STARCROSSED.

Miki hesitantly walks away from the door and does in fact take a seat. “Sorry…” She cleared her throat and glanced at the floor, not too surprised that her anxious habits made her look rather…unwilling to be around.

Now, if only she knew how to make casual conversation that wasn’t just about work or formal subjects. Now that she’s here, she’s quite the quiet company.

    Kurumi watches Miki take a seat with pursed lips and a curious gaze. Some part of her almost expected the woman to leave and another part wasn’t entirely unconvinced this wasn’t just an attempt at a polite pleasantry from someone who didn’t usually bother, but... it was an effort nonetheless, Kurumi supposed, for whatever reason Miki had. 

    “You’re pretty damn hard to read sometimes, y’know.” She makes a small noise under her breath, offering a brief shake of her head. “It’s like I can’t tell if you’re too up my ass or tryin’ to keep me at arm’s length. Sometimes both at the same time.”

    The thought tapers into a pause, one complete with a small hum.

It felt strange to get her art complimented, really. As used to her skill being obscured as she was, to have anyone really take a good look at it made her a little nervous. 

“…paint you something? I mean…sure. I guess I could do that. I don’t have a problem with it. But I’m better at painting on canvas, and for that you’d need an easel to set the canvas on…I don’t really want to trouble you like that or anything.”

    “I have people who handle errands for me and plenty of money to handle the costs. And it’s not like I don’t get anything out of it-- you are making somethin’ for me.” Kurumi reminds her firmly as she offers a brief shake of her head. Yuki would be eager enough to go get something ‘fun’ like that, though it might turn into a hassle if she ends up wanting to meet Miki herself...

    “Besides...” Kurumi offers a brief shrug of her shoulders as her tail coils around her body. “Need be I can always take on a more human form and go myself. My magic is good for a lot of things, after all-- I just prefer to avoid it when I can since humans are so...”

    Annoying.

    There’s a pause, Kurumi’s lips pursed thoughtfully as a low hum rumbles in her chest. After a moment, she leans back in her seat on the palms of her hands.

She wanted to see the drawings? Really, even before she didn’t necessarily share her work, though it was mostly because there was no one around who cared to see them anymore. 

“I mean…s-sure, that’s fine. I don’t really have a reason to not show you. Give me a moment.” Miki seemed to leave the room, taking a few minutes to head back up to the attic and dig through her backpack, before coming back with what seemed to be a sketchbook. She flipped to the first page, before handing it to Kurumi. The drawings in it were as Miki hinted they’d be: mostly black and white sketches of things she’s seen. Animals, scenery, even portraits of people. 

Miki herself, didn’t linger too hard on the first page. It was a portrait of a girl, looking rather bubbly and happy, earbuds tucked in her ears at the time. Miki merely let Kurumi flip through the pages as she pleased.

    Kurumi takes the sketchpad in her hands, eyeing it curiously as her large claws make careful work of navigating the pages. She was definitely good-- far beyond any level of precise coordination someone like Kurumi was capable of in her usual form. Or... even without it really, given how awkward and clumsy her hands felt when she took on a more human glamour. 

    The animals in particular seem to catch her attention.

Gee, that sure was wasted credit. Miki wouldn’t agree, but she just held her tongue anyway. Pointless argument. 

“I mean…m-maybe, I guess. I’ll think about it.” Even if poor self confidence wasn’t a factor, there was just the fact there’d be…other people around. Strangers, on top of that. She’d figure being around strangers was something she could get used to by now, but this was a situation where avoiding them or just leaving seemed…well, rude.

“No promises.”

    “That’s fine.” Kurumi shrugs. “I’m not askin’ for more than that, really.”

    If nothing else it’d be something normal and fun Miki could do, get out there and maybe have a good time hanging out with her instead of wandering around doing god knows what. It probably wasn’t her place to be as concerned as she was but a tough exterior does nothing for the relatively soft and protective sort of person Kurumi was underneath; it was hard to not want to make an effort for someone who obviously needed it from anyone right now.

    Even if a werewolf shouldn’t be trying to bring home stray puppies.

Eh? Miki didn’t really expect to be invited to something like that, but…truth be told, she wasn’t sure if that was a great idea. Disconnected from other people as she was, just the idea of living somewhere with one other person was strange enough, without having to deal with the anxiety of strangers being around. 

“Shouldn’t that just be for you and your friends? Wouldn’t they think it’s a little strange to invite some scruffy looking stranger to join along?”

      “I mean, we’re friends too, you know.” Kurumi raises a brow and shrugs. “Sure, we just met really, but why’s it gotta be so much more complicated than just gettin’ along? It’s not like you gotta earn the chance to hang out with me or somethin’.”

      Shaking her head, she offers a brief wave of her hand. 

      “And besides, it’s not really a super intimate thing anyways. I mean friends pretty loosely here... it’s mostly just folks who know me from hangin’ around the same places and people. To be honest I won’t even know everyone there.”

      But hey, an excuse to get out of the house was an excuse to get out of the house. Admittedly Kurumi wasn’t one for being cooped up either.

“You have good friends. They stuck by you through and through and all three of you made it here.” Miki is quiet for a moment–hard to read, actually. She doesn’t seem particularly happy, when she says it, but she’s not upset, either. 

“I’m sure they’re still trying to help you, even while safe in here. Not that it’s a bad thing. But I wouldn’t talk like you getting hurt or sicker suddenly, wouldn’t affect them in those ways now that you’re here. That’s a little inconsiderate, isn’t it?” Thinking like that…just felt like encouragement for the same way Kurumi was treating herself back on that field. 

But…she supposed it wasn’t her business. “Sorry. Pried again–perhaps it’s a habit. But, also, perhaps they are another reason why you should take more considerate care of yourself.”

    “Maybe.” Lips purse and a pensive expression passes over her features for a brief moment before Kurumi dismisses the thought with a shake of her head. “You’re fine though. I mean, I brought up a lot of this stuff to begin with.”

    Still, she can’t help but wish it was that simple. There’s be a lot less pressure on her to recover and it’d be a lot easier to accept many of the realities her condition came with.

    Fuchsia eyes glance over at Miki and Kurumi offers a raise of a brow.

Personal trips, huh? Miki wanted to ask just what kind of personal trips had to be monthly like that, but it wasn’t really her business. It could be personal, could be family…either way, Kurumi didn’t pry about Miki, and Miki had no reason to pry into Kurumi’s personal affairs either. 

“Okay…well, I’m usually out and about a lot anyway…I don’t like to stay inside too long. Too used to the opposite, I guess.” And well, being left to her own devices inside a room just wasn’t that promising. 

    Part of her can’t help but wonder if Miki being out a lot was good or not, all things considered, but she decides it’s not really her place to get too annoying about. As long as she came home at the end of the day and wasn’t spending her nights out on a bus bench, that was... an improvement, put incredibly loosely.  Her keeping a bag of her stuff here was incentive enough to come back eventually and Kurumi was content with that much for now.

    Besides, she knew fully well what a potentially bad idea having a human roommate around all the time could end up being.

    “Y’know--” Kurumi takes another bite from her pastry, tongue drawing over her lips shortly after. “I’m headin’ to the beach Saturday night to chill with friends ‘n shoot off some fireworks. You should tag along, could be pretty fun.”

“I see…when they found me, I think…I was more or less another guinea pig for them trying to find out what could repress the symptoms. I’m sure they’ve dealt with infected people before, but…there is a reason you and I are the only infected survivors here. They lucked out with me. Found the suppressant in their water, but only when filtered a particular way. That’s…what they’re trying to work out an antidote from, but I doubt it’s going to be a quick discovery.” 

Miki sighed. “As a result of the amount of damage I took from the infection, on top of the fact I was already a bit malnourished when they found me, it took my entire time being here to properly recover from it. They were very strict about keeping me to my recovery, but…I think that’s more because they’re worried about me relapsing and turning. Self-preservation.” She shook her head.

“Sometimes I do. Intense pains, lucid nightmares, warped thinking…the pains are particularly bad, but I believe it’s because of how much of me the infection managed to harm before it was fought back.” The psychological impact was pretty harsh too, but…that was a given. And, perhaps not the most comfortable subject.

    “The school has a water filtering system too.” Kurumi nods. “We tried to leave a while back, find other people or somethin’ since resources were gettin’ low... but that’s when I got really, really sick. Couldn’t walk at all for a while, and then I was... basically unconscious for a few weeks...”

    Really, it was a miracle that two people were able to survive out there while also doing their best to keep her alive too. Even now, Kurumi feels guilty for how difficult it must have been for them.

    “I didn’t wake up until they ended up takin’ me back there and I started buildin’ up whatever it is in my system.” Legs stretch out in front of her, a small frown tugging at her lips. “It took a while before I was able to move around alright again and we could get back to tryin’ to find anyone else alive around here. The nightmares and hallucinations got real bad for a bit too.”

    They still were. With a sigh, Kurumi shrugs.

    “I wouldn’t.... really say I like it here... but even I can’t act like I’m not glad shit doesn’t have to be so hard anymore. I don’t have to worry ‘bout if Yuki ‘n Riisan have food and water and shelter ‘n if they’re gonna be safe, what to do if somethin’ happens, and just...” 

    She pauses, rubs at the back of her neck. 

Miki stopped short when she noticed the movements back that Kurumi took in response to her. Well…scaring her must have made her wary of her. Reasonable, though it did put a damper on Miki’s attempts to satiate her curiosity about the human.

“Miki.”

Decidedly, she stops and merely sits on the ground, tail thumping once against the forest floor before curling around. “You are at the edge of my territory. I got curious.” She tilts her head. “Name?”

    Kurumi’s gaze flickers over to the excitable tail still wagging behind the girl, brows furrowed as she tries to make sense of it all. Territory? What kind of situation did she even walk into here? This Miki chick didn’t seem hostile but Kurumi can’t very well say she’s not dangerous at all, not when she’s still trying to figure out what she’s even dealing with in the first place.

    “Er... I...” She pauses for a moment, visibly overwhelmed as she attempts to sort out any kind of coherent response. “Ebisuzawa, Kurumi. Kurumi is just fine but... uh...”

    A hand reaches up to run through dark hair. 

“D-don’t just jump to your own conclusions…” Miki scowled slightly, though the tint to her face was a rather visible betrayal. Of course she reacted like that when Kurumi woke up, but she was also operating this whole time on the fear that Kurumi would in fact, never wake up. Or that she’d end up dead before it happened. 

“I-If I’m reckless, it’s because I have to be for the sake of the rest of you. It isn’t my fault reason and common sense have no place in the living club.”

    “Maybe reason and common sense don’t but you sure do, so who knows what that says about your character.” Kurumi points out with sly smirk. “You just don’t wanna admit you’re even half as bad as the rest of us, lets be honest.”

    More accurately, Miki was a stubborn girl who wanted to seem much more in control and mature than she was, even in instances where it wasn’t particularly important. Some part of her can’t help but think back to those early days of Yuki trying to get her to play with the others only to get the same dismissive and distant responses you’d get from an old man being pestered by excitable children.

    That was probably a more accurate comparison than it needed to be.

“Isn’t it only fair to know some personal things about me, when I know some about you?” It probably didn’t help that it was information passed to Miki with no say from Kurumi. “…a few years now. Two or three. It’s easy to lose track of time. About the same for the infection. I was found when the bite happened. I’m lucky they didn’t just gun me down off the bat.” 

Miki glanced in the other direction. She didn’t like thinking about that particular moment. Who bit her, what happened to her as a result…or the fact that at least three soldiers riddled someone important to her, dead or not, with bullets. 

      Miki was very lucky to be alive all things considered. Maybe lucky she was in a situation to get proper medical care so soon after her infection as well, but Kurumi isn’t sure that outweighs the risk of what just about anyone would do to someone freshly stricken with the virus in the world they lived in.

      “Mine happened about... maybe two years ago now?” A small frown tugs at her lips as she reclines in her seat. 

      “If I hadn’t lucked out and gotten stuck somewhere with medicine reserves I definitely wouldn’t have made it this long.” A hand rubs at the back of her neck. “We managed to make it last ‘till around the time we would’a had to leave the school for other resources anyways, but I, uh... was definitely takin’ less of it than I really needed to be. I think that’s why shit’s just... hard for me now, I guess...it kept me alive, yeah, but my body’s all fucked up from barely fightin’ it off for so long ‘n my symptoms never really went away ‘till I came here ‘n started getting better doses ‘n shit. For a while it was gettin’ real bad.”

      There’s a pause as she seems to think something over before violet eyes flicker over towards Miki from across the room. 

“Well, when it comes to stuff like that, you’re not really obliged to think about it or talk about it anyway. You’re more than free to refuse me. It isn’t like I’d ask about those things for any medical reasons, aside from what I just said. As for casual conversation…well you’re more than free to tell me to shove a sock in it and shut up.” 

Miki shrugged, crossing her arms. 

“It isn’t my business how you handle your memories–I’m not about to make it my business, either. So, no worries.”

    At least she wasn’t prying. When Kurumi and the others first arrived it seemed too many people were far too comfortable asking questions they shouldn’t, making comments or assumptions they shouldn’t... something that set Yuki back god know how much and that only served to make Kurumi and Yuuri more uncomfortable and irate than they needed to be.

    Lips purse as Kurumi mulls over a response. Is small talk something even worth bothering with? Miki’s insistence on lingering just by the door certainly doesn’t inspire a friendly, social atmosphere and it’s not like they were two normal people getting together to hang out. 

    But some part of her wasn’t exactly eager to be left on her own either, not when she knew good and well she probably needed an eye on herself today.

Oh. Did she scare her? Oops.

Miki let go of the branch, dropping onto the ground. Her tail rose up a bit, wagging in a mixture of excitement and pure curiosity as she took a few steps towards the fallen human.

“I am…?” She tilts her head, unsure of what it is the girl is trying to say. “Did I scare you? I didn’t mean to.”

    If she wasn’t trying to scare anyone that was one hell of a way to go about it. Kurumi swallows the nervous lump in her throat, leaning back on the palms of her hands as this weird girl got closer and closer. What exactly she stumbled into here was a mystery but she’s none too eager to end up in some kind of... situation.

    She clears her throat, gaze studying the stranger with measured apprehension.

Duly noted.

“You shouldn’t give me such dangerously useful information.” She may be emotionally exhausted, but it turns out she can still say jackass things. 

“I’m fine, though…I’ll probably crash sooner or later. My sleeping habits were never the best.” She wasn’t about to resort to sleeping pills, either. Those…probably shouldn’t be anywhere near a person as…self-destructive as Miki. 

“Thanks anyway, I guess.”

    “Just... make sure you’re not runnin’ yourself into the ground too hard, y’know?” Kurumi scratches at the back of her neck. “Obviously I don’t know everything that goin’ on with you and I’m not exactly gonna pry about stuff you probably don’t wanna talk about, but it is pretty obvious you need to take it easy when ya can.”

    With a small sigh, she settles into a seat on the sofa, digging through the bag Miki had given her for her breakfast. Admittedly, she did usually wake up pretty horrendously hungry. 

Humans were so helpless sometimes. At least, that’s what Miki saw on occasion. Granted, they were a real mixed bag. Some were harmless, helpless, or outright threatening, and unfortunately many of those things weren’t visible to the naked eye until you were too close to change your mind.

Of course, for an impulsive animal who struggled with a few unnatural tendencies herself, that thought didn’t always immediately occur before she acted on curiosity. 

The first thing Kurumi would hear is a rustling in the trees. Shortly following, a body suddenly popped out into view, dropping down from a branch in front of where the young woman stood. Holding on to the branch and hanging there was a blonde…girl. Blue eyes stared curiously at Kurumi, but what was more immediately noticable was the twitching pair of furry ears on her head, and the excitable tail that wagged behind her. 

You’d think Miki would learn from past experiences of acting before she thought, but curiosity could be a strong player when she was dealing with human strangers.

    “A-Ah-!?”

    For as sudden as it all happens, Kurumi can’t help but yelp in surprise as she stumbles backwards, falling flat on her ass in the process. She hadn’t seen another soul for miles and given how late it was, it’s no wonder it just about scared the life out of her-- for as many bad decisions as she had made that led up to this, it’s hard to feel like she’s not about to get jumped and killed or something.

    Granted, once she realizes who, or rather what, it was that had dropped down... well, it only leaves her with even more questions than answers. Maybe she’d be able to pass this off as some weirdo in a costume, but the way those ears twitched, the wild sway of the tail, even the subtle gleam of those bright eyes against the darkness of nightfall were far too real, too convincing, to write off so easily. 

    The bewilderment on Kurumi’s face is plain as day and the best she can do is sit there on the forest floor, slack-jawed and staring in disbelief as she tries to register what’s in front of her.

“Hey hey, I’m not nearly as bad as my Senpai.” Funny how she could be stuck between missing these kinds of interactions with Kurumi this whole time, and being as embarrassed as she was before.

“There’s no need to keep eyes on me, you know. If anything, now that you’re conscious again, I’m gonna have to go back to keeping my eye on you, aren’t I?”

    “Oh, please, I know how reckless you really are under the twenty pounds of dweeb you heap on.” Kurumi snorts. “You just act like you’e not ‘cuz you wanna look more cool ‘n smart ‘n responsible than the rest of us.”

    A toothy grin curls at the edges of her lips and she sneaks a playful glance over at Miki.

“The only people who know about your files includes me and maybe one other doctor. And the only things on them are things that are on a need to know basis. Knowing details like that from your school profile is just for information on your recovery and physical state.” Miki shrugged. “Other than that…nothing else is known, much. Nothing personal or whatever. Maybe stuff like date of birth and official information they can scavenge on you, but it’s all confidential anyway.” 

Miki kept by the door, not really keen on invading the space of the room, it seemed. She leaned against the wall.

“Even if I know anything on you, it isn’t like I’m gonna go and talk about it with anyone else. Patient confidentiality, and all that. Besides that…stuff between us, they’d prefer stay that way anyway. Not everyone even knows about…me. Soldiers were always paranoid that knowing would cause everyone to trust me less or cause unneeded stress or panic.” 

Not that it stopped those feelings from spreading among the staff, most of which distrusted Miki plenty. 

      That’s... some consolation, at least. Kurumi doesn’t even know why she feels so sour about the idea of anyone knowing anything about her, why it makes her feel so on edge and sick to imagine any of these scientists or doctors looking around in her personal history. Maybe it felt violating, maybe it felt dehumanizing, she has no idea. Turns out these things were hard to pin down when things get as complicated as her own life had.

      It’s not like they’d even be able to find out about the things she really didn’t want to talk about anyways. No file or folder was going to tell them about the bright eyed girl with a pitiful crush on her senpai or the feeling in her gut watching her teammates tear each other apart on that field or even the crushing sadness of Katsuragi dying so she could live. 

      Not the abject horror of being the one to kill him, of having that moment burned into the back of her head and still haunting her with a visceral freshness that made her wonder if it’d ever get any better.

      Just like where the scar on her arm came from, some things are just too personal for anyone to ever really understand.

      Still, Kurumi offers another hesitant nod.

      “Thanks.” She murmurs. “Even if it’s your job not to tell anyone my business, I still appreciate it. Like I said, it’s... been a long time since I’ve had to really look at everything for what it is, what all happened, what all changed. Sometimes it feels like I’ve turned into a completely different person. I guess thinking about back then too much just makes me feel...”

         A pause.