4 "Sewing"

After taking her bath, Taeko once again visited the boy's room, just to see him in a sitting position on the bed, exactly the same as when she left him. She also noticed the spilled ink on the papers lying on the desk but she ignored it.

"Hey, I am sorry but with your injuries, it's too risky to move around too much so you can't go out to have a bath at the hot springs, however, once your wound will be safe enough to move around, you will be allowed! For now, you will have to carefully clean yourself with this wet cloth, the water in this bucket is from the said hot springs." Taeko said with a small smile, placing the bucket of hot water along with the cloth in it on the ground near the bed.

"..." The boy nodded his head but Taeko kept standing near the bed while looking back and forth between the bucket and the boy.

"Hm?" The boy released a muffled sound through his closed lips since he probably couldn't make a confused expression to signal for Taeko to explain why she keeps standing there.

"Oh...I was thinking...Do you need help? It would be bad if you opened your wound again, it would practically render this entire day of rest useless.

"You don't have to do that, Taeko. This boy should at least be capable of cleaning himself." Both Taeko and the boy looked towards the door just to see Taeko's mentor leaning against the door while looking at both of them with folded arms.

"It's alright. If the wound were to truly re-open, our efforts would be for naught, no?" Taeko replied with a bright smile before asking with a slightly confused expression.

"...Do as you wish, he is after all in your care. Just don't forget your promise." The older woman sighed and took her leave.

"Yes..." Taeko replied, looking a bit down upon the mention of the said "promise".

The boy for the first time focused on this older woman and saw that she was wearing quite odd purple clothes with a metal glove on her left hand. She had gray hair and a wrinkled face as any other elder person but to the boy, she didn't seem that old. At least by her posture and the speed she displayed previously, he was sure that there was another reason behind her appearance.

'...She is spoiling him too much but it didn't seem like he was opening much to her. Maybe he won't become so dependant on Taeko.' The older woman thought while looking behind, at the closed door.

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Taeko helped to clean the boy's upper part of the body with the wet cloth and the boy just let her do whatever she wants however when she got near his waist, the boy's body reacted on its own, catching Taeko's wrist.

"Eh?" Taeko who was quite focused on doing her work looked up with a surprised expression.

"Rest...alone" The boy said after a short pause.

"?! Alright! Just be careful." Taeko seemed pleasantly surprised when she finally heard more than 1 word coming out from the boy's mouth. She was preparing to leave with a satisfied smile on her face but when she was at the doorway...

"Ink..."

Taeko turned around with a confused expression when she heard the boy's voice.

"Eh? W-What do you mean? You want...an ink? If you are too bored, I will get you tomorrow a stack of papers and ink but the ones that are here are already-" Taeko replied with a smile.

"No" The boy replied, making Taeko even more confused as she couldn't read anything from his blank expression.

"Name's Ink"

"Oh...Oh! Ink...It sounds...good." Taeko said with a slightly forced smile, she wanted to say that it suits him due to his pitch-black hair but when she noticed his overall gloomy appearance, she decided otherwise, just so her words wouldn't be misunderstood.

"Anyway, as I said before, my name is Taeko, it's nice to meet you Ink!" Taeko said with a happy smile, feeling as if she finally made a friend of her age.

Ink's corners of his lips twitched a bit, however otherwise, his expression didn't change, nor did he say anything else. With that done, Taeko left the room with a smile.

'...Was he trying to smile at me?' Taeko thought of the moment when Ink's lips twitched.

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This way, several days passed by. Taeko usually visited Ink several times a day and often spent her time trying to talk to him whenever she didn't have her training sessions. Ink's wounds got better quickly and he was allowed to go into the hot springs where his wound healed even faster. Obviously, he was under constant surveillance without even being aware, however, after a few days, he started having a feeling of having someone's eyes on his back, despite that, he never did anything about it.

He wasn't exactly sure whether it was Taeko or the older woman but Taeko usually looked out after him openly while the older woman usually just glared at him before ignoring him completely.

One day when Ink was sitting on his bed without anything to do as usual...

Several days passed by since the tragedy in Ink's village and his nightmares. By now, he already thought about everything he could and days started becoming longer and longer for him. Seconds started becoming minutes and minutes became hours. There were only a few activities where the time flowed normally for him...it was whenever Taeko was training outside, whenever he was eating, and whenever he was sleeping.

Yesterday he asked Taeko to get him silk thread and several needles. Although the request surprised Taeko as this was Ink's first request, she happily obliged and got him what he wanted since she thought that he might want to try to fix his slightly tattered clothes. She wanted to offer new clothes but she also knew how boring it must be for him.

Little did she know what Ink's real intentions were...

Ink took off his shirt and looked at his bandaged wound on his side. He took the bandages off and saw that the wound was almost closed, it would only take a few more days for him to be able to run around.

However, instead of waiting, he decided to try out what he wanted to do for several days since his nightmares. Ink took the needle and silk thread in his hands and began stitching the wound just as he saw the young man doing this in his dream. His hands moved almost on their own and they weren't shaking at all despite him feeling the pain. He knew that the young man in his dreams usually used something to numb the area around the wound but he had no idea what it was so he had to bear with the pain but truth be told, it indeed hurt Ink, however, somehow even this type of pain felt empty compared to what he experienced within 1 day.

"..." He hasn't released a single sound from his mouth till he was done. The stitches looked decent but definitely incomparable to what the young man in his dream has done.

'Tch!' Ink gritted his teeth after seeing that he was capable of doing something he has never done in his life, making him hate the young man in his dream even more. He dressed up his shirt once again and took a look out of the window just to see the older woman looking at him suspiciously, very different from her usual look.

'Is she aware?' Ink thought but he didn't dwell on it before distancing himself from the window and leaving the room, going straight to the front door of the old cottage they were staying at.

"Eh? Ink? Are you already alright to be outside except for the quick bath?" Taeko stopped swinging her sword and her concentrated and serious expression changed to a surprised one when she saw Ink outside.

"Taeko, don't become distracted." The older woman said with furrowed brows.

"Y-Yes! I am sorry!" Taeko replied before returning to her training with a serious expression.

"Boy...Why did you ask for such high-quality silk thread?" The older woman asked with folded arms while suspiciously eyeing Ink who just kept staring into her eyes. His previously dull green eyes never changed past those days but at least he started talking a bit once again albeit a bit oddly.

"...I thought...can sew my clothes...but can't. Wound's fine. Can...join?" Ink replied strangely as usual. As if he was trying to speak the minimum words just to be understood.

Hearing his words, the older woman narrowed her eyes at him and Ink continued waiting for her reply. If it was anyone experienced enough who felt her eyes on them, they would most likely start spilling beans.

"Heh...Sewing, huh?" For the first time, the older woman smiled towards Ink but it wasn't the same friendly smile that Taeko was usually showing him. The older woman in front of him kept staring at the place of his wound with a very strange smile on her face.