Yuki Mission 11 - Aftermath.

     Hiroki scratched his head awkwardly as he chuckled a bit, "At least I came back - right, Yuki-chan?"

I raised my eyebrows at his remark '-chan' - I always got 'chan' because I was generally the baby of the clan,

     "Gotta catch up to me in height first - then you get to call me 'chan,' Yuki-CHAN." He leaned forward,

extending his hand and prodding me in the forehead - it didn't hurt, but it was more of a taunt than a hit.

     "Sure, sure!" He chuckled once more, shaking his head. "We should check the Compound though, right?"

Within seconds of his remark, his fox partner Kumiko voiced a harsh interjection,

     "Why would we go there? The fire was on the opposite side of town? Hiroki-baka!" He tensed up a bit,

     "Tch! Doesn't hurt to check." He relaxed a bit before continuing, "Besides, I wanna check on ma."

     "Mama's boy!" Fumiko growled at him - dropping to a playful position, similar to a dog waiting for a toy.
     "What can I say? She's a good cook!" He chuckled again before gesturing, "You coming, Yuki?"

     "Sure!" I walked with him towards the compound, it was far - but with Hiroki-nii-sama, it wouldn't seem like it.

     Sure enough, we reached the compound a little before lunch time - That's when Hiroki's motives became clear.

Although, I couldn't blame him. With the all-nighter for the fire, it was long past bedtime - plus, we skipped dinner.

Hiroki-Nii slid open the large paper door to the castle with ease before casually poking his head in and shouting, 

     "Tadaima!" He looked back and forth for a moment before calling again, "Ma! You in here? Are you making food?"

     "Hiroki... Is that all you come home for?" There was a pause and a reluctant sigh, "Yes, I'm making bento boxes."

     "Score!" He eagerly walked in - kicking off his sandals in a hurried manner before heading to the Kitchen.

     I slowly peeled my sandals before turning to say goodbye to Fūko-Nii - who was already walking away.

He's always so impatient - if I didn't know better, I'd say he hated me - he was kind of like Akihiko-Dono in that way.

Shaking my head, I tiptoed inside - making my way across the hall, and up the stairs to the living quarters.

Upon reaching my room - I lazily kicked the paper door shut before disrobing and falling into my bed.

     My Yukata was really nice - but it got uncomfortable after a whole night and a half of wearing it.

The responsible thing to do would've been to change and go back out to help tidy up - but sleep beckoned me,

I was exhausted, sore, a little burnt - Wait! I didn't get a new year's kiss from Suzu-Hime because of the fire! Curses!

Not that I would've got one anyway - but any opportunity to be a pervert with justification is worth a try, right?

That didn't seem to matter so much though. My sheets became arms wrapped tightly around me as I forgot,

for the time being anyway, and drifted off to sleep.

     What a night.