[CENTER][h1][color=#814b46]SEIMEI KEIKO[/color][/h1][/center][right][sub]tags - [@Hero][@Queen Arya][/sub][/right][hr]

[indent]Any devious scheme to get Tsubasa to pay for her meals would have to be put on pause. No sooner did the words leave her mouth did she spot someone approaching the forge, and someone Keiko was not at all happy to see. Truthfully, she wasn't pleased to see most of the village's inhabitants, but to be face-to-face with the Master's niece so early in the morning was a quick way to tarnish her mood worse than it already had been. The girl's family practically [i]were[/i] Heiseina, the privileged few who oversaw all and kept their perfect little utopia running nice and smoothly. They embodied the very spirit of the valley itself, and Keiko received a poignant reminder of that as she met the young Takamori's gaze.

It didn't take an especially sharp mind to notice the iciness in Fumiko's eyes the second they drifted from Tsubasa to herself. An immediate rejection, even through the facade of pleasantries that poured out of her mouth in the following moments. A microcosm of the very thing which had so thoroughly spoiled her mood, and a perfect metaphor for how the town had treated her.

She hated it. The look, the village, the Takamori, and Fumiko all. It took every ounce of her composure not to let the animosity that had built all morning boil to the surface. She wanted to do something to wipe that sweet, fake little smile off the girl's face. To do [i]something[/i] to make her feel some pain for once in her perfect little life. She wouldn't need to think for long. That cold gaze that had spurred on Keiko's spiteful side was the answer to her plea. She could see the way the girl's eyes lit up when she looked at Tsubasa. The little smiles. The sugary tone. There was an easy way to make her squirm. 

[color=#814b46]"Hmm, I don't know. Tsu-kun and I were just about to head off to see the festival together,"[/color] Keiko replied, her tone just as manufactured in its cheer. She took advantage of their proximity, reaching over to loop her arm through his own and lean into him a little. An intimate thing, but she was sure he wouldn't care, oblivious lug that he was. She imagined Fumiko, on the other hand, would care quite a lot—especially when she caught sight of the slightest hint of the smug little grin tugging across her feature.

[color=#814b46]"I suppose we could postpone our little date if it's [i]super[/i] important. What do you think?"[/color] Her inquiry came with a slight flutter of her lashes, the look she cast toward Tsubasa decidedly more innocent than the one she had offered Fumiko seconds before.[/indent]