•Tomoe x Reader: Book 2•

5. Ether

Maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't be such a scary trip after all.

The moment the two of you had left the inn, the world had seemed... silent. Peaceful. The empty carts lining the streets were closed and left behind, and very few demons and terrifying creatures sulked around as they managed the few shops that were open.

"Why is it so quiet?" You asked softly, scared to break the quiet, somehow.

Tomoe sighed, a soft puff of air. "Today is one of the days where the gap between your world and ours grows thin. You didn't think the ghost stories and legends from above are all fake, did you? Lots of us like to play around too."

The mask, though hard to see properly from, was also a bit of a blessing. Being able to look at him without him noticing felt a bit strange, but still... he really was handsome. He'd donned the traditional Yukata of the time, but decided not to wrap it all the way in the hell-like heat of the morning, and you noticed with shy appreciation the tone of his chest. His face, though, worried you, after you looked at it for a while. There was a line between his silver brows that was not typical of him.

"You alright, Tomoe?"

He looked down to you, he had been lost in another thought.

"Yes, I am. I'm..."

It was rare for him to open up so fluidly, and it took him a moment to actually speak.

"I'm thinking." He withdrew, though, and you mentally chided him.

Still, you let it go, and soon the walk from the village merged into a twisting path of black gravel and trees. The trees were hauntingly beautiful, a heavy, dark brown bark of trunks as wide as your body and long limbs stretching up into the crimson-hued sky, their leaves a deep violet, crescent-shaped and not looking much like trees at all.

"They're pretty..." you noted aloud, and Tomoe's tail swayed appreciatively behind him at the comment.

"Yes. They are called the trees of Ether. Most humans never lay eyes on them. You're lucky, woman." The way he called you that seemed harsh in words, but his tone was soft as the wind ruffling those hypnotizing masses of fluid purple above you.

You took a moment to look at them, taking your mask from your face and letting it hang freely from your neck on its chord, so your eyes could encompass the full view of them.

"Are those-...?" You turned to ask a question after a few moments, but instead of finishing you grew a bit pink with surprise at the fact he had been looking at you, in a way it seemed no one had looked at you before. Still, his old self was back immediately, moving his arm up to rub the back of his nape casually.

"What?" He responded, annoyed. "Speak up."

You took a moment to relax and responded. "Well, those little things hanging in pods along the trunk... are those a fruit?"

There were, indeed, round, brown pods which nearly blended into the tree.

Tomoe's face grew grim. "Yes, but don't go eating them. The tree will eat you."

That thought, though, didn't make your stomach stop it's insistent pangs.

"Well, either way, I'm still hungry. Humans eat, you know...?"

Tomoe scoffed. "Every day?"

You rolled your eyes. "Yes, every day, you oversized kit."

He reddened, making an irritated expression that just made you want to tease him more.

"Says the girl who is relying on me as an escort." He countered.

"Who's relying on who now? I'm the one with the goddamn oracle in my stomach, Tomoe. I'd probably be alright if I went alone."

A bold statement you didn't really mean, but it somehow ended in him drawing closer, making you step back right against the bark of an Ether tree, though the texture of it wasn't as rough as the trees of earth.

Tomoe pressed a hand threateningly against the tree behind you, you would have called it cliche immediately if he wasn't... so...

His eyes had narrowed enough for the lilac pupils to look not at all friendly, even though his lips had curled, amused at whatever reaction you had made and not quite controlled.

"Hey, you're-..."

He was much too close, and for some reason you were catching the scent of lavender from his hair. If he wasn't smirking so annoyingly, and your words would work, you might have teased him for that, but-...

"I'm what?"

Damn him.

You couldn't find the words, though.

He shifted, leaning down so the two of you were face to face. His hair shifted over his shoulder. "What I am, is your familiar. You're my woman, and you're not going to tell me you could get through this without me. You wouldn't last, nor would I ever allow that... to happen."

He had physically restrained him from cursing, you could tell that.

"Just-..."

He pulled back, ruffled your hair.

"Keep your eyes open, and by my side. Nothing will happen if you do."