Chapter 36

Kyouya was not one to stumble but instead he swayed into their home after a night out, if it were even considered a night out when it ended past 9. Kiyoko laughed at him the whole way, holding him steady as they walked the few steps into their home after being chauffeured into the quiet suburbs. Kiyoko made a note that the Ootori's private security had lingered, likely through the night. The two haphazardly took their shoes off and Kyouya made a straight line towards her plush sofa while Kiyoko gathered some glasses of water in the kitchen.

"Hey," she nudged his arm. "Drink some water before you pass out."

"Are you not… feeling this?" Kyouya's vision blurred every time he moved his head. The ground from below felt like it quaked with every shift in his body.

"Nope," Kiyoko shook her head in amusement. "The buzz wore off a while ago." She had to learn to hold her alcohol in her early adulthood having sat at a table full of young men who became her circle of friends. It also helped that the Ootori drank more than she did, a husband duty that he took upon himself. Kiyoko made sure to down more glasses of water before they left the bar.

They haphazardly put the bathroom back to some semblance of what it was, earning an eye roll from the bartender when he clocked them coming out of the space together. Kiyoko threw her middle finger up at him in defiance, to which Kyouya laughed at. He made himself comfortable in the banquette corner, before ordering another round in a half-assed apology.

"How?" he groaned, now regretting his decision. He could already feel the hangover creeping into his head, starting with his bloated stomach that threatened to burst.

"Um, youth?" she suggested. Kyouya ignored the implication that he was getting older and responded by closing his eyes. He may have been losing his youth but he certainly was not about to lose his dignity by vomiting.

"I'm going to change out of this whole thing and come back for you, alright?" Kiyoko planted a kiss on his forehead and squeezed his arm as a quick reassurance that she would be back to take care of him.

Kiyoko disappeared for a few minutes or however long it took for the wife to come back completely sobered and properly vexed. Kyouya could hardly keep his eyes open until he felt her tower over him, her face waning with a slight worry when he finally woke. She smelled vaguely like antiseptic and alcohol wipes. She usually smelled like a floral bed of gardenia.

"I'm fine," he sighed. Or he probably would be after a good night's sleep.

"I know," Kiyoko gently said. "Let's get you to bed?" He felt her tug on his arm and he willingly obliged in gathering his strength to stand.

Kyouya had no idea how long he was out on the couch, only that now the nauseousness had worn off and he could properly see. He had come to the realization that it was certainly not a few minutes as he thought.

"What time is it?" Kyouya asked.

"Don't worry about it," Kiyoko patted his back as she guided him up the stairs.

Kyouya stood straighter, leaning against the wall as he took a proper look at his wife. She had changed out of her dress and looked like she had just returned from somewhere with her jacket still on her shoulders.

"Where were you?" he narrowed his eyes.

"We can talk about this in the morning." It was already the early morning hours of the day but Kiyoko was not going to be pedantic if it did not put her at an advantage.

He raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Kiyoko," he scolded. "Tell me now."

His wife sighed and shook her head. "I was going to tell you in the morning," she tried to appease him. "But she put me down as an emergency contact at the hospital and–"

Her mind went straight to images of the bandaged body, third degree burns across the face and upper torso now seared into her memory. There was hardly anything about Asami that she could recognize beneath the mummified body. Kiyoko was given a bag of what was retrieved in the explosion with only pieces of her wallet that remained intact for identification. The beeping of the life support, slow and steady, lulled Kiyoko into a numbed state. She stared at the lonely body through the window of the sterile room. A miserable life she lived for half a century and Kiyoko knew so little of it. After all these years, maybe it was designed as such.

The daughter signed the documents at hand with a flick of her wrist, toiling over their last conversation under the buzzing of the grey hospital lights. The cold empty halls of the ER ushered her out to the darkness of the night. Her mind emptied as she numbly found herself back home with a quiet taxi ride, watching the city lights dim away and her mind tapering into a blank slate.

"The hospital was very incessant in demanding my presence," Kiyoko explained without wanting to go into the nitty gritty. A missed call every hour or so.

"Asami?"

"The one and only."

"Is she…"

"No," Kiyoko cut off with a shake of her head. "But the prognosis isn't great with third degree burns."

"And your grandmother?"

Kiyoko had not considered her grandmother as part of the equation after the day she had. "I'm the last person to know of her whereabouts." Kiyoko showed up rather late to the hospital after all. There were no visitors at such an hour. The on-call doctor read off of the notes of another doctor and the night shift nurses left her alone as they were tired enough already. They spoke of no visitors to her.

"Isn't that odd?" Kyouya tilted his head. The Hibayashi household was far more dysfunctional than most families at their calibre. "That is her daughter. She must know what happened to some capacity. How could she not show?"

"Asami is no stranger to psychotic episodes that land her in the hospital," Kiyoko reasoned. It was a classic boy-who-cried-wolf that grew old over the years. The only difference was that Asami was actually left to die this time around and Kiyoko just so happened to be available to almost see it through.

"Maybe tomorrow." It was an empty promise, something said just for the sake of normalcy. She hoped that the Ootori was too tired to question her tone.

Kiyoko had no idea if her grandmother was even aware of Asami's hospitalization. She flipped through pages of medical history, quietly piecing together her mother's life as she sat in the dimmed hallway of the hospital. The rumours were not entirely wrong: a history of depression, coupled with a bipolar diagnosis that plagued her life, and a handful of suicide attempts mostly in the years of Kiyoko's childhood.

It was awfully tragic. She was a terrible mother but an absent one was better than a negligible one, she thought. Kiyoko could not help but to wonder if Asami's redemption was just another suicide attempt. And if so, was it right just to put her out of her misery?

"Let's sleep," Kiyoko began walking up the stairs, hoping that he would follow without any more demands. She did not have any answers to questions that would satisfy him anyway.

"We can pay a visit tomorrow," Kyouya murmured. "If you'd like," he added gently.

The Hibayashi made a noncommittal hum of agreement. She did not like the pit of guilt brewing at the bottom of her stomach one bit. The two went through the motions of an abridged night time routine, with Kiyoko guiding the man to bed. The Ootori fell asleep with ease, his breathing fell into a familiar rhythm with a soft snore after Kiyoko had fed him another round of aspirin and water. She thought a shower would help relax her muscles and her mind but still found herself staring at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep.

It was going to be a long haunting night.

Kiyoko shut off her alarm before it even went off at the crack of dawn. She tossed and turned over the remaining hours of darkness and watched the room glow into a hollow blue to remind her that morning had come. Kiyoko grew restless with a gnawing feeling of anxiety that held a grip over her body. She was exhausted with no ability to rest.

She quietly slid off the mattress and wondered what would be the best course of action today. Perhaps a visit to her grandmother was necessary after all that had happened over the course of 24 hours.

The mirror reflected a ghost of herself. Her prominent dark circles and hollowed cheeks took front and center. Kiyoko found herself frightened at the shell that she became. Where did that youthful glow disappear to? She wanted to hide away from that reflection.

The Ootori sleepily shuffled himself to the doorway of their bathroom.

"Hey," he mumbled, shaking her out of her trance. "You okay?"

Kiyoko nodded through the mirror. "I'm fine," she told him. Although it was more of a reassurance to herself. She was fine. She was going to be fine. Everything was going to be alright.

Kyouya rubbed his eyes awake and squinted at the sight of her. He silently exhaled, sleepily making his way over to her small frame and held her in his arms. Kiyoko stood stiffly for a moment before letting herself melt into his warmth. He patted her back soothingly and Kiyoko let herself have a quiet intimate moment of support that she needed without even knowing it. She circled her arms around his chest, burying her head into his body. He smelled like home.

Her tears came pouring out of her eyes, soaking the shoulder of his pyjama shirt. It was a dam that finally broke, from a slow steady stream to a flood. The pendulum of emotions scared her - was she just like her family after all? Kiyoko lived her life perfectly fine until she met Kyouya and suddenly she was able to feel more than she ever allowed herself to.

Kiyoko felt the control slipping out of her grasp in every way. It was dizzying. She was losing something she could never pinpoint. The universe was always at odds with her. Did it start with her brother? And now her mother? Was she meant to lose Kyouya too? The spiral had her panicking.

Kyouya stood steadily, patting her back or combing her hair. He pressed kisses to the crown of her head. "Breathe, Kiyoko," he gently said. "Breathe."

It felt like forever before she could find herself back in her body.

"I'm sorry," she croaked. Kiyoko hated how she sounded. It was so weak and frail. Nothing like what the Ootori loved about her. She defiantly wiped away her tears from her cheeks and caught herself in the mirror. She hated what she saw.

Kiyoko looked like an absolute wreck. A cloud of shame and embarrassment immediately cowered over her. Kiyoko hated who she was. What she had become. The self-loathing was back in its daily form - the one who never deserved the Ootori to begin with. She was just like everyone else in her family.

"Don't apologize," Kyouya soothed. "You're human."

"I hate myself," Kiyoko confessed as she stared into the reflection. "What have I become? Don't you hate her too?" She was never what you signed up for. The sobbing mess of panic. She wanted to crawl out of her skin and disappear.

The husband looked at his wife. "No," he disagreed. "I love you. Why are you afraid of yourself?"

"I…" Kiyoko looked at her hands. "I don't know what I am capable of. I read Asami's medical records last night and…" She swallowed the rock in her throat that threatened another bout of tears. "Am I looking into my own future?"

A life of loneliness and of being misunderstood by the world. Forgotten and pushed aside by society unless useful.

Kyouya shook his head. "You are nothing like the rest of them. You chose to be better."

"What if that is just my fate?" Kiyoko wondered out loud. "My brother succumbed to the wreck without even trying. Something is afoot here, Kyouya. Everything is about to crumble and I have no idea what is happening or where to go from here."

"Kiyoko," he cupped her face with his palms so she would look him in the eye. "You are the type of woman who chooses to bend fate to her own will."

"Or maybe I'm an idiot for trying?" she murmured.

"I choose to believe in the woman who said she would make the world bend for me," Kyouya reminded. "That woman would scoff at whatever fate offered her. You are still every ounce of her that I fell for."

Kiyoko let the comfort of his words sink in. While they were on the topic of it, she murmured her first thought aloud. "The Fates, you mean."

"Hm?" Kyouya wiped away the remnants of tears on her cheeks. She lifted her arms away from her husband and patted her face dry. He so easily took her out of the abyss of mental terror, it seemed near magical. To have a person to depend on was such a foreign feeling but it was one that brought her so much relief.

"The three sisters," Kiyoko offered in explanation, slowly recovering from her panic attack. "They are ones who dictate your fate - a motif in a lot of European art," she continued. "The point being, I would not go up against a trio of powerful women."

"Why not?"

Kiyoko tilted her head at the Ootori, appalled by the stupidity and audacity of men to belittle some of the most powerful characters in history and art. Perhaps that was why men never fared better after all these centuries, even in a hypothetical scenario.

"Some would argue that those three are more powerful than God, Kyouya. They literally decide the nature of your life."

"And you believe in this abstract… notion?" He gestured to thin air.

"For a man who just told me I – a mere woman – had the power to bend and scoff at the Fates, you surely can't tell me that you would not believe God is a woman, or a trio of them."

Kyouya sighed, unwilling to argue with her at this early of an hour. "I believe in you," was what he settled on. "But I need you to rest. I can hear your brain ticking non-stop, even when you aren't beside me." Kiyoko's jittery aura emanated through the walls. He could ever work out what was going on in that mind but he knew she was always thinking, usually far too much for her own good.

"You have work," she reminded. He skipped half the day yesterday to elope. Surely, his absence had to be noted. If they were thinking to lay low, the explosion yesterday with his vehicle surely did not help. If anything, he had to appear like nothing had changed and let the police work on the case.

Kyouya shrugged. "I can work from home and keep you company." The reality was that he needed to keep an eye on his restless wife so she could do the bare minimum of eat and sleep like a regular person.

The wife shook her head. "I won't be home."

"What? Why not?" Kyouya frowned. "You need to rest," he repeated. "After all that has happened to you."

Kiyoko looked back in the mirror. She was frail and exhausted, having travelled from the depths of hell and back. But it was nothing a good concealer could fix and a pair of sunglasses could not cover, she thought. Kiyoko had to focus on what they had been plotting for the past month or so.

"I need to pay my grandmother a visit. Tell her the good news," she flashed her hand up and waved her fingers. "Maybe… get some clarity while I'm there, you know?" Kiyoko ran a hand through her mussed hair from tossing and turning all night, taming some ends of it with her fingers.

"Would that make you feel better?" Kyouya asked. He grabbed a hair brush off the counter and began combing through the strands. The act of it made her feel like she was back in the cabin again, Haru combing through her hair before braiding it. Her hair used to be much longer but now it had grown back to past her shoulders.

"Well," Kiyoko shrugged. "I never have left the estate in a better mood than entering it so… historically, no."

"I can come with you. Pay my respect as your husband. Her new grandson, technically," he offered, untangling the stubborn bits with as much gentle care as he could have. Kiyoko took over and began braiding her hair in a tight ponytail.

She winced at the thought of bringing her new husband back to the estate - never once had that gone well. The Ootori was a supportive partner and yet all Kiyoko wanted to do was to shield him away from her family. All of it was embarrassing. How much more was she allowed to subject him to the inner workings of the Hibyashi chaos? Yesterday was more than enough to last a lifetime.

"She won't let her guard down with you, even if you are now technically part of the family."

"Fine," he agreed reluctantly. Kiyoko's expression looked like she wanted to shrivel when he brought up the idea. "But you'll have security personnel on you the entire time and I get updates on exactly where you are at all times." His hands landed squarely on her shoulders to drive the point home.

"Fair enough," the wife relented. She turned her head from side to side, letting the braid sway behind her as a high ponytail. "What do you think?"

"Not your usual," Kyouya noted. "But your hair was in a braid on our first date. Not as a high ponytail, just… relaxed," he patted her back, reminiscing over where it landed. It was a flawless French braid that hugged her scalp.

She smiled at him, delighting at the fact that he remembered such a thing. "That was Haru."

"Oh?"

"I think he gave me the courage to see you that day, in his roundabout way… I suppose this is my way of carrying him with me today."

Kyouya pressed a kiss to her temple. "Thoughtful," he murmured. "I love that about you."

"Thank you," her eyes softened at him. "For loving me," Kiyoko clarified. "Through all of it," she added quickly - there was too much to list in one sitting.

"Of course," Kyouya answered without a single trace of doubt.

He handed her the toothpaste as he grabbed her toothbrush for her. He tried his best to ignore the fatigue that began to cloud his eyesight, somehow it was made all better just by the presence of his wife who had a much longer morning routine than he did. His usual bad mood in the morning was replaced by revering at his wife. He eventually showered at the chiding of Kiyoko who reminded him that he fell into bed without one just a few hours prior.

Kyouya took his time, letting the warmth loosen the muscles of his neck and shoulders. By the time he had come out of the steaming waters, Kiyoko transformed into her usual prowess. In a white corset that contrasted with her black blazer and dress pants, Kiyoko delicately patted in the concealer under her eyes - her war paint for the day.

"Hello," she smiled at him through the reflection. "You look refreshed."

"You look…" Kyouya blinked. Gorgeous. Stunning. Exquisite. "Nice," he choked out. Kiyoko also looked notably more refreshed. Something with all of that skincare must have done something in the 20 minute window.

"Mmm," she hummed as she brushed the mascara through her lashes. She was too busy paying attention to not poking her eye to care about the lacklustre comment.

"I made a triple shot of espresso for you," Kiyoko tilted her head at the countertop of where the mug stood. Steam still wisped off the top of the cup. It was fresh and at the perfect temperature to drink. "I hope you don't mind that I took a sip."

The Ootori nearly clambered to the elixir of life. He could have sworn that inhaling the very scent gave him energy. "Fuck," he drawled out of relief. "I love you so much, darling." It was exactly what he needed.

"So easy to please," Kiyoko teased.

"I don't ask for much."

"Only a whole company," she nonchalantly added.

"Kiyoko," Kyouya narrowed his eyes at her, groaning at the topic. "We are not going through this madness again." For the umpteenth time, he thought. He would have married her without the prospect of it all. And today of all days, he truly worried for her wellbeing. She could go 24 hours without politicking, right?

"Don't worry darling," Kiyoko shot back at him with a small smirk. "I'm working on it."

Kiyoko had to admit that losing two vehicles within the span of a year had been rather inconvenient. Being chauffeured around made her feel like she was a child again, only that Toshio-san was replaced by a much more polite Ootori household staff. Kyouya was dropped off at his usual headquarters, arriving just in time for another workday. He kissed her on the temple and told her to stay out of trouble, to which she only laughed and shoved him out the door.

"Ootori-san," the driver pulled up to the familiar estate after nearly an hour. Kiyoko tried to get some sleep, or at least rest for her eyes while she had a little peace to herself. "There seems to be quite the commotion up ahead."

Her eyes shot open after a few moments, not realizing that she was now Ootori-san. She dialled Toshio when she noted the line-up of emergency vehicles.

"What kid? You need a ride or somethin'? We got a day off so you're outta luck." He answered gruffly without any pleasantries.

"What is happening on the estate?" Kiyoko cut to the chase as she eyed the ambulance pulling into the driveway. Her chauffeur followed closely ahead.

"What do you mean? I'm not on the premises, kid. We were told not to come in today."

"By who?" Kiyoko wondered. Who the fuck was letting in the paramedics, then? The gates opened on their own which meant that someone had to be inside.

"The estate lawyer. I just follow orders man," Toshio responded. "What's going on? Were you called in by your grandmother?"

Kiyoko exhaled and kept calm. "No, I'm paying a visit… just thought I'd get some intel on her mood for the day." A valid excuse to call. Sometimes she would do so when she was summoned just to brace herself. Kiyoko hung up after telling the man to stay put. He would have thrown a fit if he heard that she had replaced him with the Ootori chauffeur. She dismissed the driver and climbed out of the vehicle herself, walking up to the opened gate and snuck through right before the automated doors closed.

The walk itself up the steep hill had her thankful for choosing some sensible shoes, especially after yesterday's ordeal. She watched the crowd of emergency workers funnel into the home, rushing in with a stretcher. Kiyoko walked past the front doors to a river of red and screaming at the foyer. A ruckus was no stranger for the home but it was unexpected to occur on the one day she chose to visit.

"Get away from me," they seethed. A blood curdling scream followed. The paramedics surrounded the bottom of the stairs. The imperial staircase gave way to more medics that travelled up the other side with a stretcher, shepherded by the estate lawyer that Kiyoko recognized as Miyagi-san.

Kiyoko found her father holding the hand of Misaki who shot daggers at the man. "Don't touch me!" she screamed, thrashing out of his grip.

He coddled her with a shush, playing the role of a doting partner. "It'll all be okay. It was all an accident," he reassured. Misaki cradled her belly in another excruciating cry, the blood continued to trickle onto the marble flooring. Kiyoko stepped over the fluid in one sweeping motion, her presence hardly acknowledged by anybody in the midst of chaos and noise as she stuck to the wall out of sheer shock at the whole ordeal. This was not what she expected for the day, even if she was no stranger to this sort of madness.

"Will the baby be alright?" Takeo asked the paramedic. Not much could have been said as the paramedics tried their best to do their diagnostic testing on the pregnant woman who wailed in pain and through tears.

The rumbling of many footsteps tumbled down the halls. The mansion gave way easily for the sheer amount of space to carry down the frail frame of the old woman. Miyagi-san's expression was solemn, trailing behind the kerfuffle. There laid the pale matriarch, her body devoid of any form of life as she was carried in front of the only living member of the family.

Kiyoko gripped the arm of the estate lawyer, startling him with the eyes of pure rage. What had happened in this cursed home?

"She's dead," Kiyoko pointed to the cadaver. "And you did not think to call me? How did this happen?"

"What are you doing here?" Takeo whipped his head towards the new voice. He let go of the pregnant woman like a ragdoll, throwing her aside when the role of being a doting partner no longer served him.

Kiyoko stepped backward out of fear with the underlying realization that he was capable of so much more than just embezzlement. She saw how he treated Misaki firsthand, watching the woman keel over the stairs after being roughly tossed aside. Asami's words rung in her head as she backed into a wall. Takeo's figure loomed over hers in an instant, readying himself to toss Kiyoko to the ground had there not been a whole audience.

"You called her? How could she still be here?" Takeo turned to the lawyer, his anger bubbling through his chest.

"No, sir," the elder answered calmly, trying to balance the anger that seethed through the two Hibayashis. "She showed up herself."

"It's my home," Kiyoko snapped. "Why wouldn't I be here? Especially after the death of my grandmother under rather suspicious circumstances."

"Death is as common as a cold at her age," her father snarled. "How convenient of you to show up at the nick of time, hm?" He turned the suspicion onto her. "Such a shameless ungrateful brat to get a piece of the wealth so soon. Her blood isn't even cold yet."

She let the insult roll off of her back as she watched Misaki get carried onto the transport stretcher, hair askew and lips pale like the corpse that just passed by. She was getting rushed to the hospital and her only witness to whatever could have happened in this household.

"Miyagi-san," Kiyoko turned to the estate lawyer. "Surely, you were not here to amend anything in my grandmother's final will?"

"I was only called here by Hibayashi-san to execute it," he referred to her father.

Kiyoko raised an eyebrow in suspicion at the man before her. "How convenient," she mocked him. "Shall we all meet at the morgue then?"

"What?" the lawyer blinked at the sardonic suggestion of it. Was the girl asking for a legal meeting at the morgue? Did he hear correctly?

"What better place and time to execute?" Kiyoko suggested with a shrug, leaning into the madness. It was all she had. "Over her dead body, of course."

She turned on her heel and walked out of the doors in a rush when she saw the stretcher load onto the ambulance. Kiyoko gathered the strength to jump up to the entrance, hitching a ride with the horrified woman. Misaki's face fell from confusion to fear of the unknown, the unpredictability of this family seemed to have trapped her in a continuous state of terror.

"Would you rather me or that bastard riding with you?" Kiyoko pointed towards her father who hardly moved an inch from the foyer of their estate, staring the two women down with a murderous glare.

"You."

Kiyoko paced around the halls of a hospital yet again. She was outside the OR, awaiting Misaki's surgery to finish. The baby had a low chance of survival from trauma to the abdomen, especially when the mother had been losing a copious amount of blood from a fall down the staircase. Her head was thankfully free of injury, save for some bruising. It certainly did not help that their staircase was made of the finest stone and had an exceptionally long range to fit the European design of the mansion.

"Did he push you head first into the marble floor?" Kiyoko looked the woman in the eye as they sped through traffic to get the medical care she needed. The wailing of the ambulance hummed in the background of all the beeping and machinery that sat between the women in the cramped space.

"I…" Misaki's heart rate sped up on the EKG, avoiding eye contact. "I, um, I fell," she answered like she practiced in her head. She looked like a child getting caught for stealing candy.

Kiyoko pinched her nose bridge and exhaled. The woman was lying through her teeth. "Tell me what happened so I can help you get out of this." There was no way that pure unadulterated rage she saw earlier today came from a place of love. Misaki's screams were from absolute horror, refusing to be touched while she keeled over in agony.

"Why would you help me? Don't you hate me?"

The Hibayashi shook her head. "I hate the man who did this to you. Help me help you."

Misaki so desperately clung onto the notion of the man who could give her everything she wanted, a life she dreamed of full of wealth and ease. She could withstand all of his bouts of anger. He always said sorry. He always had a good reason for all that he did. Her only job was to keep the baby safe and it all came crashing down in a matter of seconds - all that she worked for was decimated by a single agonizing motion of gravity. Maybe it was her fault after all?

"He got angry and it was my fault. I should not have called the ambulance for your grandmother. I was only trying to help."

Kiyoko replayed their conversation over and over again, until she could make nothing else of it. Misaki was wheeled into the OR, gripping Kiyoko's wrist until she could no longer reach for her. Kiyoko decided that she would try again when Misaki was in better shape and not bleeding out on a makeshift bed.

Instead, Kiyoko took a walk around the hospital, now far too familiar with the floorplan. Kiyoko felt like she was familiar with every corner a visitor was allowed to roam after today. She hurried down to the morgue where her grandmother was delivered, standing outside the cold library of the dead. There was only one window to the area, right in the metal door to an empty room of shelves of hidden corpses.

In the eerie basement of the hospital, she called her husband during his lunch hour when he texted how she was doing. Goodness, where did she start? Her grandmother was dead, Misaki was in surgery, her father was probably out to murder her next. Everything came crashing down in a matter of days.

Kiyoko skipped the last bit when catching her husband up to the events of the day, after all - she had security detail following her six feet away, placed by her dear husband himself. She was well protected, at least for now.

"I want a full panel toxicology report," she requested to the youngest Ootori director. "And high security with an audit of badge swipes so no one can tamper with the body." Kiyoko stood over the entrance to the morgue like a child trying to guard her toy castle. Resistance seemed futile with her small stature.

"You think your grandmother was doing drugs?" his voice was in disbelief on the other line. Kyouya was smart enough not to call her insane outright but the incredulous tone was enough for Kiyoko to roll her eyes at.

"I think she was poisoned," Kiyoko explained. "Call me paranoid but that woman had at least a handful of years left in her to torment me about popping out great grandchildren. She was still able to command a room at board meetings without being entirely senile. Forgive me for thinking that her death seemed rather ill-timed."

"Alright," Kyouya complied - it was no skin off his back to do it anyway. He will ferry the paperwork over by the end of the hour, having the granddaughter e-sign them for convenience. "And Asami?"

"I don't know," Kiyoko had not had time to think about her comatose state mother. Asami was in the ICU of the same Ootori hospital. "No news is good news."

"Do you want me to come to the hospital?"

"No," Kiyoko refused. She breathed a sigh of relief when she refused his presence earlier today. She had a feeling that things would not go peacefully into the night. "Just handle the toxicology and I will begin funeral preparations from here."

"When will the funeral be?"

The Hibayashi tried her best to keep it all together. Things were moving fast and she needed to keep up.

"Soon."

As all VIP rooms were, they were spacious enough to invite funeral directors and planners into the room as the monitors beeped in the background with a curtain to separate them from the patient. It was somehow assumed that Kiyoko was making arrangements for the patient, wherein the death of the matriarch had not been made public just yet.

Kiyoko sat through decisions to be made from casket selection to floral arrangements over the course of the afternoon. She planned two funerals in the span of a day and even found herself rather impressed by her own productivity. Of course, it paid well to have planners execute the work while all she had to do was decide.

Kiyoko tossed her phone aside for the afternoon, refusing to know if the news of the death of the Hibayashi matriarch had broke yet. All seemed rather quiet so far with the exception of a time and date set for tomorrow with the family estate lawyers.

Over her grandmother's dead body was what Kiyoko asked for and she forcibly twisted the team of lawyers to abide by her request, threatening not to show up to the meeting if they did not travel to her. After all, she was the one burying all the women left in the family and technically the sole inheritor - she made sure to twist the knife of guilt and sympathy into their gut. Why did she have to travel anywhere else when the clan had paid for their services up until the end of their lives?

Kiyoko flung the curtains aside when she heard the shuffling of sheets shortly after she dismissed the funeral arrangers. Misaki regained her consciousness, opening her eyes to a woman her age that stood with her arms crossed and unimpressed by her. Kiyoko pressed the button for staff on site to debrief the patient and to check up on her wellbeing in general.

"Sorry to disappoint," Kiyoko greeted the patient nonchalantly. "I'm sure you were expecting the father of your baby."

Doctors shuffled into the room without a chance of Misaki being able to respond. The baby was lost far before they had gotten a chance to save it and later extracted from her body. Sincere but sterile apologies were given for her loss. A large amount of blood was depleted from her during surgery and from the traumatic impact. It was best for Misaki to take it easy for the next few weeks to recover. Nurses left after checking on her IV drip and catheter leaving just the two women behind.

"Do you have anyone you'd like me to call for you?" the Hibayashi offered monotonously.

"Why are you here?" Misaki eyed her with suspicion, not answering the question.

"Who else would be here for you?" Kiyoko shot back with a blank stare. Misaki had no one to lean on, it seemed.

"What do you want from me?"

The Hibayashi raised an eyebrow. "What can you possibly offer me?" She trailed around the bed and took a seat, leaning back on the chair with ease. Misaki crossed her arms, unwavering and unwilling to speak.

"Nothing?" Kiyoko shrugged. She could play this game. "Well, alright. You can take the fall for embezzling millions while he gets away for assaulting you, abusing you, and carrying on with his life as he always had. Welcome to the end of his playbook. It happened to the rest of the family."

"That's impossible. I have never embezzled anything," Misaki denied.

"Well, of course not - not knowingly," the Hibayashi explained with patience. It waned thinner by the minute. "The paper trail leads to you, as his lawyers would point out to the court. You oversaw a so-called special project, funnelling the funds to a shell company to build whatever resort in a fictitious plot of land."

"He showed it to me - the plot is in Thailand," Misaki insisted. "I swear, it was real. We went to see it together months ago in my baby's second trimester. It is in development now."

Kiyoko shook her head and continued on. She was so young and so easily enraptured. Takeo chose this girl with every intention of using her and spitting her out when he was done. It helped that she was so pretty to look at.

"It would be so simple to spin this story: you, a woman who tried to baby trap him and he was none the wiser because he was a man trying to do the right thing," Kiyoko rolled her eyes.

"A tragic event has passed and now everything is unraveling. How does that look to you? You will be left penniless with a reputation ruined by the tabloids. You'll change your name, and maybe live abroad? Start anew," Kiyoko painted a life for her. "Maybe… in Thailand? At least the weather is nice."

"No, he promised–"

"It doesn't matter what he promised," Kiyoko reminded. "He pushed you down those stairs. It doesn't take a genius to see it. Those promises were never real."

The woman's eyes started to well. Kiyoko grabbed a tissue off the side table and tossed it to the poor girl whose reality finally began to sink. The Hibayashi could only offer so much sympathy but the itch to shake the woman to her senses creeped higher and higher.

"I just wanted a good life for us," Misaki blubbered. "Me and the baby. We were going to be taken care of. He never… he never was physical like that. Just angry, sometimes. Scarily angry but he was fine after some space. He always came back."

"He never wanted the baby," Kiyoko sighed. "And if you did, I am very sorry for your loss. Is there anybody I can call for you?" she tried again, this time with more sincerity. Kiyoko did not want to navigate the depths of this messy situation. She hardly even knew the girl. "A family member?"

"No," she shook her head, shame and guilt washing over her in a tidal wave. "I don't want them to see me like this."

"Alright," Kiyoko agreed and gently placed the whole box of tissues in front of the woman. "Let's talk when you're feeling better." Her stomach had grumbled for hours and suddenly hospital food seemed like an appetizing meal. Perhaps it was finally time to grab something from the vending machine to quell her hunger. Maybe it was time to go home after a long day.

"Wait," Misaki grabbed onto her wrist in desperation. "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know," the Hibayashi had been saying this all day, in the limbo of the unknown for the past 24 hours. She could only take it one step at a time. Kiyoko could only plan so far ahead with so many moving pieces.

"I don't want to go to jail."

"Alright," Kiyoko gently plucked the woman's grip off her hand. "Then you need to defend yourself with what you know to put him in jail."

"How? I don't know anything. I really don't," Misaki pleaded. "I was just doing as I was told - I thought I was just doing my job."

"I know," Kiyoko reassured. "I believe you. But rather than that, I need you to think long and hard about what you saw at the estate leading up to my grandmother's death."

The woman drew a blank, "I really… I'm not sure. I spend all of my time in the guest house. Takeo told me she passed away this morning and I just thought it was normal to call emergency services just to be sure."

The Hibayashi cocked her head. "He discovered the body? Why would he ever go see her without being summoned?" Kiyoko thought aloud. "Why was the staff dismissed so conveniently this morning? Were there any shifts in the staff as of late?"

Misaki shook her head. "I don't know anything about the main mansion."

Kiyoko sighed. "Fine," she accepted. "Does he keep anything in the guest house?"

"Like… work documents?" Misaki asked. "He uses the study in the main estate but I'm not allowed in it."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Interesting." Kiyoko posed another question. "Would you like to ruin him?"

"What?"

Kiyoko did not like repeating herself. She was growing tired of the woman's naivete. "You heard me."

"I don't know if…"

"Fine," Kiyoko turned on her heel and rephrased. "Then would you like to save yourself?"

"Yes," she answered desperately. "Yes, I would."

Kiyoko sat in front of the comatose patient, staring into the abyss of the blank wall. She bounced between different floors of the Ootori Hospital, one of the many branches but this one was in the middle of Tokyo with elite doctors. Kiyoko wondered how every member of her family had managed to be taken care of in the Ootori institutions, including herself just mere months ago. Kyouya was on his way to pluck her from this sterile grey space that she spent for the majority of the day, a short 20 minute car ride from the office.

Kiyoko leaned back on the plastic chair with her arms crossed, wholly uncomfortable with the feeling that she was actually looking forward to seeing her husband. As she sat in the feeling of anticipation, she realized that this feeling was so foreign that her body could not process it as anything but uncomfortable and then strange, and then somehow content with the idea of her husband. She thought about him in ways she would have never considered thinking about anyone. Kiyoko relied on him, treasured him, and most daringly above all - she needed him. There was nobody else in the world who would set her brain back to a functional state when it got lost. Her reliance on him was terrifying but slowly thawed into a comfort.

"Hibayashi-san?"

Kiyoko's ears perked up to the greeting - one that she was much more familiar with than Ootori-san. It was a stranger dressed in a suit, balding with glasses that screamed middle aged. She stood from her chair out of respect to the elder and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Matsuzaka Tori," he introduced with his business card and a deep bow. Kiyoko gingerly took the card and stared at it. He was an estate lawyer and certainly not one she recognized as the family's usual.

"I'm very sorry about your…" Matsuzaka-san eyed the girl and then back to the comatose body. "Relative," he settled on.

Kiyoko tilted her head at him. "You can call her whatever you'd like," she suggested with a limp shrug. "She can't hear you," Kiyoko added, gesturing to the bandages around her ears.

The lawyer cleared his throat in discomfort. "The sense of… humour runs in the family," he observed, trying to brush off the comment. "I'm sorry I did not come sooner. I was off these past few days and only returned back to the office recently. I got the voicemail from her and it took some time for me to find which hospital she was in."

Kiyoko gave a look of confusion. "A voicemail? When?"

"Probably before all of this," he gestured to the state of Asami.

The daughter looked down at the mummified body and the steady beeping of the EKG. The beepings came slower and slower with each hour that passed by. The doctors and nurses silently gave Kiyoko a look of sympathy, to which Kiyoko accepted with a polite nod. What else was she supposed to do with it anyway?

What was she supposed to feel? Logically, she could not be terribly upset over this - it felt like a long time coming and was bound to occur. Kiyoko just figured that it would not have to be her specifically to deal with it, to have to puzzle together pieces of Asami's life she never cared to know. It felt wrong to be numb to it after the initial shock had worn off. But how else was she meant to cope?

"Do you think she committed suicide?" Kiyoko asked outright. The question had weighed on her mind, if it was not her dealing with other more pressing matters.

"I do not know," the estate lawyer answered back honestly. "We will never know. Her voicemail to me was to execute her will with the amendments she added about a month ago. She said that executing it could be imminent. The doctors said she was in an accident?"

"Hm," Kiyoko frowned at the uncertainty. She let the body of Asami answer his question. "What assets did she even have to leave behind?" she continued with business, sparing the lawyer the gorey details.

"More than the average person," the lawyer patiently responded. "Her seat at the Hibayashi board goes to you. That was the amendment."

"And?" Kiyoko tilted her head.

"Everything else will be donated to a fund."

"A fund," the daughter repeated with confusion. The youngest Hibayashi did not look particularly disappointed, as one would be if they were not entitled to any wealth. "A fund for what?" she asked out of curiosity.

"A women's shelter, specifically."

Kiyoko blinked. "I was not aware she had any charitable bone in her body."

"My wife is a social worker and that was where they met over two decades ago at the shelter," he explained.

"Oh," was all Kiyoko could muster. "I see."

"I'm very sorry," the lawyer said again. "I am sure this has been quite a difficult time for you."

"No, not really," Kiyoko refused to think of it as difficult. Too many things were happening - she had no time to truly feel anything but sheer determination to just live through the day. Her expression was solemn as she thought more about Asami and the life she lived. "I am learning about her in ways I never asked to."

The Ootori appeared beside Kiyoko with a deep scowl at the stranger. He looked like he was ready to pick a fight with whomever upset his wife. The Ootori glared coldly at the man. Kiyoko placed a hand on his shoulder to ease him.

"Hello," she warmly greeted. Kiyoko's face instantly lit up with his presence, telling him to slow down before he jumped to any conclusions. She saw him looking rather dapper in the morning and he somehow only looked better while slightly disheveled and ready to pick a fight for her. It seemed like the Ootori had come here in a rush to be with his wife, chest heaving slightly as he caught his breath.

"This is Matsuzaka-san," Kiyoko introduced. "Asami's lawyer. He is here to brief me on her will."

The elderly man dove into his suit pocket to find another business card as he bowed to the new addition that crowded over the patient. Kyouya slid the card between his index and middle finger, glancing at it for hardly a second before placing it into his pocket. Kyouya quickly returned back to his usual glower, coolly staring back at the lawyer.

"Matsuzaka-san," Kiyoko turned to the elder and gestured to Kyouya. The large stone on her finger caught onto the dim lighting as she flashed her hand up. Kiyoko nearly forgot the weight on her left hand from last night as she patted his shoulder.

"This is my husband, Ootori-san." It was so natural to call him as such that it made Kiyoko glow with a surge of pride she never thought to have. Kyouya stood straighter at the title, shifting his stance. He grew even more protective of his wife.

"O…Ootori?" The lawyer stuttered. "Like this hospital…?"

"Yes. The one and only," Kiyoko beamed in confirmation. "Well, technically one of four," she added to annoy Kyouya whose scowl was now subjected to Kiyoko. She chuckled at him, to which his scowl ended up softening into a more neutral expression. Only she had such a power and he gladly let her wield it.

The lawyer took in the sight of the young couple - a truly well-matched pair. Kiyoko stood tall and could have commanded the room with her dangerously quiet aura but with the Ootori? Their presence doubled in the way the room silenced around them. Power oozed out of their sheer existence in the hospital when they were given a bubble of privacy with every single healthcare worker that avoided the corner of the ICU.

The male Ootori silently offered a handshake to the stranger, still weary of the man.

The lawyer politely obliged, starstruck by the two. He watched the way Kiyoko had transformed from her stoic self to someone far more animated. "Apologies, I was not aware you were married."

"It was best to keep it a quiet affair," Kiyoko explained calmly, reeling back her blip of humour. "Although, I think she would…" Kiyoko glanced down at the bed. "She would have liked to see us," she thought back to the bridal boutique. The thought of redemption crossed her mind. Was it all worth it, Asami? She wondered.

The lawyer hummed in agreement. "You two do look wonderful together. Your mother would have been very happy."

He excused himself, after all, his job had been done here - to make his presence known and to receive the call when the time had come. Kiyoko tried not to dwell on the term used to describe Asami. A mother. She was a stranger, if anything. She bowed deeply at the lawyer's exit and the Ootori followed in suit to appear as a unit with his wife.

"Hi," Kiyoko greeted him again after they were left alone. She took in a deep breath of the sterile air. "It's been a day."

"Hello wife," he answered quietly, pressing a kiss to her temple and bringing her closer to him with a one armed hug. Kyouya wished that he had been here for her all day.

"So, have you met my mother-aunt?" Kiyoko cheekily pointed with her thumb behind her to the body.

"Kiyoko," the Ootori scolded as he let her go. "Really? Have some respect." The body was terrifying to even glance at.

The wife cackled in amusement. "Oh, please. Is she going to rise from the dead?" She had stared at Asami for hours on end, desensitizing herself from the grotesque wrapping of bandages last night. She was not easily spooked, or so she thought. Losing sleep over the image was enough of a price to pay. Kiyoko may not have quite made her peace with the situation but she sure had moved past the shock.

"She isn't dead," The Ootori whispered while pointing to the beeping of the monitors.

"Yet," Kiyoko corrected with unabashed humour that twinkled in her eyes.

He pinched his nose in exasperation with the woman. How could she find the humour in all of this? "This really is not how I wanted to meet your family."

"If you insist, we can head down to the morgue to see my grandmother," Kiyoko pointed down towards the floor. "Whom you have already met while she was alive, so I think your bases are covered in paying your respects here, dear husband."

"Kiyoko," he frowned further as she smiled deeper. "Not funny."

"Tough crowd," she huffed and rolled her eyes. "Let's go eat something, hm? I'm fucking starving."

Kiyoko perused through the aisles, grabbing a basketful of instant ramen, soy marinated eggs, mackerel, and some prepared pickles and vegetables as an extra topping. Kyouya trailed slowly behind, watching how comfortable this woman was in this commoner market.

"So is this… a condensed supermarket?" he asked.

"Conbini," Kiyoko responded. "A convenience store. You know, for convenience," she pointed towards the rest of the place. "Want anything to drink?" They looked like two office workers that just got off their usual 9 to 5, only that they were in designer clothes and were far too good looking to be cooped up in just a cubicle for the day.

"Uh," he hesitated. Kyouya stared at the wall of cold drinks encased in the fridge. It was overwhelming. "Whatever you think is best."

Kiyoko grabbed two cans and eyed the dessert section. Cream buns were placed in the basket before she walked down the little corner, pointing out a box of bandaids and then condoms that happened to be right beside it.

"Love how they made it so easy for you to get confused," she smirked as she gestured to the boxes with grace. "Thin bandages or thin condoms? Choose your player."

"Shut up," the Ootori rolled his eyes, grabbing the basket for her so he could bear the weight instead. Kiyoko happily let him and walked on ahead to see what else she could add to their feast. He quietly took the bandages off the shelf to be prepared for moments wherein Kiyoko's shoes were far from practical, even if she looked like a goddess who could command the universe to him.

Kiyoko led him to the cashier who patiently scanned each item and kindly warmed up the food. When she reached for her own card wallet in her pocket, Kyouya was quick to tap on her behalf having already gotten his card out before she even could reach for hers.

"Such a gentleman," she batted her eyes at him. "I'm sorry to report this that will certainly break the bank for you," Kiyoko playfully elbowed him in the ribs.

"It'll be worth it," he shrugged, playing into her scheme. "I am sure we are in for a gourmet meal."

"Hold onto that thought," she laughed. "This is just to fill our stomachs with tons of sodium and sugar."

The pair settled in front of the window with the high stools, watching streams of strangers pass by or pop into the convenience store along with them. Kiyoko grabbed a pair of chopsticks, placing the heated protein above the steaming hot noodles and pushing the bowl over to Kyouya's side before she assembled her own.

"You're so versed in commoner culture." It was no wonder that Kiyoko got along so well with Haruhi. The two women spoke like they were friends every time they met.

Kiyoko was mid-slurp through her noodles, starved of food all day. She turned her head to him and bit off the excess that fell out of her mouth - somehow she managed to make that act look rather endearing. "Toshio would bring me along for a pack of cigs after school. He let me buy snacks for Haru while munching on a bun or whatever."

Kyouya stared down to his own steaming bowl. She somehow made it look so enticing that he willingly took a bite of the instant food, delighting his taste buds with the surge of MSG. After a long day of work, Kyouya had to begrudgingly admit that this was actually rather delicious. It packed enough of a pungent spicy flavour to destress. Kyouya actually slurped the broth, leaving no drop behind.

"That was far too salty for it to be delicious," she pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her husband's not-so-refined taste buds after all.

"I was hungry," he muttered.

"Sure, sure," Kiyoko leaned on her elbow and picked at the side dishes of pickles and dried squid. She cracked open their canned highball, complete with a whole lemon slice within and took a sip with a bite of the paired snacks.

"Delicious," she murmured to herself. Kiyoko's chopsticks picked up a small portion of cucumber and fed it to her husband adoringly. The people outside of the window would have gushed if it was not so rude to linger and stare. Kyouya opened his mouth cautiously while she handed him his can to drink right after. "Not terrible, right?"

The Ootori nodded in agreement, picking up his own chopsticks to help himself.

"Any news on your front?" Kiyoko casually asked while tugging on the dried squid with her teeth. She chewed against the tough texture as a means of destressing.

The Ootori shook his head. "Our police force is looking into the CCTV footage to see who planted the explosive. Quite frankly, it looks like it was Asami to begin with. She hung around the vehicle before heading into the shop and her likeness to you threw off the security guards tailing you."

"Huh," Kiyoko narrowed her eyes. "No connection to my father?"

Kyouya paused. "Is that something we should be looking into?" Somehow, no one seemed to consider that man a threat, just a regular philandering businessman. An embezzler, but not a dangerous assailant. Kyouya jumped to another conclusion. "Should we be filing a restraining order for you?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. "Calm down," she spoke coolly. "We should file one for Misaki, if anything. I can handle my own. In fact, I would implore him to come to face me."

"What happened with Misaki?" There was so much the Ootori did not know.

"He pushed her down the stairs this morning. And if you recall, our imperial staircase is at quite the elevation," she paused to chew on the squid, taking another sip of her fizzy drink. "She lost the baby and went through surgery earlier today. On top of that, she will probably be framed for embezzlement," Kiyoko summarized. "Quite a tragic story, really. She could use any help she could get."

Kyouya eyed her suspiciously. "Are you planning on helping her?"

Kiyoko nodded slowly. "She could be a key witness. I called Haruhi during the afternoon. She had some leads on defense lawyers we could put on retain."

"And you're footing the bill?" He clearly disapproved of this act of charity.

Her face contorted into a grimace. "Think of it as an investment? Maybe she'll actually be the key to some peace by locking him away."

"Kiyoko," he sighed. "I understand your proclivity to help the poor but goodness, when will you help yourself?"

"I am," Kiyoko insisted. "Helping her is helping me put him in jail."

"Will it even be enough?" It was a harsh truth. The rich often got away with everything, from embezzlement to assault. And at times, even murder - attempted or successful. How well did Takeo cover his tracks?

"I don't know," Kiyoko admitted. "But I sure as hell am not here to cheat death another time. I am not sure how many more chances I can avoid my impending doom."

"How do you know it is him?"

Kiyoko shrugged. "There are so many characters left in this Guess Who game, Kyouya."

"And you're sure he got rid of your grandmother?"

The woman chewed on the tough squid and pursed her lips. "It's suspicious, no? They live separate lives - the estate is large enough that you can go days without seeing anyone besides the staff. Why would he go check on her unless he had a reason to?"

Kyouya frowned. "She died of a heart attack, didn't she? It is unfortunate but quite common. How will you pinpoint her death on him?"

"Fine," Kiyoko agreed. "We can wait for the toxicology report. But Asami… she boggles my mind."

"To plant an explosive and then willingly drive the vehicle with it… yes, that is rather unhinged behaviour," Kyouya was in disbelief at it too.

"I don't know what she was thinking," Kiyoko sighed. "How was that redemption? Did she just get tired of living and decided it was easiest to just… fuck off? Or did she plot this, knowing that my grandmother was going to die?"

"Surely, there are easier ways to go about a power struggle."

Kiyoko closed her eyes and massaged her temple. "Maybe this was… a cry for attention to my grandmother?"

"That's rather extreme."

"Or maybe it was the only way," Kiyoko grumbled. "To be ignored all your life… she might have thought this was the last resort to shake some sense into her."

"It could be seen as quite noble of her," Kyouya offered in comfort. "To sacrifice herself to protect you?"

"Or stupid," she scoffed in retaliation and took a large sip of her canned highball. "But whatever her intentions were, I suppose we'll never really know and I have to make peace with it."

Kyouya glanced at his wife whose brows furrowed in confusion and annoyance. He pressed a thumb between her brows, massaging away the crease, having done this many times for her. "You'll get wrinkles that way," he chided.

"You already have wrinkles," she retorted. "Is it so wrong to grow old together?"

"What?" Kyouya snapped his hand back and looked at himself through the reflection of the glass window. He was hardly that much older than her, how could he have wrinkles?

"Around your eyes, darling," Kiyoko grazed her finger along the crows' feet along her husband's face. "They're faint and you hardly laugh with anyone but me," she murmured. "I love them, really."

"You do?" he grasped onto his wife's delicate fingers. His heart expanded in ways he was not aware of.

"Yes, you're attractive even when you age," Kiyoko reassured. "Is what you should be telling me," she added with a roll of her eyes. She grabbed her hand back and chugged another large amount of her fizzy drink, looking back through the window and falling silent.

Kyouya made some headway with his own drink, chewing on the drinking snacks that she had paired. When his wife stayed silent for longer than he liked, he nudged her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Are you alright?" She was always in her head. Kyouya could only imagine the chaos that swirled in her mind and all around her.

"Yeah," she murmured with a slight nod. "Yes," she repeated with more confidence, as if needing to convince him more than she needed to convince herself. Kiyoko tilted her head at him and gazed at him with a soft smile.

"I'll be alright as long as I'm with you." He gave her all the courage she needed, pulling her back from the events that replayed in her mind. Kiyoko let herself rely on him, even if it was just to rest her head on his shoulder for a moment of reprieve.