title. razzle dazzle.
characters. f!mc, sumomo, tatsumi, yaichi, yuzuki; mentions of iluka, haulani, hinata, komari, lisette, marco, miranda, moriya, noel, shizu, tigre.

1: Holly / Nanami / f!mc = Celcia. i was going to change the name to holly, but it stuck. whoops.
2: i spent a ridiculous amount of time researching jewelry. and japanese hair accessories. worth it.

disclaimer: Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns rightfully belongs to Marvelous Entertainment / Inc. i'm just a fan with an imagination working overtime.

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One way or another, a good variety of Yuzuki's works have been inspired by the many residents of the three towns.

Circular cufflinks bearing the emblem of Ra Man Wholesale made with refined platinum and with onyx accents, looking as sharp like Moriya himself. A commissioned copper Warrior-cuff style bracelet finished with engravings of strange symbols that happen to be the alphabet of Haulani and Tigre's home country (they tell him that the engravings spell honor to a man who lives with duty). A silver pendant with a shiny rainbow trout charm - if one would look closely, the trout has a pancake-shaped hat in its mouth, just like the one Marco often wore.

A pair of complementary bonten shaped like hibiscus - one had its iron painted over with pink enamel and the other with blue, but both had a round amethyst cushioned by yellow cloth at their center - made in the image of the Lulukoko twins. A kazari kanzashi polished a bright gold, having two embellishments on its end that were modeled after the rose embroidery found on Miranda and Noel's clothing. A tama kanzashi with the sole silver bead having a hydrangea pattern drawn in blues and purples, its charm resembling Shizu's genteel simplicity.

(He's made pieces of his own creative designs of course, but he more often than not he finds himself designing pieces reminiscent of the people he sees or meet.)

Resident newbie farmer Celcia's hair, as he and everyone else in the three towns could see, is an unnatural shade of orange - the color itself wasn't the issue, of course. It just so happened her natural hair color was really bright, especially when the sunlight streaming from above decided to let itself be caught in her twin braids. Rather than blinding (as Iluka would claim, but really, nothing was still as bright as the Lulukoko sun), he would prefer to call it dazzling, energetic - how she managed to maintain such a lustrous color was a wonder.

(Hinata muses that it might be hair dye. Or some extreme natural hair product. Both are probably wrong, Komari retorts.)

The Tsuyukusa kids happened to adore her hair, too: Sumomo dreams of keeping her hair as nice and long and shiny, Tatsumi is fond of it since the color reminds him of a warm autumn day, and Yaichi has the sudden urge to eat fruit. A mere glimpse of orange locks and a straw hat is enough to have them running to Celcia's direction with greetings and stories to tell, and she returns the favor: despite a hectic schedule, she always managed to spare some time to talk or play short games with the trio - occasionally as thanks, they gave her more often than not, some flowers.

Those flowers would find their home not in a vase but instead she secured them in her hair, the blossoms her makeshift hair clasps and clips. They're simple wildflowers one could find along Tsuyukusa's paths, but still - the sight of the flowers never failed to make her happy, light laughter escaping her lips each time the children handed the bunch they gathered over to her.

(Yuzuki's not so sure what's more fascinating - the way the flowers manage to accentuate the vibrance of her hair, or the way her face lights up whenever she smiles.)

Last autumn, the three children pitched their allowances together to give Celcia a bouquet for her birthday - they spent the day before to ask Lisette help on how make a bouquet rather than asking her to make it, and the florist was more than happy to teach them and make sure that the bouquet they were making had all of her good friend's favorite flowers.

Now, with Celcia's birthday just around the corner again, the three children with their pairs of eyes shining like gemstones - clear amethyst, curious sapphire, calm turquoise - gazed at him intently as they made themselves comfortable in his workshop.

"You made this, didn't you?"

"Consider it a combined effort. I couldn't let the kids deal with the metals, even if they insisted."

She smiles at him, he smiles back. They're seated on the bench outside his workshop, the sky overhead dominated by mixing hues of reds, oranges, and yellows - when Celcia had dropped by Ra Man's earlier, Sumomo had insisted that she head to Yuzuki's workshop as soon as she would be done with work, and it seemed that sunset was the only opportunity for the farmer even if it was her birthday. The young girl had mentioned a surprise - Celcia half-expected three kids waiting for her impatiently, but she blinked when she found that only Yuzuki was waiting for her with a cup of tea in hand and a thin black box on his lap.

Once he saw her, he wasted no time greeting her a happy birthday, asking her to seat beside him as he set his tea cup aside, and then hand the box over to her once she was seated.

Inside was her gift, an iron hairpiece with three dahlias as the design on its end: their outer petals were white, the inner ones crimson, and small yellow beads shone at their center. The twin extensions attached through string under the central and biggest dahila were short, alternating between white and red triangles and a yellow bell at the very end. As Celcia stared at the object with her mouth agape, Yuzuki explained to her that it was a tsumami kanzashi - a traditional Tsuyukusa hair accessory mainly made out of folded slik.

"I can't believe you can make something so pretty just by folding cloth," Celcia beamed as she carefully took out the hairpiece, eyes set on the flowers. "Oh, if it's a combined effort then... this small one, did Yaichi make this?"

Yuzuki nods, looking over to where she was staring. The dahlia wasn't about the size, but about the folding - little Yaichi was definitely the most precise, even if he took the longest to finish his work.

"Yes. He folded the silk so neatly and now, his dahlia looks like the most realistically in bloom."

"I agree. And this one on its left is Sumomo's?"

He nods again, and she laughs softly - upon closer inspection, some of the petals of Sumomo's dahlia weren't as secure or precisely folded as the other two, but it was still beautiful nonetheless. In fact, the difference gave its own unique charm.

"Sumomo learned quickly... but I think halfway she became conscious of Tatsumi and Yaichi's work. I assured her she had nothing to worry about though, since she poured her effort into it."

"I should ask her to teach me sometime. Tatsumi made the biggest one, huh?"

"He was the first one who finished his dahlia. If you look closely, each petal is folded to an exact size and length... and what's more impressive is, Tatsumi claims it wasn't intentional!"

Her smile widens - she rests the hairpiece on an open hand, looking over at the flowers again for a moment. He blinks when she turns to face him seconds later, then she leans in a bit closer.

"Okay then, Mr. Jeweler. It's time for me to know your effort - so, the metal works aside, did you make this?"

A single fingertip of hers trails down over one of the extensions, stopping to roll the bell at the end in a circular manner on her palm.

"Correct. I also arranged the flowers on top of the hairpin in a manner that would allow them to hold their shapes."

"Wow. Is it hard? I mean, this is a lot of folded cloth."

"It is at first, but it becomes easier with enough practice and patience."

"You definitely have a lot of that. And the design?"

"Drawing the final product was my doing, but I simply handled the technical aspects. The real designers were those three: Tatsumi proposed to make the dahlias since it was one of your favorite flowers and it blooms during your birth season, then Sumomo and Yaichi decided on the final colors for the silks with the thought of making the combination complement your hair color."

Yuzuki chuckled as the events of the last two days went through his mind: the kids had walked into his workshop early in the morning with only their ideas in mind and not with a sketch or image that would make visualizing easier - but still, their boundless spontaneity as they brainstormed further led to a design that they all agreed upon and were proud of, plus it was a joy to teach the three a little more about the hairpin making process.

(He's a bit perplexed on why the kids insisted that he should be the one to give the gift, though.)

A satisfied sigh escaped her lips as she pulled back. "Thank you so much. It's really great to have something so beautiful as a gift, especially when I know now how much effort all of you put into making it."

"You're very welcome. I imagine the children would like to hear that too... and I should give them my thanks as well."

Celcia tilts her head to the side upon hearing his last statement.

"What for?"

Yuzuki goes quiet, but eventually he turns his head to look directly into her eyes. The expression on his face is tender, gentle - and her eyes widen at the sight of it.

"I've been thinking of making a hairpiece that would suit you for a while now, and I'm very glad that they helped me make that into a reality."

And just like that her heart skips a beat, warmth threatens to flood her cheeks, and her mouth subconsciously hangs open. She can only hold her gaze for about three seconds before she averts her eyes quickly, settling for looking down at her hands - at her gift - instead.

"Would you like to try it on? I could put it on for you, if you like."

She's still staring at the skin of her fingers, but she's sure that he's all bright smiles and white teeth, if the pleasantly oblivious tone in his voice was anything to go by.

(Maybe she's just overthinking things.)

Seconds pass. One, two, three...

"Okay," she finally says, lifting her head up completely.

When Celcia handed over the tsumami kanzashi, Yuzuki kindly asks her to face him properly and stay still. She complies, and he glances at her hair briefly: her hairstyle today was a low twist bun, peeking out from the left side of her neck. Placing the hairpiece wouldn't be a problem at all with the current arrangement of her hair.

"Should I close my eyes?" she asks. A curious question, but not unwelcome.

"If you want to," he replies.

And so she does. With his free hand, he reaches out to her.

Starting from the top of her head - where her hair parted in the middle - he runs his palm lightly in a descending motion on the right side of her head. He smooths her hair over at least twice and while he was at it, he carefully tucked any stray locks behind her ear. Once he was satisfied, he leans in closer to her - going for the image that the dahlias were tucked in her ear, he takes the tsumami and holds it sideways in his hand.

Without warning, his free hand rests itself on her left shoulder to keep her steady as he was about to insert the hairpiece. She flinches slightly at the sudden contact, but his full attention is set elsewhere.

The tsumami slides into her hair with zero resistance - after altering its position a bit, he tries to gently push it in even further to check if it was secure and surely enough, it doesn't budge. Just as he intended to, the dahlias now appeared to be tucked in and the extensions were settled nicely behind her ear.

"... How does it look?"

He's brought out of his reverie when he hears her voice, faint yet somehow clearer than he's ever heard before - it stuns him, and suddenly he's not just looking at the hairpiece with its silk dahlias or her strikingly orange hair anymore. Celcia's right there, sitting tall right in front of him with her eyes still closed, and she occupies his vision.

Thanks to their current proximity, he's granted a better look at the facial features he often saw from a distance, but now close enough to touch: the sun-kissed skin of her broad forehead, fine cheekbones and full cheeks, narrow eyebrows and long eyelashes, a small nose and thin unpainted lips with both ends seemingly curled upwards.

(They're close. Quite unbelievably so that he's even able to catch a whiff of various scents on her: the sunshine and citrus of her hair, patches of grass and soil that have stained her work clothes, laundry soap and sweat mingling on her skin.)

He's still staring.

She's still waiting for his response.

A light gust of wind passes by - the bells attached to the tsumami ring out gently in the air, and the sound echoes in his ears.

He swallows, slowly pulling away and withdrawing his hand from her shoulder, yet his eyes are still drawn to her face.

Then it occurs to him that he still has to say something, and the first word that comes out of his mouth is -

"... Beautiful."

Her eyes flutter open.

(That's what he said, but he's honestly not so sure what he's referring to at this point.)

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3: bonten, kazari kanzashi, tama kanzashi, and tsumami (hana) kanzashi are variations of kanzashi or traditional japanese hair ornaments. if you're interested, i recommend looking it up at kusuyama japan fine crafts (check its blog) + wikipedia. japanloverme (tumblr) + emusing-emma (blogspot) have good illustrations on the kinds of kanzashi too!
4: on another note, i just realized that i picked allen from anb... then yuzuki for tot... apparently i have a type™ in these games and they happen to be the bachelors whose jobs involve hair, wow. but! technically yuzuki's introduced as a jewelry maker, so... maybe the bachelors with a job totally unrelated to farming? hmm.