could not go anywhere without eyes on him, some mistrustful, others concerned for his safety. Tadashi truly didn't know which was worse, his time spent locked in the house, or the watchful eyes of the village. Either way, returning to the forest was nigh impossible.

Summer slowly waned away, its green warmth leading into autumn once again. And as the months passed, Tadashi grew restless. Every day he spent his life in a cage, never alone and never free. The wanderlust that had once been sated by weekly visits to Tsukki now reared its head like the ravenous beast it was. Tadashi wanted to move, to see, to spend time in the beautiful wilds and away from his stifling town. But there was no escape.