#v|s2

      It had been awhile since Tsunemori and Mika had had their tough conversation in the elevator. Despite the feeling of superiority she had gotten from the meeting, the next few days had brought with it a strange decline in mood, and she had done everything in her power to avoid the other unless it was ultimately necessary. Work came first. After that, she’d make sure there was a buffer of enforcers between them, or she had something to do to avoid being trapped alone with her again.

      She had taken to being more careful about remembering breakfast and lunches at least, had been taking care to sleep a proper amount. Anything to keep Akane from having anything to comment on. Anything that kept them from having to continue their conversation. And with the newness of the conversation gone, she felt the need to apologize wither away as well.

      Going into the analyst lab alone was not something mika enjoyed doing. There was always a stab of anxiety in her chest that made it hard; there was always the threat that Yayoi would be in there, too. At least with everyone together she knew what she would be walking in on.

      Now it was particularly tough. There were extra shards of battered guilt swimming around her stomach, ones that had sent her to the lab in the first place, causing her to stop a little too long outside the door, working up the nerve to enter. Mika would never let the enforcers, the analyst, Tsunemori-- any of them see her struggling with it. So, she swallowed the thoughts away with a breath, set back her shoulders, raised her chin, and went in without so much as a knock.