Hikari watched as they reached the difficult pass they would have to take two by two. Father insisted he go with Kotone, much to both her and Brother's chagrin. He told them she needed to be with someone who could read her mind and communicate two and fro with her easily. Brother tried to argue that she could communicate with him in sign language, but Father and then Uncle Kurama pointed out that the pass would be difficult and they all should keep their hands on the reins, not in the air to sign.

Hikari took up the opportunity to sidle up to Brother in the instant, "I'll ride along with you then," she rushed out before anyone could claim her or him up.

"Right then," he nodded. "We should go first though. I can fly us out if any issues arise." Brother ruffled the feathers on his wings. It was still so odd to see him with them. They looked natural on him, even if he was the only one in the world with a set of them. Mother and Grandmother had helped to mend his clothes, the tops anyway, so he would have an open back and clasps around the back of his neck.

Father and Uncle Kurama conceded to that, agreeing with it. Hikari saw before they took the pass that Father paired with Kotone, Airi paired with Touya and did not look happy about it, and that left Kurama with Haru. Airi was looking over at Haru, somewhat discreetly. Hikari wondered if anyone else, especially Haru, had picked up on her interest in him. Hikari wondered what she might be able to do to help her along with that. Hikari had come to like the girl a bit after the nights of sharing a tent with her and Kotone.

Kotone... Hikari studied her, watching her now signing along with Brother. She looked not mad at him, but not happy with him either. Hikari made a mental note that she ought to learn sign language as well to at least give the ice maiden someone else to talk with.

Once they got themselves ready to go, Brother looked flustered as Hikari and he began to go down the path. It seemed rockier than Hikari had remembered, but her hippogriff seemed slow but certain of each step it took. Brother's seemed certain as well. As they got going, they were able to talk more freely and openly than they had been when around the others. She was able to glean a little more gossip from him about what he knew about Jin and Mother. Kotone had told him she thought Jin might have kissed Mother right before he died, but she was not quite certain. Both of them agreed to never mention or ask that of Mother or say anything of that to Father. Kotone had promised Brother the same in turn. The way Hikari saw it, Jin must have initiated, and Father would only be upset if he knew. He would have wanted to kill Jin for it, but the man was already dead, having died trying to protect Mother, Grandmother, and Kotone. Why bother causing fruitless drama?

When the conversation shifted to Kotone, Hikari managed to shake out the story from him alone how he found her and ran off, finding it intriguing when he told he planned to flee to the capital and to Hikari with her.

Hikari finally found the opening she had been waiting for to ask the question on her mind, "and so when did you realize you were falling in love with her?"

Brother paused, taking a few seconds to blink and think at that. "I'm not sure," he confessed. "When I first saw her, I nearly attacked her. But then she looked so lost and helpless and hungry. I couldn't turn her away. I most certainly couldn't have let Risho or any of them kill her." He paused thinking. "When we were turned away from the woods demons, she pulled me away when I much rather attack the lot of them for refusing us any help beyond one bag of food. She calmed me. She forgave them for not helping us. She was determined not to give up, even with the odds stacked against her, against us."

"But you haven't acted much on it," Hikari commented. "She told Airi and I you haven't slept together, which I thought for certain you had because you shared a room together. Airi thought so as well."

"I..." he started. He looked back over his shoulder, as if trying to spot Kotone or Father or someone else behind them. "I've wanted to. But she was pregnant and then the ice maiden attack, and the aftermath of that. She hasn't told me much of the attack she endured, but she was raped and did not know the demon who did it. She was foolish and wanted to attack a man and prove herself strong for it. She says she can't much remember what happened and resists remembering when her mind shifts that way. Father warned me to let her come to me, not to push her." He grunted out a frustrated breath.

"But..." Hikari prompted.

"But I'm tired of waiting," he exasperated. "I want to be with her, I want to protect her, I want to call her son my son to more than just myself. What else could she chose? Where else could she go where she would be safe and cared outside of me and the other shinobi whom Mother made swear to protect her?" His voice was filled with previously unspoken longing. "Maybe I shouldn't wait any longer..." he shook his head. "She won't engage much more than a kiss with me, but hardly wants separated from me. She refused the lock of ice maiden hair I offered her though. The one time I even so much as hinted Koji was ours instead of hers, she withdrew from me."

Hikari clicked her teeth. "Everything and anything around her is so new for her. Take it from me, being thrown into the newness of the capital, surrounded by overly elvish culture, new can be overwhelming. Not knowing anyone, not knowing anything, not knowing how to behave or not behave in places. It takes time, but it would have been more difficult for me without with Takashi next to me, at my side. Especially when Mother and Father left. What Kotone's dealing with is that much harsher. She can never go back to the ice maiden's floating island. She's been ripped away from her people, her culture. Her only way through it is to go forward. Show her there is a way for her and stand at her side for it. Give her something to hope for, a goal to work towards. A chance at a future that has you in it."

Brother smiled at that. "Give her a future eh?" He seemed to parse that idea in his mind. "Just like your future with Takashi. The overwhelming desire to have a child?" His tone was almost teasing.

"Tease all you like," she quipped. "But it was something the two of us discussed and agreed upon. It's something he wants very much. He's daydreamed about it all his life, sons and or daughters, he'd be happy with either, but wants at least four," she added in a light hearted tone. "At least one daughter though. He still misses his sister who died when they were both young from illness." Hikari took her turn to fall silent, thinking about when he told her, how sad and weepy he had been sharing it. "Not like to replace her, but to name after her, you know."

"Like if one of us were to have a son and name him Ryu?" Brother suggested.

"Like that, yeah," Hikari agreed. She felt herself want to clam up in the moment, thinking about Takashi. Smiling to herself, half thinking the things that used to annoy her about him became things she came to love. She missed him, pining after him. "I know you love Kotone, but don't just tell her that. Like, tell her that, but also show her that. It's one thing to tell someone you love them countless times, it's another thing to prove to her that what you say is indeed true."