Fox Fire

A new scar graces his neck. A thin line clean across the front nestled right under his chin.

"Oneechan..." His voice sounds so raw. "Is love supposed to hurt?" The words are so quiet. Like he doesn't want to know the answer. Doesn't want to acknowledge what he's done before getting some food in him.

Sitting down at her familiar table he just puts his face in his hands. A sob shaking his shoulders.

He sobs, and she stands there, eyebrows knit together in pure concern and pain at seeing the sight in front of her.

I hurt people, Hansol.

...

She walks over to him, places a hand on his shoulder, and lowers her head to kiss the top of his.

"We'll get some food in you."

She steps away and begins cooking.

"I think mistakes will be made. Sometimes, people don't learn from them, and they just don't care. Sometimes those mistakes aren't just simple mistakes, but they'll make them over and over again. Apologize and go right back to making them..."

Hansol sighs and places each side dish on the table: rice, barley tea, and then piping hot soup in a cast-iron pot.

"Then there are...people like you....Whatever mistakes you've made, you're dealing with the consequences." Though she'd wish it didn't result in his death. "Sometimes those consequences are really brutal."

He had never seen anyone else with her. So he wondered who else lived here. Or... used to live here. Nobody had made an appearance with the smell of the soup warming up. His attention goes back to the kitchen and the table at which he sat. One of the chairs was significantly taller. Another indication. He blinks. Watching Hansol set out dish after dish after dish of delicious-smelling and looking food. He makes a sound in awe when she finally sits down.

She watches him for a moment before grabbing her own utensils and beginning to eat herself.

The sound of his name reeled his mind back from the sky's precipice, and he slowed to a halt before the woman he met before on the space station. 「Yi Hansol,」 he greeted in return with a slight dip of his head, his eyes flickering over her face. Despite her cheery smile, the dark contours weathering her expression appeared somewhat sad to him in the failing light. He wondered if those lines had been there before, previously unnoticeable under the spaceship's shadowless fluorescence, or if something troubled her.

She knows Cross is the one who greeted her, but she thought she heard Sukuna's voice. She almost---almost calls out to him, but bites her tongue. He's not here. He hasn't been here for a bit now.

Cross answers her question. It takes her a second to reply, but she smiles and waves him over to come inside.

"You did really well, I appreciate it-"

He stands and is ushered into the kitchen. Just barely managing to set down the plate of fruit before he is being offered more food. "Hansol, you've already been more than hospitable to me."

A sigh. There was no use arguing. She had already begun to pull things out for each of them.

When the soup is hot enough, she's packing bowls of rice and placing them on the table.

Before long, everything is placed on the table!

like wow, a flashbang. no one ever told her the sun burned your eyes if you started at it too long—

fortunately, oliver knows a girl or two, and while hanging out with a jiuweihu (nine-tailed fox) wasn't the kind of solution she's expecting, it's ok if she treats this whole thing as a fairy tale, right?

once upon a time, a princess goes to lunch and—and ends up standing on the side of a hole in a whole different city. or something.

"it's not like i'm scared of them or anything," she huffs back, half-serious.

After some time playing ball and splashing in the water, Hansol has some grilled meat from another section ready for them to eat. "Oh, here....Put this on. We gotta reapply." Not her, but Giselle for the most part. Sunscreen is presented to the girl.

"it is cute," giselle agrees, "but the brim's so wide it even blocks the view. um, i guess that's the point?"

less view, less sun. that made sense. she twirls in front of the mirror to check herself from all angles.

"i used to think only people in movies wore hats like these," giselle mutters. sure, she had her share of fashion hats too, but they were small and hardly blocked the sun!

Hansol only smiles and nods, "I won't say there isn't any. Some creatures lurk in the deep, but??? Guess what? I'll fight them off for you if they ever try sneaking up on the both of us. Don't you worry!" She stands proudly, tails swaying behind her. "I got fast reflexes AND I can hear really well! Even if something is underwater." She motions for the child to come follow.

Purple eyes looked into the hand mirror at his reflection. Layers fell around his face, the length stopping just past his shoulders at the longest point. The back was still long enough for him to put in the half-up style he liked, at least.

His hair hadn't been this short since before he had left school...

Hair held so many memories.

But it was time for him to let go of the past. So... this was fitting. Forcing his hand to make this drastic change and stepping away from the ten years' worth of dark stain on his soul.

"It looks really good. I can't even tell that it was hacked off in a fight anymore. Thank you, Hansol."

ooc: (Reference image under cut)

"But it really frames your face so well. It suits you! SO handsome!" she says again like a doting mother! Once she's sure he's clean enough, she sweeps his hair to one pile and cleans up.

"Heehee, maybe I'll open up a barber shop!"

Fresh fruit is placed in his hands. Already sliced and ready to eat. "Thank you, Hansol. You really don't have to do all of this for me, but it is appreciated."

He sits back in the chair to let her do her thing. Slowly munching on the fruit and realizing he was a lot hungrier than he had initially thought.

"You know. I have a lot of trust in you, doing this for me. You haven't even told me your vision, and I am content in just letting you work."

Snip, snip, snip

brush, brush, brush...

Hansol hums to herself for a moment, and then, after quite some time and careful handling, she claps her hands. "ALRIGHT! I think we're done, Geto!"

"Yeah, its pretty bad, huh?"

Bad was an understatement. It was uneven, choppy, caught with a sharp blade, but an unskilled stylist. Machines weren't the best hairdressers when their main goal was trying to kill you.

"Did you eat, by the way?" She asks. She doesn't wait for him to answer. She'll hear him even if she's stepped away to grab some fruits from the kitchen. "Here. I sliced them up already. Eat these while I get your hair fixed, okay? After, we can eat something bigger."

He's had it rough, and that meant he deserved some good food.

He gets a far-off look in his eyes, remembering that bittersweet time on the beach. At the end of it, he has to smile, right? He promised Satoru he would stop dwelling on the past in such a depressing way.

"I see," She whispers.

And she wasn't going to point it out. For Geto's sake.

"Do you think there's an ocean here that's similar?"