nemoi bemoi

REQUESTS!!

You can send them, but it doesn't mean I'll actually do them. To be honest, I can write anything so long as it's in character and bad things aren't glorified, so go crazy. That's all :D

Also there's no anonymous reqs so that way i can mention you when your req is done and be like "hi!! your req is done!! come read" don't worry guys I don't bite sometimes

I WANT MORE FRIENDSHIPS!!

I don't see enough friendship rep. I don't see enough people jumping on the friendship train. I'm gonna brute force the friendship rep and develop the characters' relationships further than what the game gave me because I HATE hoyoverse's constant one-off characters-- they'll create a super funny, super cool, super loveable character, and then after their shilling patch you will NEVER see them again. I hate that, I hate hate HATE it. So my account will be mostly dedicated to friendships and platonic relationships. Sure I'll write a ship every so often but I'm mostly focusing on friendships. Best buds. Favoritest pals. Lifetime besties. The works.

READER X CANON!!

i'm ngl I personally hate the look of some formats people use for their x reader fics; all the brackets and parentheses and (blue/brown/green) stuff immediately shatter any and all immersion for me so I just use they/them pronouns instead for most convenience, because i PERSONALLY found that when people used they/them pronouns, it was way easier to insert myself/my oc than when someone used a bunch of brackets to try and include every single option. Be the change you want to see in the world. The POV will always stay unnamed + they/them if I have anything to do about it.

we're all just having fun here, i hope you enjoy :)))

UHH ADDITIONAL RESOURCES IG

Dennies to dollars conversion rate that I will always use is 500D/1USD, taken from this post

i will still be editing my posts even months later, i don't know how to use this website LMAOOOOOO so if you notice the tags keep getting longer, that's why

use the #nemoi yapper tag to see all my extra info + literally anything that isn't a fic

list of ideas + any reqs i will do can be found here

GO LOOK AT MY GOAT'S PAGE TOO SHE MAKES CUTE DRAWINGS AND HAS LOVELY HEADCANONS AND WRITES AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

@lunaefreya is HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

“What do you think about that?” Harumasa asks his partner as they stroll along the boardwalk, their shoes crunching over the light layer of falling snow. He tilts his head back, looking up at the darkening sky– Just barely, he could catch the faintest glimpses of stars between the thick clouds. “I think it'd be pretty funny, getting called out to Hollow Zero and finding a strange gathering of ethereals having a Christmas party,” he says, idly swinging their intertwined hands.

“... You're so silly,” his partner says, fondness in their tone as they lean against his side. He smiles, looking at them; With the faintest dusting of snow on their head, they could almost resemble a powdered donut. The thought made him smile even more, as he reaches with his free hand just to tilt up their face so he can place a kiss on their forehead.

“But you love it when I'm silly, right?” he asks playfully, chuckling softly when a small smile appears on their lips. The way their nose scrunched up from his kiss was adorable to him, and the steady chill only made that feeling stronger, filling him with the desire to wrap them up all safe and warm.

Eventually, they came to a stop at the end of the boardwalk, standing at the railing to look across the frosty lake. It wasn't cold enough for it to freeze over, not yet– If it was, there would've been at least one story on the news of someone attempting to skate on the lake, before falling through the ice and nearly catching hypothermia.

“... Say, is it just me or did it get a little colder out here?” Harumasa asks after a moment, tugging up his scarf as the wind picks up. “How are you not cold with what you're wearing?” he mutters. At the lack of response, he glances at them, before pausing. They tried to hide it by freezing up and standing straight, but it was too late– He saw it. The shiver.

Their shoulders had started to unconsciously hunch up, and he suddenly noticed that they were pressing against his coat with something more than just the usual heart melting joy, and the way they immediately shifted their posture as soon as they sensed Harumasa looking at them… 

“... You,” he says slowly, a soft frown forming on his face as he clicked his tongue at them patronizingly, “I told you to wear a thicker jacket. I told you, didn't I?” he chides, even going as far as to wag his finger at them while they glared at him. “Don’t give me that look, I saw that shiver. If I'm getting cold even in my thick coat, then I know you're basically a popsicle right now.”

They open their mouth with the intent to disagree before a gust blows through them, prompting a shiver that they just couldn't stifle. Once they settled down, they looked away from Harumasa with a slight pout. “... I didn't think there'd be so much wind,” they mumble, “Otherwise, I'd be fine! The coat would've ruined my outfit.”

Harumasa huffs, before he quickly starts to undo the buttons of his coat. His partner blinks, before immediately grabbing his hands to stop him. “Hey, w-wait a minute–! I'm fine, let's just go back, don't take your coat off–”

Harumasa suddenly gives them a wide eyed look of shock. “Uh, are you crazy?! I'm not taking off my coat, not in this weather.” He shakes off their hands, finally getting the last button undone before he swiftly flings open his coat and pulls them into his embrace, trapping them with their back firmly against his chest. He manages to tug three buttons through their loops, before smiling as he settles against them. 

“... There. Feel better now?” he asks, nuzzling the back of their head against his temple. He hears them sigh heavily, before they lean back against him.

“Yes,” they say with an exaggerated sigh after a moment, “Thank you.”

He grins. “I feel so appreciated,” Harumasa says, pulling his arms out of his sleeves just to hug them from behind. He sways gently back and forth, creating a steady rhythm as the wind blows over and around them rather than through them. Watching the sun set over the city of New Eridu as the snowfall began to thicken, Harumasa felt a sense of peace wash over him. Standing here, his partner all nice and warm in his coat, the steady cold of winter nipping at their faces, he could almost fall asleep…

… Until the snow piling up in his beanie suddenly shifted, falling down the tiny sliver of open space between his neck and his scarf. He freezes immediately, a thorough shiver running through his whole body as he let out a loud squeal. “Ohmygod it’s so cold what the hell–?!” he cries, his voice abnormally high pitched. His comfy coat turned into his own prison while he thrashed and tried to rid his poor neck of snow.

His partner just laughs, trying to keep them both from toppling over by quickly turning around and hugging Harumasa tightly– But instead, it has the opposite effect, making him stumble before he loses balance completely. Before he knows it, gravity turns over in itself as they fall backwards onto the ground. For a moment, all he can do is lay there, staring up at the navy sky as snow drifts down and settles on his cheeks. After a moment, though, he hears loud giggles coming from his partner laying on top of him.

They raise their head, a smile on their lips as they reach up and brush the snow off of Harumasa’s face. “... I think it’s time to go home, yeah?” they ask, their voice still warm with laughter as their eyes crinkle with mirth. Harumasa blinks, before his expression softens.

“Yeah.”

------

“... What is it?” Miyabi asks, her voice low as she turns to Caesar. “I can feel you looking at me.” Caesar’s eyes widen, and she nearly chokes on her nitro fuel before lowering her drink with a nervous laugh.

“Ah, n-nothing, sorry about staring,” she says, quickly looking away. “Just thought it was a little surprising, seeing a void hunter so young around here.” Miyabi hums, her gaze turning back to the others as Billy shows off his new guns.

“Nicole invited me out,” she says after a moment, “But… I don’t know where she is. I’m not fully sure why I came.” Her gaze drifts down to her lap, and Caesar’s eyes widen. No way… Caesar looks Miyabi up and down, noticing how Miyabi starts to curl in on herself a little bit. You’re kidding me…

Is she… embarrassed?! A void hunter, getting all embarrassed because she was abandoned at a social event like a normal girl?!

For some reason, this is all very adorable to Caesar. At the same time, though, she can’t help feeling a little bad for Miyabi; Yeah, she’s a void hunter, but beneath all that seriousness, she still experiences social pressure like everyone else…

Caesar smiles, leaning back against the counter. “Aww, don’t look so down!” she says, raising her drink like she was making a toast. “Hey, sorry you got abandoned like that, but I’m right here with you. Let’s have some fun!”

Miyabi pauses, glancing at Caesar. “... Fun?” Caesar nods, taking a long drink of her nitro fuel before setting it aside and turning her full attention to Miyabi.

“Yeah!” she says. But when Miyabi makes no indication to talk– or move– Caesar suddenly starts to sweat. While she wouldn’t jump to such a conclusion in any other situation, she can’t help wondering if Miyabi knows what the concept of fun is. “Y-You know… Like, when I have time to myself, I like to read shoujo novels. For fun.” On second thought, what do void hunters do for fun? Caesar watches Miyabi, watches how her face scrunches just the slightest bit. From the looks of it, not much… Miyabi was just staring at her, like she was thinking long and hard about something.

After a moment, Miyabi blinks, as if she realized something. “Like training.”

Caesar pauses. “... What?”

“When I don’t have any missions or meetings or reports… I choose to train.” Miyabi nods to herself. “I… like honing my techniques, so that I’ll perform even better on my next mission.”

Caesar was quiet for a moment. Then, she nods slowly. “Yeah… Yeah. Sure thing.”

After a moment, Caesar tilts her head. “So… What kind of training do you usually do?”

Miyabi looks up, thinking. Then, she shifts her gaze back to Caesar. “Well, usually I’ll spar with Harumasa, if he’s not taking a nap already…” Caesar has no idea who that is, but she nods along anyway. “And sometimes, I’ll do my spatial awareness training when we all go out for lunch…” Caesar pauses. “Ooh, what’s that?”

Miyabi blinks. “When we go out for lunch, I’ll memorize every street we use and every person we pass both to and from the restaurant.” Caesar hums. It’s a very non-judgemental hum as Miyabi continues to talk about her different training, which seems to range from something as complex as having her coworker throw stuff in the air for her to slice into perfectly even parts, to simply fending off the office cat with one hand while she writes a report. Overall, it’s… very fascinating, having this look into the daily life of a void hunter.

Eventually, Miyabi trails off, before looking at Caesar. “... I apologize. I talked a lot, and I should’ve given you a chance to talk as well.” She looks away for a moment, Miyabi’s eyes narrowing slightly before she gasps softly. “Tell me,” she starts, meeting Caesar’s gaze, “What are those ‘shoujo novels’ you mentioned before?”

Caesar’s eyes widen, a shiver running up her spine. “O-Oh,” she says weakly, fighting to contain her excitement, “Oh my god, wait, do you really want to know?!” Caesar fights a smile from appearing on her face, her fingers aggressively tapping the counter as she feels a squeal building in her throat. Lucy could barely stand to hear Caesar gush about whatever novel or manga she was reading, and while Burnice would try, Caesar could always tell she was itching to get back to mixing new blends of nitro fuel. So having Miyabi here, so painfully unaware to the flood Caesar was about to unleash upon her, felt like heaven finally opening its gates.

Miyabi seemed to sense she was about to get locked into an unskippable cutscene, her ears twitching slightly. “... Yes. I would like to know.”

Caesar inhales sharply, her eyes growing even wider and filled with excitement. “Oh. My. God. Okay– so basically, shoujo is a genre of media usually marketed towards girls, featuring dreamy love stories and hot guys and cute girls and– Oh my god, my favorite one right now is this manga called My Dress-up Darling, it’s about this really cute girl who’s into cosplay,” Caesar pauses to take a breath, “Which is like when people like to dress up as characters from fiction, but she meets this guy who’s really good at making clothes, so they team up and he makes her cosplays to wear and it’s so– ugh!” She’s practically vibrating in her seat, leaning forward in her joy as Miyabi watches her silently.

“And, and there’s this other one that I really liked called Horimiya, where this girl meets this guy who dresses like a real bad boy but in reality is a total sweetheart! And the way the story slowly develops their feelings for each other is to die for, and when they confessed, I was screaming!” Miyabi nods slowly, her hands neatly folded in her lap as she listens to Caesar infodump about all her favorite shoujo manga. At some point, she starts injecting her own thoughts into Caesar’s ramblings, forming a conversation that mostly looked like this:

“– And Haruto was so jealous seeing Riku hug Sayaka, he immediately came up to them and pulled Sayaka to his side–!”

“In general, it’s a good rule of thumb to not touch any civilian without their consent. Riku shouldn’t have hugged her without asking first.”

“Exactly! And they almost fought, but later, when Haruto was alone with Sayaka, he started crying because he felt like she was ignoring him, and I felt so bad for him–!”

“Yes, she was being neglectful of her relationship with him. She should apologize.”

“She did, thank god, I don’t think I could’ve resisted such a cute face! The mangaka drew him like a crying puppy, it was so adorable–!”

“... I don’t believe I can sympathize with that statement, but I think I’ve seen a similar look on Harumasa’s face when Yanagi denies his sick leave.”

This went on for what felt like minutes but were really hours, until everyone else was getting tired from the celebration and Nicole was stumbling over to them after taking a joyride on Billy’s motorcycle.

“Wuh– Miyabi? Oh my god I’m so sorry, I completely abandoned you,” Nicole starts, grasping Miyabi’s hands and drawing her attention away from Caesar. “I swear it wasn’t on purpose, it’s just that Billy kept doing this really stupid trick that could easily wreck his whole bike that I bought, and I didn’t want that idiot to break anything else in the process, so I was with him and the others the whole time– but I shouldn’t have left you all alone here.” She sighs heavily, digging the toe of her shoe into the ground. “You were probably really bored, I’m sorry…” To her surprise though, Miyabi shakes her head.

“I forgive you, Nicole, but don’t worry– Caesar and I were having fun,” she says, a small smile appearing on her lips. “She’s helping me complete my analyze human behavior training, by describing the scenarios from her stories. It’s very entertaining.”

Caesar’s eyes widen, before she feels a sense of warmth build in her chest. At the same time though, she feels worry building too. “W-Well, I wouldn’t be using these as a blueprint for real life interactions–!” Caesar starts, laughing nervously.

Miyabi looks at her. “Oh? Well that’s a shame, I was considering getting some recommendations from you to read…” Immediately, Caesar freezes.

“... Well, art does imitate reality,” Caesar says slowly, leaning side to side as she waves her hand, “And I have so many recommendations for you if you want to read them, in fact, I can make you a list right now!” She whips out a pen and a pad, scribbling down a bulleted list of her favorite titles.

Nicole stares between them, feeling a little out of the loop. “... Cool. So once you’re done with all that, Miyabi, we can head out with Billy and the others. Come find us over there, alright?” Miyabi nods, letting go of Nicole’s hands as she walks off.

Riding back to New Eridu on the back of Billy’s bike was loud, yet peaceful at the same time. The wind whipping past Miyabi’s face was a feeling she usually only felt when running through a hollow on a mission. Tonight, the sky was clear, with stars scattered across the horizon– So much more than Miyabi could see in New Eridu. Sitting secure behind Billy while the others rode in a small car behind them, Miyabi carefully took out the list Caesar had written her, shielding it from the wind.

“Oh, and here’s my Knock-Knock too!” Caesar had said, scribbling down one final string of numbers with a little smiley face next to them, “So you can tell me what you thought of them! Seriously, I don’t have anyone I can talk to about these. Reach out whenever, okay?” 

Miyabi hums faintly, folding the list up and tucking it back into her pocket. 

She can stop by the library tomorrow.

------- BONUS -------

Miyabi walks into the office with a stack of books, quietly setting them down on her desk as she checks her computer for any reports she needs to write. Upon finding none, she grabs the book from the top of the stack, flips open to where she last left off, and starts to read.

Harumasa saunters into the office, calling a sleepy greeting to Yanagi as he stretches and drags himself to his desk for a nap– before freezing in place as he walks past Miyabi’s desk, his neck almost snapping itself from the force of whipping back around to see Miyabi reading…

“... Is that Horimiya?” he asks, a smile growing on his face. “Chief, I didn’t think you were the type to like this sort of stuff.” Miyabi looks up at him.

“I made a friend yesterday,” she says, “She recommended me some titles to read as part of my analyze human behavior training. It’s very entertaining and helpful.” Then, Miyabi pauses. “... Harumasa, are you a fan of shoujo manga too?” she asks, causing Harumasa to stiffen.

He averts his gaze. “Uh… well, I wouldn’t say I’m a big fan of it,” he says, “I’m more of a slice-of-life kind of guy.” He turns away, waving his hand as he walks to his desk. “You should check out Violet Evergarden. It’s pretty good.”

Soukaku peers over the top of the divider between her and Miyabi’s desk, her eyes alighting on Miyabi’s book. “... Mimiyabi, what’s that?” she asks, prompting her to glance up at the blue oni.

“It’s a shoujo manga. A story featuring cute girls and hot guys falling in love.” She hears Harumasa burst out into laughter across the office, before he tries to stifle it. Soukaku tilts her head slightly, visibly lost before Yanagi walks by and gently ushers Soukaku back into her seat.

“Huh, is that really…?” Yanagi starts, fixing her glasses as she peers at Miyabi’s books as well. Unprompted, Harumasa says, “Yep! Looks like the chief is finally loosening up, huh?” Yanagi immediately whips around, shooting Harumasa a pointed look that makes him cough weakly and turn away, mumbling an apology.

She looks at Miyabi again, taking a breath and smiling as she carries a stack of papers over to Harumasa’s desk. “Well, I think it’s nice that you’re reading at all, Miyabi. I’m not bothered as long as you get your work done–” she pauses, dropping the pile on Harumasa’s desk with a loud thud, “– Unlike this one over here.”

With Harumasa’s loud whining and Soukaku’s questions to Yanagi, and Yanagi’s even softer answers, Miyabi settles into her chair with her manga, passing the time with her newfound way of fun.

------- BONUS 2 (Caesar texting Miyabi) -------

Sunday, June 16th • 8:23 PM

miyabi: I don’t like the girl with the pigtails. You: wait which one are you on miyabi: Horimiya, chapter 7. You: OHHHH wait don’t hate her yet, she gets better i swear miyabi: She shouldn’t have blamed Hori for losing the paper. Now Hori might lose her spot on the student council. You: yeah but give her a minute, i promise she gets better later miyabi: If you say so.

Monday, June 17th • 9:12 PM

miyabi: You were right.

-------

Cissia hit the town with her Belle birthday fund savings, a fat pouch in her hand containing all her newspaper clippings and coupons, and a slip of paper noting all the currently running discounts at stores in her messy scrawl. Cissia’s primary target? A cake. According to Cissia’s super stealthy intel gathering, Belle has no preference for cake flavors– But Cissia does, so she’s buying a cute little egg custard cake!

She pauses in the center of the shopping district, closing her eyes to help her focus on untangling all the scents and smells filling the air… There's a store offering samples of a new flavored caramel to her left, a laundromat running a lot of dry cycles, a grocery store… Then, she catches a whiff of custard.

Like a hound catching a trail, Cissia’s eyes fly open, before she darts down the street. It’s like she can see the scent trail in the air, a heavenly scent of egg custard luring her through crowds and foot traffic until finally, finally, she sees the bakery just down the street– But an offhanded conversation between two highschoolers catches Cissia’s ear, bringing her to a dead stop.

“He bought me a bunch of stuff for my birthday, but it’s like… What am I supposed to do with it?” one of them asks, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s not even stuff I asked for. All the gifts are really expensive, so I can’t just refuse them, but…”

“But you wanted something more personal?” her friend suggests, prompting a gasp and nod from her. “Yeah, I agree… It feels like he didn’t actually know what to get you, and he was just throwing a bunch of ‘valuable’ stuff at you hoping one of them would be something you liked.”

The girl nods again, sighing. “I just wish he’d try to put a little more effort into what he got me, instead of just blowing all his money on stuff I don’t even like.” Her friend hums, clicking her tongue and shaking her head disapprovingly. “Yeah. Handmade stuff is much better than store bought.”

… Handmade? Cissia freezes, her eyes widening. Crap, she didn’t even think to ask about whether Belle wanted handmade gifts! And Cissia doesn’t even know how to make stuff, she isn’t exactly the craftiest person around. But, on another more important note…

… Does this mean Belle wouldn’t like a store bought cake?

Cissia hovers in the middle of the street, frowning as a cyclist barely manages to weave around her. Surely the “handmade better than store bought" logic doesn’t apply to food too, right? Cissia doesn’t even know how to make a cake, she hardly even cooks her own meals!

Before she can even consider what she’s doing, she’s already looked up egg custard cake recipes on her phone and rifled through her pouch for any coupons on the ingredients… It looks like her decision is already made.

She stares longingly at the bakery– In fact, she’s pretty sure she can see the egg custard cake sitting in the storefront window– before sullenly turning away and slinking off down the street. It’s alright, Cissia didn’t need to buy the cake anyway– She can follow a recipe instead! She’s… alright at following orders from her demon boss. Following a recipe can’t be that much different. Besides, the cake was probably gonna be crazy expensive; A majority of her savings were allocated to the cake alone. Surely ingredients for a cake won’t be that expensive, right?

She was wrong.

Cissia stares down at her nearly empty wallet, the once plentiful dennies having been almost completely stripped dry; She could feel their worth in the heavy grocery bag in her other hand, filled with flour, sugar, and all the works. “Jeez…” she mutters, slightly dazed as she leaves the grocery store, “I barely had enough for everything…” Even her coupons barely saved her.

Cissia shook her wallet, prompting a handful more dennies to make their presence known. All in all, she’d say she had… 2500 in dennies? Cissia fights the urge to whine, kicking at the ground as she stands in front of the mall. Cissia definitely didn’t have enough to buy materials and make Belle something special or cute like a little snake plushie– although, it's not like Cissia can make a plushie in the first place– and if she bought her any snacks as a gift… Well, that’s hardly a proper gift! And more importantly, Cissia will probably eat it all before she can give them to Belle. 

She was about to just give up on the present altogether, turning away with the intention to walk home, when she notices a small craft store. In its display window, she sees what looks like red paper cranes hanging from clear, thin string. In an instant, Cissia is pressed against the window, looking at the paper cranes with a narrowed gaze. “Paper… can do that?” She hadn’t even considered that something like paper could be used and made into little animals…

… Wait.

“Belle would love this!” Cissia exclaims, her eyes widening as she leaps back from the storefront window and immediately dashes inside the store, buying as much pretty colored paper as she could afford with her dennies.

Unfortunately, it’s only once Cissia arrives back at her cramped company-covered apartment that she realizes… Buying origami paper didn’t mean she bought the skill to turn them into cranes. It’s fine, she’ll just… She’ll look up a tutorial! The Interknot has everything these days, she’ll just pick one and make them while the cake is baking.

Cissia hums a happy tune to herself as she drops the paper on the little couch, walking to the kitchenette and laying out all her ingredients– Butter, milk, vinegar, flour, caster sugar, and imitation vanilla extract since she took one look at the price of the real thing and immediately put it back on the shelf. Either way, vanilla tastes like vanilla, no way it’d have that much of a difference on the final product, right?

As always, Cissia has a stock of fresh eggs in her fridge, and takes out a few before laying them out on the counter. She pulls up the recipe on her phone, before frowning. A baking tin…? As if people just have one lying around their company-covered apartment?! Cissia spends a minute digging around the cabinets before she resurfaces with an aluminum pan, the kind one would see at a family reunion holding food to be shared. She stares at it curiously, before tentatively setting it down on the counter. It should be fine… Right? Aluminum can stand high temperatures, right? It’s a metal, right?

Cissia decides to not worry about it.

She spends another moment actually trying to find the recipe instructions, scrolling past the terribly sad and depressing tale of a woman whose husband’s dying wish before succumbing to cancer was to have a taste of this custard cake until she finally starts to see some numbers appear in a bulleted list. Then, she preheats her little oven to 320° fahrenheit, puts some milk on the stove on low heat, and pulls out a bunch of bowls for mixing.

After struggling to separate the eggs into whites and yolks, with one poor soldier falling on the floor and sending cold goo all over Cissia’s foot, she manages to combine the yolks with the caster sugar– likely with a bunch of extra calcium. Eventually when her oven beeped to let her know it was done preheating, Cissia realized she didn't have an electric mixer.

“Crap…!” she whines, looking through her tiny kitchen twice over in the hopes that maybe an electric mixer might manifest in a dark corner, but as expected, an apartment only made for employees to rest for a moment before clocking back into work won’t have anything for baking. She finds a whisk, though. Cissia slowly turns around, looking back at the rather innocuous bowl of egg yolks and sugar, before groaning and dragging herself back to the counter. “Belle, you’re lucky I care so much!” she grunts, gripping the whisk and bowl with white knuckles as she hisses in annoyance. Far away on Sixth street, a certain video store manager sneezes.

What the recipe said would take five minutes with an electric mixer took roughly seventeen with Cissia’s rigorous mixing of the yolks and sugar by hand– Not including the breaks she took for her poor, untrained wrist. Seriously, she’d rather go on fifty missions to apprehend bigshots for her demon boss than beat any mixture involving eggs or sugar by hand again. With that out of the way, though, she adds in the butter and vanilla, thinking the hard part is over– Until she fumbles the imitation vanilla’s bottle, spilling what would be well over a year’s worth of real vanilla– but luckily isn’t– into the bowl.

Cissia freezes in place, her eyes growing as wide as saucepans. “... You gotta be kidding me.” For a moment, it’s just her and the bowl with a spreading dark brown splash. Then, she shyly dips her pinky into the mix, bringing it to her nose and giving it a sniff.

She pauses, before deflating with noticeable relief. “Oh thank god, it actually doesn’t smell that bad.” While it was a little strong, at least it wasn’t overwhelming like she heard it would be online. Maybe this imitation stuff isn’t all that bad. Cissia smiles, popping her pinky into her mouth to lick off the mix.

A moment of strong gagging and water guzzling later, with Cissia clinging to her sink for a solid five minutes as her tail thrashed like crazy behind her and she fought the urge to throw up the tiny amount of straight fake vanilla she ingested, she calmly and carefully spooned out the excess fake vanilla back into the bottle. It’s a real feat that she doesn’t chuck the bottle across the room– But knowing herself, she probably didn’t screw the stupid lid all the way on, and that would probably end with her whole corporate living space getting doused with fake vanilla. And her demon boss taking the cost of replacement furniture out of Cissia's paycheck.

Sifting flour is one of those things Cissia imagined would be really easy until she actually pulled out her sieve. The first step– Where all she needs to do is put the flour in the sieve– already spelled doom and despair with how she dumped the flour, resulting in a giant cloud of white going up to her face and all over the counter. However, bravely, Cissia soldiers on. She taps the side of the sieve repeatedly, careful to keep the sieve over the bowl– But for some dumb reason, no matter what she does, the stupid flour just won’t sift! Cissia growls, her eyes narrowing at the flour before she hits it a little harder a few times. Nothing.

“Are you serious? You’re supposed to go through!” she hisses, as if the flour had missed the memo when she first put it into the sieve. “What’s the point of this anyway?! It’s already a powder, do they want it more powdery?” She scoffs, promptly overturning the sieve and dumping the rest of the unsifted flour– Which was basically all of it– into the bowl, folding it in with a spatula.

She burned the milk.

Cissia turned around with the purpose of acquiring her decently warmed milk, and found that not only was it about to bubble over with a wall of froth at least two inches over the lip of the pot, but she also found the realization that oops! Her company-afforded stove is rather crappy, and the one burner she set the milk to heat on was the one burner with a habit of jacking up the heat to hell’s bathwater no matter what she turned the dial to.

… The milk went down the drain, with the second attempt being under careful supervision by Cissia– And a different stove burner too.

Once the milk was added in, with Cissia taking a break to wash her face and hands and chin and neck and everywhere really, of flour, she looked at the recipe again for the next step– Before immediately groaning and falling to the floor with a dramatic cry. There, in the middle of her phone screen, lay the innocent words: “Add the egg whites to a separate mixing bowl and beat with the electric mixer until stiff peaks form.”

“... You can’t be serious!” Cissia whines, grabbing her phone and looking at the step again. She groans, slumping over for a moment. Her wrist still hurt from beating the yolks and sugar… Cissia contemplates calling her demon boss, but the strong shudder that immediately ran down her spine at the very thought of willingly contacting that monster on her free day made her scrap that idea.

After her moment of melodrama, Cissia pulls herself to her feet, looking at the bowl of separated egg whites with a reluctant pout before she grabs the whisk, rinsing it off in the sink before she grabs the bowl and starts whisking. “I’d rather just get you over with in one fell swoop, than deal with you again and again after multiple breaks!” she mutters, a fierce determination momentarily taking away all ability of feeling her wrist– Or maybe that’s just the pain canceling itself out, who knows.

Once the peaks started to stiffen, which took an amount of time that Cissia doesn’t want to discuss, she added in the vinegar before continuing to beat the whites for another five minutes. After those five minutes are up, she pauses her whisking, her hand visibly shaking as she slowly raises the whisk out of the egg whites. “... Those peaks look pretty stiff to me,” Cissia mumbles to herself, before immediately dropping the whisk and the bowl onto the counter as she rushes over to the couch and falls over the back of it, cradling her wrist to her chest with a strong whine. There's no doubt about it in her mind– Cissia definitely wasn't built to be a baker.

Folding in the egg whites with her non dominant hand, she leans in a little bit to give the bowl a nice long sniff. Although she may be permanently turned off from all things vanilla, and there’s probably more than a few egg shells and flour clumps in the batter that she just couldn't mix out for some unknown reason, but despite all that, she'd say… The batter was smelling pretty good.

She pours it in the aluminum pan, before carefully sliding it into her oven and shutting the door with an excited giggle. Cissia happily skips over to her couch again, turning around and falling over the backside with a relieved sigh. “Finally…” she groans, stretching her arms and legs before twisting fully onto the couch and picking up the origami paper she had left on the cushions over an hour before.

For a moment, Cissia was really fighting the urge to take a nice long nap, but the couch was too stiff and cold. It’s nothing like the managers’ couch, which was nice and warm with plenty of pillows and throw blankets for Cissia to nest in… And that thought reminded her why she was doing all this in the first place.

That’s right… The managers let her crash on their couch all the time. They buy extra snacks because of her, keep more eggs for her, and now whenever one of them goes out for groceries, they’ll always ask Cissia whether she wants anything too. Belle celebrated her birthday with her, buying her all sorts of eggy foods and even taking her through the Galleria in order to pick out a present.

As if Cissia even has a place to ask.

She’s still for a moment, staring up at the popcorn ceiling of her cold apartment. This cake and gift should be more than just for Belle’s birthday… God knows they both deserve everything and more for all they’ve let her do. Cissia drags herself up into a sitting position, wiping the flour off her phone screen with her sleeve before she looks up a paper crane tutorial on the Interknot. These are going to be the most beautiful damn cranes Belle and Wise have ever seen if she’s got anything to do about it!

Apparently there’s a lot of different terms for folding paper. Between figuring out what a “valley fold” is, constantly pausing and resuming and rewinding the video, and tearing her paper more than a few times with her long nails and constantly redoing folds until the paper was too weak to continue, Cissia manages to pump out one wrinkled, shoddy, rather pathetic looking crane. She stares at it for a moment, holding it in her hands with an unreadable expression.

Then, she crumples it and tosses it behind her, grabbing another sheet to start over again. I’ll get it right, she thought to herself, I still have plenty of paper left! 

As she folded, smoothed, tore, crinkled, and threw away crane after imperfect crane, she started to smell the cake cooking in the oven. Her apartment was beginning to fill with the yummy smell of faint vanilla, almost making Cissia want to sleep again. She yawns, wanting nothing more than to drag herself over to Sixth street and crash on the managers’ warm couch again… Instead, she continues her folding, eventually churning out one rather nicely made paper crane with blue and gray colors. Cissia holds it in her hands, appraising it carefully for a moment… Before she smiles, nodding and gently setting it aside on the coffee table.

She hums faintly to herself as she folds another crane with yellow and pink colors, this one coming out less messy than her last one. She sets it right next to the blue and gray, before starting again on her last crane made of blue and orange.

Cissia is in the middle of folding the wings down when she suddenly notices the vanilla smell turning… burnt. She freezes, her eyes widening as the crane drops to her lap and only one question remains on her mind. How long has it been?

Leaping over the back of the couch, she skitters to her oven and yanks open the oven, almost reaching in with nothing more than her hand before she quickly fumbles around for a glove. She takes out the pan, her jaw dropping as she sees the entire top layer was a dark brown, with patches of burnt black sending smoke in her face as she sets it on the counter and kicks the oven shut.

Cissia stares at it for a moment. It’s impossible to see if the layers of the custard cake actually separated since she didn’t have any glassware to use… And it’s not recommended to touch the cake until it’s fully set in the fridge…

She swallows nervously, before slowly inching away from it. The burnt smell isn’t bad, it’s just… More than Cissia would’ve preferred. Maybe she can scrape off the burnt layer, so long as it’s only the surface of the cake…?

Cissia whines, making her way back to the couch. “I should’ve set a timer…” she mumbles, flopping onto the cushions and picking up her Belle crane from the floor. Finishing the crane was uneventful, but it turned out her best one by far, with its more crisp folds and confident edges.

Cissia takes a moment to look at the three she made, all sitting side by side on her coffee table. She smiles, before reaching out and gently nudging the Cissia crane closer to the other two. Then, grabbing a black marker, Cissia scribbles on two eyes and a goofy smile on each crane. With the hard stuff out of the way, now comes the easy part… Bringing it to the video store!

The next day, she cut a tiny piece off of the cake, taking a peek at the layers with bated breath. Then, she blinks in surprise– It actually separated, just like the recipe said. The custard layer looked a little stiff, but one taste let her know that overall the texture was just fine, if not a little strong with the vanilla. The burnt part of the cake was also… Saveable. Nothing a butter knife can’t fix.

Once it was ready– without the recommended fruit toppings to decorate since she didn’t have any– Cissia popped on the lid to the tin. She carefully folded the cranes’ wings down, before slipping them into her pocket as she flounced out of her cold apartment.

Taking the subway to Sixth street, Cissia taps her foot rapidly as the lights fade in and out of the cab. As soon as the train rolls to a stop and the doors wheeze open, she’s out, hurrying off the landing and rushing up the stairs towards the morning light of Sixth street. Breaking out into the sun, she looks around, immediately spotting the Random Play–

–And a giant crowd of people.

“... No way the managers are working on Belle’s birthday,” Cissia mutters, taking a few steps closer before her jaw drops. Through the dense crowd, she spots them.

Teal uniforms. A woman with pink hair, a man with a yellow headband, a thiren, and a blue oni. Her eyes widen. “You’re kidding me.” What the hell is Section 6 doing at Random Play?! The crowd was filled with all their fans, each one trying desperately to get an autograph or a picture or both as the hollow specialists politely brushed them off, slipping inside the video store. Cissia immediately feels a shiver run down her spine, about to turn tail and go home, but she can’t! It’s Belle’s birthday, and she didn’t put in all that work the day before just to run away now!

But no, there’s more– A sleek black car pulls up outside Random Play too. Crisp black vests, a female shark and male wolf thiren, a girl with green pigtails, a tall ghostly lady with two mini bangboo at her side, white frilled aprons on the girls and a tucked red cravat on the man… Cissia blinks, no recognition in her brain. Either way, she’s certain the managers aren’t bougie enough to have hired a whole maid service for one day– But it’s now that Cissia notices the large, sleek, black box held by the girl. From where she’s standing, she can faintly make out the words Victoria Housekeeping Co. embossed in cursive on the front.

“... You’re kidding me.” Victoria Housekeeping?! Those are the guys who get hired by the uber-rich folk, aren’t they?! Thing is, Cissia’s fully certain now that the thing in that box is a cake… She’s heard of the maid service that doubles as a hollow service, reporting directly to the mayor himself. And Belle did mention she worked with a maid service when they went to the Ballet Twins statue that time…

Cissia feels her stomach sinking, looking down at her pathetic aluminum tin pan. But she pauses, her ears picking up on a faint rumbling sound… Suddenly, something loud and fierce rips past her, sharp laughter followed by a whole bunch of motorcycles?! And what did she expect, they all come to a screeching halt outside of Random Play, the biker gang dismounting their motorcycles as two of them– Both girls, one with green hair and the other with blonde pigtails– skipping ahead and calling out for Belle. Cissia immediately stiffens, a sense of danger making the hairs on the back of her neck raise– What does a biker gang from the Outer Ring want with the managers? They didn’t get into trouble, did they–? But Cissia notices the name written on the back of one of the biker’s jacket. “‘Sons of Calydon’...?” Cissia mumbles, before she blinks. “... Oh. They’re the guys who own my hometown now.” That place she remembered as rundown and dangerous was nothing like that anymore. It was warm and open, the people living there carefree with no fear of danger or hunger. Last time Cissia went there with Belle, she said it was them who caused the change…

… Wow. Cissia didn’t know Belle had so many cool friends. Standing on the side of the road, holding her aluminum cake with her paper cranes in her pocket, she feels a little pathetic.

Instead of entering through the front door like she wanted, Cissia quietly walks around to the back instead. Climbing the fire escape, she slips into the video store the same way she did the first time, but instead of brashly raiding Belle’s room for snacks, she just plops down on Belle’s couch instead. Setting aside her cake and taking the paper cranes out of her pocket, she curls up into a ball, her tail wrapping around her as she pulls a blanket over her shoulders. Sounds of the commotion downstairs drift up to Cissia’s ears as she waits for Belle to come up, an odd tangle of feelings in the pit of Cissia’s stomach.

Out of the corner of her eye, though, she notices something that wasn’t there before. Cissia blinks, narrowing her eyes as she shifts on the couch to get a better look. There, sitting on the table with a cream envelope beside it, was a deep royal purple jewelry box with a silver bird insignia. She tries to resist the urge for a moment, but it’s hard to fight her nosy tendencies as she snatches up the box and envelope, tearing it open with her nails and pulling out a handwritten letter in looping cursive. It faintly smells of a rich wood cologne, and if that wasn’t enough of a sign, the paper itself felt thicker and fancier in a way that only someone with more than extra money could afford on a simple letter.

Dear Belle, Cissia reads to herself, we’re in a rush, so I’ll unfortunately have to keep it short. While we haven’t been able to speak to you in some time and weren’t able to see you in person, we hope you still had a splendid birthday. I would have gotten you something less flashy, but Vivian insisted that you deserved nothing less than the flashiest thing money could buy. I suppose I can agree, since you are akin a glowing star spreading warmth and life to those around you, and should be celebrated as such. I hope your day was filled with joy, surrounded by friends and family gathering just for you. Enjoy yourself, and once again, happy birthday. As per usual, please burn this letter once you are finished reading it.

From, your dearest friends at Mockingbird.

… Mockingbird? Cissia blinks, before slowly turning her gaze to the royal purple jewelry box. She slowly unclasps it, gripping the top and prying it open. Inside lay a silver necklace with large pear-cut sapphire stones inlaid in a dripping pattern, with the center stone cut into one fat heart. Each stone was easily within seventy to ninety carats.

This was the kind of jewelry bought as an investment rather than a piece to wear. The kind inherited through family generations, bought to be sold when the going gets tough.

… This was definitely worth more than Cissia’s value as a NEPS asset.

Absolutely bombshelled, Cissia could only close up the box and set it on the table along with its perfumed letter as she curled back up on the couch again. Looking at her aluminum tin, she feels even more pathetic– And then feels guilty, because why does she feel bad in the first place? Belle is allowed to have other friends, she’s allowed to have cooler friends! Cissia should be happy that Belle is so loved, that she has whole government factions making time to come see her on her birthday.

… But still. It’s a little embarrassing, wanting to surprise Belle on her birthday– Only to find that twenty, or more like fifty, other people had the same thought. Cissia sighs, before she hears footsteps coming up the stairs. Instead of Belle, though, it’s…

“Wise?” Cissia calls out, watching him stumble and nearly fall with his arms filled with gifts from everyone downstairs. She uncurls from the couch, hurrying over to him and quickly taking half the boxes.

“Cissia?” he says, blinking in surprise at the sight of her before he glances downstairs. Loud cheering erupts, Belle’s voice faintly heard over the noise. “Uh, Belle’s a little busy right now… Being her usual outgoing self. You won’t be able to see her for at least thirty more minutes if you wanted some one-on-one time.” Cissia gapes at him for a moment. Thirty minutes?! In the end, though, she doesn’t object, nodding somberly as she trudges into Belle’s room with Wise trailing along behind her. They set the boxes down on the floor, before Cissia flops back onto the couch again, Wise joining her on the opposite end. He pulls out his phone, scrolling idly as he deflates from all the commotion downstairs.

“... Is it like this every year for you two?” Cissia asks after a moment, breaking the silence as Wise glances up from his phone. He shrugs, nodding. “Yeah, pretty much,” Wise says, “It feels like the crowd visiting for our birthdays got exponentially larger in the last two years.”

He sighs, staring longingly out the doorway. “There’s so many people now that I, her brother, barely get to talk to her on her birthday. This year we actually had to set ground rules for everyone, since last year we had so many dinner invitations and surprise parties and group hangouts, we physically couldn’t be everywhere all at once…” Wise chuckles weakly.

“All things considered, this year is actually pretty tame. It’s just…” He glances at the looming stacks of gifts with a sour face. “... Now we have to deal with all their gifts at once, instead of staggered over the course of the day. Let’s see,” he pauses, reaching over and grabbing a box, “This one’s tagged from Astra and Evelyn, along with a majority of the other boxes… She sent us a message saying she bought Belle a bunch of clothes from the best dressmakers and seamstresses across the continent. I don’t know where we’re gonna put all these.” Cissia blinks after a moment, her eyes widening.

“... Wait a minute. Did you just say Astra? As in, Astra Yao, the idol singer?” Wise freezes, before wincing. “Yeah… You’ll get used to it after a while. You saw Section 6 out in the front, right?” Cissia’s eyes were still as big as saucers, though. Wise smiles nervously, before moving on.

He shifted to sorting out the gifts on the floor, making piles from each person who visited and talking out loud about them to Cissia. “Aw, the Angels got her light sticks and plushies… Shifu sent cash like usual… this one’s from senior Fufu, this one’s from Xiao’Guang, Yuzuha and Manato sent this one…” After a moment, he notices the royal purple jewelry box and torn envelope on the table. “Oh, is that from Hugo?” Wise reaches over, popping open the box before his whole body goes rigid. He’s silent for a long moment, Cissia watching as he visibly short-circuits. After a moment, Wise shuts the box, setting it back on the table. “... Definitely Vivian.”

It continues like that until the gifts are sorted into many shorter piles, except for the overwhelmingly large stack belonging to Astra Yao and Evelyn. The whole time, Cissia stayed curled on the couch, humming every so often as she watched Wise put the boxes and bags into their respective groups. There were so many… Her three cranes paled in comparison. Once it’s all done, he sighs, leaning back against the couch.

“... That’s not even all of it. I already know our friends over in the Obol squad probably sent something that’s gonna arrive a little later, and she hasn’t gotten anything from Dialyn or Xiao’Zhao yet.” He sounds tired. Cissia can relate, even though she hasn’t even spoken to Belle yet.

“That sounds tough,” she says, resting her head on the arm of the couch. “... You know, I wanted to surprise Belle for her birthday.” Cissia sighs softly. “Since she celebrated mine with me, made it feel like it was worth something… I thought I could do the same for her. And, just in general– You two have done a lot for me, so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to thank you both.” She shifts, propping her cheek on her hand.

“I guess I should’ve figured that she’d be busy, though,” Cissia says with a laugh. “Just, I didn’t expect this many people.” Wise nods, shrugging. “Yeah, she does that. Between the two of us, she’s definitely the more charismatic one.”

“I mean… I’m glad they all care so much,” Wise continues, “And I’m glad they stop by every year and send gifts for our birthdays, but I mean…” He shrugs. “I don’t know. I kinda miss getting up early to set up a little party for her downstairs, with everyone from the neighborhood invited out for some food. It’s not tailored clothes from across the continent or a silver necklace with the fattest gemstones I’ve ever seen in person before, but it was… It was nice, being able to actually spend time with my sister on her special day.” Wise pauses, before he laughs, rubbing the back of his neck as he looks up at Cissia. “That probably sounds weird, right…? I am glad she has people to spend her day with, but I just–”

“No no no, I get it!” Cissia says, sitting up immediately. “Like, I feel bad that I can’t spend time with her because of all those people, but then I feel bad for feeling bad in the first place because I feel like I’m getting all controlling!” Wise’s eyes widened, before he nods furiously. “Exactly! And I want to be supportive, but also I barely even got to say goodmorning to Belle before gifts and people started arriving, nevermind a happy birthday.”

“Mhm, mhm– Not to mention, my gifts are so sad compared to that,” Cissia says, pointing at the leaning tower of gifts from Astra and Evelyn, “Even if I made it all myself, how does it hold a candle to fancy imported clothes or a cake made by literal maids and butlers?!” Wise runs his hands down his face, nodding gravely.

“Exactly. I don’t want to view it as a competition since she’s my sister, but there’s still nothing I could make or buy that would come close to the value in some of these gifts,” Wise says with a heavy sigh, “And I hate to even think that Belle is just smiling and accepting my gifts purely because I’m her brother, and not because she actually likes them…”

Cissia shudders, wincing. “Yeah, that would suck… I’d probably cry.” It was silent for a long moment, both Cissia and Wise looking at each other with a sense of camaraderie in their newfound sympathies, before Cissia notices the silence. Not just in the room, but the whole video store.

“Uh… Guys?” Belle starts, standing awkwardly in the doorway to her own bedroom as Cissia and Wise snap up to look at her. “I sent everyone off already.” The silence immediately becomes stilted, as Cissia and Wise realize Belle heard most if not all the stuff they said. Belle shifts from foot to foot, before stepping inside and moving between the piles of gifts to sit in Wise’s vacant spot on the couch.

The silence still stretched, before Cissia broke it. “Um. Belle,” she starts, suddenly feeling a wave of nerves as she clumsily grabs her aluminum tin and the paper cranes, “I, uh… I wanted to surprise you for your birthday, but obviously that wasn’t possible,” she says with a laugh, “But, um. I made you a custard cake, and I folded some cranes for you and Wise.” She pulls off the lid, setting it aside to reveal the cake. Belle’s eyes widen, before she leans closer to take a better look. Cissia also folds out the wings of the cranes, showing them to Belle a little shyly.

“See, um, this blue and orange one is you, this one is me, and this one is Wise…” she says, feeling embarrassment burn her cheeks. “I-I know it’s nothing compared to the other stuff you got, but I thought you’d like them… I thought they looked cute…” God, is Cissia shaking? She could feel the faint tremble building in her hands, and that made her cheeks burn hotter. “A-And, I just wanted to say thanks… Since, you know, you both let me crash at your place whenever I want, and you both take good care of me when I’m staying over,” Cissia says, glancing between Wise and Belle, “So… yeah. Happy birthday.”

Belle reaches out, gently stilling Cissia’s hands with her own. She smiles, taking the cranes with such care that one would think they were precious stones anywhere near as large as those sapphires. “Cissia, I love them!” she says, and Cissia dearly hopes she means it. “They’re so cute– I like their little faces,” Belle says with a giggle, before reaching out and wrapping an arm around Cissia’s shoulders. “You’re so sweet… You’re welcome, Cissia. Don’t worry about it, seriously.”

“... You know, I understand why you both think I won’t like your presents,” she says after a moment, before she pulls away a little, “But… I do like them. Wise, you know I keep that plushie you got me last year on my bed, right?” Wise immediately perks up, his head snapping around to look at Belle’s bed to see for himself.

“The point is, I value everyone’s gifts, no matter how expensive or inexpensive. Because at the end of the day, they all took time out of their day to try and find me something they thought I’d like– And that is more important to me than anything else.” Belle smiles. “Which includes you two, so stop thinking I’ll hate your gifts just because I already got so many!” Wise looks at her, his eyes big and slightly watery– although, maybe it’s just a trick of the light as he stumbles to his feet.

“Hold up, I left your present in my room,” he calls behind him as he spins around the corner into his own room, returning a moment later with three coupons. He hands them over to Belle, watching as her eyes widen. “... I asked General Chop if he could do me a favor for your birthday, so… Tonight, our dinner will be free.”

Belle gasps, before immediately kicking her feet and jumping up to hug Wise. “Seriously?! Oh my god, hell yeah!” He hugs her back, smiling as he melts. “Uh huh. Happy birthday.”

Cissia smiles, that knot of feelings in her stomach starting to unwind. Then, she pauses. “Wait, why’s there three?” she asks, Wise and Belle looking at her. “Who else are you guys gonna take?”

It’s silent for a moment. Slowly, Cissia’s brain works through it, the cogs turning until her eyes widen. “... You’re kidding me. Are you for real?!” She points at herself, and Wise nods. Immediately, she smiles, setting aside her cake as she leaps up to hug them both extra tight.

“You guys!! You didn’t have to! Seriously, you don’t have to, I don’t mind not eating–?!” she starts, before Belle works her hand free and pinches Cissia’s arm. “Ow– Belle, what was that for?!”

She huffs, taking one coupon and shoving it into Cissia’s breast pocket. “You said so yourself, right? We take good care of you, we let you crash at our place whenever you want and as long as you want…” Belle smiles then. “You’re part of the family, Cissia. You’re coming to my birthday dinner, and you’re eating for free.”

… Cissia might cry.

She sniffles, before burying her face into her shoulder and squeezing them both as hard as she can– Until they start protesting, Wise frantically patting Cissia’s shoulder to get her to stop. Cissia finally lets go, wiping at her eyes before she smiles softly.

“... Okay.”

Since the prolonged time outside the fridge made Cissia’s cake a little too warm for her liking, they all went out for dinner at Waterfall Soup first. When they returned, stomachs full and moods lifted, Wise carried up the few extra boxes that arrived at the video store before they all bundled up together on the couch, Belle sitting in the middle as she chose her favorite thriller movie to put on the TV. Cissia cut out squares of her custard cake onto little paper plates with plastic forks. Wise turned off the lights, and once everyone was settled, Belle hit play.

Sitting there on that tiny couch, squished against the arm and Belle’s side, making loud commentary on the perceived strength of the villain and how Cissia would easily beat him up if she were in the movie, she felt… warm.

It was really nice.

-------

(🥪) = WHEEL CHALLENGE!!!! basically when me or faye run out of ideas, we'll spin a wheel that has every zzz character on it (there's also another wheel with both zzz and hsr so potential crossover oneshots??) twice, and whatever characters the wheel lands on after our two spins are the two characters we have to write something for.

it's a fun writing exercise because it also forces me to flesh out characters i otherwise don't care about

The amount of joy that immediately sparkled in Soukaku’s eyes at those three special words– time for lunch– was enough to rival the brightness of the sun. Her whole face lit up with such happiness, for a moment it felt as if the office itself had become brighter. “Lunch?! For real?! Yay~!!” She pumps her fists with joy, scooting her chair back and hopping to her feet. Harumasa sees Yanagi’s head pop up from her desk, though, as she sluggishly stumbles to her feet.

“Ah– No no, I can take her,” she says, adjusting her glasses and stifling a yawn, “You don’t need to do this, Asaba…” Harumasa waves her off, laughing as he walks around and gently– but firmly– pushes her back down into her seat.

“Deputy Chief, let me take care of this,” he says. “To put it plainly, you… look really tired. These last two weeks were rough on all of us, but you really took the brunt of it.” Harumasa pats her shoulder sympathetically. “Just stay here, I promise I won’t let her get poisoned.” He smiles innocently. Yanagi meets his gaze, and he can see something in her itching to refuse him… but he can also see the stress sliding off her shoulders, and knows his victory is secured.

“... I promised her I’d take her to the noodle shop in Lumina square,” she says after a moment, sighing softly. “Sorry about all this.” Yanagi tucks some stray hair behind her ear, although it only falls forward again due to her more hastily put-together braid. Harumasa opens his mouth, about to wave off her concerns again when she smiles. It’s small and relieved as she looks up at him. “Thanks for this, Asaba. To be honest, it didn’t even occur to me until just now that it was time for lunch… So thank you.” She looks at Soukaku, pointing at her more sternly.

“Be good,” Yanagi says, “Don’t accept food from strangers, alright?” When Soukaku nods vigorously, practically vibrating in excitement for lunch, Yanagi turns away to open her phone. “I’ll contact Miyabi and have her bring something back for me, so you two go and enjoy yourselves.” 

Harumasa smiles, before giving her a two-fingered wave as he walks towards the door. “Sure thing, Deputy Chief! Rest up, alright?” He gestures for Soukaku to follow along, the little Oni happily skipping out in front of him as he catches one last wave from Yanagi before letting the door swing shut behind him.

Once they arrive in Lumina, Harumasa stretches his arms, resting his hands on his hips as he looks up and down the square. “So,” he starts, swiftly placing his finger on the top of Soukaku’s head to discourage her from wandering off, “Tsukishiro mentioned a noodle shop, right? You know where it is?” He immediately stumbles, his finger doing nothing to stop her as Soukaku dashes across the square with a loud squeal.

“Noodles, noodles, noodles–!! Huh, Masamasa, hurry up!” She whirls around, waving her hand hard enough for Harumasa to believe it might fall off. He fights the urge to groan, instead chasing after her with only a slight complaint– He did know what Soukaku was like going into this, after all.

Following along behind Soukaku eventually leads him to one of the family owned restaurants of Waterfall Soup, the scent of miso and chili oil enticing them as they sit down at the counter. He faintly recalls trying out the other restaurant establishment on Sixth street with Belle and Wise, and the memory brings a smile to his face as he glances at the menu with Soukaku.

“... Just one bowl probably won't be enough for you, right?” Harumasa asks after a moment, a sense of slight dread building in his stomach as he remembers how big Soukaku's appetite is. 

As expected, she nods, before pointing at five different noodle bowls on the menu. “I want these ones! With extra pork!” Harumasa’s smile turns stiff as he internally debates whether he should even bother to eat at all, when Junior Chop approaches the counter.

“Oh my, I have some famous guests today,” he says, beaming with excitement. “Welcome, welcome! You two must be tired working in the hollows all day– For the esteemed Section 6, I'll make sure your noodles are perfect. So, what'll we have today?” He whips out a notepad and pen, stars in his eyes. Harumasa doesn’t bother to correct him on the more mundane nature of their jobs.

Soukaku hums for a moment, before she shows the menu to Junior Chop. “I want… Actually, I want the seafood ramen with shrimp instead of the spicy ramen. Ooh, and I want this one, this one, this one, and this one, all with extra pork!” She smiles, her mouth watering already as her finger finishes flying all over the menu, before Harumasa glances at her and nudges her foot under the counter. Soukaku blinks, looking at Harumasa with a confused expression before she gasps. “Please!” she says, nodding to herself as Junior chop’s eyes threaten to pop out of his head.

“F-Five… And with extra pork? All for you?” Harumasa can see him running the math in his head, before he seems to realize the sheer amount of dennies he’s about to milk out of them. His face immediately lights up with joy, and he nods vigorously. “Of course, of course–! Anything you want, missy! A-And, for you, sir?” he turns to Harumasa, an expectant gleam in his eyes.

Harumasa hates to disappoint, but he simply points to the miso ramen. “Just this one, thanks. And, take off the egg.” Junior Chop deflates a little bit, but once he finishes writing down their order, he nods. “Alright, they’ll be ready in a moment!” With that, they get to see those large mechanical arms in action– Like children enraptured by an entertaining TV show, both Harumasa and Soukaku watch with great interest as Junior Chop exercises his craft. He stretches dough, boils noodles, chops green onions, and slices logs of chashu pork with perfect precision and artistry– all simultaneously. He easily assembles five bowls at once, garnishing each with the sliced green onions and two halves of a soft boiled egg before slowly, carefully, serving them to Soukaku.

She’s practically vibrating in her seat with excitement, soup spoon in one hand and chopsticks in the other as she wriggles closer to the counter. As soon as the bowls touch down, she’s on the attack– loudly slurping up the ramen and making small sounds of contentment as Harumasa feels his stomach growl. Not long after, though, Junior Chop slides over his bowl of miso ramen, and Harumasa smiles before happily digging in.

As expected, the noodles are delicious. For a moment, neither of them talk, too busy enjoying their respective meals– Although, to Harumasa’s surprise, Soukaku had stopped eating her food and was mostly picking through it.

“... Hey,” he starts around a mouthful of noodles, nudging her shoulder with his elbow, “You alright?” Soukaku glances up at him, her chopsticks hovering over her soup spoon with a tangle of noodles before she drops it back into the broth. She mumbles to herself, staring down at her ramen. Then, she frowns, her body wilting slightly.

“... It doesn’t taste good without Nagi,” she says after a moment. Harumasa blinks, before he raises a brow. “What, am I not good enough company for you? Too busy missing your mommy to enjoy our lunch?” he teases, feigning hurt when Soukaku gasps sharply and whips around to stare at Harumasa.

“No, no! Not what I meant!” she cries, grabbing his arm as Harumasa’s face crumbles and he makes a pathetic wailing sound. “Soukaku, you hate me?!” Harumasa cries back, turning away and burying his face into his hands. “Soukaku hates me! Soukaku, you’re so cruel!” he stifles a laugh as Soukaku shakes him by his shoulder, words of apology filling the air as she hugs his arm. After a moment, he relents, turning back to her and brushing her hands off.

“Alright, alright,” he says with a laugh, slurping up a bite of his noodles before facing her again. “What’s wrong, why are you upset? No more jokes, I promise.” Soukaku eyes him with a soft pout, before she turns back to her ramen with a sigh.

“Well... Nagi’s been doing a lot,” she says after a moment. “And, and you said she looks tired, but it’s even worse when we’re at home.” Soukaku picks at her noodles, slurping one up. “Nagi didn’t sleep for a long time… And if we weren’t at the office, then she was hunched at her desk, which isn’t good for backs! But Nagi wouldn’t listen to me when I asked her to sleep, because she had so much to do…”

“... I am hungry, but I feel bad enjoying a big meal when she couldn’t bring herself to eat anything at all. Nagi works so hard– I didn’t really care whether she kept her promise about noodles, I just want Nagi to rest.” Her bottom lip starts to tremble, before she sniffles, shaking minutely. Harumasa hums softly, before reaching out and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“... Well, we did make it through that hell, didn’t we?” Harumasa says after a moment. “She said the Chief will bring her some food for lunch, and she was napping at her desk earlier– The ether activity in Hollow Zero also finally settled, so she’ll definitely have some time to rest now.” He ruffles Soukaku’s hair, ignoring her cries of protest. “So don’t worry about her, alright? Tsukishiro wouldn’t want you to ruin your appetite because of her, you know that.”

Soukaku smacks Harumasa’s hand away from her head with a grumble, fixing her hair before she gives a small nod. “... Okay.” Despite that, Harumasa can tell she still wasn’t fully back to herself yet– But at least she was eating normally. 

When they finished eating– With Soukaku flying through all five bowls while Harumasa lagged a bit to savor his– Harumasa paid with his work card before they began to make their way back to headquarters. Before they could leave Lumina, though, he glances down the square at a small playground tucked away in a corner of the boardwalk. He hesitates, his brow furrowing in thought, before he ultimately turns to Soukaku. “Hey, let’s go to the playground,” he says after a moment, smiling at her confused look.

“But… Aren’t you an adult?” she asks, the question piercing Harumasa’s chest with unrivaled precision. Not even Miyabi has been so accidentally scathing with her remarks before.

“... Y-Yeah, but, I figured maybe you’d want to go…” Harumasa says, stumbling over his words as he feels the urge to just forget it all. “And you still seemed a little upset, so I thought it might cheer you up…” His voice tapers off at the end, embarrassment still lingering in his tense stance. Soukaku hums, looking around until she spots the playground. She deliberates it for a long moment, scuffing her shoe against the plaza before she nods.

They find themselves sitting on the spring riders, both Harumasa and Soukaku quietly rocking back and forth. While Soukaku was able to fit into her bee themed spring rider more easily, Harumasa… was having a harder time, as his knees were pressed to his chest in the uncomfortably tight space.

“... Nagi worries about me too much,” Soukaku starts after a moment. “She's always remembering to carry snacks for me, to buy extra meat for me, to do this and that– it makes my head hurt!” She grips the handle, rocking back and forth on the spring rider with more force. “All that, and her normal work stuff… I’m not like Nagi, or like Masamasa, or like Mimiyabi. I eat more, I need more, all I do is eat at Nagi’s dennies and her time…” Harumasa can see the words on the tip of her tongue, yet she hesitates to say them out loud– Almost as if by doing so, she’d be bringing them to life. 

She must hate me. 

Soukaku eventually stops rocking in her spring rider, leaning forward and resting her chin on her knuckles. “Do you understand…?” she asks softly, turning to look at Harumasa. It’s now that he’s certain– Soukaku was probably thinking about this for a long time, and the sudden influx of work draining Yanagi was just the catalyst. 

He hums, before reaching over and tapping her back. “... Sit up. That kind of slumping isn’t good for backs, remember?” he says, before leaning back in his spring rider. “You know… Tsukishiro doesn’t mind taking care of you, right? She loves you a lot.” To that, Soukaku’s face crumbles as she sits up.

“B-But I wish she didn’t!” she cries, “I-I make her do so much, it’s all my fault she doesn’t get enough rest, a-and, and–!” She sniffles, fully breaking down into tears as Harumasa stumbles to his feet. He almost trips as he escapes his spring rider, his legs threatening to buckle from the lack of blood circulation as he carefully kneels beside Soukaku and wraps his arm around her.

“Shhh, shhh, calm down,” he says a little awkwardly, trying to soothe her by rubbing her shoulders and wiping away her tears with his gloves. “Come on, come on, pull it together– Here, I’m gonna take your hand real quick.” He gently grasps her little hand, pulling it away from the handle and pressing it against his chest instead. “Alright– Hey, are you with me?” He taps her wrist, waiting until she looks at him with her watery eyes and tearstained cheeks. He smiles. “Follow my lead, alright?”

Harumasa takes a big, deep breath, grossly overexaggerating it so that Soukaku could easily feel the rise and fall of his chest with her hand. He holds it for a moment, before releasing steadily. Soukaku follows sloppily after him, her chest stuttering rapidly as she hiccups and gasps for breath– Before finally, she finds his rhythm, slowly calming herself down with Harumasa’s help.

Once she’s more or less calmed down, Soukaku sniffles, rubbing away her tears with her sleeve as she pulls her hand away. “... N-Nagi does that with me too,” she mumbles, and for a moment, it looks like she’s going to cry again– But she holds her breath, her cheeks puffing out as she reins in her tears.

Harumasa rests his hand on her shoulder, letting her settle herself before he opens his mouth. “... I don’t think you should feel bad because the Deputy Chief takes care of you, and you feel like you’re burdening her, or whatever else your head tells you,” he says after a moment. “You’re right, you do require a lot– You eat a lot, it probably does put some strain on her finances. But, Soukaku, you’re literally a whole other species.” He shoots her a look.

“I don’t know a lot about the Oni people, but I do know that they’re notorious for needing a high-protein, high fiber diet because their bodies are built to do hard work. You go with us on every mission into Hollow Zero– And you keep up with us extremely well. You can’t expect yourself to do all that work on half the stomach your people are used to.” Harumasa smiles, before leaning in as if to tell her a secret. “And trust me– There’s ways to game the system. If she hasn’t been already, she can probably dismiss all the grocery costs and snack runs as a tax deduction since they’re mostly for you, and you’ll underperform as HAND’s investment if you don’t get enough energy.”

Soukaku giggles faintly, reaching up to rub her eyes again. “Of course Masamasa knows about that…” she mumbles, prompting Harumasa to make an affronted sound. “Hey, what’s that supposed to–? Whatever.” He huffs, looking away as Soukaku laughs louder. After a moment, he continues.

“... But, seriously. Tsukishiro loves you a lot.” He looks back at her, before ruffling her hair again. “And, when you love someone, you’d do nothing short of anything for them.” Soukaku was silent, not even protesting Harumasa messing up her hair. Then, she nods.

“So… Nagi doesn’t mind buying me all my snacks and food at all? Even if it adds a lot to her work?” she asks. Harumasa pauses.

“Well, maybe she minds a little bit… But she’d rather buy you all the food in the whole world than watch you get sad and be in pain because you’re so hungry,” he says. “And because she loves you, she won’t complain about it. Because to Tsukishiro, any amount of money she spends for you, and any amount of extra work she needs to do for you– so long as it makes you happy– will be worth it to her.” Harumasa tilts his head, shaking Soukaku lightly by the shoulder. “... Do you get it now?”

Soukaku blinks, looking down at her hand gripping the handle of her spring rider quietly. Then, after a moment, she nods, a strong hint of resolve in her eyes as she looks up at Harumasa again. “Let’s go back! I wanna see Nagi!”

They leave the playground, Soukaku dragging Harumasa along towards the parking lot with more demands that he walk faster. With all that happened, time really slipped away from them– It was late afternoon now, with both of them having gone over their allotted lunch break by an hour. By the time they arrived back at the office, it would only be a few hours until the work day was over.

Soukaku burst through the door with a shout, running immediately to Yanagi as Harumasa slinked in quietly behind her. She throws herself at Yanagi, with the Deputy Chief barely able to stand in time to catch her. “Nagi!” Soukaku cries, hugging her waist tight as Yanagi blinks in surprise– before she immediately shoots a glare at Harumasa, freezing him in place with a squeak.

“Soukaku, what is it?” she asks gently, her sharp gaze never leaving Harumasa, “Did something happen?” It’s clear that the question wasn’t just intended for Soukaku as Harumasa rapidly shakes his head, putting his hands up and mouthing I didn’t do anything!! She’s fine!! 

“Nagi, Nagi, Nagi!” Soukaku looks up at Yanagi, drawing her glare away from Harumasa and immediately softening it into something more worried. “Yes..?”

Soukaku beams, before jumping up and clinging to Yanagi’s chest, her arms wrapping around her neck as Yanagi blinks in surprise. “Nagi, I love you!”

Yanagi’s face immediately blooms in soft pink, and her eyes widen. “I-I… Where is… Huh…?” she stammers weakly, before she smiles, holding Soukaku close. “I love you too… Although, I’d appreciate it if Asaba didn’t stay out with you so late. I was beginning to get worried, but… it seems I was worried for nothing.” Her smile melts, endlessly tender as she smooths down Soukaku’s hair. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

Soukaku closes her eyes, humming as she soaks up Yanagi’s embrace. It’s been a long time since they hugged like this. Harumasa smiles, taking the tender moment to sneak back to his chair to sneak in a cat nap before the day ended– When Chief Miyabi walks in.

“Yanagi, I completed the stealth mission you assigned me,” she says, her usual monotone voice bringing Yanagi out of her little warm bubble with Soukaku. “My tail Soukaku and Harumasa to make sure he doesn’t accidentally kill Soukaku training is complete. My notable observations are that Soukaku was loudly crying at the playground–”

“What?!” Yanagi immediately whirls on Harumasa, Soukaku still wrapped protectively in her arms as Harumasa almost falls out of his chair. “Wait, wait wait wait– I didn’t make her cry, that’s not what happened–” Harumasa stumbles to his feet, glaring at Miyabi. “And, since when were you tailing us? Hey, I work here too you know! I’m a trustworthy coworker, what’s with all this?!” Just before they can dissolve into mindless bickering, Miyabi holds up her hand, bringing silence to the office as Harumasa shoots her a pleading look.

“... I wasn’t finished,” she says, to which Yanagi clears her throat, nodding stiffly. Miyabi waits for a moment, before continuing. “... When Soukaku cried at the playground, Harumasa helped calm her down with a very effective breathing technique– And spoke some very poignant words about love to soothe her.” Miyabi smiles, a daring hint of teasing in her gaze when she looks at Harumasa. He pales slightly, giving a small shake of his head. A moment passes between them, and Harumasa knows he’s going to owe her a melon for her silence.

Yanagi glances between them, but before she can ask about their silent deal, Miyabi continues. “Overall, I conclude that Soukaku was not in any danger, and that Harumasa is indeed a trustworthy coworker as he says.” She nods, signaling the end of her report.

For a moment, Yanagi is silent. Then, she looks at Harumasa, a hint of embarrassment in her eyes. “... My apologies, Asaba,” she says, “I should have trusted you more. Thank you for looking after Soukaku when I wasn’t able to.” To that, Harumasa places his hands on his hips with a huff.

“You’re welcome, Tsukishiro,” he says, drawing out the syllables with more sass before he crosses his arms. “Seriously, you’ll trust me on a life or death mission in Hollow Zero, but not with taking Soukaku out to lunch…” Then, his expression softens, before he smiles.

“Glad you were able to get some rest. You’re looking better already.”

It’s a nice, easygoing, short day in the office of Section 6– Harumasa’s favorite kind of work day.

-------

Ah. That's right. Belle and Wise were letting Cissia stay with them– “letting” is a little too generous, it's more like Cissia breaks into the video store, but neither Belle nor Wise care enough to tell her to leave or install a new lock on the hatch leading to the rooftop.

Cissia smiles, only a hint of shame on her face as she tucks some of her loose blonde hair behind her ear and leans backwards on the edge of Belle’s bed. “... Hi,” she says after a moment. “You, uh… I didn’t think you’d still be awake.” Cissia fiddles with the sleeves of her sweater– which was without a doubt stolen out of Belle’s closet– before she continues to try and reason her way out of why she was in Belle’s room.

“It’s just, well– The bed here is the best bed in the whole house, and you know, I’m an honored guest of yours,” she says, shooting Belle an innocent smile, “So I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could just… wriggle on into here. You’ve got a pretty big bed, you know, so I don’t really see why there wouldn’t be space for little ol’ me– See, I can be really small, look!” Cissia proceeds to ball herself up on the edge of Belle’s bed, looking up at her with an expression clearly asking for Belle to compliment her excellent compact form.

Belle… couldn’t help the small giggle that bubbled up at the ridiculous sight of her biggest nuisance and biggest relief twisting herself into pretzels just to convince Belle to share her bed. Her shoulders were still tense, mind still swimming– but at least Cissia was here. “... Alright, alright, you can stop that now,” Belle says after a moment, tilting her head slightly. “Seriously, I don’t know how you do that. It’s freaky seeing you do stuff that would snap my bones like twigs.” Cissia blinks, before she smiles, quickly unwinding herself and sitting normally on Belle’s bed– It’s not unnoticed by Belle that Cissia was scooting closer, and tugging Belle’s blanket towards herself.

“It’s just snake thiren anatomy,” she says, waving her hand dismissively, “Same as our sixth sense, which you call our ‘smell’– I’m pretty cool, I know.” After a moment, though, Cissia’s expression softens, and she looks at Belle with a little less playfulness.

“... So. What are you doing up?” she asks quietly. “Yeah, you’re a night owl, but you’re not nocturnal. Regular humans shouldn’t be up at this hour– and, you smelled funny too.” Cissia leans in slowly, her gaze trying to decipher Belle’s own. “Something’s wrong, so tell me. I promise I won’t tell your brother if it’s something embarrassing,” she says, offering Belle a cheeky grin.

Belle hesitates for a moment, staring at Cissia as she tilts her head, expectant. After a moment, Belle sighs, shifting on the bed to allow Cissia more room and pulling her knees to her chest. “It's nothing, I just… I don't know. There's a lot going on all the time, and I guess it's just…” She sighs again, dropping her head into her hands and letting out a soft groan. Cissia hums softly beside her, sensing that this was something much deeper than she thought. 

“... Well. I have all night,” she says after a moment, shifting closer and gently patting Belle’s shoulder with the tip of her tail. “Start from the beginning, or don't– I don't mind. Whatever you need, Belle.” She leans back, grabbing some pillows and shoving them around herself so she can lay comfortably. 

Belle raises her head a little bit, glancing at Cissia. After a moment, she nods, her heart softening. Belle shifts to prop herself against the small fort of pillows surrounding Cissia, rubbing the ridge of her nose. 

How does she even start this? Carole, Helios Academy, Phaethon… The transition from hiding from the authorities to openly working with them, sneaking into illegal facilities, almost meeting the Creator face to face… “I don't even know how to begin,” Belle says after a moment with a laugh. “I guess… Sometimes I wish we could go back to being underground.” She swallows roughly. 

“It feels like, out of nowhere, me and Wise just got thrown into all these different situations. I mean, we worked with Section 6 in Hollow Zero, we became disciples of Suibian Temple, suddenly I'm able to go into hollows, and that’s great! I’m happy to help keep the city safe, I loved meeting everyone and talking to people who I never even thought I’d ever share the same air as, and I would feel awful if I ever chose to sit back and do nothing– But it just… It feels like every day there's a new threat to New Eridu, that requires me and Wise to help dispose of it to keep everyone safe.” Belle can’t help herself– now that she’s actually speaking these thoughts out loud, it feels as if a barrier within her was broken, and now words pour from her lips unfettered.

“And I-I feel bad sometimes, wishing that it wasn’t us who had to put ourselves in danger– Because that’s horrible, to just run away from danger simply because we’re scared, and let the danger hurt and consume thousands of other innocent, defenseless people,” she says, “We’re able to help, so we should. It’s the right, morally just thing to do.”

“But I…” She trails off for a moment. “... I'm really scared.” Belle looks at Cissia, meeting her gaze.

“What if one day, Wise gets seriously hurt? I mean, it's not exactly hard to consider– I did almost die on my way home from the Outer Ring some time back, and all the Exaltists’ attacks in Waifei… I was there when Sarah became that… that thing, and I…” Belle looks away, resting her cheek in her palm as her other hand picks at a loose thread in her blanket. “... I guess it shouldn't be so surprising, and maybe it sounds a little silly, but even just finding out that the peace in New Eridu is held together by the thinnest of alliances between a bunch of private organizations…?” She shrugs helplessly. “It scares me, thinking about how the slightest misstep or the wrong word might send all of New Eridu spiraling into chaos.”

Belle whines, burying her face into her hands. “I just wish we could go back to being normal…! I wish our commissions were back to leading the Cunning Hares through the hollows and maybe one or two small investigation commissions, and our video store was only a video store to everyone, and our contact wasn't the top contact for every extremely dangerous situation needing a proxy– seriously, do they have nobody else?!” Against her will, Belle feels her eyes start to well up with tears, and she grumbles miserably as she tries to blink them away.

“... I don't want Wise to get hurt. I know things like this should be expected, considering our business, but… Being a proxy usually doesn't mean we'll be dealing with large-scale catastrophes every month!” She shivers, rubbing at her eyes and tensing when they start to ache again. “If anything happened to him, after all we've been through… He's the only family I have left.” Belle’s voice softens into a quiet whisper, her knees pressing against her chest again.

“I don't know what I'd do.”

Cissia was silent for a moment, her usual cheeky grin nowhere to be found as she listened intently. Once Belle sighed, indicating she was finished, Cissia shifts. Then, slowly, so Belle could move away if she wanted, Cissia reaches out, hesitating for a moment before she wraps her arm around Belle's shoulders and pulls her close.

“... You know, I guess I was an idiot for always seeing you as this paragon of justice and morality,” Cissia says after a moment, her tail winding itself into a gentle coil around Belle's leg in a bid to make her relax, “You're still human, after all.”

“Really, I don't know how you guys do it,” she says softly, “I know you're scared, but… being scared, and still choosing to do what's right in spite of that? You're incredible.” After a moment, though, Cissia pauses. She taps Belle's shoulder, waiting until Belle raises her head to look at Cissia.

“... This has been weighing on you for a while though, hasn’t it?” She holds Belle's gaze, letting her question sink in. “Maybe I’m not the kind of person you’d expect to hear this stuff from, but… It’s not good to just let all this build up inside you. I know you’re scared, and I know you probably don’t want to worry other people… But at least try to talk to someone about all of this. Wise is your brother, but I get a feeling he hasn’t heard a thing about any of what’s been going on in your head.” Cissia smiles, though it’s faint. “You’re so busy worrying about him, don’t you need somebody to worry about you, too?” Belle’s breath hitches, her eyes widening slightly.… Huh. She never really thought of it that way.

After a moment, Cissia’s expression melts into her usual unserious look. “So… If you ever decide to run away, just come tell me and I’ll sneak you two out of here immediately~ I don’t mind deserting that demon over at NEPS,” she says, laughing when Belle blinks in shock and shoves Cissia's shoulder.

“Cissia! Don't say that!” Belle snaps, but her lips still turn up into a reluctant smile as she giggles softly. It feels as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, and she wipes her eyes as she takes a deep breath.

Once their giggles peter out into the night, a comfortable silence stretches between them. Then, Cissia sits up a little, pulling away from Belle. “... That was a really heavy conversation,” she says suddenly, “The best thing after serious talk is good food, and I’m hungry. Let's go get some snacks!” Belle pauses, before frowning.

“We don't have any downstairs since you ate them all yesterday.” Cissia blinks, before laughing weakly as her cheeks grow colored with shame.

“Then… Let's go buy some! There's a convenience store down the street– Those are always open, right?” She grabs Belle's hand, yanking her out of bed and pulling her towards the door. “Come on, come on, come on– It'll be a cute night time getaway, just you and me!” Belle gapes at her, before pointing at the clock.

“At this hour?! Come on, you can’t be serious!” Belle hisses, before stumbling as Cissia pushes the bedroom door open and drags Belle behind her. Belle sighs softly, reluctantly giving in and shaking off Cissia’s hand so she can go grab a pair of sandals.

Once Belle slips them on, they both begin to silently pad their way downstairs to the video store. Belle glances at the closed door to Wise’s room, hesitating for a moment before she makes a note to really talk to him at more reasonable hours. Giggling, Cissia grabs Belle’s hand again, before dashing out the front door and greeting the warm night air.

It was hard to see the stars through the clouds. The air smelled of rain, with Belle’s skin growing sticky from the humid night. At this hour, there was nobody out on Sixth street; It was just her and Cissia, walking through the dark and following the sparsely lit streetlights to the cold white light of the convenience store. Most stores were closed by now– Even the lamps of Waterfall Soup were extinguished, the lights of the kitchen fully turned off– but not the convenience store. There was the faintest sound of crickets, the peacefulness of the small night hour making Belle reluctant to break the tranquility. Cissia has no such qualms, though.

“I hope they have ice cream,” Cissia says aloud, idly swinging their intertwined hands as her tail sways casually behind her. “It’s so hot out… And it’s definitely going to storm soon, the air is so humid!” She rubs sweat from her forehead, wiping it on her sleeve. Belle nods, her gaze raising towards the sky. She catches glimpses of stars through the blanket of thick clouds, faint pinpricks of light against a sky of black. 

When they finally reach the convenience store, they step inside, the cold white lighting giving the place a nostalgic feel as Cissia brings Belle to the freezer. They glance inside, sandwiches and drumsticks and soft serve all wrapped in bright plastic with styrofoam cups of varying flavors of ice cream. In the corner, Belle sees an assortment of popsicles– Strawberry, chocolate, cherry, blueberry, and lemon flavors all sit neatly sorted in their own compartments within the freezer. She hums, noticing a bunch of orange-flavored twin pops in the corner of the freezer. “Hey,” she starts, nudging Cissia’s side and pointing at the popsicles, “We can get that one and split it.” Luckily, Belle was an expert in splitting the popsicles perfectly down the middle– She always ensured she’d get her fair share, much to Wise’s dismay when they were kids.

Cissia glances over at it, before her eyes widen with intrigue. “Ooh~! I’ve never had one of those before, it looks cool! Let’s get it!” She throws open the freezer, snatching one before slamming it shut and wandering off to the snack aisles of the store. Belle follows after her, watching as Cissia carefully inspects each bag and candy bar. She can already tell Cissia is shopping with no mind to Belle’s finances, so she sighs, reaching out and grabbing Cissia’s shoulder to slow her.

“Wait. You can only get three snacks, alright?” Belle says, narrowing her eyes at Cissia. “And they can’t go over six thousand dennies.” Cissia’s expression immediately melts into despair, and she grabs Belle by the shoulders too. “What?! Only three– no, only six thousand dennies?! You’re kidding me, right?” she cries, ignoring Belle’s attempts at shushing her. “That’s hardly enough for the five bags of chips I wanted! Come on– Belle, Belle, we’re best friends, you won’t give me a little more wiggle room than that…?” she pleads, blinking her cute eyes at Belle and leaning in close with a soft pout.

When Belle shows no sign of giving in, though, Cissia immediately huffs, turning away with an exaggerated sigh. “You’re no better than that demon,” she mumbles, gazing longingly at the bags of different flavored potato chips on the shelf before begrudgingly only choosing one– Pickle flavored, with a ruffle texture. Belle smiles tiredly, the small hours finally starting to creep on her as she grabs a large bag of sweet corn puffs for herself– although, it would likely end up being for Cissia too, knowing her voracious tendencies.

After listening to Cissia struggle to choose between a bag of chocolate candy and a bag of sour strips, they eventually landed at the cash register with Belle’s corn puffs, the twin popsicle, and Cissia’s pickle flavored chips, sour strips, and a bag of sea salted corn chips. Once Belle paid, they walked outside with their haul, making their way back to the video store before Cissia grabs Belle’s forearm and brings her to sit at the foot of the staircase leading up the side of the Turbo Remodeling shop.

Belle blinks in confusion, before Cissia grins at her. “If we go inside now, there's no way the sounds of the bags won't wake up Wise– So how about we stay out here for a moment?” Without waiting for Belle to agree, Cissia immediately tears open her bag of pickle flavored chips, popping one into her mouth as she leans back against the stairs. 

Belle hesitates for a moment, before she chuckles, taking out the popsicle and tearing open the wrapper. She frowns, though– It was soft, having melted a little from how long they were in the convenience store. “Awh man, we should've left it in the freezer until we were about to leave,” Belle mumbles, before carefully gripping the two popsicle sticks. She nudges Cissia's side. “Hey. Watch this,” she says, before slowly tugging on the sticks. Finally, it snaps with a soft crack, a perfectly even split. 

Cissia's eyes widen, though Belle can't tell if it's awe for her neat trick or hunger for the popsicle. “Oh, wow! Gimme gimme!” She snatches one from Belle, taking a large bite out of the flavored ice and making Belle's teeth hurt just watching her. Cissia continues with barely a reaction, though, before humming. 

“... Huh. It just tastes like a normal popsicle, but it was much more expensive than the others in the freezer,” Cissia notes. Belle didn't even notice that Cissia was looking at the prices in the convenience store– Her usual greed made Belle assume she was just looking for the best flavor. “Well, yeah,” Belle says after a moment, “The selling point isn't really the popsicle’s flavor, it's more so that you're able to share it.” At that, Cissia frowns.

“Seriously?! All they did was put two popsicle sticks instead of one– I could do that!” Belle laughs, before nudging Cissia's side with her elbow. “But did you?” Belle asks, to which Cissia pauses. Belle smiles. “No. You didn't.” With that, Belle takes a small bite of her popsicle, looking up at the cloudy night sky. 

A silence stretches between them, filled with the sound of rustling chip bags and loud chewing. Finishing her popsicle, Belle tosses the leftover stick into the convenience store bag set at their feet before popping a handful of corn puffs into her mouth. After a moment, Belle leans against Cissia's side; Sitting on the stairs with nobody around, with nothing but the sky to witness their gluttony, makes Belle's heart feel soft. To her surprise, though– or, maybe she shouldn’t be surprised– It’s Cissia who breaks the silence again.

“... You know,” she starts around a mouthful of popsicle, “If I had met you way sooner… I bet my life would be much different than it is now.” Belle blinks in surprise, before she feels her chest grow warm and fuzzy. She smiles, letting Cissia’s words settle into a small corner of her heart.

“... Thanks,” Belle says softly, her gaze still on the sky above, “For all this. Listening to me, and bringing me out for snacks.” Even if she paid. Now it’s Cissia’s turn to be surprised, looking down at Belle before she smiles too. She leans into Belle as well, letting Belle rest her head on her shoulder. “No problem,” she says, taking another large bite of her popsicle.

“Anytime.”

------

Hugo smiles, approaching the counter with his usual suave expression, looking as if the very act of standing in the bakery wasn’t making him want to puke. “Good morning to you, my dear,” he says, removing his hat from his head to give them a polite nod. “I hope your shift hasn’t been too hard on you?” He can’t help how his smile becomes something a little more genuine at the sound of their voice, his ears pricked for any notes of familiarity in it like a dog hunting for scraps.

Listening to their recalling of the morning rush, Hugo hums along as his eyes scan the menu. Really, nothing here appeals to him, but he quietly notes how his stomach curls in on itself less and less… Perhaps, his time here to see them has more benefits than he imagined.

“Oh, I set aside your usual already,” they say, Hugo momentarily caught off guard when they grab a small brown paper bag from the back counter and slide it across to him. “The chocolate-filled croissant, right?” they ask, a small smile on their lips. He’s silent, his typically composed smile cracking for a moment to reveal a horribly love-stricken man whose facade is about to melt not unlike warm tempered chocolate.

Perhaps he can learn to stand the taste and smell of it. So long as he can savor these sweet moments of fleeting familiarity. Perhaps one day, he will find that a haunting sense of fear and disgust will no longer haunt his mind– Instead, a feeling akin to blooming flowers in his chest will replace it, just as he feels right now, warm and welcoming despite its unfamiliarity.

“... Thank you,” he says, his voice soft. “I didn’t believe you’d remember. Really, my dear, I’m quite charmed.” Hugo smiles again, his suave persona melting away as he swipes his card to pay and slides two $100 bills across the counter.

He ignores their fumbling, insisting that they keep the change as he turns away with his specially set aside chocolate croissant. Pausing by the door, he opens it, his nose scrunching instinctually– Yet, he forces himself to take a bite, chewing slowly and hiding his furrowed brow from them until he finally swallows down the first bite.

Because them? They look radiant. The most beautiful, kind, amazing person he’s ever met. Someone who accepts his flare-ups, his shortened lifespan, his everything, without seeing him as lesser or as someone to be coddled. Someone who sees beyond his illness, who sees a boy practically sweating in his shoes at the very thought of holding their hand.  Seriously, he hopes they didn’t notice his flushed cheeks and stupid stammer when they intertwined their fingers with his own on the way to the restaurant. He only barely managed to keep his heart rate down.

The point is, if they found out about his flare-up because his heart monitor went off, and they began to worry– or worse, cancelled the date… Harumasa might just cry. He doesn’t care if they're doing it so he can rest, he’s been looking forward to this first date for weeks. He sloughed through work for this, he actually put in effort towards his reports, he was the most productive he’s been all year, all so this first date can taste sweeter.

Luckily, his act has been paying off.

After narrowly avoiding detection on the way to the restaurant, dinner has been rather smooth sailing. His expression practically melts with fondness as they gush about the food and complain about their long day at work– The evening was progressing amazingly, exactly as he planned. Conversation was casual, lighthearted, as if they were merely two friends eating dinner together; After this, they would go on a scenic walk in the park and catch the sunset by the bridge, and then he’d take them home.

Things were going well. Until they weren’t.

He noticed a smear of food on the corner of their mouth, and he immediately locked onto the chance to look cool. Grabbing his napkin, he smiles, leaning forward in his chair. “Hey, you got something on your face–” he starts, before his wrist knocks over his glass of water, spilling it across the table.

And it gets on their clothes.

“... Oh my god,” he says, his voice weak, before he immediately springs up. “I-I’m so sorry, let me get you something to wipe with– Waiter?” he calls out to an attendant standing nearby, before rushing to their side. He laughs nervously, trying to keep his cool as he feels his heart rate spike. It's fine. Nothing is ruined. The date is going well, it's just a little water. He still can't stop the flow of apologies spilling from his lips, his face red with embarrassment. 

“I'm sorry, that was really stupid of me,” he says in a rush, his face growing even more flushed when he presses his napkin against their chest in an attempt to absorb the water. “I–! Sorry, I-I'm not trying to be weird, you can dry yourself off instead if you want–?” Harumasa stammers, his hand jolting back as if he had touched a hot iron, “Unless, you don't mind it?” He pauses, unable to help feeling as if he was digging himself into a bigger hole. Suddenly, everything felt overwhelming– People were staring at them, or more likely at him, the waiter was giving him a look as he cleans up Harumasa's mess, and his lovely date is… is…?

… Cupping his cheek with their hand? 

For a moment, he feels like time has stopped. He can faintly hear them speaking to him, asking if he's okay, saying the water was no big deal and it would just dry off. Yeah, I know that, Harumasa wants to say, but he finds his tongue completely dry. I didn't ruin the date, did I? They're touching my face. It feels nice. Oh my god, they're touching my face. And their hand is pleasantly cold against his flushed cheek, and he feels like he wants to jump in joy and agony all at once, and it feels like the whole world shifted two inches and everything clicked into place, and everything is made of sunshine and rainbows, and all sound was drowned out by the frantic excited pounding of his heart in his chest–

Beeeeep! Beeeeep!

Immediately, he feels a sinking dread in his chest. Harumasa recoils from their hand, the lingering touch still making his skin tingle as he shakily turns away to try and calm himself– But how could he, when the date was going so well and now it wasn’t? No doubt about it, if it wasn’t ruined before, it definitely was now. His stupid illness, getting in the way of everything again…

He feels their hand on his shoulder and flinches, looking back at them with wide eyes. “Harumasa,” they start, “I’m alright, it’s just some water, but… Are you okay?” He feels his heart catch in his throat, watching as they slowly slide out of their chair just to crouch down with him on the floor. You shouldn’t do that, he wants to say, but his tongue is useless in his mouth.

“... I ruined the date,” he says quietly, his voice uncharacteristically shy. “I… I’m sorry, I should’ve told you, but– I had a flare-up yesterday at work, and I was told to take it easy today, but I was just–” He feels his throat constricting, and suddenly his vision starts to blur. I can’t cry, this is already bad enough…! Yet, a sniffle still escapes him, and he finds himself immediately leaning into their embrace as soon as it’s offered. “... I was so excited for our date, I-I didn’t want you to cancel because of this… I’m s-sorry…” he mumbles into their shoulder, inhaling shakily as he feels their arms wrap around him. He feels so pathetic for crying like this, in public on top of it all, but at least his heart finally calmed itself as he lets himself be soothed.

Eventually, he pulls away to wipe any stray tears, taking a deep breath to calm himself. But, he pauses when he feels their hand grip his arm. “I’m not cancelling on you,” they say, their hand sliding up to caress his cheek again. His heart skips a beat. “As long as the monitor doesn’t mean you’re gonna pass out on the spot, then I’d still like to continue our date.” Harumasa’s eyes widen. It’s not over? Even though I cried like a baby and spilled water everywhere and made a fool of myself? Hope swells in his chest, before he smiles, leaning into their hand with a pleased sound.

“... Okay.”

Once they finally finish dinner and Harumasa foots the bill– Happily putting down his card knowing it would be put down on company dennies– they find themselves taking that scenic walk together to the bridge just as Harumasa had wanted, the flower bouquet tucked under his arm as his date has the chocolates as a dessert.

The sun was beginning to set behind the skyline of New Eridu, painting the sky in hues of violet and gold and fiery orange as a soft breeze blows Harumasa’s hair into his eyes. As they walk along the river towards the bridge, Harumasa glances at their hand, before shyly reaching out and brushing his fingers against theirs. An invitation, a quiet desire. They glance back at him, before smiling and immediately grabbing his hand. His breath hitches, and he feels his face grow warm again. He laughs nervously, his eyes focusing on the shimmering surface of the lake. “I hope my palm isn’t too sweaty,” Harumasa mumbles, his other hand coming up to rub at his face. Their soft laugh makes him blush even harder, before he asks to pause the walk so he can take a few deep breaths. God knows his heart rate is probably approaching the detection threshold.

Once they reach the bridge, Harumasa leads them to the center, the view overlooking the whole lake as the fleeting light of the sun kisses their face. When he looks at them, he finds himself taken completely, his chest rendered of all air as he’s hopelessly smitten with warmth. After a moment, he taps their shoulder, before gently pushing the bouquet into their hands. “Could I… take a picture of you?” he asks softly. “It’s just– You look really beautiful, and I’d like to remember this moment.” They blink in surprise for a moment, before their expression melts into fondness. “Of course,” they say, accepting the flowers and turning to face Harumasa as he takes a few steps back and pulls out a little polaroid camera.

He holds it up, peering through the camera. With a hum, he counts down from three before a bright light flashes, and he stands straight. Harumasa checks it for a moment before he smiles, rushing over and showing the picture to them with a bright grin. “You like it? I plan to print it out and take it to work with me– So that way, the others will ask about it, and I’ll get to tell them all about you~!” he says teasingly, nudging them with his arm. His heart flutters at the sound of their laugh again, and he suddenly feels a ball of nerves form in his chest. After a moment, with his cheeks flushed a soft pink, he quickly leans in– Placing a soft kiss on the round of their cheek.

“... Thank you,” he murmurs softly, a genuine sparkle in his eyes, “For today, even after… all of that. You mean a lot to me.” His smile grows, before he reaches out and grabs their hand, intertwining his fingers with theirs and standing quietly on the bridge.

It’s a good evening in New Eridu, with the sun setting on a lovestruck boy and his muse.

------