#orphan sona

[ladybuvelle]

[ladybuvelle]

Little Heart

The road felt so soft that day, long ago. It was humid outside and the clouds hung low in the sky, heavy with rain and waiting for the right moment. The sun was still too fierce to let it happen. Not just yet. It was well enough to walk for a short while and take in the summer stormscape just before the actual storm - but Waka-sensei would have to leave soon. It was a long walk back to his home, and it wouldn’t do to be caught in the rain.

Sona had hoped to keep him long enough that he would have to stay and wait it out. He could stay the night, perhaps. The matrons wouldn’t turn him away. They could have dinner together. He could tell her more stories.

Her pulse surged so hard with the beat of her heart that she could feel it in her fingertips. The thought of it all was just so exciting.

“Sona” he called to the little girl behind him, her smaller strides often holding her back. “|Come look! You can see it raining in the distance, past the fields. We’re still ahead of it.|”

They had walked toward the farmlands where the ground was more flat for miles and miles, lacking the trees that grew around the orphanage that obscured a lot of the view. She looked where he pointed, and indeed in the distance was a great darkness of clouds and the distant static of rain. It was scary. It was beautiful. They were so far away they could see the wind pushing the clouds along as they watered the fields.

“|The vegetables will be happy, don’t you think?|” he asked, an airy tone to his voice in awe of nature.

“|Yes|” Sona gestured back to him with a strong nod of her head and a cat-like paw next to her cheek.

“|I don’t think the cats will be very happy though|” he laughed, joking about her gesture. “|They’re all running inside right now if they haven’t already. Animals can usually tell the weather before it happens. If only we had that talent.|”

Reaching out for her little pale hand, Wakahisa had turned back in the direction of the orphanage. “|We should return now, little heart. Before the clouds come this way.|”

Without thinking, Sona took the man’s darker hand - really, just holding onto a row of his fingers - and walked along in distress. For a few steps. Then she stopped and pulled him back.

“|Look!|” she gestured with her free hand, back toward the rain in the distance. Nothing had changed, she just wanted to keep looking. To keep him there just a little longer.

“Hm? |Look at what?|”

“|Raining|.”

“|Yes, it’s still raining. It’ll come this way soon. Now come - or the cats will laugh at us for getting wet!|”

Never one to protest too much, the little girl had to give up. But maybe she could at least make him walk more slowly. Her sandals dragged along the soft ground, kicking up bits of dirt and small pebbles as they went. Wakahisa tugged her along, though never forcefully, yet it had become obvious his ward was being difficult. He let go of her hand.

“|Is something wrong, Sona?|” he finally asked, this time gesturing along with his speech. Waka tended to do that if a topic was more serious and could be learned from. It drew Sona’s full attention. But she couldn’t just admit she didn’t want him to go.

“|No|” she obviously lied, her face turned down as she shook her head.

“|Do you want to get caught in the rain?|”

Again, she shook her head. Hard enough to make her pigtails swish about.

“Aya... |But something is bothering you today, little heart. Are you upset that I have to leave early?|”

Not the entire reason, but close enough. The way she hesitated to answer him was an answer in itself. Wakahisa had been Sona’s personal tutor for over two years by then. That was quite a while to get to know someone, especially a child who was still growing and developing. It was also an eternity for an orphan. Every year passing only made her less adoptable. And being disabled...

It wasn’t hard to understand how lonely she must have been. How isolated she must have felt among her peers. Not many of the other children took an interest in learning hand signs to talk, and it was hard enough to get most of them to learn reading and writing. Sona was a bright child. A smart child. A curious little girl with such a big heart. Of course she was sad. Every day had its rain for her.

But the world didn’t revolve around a little girl either. He had a wife had home, bedridden and unwell, and a son that was still quite young. He had responsibilities to them as much as his personal duty to helping a child in need. He’d made a marriage oath - but he’d also made an oath as a priest long before that to help the needy.

The older man had to sigh under the weight of his own heart, looking about and deciding a small outcropping of rock would serve as a temporary seat. Without a word Sona followed along, still frowning but curious. There wasn’t much room to sit, and it was quite uncomfortable anyway, so the teacher offered her a seat on his lap. Of course she gladly took it, even if the humidity made it a little uncomfortable and stuffy to be so close to someone.

“|We’ll sit for a minute|” he attempted a compromise, “|maybe the wind spirits will blow the clouds back awhile. But the rain will come eventually... So just a minute or two, alright, little heart?|”

Sona sat in accepting silence, staring out into the distant sky again. She could hear the faint sound of her sensei’s heartbeat. His breath, uncomfortable in the heat. The distant sound of swirling winds across wet plains of grass and brush. Like swaths of paper ribbons in the breeze, shimmering silver in the low light. As the rain swept across the land one could hear the protests of birds, disturbed from their games and picking at crop seeds, crying out curses to the heavens for inconveniencing them so. The birds never seemed to care about offending someone. But they’d also forget their anger by tomorrow...

“|If you think on it|” her teacher’s voice broke Sona’s concentration, causing the gold in her eyes to blink away, “|water has been everywhere. There isn’t a place in this world water hasn’t touched, or a person it hasn’t visited. The rain out there... at one time it was part of the ocean and held the bodies of great fish inside it. At another it was a stream bubbling over rocks. Perhaps a few days ago it was washing your bowl!|”

“|When you think of things like that...|” he went on, patting his blue-haired student’s head, “|even if we’re apart, nature keeps us all together anyway. We live under the same sun and the same moon, we see the same stars at night. My breath was yours at one time, and you lent it to a flower before returning it back to me.|”

“|We are always together, little heart. Even if distance and time separates us, parts of us find one another always. I think there is comfort in that. Do you?|”

It was a little much for her to understand, but Sona nodded eventually anyway.

“|Good!|” Wakahisa clapped his hands before picking Sona up and setting her back on her feet. “|Maybe someday it will make more sense to you? My sermon delivery is a bit rusty I think.|” He had to laugh, and despite Sona not fully getting it she had to giggle too.

“|For now, let’s take you back. Just remember... even though I have to go, I’ll never completely leave you. There is more to people than just what you can see, touch or hear. You have a piece of my heart with you wherever you go.|”

Taking his hand again, Sona made a gesture around her face. With her hairline and chin it was somewhat vaguely heart-shaped - thus why he called her “little heart”.

He chuckled. “|Yes, and you lend me a piece of your heart, too. But remember to keep some for yourself, Sona! Someday you will need it. You can give it to someone very special.|”

Who could be more special than Waka-sensei? At the time she couldn’t even imagine.

[ladybuvelle]

// With apologies to @masteredshadows, because I got the idea in my head of Zed actually calling Sona “cute” in passing, and then this happened XD;;

It’s a younger Shen and Zed. Pre-Kusho losing his head and all. I’m not sure what the age differences are between Sona and them, but Sona is younger for sure here.

For those missing context: I drew Sona in a “school uniform” kimono outfit for when she was younger under the pretense of her going to the city to study back then (which she never got to do). So she’s not just flustered because cute boys are calling her cute, but the fact that “city people” are so forward in her opinion (being that the orphanage she grew up in was basically in the countryside).

Like I said this is very silly and makes no sense, but take it as you will. <3

[ladybuvelle]

theplasmablade replied to your post: 20. Feminine School Uniform!

Well this is easily the most adorable thing I’ve seen today

// She is ready 2 lern all the things. Smol girl is very excite.

Mun tries to animate but not very well pfft

[ladybuvelle]

<あら あら... |City people are so forward...|>

[ladybuvelle]

Poros like peaches! Are tasty. Poros will give many snuggles! and attract customers! Are good at that. Are fluffy and good and snuggly!

She wasn’t selling peaches, silly little ones! She was carrying them back to the cart for the rest of the orphanage. They couldn’t afford a bigger bushel, so everyone would only get a few pieces of peach each. It was better than nothing.

But the poros will get pats all the same for their trouble.

[ladybuvelle]

“Hoy! |You should smile more, peach-lady!|” the older man called out to her. City people could be so rude sometimes... she used to love these trips to the market. As she got older though, Sona began to hate it.

More than ever, people were treating her differently. Something, somewhere, when she hadn’t been aware of it, changed. And she couldn’t recall when it had started.

Her pale little hands hugged the basket closer to herself, her expression dull and blank. Tired. She was all of 17 and tired of these games people played. Tired of the matrons putting makeup on her to make her look older. She still felt like a child inside... but something, somewhere had changed. Children didn’t have a body like hers.

One of the men that called out to her would probably be her husband soon enough. That was just the way the world worked. No one wanted her as a daughter, but they were lining up to have her as a wife. It disgusted her. It made her hands itch in an anxious, terrible way.

At the very least her smiles were her own. The more they demanded it, the more she would keep it from them.

[ladybuvelle]

90. Birds can’t fly without wings.

As a child, Sona loved to read. At times she felt it was the only thing she was any good at. She knew some advanced characters and had a high level of reading comprehension for her young age. It allowed her to read some books that may have been too difficult for her peers to understand - at least, in so much as reading them. Some concepts take time and growing to fully understand even if you know the words and their meanings.

Especially things like poetry and prose, which were often less about the words themselves and more about the meanings behind them - something Sona didn’t really understand yet as she flipped through the pages of a book one of the matrons had brought from home. It was a very neat little book. It even had pictures in it! Beautiful watercolor designs and calligraphy of frogs and birds and deer and other wildlife in natural spaces like ponds and woods and skies with pale moons and bright suns.

This was a ‘read inside’ book. She didn’t want to get it dirty outside. It was too nice for that. In a way, Sona swore she felt like a grown-up just being allowed to hold it. She even sat up straight on her cushion as she read it. For a little while. Eventually it gave way to her leaning over to closely inspect every page for detail.

That prideful feeling of being ‘grown up’ wouldn’t let her admit she was confused by the words on the pictures. Many were arranged in specific patterns - rhythmic, she found, but nonsensical.

Don’t weep, insects –Lovers, stars themselves,Must part

- Kobayashi Issa

“…..” The picture of dragonflies on a pond with a starry sky was very nice, but Sona couldn’t help scratching into the fluffy stump of one of her long pigtails in confusion. What did bugs have to do with lovers and stars? Stars didn’t part. They were always there in the sky every night - at least, that she’d noticed. Did they visit each other sometimes?

Consider me As one who loved poetryAnd persimmons

- Masaoaka Shiki

‘What’s a ‘ka-ki’?’ Sona thought to herself, never having heard of the fruit before. Again she scratched her pigtail, digging into the hair that was bound inside a tight ribbon.

The trial of motherhoodBirds cannot fly without wingsYet she teaches them

- Koshianu Juri

This one was weird. Sona couldn’t imagine a bird without wings - wasn’t that what made them birds in the first place? Then again, were bats also birds? They didn’t seem like birds. She’d seen one up close once, and it had a face like a little brown big. Very strange!

The wrenEarns his livingNoiselessly

- Kobayahsi Issa 

“…..” And for awhile, Sona studied the picture of the wren on the page. She couldn’t remember seeing one before, but as far as she knew all birds made noise. They all sang their little chirpy songs that she liked because they tickled her ears. It would have been a shame if they couldn’t sing…

Was it a shame that she couldn’t speak? Were some birds, like her, without song or sound? Were some without wings? Did stars go to each other’s house for tea? What’s a ‘kaki’?!

“Ara, |that’s a very serious face you’re making, Sona!|” one of the matrons came by with a tray of tea and snacks. It was nearly lunchtime. “|Are you enjoying the book?|”

If she could honestly say, the little blue-haired girl with furrowed brows wasn’t sure if she was or not.