Hi everyone, here we are, another double bill, Some of the chapters are a little shorter than others, but then there are some real mammoth ones too (The one were currently working on is in excess of 14k words, It's getting split I won't make you read all that in one sitting)

Enjoy

Akira

Joyce sat in the armchair in the living room. Kate and Rachel took up half the old sofa themselves with Max sat behind the sofa, resting her head on the back of it.

"Max, you're not a dog. Get ya ass on the sofa," Joyce lightly scolded the young wolf.

This reprimanding caused Max to skulk around the sofa, gingerly climbing up and curling herself in the corner. Her blue orb sat in its usual resting spot on one of her tails. Seeing the opportunity, Kate left Rachel's side and quickly clambered over to Max, snuggling herself lazily into thick fur. Her eagerness caused Joyce to emit a light chuckle.

"Looking at you two reminds me so much of me and your mother when we were younger," Joyce smiled, looking at the blonde snuggled up to the wolf. "And you look so much like your mother. Well, except the freckles. Always wondered if they would carry over," she continued as she reached behind her, taking an old photo album from the unit and started flicking through it. Eventually, she stopped on one page and took a polaroid out, handing it to Rachel.

Taking the picture and looking at it, Rachel had to do a double-take at both the picture and at Kate and Max. The picture showed a small blonde girl on an old green sofa with a jet black two-tailed wolf curled around her. A small white orb emitted a soft white glow, resting gracefully on one of its tails.

"That's some serious deja vu shit right there. You really do look like your mom," Rachel noted, showing the picture to Max and Kate. Max tilted her head to one side slightly, looking at the picture and letting out a small whimper.

"Of course, she didn't always look like that. Only after someone annoyed her, or when we went hiking," Joyce reminisced as she pulled out another picture, again handing it to Rachel.

Taking the picture, Rachel let out a small gasp as she eyed it. The similarity was striking, almost eerily so. Brunette, shoulder length hair. Two jet black tails, with a light blue orb resting on one of them behind the woman's slender figure. Two black pointed ears, one of which was pierced with a small gold hoop. The woman smiled, her arm draped around a much younger Joyce, who was wearing a big ear to ear smile herself. They seemed so happy and carefree.

Again, Rachel showed the picture to Max and Kate. While the blonde eyed the picture appraisingly, Max let out another small whimper as a tear formed in the corner of her eye. Sensing a shift in her mood, Kate tried to think of something to say, anything to shift the conversation away from Max's mom, at least for now. It was then she felt a pang of guilt coming, not from Max, but her rather moody passenger. This gave the blonde an idea.

"Joyce," the young empath started slowly as she continued to run her fingers through Max's fur. "Maybe you can help me sort out something I can't wrap my head around."

"Oh." The inquiring sound was cautious, non-committal.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm, Kate pushed ahead. She needed to get to the bottom of this, for Max's sake especially. "There's someone... or something else in there with Max."

"Really, hmm… that's a little sooner that expected," Joyce commented a little surprised. "Guess there's no real point in hiding it. Vanessa had a... passenger, I guess you could call her, named Akira."

At the mention of Akira's name, Max raised her head inquisitively and Kate got a sense of admission from the passenger. This piqued the blonde's interest even more.

"Joyce, I think Max's… passenger is also called Akira," Kate offered, as Max gave a small nod. "Is it possible there same... person?" Her question was answered by another nod.

"How does that even work?" Rachel asked.

Joyce shook her head. "Honestly, I have no idea. I know Akira and Vanessa got on very well. Akira, however, was very tight-lipped about where she came from or why she was around. We didn't exactly have other Ahri we could talk to. Vanessa was, as far as we knew, the only one in Arcadia. What we did know was that Akira was, or rather used to be an Ahri, and she is old... very old. Never did get her exact age but like I said, Vanessa got on with her."

Kate could feel a lot of sorrow in the woman's words, as well as Max's own pain. What she wasn't really expecting, however, was the level of guilt and sorrow she felt coming from Max's passenger, Akira.

"She really did care for your mother, Max. I don't think Akira wants to harm you," Kate mentioned, hoping that this would provide some small amount of relief and comfort. Max sure as hell needed some right now. Max slumped her head onto her paws, her expression clearly one of uncertainty.

"I'm not going to pretend to know what's going on between you two, Max. All I know is your mother liked Akira. Sure, they disagreed on things occasionally but when the chips were down, Akira had her back," Joyce reassured the wolf with a smile. Her smile faltered as she pressed ahead. "Well, that was until Vanessa decided to run. Akira really didn't like that idea and tried to talk her out of it, on more than one occasion."

"Run?" Rachel questioned. There must have been a reason behind Vanessa's desire to escape. Maybe Joyce could enlighten them.

Before anyone had the chance to discuss this further, they noticed Kate acting strangely. All eyes turning to her, distracting them. Kate stiffened as a wave of confusion, anger, and sadness, as well as the unmistakable sensation of hunger, washed over her. There was a vampire close by, very close.

Have a good one, see you on the next