A long silence stretched awkwardly in the room: Sae at the doorway, Makoto naked under a sheet, and Yoshida frowning at her bedside. Makoto did not feel up to this confrontation. She was still feeling out of sorts from strange dreams and a brush with death, so Sae's sudden appearance felt like an ambush. But here it was, and in Makoto's experience, it was best to have it out with Sae rather than let it fester.

"Yoshida," said Makoto, "would you please make us some tea?"

Yoshida gave her a look that said he knew he was being thrown out, but he sighed and stood up from his stool. "Of course. A bracing pot would be welcome now, wouldn't it?"

He grunted his way up from his stool and walked out of the room, Sae's eyes following him as he passed her. Makoto couldn't see Yoshida's expression, but Sae's grim, mildly angry expression never wavered as she watched him leave- so any non-verbal communication attempted by Yoshida was apparently ignored. Then, it was just Sae and Makoto.

"I expected you to keep to your studies," said Sae.

Makoto felt a flare of anger already heating her forehead. That was the way Sae said things: it was always so patronizing, so superior, so parental.

"What studies? I finished my schooling three years ago," said Makoto.

"I expected you to maintain the dignity of our family," said Sae, advancing into the room to stand at the foot of Makoto's bed.

Another Sae classic: if she didn't like the question, she ignored it. Makoto recognized the signs of her sister on the warpath. The words were prepped and loaded, and like Sae's favorite weapon, she would hold down the figurative trigger and fire at Makoto until the ammunition was spent.

"But instead: I find you in bed, half-dead, shot in the heart by a Council Guardsmen; because you invaded a private residence-"

Makoto could not help but add in the facts Sae was deliberately omitting: "The owner being a noble vampire."

Sae acted like she didn't hear it: "in the company of a vampire-"

"Half-vampire."

"Like that matters?! You fraternize with that creature. Publicly! You danced with it! At a party held in our house! Father's house!"

Had Sae caught up on the gossip columns for her morning reading?

"He killed a vampire infiltrator during the waltz."

"He?! Makoto its a beast! And you let it in the house!"

"He is not!"

Sae's face was a mask of icy fury. She leaned forward and grasped the bed's foot-board, wood squeaking softy from the strength of her clutching, tense fingers.

"The entire city thinks the youngest daughter of Niijima is a slut to a half-blood freak!"

Makoto's mouth fell agape. She knew there were rumors, but who on earth thought that?! Akechi's face flashed past her mind's eye. Well, there was at least one person. Sae apparently made two. But- the idea that she would do such a thing? With Ren? Makoto had never had the idea to do that- that-… act! With anyone! Much less him and-!

Unbidden, a sudden flash of fantasy passed through Makoto's mind: she was naked in bed, as she was now, but instead of Sae, it was Ren, and his shirt was off, and he was crawling over the foot-board toward her and-

"Makoto!" Sae was still glaring at her. "Well!? Are you going to say anything?! Or just stare at me with your mouth open?!"

The sudden fantasy vanished. And in the void left behind, a sea of frustration surged in like after the collapse of a dam. Oh, Makoto had something to say! If she could just clear her throat of the tense knot of rage and frustration that had suddenly grown there. The first thing should be: 'fuck you, Sae!' But those words never quite made it out her mouth, did they? Despite the pain in her chest, despite the intense anger and betrayal she felt, despite the abandonment, despite her being so useless... Makoto never managed to-

"Fuck you, Sae," said Makoto. She instantly felt a thrilling flutter of surprise in her own stomach.

Sae seemed equally surprised. "What?!"

"I said: fuck you, Sae!" The floodgates were open. Makoto let it pour forth. "You left me alone in the wilds, at night. Just drove the fuck off! Because I took a few seconds to confirm a target! The next morning: you're gone! You didn't even care if I made it back into the city!"

"I knew-"

"And my life doesn't stop when you're not around! I don't need to wait for you! To do anything! Or get your permission! To do anything! I'm not a child anymore! And you aren't Father! Or Mother! And I killed a noble vampire! An old one! And I gathered a team! And we drove a second noble vampire to his death! We broke up some freak vampire bloodsport arena that was inside the city itself! That's what I've been up to! And Ren, my employee, that I scouted and recruited, was essential to all of it! What did you do, Sae? Out west was it? Clear a ghoul nest in some backwoods ravine? Or some other pointless bullshit?"

Sae, already gritting her teeth, clenched the bed even harder. Makoto found herself breathless from her impromptu tirade,and she realized she had scored against her sister on that one. She'd.. She'd won?! Meanwhile, Sae's eyes, a darker red than Makoto's muted crimson, simmered with anger. But unwilling to retreat from her own victory, Makoto glared right back.

"If I lay eyes on your pet again, it's dead," said Sae. Then she turned, flipped her silver hair over her shoulder in the dismissive gesture she loved, and stormed out of Makoto's room, slamming the door behind her.

Makoto's heart thudded in her chest. Her breathing was heavy and her blood felt like it was simmering with adrenaline. She'd never spoken to Sae like that. She'd never spoken to anyone like that. What had gotten into her?

She began to come down from the rush. The room felt cold. Her chest hurt. Did she do something to her wound by sitting up? But Makoto found she was too tired to worry about it. In fact, she was really sleepy all of a sudden.

The bedroom door opened again, and Makoto's eyes tracked it sluggishly. Dr. Takemi was striding towards her bed, an expression of frustration on her face. Makoto couldn't keep her eyes open, she drifted into darkness, barley feeling Takemi's hands on her forehead, then her throat, then at the bandages on her chest.

"Now I have to redo these, Lady Niijima! You really mustn't move so…-"

And Makoto fell asleep.