Book 2: The Three of Us

Chapter 4: Quiet Days at Home

"Where'd you find the pickled seaweed? I've never seen it at the market," I ask, looking through the pantry for a snack and noticing the new addition.

Kisame looks up from the notebook he's writing in at the table, "I found this little shop where they sell things from the Land of Water. They have a small selecting of food, mostly spices and pickled stuff."

"Nice. Did you end up buying any of the spices?" I ask, curious if he'd be making any food with it.

"It was really expensive so I only got a little bit. Haven't decided what I'm going to make with it," he explains, setting his pencil down and taking a break from whatever he was writing, "The shop owner was very nice. They're originally from the Land of Water, which is nice to see. They even offered to give me a discount on any of the clothes I buy."

I take out a jar of pickled beets and make my way over to the table, sitting in the chair beside Kisame. Opening it, I offer some to Kisame who accepts before taking a bite, "I'd love to check out the shop some time. Itachi probably would too."

Saying this puts a big smile on his face, "The shop might have placement beads I could buy for the two of you. I noticed the shop owner had some in there hair. I didn't recognize all of them but I did recognize the Loss of Parent and Two Spirit ones."

Kisame had told us about placement beands before, how they were braided into a persons hair and from them one could tell what role they had in there clan and family. There were beads that represented different professions, from headman to hunter. There were even beads designed to represent the loved ones people had lost. The beads weren't only a right of passage for the Hoshiki people, they also told the story of who the person was. However, 'Two Spirit' was not one I'd heard of before.

"What does Two Spirit mean?" I ask.

"There isn't a direct translation for it from my language to yours, leading to the use of Two Spirit, which is more of a blanket term," Kisame explains, "It means that someone isn't a man or a woman, rather someone that falls in between. In some clans it's a role given to a person. These people are ones made in the eye of Great Spirit that are here to give spiritual guidance and help bridge the gap between masculine and feminine."

The idea makes me smile, "That's beautiful," but also wanting to understand it better, "Is it similar to non-binary?"

Kisame shakes his head, "Not when it comes to the clan role. However, someone who is Two Spirit can also be what you define as non-binary. The reason it can be hard to understand in comparison to the language you're used to, is because we don't have male/female gender roles. It's more so masculine/feminine roles instead. Who you are defined as is determined by what role you take in your family and clan, not by what you look like physically."

"I wish it was like that for everyone. People would be a lot happier with themselves if gender roles weren't forced on them," I say, thinking of all the people that have suffered because they feel forced to act a certain way. Girls should allowed to act masculine without being shamed for it, same for boys who wanted to act feminine. And especially the people who fall somewhere in the middle, people like Sai. I saw first hand the struggle they went through trying to figure out who they were.

Kisame nods in agreement, "Even now other cultures idea of gender confuses me. Especially with the use of pronouns. My language doesn't use he/him or she/her when referring to someone, we only have non-gendered pronouns."

The thought of a young Kisame using random pronouns when referring to other people and things makes me want to laugh, "That must have been a learning curve for you."

Kisame snorts out a laugh, "Oh yeah, it was. I was very good at accidently pissing people off."

"I can imagine," I say, letting out a light chuckle.

Kisame looks up at the clock, checking the time and stands up when he realizes what time it is, "Itachi should be home soon. I can start making dinner now."

Getting up, I put away the pickled beets in the fridge, "What do you plan on making? I can help."

"There's mushrooms I foraged today in a basket on the back porch, thinking of making something with that. They're mostly golden chanterelles but I did find some matsutake too," Kisame answers, taking a quick inventory of what food we have in the house. As he continues the inventory I grab the basket of mushroom from the back porch and start washing the dirt off of them in the sink.

In the end we decide to make mushroom dumplings. Kisame was still learning how to make them but for me, it was one of the few meals I knew how to cook. Watching Kisame's brow scrunch together in concentration as he worked on getting the folds perfect puts a smile on my face. Seeing Kisame work in the kitchen was as natural as seeing him on the battle field. He seemed to have a natural gift to cooking that most didn't have. 

When he was cooking, it looked like a weight was taken off his shoulders. Kisame didn't talk much of his past, especially the years after he became a rouge ninja. That part of his life weighed heavy on him and he still hadn't opened up about it. I wouldn't push him to and neither would Itachi. So, for now, I can enjoy watching him cook, taking in and enjoying every moment together that we can. 

***

Placement beads are something I made up and are not from traditional Tlingit culture. I probably saw something similar at some point from some other culture, so I won't take credit for the idea. What I can take credit for is my own personal design and color theory I made to go along with it. I've designed some of the beads and will be sharing those in future chapters.

I'm in love with the idea of placement beads. I think it would be incredible to be able to know so much about a person and not have to make assumptions about them. If we lived in a world where we had different beads that represented the story of someone's life, I think we'd be able to better understand people and treat them with more compassion. Also if I could know someone's pronouns that easily it would be absolutely fantastic.

Obviously there's flaws in this when it comes to people who are blind, visually impaired or color blind but I can dream. As someone who is visually impaired (I can see but everything is incredibly blurry even with my glasses that have crazy strong prescription. This applies to seeing close up and far away. Far away sucks but is manageable until I'm in a crowded area or trying to read signs. Close up sucks cause I can't read most printed books and I still struggle even when the font on my phone is as large as it can be.) I personally experience the flaws in this but still, like I said, I can dream. Also if you ever come across weird typos in my writing, I simply can not see them and I don't have an editor to help me.