Personal apologies [Gio]

Three days prior, Akira had sent a maid out to collect some herbs for the dinner party she had planned. She came back with the change and receipt, which the girl had put away until she was ready to sort through that weeks finances. Upon looking at the receipt, she realized the maid hadn't paid enough to the lady, which might have been a simple mix up. She continued her records, deducting the extra five dollars from the account total before putting her books away. At this point, she was done for the day even though it was very early in the morning, so she left the records for her adviser before making her way over to the strip. This woman who sold the herbs was someone she knew, mostly because she was one of the only Chinese people who worked on the strip. She made her way to the old woman's shop, stepping in and smiling at her; she smiled back, welcoming her into the shop. "I'm so sorry to bother you Xiǎojiě, but it seems one of my maids underpaid you. I know it's silly but I'd rather not let that go by." The lady smiled and thanked her, talking about how there were no good people before the girl stepped out of the shop. She smiled a bit, looking around before walking back down the strip towards her house, taking her time since she didn't really have much else to do that day.

Ever since the previous mission GioGio had been feeling down, he stayed at home for a while trying to take his mind off it but it just didn't cut, besides, he also had to buy herbs and fruits for his tea and he had recently heard about a Chinese shop at the Tokyo strip where he could get what he wanted.

"So this is the place?" Gionatan's brother asked as he stared at the store's entrance, the disdain in his voice was almost palpable, unlike his little brother, Angelo just couldn't stand tea, he preferred the strong and bitter taste of coffee.

"If you don't want to enter the place you can wait here, it's not like i'm going to take long." GioGio let out a sigh as he opened the car's door, he'd have replied with a joke if he was in the mood for that.

"You think i'm going to leave you alone? Hah! Madre asked me to keep you company, we know you are moody." The older brother said with a big smirk on his face, it wasn't malicious however, he just wanted to improve the younger sibling's mood... in his own way that is.

"I'm not sure what you are talking about, i'm perfectly fine." Before the two would enter the establishment, someone opened the door, a blonde girl with swirly twin tails. GioGio had to take a few seconds to absorb what just had happened. "...Akira?"

Akira heard her name being spoken, which caused her to look over in the direction the voice came from. "Hmm? May I help you?" She shut the door behind her, mentally sighing. If this was someone who was going to interview her, she was going to be very irritated. She looked at the two men who who seemed to be together, though she paid more attention to the one that spoke to her. She didn't recognize him, it had surely been a long time since the two were in the same place at the same time. The last time she had spoken to him was the divide, and a lot had happened since then. She had lost her parents, her sister, taken over her company. She was almost a completely different person, but she liked to believe her personality stayed fairly similar. She thought for a second. No reporter would call her Akira, they would say Ms. Uneo. She studied the man more, trying to figure out who he was, but it wasn't coming to her.

How silly of him. It has been five long years since the two saw each other, and while the girl had remained almost the same, GioGio on the other hand changed quite a lot. He was taller, dyed his hair and let it grow quite a bit. "It's me, Gionatan Giovanni." He said hoping that would refresh the girl's memory "We met each other five years ago before 'that' happened."

"Akira, right? I think Gionatan mentioned you once..." The older brother said while scratching his head, trying to recollect his memories. "It's good to finally meet one of his friends. I don't think i ever saw him bring a friend home... I'm Angelo by the way, i'm GioGio's brother."

Akira heard the name and squinted her eyes a bit as a joke, trying to get a better look at him. She couldn't believe that she didn't notice, but his face and voice still appeared to be the same, but much more mature than before. "Shut up." She laughed a bit, letting a smile set in. "I'm sorry but the Gionatan I know is a little punk who was about this tall." She held out her hand to show how short he was compared to her at the time; an obvious jest. "My word you look so old and different. Age was kind to you." She looked towards the other boy, holding out her hand for a shake. "Akira Uneo. Pleasure. Our families used to do business before my parents passed." She stated that without skipping a beat, not showing too many emotions with her parent's death at the moment. "After the divide, the Queen requested that Uneo Tech work only with the government and not other family groups in the area, so I stopped doing business with you guys. But I think we only hung out four times in the past, so it's not like we were great friends." She shrugged that off, rolling her eyes a bit. "Oh who am I kidding, you were one of my best friends. How have you been?" She laughed again, brushing one of her drills out of her face with her hand.

GioGio couldn't help but laugh at Akira's little jab at his older self, he was small, kinda scrawny and not to mention, his hair wasn't even one tenth of how fabulous it is now days, he even mentally flicked his braided tail when he thought that. "And you still got the same baby face from five years ago." He threw the line back her casually.

The way she talked about her parents death was somewhat unnerving for both siblings, though, GioGio was able to keep it to himself, Angelo was clearly a bit off put by it. "A-ah, it was the Uneo Group, right? If my memory serves me right, you guys work with electronics." He said with his hand placed over his chin "Padre was really worried that he didn't got any news of your family for a while... but then he got flooded with work. I'm sure he'll be glad to hear from you."

"I have been well, not much happ-..." Before GioGio could finish his sentence Angelo started to talk in front of him with the intent of interrupting his younger brother.

"Not much?!Stop being so humble, guy just recently joined the cadets." Angelo was clearly proud of his little brother, but who wouldn't? Having a family member as part of a group that are hailed as the heroes of endymion.

She nodded at Angelo's question, smiling a bit. "Yes that's correct. Uneo Tech is Endymion's lead provider in electronic devices and equipment. Though back in that day, before the divide, we did things a bit differently. I feel like business now is more productive, but I still wonder what it would be like if the Uneo group could provide to the entire world." She said that with a grain of salt, since the entire world was this city and everyone in it. She mostly meant before the crisis, when the world was actually safe. "I would be glad to see him again. I remember the last time I saw him I was barely ten. I just wish Stria could be here to speak to you two, I know she would have know more about your family than me." She assumed Gio and his brother knew that she was talking about her late sister, who they would at least presume to be a human girl. After the divide, Akira was forced to cover up the entire incident, saying she died with her parents in the divide. It was a whole big thing, but she was glad the service for the memorial was only open to close family friends and workers. Her eyebrow raised as the brother answered for the boy, causing her to smile a bit as she nudged him. "Oh hoho. Good on you. Not so much of a emo-centric bad boy anymore huh?" She laughed. "Strange. Athena also got into that program, and we all go to the same school so I'm wondering why I'm the only one in our old little friend group that hasn't ascended into godhood or whatever you do with your cadets." She had a rough idea about what the cadet's did, but she had no idea what they really did. Nor did she have any idea that soon she'd be among their ranks.