RP Concluded Together, Together

[Miyako]

RP Date

YE 44.6

RP Location

Kyoto, Yamatai

Motoyoshi-Jo​

Kyoto, Yamatai

The sound of a heavy swallow is all that broke the silence inside of the transport. The rain had been louder earlier, but tapered off as they slowed on approach to the main offices and residences of Motoyoshi-jo.

The single clan bodyguard looked from the window where she scanned the covered landing site over to her charge:

"It's nothing. You may go for the night once we stop. It's well inside the perimeter. I don't want a big announcement, that's why we're not in the marked vehicle." Shimizu Akina sat across from her watcher, wearing something more appropriate for a meeting than a reunion. She decided after much deliberation to go with a somewhat muted outfit in black and grey. It featured a pencil skirt and dark thigh-high stockings, complete with black pumps she felt made the most pleasing sound of her professional heels on hard surfaces. A smartly cut vest is all she wore over a sleeveless snowy undershirt. Taking the time earlier in the afternoon to have her hair professionally styled, and it had come with a treatment to her nails to give them a glossy, pearlescent rainbow shine. The finishing touch was a very faint jasmine-based perfume and a necklace hiding an interface, operating as her communication device to make up for the lack of any pockets.

As she checked her reflection in the nearest screen, rather than one of the tinted windows for evidence of the faint 'sparkles' they had claimed showed up under light with the hair spray used on her, the passenger door opened. Her escort nodded, peered outside, and when she gave another nod to her passenger, she was smiling slightly.

Standing at the landing alone was a green-haired Nekovalkyrja with her mouth already agape. "Taisho H-ime! No one told me you were coming!" She blurted out, bowing low as after a cursory look down at her outfit, Akina gave her a reassuring smile as she was handed a rather large and expensive looking flower box. It featured blue, red, and purple flowers in very specific colors resting in a bed of white pebbles, the dirt underneath. On the bed of pebbles sat a jewelry set of a fine white gold in the clan color, which she always felt looked pretty with her mate's hair color.


"That was the point, do not tell anyone please. I'm just an 'unscheduled guest', I want to make this a surprise." Only getting a stunned nod in return, she waited a moment to get cleared through, just without using her name. The transport shifted away, back out into the rain, leaving them alone for a few moments, until the doors to the building opened to reveal the next attendant, dressed more traditionally in a Kimono of blue and white with a bamboo motif.

"This way please, hime-sama." The woman bowed, though the strategist was feeling more and more nervous, the more certain things became.

With doors sealed behind her, and a far less chilly reception area in front, Akina couldn't help but ask, "Where is my wife? The butterflies are only going to multiply the longer we dally." Raising from her bow after a depth and time no doubt drilled into her at an etiquette course, her new guide gestured smoothly with one arm, to reveal a set of doors sliding open near noiselessly from the relief of a Hummingbird and Phoenix five meters behind her desk. Things became even more real, ripping her out of the dream of even being in the building while she stared into the elevator, motionless until she could hear the voice of the attendant repeating herself.

"May I take that for you?" She inquired, only to cause those momentarily sedentary feet to sound a (mostly) sure track of heels on the marble all the way to the elevator. Once inside, she smiled more nervously than she thought and clung the box more tightly, letting the blossoms obscure her face when held to her stomach.

Not even realizing she was making the same request they were already tending to, the admiral fought the hiccup-like feeling inside of her and replied, "I'll be fine, I think I need it. Thank you. Make sure not to tell her who is coming."

Smooth, shiny doors slid shut, leaving her only as nervous as she had been on the way over, at least until it started to move skyward towards where she was. The veteran commander's heart started to beat so loudly that she thought it might get picked up on the security sensors, or the feeling of all the blood alternating going to her feet, to all over her face, making her even check the temperature readout amid the myriad information displayed on the panel to the right of the doors. It was still the right thing to do, it had been for far longer than she had let her worry keep her from her love, her partner. A digital brain is not always a gift, when you can imagine every scenario that can tear one's heart from their chest.

As the doors slid open, she could only hear herself think, "We need each other, just walk one foot in front of the other, soldier." The flowers can't really conceal Akina that well, but she walked out and tried to make a go of it before, as pins and needles shot up the back of her neck, she lowered it and looked for Katsuko, trying to keep herself from getting misty too soon to not seem a wreck, even if her mascara wouldn't run.

She wasn't going to either.

 

[Andrew]

Katsuko had just returned from Jiyuu, unlike her predecessor she only stayed in the Premier Citadel at the Imperial Palace when it was absolutely needed, she preferred the comfort and familiarity of her own castle outside of Kyoto. It had her things, it had the protective eyes of her Motoyoshi Keibi. Akina would hear Katsuko's voice before she would see her, a rather heated discussion with Taro was just coming to an end, "...I ran for Premier so I could help the Empire recover from the damn war, not so I could sit on some liberal traitors trying to unseat the Empress. I think I've been as open-minded as I am going to be, " there was a pause, the indistinguishable words of Taro on the other end, then Katsuko said, "Look I got a visitor apparently, better not be a goddamn reporter or Auda's going to have another special guest, we will talk later." After a few minutes the door opened, and Katsuko emerged at a brisk walk only to come to a complete stop.

Well, that was unexpected, steel grey eyes widened as Akina stood there just a few steps away. Katsuko's mind just stalled as emotions clouded her ability to think - even as advanced as she was, feeling still had its place. She opened her mouth to speak but only regarded as the air left her, her mind raced with thoughts. She inwardly had wished for this moment and feared it now for years. Unlike a lot of what had happened in Katsuko's life, this was something she had actually consciously done wrong - made the wrong choices, said the wrong things, and walked away when she should have run forwards. The emotion was overwhelming and the tears started to flow down her face, the sight of Akina and the flower box in her hands. Katsuko had saved Akina before, it somehow felt like the shoe was on the other foot right now, because it was her that felt like she needed saving. Katsuko nervously smoothed the wrinkles from the black dress she wore, the glittery hummingbird on it catching the light as her hands moved over the fabric.

"A...Akina," she said quietly, unfortunately, it was all the words she could manage. She just broke open, that tough facade she had placed around herself as protection when facing the Senate and the new position just collapsed. She cried, it was all she managed to do. She had so much she wanted to say to her and she couldn't manage another word of it. She closed her eyes and tried to control her emotions only to come up with no refuge and broke down further. She couldn't move, she didn't know if she wanted to run and wrap her arms around her or if she just wanted to run. She was overwhelmed, even if she knew she needed her more than anything.

Her soul, the fabric of her synthetically created being belonged to this woman. It had since the 5th Expeditionary Fleet, since that first fateful meeting. She had often thought of that blue little teddy bear that had meant life and death to them and the secrets it contained. Katsuko stumbled on her words, "I - I'm so glad you're here," she managed. She was still frozen in place and didn't know what to do. Hopefully, this would change things for the better - she couldn't handle another disaster, she was barely putting on a brave face as it was. The former Taisho had stood outside of Akina's Office at Star Army Command more than once, but had never had the courage to go in; she was terrified of her possible rejection.

 

[Miyako]

The waiting had made Akina feel as if the moisture were wicked away from her mouth and throat by the time the elevator opened. One of the many possibilities that her brain, which would not stop, had spat out as the wait made her more fretful than the ride over, much less how many hours she drove the jewelers (and the botanist, to be frank) crazy in picking out the gift she brought. No Yamataian could show up unannounced without a present, she thought at the time, only to find out it was to give herself something to hold onto for comfort, all too late. There was nowhere to put the stupid thing at the obvious revelation that she should have her hands free. The sound in her head turned to thunder, and there was no hiding the flush competing for the 'most red' between her cheeks and her face, unable to keep her eyes from Katsuko while fumbling about for somewhere to put the pot down without just dropping it, at least hoping that would win the race with the growing, 'dropitdropitdropit', chant in the back of her head that was only getting louder. A small table with a tiny box filled with ornamental bamboo and sand would have to do. The little box was haphazardly placed inside the gift she brought to keep her from knocking it over, giving her time to wring her hands out and counter with,

"Katsuko!" Seeing her wife crying, though it wasn't often, was always a way to get her going. Emotions were already exploding, instead of bubbling over, and she failed at stopping herself after blinking several fat tears out of her eyes, which just were the prelude rolling down her cheeks. The flood gates had opened, she was just happy to know the worst part was over: not knowing if she would be sent home or not. The sound of her heels underscored the slightly frantic way she closed the gap between them, all but impacting her wife like she was trying to make a Katsukina sandwich. It never surprised her how easily they meshed together emotionally, and intellectually. It was to her like they each rented space within the other. All the doors were unlocked when they were together. Her embrace was insistent and longing, she even lifted her mate slightly without thinking about it from squeezing her so tightly, getting so close as their foreheads met that they ended up trading tears with each other. If she was squeezing too hard, there was no notice of it, it felt like the doubts she had were being seared out of her to the very tips of her toes and fingers the longer their contact meant they were real, made more real by a noisy couple of snuffles from the newly arrived Nekovalkyrja.

"Mmmee too." Shimizu replied, a little late, but it did not stop her from squeezing the other woman a little harder, at least for a second, to satisfy her notion she might lift off from the ground or vanish like a desert illusion at any moment. The dread she felt was being replaced with something far better: a consuming love for her.

Recognizing the need they both had, from their mere meeting, Akina gushed, "I should have come here sooner."

 

[Andrew]

There was no time to question why neither of them had moved sooner, hindsight was perfect when it came to a lot of things. The dark place that Katsuko had been in since her retirement from active duty had brought her to this point. She had been falling before Akina walked into that room, but there was the fact that she always managed to catch her - that brought comfort for Katsuko to come undone. The great battle between Katsuko and her demons had come to a climax, and Akina was the calvary surging over the horizon to her savior. Nothing had been going her way, infact it was the complete opposite. She was not thinking, not that thinking mattered as she let her knees buckle and she literally pulled Akina down to the floor with her.

The tears continued to flow; it was the kind of grieving that only those close enough to the former Taisho knew. Katsuko had constantly sacrificed her own needs for others, giving up on the things she loved to uphold her clan and be the strong one. Not even Yaichiro and Eri had seen her in her weakest of moments, but Akina certainly had. What had finally compelled one of them to come to the other? Katsuko just held her there on the floor, it perhaps would get her judged by many for the weakness she now displayed but she needed to roll in the ashes either to rise again. Words didn't leave Katsuko's mouth, only her mind, "Thank you, thank you for coming to me. I need you, I need you so badly..." she whispered within a broken thought, her arms entwined around the form of Akina like the mooring ropes of a ship unwilling to let go within the throws of the tempest.

"I missed you, just please don't leave me again - I can't ..." she didn't finish her sentence. She pressed her lips to Akina's and kissed her with such passion, her emotions flooded out logic and everything else. As the tears began to slow and the crying subsided into the warmth of body upon body, she felt as if her missing refuge had been restored. "I'm sorry," she whispered, caught between embarrassment and comfort. She didn't know what else to say, this was at least the start.

She made no sense, even when she tried to. Had this been the end of a course? The final explosion before she rose again and gave a fist to the obstacles in front of her again? She was at home in those moments, not in the castle but on the original YSS Akuro in their quarters wrapped in the warmth where she belonged.

 

[Miyako]

Though their mouths became quickly unable to speak, Akina did not expect for her own replies as they touched together to have a *feeling* to them, and she swore she frayed their bandwidth a bit by trying to link together as securely and completely as she could. The electric feeling of kissing her true love made her squirm atop Katsuko. The blue Taisho's cheeks became even more wet thanks to gravity and how much their skin met. Akina doesn't exactly become unglued in the most dignified way when she is crying as they are together, so there's lots to go around, the only thing that really tempers the unraveling is their kissing.

Even with updates from each side of the clans, she had never felt so alone, even on Higaflan there wasn't as much of a maw left inside of her, an event horizon caused by not doing what she really knew she both needed to, and wanted to for so long. At least there she was not her own jailer. It might not surprise anyone that they both blamed themselves, other than the couple in question. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise." Flooded through their link, not really something they HAD to have, as their brains could ping one another, but it felt more whole to her and natural, just like all the time they spent rattling each other's brains for years together. Yes, that kind too.

Katsuko earned herself a harder squeeze, and Akina plaintively licked across her lips, it was already a mess of her own lipstick, but she got the tears away and managed, "You don't need to be, I shhould." Then she was tasting her, the need in her core to be near the equally flushed mess overriding her chance to sort things out with talking, but there were other ways to reconcile and it didn't even register to her that she was on the floor of an office block. The time to move was long gone, her knee slid up between Katsuko's legs, dragging her black dress up with it. She pressed at the apex of her thighs, gently at first, and then leaned more weight down on her, taking her time to make their mess of a kiss deeper. A distinct mix of mostly popping and some tearing gave testament to where the unnaturally red hair of her wife was hiding her hand as she exposed her chest, clad in a see-through black bra with quite the smooth, gauzy feel and vertical striping that she, ever the strategist, had thought there was some chance this might be happening.

Victory pantsu.

"I love you, and I am going to show you just how much." Akina thought to her, replacing her knee and thigh with her hand, only using the former to hold her beautiful wife's legs apart.


The security monitoring system retained far more than it planned to that rainy evening, on into the morning until they managed to even get to a different part of the castle.


>>End, continued-...elsewhere! Everywhere?