Teasing 

“Yukina,” Kiyohime said, her tone suddenly business-like, “my mother is calling you over to discuss the matters. Oh, and Haruka, you have to go too.”

“Alright,” Haruka nodded.

Yukina frowned when she heard Kiyohime call her by her first name, the sound a casual, unearned familiarity. “I’m not going.”

“Suit yourself,” Kiyohime said nonchalantly, shrugging her delicate shoulders. “But everyone will be there. Don’t blame me for not reminding you. It’s Grandmother’s exorcism ritual tonight. Whether you go or not is up to you.”

Yukina let out two cold, sharp laughs. “Are you done? If you’re done, get out.”

“You think I want to stay in this dump of yours?” Kiyohime, instead of getting angry, and far from leaving, slipped off her geta with a defiant click. Her small, fair feet, big toes pointed, padded across the cold, clean floor into the house, her expression a clear, open challenge to Yukina.

“Then leave quickly,” Yukina said, her voice dropping. “Your feet are getting my clean floor dirty.”

“My feet are dirty?” Kiyohime acted as if she had just heard the funniest joke in the world, leaning against the shoe cabinet with a giggle. “Haruka, you tell me, are my feet dirty?”

Haruka looked over. Kiyohime lifted a corner of her kimono, like a lotus flower unfurling its petals to reveal the tender, white pistil within. The toes of her rosy-white foot brushed against his calf like a dragonfly skimming the water, her five plump, perfect toes curling and uncurling.

Haruka couldn’t help but stare. Kiyohime’s smile widened, the corners of her mouth turning up in a teasing, triumphant smirk. “Do you want a closer look?” she asked, her tone like a queen bestowing a great, magnificent favor.

“Hmph.” Yukina felt a surge of disgust, which only grew when she saw Haruka actually begin to lean in closer, his gaze captured.

Kiyohime let out two triumphant, musical laughs. Just as she was about to use her toes to playfully lift Haruka’s chin, she found her leg wouldn’t move. Surprised, she looked down and saw that Haruka had caught her by the ankle with one hand, his grip gentle but firm. With his other hand, he was pulling a tissue from his pocket, folding it over and over into a small white square, and slowly, deliberately, bringing it toward the sole of her foot.

Kiyohime’s scalp tingled. The memory of him ruthlessly, deliciously tickling her with the cotton swab that day came flooding back, a phantom sensation that made her skin prickle. “Stop it!” she cried, trying to pull away, but with one leg held captive in the air, she had no leverage.

Yukina, not knowing what had happened between them, watched the two of them with a puzzled, curious expression.

Haruka was also a little helpless. He hadn’t even touched her yet, but for some reason, Kiyohime was already laughing, a breathless, helpless sound, as if she were being tickled mercilessly. “I haven’t even started yet,” he said, his own voice thick with amusement.

Only then did Kiyohime realize. A hot blush started at the roots of her ears and spread across her entire face.

Haruka smiled, a look of fond exasperation on his face, and gently wiped the imaginary dust from the sole of her foot with the tissue. “I was just helping you wipe off the dirt.”

Kiyohime, her face crimson, said with a dismissive, airy toss of her head, “I was just teasing you.” But even as she said it, her body still trembled when Haruka’s hand brushed against the bottom of her foot. Her body was naturally, exquisitely sensitive, especially the soles of her feet, and to have them touched by someone she liked… a touch as light as a feather was almost more than she could bear. Her hands gripped the shoe cabinet behind her, her knuckles white, her body trembling with a strange, pleasant weakness.

Yukina, on the other hand, sat back down on the sofa with the look of someone settling in to watch a good play. She hugged a small square pillow, propped her feet up, and couldn’t help but smile, especially since the tissue Haruka was using was one she had given him earlier, which made her feel a strange, pleasant sense of participation.

“All clean,” Haruka said, letting go of Kiyohime’s foot. The moment her foot touched the ground, she heard Yukina’s cheerful, unrestrained laughter. Annoyed, a terrifying, beautiful smile spread across her face. She slipped on her geta and stomped into the room.

“I just mopped this floor. Who told you to wear your shoes in here?” Yukina’s laughter gradually died down.

Kiyohime stared at Yukina’s bare feet, which were propped up on the sofa. “Your feet are very pretty too, onee-chan,” she said with a malicious grin. “I wonder what it would feel like to tickle them.”

Yukina was also very ticklish. She immediately hugged the pillow and shrank back into the sofa, her voice turning cold. “If you come any closer, I won’t be so nice.”

Kiyohime, laughing, continued to approach. “And how, exactly, will you not be nice?”

Yukina sat up a little straighter and held the pillow up high, as if to say, “One more step and I’ll hit you with this.” But then she saw Kiyohime suddenly dart forward, not at her, but toward the floor. She snatched something up and quickly retreated a dozen steps.

“What are you doing?” Yukina asked, stunned.

“Look what I have in my hand,” Kiyohime said, dangling one of Yukina’s pink cat-themed slippers between two fingers.

“Hmph. Childish.” Yukina tossed the pillow aside and was about to get up to teach her a lesson, barefoot, when she heard Kiyohime say, “Now let’s see whose feet are dirty.”

Yukina hesitated for a fraction of a second. Seeing this, Kiyohime laughed triumphantly. The sound grated on Yukina’s nerves. She strode across the floor and snatched the slipper back from Kiyohime’s hand.

Kiyohime was still laughing. Yukina put on her slipper and, looking at Kiyohime’s bright, mischievous face, for some reason, she began to laugh too, a rare, genuine sound.

Seeing the two sisters getting along so harmoniously, a warm, relieved smile touched Haruka’s lips as well.

As Kiyohime’s laughter subsided, she said softly, “Onee-chan, you should go. Otherwise, those relatives will look down on you.”

Yukina’s smile gradually vanished. “What other people think has nothing to do with me,” she said coldly. “Let them think what they want.” She knew that everything Kiyohime had just done, the teasing, the games, was to try and get her to attend the exorcism meeting.

Haruka understood why Yukina didn’t want to go. After all that had happened, she probably felt sick just looking at the Old Mistress’s face.

“I understand,” Haruka said in a low voice. “But other people don’t know what happened. They will only misunderstand you even more.”

“I don’t care what other people think,” Yukina said without hesitation.

“What about the people who care about you?”

A sarcastic smile crossed Yukina’s face. She was about to say, “Who cares about me?” but seeing both Kiyohime and Haruka staring at her with such serious, concerned expressions, the sarcastic smile slowly melted like ice. “Tonight,” she said in a small, reluctant voice.

“What?” Haruka didn’t hear her clearly.

Yukina turned her back to them and walked toward the stairs. “Tonight, when the exorcism ritual is over, I will go and see my mother. Now stop bothering me. Let me get some sleep.”

Watching her go upstairs, Kiyohime also let out a long, sleepy yawn. She leaned against Haruka, half her weight on him, and murmured, “I’m a little sleepy, too.”

Haruka thought for a moment, then said seriously, “I can’t sleep yet.”

Kiyohime let out a small “Mm,” then suddenly remembered. “Ai-obasan was probably still on her way to find you. She doesn’t know you’re here.”

“I’ll have someone notify her later,” Haruka said. He took off his slippers and put his geta back on, the solid sound a return to the reality waiting for them outside.