Tsukiyo quickly grew to like hanging out with Ieyasu, even if it was beyond weird seeing an older blond version of herself.
After a month of meeting him on the weekends, she tentatively called him Ieyasu-nii-san...and he about exploded with happiness. Apparently he had always wanted a little sibling to dote on, but never got the chance.
She was getting used to the sudden hugs that made her feel like she was hugging something warm and furry.
"Asari and the others are getting annoyed with me," commented Ieyasu. "They know I've found someone interesting and they're demanding I share, but I want to hold back this surprise as long as possible."
"Because I look like your double?" she asked dryly.
Ieyasu's grin was positively devious.
"Exactly. I can already hear G cursing now, the second he sees you. Alaude might try to play distant, but one look at you and he'll think fluffy kitten and try to steal you for himself," said Ieyasu, looking positively gleeful at the idea. "He's a sucker for small animals."
"Sounds like Hibari. I would swear I saw him rescuing a small bird that hurt it's wing, and now it's been hanging around the area he frequents the most."
Ieyasu laughed, because that sounded like something Alaude would do. And he denied having a bunch of feathered followers.
"What about your other friends?"
"Asari is pretty calm about things, and I think he'd be pretty happy that you're so fluent in Japanese already. Took us months to finally get to the point where he wasn't leaving the room to laugh at our accents, or our attempts to use the chopsticks," said Ieyasu.
Tsukiyo grinned.
"I knew you weren't from Japan with that hair. Maybe if you dyed it black then people might not notice you as much."
"You might have a point. If Knuckle didn't insist on wearing his priests robes and talking about God then I think the locals would like him more."
"Actually considering the fact he's Catholic he wouldn't have been liked much anyway. The number of those who believe in that particular deity are a mere drop against a very large lake of Shinto/Buddhist worshipers. And that's just in Japan," said Tsukiyo apologetically.
Ieyasu had to wince at the reminder. Knuckle had been rather unhappy to find actual rocks thrown at him because of his faith. They had known the transition wouldn't be easy, but they weren't entirely prepared for this sort of backlash. They were lucky Asari's clan was so well liked in the area...he'd seen other foreigners chased off entirely by the locals.
So long as they kept their heads down, they were able to at least coexist with the villagers who were slowly warming up to them.
Ieyasu quickly changed the subject. He came here to chat with "Kiyo-chan" as he called her, not be reminded of the headaches he was facing. He would remember quickly enough when he went home.
"So when's your birthday?"
"October 14th," she said without thinking.
"But that's only a week away!" said Ieyasu. Which meant he had only a mere week to get her something that would suit her.
"It's fine if I don't get anything. Half the time Mama doesn't even remember it unless Tatsuya reminds her, and even then it's a fluke if she remembers in time to celebrate it. Oddly she never forgets Tatsuya's birthday," said Tsukiyo unconcerned. It wasn't like she had anyone to properly celebrate it with.
Ieyasu was very unhappy hearing that. So a plan began to form in his mind, one that would both amuse his 'little sister' and prank his Guardians. Alaude was due back around that time, so if he was lucky he'd get more than just G and Knuckle.
The grin on his face spoke volumes that he was up to something.
"What are you planning?" she asked.
"Just a little prank on my friends. I've been wanting you to meet them anyway," said Ieyasu grinning. "Here's what we can do for your birthday..."
The more she heard about his plan, the wider her smile got. This sounded like a bit of harmless fun for both of them and a great way to liven up an otherwise boring birthday.
Ieyasu's friends were in for a massive shock. He absolutely couldn't wait.
"Is it just me or is Giotto acting like a bigger idiot than normal?" asked G irritably.
"It's not you," said Knuckle. "He keeps looking at us and snickering and I can't get him to say what it's about."
"Not to mention he keeps asking when Alaude is due back," said G. "He better not be preparing some sort of stupid welcome back party."
Alaude would lynch him if he tried. He hated parties.
"What's this about a party?" asked Asari.
"Giotto is acting weird. As in weirder than normal. And he keeps snickering when he sees us and won't tell us why," said G.
"Oh. He said he was planning to introduce us to someone by next week and he was hoping Alaude would be here in time to meet her properly," said Asari.
"Wait... her?"
"It's not what you think," said Asari shaking his head. "From what I could get from him he thinks of this mystery girl as more of a little sister than anything, and she doesn't mind humoring him."
Actually Asari had managed to get the fact that this girl was coming from the odd dry well his grandfather had built at the suggestion of a soothsayer in order to make his clan more prosperous using a Tree of Ages, and it hadn't taken that much to guess that the girl was likely a time traveler. Considering some of the stories he heard coming from Inuyasha Forest, he wouldn't be that surprised.
Odds were that he had stumbled across his descendant or something and wanted to shock the others. Asari had found it great fun, hence why he had kept his silence on the matter.
Alaude managed to come within a day of the expected date when this mystery girl was supposed to come. Which gave him time to rest before the meeting.
The day in question...
G, Alaude and Knuckle were heading to the well. Apparently Giotto had something to do, so he couldn't escort the girl to the house. Asari was also out, since he was helping with whatever Giotto was planning.
When they reached the area in question, it took them a few moments to register the sound of a cat meowing from one of the nearby trees.
Alaude, being a sucker for small animals (he would deny that if questioned) took a moment to locate which tree it was coming from. He started to climb, if only to help the feline down.
Blue eyes stared into startled brown, before the girl yelped in shock.
She fell down two branches, before she managed to catch herself for a moment.
G, alerted to the sound of the very human and distinctly feminine yelp, rushed to the tree...only to have the girl crash on top of him.
"Ow... I should have known Ieyasu-nii's plan was going to backfire..." complained the girl.
Knuckle, stared at her in shocked disbelief.
"Get off of me!"
"I'm so sorry about that!" she said quickly, scrambling off his back.
G rubbed his back, only to stare in shock.
"What the hell?!"
The girl could have passed for a younger female Giotto with slightly darker hair and brownish-amber eyes. She looked like an innocent fluffy kitten. And her clothes were closer to something they used to wear in Italy, except of different make.
Alaude came down, and gave her a look.
"Did that idiot tell you to pretend you were a cat in the tree?" he asked bluntly.
"He said it would be funny to scare his friends into losing their grip and falling out of it. He didn't say a single thing about having a friend who looks like Hibari!" said the girl slightly annoyed. She was supposed to make them fall out of the tree, not the other way around! Falling from that height hurt!
Because really, the man before her could have passed for a blond, blue eyed Hibari Kyouya complete with annoyed aura. She was half expecting him to break out a pair of tonfas for the prank.
"I am going to kill that idiot," said G.
"Are you alright miss?"
She turned to look at him before she blinked.
"Now this is really weird. You look almost like an older student at my school who really loves boxing..." she replied. "And I'm fine. I've had worse bumps."
Because he could have passed for a Catholic, black haired version of Ryohei Sasegawa!
Could this day get any weirder?
G grumbled under his breath while they took her to the manor they were partially staying in. Knuckle looked rather happy that the girl was willing to talk to him civilly and politely listened to him talk about God rather than throw rocks at him for being Catholic. Alaude was his usual grumpy self the entire walk, not really amused by the fact Giotto had dared to prank him.
"Kiyo-chan, you made it!" said the idiot happily.
"Ieyasu-nii, you are an idiot," said the girl flatly.
G's smirk at the downtrodden expression on Giotto's face almost made the entire prank worth it.
"Well food's ready," said Asari.
The girl stared at him, before glaring at Giotto.
"First the Hibari double, then Sasegawa and now Yamamoto!" she said exasperated. "You could have given me a head's up about what your friends looked like you know! Falling out of a tree isn't fun at all!"
"Wait, they were supposed to be the ones who fell out of the tree!" protested Giotto.
G slapped his idiot boss on the head.
"She crashed on top of me, idiota!" he said, slipping into Italian from annoyance.
"In any case... happy birthday Kiyo-chan!" said Giotto, recovering from the slap.
"It's your birthday, miss?" asked Knuckle.
"Ieyasu-nii thought it would be funny to prank his friends on my birthday for some reason. I thought it was harmless enough."
"How old are you?" asked Asari politely. He was already amused by the whole thing.
"Fourteen."
"Shouldn't you be at home with your family celebrating then, instead of humoring this idiot?" asked G.
"That would imply my mother is going to remember what day it is before nightfall," she deadpanned. "Odds are Tatsuya will remind her when he gets home."
Talk about an awkward silence.
Tsukiyo grinned cheekily.
"Of course this means I get to dump sake or something equally foul on Ieyasu-nii's head for convincing me to pretend I was a stranded cat in a tree just to prank his friends."
G snickered at that.
"Okay, you can keep her, idiot," said G cackling at the look on Giotto's face. Asari looked like he was trying hard not to laugh as well.
The party was small, but there was something about the bright smile on Tsukiyo's face that made it entirely worth the minor prank Giotto played on them. She really was like a mini, female Giotto except she was far more innocent than he had been at that age.
"There's something I don't get... why are you wearing boy clothing when you're a girl?" asked G baffled. Because all the females he knew wouldn't be caught dead in pants.
"...I'd rather not talk about, though where I come from girls wearing pants isn't exactly that uncommon. It easier to move around in than a skirt anyway and there's less chance of accidentally flashing someone," said Tsukiyo after a moment.
"'Flashing'?" said Knuckle, not really getting the reference.
Her expression was rather dry.
"You know how young, impressionable boys think it's funny to flip up a girl's skirt just to see what's underneath even if it's almost certainly going to get them slapped?" she asked dryly. They all nodded. "Well when that happens it's called 'flashing' someone. It's rather annoying, really."
Especially since school skirts were so short that it made it easy for the wind to do it and give all the boys a good long look underneath. One of many reasons she preferred pants.
When she returned home, she wasn't entirely surprised to find that her mother had once again forgotten her birthday, and since Tatsuya was hanging out with his friends he had likely forgotten it as well. She wouldn't begrudge them that small bit of happiness.
She was just glad her brother didn't have some absurd jealousy towards her. He adored his big sister, since she actually listened and helped as best she could when it came to homework. She spent time with him without comparing him to a man that was never around like their mother did.
"Tsu-nee, I am so sorry! I completely forgot what today was..." said Tatsuya, tears streaming down his face. He was the only one who ever remembered her birthday properly.
She scooped her little brother into a big hug.
"It's okay Tatsu-chan," she said. "At least you remembered it on the actual date and didn't try to throw together a party where no one ever comes like Mom usually does."
Tatsuya snuggled up against his older sister.
Predictably, Nana remembered two days later on her own and tried to throw a 'party'...only to deflate when Tsukiyo told her not to bother because the only ones who would be there would be her and Tatsuya.
Tsukiyo was so used to this sort of thing that instead she used it as an opportunity to get some really good gifts after the fact, since her mother didn't know the first thing about what her daughter had an interest in. Half the time she just got a decent wad of money to buy what she wanted and they left it at that. It was a miracle her mother remembered her on Christmas.
Hm...there was something that might cheer Knuckle up. The poor priest was very downhearted because he had to suffer the same religious persecution that inspired the Crusades and other pointless slaughters throughout history.