Yuri Worlds
[35] Brushed
They held hands while walking through the general store and scoping out the clusters of magazines. The two of them shared their day apart with vague allusions to happenings that weren’t nearly as important as this moment together. When Yuka heard that Misaki burned her mouth on a fragment of hot pot, too embarrassed to spit it out and cause offense, Yuka zoomed with Maharu-like enthusiasm over to the frozen treats and extracted the coldest, brightest pink raspberry fruit bar from the chilly depths. She paid for it over at the cash wrap and then urged Misaki to soothe her mouth with it. Yuka bought herself a strange-looking golden bar with a mixture of chocolate and raspberry within.
The weather wasn’t conducive to sitting outside and enjoying, so they found some soft chairs next to goofy lawn decorations. Not that Yuka really stayed in her chair. Instead, she leaned out and bumped shoulders against Misaki. It was an awkward reaching stretch that was sure to put a kink in her neck, but she gladly made the connection between them. Not a bump to rest and weigh upon her shoulder so much as a push to prop up her companion and somehow link the energy between them.
Whether that implied goal was accomplished remained to be seen, but Misaki found herself delighted and activated by Yuka. She found it a curious and grateful impossibility that anime girl eyes were peering at her with cheerful purpose. And she couldn’t resist being moved to mounting smiles despite the lingering discomfort within her cheeks. The sharp cold burned so harshly but helped pile the pain beneath flaming blankets. The skin was clearly going to peel once it started to heal with all sorts of gross biological aspects. Living art that didn’t bleed ink.
Feeling the pervasive cold numbness of her fruit bar, Misaki asked, “Does the color of things ever feel muted around here? Like we talked about on the roof yesterday. Like something looks weird when seeing it. Like you mentioned blurriness.” She felt like she was spewing out like after like like Yuka had too many exclamations. Before her screaming self-sensor could activate, she lampshaded this quirk. Yuka snickered to herself and puffed out a soft breath.
“Sometimes. And not like…like like…when it’s cloudy and everything is gray. Just yesterday, in the rain, I saw this moment where the forest shifted to a vision through a spyglass that sucked all of the radiance out. But it was gone when I blinked, and it could’ve just been water in my eye. Is that… Like how you mean?” She smiled with quiet serenity.
Misaki gave a quick, restrained nod so she wouldn't disturb Yuka pressing her shoulder. That was it. How often did she see something like that?
Yuka shifted her soft brown eyes around, as though searching for something in the air in front of her. It was something that happened occasionally. Not with a weekly or even monthly regularity. But it occurred often enough that she couldn’t quite pin down an exact number on how many times. However, she didn’t find it associated with wind or storms necessarily. That kind of event could happen on a crystal-clear, calm day or in the middle of the night.
She once experienced a strange prism of light on the second story of the old hotel when she was looking for something. The appearance of everything sparkled and shifted out of the corner of her eye, but it was normal when she looked up. And these were just the incidents in which she could be certain of something happening, compared with her mind randomly wandering in a quiet moment and then returning with the sensation that she missed something important.
“What do you think it is?” Yuka asked with a hopeful expression. A question she just couldn’t answer. She didn’t have the first idea what this weird visual phenomenon could be. On her own, lumping it together with a plethora of other experiences before and since they arrived at least helped with putting some label on it.
But the fact that Yuka had the same experiences either meant everything or nothing. All that wasn’t helpful though. Yuka wanted reassurance. She wanted knowledge from beyond her world that would enlighten and reveal universal truths. Misaki knew less than she could possibly express while containing so many discordant elements of comprehension. And it felt like some invisible force was stepping on her brain and keeping her from the circulation of information that might help.
“It’s a mystery,” was all Misaki could offer in response. Useless. She expected Yuka to pull away, but the girl gave her a tender little press, like a squeeze on the shoulder. Their fruit bars were nearly finished, but the cratered fallout in her mouth throbbed with the most sensitive stretch of the healing process. No easy fixes to her mistake. It would likely linger with her for the rest of their vacation, slanting her enjoyment of so many dishes and muting the experience. All because she grabbed something too fast and then cowered with it privately, worried that someone she just met might see her rudely spit out a flaming ball of meat. Already wounded this anime girl body in less than 48 hours.
With soft determination, Yuka responded, “We’ll figure it out. With your friends and mine. Miss Yamane is very mature but clearly cares deeply for her friends and anyone she can help. Your younger sister wants to see everyone else smile. Quite the clever entertainer, as my mom could tell too. Miss Sugawara seems….“ She paused to glance around the store, but Yasha was nowhere in earshot.
Yuka continued carefully, “Eccentric and tenacious. And you never know what qualities some girls might keep in reserve beneath their outward appearance. My elder sister has this uncanny ability to sneak up on you and already be a part of the conversation, even though she just arrived. She’s clever. And my younger mom knows so much beyond her years, while my older one has learned determination to not doubt herself or anyone else in important matters. Naoko… will burn everything she has inside and at her disposal to figure things out. You saw how Ayame made sure I was all right even though we overcame whatever that was. And all the ladies in this community stand together with strength and ingenuity. If nothing else, maybe Bianka will stumble upon the right site out there, which can explain why the world goes blip sometimes. It’s a mystery, but we’re surrounded by the most incredible girls I can imagine and whatever mysteries, whatever may trouble us, or stand in our way… Has no chance against our combined forces. I believe that… truly and totally. It’s going to be okay.”
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Yuka didn’t mention Maharu. It was a silly thing for her to fixate on, especially considering that Yuka obviously skipped over a whole bunch of girls in the community by name. But it seemed like she geared her mentions towards girls that Misaki would know too. And left her out. That omission nagged and pestered her. Not because she thought that Maharu had been erased from the universe. That was silly. But she still had to know.
“And Maharu too. Send her off to tackle a mystery or two and subjugate them to the ground with her… Boundless energy," Misaki remarked. Her version felt so awkward, but she got through it.
“Yeah. Her too. We can find a use for her. Even though she’s been getting on my nerves lately. Just all over the place. She’s sweet, but when is she ever going to be able to take care of things for herself? I don’t mean to be harsh, but….all the time, she expects me to be some perfect mom. I’m not a mom. I am not her mom. I have so much of my own stuff to deal with. It feels like she’s just dragging on me all the time. Whatever… I have to deal with her too.”
A little head with a soft halo of blue peeked from around the nearby shelves. Shit. Before Misaki could point out Maharu’s presence, the girl dashed between the aisles and launched towards the front door, nearly banging into it, before pushing it open and scampering out. Yuka slid away from Misaki and back into her seat with a groan, the fragment of a curse ruffling her lips, and her hands cupping both sides of her head.
“You know… she was just behind me on the trip over. I didn’t really see where she went when I arrived, and I didn’t think too much about it. I kind of suspected she was still around. And I meant what I said. Would’ve been better if we actually talked. But I’ll see her again soon, and it’ll be fine.” Misaki couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the instigator behind all of this. If her brain had just ignored the stupid omission and not poked at it like prying into an open wound. But this was Franklin, and this was her, and it never changed, no matter how much was different.
Yuka set up and looked over at Misaki with quiet sympathy. She assured her, “Stuff happens. I gotta give her time and space. It’s on me. And no mistake is permanently irreparable. So don’t you dare feel guilty for what I said. Come on….There’s something I should show you anyway. It’ll help.”
Chika and Namiko came over to check in on the two of them. After being caught up on the details, they both offered to see if they could talk to Maharu and potentially clear things up. Chika even offered to sprint full force through the crazy wind outside to catch up to her. Yuka reiterated what she expressed to Misaki. Give it time. They would deal with it on their own.
The wind outside was still brisk, but nowhere near as violent and relentless as earlier. It still swiftly expedited their journey back to the Sasaki house. No sign of a blue blur popped up. Yuka basically threw her other guests at her moms while leading Misaki up the stairs to the second floor. Instead of taking her to the traditional room or the guest bedroom, Yuka guided her eagerly by the hand to the other end of the house and a door with YUKA written a few ways across the front. Her room. Misaki was going into the private room of a cute anime girl. She wasn’t left with enough time to process and express a proper freakout.
It was smaller than Franklin’s room back home. A silver fold-in set of doors separated the main room from a small closet with extra cabinets. One end, mostly occupied by the queen-sized bed, had a multitude of fluffy, plush guard dogs in a pack around the ruffled, pale blue covers. Tall but skinny bookcases hosted an uneven swarm of books of all shapes and colors awkwardly jammed together. Misaki could imagine them as the peak rush hour crowd of traingoers trying to jam past one another but frozen in place. A couple had the gentle flourish of romance novels, but several tall, reserved law books stood at the back with the even decorum of peak propriety.
The window facing the front had a curious structure. While it was not a bay window, it was flanked by adjacent sections, which the illusion of something larger. Soft cushions, a cozy nook, and a bloated lumpy puppy plush stretched out in the fading light of the approaching evening. The last side contained a desk and work area with a plugged-in skinny gray laptop, books awkwardly shoved in the corner, and dressers with a stray, frosted pink bra dangling out the edge. Yuka dashed over and chucked the escapee back inside. Lacy underwear with small satin ribbons still dotted the floor.
She led Misaki away from the worst of the disorganization and sat her down on the bed. Misaki had no idea where this was going. Yuka reached into a nearby drawer and plucked out a fancy furry brush and a simple pink skeletal one. She explained that one of her favorite things to do when relaxing after a long day was just brush out her hair and let that fixing of chaos settle into her mind and travel through the rest of her body like meditation. She soon gently went to work on Misaki‘s understated locks.
It was absolutely heavenly. Yuka stretched her hair like naturally parting a gentle river. None of the snags and tugs like when Franklin scratched a comb through it. She loved it so much and eagerly returned the favor once her meager hair was brushed out with an ethereal radiance of scalp energy warming her renewed blood flow. She felt dang good, and she wanted Yuka to feel just as good. The same skill was not in her hands but she gently worked through it and only saw the occasional flinch from her partner gradually ebbing to the same serene peace.
If only all the days could be just like this.