"What is that?" Harumi asked horrified. They were ready to leave for the onsen. The sun was barely up and Harumi wasn't completely awake yet. Nobunaga gave her a puzzled look before answering. "A horse..." Well, of course she knew what it was. She had seen pictures of horses and seen them on tv, but never in real life. They were a lot bigger than she thought.
"I know that, but what do we do with it?" She asked still to scared to approach it.
"We ride them to the onsen, what else? Do you want to go by foot?" Nobunaga asked, a bit fed up with her. He wasn't a morning person either and he didn't want to fight this early in the morning. Harumi hadn't thought about how they would get to the onsen. All the other holidays she had had, they went by car, plane or train.
"Do you know how to ride a horse?" Nobunaga asked after noticing that his wife was legit scared of the horses they had readied for them.
"Why would I willingly sit on that?" Harumi asked while her voice cracked. Nobunaga sighted and let the stable servant take one of the horses away.
"Come here." He ordered her. He took her hand and slowly walked her to the horse. He lifted her up so she sat on the horse and swung himself easily behind her.
"See, nothing to be afraid of." He tried to calm her. Harumi clung to the saddle as if her life depended on it. Way to soon for her liking they departed.
Harumi rode side saddle while Nobunaga rode the horse normally. Due to the slippery fabric her kimono was made of and the fact that she had never ridden a horse made her slide from one way to the other. She constantly had to brace and reposition herself. If Nobunaga hadn't sat behind her she would've fallen of the horse a few times. Her arms began to throb because she held the saddle so tight.
"Okay, thats it!" She said angrily when she almost fell of the horse again. Nobunaga stopped the large stallion and looked at her.
"What is?" He asked.
"This, like this I can't travel!" Harumi grunted. While still sitting on the horse she pulled her kimono up and carefully swung one leg over the horse so she sat in the same position as Nobunaga.
"What are you doing?" Nobunaga asked bewildered.
"Well, Like this the chances of falling of this thing are slimmer, no?" She said, ready to continue the road trip.
"But your legs are exposed!" Nobunaga stuttered. Confused she looked behind her only to see Nobunaga blushing and looking bewildered. She couldn't help but lough at the expression he made.
"Who cares." She said while turning back. Thanks to Nobunaga's bewildered face Harumi almost forgot how scared she was of the horse.
They finally walked in a nice pace. And thanks to the changing of her sitting position Harumi sat a lot steadier on the horse. Thanks to the cradling of the horse she began to feel sleepy again. She let her head rest on Nobunaga's chest and closed her eyes. Nobunaga looked down at the sleeping face if his wife. Something he had been doing a lot the last couple of weeks. Whenever he slept over he always woke up early due to the fact that Nohime never lay still in her sleep. Most nights he woke up to a hand in his face or a pair of feet in his back. He should be irritated by this but he wasn't. In a strange way he found it adoring. Something that made her her. One of Nohime's eyelids twitched lightly, he knew she was having a dream. More often than the strange body parts he woke up to his wife crying in her sleep. Sometimes she mumbled that she missed her parents and family while still asleep but she never seemed to remember her dreams so he never brought it up.
When they finally arrived at the onsen it was already late in the afternoon. Harumi had the feeling that her legs would permanently stand in the shape of a O due to the long ride on horseback. They were led to their room. The most beautiful one at the place. It was a room with its own hot spring bath just outside the room and it's own bathroom. Harumi didn't really care that she had to share the room with Nobunaga. By now she was used to sleeping next to him. The last time she went to a hot spring was for her sisters bachelorette party. Something that seemed ages ago. Well actually, it hadn't happened yet. Harumi felt a sharp pain in her chest when she thought about her sister. She forced the memory down and went into the bathroom to change. They had special yukata's to bathe in. It was a short model made from a light cotton.
"Aren't you going to take a dip in the hot spring?" Harumi asked when she entered the room in the yukata and looked at Nobunaga.
"Maybe in a bit." He was sitting at the low table, looking anywhere but her direction. Even though she couldn't see his face, she saw that his ears were bright red in colour. She remembered the incident from earlier with her legs and could only giggle. Secretly Nobunaga was a bit of a prude. "Well, if you want to heal that injury of yours, you'll have to actually go in the hot spring, not sit next to it." She loughs while she opened the door and stepped outside. They were pretty high up a mountain and there was a cool breeze in the air. She quickly went into the hot spring. The water had the perfect temperature. She sighted with contempt while she lay her head on the edge of the hot spring. This was perfect. She closed her eyes. There isn't a better feeling in the whole wide world she thought to herself.