"Akira~." Sae's voice was in full no-nonsense mode, and not to answer would likely be... unwise.
"What?" Akira had long since realized that locked doors were no obstacle to her sister in arms, and did not even bother asking how she had got in unnoticed.
"How long are you going to spend polishing your sword? It's two in the morning and you're really going to regret it tomorrow if you don't get some rest."
"I don't know. Look, I just keep going over the duel again and again in my head. I couldn't sleep if you drugged me."
"Oh?"
"And that was not an invitation," Akira added, emphatically.
"Well, this is: Come to bed. If not for your own sake, then for mine."
Smoothly as always, Akira proceeded to drop her sword on her toe and issue a string of expletives that was very nearly worthy of Sid. For the first time that night, though, she looked at something other than her weapon and the darkness outside the window, and even put the blade away. At least her shinyu's tone of voice was lightening a bit, but at the moment, her warm, dark eyes seemed to take up Akira's whole field of vision, capture her and draw her inexplicably closer. "Um... Sae? Is something wrong?"
"You remember what I said to you before?"
"Well, there were a lot of things..."
"The one about 'Akira was here?'" Alas, Akira did not appear to understand until Sae illuminated it for her in no uncertain terms, tracing a path down the front of her shirt as though her fingers were following a line of vertical text. She paused strategically, and was delighted to watch her partner turn about seven different shades of red within the span of three seconds. It was not quite a record, but it was close. "I've concluded it would be much more effective in your handwriting, rather than mine."
"Wha... I thought you broke it off! Ryouichi's never gonna see it now! Not unless something really goes off the rails! Right?"
"Are you really so dense? Wait... never mind, don't answer that."
As soon as she could breathe again, all Akira could think to say was "Huh?"
Sae stifled a giggle, and, now that she had come close enough, took her hand to pull her down onto the bed with her. "Look at me."
"I... seriously... cannot look at anything else right now." Akira swallowed nervously, not even really sure why she was so out-of-sorts.
"Good. Because I want you to write it. Just in case they do find a way to force me into it. And... I want for us to make it true. Here. Tonight." Akira gulped again and searched Sae's face. She wore only the half-mischievous, half-deadly serious expression that rendered her so frustratingly unreadable.
"You for real?" she managed to croak out.
"Of course. After all, honesty is one of the pillars of a happy and successful marriage, isn't it? Right up there with not seducing your future in-laws, I suspect. Ah, well. Guess nobody's perfect."
"Guh..."
"Besides, would I tease you? Oh... wait, don't answer that. Would I tease you at a time like this? Oh... wait... Let me just show you."
Most of Sae's words had dripped with irony, but the kiss that she followed up with had to be the least sarcastic thing she had ever done with her mouth. A circuit in Akira's brain overloaded almost immediately, and she collapsed forward onto her shinyu's chest with a thin trickle of blood running from her nose, unresponsive. Sae smiled and ruffled her hair affectionately, although she was quite certain Akira was too far gone to notice.
"There we go. Out like a light, and no drugs necessary," she said to herself with a smug little smirk. "I swear, Akira... sometimes you are such a teenaged boy after all."