Sunflower

"When your past catches up to you."

Samuel had been about to tell William to get out when the man had changed the topic to something that apparently was going to happen. His brows furrowed and creases formed on his forehead, making him appear much older than his thirty one years. The thought that he could lose his forming family with Elizabeth and his only surviving sibling made his heart heavy. He'd only been married to Elizabeth for a handful of years but they'd known each other for much longer...and he'd basically helped raise Keziah. The lines between brother and father had been blurred. He'd been old enough to see her grow up and fully understand that the sweet little ten year old of yesterday had turned into a feisty twenty year old in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

When William gave an explanation as to hos he'd known this was going to happen, Samuel was skeptical. His father-in-law was from Germany, even had the thick accent despite having lived in the colonies for most of his life. Even Elizabeth had a slight accent that warped her w's into v's, ut it was certainly less pronounced than her father's. William had no such accent but he hadto give the man the benefit of the doubt. Any possibility of a threat against those he held dear was taken quite seriously by Samuel. That's why he'd brought his sister to Boston where he coukd keep an eye on her.

A man out in he countryside wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of a grieving widow because neighbors were scarce. But here in the city there was always someone out in the streets. Samuel sighed,crossing his arms ofer his chest. "If what you are saying is true...then we're doomed. There's no way out of Boston other than the harbor and I doubt the Redcoats would let us depart peacefully." They werein a real pickle here. Samuel bit the inside of his lip as he thouht of the possibilities. It seemed far fetched that he'd cook this up just to stay with a single woman.

"We have to stay here. My sister won't abandon her home so easily and my wife is heavily pregnant." Traveling in her condition wasn't the best course of action. Samuel didn't want to risk her or the baby if this threat proved to be unnecessary. After much internal deliberation he came to the conclusion that his sister was safer with a stranger than on her own.

"You may stay with my sister, but any foul actions to or against her will result in you being on your own." Samuel said. He didn't think the man was from around here and he couldn't really come to terms with how he'd seen the man appear from nowhere just as the skirmish was beginning. All Samuel knew was that he man hadn't been there one second then the next he was standing there. "I would much rather have someone here to protect her. Some of the soldiers have taken a liking to watching her when she's outside." Keziah either pretended that she didn't feel their gazes on her or she just really didn't know. Mousy or not, she was still a woman and some men felt thay was enough to hold some measure of authority over her.

Keziah finished helping Elizabeth with her hair and she followed after the pregnant woman, telling her a story of back when Samuel was an awkward teenager who liked to carry his little sister around. The story made Elizabeth laugh and Samuel smiled bashfully. He could tell Keziah here in a little while about the new arrangement.

"When your past catches up to you."

The disappointment didn't go unnoticed by Samuel. His brows furrowed and he frowned, glancing at his sister briefly. "No. This is my sister's home." As a widow she had a bit more freedom. She could live where she pleased, have a job to support herself and generally get by without a husband. That was why her family was angry when he man she had been courting had shown his true colors. She would have been a married woman again, and thus safe. When it was hinted that she needed someone to make sure she was safe, Samuel still had to object to William being the one to stay.

Keziah resented the idea entirely. She didn't need to be protected. She'd been doing fine on her own for five years, well three technically. She had moved back in to care for her sickly mother. After her husband's death she needed tp be kept close to family, people who could assure her that things would be alright, and that God was keeping him safe. Her eyes flickered to William and she frowned a bit whe he movedto the door. Honestly he should stay because....he was wounded, yes, that was why he needed to stay - not because she needed protecting. Oh who was she kidding? There was something about the man that had her curious. She just needed some time to figure out what it was.

Once their guest was gone, Samuel and Keziah began to argue. Their patient on the table was out cold, a screaming match wouldn't wakehim. Their arguing got loud enough that the heavily pregnant Elizabeth came waddling between them. Sam had over a foot of height on his sister but she stood up to him like a man woild. Elizabeth demanded that they stop and they did, if only to please her. Samuel went to check on the patient and Keziah busied herself with checking dinner and getting bowls out. They ignored each other until the soldiers came back. Keziah didn't want to move the man, he could stay for a few days because he'd need someone to tend to him, but Sam thouht it was best if he went home to his family. They needed to be close in case he didn't make it. The soldiers hgave quick thanks when she handed them bowls as well. She was a woman of her word after all.

They all turned to the strange man, the soldiers whispering that he was crazy. Keziah on the other hand wanted to know what he was getting at. It would surely be something new. She set a pot to boil over the open fire and she waited, going to check on Elizabeth in the mean time. Elizabeth had gone into the bedroom, furious at her husband and his sister.

"I do not know why you and Samuel had to argue. He is a stranger. We know nothing of him." Elizabeth said, trying to roll over to face Keziah. The other woman sighed softly and sat nextto her on the bed.

"He is injured. He can stay here." Keziah pointed out. Samuel had ignored this part of her argument. He knew that it was a valid reason, even if it was only a flesh wound. Keziah was a very good nurse, caring almost to the point of fault. She had once taken in a young boy who'd fallen ill when his family couldn't afford his treatments. He got better and moved back home a few months later. However, he died the following year in an accident. Keziah had grown quite fond of the boy, thinking of him as a brother of sorts. Samuel had gotten angry when she grieved for the boy like she had her husband.

They talked for a little while longer. It became apparent that Elizabeth held her husband's views but knew nothing was going to stop Keziah. The brunette returned to the main room and pulled the water off the fire and cooled it. She listened to William talk. They changed bandages once a day or every other day depending on the severity of the injury or their supplies. Sometimes they'd boil the bandages and reapply them but that was time consuming and it often meant that wounds were left uncovered for long stretches as the bandages were dried.
Keziah watched in interest, Samuel did too.

"See brother, he is useful...and I might need help changing in his bandages." Keziah said softly. She already argued that William was injured but Samuel didn't care.

The soliders left after another bowl of soup each. Things fell quite as Samuel weighed his options. Keziah had gone to help Elizabeth with her hair so she and Samuel could journey home. The sun was beginning to dip beyond the horizon and soon they'd need a lantern in order to find their way home. Samuel just watched William, studying him in detail. "My sister seems to think that you can be useful." He said. Samuel didn't mean to be rude but he couldn't allow this man to be left in a home with his sister, unsupervised. He'd feel bad if they took Keziah's bed (again).
"Why should you be allowed to stay here? We know nothing of your intentions oe who you are...where you came from."

"When your past catches up to you."

Samuel should have been doing this operation in a chair rather than a table but with the man in his current state, screaming and kicking his legs, sitting in a chair would be impossible. Keziah handed him the amputation knife once a large strip of cloth was tied around his arm just below a tightly wrapped leather belt. The leather belt was acting as a tourniquet, cutting as much blood suppky off as possible, and the strip of cloth was a guide for Samuel's knife. The amputation knife was quite beautiful if one could look past it's use; thirteen inches long with a slihtly backwards curving blade that could flow with the shapes of the body easier than a straight bladed knife.

He made the initial cut an inch or two above the elbow and once he'd cut through enough muscle and skin, he forced the knife between the skin and muscle, essentially skinning the man. This flap of skin was then rolled back out of the way. Keziah had grabbed a few little instruments that looked like a small hook, some thread and a few large needles. They were within arms reach and once Samuel had cut through the muscle she helped steady the wounded man's arm as her brother began sawing through the bone with an equally beautiful bone saw.

Once the arm was discarded onto the floor beneath the table, Keziah grabbed the needle and thread as her brother loosened the tourniquet and blood started to come from the severed artierues and veins. She quickly worked at sewing the vessels closed, using the small hook to push bits of his meat away so she could see clearly. Samuel didn't object to his sister helping in this manner. Her eyes were better than his and years orpf learning to sew had given her an edge that he didn't have. Once the vessels were tied off and the skin was moved back into place and sewn closed by Keziah (in a manner that should the man bleed again they could easily take the stitches out). A pledget was applied and the stump dressed. They left the man on the table, hoping he'd make it to the morning. If he did they could move him then.

Samuel said nothing as he asked his hands in the basin. His sister was staring at the bandaged stump with a worried look. The other men just looked tired. "Supper should be ready soon. You gentlemen are welcome to stay." She offered. Keziah washed her hands after her brother, trying to get his blood from under her nails.

"Thank you for your help." Samuel said to William. The man didn't have to help them. "You are welcome to stay with my wife and I tonight. Our home is a short journey away." They'd only been visiting Keziah when the skirmish had happened. He really didn't want a strange man staying here with his sister. His wife slept next to him so he'd know this man wouldn't do anything to her.

Keziah listened quietly to her brother speak to William, but her attention was on the man who was now missing an arm. The other men had since left in orderto deliver the good news.

"When your past catches up to you."

It was safe to say that when Keziah was angry she'd give the cold shoulder and silent treatment. It'd been her fiery personality that had drawn her husband in, and it wasthat same personality that comforted some women during childbirth when their husbands got upset. She wasn't afraid to tell them to leave the room. Once back inside she was stirring the stew, knowing that she'd have to make a little something extra to help fill more bellies. That was fine though, she liked to cook and it had been some time since she'd made anything sweet.

Keziah often kept jars of preserved plumbs within arms reach. She loved them. She took a few jars and placed them on the oak table before rifling around for a big bowl. Need to get more plumbs, she thought. William's question made her stop what she was doing. Why did he need a gun so badly? Didn't he see what they had done to the men outside? Her heart picked up its pace a little and her brows furrowed. "Samuel just brought you. No gun. Didn't even speak of one but that was because my brother was trying to get to safety." He could get mad. He could rant and rave but honestly she wouldn't care. Her brother's life was worth more than a rifle.

"What's with all the panic?" A soft feminine voice made Keziah whip around. Elizabeth came hobbling out of the room , mostly because she was tired of laying in bed. Elizabeth paused when she seen the man. Why was he dressed that way? Elizabeth's family was a well off German-American one. She'd seen similar uniforms, like the one her grandfather had worn during his time as a soldier. Her father still had it actually.

"It's okay, Lizzie." Keziah smiled, she was trying to make this situation better, "This was the man I told you about. He was just going to lay down again." She stressed that he needed to lay down. Elizabeth didn't need to be worried. She was nine months along and the baby would come any day now. Elizabeth put her hand on her belly and hobbled to the chair, a little self conscious that a strange man was seeing her with her hair unbound. She watched as Keziah went back to making dessert, and she didn't miss the way her sister-in-law ignored the man. Oh...he had made her mad. It was quite comical when she did that to Samuel, as she could often go for days ignoring her brother.

Speaking of which...Samuel wasn't going to be happy that Elizabeth was up. After a little while longer, Keziah introduced the pale haired woman. "And this beautiful creature is my sister, Elizabeth. Sam's wife." Elizabeth was a beautiful woman and when they went to the market together here was no shortage of men who stared at her as they passed.

Whem0n Samuel did come back it was for his bag of surgical equipment in the bedroom. "Amputation. Hand me that chunk ofleather would you?" He was pissed off the his wife was up and about when she should be resting but right now he had more pressing matters to attend to. "They'll be bringing him here. Giving him his last rites first." He casually asked William to stand aside and Keziah to come and help prepare the table. A white sheet was placed over it and she placed the leather strip onto the edge of the table.

The leather had well worn indents from various people biting onto it over the years. The man was brought in, pale and confused. Samuel took out the proper knives and bone saws and got to work, cutting the man's arm just above the elbow. Even with the leather strip in his mouth he still screamed. Elizabeth had sincegone into the bedroom and Keziah was helping her brother.

"When your past catches up to you."

Samuel had been sewing a man's arm closed. He was a tough one, that was for sure, or he was in shock. At this point Samuel was seeing more and more men with blank eyes these days. Sometimes gossip would go around that the men tried to strangle their wivesat night after a nightmare, or they'd start screaming and crying. Sometimes they just didn't respond at all. He snipped the thread and gave the man a weary smile. "Remember to keep it clean and you'll get to keep your arm." He warned. He was about to move onto his next patient, a man with a severely swollen arm that looked like it possibly might end in amputation but yelling caught his attention.

"Damn!" He muttered, leaving the injured men to go save whoever that was that hehad saved earlier. Keziah would kill him if he let this man get shot (again.) Samuel jogged over, putting his hand on the man with the gun. "Easy there. He's a friend from up north. Stole some dead man's clothes." He hoped the lie was convincing enough. If not then the usually gentle and mild manner doctor could be rather.,.persuasive. Or he could let his sister deal with them. They wouldn't know what to think of the five foot nothing Keziah as she berated them.

"There you are!" Speak of the devil...

Keziah came walking quickly towards them, skirts bunched up slightly in her hands so she wouldn't trip over them. She could ignore the blood and groans of the dying. The sight was horrific but so was watching a young mother bleed to death while she cried for her baby. Her green eyes were narrowed and focused on the man. "I told you to stay put!" Samuel was amazed that the gun didn't phase his sister nor the looks some men were giving her. Her little frilly white cap was gone and her braid hung freely down her back. Clearly she had taken it off and tossed it the moment she found the man missing.

"Get back inside, sister." Samuel said, using a harsh tone. No doubt these men would either laugh or ignore her but they couldn't ignore Samuel. He was tall foe the times, standing around 6'2".

Keziah ignored him and looked towards the gun aimed at William. "Sir, if you would be so kind as to stop aiming the gun at our dear friend William, I will help patch your men and provide supper. We have more than enough stew to go around..." The promise of food was usually what she used when these skirmishes got too close to her home, and it was the least she could do to aid the cause. Some women knitted socks for soldiers, some became spies oreven dressed as soldiers themselves (or so the rumors went), but she cooked for them.

Her brother was confused. When did she catch the man's name? Samuel sighed softly at her proposition. He didn't want the soldiers getting the wrong impression here. Keziah might have been on the plain side but she was still a woman, and some of these men could try to force themselves on her.

"When your past catches up to you."

"Keziah Wilkinson." She told him simply when asked for his name. Keziah nearly cut her fingers when he asked for her husband's name. Oh dear. She didn't look like a spitting image of her brother but they did have the same shape of eyes and when they both smiled each had dimpled cheeks. She began to laugh when she recovered from her shock. Her knife lay forgotten on the oak table and the half peeled potato along side it. The woman wiped her eyes free of the tears that came from laughing so hard.

"That was my brother Samuel. Samuel Black." Their differences in surnames was due to the fact that Keziah was a widow. She had married dreadfully young and her husband had died of illness just months into their marriage. That was why she had moved to Boston with her brother and his wife. She needed that fresh start and in Boston no one knew she'd married at sixteen. It wasn't like many men would care, so long as she could still do her duties as a wife and maintain a home. The man she had been courting was rather excited that he wouldn't have to teachher anything.

She sighed quietly and rinsed her hands free of the starches from the potato. "He's older, mind you." She added, meaning to be friendly. Keziah was aware of how tired she looked. This war was draining everyone and she spent many nights wishing that things were different. Keziah resumed peeling and cutting tye vegetables before loading them into a kettle with diced up beef and what little spices she had. "I will need to go check on my sister. Stay on the table if you know what's good for you." It was an empty threat punctuated with a dimpked smile. She was joking but only slightly. She didn't want him up and about, even if his wound wasn't serious. He'd been through a lot over the past few hours.

Clean up was easy. She dumped the scraps into a sack to take outside later and put into her garden. Dishes could wait until she could get a bit more water. After finishing with wiping the oak table with a dry scrap of cloth, she excused herself to go check on Elizabeth. Her sister-in-law was beautiful. Pale skinned with delicate features, wide dark blue eyes and almost silvery blonde hair. Her brother was certainly a lucky man. Elizabeth was happy to see Keziah. The two were quite close in age and often times it really felt like they were sisters. Elizabeth wasn't surprised to hear that Samuel was gone. He was a good man with a good heart. However, she was surprised to learn about the man o he table.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Elizabeth asked. She was of the upper class, until she married simple Samuel Black anyways. She'd been taught that strange men were ones that a woman of her upbringing shouldn't associate with. Keziah had no such upbringing. Her father had been a sailor, retired now, and he dabbled in all sorts of trades. There had never been any time for the finer things in life she he was too busy teaching Samuel the proper way to tie a knot or telling his daughter stories of his travels, much to her mother's displeasure.

"Samuel will be back soon." Keziah promised.

"When your past catches up to you."

"May 20th." Keziah said as she took the cup from him. His sudden question of the year made her pause and look at him with wide eyes. Surely he hadn't hit his head too? "It's 1775...you don't have any history of hitting your head, repeatedly, do you?" She asked. Keziah and Samuel had given him a once over, with her tending to his wound and him checking the man for any other injuries. Samuel had objected when she had opened the man's shirt. He claimed that her modesty was at stake and she'd leveled a glare at her brother in response. Keziah had seen a man's body before, knew what everything did and looked like. She was Samuel's nurse for crying out loud! She had tended to his sick and injured patients when he could not, and more often than she liked to admit, it meant wiping butts and cleaning soiled linens.

The woman filled the cup for a third time, dipping it into a large bucket of water that was on the old oak table her parents had left to her. It technically was part of her dowry, hand carved and expensive. Her father, bless his heart, had thought she would have married the man she'd been courting. She thought so too until this war had started up. She left the cup on the oak table and grabbed what remained of the loaf of Bread Samuel had brought the other day. It was crunchy but at least it was food. With the fighting going on outside she couldn't go to the market or even out into her garden yet.

"Supper will be ready in a few hours. Eat this for now. It isn't much but it's all I have right now." She held the bread out to him, watching him closely. He looked no different than any man she'd pass on the street but she could tell there was something a little off about him. Perhaps her views were colored because she found that she couldn't trust many men nowadays.

She would have started supper now but with the man laying on the table that she usedto prepare meals. (Her father had forbid her from using the expensive table across the room to cut vegetables on. "No daughter of mine is having a tarnished table as part of her dowry!" He exclaimed.)

She busied herself with washing the vegetables that she took from her garden the other day. When Samuel finally came back into her small home, he gave the now awake man a hard look beofre turning to his sister. Samuel was a bit more traditional like their mother was, and by contrast Keziah was the opposite. This was a time of war, a time when the usual rules didn't apply because men fighting for their lives don't play by the rules. The fighting outside died down and it was a miracle that no Lobsterbacks came in and demanded that Samuel tebd to their wounded. They even would have likely asked for Keziah's help too.

He pulled his sister aside and kept his voice low as he spoke to her. "Peter is dead."

Peter had been one of Samuel's good friends for as long as Keziah could remember. He had often taunted Samuel that they would become brothers because he planned to marry Keziah. It had been a joke of course but sometimes the look that Peter got in his eye when looking at Keziah made her stomach turn. Keziah was rather plan, mousy almost, and that was fine with her. It wasn't until she'd woken with sharp pain in her belly and blood on her thighs that she'd actually started to look like a woman. That was when Peter started to look at her differently. She just looked at her brother with a shocked expression, unable to say anything. They'd already lost so many people they had known.

"He was killed less than an hour ago." Peter had, like many they knew, sided with the Patriots. He firmly believed that they could rule themselves. "I will see if they need any help patching up their wounded." Samuel told her. "Please keep an eye on my wife," he looked at the other man again, "and you know what to do if he behaves inappropriately."

Samuel left again, cramming his hat onto his head and straightening his jacket as he closed the door behind him. Keziah released the breath she'd been holding. Seeing her brother go out there, to where men had died and were dying, made her nervous. With their father living so close to Lexington, where a battle had taken place not so long ago, she didn't want to lose Sam too. Elizabeth and her baby would need him as well. She wiped her sweaty hands on her apron and returned to preparing the vegetables. Her brow furrowed as she weighed her options of letting the man rest on the hard table or giving him a chair so she could use that same table. In the end Keziah decided that a few cuts in the oak table wouldn't diminish it's price.

"What is your name?" She asked, looking back at the man as she put a few clean potatoes on the oak table.

"When your past catches up to you."

Things were changing and she didn't know if it was for the better. Good men were fighting hard and their wives, mothers and daughters were giving as much support as they could but it seemed like no matter how hard they tried, the fighting was getting worse. Honestly, she couldn't believe that they were one of the last remaining Patriot families on the block, well several blocks actually. Which made it a bit dangerous now. The rest had up and left, fleeing to the countryside before they closed off Boston. She had wanted to flee as well but her brother refused, saying that his wife in her delicate condition (see: pregnancy) wouldn't be able to tolerate the journey. In the end she had stayed because they were the only family she had left.

They were currently crammed into her small home, waiting for the fighting outside to stop. Her sister-in-law was resting in her room while the strange man that her brother had drug in was in the second bedroom.

"Keziah?"

She looked up at the sound of her name and quickly finished washing her hands in the basin before wiping them on her apron. Her brother, Samuel, stood in the doorway. He was a fine man, ten years her senior with dark hair and eyes. He held out his waddedup shirt to her. He wanted to wear fresh clothes, not ones covered in a stranger's blood. The woman sighed and took he shirt from him, dumping it with the other linens that needed washing. Therw wasn't much that hey could do right now, other than hope and pray that everything calmed down soon enough.

Samuel watched his sister, feeling a pang of guilt that he had forced her into this. She shared the same hair as him, dark with slight curls, but her eyes were a light shade of green with a hint of brown in them. There were dark circles under her eyes, making her appear much older than her twenty one years. She looked like their mother greatly and even had the same spattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her dark green dress was one that their mother has made and the apron tied around her waist had been their mother's. Samuel only knew because there was a small patch on the middle of the apron that their mother had sewn on after she'd accidentally burnt a hole through it.

"Go see if Elizabeth needs water." Keziah told him. Samuel might have been a doctor but he'd never dealt with pregnant women. Keziah was a midwife, although she had no formal training. She was also the reason why the young man in the second room was stitched up. Women usually tore with giving birth so learning to sew someone up was essential to her job. Samuel's hands had been shaking too badly to do it. He'd almost been caught in the crossfire...

"I will not leave you with that man!" Samuel kept his voice quiet. He doubted the man would wake so soon but Elizabeth didn't know about their uninvited guest.

Keziah sighed and listened to her brother. "Just because the man I was courting before all of this started turned out to be a Loyalist doesn't mean that every man is one." That had been a topic that was rather...sensitive. The man that she had been courting the past few years had been nice, pleasant to speak to and had pretty blue eyes, but once the tension rose and Keziah sided with the Patriots because that's who her brother had sided with, he'd shown a different side of himself that had frightened her. A few weeks later he had been killed in a small skirmish out beyond Boston.

"And he is our patient, brother. We cannot just leave him there." She pointed out.

It was Samuel's turn to sigh. "Fine, but I will come to check on you and the door stays open." He grabbed a pewter cup of water and took it to his wife.

Keziah took the time to go check on their patient. His clothes had been a little funny, but that might have been because they didn't look well worn like a soldier's uniform should. She grabbed a cup of water and a rag dipped in cool water for him. "Oh. You're awake." It was more of a statement than a question. She really have ought to have been a bit more reserved and polite, like she'd been raised, but right now she didn't care. Her mother was probably rolling in her grave though. Her mother had always been a traditionalist.

She held cup of water out to him. His wounds weren't serious. He'd survive them and that meant thay he'd heal up quickly. And it was in her experience not only as a midwife but as a nurse that men didn't like being treated like glass.

New Beginnings {Arista & Sunflower}

Osamu was the one to tell them about Kouri. His eyes remained focused on the small wolf and eventually he dropped the hand that had been on Koharu's had back down to his side. "Long ago, before this village was founded, this land and been nothing but hardships for our ancestors. They were attacked by outside forces, by monsters and men alike...and then they learned of the protector of this land. Back in those days our clans used to be fairly close," He glanced at the old woman next to Akaya.

"They found this protector and worked together to break the seal that was binding him to a prison and in return he was to help them protect the village."

Koharu was taking in Osamu's words. She looked down at the ground before glancing at the wolf. The animal felt safe, like she could trust him and the warm feeling that radiated from her mark helped greatly to soothe her. "Our clans have been tied to Kouri since then and every generation or so there is always a child born in each clan bearing the mark." Osamu asked Koharu to show Kasmui what he was talking about. She pushed her bangs out of the way, swallowing the lump in her throat before facing her teammate.

"As they are bound to Kouri and he to them, you are as well. Although you are a teammate you play an important part in helping them." The Wakahisa clan leader said to the boy. Koharu let her bangs fall over her forehead again and she glanced at Akaya, wondering if she felt nervous too. Her attention went to Kouri again.

Minoru placed a hand on Kasumi's shoulder. "As a teammate you must help them just like you would if they didn't have Kouri, alright? They're here for you too." He didn't want the boy to feel pressured because of their link to Kouri. Minoru wondered if Kasumi should know that he was picked specifically for this team. He assumed that it would be unwise to lay anything else onto the boy when this alone was a heavy enough burden.

@Arista

New Beginnings {Arista & Sunflower}

They were joined by Minoru and Souma a block and a half before the Aisukage's office. It was the tallest building in the village, housing other official offices, and the academy. Souma was talking a mile a minute about something or another, Koharu wasn't paying much attention. Their sensei looked about ready to just knock the blond man out when they finally reached the top of the stairs that connected to a short corridor. At the end of the small hallway was the Aisukage's office.

Souma knocked on the door and entered before they did, instructing the two girls to stand by their respective clan heads. The purple haired man from earlier was there, standing closest to the window. With one quick glance at her teammates, Koharu took up a spot next to the man but still close enough to her team in order to not seem so distant.
"Lighten up Osamu. You've turned the girl into your clone!" Souma chuckled, poking fun at the Wakahisa leader and his heir. They both wore similar thin-lipped expressions.
"You need to learn to speak to your elders with respect." Osamu said, folding his hand over the sword strapped to his hip. He was their senior by twelve years, not much but enough to make a difference in his mind. Back when they were younger both Souma and Minoru had been mentored by Osamu for some time, Minoru a few years longer than Souma. He'd been nicer then, less reserved but still just as serious. Minoru assumed the loss of his sons nearly a year and a half ago changed him.

"Father." Koharu said softly, turning to look at the man, "Can you please not look at my friend that way?" Osamu had been practically glaring at Akaya (even though that was his normal look and just how he looked at everyone.)

Osamu was caught off guard by her request; it was very rare for Koharu to speak to him without being spoken to first. He nodded, resting a hand on her hair in an uncommon display of affection. He was a distant man, one who rarely let his emotions show, but he was still capable of providing some form of affection - she was his heir after all and they did spend large amounts of time together training and furthering her education. The action even made Minoru and Souma send the older man questioning glances.

When the door opened Koharu's attention was drawn to the figure in the doorway. The moment the bag was placed on the table Osamu had returned her hand to Koharu's hair in a comforting gesture. He'd explained very little about the mark and what it meant, Koharu only knew that it was important for her to have. Osamu's own mother had been born with the mark. She passed just before his sons were born and it was a rather painful topic so he'd never told Koharu about her. When the little creature revealed itself the young heir mirrored Akaya's actions and brought her fingers to her forehead.

@Arista