Once Upon An Assassination Attempt || Kamisato Ayato

Chapter 15 | Picnic

UNEDITED

"Hello there, Kurimiya-san," Ayato greeted me as I jumped in through his office window, his sleeves swaying in the breeze. "Don't you look-"

"I know. I shouldn't have drunk." I made an attempt to make my hair less messy. A failed one. On the other hand, Ayato had dark circles under his eyes, yet he appeared as mesmerising as ever.

"It's not that bad."

"I would prefer to get poisoned instead."

"Do you remember-"

Red colour crept onto my cheeks unwillingly, and I wanted to hide somewhere dark. Preferably six feet under.

"Yeah. I remember."

"Oh, so you do remember pulling my yukata and telling me to get on the bed?"

"What?" Oh archons what did I do. It does sound like something I would like to do, but..

"And you said even though I look good with clothes on, you'd prefer if-"

"Stop," I pleaded, placing my palm on his lips. Realising what I had done, I tried to back away, but he held onto my hand. "I could yeet myself off a cliff without the wind glider. What was I thinking? I wasn't thinking."

Ayato laughed then; not a polite calculated laugh you'd give to your political opponents, but a genuine laugh where you have to hold onto your stomach. It was enchanting.

From a totally platonic point of view, of course.

"Commissioner..." I glared at him, knowing I'd fallen into his trap.

"Kurimiya-san, you're really fun to tease." There was the infuriating smile that he had whenever he said something absurd and sees people questioning life.

"I would strangle you, but I didn't receive my paycheck yet." I sat down on the chair across him, feeling the brush of his lips linger on my hand.

"It's nice to hear that you don't want to kill me," he said joyfully.

"On our last picnic-"

"You're really gonna call it a picnic?" He seemed offended by the word, but it was a picnic.

I ignored him. "On our last picnic we saw that pain in the ass and I asked him about who was behind the attempts on Aya-chan, remember?"

"Yeah. He was involved with the fatui, as suspected."

"We didn't get a name, but you found out, right?"

"The young master of the hiiragi clan, the one from the branch family, Hiiragi Genji." The murderous intent didn't go unnoticed by me, as I felt the same.

"Okay, I'll write 'asshole' on his gravestone. That's close enough."

Ayato leaned forward in his chair, and sighed. "but we do have a problem."

"The hiiragi clan has proposed a political marriage between Hiiragi Genji and Ayaka. I suppose they are trying to strengthen the clan after Hiiragi Chisato's marriage fiasco the traveller and I dealt with."

"But Aya-chan is.."

"I know. I don't wish for my sister to be involved in a political marriage. And the Yashiro commission is powerful enough to reject it."

"But?"

"There is an heirloom in the Kamisato estate. It is a vase which belonged to my late mother, and her mother before that. Any marriage in the clan is finalised when the groom presents it to his family, and the bride presents it to hers," he explained, as if this was something that I really needed to know.