Forbidden [giyuushino]

Chapter 9 - Dance With Me

A photo of Shinobu with her hair down... Should be featured in the anime haha

This will be just fluff :D

~💜~

Thunder roared and boomed across the hazy grey skies. Splitting the clouds in two, lightning crackled like brightly illuminated vines that twisted about a foggy forest.

Days passed by in a gloomy manner as such. If hours were large glass jugs, they would've overflowed with drizzling water.

The constant pattering of rain seemed to lull the inhabitants to sleep every night. Sailing clouds loomed over the children of nature.

A damp smell lingered in the humid air, formulating kaleidoscopic rainbows as the Sun often came out to shine amidst the misty atmosphere.

...

Shinobu drearily stared at the murky weather outside.

~Ahhh, my beautiful flowers will die... I wish it was sunny~

She stood up from her post and left to mindlessly walk around the estate. There was no use to training Kanao in the rain. These days, she had noticed that the little girl had become much more independent, barely using that stupid coin Kanae had given her. Shinobu wondered what had changed that caused such an impact on the often obstinate tsugoku.

The shower outside had diminished into a light sprinkle, the usual rays of sunlight that came after a downpour had already started to arrive, yet still concealed by a flurry of clouds.

Naho, Sumi, and Kiyo, were running outside, chasing and splashing each other in pure pleasure. Aoi, sprinting across the estate trying to save the soaked laundry, was caught suppressing her own smile as she shook her head in amusement.

From the blue, Kanao had suddenly appeared besides Shinobu, who was stifling her own chuckles herself. In contrast, the girl was staring at the four outside with a flat facial expression, hiding her true emotions.

"Ara ara~ I think you should go play with them if you really want to. Don't just stand there!" Shinobu chuckled as she gently nudged her forwards.

If she could've looked twice, she would; the hashira swore that she had caught an almost different expression on the girl's face, her eyes practically gleaming with some kind of forgotten excitement.

Finally, Kanao had given in to Shinobu's urging and went down to join the girls.

She smiled at the sight of her constantly soundless tsugoku finally enjoying herself, or at least taking part with others. 

Shinobu walked on as the rain continued to patter.

...

After having walked around and checked on patients for the second time that day, the rain seemed to still have been going and the girls had retreated along with the Sun.

She was again at the same place she had started, sitting on the wooden steps of the estate, staring out into the deluge.

The tapping of steps faintly increased.

Until it stopped.

Someone was standing right behind her.

She craned her neck and saw a familiar face (that was upside down haha), her frown instantaneously lighting up into a smile without her noticing, "Tomioka-san!! What are the odds of seeing you here?" 

He shrugged.

"Well... join me, I'm quite bored," she said as she indicated for him to sit next to her. 

To her surprise, he did. Although she tried to hide her shocked face, she deemed her attempts useless when he gave her a typical look in return.

They sat there for at least 5 minutes just looking at the downpour in silence. Instead of it being awkward, the pitter-pattering of it had only made the time seem more like a calm meditation, rather than cold ice that needed breaking.

Of course for Shinobu, any kind of silence needed breaking, "Ne ne, Tomioka-san, doesn't dancing in the rain seem so fun?" She asked playfully, only speaking her thoughts and not expecting an answer.

"It does," a voice replied.

There was only one person next to her right now. 

"Ara ara~ I didn't know that you had a *fun* side..."

"I can be fun..." he answered irritably.

She turned her head, he turned his too and was met with a menacing sheen in her eyes, "Prove it."

If it wasn't for the intensity of the moment - the shine in her eyes, the voice in which she said it, and the rain itself - he would've refused and just left at that moment. 

But something had differed within him some days before. And so the unchanging Giyuu Tomioka had accepted.

It wasn't much of the kind of challenge he expected, but more of a challenge that he had sworn that he never would've done.

Shinobu beamed at his acceptance, and pulled him up.

"Come on!" she shouted through the noise and dragged him into the deep of the gardens of the Butterfly estate.

The trees and towering plants had mostly sheltered them from view but the rain dragged on, drenching both of their clothes and hair.

Shinobu smiled from ear to ear as she shook out her butterfly hair pin and then took him by the hand with her left, and removing Giyuu's own hair tie with her right hand.

"Now we're both crazy looking, right?" she said as she looked at him with her shiny eyes.

He nodded.

"But we're both having fun," she smiled that smile again.

He nodded again, a small curve twitching on the sides of his lips.

The rain lasted for another hour, and the two had been dancing and running about for almost half of that. By the time thunder and lightning had seized the skies, Shinobu was practically hauling Giyuu for them to both get shelter.

...

"Ara ara~ I didn't know that you could have fun, Tomioka-san," Shinobu teased yet again as the two were lying down, arms and legs spread, soaking on the tatami mat.

He nodded, yet even though she couldn't see it (and that was the point because if she did she would never stop teasing him about it), he was also smiling with a heated red face that burned from the tips of his ears as a result of the fervent time in the rain.

"That was the most fun I've had in a long time," Shinobu said, absorbed in her own thoughts.

Giyuu nodded again.

-I like this kind of fun-

...

Sorry that I didn't update yesterday...

I think I'll write another chapter today because I can't be lacking and tbh I really enjoyed writing this one!!

1030 words