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Yukari’s breathing so hard she feels like she’s going to pass out by the time she comes to a stop, doubling over with her hands on her knees. “I, I think…” She cradles her abdomen with her arm and peers over her shoulder. “Think we lost them.”
Across from her, Kotone also heaves a massive sigh, though by contrast to Yukari’s pumping adrenaline and stress, she looks borderline ecstatic, albeit still flushed in the face as she saunters over and leans against the wall. She stretches out, rolls her neck, and lets out a high laugh. “Phew! That was a close one, I almost thought they were going to catch us that time…”
They’ve both come out of the encounter unscathed, more or less. Kotone’s hair got a bit disheveled in the scuffle, and further in the ensuing chase, but it’s nothing that she can’t fix by reaching back and adjusting the ponytail, which she does now with a happy little hum. Her face is red, but that’s from exertion. She managed to keep her school bag, which in the first place had been grabbed, and even landed a punch to the face on one of those guys, which has caused the only casualty; that is, her knuckle, which is bruised and a bit reddish, nothing that will get Kirijou on her case and nothing that should stress out Yukari either.
She is, nonetheless, stressed. Kotone straightens off the wall and rolls her upper body, hand pressing in against her own lower spine as she stretches with a faint squeak. It’s a little cute, that is, Kotone is cute all the time, but Yukari’s barely cognisant of it as she too finally resumes a standing position. She drops her arms to her sides. Her bag is slung over her own shoulder and intact, but she slides it off so it hits the concrete and balls fists.
“Kotone, what’s your deal?” Yukari demands, feeling heat rush her face again, just like it had while they were running.
“Eh?” Kotone looks her way in a bit of alarm. “A-Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
“No,” Yukari clarifies before she can worry too much; she splays her hands out so Kotone can see the whole of her and know she’s being honest. She continues though, “But I could’ve. Or you could’ve. I just don’t get how you’re like this!”
Kotone closes her mouth. Her face goes neutral, assessing, the way it does most often when she’s talking to Aragaki, who tends to call her out when she’s being disingenuous. It’s uncanny to see her without a smile on her face, but more and more these days, Yukari’s begun to detach the mental image of Kotone smiling from the mental image she has of her friend’s truest, authentic self… At times, Yukari wonders if she’s ever even actually glimpsed Kotone’s authentic self, but that’s a horrifically mean thought to have about someone you care about, and inaccurate, she’s sure. Kotone isn’t deceiving her just because she finds it easier to feign optimism even when she feels scared.
It’s times like this that Yukari’s mind takes a hard swerve into those meanspirited thoughts though and she can’t help but continue: “It’s like you—go around looking for trouble, I don’t know. I knew we shouldn’t have gone on that route, and—”
“Yukari, I’m really sorry,” Kotone interjects, eyes a bit wide. “I didn’t know that was going to happen. I would’ve never wanted to put you in danger.”
That takes the wind out of her sails, a bit. Yukari ducks her head. She knows it isn’t a lie, that Kotone would never intentionally put Yukari in harm’s way… or any of their team for that matter. She’s a good leader; a solid, dependable leader. It’s just.
“You were laughing,” Yukari grits out—and that heat is back, pressing against the corners of her eyes. “The whole time, like it was fun.”
“Th-That was,” Kotone flounders, her lower lip snagged between her teeth. “...I mean, really, Yukari-chan… we fight guys worse than that every month in Tartarus. Were you… were you really scared…?” Her hands come together in front of herself and her fingers clasp. She worries at her own knuckles. Yukari averts her gaze because obviously the answer is no, she knew they were never in true danger, but the risk was still there, and beyond that—
“That’s not the point,” Yukari mumbles. “Sometimes when things like that happen—sometimes—sometimes it feels like the actual threat doesn’t matter so much as the fact that you’re getting to do something dangerous and scary. And you—and you want that. I know you’d never drag me into trouble if you couldn’t help it, but that just makes it worse, because I get thinking about all the times that I’m not there with you, and—”
“Yukari,” Kotone says in alarm.
“Crap.” Yukari scrubs at her eyes with the sides of her hands. She’s being mean to Kotone, she knows, hard on her after something scary happened, and all to vent her own frustrations to boot. Yukari can’t claim to be a good friend when she’s so sensitive that she’ll just spew all over the place the second push comes to shove. “Kotone—I’m sorry, just forget that I ever—”
Arms are around her in the next moment. Yukari hadn’t seen Kotone coming closer, because her eyes were shut. She smells overwhelmingly like candy-sweet perfume and pleasant body wash, and the laundry detergent they share at the dorms. Yukari breathes in and tries to hold onto her pride, but her body is already melting automatically into the embrace. She grabs on tightly to Kotone and exhales.
“...Sorry,” Yukari says again.
“It’s fine.” Kotone’s hands lace over her back. “You’re right. I’m too reckless about these things. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
Yukari grumbles and pushes her face into the juncture between Kotone’s shoulder and neck. “You shouldn’t have to be. I’m—I’m your friend. You can be however you feel with me. It—I was just lashing out.”
“Only because I made you feel a way,” Kotone mumbles in response. To that, Yukari has no argument, so Kotone is allowed to continue. “...It’s okay. You never have to worry about anything happening to me… I promise I’ll stay safe, so you don’t have to cry.”
“Kotone…”
“Really. That’s a good enough reason for me.” Kotone squeezes her. “I’m saying it as your leader, okay? So no more arguing.”
Yukari’s the worst. She worries, intuitively—Kotone says things like that and she wonders if they’re accurate, if it’s right to believe—but when Kotone takes a tone like that, Yukari falls quiet and says nothing. She can’t help but trust her, like it’s in her wiring, even if she hasn’t known her for all that long in the grand scheme of things… The tension leaves her body. She squeezes Kotone even tighter until there’s practically no distance left between the two of them. Eventually, it’s Kotone who draws back, interlacing their fingers and suggesting they find their way home.
Rubbing at her eyes again, Yukari agrees.