The tassels turned out to be a lot harder than she thought, but she managed to finish Ichirohiko's hat a few days later.
"There" she said as she held his new hat up, "finally finished" she sighed, then she looked at a a lilac rose in her vase on her nightstand and started blushing lightly. It's been a few days since Ichirohiko confessed to her. Of course she liked him too, she just didn't expect him to like a 'half-breed' like her.
Sakumi took a breath, got up from her bed and started making her way to the two brothers, who was having breakfast now. Iouzen was out somewhere, and their mother went out.
"Nee-chan, when will you get your hat back?" she heard Jiromaru ask
"When Sakumi is finished with it" she heard Ichirohiko answered
"Well can't you make her work faster? I want to go out and train with father again" Jiromaru whined
"No one is asking you to stay with me" Ichirohiko said, "and I won't rush her last time she rushed herself she knocked out right after giving me my hat back"
"aw, you just want to spend more time with your new girlfriend" Jiromaru whined, making Sakumi blush
"That's enough Jiromaru" Ichirohiko glared at his brother, "Sakumi lives with us, I think I spend more than enough time with her" he said trying to hold down his own blush.
They heard someone cleared their throat behind them. They both turned to find Sakumi with her hands behind her back, "h-hi guys" she stuttered. Ichirohiko smiled and Jiromaru greeted her loudly, "I-I finished your hat Ichi" she said bringing out his hat.
Before Ishirohiko could say anything, Jiromaru spoke up, "Really!? I'll head over to father and tell him!" he yelled and ran off.
Ichirohiko chuckled and shook his head at his brother. He stood up and walked up to Sakumi, "So what chances have you made to my hat?" he smiled at her
"Oh um," Sakumi held out his hat for him to see, "well for one, I changed the tassels, so now you could use it kind of like a scarf and the tusks are a bit bigger than last time"
"wow, this looks amazing Sakumi" he said in amazement, his eyes glowing, "what is there you can't do?"
"Ichi you're extraditing a bit" she blushed
Ichirohiko chuckled and placed his hat back in its place on top of his head, "thank you Sakumi" he said and grabbed her hand. He looked down at her hand when he felt something. Her hand had wounds on them, obviously she must've poked herself many times while sewing.
"I might have tried to rush myself" she said sheepishly
Ichirohiko brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her wounded palm. Then he kissed her lips. "please be more careful" he said
Sakumi's cheeks were a pink tint as she nodded her head, " I should start heading out" she said, "I haven't been at my stall for a while, I should be getting back to it" she chuckled lightly.
Ichirohiko nodded and held on to her hand tighter, "I'll walk you" he said, "I have to get to my father, I haven't been training properly" he smiled
Sakumi blushed at the thought of going out hand-in-hand. But she was happy at the same time. And she could feel her tail swaying in happiness too, but she didn't mind this time.
**************
Ever since then, Ichirohiko would check up on her more likely than before. He would go to her stall to check on her, make sure she's okay or to just ask about her day. He would try to spend so much time with her, it made her laugh the first few days. And since he would stay near her so many times, she figured out that he started having a dislike to Kyuta and Kumatestu. She didn't know why so suddenly and she didn't want to ask, since she thought it would be a little too personal in his case.
As a few more years past, Ichirohiko even went with her to find new clothes, since she was growing out hers. Again. He even wanted her to pick something purple, same as the rose he gave her. Ichirohiko would be all smiles and chuckles with her, that is until Kyuta shows up somewhere to greet her. After a few greets, Ichirohiko would just ignore or walk away from Kyuta. Somehow Kyuta was dense enough to not noticed Ichirohiko's dislike for him, which made Sakumi sweatdrop every time.
~~~~~
Sakumi stretched her arms up in the air. Her stall had been even more busy than usual. It was a normal pace, not something so crazy, but she still had to start wearing an apron to protect the clothes that she and Ichirohiko picked out together.
She opened her eyes after lowering her arms and saw a certain human boy walk through the busy crowd.
"Kyuta!" She called
The human boy smiled and walked up to her stall. Sakumi was finally tall enough to not jump up to reach her counter. She leaned on her arms on her counter.
"Wow" she called with a teasing smile, "Someone has gotten somewhat handsome these past few years"
Kyuta chuckled and rubbed his neck, "only somewhat?" he asked, "you've actually gotten prettier, Sakumi"
"Thanks" she said, "you want a fruit juice?" she asked giving him a cup, "on me?"
"No thanks, I have to get and make the food for Kumatetsu" Kyuta smiled, declining nicely
"Okay then, I'll see ya later" she said waving him off
After a few hours, Jiromaru showed up excited, "Sakumi, have you seen how many people want to follow Kumatetsu?" he asked and Sakumi shook her head, "he's got a huge line outside his house, a waiting line" he explained excitingly, "come on you have to see this" he yelled grabbing her hand and pulled her along with him.
"But my stall!" she called out
"worry about it later"
"See" he said once they stopped next to Ichirohiko, "all these people are just waiting to be approved"
"wow" Sakumi gasped for breath, "that is really long" she said looking to the endless line outside Kumatetsu's house.
"here I grabbed this before bringing you here" Jiroamru said handing her a cup
"How and when did you even grab it?!" Sakumi asked taking it and gulping it down, "yay you grabbed the cherry one"
"You need to quit dragging her around so much, Jiromaru" Ichirohiko said as the tassels of his hat covered the lower part of his face.
"You do the dishes!"
"Stop you brat!"
They started to hear footsteps come down the road.
"Look it Kyuta!" Jiromaru called and Sakumi gave him a small wave, "wanna come to my house?"
"Later!" Kyuta called out as he ran past them at his full speed
"Come back here!" they heard Kumatestu yell as he too ran past them
"Kyuta is something else isn't he?" Jiromaru asked scratching his now grown tusks, "Kumatetsu's cut off so many disciples already, a fight between him and dad would be fun to watch, I bet they're well matched by now" Sakumi nodded and flinched when she felt something
"Kumatestu?" Ichirohiko asked, "don't compare that lazy slob to father" he said looking at his younger brother and girlfriend.
Jiromaru was scratching his tusks and Sakumi was mumbling that she had something stuck between her fangs.
"What's wrong nii-chan?" Jiromaru asked catching Sakumi's attention, who looked at Ichirohiko in question
"Nothing I'm fine" he said looking away.
"Let's go already" he said grabbing Sakumi's hand, "I don't want to stand around watching someone like Kumatestu get more followers" he said as he started walking off, Jiromaru behind them.
"hey don't you guys have a day off?" Sakumi asked
"Why do you think we just standing there?" Jiromaru chuckled
"We should do something together" Sakumi suggested
"Yeah, it's been so long since we've done something just the three of us"
"I'll probably just go train some more" Ichirohiko said
"No way" Sakumi said, "you're doing something with us, you need to take a break every once in a while"
"but-"
"Don't give me 'buts' remember what happened last time you trained too much?"
Ichirohiko sighed and nodded his head. Sakumi smiled, "good, no lets go home and find something to do together" she said grabbing both their hands.