'Why does it have to be so warm?'
Kagerou groaned as she turned over, pushing fur covered blankets off of herself in the process. Hoping to get back to sleep, even though she was somewhat awake throughout the night. However she managed to drift off for a few minutes, finally getting some sleep. Until she was rudely woken up by a certain redhead a few minutes later.
"hey fuzzball! You up yet?"
Groaning again, this time in half frustration, half annoyance before grumbling words sleepily. Turning into incoherence of nonsense and gibberish before she grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be the basket kagerou takes to buy things and throwing it out of the entrance of the cave. Hoping it would make Sekibanki go away, but it didn't unfortunately. Instead the wolf heard laughter before Sekibanki began climbing inside.
"You have really terrible aim when you're half asleep."
Kagerou mumbled once more before drifting back into a light sleep. Sekibanki chuckled as she placed the basket the brunette threw near the entrance and sat down against the bed kagerou was sleeping in. If the wolf wasn't going to get up herself, might as well encourage her to, was what Sekibanki thought at first. Meaning that she would occasionally poke her now and again to keep her semi awake. But slowly realised that Kagerou wasn't getting out of the huddle of furs on top of a frame she calls a bed. Sekibanki sighed as she began shaking Kagerou's shoulder in an attempt to forcefully wake her up, however this resulted in Kagerou curling tighter into a ball and lightly whacking Sekibanki's arm away with her tail before it lazily draped over the side.
"I am not letting you sleep your way through the summer, Kage. Come on, I planned stuff to do."
Sekibanki grabbed a hold of one of the furs and quickly pulled, taking the rest and Kagerou along with it. Yelping with the sudden movement and an unceremoniously landing on her back, Kagerou groaned as she rolled onto her side, eventually opening her eyes to glare at the redhead. Slowly sitting up after a moment of contemplation of sleeping on the floor or not and rubbing the back of her head, yawning as she shook her head to remove any leaves that managed to fly into the cave from her hair. Then began to inspect her tail before her boots landed in her lap.
"Come on, let's go."
Kagerou couldn't even ask where they were going as she was prompted to put her boots on and was quickly led outside into the brightly lit forest. Raising a hand to cover her eyes from the sun, but continued to squint they adjusted slowly from her darkly lit home to the intense brightness of the outside. Continuing to be blindly led through the forest, walking into low hanging branches when Sekibanki forgot to tell her to duck,
"Seki, can you wait for a moment? I can barely see in this sunlight."
Kagerou heard the redhead sigh before slowing to a stop, thankful that Sekibanki let her adjust to the light. But it wasn't long until she felt something large land on her head, opening her eyes to see a large straw hat shielding her face from the sun. looking at Sekibanki in confusion, who only just shrugged.
"We are going to the Human Village, and you need some sort of disguise to blend in. I know the humans don't exactly welcome us youkai with open arms, but I don't want my cover blown and all the reputation I gained to go downhill just because you're with me looking...like that."
Kagerou looked down at herself and huffed as Sekibanki gestured to what she was wearing. It wasn't the best, but at least she looked acceptable, somewhat normal to go into the village. Sekibanki on the other hand, didn't exactly. Considering that her neck is always covered, by her cloak or a turtleneck, it's surprising that no one had even suspected yet. Regardless, Sekibanki picked up on Kagerou's disbelief as she elaborated.
"What I meant was that you need more variety in clothing. As all you wear is this pretty long, heavy dress. Aren't you overheating in that?"
Kagerou simply glared at the redhead. She couldn't rebuke it as she was, in fact overheating a little. Which was why she chose to stay in her cave, away from the sunlight and somewhat cooler. She tugged at the collar in habit when Sekibanki rolled her eye and motioned the wolf to follow her.
"You are hopeless. Which is why I'm dragging you to the village."
/-/
"Come on, Kagerou. This wouldn't take very long if you...would...just...cooperate!"
The wolf shook her head as she was trying to stop Sekibanki from pushing her into one of the changing cubicles. Arguing that she didn't want to try on the clothes the redhead picked out for her, bracing herself against the doorframe, hoping that Sekibanki would give up.
"Is everything alright here?"
The sudden voice caught Kagerou off guard, relaxing for just a moment, giving Sekibanki more than enough to shove the wolf into the changing cubicle and quickly shutting the dividing curtain to stop Kagerou from running out of it. Casually leaning on the doorframe, smiling nervously at the shopkeeper, hoping that they didn't see the commotion they were stirring up.
"Ah, yes. We-we're fine. Had a little trouble, but it's alright."
Sekibanki chuckled slightly as she waited for the shop assistant to leave before opening the curtain slightly to glare at Kagerou, who was trying to leave.
"I swear, if you get us kicked out I will literally pour syrup over your tail. You know how much of a pain that'll be to get rid of."
Kagerou groaned, but complied at least. Shutting the curtain closed to have privacy when changing. Sekibanki sighed in relief, moving away from the curtain and sitting down in one of the chairs available. Occupying herself by tapping out a quiet beat onto the armrests, leaning her head back to stare into the ceiling. It wasn't long until she heard the sound of the curtain parting that made her turn her attention back to the wolf, who was shuffling out with her arms crossed., wearing a long, sleeveless dress. Which was similar to what she usually wears, but it was completely white and without the black shawl around her shoulders. Sekibanki only nodded before Kagerou shut the curtain again to change into another outfit the redhead picked out for her.
In Sekibanki's defence, she had to as Kagerou just sulked behind her, barely registering what the redhead was saying to her as well as not paying attention to the clothes either. Which would have given Sekibanki a perfect opportunity to make her wear something embarrassing, but considering Kagerou didn't even want to tag along plus the slightly overbearing heat, the redhead decided against it. For the better as she didn't want Kagerou to slap her across the face, especially with those long red nails.
Again.
Sekibanki rubbed the side of her face in habit, grimacing at the memory as kagerou opened the curtain once again, continuing to scowl. This time wearing a red skirt that stops just above the knee, and a white blouse where the sleeves ended above the elbow.
"Oh, lighten up Kage. This isn't the worst thing I could have dragged you to. Besides, so far, the clothes look good on you, so why are you still mad?"
Kagerou glared at the redhead before answering.
"It's because you know I don't like it. And you know why I don't like it."
Sekibanki shrugged, the wolf's argument not exactly making sense. As she could, at any time just walk away. The redhead quietly chuckled.
'She can be easily swayed.'
"You can't live in fear of the full moon forever, Kage."
"That is not-"
Kagerou quickly paused, realising she had risen her voice as a backlash to Sekibanki's comment. Taking a deep breath and spoke a little quieter.
"That is not just the reason. It's just because...because of the...hair."
She quickly trailed off, embarrassed as she looked away timidly, folding her arms as she tapped the toe of her boot on the floor. Not exactly the thing she would freely admit to anyone, but was unfortunately the truth. As that alone stopped her from stepping a foot outside her home during the full moon and the day after. Except for that time during the miracle mallet incident where, not exactly in the right state of mind, decided to attack the shrine maiden during the night of the full moon. A memory kagerou would much rather forget happened, mainly because she completely embarrassed herself as well as getting defeated by said shrine maiden.
Sekibanki sighed, bringing Kagerou out of the memory as the redhead stood up and placed her hands on top of Kagerou's shoulders.
"Listen, nobody particularly cares about the full moon, or what happens to you during it. It's only one night once a month, you can hide or do whatever you do during that. Otherwise, you need to live a little, be the confident wolf I know you to be. Just like when you tried to kick that shrine mai-"
"Yeah, ok Seki. I think you said enough, I don't want to be reminded of that again thank you."
Kagerou placed a hand over the redhead's mouth to stop her from continuing to speak, knowing what she was going to say as she gently pushed Sekibanki away. Of course the redhead would try to get on her nerves as a joke, confirmed as Kagerou glanced at her to find Sekibanki grinning, unable to contain her chuckling. Turning to step back into the changing room, Kagerou shook her head slightly, a quiet chuckle escaping her mouth as she shut the curtain behind her.
/-/
She sighed for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last hour, pacing back and forth in front of the entrance of her home. She did decide to visit Wakasagi a few days ago, once the weather died down enough that it's bearable to at least live. But that was before Sekibanki dragged her along for a sudden clothing shopping, resulting in the wolf wearing the dress and blouse combo she grew to like.
"I guess the best thing is that she never harshly criticises anyway, Hime is always like that."
Kagerou chuckled before finally deciding to visit the mermaid. Thankfully Sekibanki seems a little carefree on the straw hat she gave the wolf, as Kagerou completely forgot the thing was on her head the rest of the day. It wasn't until she returned home where she realised she didn't return it, shrugging as she knew the redhead would have asked for it back if she really wanted to. Tugging it onto her head, Kagerou continued on her way through the shade of the forest, savouring the smells the rain the night before brought out.
Eventually making her way to the tree line that borders Misty Lake, Kagerou stopped and admired the scenery. The light of the sun reflecting off the water's surface, shimmering with the ripples on the surface as the wind breezes by. It wasn't long until she spotted the mermaid jumping out of the water, backflipping in the air gracefully before diving back under. Every time making the wolf's heart beat a little faster as her smile grew. Giving Kagerou more than enough to continue to the shoreline, walking to a rocky area where a large rock made for an natural plinth over a portion of the water. Crouching, Kagerou could see that it was dry and cool to the touch, smiling once more as she lied down on her back, her ears twitching as the waves of the water gently brushed the side of the rock, placing the hat beside her so it wouldn't fly off in the wind.
Kagerou felt she could fall asleep. Which she almost did, her eyes closing and the feeling of drifting off to dreamland calling to her. Until she heard telltale signs that someone was beside her, that someone coming from the water itself as she heard a fairly loud wave crash back into the water.
"You're not going to fall asleep here, are you? I would hate it if you got burnt."
The wolf chuckled as she opened one eye, squinting in the brightness as she saw the silhouette of the mermaid against the bright blue sky, leaning on her arm as she propped her head against her hand next to kagerou. Grinning as she turned onto her side, facing the mermaid who had lied down onto her stomach. Opting to lay her head onto her crossed arms, giggling softly.
"I like your outfit. Looks cute."
Kagerou felt her face heat up as she sheepishly smiled. Shyly thanking the mermaid as she self consciously crossed her arms. Wakasagi only giggled, further making Kagerou's blush burn even hotter.
"Please don't say that, Hime. You know I get embarrassed."
Kagerou averted her eyes away from the amused mermaid. Her ears drooping as she heard wakasagi's tail half splashing in the water in amusement. She inhaled sharply as she felt Wakasagi's fingers gliding over one of her ears, prompting the wolf to look back.
"You really are cute."
Kagerou couldn't handle anymore, her face now bright red as she turned onto her back, her hands covering her blush and her eyes. She heard Wakasagi jump back into the water, assuming that she gave kagerou some space to calm her heart. A few minutes of silence went by until she heard water splashing once more, this time directly above her, as the sun was immediately blocked by shade. Drops of water landing onto her hands, prompting her to slowly remove her hands to see Wakasagi hovering over her, upside down in her vision. Water escaping her blue tresses, dripping slowly onto the rock, forming a halo around Kagerou. Looking at the wolf sincerely as she gently grasped Kagerou's hands. Who released a breath she didn't realise she held, keeping her gaze. The mermaid then placed a hand on the side of Kagerou's face, caressing her cheek with her thumb and leaned a little further in.
Kagerou's eyes drifted to her lips briefly before snapping back to blue eyes.
Wakasagi smiled before fully leaning down, gently pressing her lips to Kagerou's.
It wasn't a moment later until a certain redhead interrupted their sweet moment, quickly parted out of embarrassment.
AN: I have this idea that Sekibanki is a bit of a prankster and likes to tease Kagerou a lot, but also acts the good friend when needed. Also this was inspired by the very warm weather I've had and this thing that was going on that artists drew Kagerou in clothing that used a certain flower patterns I've recently found out about (I'm sad I didn't know about it like a year ago or something ;-;). But yeah, I hope the ending isn't too abrupt :3
also yes, I am doing seasonal Kagerou stories before you ask x3