A/N: Huzzah for more OkixKai! Please review.

Oki stood near the top of the hill outside a medium-sized hut, staring at the door as if he expected it to do something for him. He stuck his hands in the pocket of his faded red outer jacket, shrugging off the wind and snow that swirled around him. What am I doing here? he thought irritably.

Last night, before he got the chance to head home, Samickle grabbed hold of his arm and forced him to look in his eyes. "Tomorrow you'll apologize to Kai," he said, making it clear that Oki had no option. "If you don't, I'll personally slice you to pieces."

Oki heaved a sigh. It's not that he didn't want to apologize. He just didn't know how to approach the subject. Every time he thought about it, it made his insides squirm unpleasantly.

Come on, Oki, he thought, irritated at himself. He was a warrior, for crying out loud. He battled demons every day without so much as flinching. Why should he be so strung up over saying a few words to a girl?

Suddenly the door opened and he found himself completely unprepared and looking like an idiot.

Kai blinked in surprise. "Oki! What are you doing here?"

Oki scowled and turned away. "Can't I come visit the village every once in a while?" he answered.

Kai ignored the harsh tone in his voice and clapped her hands joyfully. "Come in, come in! I was going to go to the lake with Lika and build snowmen, but that can wait! After all, it's not every day Oki comes to visit!"

Cautiously, Oki followed Kai through the door and looked about the one-roomed hut, from the table in the center of the room to the loom by the bed with a half-finished piece on it. The hut was comfortable and homey, filled with handmade baskets and blankets and raw hide skins that were going to be furnished into clothes. The little girl with the leaf mask from yesterday looked up at him with big, round eyes while Kai bustled over to the fireplace to make some tea. She hung the kettle over the fire and said, "Lika, why don't you show Oki where to sit?"

Lika sprung out of her trance and pushed a stool towards him. "Kai, who is this?"

"That's Oki," Kai said. "He's a warrior. He lives far away, so we don't see him very often, but he is very dedicated and protects us from the demons. Be polite to him, alright Lika?"

"Un!" Lika said, and continued to stare at him. "Your hair is pretty," she said after a while.

"Thank you," said Oki. His voice was rough and cracked. It was the first thing he had said since coming into Kai's house, and he realized his throat had become tight with nervousness. Kai pulled out three cups and added the tea leaves, then took the kettle off the fire and poured the hot water into each one. Oki was glad to have something to occupy his mouth and nearly burned his tongue on the hot tea. He prayed Kai wouldn't ask him why he came here, since he was still not yet sure what he would tell her. Fortunately, she seemed to be satisfied with his answer from before and merely asked him things he could answer easily, such as his training and his life outside the village. His responses were short and blunt. He didn't want her thinking he would do this all the time.

"Is it…hard living by yourself?" she asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"You mean do I get lonely."

She stuttered and appeared generally flustered. "I-I'm sorry if I asked a rude question! I was just…just wondering, since you always seem so—"

"I like being alone," he said, and left it at that.

"Oh." The silence that filled the air felt strange and forced.

Oki cleared his throat. "Thank you for the tea," he said, standing up to leave.

"You're welcome to come by whenever you'd like!" Kai told him. He grunted in reply. He wouldn't come back and put himself through that torture for anything. But then he remembered he still hadn't apologized to her, and he cursed himself again. He turned back to the door, his hand hovering over the smooth wood as he prepared to knock, but his courage failed him. Besides it would be awkward to walk back in after leaving so abruptly. He shrugged his shoulders and walked swiftly back out of the village to the safe isolation of his hut.

[xx]

"You seem to be working harder, Oki," noted Samickle.

Oki cut down the last Namahage and glanced up at the lilac warrior derisively, wiping the sweat off his brow. "What are you doing here, Samickle?" Oki had been practicing in the field outside his hut when Samickle showed up for no reason and started watching him.

"Have you apologized to Kai?"

Oki didn't reply. He scowled and nudged the dead Namahage with his foot, then slung it over his shoulder and tossed it over the snow bank.

"Well, in any case, you must have done something because she's much happier."

Oki still didn't answer. He assumed Samickle was here just to annoy him, and he didn't want to give the older warrior the satisfaction. He stubbornly ignored him and wiped his sword in the snow. Samickle smirked. "Fine, fine, I'll leave you alone. Just remember, it can't hurt to visit the village every now then, even if you don't have a reason."

Oki sheathed his sword and waited until he was sure Samickle was gone. He disliked having people watch him while he did things, especially Samickle, of all people. Right now he wanted to hunt, and if Samickle stuck around in his current mood all the pleasure would be taken out of it. He turned into his signature dark gray wolf with a red mane and a long stripe of red running down his back. His navy lupine mask nestled snugly on his forehead. He padded off toward the lake in the area outside the village to catch some rabbits, or maybe even a deer, if he was lucky.

He sniffed the air and caught a whiff of a small family of rabbits on the far side of the lake. He was downwind from them, making this an easy catch. He padded forward, trying to get closer before he pounced. Just then the wind suddenly changed direction, and the rabbits smelled him coming. He cursed silently and bounded after them, making sure not to lose sight of them in the snow. Two of the rabbits scattered off in different direction, but Oki ignored them and followed the largest one, which was headed for Yoshpet. With an expertly timed lunge he had it pinned and was about to finish it off when he caught a scent that stopped him dead in his tracks. It was Kai's, and it was fresh.

Hastily he snapped the rabbit's neck and phased back into his human form. He slung the dead rabbit over his shoulder and stepped into the cursed forest just as Kai was coming out. Kai bumped into him and squeaked in surprise. "O-Oki! W-What—"

"You're not supposed to be in there," Oki said, cutting her off coldly. His eyes hardened as he looked down into her frightened brown ones. What was the idiot girl thinking? Kemu and Samickle would flay him alive if she disappeared again. "You know it's dangerous. Was nearly dying once not good enough?"

"Hey!" A green light Oki hadn't noticed earlier bounced up angrily from Kai's shoulder. "Whaddya doin', yellin' at a girl! My old man would have you skinned and lyin' on his couch if he heard you talkin' to a lady like that! She never did anything wrong, did she?"

Oki looked over the little bug coolly. "And this is…"

"I'm sorry!" Kai said, bowing with her hands folded above her head. "But I had to find the Poncle again, to thank him. I memorized the path coming back yesterday and thought I could find the Poncle's clearing again…" She glanced up at Oki and winced at the icy glare in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't be angry!"

Oki turned away. The way she acted made him feel like he was kicking her when she was down, and Oki had enough pride and honor that he would never do such a thing to anyone. "I'm not particularly angry," he mumbled. "Just don't do it again."

He turned around swiftly to walk back. "W-Wait!" Kai said, stumbling in the snow after him. "I'm really sorry for making you worry, Oki."

He swiveled around to look her in the eyes, which was a mistake. She had such an earnest expression in her clear brown eyes that he forgot what he had been planning to say. Why was it that she had a talent for making him seem like an idiot? His face burned with shame underneath his navy mask and he snapped, "I wasn't worried."

"Could've fooled me," the bug on her shoulder said.

"Shut up, little bug."

"I'm a Poncle, a P-O-N-C-L-E! NOT a little bug!" the bug steamed. "And the name's Issun, got it, Mr. Big-Shot Warrior? You should be bowing at my feet, thanking me for saving her!"

"Why thank you, esteemed Issun-bug."

"Why you—"

"Please stop fighting, you two," Kai said. Issun pouted and Oki shrugged.

After a minute or so, Issun started up again. "Is this the guy you were telling me about, Kai? He doesn't seem worth all the trouble getting lost and risking your life in Yoshpet." The Poncle looked the navy Oina warrior up and down. Oki discovered that he did not quite like being judged for his worth by a bug. Kai ducked her head in embarrassment. "Issun! I would do the same for anyone, not just Oki! And besides everyone in the village has their worth. You of all people should know that you can't judge by appearance."

"Alright, alright. Geez, you're too nice, Kai," Issun said, bouncing back up to her shoulder.

"Are you taking the Poncle with you to the village?" Oki asked.

"Yes," Kai replied. "Chief Kemu wanted to thank him, and Issun also wants to meet Lika and Tuskle. After that we're going to build snowmen. Would you like to come?"

"No," said Oki. He noticed what she was doing. She was still on her mission to get him to assimilate into the village. It seemed to be her life's purpose.

"Oh. Well anyway, I brought you some more of these." She pulled out another round sack full of chestnuts and plopped it into his hand. "They should go well with your rabbit," she said.

Oki trudged back to his hut with the rabbit and the chestnuts and roasted them plain. It was pretty good, he admitted. The chestnuts added an extra flavor. But Kai began bringing them over every time she went to Yoshpet, which must have been a lot despite him warning her not to go there again. He quickly got tired of eating chestnuts, and every time she appeared with a bag of them on his doorstep he felt the same uncomfortable twisting feeling he had the very first day she risked her life to get some for him. Plus, he was really, really, sick of chestnuts.

"…don't…"

"Hm?" said Kai, holding out another bag for him.

"I don't like chestnuts," he said, letting the implications sink in. Kai stared blankly at him for a few moments and then stepped back, clutching the bag to her chest.

"Oh," she said softly. "I-I'm sorry."

She looked around as if not knowing what to do with herself, then, with her head ducked and her arms still clutching the bag to her chest, she turned on her heels and ran back to the village. Oki watched her go, feeling a slight twinge in his chest. He shook his head to get rid of it. She should hate me now, he told himself reassuringly, and the stupid twisting feeling will go away.

Or so it should have been, except she came back the next morning.

She looked nervously to the side of him, avoiding looking at his face. In her arms she held a large hand-woven basket with a lid on top. Oki stared at her. What was she doing?

"I'm sorry about yesterday, Oki," she said. "I-I didn't realize you didn't like chestnuts."

"I tricked you," he said, blurting out the only thing his mind could process at the moment. "I almost had you killed. Why don't you hate me?"

Kai shook her head abhorrently, her long ponytails swinging from side to side. "No, no, I could never hate you, Oki! You're not a hateful person!"

Oki couldn't help gaping. He lied to her and was responsible for her near-death, and she was still saying he wasn't a hateful person?

"I thought about it all night. E-Even though you lied to me to make me go away, you still came to the feast, didn't you?" Kai blurted. "You could have refused, but you didn't. And-And you ate all the chestnuts I gave you, even though you said you didn't like them. So I think you're a very kind person, despite how you seem."

Oki was too stunned to reply. This girl surprised him to no end. She fidgeted with a loose end on the top of the basket and then thrust it out at him. "This is for you. Lika helped me make them. Please come by to the village when you're not busy. Lika would really like to see you again, and I'm sure everyone else would, too."

Kai left and Oki stared down at the woven basket in his hands. He opened the lid and steam poured into his face, rising and curling into the cold air. At the bottom of the basket were two rows of steamed buns stacked on top of each other. He couldn't believe what had just happened. What did he do to deserve this?

Experimentally, he plucked a bun out of the basket and took a bite. It was fluffy and warm, and the filling on the inside was tender and delicious. He had polished off a full row before he even noticed that he was hungry. He put the basket by the bed and sat down heavily, trying to remember exactly what happened a couple minutes ago. She said he was kind. Was he? He didn't think so. He was just trying to make amends. He looked down at the basket and sighed. He'd have to repay her for her kindness today, as well. Outside the window, he watched the snow falling softly from the gray sky, and he thought absently that maybe going to the village every now and then wasn't such a bad idea after all.

A/N: Like? Dislike? Much more OkixKai one-on-one in this chapter, plus introduction to Issun! Any thoughts? PLEASE REVIEW!