No Need for a Core?

Fuyuko found herself partially in the role of hostess for this dinner, as she was in charge of seeing her guests fed, though she had to run downstairs and get changed first since she was still wearing her armor. The three of them also had their own table so that they could have their own conversations. While she had vague memories of helping in a kitchen, Fuyuko was pretty certain she'd never served someone by bringing food to their seat before and the idea made her suddenly nervous.

Thankfully, her adoptive parents did not leave her on her own. The three of them took advantage of the ability to communicate mentally with her to offer the occasional nudge or suggestion. Shizoku seemed to notice when Fuyuko hesitated, but she merely glanced at the other table with amusement. Derek didn't seem to notice at all.

She had to admit that it was kind of fun to play hostess for her friends, even if it slightly delayed her getting to eat. Her family had made sure that almost all the food available was stuff Fuyuko really liked, which meant lots of meat and plenty of bread.

There were also a couple of vegetable dishes for balance, and Shizoku seemed to actually enjoy them. Derek didn't look thrilled at first, but he seemed to find them acceptable. Fuyuko glanced over at the other table but no one was watching her. That only meant so much given that two of them were also dungeon cores. She could just skip the green stuff, Kazue had said Fuyuko could have whatever she wanted for the next couple of days and it was really tempting, but after some indecision, Fuyuko sighed and served herself up a small portion of each vegetable dish too.

Fifteen wasn't an adult, but it was getting close and she should act more like one. It wasn't like she entirely hated these either, everything was cooked with butter and one of them had lots of cheese while the other one had a spicy sauce that she liked. Just, well, part of her insisted that she shouldn't want to eat them.

Dinner certainly wasn't quiet, not with three dragon hatchlings wound up from having new people staying over, and aside from her issue with the vegetables Fuyuko rather enjoyed the chaos. After dinner she only had to help get the dishes to the kitchen, her parents took it from there with Mordecai telling her, "The main room is yours, do what you want with the furniture, just leave enough room for everyone to get by." He reached up to rub her head with a smile before sending her to be with her friends.

After consultation with Shizoku and Derek, they decided to make a little fort out of some of the furniture, dragging it into a half circle around the hearth and using some blankets to cover the gaps. It was childish, but it was also fun to mess around like this. The dragons were curious and quite eager to get involved, though Fuyuko wouldn't go quite so far as to say they helped.

When things settled down a little her friends glanced at each other and nodded before digging into their bags. "We wanted to give you our presents early," Derek said as he fetched out a small box, "so this one's from me." When Fuyuko opened it, there was a pair of earrings that started with a simple steel hoop and chain, but off of the short chain, each earring had a transparent, glass-like sphere inside of which floated little multi-colored sparks. "You said you were thinking about getting more earrings so Shizo helped me figure out how to make the baubles. They don't really do anything, but I thought they looked nice."

Fuyuko beamed at him and said, "Thank you, I love them. They're lightning and fire sparks and such, aren't they?" She stared down at them for a long moment then bit her lip in thought. She wanted to put them on right now, but she only had the one piercing. Shizoku seemed to have anticipated this though and brought out a silver needle.

"I saw what Mordecai used, and it didn't seem to hurt you much. Mind if I do it?" She asked.

"Er, do you know how?" Fuyuko asked uncertainly.

Shizoku nodded. "I don't have a lot of experience, but Gran Gran thought it was something I should know how to do. So, um, well, it might not be perfect. But the holes will be clean and close to even."

She hesitated only a moment before nodding and then sat on the ground in front of the chair Shizo had moved to. The silver needle didn't sting any more than a steel one would have, but it did delay the start of her healing long enough for Shizoku to get the earrings in place.

"There," Shizoku said with satisfaction, "all set. Mm, yeah, like I thought, they look cute on you." She grinned at Fuyuko and then brought out two packages. "So, I got you two things. One of them I got because I think every girl should have some."

Fuyuko had to fight the urge to sneeze when she opened the first package. It smelled nice, but the scent of cherry blossoms and apples was a bit strong at first. Inside was a velvet bag that held a pretty glass bottle. "Um, is this perfume?"

"Yes," Shizoku said, "I tried to make it not too sweet and I figure that if you wear it there's even odds that you'll also be wearing your armor or something, so I made sure the blend wouldn't fight with leather, oil, and steel."

"It's very nice, thank you Shizo." Fuyuko's feelings were a little mixed, but she'd never had perfume before and she decided that this was important to her. She was less certain that she'd ever actually use it, but having it was important. She carefully put it back into its bag and put it aside before Shizoku handed her the second package.

"I figure these will be a little more useful for you." Inside was a flat box that held a few different hair combs and hair bands each. "You didn't seem very used to having longer hair, so I thought I'd teach you how to use these." They were all made out of dark, pleasant-smelling woods and Fuyuko was quite happy to spend the next several minutes learning how to use them. She didn't want to do anything fancy with hair but she did want to let it grow out at least a little more.

"Thank you both, oh, um, wait a moment." Fuyuko crawled out of the fort and dashed to her room to return with a pair of large but lightweight bundles that she pushed into the fort before scrambling back in herself. "So, I missed Derek's birthday, and it's early for Shizo's, but I thought you might like these and it's just easier to do both now. I, uh, I didn't make them or anything, but I had to do some extra work to buy them." She was pretty certain the shopkeep would have given her the handcrafted items if she'd asked, but Fuyuko felt much better having bought them.

Her friends curiously unwrapped the bundles to reveal a pair of Zushi-shaped pillows. "They're enchanted," Fuyuko added hastily, "like a lot of the other dolls and stuff. They can get bigger and be animated for a little while every day if you want. But I figured you might enjoy the pillow part the most." She might have also gotten an extra one or two for herself because they were super soft and comfy.

Derek looked a little embarrassed at first but Shizoku was more enthusiastic. "Oh, I love it! He's squishable. Hmm, I bet I would look adorable curled up on it in fox form, don't you think Derek?" She flashed him a teasing grin that got him to blush.

He looked away and cleared his throat. "Yeah, you sure would. Um, thank you, Fuyuko. Zushi does make for a really nice pillow."

Fuyuko poked him and said, "You don't have to be shy about it just because you're a boy. I heard Mordecai saying to Kazue how much he loved having soft pillows." Shizoku slapped her hand over her face with a groan and Fuyuko looked at her with confusion before asking, "What? Did I miss something?"

The smaller girl shook her head and sighed, "It's nothing important, and it's probably best that you don't worry about it."

Fuyuko wasn't sure if everyone else here was weird or if she was the strange one, but she didn't feel like pursuing that question right now. "Whatever. Anyway, now we have more pillows for our fort too! Now we can... wait, I forgot snacks!" She scrambled back out of the fort to go fetch food and drinks for them all.

The three of them spent the night in their little fort, often with the company of the hatchlings who were happy to try and steal a sleeping spot on the cushy Zushi pillows. Fuyuko felt a little cramped when the smell of food cooking woke her up and she had to slowly crawl out in order to have enough room to stretch. Her friends followed after though they didn't look as bad off.

"Good Morning!" Kazue called out to them with a laugh, "Now put the furniture back and get cleaned up for breakfast."

Put it back? Did she remember where it all went? Oops. "Um, right." Fuyuko muttered then sighed, "Well, let's get started."

They weren't quite as enthusiastic about disassembling the fort, but it wasn't hard and they didn't have to figure out how to stack things this time. Then she led Shizoku and Derek downstairs to show them their rooms where they could stash their bags and freshen up. When putting away her presents, Fuyuko took the time to arrange them on her dresser with a smile. She still had the earrings in her ears, along with wearing a hair band, but she put the boxes next to each other for now, along with the perfume bottle in its bag.

By the time they got upstairs, everyone else was ready for breakfast too, plus the additions of Bellona, Xarlug, and Carmilla. This time Fuyuko and her friends had to sit with everyone else because it was officially her birthday breakfast and all the attention was on her. "Food first," Mordecai said with a smile, "and after that we can hand over your presents. Shizoku and Derek can help you organize if you want, and then you guys can do whatever you want. Tomorrow's a free day too, until sunset. You three need rest before you head out for the clan."

Fuyuko nodded and glanced nervously at the pile of packages. That seemed like a lot of presents. Well, like Mordecai had said, food first. And Moriko was bringing over a giant stack of pancakes just for her. That was enough to make Fuyuko forget about any concerns for a little while.