Kurogane sits at the table with Sakura, glad for the moment that Fai and Mokona have gone, taking Syaoran with them to translate for some sweet monstrosity they want to make which Kurogane knows will somehow end up regrettably in his mouth.
Still, the silence he is getting right now feels worth it even if he had hoped that the girl would stay asleep.
Instead she blinks at him sleepily and rubs her eye not demanding anything but just. Doing nothing.
He doesn't quite think that the princess is in any state to learn anything about fighting given that she might pitch over at any moment and his repertoire beyond that is limited to taking care of a blade, consuming alcohol, some basic sewing skills, calligraphy and a touch of origami he's picked up while very bored on shift on the nights nobody was sent to murder his princess.
So after a few moments of staring at the girl who starts to look at him a little worriedly he gives in.
"I'll teach you some origami," he says, voice gruff as he tries to think about how to hide the fact that he can make anything from the damn mage, "just don't tell the meatbun or the mage or I'll never hear the end of it, alright?" The warrior says, sighing at how soft he's become.
"Ah, okay, Kurogane-san." the girl says softly, nodding, "thank you for teaching me."
It takes about twenty minutes for the two of them to scrape together old receipts, used bits of paper and paper bags, and another twenty to flatten them out as much as possible and cut them down to rough squares.
Then Kurogane takes up a fairly large piece of paper and proceeds to completely forget how the basic folds work. He frowns, folding it this way and that.
On the other side of the table Sakura copies curiously, slowly, gently coming out of her drowsiness.
Kurogane eventually remembers the right folds, puts the paper on the table.
"Here. Like this," he tells her, folding the paper into halves and then quarters and then across the diagonals, "then you just fold it in like this." He says, bring the edges together into a smaller square.
Sakura seems confused but manages to get the same result.
Kurogane smiles just a little though he can feel the sweat beading down the back of his neck...
Kurogane senses more than hears everybody coming down the pathway to the house and panics, looking at Sakura who is gently pulling open the wings on a crane.
"I'm going to hide this quick. Don't say a word about it in front of anyone else, alright?" He asks again, sweeping the collection of swans, pigs, snakes, varying flowers, wings, hearts, boxes and cranes in all shades of brown and cream into a plastic bag and runs up the stairs two at a time to shove them under the bed in the small room he's taken.
The girl nods blinking confusedly as the last few hours are swept up and away in a flash.
Kurogane hears the door open, the exchange of 'Welcome home', 'I'm back', and Fai's confused 'Where is Kuro-rin?' as he kicks the bundle against the wall in the furthest corner from the door.
"I think he just went to the toilet." Sakura says in that soft way she has and Kurogane blushes, hating that it was the excuse the princess came up with but resigned to it at least.
He supposes that it is better than the mage finding out that he can do things which aren't chop wood and people with his hands.
He quickly and quietly steps to the bathroom, washes his hands, closes the door, starts to come downstairs as normally as possible.
"Oh- what's this?" Fai asks and Kurogane freezes where he is as Fai bends down to admire the tiny crane in Sakura's lap. He smiles down at her, "I didn't know you knew how to do paper-folding." He says, smiling widely as he tests the strength of the wings.
"It came with the last memory." The princess says, letting Fai place the small bird back in her hands where she cradles it softly, cocoons it.
Nobody questions Sakura's statement though Syaoran does tilt his head a little confusedly.
Several hours later Kurogane does indeed end up with an unwanted mouthful of the sickly sweet desert the mage has made but he thinks that it's worth it as the princess touches the pocket on her dress where the little crane is folded up and smiles softly.