I'm so sorry! I had no idea that Bound by Destiny on was 4 chapters and an intermission behind Ao3! I'm fixing it now!
Summary: Family isn't just those related by blood, as Nico finds out today. There's much more to family than that and the perfect example of it is right in front of her
Time frame: Present, main story
"Hey Kotori..."
"What's up Maki?" Kotori's gentle voice filtered in through the phone and Maki could detect faint traces of exhaustion in the angel's voice. "You don't usually call while I'm working."
"Yeah, I know," Maki awkwardly looked down at her feet as though the angel could see her, which was a silly notion since the angel was cities away.
The reminder made Maki feel more alone than ever.
"Hey," Kotori's voice softened with concern and a gentleness Maki had known for over half of her life, "what's wrong wolf cub?"
"Nico would laugh her ass off if she heard that," Maki deflected with a dry chuckle, "she already calls me tomato-head."
"Well this nickname's reserved for just me and Umi-chan," Kotori hummed but didn't pry, which Maki was grateful for. She didn't know what exactly made her call her, something had screamed at her from early this morning to contact one of them and Kotori had been the person she instinctively called.
"Yeah..." The words just wouldn't come out, it was almost as though they were permanently lodged in her throat along with everything she was feeling and what was going on. She had been a nervous paranoid wreck all morning and afternoon behind her indifferent mask. Why exactly she didn't know, since it was way more than it should've been for her slip up with Nico earlier. That should've been only embarrassing, not terrifying like the heart racing terror and stress that had been simmering in her veins most of the morning and afternoon.
"Do you want to talk to Umi?" Kotori questioned softly and her voice helped soothe the stressed racing of her heart.
She shook her head, red bangs getting in her eyes. It wasn't that she didn't like Umi or anything because she did, she just knew that Umi was busy right now while Kotori was talking to her. Besides... talking to Kotori was different than talking to the alpha. "No, just…" She didn't know what to say, okay so she did, it just didn't want to come out. A hand went to her thick hair and raked back her bangs, a rare stress habit developed from years of watching someone do the same thing.
"Did something stir up some memories?" Kotori asked and Maki shut her eyes with a slow breath.
Right, it had been the miracle Kotori had pulled off a couple hours ago that made Maki finally make the call. A call that something had been screaming at her to make hours ago and she had ignored it's intense screaming demands until it finally got to be too much.
The miracle had hit her too close to home, having had something similar happen to herself back when she first met Kotori and Umi as a kid.
Metal groaned above her and the sounds of snapping bones burrowed it's way into her ears but she felt no pain, so it must not have been hers. A more powerful mind shattered through the barriers of her mind and she could hear someone shouting in greek nearby, the sounds and syllables slurring together as a voice spoke directly into her head.
'I'm here, you're safe now.'
"Maki?"
Maki blinked and tightened her grip on the phone. "Sorry," she quickly apologized though her voice was a little hoarse from forcing the English out, "just… that miracle… I saw it on tv and it…" she couldn't finish.
"Oh, Maki…" Kotori seemed to understand exactly what she was trying to say. "Do you want me or Umi-chan to teleport back for a bit?"
"I-" It was tempting as she was so confused. Confused by the whole thing with Nico, confused by the whole miracle thing, and most of all, confused by what she was remembering from her childhood, which she hardly remembered at all.
"Either way Umi-chan will be calling you tonight like she always does," Kotori gave her a gentle reminder, "so if you want I can drop by now and Umi-chan can talk to you tonight Maki."
Maki struggled to swallow the lump in her throat and with a glance at the back door, which had closed a little while ago and took Nico practicing her lines outside with it. She nodded, "sure."
She heard the sound of a door opening before Kotori spoke again.
"Arigato Arisato-sama and your fellow council members," she heard Kotori apologize in a sharper, more professional tone of voice. A tone that reminded Maki of being scolded as a kid. Kotori was probably speaking to some high class politicians if Maki's experience occasionally accompanying Umi over the years was anything to go by."But I have to step out of the meeting for some family business. Sonoda-san," Maki knew by the last name that she was addressing Umi, "I will be back by the next meeting."
Maki heard a muffled version of Umi's reply through the speaker, "very well Minami-sama, I will stay here with the council."
"I'll be there in a minute," Maki could hear the rustling of a chair and cloth, maybe a jacket? through Kotori's speech and heard a door open once again. The hiding of her name was just another reminder to Maki of just how little the public actually knew about the life of Kotori Minami and Umi Sonoda. Though… she could easily be included in that statement as well, nobody knew her beyond her accomplishments and her last name. As if the name meant anything to her in the first place.
That name had lost it's importance to her the day she was born.
It never got any less weird to Maki having Kotori just appear into thin air and walk out of her bedroom like she had been there the whole time. Still, that fact that Kotori was completely unharmed and wore a gentle smile, as she walked into the kitchen, Maki had known for a multitude of years was beyond comforting.
The luna's mind brushed lightly against hers, strengthening Maki's ties to the pack like she did with each and every member of the pack. Maki also knew it gave her a glimpse into their emotional and mental states, thereby allowing her to truly do her best in making sure everyone was okay.
"Hi, Kotori," Maki greeted lamely from one of the barstools seated stylishly tucked against the bar-like island. It felt weird greeting her in any other way right now, especially when she could see Nico practicing her lines outside in the backyard.
"Hi Maki," Kotori returned the greeting warmly though her golden eyes drifted around the place. As if checking that nothing had been moved out of place while she was gone. Knowing her perfectionist nature, Maki wouldn't be surprised if that was indeed what the gentle-hearted angel was subconsciously doing.
Kotori's attention quickly returned to the younger werewolf and she offered her a warm smile along with a perfectly timed ice-breaker. "Eli bet that you and Nico would kill each other by now but Umi-chan and I disagreed along with Honoka."
Maki couldn't help the faint traces of a smile on her lips at the mention of the exuberant ginger that felt like a crazy aunt to her. "You mean Honoka actually made a good decision?"
Kotori slid into the stool beside Maki and nudged her lightly with a chuckle, "you're just like Umi-chan, Maki~ Honoka has plenty of good qualities just like you and me."
Maki relaxed a little, feeling some of the tension that had settled harshly into her system earlier today. "Well the last time I saw her she had me distract Umi at the beach so she could charge at her and knock her down into the ocean," she reasoned and leaned just slightly on her elbows, just another habit that was born of her upbringing.
"Well Umi-chan was ignoring her," Kotori mirrored her and giggled at the reference to the beach trip that was many years ago. "Besides, everyone changes over time right?"
"I guess, though I doubt Honoka of all people grew up all that much," Maki snorted and Kotori cringed and lightly smacked her shoulder.
"You don't need to remind me that I'm getting older you know," she complained, but Maki could see the gentle twinkling of amusement in the angel's eyes.
So she rolled her eyes at her, "you're not that old, being almost twenty-seven doesn't make you old Kotori. If anything that sounds more like something Eli would say."
Kotori hummed in some sort of agreement before she got to her feet, reached over, and softly ruffled Maki's hair. Ignoring her exclamation of, "hey!" the angel smiled, a gentle smile that helped Maki further relax as it was one she had seen at least a thousand times over the years. "Umi-chan suggested lunch, wanna help me make onigiri and something sweet?" she asked and Maki was hit with a small wave of nostalgia, memories of when she was young.
"Sure," Maki's smile widened, "just like old times."
The sliding door opening gave away Nico's arrival from the back yard and Maki's highly tuned ears twitched long before the door even opened. Something nudging her senses into being alerted by Nico's presence long before she made her appearance.
The kitchen smelled good, her nose filled with the smell of rice, tomatoes the best food on the planet, and chicken. As a creature designed to be a pure carnivore, the last one was extremely powerful and enticing, even if tomatoes were better.
It smelled just like the last time Maki had had these karaage and tomato onigiri, which was years ago, back when she was a sophomore in high school.
In fact, she still remembered sitting at the table with Umi, eating breakfast while the alpha read the news and Kotori was in the kitchen behind the island. She'd watch Kotori make them at least once a week. Watching the angel standing with her back to her, humming softly to herself with the other half of Umi's wireless earbuds in her ear. While Maki herself had been still trying to properly wake up for the day.
Helping make the onigiri, even something so monotonous and methodical, was calming. Working with her hands while Kotori was nearby, safe and sound despite Maki's screaming instincts, had her calm and relaxed. She was safe, Nico was safe, and Kotori was safe too. Two people that were closely important to her were perfectly safe and sound despite the nervous fright her mind had been giving her all day.
"Wow, it's almost as though you never straightened your hair this morning, Mrs. Fashion-Designer." Maki cracked a smirk at Nico's way of introducing her presence but didn't lift her head up from the onigiri she was shaping in her hands. The only reason Maki herself hadn't commented on the rather wayward state of her close friend's ash-blonde hair was that Kotori definitely already knew.
Plus she had seen the angel's hair be much, much curlier and messier over the years.
"You lose your fashion sense or something?"
"Nah," Kotori gave a wry grin that was definitely a trait rubbed off on her from her bond with Umi and she looked a little like a lost baby bird with the way her feathers were standing up in funky ways. Her golden eyes poked out through the messy windswept curls that consisted of her bangs right now. "Just messed up a teleportation spell cause I was kinda in a rush."
Maki blinked and lifted her head as she put down the now finished rice ball, what rush? Kotori had offered to come down here so why was she rushing enough to mess up a spell Maki knew the angel knew better than the back of her own hand.
"Huh," Nico smelled of curiosity as she naturally slipped into the seat beside Maki, who nearly choked at her proximity as her scent heavily hit her nose, and began to roll up her sleeves. Maki got the inkling that the ravenette drama major was trying to help, and she instinctively slid the bowl of rice and the warm filling a couple inches toward her.
Which only sparked an odd look from her, but Maki didn't care. She felt a little like a lazy cat right now, which was definitely because of Kotori. Normally Nico made Maki incredibly nervous and awkward, which wasn't fair since the last thing Maki wanted to be was awkward around her.
Why couldn't she be as playful as Nozomi? Or as cool as Umi?
"Never would've thought someone with as much magic experience as you Kotori would've messed up something as easy as a teleportation spell," Nico's snort brought Maki's head back from the clouds and the redhead blinked. Refocusing her vision to see Nico take a good amount of rice up into one hand to start a rice ball.
Part of her felt a bit disappointed that she didn't get to show the ravenette how to do it, but the moment she realized it existed, Maki hastened to banish it from her mind. Rather, to keep herself occupied, Maki mimicked Nico and scooped out more rice to continue to make the onigiri. All while she listened to the two with mage blood converse.
"I don't have as much experience with that spell as others," Kotori admitted, even though Maki knew that the angel knew it well enough to use it half a sleep if she had to and had in the past. The angel turned off the facet and gently shook the strainer that had fresh strawberries in it. "Umi-chan's the one who usually teleports her and I somewhere if needed, but we both prefer walking over using magic to make it somewhere."
"Well you're energized by the sun Kotori-" Maki's voice squeaked slightly through the end sentence and she instinctively scowled at the brief change in her voice, even more so when Nico broke into half-dignified snorts of laughter. "Shut up Nico, it's not funny," she grumbled moodily and ignored the soft giggles coming from Kotori.
"Yeah it is," Nico grinned and Maki avoided looking into the mage's amusement filled twinkling ruby eyes. "Besides," she fought back and pointed at Kotori with her finished riceball, "Kotori's laughing too! Is Nico that special that she gets tomato-head's complaints and not Kotori?"
"No," Maki snapped back but she could feel her cheeks warming, wow face, thanks for betraying her. By the raising of Nico's eyebrows in an 'I don't believe you' way, Maki doubted she believed what she said, and so the red head fidgeted uncomfortably on her stool, getting the urge to retreat, even if it would shame the alpha blood in her.
Luckily for Maki, Kotori stepped in.
"While I'm sure you're special to Maki, Nico," Kotori smiled at the duo over her shoulder and Maki felt the luna's mind press softly against hers, soothing and comforting the werewolf. "I'm the pack luna," she chuckled and winked playfully at the ravenette, "so I get a pass."
Maki couldn't help but smirk at the unimpressed look on Nico's face and flicked her nose up by a quarter of an inch, silently telling the luna thank you. Before she returned to the riceball in her hands she had almost forgotten about and nearly wasted the tomato goodness inside hidden within the rice.
"Get a pass cause you're a luna, my ass," Nico rolled her eyes and Maki's smirk widened at the language before she put down the completed onigiri on a plate and started another one. "There's something else going on over here between you and Maki besides you just being the pack luna, Mrs. Supernatural Liason."
Can I tell her? I won't tell Umi, Kotori's faintly warm like the sun telepathic voice brushed Maki's mind as she moved to a cutting board on the island across from Maki. If you don't want me to, I won't.
Maki pulled a grimace. Did she really want the ravenette who she had met yesterday know why she was so close to the pack luna? Not really. Maki pulled her lower lip inbetween her teeth and nibbled lightly on it, another gesture she had picked up from her childhood. But should she let the ravenette know since she was her soulmate, Nozomi's friend, and would become part of the pack soon? Yes, unfortunately. So she shrugged lightly, I guess if you want, Nico has every right to know. Just… nothing embarrassing, please.
No promises-
"Hey!" Nico's voice made Maki nearly massacre the partially made rice ball in her hands, "stop it with that whole telepathy thing, Nico deserves to be part of this conversation you know!"
"Uh huh, yeah right," Maki rolled her eyes and yelped when she got an elbow to the side. So she whirled around on the mage with the faintest hints of an annoyed snarl that let her canines glint slightly in the light, "hey! What was that for you-"
"Maki," Kotori's voice sharpened like the blade of the knife the luna was using and the redhead instantly stopped mid sentence. Don't call your soulmate names like that.
Maki rolled her eyes, shot the mage a glare, and reluctantly went back to facing the counter and looking down at the rice ball in her hands with a lot of grumbling under her breath. Even if part of her was grateful, as she didn't really want to swear at Nico, even if the mage always managed to get under her skin.
At least Nico didn't seem startled by the fiery response, as she was laughing again. "Wow, it's like you just got reprimanded by your mom Maki-"
"That's because she practically is, shortie," Maki came up with a nickname on the fly to grumble at the mage even though she kept her head down. After having the same punishment for alpha flares for over nine years, she knew the drill. Even if she did look at Nico out of the corner of her eye and smirk at the mage's wide eyed look of surprise.
"No shit, really?" Nico's expression was priceless to Maki, even if the actress recovered quickly. "Are you guys serious? You, a twenty-year-old werewolf, were raised by Kotori, a twenty-seven year old sun-angel?"
Nico couldn't believe her ears, were they working properly? She had just heard that Maki was raised by the supernatural liaison. The hot-headed red haired werewolf who apparently really enjoyed music and science, was raised by the mischievous but very gentle Kotori, a sun-angel and mage hybrid.
"Don't forget about Umi-chan," Kotori hummed and Maki snorted. While Nico mentally facepalmed Oh, right, Kotori was also a luna and mate to one of the calmest seclusive werewolves Nico had met in her life. Well that would explain why the redhead was functioning werewolf, because if what she could vaguely remember was true, werewolf children were impossible to raise without a werewolf parent. "She's the one that taught Maki how to play piano."
"Not that Umi really plays anymore," Maki shrugged, though she didn't actually seem too bothered by it from what Nico could tell. Though Nico's mind was still trying to catch up, she didn't learn that her soulmate was raised by a major political figure every day.
"She doesn't always have time, Maki," Kotori hummed as she finished up the fruit she was cutting in preparation for something. "Besides, you were the one who said you liked it better when she played guitar or bass with you instead of," her tone turned amused and cheeky, "hogging up the piano bench."
Maki blushed and she avoided looking at Kotori, "well yeah, but still-"
"Hold up, hang on a second," Nico couldn't help but interject and try to get her brain to catch up. "Sorry, Nico's still a bit confused here, this isn't a joke or something right?"
Maki sighed and rolled her eyes, "it's not a joke Nico, Kotori and Umi raised me on and off from seven to ten, then adopted me." She crossed her arms over her chest in a grumpy way, "why is it that hard to believe?"
Kotori's eyes glinted in a way that told Nico she understood and thankfully the angel did. "Is it because that would've meant that I was seventeen when I finally adopted Maki?"
"That," Nico admitted easily, "and that I can't really see Umi as the parenting type."
"Umi's an alpha, so she can adopt any werewolf child who makes a parental bond with her," Kotori explained, thankfully, and smiled warmly over at Maki. "Umi-chan's a good parent, right Maki?"
"Nico, you've met guarded mode Umi," Maki told the actress and stole half a strawberry from Kotori, who playfully bounced a grape off of the werewolf's nose in return. "You have to get to know her better to see more of why she was, and still is, a great father."
Nico raised an eyebrow, "father?" Umi was definitely a girl, and while Nico had nothing against people going with whatever pronouns they chose, she might as well ask. Even though Umi kinda did seem more like a father type than a mothering type like Kotori.
"Father," Maki confirmed, "alphas technically have two genders due to their wolf forms, plus Kotori was the mothering type-"
"Maki even used to call her 'papa," Kotori giggled and cut Maki off. Nico joined the angel in the giggling, even if it was mainly because of how red Maki got.
"I was ten!" Maki complained moodly, "and you still call me wolf cub Kotori!"
"That's because," Nico broke out laughing when Kotori reached over and tweaked Maki's nose, "you'll always be Umi-chan and I's little wolf cub, Maki!" Kotori's hand glowed green for a split second with what Nico identified as a cleansing spell before the angel continued to cut up the last of the cantaloupe she had been cutting.
Nico put down her latest finished rice ball and leaned forward on her forearms, "okay Kotori, lemme see some of those pictures, you have to have pictures right?"
"Sure," Kotori chuckled mischeviously and her hands flickered with another cleansing spell before she pulled her phone out from her pocket and tossed it to the mage. "Here Nico, the passcode's a star shape."
Maki groaned and dropped her head onto her counter, but Nico ignored her, even if it was a truly adorable sight, in favor of instead, appreciating Kotori's taste in phone lock screen images. It was fantastic. It was a simple but amusing selfie of the angel, a ginger Nico didn't know, and Umi with the latter appearing a little startled with her dark rimmed glasses, since when did Umi wear glasses, falling a bit off of her nose however she was pulling a purposefully silly expression. While Kotori was pulling a funny face, likely sitting Umi's lap, while seemingly struggling not to laugh and the ginger seemed to be mid-way through blowing a raspberry against the angel's cheek.
"Your lock screen image is Nico approved," Nico snorted as she undid the phone's lock and the phone's content was revealed to the actress. "I wasn't aware the seclusive rather impassive Umi could pull a silly face like that."
"Oh, yeah I forgot what the lock screen image was for my personal phone," Kotori giggled and Nico stifled a laugh when the angel swatted Maki's hands away from the remaining onigiri filling. "But Umi-chan's always been very expressive at home, the impassive expression is from work and it's what she reverts to when she meets new people. Once you're around her for a while, you'll get to see more of the goofy Umi-chan."
Nico filed away the information for later and took a moment to take a glance at the phone's general background before she hunted down the angel's pictures, as the image included Maki. It seemed to be taken in the summer at the pool in the back of the pack house Nico had seen Umi dunk Kotori in yesterday, and it contained primarily Maki, Umi, and Kotori as the focus. Maki and Umi were on the grass in the backyard in summer clothes and seemed to have been wrestling before they were interrupted.
The latter was mid struggle flat on her stomach and seemed to have just had her legs pulled out by Eli moments ago who was sitting on her ankles. While Maki had the alpha pinned with her ankles linked over Umi's lower back and one of Umi's furry ears in her mouth seemingly to be the main one keeping the alpha in place; Kotori was using a felt tipped marker to draw on the alpha's muscular back from where she was sitting up on Umi's neck and shoulders while giving Maki a high-five, her position keeping the alpha's head down; and Nozomi was sitting at the alpha's feet with a mischievous grin and nail polish.
Goofy Umi indeed… and perhaps… goofy Maki-chan too?
"Hey tomatohead?" Nico nudged the werewolf, this time lightly as she didn't want her to snap at her again, "do you have the muscle your 'father' does?" She asked cheekily and reveled in Maki's dark blush and grumbles under her breath for a moment before she turned to Kotori, "alright werewolf mom, where are the photos of little Maki?" she asked as she turned the device toward Kotori.
Kotori chuckled at the nickname and gave Nico the stink eye, "I'm not old Nico," she teased before she opened the correct app and album folder, which had the best opening image Nico had to have ever seen.
"Okay, that's adorable," Nico cooed and smiled at the picture as Kotori went back to her cooking. It was obvious that Maki and Umi were a lot younger with Maki being a small child, smaller than the typical seven-year-old if she wasn't mistaken, and Umi being at least a bit of a lanky teenager. But Umi was easily lifting the young red-head up like someone would a toddler and Maki was giggling while Umi had a smile that just spoke of a parent's love for a child while she was touching noses with the small child.
Maki was adorable. A bit sickly, pale, and extremely small for seven-years-old, but a really adorable child.
Soft waves hit Nico's ears and she narrowed her eyes slightly before it hit her. Soulmates shared memories, including memories of their childhoods, memories that sometimes not even they themselves remembered. Which meant, she could, if she chose to, learn about Maki as a kid through the fleeting memories she was beginning to get with the pictures.
"Go ahead," Maki spoke without looking at her, "if it's a memory then it's gotta be from when I was with Kotori and Umi. You'll like them," she spoke for once with sincerity, which must've been from the werewolf's fluctuating blood type like Maki had mentioned earlier.
"The only way you'll both bond is if you begin to share some of your lives," Kotori pointed out, and that combined with Maki's personal agreement was enough for Nico, who shut her eyes.
"Where're you going pup?" Umi's voice was the first thing that hit Nico's ears and she opened her eyes to see Maki, the rather sickly small, young Maki, trotting curiously toward some water. Though Nico quickly realized that it was from a hot-spring, which meant…
Nico took a look around, only to find herself confused, as she was only in a rather large bathroom with the teenage Umi poking her head curiously into the bathroom. Umi had glasses on along with a hoodie and shorts, though by the book under her arm and the highlighter tucked behind her ear the teen had been studying before this memory. She wasn't anywhere near as impassive as the Umi Nico had met yesterday, rather the teen's dark amber eyes showed curiosity and the wild nature of a werewolf.
Maki didn't speak in English, rather the child werewolf whined like a wolf, which made no sense to Nico, but it seemed to make perfect sense to Umi.
"Ah," Umi put her book down on the countertop beside the sink along with her highlighter. "I'll take you over there if you try and ask that again in English Maki, do you want Kotori to come too?" The teen asked as she easily lifted Maki up and into her arms.
Maki pulled a face but the child cleared her throat and spoke slowly in slightly mispronounced English, "Whaat is dat? And yea."
"That's an artificial hot-spring," Umi hummed and brushed her fingers through the red-head's messy hair, "and it looks like your English is getting better, it's just going to take a while before you can speak it fluently."
"Umi-chan! Did you find her?" Kotori's voice came from somewhere outside the room, "she's supposed to be sleeping by now!"
Maki pouted at the idea of having to go to sleep and much to Nico's surprise, Umi held a finger to her lips and winked at the child. Before Nico heard the alpha's voice again, but this time telepathically, no doubt because Umi was speaking to Maki that way. 'Don't tell my mom Kotori, but yes, I found her beside the hot-spring, right Maki?'
'I don't want to sleep,' Maki grumbled in reply and Nico stifled some laughter.
"Umi-chan," Kotori snuck into the room and shut the door behind her, "you know your mom would kill us if she finds out that Maki's not asleep right?" Kotori sounded just a hair nervous, though not that Nico could blame her. If Kotori was twenty-seven present time and Maki was seven here, then the angel was what, fourteen? Wow, that meant the duo weren't even juniors in high school just yet, especially Kotori who was younger than Umi from what she remembered about the high class bodyguard.
"It's fine," Umi disregarded the danger and pressed a kiss to the angel's cheek, wait, were they the same height as teens?
"It's not like we've been here much with the business trips you have had to go on this past month," Umi pointed out and readjusted her hold on Maki. "Besides, she's never been in here and seen this before, so it won't hurt to show her what it is."
Kotori's golden eyes flickered nervously to the door before she sighed and chose to embrace the duo, "okay, but I'm not getting in trouble for this. My dad would lose his mind if he found out I'm over here instead of Honoka's, much less causing problems..."
Nico blinked and found herself back at the kitchen island with Kotori and Maki, the latter of who immediately twitched toward her.
"Welcome back Nico," Kotori hummed warmly and Nico took a moment to study the older sun-angel, who had definitely grown a lot, though not a ton height-wise, rather she had filled out, and apparently gained a back bone and confidence too for that matter.
"You're weird as a teen Kotori," Nico eventually settled on with a mild smirk and let the phone rest down against the countertop. "Too soft and skittishly nervous," she snorted, "though I have to ask, how young were you and Umi when you two got together? and also, tomatohead, you were an adorable seven year-old. Tiny as hell and looked pretty sickly, but completely adorable."
"Th-thanks," Maki muttered and her cheeks turned red again before the redhead avoided her via grabbing on one of the rice balls and stuffing part of it into her mouth.
"I grew into confidence," Kotori admitted a bit sheepishly and paused her wrapping up a handful of the rice balls, "while Umi lost a lot of her alpha blood daredevil ignorant to consequences as she got older." Her ears turned a rather pretty pink at the actual question but gave Nico a cheeky grin, "I was thirteen, and Umi was fourteen."
Nico choked on air. "Are you fucking crazy?!" One, how in the world was their relationship still, fourteen years later a secret, two, how were they both still sane, and three, just how together were they at that age?
"But it was pretty much just puppy love from the soul-bond kicking in," Kotori giggled at Nico's reaction and gave her more information. "I was sixteen before anything crazy happened and Umi was hit with all of the fun things that come with being a teenage werewolf."
Kotori and Maki exchanged glances, likely communicating through that whole weird, privacy shattering telepathy thing, which made Nico wonder if she was missing something. She totally was, wasn't she?
Damnit, she was always going to be left out of conversations with these werewolves, wasn't she?
Kotori was exhausted as she pulled the dark tank-top down over head and pulled the fabric down till it was smooth. Her wings flickered back from their matterless state, which was a true blessing in regards to changing clothes or falling onto her back because she broke feathers often enough on her own. The precious feathered limbs slipped snuggly through the intricately designed hidden flaps in all of her clothing, but she really didn't have the energy to make the shooting pain through her wings stop. Not when it meant that she would have to go through the process of preening each of her twelve-foot wings, which took a while.
Kotori stretched her arms over her head, sore aching muscles groaning at finally being free from sitting in a chair all day trying to pretend nothing had happened other than the miracle she had pulled off for AJ. The child had reminded her of Maki when the redhead had been young, a young nervous werewolf cub who she and Umi had to reteach the ways of the world and raise instead of the redhead's rather greedy and arrogant birth father.
Speaking of Maki, she had really needed that break from the meetings to meet up with the grumpy redhead who was her not by blood, daughter. The confirmation that Maki was safe and unharmed had helped settle her skittish and shaken consciousness. Even if she had had to go back to the complicated meetings, reassure the council here that she had performed the miracle on AJ to benefit the hospital, not just werewolves, and spend more time pretending that her mate hadn't taken a near fatel injury-
Metallic blood and the strong acid of werewolf venom stung the inside of Kotori's nose, an acidic combination that would've made her stomach turn over were it not for the panic and the sizzling of heightened magic in her veins.
Kotori flinched and she gave a deep inhale to try and calm herself.
It wasn't real, none of it was real.
Her fingers burned, almost as though the magic in her veins were killing off the blood supply and slowly killing her within the panic filled last couple seconds.
The sensations couldn't be real, not when she had seen Umi just a few minutes ago.
Pain pricked at her lower lip just before it tingled almost as though it was falling asleep.
Kotori shut her eyes and leaned forward into the dresser, fingers digging hard into the wood. If she were any stronger it would've at least cracked beneath her grip. She didn't want to think about it, thinking about what happened was the last thing she needed when she was supposed to be keeping it together.
She was supposed to be pretending it didn't happen, that she hadn't seen her mate practically bleeding out on the asphault. She was expected to bounce back, maintain an impenetrable facade of gentle but strong professionality to keep the people unaware of what exactly had transpired just this morning. To them she was just a sun-angel, another descendent trying to finish her lineage's goal of peace. Not a mate, a pack luna, a best friend, mother, none of it. All they wanted her to do was keep moving everyone toward the peace everyone longed for.
When she had almost just lost what was almost everything to her...
"Kotori?" Kotori heard the door to the ajoining hotel room open and knew who it was by the voice and the smell of jasmine and oak wood that tickled her nose. "Are you okay?" Umi's voice was low and concerned, no doubt she had been able to get a good jist of what was going on in her head over the time it had taken for both of them to shower and change into casual clothes.
Well, at least Kotori had changed into casual clothes, Umi was in another set of slacks and a button down shirt that was currently left unbuttoned, no doubt having hurried out to see what was going on with the angel. Though Umi being Umi, she probably did.
"No," Kotori tried to take a deep breath, tried to calm herself down when she knew what was causing her senses to go haywire was just the repressed panic and terror that had been living under her skin all day. After all, that pain and terror was why Maki, the only person she had a mother parental bond with, had been fighting so much panic and overwhelming stress. It was because of Kotori, because the sun-angel hadn't been allowed to really get her own shaken panic and utter terror out of her system.
Umi's arms slipped silently around her body and the werewolf held her close, just being there, like she always was. She didn't tell her to stop freaking out, say that she was overreacting, other anything, rather she just let the angel work out what she wanted to do.
"Σταματήστε την αιμορραγία, και να-"
Umi was shoving her away and had the offending other creature on top of her before Kotori could finish the spell.
Kotori's hand went up to Umi's arms, clasping around her wrist so she could feel the alpha's strong pulse and see the faint blue of her major veins her in arms. Which was because of an increase in werewolf venom throughout Umi's system. Though Umi's venom, like any other werewolf's, had unique genetically passed onto them unique qualities, and Umi's? Well… Sonoda's was a lethal nerve toxin, even to other werewolves.
Umi's eyes glowed a bright neon blue and the alpha snarled from where it's bulky form was backed up gainst the car, protecting the vulnerable creature behind her.
Kotori was on the ground curled up with her hands clawing at her ears, screaming and crying from the agony of the emotional and mental manipulation being done to her mind and pounding at the barriers protecting the links to her packmates.
Blue liquid trickled from the alpha's canines, the ground beneath each droplet sizzling under the potent acidic venom's strength.
Before the alpha gave a violent roar and the world turned to turquoise as Kotori's eyes, currently an electric green with blue swirls, rolled back into her head.
The light levels immediately dropped to those of a solar eclipse, the twilight zone with the sun being blocked, and matter bent and morphed. The asphalt around them all cracked and the cracks spiderwebbed out from a quarter of a mile, light poles and road signs twisted and bent like they were putty, the light bulbs shattered while the glowing light of the bulbs remained, frozen as though something had control over it.
The crack of a sniper rifle split the air and hit it's target dead on, piercing through the heart of one of the frozen vampires.
Before blue flashed forward and between, and teeth sunk into flesh. Injecting a lethal nerve toxin and ensuring the outcome of the event...
"Kotori."
"U-Umi," Kotori stumbled over her mate's name, the sun angel could finally hear straight, could hear her mate's steady heartbeat, and could feel the alpha's arms wrapped around her body. She couldn't see though, interestingly enough and before she could really think about it, a tiny ball of soft green light appeared above her nearly blinding her, leaking of her magic.
Umi winced with the bright, for night vision seeing werewolves, light and Kotori hastily banished the light so it was now only extremely dim to her eyes. Before she finally understood why it was so dark. Umi's massive and rarely visible black and navy blue wings were encircled around them both and Umi was holding her up, princess style.
Umi had created a small, dark space for her, as a way to soothe and comfort her.
Kotori wrapped her arms around Umi's neck and tucked her face against her neck, breathing in Umi's uniquely wood and jasmine scent and trying to get herself together. They had made another solar eclipse happen today. Another mixing of their unique magic in a dire time of need that supercharged both of them, providing an infinite loop of endlessly charging Kotori's magic via Umi's being charged by the moon and feeding it to Kotori while the alpha's power as a werewolf was increased via the moon.
Solar eclipses only happened when…
"Do you have another silver feather, Umi-chan?" Kotori asked, her voice muffled heavily by her face being tucked against her mate's skin.
"...Yes, Kotori," Umi replied quietly and the vibrations helped settle Kotori's mind a little more even though the words certainly didn't.
"What would happen if Lucia wasn't hellbent on keeping you alive, Umi-chan?" Kotori asked, using some unusual language to prove a bit of a point.
The fact her mate was alive after all of these years wasn't just from Umi's skill, even though there was nobody more skilled than the alpha. Rather, the lunar goddess Lucia, had something planned for the death defying werewolf alpha who didn't believe in fate and a stagnant destiny and never had. She was alive because of Umi, so was Honoka, but she knew that both of them were supposed to be part of something larger than themselves.
"She's keeping me alive to protect you," Umi murmured softly and Kotori breathed a shuddered breath as the alpha sat down on what was likely Kotori's hotel bed. "You're the creature the rest of the earth calls a demi-god Kotori, and you're the person I would've protected in any life."
Kotori couldn't help but have the thought, 'but who would've protected you?' Kotori herself was only a jumble of different species thrown together as a hybrid and luna. She was born half-mage and half-sun angel, but through her soulmate, a.k.a Umi, being a werewolf pack alpha, she was more than just those two species. Kotori was a quarter-mage, quarter-sun angel, eighth human, one quarter and one eighth omega-alpha werewolf, supernatural hybrid.
The first impurity of the sun-angel bloodline, just like Maki, and if Kotori and Umi lived long enough to have children, they would be the first impurity of the pureblooded werewolf Sonodas.
"Let me see the injury, Umi," Kotori whispered after a little while of being cradled safely within the werewolf's fallen angel wings.
She told herself that she needed to just look at it, to look at it and confirm that her mate wasn't going to bleed out.
That they weren't okay now, but they would be soon.
The light that hit Kotori's eyes as Umi obediently folded her wings back to her body, was nearly blinding to her sensitive eyes. So she winced and instinctively squinted against the light of the setting sun, waiting for her eyes to adjust while her mate silently laid back onto her back, letting the angel have access to the injury to her abdoment and lower chest.
Kotori moved into straddling her mate's waist, a more comfortable, easier position to look at and examine the injury to her mate's body. She laid her palm over the injury in the same way she had back when she had been panicking trying to stop the bleeding this morning, but instead of there being a lack of substance and a gorey mess of crimson blood beneath her hand, there was simply smooth, soft skin. Her palm dipped slightly into the injury like she was touching firm memory foam with each time Umi breathed.
There was no outward signs of the injury and it wouldn't ever be noticed by anyone other than the angel herself. However, Kotori knew from previous experience that the injury was still there, merely masked by layers of new werewolf thick skin and bathed in the venom produced in Umi's body that will make the injury heal with incredible speed. Unlike when she was a teenager, the lack of resistance didn't bother her. She had seen too many injuries on the werewolf's lean body for it to bother her anymore.
Kotori watched the werewolf breathe, her toned stomach gently rising and falling with patiently relaxed breaths. There had been a point today where she had been convinced that she wouldn't ever see her breath like this.
Umi protected her chest and abdomen like it was her lifeline and in reality, it was. Umi could be shot in the head and she would've been fine, in fact she probably would've just had a migraine as her skull was dense enough to repel bullets without harm, but her chest however… catch her unawares and get the werewolf in the upper sternum and it was all over. The venom that circulated Umi's body was her life blood, not the blood that ran through her body like anyone else's and…
Kotori slid her palm up to the center of Umi's chest under the band of fabric there.
… the organ that held and created it was protected in the center of Umi's chest, a mere inch above the edge of the werewolf's injury.
Long fingers gently caressed the side of Kotori's face and the angel blinked, refocusing on the world around her.
Umi was looking at her, the werewolf had her over hand resting comfortingly over her thigh with a patient and gentle expression in those amber eyes tainted by the wildness built into her from birth. Her irises glowed like a campfire in the moonlight and her pupils were wide, round like a puppy's like they usually were when they were completely alone and unlike the constricted slender form it took when they were around other people. The round shape spoke of Umi's love and affection for the angel sitting over her, a signal in her body language she had no control over when she fully relaxed.
"Kotori...," Umi's voice was low, a soft alto spoken in a light hushed tone painted with soft concern.
She didn't have to finish the sentence for Kotori to understand what she was saying.
"I know," Kotori leaned into Umi's touch, taking comfort in her caloused but smooth palm and long fingers tucked into the hair behind her ear. "I just…" tears threatened to well up in Kotori's eyes and she found it too hard to finish the sentence.
Umi withdrew her arm from behind her head and Kotori felt the werewolf's forearm slip around her waist beneath her shirt in a form of gentle close comfort for werewolves. "I'm okay," she whispered softly in English. There was a familiar rasp in her voice that warned Kotori of the shift of languages before it happened. "I'm here," she rumbled, the noise vibrating through the alpha's throat and chest, "just like I've always been and always will be."
Kotori breathed a shuddered breath and felt the tears slip down her cheeks as she pulled her lower lip in between her teeth to keep it from trembling. It was just so hard to bottle everything up like she had been doing all day, forced to stay in work mode while she just wanted to make sure Umi was actually okay, wrap her arms around her, and bawl.
"We're okay," Umi crooned and Kotori felt her hand slip from the side of her face to higher up on her head, fingers carding through short fluffy golden fur of what Kotori knew was another appearance of her wolf ears. The low noise of Umi's words in wolfish tickled the tiny fur of her inner ears in a way that really made the words echo in her head.
They were okay, it was over, she didn't have to pretend anymore, at least not for a little while.
Kotori heaved a sharp breath as her vision blurred with tears and she scrunched up her face before she couldn't help it. She threw herself down ontop of Umi in a tight hug with a blubbering wolf-like whine and buried her face into the crook of Umi's neck as she completely broke down.
"Sweetheart…" Umi's arm slipped up her back and gently stroked down her spine in a werewolf form of soothing. Kotori felt the fingers of her free hand slide into her long hair and cradle the back of her head to her.
Kotori merely cried harder, cradled in Umi's arms with the werewolf's strong rhythmic heartbeat in her heightened hearing ears.
They were okay, everyone was okay.
Nico's soulmate was an ingima, there just… wasn't really another way to describe the redhead who was grumpily calm one second and reserved with a tongue as sharp as a blade spell.
Even so, something about her drew Nico in and it wasn't the whole soulmate thing. Something about Maki was just… fascinating. The gorgeous redhead was a firecracker, that Nico was sure, but at the same time she had a feeling that there was just so much more to her than meets the eye.
Nico pulled her phone from her pocket and glanced at one of the images she had managed to convince Kotori to send to her as she walked down the stairs. A few pictures of Maki enjoying the piano, working downstairs in her lab, and or the redhead being a complete dork and balancing a pencil on her nose. She pulled up the picture of Maki at the piano and let her gaze linger on it as her mind wandered.
There was so much more to Maki than the aggressive attitude she had seen most of the day yesterday, as today had revealed. Maki was capable of calm, a more low energy attitude that was similar to one of the two people that had raised her, which was another thing that was rather important to Nico. As a child who was an orphan herself, Nico knew what it was like to have parents abandon her and end up confused about her childhood. But, like Maki, Nico had gotten her second chance, a chance that led her into meeting Nozomi, her only childhood friend. Who she would be endlessly grateful for having in her life.
Truth be told, she moved here, to this city, because of Nozomi.
Being around the future scryer for so many of her childhood and teenage years meant Nico was used to Nozomi giving some kind of vague direction and so Nico would, begrudgingly, always follow through with it. Which was how Nico briefly met Kotori years ago, which was a memory that was surfacing now that she saw the angel more often.
After all, Nico was only a year older than Maki. So she had only been ten when she had meant the seventeen year old at the time, giggly angel who, along with Nozomi, had been just a little tipsy with the future scryer's mischief mixing in with the angel's prone for cheeky mischief. The memory had always been pretty faint and blurred with the public image of the angel and Nico's best friend Nozomi, but it definitely still existed, not that it mattered anymore.
Not when she had seen the angel get dunked in a pool, assaulted by Nozomi, collide with a table, and embarrass Maki all in the past day and a half.
"Aren't you supposed to be working on your lines?"
Maki's lightly raspy, from being a werewolf as the sun set, voice broke Nico from her thoughts with a jump and the actress would've toppled down the stairs were it not for Maki's supernatural reflexes kicking in and catching the short actress before she could take a tumble down the rest of the stairs.
"Damnit tomato-head, you're going to give Nico heart palpitations!" Nico snapped and dramatically held a hand to her heart to ease the tension, even though Maki gave off a lazy calm aura, so all of the tension was on Nico's side. Whatever food the werewolf ate to make her so lazy and relaxed made the werewolf lucky, cause Nico felt like she was going to die. Die from the werewolf's proximity and the fact that she was being carried princess style by Maki, her soulmate Maki.
"Well if I'm going to give someone palpitations then at least it'll be on someone I can monitor for problems," Maki deadpanned with a raised eyebrow, much to Nico's amusement which helped to distract her from her quickly beating heart. "But you didn't answer the question shortie,"
Nico rolled her eyes and fought the urge to swat the fiery redhead, "it's not my fault you're a giant, Maki! Not everyone has the freakishly tall genes that you and Umi have, I mean, Kotori can't even put her head on Umi's shoulder or anything!"
Maki's expression was flat as she replied, "you do realize I can easily just let go right, Nico?"
Nico's eyes widened, but she instantly bounced back and gave her a charming smile, "and Nico can light you on fire or shock you with an electricity spell?"
The look on Maki's face was the perfect example of a, 'I'm not impressed face,' and Nico briefly worried that the redhead werewolf would drop her, but to her surprise, she didn't. Rather, Maki's face exploded with red like she just registered what she was doing and just said, and she quickly jerked her head away from Nico, keeping her face away from her. So Nico could only see the redhead's major blush by her cheek bone. "Whatever," the redhead with an impressively red face muttered and started her way down the rest of the stairs in a no doubt embarrassed silence.
Nico could feel her own ears turning bright red at the redhead's embarrassment sparking her own repressed embarrassment. Oh god, Maki, her gorgeous soulmate Maki, was holding her princess style and walking down the stairs after catching Nico from falling down the stairs.
Her ears burned.
"Thank you."
Maki grunted.
"Sonoda-sama."
Umi didn't pause her gentle rubbing of Kotori's back at the summon through her earpiece she had on mute like she always did as it could use her telepathic abilities. However judging by the unfamiliar vocal tones Umi could guess they wouldn't be familiar with her telepathic voice. So, she reluctantly pressed the earpiece and spoke in English, "yes sir?"
Kotori sighed softly in irritation and Umi gently ran her fingers through the fur of Kotori's ears to soothe her. The angel's grip on her shirt was loose, effectively tired out from her emotional melt down and Umi couldn't blame her, today had been more hectic than it had been for many years as the pain in her lower chest proved.
"I can't seem to locate Minami-sama to deliver the council's invitation for breakfast tomorrow, where is she?"
"Her whereabouts are not the council's concern as under her personal request she is to not be disturbed by those without permission." Umi easily lied, thoroughly used to warding off the people who really had no reason to be trying to hunt the beautiful angel down. "However, she should be free tomorrow morning, what time do you want her there?"
Kotori's ear twitched near her chin, the flopped shape of the bent ear making it too short to brush against her face and if you asked Umi, the natural oddity was extremely adorable. The twitch definitely meant the angel was listening and she wasn't exactly pleased about it. The lack of English however was a clearer sign of the angel's secret werewolf side being active. Which only made it more irritating for the werewolf to be having a conversation with some random person while her matewas there, werewolf traits and all, snuggled up with her.
"The council's merely concerned about her as she hasn't been seen by any guards beside yourself for quite some time."
"Sir, pardon the overstepping of bounds, but if the council doubts my ability to do my job kindly have them contact me personally." Umi kept her tone cool despite how there was a part of her that wanted to hunt down and punch the irritating man for taking up her currently precious time, no doubt something influenced by her alpha genetics. "As I requested before, what time do the council want her down in the dining hall tomorrow morning?"
"Seven-thirty, Sonoda-san" another voice broke in and Umi felt Kotori's ear tilt slightly in an expression of relief. "It's at a cafe down the street from the hotel Minami-sama is staying at, will Minami-sama be attending?"
Umi quickly mentally ran through Kotori's schedule for tomorrow before she gently prodded the angel, do you want to go? She doubted she would, Kotori had never been a fan of social events while working as she would prefer to stay in the hotel and get other work done.
Kotori buried her head further into her neck and Umi didn't need her shaking her head against her skin to understand it as a no.
"I do not believe so," Umi responded to the other guard, "Minami-sama has requested some personal time for herself for that time after today's events." She felt Kotori's breath tickle her neck as she nuzzled her. She didn't need to hear the unique almost purr-like sound rumble through the luna's throat or the relief through their bond to know she made up the correct type of excuse.
"Very well," the other guard kept the original person who paged Umi from speaking, keeping up a brisk pace, "Kousaka-san will be coming by to their rooms soon with Tojo-sama and her partner, send them all my regards."
"Of course, have a good evening Kira-san."
"Same to you Sonoda-san."
Umi pressed on the earpiece again to disconnect the connection and allowed herself a moment and took a deep breath, Kotori's natural vanilla scent pleasantly tickling her nose. If she was in the pack house she probably would've just let her eyes shut and relaxed with Kotori snuggled with her, but they weren't. They were cities away from their home and working, so she had to get up and going.
Kotori's other ear flicked against her chin and Umi mindlessly stroked the fluffy wolf ear of her mate's as she replied, "you know it's true." As per usual Kotori had understood what she was thinking without her saying or really thinking anything.
Kotori stubbornly nuzzled her head deeper into Umi's neck, effectively acting as a dead weight against Umi's intentions to get up. Clearly the ash-blonde wasn't in the mood to pretend again, not that Umi blamed her. If she could spend the next couple hours just lying here, snuggled with a safe and healthy Kotori, she would.
"Kotori..."
A soft rumbling sound of wolfish, "no," coupled with more nuzzles and even a yawn was Kotori's response to the firm request to get off of her, The yawn didn't make it any easier for Umi to get up when she could feel the exhaustion from this morning lingering in her bones.
Umi stifled a yawn herself, rolled her eyes and lifted her arm from Kotori's head. Which only got her a wolf-like whine from the angel, "Kotori, you have to move."
Kotori's consciousness was moving sluggishly, signs of the angel teetering on the edge of falling asleep. Seriously? She was ignoring her and falling asleep?
"Okay, I warned you," Umi sighed and Kotori gave a disoriented yelp when she flipped them over.
"What was that for Umi-chan?" Kotori asked blearily in English and rubbed her eyes. Her fluffy ears were gone, replaced with her usual human ones and she wasn't speaking in Umi's birth language anymore, rather she was speaking one of the universal humans' many languages.
Umi didn't respond to the question and instead frowned in mild disappointment and irritation at the vanishment of Kotori's luna abilities. Even if logically they weren't supposed to be out around others and or outside of their pack house, just in case, that didn't mean she didn't miss them. They were just another part of the angel the public had no idea about, a part of the angel that existed because of Umi. A part of her that the pack was amused by and Umi adored, even if she had moments where she wished the luna didn't have to hide it, just like the larger half of her personality.
"Aw, someone's not focusing on work for once!" Umi missed the teasing tone of Kotori's voice and instantly regretted it when she felt the angel lightly pull softly on one of her furry ears to focus her attention.
"Ow!" Umi recoiled even though it was more of a shock than painful and she refocused her gaze on her mate. Who was giving her a mischievous smirk from beneath her with her long hair splayed out all over the sheets, now wide awake at the opportunity to tease the werewolf. Well at least the sun-angel was feeling better.
"Kotori!" she snapped however, "that... hurts…" Umi trailed off, ear pain forgotten for a brief moment at the moonlight turning Kotori's eyes faintly silver. A subtle uncontrollable sign of her connection to the moon as a pack luna and because of that, part werewolf.
Kotori let her hand fall away from Umi's ear and the werewolf was rewarded for her lapse of concentration with a mischievous but loving smile and twinkling golden eyes. Whose irises were infused with silver and glowed softly in the moonlight.
"Why'd you do that?" Umi grumbled in an attempt to ignore what was going on in her head and rubbed at the spot on her ear that was currently tingling from her mate's touch.
"Because it was fun," Kotori hummed and sat up. Umi jumped as Kotori's nose almost bumped against hers due to the way Umi was still technically straddling her at the hips. "You okay Umi?" She asked in a teasing way and Umi offered her an odd look, before she cautiously leaned away from her.
"Yes? I'm just thinking, Kotori," Umi scrambled off of her mate, "why?"
"Cause you're acting a bit funny," Kotori hummed with an expression Umi knew she pulled to get a reaction out of her but the alpha was helpless to do anything about.
The confused pursed lipped expression made Umi falter, her amber gaze flickering to her mate's lips. Before she quickly shook herself, her body actually followed through with the mental action, and narrowed her eyes at Kotori, "Kotori…"
"Hm?" Kotori replied innocently even though she leaned over and innocently pecked her on the lips. Or, the action would've been innocent were it not for that Umi knew she was baiting her into a reaction, as per her usual teasing attitude.
"There's… things that need to be done," Umi replied even though it was a weak response and they both knew it. She was too distracted with everything that was going on to spare the effort of fighting the teasing.
After all, the angel's freckles were fainter than usual, Umi noticed, temporarily distracted with Kotori and her personal lack of proper concentration at the moment. The fainter freckles were usually a sign of mildly low magic stores in the angel.
A normal non injured, not exhausted, and not skittishly uneasy Umi Sonoda would've ended the teasing by now and gotten up to change and settle her mind since she was working. However this wasn't the normal Umi Sonoda. This was the exhausted, overprotective, and skittishly uneasy Umi Sonoda that was alone and safe with a mischievous angel who she almost lost this morning according to Nozomi.
That was definitely the reason why Umi found her fingers brushing over the angel's lower lip where it had been split and bleeding earlier that morning. It definitely didn't have to do with Kotori's luna abilities showing up and throwing her for enough of a loop that the angel knocked down her carefully built work walls with just a soft sneeze.
It also had nothing to do with how she was comfortable absorbing the onslaught of attention right now, whereas normally she would've almost never allowed any of it while she was working.
Wasn't she always working though? The thought drifted through Umi's mind and the werewolf found herself rather lost in her own head, the logic part of her bashing heads with the part of her that was secretly scared and just wanted to take a moment to breathe, relax, and shower her mate in love.
Of course, her wolf, or the wild influence from her werewolf genetics was involved too, and much to Umi's displeasure, the impression it was pushing through her head wasn't exactly one she needed right now, even if it's presence didn't surprise her.
Her senses were already muddled from Kotori having been snuggled with her moments earlier. Her sense of smell and her hearing were more sensitive and finely tuned toward the angel, while her ear and lips tingled with traces of a heightened sense of touch. Even though the general light humming of her skin was unfortunately there as well, even if it was because she was a werewolf.
So with those in mind, it was no surprise that the wolf, or really, the wild animal side of her, won. After all, werewolves were three-quarters wolf and only one-quarter human
Even if it had a tendency to cause problems for the reserved emotionally distant werewolf who had to work extremely hard to keep up that mask and behavior that the public expected from her. Which Kotori did too, but Kotori right now smelled of mischievous love, which one, did Umi no favors in ignoring the whole being a werewolf thing, and two, made it more difficult since Kotori had gotten much more stubborn after becoming a pack luna.
Umi's thoughts were shattered to pieces by her mate's breath tickling her face and her fingers brushing over her jaw. As Kotori softly tugged Umi's head down toward her, which Umi mindlessly let her do and even leaned into her touch.
Kotori smelled happy, teasing and mischevious yes, but still, she smelled of happiness and love, something Umi didn't get a lot of while they were away from the pack house. Which was why Umi let Kotori do what she wanted, even if she saw the faint very brief flickers of the werewolf usually hidden deep inside the luna in her eyes before she pulled her into a brief kiss.
"I love you," the luna murmured softly against Umi's lips and Umi didn't resist the second one, nor did she the third one, when rather, she instigated the third kiss.
The affection was comforting and thrilling for the high strung werewolf, feeling the warmth of Kotori's fingers against her jaw and the affectionate warmth of her kiss. It was a reassurance, reassurance that Kotori was alive, safe, and hers.
"Someone's reacting to the moon," Kotori giggled lightly and pulled away, even though she was smiling and there was a depth to her golden eyes that only Umi got to see.
"Shut up," Umi snuffled in wolfish, reverting to her birth language when her mind was already extremely foggy. "You've got ears and canines too, Kotori."
"I know," Kotori laughed in a snort in wolfish, shifting languages without hesitation, and flopped backward onto her back with a grin that had the almost always hidden just slightly elongated canines of one of her werewolf traits. Unlike many werewolves, Kotori's were just barely long enough for the tips to poke out from under her upper lip and it along with the completely flopped over right ear tended to give her a puppy-like adorable factor, unlike other werewolves. "Who do you think made them happen?" She rumbled cheekily, even though both of them were well aware that it was because Umi was a pack leader that her soulmate, a.k.a Kotori, physically changed and became part werewolf.
"I did, because you wanted me to make a pack," Umi rolled her eyes back at the angel and rubbed at the bridge of her nose for a moment, simply looking at the beautiful sun angel. She was going to regret this in like thirty seconds, wasn't she?
Kotori merely looked back at her with fluffy ash-blonde ears, longer canines, and silver reflecting the moon in her golden eyes.
Yup, Umi was going to regret this.
"You're going to be the death of me, Kotori," Umi grumbled but she pulled the angel closer to her like she was hooking a paw around her and tugged her to her. Even if there was the faintest traces of smirking alpha in the stoically calm bodyguard's face.
Seeing her friend and childhood packmate a bit messy and grumpy wasn't what Honoka had honestly expected when she had lightly knocked on the door to the hotel room number she had been given to meet up with Umi and Kotori for a bit.
"Not one, word Honoka," Umi grumbled around the pen-like device in her mouth and Honoka cracked a smirk. The wolfsbane e-cig, or bane-cig for short was a device for mainly alpha werewolves that contained wolfsbane, a non-toxic, non-addictive oil from the wolfsbane plant that worked to tame the intensity of the wolf and animal part of their makeup.
With how much closer alphas were to wolves compared to betas or omegas, the rarest of the three classes, wolfsbane and various medications were ways for the brash, dare-devil, risky, and incredibly impulsive alphas. It could be used in diffusers as well, but that was more risky with the fact that nobody besides Honoka herself and her mate knew that Umi was staying in here instead of going to her own room.
However, Honoka knew Umi mainly used it for one particular reason, one that on the full moon where she had to show up for meetings, Kotori would too. Despite Umi's flat impassiveness, the alpha had had a high physical drive since she was a teenager. Umi was just very good at controlling it if left unprovoked.
Looks like Umi was provoked this time, which made sense with the sheer amount of stress everyone had gone through today.
"I won't," Honoka promised the alpha and instead of saying anything about the bane-cig, she opened her arm for a hug, hoping her not so touchy, unless it was Kotori or Maki, friend, would accept the embrace.
"Thank you," Umi stepped forward and the one sided hug with her, a habit from the three way hugs they were used to including Kotori in since toddlerhood. "It's been way too long since you have been around Honoka."
"I know right? This is the first time Kotori and her mom's been in the same building in… well, I don't remember how many years?" Honoka admitted sheepishly and released the alpha in favor of stepping inside and closing the door behind her. She could see the back of Kotori's head and shoulders outlined by the moonlight outside, the sun-angel seemed to be asleep, at least for now judging by her slow breathing and lightly twitching furry ears.
"Four or five years," Umi confirmed how long it had been and flicked on one of the lights. Which revealed that the hotel room was as clean and organized as Honoka remembered Kotori's always being the last time she had seen them. That and the fact that Kotori was definitely asleep as the angel was stretched out taking up most of the space on the bed, which Honoka knew had to be because Umi must have gotten up to get the door, and the angel had her head tucked between the two pillows of the bed. "Pardon, Kotori's asleep," Umi apologized for the third member of their childhood trio as she took a seat on the bed. "She's used a lot of magic today as you saw, not to mention that she teleported back to the pack house to see Maki this afternoon."
"I don't blame her for sleeping, today's been one heck of a day, right?" Honoka found herself a chair before she dragged it over toward the alpha and sat down backward on it. "I mean, it's been actual years since anything really crazy's happened, remember back-."
"I don't miss the craziness of our early adult years Honoka," Umi cut her off with half amusement and a mild shake of her head. "I've lived through that chaos once and I'd rather not live through it again. Not to mention that I've got enough scars as reminders."
"You mean like your nose?" Honoka chuckled and playfully pointed to the row of neat scars in her friend's nose. Though in reality the scars themself wasn't really funny, since the injury itself was was from a possessed half-transformed werewolf sinking it's claws into Umi's nasal cavity and sinuses after shattering her nose, but it was something the three of them, her, Umi, and Kotori, laughed over now. After all, laughter made the job easier, especially… Honoka's blue eyes wandered toward the sleeping member of their trio.
...when their enemies were getting more crafty and cunning.
Who knows what would happen next time, all Honoka knew was that there was no way in the world Umi would make the same mistake twice, none of them would.
"The glaring scar on my face that I see everyday I look in a mirror definitely isn't one of the scars I was talking about," Umi rolled her eyes and Honoka smiled at the exaggerated attempt at humor from her friend, which she knew was for her benefit. "Kotori says she likes it," Umi replied cheekily with hints of a wolfish smirk and Honoka broke into giggles.
She had missed them both, so, so much.
Even as kids, she had known that having them close beside her and hanging out all the time wasn't going to last, it had been hard not to. After all, both of them were always busy between school, their family specific prep classes, after school sports, training camps, and short trips with Kotori's mother, even at just ten-years-old. By the time they were preteens, besides the younger Kotori, it had gotten to a point where Honoka would go days on the weekends without seeing her two best friends. And being separated from the two people that were dearer to her heart than her own sister had been heartbreaking.
Sure, she was used to both of them being gone for a day or two at a time every couple months being excused from school for half week long business trips and training, but it became different when they became teenagers. Instead of a day or two it turned to a week or two, and spent more time traveling to other cities and islands than back home where the three of them grew up.
So, she finally had enough and despite her parents' worry, when she turned thirteen she chose to enroll in a bodyguard program, just like Umi. Granted, Umi had six years of experience on her and was a Sonoda, so they weren't in almost any of the same classes and programs, but they saw each other more, at least till they all graduated high school and real life really kicked in for them while Honoka was still stuck in training.
Weeks of distance became months as Kotori stepped up and took her place as the liaison she was born and groomed to be. Calls and texting became the primary way they communicated with her, their schedules never meeting up between Honoka's training and Kotori's packed schedule.
But… over time the distance got easier, especially when her training finished and she got to see them both more via traveling to meetings with Kotori's mother as her bodyguard. Even when the distance got to the point of years spanning between the times she got to see them, it was okay. Because when they were all together, the distance would dissolve and she would get her two best friends in the world back, just like when they were little. The three of them shared close to twenty-four years of friendship, just a few years shy of Kotori's age, and the friendship was what formed their entire lives. It was a friendship that had created the center of the peaceful negotiations between species and it's protectors and Honoka couldn't be more proud to be part of it.
"Geez, don't remind me how much I've missed Umi!" Honoka laughed with a complaint and nostalgic smile from the places her mind had wandered. "All I've gotten to see are pictures, including Maki's graduation back when that happened, and that multiple years ago now!"
"One of these days you'll have to see her again, according to Kotori, Maki says you couldn't have grown up an inch," Umi chuckled and picked up the book lying on the dresser beside the bed.
"Ruude," Honoka laughed, "everyone grows up as they get older, including me!" Her voice softened and she smiled at her friend, "how's it feel to have Maki all grown up now? Feel weird?"
Umi's fingers mindlessly flipped through the book's pages and her expression appeared rather thoughtful. "I guess? I mean, she's still always going to be Maki, the child Kotori and I rescued, to me no matter how old she gets. If you asked Kotori though, I'm sure you'd get a different reaction, since she cried for an hour after Maki's graduation."
"Maki's my baby," Kotori's groggy mumble made Honoka jump and she and Umi exchanged smirks before they both watched the angel in a hoodie and shorts rub at her eyes with one arm and slowly push herself into sitting up, sleep making each of her movements lag slightly. "Who're you talking to?"
"Why don't you see for yourself?" Umi suggested as she brushed the sleepy angel's bangs from her face.
When Kotori looked over, that's when Honoka pounced, leaping at the angel with a grin and hug tackle.
The resounding squealing yelp in wolfish from the angel made both Umi and Honoka break out laughing.
