The knock came at the door and Kaede called out for them to enter without looking up from her chair, where she sat with her legs crossed and an expression of complete composure, as though she had spent the last several minutes doing nothing more strenuous than thinking pleasant thoughts.
The guard pushed the door open. He took in the room.
Kaede, sitting comfortably, faint smirk at the corner of her mouth. Aya and Rei at the edge of the bed, both smiling with the particular warmth of people who had recently found something very funny. And Renji, at the other edge, rubbing slow circles into his lower back with one hand and wearing the expression of a man who had endured something and was still processing it.
The guard's face cycled through several things.
He chose to say nothing.
