They had done this since he was a child.
Back at the estate.
When he skipped dinner to avoid his sister, or his cousins, he used to wait in his room.
Shizuka would show up at his window with sandwich ingredients from somewhere.
He never asked where.
She wore a pale kimono back then.
She was the same height then as now.
The same face.
The same red eyes watching him while he ate.
He knew she had been following him today.
Which meant she knew about the karaoke. About Hana. About the dinner planned for tomorrow.
So on the way home he had gone to the grocery store instead of the takeout place.
He bought the bread and ham and cheese on purpose.
If her mood had turned bad, this was the thing most likely to fix it.
Looks like it worked.
They finished their first sandwiches.
She reached for the bread to start a second.
Kaito looked at the table.
"Are you not angry?" he asked.
She looked up. Her hand paused on the bread. "Me? Why?"
"About today," he said. "I thought you would be more..."
She laughed. Warm and slightly surprised.
"You still misunderstand me Kai~~~."
He waited.
She set her sandwich down.
Then she put both hands flat on the edge of the kotatsu and began to crawl toward him across it, slow and unhurried.
Avoiding the ingredients scattered on the wood.
Her silver hair fell forward around her face as she moved.
The jacket hung open and swung with each movement, and the black crop top pulled forward with gravity, her breasts hanging full and bare inside it, swaying slightly as she came toward him on all fours.
He looked and then turned at the wall to his left.
She kept coming.
She reached the edge of the table, climbed off it, and settled over him, her knees on either side of his waist.
She pressed him down onto the tatami with one hand flat on his chest.
He went down.
She sat back, her thighs on either side of him, the mini skirt riding up, the thigh highs dark against her skin.
She took both his wrists and pressed them down beside his head.
Her grip was light.
But. there was no give in it.
She leaned down.
Her silver hair fell around both their faces, curtaining the ceiling and the room and most of the light.
The choker hung forward from her throat.
Her red eyes were very close to his, steady and open.
"Yes," she said.
"I was jealous." Her right hand squeezed his wrist once. "So jealous that I wanted to tear that bitch in half, gut her and throw her intestines to the crows."
lub dub lub dub
His heart beat loud in his chest.
He could hear it.
Feel every beat.
"But." She slowly dragged both his wrists above his head and held them there with her left hand.
Her other hand came down slowly to his chest, fingers spread flat, feeling his heartbeat through his shirt.
"If I had done that, you would have hated me forever." Her fingers pressed lightly. "You would never have forgiven me. And you would have been right."
"Yes," he said. "I would have."
She laughed, soft and low.
Her fingers began moving upward from his chest, slow, tracing up along his collarbone.
"I know." She was looking at her own fingers now, watching the path they took.
"It's fine, Kai~~~." Her fingers reached his jaw.
Her hand turned and her palm settled warm against his cheek.
"I love you." Her thumb moved along his cheekbone, once. "I love you more than I love myself. But that doesn't mean you need to love me the same way. I have understood that."
His wrists were still pinned above his head. He did not try to move them.
"All I wanted," she said, her voice quieter, her face closer, the warmth of her above him pressing down slightly, "was for you to be honest with me. Don't be afraid of me."
Her thumb moved again, slow. "I just... want you to be happy."
He looked up at her. The red eyes. Her hair all around him. Her palm against his face. He was quiet.
"Why are you looking at me like that," she said. "You don't believe me."
"No," he said.
She looked at him for a moment. Her chin dropped slightly. Her eyes stayed on his, still and level.
"We have been together since you were a child," she said. "And when you finally moved here last week, I was as happy as you were." Her thumb moved once more against his cheek.
"If I meant anything else, I would have already done it on the first day itself... Kai~~~. You misunderstand my love for you."
He swallowed.
He looked at the ceiling above her hair and thought about it. He lay still and let the question sit there.
"That girl came into your life two days ago," she said.
"I have been with you for more than a decade. She may leave. If not tomorrow, then in the upcoming future. But... I will not." Her face came closer, her hair touching his face now, her hand warm and steady against his cheek. "I just want you to understand this."
She closed the last distance between them and kissed him.
Her lips on his, soft and slow, held there for a moment.
Then she pulled back.
She released his wrists.
She lifted herself off him and settled back beside him at the kotatsu, picked up her second sandwich, and took a bite as if she had simply shifted position.
He sat up slowly.
He looked at her.
She chewed and looked at him with a cute smile.
"Here," she said, and held out a bite toward him. "Aaah~~~."
He opened his mouth. She gave it to him. He chewed.
"Thank you, Shizuka," he said. He looked at her. "Thank you for understanding me."
She smiled at him. Then she pointed at his sandwich and opened her mouth.
He gave her the next bite.
They ate in silence.
She finished her sandwich in four bites, and set the plate down.
She took a long breath through her nose.
She reached for the mayo bottle, turned it in her hands once, and set it back down.
"Oh," she said. "I forgot to tell you."
He looked at her.
"That girl." She looked at the mayo bottle. "She's going to die soon. She's being haunted by a ghost."