Lesson Learned

The weak are lead by the strong

Mitsuko grinned when she found the tallest tree in the woods as the afternoon grew later and verged on the evening.

"We are not climbing that," Gakushuu said firmly.

She grinned at him. "Yes, we are!"

He crossed his arms. "No, we're not."

Mitsuko laughed and ran towards it. "Last one up has to do the dishes!"

"Mitsuko!" He yelled at her. "You're going to hurt yourself!"

She ignored him and climbed up. "You're the one who bet you could do it!" She was climbing fast, looking down at him. "Come on!"

He glared up at her and them started mumbling darkly under his breath. "Don't climb so fast!"

Mitsuko laughed and grabbed onto another branch. "Oh, please, this is easy. You should see the trees at the Old Campus." She could hear him catching up to her. "Do you think we can see bears from here?"

"Bears are the last thing we want to see!" he snapped, catching up so they were climbing side by side. "And you said we'd climb a smaller tree."

"I implied a small tree." She grinned, pausing to rest on near a branch. "I never specifically said it would be small."

Gakushuu glared at her. "I swear you're going to give me a heart attack one day."

"Yeah, but I bet it's because you would have been having too much fun." She chuckled, staring out at the view. "And just look at that view!"

You could see over the trees, making the whole thing look like a giant bed of moss with tiny temples nestled in-between. It stretched on for miles.

Mitsuko took a picture on her phone. "This is going to make a great screensaver."

Gakushuu rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling even if he didn't fully realise it. "It's at least worth some of the trip."

She smiled, getting comfortable on the branch. "We should travel, once we're eighteen and school is over." Her smile grew. "We could travel anywhere."

Her brother hummed, sitting on the branch opposite her. "We already have for the most part."

"Yeah, for competitions," she replied, frowning. "I mean for fun." She stared at the skyline and the trees. "Where I don't have to worry about bringing back a gold trophy to feel good about myself..." Her feet kicked the air. "I wanna be able to stuff like this with you more before we have to grow up and then spend the rest of our lives working..."

Gakushuu looked at her thoughtfully for a moment."...It's not an unreasonable idea." He frowned. "I'm not climbing trees all day, though."

Mitsuko smiled. "You're not as good as me anyway."

He scoffed. "Yes, I am."

She smirked, hanging on tight to the tree trunk. "You'd really consider just hanging out with me for fun?"

"Well it's either that or I let you do something reckless with those delinquent," he said, wrinkling his nose.

Mitsuko chuckled. "Will you stop calling them that?"

He brushed a leaf off his shoulder. "It's what they are." Then he frowned. "But I refuse to play those video games Araki keeps trying to convince me to buy," he told her. "The whole activity is mind-numbing and a waste of time."

She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Like I'd waste time trying to teach you to play."

He smiled faintly. "I'll admit this whole experience has been...less time-consuming than I thought."