Are We Alive?

Thirteen: Almond Blossom

Almond Blossom-Hope, Lover's Charm

I think one of my favorite parts about writing this story is looking through my PDF of flower meanings to find what the chapter will be represented by 😄. Because of it, I have a thing about flowers now so if anyone gets me flowers(literally only my dad, either to console me or congratulate me for things)they have to pay attention to the meaning. My mother has learned that in flower language, yellow often has a negative meaning, but not always. I wouldn't let her get yellow tulips for our yard lol. Alright, enough of me blabbing, enjoy the story!

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Rin and Izumo had double teamed Ryuji into training with them on some mornings. It was a nice dynamic. Rin used to hate fighting, but now, he had fun beating up and getting beat up by his boyfriend and his girlfriend.

Rin and Izumo could team up to take Bon down because they had the upper had with smaller, faster bodies and more flexibility. Ryuji and Rin could take Izumo down by pissing her off and then pinning her. Ryuji and Izumo had yet to beat Rin because he was a weasel and could find a way out of their strategies.

They knew that whenever they were able to pin him, he let them. But that was the fun of it: the teasing and flirting.

So, fighting with his two lovers got Rin hot and bothered, sue him. He was still young. Only nineteen this coming December. He'd turned eighteen on the Wisconsin. Sometimes he forgot that he wasn't already an adult and still had plenty of life left to live and have fun with.

Being a Leader, a boyfriend to two people, and a Dad was difficult to juggle, but it seemed that Shiemi had meant it when she said the group should be giving Rin his own downtime. She must have talked to them at some point and explained. He was grateful for that. It took some weight off his shoulders. His group had literally a bunch of adults and a forty-something year old. The only helpless ones should be the kids, the others needed to think for themselves more.

Bon and Izumo helped him with leadering and making decisions more often. They helped him with the kids more and they did their best to take over and let Rin spend more time with his daughter. It was nice that they were stepping up.

Living on the farm was something Rin slowly settled into. He chopped firewood, trained with his weapons and hand-to-hand, learned how to milk the feisty cow that usually angrily mooed at anyone that came near her udders, hunted for meat in the woods, played dolls or pretend with the kids, and spent downtime with everyone over meals. Chelsea and Marshal seemed incredibly happy to share their home with the group. They'd been alone too long. Rin wondered why the women had trusted his group so easily. Maybe Marshal had the same way of telling who she could trust that Rin did. Rin had always had a good intuition about people and their loyalties. Marshal seemed to understand him on a different level then his group did. He wondered if it was because their personalities had a lot of similarities.

Now, as he milked the angry cow, Rin could hear Marshal's clear voice singing some Fall Out Boy song. Chelsea's voice joined hers and they harmonized. Rin smiled. Sachi loved music. He used to sing to her on the Wisconsin. Rin's clear tenor voice and Sachi's pitchy, slightly off-key voice echoed in the halls of the ship when they'd been sailing. Rin had a wide arsenal of Disney songs to sing and teach his daughter, thankfully.

The monastery took donations and that was where a majority of Rin and Yukio's belongings came from. Someone donated a bunch of old Disney VHS tapes in English and Rin had watched the hell out of them. He could quote several parts of Lady and the Tramp, the Aristocats, and The Little Mermaid.

He'd also seen The Princess Bride several times because Shiro had loved it. Yukio had always thought the movie was stupid, but Rin's most cherished memories involved watching The Princess Bride with Shiro and saying the words with the characters when they said a famous line.