Natsume groaned as he woke up to Touko-san's warning to get ready soon. He stretched slightly, and grabbed his clothes before heading to the bathroom to change. As he started towards the bathroom door, he noticed the window was open. Not naive enough to believe that perhaps he left it open before sleeping, he brainstormed hurriedly to prepare himself for whatever supernatural foe he was to face off against as the enemy of the day. Please don't tell me some ayakashi cast something on me again. Come to think of it, Sensei was gone by the time I was up as well. Natsume sighed at the thought of his rather useless guard; always disappearing when he actually needed protection. Perhaps he just left it open on another dash for sake. Stupid cat.

Natsume started to strip in the bathroom, when the sight he was met with caused him to pause in shock. He warily looked at the odd spots decorating his body. Left in a state of befuddlement, he dropped his shirt. Quickly gathering himself again, he examined the discolored skin closer in the mirror. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it's just a tattoo of flowers. Sprinkles of light blue flowers covered his chest, getting more common and clustered as they got closer to his pelvic region. Stretching slightly, he saw the same occurrence on his back, even on his legs. Permanent supernatural skin coloring, just what I wanted to start off the day fresh.

Barely refraining himself from letting loose what would most certainly be a mixture of a groan and a sigh, he gave himself a mental pat on the back and decided to deliberately ignore the markings. Ayakashi or no ayakashi, I still have to go to school like every other day. Natsume redressed himself in his school uniform, rushed through the rest of his morning activities, then headed downstairs, preparing himself for another ayakashi filled day.

Thankful that the odd flowers didn't extend to anywhere that would be too difficult to hide, he came downstairs. Noticing Shigeru-san was already sitting down, taking bites of the breakfast in between glances at the newspaper in his hand, he quickly rushed to the table and took his seat. Shigeru glanced up as Natsume took his place, eyes widening almost imperceptibly in shock before darting back to his newspaper.

"Itadakimasu," Natsume said, gripping his chopsticks in one hand and the bowl of rice in his other. He ate in a rush, feeling starved for some odd reason. Likely being related to the other odd event discovered only mere moments earlier. One mental sigh later, and his mind quickly strayed to the more immediate matters at hand: food. As he dug in with renewed vigor, he noticed odd looks from the man sitting across from him. Normally, the calm and compassionate older man was already engaged in a light-hearted conversation with him, but he had yet to really even acknowledge his presence at all.

Natsume being Natsume, he quickly scoured his mind for anything he might've done to upset the Fujiwaras recently. A brief, yet clear wave of fear ran through his mind. They must've figured out his more erratic behavior, and were going to kick him out, again, just like all the others. As quickly as it came, however, it went. He reassured himself with thoughts of how kind and patient the elderly couple have been to him. Even when he came home late, or sometimes never even made it home, how they greeted him with smiles or worried frowns. Never disgusted grimaces, annoyed clickings of the tongue, never flat out indifference. They were so different from all those who came before, so much more open-hearted and accepting. Not to say all those before were lacking of compassion or kindness, he was resolute in the fact that he has always been the problem, was always the problem.

After dismissing the initial fear, he decided some preemptive and proactive intervention was needed.

"Good morning, Shigeru-san."

Startled out of his seemingly intense focus on the newspaper, he looked a bit surprised at how Natsume had initiated the conversation. Nonetheless, not wanting to be rude, he quickly cleared his throat and made an effort to respond adequately.

"Good morning, Natsume. You look… Well-rested today."

"Yeah, I suppose I had a good sleep. Does it really show that much?" Natsume immediately caught on to the changes in his attitude. He spoke quieter, and it was as if he was visibly trying to contain himself, choosing his wordings carefully and focusing a bit too much on the left of Natsume, rather than directly looking him in the face.

"You certainly look quite different today. I'm guessing it's from sleep. That or you became noticeably more beautiful overnight."

That… That was certainly not the usual way any conversation with Shigeru-san went. Even he himself looked vaguely surprised and more than a bit embarrassed at what he'd unexpectedly revealed.

Coughing to cover up his mistake, he hurriedly attempted to alleviate the sudden awkward atmosphere. "Um. What I meant was that you look better today. Not as in beauty, though you certainly are, but in health. More so than usual. Which is good."

Still feeling vaguely embarrassed, he quickly refocused on the newspaper, currently lying neglected within his hands, intensely shutting out everything else. He retreated further upon realizing that he had once again, indirectly called Natsume beautiful. Perhaps, if Natsume was a woman, and if he was more open about accepting compliments, than this would not have such an uncomfortable affair. But alas, that was not how it was.

Natsume quickly realized that Shigeru-san didn't wish to engage in any further acts of conversation, and covering up his discomfort and disappointment, he rushed through breakfast.

The remaining time of the meal was spent in stagnant silence, even when Touko-san appeared to assist in brightening it up. Both him and Shigeru-san rushed out of the house, appearing very bothered by that day's events. Natsume more so, thoroughly convinced at this point that it had to have been due to the mysterious flowers imbedded in his skin.

While on his way to school, he couldn't help but be equally curious and anxious on the effect it would have on his classmates. Regardless, like any other day, he would still have to face it like nothing was wrong. And with any luck, nothing would be wrong.