It had been a full moon’s cycle since she had brought Holly here, and the girl had advanced a great deal since her first night.  Just as she’d been warned, it hadn’t been easy, and keeping up with her duties while making sure to keep her safe as well as progress her healing had almost been insurmountable at the beginning.  If not for all of the others in the house helping her then it just might have been.  But, as it was, she was more than able to keep up with her kills, her clients for pleasure, and training her kamuro, Haru. 

Being a vampire she didn’t need nearly as much rest as the average person did, so that certainly aided her along the way.  Though she found herself draining her victims of more of their blood than she usually did.  They were always left alive though.  She only killed those on her list or someone threatening one of her loved ones, but the latter very rarely happened.

She pulled her robes around herself, exiting the room she had just finished entertaining a client in, and when she made it to her personal room –beyond the barrier that no person could enter no matter how much they paid- she quickly took off the kimono and cleaned herself of his scent.  His money would be collected before leaving and she sighed, only mildly irritated at having to take a client today.  Holly was able to move about easier and had been last seen in the common room for the other oiran and tayuu, and she was eager to check on her.

Normally she would have refused him as was her right, but she’d made a bit of a habit of that since Holly’s arrival and didn’t want her rank to go down any further.  At least he had been appealing to the eye.  Once in her silk pants and cotton long sleeved top, she made her way through and opened the sliding door to the common room where Holly’s music filled the walls.  Little kamuro danced happily to the beat of the playing, forgetting about their long day of training, while other beautiful young women made up rhymes to the strums.  Some played quick hand games used for drinking with friends, laughing and playfully shoving each other when one of them lost.

Yes, the house had become a much more fun filled one with the introduction of Angela’s daughter, and she smiled from the doorway, watching as her own kamuro stayed seated happily next to her as if Holly was her own charge.

Holly was exotic here in Ataiyo. From the way she looked to the way she smelled eyes always went to her. It was even more so now that she had to use a crutch to get around. Her leg was still numb for the most part and she was working on getting her toes to move. It was a long process and her magic still did not work like she wanted it to.

Taking out the harp her mother had made her she began to strum. The harp was beautiful crafted from what looked like a rose bush. A large pink rose bloomed at the top of it as she strummed. Everyone in the house had been teasing her over Naota and they loved playing with her long brown hair as of late. They did her make up and got her pretty kimonos to wear. She felt like she was their little sister and especially felt close to Hiromi.

"The ground grows warm when the seeds meet the sun." Holly sang sang about the spring as that time of the year was setting in. She knew that her mother was out and about blessing the grounds and making friends with all. That was the heart the woman had and Holly knew deep down that she could be that way too. She felt Naota's heart beat and blushed slightly as the song died down.

Her fingers seemed to move by themselves as she played both of their heart beats together across the harp. "I miss him you know." She looked over at Hiromi and felt ashamed. "It doesn't feel like I should but something about what my mother said got to me." She continued to play as she spoke lowly to Hiromi. "It feels natural like flowers growing in the spring. Coming home after a long trip. It also feels unnatural because of everything I've done."

Her eyes drifted down to Holly’s neck, listening to the pulse of her heart beat and how it contrasted with that of her brother’s in the necklace.  It was still something to get used to, and in some ways it affected her to have a part of him so close yet he was still so far away.  The wall between them was still there, but a few bricks had been taken down, enough that she could at least see the top of his head.  Metaphorically speaking of course.  She moved over to where Holly sat, sitting on her knees out of instinct from having done so as much as she had over the years.  Haru smiled over at her and moved from her spot on the other side of Holly and sat next to her in the same way, resting the side of her head against Hiromi’s arm as she watched the others girls in the room.

Hiromi listened to Holly, taking in everything that she was saying and trying to think of the best way to approach this subject.  Holly and Noata’s time together had been quite brief, yet since Hiromi’s separation from him at childhood they’d actually spent more time with one another than she had with him.  She still remembered what he’d been like as a toddler though, and how he had changed over the years even though she’d always had to watch him from afar.  He was distant, he always had been, and she kept her opinions on the matter voiced, “As I’ve said before, that family that raised him is part of the reason that he is the way he is.  A great amount of it towards you comes from the discourse the two of you had, but he’s older now…wiser than he was in his youth.”

She nodded slowly as she spoke, her eyes going out to the others in the room as she continued on, “It seems he always has someone missing him for one reason or another, as if he’s in a bubble constantly being blown farther and farther away.”   Her eyes turned back to Holly and she moved an arm around Haru’s small shoulders, “The boy you knew before all of this happened…He’s gone now.  I’d like to say that he’s somewhere deep inside, just waiting to come back out, but he’s never been the type to repress in such a way.”

Her head tilted to the side, “From what I’ve come to learn, each person is like a different element.  You make me think of air, always light and ready to go from one place to the next.  Naota has always seemed to be the very opposite: earth, wood, grounded in what he believes in.  And while there’s room for change, much like earth it will be gradual for him.  But it can happen.  After all,”   Her lips curved in a sad smile, “He no longer tries to kill me anymore.  His ingrained prejudice is waning…it will just take some time.  Just like with this, it will take time.  When a tree is sliced it takes many years for the bark to heal over.  Being a child of Angela I know you must understand.”

Holly nodded to Hiromi and thought about it. "He'll come to accept it maybe one day. He should ask about it. That would make me happy." She gave Hiromi a sad smile as she listened to his heartbeat. It was something she was still getting use to but it helped her sleep at night, when she could sleep. Most of the nights she was terrified to go back to bed afraid she wouldn't wake up. She ended up laying next to Hiromi an wimpering.

Her eyes were a bit tired today as she played but still she tried to keep her bubbly attitude and played with the girls where she could. Mostly it was hand games as she could not walk yet. She wanted to dance and she expressed that. "I've been close to him before… Inside the bubble but when he found out what I was he immediately was so angry with me. It just pushed me back out." Plucking at the harp she tried to avoid her great sadness. "He's changed so much but I haven't at all. I feel like time has forgotten me." Her mother's words echoed through her head as she looked down to her body. She was never going to be able to age or even match how Naota looked.

"It took him a long time to come get me from that sleep but I believe with time and understanding that we can change. I understand greatly where he comes from and sometimes it's hard for me to realize it wasn't just yesterday that we were in his room together." She blushed a bit more. "It's hard to explain but I can still taste him on my lips. Like it was yesterday."

She plucked at the strings more as she brought her hand up and held onto the pendant. She could always tell when he was on the hunt for something as his heartbeat spend up. Though sometimes she wondered if he was with another person and she got incredibly sad. "I've waited this long… A while longer won't kill me." She plucked at the strings of the harp once more as she tried to find her way with music but whenever she got into deep thought about Naota the music just left her for a while.

What was it about him?  He left her defenseless whenever he crossed her mind. "Are you all done working for the evening Hiromi?"

She hoped that Holly was right, that one day he would be able to see passed her heritage.  From what she had come to learn of it there barely had anything to do with vampires when it came to Rosenites other than their origins.  But when hate is bred into you then no matter how small a part of something might play, it can be the only thing you see.  It was no excuse, but it was an explanation.  The moment he heard the word ‘vampire’ it usually shut everything else out.  At least that’s how he had been back then. 

Despite his denial of her being his blood, despite the many times he’d pulled a blade on her and threatened to use the very gifts he’d been trained in to destroy her, she had never stopped trying.  Both of them had gotten into physical fights over it but luckily they were passed that now.  “Yes it is very cruel that your time has become so warped in comparison to everyone else’s…I’m glad you won’t be doing something like that again.”   There was a maternal edge to her eyes when she said it, but it was meant only as a reminder.  What Holly had done was something that none of them would ever be able to forget.  Hiromi was included in that group now that she had taken care of her and grown closer.

Though hearing someone speak about her brother in such a romantic way was very new to her and it made even her cheeks warm and pinken.  Over the years of his sporadic visits to see her, she’d heard some of her fellow assassins throw remarks this way and that about wanting to bed him, but none had ever had romantic intent.  Sex had become something that was just an action: meant for pleasure with hardly any emotional connection beyond lust.  So to hear someone speaking of these types of emotions where such feelings were scarce…?  It was foreign to her, and she didn’t know how to handle it.

“Y-Yes, well.”   She looked forward again, focusing on the other women instead as the warmth in her face died down, “I’m sure during these conflicting times his thoughts have returned to the past.  I can say this at least, when it comes to romantic relationships he usually stays at arms’ length.  With women at least.  I believe about twenty years back he was in a relationship with a man…”   Her eyes lifted up in thought as her tone drifted, “But that has already come and gone.  For whatever reason his upbringing kept him distant from women but I supposed they forgot that love and lust can go in both directions for certain people.”

She sighed, she also was one of those types.  If ever she were to desire a deep and emotional relationship with someone, romantic if so fit, then it would most likely be with a man.  But she couldn’t deny the sexual appetite she held toward women, there was just never any emotion beyond lust when it came to that.  Deep friendship perhaps, but not the kind of love that begged courtship.

“Don’t let him know I shared that with you, his face would get pinker than the sakura blossoms and I’m sure there’d be a nice new stream of curses he’d be able to come up with in reference to me.”   She chuckled, moving her fingers through Haru’s hair.

“And as a matter of fact I am finished for this evening.  Would you like to go somewhere outside of the house…?  I can carry you.”   She’d grown so accustomed to doing so during her healing that it was second nature to her at this point.