Ink Stained

104: the Mizushima family*

She looked up again when she heard a door rattle, and saw a Mokumokuren wrestling with one of the sliding doors that had a little missing patch at the bottom of its paper screen. The Tsukumogami was trying to open the door so that it could slide it out and take it to were the Mokumokuren fixed things around the house (she was never quite sure where that was, even after a whole year of trying to find out. She wasn't certain wherever they took things wasn't an entirely different dimension in the house, for all the magical things that tended to occur).

She was about to go to the Mokumokuren to help it when she heard the clack-clack of an overly familiar cane striking the floor. She twisted around and pulled the kitchen door open, practically throwing herself inside to avoid being caught loitering by Obaasan.

The fact that Pai was Hanyou didn't deter Obaasan from relegating as many chores to Pai as she thought she could handle. That meant avoiding Obaasan like she was death itself when it was time to do said chores, yet not having done them yet. Obaasan set out times in a strict schedule for when she wanted things to get done in the house, and there was very little leeway to wriggle around with those times. When Obaasan wanted something done, she wanted it done ten minutes ago.

"Oh, Pai-chan." Forced cheer rang in the voice that greeted her as she closed the door behind her. "It's you."

Pai blinked stupidly at Yukiji. Thursdays were when Pai washed dishes with Mizutani, not Yukiji. It was Mondays and Fridays when she did that with Yukiji. So why was she here?

"Hi, Yukiji-san," she said, fighting off a confused frown as she fixed the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows so that they wouldn't get wet. "Where's Mizutani-san? You have already done enough work today."

"I know," Yukiji nodded, passing over the dripping bowl she'd just washed for Pai to dry. "Mizu-chan's with the kids. Hana was crying for her, so I'm washing the dishes for her today."

"I can do it," she offered, taking the plate and two forms Yukiji handed her. "It is no problem."

"It's okay, we made a deal." Yukiji gave her a little smile that, in all honesty, could only be described as evil. "I do Mizu-chan's chores today, she does mine for the rest of the week."

That's a good deal.

She can be scary, Kuniumi murmured, amused. Pai agreed wholeheartedly.

For a while the two worked in companionable silence. Yukiji washed the dishes, and flicked soap spuds in the eye of one particularly rowdy Morinji-no-kama that was refusing to have its insides cleaned out.

Pai dried the dishes as soon as they were ready, having to give the same Morinji-no-kama a smart smack on its side with its own lid when it tried to hop out her hands before it was properly dried. She was sure this Morinji-no-kama was the same one Mizutani had been chasing months ago, the day of the Torimaku.

As they worked, Pai found herself glancing at Yukiji every so often as she towel-dried the dishes she was handed. Each time she did, she noticed one more thing that added to her certainty that something was bothering Yukiji, and that she was trying to hide the fact.

The shadows under her eyes hinted at more than one sleepless night. Her skin was pale where it was usually slightly tanned from spending time outside, tending to the trees in the garden and the herbs she was growing in a little patch just outside the boundary wall. Her lips were turned down at the corners, brows pulled low in a slight frown that made her usually bright and smiling face much darker now, more serious and a little frightening in its intensity.

"She does that a lot," Haru told her. "She thinks that all the problems in the world are hers alone, and that no one should be bothered by them but her. Kind of like you, actually."