Gilded Ashes-Chapter 70: Lights Out

By the time they made it back to Kori’s apartment, the day had used up everything their legs had to offer.

Raizen got the door. The place smelled like old fruit tea and laundry detergent. Jackets were thrown onto chair backs in a way that would embarrass them tomorrow. Keahi collapsed face-first onto the couch. Arashi claimed the armchair with the energy of a man who planned to die in it. Hikari sat on the floor against the wall and let her head tip back, eyes closing.

"My legs hate me" Keahi groaned into a cushion.

"They have excellent taste" Arashi mumbled. "You are a tyrant to them."

Hikari laughed under her breath.

Kori still wasn’t home.

No clipped footsteps. No key in the lock. No voice that could fill a room without raising its volume. No pastry bags on the counter.

"She must still be with Kenzo" Raizen said, asking himself what other places she could be at.

"Their little inspection is taking this long?" Arashi asked. "He doesn’t look like the kind of man who reads every valve and vent a bedtime story."

"He carried that ledger like it was his child" Keahi said.

"Please don’t talk about ledgers" Arashi said. "I’m still recovering."

They let the quiet take over. Not because they didn’t have anything to say, but because there was no more energy left to say it. City noise drifted through the window. A scooter somewhere above, on a suspended road. A drone close by. Voices fading down the street.

Suddenly, a knock. Polite. Slow.

Raizen jumped on his feet before he realized. He unlocked the door and opened it slowly.

Kenzo stood in the hallway with Kori draped against his shoulder, one arm around her waist, holding her up with the kind of steady grip that made it look effortless. Her eyes were completely shut. Color in her cheeks. She looked peaceful in a way none of them had ever seen before.

"Good evening" Kenzo said, quiet enough not to wake her. His polite smile was still there, but slightly crooked.

"What happened!?" Raizen asked while trying to keep his voice low.

"Long day. Long week." Kenzo shifted his grip. "She drank a bit more than she usually does. Couldn’t really leave her walking home like this." He paused, then added, rolling his eyes: "Good thing she managed to mumble the address. Otherwise I’d have had to... Figure something else out."

Kori’s cheeks, already pink, turned a shade darker.

Raizen immediately cleared the way. Kenzo stepped inside and laid Kori on the couch with huge care, something neither of the three expected from a tough guy like him – he eased her head onto the pillow, adjusted the angle, then reached down and moved a strand of hair off her face.

"Thank you" Keahi said, already on her feet.

Kenzo nodded. "You’re all home safe, that’s what matters." He straightened, and the slight ease left his posture - back to being the Kenzo everyone knew, back to professional, back to the version of himself that existed outside this apartment.

Arashi opened his mouth. Something snarky flickered behind his eyes, but he kept it to himself. "Right" he said instead. "Good night, Kenzo. See you around."

Keahi waved a lazy salute. "Night."

Kenzo’s mouth twitched. "Good night. Also, if something happens, my contact should be on her slate."

He crossed to the door, set his hand on the frame for a second, and left. The latch clicked shut.

Silence.

Kori’s eyes snapped open.

Not slow. Not groggy. They cracked open like a switch being flicked. She sat up in one smooth motion, clapped both hands over her face, and made a sound that was half squee, half laugh, and entirely undignified.

"Did you see him carry me" she said through her fingers.

Raizen’s hand flew to his mouth, startled. "Kori!"

Arashi stared. For once in his life, he had nothing to say. Literally nothing.

Keahi squinted. "You were awake."

"I built my tolerance to alcohol years ago, of course." Kori said, which explained everything and nothing. She dropped her hands a bit. Her face was red - not even blushing pink anymore, full-on red.

"What happened?" Hikari asked.

"I... Um... Might have been faking. A little."

"A little" Arashi repeated. "Meaning completely."

"Meaning mostly."

Kori pulled her knees up on the couch and pressed her face into them, then lifted it again because she couldn’t stop smiling long enough to hide. "He didn’t have to carry me like a princess half the road here! I could have walked. But he just - he picked me up like it was the only option. And he’s soo steady. Did you know he’s that steady? Yeah, of course you know. You have eyes, don’t you? Heh..."

Keahi lay back and put her forearm over her face. "I’m actually going to die."

"You like him, don’t you?" Hikari said, grinning so hard her cheeks stretched.

Kori inhaled sharply - the scandalized breath of a woman being ambushed by her own feelings in front of witnesses. "Well... I like that he’s careful" she started, counting on her long fingers. "And that he listens. And that he pretends not to know jokes so I can tell them badly and he still laughs. And that he checks on Ichiro every time he sees him even though he swore he’d give him space. And that -"

She stopped. Realized she was listing. Bit her lip.

"I should stop talking."

"Yeah" Arashi mumbled. "You probably should."

"The image of you as an unstoppable force" Raizen said, "is cracking in real time."

"It is not cracking" Kori said, cracking in real time. She pressed her palms flat on the couch cushions like she could push the composure back in. "I am a professional. I am composed. I am in complete control of-"

"Maybe you really did drink a bit too much..." Keahi said.

Kori slapped both hands over her ears. Realized that she just did that, then put them back down. The four of them watched her cycle through three expressions in two seconds - embarrassment, defiance, and a third thing that looked suspiciously like joy trying to wear a serious face.

"He smells like cedar" she said, very quietly, like it was classified information.

"Aaand she’s gone" Arashi sighed.

Kori snapped upright. The command posture came back in an instant - spine straight, sweater smoothed, hair pushed behind her ear. The voice that could line up a room found itself again.

"None of that happened" she said.

"All of that happened" Keahi said to the ceiling.

"None." She smiled anyway. Couldn’t help it. Looked around at the four of them and something in her gaze softened. "Are you hurt?"

"Our legs are" Keahi started whining again.

"Emotionally, yes" Arashi said, like he was personally offended by what Kori did. "And the pride is" he added. "That whack-a-mole machine is going to send Keahi a bill."

Kori ignored him the way only years of practice allows. "Good. Lights out, then."

"Now?" Keahi protested.

"Now. You can argue about anything else in the morning, I don’t want to hear anything else now. And explain why Keahi tried to destroy a children’s game with two mallets."

"Hey, I didn’t-" Keahi started.

"Lights out" Kori said, pointing at the hallway.

Hikari swayed in front of the stairs, loose and heavy with the kind of sleepiness that makes you walk like a zombie.

Arashi paused. "If you two get married-"

"Go. To. Bed." Kori didn’t allow any other word, and threw him a look that could kill.

Arashi’s eyes widened, and he quickly dissappeared from Kori’s line of sight.

Raizen stayed where he was. Kori noticed, she always noticed.

"You too" she said. Gentler.

"In a second."

Kori looked at the door Kenzo walked through, then back at Raizen.

The small house settled into silence. Blankets shifted. The city noise outside dropped to a murmur.

✦ ✦ ✦

Raizen lay on his back in the dark. On her own mattress, Hikari was already asleep, the corner of her mouth relaxed. A line of streetlamp light came through the angled window and caught a strand of her golden hair.

He turned his hand over.

The earrings sat in his palm. Two brass stars with four points, each edge beveled just enough to catch whatever light was in the room and reflect it. They were lighter than he expected. But for some reason, they felt heavier than he could explain.

He closed his fingers around them. The metal was warm - borrowed heat from his skin, held there like a small, patient thing waiting to be given away.

Soon. He’d give them to her soon enough.

He didn’t know how. Didn’t know what to say. But he knew he’ll do it.

Gently putting the earring packet on floor shelf beside his mattress, Raizen closed his eyes.

✦ ✦ ✦

Kori stood in the living room a moment longer, hands on her hips, looking out the window- at the street, the last of the Glowline’s lanterns still awake in the distance, the scooters, everything Neoshima had.

"Well... The day’s been fun" she whispered to herself. "But tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow I’ll take them to the Heart"