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The worst part of the day by far is walking home.
One foot after the other, trudging down the narrow sidewalk, dreading the eventual destination. Natsuki hated being home.
It was nothing like in her english classroom after school- reading and talking with all of those dear to her. It felt like an escape. Home was a smack of reality- that life truly is nothing like a magical girl anime. It's horrid, messy, bloody, and worthless.
Natsuki opened the door as silently as she could muster, wrapping her hands around the knob and pushing slowly-so slowly, she couldn't even guess how long she spent trying not to be noticed.
Being noticed would mean her father would try to interact with her. And that always made the day worse.
Natsuki was relieved as she stepped into the door, greeted by the messy small house her and her father resided in. It didn't use to be so messy, and Natsuki's father didn't used to be so shitty. Everything went downhill after mom got into a car crash, and dad had been drowning his sorrow with alcohol ever since.
Natsuki tried to continue sneaking- past the couch, past the countertops cluttered with trash, to her own room, which was the only relatively clean room in the house. Though it was small, with a mattress on the floor, a wooden shelf, desk for studying, and a cramped closet; it was the most comfortable place in her home. Her dad didn't like all the pink and never went in there.
So, you can expect when she saw her own dad looking through her stuff, his wide figure shaking with rage, Natsuki's heart dropped with surprise and pure fear.
When Natsuki tried to evacuate the situation as soon as she possibly could, her own foot was caught on the wall, and she fell face forward, her books spilling onto the floor. An angry tuff of dark pink hair snapped his head towards the crash, and immediately went over to confront his daughter.
"YOU DAMN FOOL! GET OFF THE GROUND!" Natsuki's father yelling was not an uncommon occurrence, actually, she heard him yelling much more than she heard him talking at a decent volume, which is probably part of the reason she's so sensitive to loud noises.
Natsuki struggles to pick up her text books then gives him a nod of acknowledgment, trying hard to fight her tears at the look of hatred on his face. She was hoping that he could walk past him without any problem, but as usual, things didn't go her way. They never did.
"YOU CUNT! IM TALKING TO YOU!" Her hair was grabbed by the large hand of her father, grasping so tight Natsuki had to physically restrain herself from making a cry of pain.
"WHY DID I FIND SOME STUPID ASS MANGA BOOKS IN YOUR ROOM?! ARE YOU A CHILD?!" Her dad threw her backwards- causing the small girl to fall into a pile of trash and broken glass.
Gashes appeared in her legs, staining her knee-high white socks, as her dad pushes Natsuki's leg further down on the discarded glass with his foot. This time, Natsuki screams, as blood is dripping down her frail legs and onto the floor below them.
He casts another few insults, completely and utterly ignoring his daughter's cries, before eventually getting bored and leaving her there. As Natsuki's father steps away, he turns his head slightly and says the the injured form behind him,
"Get the fuck out of my house."
This tone wasn't any better than the yelling, as it was just as condescending and intimidating. When Natsuki tried to stand up, the raw pain her legs shot like bolts of electricity through her body. She fell backdown, resting on her knees, having never felt so pathetic.
"I said get out of my house."
With only determination and that threatening command, Natsuki somehow managed to crawl out of the hellhole called her house and outside into the streets. By now, the sun was setting-Natsuki had stayed at the literature club as late as she could to avoid getting home, and since it was mid-February, the sun set much faster.
One question lingered on her mind: where would she go? Natsuki currently had nothing on her; no supplies, no jacket, and very injured legs. Then-she remembered a moment from months and months ago-
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"I'm delighted you decided to come home with me today," Yuri says with excitement, trotted down the sidewalk, the much taller girl towering over Natsuki's thin body. "Don't mention it. I'd like to learn more about you. You're too quiet." Yuri laughed awkwardly then nodded. "I guess I don't talk very much....But I'd like to learn more about you as well, Natsuki-chan."
Both girls arrive at a fair house that was extremely large with a well kept garden lying on either side of the massive porch. "Wow..this is your place?" Natsuki says, shocked at how beautiful the home was. "Yes..I live alone at the moment, as my mother is gone most of the time for her work. I do have a sister, but she's in college currently. She's studying-" Yuri suddenly stops her speech and blushes. "Oh, I'm deeply sorry.! I'm rambling, aren't I.." Natsuki wasn't really used to Yuri's timid behavior, so this confused her, but she goes on with the conversation anyway, trying to save the discomfort in the air. Natsuki thought her embarrassment was kinda cute, anyways.
"No need to apologize. Damn, I'd do anything to live by myself.." Natsuki adds, slightly jealous of Yuri's living style. To live on her own, family issues nonexistent? How unfair..
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That's it. Yuri lives alone. No one would stop Yuri from letting her spend the night. That is, if the other girl even wants her there.
The pace that Natsuki was at was painful. The best way to avoid making the cuts in her legs throb was army crawling. Yet, by doing this, her knees were getting all scraped up.
The dark made everything hard to identify as well- She'd only been to Yuri's house once, so how could she possibly make it there out of pure instinct?
It seemed like Natsuki spent hours crawling, before eventually, the small girl's body was too weak to move on, and she lost consciousness.
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Ah, how peaceful.
It was the average night for Yuri. She had already bathed, her house was tided up and neat, she was comfortably wearing an old shirt and soft pair of sweatpants, stirring ingredients together for dinner that night; soup.
Plain, yes- but Yuri was outside around an hour ago, and it was quite cold out there. school had ended hours ago, she took a walk around as an attempt to get more exercise, then she showered. The usual routine, unless shopping or after school activities were required.
Her arms were exposed to the warm air of her own home, so Yuri tried her best not to look down at them. How disgraceful.
Eventually, the stew came along nicely. Lots of vegetables, fresh meat, mixing together to make the perfect meal after such a chilly day.
As Yuri began to pour her soup into a glass bowl, she looked up at a list that she had taped to her cabinets weeks before, in order to remember all of her responsibilities.
After a double take at the chart, Yuri realized-She had forgotten to water her plants.
How embarrassing. The young woman felt her face heat up as if someone was in the house with her, but nobody was. She quickly got her coat on, pausing what she was doing, and ran outside of the door.
Picking up the watering can in her garage and filling it with fresh hose water, Yuri scattered droplets onto each flower around her garden. They were so very beautiful-collections of colors and nature coming together to form a stunning array for a garden-the perfect house decoration, Yuri thought. Her hands tensed up as they were exposed to the cold air. When she carefully placed the watering can onto a wooden shelf at the entrance of her garage, Yuri shivered to go back into her own house. Until she saw a small blur of shadows laying on the sidewalk across the street from her.
It was odd. From afar, the shadows looked too still to be some sort of animal, and too slim to be a trash bag. Besides, who would throw their trash bag into the middle of the sidewalk?
Yuri glanced quickly at each side of the road before running across it, curious as to what this object was. She got closer, and realized that this blob was not a trash bag, but a human.
And as she got even closer, she realized this person was none other than her best friend, Natsuki.
Yuri could feel her legs lock in their place as Natsuki laid on the sidewalk, her body heavily shivering like Yuri had never seen before. And wait, was that blood on her legs?
It took a second to process, but then she snapped out of her thoughts and mentally slapped herself on the sidewalk across of the head. Natsuki's unconscious, why are you just standing there?!
Yuri picked up Natsuki and held her into her arms as tightly as she could as both girls crossed the road, back to the safety of Yuri's home. Yuri was aware that Natsuki's home life was less than ideal, but she wasn't aware it was this bad.
After silently opening the door and walking up the stairs into Yuri's clean room, The purple haired woman ran to retrieve medical supplies from the nearby bathroom.
Natsuki was out cold. Yuri had multiple theories about this-What if the bleeding was too bad? No, Natsuki's legs had quit bleeding before she had found her. Maybe it was too cold? Natsuki looked freezing, her frail fingers were starting to lose their color, but it didn't look anything like hypothermia.
Yuri concluded that it was likely exhaustion. She finished cleaning Natsuki's wounds and wrapped her legs in clean gauze, then shielded the pink girl with an abundance of blankets. She then went to grab her own soup, which was still piping hot.
Unsure of when Natsuki would wake up, Yuri placed herself at the foot of her own bed-the bed her friend was currently resting in-and opened up a book, drinking her soup slowly between each paragraph.
Yuri loved books; that much was obvious. Burying herself deep into a fascinating novel was her favorite thing to do, she spent multiple hours of her day doing it.
Yet this time, she couldn't seem to focus on each individual word. The book surely wasn't boring. Infact, it was one of her favorites she'd read in ages. But her mind was clouded with worry for Natsuki, and she couldn't bring herself to bring all of her attention to the book she was reading.
Instead, after about 20 minutes of failing to make process in her novel, Yuri gave up and looked over to the sleeping form of her closest friend lying on her own bed.
Something about the scene made Yuri feel truely cozy, despite the cold. Every time Natsuki brought up her piece of shit father, Yuri's heart boiled with rage at how she was being treated, wishing deeply she could protect her from all harm of being home.
Yuri found herself just..looking at her. It felt satisfying, seeing Natsuki comfortable. The stinging of her own arms didn't seem to register at the moment, as Yuri was so engulfed in her friend, everything around her dissolved.
She was not sure how much time had passed before Natsuki stirred in her place, hesitantly opening her eyes. Through dropping eyelids, she turned her attention towards Yuri, who was intently staring at her.
After a few seconds, Yuri was woken up from her trance, and was immediately embarrassed. Though this time, she had an audience.
"I-I'm sorry for staring..! I saw you on the side of the road, and..You were injured." Yuri looked serious once more. "Was it your father?"
Natsuki nodded, still adjusting her vision to the brightness of the room. Wanted to comfort her, Yuri brought up her own spoon filled with soup and offered it to Natsuki.
"Are you hungry? You still seem quite cold.."
With the weak state of Natsuki's body, Yuri helped her sit up slightly, and delicately fed the pinkette spoonful after spoonful of soup. She did seem concerningly hungry.
After quite a bit of drinking and chewing each vegetable and potato in the soup, Natsuki declared in a hoarse voice that she was finished. Yuri placed down the bowl in response.
"turn..off the lights..." It was true, the room was quite bright, and Natsuki didn't seem too fond of that, so Yuri complied and got up out of the bed to flip off the light switch by her door.
The room was engulfed in silence, filled with the sound of each other's breathing, before Natsuki whispers once again, "Lay down with me...I'm scared...."
Nothing could have prepared Yuri for this statement. To basically cuddle her own best friend..? How awkward... despite her worries, Yuri tucked herself under the sheets of the bed anyways, Natsuki wrapping her arms around her friend in response. All words escaped Yuri in this situation, though she really wanted to ask: What are you scared of?
Seemingly reading her mind, Natsuki replies, "Papa. He comes in at night sometimes..And hurts me. Can you please keep me safe, Yuri..? Please.."
Yuri was still so flustered at the contact-but she had to comfort her best friend, she had to. Yuri placed her hand in Natsuki's hair, running the smooth strands between her fingers.
"You're safe here..He can't get you..."
Entrapped in each other's presence, the two girls eventually drift off into a deep slumber. Neither had ever feel asleep that fast, but it seemed each other's bodies calmed the other down. Maybe it was meant to be like that.