determination.

“Ah, Kuki!”

Hairu smiled, quickly scouting the other investigator out of a crowd-- as soon as she spotted him, she made her way to him. Upon reaching him, her hand slammed on his shoulder. There was no escape.

“Hey, hey, are you busy?” He must have been, but Hairu ignored the idea. “Let’s hang out. Koori’s busy with reports.”

Ui instinctively reached up to brush a hand through his hair. He took more care of his appearance than most people did, but that was only because he wanted to prove he could take care of himself.

When other investigators called him beautiful or handsome, he never really appreciated it. It just sounded like they were making fun of him for being sensitive or coming from an upper class family. 

“Hairu, I’m not letting you near my neck with a pair of scissors.” 

He pointed his finger in the opposite direction. Despite being the mature one here he did an immature thing. “Look Hairu, you left one of your drawings of me laying around. I can see it and everything.”

The moment she looked away he ran in the opposite direction.

“Huh? Ah-- Koori!”

Hairu fell for his trick easily, far too easily in fact; so much so that she was immediately embarrassed by the fact. However, that only stopped her from dashing after Ui for a moment, one moment that she quickly was able to make up for.

She soon caught up to him, tackling him with ease.

“Let me cut your hair!”

“You’re very uncool and immature though, so how is that going to work out for you?”

Ui asked, just as harsh as he usually was. He looked down at her for a moment meeting her eyes as well. A smirk played itself upon his lips. Even in this serious moment, he felt more and more like a coward who wanted to laugh things off. 

“Who would I even tell? I don’t have any friends but you. I don’t need any but you either.”

He reached forward, and just like she was a child he messed up her hair with his hands. He was usually not good at being light hearted, but since Hairu suddenly had dropped the mood it was now his job to cheer her up. 

“See, now your hair looks even more messy than last time. This is your fault because you couldn’t sit still and be quiet, just like a little kid.”

“I can be cool!” She whined, just like a very uncool child would do. Her cheeks puffed in a pout, and she further leaned against Ui, beginning to mumble under her breath just like he did.

“You could tell Arima-san, or, or...” She couldn’t think of anyone else, which only served to prove Ui’s point even further. “Geh...”

Still pouting, Hairu was completely defenseless against Ui’s sudden attack. She made a noise, and quickly covered her hair.

“It looks fine!” She protested, even though she hadn’t even seen the result of Ui’s hair cut. “It was always messy anyway...”

Hairu looked up, suddenly meeting Ui’s gaze. She looked serious, which could never bode well.

he laughs nervously. ❝ yes, i suppose you could say that. ❞ it WAS his first day in this place, after all. but for her to call him that.. could that mean she considered herself a ‘ veteran ‘? just how long had she been in this place? and more importantly — why did she seem so CONTENT with being here? ciel could only hope that he wouldn’t grow to be as complacent as she ( not that there was anything wrong with it so to say, but he still had things he needed to do in his world ).

❝ oh, i live in an apartment — t-2. if i remember correctly. i should know my way back, but even if i get lost i’m not too worried about it — just more chances to explore and learn about the city, no? what’s wrong with districts though? ❞ he wants to ask more about HER time in this place, but perhaps it was too soon for that.. even if the questions did gnaw at him.

“Sector Two isn’t that bad,” she replied, still smiling. “It’s definitely better than Districts.”

Nodding, she thought of her own initial arrival, and how she had been unfortunate enough to live in one of them for a while. 

“Well, they’re not very comfortable to live in. I think most of them only have huts to live in, and the one I had to live in stunk.” It was also filled with radioactive acid, but, Hairu didn’t deem that necessary to mention.

“I don’t live in one now, though, I live in Sector Four. I like it a lot.” That was true, though her main reason for her fondness was because of one person in particular. “Anyway, I can totally show you how to get to Sector Two!”

Apparently, fate had matched her with someone who was almost identical to her mannerisms and excitement. She wasn’t sure how to react to the tug forward- mainly due to the fact that was something that Haeun was usually guilty of doing. Still, she was reassured with Hairu’s ability to guide the way before she could even mutter the words that she had never even seen Sector Five.

“Y-Yeah! Whoa, be careful! I’m still in heels! I might trip!”

Still smiling as she moved, Hairu took a moment to carefully intertwine her arm with Haeun’s. Of course, she still didn’t bother to slow down. Her excitement was overriding her thought process, so she simply blurted out the first thing she thought of-- granted, that wasn’t too different from her natural way of doing things.

“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.”

Soon enough they reached the subway station, and Hairu was still smiling as they boarded the subway car. Only then did Hairu realize something.

“It’s okay if you want to call them treasures.”

Ui said, his usually stern voice softening. He thought her embarrassed face was incredibly cute, but he could not bring himself to enjoy it because of her obvious distress. His need to protect her in all situations rose up. 

I want to protect you. I want to protect you. I want to hold you in my arms.  He followed that urge, sneaking up form behind her and wrapping his arms around her entirely. Hairu’s body was soft, and warm. Even though he remembered how she looked as a corpse, he wanted to cling only to this warmth. 

“Even an old man like me has treasures. My treasure is right here, after all.”

He leaned his chin on the top of her head, until almost his entire body was wrapped around her. The two of them looked like a pair of cats protectively snuggling. As he hummed reassuringly for a moment, he waited for her to sit still. Which, with Hairu usually took a long time, but he did not mind the wait at all as long as he could keep holding her.

“Why are you so afraid of looking childish?”

Hairu paused in her whining as Ui came closer, wrapping his arms around her. Upon reflex, she leaned into his touch, wanting nothing more than to find comfort in his presence. Still, her lips were curled into a pout, and she looked like a child that was lamenting over being scolded.

She blushed, and mumbled something under her breath. 

Once she could finally sit still, as Ui patiently waited for her to do so, she spoke again, now loud enough for Ui to hear her.

“I want to be cool and mature... like you.”

Hairu paused again, tilting her head back until her eyes met Ui’s.

“I was trying to forget about it, you’re the one who brought it up.”

Ui remarked drily, as he dealt with Hairu’s sudden change of mood. After living for her, and living with her all this time he still did not really have an idea of what set her off, as she seemed to b completely without shame most of the time only to suddenly discover it.

“Are you talking about the drawings?”

Ui remembered a few scattered beaten up notebooks filled with drawings of both him and Arima. 

“You don’t have to worry about those, I thought they were nice.”

The ones that did not depict Arima at least. 

At his words, Hairu made a noise, one that sounded akin to a mix of a mortified moan and a gasp which took the very air from her lungs.

“No!”

Her face burned bright red, and she practically began to radiate steam from her sheer embarrassment.

“That’s-- no, I can’t believe you saw...”

She cupped her cheeks with her hands, her fingers pulling on her own skin.

“I thought you’d think my box of treasures would be childish, so I....” She gasped again. “I mean-- my box of just things! I didn’t say treasures!”

“They had a ceremony but I was the only one who attended. Both Okahira and the others who were in your squad died with you, and Arima neglected to show up as well as the rest of squad zero.”

Koori Ui spoke with a voice that sounded like death. Whenever Hairu’s death was mentioned all the life drained out of his features. He tossed the scissors aside and draped himself over him then. 

“That’s fine though, they don’t matter. I’m the one who loves you more than the entire world.” He said, at least that was what he always told himself to comfort himself after Hairu had died. Sometimes he was afraid his love never would have been this strong without her death. “They gave me a box of your things, you know. You had so little to leave behind it made me sad.”

Hairu was silent as Ui spoke.

She was surprised, really, that not only had she been given a funeral, but someone, anyone, had actually bothered to attend.

“Koori...”

She paused-- a box of her things...?

“You saw it?!” Without warning, Hairu suddenly shot up from her seat, nearly headbutting Ui in the process. “Y-y-you saw it... all of it...? No! Forget, forget it!”

Hairu sharply turned to face Ui, revealing the fierce blush that was overtaking her cheeks; she smacked her palms onto his face, squishing his cheeks together all in one movement.

what a fearsome woman… to be able to fend herself off in the blink of an eye and think nothing of it.. ciel would be sure to take extra steps in ensuring he kept on her good side ( though did she even have a good or bad side? she already seemed to be in her own little world… ).

laughing nervously, he scratches the back of his head nervously. ❝ i’ve actually just arrived here, so i don’t know much about this place.. hopefully escorting you will help me explore more of the area. you seem to be familiar with this ‘ HIVE CITY ‘ though.. would you mind telling me what you know of it? ❞ the more information he got, the better — he needed to LEAVE; he didn’t intend to stay here and be some stranger’s plaything.

“Oh, you’re a newbie?” Hairu tilted her head back, a smile forming upon her lips. She did not mean the words as an insult, she was merely curious. “Yeah, I’ve been here a while now... I can show you around.”

The notion of helping another furthered her soft smile, and Hairu was fully prepared to detour her own trek back to her apartment in order to assist the man before her. However, despite her months long stay in the city, she was still an airhead who was bad with directions.

“I.. I suppose I can work with what I have. I just recently got approved my own space to bake, but I don’t have a coffee maker with me and cocoa. If you don’t mind going shopping first we could get started right away!”

Ah, physical contact? The excitement was far too endearing! Could someone truly have met her same level of upbeat positivity? That seemed to be a lot more hopeful than simple wishful thinking. What a pleasant relief! Her eyes sparkled at her own proposal, absolutely beaming.

Hairu’s grin only grew bigger, as she grew all the more pleased by the second.

“Let’s go, let’s go shopping!”

Clearly, Hairu couldn’t wait.

“Let’s go to Sector Five-- it has all the best stores!” She assumed that the shops in that Sector would have exactly what the two of them were looking for. “The faster we get there, the quicker we can start, right?”

“No, you always look wonderful. There’s not a single person who doesn’t immediately admire you when you walk into the room.”

He chewed on that thought for a moment, feeling something unpleasant inside of him. 

“Of course, I admire you the most.”

He just wanted to whisper sweet things in her ear. To take care of her and shield her from all of the unpleasant things in life. After all, was it not enough being forced to live such a hard life and die so pointlessly. He just wanted to forget it, which is why he had lied to her for so long.

Now, for a moment when she asked for a reminder of that tragedy Ui hesitated again. He cut one of her bangs completely uneven while distracted. 

“I don’t want to talk about that. Let’s talk about sweets instead. Do you want to bake a cake and decorate it?”

Hairu smiled, easily pleased by such a compliment. Why, her face even flushed for a moment, if only because Ui said that he admired her the most.

“Koori admires me,” she muttered, perfectly ready for her mind to wander off.

Perhaps she truly would have, had Ui not responded to her particular question. His words made her pause again, but only for a moment. She nodded, as if she understood something.

“Oh...”

“So, I didn’t have one then? I thought that I wouldn’t.”

She looked back up at him, moving topics with ease.

“A cake? Ah, let’s decorate it with something cute, something that fits the weather.”

such precise movements betrayed their owner’s ever drifting mind. truth be told, from the lethargic way she spoke, ciel would have guessed that she either needed a nap, or had just awoken from one.

awkwardly pulling his hand away as she stood up on her own, he scratches the back of his head.

❝ i see… ❞ ciel himself had ’ trained ‘ when he was young as well, but none of it compared to the girl’s most likely supervised and professional sessions. he had to fend for himself and another at a young age — that’s what drove him to practice fighting. he never received proper experience until he was well into his teenage years.

❝ i’m glad you can defend yourself, but it’s quite late out. where are you headed? if you’d allow it, i’d like to accompany you; as capable as you are, it’d be a hindrance if more people tried to mess with you, right? ❞

Hairu nodded, still smiling pleasantly.

She idled on her heels, swaying ever so slightly along with the breeze. Despite the altercation only a few moments prior, Hairu seemed as if she was without a care in the world. In the moment, she likely was.

“Hm? Oh, sure, I don’t mind.”

“I’m just headed back to Sector Four.”

She didn’t realize that the other was attempting to be polite out of concern, and was instead curious as to why he would go out of his way to walk with her. Yet, she didn’t think much of it, and shrugged as she walked forward to continue on her way.

Ui put a great deal of effort into his appearance, but that was only because he was used to it growing up in high society, and trying to take care of everything for himself. He often received comments about being a beautiful investigator, or having a pretty face. He remembered the time Kijima told him that and made his skin crawl. 

“I don’t care about things like physical appearance. I’m only trying to look professional. It’s part of being an adult.” 

Ui said, while his well kept and shining hair bobbed, and as he leaned forward his designer vest wrinkled slightly. 

“You don’t have to do all these things on your own from now on Hairu, if you don’t know about them then just ask me. I’ll tell you anything you want.”

Hairu suddenly pouted.

“So, does that mean that I look unprofessional?”

The answer to that question was yes, and perhaps would always be yes. Even so, Hairu continued to pout until Ui spoke once more. She grew silent then, pausing in both her fidgeting and thoughts.

“Anything...”

She suddenly tilted her head back, so that their eyes would meet.

“Both of those treatments are good for your skin though. Skin care is a lot of hard work.”

Ui nearly screamed once when he had caught Hairu trying to wash her face with soap. He considered it a miracle that she looked as good as she did, but then again Hairu’s existence itself was a miracle.

She was the reason he found the world beautiful at all. He did not need to gush anymore though because he always gushed about Hairu within the confines of his own mind, and mentally he was still stuck on Hairu’s joke. 

“It’s serious business… I’m just used to a certain standard for myself… I’m not vain or anything okay…” He started to mutter underneath his breath as he grew increasingly self conscious. “How am I supposed to relieve stress if you don’t want me to smoke…”

Just like that, Hairu ceased her own childish giggling at the sound of Ui’s muttering.

“Huh?”

Oh, had she said something odd? That was normal for her, yet, Ui did not seem to grow as annoyed with it as he used to be. His muttering, however, was something she was quite familiar with; she had heard it many times before, during, and after receiving one of his many lectures.

So, she paused and thought, tilting her had back once more in an oblivious manner; she once more ruined the evenness of Ui’s cut, completely unaware that she had done so.

“Koori knows stuff about skin care... that’s why he’s so handsome compared to other investigators...”

“I cut my hair but that’s because I don’t want to rely on others.”

He still did not like his parents leaving him with servants. They tried to take care of his every need so he would be dependent on that sort of lifestyle and follow in his footsteps. He had started to break away from them as soon as he can.

Of course his childhood was nothing compared to Hairu’s, so he did not even mention it. He merely started to clip at the back of her hair. 

“Most people pay professionals to do it. It makes sense you cut your own though, you can barely keep anything tidy or clean.” Ui sounded like he was lecturing her again. He stopped for a moment. “It’s too bad really that your hair doesn’t grow in straight when it’s long like this, you would have looked like somebody’s wife.”

“Oh.”

With the precision only capable of a seasoned investigator, Hairu tilted her head upward at the exact moment that Ui cut her hair, immediately causing that cut to become uneven. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t even seem to notice. She was far too focused on their conversation.

“Professionals?”

Suddenly, Hairu smiled.

“Like, in those fancy spas? Haha, I’ve seen those, they make you put cucumbers on your eyes and have you sit in tubs full of mud. That’s so silly!”

Ui immediately crumpled the newspaper up. He already felt terrible about the last time he failed to be responsible around Hairu. If only he could shut these emotions off and think with his head. Hairu had enough emotions for the two of them and she barely had a head. 

“No. I don’t trust you to put a pair of scissors near your neck.”

Ui said, like he was scolding a child. He stood up mechanically and jerked his body away from hers. Then pulled the chair out once more.

“I’ll cut your hair for you. Who was doing it beforehand, they can barely cut straight your bangs are a mess.”

Hairu blinked.

She watched Ui as he moved away, wondering why he was doing so instead of answering her question. She had assumed it was simple enough.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve always cut my own hair. Don’t you cut yours?”