Chapter Text
Kira was furious.
Or anxious, maybe, her hands in her lap about to lose the last string of steadiness.
She was waiting by the window of her room at the summer house, her father kept his word and invited her—Yumeko— to spend a week with them.
Kira and Yumeko hadn't talked at all since the last encounter at the party.
They weren't enemies anymore.
But they certainly weren't friends either.
They did define how to call it, but Kira had started to doubt the title she set herself.
Partners.
Too generic yet so specific and grounding.
Partners, but what for?
The council president wasn't bothered by the fact that Yumeko was going to spend a week there. No, she was mad that Yumeko, her so-called partner, had vanished all summer.
While she felt pathetic for most of it, she knew why.
That kiss.
It still stung on her tongue, a sting that had nothing to do with the poison in it.
It was her first, even if she hated to admit it—and she didn't. No one knows about it, not even Yumeko.
—
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a car engine parking; she looked out the window. Yumeko was there, getting out of the car surrounded by five of Kira's servants. Hands behind her back, the servants handled her baggage as she walked, confident and gracious in the most terrifying way.
A knock on the door. Riri.
"Yumeko has arrived. Father wants you downstairs," her sister announced in her whispery voice. Kira remained silent, humming ever so slightly to let her know that she understood, and Riri walked away.
She looked at her reflection in the window before walking down the stairs.
And into the chaos she had started to miss, somehow.
-
The awkward greetings were over, and Kira's father dismissed himself. The servants led Yumeko upstairs to show her room for the week, the one beside Kira's. Kira followed after a moment so that Yumeko wouldn't notice. Walking upstairs, she looked at the flawless posture of the girl just a few steps ahead. She noticed how her hair had grown a bit in these months, how the warm brown of it had turned lighter, just enough to be seen. She wondered if Yumeko had noticed her changes; she wondered if she had changed at all. Kira didn't have time to wonder, as a small cough brought her to reality. They were now alone; the servants had left, and Yumeko stood at the door of her room.
"Lovely here, so...calculated," she commented, looking around, trying to break the ice. Kira just nodded.
"You look lovely too, Kira-san," the girl added after a second, her tone lowered, her smile wider.
"Thank you," Kira replied with a fake smile.
"Truly, it's been a while, but your beauty stays untouched and remains hard to forget," remarked Yumeko, grinning and playing with her hair.
Kira didn't flinch, didn't smile, but her heart did skip a beat.
"I see time hasn't changed you," she said coldly.
Yumeko ignored her comment and walked inside her room. Kira didn't dare to follow.
"Anyway..., it's so hot here. Can we go swimming in the pool?" Yumeko asked, childlike, as she knelt down to take her bikini out of the luggage.
"You're not here to play," Kira said firmly.
"Aren't I?" Yumeko chuckled and stood up again with the bikini in her hands.
Kira rolled her eyes. She couldn't handle her right now.
"Do what you want. Just don't cross any lines, and especially, don't bother me."
Yumeko laughed again, softer.
"So that means you won't come?"
"I'll see you at dinner."
The president turned and left, walking into her room. She sighed; she didn't know what to do, and it scared her. Yumeko is here to plan the death of the board, not to spend a friendly week at the pool, and what scared Kira most is that she wouldn't mind that option.
-
Staring out the window or checking as she would define it, Kira looked at Yumeko swimming in the pool, idly, casually, like she owned it.
She looked pathetic in Kira's eyes, there, all alone, like an abandoned fish left to live out its days caged in a space it could not escape from.
Her skin started to feel warm, and so she decided to walk outside from the sunbathing seats to the poolside.
Yumeko noticed. She did even before Kira stepped out of the house, and so she swam to the poolside, resting her arms there, and her chin on the back of her hand, looking up at the blue-lipsticked girl.
Her wet hair was sticking to her forehead and cheeks, framing her in a way Kira thought nothing could improve.
Yumeko, waiting for a word, didn't speak, but Kira's words were stuck. Lost for a moment as Yumeko's sparkling eyes sank in her gaze.
Because Yumeko looked, like really, looked at her.
Kira in a thin robe, underneath it, her blue bikini, Yumeko could spot some pale skin, and so she felt vulnerable.
"I thought I'd see you at dinner." Teased Yumeko.
"You see me when I want to." Replied Kira firmly.
"Ohh, and to what do I owe the pleasure?" Yumeko asks playfully.
"Nothing you're worth hearing."
"Damn." Yumeko chuckles and pushes herself backward with her feet, floating in the crystal-blue water.
"Come here." Kira commanded, and Yumeko raised her eyes, intrigued, so she swam back to the poolside.
"Yes, President?"
"Get out, Yumeko, I want to swim alone."
She doesn't want to. She doesn't even want to swim. At this point, she just wants to bother the peace Yumeko has because, on the other hand, her state is far from peaceful. It's turmoil.
Yumeko sighed but, weirdly, obeyed.
She lifted herself up with her hands from the pool. Her long hair gleamed, her body curved perfectly, and Kira had to turn around. She took off her robe to keep herself busy, now only in her bikini.
That was just what Yumeko wanted. She giggled to herself and lifted the pale girl into her arms, effortlessly, before jumping back into the pool, not without a dramatic scream from Kira.
Kira resurfaced with Yumeko's hands still wrapped around her.
She wanted to scold her and push her away, but at that moment, she found it impossible.
Yumeko laughed. Kira didn't, but she smiled.
"If we go down, we go down together, right, partner?"
That word, again. Kira moved away.
"The one dragging us down is you, though." She commented, coldly, again.
"You talk like we failed last time. We didn't." Yumeko scoffed.
"Because I handled it."
"And I always knew we were in good hands!" Yumeko smiled widely, grabbing Kira's hands underwater. Kira didn't swat them away.
"You're insufferable."
"Yet you invited me here."
"My father did."
"Touché."
"You're enjoying this more than I do." Kira sighed, annoyed.
"So that means you are enjoying it." Yumeko's grin widened.
"Shut up." Kira pushed Yumeko's head underwater, and Yumeko let her. Plus, she swam down and hooked herself between Kira's legs, lifting her up on her shoulders as she resurfaced. Kira panicked at the movement, firstly because of the position, and then because of how high she felt.
Yumeko laughed like she always did.
"Put me down!" Kira scolded her.
"Oh, president, this is to let you know that I can drag us down, but I can also put you back up." Yumeko pointed out.
"Oh, cut it! Down, now." Kira commanded.
"You could just fall back." Yumeko giggled while spinning in the water, as fast as friction permitted.
"Yumeko!" Kira warned her for the last time. And she listened, in her own way. She pushed Kira's legs up hard enough to let her fall backward in the water.
"You, bitch. I'm gonna drown you. You're gonna die here." Kira spit, angry.
"Mhh, and I'll hold you down with me. It wouldn't be the first time we risk to die together." Yumeko teased, her hand moving to keep steady Kira, resting casually on her bare waist. That made the president shift slightly.
At the moment, Kira felt like she, too, was a caged fish, abandoned to die in that spot. She looked at the girl in front of her and smiled at the thought, because she didn't feel alone.
Maybe they were meant to be caged, maybe each other's company was freedom. But they were too busy drowning each other to even bother to think about it.
—
Inside the house, someone was watching, admiringly intrigued. Riri witnessed the scene from afar and wondered what kind of alien had replaced her sister. Guilty, because that moment wasn't meant for anyone else's eyes, she felt relieved in some ways, terrified in many others. Yumeko is a wild card, a jester, a dice rolling down a rough surface. And Kira was used to counting the cards, to cutting them precisely.
—
Now they were lying down, sunbathing—at least Yumeko was; Kira was too pale to even try. Yumeko made fun of that.
"This is going to be a great week," hummed Yumeko, and Kira smiled without needing to hide it.