For a moment, no one moved.
And for a moment longer, the revelation hung between them like an inescapable fact, one that didn't land until the shorter woman's hands twitched in their shared grasp.
"You're…his wife…"
Juri's eyes flickered to their hands.
For a brief second, she was sure she saw Geisha's veins radiating beneath her skin.
Juri's jaw tensed at the mention of it.
Geisha, for once, didn't see it.
"Yes, I am," Juri replied.
"I am…" Her voice dropped a temperature below anything related to warmth. "The Executive's wife."
Geisha's mind finally realized the implication.
She understood something.
Then, as quickly as her sudden grip came, it released its tension as she looked at their hands.
"Oh…"
"I see…"
But even then, her voice failed to completely hide the real intent behind its tone.
And yet, compared to the hybrid woman behind her, Geisha's forced smile and warm gaze, once she released their handshake, was nothing in comparison to what that young woman felt.
Because the moment she heard Kisaragi, it wasn't fear she felt…
but rather the unexplained twitch of her finger as her arm hovered over her chest for a brief moment before she realized it.
Her eyes, still quietly looking at Juri and Geisha as they began to speak without sizing each other up, shimmered underneath her lashes.
"…Kisaragi…?"
"Akira?" Akashi said, his voice gentle enough not to startle her.
He knew she was lost in thought.
She always reached out for him unconsciously whenever she did.
"You okay? You seem…different," he murmured.
Akira, who'd still unknowingly squeezed his sleeve, blinked as she came back to her mind.
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah, I am. I just…" She paused for a minute, glancing over. "…she's…married. I didn't know that."
Her mind replayed all kinds of things, not just memories of Juri's unoccupied fingers, but quiet moments when she should've known that—
"Smallie."
Her eyes slid back to him.
He held her face, careful, searching for lies he knew she'd try and hide.
"You sure you're okay?"
Glasses dipped a fraction as he stared at her directly now.
Not through a lens made by someone else.
But through his own.
The ones he trusted most.
Yui, standing by Alexander, watched the siblings as Akira seemed a lot more tense and yet still contradictorily safer.
"So that's what you meant…" Yui murmured to herself.
Graham traced her gaze.
"Is something…wrong?"
Yui smiled.
Bittersweet.
"No…no, everything's okay, sir."
She looked up at the blonde teacher.
"Y'know, I know you've probably heard this already, but you're a bit too young to be a lecturer…you're only a couple of years older than me," she said, trying to spark up a conversation.
Geisha and Juri shared a bit of a lopsided conversation too, if you could even call it that.
And while all of them seemed to have some sort of connection, one guy sat alone, irritation still plastered across his features as he texted his friend.
() () ()
"You owe me for this."
"Relax, tough guy, you did good. Helping Yui out was the right call, see? I'm a genius."
"Genius my ass, where the hell even are you?! I thought you'd be here by now."
"Oh, you thought I was coming?😀"
"JAMES!!—"
() () ()
"Ren…?"
The blue-haired Essential looked up.
Violet.
His eyes darkened a fraction before Yui's voice echoed in his head.
"Akira."
Akira saw all the separate reactions. It made her feel weird inside.
She took a small breath.
"Mr Graham would…like to talk to you and Yui outside…"
Ren glanced over his shoulder, his irritated pupils landing on the young professor, who kindly gestured at him.
A deep, soulful sigh left him as he got up and shoved his phone inside.
"Why the hell am I even here…" he grumbled beneath his breath, walking past her.
Akira wanted to say something, but…the idea quietly perished when she had to interrupt him.
Akashi, standing beside Mrs Juri as the two waited for Geisha, watched his little sister with an almost quiet heartbreak.
"She's trying…"
Juri's eyes noticed his expression, then the cause, and a small hum left her.
"I take it she's had trouble adjusting."
He laughed a little.
"To what?"
"Beingwanted."
That one slapped his chest in an unfair manner.
He immediately whispered,
"I just wish she could see it…"
They both watched her fumbling her thumbs together as she contemplated walking over to them or not.
His eyes loosened further.
"Ah, geez, you little gremlin…when are you gonna learn…" he muttered. "If you don't at least try, it'll never happen…"
Juri watched his expression, her eyes taking in every single crease that formed as he watched his sister.
For a heartbeat.
She recognized that look.
It was something akin to maternal.
She looked at Akira, who'd decided, after the second curl of her toes, that she'd walk over slowly towards them.
"Mr Hashinada," Juri said, eyes never leaving her student. "You ought to trust her a little bit more."
Akashi looked at her.
"She's much stronger than you realize. Give her a little bit of credit once in a while."
His eyes shone a little.
Finally…
someone besides him who saw it too.
"Yeah. You're right…"
"Akashi…?"
He smiled as she approached him.
"What's up, smallie?"
Akira's voice lowered.
"I'm not interrupting you two…right?"
"No, you are not," Juri answered, turning around. "In fact, I was just about to go and find Mr Graham."
She walked towards the door before Akira could say anything.
Then her eyes settled on the floor.
Her feet.
Still barefoot and still awkwardly shuffling against each other.
It was only then that Akashi actually noticed them.
"The hell? Where'd your shoes go?" he asked with a genuinely confused expression.
Akira's heart sank for a minute.
Her mind replayed it again.
The fire.
The moment things blurred into a series of concise memories, all chopped into bits and pieces.
She straightened.
Cleared her throat.
"Well, you see, I…"
Her eyes met his.
Somehow, someway, his confusion looked like anger.
Her gaze darted back to the ground.
Akashi's brows creased further.
"Dude."
…
"Smallie."
…
He sighed.
The sigh itself was resignation, but when he saw her stiffen at it, her hands instinctively moving up to her—
"Akira." He said, hands resting on her shoulders. "Alright, look at me."
"I can explain."
"No, you can't. Now look at me before I get the wrong shoe size again."
That made her heart ease a bit as a reluctant smile played on her lips.
Just then, Geisha stood quietly by the hall's entrance as she watched the interaction between them.
"Good, see? You still work. Now look at me."
Akira looked up eventually.
Then he ruffled her hair.
"You're too tense, blockhead," he blurted out.
That actually made Akira grumble.
"Don't do that, you know I have a sensitive scalp!"
He scoffed.
"It's 'cause you think too hard before talking, you awkward adult."
Akira frowned.
Actually frowned.
"Shut up. At least my head's full of thoughts—"
"Oh, so you CAN talk back."
…
Silence.
Then laughter.
One soft.
One warm enough to make the other's more relaxed.
Akashi gave her a playful slap on the arm as he chuckled.
"You scared me back there, dum dum. Had me thinking they arrested you for assault."
Akira let out an equally awkward, humorous breath.
"Well…it wasn't assault they charged me with…"
Akashi's smile faded into a deadpan look.
"You actually got charges?"
"I mean…"
While the siblings spoke, Geisha's shoulder leaned against the arch of the hallway as she witnessed a new side of this girl she'd never seen before.
"Fascinating…" she thought to herself, watching Akira laugh at another terrible joke.
The laugh itself made her heart flutter.
And when she did, her shoulders would loosen in the light.
Her voice would carry itself with the same gentle politeness it knew, but with more joy in it than fear.
They carried on, talking about mundane things now.
Groceries.
Akashi's unnatural eating and stealing food habits.
Weird people.
That topic, however, though Akashi and Geisha missed it, made Akira's breath stutter for just a fraction when Akashi playfully grabbed her forearm.
But then Geisha's eyes flickered beneath her lashes as she noticed something.
It wasn't a physical action.
No.
It was something only someone close to her or observant enough to notice.
She pushed herself off the arch as her expression immediately darkened and she walked forward.
Because in that tiny moment, when Akashi grabbed her forearm…
the short woman caught the faintest sharpscentoflavender drift past her senses.
"Yeah, but that guy was—"
"Hope I'm not interrupting…" a soft voice said behind them.
Akira's ears immediately perked up.
She knew who it was.
She turned.
Same smile.
Same face.
Same person.
Safe.
"Geisha…" she whispered.
Geisha gave Akira a kind grin.
"I see what you meant by you and your brother being annoyingly close," she joked.
Akira laughed a little, genuinely.
That sound made Geisha's conflicting emotions subside for a brief moment before she turned to Akashi.
"Actually, I just spoke to the Director. He says that the charges against you were safety protocol, nothing too serious."
Akashi feigned an exaggerated sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank God. She already makes me broke, I can't pay for her jail time."
"Akashi…" Akira nudged him, embarrassed.
"What?" he laughed. "Look, man, all I'm saying is if I had to choose between you and being broke…" He grinned sheepishly as he looked at Geisha. "I mean, it seems like you've already got a good friend here, so—"
"Akashi!"
"I'm JUST saying."
Geisha shared a small laugh with the lad as she teased Akira too.
She eventually told them, however, that while the office wouldn't take any legal action, they wouldn't be able to completely shut off any of the social news that had spread already.
Akira tensed a little.
"You mean…people are still gonna think I'm…"
"Hey, let's handle one problem at a time, alright, smallie?" Akashi said, gentler now.
Geisha nodded.
"Your brother's right, Akira…"
The doors opened, Juri and Graham walking through.
Geisha continued.
"If what they said really does happen then…" Her eyes softened. "We won't be able to completely change what strangers might think of you."
The news itself wasn't supposed to hurt.
She'd been judged more times than she'd been heard. Of course she was used to rejection.
So why did it feel like, even if for a moment, that maybe…
maybe she might've been able…to find another Geisha somewhere out there?
Lavender settled somewhere in their senses.
Juri noticed it from where she stood.
Geisha took a step forward to her as she whispered her name.
And Akashi already knew enough to know that she didn't need two people crowding her.
"Listen to me, Akira…"
Geisha cupped her cheeks.
Akira, for all her big-girl act, couldn't help but let them fall anyway.
"I'm fine…" Akira murmured, already hiding her tears behind her palms.
Instinct.
Geisha gently pried them away.
"Hey, don't do that, Aki."
Akira's body lowered, Geisha's fingers guiding her until…
Contact.
"Remember what I told you…" Geisha murmured, eyes shut as that dull ache came back.
Akira gently nodded against her forehead.
"I don't need to hide who I am…"
"Why?"
Akira paused.
Looked at Akashi.
Same face.
Same look.
Same smile.
Safe.
She closed her eyes.
Took a shaky breath.
"Because I don't need anyone else's approval except the ones who want what's best for me."
Geisha smiled warmly at that.
"Atta' girl."
The shorter woman's hands lingered on her nape and cheek before she pulled back and…
…
"Wow," Akashi said, his voice a bit scratchy. "I didn't know I got replaced already."
Akira let out a watery laugh as she wiped her tears.
"Believe me, I don't think I could even if I wanted to."
The three of them actually laughed together.
Warm.
Whole.
Juri…
simply observed all this with that same unreadable expression on her gray features.
Geisha's peripherals noticed her.
Then glanced at Akira's feet.
"Yikes, seems like they forgot to get you a new pair, huh?"
Akira's toes wiggled a little.
"Oh, I'll be fine…I've…got some shoes back home."
Akashi shook his head.
"$110 gone in a day," he scoffed. "And yet I'm the expensive one?"
Akira tried to explain herself, then the air around her feet warmed up as soft green particles arose from the ground.
The small motes tucked themselves under the soles of her feet as they wove themselves together until…
"There. I think that's much better, right?" Geisha smiled.
Akira looked at her feet.
Flipflops.
Transparent and green.
Her pupils warmed instantly.
"Geisha, you…"
Geisha tilted her head as she offered another kind smile.
"Consider it my second friendship token…"
That pulled the strings inside Akira's heart as she hugged her close.
Really…
Reallyclose.
Geisha returned it, her own chest painfully tight as she stroked the hybrid's hair, feeling the gentle droplets sinking into her neck.
"You're welcome…" she whispered. "Take care of yourself, kay'?"
Akira nodded against her, squeezing her one more time.
"Yes ma'am…"
She held onto her a moment longer before finally, reluctantly, letting go.
And as Geisha watched the hybrid retreat behind those doors, her emerald eyes settled on a particularly ponytailed woman.
And for the first time since they met, Juri saw the first crack in her composure as her eyes flickered with an almost quiet violence within.
"MrsKisaragi."
"Juri," she corrected. "You may call me that."
Geisha breathed.
"Mrs…Juri then," she said, her voice barely holding onto its usual warmth. "I'd like to make a request of you."
Juri's eyes reclaimed as she tilted her head ever so slightly.
"What kind?"
For the first time since they met, the atmosphere tilted on its side as Geisha's jaw tensed behind her polite expression.
"Protect that child. She's a lot more fragile than you think."
Juri didn't react to the tilt in the air.
Rather, she embraced it with a faint smirk of her own as she lifted her heel and—
"Mrs Juri…"
Her heel hovered over the concrete as she looked over to her side.
Graham.
She looked back at Geisha.
Then turned on her heel.
Her heels clicked against the ground.
Click.
Click.
Click.
"Ms Hoshinoi," she replied as she walked away.
Graham watched her before hesitantly following.
"I can assure you…"
Her hand hovered over the doorknob as she stared directly at Geisha over her shoulder.
A faint tremor resonated within Geisha's frame before Juri replied.
"I have absolutely no intentions of failing any of my students."
And once the door closed with a soft clink…
only then did Geisha's eyes shift from a youthful emerald…
to a deep, desaturated green as she turned on her heel.
"Then you and I are on the same page."
Her voice, warmer then, was devoid of feeling as she kept replaying one image in her head—
"Mrs Kisaragi…"
the sight of a young hybrid woman…
"…Juri."
covering her chest.