I couldn't believe they had prepared an entire house just for us! Indeed, it only had four small enough rooms, but it seemed bigger to me than any place I had ever slept in. It remembered me of where I used to live with my mother, only it was a lot bigger.

We had to use three of the rooms as dorms, since they were small. Kikuchiyo shared one of the dorms with Heihachi and Gorobei, Kambei, Shichiroji and Katsushiro took the second one and the third, which was also the smallest, remained for me and Kyuzo. I didn't mind. I knew I was going to have that room to myself since Kyuzo preferred sleeping outside.

We didn't have any time to rest, however; Kambei made sure of that. Shortly after we arrived, he had us all doing something. He asked Kyuzo to teach the villagers how to use an arrow and asked me if I could bobby trap the area outside the village. I nodded, but it was going to take me a long time to do it. Kanna wasn't as small as I had imagined after all.

A few minutes after I started placing the bobby traps I also started cursing myself for coming into this suicidal mission. I was actually muttering to myself, wiping the sweat from my forehead from time to time. By nightfall, I hadn't even finished the main entrance area and even though I tried to continue, Shichiroji came after me.

"Chidori-san! We thought you'd run away!" he smiled. "Come on. We have to get some rest. You can continue tomorrow. It's too dark to see anything anyway."

I winked and rose from the ground, dusting off my hands and clothes, feeling dirty. All I wanted was a bath and a nice, warm cup of tea. From the looks of it, I wasn't going to get any of that. We walked back to our house, where everybody else was having dinner. Kyuzo wasn't there. I wondered where he might have gone. Kambei motioned for me to sit and have some rice, but I refused politely. I wasn't really hungry. Just tired.

"How are the preparations going?" the white clad samurai asked, putting his bowl of rice down.

"In a few days, we'll be ready to face an entire army!" Heihachi grinned. "Don't worry. These people are hard-working. Everything will be finished on time."

Kambei nodded shortly. I raised a brow, wondering if he would be on the losing side again. The odds were against us, we couldn't deny it. I noticed the old man was looking at me and I glared back, getting up to leave and look for Kyuzo. No one else besides Katsushiro noticed that quiet exchange of looks between us, but he wasn't important enough to make me care. I just walked away, ignoring everyone.

I wasted half an hour I could have peacefully slept in my nice little room to find Kyuzo and when I finally spotted him under a tree in the woods, he simply ignored me. I did the same thing, pulling out the sake bottle I had sneaked under my cloak from the house and taking a few sips. It tasted great after half a day of hard work. I could already feel my muscles melt with that pleasurable pain. I stared at the bottle for a while, my head swirling a bit by now.

When I raised my eyes, he was gazing at me. I smirked, knowing very well what that gaze meant: stop drinking. Like hell I would. If I couldn't have a goddamn bath and a fuckin' cup of tea, I could at least have some warm sake for tonight.

"How's your wound?" I asked casually, taking another sip from my already half-empty bottle.

"Hn."

"Oh, really? Good for you." I mumbled, throwing him the little flacon of ointment.

He caught it expertly. It would have hit his head otherwise.

"I've been planting bombs all day." I said, watching him as he took off his red trench coat to take care of the wound on his upper arm. "You've been training farmers. Sounds fun. Maybe if I manage to finish putting those things in the ground until the end of the year, I'll join you. Kambei can stick those exploding things up his-"

"You're drunk."

"I know. People do get drunk after having a whole bottle of sake. And I haven't eaten anything either." I shrugged. "I came to see you."

He threw back the ointment and it did hit my head.

"Ouch." I muttered.

I didn't bother pick the flacon from the ground next to me. I couldn't even keep my head straight; it kept falling down. I bit my lip, still conscious enough to realize how pathetic I must have been looking to him, Mr. Perfect, who never got drunk. A silent thread of curses ran in circles through my head and it wasn't just because of the alcohol.

"Promise me you'll kick Kambei's ass… one day…"

My voice was shaky, I could hear it and it was embarrassing, but I didn't really care at the moment. Kyuzo probably decided I had had enough alcohol for one night and stood up, easily lifting me from the ground in his arms to carry me back home.

"Lucky!" I chirped. "My room has… uh… a separate entrance … We don't have to go through the front… but why… can't you just let me sleep outside? We could… share a tree…"

"Because."

I frowned, a sudden chill making me shiver. I pressed closer to him in search for a little warmth and hold on tight to his muscular arms. My eyes opened as I felt the stitches on his coat's upper arm and the vague smile on my lips melted in an instant.

"Put me down." I ordered huskily. "I can walk on my own."

Would Kyuzo ever do what I asked, no, ordered him to? No. Of course not. He was Kyuzo, after all. I rolled my eyes and tried to get down from his arms, but he didn't let me go. He knew I'd probably fall the moment my feet touched the ground. I knew that too, but it didn't matter. I couldn't believe the priestess had actually insisted on stitching his coat after he got hurt… I wasn't really sure I could make the difference between a needle and a thread and I would have probably pricked my finger a lot, but I was feeling… betrayed. Just because I hadn't been the one stitching his coat.

"Put me down!" I hissed, struggling in his arms.

He glared and let me fall on the floor in my room and I crawled under the sheets on my own, proud of myself. I wanted to turn around and say good night to him, but he was gone already. I bit my lip and rolled on the other side with an irritated sigh, suddenly upset with myself.

"Fuckdamnfuckdamnfuckdamn..."

I kept muttering like that for a while and then I fell asleep, having stupid dreams of Kirara stitching my mouth. Great day. Really great day.