Blue-gray eyes stare intensely into your wide, shocked ones. Though you are glad to have an opportunity to find answers, it seems too good to be true that he would be here of all places. As you look over his face, the slight look of surprise fades away so quickly you find yours asking if it were even there in the first place.

After another moment, Yuko clears her throat, taking your attention off of the mahogany haired male before you. Shiki quickly turns, quietly commenting, "Yes. To the business I've come."

He keeps his back towards you as he signs his conversation to Yuko, but he continues speaking aloud. It confuses you when you notice that Yuko keeps her hands behind her back, and just nods every so often. Normally she still signs as she speaks, if she speaks. Though in this case, you don't know how she'd operate with customers. The one time a customer tried to talk to her about an order, he didn't understand sign language. He was rather rude when he realized she was deaf, so you had to be the one to take his order. She took it all in a stride though. But now, there was a smidge of concern raising her brow.

'Why is she worried? He only said he needed it done in a month. She's done extremely fancy sets in much less time than that!'

When Mr. Senri stops talking, Yuko turns to you. She points a finger to herself, then directs it towards the hallways, then points back at herself. She is letting you know she'll be right back. You nod in understanding, then direct Shiki towards a chair.

"Ms. Yuko will be right back. Would you like to sit for now?" you ask him as politely as you can. He glanced at Yuko's retreating form, then let's a small smirk creep onto his lips. He walks with calm ease towards the chair you mentioned, then off-handedly comments, "Surprising... You're being calm. I wasn't expecting that."

'What the fuck is that supposed to mean?' you think to yourself hotly. Your eyebrow twitches, but you refrain from letting your emotions color your visage. You won't give him the satisfaction. Yet again, his apathy washes over you, and brings your irritation to the forefront of your mind. You take a deep breath, trying to clear your thoughts, then find yourself asking, "Did you really come to buy something from Yuko?"

He cocks his head at your words, and looks at you calculatingly. You hear Yuko's muffled steps as she comes back right as he gets up, quietly mumbling, "No."

You turn towards Yuko yourself, not realizing just what he could mean, or why he would be here then, but that can wait. Your mother most not know about your talk, thus Yuko cannot see you conversing more than necessary with this mahogany haired mystery. She looks at you as she begins signing. First, she lays her right hand flat in front of her chest, then rotates it in two clockwise circles. Next, she brings her hands together, one fist above the other, and cranks them towards and then away from each other a few times. Finally, her lower hand loosens into a small C shape, as if she were holding a cup like object in her hand. Her other hand forms the sign for the letter F, her three free fingers spread out elegantly while the two that are pinched together rotate around lower hand.

"Please make tea."

You nod and quickly head to the kitchen. As you get past the door, you hear Shiki comment, "Is she still learning how to sign?" You hear Yuko chuckle lightly, and feel your cheeks begin to burn. By the motion in his shoulders, obviously he moves his hands very fast. You just started learning a few months ago, so it's not like you're going to be an expert right away. Who is he to judge you?! You huff angrily as you pull out the tea leaves and the kettle. As you fill up the kettle to heat the water, you notice a small red gleam from the spot where you took the kettle out of. You finish filling up the pot and light the flame. You open the door, catching Shiki's attention, who then gets Yuko's attention for you in turn. When you have her attention, you hold the door open with your foot, then hold your hands in fists and pull up two fingers from each hand to make two peace signs. You keep your left fist above your right, then lift your hand lightly. While still keeping your fingers pointed out, you turn your fingers in a clockwise circle, your left middle finger leading the way around. Once you've made a full rotation, you tap the fist part of your hand's position down onto the fleshly portion over your thumb. You use your facial expression to show that you are asking a question.

Yuko looks at you, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully then turns to Shiki and signs very rapidly. All you are able to catch is her hands passing past one another three times. One hand constantly moves towards herself while the other pulls away. You recognize this sign to be "whatever," and assume she's saying to do whatever. But she's looking at Shiki, so maybe her message is not for you.

Shiki then turns to you and says, "She told me to tell you to do whatever, but asked if I wanted anything in particular, which I do. Add a lot of extra sugar to my tea. And make hers how she usually drinks it. She also said that you suck at signing and why are you even trying." He says this all with a straight face. You don't even react to his last bit until turning towards the door to finish, but then you angrily exclaim, "Wait, what?!" The corner of his mouth pulls mischievously upwards as he quickly replies, "Extra sugar. A good six extra spoonfuls if you will."

You stare him down angrily, not believing a word he says. But his eyes are so calm and serious looking, it's hard to question him despite his tiny smile. You feel a nervous bubble start to rise in your chest as you catch the look Yuko takes when she looks between the two of you, so you turn and let the door close harshly behind you. Yuko can't hear, so hopefully she won't notice. But let that asshole tell you something! Oh, boy would you love to give him a piece of your mind...

But, why?

Why does he get under your skin so easily?

Why does he catch your attention so much?

And most importantly, 'what was that small red gleam under the cupboards?'

You take out the tea cups, saucers, and sugar, then look over your shoulder. It's very quiet, but they also seemed very embroiled in their conversation when you last saw them. You're in desperate need of answers, and it seems that the only ones that can be answered today are the most recent ones that have come up. The tea still has a few minutes left to finish boiling so you quietly pad over the cupboard, and look at the strange red object. It's not far, and you can tell that it will be easy to put back just as it was, but you're scared to take it out. What if you take it out right as Yuko comes in? What if Shiki comes in and accuses you of something? Will your mom find out? Will you get in trouble?

'But I need answers!'

You take a deep breath, then reach forward and pull out the item. It's cold and metallic, and not at all what you were expecting. It's a whip. The handle is long, and the whip portion looks hard, but something about it makes it remind you of those bracelets your mom would buy you when you were little. Those flimsy kind that you would snap on your wrist so it would curl around into the proper bracelet form. You jump then when the tea kettle starts whistling, signaling that it is all ready to be poured. You quickly put the whip back where you found it and rush to finish with the tea.

Your mind is buzzing with questions at the moment, but the one thing that won't get out of your head is the one thing that is making you shake and blush: 'Is Yuko a dominatrix?'

Part of you wants to laugh at the absurdity of the question. After all, this is Yuko. The sweet, gentle woman. The patient woman who always has a gentle smile. This woman wouldn't hurt a fly, much less derive pleasure from causing someone pain. But then again, from what you've heard, people are different in bed compared to how they act in their day-to-day lives. Maybe Yuko isn't as careful when she's with a partner... It would make sense since she always has to be careful with everything else she does. With her china, with her cat, with her interactions. Maybe that's her way of relaxing every now and then.

But you haven't seen her interested in anyone before. Except...

Your eyes widen a little as you carefully step out of the kitchen to set the tea cups before the duo outside and catch Shiki rubbing Yuko's hand. A look of panic is on her face, and his looks serious. You go to the coffee table between them and set the saucers down, intent on leaving quickly to give them some space. However, as you turn to go, Shiki grabs hold of your hand and quickly says, "Wait."

You do as he says, only to get annoyed when he asks if you put in the right amount of sugar or not. And here you thought he had something serious to ask. With irritation heavily laced in your voice, you reply, "Why don't you taste it and tell me if it's to your liking?"

You start to pull your hands up to cross them, only to realize, he still has a hold of your hand. You become acutely aware of his palm over the top of your hand. His long fingers reach past your wrist, and wrap neatly around. His hold looks loose, yet his grip keeps you in place. All the meanwhile, he acknowledges your request and pulls the cup to his lips to get a taste. What unnerves you about his actions though are that he refuses to look away from your face.

His demeanor is placid, almost bored. Still, he refuses to look away. You shift uncomfortably in your spot as you wait for his response, for your excuse to get control of your hand again and run off. Obviously, this just has to be the moment when he decides to take his sweet time doing something. You sneak a glance at Yuko, and her eyebrow is raised mightily high, though you miss the little smirk on her lips due to your nerves and sudden building panic.

"It needs a little more sugar," he finally responds. You nod in understanding and finally manage to pull your hand away to safety, but you feel too overwhelmed by his gestures to really be able to give the snarky response you so wanted to snap back with. All you can get out is a, "sure, sure," as you pull away and hide in the kitchen for a moment.

Ok, so Shiki isn't the one shacking up with Yuko on her downtime.

And more importantly, what was that about?! You hardly know the guy, and he holds your hand like if you're his long lost lover. Not ok.

You exhale a breath you hadn't realized you were holding and then quietly tell yourself aloud, "No. Time to get down to business. Find out who this fucker really is."

If he's going to decide to get all cozy with you, might as well take advantage of this situation, right?