Wood
Tanpopo had learned about catching bugs, the tiny hovering kind. He nipped and zig-zagged through the branches of Yuuko's cherry tree as if it were his own private obstacle course. Every time he caught one he soared across the lawn to perch on Himawari's finger and cheep excitedly. She lifted him higher into the sunlight and smiled.
"You have more flexibility now," said Yuuko, smoothing in the cream.
"Do I?" Himawari said, turning, until an irritated tap on the side of her head sent her facing forward again. She directed her eyes and voice instead to the ends of the extravagant furisode sleeves draped beside her, pale green and patterned with sprays of leaves. "It itches."
"That is, arguably, a good sign."
"I brought castella sponge cake today."
"Hmm."
"This is the second try. The first was a little scorched and ugly-looking."
"Standards of beauty differ. Clasp your hands and pull them forward, as far as they can go – ah yes, it is better."
Himawari's hair started slipping from the black lacquer pins. Yuuko caught it, but then pulled the pins and let the hair fall in inky clouds down Himawari's back. "Very pretty."
"Thank you."
"It makes a good veil."
Himawari shrugged. Yuuko caught up the hair with long-fingered hands and rewound it deftly, poking in the sticks at odd angles. She had a knack for pinning hair that made one look as if just risen from some languorous and probably immoral activity. Himawari wasn't sure she liked it: she generally preferred the fresh-faced 'innocent angel' look.
An inky lock of Yuuko's hair was lying on the silken sleeve. Himawari picked it up lightly with two fingers and a thumb. There was a question that she did not ask.
"If I told you..." said Yuuko.
"Yes?"
"It wouldn't be a veil anymore."
And Himawari wondered what even this much of a confidence was costing her. Even so, she walked home a little straighter, a little taller, and kept her hair up in the pins almost all the way. Three different gentlemen of varying ages and dispositions turned to watch her as she passed. One fell off his bicycle, another sprained his ankle on a city-bred tanuki (who went home vowing terrible revenge by his shaking scrotum), and the third had a difficult discussion with his boyfriend not long after. It was all a terrible shame.
extravagant furisode sleeves A furisode is a kind of kimono generally worn by young women, brilliantly decorated and with exceedingly long sleeves. Back in the Hei-an Era, high-class women would hide behind screens but drape their carefully designed sleeves where they could be seen. I'm not the one to tell Yuuko she's wearing a style to young for her or using thousand-year-old etiquette...
city-bred tanuki Also called a raccoon dog. They're reputed to have magical powers, often related to their very large and transformable scrotums. That guy is in for a world of unpleasantness, and soon. Why am I writing this?