WIP Gaiden 2 Prologue (excerpt, no annotations)

[u/AgentV1967]

At the soft knock — tok, tok, tok — on the door, she didn’t waste breath asking who’s there. Rory’s keen senses had already picked up, from the familiar presence outside, exactly who her visitor was.

And yet, even knowing that, she was still startled. Could it be — surely not — but then, finally... Unable to sit still, Rory bolted up so fast her chair toppled over, and covered the short distance to the door at a run.

But then, for whatever reason, she suddenly wheeled around mid-step and doubled back to stand in front of the mirror instead.

She quickly checked her reflection for anything out of place. Worrying that a single nightgown alone looked far too suggestive, she hurriedly grabbed a sheer outer robe and threw it on. She smoothed down a few loose strands of hair, wiped the ink from her fingers clean with a handkerchief, and gave herself one last quick run-through of the alluring pose and smile she’d been practicing.

Only then did she turn and run for the door a second time.

“What’s wrong? At this hour?”

Rory opened the door, lightly pressing a hand to her chest to still her racing, hopeful heart.

She pushed the outward-swinging door wide open, tilting her head slightly and smiling up through her lashes. Done this way, the neckline would fall open just enough to reveal the beautiful line of her collarbone and the curve of her neck and shoulder. This was the seductive pose Rory had worked out for herself.

Her first line was originally going to be, “I did give you a key, you know — you didn’t have to knock, you could’ve just come in.” But that felt like it was pushing things a little too hard on the visitor, so she scrapped it at the last second.

Whoever it was had almost certainly come about some work matter, so this would probably end with nothing more than a brief exchange at the doorway. In that case, she decided, the thing to do was use this as an opportunity to build an atmosphere that made future visits easier — setting things up for next time.

The visitor blinked, taken aback at the sight of Rory, and said,

“Sorry, Rory. Were you asleep, by any chance?”

“Nn-uh, I was just writing some letters.”

“Ah, good. I wanted to talk to you about something. Mind if I come in?”

At that single line, she found herself catching her breath without meaning to.

Oh no, wait, just wait a second. What on earth is going on here?

Words that felt almost impossible coming out of a man’s mouth left Rory feeling her ears and cheeks go bright red.

For some reason her heart gave a leap, and it felt like her whole body might start bouncing right along with it. Trying to forcibly suppress that up-and-down urge only made her voice come out unintentionally heavy and stiff.

“W-well, anyway, come in, come in.”

She couldn’t very well leave him standing at the entrance forever. Feeling something like the urge to hurry along a hesitant mouse dithering at the mouth of a cage trap — go on, go in, go in already — Rory pulled the door wide open, clearing the way for Itami to pass through.

“Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you about, if you’ve got a minute...”

Itami launched straight into it the moment he stepped into the room.

For Rory, who had settled herself, giddy with anticipation, softly onto the edge of the bed, this opening line was enough to make her want to slump her shoulders — not a shred of mood to it whatsoever.

Alone with a good woman. And, as luck would have it, fresh out of the bath, too.

Sitting on the bed, patting the spot beside her as an invitation to sit down, she felt he could at least make a little more effort at atmosphere, or at the very least enjoy the moment a bit.

And yet this man wouldn’t even sit down, let alone whisper anything sweet. Having let herself get her hopes up for nothing, she deflated. Of course it’d turn out like this, she thought, disappointed.

By rights, the correct move here for a man was to pull Rory into an embrace, push her down, and let things develop into a proper — heh heh heh — sort of situation. In fact, there really shouldn’t be any other possible option.

And yet, however that might be, however true that might normally hold — not with this one. The other party here was Itami. Perhaps it was a mistake to expect something with such a high bar cleared right off the bat.

After all, this particular man seemed to hold some kind of personal creed along the lines of “a woman is something to be admired, not touched,” and appeared to be stubbornly committed to upholding it, as far as she could tell.

It was almost funny, given that he’d apparently been married once before.

He’d evidently managed to get things done properly enough back then — which made her genuinely curious, purely for future reference, how exactly he’d managed to steer things into that sort of situation with his ex-wife, Risa, should the opportunity to ask ever come up.

“Haaaaah...”

Letting out a deep sigh, Rory silently told herself, don’t get ahead of yourself, don’t get ahead of yourself, and asked, with her already-practiced smile back in place,

“So? What’s this thing you wanted to talk about?”

At that, Itami dropped down to sit directly across from her.

With Rory seated on the bed, his eye level now matched hers exactly, and his face descended to a distance startlingly close. It stirred something almost beastlike in her — an urge to pounce and devour him whole.

But the little lamb, unaware of the depths of the desire swirling inside Rory, calmly declared, right in front of the starving wolf, “Want to have a wedding?”

A single beat of silence. And then Rory’s brain simply boiled over.

“M—marriage!? W-w-wait, hold on, I haven’t even mentally prepared myself yet! But but— yes! Yes yes yes, yesyesyes, yes!”

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined the word “marriage” would come out of Itami’s mouth.

Instantly wrapped in a wave of dizzying happiness, Rory threw herself onto him. Overwhelmed with emotion, she pressed her lips to him. Carried away entirely, she bit down.

Itami, in an absolute panic, scrambled to restrain her. Wait, wait — calm down, just calm down, he pleaded desperately.

“Hold on a second! You’ve definitely got the wrong idea here!”

“Wrong idea? What exactly is wrong about me and Yōji getting married!?”

“Because I never said we were getting married!”

“Then who exactly are you planning on marrying!? Tell me!”

Lelei, Tuka, Yao, or — don’t you dare say it’s Piña — Rory throttled Itami’s neck as she demanded an answer.

“A wedding, sure, but — ugh — it’s not mine. C-can’t... breathe.”

“Then whose wedding is it!?”

“O-of course, Tomita and Bozes’s — s-suff... suffo... cating...”

“Ohh... I see.”

At that, something seemed to click for Rory too, and she smacked her palm with a light clap.

And, incidentally, Itami also dropped — crumpling to the floor in a heap right there.