100 Souls, 100 Moments

100 Souls, 100 Moments- 27.034: Stars

"The Hoshi Clan has a really bad reputation, and I'm the last survivor. I have to live by rising above the darkness. If this darkish sky is me then the sparkling stars are Tsubaki." - BlackStar, Chapter 49

034 : Stars

Tsubaki was never used to compliments.

When she was young and someone would visit her house as a guest and would compliment her, it was actually her brother who would be the one to politely say a thank you and do a shallow bow. To say the least, the visitors were confused as to why HE would respond to something clearly meant for his sister as she just stood there, innocently blinking before running off to grab her sacred ball and ask in a small, soft voice that maybe they might want to play with her. Not knowing how to respond to the odd siblings, they would excuse themselves before moving on to the duo's parents to talk to them about whatever things that had caused them to come in the first place. Tsubaki's small, hesitant smile, would slip from her face as she dejectedly starred down at her worn ball. Masamune's own face would drop at seeing his sister in a depressing aura yet again but he would make himself smile before he crouched in front of her, taking the ball away from her small, yet so precious, hands very gently.

"Do you want to play with me?" He would ask in a tone only an older brother could say to a younger sibling to comfort them. "They would probably be bad anyway." He would add as his smile stretched on his young face, causing a few dimples to show.

Tsubaki would blink a few times before a smile bloomed on her own face and she would throw her arms up into the air in happiness, exclaiming a few seconds later on how great a brother he was a high pitched voice.

Maybe it was because of Masamune's protectiveness or maybe it was just her benign nature, but never the less, it became quite obvious over time that Tsubaki never really did learn how to take a compliment. And so, when someone did say something that would praise the beautiful weapon, they only caused her to become flustered, the exact opposite of what they wanted and expected her to react. Truth be told, Tsubaki would much rather take on an evil soul then have some random guy come up to her in the grocery store and say how hot she was.

And then there was BlackStar. When she'd first seen (or more like HEARD) him, she'd known right off the bat that he was very self absorbed. Usually, this would set a person off, but to Tsubaki this was almost something of relief because this meant that he'd be so asborbed in himself that he would very likely not notice her all too much and wouldn't suffocate her in affection. And so, with slightly hesitant hands, she had clapped and forced her feet to stay still even as every other person left, never being so nervous in her life when his deep green eyes had looked her over.

Everything had been fairly fine with their partnership. Sure, they got into slight tuffs and there were highs and lows, but that happens with ever pair. During the time they'd been together, Tsubaki had been right in her assumption that BlackStar had been so self-interested that he really only cared about what people saw him as and wasn't in any place to try and please other people and Tsubaki was happy in how he just accepted her for all she was and didn't care about questions or flattery (unless it was directed at him).

In the back of her mind, she sometimes graced over the thought of how ironic it was in how he lived off of attention while she secretly dreaded it.

Yet, after a while she became jaded of adulation and now a days she could force a smile and brush off whatever someone said without her face feeling entirely aflame. Over time she learned, too, that she loved to give out compliments almost as much as she detested getting them. She just lived off the feeling of when someone smiled because they suddenly had a boost in moral.