When Ōdanna returned, he found Aoi, who had calmed down during his absence, seated on the tatami mat. He joins her and sits comfortably in front of her.

"Aoi," Ōdanna directly addresses her. She turns her head, noticing the radiantly coy expression on his face.

"What is it?" She inquires as she suddenly starts smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles on her kimono; she wonders what she's done to make him look at her like that.

"As I thought, the kimono with azaleas looks good on you." he praises. Aoi's face reddens; even she had mentally noted that she looked nice in the kimono when she saw her reflection in the pond while crossing the bridge on the way here. It's because you have such good taste, Ōdanna-sama. She tries to calm herself, but unfortunately Ōdanna is relentless in his inspection of her. He leans over and she freezes when she feels his breath on her cheek.

"Wha—"

"I thought I could smell the scent of citrus on you, Aoi." He takes in a deep breath, enjoying the lingering scent of oranges clinging onto Aoi's skin. "I take it that you used the soaps in your bath last night?" he asks with a knowing grin.

"Yes," she squeaks, unable to meet his gaze. She grapples with whatever semblance of control she can muster and hastily calms herself, taking a deep breath to do so. "Thank you, I thoroughly enjoyed them," she admits shyly.

"That's good to hear," Ōdanna replies.

Turning to face him properly, Aoi can't help but smile. "Hm, I really enjoyed them." Ōdanna nods and offers her a small grin, closing his eyes to hide the gleam of satisfaction glowing within them.

It suits her, my bride, smelling of the scent that I gave her and wearing the clothes that I picked out just for her.

A desire to keep his to-be wife close rises within him as he contemplates being able to wake up with Aoi, with her within his arms, their close proximity allowing his natural, masculine scent to completely overpower her naturally sweet fragrance. He imagines being able to take her out to explore the lands of the Hidden Realm and to enjoy her presence during their excursions, or to observe her enthusiasm in buying ingredients for their meals and being able to assist her with cooking them. Other less-than-innocent fantasies pass through his mind, however, and these thrill the oni within him immensely, and his more sensible side darkly agrees.

Luckily, Ōdanna's outward countenance remains despite his internal excitement, for which he is immensely glad. He opens his eyes to remove himself from the visions swimming through his mind; he would not want to scare away his bride, especially since she was more willing to open up to him as of late.

Before either of them can break the cordial silence that settled between them, a female voice, asking for permission to enter, filters through the thin covering of the shoji doors.

"Come in," Ōdanna calls out.

The shoji doors open, revealing two room attendants each with a tray of food. They offer Ōdanna and Aoi a low bow and respectfully address the two, both in sync: "Good morning Ōdanna-sama, Aoi-sama. We brought your breakfast." They then raise their heads and stand up with the trays in their hands. They enter the room and stand off to the side as two Tenjin'ya employee appear before the door and bow at the waist.

"Good morning, Ōdanna-sama, Aoi-sama," the employees greet. "We have brought the chabudai that you requested." The two enter the room and quickly set the chabudai and zabutons down in the center of the room. The two attendants then set down the trays.

"Today's breakfast we have the Chief Chef's traditional breakfast set: rice with tamagoyaki, miso soup, grilled aji, and kale kobachi." The two attendants explain as they set the table. "We also brought fresh mugicha with ice."

Ōdanna nods, acknowledging their hard work, and gets up from his seat and offers a hand to Aoi. She accepts his help and thanks him, allowing him to guide her towards the low table. They seat themselves on the zabuton. Once comfortable, the attendants and employees offer Ōdanna and Aoi respectful bows and leave the two to their privacy.

Ōdanna watches her as her face glows upon seeing their breakfast. It seemed that nothing makes her more happier than food.

"Waa," Aoi exclaims, "The food is here, Ōdanna-sama! Wow!"

Ōdanna chuckles, "Calm down, Aoi."

Aoi ignores him and admires her food for a moment longer. "It looks so good," she gushes as she grabs her chopsticks.

"Itadakimasu!" she quickly mutters before digging in, too excited to wait for Ōdanna.

"Itadakimasu," Ōdanna repeats as he picks up his chopsticks. Before he even takes a bite of food, he finds himself entranced in watching Aoi and listening to her squeals of happiness and moans of praise as she eat with gusto before him. As usual, she gets excited whenever there's food involved. He recalls her joyful skipping with a box of matcha powder that he had given to her the night before Suzuran left for the Apparent Realm.

The market should please her, he ruminates as he picks up his bowl of rice, deciding to take his time to eat so that he can extend his time with Aoi. Ōdanna admires the smile she has on as she eats and silently thankful that she is too engrossed in her meal to notice him blatantly observing her. Besides, she always does look happier receiving food. Perhaps I can take her to that pla— His thoughts are interrupted when his stomach growls. Looking up, he is relieved to find that Aoi had not heard his stomach. He pushes back his musings and begins to eat, not wanting to be reminded a second time by his stomach

As he chews, his heart races as one specific realization settles in: the sooner they leave, the longer he will have her all for himself. With newfound motivation, Ōdanna hastens to finish his food, despite his initial desire to take his time. Besides, he'll have other mornings to spend more leisurely with his bride.

Soon, only sound of dishes clattering fills the room.

Vocabulary:

chabudai = short-legged table

zabuton = Japanese cushion used for sitting on the floor

tamagoyaki = Japanese rolled omelet

aji = Japanese horse mackerel

kale kobachi = Japanese side dish of sauteed kale seasoned with mirin and soy sauce

mugicha = Japanese barley tea, which is considered a good summer drink

Author's Note:

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's a bit on the shorter side, but it's because the next chapter will definitely be longer. Thanks for all the comments. :) I'll try to update by next Wednesday, so stay tuned! Thank you, and happy reading everyone!