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wind-becomes-lightning · 2 years

Text

Bugs, of all things.

(cover art done by the incomparable @foolishk)

Helloooo, dear @kankuroplease!! Thank you so so so much for all your hard work during the donation drive! <3 Lemony and me loved working with you and we all adored (and still adore) all your wonderful art. I really hope you enjoy this surprise present~ <3

Shino x OC

2602 words

On a day out Aori notices something interesting about her little sister Katsura.

“I will not buy that for you, put it back”, Aori took the picture frame out of the basket she was carrying around and pushed it back into her sister’s arms.

“But I could use it”, Katsura said with a little pout, crossing her arms over the item protectively. “I just recently found that nest with the butterflies that have a rare colour on their wings. If I could get hold to one of the dead ones I could display-”

Aori shuddered a little and shook her head: “No more bugs. We have enough of them everywhere in the house.” She pushed on, knowing that she had to put as much distance between her sister and the picture frames as she possibly could. Katsura would find something else, an empty jar or glass or an empty aquarium and have ideas. Aori couldn’t have that.

She regretted even taking Katsura into this craft store. She should have known that her younger sister would find something that could be used for bug menacing purposes and really should have tried to prevent that. But Aori had only needed very little. Just a little yarn for some needlework. Just quick in and out, she had thought. Katsura can’t pick up something if she was just fast, she had thought. It was foolish. She should have known better.

Without turning around to look if her sister was following, Aori dropped the items she had bought on the counter of the store. “Bag please”, she yelped, a little out of breath from her power walk through the isles. The clerk looked a little concerned at her sharp breath, probably wondering how a person that was so quickly out of breath could also work as shinobi most days, but they never had tried to outrun a sister with bug fever. Aori would like to see them try.

The clerk rang up the times without a further word and packed them into the bag. Aori took it from the counter and for the first time turned around to look for her sister. It took her a little to find the mane of long hair between the displays of craft items. Katsura was standing with her hands still wrapped about the damned picture frame, but she held it so tightly that it looked like she would crush it any moment. She was speaking to someone that Aori could not see and her lips looked tense. Also, something that Aori did not see everyday, there was a lot of red in Katsura’s face.

Only upon closer inspection did she realise whom Katsura was talking to. “I think that would be a very good idea,” Shino said, voice as always muffled behind his high collar and shades on his eyes as he always did. “I think it will preserve their unique 6 feet structure quite nicely if you put them in this environment.”

“Uh-uh, thank you, I think so too. T-They are just too cute you know?” Katsura replied, pressing her fingers so tightly around the frame that her knuckles turned white. Aori realised they were talking about bugs of all things. This shouldn’t have been at all surprising, but she still wasn’t very excited about the revelation. “Do you think I should buy something bigger than a normal terrarium?” Katsura asked.

Shino shrugged a little more dramatically then he needed to: “Well if you don’t want them all to have an early, inhuman end- then sure.” Inhuman? They were bugs! Aori thought. Also they didn't have space in the house for something bigger than a terrarium. They didn’t have space in the house for any bug growing items. Katsura already had enough of those.

“I- I will buy something then. Maybe something I can build so they can flourish outside! I could double the population by winter”, Katsura bounced a little, up on her heel and back down, eyes looking everywhere but her opposite face. Shino nodded: “I’m sure you can.” She giggled. ”If not, you could always come by and look at how we do it,” Shino added.

Aori raised a brow and looked from Shino’s content smile to her sister's red face, white knuckles and moving heels, and then back at Shino. She blinked and then it suddenly hit her what was going on. These two nerds were actually flirting. For them, talking about bugs was the same as that. Aori shuddered again. Good for them, but ew.

This was when Shino noticed her. “Aori-san”, he said and bowed his head just a little deeper than necessary. “I hope you’re having a nice day.” He was always friendly with her, always polite. Maybe a little too polite, now that Aori thought about it. She smiled to herself. Maybe he was trying to make a good impression on her, which was charming when one thought about it clearly. “Shino-kun”, she replied, “I hope you are not talking my sister into wasting more money on bug stuff.”

“I’m not wasting-” Katsura protested immediately, but it was Shino who cut her off: “I think she has a good handle on the animals, so I would not say she is wasting money- or time. It’s rare to see someone outside of the Aburame clan to be so knowledgeable.” He gifted another smile to Katsura and Aori thought her sister might faint right there at that compliment alone. Sage, Aori hadn’t known the crush was that serious.

She sighed: “That is very nice of you to say, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t encourage her. For my own sanity.” He put his head to the side and then took a look at Katsura, who averted her eyes from his face instantly. “Well, I can’t promise that, Aori-san, but I will have to leave you for now. I still have some things for my students to buy” Shino shook a bag full of green cotton and then turned to Katsura: “I see you around.”

“Yeah! I see you around!” the girl replied, a little louder than necessary and waved as if Shino was departing with a ship for many months. He shyly waved back as he exited the store.

As soon as the last of his coat was out of sight Aori burst into laughter. “Shut up,” Katsura said, face still red as if she had accidentally painted it, though her hands finally loosened around the frame Aori was definitely not going to buy for her still.

“Ohh, don’t be like that~” Aori sang and threw one hand around her sister’s shoulder.

“I said ‘Shut up’”, Katsura repeated in a frown. Aori took the frame out of her hands and put it back into the shelves. “Let’s go for a walk, hm? And we can talk about what happened here.” She led her sister out of the shop into the sunlight outside.

Outside the street was still lively, though the sun was already setting for the evening. Soon they’d have to hurry home so that Aori would be able to get dinner finished for both of them in time. “So tell me”, she grinned at her little sister, “have you had that crush for a while?”

Katsura marched on forwards, her eyes locked onto the road in front of her as if she was determined that if she ignored her older sister, Aori would just drop the subject eventually. What a childish belief to have, and also meant she didn’t know her sister that well. As if Aori would ever drop such a wonderfully cute and interesting subject as Katsura having a crush on someone.

Aori wasn’t going to give up now that she stumbled into this: “Come on, it’s cute, you can tell me, I promise I won’t tease you about it.”

“You’re already teasing me about it”, Katsura said shortly and then bit her lip realising that this could be understood as her admitting that it was the truth, that she did in fact have a crush. She made a “tss” sound like she used to do when she didn’t want to eat her green vegetables as a kid.

The elder woman stopped abruptly and held her sister by the arm: “I’m sorry if I come off like I’m trying to make fun of you, I am not. I really just want to talk to you about this- be supportive you know? Because I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m pretty sure Shino-kun has a crush on you too.”

Her face changed from a frown to bright red cheeks in what felt like the snap of a finger. Eyes wide, Katsura replied a half stuttering: “S-Shut u-up” but it sounded much less snappy as the ones before.

“No I’m serious” Aori insisted, trying not to grin at her sister’s embarrassed reaction. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile as much as he did around you. Like- he was positively giddy.”

“He smiles all the time”, Katsura said, trying to keep her voice low and unimpressed, but Aori saw right through it. She laughed: “When you are around maybe.”

Maybe the laughter had been a little much, because Katsura turned on her heel and marched on through the evening sun without looking back at her older sister, hands as fists to her side. Aori scrambled to keep up, the bag swinging dangerously open and close on her arm. “Come on, don’t run like that”, Aori pleaded, once again being reminded that somehow, if she wasn’t completely dressed in her fighting gear, her condition seemed to be worse than she would have liked.

She caught up to Katsura in front of the door to their house. Her sister had suddenly stopped, crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned around to look at Aori. Her face was bright red now, a little pout on her face. “You didn’t mean that, did you?” she asked.

“Didn’t mean what?” Aori said and tried to catch her breath a little.

“That he has a crush on me too…” Katsura replied, but her voice seemed very thin and trailing off. The last time Aori had seen her sister as embarrassed was when she had failed a written exam in the academy on the history of the village even though both of them had studied together for days. “I’m sorry, I tried so hard and I failed anyway…” tiny Katsura had said and Aori had wrapped her up in her arms and told her it was fine. Aori now just barely could stop herself from doing the same.

“He complimented you several times. He defended you when I didn’t join in the compliments, plus the way he smiled….” Aori put her head to the side, blue hair falling into her neck and curling at her back. She was trying to recall the scene that she had witnessed. “Also, he pretty much told you to come over to his house as a guest to talk about -” she showed her disgust “- bugs. So I would say I’m like 90% sure.”

Katsura stared into her sister's eyes as if she was trying to figure out of this was a joke or Aori was being serious with that assessment. “He invited me to his house before”, Katsura said then, finally stopping the pout to look at her feet. “That means nothing.”

“Oh god,” Aori said and suppressed the urge to laugh. “How many times has he asked you?”

“This must be about the fourth time,” Katsura said and added, a little panicky: “Well, why…? I thought I would impose on him so I never took him up on the offer.”

It was hard now not to laugh, but Aori kept herself composed. She couldn’t stop herself from putting her flat hand against her forehead. Wow, Shino had tried so hard. “Poor boy”, she whispered and thought of him, asking Katsura to spend time with him alone four times and she still wasn’t getting it.

“What?!” Katsura asked a little louder now, letting her arms fall to her side. While Aori was still trying to figure out the way to explain this situation without embarrassing her sister too much, Katsura figured it out on her own. “You mean to say”, she said slowly as if to calculate two things together, “that he asked me….out?”

Now Aori couldn’t contain the laughter. She chuckled and immediately pressed her hand in front of her mouth when she saw the look on her sister’s face. “I’m sorry”, she said and coughed a little. “Yes, I think that was what he was trying to do.”

Katsura’s jaw fell down and her eyes opened wide. “No,” she let out an Aori nodded: “I’m afraid so.” The younger girl took in sharp breaths and her cheeks heated up even stronger than they had previously. Aori really wanted to give her a hug. Love really was difficult. It didn’t come easy to Aori either, who turned into a mess when she had a crush on someone. Luckily, there was nobody currently.

“You should tell him”, Aori said. “I think he’d be delighted to know that you return his feelings.”

Her sister shifted her weight from one foot to the other, seemingly undecided: “I- I don’t know.” Oh, why was she always so darn cute. Aori was suddenly reminded of the time in which Katsura, just four, had told her “You’re my best friend in the whole world” and made her entire life worth it. Now she looked exactly like she did back then, full of love and a little embarrassed about it. There could not be any cuter version of her.

“That’s up to you, you know. I just think it would be a good idea”, Aori insisted again and put a hand on her sister's shoulder for moral support.

The other woman sighed and shook her ponytail out: “Maybe- maybe someday.” She spoke quietly, voice a little quivering and nervous as if the idea alone of telling him made her feel insecure.

Aori finally gave into the urge and pulled her sister into a hug and held her tight: “Someday is alright, just don’t wait too long.” They stood there in the evening sun for a bit and then they walked into the house together to get ready for dinner. Katsura remained quiet for the rest of the day, seemingly completely distracted by her own mind.

Maybe Aori had thought that it would take her sister a little longer to make up her mind, that the insecurity needed a little time to be overcome, but she was absolutely dumbfounded when the literal next day Katsura came storming out of her room, a little box of a rare sting beetle pressed under her arm and a smile plastered on her face and said that she was going to the Aburame clan compound.

“For what?” their father had asked half heartedly, as always not interested in anything their daughters did.

“Studying,” Katsura had replied so quickly that Aori knew she must have thought of the excuse in her own room. “They are after all the leading experts in the field career field I am interested in.” Their father frowned at the box with the sting beetle and then turned his face aways. As always, he only cared very little.

Katsura pulled on her shoes and then turned around to match eyes with her sister. Aori pulled an eyebrow up as a question and Katsura smiled a little wide and then she winked before leaving the house.

And though it was not Aori’s business at all, she couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter with excitement for her sister.

#fanfiction things #oc: aori #oc: katsura #aburame shino #hihihihihihihi #the art is so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute #kali is a miracle worker #kiss for you kpz thank you for all your great work #i assume you are still on your weekend break but still!! youll see this eventually

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