prismatica | text | un: konoha

[Oh, she'd get to try putting shoes on... ! Even though she'd protested at accepting something so nice, she was kind of excited to see how that would feel. And hopefully, it would protest her weirdly sensitive and soft soles?]

Y... es, please.

[Defeated in one arena but determined in another, Konoha holds out her hands to ask for his help standing up.]

I think it might be easier with the shoes. I got you a pair with ankle support...though I think I read somewhere that feet are meant to balance us out too. Here.

[He takes her hands, helping her up, then offers his arm.]

You can lean on me, ah?

[Ankle support also sounds smart... and admittedly, she knows how to put on straw sandals, she's helped her parents put theirs on on days when their joints hurt in the winter,but she's never... laced a boot, so.]

Thank you...

[She really should be treating him... these dang human legs!!!

But she does take his arm to make it to the entranceway and the shoes, her steps careful and a bit awkward, stepping as if she expected each one might end up on broken glass.]

Try to step with the ball of your foot, first...we usually walk with our heels, but I hear that stepping with the front half will give more balance.

[He leads her easily, only letting go when he thinks she's ready to sit down on the edge of the porch with him.]

[She at least is very open to advice... she switches from stepping with... kind of her whole foot at once to trying to step with the ball of her foot first. It soooooort of helps, it seems?

And she even manages to get onto her butt in front of the new shoes! Okay... she should... put her toes in first... ?]

I've only ever seen straw or wooden sandals in my world... oh, or runner's tabi, we don't have these boot things...

Oh, wait, here, these first--

[He reaches into the box, pulling out a pair of thick socks, offering them to her.]

Those are good, but I figured it would be better to put these on first... put those on. Meanwhile...

[He gently trades the socks for one of her shoes, starting to loosen the laces.]

These are more work to put on than sandals [Not as much as his own shoes, though] but they're good in cold weather. And they'll brace your ankles, like I said.

[Oh, not shoes first! Socks! She knows this shape of them from Lunatia at least, even if she’s used to far different fabric and separation of the toes in what she calls “socks”. At least they’re easy to get on, comparatively... though she has to suppress a weird, ticklish giggle as she slides the fabric over her soles.]

R- right... feet get cold really easy... I mean- My hooves got cold too, but... not the same way... even the wood floors here feel cold now...

[Such sensitive things, feet!!! But she now has two to present to him now bundled in their socks, toes curling curiously as she watches him work the shoe laces.]

Oh yes... and it's even worse when you're sleeping with someone with icy feet.

[She did such a good job putting them on! He takes a hold of one of her ankles, hopping down to kneel in front of her.]

I'll put the first one on, then you try the second. Okay? [He can't resist tweaking one of her toes through the socks. He's usually not so... bold and... impulsive with someone, but something about Konoha's country attitude and the fact that their first meeting hasn't just broken ice but obliterated it makes him act much more familiar with her.
Hadn't he done something so similar after he'd spent four nights with Royal in that cavern? And he had been an absolute introvert of a man, more a feral cat than anything.]

[Oh, it was a good thing Gonta wasn’t human shaped, his hooves wouldn’t be cold... but oh no, how are they going to sleep together if she’s like this, what if he rolled over on her? How are they going to sleep together when she’s like this, it was almost Iris and that certainly wasn’t a smart idea- !

Thankfully she’s saved from her risqué thoughts by the need to pay attention to the novelty that was shoes. That, and the tweak of her toe, which actually makes her hands slap over her mouth a moment to muffle a weird squeak of surprise as she almost pulls her foot away before surrendering it back with a wriggle. (What? She’s never had toes to tweak and now that she has them it’s her first tweaking, it feels funny- !)

No, she has to be serious!!!]

Th- That’s fair! I can do that!

[She thinks.]

Okay--so here. You fit your foot in like this...

[He pulls the tongue and laces loose a little, the easier to put it on for her. He slips it on.]

Make sure this part--the tongue--doesn't get folded or bunched up against your foot, yes? [Tugging it straight emphatically, before moving to pull at the laces.]

Now these... you want to make sure they're tight. It's what holds the shoes onto your foot...no nails here, ah?

[For all that Konoha did struggle with more academic learning such as calligraphy and history, practical learning... she’s got this.

She leans forward to watch him carefully put on and lace the first boot so that she’ll be able to mimic it on the second-

But she’s distracted by his comment about nails. Nails? Until she remembers that oh... those “horse shoe” things (that she missed the popularity of by a century or two). Which. Makes her frown a bit even if it was probably a joke. Just in case...]

No nails on me, either... I’m not a horse.

[Just a bit sensitive about being compared to one. Plus, she took great care of her hooves, unshod though they were! She files them and oils them and picks them out proper!!]

Ah.

[He looks up at her, and then utters a longer one:

Aaah. My apologies. That was rude of me, of course you're not. And I'm glad! Ghastly manner of business, that. [From the man who would like to try out thumbscrews, sure...

But no, he really doesn't want to offend, so he's clearly remorseful. Forgive him?]

[Thankfully for Ianchus, Konoha has a generous three-strikes policy on being compared to a horse. Only one man had broken it so far... and Hank Anderson had been a bit of an asshole, even if he did have a cute dog. So.]

I'd say... if we're worried about the terrain or slipping in the snow we just use straw sandals like everyone else...

[Waraji could be woven for hooves just as well as human feet, so!!! She'll pass on nails, thanks... At least now she feels confident enough to stick her foot in the second boot, moving to fix the tongue and tie the strings like he had.]

Straw sandals? Aren't those cold--ah, be sure it's tight enough to stay on, but be careful of cutting off circulation too--

[He finishes the tie off with a bow and sits back, watching her work on the shoe.]

I always wore big heavy boots in the snow. Did you know, humans can become so cold they lose toes?

Well, snow is cold... but my hooves don't really feel the temperature like human feet do...

[Though straw sandals and layers of socks or hides were all the humans had in her village, too...]

One of the hunters in my village got frostbite pretty bad last year... I know lots of stuff like that. My parents were human, and there were no other jinba in my village but me.

[So honestly... She felt like she knew more about humans than her own kind most days. It's why she's so annoyed at herself for being so bad at walking- hadn't she seen humans walking all the time? Why was it so different when it was her own feet?]

Your parents...

[He says it slowly, before--] Ah! [Oh, adopted, right? It's common, sure, but it's not something that he thinks of immediately.]

yes...when we went to cold places, there was always at least one or two who lost a toe, or even a finger...

[He shifts to sit next to her, done with the left shoe, leaning over and watching her.]

How are you managing?

[There's a moment when he trails off that Konoha gives him a look that definitely says... she's very used to people either weirdly or intentionally misinterpreting that sort of statement from her to then ask her very awkward questions (and sometimes very rude ones, like if her mother had fucked a horse), and she's very prepared to answer in kind...

But. Phew. He didn't. So he had a brain, that was good!!

Which means she can finish the shoe, sticking out her legs and propping her heels on the dirt to examine them. They looked basically the same...]

Is this right?

[She wriggles her feet a little, testing out how they felt enclosed in the leather. Huh... Another new feeling.]

It looks good! Let me just...

[He starts working on his own boots, much faster, even with the larger volume of clasps.]

They fit right, yes? They don't hurt? No pinching anywhere?

[That's a professional for you... ! So fast... At the question, she wriggles her feet a bit more, practicing flexing them.]

Hmm... I don't think they hurt?

[They feel tight, but... Konoha has the presence of mind to think that's probably just because she's not used to... leather tied to her hooves. Feet. Ends of her limbs.]

You'll know better once you stand up and get their weight on them. Now...

[He moves to her front, reaching for her hands.]

Let's have you put them about shoulder width apart, ah? Then you can brace on me as you shift your weight to them.

Shoulder-width apart...

[That sounded right... Even though she’d figured she’d be able to master this easily based just off growing up among humans, she hadn’t spent as much time as she’d thought really observing how they walked.

She grips his hands strongly to brace herself, blushing momentarily as she recalls some other times their skin had touched, but she does manage to focus enough to stutter up into a stand, wobbling a moment as she puts her weight too far forward on her toes, then too far back on the heel, then- okay, that’s good.]

Okay... I’m up... and the shoes feel...

[Weird! So weird!!]

Not painful?

Oop!

[He lets her hold his hands, but he shifts a little to help her balance on her feet rather than leaning entirely on him.]

Not painful is a good start. Really, shoes are such a fussy thing! It must be nice for cen--jinba to have them built in in a way, ah? [Nothing about how he finds them creepy and how horses could at least have the sense to have cloven hooves rather than those fused monstrosities! Though that's far from his mind thankfully as he assesses her.]

Okay. Now try practicing getting up on the balls of your feet and then down again. Like this...

[He demonstrates, looking down as he lifts himself up slightly, then brings his heels back down.]

I guess... ?

[She likes her hooves precisely because they were hers, more than actually thinking them better or worse than human feet... (Though if she had to say which was better...)

Still holding him tight for fear she might fall and crack her head (again) on the wood floor behind her or the packed earth in front of her... actually maybe front is fine, he’d catch her, Konoha mimics his weird movements, making a bit of a face as she does so and the stretching of the sole of her food just feels so strange when you aren’t used to having muscles down there.]

Like this?

[She’s doing it right, at least, even if her face looks a bit scrunched up.]

Like that!

[He hardly has any sense of shame, so even if it's awkward to her...he's not going to let up! She has to get around, right?]

And now... try taking a step. I'll keep holding your hand, but...like this.

[And he sticks his foot out in a mirror image, as if he's teaching her to dance more than walk.] Heel first. Dig in, get a good plant, and then...roll it forward 'til it's flat. Press your toes down and dig them in if you need balance, ah?

Okay...

[To his credit, his instruction isn’t flawed. She mimics the movement of his feet pretty well, she might have done it decently... except just like a lot of the last times she’s messed this, Konoha accidentally fills in the gaps of her knowledge with her usual instincts... that don’t really match up well with this body.

Like how far forward a single step should carry you.

Which, now that she’s as petite a human as she is... is a confident leap of faith stride... smack into Ianchus’s chest with her face.]

text | un: konoha

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