Before Takashi could even think to approach Hikari, he heard Uncle Yasha say, "my lady, would you like to take this dangerous pathway together?"
"Ah... sure," Hikari agreed. She hesitated. Even though Takashi felt like pouting, at least she hesitated. He saw her turn her head to glance at him. When his eyes met hers, she looked away in a flash. She moved to quick for him to get a proper read on her face.
Hikari rode next to the prince in convoy, enjoying it, but feeling shy about it. She liked being next to him, but felt a heaviness settled around the two of them. She knew by now Izo had told him about what the Great Hawk Spirit had said about the two of them. Either get together under the blood bond treaty or what long enough for a black crone to be found to release him. She felt torn between wanting him separated so he could make his own choice just like she was getting, or for him to give into the treaty with her. Yet she worried slightly she might not be able to stomach him in the long run because of the fighting between the two of them that occurred before she had been kidnapped. Before either of them had found out the messages Mother had been hiding for them. It was hard to be around him, yet at the same time it was all she wanted. It twisted her stomach in knots.
After lunch, she assumed they would ride through the narrow passage together they had reached, but surprisingly, Yasha, her parents' friend and the prince's bastard uncle, stepped up over to her, asking her to ride with him through the passage. Hours with Yasha instead of with Takashi. She accepted his offer.
When they lined up to go through two by two, Hikari saw Mother directing the pairs through, telling them how best to reach the end of the path where Father and Uncle Yusuke had gone first. They had to keep distance between each pair over the terrain and watch out for each other. If done safely, there would be less risk.
When Hikari and Yasha reached the front of the line for their turn, Mother's eyes stopped. She frowned at the sight of Yasha. She approached the opposite side of Yasha's stead from Hikari. " Yasha, What are you doing?" she asked, almost short in her tone.
"Riding my way through the difficult terrain with someone I trust, my lady," he answered coyly. "Unless you'd like to accompany me through?"
Hikari craned her neck to see Mother next to Yasha. "Why are you riding with her?"
"She's a good companion to ride with, I'm sure. Didn't Hiei say she was a good fighter? Especially along side the prince? She'll watch over me well and I her."
Mother's eyes narrowed and she huffed. "Mind yourself," she warned. "We discussed this a few nights ago..." she added vaguely.
Hikari looked away from Mother, straight ahead, puzzling over what could have been discussed last night between Mother and Yasha. She wondered if she could get Yasha to tell her what was said as they went down the passage...
The two of them started down the passage, but not before she took the chance to glance back at the pairs of people who would eventually follow after them. She saw the prince had paired up with Kurama. A better choice for him, to keep him safe.
Hikari started down the path with Yasha right next to her. She waited until she was sure Mother was out of ear shot to ask him, "what did my mother say to you a few nights ago?"
"Hmm?" he hummed over at her. "Only your daring escapade with your insane grandfather," he chuckled. "Short hair does suit you," he commented.
Hikari looked over at him, but then back at the path when her hippogriff skittered. She rein her stead in carefully. Her hand came up to her shorter hair now, just below the length of her chin. She had liked it long, even if she had to put it up high everyday away from her fire dragon. Mother had helped her trim up neatly to ring her jawline. "He was nightmarish," she commented, not sure what else to say.
"Your dear Great Uncle Jiro could tell you all about it," Yasha said with too much nonchalance. "Count yourself lucky he's gone. Or don't since apparently he used your name to gain power where we're going and was going to name you his heir."
She frowned in annoyance. "Good thing he's gone," she stated firmly.
Yasha chuckled next to her. "Good thing indeed," he added. "Although, suppose it was a bit a thrill up here. I've heard Alaric is far too boring, not like the capital."
"Oh?" she asked, turning to look at him for a second and then back at the road. She sat up higher as her stead made a jump over a narrow trench that appeared on the path in front of them. She saw Yasha made that jump with just as much ease.
"There's much more fun down South. But not all the way down South, where you're mother grew up. You've been down there?" he asked. She nodded. "In the capital, there's much more fun. Down there you can..."
He started rambling about stuff in the capital, mentioning a few things she was sure her mother would not want her hearing quite so bluntly. "...More fun down South, you see? What all fun things can you in your vast castle, my lady?"
"I..." she started. "I- the hiking, the training with Father, visiting the nearby village, the hot springs in the caves, some of the projects Mother works on in the area with farming and agriculture..."
Yasha scoffed, "teenage dream. Have your father yell at you all day to get stronger and then go shove your hands in the dirt with your mother. Do you even have any fun things to do outside of your family?"
"Um," she started. "I can go to the village and see the others around my age..." she explained, thinking about the few she had spent time with off and on in friendship there. She did not like how he was insinuating how boring her territory was.
"Oh?" Yasha interjected, voice sounding more high pitch and curious. "Anyone in particular who helps you pass the time?"
She frowned at him, not sure what he was getting at. "What do you mean?"
Yasha chuckled, "a young friend, mature enough to run around with? Any boys in particular?"
She felt heat creep up her neck. "Any boys to what? Train with? I- my brother and used to train together with other demon children in the village, but stopped because we were too strong, and Father was a bit too hard on them-"
Yasha was laughing now, which spook his stead, making it stumble. He took a second to calm it down. "Not from your family," he said. She wondered what he was getting at. "You know, keep this comment to yourself, but Kurama is getting older. Being a non-elf and all. If you know anyone around your age to take a dalliance with, well..."
She felt herself blush three shades red. "I would never... I haven't... no," she stuttered out.
"Come on, most have had a dalliance a time or two before they get old and boring. Your mother had two, three if you count your father. Don't bring that up though, one in particular still makes him surly and jealous. Double standard though, considering your father had a handful of dalliances of his own before he met your mother," he rambled out.
"What?" she said, feeling herself grow uncomfortable for this conversation. "Father was in the fighting pits before meeting Mother, too busy trying to survive. Mother was way down South where the belief she was half demon kept others away from her," she insisted.
"Sweetheart," he said softly. "Did you think up those thoughts on your own, or did someone tell you parts, skipping over things you were once to young to know about?"
"You- I-" she huffed. She felt her irritation mounting. "I should ridden along the prince," she ruled. She regretted now the desire to have some space from him.
"Why didn't you?" he asked her.
"You asked first," she answered.
"Lucky me. What else could I ask of you if I ask first?" he wondered.
She tried to spur her stead to go ahead of his, but the ground was rocky and precarious. She could not get it to go much faster.
He still kept up with her. "Not much, I take it," he commented. "Are you like the prince in that? Refusing politely anyone who shows interest? Although, he did that because he knew when he was younger he was engaged to someone. He always assumed it was some foreign princess from another country."
Hikari looked back over at him, feeling drawn back into the conversation. "He is... he did that?"
"Yes. I sent him a, um, birthday present once. He refused her company, but I still had to pay her. The queen was livid when she found out. Threatened to banish me all over again. Loyal to the fiance he had no idea was stuck growing up in the Alaric sticks," he explained.
"How disappointing for him," she said.
"At first it seems, until he nearly traded himself for you to save you from a mad man," he commented. "I've heard say now he's smitten with you. Ever since he heard your mother's message for him."
"It's too late for that message," she rushed out. "Ichiro is gone, and the king and queen will eventually find a dark crone." She tried not to sound disappointed.
"Ah, so you don't like him?" he asked.
"I..." she started, hesitating. Izo's message had just been for her, even if she had it shared with Takashi. "It's not fair..." she confessed.
"What's not fair?" he asked softly.
Silence settled over the two of them. She gnawed at her lip. "I can say no, I always could say no. He can't, at least not yet. He doesn't get a choice."
"So you want to give him one? You don't like him or something? Or you think his behavior is him giving in what he cannot control?" he listed off several questions. "He seems to like you rather a lot, choice or not."
"I..." she was tempted to share Izo's message, but thought better of it. "If he had the genuine choice, would he have chosen me in the beginning? Before I was taken? Before he knew about the blood bond treaty?"
"That was the past, sweetheart. People can change, are challenged to evolve when the need arises. Most don't resist that. Your father took it almost to the extreme. Perhaps the prince has been pushed by the events that happened and wants to chose you, even if the choice isn't much of a choice," he explained.
"I don't know," she mumbled out, wanting to think things over, and not talk about it anymore.
"Kurama was like that," Yasha said. "Still a little like that. Played hard to get with me at first. Took some tricks your mother would disapprove of you knowing to get him to see me in a romantic light. I didn't luck out like you and had a catalyst of the fear of dying never been kissed to catch him."
"I... I don't know..." she said.
"Perhaps if-" he started.
She shook her head. "Can we just- can we just ride on? In silence?" she requested.
"Oh course, my lady," he answered charmingly.
She enjoyed but did not enjoy the silence. By the time they reached the night's camp where Father and Uncle Yusuke had been waiting for pairs to show up. She took her time in silence to groom her hippogriff after the long ride before turning to set up the tent she would share with Maiha, trying not to think who else she could share the tent with.
She jumped, trying to get the tent up to its proper height when none other than the prince showed up next to her, assisting her. Just being next to him made her breathless. Perhaps if he did not want the freedom to chose after all, even though she felt he deserved it.
"Thank you," she told him. Shyly, she added, "I need to finished setting up inside the tent." She slipped into the tent she shared with Maiha, without another word, half hoping he would follow her.
She was down at the other end of the tent, setting to unpack her bag. She smiled to herself when she heard him slip into the tent behind her. She turned around, giving him a shy look. It was almost comical to see him be too tall for her tent and have to slouch. She rose back up, glad to see she could, barely, stand up in her tent.
She stepped over to him, toe to toe, asking softly, "don't you have your own tent to set up?" She recalled Takashi shared a tent with Izo.
"Uh... um..." he stuttered. He looked nervous, which she liked. "I will... yes... soon..." He could have left at that, should have left at that, but he stayed rooted in front of her.
She thought about what she and Yasha talked about on the ride earlier, and was feeling tempted. She stepped as close as she could to him, raising up on her tip toes to kiss him. He gasped, caught off guard. She wrapped her arms around his neck, easier with him slouched over in the tent. He smelled musty, with a hint of hippogriff on his clothes, but she found she liked the smell on him.
She half guided, half pulled him down onto her sleeping bag with her. It made her too nervous to have him lay down on top of her, so she rolled so she could be on top of him. She leaned against his side, with her upper body on top of him and lower body snaked up next to him. She kept up kissing him, feeling almost shaky with adrenaline and excitement.
She could feel her breathing getting heavier, his as well. She felt a thrill in her chest when his hand came into her hair, finger entwined in it. She hoped the moment would never end.
Then she paused, hearing someone, no, Uncle Yusuke's voice calling out in search of the prince. Takashi was quick to extract himself from her, sitting up.
"Why does he want you?" she asked, feeling grumpy eking into her voice.
"I... um..." he flustered out. He leaned over to her, kissing to briefly. "I think I forgot..." he rambled.
"Forgot what?" she asked breathlessly.
"To brush down my hippogriff..." he admitted.
She felt her temper spike. She punched him in the arm. "You can't not do that," she scolded, feeling empathetic for the stead left untended. "I'll help you with it," she decided, rolling onto her feet.
She left the tent, glad at least to hear him up and moving behind her. She left her tent first, with him not far behind her. She halted, with him running into her when she saw Yasha standing nearby, giving her the most curious look.
"He was... was helping me set up my tent," she vocalized.
"More like you were helping pitch his tent," Yasha teased.
"What?" she asked, completely unsure what he was insinuating.
"Nothing," Yasha said, shaking his head. "Don't tell your mother what I said."
She frowned at him, deciding to not push it. She reached back and took Takashi's hand. "Come on," she said, tugging him along with her.