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They had met once before, before Jackie, before Saburo, before Johnny. At an Arasaka party on a gilded glass balcony. She was a different person back then. A corpo-drone, a glorified pencil pusher. He would later tell himself that he followed her out there because he was checking the balcony for security weaknesses. It didn’t matter that not five minutes before he was dismissed for the evening and the order to ‘relax Takemura-san, you’ve earned a break’ was given. But lying to himself was a habit he made almost immediately after catching sight of her, despite not knowing she would have such a large role in his life. From behind she looked like a pillar of onyx adrift in a tide of ivory. Dark but sharp-edged. Long slender legs led to a trim waist and a backless dress which showed off a surprisingly toned back and delicate neck. Her arms were braced against the railing of the balcony and she peered over the edge, staring at the traffic below.
“It is a long way down, Miss-?” He left it as an open invitation in the hopes this mysterious woman would fill in the blanks. She jolted in surprise and stood up straight, quickly trying to mask a downturn of her lips with a gentle smile yet it didn’t reach her eyes. Takemura was trained enough in physical tells to see beyond what she was attempting to display. Her strained eyes and restless fingers showed she was unhappy to be here and restless to be doing something, anything, rather than socialise with the Arasaka elite. She dropped into a neat bow, low enough to be respectful of his higher station however not low enough to be mocking.
“Mori.” Her eyes caught a glint of an overhead security drone and they flashed a brilliant green before fading back to their original shade. The bow was returned and he made his way to her side but remained a respectful distance away.
“I am Takemura, a pleasure to meet you Miss Mori.” Mori dropped her eyes to take in his form and a small frisson of pride overtook him. Pride was a concept Takemura was familiar with. He took pride in his work, in his life and in his accomplishments. He worked hard for everything he had in life since leave Chiba and he felt he had the right to be proud - especially as it landed him as the respected bodyguard of the most powerful man in Japan. However he was now proud in a way he almost never was: he was proud of the way his large frame seemed to effect Mori. Her eyes followed the crisp lines of his suit and caught on his shoulders and the place on his neck where his cyberware was exposed. Takemura watched as she swallowed reflexively and felt a flash of heat crawl up his body. In response to her ongoing assessment of him, he inspected her in turn now they were face-to-face: his view of her from behind was stunning but it couldn’t compare to the view of her from the front. He later lied to himself and asserted that he wasn’t remotely interested in her prior to seeing her face in full however he knew that she enticed him, faceless or not. But in taking her face in, he knew he would never forget her. A wide mouth with rouged lips that pulled into a crooked smile, a delicately hooked nose and striking dark eyes, wreathed delicately in laurels of golden cyberware on her cheekbones and neck and decorated with a brush of black kohl. In this sea of peacocks she looked to be a dove.
In taking her eyes away from him, she allowed him to try to regain his focus and build himself back to his expected level of stoicism. His hands curled behind his back as he faced the streets below them.
“I trust you have had a pleasant evening, Miss Mori?” Takemura enquired. He was unable to limit himself to only speaking to this enigma once, he felt almost desperate to continue to speak to her but small-talk was never his strong suit. On most days he was expected to be seen and not heard so he got very little practice at mindless small-talk but he was determined to try. Again, he would later tell himself he was being polite and that it meant nothing for him to continue this conversation. Mori turned back towards him at an angle, her eyes remaining on his profile in a misguided attempt to read him.
“It is an honour to be brought to Tokyo.” She had dodged his question artfully but he wanted, needed, to know more.
“You do not enjoy the festivities?” He pressed further. The celebrations were being held for a division of the Cyberware Manufacturing team for something he was not involved enough to know about. Mori frowned and glanced back into the golden sleek room behind them through the thick glass. Not a sound escaped through the windows but the revelling was clear to see and he could see she was clearly looking for someone in the melee. The face she pulled was a sneer as she supposedly found who she was looking for.
“I enjoy them when they are civilised.” This startled a laugh from him. It was rare that he was involved in these sorts of events this late in the evening - one Saburo went to bed, Yorinobu would start the ‘real’ party with a cocktail of drugs and alcohol and bringing in loud music. The old school would slowly leave and the new school would continue their revelling well into the next day. At that moment in time the new school was packed onto the dance floor and beginning to take up space in booths and at tables with their paraphernalia.
“Ah, well I can agree I am more inclined to…more intimate occasions.” His voice dipped low purposefully and he watched Mori take a sharp breath in at his not so subtle declaration. Even he surprised himself at this declaration - later he would try to convince himself he meant nothing by it but that was again another lie. He meant everything he said and what it implied. This was new ground he was treading for himself but she brought out side of him effortlessly. This woman who he would most likely never see again. This woman who was almost certainly a subordinate in some way - and yet. And yet he wanted her to take him up on his offer: to leave this event, spend time together, just the two of them with no prying eyes beyond the crystal veil behind them.
She turned to him fully and placed a deceivingly delicate hand on his chest over his thunderous heart which was beating so heavily he was sure she would be able to feel it through his suit. Dark green nails glittered in the lights. Her reddened lips parted and her eyes ignited green in the lights once more. A deep inhale-
“Valerie, there you are! We’re leaving!” A loud distinct voice shouted through the now open doorway and a heavy hand banged on the glass door with zero finesse. It broke the moment between them like porcelain and the tension evaporated into the air between them. Takemura watched as Valerie stepped backwards from him, her hand dropping to her side and her face schooling itself back to a polite neutrality.
“It was nice to meet you, Takemura-san.”
His fingers tightened together behind his back.
“I hope we see each other again, Miss Mori.”
He didn’t move from his spot and instead listened to Valerie Mori walk away from him, his chance to see her again slipping through his fingers as she did.