Tsukimi in the Old Hydrangea Garden

Memories. How many more times would they come to visit her? Times when she would run from home to be alone and find peace again fluttered through her mind like playful butterflies. Perhaps this was an omen. She didn't run from the citadel like she did her childhood home when she was little. She only left to deal with private matters. Everyone probably thought she was visiting Toga's tomb again since she hadn't been near it in so long, but that was to be expected since no one knew of her moon garden. When she was younger, she ran away from a dinner party to chase fireflies one night. Her nighttime play led her to a small pool of water with wild hydrangea bushes growing in a row. She fell in love for the first time but with nature and not man. Though she received a short lashing for running away, she couldn't resist the serenity and fantasy of the unnamed place. She convinced her mother to walk with her there. A secret held between two women and a day of planning to build the perfect garden... but with night-blooming flowers only to commemorate the day it was found. Entranced by the beauty, she collected things from home and on walks with her parents to bring to her little playground. She developed a knack for arranging tables and soon a talent for the ikebana. It wasn't perfected to her standard for another three inu years.

"What happened here?" she growled.

Milady stood before the rusted gates of her childhood garden with a slight frown on her face. She should've come far sooner if it was going to let itself go like this! But her childhood favorite festival was coming up. Since she was bold enough to visit Toga's grave, she would be even bolder and visit her moon garden. Though, judging from the overgrown grasses, weeds, and vines, it was more like a junkyard now. Puffing her cheeks and narrowing her eyes at the condition of her garden, she sharply turned around to return to the citadel for some things. No one knew she had come and gone again. If they did, no one said anything. Once she returned, she was more upset at the condition than the first go-round. Taking the scythe out of her collection of things, she went to work cutting the grass and weeds down to an appreciable height in silence. Pulling the more stubborn weeds out took some shoveling and digging before she cut the grass down to a more walkable height.

A rat leapt out of the grass suddenly, startling her at first before she shouted, "Well, that serves you right! Stay out of here!"

Blushing out of anger, she became more aggressive with her grass cutting task and started scaring away other surprise pests. By the time she was done, she felt accomplished at having the front look more like a proper entryway. Her old pathway lanterns were on the ground covered in weeds and bugs. She decided to toss them out and design new ones. Drawing up a quick plan, she went with something a bit more mature and classier. Taking a deep breath, she let out a frustrated sigh before making her way to the citadel again. This time, she brought some old chandeliers that weren't being used anymore and dismantled each one for the parts she wanted. Completed with her new entryway lighting, she stopped to have a small lunch before continuing on. The place was a lot messier than she thought. She worked on the grass and weeds until the sun was setting. Covered in grass and dirt, Milady looked down at her clothes and visibly frowned. A constant reminder of her ruined garden was now on her person in the form of green grass stains and brown dirt patches. Foolish! She couldn't be upset, though. Once she started, she couldn't stop working at cleaning up her garden.

Peeling off the layers of fabric from her body and undoing her hair, she bathed in the pool of water and simply enjoyed watching the sunset. Somehow, it was the only thing that remained fresh and untouched, but that was the beauty of her old garden. Looking at her soiled kimono, she frowned again at the messiness of her wardrobe. Then, a thought came to her. She didn't have to wear it tonight or tomorrow. These next few days would be her "me" time... the way it used to be around this time of year. She had new things to collect now and new ways to perfect her special place.

The next day's tasks went by much faster. Milady cleaned up the garden from front to back. The cobblestone pathway could be seen! Unfortunately, the stones were broken up and a small vein appeared on her temple with obvious displeasure. She couldn't fix the pathway immediately. Too many of the hydrangea bushes were overgrown and covering the pathway. Luckily, she had shears to do the job, but she wasn't in the mood to use them. No, she used her tanto instead and hacked away violently until she heard a noise and stopped. A familiar scent caught her attention in a particular direction until it disappeared.

"I scared a ghost?" Milady asked herself, raising a brow. She shrugged then returned to her violent hacking and said, "Imaginations are best used for decorating anyway."

By sundown, the garden was really coming together. It was much nicer! Bushes trimmed to a nicer shape, vases both young and old filled with the overgrown foliage and fresh water, and new lanterns wrapped in blooming vines were standing to form a proper path. There was beading connecting one lantern to another, however, and it looked almost like spider webs covered in dew drops. Milady was crafting paper lanterns one by one this time. Each one a different shade of white, cream, off-white, yellow, gold, and purple. The lavender and gold ones drew her attention the most, so she placed them in one spot. The others, she decided, would go elsewhere to be strung together. She heard rustling leaves in the distance and caught that scent again, but, like before, it disappeared. Only her eyes moved to acknowledge it before she continued cutting the lantern paper in contented silence. By nightfall, she started hanging up the off-white, cream, and white lanterns along the crystal beading strings between the lantern poles. Backing up to see her handiwork, she tilted her head to observe the twinkling of crystals become stars under the glimmer of fluttering fireflies. At this, she smiled.

Milady nodded before walking back to her small bed of a soiled kimono and her fur. She mused quietly for a while, opting to bathe in the morning and pick out the proper attire for her final days at her old garden, and smirked mischievously at a thought. She had an idea of what she wanted to do.

_____________________________________

"Are you sure we need so many flowers, my lord?" Jaken asked, holding a bundle of pollen-inducing foliage.

Sesshomaru didn't give an answer, but he seemed distracted since his return to the Vermillion Forest of Imps. He retrieved Jaken as promised and started gathering the Manjushage flowers in silence. With time, he began picking roses, lavender, cosmos, mums, and other such varieties. If there was a flower he didn't feel was right to add, Sesshomaru simply tossed it away. It wasn't until they reached some juniper bushes that Sesshomaru simply stood still and breathed. Something was on his mind.

Is this perhaps a gift for someone? Jaken thought. Who could be so important that Lord Sesshomaru would go out of his way to pick flowers himself? He even... seems... happy.

Striking at a particular bush with his claw, Sesshomaru gathered multiple branches and dropped them into Jaken's arms before saying, "Let's go, Jaken. We're late."

"L-l-late?" Jaken questioned, more confused than ever. "Late for what?"

The smell of roasting chestnuts filled the air as Jaken followed Sesshomaru to a mysterious place. It was a pleasant fragrance! It wasn't until he bumped into Sesshomaru's leg that he saw the pathway leading to a fire. It was covered by walls of hydrangea, honeysuckle, and moonflowers with lanterns providing light as accent pieces. Freshly laid out steppingstones paved the way to a viewing area where the fire was located. A woman walked by with a rabbit following her. Sesshomaru tensed up before he walked forward. Jaken followed after him until his mouth was fully opened at the sight of Sesshomaru's mother dressed in a midnight blue yukata with gray and white Damask print moons decorating the bodice. Her hair was fully down but decorated in flattering tsumami and ogi kanzashi pieces. She had a table with food cooked and a seating area lit with purple and gold lanterns. She wasn't wearing lipstick tonight. A rabbit seemed to be curious of her, though. When it sensed an intruder, it scurried away before turning around to see if Milady sensed the same thing.

She turned around quietly, gasped at her intruders, and said, "My son?"

"Milady!" Jaken said, hurrying to bow respectfully. "I hope we're not interrupting something!"

"Nothing's started yet," Milady responded, looking at Jaken before returning her attention to Sesshomaru. "Why have you come to visit me, my son?"

"You're having a party alone?" Sesshomaru questioned.

"No, I had the rabbits," Milady answered, pointing at the bunny he startled earlier. It had a family. "I was reading a poem to the big one."

"A poem, Milady?" Jaken asked.

Milady smiled, turned to Sesshomaru with soft, mischievous eyes and recited, "Happy summer, fall

A dear, bunny sacrifice

because of the flame."

Sesshomaru immediately tensed up at the haiku. It was his. One that he wrote for the Tsukimi festival when he was a child. He looked closely at the decorations of the seating area and took note to the susuki grass in her vases. It was that time of the year again. She chuckled gently at her son's face but said no more. She was fiddling with her collection before the rabbits came by her to eat some of her food. The big bunny stole a yam. Jaken watched as Milady ran to something. She dug around in a box, hitting bells and rattles, before she pulled out a stuffed rabbit. Sesshomaru's eyes couldn't have shrunken any smaller if he tried hard enough.

"Your favorite chewing toy, little babe," Milady said sweetly, lips curved in a teasing manner.

"Burn it," Sesshomaru ordered.

"No," Milady refused in a gentle tone mixed with a short laugh.