Lost Abroad [open]

As always, it was a quiet day in her part of Hanamura. She swept the wooden floors of her shop, humming to herself. The air was clouded with the sweet smell of brewing tea and cakes fresh out of the oven. it was only later that she realized she had used the last of her golden jasmine herbs. It was unprofessional to just leave the shop, but then again, not many people came to this tucked away corner in the town. She glided down the street now. That was the perfect word to describe it. She was serene, silent, almost like a spirit that was left wandering places long forgotten, searching for who they once were. Kozakura went to another small shop. She always supported the other local owners, just as they supported her. With soft words of gratitude and a payment of cash, she left her friends herb shop and wandered back out into the streets.

However, it seemed that she was not the only soul going through town today. A curious fellow caught her eye. He seemed to have... What was that, some kind of dog? As a hood. His clothes were tattered, he seemed a little off really. But what really grabbed her attention was how thin he was. She huffed quietly. Well that would simply not do. It seemed like others were avoiding him, but she went right up to the fellow. She'd seen stranger things after all. Heroes and villains alike would come to her hidden tea shop. It was a quiet place where no one would pay any attention to them. "Hello.. Sir?" She spoke quietly. Her voice was hesitant, but her golden brown eyes were bold. "Would you like to come to my shop? I'll fix you up with some tea and perhaps something to eat." She offered, looking up at him. She didn't like how skinny he was. She felt a sudden urge to feed this poor boy. "Free of charge, you look like you need a moment to relax."

He was starting to get a bit disheartened, a bit worried, and very hungry. He'd left the main part of town and wandered into the less travelled places, he felt a lot more at ease here anyway, less people, less eyes staring at him with that scared look. Why were they scared of him? He looked weird sure, but he hadn't moved to hurt anyone. The people in this part of town seemed to look at him less with fear and more with concern, which was preferrable. It smelled lovely down this way, like walking into a different moment in time, no car fumes and no chemicals, just nature and delicious cooking things, his stomach growled in response.

He blinked and looked surprised when the girl approached him, ducking back a little in an instinctive flinch, "Oh...Hello!" He grinned, reaching to fiddle with the paw of his hood with his hand as he glanced around, "Food? Yes...Please..." He kept glancing around with a confused sort of expression, "where...Is Dingo?" He had guessed by context that he was somewhere in Japan, but he couldn't put a finger on the exact location beyond that. He glanced back at her when she said he looked like he needed to relax, "yes. Dingo wandered onto a cargo ship...He is very lost...Oh! Wot's yer name?" He grinned wide, giving a friendly smile.

A soft smile graced her lips. A strange fellow indeed, but of course, she was used to that. A twinkling laugh escaped her throat. "Welcome to my home, Dingo is it? You're in Hanamura." She hummed, voice as warm as her dark, hypnotic eyes. She liked his smile, as wide and mildly unusual as it was. It was friendly, and she readily recognized the feeling behind it. "My name is Kozakura, but you must call me Ko." She assured him. Switching the bag containing the new herbs she had bought to her other arm, she beckoned the stranger dubbed Dingo along with her now free hand. "Come along now, you look famished." It wouldn't take long to get back to her shop after all, they were in the smaller, quieter part of town. When she entered, a soft bell rang, made of silver and hanging by a ribbon on the door. She propped the door open, allowing the cool air to waft in, and the scent of her tea to meander out.

"Sit or stand wherever you'd like, I'll go fetch something warm." She dipped her head briefly to him, before she slipped behind the counter into the small, cozy kitchen. The tea was still hot, so she didn't bother making any more. The cakes were nice, but they certainly wouldn't be filling enough.. Her eyes sparkled when an idea came to mind. She did buy supplies to make dumplings tomorrow! A day early wouldn't matter. She pulled her bamboo steamer from a shelf, standing up on her tip toes to reach it. While water was heating up, she fetched pork, spices, and the dough she'd made early this morning. Rolling up the sleeves to her kimono, and tying on an apron, she was ready to dive into the mess of food on her small counter. Her hands were small but her fingers were deft, and a couple dozen of pinched dumplings were already in the steamer.

Dingo crouched lower as he followed after her, forcing himself to remain fairly upright, he was among normal people after all, and creeping around like a dog would be frowned upon, "Hanamura. Yes." He nodded, the long ears of his hood waggling as he did, "Ko. Mmm yes." He grinned, he liked this girl, this girl that smelled and looked like sunlight given human form, if she was really human, he could have believed she was a spirit just as easily with the graceful way she moved, so different from his twitchy creeping, "Dingo hasn't eaten in...Uh...A long time. Famished, yes." He nodded, ducking a little on instinct at the soft twinkle of the bell. This place smelled happy, and he was immediately put at easy walking in.

He nodded and went to make himself comfortable at one of the seats, reaching to fiddle with his bare toes as he waited. After a few minutes he found himself getting antsy, and curious, sinking down to the ground in a creeping, on-all-fours position as he moved into the kitchen, "Mmm..." He poked his head up over the counter to watch, a curious expression, "smells good. What is Ko making?" He grinned up at her in his weird way, sitting on the floor in a doggish manner as he studied her and the steamer with curious eyes.

She was just starting to clean up and save whatever she hadn't used when Dingo wandered into her kitchen. She glanced down at him, finding it mildly amusing that she was taller than someone for once, even though he was crouched on the floor by her counter. She smiled warmly at his praise, brown eyes flickering back towards her project. "Ah, I'm making pork dumplings. Have you ever had them? They're steamed, and then I sear them in a pan." She explained in her soft tone, before an idea popped in her head. "Oh! I suppose jasmine rice will go well with them, don't you think? Might as well get some of that started too." Kozakura hummed cheerily, taking a step back to survey her shelves for the cloth bag that she would fill and refill with grains of rice. She found it after a moment, and stretched up as far as she could to grab the edge, being careful not to tip it over as she pulled it towards her. Once it was close enough, she took it safely in her hands and set it down onto the counter. A pan was already over the burner, so she dripped some oil into it, before going to the steamer. Carefully, with a pair of chopsticks, she plucked each of them one by one to drop into the pan. She didn't even wince anymore when oil would splash up to burn pinpricks into her arms. She'd had far worse accidents, considering how unlucky she sometimes was.

It took a moment to clean the steamer, but soon the rice was in there as well, cooking into the light fluffy goodness that would pair with the dumplings. Speaking of which, she quickly flipped the little crescents in the pan, so that the other side would get just as golden as the first. A satisfied smile touched her lips. It'd taken her a long time to get this good at cooking, a lot of time and a lot of burned meals. But alas, no gift comes without a price. "Would you like to try one?" She asked, suddenly reminded that Dingo was there. She turned off the burner, and selected one of them from the pan, picking it up expertly in the chopsticks. "Here." She offered, grinning.

Dingo tilted his head as he watched her cleaning up, smiling back at her when she did, he really couldn't help it, "Dumplings." He felt like he might have had them before, once upon a time far beyond where his fragmented memory could reach, "Maybe? It's hard for Dingo to remember, it's been a long time..." He waved his hand around the side of his head, trying to decide how to word what he wanted to say, "th'Outback makes Dingo's head fuzzy. Yeah?" Radiation, heat, head trauma, it was a pick your poison kind of deal there. Everything wanted to kill you in some way or another. His interest was perked as he watched her start on the rice, impressed and astonished by how quickly she managed to do it, "Ko is fast. Speedy fast. Ko has been cooking a long time?"

She must have been, it seemed to only take her a few minutes to do something that seemed so complicated, or maybe it only felt that way to him because he had no skills in the subject. He nodded when she offered to let him try one, grinning, "yes please!" When she picked it up and held it out to him, he forgot himself momentarily, leaning in to eat it right from the chopsticks, licking his lips and hopping to his feet, "WOW! Ko is a good cook! Those are so good!" If he had a tail, he was almost positive it's be wagging.

She nodded slightly at his remark concerning the Outback. She didn't know much of anything outside of Hanamura, but when travelers passed through she caught hints of stories and saw herself the corrosion that ate away at the poor people that would stop at her small tea shop. Like this poor fellow here, just like he said, his mind was a bit 'fuzzy'. Her thoughts were soon distracted once more as he spoke again, and a jingling laugh escaped her throat. "Yes, a long time indeed. My mother taught me when I was a little girl." It was true. The earliest memories she could remember were of helping her mother in the kitchen, whether it was just holding a bowl, making shapes in dough with her small hands, or even counting grains of rice out of pure boredom while her mother busied herself away. Kozakura was brought up in a working family, and she valued it as much as her mother and father did. She loved it.

She had to fight her instinct to laugh again when the male snapped up the dumpling in a heartbeat, jumping to his feet with an exclamation. "Ah, well, they're simple, but good, yes? Thank you for your kindness." She hummed in gratitude, before her gaze flickered over to the meal. "Let me get this all ready for you." Fingers grasped the edge of a bowl from a shelf, pulling it down and opening the steamer. Scooping the rice up with the bowl, she then used the chopsticks to pile on dumplings, filling it with as much as she could without the bowl overflowing too much. Sticking the chopsticks in the bowl, she used her now free hand to pour a cup of tea from the kettle she had brewed much earlier. Finding that the green tea was still warm (clear by the steam that rose up from the cup), she smiled. "Hurry along into the other room." She told him, holding them in her hands. It wasn't long before she went after him, and set them down on the table.

Dingo's eyes were riveted as she told her story, especially when she laughed, her laugh was enough to cure any illness. He lost himself in thought a moment, he couldn't remember his family, not even the most vague trace of memory seemed to remain, "Dingo forgot his mother..." He glanced up at her when she spoke, grinning, "Yes! Good! Thank you for your kindness, Ko." He nodded, sounding half lucid for a moment before that childishly curious expression returned.

He watched with eager eyes as she put the bowl together with all the deft and precision of someone who really had been doing that all their lives, "Ko is very fast!" He chuckled, hustling into the other room when she instructed, picking a comfortable table and watching her bring the meal over to him, "thank you, Ko...Dingo was...Lost...And a little bit afraid." He couldn't remember the last time he'd ever sat down to eat a real meal, most of his habits back home consisted of pinching scraps off of other people. He poked his tongue out as he picked up the chopsticks, doing his best to tuck into his meal and NOT eat like a heathen.

Things became almost strange for a moment there. First she felt a flash of pity for the poor boy. He couldn't even remember his own parents. Then, he became well spoken for just a second, although his child-like demeanor returned soon afterward. It was interesting, to say the least. Nevertheless, the young woman smiled, brown eyes sparking. "You're very welcome." She hummed happily, raising a hand to sweep loose strands of inky black hair back behind her ear. She'd have to redo her bun, it was starting to unravel. Oh well, it would just happen again. She'd do it in a moment.

When Dingo went to sit down, and she had placed the meal in front of him, she circled back around to pick up a cup of tea for herself as well, before gliding over the wooden floors to sit across from him. Holding the warm cup with both of her small hands, she studied the unusual male as he began to eat, a slightly amused gleam lingering in her eyes. "I'm sure you're hungry, then, so eat up." She assured him, before taking a small sip of her tea. She took it without sugar or honey, but it still tasted mildly sweet to her. Did she use any flowers? It might be the nectar. Either way, it was still delicious as it burned down her throat. She liked it when it was hot enough to feel it, but she didn't singe her tongue. She took another sip, before she spoke again. "Are you going back home soon?"

Dingo couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so genuinely happy, the combination of the warm meal, the hot tea, and the good company was making him feel almost...Normal. It almost hearkened back to a time he couldn't even remember, yet it felt so familiar, had he been to Hanamura before? Surely not. He smiled brightly at Ko and quirked his head to the side, "Ko lives here?" He gestured to the shop, trying to ask her if she lived somewhere inside, "or somewhere else?" He was finding himself more and more curious about this young woman, she was so kind and gentle.

He hadn't needed an invitation to start tucking eagerly into his meal, trying to keep a hold on his manners as he ate, "Ko is an excellent cook!" He grinned, then his face fell when she asked if he was going to return home, looking down with an uncertain look, "Dingo...I...I don't know..." He chewed his lip and sighed, "No home there, no home here..." His good eye became a bit distant, "no place for Dingo in a world like this...H-he doesn't want to go back but he's afraid of being here." He let out a doggish whine, he hated feeling so unsure.