Kazuscara • Alongside you

Chapter 1 • Meeting my first love

Context: Kazuha and Scaramouche are respectively 14 and 16 years old. This is happening during a past irodori festival, not the one presented in version 2.7.
Enjoy!

Kazuha pov:
I was walking around the crowded Inazuman streets in a nice afternoon while heading to my favourite spot to relax as the other people enjoyed the joyful time. I always loved visiting Ritou, it had such an ethereal scenery with the beautiful crimson coloured leaves that twirled down the trees in autumn. While walking down the busy, loud and excited streets of the small island, walking over to the biggest mature maple tree which I loved visiting to write my haiku, I spotted a short boy looking rather lonely. As I approached him slowly he seemed to notice my presence and got a bit startled but soon noticed I didn't seem to hold any motives.
I sat down next to him slowly and took in all his features as I sat.

He had beautiful blue eyes that reminded me of the dark night sky that was lightened by the moon.
He also had very long dark blue hair with a few lighter streaks of a nice baby blue.
His beautiful eyes had a nice contrast as he wore a elegant red eyeliner that made his lashes look longer and his eyes batted so gracefully, like some butterfly spreading its wings as it is about to take flight.

In short, he was probably the prettiest person I've ever seen. My stomach felt like it had taken a whole turn around and I felt my heart get warm.

Suddenly, I snapped out of my trance as I heard a petite, meek voice coming from the cute boy I was sitting besides.
"H-hello? Can you hear me?" He said.
"Yes, I'm so sorry! I got a bit distracted, my apologies. I'm Kaedehara Kazuha, but you can just call me Kazuha if you'd like." I said flashing on a small but reassuring smile to him.
"Nice to meet you, Kazuha. My name's Kunikuzushi. Feel free to call me whatever you'd like" he said so cutely. 'Kunikuzushi.. such a cute name, it fits his adorable face' I thought to myself while feeling my face slowly, very slowly, heating up.
"So, Kuni, what are you doing here all by yourself? Not many people come around here so I usually use it to write my poems and haiku.. Is there any particular reason you're here? Do you want some company, perhaps?"
"I'm currently here because me and my mother had a disagreement so I fled to free my mind from bad thoughts.." he said calmly and graciously.. The more I looked at him the more I wanted to spend time with him. "So you like poetry it seems.. Would you mind if I took a look?" He said suddenly. I was pretty shook as no one ever asked me this and would rather see my swordsmanship skills. "It's fine if you don't want to, I won't push." He said lightly to me, laying back against the tree and smiling faintly.
'He looks so beautiful from this angle..' I thought 'NO YOU DONT LIKE HIM YOU JUST MET HIM!! WHAT WOULD FATHER THINK IF HE SAW I LIKED A BOY?' I liked Kunikuzushi very much already but I knew I couldn't disappoint father. I hadn't realized earlier that I was starting to catch feelings but I couldn't let that happen, for father.
"Kazuha?"
I snapped out of my trance again only to be very surprised by what was in front of me.

There stood Kuni sitting, reaching his hand to maybe pat my shoulder, his legs spread slightly apart making his robe fall slightly and exposing a part of his thighs, his head tilted with a faint worried look. I felt my face burning up at the sight. I turned as red as a tomato.
"I-I'm all good!! Sorry, hehe.. It took me a bit by surprise you wanted to read my poetry is all!! Most people and family members always tell me to focus if my swordsmanship and fighting strategies.."
"Kazuha, you shouldn't let your family members manipulate what you do and deprive you from what you love doing." He said with pure kindness shown in his tone as he spoke his words to me. It shook my heart how he cared when we barely met.
"If it keeps going like this you can come over here, I'll be here from now on just for you. I'll stay quiet if you wanna write your haiku and I'll be there to listen to you if you need an open ear." He said sincerely as he clasped my hand.
"Oh my lord, marry me.." I whispered looking down to make sure he wouldn't see me and then I brought my head back up to look at Kunikuzushi in the face.
"Wanna come over to my place? The Kaedehara estate, if you're familiar with it."
"Sure thing, Kazuha"

829 words
A/N
Omg this is my first fanfic ever and I'm doing this for the fun of writing but I still hope you guys will enjoy the first chapter.