「 Affections Touching Across Time — Image 」
In a bid to see herself how she imagines, Towa asks her grandmother to cut her hair then seeks out her parents to show the new look.
Towa watched the steady fall of her hair as shears clipped at the white locks with a careful calculated grace. Her grandmother, meticulous as always, tapped at her shoulder now and again when her squirming became too much for a clean cut. It was a bit strange. Not being able to blow her bangs from her face or feel the added weight upon her neck and shoulders. Yet, the difference was just as liberating.
Sunlight slanted through the high windows, warming her balled fists and the soft feathered cushions beneath her, golden threads embroidered in three adjacent hexagons on the cream-colored fabric glistening and shimmering at the corner of her eye. Tempted, Towa brushed her knuckle along the dips and crevices of the embroidery, careful not to lean too far as she angled her fingers in the sunlight.
"Do you know what it stands for, Towa?" Her grandmother asked, a smile and silent challenge in her voice.
Towa frowned. She'd seen this pattern before on the clothes of her grandmother, parents, sister and her own. The guards wore it as well, but theirs were smaller and always covered by their fists when they bowed to her father and mother as they passed by. Peeking over her shoulder as best she could, Towa found the same symbol upon the sleeve of her grandmother's kimono. A gentle tap to her shoulder reminding her to face forward as another lock of white drifted in the corner of her eye.
"It's… our family?" Towa stated questioningly.
Her grandmother gave a short lilting hum in response. "Was that a question, dear heart?"
Searching the sun streaks on the bark-bindings of her grandmother's collection of books and scrolls, Towa found it carved in the scroll's wooden knobs and along the books' bindings. "It's our family," she repeated with confidence exuding from her in waves, leaving no room for doubt.
Her grandmother's quiet laughter was warmer than the sunlight, joined by a light squeeze to her shoulder. Pride swelled hot in Towa's chest and she wiggled her legs, unable to keep still as the questions built in her mind. A few hissing snips of the shears and the questions had leaked into the reaches of Towa's mind.
Entranced by the cloudless sky and distant rumbling of A-Un, likely rejecting the treatment of his would-be handlers, the wispy dusk cloud misting around his paws drifting after him as he streaked across the open window's view. Pausing long enough to veer both heads around, slitted pupils dilating as Towa waved at him and he pressed his snout to the window, fogging it with steam before flying away as his handlers shouted after him.
"That dragon," her grandmother grumbled, likely displeased by the fog and Towa stifled a giggle behind her hands. "Oh, so you believe this to be funny, hm?"
Towa had no hope of escaping her grandmother's tickling. Squirming and wiggling away from the fingers poking and prodding at her sides, her legs kicking and head thrown back as she laughed loudly. Barely catching glimpses of her grandmother's face, smiling and beautiful, eyes a soft golden hue reminding her of the sun at dusk. Once she'd settled down, her grandmother repositioned her on the sun-warmed cushion and returned to cutting the unimaginable length of her hair.
Enamored with thoughts of how it'd be, Towa was able to stay still for a moment. But it hadn't lasted long. Eventually, she sighed. "Now, Baba?"
"Patience, my dear," her grandmother said when another snip came, much closer to the rounded curve of Towa's ear, reminding her to stay very still."The more you squirm the longer it will take."
Towa huffed, pushing her hands against her thighs and wrinkling the tidal waves curling and crashing into one another as they patterned along the edges of her kosode. Puffing her cheeks and scrunching her nose, she pressed her finger to the sea foam rising from the crest's and traced the curves with her thumb.
"It's hard…" She whined, wanting to flop back into her grandmother's lap but the clip of the shears remind her not to. She sighed. How her sister and father could stay still all the time made no sense. It was the absolute worst.
After a few minutes, which felt like hours to Towa, her grandmother brushed over her shoulders with light strokes then combed her fingers through her hair. "There."
Towa's eyes widened as her grandmother's fingers trailed just to her nape rather than down her back as it did before. Swiveling her head from left to right, a mass of familiar white hair laid on the floor, curled and disconnected.
"..Wow…" Towa's fingers nestled in her hair as she pointed down at the pile, looking up to her grandmother in awe. "That's mine?"
Her grandmother smiled, a flicker of amusement in the creases of the marks beneath her eyes as she smiled, covering her mouth from view with her sleeve. "That was all yours."
Was. Towa buried her fingers in her hair and felt around. It was still connected to her head and felt like hers but where her hair had once fallen past her shoulders now barely swept past her earlobe. A wide smile curved her lips and she scrambled to kneel on the cushion, clambering into her grandmother's lap scarcely after she'd put the shears into a glossy wooden oblong case.
"I wanna see, Baba!"
"Alright."
Her grandmother's silken sleeves were cool against Towa's cheeks as she reached past her. The air humming and coming to life around them, a soft pattering like rain upon a roof, preluding the drifting arrival of an orb to her grandmother's palm. It pulsed with a faint violet light. Luminous stone flecked with particles of light, matching the color of the gem in her grandmother's necklace.
"Look carefully, Towa." Her grandmother murmured, and Towa leant close enough to where her nose brushed against the orb's surface.
"Ack! That's cold…" Towa sputtered, rubbing the tip of her nose as she jerked back, squinting up at her grandmother's stifled laughter.
Before she could shake her fist at her grandmother in discontent, the orb's surface began to shimmer and change, the particles of light growing brighter and joining along the orb's curvature until the violet stone could be seen no more. When the light died, Towa sighed in awe at her own reflection. Golden eyes peering back at her as she turned her head one way then the other, admiring the shortened curling lengths of hair. Her bangs were shorter now and she was faintly reminded of her mother's hair, picking at the ends and shaking her head for good measure.
"How do you like it?" Her grandmother asked, smiling down at her serenely when their eyes met.
"It's not heavy anymore…" Towa said, burying her fingers in her hair and ruffling it further. Sputtering when a few stray hairs caught on her lips and she swiped the back of her hand along her mouth to rid herself of the taste. "And it's pretty, right?"
Her grandmother's eyes softened, and the floating feeling returned as she brushed her fingers over Towa's hair then beneath the curve of her cheek. "You look very beautiful," she said, and Towa felt her face warming as she giggled delightedly.
"Ah!" Her eyes shot open in remembrance, mouth hanging open. "I should show Father and Mother and Nana!"
With a bit of scuffling and shuffling about, Towa scrambled off her grandmother's lap and took all of four steps before realization struck her. Pivoting on her foot and blurring back to her grandmother's side in an instant, her smaller arms tucking around her grandmother's side to hug her tightly.
"Thank you, Baba!" Towa cried, squeezing her tightly, a content sigh easing her grip as her grandmother brushed her fingers over her hair.
"You're welcome, my dear," her grandmother said, resting her hand at the back of Towa's head and hugging her close to her side.
Towa sighed. Her grandmother's hugs were among one of the bests in her family. They were just the right amount of snug, not too suffocating and not too loose, and it helped that she smelled nice. Like her library during a sun shower with the light hitting the windows just right and the books warm enough that Towa could smell them from down the hall, a drifting rainy scent when she opened the windows just enough to let some of the mist come through.
Settling into the scent, Towa barely realized when she was starting to doze off. Rubbing her cheek against the fur lining of her grandmother's drape then hopping to her toes to lean up and kiss her cheek. Her grandmother laughed by her sleeve, letting her go with a fleeting kiss upon the top of her head.
"Off you go now," she said. "I have some cleaning up to do."
Towa looked around them, feeling a tinge of guilt, and an offer to help set on the tip of her tongue until her grandmother waved her concerns aside.
"Jaken should be here any minute now, now off you go."
Giving one last look at the hair, Towa nodded. Jaken would have been able to clean it up easily if not by hand then by burning it away with his staff. Although, the last time she'd ask him to do it, her father wasn't very happy when they came back covered in soot. Towa shuddered at the thought and avoided her grandmother's inquisitive gaze, bounding for the door with one last kiss to the demoness' cheek. As the door swung open, Towa barely glimpsed the top of Jaken's head before she barreled into him, knocking him to the ground with his indignant cry following after her as she sprinted down the hall.
"Sorry!" Towa called over her shoulder, glancing back long enough to see the small demon picking himself off the ground with a grumble.
Her mother told her to be a little mindful of Jaken. He talked a lot, seemed to love the sound of his own voice and wouldn't be quiet long enough for her to get a word in edgewise — but he meant well. Jaken was as part of their family as A-Un, and very important to her parents, and he'd always been there for her and Setsuna. Even if he did shy away from a fight now and again, their father trusted him with their safety and that meant a lot. Reminding herself to make it up to Jaken with one of his favorite snacks, Towa set her gaze forward as she navigated the winding castle halls to her parents' study.
It took a little doing to open the door but she managed to slide it open, grateful that it didn't rattle in its frame or slip off the track.
"Father! Mother!"
In the brief pause between her parents noticing her, Towa admired the picture they cut. Papers scattered across the table before them, tomes stacked to one side of the table while the other was occupied with a tray of snacks, a teapot and two cups. She even spied some of her mother's candies, the honey-flavored ones, soft and rounded in a small dish. They were untouched oddly enough. Her mother's sweet tooth, often rivaling Towa and Setsuna's own, leading to a shortage of honey-candies when unchecked.
Though speaking of her mother, the young woman was standing beside her father as he leafed through one of the tomes, a scroll laid out beside the tray and her finger pausing in its skim over the surface. Her mother's other hand resting upon her father's shoulder. Calming hues of gold and amber tinted her raven black hair a deep brown, and her father's white glistened like sunlight on the surface of a river stream.
Their clothes were nigh identical, aside from the high-collared pitch black undershirt her mother wore beneath her leather chest guard and belt wound around her hips, two white cloths wrapped around her calves joined by black socks. Their family crest emblazoned in the intricate patterns woven onto her bracers and the sash around her waist.
Towa smiled. She liked how close her parents were and how they relied on one another. Her father, seconds from handing the tome in hand to her mother, shifted his focus to her. Brows rising as his gaze swept over Towa, lingering other head.
Her mother paused in taking the tome from him, tucking her hair behind her ear as glanced aside, smiling as her brown eyes met Towa's own. "Did somethi—" Her expression softened with awe and her words trailed off, hands resting at her hips when she stood to her full height. "Oh."
Towa was practically vibrating with excitement, hurrying over to them as fast as her legs could carry her after the door was slid shut behind her. Standing a few centimeters from their table, she looked between her mother's amused gaze and her father's impassive one. Deciding on the latter as she rounded to his side of the table and patted at his arm, pushing to free space for herself to wiggle in his lap.
Her father lifted his arm and Towa heard her mother's muffled laughter, like whispering winds rolling across shuttered window, as she pulled herself over his leg accidentally tumbling into his lap with a huff. His hands slipped beneath her arms and lifted her up, setting her right side up to where she could see her mother kneeling at his side.
"Do you like it?" Towa asked.
Her mother picked at the ends of her hair, ruffling her fingers through it jestingly. "Your hair?" She asked in a light-hearted tune.
"Uh-huh." Towa wrinkled her nose, trying not to giggle when her mother tweaked it. "Baba says I'm beautiful."
"And you are," her mother says almost immediately, leaning close and pressing a kiss to her cheek. One of the kisses that lasts for a bit longer and is sealed with another to her forehead. It felt nice and soft, Towa rubbing her cheek afterward.
"It is different," her mother added, glancing up at her father with a tilt of the head. "A good different, neh?"
Towa shifted enough to be able to see her father's face. Unreadable as ever, he gave not a bit of how he felt away. His gaze running overhear face though it lingered at her hair. Worry turned in her stomach the longer his silence lasted and she pressed her hands to her lap, trying not to squirm.
"… It suits you," her father finally said with a small nod, his clawed fingers coiling the shorter strands around them appreciatively then letting them fall.
Delighted by his approval, Towa leant into his touches and wiggled her feet. "It's a lot lighter too," she said, scrunching up her nose as she tipped her head back to look at him. "I don't know how you carry your hair and your fur, father."
Her mother snorted, her shoulders hunched and hand covering her mouth as she turned her head away. Overhead, her father gave her a strange look then shook his head.
"… I'm accustomed to it," her father said, keeping her mother's gaze as she snickered.
Curious as to why her mother was laughing, Towa had more questions, patting her father's wrist for his attention. "Is Nana going to get used to it too? Carrying hers around?"
Her sister's mokomoko was soft and felt light but there was so much of it and they were still little. Thankfully, it wrapped around her waist like a sash and wasn't too difficult to avoid stepping on.
"Likely so," Her father assured.
"Wow.. E—"
A harsh giggling snort drowned out her voice and she looked up to her mother. The tips of her ears were turning red and her giggles, barely kept behind her hand, were spilling out. Towa tipped her head, feeling bit of laughter bubbling up herself at seeing her mother so happy but it was also a little confusing.
"Father, is Mother okay?" Towa whispered to her father, glancing up at him.
There was a faint upward twitch at the corner of his lips as he watched her mother clutch her stomach while she laughed. "Why don't you go and ask her?" He said, lifting Towa up and setting her on her feet.
"Mother, mother," Towa called, tugging at her mother's sleeve to garner her attention.
Wiping at her eyes, her mother chuckled. "I'm sorry," she said, sighing breathily then looking to her with a smile. "Ahem… yes?"
Towa squinted, tipping her head to one side. "Why're you crying and laughing?"
"Ah… well… with your hair that short, it reminds me of the memories your grandmother showed me of your father."
"Memories?" Towa echoed back, her mother nodding and lifting her up to sit on her lap.
While Towa made herself comfortable, the sun-warmed leather of her mother's belt at her back and arms tucked around her, her father gave her mother a strange look to which she only smiled in response.
"When your father was very little, perhaps around your age, his hair was just about this short. He loved your grandfather very much, and looked up to him. So when he was a bit older and his hair grew, he'd wear it like your grandfather did."
Towa's eyes softened. "Oh…"
She pressed her fingers to her hair, looking over to her father who wasn't looking at them anymore, seeming to take more of an interest in the opposite wall or anything else. Her grandfather was really important or at least that's what everyone said. Her grandmother liked to tell stories about him — more than the ones about how strong he was — she talked about him liking to laugh, play, adventure. It made her feel floaty and a little sad. She would actually have liked to see him and talk to him one day.
"Alright then, that settles it," her mother said, startling her out of her thoughts. "It's a nice day outside, so we're all going out."
Towa's eyes widened and she scrambled out of her mother's lap, hurrying to her father's side. "Father, father!" When she had his attention after tugging at his sleeve, she smiled widely. "You'll practice with me, right?"
He did say that she was getting better with her swordplay and what better way then practicing. He blinked at her then nodded once, setting his hand atop her head.
"I'll go get Setsuna then."
Before Towa could turn around to look at her mother, she was given a kiss on the cheek then her forehead. Her mother kissing her father's forehead, right over the crescent moon, then brushing her nose against his own before pulling away.
"You two go on then, we'll catch up."
"Okay!" Towa called after her, holding onto her father's hand once he'd finished cleaning up and led her into the hall. "Father, do you think Setsuna will like my hair too?"
Her father tilted his head, humming offhandedly. "Ask her."
Towa grinned, although worry gnawed in her gut.
"… Do you like it?"
Looking up at the question, she tilted her head. Her father looking down at her with an arched brow.
"Your hair, do you like it?"
Laying her hand atop her head, Towa felt the shorter white locks and nodded. "Yeah!"
Her father seemed pleased by that as he looked forward. "Then nothing else matters."
She smiled and squeezed his hand in response.
Author's Note
This was a labor of love for hours, starting from yesterday all the way up to today. And as you might have guessed — yes, I do know about the sequel announcement.
Towa is a little ball of sunshine in this short and I absolutely love her. She has a specific self-image but she's aware enough of her family and their feelings to be curious of how they feel toward what she's doing. Also, for the nicknames, she calls her paternal grandmother "Baba" because… well, that's actually something that'll come up in another drabble.
Anyhow, there are continuations to this one and others. And while we don't know much about the girls outside of their appearance, their profiles for the series, and such — ATAT is a.. Well, it's an AU verse of post-canon events, we'll put it that way.
As always, you can find me on tumblr, instagram, twitter, tapas, and pillow at unlockthelore!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read!