The sun poured into her bedroom in slants, cutting across her floor in long ribbons of light. It was quiet. Midday stillness. The kind of hour where everything felt suspended—like even the air was waiting for something.
Akame stood in front of her mirror, barefoot, one hand resting on the edge of her vanity. She wasn't scrutinizing herself, not exactly. Just... observing. She had added a little blush—barely there, just enough to lift her cheeks. Her lips had a sheen to them, gloss soft and pink, and her lashes looked a little longer than usual, fanned out like she'd actually tried.
She wasn't dressed dramatically—nothing over the top. Just a short white skirt that caught the light when she moved, paired with a cropped Tiffany-blue sweater that clung delicately to her waist. Feminine. Easy. Pretty.
More than anything, she looked... bright.
Like something inside her had softened overnight. Like something fragile had been carried carefully and placed back down in the right hands.
She looked down at her phone, thumb hovering over Kaji's contact.
Are you home?
She hadn't sent it yet.
But the thought had been circling all morning—lazy, warm, quiet. She'd woken up thinking about him. About the press of his lips. The way his voice had dropped when he told her to tell him if Endo ever showed up again. The way she felt when he pulled her closer, like he wasn't afraid of her darkness, or her softness, or the fact that sometimes she couldn't tell the difference.
She was about to text him when the doorbell rang.
Her brows knit faintly.
She slipped her phone into the waistband of her skirt and headed to the front of the house.
Opening the door, she blinked in mild surprise.
Kotoha.
Tsubaki.
Kotoha was already grinning. "You're coming with us," she announced, as if Akame had any choice in the matter.
"Where—?"
"Yuta's birthday," Kotoha interrupted. "Gift hunting."
Tsubaki stood behind her, arms crossed, not quite disapproving but not enthusiastic either. He gave a nod—neutral.
Akame hesitated. Her mind still on Kaji. Her body still tingling faintly from yesterday's closeness.
Before she could come up with a polite excuse, Kotoha tilted her head, eyes flicking up and down with deliberate curiosity. Her grin widened.
"You look... different."
Akame blinked. "Do I?"
A beat.
Kotoha arched a brow. "You're glowing." The word wasn't said with mockery. Just interest. Teasing affection.
Akame flushed, color blooming quickly across her cheeks. "It's just blush."
Kotoha didn't press, but the look she shared with Tsubaki said everything. A silent exchange. A private mission.
She's dressed like she's going somewhere. Or for someone.
Tsubaki narrowed his eyes slightly—not in suspicion, but calculation. For the first time, he took in the full picture. The gloss. The skirt. The faint trace of perfume. The softness in her movements.
She didn't look like the girl he always thought was playing weak to get what she wanted.
She looked like someone who was beginning to carry herself differently.
YOU ARE READING
SUB ROSA | Wind Breaker
Fanfiction❝ She was like light slipping through the cracks-out of place, yet impossible to ignore.❞ Akame finds herself in a world that was never meant for her, a quiet contrast to Furin's chaos. But in a place that challenges her at every turn, she begins to...
