Private The Hour and the Day

[Takahashi Aki]

Aki looked over the various photographs on the mantel piece. There were various pictures of his father throughout the ages. Observed his father’s slow aging process as the people around him aged, but for the most part he remained the same. His father had left on urgent business, and told him that Suzaku was going to be in his charge for a few days. It felt a bit weird considering he was a few years older than Suzaku … and it wasn’t like Suzaku needed a baby sitter. At times it seemed like his father coddled Suzaku from something fierce and at other times he was willing to allow the youth to learn from his own mistakes. Keep him secret, and keep him safe. That was what his father mentioned. It was difficult to keep Suzaku a secret as there was some shouting match that had occurred at the gates a number of days ago. Aki’s father took a sullen mood for a while, something Raizo’s assistant said to his father had annoyed or bothered him. Aki was not sure which it was. Lord Raizo’s assistant was a very … dangerous lady who Aki did not want to be left alone with. Women were dangerous when they were given something to focus upon.

Aki’s eyes lingered on an old photograph his father and Suzaku’s father. There was another individual too who was female. Presumably this was Suzaku’s mother? His father didn’t look overly comfortable or pleased in this picture, he looked anxious while Suzaku’s father was grinning broadly and the woman had a small grin on her face. Aki took told of the picture and took it off of the mantel. He took a seat on the couch and opened up the frame of the picture. His father had this habit of putting the year of the picture and who was present in the picture. It read Sousuke, Katuso, Naganisa the year was listed. Aki flipped the picture back over and placed it in the frame. He would not place the picture back just yet. He instead would place it on the glass table. All he had to do for the moment was wait, wait for Suzaku to get home.

First impressions were always the hardest, but they were always important. His father oftentimes told him how he had failed to do well on most first impressions, but he was oftentimes able to improve impressions on a second or third time.

 

[Mikaboshi]

PC: Sunahoshi Suzaku

Fortunately for Aki, he didn't have long to wait. Not long after Aki set the picture down upon the glass table, the front doors to the Takahashi manor flew open as though blown open by a strong gust of wind before much more gently being closed. Suzaku had more than once been scolded for throwing open doors too forcefully and it was a habit that he was fighting to break. There hadn't been a lot of doors in the place where Suzaku had grown up to this point and in fact it had taken him some time to adjust to the idea that he had to actually close doors behind him where ever he went. He wasn't a barbarian-- he understood the purpose of doors and such but it was still difficult for him to keep such a strange ritual in mind given that the wilderness of Wind Country and the deepest reaches of Shadow's Heart were so different from what one might consider "civilization".

Suzaku didn't announce his return to the manor, he never felt particularly compelled to announce his comings and goings from the house. Sousuke had made it apparent from the get-go that Suzaku was a guest that was allowed to come and go as he pleased and from time to time Suzaku didn't come home at all at night. Not for any reason like disliking the manor or the company that lived within its walls but sometimes he just missed sleeping outside in the air. At first Suzaku had been intent on heading upstairs into the second floor of the manor to what had been designated his room by the Steward but as he pased one of the sitting rooms on the way through the foyer, he caught sight of Akii sitting alone in a room with a picture on the table in front of him and felt compelled to check in with the fellow young man.

Akisame was several years Suzaku's senior and even though Suzaku had been staying for some time with the Steward and his family, Suzaku couldnt' say he knew any of the other residents super well. Really, if he thought about it he had nobody to blame for that but himself given how much time he spent out and about from the house. He'd never really taken any time to try and get to know any of them.

"Hey... uh." Suzaku stumbled a bit for a moment, unsure whether he should address Aki by his full name or not. Another particularly strange quirk he'd discovered while meeting new people in Sunagakure and dealing with so-called civilized folk was the way that people were particularly prickly about whatever nickname or way they wanted to be addressed aside from their name. It had always been easy with the Deep Court. Naganisa was Mom. Mikaboshi was Master. Zangetsu was Zangetsu. There was no complicated interpersonal demands there. "... Akisame. You alright? You look like you got somethin' on your mind."

 

[Takahashi Aki]

The door opened suddenly and without warning. Aki’s eyes had a feral flash to them for a moment as he leaned forward. Aki was used to house invaders. They happened from time to time, and the sadly but truthfully Aki had gotten used to it. He titled his head slightly only to see Suzaku enter the house and then close the door slowly. “Could have sworn that door was locked... but clearly not.” He muttered under his breath. The young man tried to relax a bit, but he found himself again on edge again. Why did it feel like it was like treading on egg shells with Suzaku? The task his father had given him was simple enough, but it seemed like it was going to be a challenge on its own. Aki’s eyes shifted from Suzaku back to the framed photograph. His eyes widened for a moment. He for a moment thought his father’s expression had changed. The more Aki looked at the photograph the more had come to realize that his father had the faintest of grins on his face instead of an anxious look. It was remarkable really that Aki had not noticed this before. He had seen the photo enough times but this was perhaps the first hands on experience had with it.

Suzaku would enter the room, as he did so Aki’s eyes would shift over from the photograph back to the young man. It was still hard for Aki to put one and one together. Suzaku was the son of a descendant of Primus and a terrorist who had very much informed Aki’s early years of the brutal nature of this country. It struck him as odd that somehow Katuso found it in himself to forgive the Cabal and let them live. Yes they provided information and were the tip of the spear for the war that had come and gone. It was a war that his father very much operated in secret when it came to combating. That war truly had not come to an end, it merely entered a different stage. Aki’s mind operated very much a ripple in a pond, the ripples just kept going out and out. Still though, how did Katuso come to love Naganisa? That was a mystery on its own. His father, Sousuke, was very much afraid of that woman. Was it because of a fear that she would return to her former self? His father spoke of how Naganisa was deceptively strong and powerful in her own right. In his mind’s eye Aki saw both Katuso and Naganisa. Katuso appeared very kingly and perfect dressed in gold and white, where as Naganisa was scaled, leprous and ill. It was the wrong way to think of her, and so Aki’s mind made adjustments to his mind’s eye version of her. Naganisa’s form would regenerate and heal up forming a pleasant looking version.

Very much like Sousuke, Aki found himself taken out of the moment, it was unlike Suzuaku spoke to him that he returned to the real world. Fortunately Aki had not the exhausted nerves his father had back in his earlier years. Suzuaku spoke to him. Aki blinked and shook his head for a moment, “Affirmative I am indeed Takahashi Akisame, or Aki if you want. You know what? Go with Aki... uh yeah. I’m alright, I think? Yeah. Yeah.” He spoke at first. He rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. He snorted slightly as he tried to find the most correct words to use. There was an anxiousness present. “Thinking a lot of big concepts, maybe too many all at once. Dad used to be able to do Abstract Algebra in his sleep and he could spend some time trying to solve the twin prime conjecture which really hasn’t been solved.” He paused for a moment before chewing on his lip. “Dad has left the village on an extended absence, and he’s left you in my care. Trying to figure that out considering the whole ... come and go as you please thing you’ve got going for you.” He spoke, he hesitated for a moment. “So... you hungry or anything?” After that Aki sucked his teeth, yeah. This was going real well. "Thirsty...? Bored...? Do you like cards? This is awkward isn't it?"