Fuji’s black nose twitched as her slowly golding eyes settled on the large black and red man. He was bigger than the sword wolf, and had horns on his head where the aching bumps had sprouted on her own. She’d stumbled across the slumbering giant entirely by chance, and there was something about the way his tail stretched out, limply and completely restful, that made the small girls slender digits itch.

If she was any larger, the weight of her footfalls would have given her away as she inched closer. She had a faint and fuzzy memory of this one coming to visit, when her eyes were only tiny slits instead of open orbs. She settled herself comfortably on her round bottom and carefully began to run her fingers through the large wolf’s tail, her toes seemingly moving on their own until the fur between them was braided, first one, and then another. Fuji was delighted with the result and continued on her quest to give Hattori the prettiest tail in all Tojo-kai.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Hattori was the sort of man who napped sparsely, only within the safe confines of the bamboo. In a deep reaching corner where he-falsely- presumed no one would seek him out. For the most part his clan mates left him alone, knew he had things to do and thus only sought him out when they were in need of a word or two. And yet children cared for no such rules, did as they pleased and left the whole clan in a tizzy as they ensured they were safe and well-fed. It brought a new rush of life into the secluded clan, steering things away from being too quiet.

Shuffling slightly, Hattori's ear twitched subconsciously at the sound of tiny approaching paws. He idly thought he felt someone touching him, the slight rustle of moving fur but was still too deep in his sleepy haze to put two and two together. To realise he was no longer alone.


Speech

Fuji had already decided she needed she needed to harass Chips into finding her some pretty ribbons. She was certain all the wolves of Tojo should also have braided tails, and maybe even some of the fur around their neck. So she would make it her personal goal to sneak up on them one by one and leave them with the same. The only question was, which colour would tie them all together best? Thinking over the variation in pelts she had seen so far (and within her own family), the back of her mind had already settled on the prettiest deep, rich red, or maybe a pretty goldish yellow. Not just any colour would do.

The girl huffed a sigh as her fingers gently worked to untangle a snaggle here or undo a knot there, trying her best not to wake Uncle Tori, because her mother often told them all that naps were important and when someone was sleeping was not the time to start pulling on their ears or tail to try and get them to play with you, so she was trying her best to stay serene… but a bee had decided to start buzzing around her face.

Her face scrunched up and the girl went cross-eyed trying to get a good look at it. Her jaws clicked once, and then twice, the small bug seeming to take the message and looked to be moving off… or was it?

Her bottom gave an involuntary wiggle, muscles tensing to pounce. Surely she could jump over the slumbering giant and get the annoying buzzer to go away. Didn’t he know naps were important?

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Hattori couldn't quite say what had roused him from his slumber. Rather than hearing the rustling of movement, he sensed it before him, like the tingling feeling down his spine when something was behind him. Sneaking and unwelcome, most likely a threat. The silver of his eyes flickered open, ears twisting on the sides as he noticed the tiny pink form of one of Sedna's children fussing around him. It took him a moment later to fully rouse himself awake, for his thoughts to gain traction as he put two and two together. He exhaled slowly, pale brows furrowing as he allowed his limbs to slip away from the tuck of his belly.

What had the girl been doing? His gaze slipped to his tail and it was then he realised she'd been grooming him with her strange little fingers, carding through the fur with some sort of intent in mind. Were it not for the bee buzzing around, she would have been left to her devices for longer, it seemed. A blessing in disguise, perhaps.

"Mind it does not sting you. It will hurt." He told the tiny child. Though maybe she deserved it, it'd teach her to leave bees well alone.

The Kaicho’s words came just a moment too late as her teeth closed around the bug and a fire lit up on her lip. She yelped and spat and tried to dislodge the stinger from her lip with her tongue and her paws but her attempts only pushed the venom further into her system. The effect was almost immediate, her lips ballooned and tears threatened to spill from the corners of her eyes as she angrily stomped on the now stingerless insect that was buzzing pitifully in a circle on the dirt, its wings crushed between the small girl’s teeth.

She wasn’t crying yet, but if she caught sight of her reflection, the result would be immediate. She dragged her lip on a piece of bamboo, finally dislodging the barb but her face still hurt! She sniffed but kept her whimpers mostly to herself. “Umsawry I woke yer up, Mumma says naps’re umportan’.” Great, now she couldn’t even speak properly. She wondered if she’d be stuck like this for the rest of forever.

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

The expected happened, leaving Hattori to wonder whether he shouldn't have warned her at all. That he'd tempted fate. Either way it was too late to do anything about it now, the damage was done and he supposed if nothing else he ought to keep an eye on her, to make sure she didn't fall ill. Flicking his ear at her muffled words, he patted the ground with an extended paw, showing her at the very least he wasn't chasing her off. It was clear to see she was in some level of discomfort,   but this was a lesson learned, she'd know better next time.

Till then he supposed there was no harm in letting her continue to fuss over him, as long as boundaries were respected it wasn't as if he loathed children. Watching as she rubbed her face against a strand of bamboo, Hattori thought for a moment, how best to go about this. She was the smallest of the lot, the smallest pup he'd ever seen to be entirely honest and yet she seemed healthy enough. Just about able to keep up with her other siblings, who came in all manner of colours and sizes. That was one of the things about koi, the variety in which they came.

"It is all right. You can sit with me. It will pass." What was she doing before, playing with his tail from the looks of it? "What were you doing with my tail? You may continue, if you like."

Despite the throbbing in her lip, she was easily distracted by Hattori’s paw patting the ground and inviting her back. His question bought an impish grin to her face, only made more comical by her rapidly swelling lip. “‘s makin’ it pretty,” Her speech had a habit of slipping between her mother’s and father’s tongue without her notice, and it wasn’t something she would be likely to gain proper control of for a good few months yet. She toddled back to her place at his tail and went back to separating the strands to get started on another small braid, maybe when she was bigger, she would figure out a way to make one long braid out of a whole tail? She imagined a braided tail would serve as a pretty reliable club in a fight, with all the fur bunched together and heavy. “I did it to Taters tail when it was wet and it got so curly! but it would look a lot better with wibbons. N’ it stop’s it from gettin’ knotty.”

“Speech”

Just move those left feet, go ahead, get crazy

Hattori didn't really see the merit of making his tail pretty, but he knew children clung onto fanciful things. That this was better than the alternative of her misbehaving, kicking up a fuss over her bee sting. It went without saying that his cousin was a far better father figure than Hattori could ever be, that he cared and doted on his children, gave them all the love Hattori was incapable of showing.

If nothing else, Hattori was rather tolerant. Far softer than his sire had ever been, shaped Hattori into the wolf he was with a hard touch and even more unreasonable demands. Expectations a child could never exceed.

"That is kind of you. It is important to look after family." He told her, as kind as he could manage.