Falling petals

Her Smile

Sakura was smiling and laughing while playing with Phelan. She kept tossing a ball and having Phelan retrieve it and run back with it. His tail is wagging and a foolish smile in his face when he returns the ball, and gets even more happy when rewarded with a pat in the head.

'It's like I gain an overgrown dog as a pet. Heh. I didn't expect him to match a dog more than a wolf, well what would you expect from a mutt who fell in love with the half-sister of his fiancee.'

While sneering at the thought, Sakura quickly noticed what she was doing. She stopped those thoughts quickly before it goes any further.

'Shit! That was close. I'm trying to get a clear understanding of my future relationship with this guy, I can't have them ruined my plans of use for him.'

"Sakura! Wanna play hide and seek?"

"Oh?"
'That actually sounds fun. Its been a long time since I last played hide and go seek. It was and is my favorite game to play.'

"Ok! Then you seek and I hide."

"Ok, then you and the others go hide."

"You have to count till 50! No cheating."
'Like when you cheated on your fiancee.'

Sakura grumbles in annoyance with her thoughts but ignores it and waits for Phelan to start counting.
Phelan goes to a tree and begins counting and when Sakura saw that, she starts to run but noticed Daisy and Ivy following her.

"You guys can't follow me, he'll find me quicker if we all hide at the same place."
"Your highness, you can't be by yourself."
"Princess, you know we can't leave you alone."
"Then what's the point of hide and seek if I can't hide well!? I wanna win!"
Sakura pouts and got even more frustrated when she noticed he is already in the 30s.

"Please!! I won't go to far. It's boring if it ends too quickly and I'm safe inside the palace, no stranger gets in!"
Sakura is almost to the point of begging and look at the two women with pleading eyes.

They look at each other and then at Sakura in great hesitation. However, they quickly allowed her when they noticed her eyes reddening.
She giggled a bit and went scurrying  away to a location.

"Do you think we should have allowed that?"
"Don't ask, I already regret it. Just hide somewhere close."
Ivy sighs and quietly go to a bush a few feet away from where Sakura was hiding. And Daisy hides on top of a tree that was just a few trees away from Sakura.

Sakura counted the numbers left and hid under a bush, she digged a bit of dirt and rubbed it in her clothes and face. She remembers how keen the beastman senses are so she wanted to hide her scent so he can't notice.
If Ivy or Daisy had a good view of her, they would have immediately stopped her from rubbing herself with dirt. But they didn't see anything, just her going deeper under the bush.

Both women were impressed with how well she was hiding, they see her grab a bit of the bush and lower it to cover her from view, her hands moving the dirt so it doesn't seem like anyone slid down it.

"50! Ready or not! Here I come." Phelan quickly turned around and looked at his surrounding. His nose twitches a bit when he takes a few deep whiffs of the air and his eyes gleam. A smile appears in his face and he runs toward a bush that held a few flowers.

"Mrs. Ivy! I found you."
A light chuckle was heard and Ivy who was in a squatting position stood up and clapped her hands.
"You have found me. Now look for the other two. Sir Philan."

He laughs a bit and then begins looking around, his ears perk up and his nose stuffs around. He uses his eyes to look around but doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary, until he heard a light snap.