Ayame rolled her eyes as Owner giggled behind her hand, and began to scan around the room for any signs of Chinami.

As far as the eye could see, she couldn't see any sign that the driver she privately held dear was anywhere nearby.

Owner's sharp eyes noticed her glances, and decided to join her in looking.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing, just...wondering where Saizuki is. I wanna go home.”

“Oh, her? I saw her leave with another woman about five minutes ago.”

For the first time since Mirai's departure, Ayame felt another shock of a cold chill rush through her body; though this time, it was one more tinged with an unpleasant and unfamiliar sense of something uncomfortable. Anguish? No...longing?

No...

Jealousy.

Owner's expression was faultless. Ayame raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

“Now, why would she do a thing like that?”

“Well, I never said she was gone permanently, did I?” Owner replied quickly. Ayame's skeptical smile faded in an instant. “Maybe she was just bored. Or maybe she just wanted a moment of respite? There's no better place to be than in a mobster's arms.”

Ayame gnawed at the inside of her lip. Chinami had someone special in her life already...? Who?

“...If I find out you're lying to me...”

“I'm not! Why would I do something like that?” Owner replied, and much to Ayame's surprise, she looked surprisingly sincere.

“...She really left with someone?”

“She did! And they looked remarkably friendly. I wonder if it was her girlfriend or something. Drivers are surprisingly unencumbered by our family lives, I suppose.”

Owner tapped her chin as the two of them looked out over the room; and Ayame couldn't help but feel as though her heart had been taken from her chest and stomped on.

There was nothing to prove or disprove Owner's claim, though Ayame couldn't see why Owner would make up such an egregious lie about Chinami, of all people. Ayame frowned so hard her head began to ache as a startling realization began to make itself known – she actually didn't know this driver well at all, nor did she have any kind of inkling that she'd ever do anything about this attraction. Maybe this is exactly what Chinami would do. It wouldn't be the first time appearances had deceived.

Maybe all this time – just maybe – Ayame had been chasing after someone who wasn't ever going to be interested in the first place.

“...Ayame-chan?”

Ayame rubbed her forehead quickly, and folded her arms as she scowled. Just another person that had let her down, it would seem – even if Chinami herself hadn't realized it.

“It's nothing,” Ayame snapped in a curt response, to which it only seemed as though it spurred Owner on.

Threading her arm through Ayame's own, she tugged on it slightly.

“Come on...let's go and find Boss, shall we?”

Ayame remained silent, and allowed Owner to take the lead for one of the first times in living memory.

--

The aftermath of the funeral continued without incident. Ayame and Owner did not reunite with Teru, who had also disappeared with the younger of the two Mishimas altogether; and Owner was at the very least correct about one thing – Chinami, too, had disappeared from view at great length. It must have been something incredibly pressing or tempting for a driver of her calibre to disappear, and Ayame couldn't help but think that only led credence to the fact that Owner was, probably, not lying about it.

“Ready to return home?” Akira asked, as Owner and Ayame herself wandered over to where she was stood with her usual troupe. “I think we've stayed long enough to make our point.”

“Yes, Boss.” Ayame replied bluntly; in no mood for conversation. Owner simply bowed her head before returning back to form.

“Where's Teru?” Akira asked.

“Who cares?”

Akira raised an eyebrow at Ayame's brash tone.

“...Bad mood? Not like you to talk so nonchalantly of your sister.”

“Something like that. And she'll be fine.”

“I see,” Akira sighed as she sparked up another cigarette; and nodded to her entourage to begin heading towards the door. “We've been unable to locate Saizuki, so we'll be returning home with one of my drivers. I'll be docking her a week's pay for her desertion, and if it's any more than that, I'll be docking her of her life.”

Ayame felt a twinge of concern in her breast, before shaking her head subtly free of such a thought – Chinami wasn't hers to worry about, anyway.

The Tokugawa clan, or what remained of them here, began to make their way back outside. The rain was still thick and full, and still maintained its earlier force of nature in coming down strong against the funeral parlour's exterior. The concrete was wet, the sky was grey; and the sound of umbrellas whooshing upwards could be heard, with their large, black shelters now looming above Akira, Ayame and Owner as the three of them escorted themselves out.

“Make sure to sit next to me in the car back, Ayame-chan!”

“Ugh, would you stop fuckin' calling me that?! How m-”

“Will you two stop bickering...?” Akira stated with a lazy strictness to her authoritarian tone, as one of the Tokugawa's other members opened the sleek, black car door. “Teru can make her own way home...let's just get back already. I'm tired.”

Ayame nodded without a word more. There was no point in being here for longer, anyway – Teru and Chinami had left her to her own devices as it was. If they had no problem leaving her to the wolves, why should she feel any different?

And so, upon the return home and the shaking out of umbrellas, Ayame and Owner were the first to step inside the lavish mansion once more.

The car ride home had been about as enjoyable as she had expected. There was no Chinami to steal glances at in the rear-view mirror. There was no Teru to keep her composure; there was no light to be found anywhere in such a bleak-looking, cold abyss. Ayame was wordless; consumed with jealousy and regret for the entire duration of the silent journey back in an unfamiliar car, and wanted nothing more than to return back to her bedroom to brood.

“Ayame-chan, let's – Ayame-chan?”

Despite Owner's persistent calls of her name, Ayame trudged up the stairs with a sulk in her step.

She felt heartbroken, resentful and angry, and most of all, frustrated with herself that she hadn't confronted these feelings earlier. When it came to Chinami, who knew where she was, or who she was doing what with? It was none of Ayame's business, if only because she hadn't made it so.

If she had confessed these feelings earlier, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe it was just another mistake on her part, to develop feelings for someone as untethered as a driver. She frowned for what must have been the thirtieth time that day.

Pushing open her bedroom door with a familiar creak, she was greeted with the sight from this morning. There was still blood on the floor from the night after the dismemberment; and there was still, somehow, the atmosphere in the air of jovial presences from Teru and Chinami earlier this morning.

“Fuck...!”

Lazily kicking over the small wastepaper basket near to the bedroom's entrance, Ayame curled her fists into balls at her sides; and afterwards, flopped down on her bed to bury her face in the pillow.

Why does everyone always think I'm okay on my own...?

And as she allowed herself to succumb to familiarly gnawing, unrelenting thoughts, they now led her to a dreamless sleep. Better dreamless than nightmarish was always Ayame's creed when it came to rest. Maybe one day, she'd learn to dream again – but today was not to be that day.

...

“...Hm...?”

And when Ayame's eyes eventually flickered open this time - the room itself was only illuminated by the light of the moon outside; hovering behind thick, grey clouds.

How long had she been asleep...?

And...was that knocking at the door? It sounded light, though through her sleepy haze, she couldn't really pinpoint who the sound belonged to.

“Who is it?” Ayame asked drowsily from her bed; looking at the doorway from where she lay.

“It's me. Let me in, okay?”

Ayame let out a groan that the party behind the door most definitely could hear; and grunted as she sat up.

“What do you want, Owner?”

Pushing open the door with a soft creak, the cheeky, smirking expression of Owner made its way into the dark of the bedroom.

“May I come in, Ayame-chan? I've been out here for a little while, now. You must have been out cold!”

“If you stop calling me that, sure. And I was just ignoring you.”

“Ah! Thank you.”

The door was now fully open; and in walked Owner, closing it behind her.

Ayame ran a hand through her hair; still drowsy from the impromptu depression nap that had taken her so swiftly upon the return from the funeral today. Owner stood with her back to the door's surface, and Ayame could just about make out the smile on her face from the dim night light outside.

“What do you want?” Ayame repeated once again, bluntly. Owner giggled.

There was definitely something different about her. Something more confident...

Something...determined.

“What do I want?” Owner repeated back; and Ayame paused as she listened to the pretty tone of Owner's voice reach her ears after a few moments of silence. “Well...you, of course.”

“...Huh?”

Owner smiled; and Ayame felt herself waking up a little more than usual at the expression worn on the woman before her.

“Don't you think it's time we did something about this, Ayame?” Owner continued; her smile only carrying further on the tip of her tongue. “You know...about...us.”

Ayame felt her back straighten as her eyes grew a little wider.

“...You actually called me just by my name,” she replied, surprised. “That's a first.”

“I want you,” Owner replied bluntly; this time, with more of a serious tone to her voice than a smile. “And I know you want me, too.”

Ayame paused, and Owner began to walk slowly over towards the bed as Ayame stood up.

“Are you seriously propositioning me? The funeral really got you hot under the collar, did it?”

Owner chuckled as she finally closed the gap between herself and Ayame; and placed her hands on Ayame's strong shoulders as she looked up at her.

“No,” Owner confessed; and in this close of a proximity, Ayame could definitely see that she was a little pink in the cheeks. “I've always felt this way about you. But, with today...if I had to pinpoint it...”

“...Hm?”

“I think seeing Mirai-san talking to you really drove it home. That we could lose you here, at the Tokugawa household.”

Ayame looked down at Owner; and could see that in her eyes, she was deadly serious about not allowing Ayame to slip away to any other person undetected.

“Owner...”

“You know that I want you, anyway...why else would I continue to go around in this toxic little circle of ours, hm? If you were anyone else, I'd have given up and tried to kill you by now.”

Ayame remained silent, but she couldn't tear her gaze away from Owner's own, either.

A pleasant sense of arousal rushed through Ayame's body; though she'd never admit that to herself, even in a moment like this. The window of her bedroom was slightly ajar, allowing a pleasant, cool night breeze to waft in; bringing with it the distinct scent of a rainy day now passed. The night was dark outside, but the light was perfect for a certain mood on the inside...and as Owner shuffled a little closer towards Ayame, thoughts of today's earlier moments rushed through her mind.

Chinami certainly had no problems with rushing off with someone else. These feelings were clearly not reciprocated, from Ayame to her driver, no matter how unspoken they were; and Owner had no reason to lie about the whereabouts of someone so insignificant in the family organization.

Not to mention, it had been a couple of weeks since she'd been intimate with a woman like this...what would it be like, to be with someone in such sexual capacity who wasn't a total stranger?

Ayame was no fool, and knew exactly what a situation like this meant. The look on Owner's face; the girlish blush that laced every part of her cheeks.

“...Seriously?” she said with a dry smile; though both women knew it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility if Ayame hadn't marched her out of the bedroom. “You're -”

“I'll even let you call me Xiuying,” Owner hurriedly expressed; and the blush on her face now shifted from pink to red. Ayame joined her in that blush.

“You're so annoying. Just go find someone else to fuck.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Why me in the first place?” Ayame retorted.

“Why not?” Owner quickly answered back, albeit with a quiet voice.

Ayame rolled her eyes at their back and forth; though Owner's perfume was making it increasingly hard to resist. Something that both women knew was that if they did this, there was no going back. Things would change, irrevocably, forever. A small part of Ayame didn't care. A huge part of her did.

But the most overwhelming sensation of all was the frustration intermingled with lust. It was like a drug that she couldn't shake.

“...I won't hold back,” Ayame said; though her voice was a fraction quieter this time, and she noticed that Owner was getting closer to her face the longer she spoke. “I'm serious. You probably wouldn't be able to handle it...so maybe you should back off now.”

“Oh, Ayame...” Owner spoke softly, and Ayame could hear an excited tremble in her voice that was so unrestrained, it only turned her on more. “I'd take anything...as long as it was from you.”

Such bold words. Ayame couldn't help but feel her body get electrified from such a thing, and not to mention her ego inflate in size.

...

Fuck it. What was there to lose now, anyway?

Wordless, Ayame didn't know what to say any longer. Owner knew what that meant. If Ayame Tokugawa wasn't pushing her off at this point – during a point of such sexual tension between them, where the mutual arousal and pangs of lust were overtaking both of their bodies – her forwardness had finally borne fruit.

“Ah...” she breathed in excitement; brushing her lips against Ayame's own as she whispered. “Give yourself to me, Ayame...let me make you feel exactly how you want to feel.”

“How do I want to feel?”

Owner smirked against Ayame's lips; and whispered hotly against them as she tightened her embrace.

“Wanted.”

Owner wrapped her arms around Ayame's neck to bring the two of them into a heated, passionate kiss that disintegrated any semblance of tension; and the two were captured in a night of electrified passion that would follow the both of them for the rest of time.

There was no going back, not now. Ayame's hands ran over Owner's body as they stumbled in a lustful heat back against the bed, and Owner wasted no time in slipping her tongue in Ayame's mouth with a hungry desire to kiss her. All of the frustration, the loneliness, the anger; it was all finally coming out.

And really, now that the funeral was over, and the toxicity between them had taken a brand-new turn...

Things from here for the Tokugawa clan were only going to get worse.