To Butterfly: Supportive couples are really sweet!
To Lyger 0: That's a good point. My fan theory is that she has trained in both, but she does fencing a little more because it's more common in Europe.
Kagami clutched Luka's hand tightly as, luggage in hand, they made their way past customs to where her cousin was waiting to meet them. Luka gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, rubbing slow circles into the back of her hand with his thumb. She gave him a tight-lipped smile and released a slow breath, allowing her nervousness out. "Don't forget what I said about proper etiquette!" she hissed.
"Proper what?" he asked, wide-eyed.
She looked up at him in surprise and he smiled. She glared at him halfheartedly and rolled her eyes. "Not funny," she grumbled.
"It's going to be fine," he assured her, squeezing her hand and giving her a tug until she stopped walking just before they reached the corner.
"I hope so…" Kagami forced herself to breathe normally as they stepped out of the flow of traffic. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead into Luka's chest, clenching his hand tightly. He kissed her forehead, and she sighed.
"You truly are not alone, Kagami-san," Longg piped up from her purse.
She nodded. "Thank you." She let out a breath. "I'm okay." Luka gave her hand another squeeze as they rounded the corner and left the secure area, approaching the airport exit. Her eyes wandered across the sea of people, looking for a familiar face. The crowd pressed in around them. Finally she found her cousin, standing near the exit and watching them impassively. "Shiro!" she called, dragging both Luka and her suitcase over to him. He inclined his head slightly, a gesture which she returned.
"So good to see you, cousin," Shiro responded, looking her up and down. "You are well? The flight was comfortable?"
"I am very well," she assured him with a small smile. "We had no difficulties on the flight – it was rather relaxing." She squeezed Luka's hand, her nervousness returning in full force. "This is Luka, my boyfriend."
Luka held out his hand to Shiro, and Kagami elbowed him in the side. Shiro, however, took the offered hand, shaking it firmly. "It is nice to meet you," Luka told him, inclining his head also.
"Likewise. I have heard very little – my Obasan has been rather tight-lipped."
Kagami sighed. "You know my Mother – of a set with Ojisan."
Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Indeed. I look forward to getting to know you better, Luka."
"Same," Luka agreed, smiling.
"Shall we?" Shiro gestured toward the exit. "My parents are expecting us shortly."
Kagami followed him out the door to the waiting car for the short ride to the family residence just north of Tokyo. The silent driver stuffed their bags into the trunk while Shiro, Luka, and her got into the back seat. Kagami sat in the middle, between Shiro and Luka, her back straight.
"How was university?" she asked Shiro as the car pulled away.
"Fine," he answered.
"You studied Accounting?"
Shiro nodded.
Out the window, looking past Luka, Kagami could see the tower housing the Tsurugi Group's Asian headquarters, where most of her meetings were going to happen. Only a few blocks from there on the same street was the Kikai Tower, which housed Ojisan's company as well as the music distributor with whom Luka would meet in the morning. "Are you going to be coming into the office with us tomorrow?" she asked. "Finances are going to come up."
Shiro's jaw clenched and unclenched. "I do not know," he admitted.
Kagami furrowed her eyebrows, examining him closely.
"Your thing is the numbers?" asked Luka curiously. When Shiro nodded, he continued, "That is one part of the business that I just do not get. I know we need it, and I appreciate having someone to take care of it, but I just prefer the music."
Shiro let out a small snort. "You do not want to lose control of your finances," he warned, raising an eyebrow. "It is far too easy to lose everything that way."
Luka grinned. "Our band's 'accountant' said the same thing – though his exact phrase was 'you can lose your shirts', since he owns a fashion house!"
Shiro cracked a small smile. Kagami laughed. "That does sound like Adrien," she agreed.
They lapsed into silence and the kilometers ticked away. Kagami frowned pensively, looking past Luka at the Tokyo skyline. Both she and Luka had important meetings in the morning. And unfortunately the music distributor had only been available at the same time as her meeting with Ojisan and his board. Her breathing hitched. She was here to represent her mother's company – the company which her mother expected her to take over in a few years, a plan which she had (from a certain perspective) accepted last month when she signed her contract. How would she be able to do this?
Luka's hold on her hand tightened, and she glanced over to find him watching her closely. She gave him a subtle nod, and the pressure eased. Her free hand found her purse and the two Kwamis therein. She may be here representing her mother's company, but she was not here alone.
After a silent car ride they pulled up in front of the house where her mother had grown up. The car stopped right in front of the main entrance, and the driver pulled out their luggage and carried it up to the front door before returning to the car to pull it around to the side where the separate garage sat. Her heart filled with mounting trepidation, Kagami followed Shiro inside, Luka's hand still gripped tightly in her own. Ojisan Eiji and Obasan Miki stood waiting for them just inside the door, and Kagami bowed lower on seeing them. Beside her, this time Luka copied the action.
"Hello, Ojisan, Obasan," Kagami greeted them formally. "Thank you so much for the opportunity to stay with you on this trip."
"Of course, Mei," her uncle replied, inclining his head slightly. He gave her a small smile. "It is our honor to host you and your friend while you are here." At that he turned to Luka and gave a small bow.
"It is good to meet you, sir," Luka told them hesitantly.
"Your Japanese is surprisingly good," her uncle commented, his eyes widening in surprise. He gave Luka an approving nod.
"Kagami has been helping me," replied Luka, grinning.
Her uncle nodded in understanding. "I would expect no less!" he noted. "I hope that this trip will help even more with that."
Kagami's aunt gestured for them to follow her. "I can only imagine how you must be feeling after spending so long on a plane," she told them. "You must be jetlagged."
"My body still is not sure what time it is," Luka agreed, his lips curving in amusement.
"If you are tired, I am sure you would like to see your rooms, eat, and rest. Your schedule is quite busy tomorrow. The chef has dinner prepared already."
Kagami followed her aunt down the hallway, past the ancestral katana displayed prominently on the wall. Luka hesitated for a moment to examine the ornate handle, but she tugged his hand until he followed.
"Do you have one of those?" he asked, curiously.
Kagami arched an eyebrow at him and smirked, tapping her miraculous. He wagged his eyebrows at her in amusement. Aloud she explained, "Although Father's family came from the samurai class, their family sword was lost in the Meiji Revolution. While I'm sure Mother would love for us to have a family katana of our own, it's not too common."
"That katana is still as sharp as the day it was made," Obasan Miki called over her shoulder as they walked. The first door they passed led to a hallway down which they could see the dining room and sitting room. Against the front windows in the sitting room sat an enormous Christmas tree, covered in white lights and decorated with dozens of red origami cranes, interspersed with red and white balls. Kagami couldn't look too closely, however, as right in front of them were the stairs to the second floor bedrooms. Upstairs, Obasan Miki pointed down the hallway to the left. "The family bedrooms are down this way," she told them. "Kagami, you will be in Kimiko's old room between ours and Shiro's." Leading them down the hallway to the right, Obasan stopped by the middle of the three doors. Inside was an immaculately-furnished room with a full-size bed and small closet. "You may stay here," she informed Luka. "The door next to this one is the bathroom."
Luka nodded and leaned his suitcase against the closet door before giving her a bow. "Thank you for your hospitality."
Obasan smiled warmly and inclined her head to him. "I am happy for the opportunity to meet one who is clearly very important to my dear Mei!" Kagami rolled her suitcase down the other hallway to the second room on that side, which was slightly larger than Luka's room and still decorated exactly the way she remembered from her last visit with her cousins – before she and her mother had moved to France.
Longg emerged slowly from her purse, Sass in tow, and looked around the room curiously. "I am glad we have finally arrived," he observed. "It is unfortunate that we could not simply allow Kaalki to bring us here!"
Kagami hummed. "That would have been nice," she agreed. "Perhaps next time…"
Sass stretched his arms. "I mussst admit, what I sssee of Japan doesss not appear any different from Parisss – or at leassst not yet!"
"Wait until we visit the city," Longg assured him.
Kagami smiled fondly. "Are you going to join us for dinner?"
Longg frowned in consideration but shook his head. "I will explore this room for now. Although I will not turn down any food you bring up."
"I'll see what I can do," she agreed. "But I shouldn't leave Luka alone with Obasan for too long…" Leaving her suitcase and the Kwamis in the room, she raced back to find Luka and her aunt standing together at the top of the stairs.
"We do not have guests stay with us very often," her aunt was telling Luka. "Our rules are quite simple: guests have access to the whole house except the family wing – so much easier on the housekeeper that way."
Kagami met Luka's eye behind her aunt's back and gave him a doubtful look. He simply looked back at her aunt and nodded. "I understand," he assured her.
Kagami's aunt led them back downstairs, where the housekeeper had already set out a simple meal. Her uncle asked about her mother and the company's prospects, and Kagami tried to answer as well as she could, despite the exhaustion starting to set in – even though it was hardly dinnertime and she had dozed on the plane, Kagami could hardly muster the strength to keep her eyes open. Eventually, after finishing their meal, Kagami picked up a handful of cookies for a "midnight snack," and she and Luka both excused themselves from the table to get ready for bed.
"I'll be up in a bit to see if there's anything you need," Obasan Miki called after them as they left the dining room.
"Thank you," Kagami replied, giving her a small smile. "I think I can still remember where everything is!"
At the top of the stairs, Luka gave her a quick peck on the lips and whispered, "Sleep well."
"You, too," she whispered back before returning to her room to find Longg alone, curled up on a Hello Kitty pillow. The moment the showed her the cookies, he pounced on them ravenously. Rummaging through her suitcase, Kagami changed into her old Viperion shirt and a pair of shorts to sleep in before brushing her teeth in the attached bathroom. Presently her aunt tapped on the door and asked if she needed anything, to which Kagami thanked her and assured her that she was fine. Finally the hall light outside her door went out. She turned off the lights in her own room and crawled into bed.
Longg drifted away from his pillow and spun into a back flip. Examining the pillow more closely, he hummed. "Plagg would be so disappointed they chose white instead of black."
Kagami giggled softly before fixing the Kwami with a calculating look. He met her gaze and smiled smugly. She flushed. "Can I–?"
"Use the power of the miraculous to visit your boyfriend?" Longg finished, raising an eyebrow. She nodded. "That is acceptable."
"Are you sure it's okay?"
"As long as you are not going to abuse my power, I have no problems with something like this," he assured her.
Kagami nodded and whispered her transformation phrase. A moment later, she whispered "Wind Dragon," and shifted form into air. With a thought, Ryoku slipped out of her bed and filtered under the door, into the hallway. The door next to her own creaked softly open, and Shiro crept out into the hall. She shied away from him, and he cocked his head in confusion, his hair moving in the faint breeze, before descending the stairs and leaving the house, out into the late evening. Ryoku blew down the hall silently to the room where Luka was staying, and slipped under his door. She heard the vague sound of a car engine as her wind form slid into the bed next to Luka. With a thought she returned to her physical form before de-transforming. Longg left them alone and phased into the nightstand to find Sass.
Luka's eyes shot wide open at her sudden appearance next to him, but before she had fully de-transformed, he had already wrapped his arms around her tightly and pulled her into a searing kiss. "I really wasn't expecting that," he told her when she pulled away. "Or this. But I'm not going to complain!"
"Well, Obasan said you weren't to come to my room," Kagami pointed out with a mischievous smirk. "She said nothing about the other way!"
"That is quite true," he conceded, tracing a finger down her side and trailing kisses along her neck.