Prologue: Past

"So when do you leave?" Kitsune asked the question with her face toward the moon-filled night sky, but it was easier than looking her two best friends in the face. She wasn't strong enough for that, she was certain.

All three of the ninjas lay on a blanket in the clearing just outside the village, stargazing together like they'd done since they were children. It felt like it would be the last time she would see them. They'd been training their whole lives for this next chapter, so far away in their minds for so long now just a night's sleep away, and theirs was a dangerous business. Killing people for a living, in service of the Shogun, or as a vigilante, was never an easy line of work anyway. It was not a job where one aged well, if at all. Even though she herself was leaving to do her own work, the idea of any harm coming to either of them hurt her heart.

"Tomorrow morning," Eduard supplied softly. The blond man muttered next to her, squeezing her hand that he held in his. 'Man', she laughed to herself. He'd been a man for all of a year maybe, and the only thing he'd really done was grow out his hair. For so long he'd been the foreigner, especially years ago when he'd first arrived at the gates of their village. Raised alongside Kitsune and Ukyo as a ninja, he was leaving tomorrow to work as a translator for the Dutch trading post in the city of Dejima, just outside Nagasaki.

"I'm going with him," Ukyo confirmed. Her other best friend, this one since practically diapers, shifted next to her lay on his side and face her. He would leave tomorrow to train as a commissioner for the city of Nagasaki. Together, her two friends would also join up with the Nagasaki vigilante.

It was a dream for all of them, really. To serve the Shogun, and the city, do the work that needed to be done, in the dead of night. It was all they'd worked for their whole lives. As it was, she would leave the day after them to work in Edo, under the magistrate, and to join the vigilante there with her brother. In short, their lives as adults were bearing down on them and their lives as children in the Hizen village were rapidly evaporating in front of them.

"I hate this," she murmured as the night breeze danced across her face and carried over strands of Ukyo's long red hair. At least he and Ed would have each other, she would be alone. Her brother didn't count because it wasn't the same at all.

Eduard rolled over and pressed his lips to her forehead. "I wish you could come with us." The hand that had been holding hers was now propping up his head.

Kitsune could feel the warmth of his other palm through her kimono as it rested on her stomach. "Me too."

Ukyo scooted closer to her as well and brushed her bangs from her forehead. "We'll visit as soon as we can, you know. And you can come see us when you have time."

"Perhaps." The words were hollow and they all knew it. It was a long way from Edo to Nagasaki and back. The urge to cry burned behind her eyes and in her nose, but Kitsune held it back, because she could not show them that weakness. Weakness was not a part of her life, even as a woman. She was still a ninja in her soul, and she would be strong, even in the face of heartbreak.

"I'll miss your smile," Eduard offered, bringing her eyes to his. In the sunlight they were beautiful, almost violet. Though he didn't talk a lot—Ukyo managed to do enough of that for both of them—he always spoke the truth and spoke from his heart.

Kitsune reached up and cupped his cheek in her hand. "I'm going to miss everything about you." An urge struck her then, one she'd had before more than once, but had always put aside. Now, with their time together short, she decided to go for it. Leaning up slightly, she pressed her lips to his, reveling in their warmth and softness. His lips parted on a quick gasp, then he quickly deepened the kiss. The touch of his tongue to hers made her skin heat in the cool night air.

Ukyo protested almost immediately. "Ed! Hey! That's not fair! We talked about this! You don't get to—" The rest of his complaint was silenced as Kitsune turned over and pressed her lips to his as well. Where Ed had been gentle and slightly experimental, Ukyo was more eager and practiced.

Her hand on his chest, she could feel his heart speed up as their kiss deepened. It was all she'd wanted. Both of them together, but it was a desire she knew was… frowned upon. Not discouraged necessarily, but certainly not something she should seek out. When she pulled back, they were both breathing hard, and she bit her lip in a kind of delayed embarrassment.

The sudden warmth on her back was comforting as Eduard sidled closer to her and pressed a kiss to her shoulder, his hand sliding around her waist. "I've wanted to do that for a long time." His breath against her neck sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with the chill in the air.

Not to be outdone, Ukyo slid closer and ran his hand over her hip, fingertips flirting with the bottom edge of her kimono. "Me too. I'd hoped to get to see you like this long before now."

At the earnestness in his blue eyes, Kitsune cast her eyes down and sighed. "I didn't think it was fair to want you both."

Ukyo lay his finger under her chin and raised her eyes to his. In the same moment, Eduard lightly caressed her stomach and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her neck. "As you can see, we both wanted you, too."

"Kitsune?" A voice called in the distance, and it sounded like her brother Natsume. "Are you out here?" The voice calling her name was getting closer, sending the three of them scrambling to their feet.

By the time her brother, shorter and slighter than her friends but no less a ninja, arrived carrying a lantern, Ukyo had folded the blankets and they were all walking to the edge of the clearing. "Kitsune! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" One look at Ukyo and Edward, both with slightly amused, mischievous grins, and Natsume frowned in disapproval. "Don't you both leave tomorrow? Do you have nothing better to do than corrupt my sister?"

Given that her brother's default setting was 'annoyed', she let the little snipe go without comment. Ukyo, however, was having none of it.

"You should know your sister is safe with us. No place in the village safer." He briefly grasped her hand before stepping around her brother and heading back to the house he shared with Eduard.

"Your sister can take care of herself, Natsume." Eduard's expression didn't really change but she caught the slight grin in her direction and the wink as he moved around her disapproving brother to follow Ukyo home.

"Against the likes of you two? I have no doubt at all," Natsume sneered as he too turned to head back to the village.

The only one left was Kitsune. There was no way she could sort her feelings tonight, too much had happened. Of all the things that could have happened between the three of them, that kiss was perhaps the very last she would have expected. Being a ninja taught her patience and bravery, to evaluate a situation and react accordingly. And now she knew that her desires were very much reciprocated, even if they could not have more than tonight.

Tomorrow, she would send them off to Nagasaki, to their lives beyond the village gates, but for tonight, she could still dream.