"That old bastard," Kurosaki groused as he balanced the food in one hand and helped Teru over a branch with the other. "Trail my ass."
Teru huffed out a breath and held her phone out once again to light their way. "That's not fair, Kurosaki. There is a trail here, after all. Sort of."
"What's with the old people here anyway? Old ladies poking me with canes. Old men sending us off into the wilderness to die." He gripped her hand a little tighter. "Maybe they really hate tourists and they kill off a few every year to discourage more from coming."
Teru patted his arm. "You'd have read about it on the Internet if that were the case. I'm sure it's close. Don't be so paranoid."
Suddenly they heard the drums start up once again through the trees.
"Maybe this is where they send a pack of rabid dogs out to hunt us down."
Teru rolled her eyes and pulled him along. "Will you shut up? We haven't been walking that...oh, my god."
The walked around a massive tree and came to an abrupt stop as the trail ended in a grassy knoll filled with flowers. The small, gently sloping mound of earth stuck out from the mountain, a stark contrast between the rocky outcrops and the stepped rice paddies they could see surrounding them.
"How come we couldn't see this before," she asked.
He didn't ask why she was whispering. It felt they had stumbled upon someone's secret spot. Which, based off of the old man's description, they had. "The trees below block the view from the shrine," he noted. He pointed to the town below which they could barely make out through the trees. "And someone would have to be on a rooftop to view this from town."
They spread out a paper tablecloth that Kurosaki had snagged from one of the vendors and sat down to eat.
Once Teru figured out how to (modestly) sit on the ground in her yukata, Kurosaki handed her her food. She nibbled on her karaage, or fried chicken on a stick, and looked up at the cloudless sky. "Do you really think we'll be able to see the fireworks?"
As soon as she said it, the drumming stopped and the first rocket fired through the air. It exploded in a cascading sunburst of color directly in front of them as though they were watching it dead center on the biggest screen on earth.
"Oh wow!" Kurosaki laughed and deliberately set aside one of the fish-shaped taiyakis. "Okay, we owe the old man. I'll give him one of these when we go back down."
They finished their food, oohing and aawing as the fireworks steadily got more elaborate. Kurosaki ended up sprawled out beside her, propped up on his elbow as they enjoyed the show together.
Teru's hands itched as his hair brushed her arm. She wanted so badly to just run them through the blonde locks, to play with the strands and memorize their texture.
Why couldn't she, she thought and straightened her shoulders. It could also give her the chance to try something else she'd wanted to experience with Kurosaki.
She waited until there was a pause between fireworks. "Um, are you comfortable like that?" She nodded at his pasha-like pose.
Kurosaki shrugged and took a sip from his drink. "Sure." He looked her way when she didn't say anything else and saw her clenching her fists in a way that meant she was gearing herself up for something. He smirked and poked her in the arm. "Whyyyyy?"
She smoothed her skirt without looking at him. "I was just thinking that if you were uncomfortable you could, um, lie down. If you wanted to, that is."
He'd never admit out loud to another person, but sometimes his heart just fluttered around her. There was no other word for that feeling in his chest as he watched her tentatively spread her wings with him...even if she did blush other the effort. "Hmm," he drawled. "That's a good idea."
Teru felt like smacking her forehead (and his) as he flopped onto his back beside her with his hands behind his head.
Rena would have known how to do this.
She took a breath and tried again. "Kurosaki, have you ever heard of a lap-pillow?" She asked casually.
He pursed his brows as though in thought and tried not to snicker. "I'm not sure. What is it?"
"Well, sometimes you'll see couples sitting around at school and if one of them wants to lie down, they might put their head in the other person's lap. Like a pillow," she finished lamely.
"I see. I think have seen that around campus." It was a good thing she wasn't looking at him, he thought, or he couldn't have strung it out this long. He decided to take pity on her. Sort of. "Now, why don't you just say, "Kurosaki, I want to play with your hair and gaze lovingly into your eyes"," he said in a falsetto voice.
He caught the purse that she swung at his face with a laugh. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry." He kissed her hand, snickering again as she jerked it back to cross her arms over her chest. "You don't have to gaze into my eyes. We're supposed to be watching fireworks, after all."
"Forget I said anything," she said with a pout. She looked away so she wouldn't laugh as Kurosaki quickly moved and laid down with his head in her lap.
"Ahhh," he sighed in exaggerated bliss. "Girls make the best pillows."
She giggled despite herself and pushed his face away. "Shut up you pervert."
More fireworks came and went. Kurosaki pointed out the shapes and shared what he knew about how the colors were mixed and the shapes were made. He kept his gaze on the sky, just in case looking at her made her stop what she was doing. Because what she was doing felt freaking amazing.
As soon as Kurosaki had focused on the sky she had casually run a hand over the ends of his hair, glancing at his face to see if he'd noticed or if he minded. When he showed no reaction she got bolder and bolder until she was running her fingers from roots to end, lost in the feel of the silk against her skin.
He closed his eyes at one point so he could concentrate on not groaning. She had a gift, but no way would he suggest giving up psychology for massage school. This magic was all his.
She delicately over one eyebrow, then the other. "Kurosaki?" She said softly.
He opened his eyes as she ran a single finger gently down the lines of his face. "Yeah?"
One hand continued combing through his hair as the other traced his bottom lip. "I think the fireworks have ended," she whispered as she bent her head.
Sure enough, the silence around them seemed deeper due to the sudden cessation of noise. In fact, the shrine, the village, they felt like none of it existed from where they sat on their hill.
He raised a hand and curved it around the back of her neck. "Uh, huh."
He didn't pull her down, but instead just held her as she slowly closed the distance. Kurosaki closed his eyes again as she pressed a kiss to his forehead. Then his eyebrows, his eyes; she conducted a study of his face with her lips that had him sighing her name into the dark.
The kiss she finally gave him on the lips was soft and nearly reverential. A sip of lips that lingered into a slow press of lips that had his hand slipping from her nape to cup her face. They parted with a soft sigh, pulling back just far enough to look at each other and smile.
Teru pressed one last kiss to his forehead and sat up. She nearly laughed when she realized that she had indeed gazed lovingly into his eyes. "Ah, do you think the festival is over?"
He picked up her hand and played with her fingers, holding on jealously to the floaty feeling she'd induced.
Best. Lap pillow. Ever.
"Technically. I guess."
She watched the cloud of smoke the firecrackers had left dissipate in the mountain air. "You know," she began, using her free hand to trace the edge of his ears and smiling when he put a hand over hers to stop her. He must be ticklish. "You may have shot yourself in the foot tonight."
Know that he could think again after she'd messed with his weak spot, he frowned as mentally reviewed the evening. "How so?"
"I guess I mean that it's pretty dangerous to give me the best date I'll ever have so early in our relationship," she shrugged.
He brought her hand to his mouth and nibbled at her fingers and her palm until she was giggling and trying to yank it away. "You don't know what the future holds, woman." He admonished her. "I have yet to show you the best of my dating repertoire. You never know what I'll do," for you and to you, he finished in his head, thinking of the (grown up) years they had before them.
His innocent Teru just clucked her tongue. "We'll see. All I can say now is 'good luck', because right now it seems like nothing will beat this evening." She smiled at him as he sat up off of her lap. "It was perfect. Thank you for tonight, Kurosaki."
He leaned forward and kissed her. Careful not to linger to long or kiss her deeply while they were alone. At night. By themselves. Alone, he thought again. He gave his head a mental shake and pulled back, reaching out to pick up the trash from their fair food. "You're welcome. Ah, we should probably get down there before they start turning off all of those lanterns. We don't want to go down that staircase in the dark."
"Good call."
They packed up and went back through the woods. Maybe it was because they'd reestablished the dinky footpath, but the trip back seemed much less arduous. They emerged onto the temple grounds and found that despite the hour, and despite the end of fireworks being the traditional end to a festival, things were still going strong.
They left the taiyaki for the old man on the chair where they'd last seen him; his cane and pipe there as evidence he'd be back.
"What if some kids take it? She asked.
He shrugged. "Then hopefully he'll whack 'em with that cane of his."
"That's not nice."
He shrugged again. "Eh."
They held hands as they climbed down the staircase. Teru paused as they got to the bottom step, and therefor the last shrine gate. She turned around one last time and pulled her hand free from his, clapping them together as she closed her eyes, thanking Gekka-O for both Kurosaki and a wonderful evening.
Kurosaki did the same (in his head) and finished with a nod towards the ancient shrine. He took her hand once more when she turned around. "Ready to beat the traffic?"
"What traffic? They all live here!"
"Okay. Let me put it this way: ready to get back to our friends and have them mercilessly grill you about the evening?"
She sniffed. "That's your friends. Mine will delicately allude to the evening while patiently waiting for details that may or may not be forthcoming."
"Princess," he chucked her under the chin. "You're adorable when you're clueless."