It's been a week now since the two of them went back to the Metaverse-Es. Mu had expected all sorts of trouble from the real world, but from what she's heard from the Go Home Club, it doesn't seem like anyone's made the connection between this "Astral Syndrome" and everyone's favourite Virtuadolls. And even if they had, the others are quick to assure them, the Club would make sure nothing came of it.
"We look out for each other in the Go Home Club," Ritsu had said. "So don't worry about it."
It'd been his slightly bumbling way of assuring both of them and Mu appreciates it. Being included in that circle of friendship, even after everything she's done, makes her feel warm inside somehow. It's nice.
So with that promise of safety, Mu and Aria are left to their own devices in the place they belong. Life, for now, is going just like it usually does.
Except.
Not everything is just like it usually is.
"What's wrong, Mu?" Aria asks, when she's finally fed up of Mu's pensive expression.
Mu doesn't answer for a while. She gives another of those "hmmm"s before tapping at her temples with her index fingers.
"I've been trying to work out what was different since we got back here." She says. "I thought it was just because it'd been a while since I'd seen you like this... But they're definitely bigger now, aren't they?"
"They're--?"
Aria doesn't catch on. Not right away. But then she follows Mu's gaze and glances down.
"WH--WH--WHAAAA?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, BIGGER!" "Bigger means bigger! They definitely weren't that big back in Mobius!" "They've always been this big! Are you telling me you forgot about how boing boing I used to be?!" "But I could swear they look different... Maybe I should feel if they're a little heavier..." "YOU DON'T HAVE TO FEEL ANYTHING!"
There are few things in the world more terrifying than being woken in the night by the frightened cry of a child.
Yuuri likes to think she says this with some authority.
And the fright doesn't go away either, even once you've confirmed there's no immediate danger. Even when you've almost broken a leg getting yourself out of bed, out of the room and across the hall at a speed that's sure to be unsafe – or when you've gathered the crying, hiccuping child into your arms and assured them that anything bothering them in their dreams can't touch them in the waking world.
Well, maybe for some people, it ends there. For Yuuri, the fear doesn't stop nipping at her heels until she's made sure all the doors and windows are locked. Not until she's stood at the window and satisfied herself that the people walking by in the street are just that – people – and not something else. Sometimes that takes until morning, when the sun rises and she starts hearing the bustle of the city again.
But it'd been a while since she's had to worry about any of that. It had taken some time for all of them to adjust and more than a few nights of her and Junpei been woken by Ruu's dreams jolting her awake with a cry. But it's been so long since the last truly bad night that Yuuri rather foolishly lets herself believe that means the nightmares have stopped.
It's a dismal day during the rainy season when she's finally shown the error of her ways. The sound of rain on the window isn't quite as much of a panic button for her now as it once was, but just occasionally it manages to get under her skin again. It's one of the vanishingly few nights that she and Ruu are alone in the apartment. Junpei was out, causing some manner of trouble with Church and Ardyn so Yuuri doesn't have to worry about him waking up alone in blackness and can give up on sleeping for the night, guilt-free.
With plans of an all-nighter in mind, Yuuri takes herself to the kitchen to get something to drink. That means she's too far away to hear when the crying starts. But then she doubles back on herself as the water boils to retrieve her book from the bedroom and hears the familiar noise of a hitching sob and all thoughts of a quiet, late-night drink are immediately forgotten.
She knocks gently on the door and says "Ruu-chan?" Almost immediately, the crying quietens but she can still hear those heaving breaths. She almost smiles to herself. "There's no point pretending you're asleep. It's alright, you're not in trouble."
After a moment, the door eases open. And there's poor Ruu, still sniffing and rubbing at her eyes, not quite meeting Yuuri's gaze as she does so. With her sleep-mussed hair, skinny shoulders and bare feet, she looks achingly vulnerable. Yuuri stoops down so they can be face to face and takes Ruu's hands in hers.
"Bad dreams again?" she asks.
Ruu nods slowly. "Mm-hmm." Her voice is thick with sleep and tears, both. "The rain made it bad."
She looks and sounds so miserable that Yuuri's breath catches in her throat. For a moment, all she can manage is a soft "Oh, sweetie."
Of course it would. If the sound of rain could bring back such a horrible sense of creeping fear to Yuuri, a grown woman, just what would it do to her poor little sister?
Letting go of Ruu's hand, Yuuri smoothed the girl's messy bangs back from her forehead. "You know you can come find me whenever you wake up like that." she says. "Me or Junpei or anyone else who's home, no matter what. Why didn't you?"
It's not a chastisement but Ruu's lips purse and her gaze drops like it is. The silence unsettles Yuuri and she doesn't know what she's said wrong. She's about to ask exactly what's the matter when Ruu just about manages to meet her gaze and says the very last thing Yuuri had expected to hear.
"I thought... maybe you'd gone away someplace."
At first, Yuuri's too stunned to reply. She blinks at Ruu, agape, for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I– of course not. Where did that come from?" But she didn't find her answer in anything Ruu said. Instead, Yuuri took another look at her messy hair and red-rimmed eyes and felt she already understood. "Is that what you were dreaming about?"
Ruu's gaze slides away from her sister's, down to her toes where she was tracing a circle around a dark blob in the woodgrain. "It was someplace dark and really rainy," she says eventually. "And I was there, 'cause Rii-neesan asked me to wait. And I kept waiting and waiting, but then I decided to go looking for you. But everyone I asked said you'd gone somewhere and you weren't coming back."
Yuuri feels her heart break quietly in her chest. And up in her throat like bile comes a terrible resurgence of guilt. A new home, a new life, a new family and yet, the one mistake that Yuuri had made was still coming back to leave her little sister weeping to herself in the middle of the night.
Yuuri didn't say anything right away. Couldn't, not with a lump forming in her throat like that. She lets go of Ruu's hands and instead sweeps the little girl up in a tight hug that was as much for Rii-neesan's comfort as it was for Ruu's. They stay like that, Ruu's fingers gripping Yuuri's shirt and Yuuri carefully stroking Ruu's hair, until Yuuri finally trusts herself enough to speak without a wobble in her voice.
"Never. I promise, no matter what happened, I'd never, ever leave you behind, Ruu-chan." Her voice catches in her throat but Yuuri makes herself keep talking. "That sounds like such an awful, scary dream. But it was just a dream. I'm right here, and I always, always will be from now on."
Ruu's quiet. But then, with her voice muffled against Yuuri's shoulder, she says "Pinky swear."
Yuuri laughs. She can't help it. "Okay," she says, letting go of Ruu. "Let's pinky swear."
She lifts her hand and Ruu carefully links their pinkies together. Even with her eyes still overbright, there's just a hint of a smile on her face that Yuuri finds herself returning.
Ruu gave their joined fingers a little shake up and down.
"Yubi kiri genman–" "– uso tsuitara –" "– hari sen bon nomasu –" "– yubi kitta!"
With the little back and forth of the rhyme over, Yuuri takes her hand back from Ruu, mostly so she can cup her sister's face in her hands and press a kiss to her forehead. She gets a giggle in response that makes her heart warm and then leans in to gently bump her forehead against Ruu's and meet her eyes.
"That goes for everyone else, too." she says, her voice. "Even if... even if something happened and I couldn't get back to you right away, you'd never just be left by yourself. All of the others love you just as much as I do." Then she smiles, half mischief and half sincerity. "Well. Almost as much."
Ruu laughs again and it's such a wonderful, normal sound that Yuuri can't help but scoop her up into another tight hug. She stands up, meaning to lead Ruu back to bed and try and settle her back in for the night when Ruu's arms latch around her neck and carefully bring her back down.
"Can you stay in my room tonight, neesan?" Ruu asks her, brown eyes still shiny with left-behind tears. And when she asks like that, who is Yuuri to tell her 'no'?
So the two of them find some way of arranging themselves comfortably on Ruu's bed. Ruu's still a little small for her age, so there's just enough room for them both. Yuuri expects Ruu to still be a little antsy and worked up, but to her surprise, she finds that once they're settled in, it only takes a few minutes of Yuuri laying there too and stroking her hair to send Ruu drifting off mid sentence. Yuuri doesn't expect to follow her, keyed up as she was before by the rain. But a few minutes of Ruu's gentle breathing proves as effective as a lullaby.
She's too soothed to be paying attention and so, she doesn't notice when the rain finally stops. And by the time the sun has started climbing in the sky and breaking up what's left of the clouds, Yuuri and Haruna are curled up together in a peaceful, happy sleep.
It was spring of their second year in Tokyo when Haruna caught her first cold.
Not her first ever cold, of course, but the first one she'd suffered from since they'd all settled down. It was an off-season virus with a mean bite, that washed over her over the course of an evening, so fast that it was a little startling. Yuuri left Haruna in high spirits, following along with some after-school anime on TV but when she came back after tidying up with tea and late-evening snacks, she found her sister balled up in an unhappy heap in the corner of the sofa.
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The Punchline is Aria's Boobs - Mu & Aria - The Caligula Effect
It's been a week now since the two of them went back to the Metaverse-Es. Mu had expected all sorts of trouble from the real world, but from what she's heard from the Go Home Club, it doesn't seem like anyone's made the connection between this "Astral Syndrome" and everyone's favourite Virtuadolls. And even if they had, the others are quick to assure them, the Club would make sure nothing came of it.
"We look out for each other in the Go Home Club," Ritsu had said. "So don't worry about it."
It'd been his slightly bumbling way of assuring both of them and Mu appreciates it. Being included in that circle of friendship, even after everything she's done, makes her feel warm inside somehow. It's nice.
So with that promise of safety, Mu and Aria are left to their own devices in the place they belong. Life, for now, is going just like it usually does.
Except.
Not everything is just like it usually is.
"What's wrong, Mu?" Aria asks, when she's finally fed up of Mu's pensive expression.
Mu doesn't answer for a while. She gives another of those "hmmm"s before tapping at her temples with her index fingers.
"I've been trying to work out what was different since we got back here." She says. "I thought it was just because it'd been a while since I'd seen you like this... But they're definitely bigger now, aren't they?"
"They're--?"
Aria doesn't catch on. Not right away. But then she follows Mu's gaze and glances down.
"WH--WH--WHAAAA?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, BIGGER!"
"Bigger means bigger! They definitely weren't that big back in Mobius!"
"They've always been this big! Are you telling me you forgot about how boing boing I used to be?!"
"But I could swear they look different... Maybe I should feel if they're a little heavier..."
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO FEEL ANYTHING!"
Airlocked Rii-san Drabbles
Teru Teru Bozu – Yuuri & Ruu
Yuuri likes to think she says this with some authority.
And the fright doesn't go away either, even once you've confirmed there's no immediate danger. Even when you've almost broken a leg getting yourself out of bed, out of the room and across the hall at a speed that's sure to be unsafe – or when you've gathered the crying, hiccuping child into your arms and assured them that anything bothering them in their dreams can't touch them in the waking world.
Well, maybe for some people, it ends there. For Yuuri, the fear doesn't stop nipping at her heels until she's made sure all the doors and windows are locked. Not until she's stood at the window and satisfied herself that the people walking by in the street are just that – people – and not something else. Sometimes that takes until morning, when the sun rises and she starts hearing the bustle of the city again.
But it'd been a while since she's had to worry about any of that. It had taken some time for all of them to adjust and more than a few nights of her and Junpei been woken by Ruu's dreams jolting her awake with a cry. But it's been so long since the last truly bad night that Yuuri rather foolishly lets herself believe that means the nightmares have stopped.
It's a dismal day during the rainy season when she's finally shown the error of her ways. The sound of rain on the window isn't quite as much of a panic button for her now as it once was, but just occasionally it manages to get under her skin again. It's one of the vanishingly few nights that she and Ruu are alone in the apartment. Junpei was out, causing some manner of trouble with Church and Ardyn so Yuuri doesn't have to worry about him waking up alone in blackness and can give up on sleeping for the night, guilt-free.
With plans of an all-nighter in mind, Yuuri takes herself to the kitchen to get something to drink. That means she's too far away to hear when the crying starts. But then she doubles back on herself as the water boils to retrieve her book from the bedroom and hears the familiar noise of a hitching sob and all thoughts of a quiet, late-night drink are immediately forgotten.
She knocks gently on the door and says "Ruu-chan?" Almost immediately, the crying quietens but she can still hear those heaving breaths. She almost smiles to herself. "There's no point pretending you're asleep. It's alright, you're not in trouble."
After a moment, the door eases open. And there's poor Ruu, still sniffing and rubbing at her eyes, not quite meeting Yuuri's gaze as she does so. With her sleep-mussed hair, skinny shoulders and bare feet, she looks achingly vulnerable. Yuuri stoops down so they can be face to face and takes Ruu's hands in hers.
"Bad dreams again?" she asks.
Ruu nods slowly. "Mm-hmm." Her voice is thick with sleep and tears, both. "The rain made it bad."
She looks and sounds so miserable that Yuuri's breath catches in her throat. For a moment, all she can manage is a soft "Oh, sweetie."
Of course it would. If the sound of rain could bring back such a horrible sense of creeping fear to Yuuri, a grown woman, just what would it do to her poor little sister?
Letting go of Ruu's hand, Yuuri smoothed the girl's messy bangs back from her forehead. "You know you can come find me whenever you wake up like that." she says. "Me or Junpei or anyone else who's home, no matter what. Why didn't you?"
It's not a chastisement but Ruu's lips purse and her gaze drops like it is. The silence unsettles Yuuri and she doesn't know what she's said wrong. She's about to ask exactly what's the matter when Ruu just about manages to meet her gaze and says the very last thing Yuuri had expected to hear.
"I thought... maybe you'd gone away someplace."
At first, Yuuri's too stunned to reply. She blinks at Ruu, agape, for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I– of course not. Where did that come from?" But she didn't find her answer in anything Ruu said. Instead, Yuuri took another look at her messy hair and red-rimmed eyes and felt she already understood. "Is that what you were dreaming about?"
Ruu's gaze slides away from her sister's, down to her toes where she was tracing a circle around a dark blob in the woodgrain. "It was someplace dark and really rainy," she says eventually. "And I was there, 'cause Rii-neesan asked me to wait. And I kept waiting and waiting, but then I decided to go looking for you. But everyone I asked said you'd gone somewhere and you weren't coming back."
Yuuri feels her heart break quietly in her chest. And up in her throat like bile comes a terrible resurgence of guilt. A new home, a new life, a new family and yet, the one mistake that Yuuri had made was still coming back to leave her little sister weeping to herself in the middle of the night.
Yuuri didn't say anything right away. Couldn't, not with a lump forming in her throat like that. She lets go of Ruu's hands and instead sweeps the little girl up in a tight hug that was as much for Rii-neesan's comfort as it was for Ruu's. They stay like that, Ruu's fingers gripping Yuuri's shirt and Yuuri carefully stroking Ruu's hair, until Yuuri finally trusts herself enough to speak without a wobble in her voice.
"Never. I promise, no matter what happened, I'd never, ever leave you behind, Ruu-chan." Her voice catches in her throat but Yuuri makes herself keep talking. "That sounds like such an awful, scary dream. But it was just a dream. I'm right here, and I always, always will be from now on."
Ruu's quiet. But then, with her voice muffled against Yuuri's shoulder, she says "Pinky swear."
Yuuri laughs. She can't help it. "Okay," she says, letting go of Ruu. "Let's pinky swear."
She lifts her hand and Ruu carefully links their pinkies together. Even with her eyes still overbright, there's just a hint of a smile on her face that Yuuri finds herself returning.
Ruu gave their joined fingers a little shake up and down.
"Yubi kiri genman–"
"– uso tsuitara –"
"– hari sen bon nomasu –"
"– yubi kitta!"
With the little back and forth of the rhyme over, Yuuri takes her hand back from Ruu, mostly so she can cup her sister's face in her hands and press a kiss to her forehead. She gets a giggle in response that makes her heart warm and then leans in to gently bump her forehead against Ruu's and meet her eyes.
"That goes for everyone else, too." she says, her voice. "Even if... even if something happened and I couldn't get back to you right away, you'd never just be left by yourself. All of the others love you just as much as I do." Then she smiles, half mischief and half sincerity. "Well. Almost as much."
Ruu laughs again and it's such a wonderful, normal sound that Yuuri can't help but scoop her up into another tight hug. She stands up, meaning to lead Ruu back to bed and try and settle her back in for the night when Ruu's arms latch around her neck and carefully bring her back down.
"Can you stay in my room tonight, neesan?" Ruu asks her, brown eyes still shiny with left-behind tears. And when she asks like that, who is Yuuri to tell her 'no'?
So the two of them find some way of arranging themselves comfortably on Ruu's bed. Ruu's still a little small for her age, so there's just enough room for them both. Yuuri expects Ruu to still be a little antsy and worked up, but to her surprise, she finds that once they're settled in, it only takes a few minutes of Yuuri laying there too and stroking her hair to send Ruu drifting off mid sentence. Yuuri doesn't expect to follow her, keyed up as she was before by the rain. But a few minutes of Ruu's gentle breathing proves as effective as a lullaby.
She's too soothed to be paying attention and so, she doesn't notice when the rain finally stops. And by the time the sun has started climbing in the sky and breaking up what's left of the clouds, Yuuri and Haruna are curled up together in a peaceful, happy sleep.
no subject
Not her first ever cold, of course, but the first one she'd suffered from since they'd all settled down. It was an off-season virus with a mean bite, that washed over her over the course of an evening, so fast that it was a little startling. Yuuri left Haruna in high spirits, following along with some after-school anime on TV but when she came back after tidying up with tea and late-evening snacks, she found her sister balled up in an unhappy heap in the corner of the sofa.
"Ruu-chan?" she said, a little uncertainly.
Original