Life at our age

The next morning had arrived, and Ayame dragged herself out of bed to get ready for today's duties.

'I hope I am able to sleep once I start attending uni.' Ayame was not at all a morning person and was more of a night owl due to her assassin job.

"Ayame! Come eat now otherwise, you won't have any time." Tomoe called out from the living room, and Ayame quickly finished getting changed.

"I'm here." Walking inside the living room, Ayame let herself fall to the ground and sat at the small table where the food was laid out.

*Sigh* "You should be used to the mornings by now." Tomoe shook her head as she looked at the half-asleep face of Ayame.

"No matter how much sleep I get, all I want to do is lay in bed." Ayame began to slowly eat her rice with grilled fish as well as drink some tea.

"So, when will Anna get here?" Ayame was wondering as it was getting rather late, and they would need to head out to the shrine.

"As I said, she literally lives next to us, so you should see her any moment now." As Tomoe was speaking, the sound of their front door opened, and thanks to their ability to sense things because of their race could tell it was Anna by her presence.

"Anna!" Ayame's face lit up as it still felt surreal to her, they had someone else coming to work with her.

"Hello." Poking her head cautiously through the door, Anna was back to her shy self but quickly disappeared once she saw Ayame and Tomoe.

Opening the door fully, Anna was already in her shrine maiden uniform, ready to go for the day.

"Hey, have you eaten?" Ayame wanted to make sure as they would not get any breaks for at least an hour or two.

"Yep, I ate before I came here." Anna while speaking, kneeled next to Ayame and noticed the ears on her head.

"Oh? Did you want to touch my ears?" Ayame saw Anna blatantly staring at her ears that she did not bother to hide yet.

"C-can I?" Anna, who was yet to awaken her kitsune side, was extremely curious about what it would feel like.

"Go ahead." Ayame didn't mind since as long as she knew they were going to be touched, it wouldn't spook her.

Lowering her head so Anna could reach, she slowly raised her hand and started to feel Ayame's ears.

"Wow, they are so soft." Anna was quite amazed by how it felt and started to pat Ayame.

"Ahem!" Tomoe cleared her throat to interrupt the two as she saw Ayame nuzzling into Anna's hand and knew Ayame was trying to get free head pats as it was one of her favourite shows of affection.

"Oop sorry." Anna quickly pulled away, but Ayame glared at Tomoe as she was enjoying the pats.

"Ayame, if you have finished eating, get your ass out to the shrine already." Tomoe saw the time and knew students would be arriving at any moment, if not already there.

"Hmph, fine." Ayame stood up, followed by Anna shortly after, and they quickly left for the shrine.

*

Hiding her fox ears both Ayame and Anna tended to the shrine, going at a relatively fast pace as now there were two of them. Blessings went by quicker, and there was less work to do which was something Ayame always wished for.

After about an hour, they had gotten through most of the students, and many were very welcoming of Anna's sudden appearance.

"Good job Anna, I have to say, usually I wouldn't be close to finishing if it wasn't for you." Ayame sat on the steps of the shrine, enjoying the break she had.

"I'm just glad I didn't mess anything up." Anna leaned on the pillar as she had been nervous throughout the entire time, worried she would mess up or not be liked.

"All we have to do is the daily chores, so let's get a start on that as there shouldn't be any people that require our services." Ayame, now having so much time, wanted to get everything done as quick as possible so she could spend some time asking Anna some questions before her mission.

*

Another hour went by, and all the chores they needed to get done were all finished quickly thanks to Anna.

Ayame stretched out her body and was wondering if they could just return to the house since everything was done.

"Anna, do you have any free time?" Ayame wanted to interrogate Anna about what it was like to be normal as she had very little interaction with people her age.

"Hmm I don't have anything else on. Why, did you want to hang out?" Anna had the day completely free as she expected to be working all day and not have so much free time.

"Well, umm since I'm starting uni soon, I wanted to ask what people are like since I don't really leave the shrine." Ayame fidgeted a little bit as it was rather embarrassing for her to admit something like this.

"Ohhh! Of course, I just finished school, so I can tell you what it might be like." Anna, who just finished her final semester, knew how it worked, so she didn't mind helping Ayame get accustomed to it.

"Wait, you went to uni as well?" Ayame didn't realise Anna finished university, which meant she was older than her.

"Yep! It was just an art course as I like to do paintings and drawings in my spare time." Anna blushed a little as she was rather embarrassed about her hobbies as they had been seen as odd by her family.

"Really? You must show me some when you come over again." Ayame always wanted to draw herself as she read quite a lot of manga and loved the idea of creating her own characters.

"O-oh, I-I.. sure." Anna didn't know what to say as she wasn't used to people being so interested in what she did.

"Hell yeah, anyway, let's head to my room." Ayame grabbed a hold of Anna's hand and quickly dragged her back to her house.

"Whaa!?" Anna wasn't expecting to get dragged and almost fell over, but she quickly regained her balance.

"Oi! What are you doing back here!" Tomoe saw the girls coming back from her office window and knew it was much earlier than the usual time Ayame would have finished.

"We finished early, go have a look for yourself if you don't believe us." Ayame poked her tongue at Tomoe while going through the front door.

*Sigh* "I guess since Anna is here, they were twice as fast, so it makes sense." Tomoe shook her head and got up just to make sure they weren't being lazy.

Ayame ran down the hallway and slammed her door open. Quickly pulling Anna in, she finally let go of her hand while also letting her fox trait go free as she knew it was the one place she could.

Without really caring, Ayame also took off the top half of her shrine maiden clothes and put on a black t-shirt.

"Ahh~ Much better." Ayame always found it slightly uncomfortable to wear the shrine maiden clothes as after working the whole day it became rather annoying and hot.

Quickly kneeling on the floor, Ayame pulled out a small table from underneath her bed and some cushions for them to sit on.

Anna had turned her head away since Ayame started taking off her clothes and wasn't sure if she was finished or not.

"Hmm? Why are you looking away?" Ayame wasn't sure why Anna looked so embarrassed as she didn't see any problems with what she was doing.

"Oh n-nothing, just you were changing, and I didn't want to stare." Anna knew she had a wedding coming up, so she didn't want to feel like she was betraying her soon-to-be husband.

"Oh I see, so girls still get embarrassed when changing next to each other, noted." Ayame didn't really think it was a big deal, but it seemed like it was the opposite.

"Oh no, no, it's just with my arranged marriage that I'm looking away, it feels wrong if I stare." Anna's face changed and had a glint of sadness like she didn't want the marriage to go through. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Ayame, which told her everything she needed to know.

'So she isn't happy with it, I wonder if Tomoe can do something about it.' Ayame considered assassinating, but since it was another kitsune family, it would be complicated as it is more likely she will get caught.

"Anyway, you wanted to know what people are usually like?" Anna sat at the table across from Ayame, hoping to move on from the topic.

"Oh yes, I guess mainly how people act since I don't know what it's like to be around people." Ayame wanted to ask more about the marriage, but she could tell Anna was uncomfortable talking about it.

"It isn't that much different than what you expect. You will see girls will be more willing to talk to you while guys will either be reserved or try to hit on you since you're quite pretty. This is not to say all guys will be like that, but know that it is very much possible." Anna began to tell what she experienced and hoped it would be useful.

"So, how should I try to talk to these girls if they do talk to me." Ayame started to feel nervous as she didn't know much about topics other than manga and shows she had watched while at home.

"Just be yourself, not everyone will be into the same thing, so just make sure you let them know your interests by asking if they are into that stuff like manga." Anna spotted the many books Ayame had and tried to use them as an example.

"I see, I see, so don't be afraid to say what I like, and that's when I will find out if I will get along with people." Ayame was beginning to understand and was not as scary as she thought.

"Mhm, you won't get along with everyone, but once you find a sort of group of people, you will stick with them most of the time. No need to know everyone, even just a few people is enough." Anna perceived Ayame as quite the extrovert and saw her running up to everyone to make friends.

"Oh good, I only want a few friends, being friends with everyone sounds like a pain." Ayame liked the sound of things more and was hoping only to get a few friends.

Anna then continued to explain how most classes worked and the different kinds of activities she could do, but this did not interest Ayame as much since she was only interested in doing the course.

"So that's about it, is there anything else you wanted to know?" Anna finished going through most of the common knowledge, and by the look on Ayame, she had fired her brain.

"Nope, I think I'm good." Ayame was on her back planning out how she would like to go about her first day but felt like there was so much to consider.

"Anyway, I will head back out to the shrine, it is around midday, so there should be some visitors." Anna felt uneasy not doing anything, so she figured she would head back out to get more familiar with the place.

"Alright, call me if you need anything." Ayame wanted Anna to stay but also needed time to think things through on her own.

"Cya, I might not see you if you don't come out, so see you tomorrow if that's the case." Anna waved as she exited the room leaving Ayame to her own thoughts.

'Hopefully, Tomoe won't get mad at me for leaving the shrine work up to Anna.' Ayame got up from the floor and quickly went to her desk to write down things and organise herself.