Lady Kaguya sat down on the crate Reisen had hauled over. She gently crossed her legs and rested her hands on her lap. "Do you wish me to pose?"
Reisen looked up from arranging her brushes. "No, that's perfect." She made sure all of her tools were at an arm's reach, then studied Lady Kaguya in earnest. She looked remarkably relaxed as she sat beneath the bamboo, her long hair and the folds of her clothes draped over her in a pleasing fashion, lightly holding The Jewelled Branch of Hourai. With anyone else, such a bedazzling prop might have distracted from the primary target of the composition, but not even the impure gems sparkling in the afternoon sun filtering in through the leaves could distract anyone from Lady Kaguya's smile. "It'll take me a while to plan my colours."
"That's fine. I'm used to waiting."
Reisen began mixing colours on scrap paper as she envisioned the painting she was about to make. She wouldn't attempt a detailed background: some lush shades of green to suggest the plants around Lady Kaguya would do. Red, pink, orange, brown... jewel tones for the branch... She added a hint of blue to the white for highlights and then peered at Lady Kaguya, wondering which undertones to give her hair. She initially considered different shades of purple, because those were what most matched reality in this afternoon drifting towards evening, but in the end she chose the stark blue of the night sky around the full moon.
"What made you take up painting?"
Reisen looked up. Lady Kaguya remained perfectly still except for her eyes, which sparkled as they studied Reisen.
"It's one of the hobbies I've tried out lately." Reisen rinsed her brushes, then chose a round-headed one to begin painting in earnest. "I figured that since I'm an Earth rabbit now it'd make sense to have some local pastimes."
"Painting with water is certainly Earth-like."
Reisen smiled and made her first brushstroke. "Tending the garden is probably even more so, but it leaves more time for other things than I expected." She frowned as the paint bled and hastened to drain some water from the brush. "So far, I've mostly painted the forest. The bamboo, the grass, and any flowers I find."
"All things terrestrial."
Reisen focused on painting for a while. When Lady Kaguya's face and general shape were somewhat blurrily blocked in, she set her brush down and selected another for the pink of the blouse. "I still have ways to go, but painting's already more fun than I thought it would be."
"That's a relief. I wasn't certain you enjoyed it."
"What do you mean?"
"You make some very interesting grimaces as you paint."
"Please don't tease me, Lady Kaguya."
Lady Kaguya laughed, but in a bright, delighted manner which bore no malice. Reisen was able to go on with her work without feeling bruised.
For a while, nothing disturbed the quiet of the woods but distant bird calls. Reisen had always assumed the birds knew their way through the forest just like its other residents, but she wondered if some had flown in from elsewhere and were now as lost as any humans who ventured in unprepared. Perhaps some of the songs she heard were actually calls for help, asking other birds to guide them out.
"What kinds of plants do you have in your garden?"
"It's mostly carnations and azaleas so far." The floral patterns of Lady Kaguya's skirt were going to be impossible to replicate. Reisen decided to merely suggest them with a few dabs of orange. "I planted a few rose bushes, too, but I don't think they'll bloom this year."
"Interesting. I would have expected medicinal herbs."
"I considered them." Alright, perhaps she could at least attempt to effect some petals and leaves. "Maybe I'll put some in later, but I wanted to start with something which had nothing to do with my work. It wouldn't have been a properly new hobby otherwise."
"You're unusually talkative today."
Reisen looked up, then looked back down when she realised she had mangled the cherry blossom shape into a blotch of colour.
"It's a relief, really. I'm glad you're sharing your thoughts with me." Lady Kaguya's eyes crinkled at the corners. "Perhaps you may share your garden with me at some point as well."
"I'd be happy to." Reisen did her best to focus on fixing the painting and not on the tingling feeling spreading across the back of her neck. Lady Kaguya never spoke about herself, really, and Reisen had found it easy to follow suit. But now, just like her paints continued to do much to her chagrin, her words kept flowing forward.
"If I'm being honest," she continued, keeping her eyes on her sketchpad, "I was nervous about asking you to model for me."
"Why is that?"
Apart from the part where she had asked the most stunning woman in the world to pose for someone who had only been painting for a handful of weeks? "Because this is the first time I've tried painting another person. Or talked about painting to anyone, really." She looked up to flash a quick smile at Lady Kaguya. "Thank you for being gracious about it."
"It's nothing." Lady Kaguya tilted her head to the side, then slowly back as she recalled she was meant to be still. "It's a secret hobby then, I suppose."
"Not exactly." Chiefly because if Reisen had tried to hide it in any way, Tewi would somehow have found out about it as surely as she could count to five. "But I'm not very good at it yet, so I wasn't sure I should bring it up." It wasn't the entire truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie, either.
"I see. It's because you used to make such an effort to distinguish yourself from the Earth inaba that you cannot show weakness even now."
Reisen didn't need to respond, and so she didn't and instead changed the subject. "Anyway, I'm glad I asked you."
"I'm glad as well," Lady Kaguya said softly. "You shouldn't cage yourself in other people's expectations."
Reisen looked up, caught by the sudden wistfulness of her tone. Lady Kaguya smiled at her as if nothing had passed, and so she kept painting.
However, it didn't take long before she had to admit she had failed both her model and her materials. She made some attempts to fix the colours where she had steered the brushes wrong, but it seemed to only make things worse. Frowning, she laid her sketchbook on her lap. "I think I'm done."
"May I see?"
"It ended up being a mess—" But Lady Kaguya had already swept over to Reisen's side and was peering down at the sketchbook.
On the upshot, Lady Kaguya was recognisable in the picture, more or less. If Reisen was proud of anything in it, it was how she had captured the sheen in her hair and some shadow of her effortless grace.
That was where the positives ended. The painting looked like a cartoon: the black of the pupils had run over the brown of the irises, turning Lady Kaguya's eyes into voids, and her smile was too broad and to wavery all at once. Reisen's ears began to droop as she studied all the spots where she had used too much water and the different colours had bled together in less than appealing ways. The jewels of the branch especially had wound up being uneven globs of colours with muddy edges and no lustre.
"I'm sorry." She should have known this would happen in advance. After all, could even the greatest master painter truly replicate Lady Kaguya's beauty? Still, producing a pale imitation of her would have been better than the childish caricature Reisen had managed. Why hadn't she made a sketch first, at least?
Lady Kaguya studied the painting quietly, her eyes unreadable. Reisen had half a mind to turn the sketchbook upside down, the inevitable stains on her skirt be damned.
That was until Lady Kaguya met her eyes and smiled. "I like it."
Reisen blinked. "You- you do?"
"Very much so. It's very lively." And the warmth in her gaze was so sun-like she must have meant it. "May I have it?"
"Of course. But if you'll wait, I can paint you again after I've—"
Lady Kaguya placed her finger on Reisen's lips, hushing her. "Thank you. It's a wonderful treasure."
Reisen couldn't quite keep herself from smiling as Lady Kaguya withdrew her finger. "It's no Jewelled Branch of Hourai."
"Indeed. It's vastly preferable." And with that, Lady Kaguya bent down and placed a soft kiss on Reisen's forehead.
Reisen could feel her blush creeping up all the way to her hairline.
"It still needs to dry, doesn't it? You may give it to me later." Lady Kaguya straightened up and gave Reisen a final indulgent smile, then began heading towards Eientei. She turned to look back over her shoulder. "Perhaps the next time I model for you, we can do it indoors."
Reisen was still searching for a single coherent syllable as Lady Kaguya vanished into the labyrinth of bamboo.
At length, she began to mechanically wash her brushes. Her mind, however, was already wandering towards the world of hope promised by Lady Kaguya's smile.