mllelaurel

For mirrored_echo: I've told you this in person, but... I demand Kozue/Juri. Just because.

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The first thing she realizes is all the ways Kozue hasn't changed. Her hair is still vibrant and blue, in a way that doesn't suggest hair dye. Juri's been finding grey strands among her own over the last few years. Ohtori's questionable uniform is long-missing, of course, but Kozue's skirt still slinks up her thighs in a way that makes you look. Her eyes... now those have changed, though Juri can't quite tell how, yet.

"How's Miki doing," Juri asks, cringing inwardly as soon as the words leave her mouth.

Kozue shrugs and smirks. "Hell if I know." She doesn't look away when she says it and Juri catches a split-second flash of regret. It's gone before Juri registers it properly.

"How are you?" she asks; a better question for the occasion.

Kozue leans in, one hand resting on Juri's shoulder, like they're old friends. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

To her own surprise, Juri doesn't flinch away. "Try me."

Kozue laughs. "When you say it like that..." And she tells her.

Juri's not sure what would have surprised her at this point. If Kozue had told her she'd taken over as Chairman - Chairwoman, that is - of Ohtori, hell, Juri would have bought that. Duels, castles, all sorts of the drug-addled things Ohtori was so famous for. Normal, for given values thereof, would have made her blink, but she'd have gotten over it.

Instead, Kozue seems to shine brighter and brighter as she talks. This is a woman who has done a little bit of everything, it seems. She's been to countries barely labeled on the map and walked away from a battlefield, alive if not unscathed. She has met countless people, and if not loved then at least known them exactly as they were.

"Do you still play?" Juri asks somewhat redundantly.

"Not the piano." A beat. "So, how's Takatsuki doing?"

All right. That was probably fair. "I don't know," Juri says, and wishes she didn't care.

Satisfied at something - Juri isn't sure what - Kozue closes the last of the space between them and kisses her, wild, warm and untamed. Years ago, Juri would have recoiled, made an excuse, gotten very polite, or cold, perhaps. Yes, 'cold' would be the better word for it. She doesn't do any of that today. Instead, she returns the kiss, arms wrapping around Kozue's waist.

The wind picks up, sending a nearby pile of leaves flying, and Juri hasn't the faintest idea what she's doing. She'll figure it out later, she decides, and if she doesn't, well, this has nothing on upside-down castles, as far as crazy goes.