Momoko [Judar X Kougyoku]

Blossoms

I don't want to be alone anymore.

"Wait!"

Stumbling over the hem of my robes as I clambered to my feet, I ran after him. I grasped onto his other hand.

"I'm gonna call you Judar-nii!" I declared fervently.

He froze like a startled fawn.

"It's because you live here in the palace with us...with me and my brothers and sisters. So you're family now!"

He was speechless. His cheeks flushed a little pink. Pink as the peach blossoms.

"How darling." Gyokuen remarked. I can still remember the pinprick of venom behind the honey of her voice as she wrenched Judar out of my grasp.

"Come along now." She said as she lifted him up and stuffed him into a palanquin, carrying him out of my sight.

After that day, I made it a routine to visit the garden and the peach tree saplings. I'd roll in the dewy bed of fallen petals in the mornings, I'd sit in the shade and sew my dolls' clothes in the afternoon, and I'd watch the flowers drift into the moonlit aqueducts at night.

Whenever I could manage to escape my attendant, that's where I would go. And I would wait. Many times, too many to count, he was never there. But still I waited.

I was starting to think that I wouldn't see him at all anymore. That somehow we had done something wrong by being near each other, and they had decided to hide him away from me. All the flowers had fallen from the trees, and the foliage was starting to fade from green to gold. The wind nipped at my fingers and nose. I had buried my face into my sleeves and curled up under the tree with my doll.

"You're really weird, you know? Coming to this spot all the time."

I looked up just as he flopped down under the tree next to me. I lit up brighter than the flickering evening lanterns.

"Hi, Judar-nii!"

"Geez, what are you getting all excited for? Were you waiting for me all day or something?"

"Uh...w-well I ―"

He snickered. "You were, weren't you? Haha, oh man! All those brothers and sisters, but nobody wants to play with a dumb little brat like you, eh Momoko?"

"Wh-what?! How rude! I waited all this time to play with you again and you say a thing like that to me?"

My eyes burned with tears. "Never mind then. I'll just go back to my room.'

"Uh—hey! Wait!"

I started to leave when he grabbed my hand. I looked back and he seemed slightly ashamed.

"Er...I was just kidding, you know? Lighten up."

I pouted.

He rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, I know! Wanna see something cool?"

He withdrew a wand tipped with a red crystal from his sash and pointed at the tree. Suddenly there was a rush of cold air, and I hid my face in my sleeves. When the wind stopped and I looked up again, the gold leaves glittered with frost.