Japan

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Callista only nodded in response to his question. She turned to face him, fresh tears welling up in her eyes.

What Gengaku said was true - he had told her that there was nothing she could do or have had done to her that would warrant him forcing her to leave his house. That mere fact alone made a warm feeling spread through her chest, but as her eyes fell on Gengaku, she couldn't prevent the trembling that began in her lower lip.

Why? Why was he so kind to her, when no one else had ever been even remotely so? Here he was, confronted with the perfect opportunity to rid himself of what she considered to be a nuisance - herself - and yet he denied that she leave, instead confirming that she could stay.

No one had ever been so kind to her.

Turning her face away so that he couldn't see it, she swallowed down the thick ball that had risen up into her throat. It ached and her eyes stung as she fought back fresh tears, but she rubbed at her cheeks nonetheless, causing them to become even redder than before. Finally, once she felt a bit more composed, she faced him once more and closed the distance between them. In the only way possible due to his curse, she hugged him, her alternative something that had become something special between them - at least in her own opinion.

She simply lifted his hand and curled her pinkie finger around his, once again trying to shove down the aching lump in her throat.

"Thank you, Gengaku," she choked out, her emotions still causing the lodge in her neck to persist. She went on her toes and pressed her lips to his cheek, the only other thing that she could think to do when a hug was not allowed, before stepping back and releasing his finger.

The sound of commotion in the front of the building called her attention to the fact that her bakery was open, and she immediately jolted back to what had just recently occurred.

"Oh, that asshole had better not have scared my customers away," she growled out.

It didn't take Callista long to reach the entrance to her restaurant, and when she saw Yuki and Aurel going at it, while a pile of clothes sat almost completely behind the register, scattered across the floor. It took her several minutes but she finally connected the dots, and as she studied the clothes, it struck her that whoever had been in those clothes had been female. A closer inspection of them betrayed the owner to have been Miyako Sohma, a close cousin to Gengaku.

Turning to the man in question, she gathered the clothes and nudged him out towards where Aurel and Yuki were bickering. "You had better stop them before they rip each other's heads off," she suggested, starting towards the back, where Miyako had undoubtedly scampered to when they hadn't been looking. "I'll take care of Miyako." With that, she disappeared through the curtain that separated the two parts of the building, setting the pile of clothes on a chair as she passed by it.

"Miyako? It's Callista. Callista Nroiji? I live with Gengaku and own this bakery. We've met a couple of times. You can come out - I promise not to scream," she said, her knowledge of the rat's form forewarning her of what she would see. "And I promise that no one will see you if you do. I'm the only one back here, and am also the only who works in this place. Gengaku helps out every now and then, but obviously you don't need to worry about him," she said, a small smile cracking across her face. "So you can come out - you don't have to be afraid."

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