"If you'll excuse me saying so- that will be less efficient." The principal leaned forward in his seat. "It is unprecedented. It would be less complicated to add extra classes."
Aiko gave him a thin smile. "You're excused."
There was a pause where he clearly waited for her to say something more. Gradually, he realized that she wasn't going to respond in substance. His brow furrowed. He did not seem to know how to respond to this.
'I know you,' she thought uncharitably. 'Not you in particular, but the specter of public education. If I agree, in two years the class sizes will be back to what they are now.'
She was certain that the hostility never reached her face, but he seemed to understand that the topic was closed.
"I see." He cleared his throat and bowed. "As you say, Mizukage-sama."
"Thank you for your time," Aiko said silkily. "Please let me know how you would like to appoint as fukoucho-sensei to the winter campus."
He took a deep breath and avoided eye contact. Maybe he was thinking about the extra work, or maybe he was realizing that this was technically promotion to principal of two Academies. He turned a twitch into a bow and backed out of the office.
Functionally, once the tiny Wave school was included, that meant that Kiri had three Academy programs. No one could say shit if she decided it was better to have children sign up either in fall or spring (depending on birthdate) to sort candidates out between two Kiri-centered schools, but people might have thoughts about her power-grab in Wave. It was going to make Kiri a lot more powerful, but also a lot more vulnerable unless she managed to get the right political cover via Wave's court.
Ah, well. She would worry about that a little later.
Aiko leaned back into her chair and thought about how having graduations twice in a calendar year would allow her to streamline genin through the promotion process without leaving newly skilled workers languishing on carrying boxes and scraping paint for an entire year.
6 months on standard D ranks and training, integrating specialized jutsu practice for public works at month 4 when the D ranks would be pared down and outgoing Academy classes picked up part of the workload as part of the adjustment period… 2 months of solely intensive jutsu work and training, and then adding C rank missions.. The city was going to be gorgeous, and her people were going to have a hella solid foundation on the basics.
Fuck yeah, competency!
"Your wicked plans are dull of late." Sanbi yawned. "We never do anything pleasant."
"There's the thing with Utakata." Aiko pulled open a desk drawer and started digging around for the report from Mei. "We're going to go see if she's right about that Sound base. That's an adventure, isn't it?"
"Hardly." The turtle was unimpressed. He rolled onto his side and lashed his tails. "Probably no one will die. Unless it's me. From the smell in Rice Country. Why must it be so damp?"
Aiko considered several responses to that, from -because rice needs a lot of water- to an incredulous -you're a turtle, and you want to live in the ocean. Why do you care about how damp Rice is?- and decided silence was the best response.
She found the paper, put it on her desk top, and stretched out of her chair. She was doing pushups in front of the window when someone knocked. Aiko flicked her hair out of her face and called, "Enter at your peril."
"I'll take the chance," Nishikawa said dully. She saw his sandals stop in front of her. His toenails were painted with a clear gloss today.
"You probably shouldn't," Aiko mumbled. "I've been having really weird dreams about Kiri's streets being filled by a river of corpses. That's not a sign of a stable boss." She laughed.
She was not joking even a little bit, but Nishikawa did not deign to acknowledge what she had said. Which, fair. What else could the poor man do at the point when he was already stuck with her?
"Mizukage-sama, the ambassador from Nadeshiko is requesting an audience at your earliest convenience."
Aiko made a humming sound.
"They say to thank you for letting them know that we no longer suspect them of poisoning," he said dryly. "The ambassador claims that it was a lovely execution and thanks you for the invitation. On another topic, security suspects the Toad Sannin is not remaining in the approved areas, though evidence is thin."
"He's insufferable," Aiko said, frowning down at her right hand. Her left curled into a fist where she held it at her lower back. She did her next pushup rather aggressively.
"You should not fight him," Nishikawa reminded.
She sniffed.
"If you still believe that you would like to schedule one long meeting with him before evicting him from the city, you have time on the day after tomorrow. It is ever so unfortunate, but Jiraiya-sama has received a summons back to Konoha after your business is concluded. So there is no longer benefit in evading him." He cleared his throat. "About the delicate matter…" He let his voice trail off politely.
Aiko grimaced, because she hated it. "I can't lock Gaara up for the duration of Jiraiya's stay," she said, not for the first time. "I need him to work with Suna's people, so I can't send him out of the country, either…" Unless she sent all of them out of the country?
Her secretary didn't say anything else, but he didn't have to. Something had to be done. They would be in a lot of political shit if Konoha knew she had Gaara in her country. It might put a damper on the hunt for Orochimaru.
"It will come out eventually," Sanbi said. He sounded uneasy about it.
She would make it work. Somehow.
"I'm going to go see the Daimyo," Aiko decided. She leapt to her feet and gave a stretch. "Please tell the ambassador that I'll see her within 24 hours. Do schedule Jiraiya, I need him to get off my island. Preferably onto a boat on the West coast of Suna headed into the sunset of unknown waters. For now, keep the Suna delegation, including Gaara, inside. I'm going to see if I can get Wave to host them, as an ostensibly neutral party."
"And a show of your alliances," Nishikawa agreed, sounding much more impressed than usual. He bowed. "As you say."
She went home, put on what she was thinking of as her ceremonial kage uniform, and waved two black operatives over from the shadows. She took them along with her to the reception hall of her closest ally and contact in the Daimyo's court.
It did not take long for Nagihara to meet her. He was a tall man with a deep voice. He would have been quite handsome, if he didn't look as though he had been stressed and sleep-deprived for the past twenty years. He looked out of place in his silks, a ragged bear uncomfortable tolerating a bow- but a man who would like to become a Daimyo could not walk around in a rough judo gi and bare feet.
'We all make compromises,' Aiko thought, smiling without involving her eyes.
She followed the current Daimyo's cousin into his private quarters. Her robe fluttered behind her, an airy confection the same shade of blue as the harbor's water at sparkling noon. She probably looked as impractical as Nagihara, but her clothes concealed more armor than an observer would probably guess.
They went through the necessary doublespeak- Aiko hadn't been expecting something for nothing, but the discussion needed to be had. Her agents prowled, pulling anyone lingering too closely away. Nagihara agreed to host the Suna delegation in his home, in exchange for certain gifts. It wasn't a favor worth killing the Daimyo, of course, but that was the natural escalation she expected of their relationship.
"The Daimyo may be persuaded to step down," Sanbi pointed out, back in Kirigakure. She was taking off the makeup and jewelry after dropping Gaara and Temari's people off into Nagihara's hospitality. "He only cares for his poetry and art."
'If he lives, he could still have a child. Especially if he's suddenly freed from court duties,' Aiko reminded the turtle. She took out her earrings and tossed them on the mirrored tray on her vanity. 'Putting Nagihara in power would be a lot messier, were that to happen. I suppose he could step down due to ailing health and live for a time peacefully, but his health would have to be poor enough to eliminate the possibility of a competing heir…'
She got the distinct impression of confusion. "Humans of that age may still reproduce?" he asked, sounding uncertain.
Aiko suppressed a snort and tugged her hair down. The decorative updo needed to be turned into something she could pin up under a hood if she needed to. But first, she began brushing a dark powder into it so that she was less distinctive. 'Some can. He would need a much younger partner, but yes, it's possible.'
"I have not seen that," Sanbi said. He let out a disapproving rumble and shifted his great weight. "I had noted a pattern."
She took pity on him, because he was a fairly observant turtle trying his best to understand a species he didn't particularly like. 'It's most common to reproduce from about age 18 to age 40,' Aiko confirmed. 'That's what you've seen, right?' The hair color was convincing enough now, so she put down her brush. Her fingers flew through braiding and twisting motions that she had done hundreds of times.
He seemed to mull it over. "Yes," Sanbi decided. "The humans who do not have the white hair and loose skin. Those are the fertile ones."
Aiko took a moment to wonder if she would sound that impolitic trying to describe turtle reproduction. Probably. She decided not to try it. She was growing wise, in her old age. She put another pin in her hair and decided it would stay in place.
"You are old?" Sanbi asked, alarmed. "How many remaining years do you have?"
"No," Aiko said firmly. "I'm young and beautiful." She pulled on tight black pants with a wiggle, never fully standing up. Then she pushed her robe off her shoulders and tugged on the long-sleeved shirt waiting on the nearby couch's arm.
When Sanbi did not respond, she realized she had said that out loud.
There was a sense of amusement bubbling up from her seal. Sanbi was hoping that someone would confront her on her habit of apparently talking to herself.
Well, her bodyguards were probably getting used to that kind of thing by now. If not, they were going to have to cope or find a less stressful job.
She stood and checked herself in the mirror one more time. She tucked the shirt's hem in, cocked her head, and then untucked it. She pulled white body armor over top, and felt a kind of soothing nostalgia wash over. It wasn't quite an ANBU uniform, but it was close enough to feel familiar. The sword she'd requisitioned was shorter and straighter than the one Kirigakure's Black Ops wore as standard, but it suited her well.
Utakata came into the room, a vision in black. He was holding his white mask pinched between thumb and index finger. He scowled at her. "Why must we play dress-up?"
"So the other countries don't know that I am there, obviously." She finished buckling on her equipment and glanced up at him. "If I'm the only one in black ops gear, it'll be conspicuous. But if both of us do it, Kirigakure is merely addressing this mission with characteristic seriousness."
Plus, they weren't actually going to meet any foreign contacts. She'd fill him in once they were definitely away from any of Mei's people. She carefully did not look at any of her bodyguards. She was looking forward to being away from people she could not fully trust.
Even when he was bitching like this, she felt a little thrill at the idea of being back in the field with only Utakata. They had made a good pair. She'd been depressed for most of that timeframe, but she had still been a lot less stressed and miserable than any time since. She missed it. She missed the camaraderie with someone who didn't fear or admire her, the freedom to keep her own schedule, the lightness that she couldn't feel when she had to carry the weight of a city.
"The other countries will think that we are stiff and dull," Utakata said. It wasn't as idle as he was aiming for. "As well as unfriendly."
'Come on, has peer pressure ever worked on me?'
She suppressed a snort. "That's fine. You'll endure somehow." She breezed over and reached for his mask. He let her take it. But he stiffened like an offended cat when she lifted onto her toes and laced her hands behind his head to tie on his mask.
Aiko fell back onto her heels and gave him a wink to disguise the twist in her stomach. They looked like Root. She put on her own blank white mask and didn't contemplate it too deeply.
She took his hand, and they went to a location that turned out to be a nice little woodland patch with an overgrown well. Utakata gave the area a deeply skeptical look.
"Correct. We're not in Ame," she said, before he could say anything snide. "We have a lot of errands to do today, I didn't feel comfortable disclosing them all around listening ears."
He inhaled, and gave a slow nod. "Does this have to do with your requisitions from Intelligence officers?" Utakata asked.
She flashed him a smile, even though her mask would hide it. "That's errand one, yes. We need current copies of mission intake paperwork for every shinobi village. We're going to pick up the three kinds that my spies couldn't get."
"And then we go to the rendezvous point?" he asked, long-suffering. "Will they notice the delay?"
"Definitely not," Aiko assured. "This won't take long. Plus, there's no rendezvous. I forged that correspondence, I know all of Konoha's quirks and codes. It was mostly to ensure that Mei thinks she has things under control and doesn't question where we are while we go on a crime spree."
He let out a long, sad sigh. "Why do we need the mission intake paperwork? Are you looking for ideas to increase our efficiency?"
Aiko rubbed some tension out of her neck with a thumb. Utakata's eyes tracked her hand. "I'm going to put that spy under a genjutsu so that she thinks she made it home," she explained. "I'm going to put the table full of forms out, and compel her to find the correct sheet and fill out her mission report. She'll pull the one from her village."
He choked on a laugh.
"It is a good plan," Aiko said, smug. She interlaced her gloved fingers and gave a stretch. "Once we have her mission report, I can decide how best to deal with her."
"Assuming that your genjutsu does not leave her a hollow shell of a human being," Utakata jibed. He was still watching her, but a slight line creased his forehead now.
She pointed at him rudely. "I'm getting better. I'm not that bad, actually."
"Which is why our poisoner chose execution over your genjutsu." He delivered the line utterly flat, because he was mean like that.
Well, that had worked out anyway. The envoy from Nadeshiko had overseen his confession, and so any possible snub over the diplomatic snafu had been smoothed over. Publicly, he had been a lone agent, and dealt with. That meant there were no legal consequences for how she had dealt with...
"Oda Kai is perfectly fine," she shot back, feeling more than a little pleased with herself. "You can barely tell that I did anything there. I'm getting a lot better at it. If Oda trusts me, why can't you?"
"Because you are a habitual criminal," Utakata said. But he sounded fond. "You are disreputable."
She pulled her mask up enough so that he could knew she was grinning at him. "Damn right, and I have a long exciting day of crime planned."
He sighed. "I do not know why I expected anything else. I should not have." He glanced away and then gave a delicate little cough. "Aiko… are you feeling well?"
"What?" She furrowed her brow. "I'm- do I look sick or something?" Self-consciously, her hands rose up towards the space underneath her eyes. She didn't think they looked particularly dark or swollen today, but she could have been wrong...
Utakata shook his head. "You look fine. But you seem tired from your body language. Perhaps you need to take a rest from your duties soon." At some point, he had drifted about a step closer to her. Definitely close enough to smell the berry lotion she'd put on her neck and decolletage 6 hours prior when she had been preparing to leave the house for work.
Ha, rest? She wished, but there was no time for that. She gave him an awkward smile. "We should get going, I definitely do not want to be caught stealing from Nadeshiko. That would be awkward."
"We're in Nadeshiko? Aiko, they are our closest allies!"
Okay, there was no need to be so appalled and dramatic. She shot him a pitying look and fixed her mask. "That's why we can't get caught, obviously. Come on, this will take like ten minutes."
Despite how scandalized Utakata was, they managed to retrieve paperwork from Nadeshiko, Bear Country, and River Country without any complications. She dropped it off in her office closet, and then met Utakata at a quiet place where they could make an entry plan.
Or where she could tell him, rather.
"I've invaded this base before," Aiko admitted. "In my timeline. There's paperwork here that I want to steal. Also, it will take a lot of resources from Orochimaru, and freak him out that someone knew exactly where to go. He's going to flip his lid looking for spies and traitors." She probably should have sounded less gleeful as she said that.
"What if he is present?" Utakata asked.
She shrugged. "We fight him. If it looks like we're going to lose, we flee. Probably he won't be here, though. We're going to kill or recruit- probably kill," she added, at the dangerous look on her companion's face- "all of Orochimaru's people who we meet inside. Aside from the tactical value of what I plan to take from him, we're also reducing his influence and security. He hasn't had that long to build up loyal troops. If working for Orochimaru suddenly means a very shot lifespan, we're going to see a lot of defections and possible spies. That can only help us."
'We also have plausible deniability for having acquired the Ichibi back in one of these missions.' She was unrepentant about the deception. 'It is not the best possible outcome, but Konoha thinking that I got the Ichibi in this timeframe and failed to share the information would be less damaging than the truth that the hunt for Orochimaru was launched under false pretenses.'
She was also going to keep them rather distracted. Suna was already fairly well in hand- Gaara was alive, they knew that, they were distracted by internal politics and the deal he was attempting to make with them. Konoha was the only possible problem.
"So you shall create trouble for them?" Sanbi asked.
'I'm letting them know about trouble they already have.' Aiko wrinkled her nose, searching around for the covered back entrance that she and Sai had used to enter this base. 'If this works out perfectly, I'll get Danzo put out, Tsunade back in Konoha, and Fukiko in treatment. The fucking uproar of all that bullshit will make my failure to disclose some minor information sink into the background.'
Ideally, things would be in the same place as they had been in her timeline, two years down the line. The report on Fukiko had been old, and documentation of Danzo's collaborations with Orochimaru was probably saved in every base so that he could access it for blackmail if needed. Anything else would be icing on the cake- she remembered some sealing contracts, jutsu scrolls, research notations, weather and trade data…
"Why are you so obsessed with papers?" Sanbi slapped a tail against the ground, disgusted. "Find something of substance to occupy your time."
He was, she reminded herself, a turtle. No matter how brilliant Sanbi was, he just did not share her human perspectives.
"Mine is infinitely more practical," came the sullen reply. "I would simply like to go live in a lake, brush against seaweed, perhaps collect interesting rocks. You make things so complicated."
"I found it," Aiko said, very quietly. Utakata crept closer. He kept peering around, clearly anxious about the Sound-nin who had to be nearby. "I'm going to pop it open, and we'll drop down into the hallway. We're aiming to be fast and fatal. Anyone who doesn't engage can be allowed to escape, as long as they didn't see us do anything distinctive. I want to get the data and get out. If I see anyone or anything that changes our priorities, I'll let you know."
He nodded, tense but accommodating. She cracked the manhole open cautiously, mindful of just how loud rusty metal could be.
A klaxon went off.
"That's new," Aiko said cheerfully. She flung the metal cover aside with a horrid screech and clatter, since they weren't doing a stealthy approach anymore. Utakata had a moment to give her what must have been a filthy expression under his mask before she leapt down. She had just bounced back up to her feet when a door flew open.
Utakata landed beside her. "I hate you so much," he informed her.
She laughed and darted forward to meet the Sound-nin spilling into the hallway. The next few minutes were tangle of sound and collision: the white of a man's eyes as he came toward her, the crack of a bone to her left, dust in the air from a percussive blast that missed her and dug into the wall instead.
There was really only one way it could end, however. She and Utakata were simply much more powerful than almost any missing nin could hope to be. In that first encounter, she and Utakata killed 6 sound-nin.
They met other small groups- the second of which included a man in a lab coat. Aiko stood over his corpse for a moment, confused. Orochimaru was using this base for experiments, currently? She hadn't seen any evidence of that kind of thing when she had come by with Sai. It must have been moved to a different facility, or ended altogether.
She was curious, but her priorities were straight. So she got them to the archive room and proceeded to seal and steal all of Orochimaru's filing cabinets to sort through later. It gave her a thrill that simply stealing all the files wouldn't have. Office supplies were fucking expensive. She deserved those file cabinets much
That only took a couple of minutes, but it was still odd that no one bothered her while she did it. Unsettled, Aiko went back to exploring the hideout a little faster than before. If they weren't protecting this information, that probably meant that something else of strategic value was the presumed target. If there was something that interesting around, she wanted to know what it was. And take it, with her greedy little magpie fingers.
It turned out to be a lab, on the lowest level. She vaguely recalled getting poisoned in a similar layout at one point so she stepped cautiously and managed to disarm that trap. The lab proper had a long line of cells along the wall… She suspected that they had recently been vacated. Aiko gave a contemplative look to the back exit that the staff must have been escaping through. She considered it.
Utakata made a sound in the back of his throat. She spun, expecting to see an enemy.
But no. He was hovering a meter away from a bubbling glass column of water, head cocked.
There didn't seem to be anyone around… So she chanced speaking. "What's wrong?"
He didn't turn to look at her. "I believe there is a person in that container." His voice was low with fury.
She gave the glass another glance. It looked pretty empty to her. "...Should we open it?" Aiko wondered. Utakata probably knew what he was talking about. If he said there was a person, there was probably a person.
"We could. The prisoner will possibly become injured upon the broken glass," Utakata analyzed. "If possible, we should drain it using the mechanism that must exist."
Aiko gave that its due consideration- about 2 seconds- and made her decision. She took a couple steps further away and lashed out at the tank with a chakra chain. It shattered.
Utakata gave a surprised curse and jumped to avoid the outflow of water and glass shards.
"I'm not going to go around pushing buttons in Orochimaru's torture chamber," she said mildly. "Half of them are probably traps."
"Yeah," agreed a hoarse voice. She cocked her head to see a naked and familiar figure coalescing out of the water. Suigetsu shook his head briskly. Water droplets splattered against Utakata's mask. Then Suigetsu grinned at her, showcasing his pointy teeth. Maybe he was trying to be threatening. "I wouldn't touch anything here." The bravado didn't match up against how obviously exhausted he was, dark circles all but stamped under his eyes.
Oh. Oh my god. As an adult, Suigetsu was adorable. Look at that sweet murder child. No wonder the seven swordsmen had let him follow around at their heels.
"I'm going to keep you," Aiko decided aloud. She pushed her mask up her face, so he could see who he was talking to. "Hello, sweetheart. I hope you haven't been here long. I'm the Mizukage now, I'm not as crazy as the last one. I'll find you a nice sword."
The grin slipped off Suigetsu's face. "What?"
"You heard me." She clapped her hands. "If you're loyal to me, you can have a legendary sword. Currently we only have one person trained in them, which is a shame because most of them are sitting around unused, waiting for someone worth picking them up."
Suigetsu's mouth was hanging open. After a moment, he turned to look at Utakata. "Is this for real?"
Utakata stiffened, just that little bit. "This," he said distastefully, "is indeed the Godaime Mizukage. I believe that she is making a legitimate offer. It is quite the promotion for a chuunin such as yourself."
"Huh." Suitgetsu eyed her, tilting his head. He sneered, but it didn't seem mean-spirited. More defensive than anything. "Things have gotten real weird since I got locked up. I, uh." He straightened his back. "I didn't defect or anything. I got caught."
"You can come with us on our next errand," Aiko decided. She reached, slow and friendly, to bop Suigetsu across the chest with a sealing scroll. "We're going to go make some copies of paperwork, break into Konoha, and go harass Tsunade. That sounds fun, right?"
"We're what," Utakata said. His voice went dangerously high. "There must be more than one person named Tsunade. You are not referring to Senju Tsunade. You are not."
"Can I just go home?" Suigetsu wondered aloud. He fidgeted. "I'd like to get some equipment. I've… I don't know how long I've been here." He made a face.
She gave the two young men a disgusted look. "We have things to do," Aiko stressed. But she looked between Utakata's red, stubborn face, and Suigetsu's awkward stance, and her resolve melted. She threw her hands up. "I give up. Fine. Suigetsu, you can go get clothes and rest. We can discuss the details of your employment later."
"I haven't agreed to anything," he bit out. He looked a little trapped.
Aiko waved that away. "Yes, but you will, because we will make a contract that you want. Obviously. Your training makes you a valuable resource, moreso than ever now that the swordsmen of Kirigakure are so diminished. But." She pointed a finger at him. "You probably don't own anything anymore. The village was basically destroyed. I fixed it, it's really pretty now. But yeah… let's find you some pants." She grimaced. "I'll, uh. Leave you at my house, you can hang out with my kids until I get back and find you a place."
Suigetsu let out a high, strained giggle. "Why do you know my name?" He seemed stressed about it. "How did you know I trained with the Swordsmen- did you come to find me?"
Aiko rolled her eyes and sternly informed Suigetsu that she knew everything about everyone and that he shouldn't question her. That shocked him enough to shut him up, for a while. He followed her around, shooting her suspicious looks. She found him some pants on a Sound-nin who didn't need them anymore. She left him in Kirigakure under Karin's dubious supervision. And then she went to an office supply store and paid to use their copy machine.
Just to have a place to covertly unseal all the filing cabinets and sort through them for the information she needed now, she sent Utakata off to reserve a room at a love hotel. He went, incredibly grudgingly. It was difficult to overstate just how displeased he was with this turn of events. She had never actually been in one before, so Aiko was delighted and fascinated to realize that they worked by locking the client in the room until they paid via a pneumatic tube.
That meant that she Hiraishin'd back and forth while Utakata grimly sorted through Orochimaru's ludicrously illogical sorting system. They did find information about Fukiko, which she had three copies made of.
The best discovery was that Orochimaru had research notes on how sharingan eyes had been preserved and prepared for implant into a wind-natured shinobi over age 60, with A- blood type. That in itself was not particularly damning, but a separate report on a surgical procedure of a person with the same statistics referenced the fact that the recipient had personally retrieved genetic material for that surgery from the first Hokage's very protected, secret grave.
That narrowed down the pool of candidates considerably. Aiko herself had only known of the gravesite for less than a year before she'd fucked up time and space. There were not many shinobi who met that genetic and age profile, and even fewer of them could reasonably be expected to access those materials.
Aiko gave serious thought to having the reports published if Konoha didn't do anything about Danzo. They might not dislodge him without the right leverage, but they would definitely put a fox in his hen-house. She would like to have him off her back. She definitely was not sending poor Sai back into Konoha until Danzo was dealt with.
'I'll wait on that,' she decided. 'I might not need to. And, anyway, if I decide to do that, I'll want actual correspondence and such between Danzo and Orochimaru to really make the accusation stick.'
When she was finished with her photocopies, she separated them out by where she wanted them to go and labeled them in folders. Then of the folders got sealed away.
Utakata watched this happen with a deep and abiding resentment.
She felt a little bad, so she sat on the bed and patted the mattress beside her. "Rest for a moment?" Aiko offered. She was going to do something horrifically amoral in Konoha today, so she could use a rest to brace herself anyway.
He hesitated.
Well, whatever. She laid down on her back and reached her arms over her head. She managed to snatch a pillow from the head of the bed and dragged it down so that she could use it.
The mattress indented slightly as Utakata sat down. Not right next to her, but not too far either. She smiled up at the ceiling. "This was fun," she said. It was easier to be honest when she wasn't looking directly at him. "I missed spending time with you."
"I have noticed the absence as well." He let out a sigh, but it sounded more peaceful than the stress sound he usually made around her. "I… also enjoy working with you."
She closed her eyes and moved her arms slightly, enjoying the sensory pleasure of just how soft and cool the bed sheets were. The low hum of the fan above was lulling her into relaxation.
"Aiko." His voice was low and gentle. "May I…?"
She glanced over at him to check if he was asking what she thought he was. Judging by the softness in his eyes and the way he was leaning over her…
Oh. Well. It was hardly unexpected, was it?
She thought about it. They were far from Kiri and the responsibilities and eyes there. He was a good friend who she trusted. And she wanted it.
"Just one," Aiko decided. Her tone wasn't as firm as it usually was, but Utakata still huffed a little laugh as he bent down. She curled her right hand in the back of his hair and tilted her chin up to meet his lips.
Author's Note: sorry that this hasn't been updated publicly in a while- but if you want more regular updates, exclusives, plus the ability to talk to us, ask questions, and original work- search RuthlessMaehem and come find us on our (SUPERSECRETWEBSITE) and join our discord.