Wearing her yukata, face hidden under a freshly bought mask, Akemi HIDA SNEAKED out of the celebration to go deeper into the garden, walking swiftly through the garden to the place they had agreed upon before.

Strolling on along the path, Shokomaru also was still in his yukata, daisho on his hip and cig hanging on his lip. He walked, one arm resting inside the garment, the sleeve loose, and seeing Akemi he waved with his other hand, which held a small sack, likely with goodies again.

"Well, usually it's the damsel all alone in need of rescuing, but looking at you I feel like I'm the one in trouble."

Akemi turned to face Shoko, threw away her mask with one hand, grabbed him by the collar with the other and went in for a kiss.

He was glad for that, playing it cool with her was actually pretty hard to do, as he hadn't seen her all day. He wrapped his free arm around her, and even put a foot between hers and leaned her back, forcing her arms around him to not fall and kept her there, kissing her insistently. He did not plan on stopping.

Somewhere in the sky fireworks were exploding to the delight of everyone watching. They couldn't care less as they whirled out of the path, locked into embrace, stumbling on every plant until they finally fell into whatever local variety of deep bush was growing there.

/ftb

"There's a twig in your hair", he chuckled and gently pulled it away.

They laid in the garden brush, the fireworks a distant reminder of time passing. Half of each their yukata for a blanket.

Shokomaru tapped her on her nose. It was a cute little nose, at least to him. "I think, maybe I'm starting to miss you already." He frowned slightly.

She hugged him:

"None of that please. We haven't parted ways yet, we should enjoy happiness while we can. Sadness can wait for later."

He hugged back, a bit greedily in fact and kissed her long and true.

"Don't mind me", he said afterward. "I'm just getting emotional on you." And he pulled her bare thigh up and rolled over on top of her. "So let me put that to some better use."

As the night got darker, so much that the thread should probably be repackaged as LE-EN, a disheveled Akemi who will have a hard time explaining a weird variety of cuts and bruises tomorrow finally retightened the belt of her yukata.

"I would be saying we're overdoing it... But as this might be the last time ever maybe we're actually underdoing it."

She leaned on a nearby tree as she caught her breath.

"Need a break though. And don't you dare pretend that you don't. Got anything to drink? For rehydration purpose, not for funsies."

"Who the hell do you think I am?" he chuckled, yukata still mostly off, but his obi was tied again at least. Sitting down still he reached into his bag and pulled out a sports drink. "For all your salt retaining needs", he tossed it to her and grabbed another. "I'd demand you come sit next to me, but then we'll just start again."

Akemi laughed:

"Of course we would. If we weren't dumb enough to do exactly that we wouldn't even have begun this relationship."

She uncorked her bottle and might have drunk half of it in one go.

"How was your day when I wasn't there?" she asked playfully.

"Oh I dwelled in darkness, it was horrible, come hold me and make it all better", he said and gulped down some more. Then he stood up and started trying to get his arms through the sleeves of his yukata again. "Honestly...? Today was a nice day. I gave a bunch of kids some prizes at the festival games, prayed a little this morning, had a chat with Utaku-san, took a bath and spoke with Yasuki-san, took a nap and thought about you a bit...", he got his clothing situation settled.

"We're missing the fireworks, you know."

The light from the show bathed them in odd colors, the pop of the hanabi sending sound ripping across the sky. Car alarms and barking dogs sounded in the distance in answer.

She shrugged:

"We'll have many other fireworks in the rest of our lives. Let me enjoy a view I'm unlikely to find ever again."

She smirked:

"Though, if I'm in trying to be objective... You're actually very ordinary looking."

'my sister is going to be as tall as me in another year, I think", he said. "She got all my dad's good genes, I just got his average everything else."

He adjusted his obi with a smirk.

"Well, almost."

Fortunately for the two, only some nocturnal lizards stood witness to their antics.

Akemi rolled her eyes then laughed again:

"Some things change. Some never do."

He gave a lizard a raised eyebrow. "You know I charge for this sort of thing, pal." and he got up, gathering his bag and went to stand next to Akemi.

"So...I wasn't tired until I stood up, how does this happen", he leaned on her slightly. "Akemi-chan, just carry me for real this time, we can put the bag over my head and you can find that mask you tossed earlier. I"m sure no one will find it suspicious."

"Sorry commander but this is a fight without mercy today. Either you walk by yourself or you stay on the ground."

She picked up the mask and playfully put it before her face.

"The perfect disguise certainly. If we were to meet anyone, they would not know if I was that one Crab or another taller than average warrior woman with a mechanical arm. Perfect anonymity."

She turned the mask so it faced her and looked at it puzzled:

"Should have I asked the Scorpion how they actually manage to use these things to conceal their identity in between two dance lessons."

"It doesn't matter if they actually recognize you, you know", he said and took in a breath, stretching out his arms a bit, the yukata fell off his shoulder and he fixed it. "They're just supposed to accept you aren't you since you aren't showing your face. The Scorpion play the Crane's game by their own rules, that's what I hear."

He stood next to her and had his bag then slipped an arm around her. "You know I can't threaten to make out with you in public like this, the Crab defense is strong."

"Obviously."

She held the mask as a poor screen between them and the rest of the park while she went for another kiss, one she kept sweet and short.

"I love you Shoko... But we really need to carry out a tactical retreat to your room before resuming hostilities. Spending the night in a bush and ending up discovered by the Phoenix gardeners at dawn is only fun when it happens to other."

She grinned:

"And now I'm tempted to go look around to see if we couldn't find other couples so someone else ends up the subject of gossips for once."