"Get off of me, you terrifying miniature menace!"
Yuki scrambled backward, his hands desperately pushing against the ten-year-old girl's flowery kimono. He finally managed to peel her off his chest, rolling to his feet and scurrying behind Kitsune's charcoal skirts like a frightened mouse.
The Agent of Spring just sat on the soft moss, giggling behind her sleeve. The silver bells in her hair chimed. "Oh, husband! You are still so shy!"
I sat on the ground, holding my unconscious sister against my chest. I looked at the giggling nature spirit, then craned my neck to look at the nine-hundred-year-old deity currently using my back as a shield.
"Yuki," I said, my voice completely flat. "Care to explain why the physical embodiment of the spring thaw thinks you are legally bound to her?"
