23. Sensei Ryu
23
Sensei Ryu
“ C an you tell me where we’re going now?” she asked after they had left the palace doors. She was happy to get fresh air, though she still saw the man’s strange eyes from her nightmare, but she quickly pushed it out of her mind, knowing today would be a good day, as she could go home tonight, if she pleased.
“No.” Ryu laughed, sensing her eagerness. “It’s a surprise.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, giving in. The excitement of what he was going to show her had been eating away at her since he’d told her to get dressed this morning. Looking over at Ryu, she noticed he still looked as tired as he had earlier, only now he seemed to walk a bit stiffly. “Are you all right?”
Ryu rubbed his shoulder a bit, trying to massage out a kink. “Yes, I trained with Kage while you slept early this morning, and I think he was right; I did get out of shape.”
“We can go back and let you rest—”
“I’ll be all right,” he assured her, having no thoughts of turning back. “Besides, what we’re about to do will loosen me up.”
Eira knew that was his one and only hint about where they were going, and now she was worried about what she was wearing. “I’m not sure I’m dressed for an activity.”
Ryu scanned at her long silk dress robe. “You’re dressed fine.”
She could tell he still didn’t care for the color, but Eira had loved it the second Yuri had shown it to her.
As they passed by some villagers, one old man came up to her and bowed his head at them. “For you.”
Eira looked at the beautiful red flower being held out to her. “Thank you.” She smiled politely and accepted it. Spinning it between her fingertips, she took in the spikey, strange yet wonderful-looking petals. When she was about to lift it to her nose to smell it, Ryu took the precious gift from her before she could.
“Allow me.” Sweeping the strands of hair that covered the left side of her face, he tucked them preciously behind her ear to reveal his scarred beauty in all her glory before placing the flower there to rest above her ear.
The red flower against her red hair showed the difference between fire and blood. Two red colors so similar yet so different.
Ryu bowed at the gentleman’s kind gesture before he took her hand to continue their journey, which wasn’t much farther at all.
When they came upon an empty, warm wooden building with large windows, it only made her more confused, as she didn’t have any inclination what they might do. She took her shoes off, like Ryu did, and sat on the floor right where he told her to.
It wasn’t until young children started flooding in and calling him “Sensei Ryu” that she knew exactly what was happening.
I’ll be damned.
“What’s so funny?” Ryu asked with a sly smile when he took his position.
“So, you really do teach martial arts to children.”
Once Ryu clapped, she got her answer as each kid took their place and perfectly bowed.
“Everyone, this is Eira,” he introduced her to the kids. “Give her a big hello.”
All the kids yelled out at once with only some of them not in perfect unison, “Hello, Eira!”
“Hello, everyone.” She waved, blushing at all the attention from the little wide eyes.
She looked at each one. They all seemed to be cuter than the next in their white robes that none seemed to fit, as they swallowed them whole.
“I expect you all to make me look really good in front of her, okay?”
“Yes, Sensei Ryu!” they all screamed out.
Usually, Eira disliked being around children, as they couldn’t really control their instinct to look at her burns, but all these children were too excited to learn from Ryu to pay much attention to her. Thankfully, it stayed like that through the whole class, and it took Eira some effort not to laugh too much through the session when a child did something funny or adorable, like the one who took a tumble, falling to the ground when they tried to kick Ryu’s hand as he held it out for a target. Each child had a different personality, and they all were beyond entertaining for the hour the session went on.
Both her and Ryu shared glances and small smiles throughout, and Eira couldn’t have had a better time. She knew Ryu had been trying his best to convince her to stay on Kasumi Island … and she had to admit it was kind of working.
At the end of their training, each child bowed to their sensei. Some kids left expeditiously, ready for their next activity, while some stayed to talk to Ryu. But there was one a beautiful little girl who went up to Eira, affectionately plopping right into her lap. Choppy, blunt bangs sat in the girl’s eyes so much so that Eira had actually noticed her constantly trying her best to push them back during class.
“I’m Jun!” the girl exclaimed, unable to help herself from taking a piece of Eira’s fiery-red hair and twirling it in her little chubby fingers.
Kids never seemed to care about personal space or the fact that Eira didn’t like to be touched, but Eira didn’t seem to mind at all. “Hi, Ju—”
“I love your hair.” She couldn’t even finish properly saying hi to the small child when the girl carried on talking.
Eira laughed. “Aw, thank you.”
Jun kept twirling the strand, simply fascinated. “I’ve never seen red hair before.”
“My mother, who used to live very far from here, is the one who passed it down to me.”
“I bet your mommy is pretty like you.”
“That’s very sweet, Jun, thank you.” Her heart warmed. Pulling the little girl closer into her, she touched the tip of her cute tiny nose. “You’re very pretty, too.”
Jun smiled widely that a girl as pretty as Eira would say that about her, but like all kids, she easily got distracted. When she noticed the flower in her hair, the envy in her eyes was obvious. “I love your flower.”
“You do?” She asked, smiling, having forgotten about it and the fact her hair had been pulled back this whole time, revealing all her scars.
She hadn’t even noticed Ryu had been watching her.
The girl bounced her head in a nod with her bangs bopping on her forehead.
Eira did what Ryu had earlier, pushing back Jun’s hair and taking the flower from own her hair to place it above the little girl’s ear. “It looks much better on you.”
“Wow!” The girl’s face lit up. “Thank you!”
“Come on, Jun,” a woman who looked like an older Jun politely interrupted.
“Mom! Bye, Eira!”
With the girl flying off her lap in excitement, all Eira could do was yell back to her, “Bye, Jun!”
“Look at my pretty flower …”
Eira chuckled at hearing Jun happily tell her mom about her day as they disappeared out the building.
She was alone now with Ryu, and the smirk on his face couldn’t be missed.
“Told you,” he gloated, grabbing his chest and pretending to be heartbroken. “And I’m appalled you didn’t believe me.”
Getting up from her spot, she walked over to him, playing into his dramatics with her own performance. “I’m big enough to admit I was wrong, and I apologize. Hopefully, this makes it all better.” Leaning up on her tippytoes, she tenderly brushed her lips against his.
Appreciating her deep and fully meant sorrow for misjudging him, Ryu deepened the action by lifting her chin higher to let his tongue sweep hers up passionately.
In a fervent haze, she thought she could get used to days like this with Ryu when their kiss came to a sudden halt as they heard …
The screams that only a mother could make in sheer terror.