2026-05-07: Hard Days
- Log: Hard Days
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Miho Ijuuin, Tyrrha Ijuuin, Eiko Ikeda
- Where: Miho's penthouse, Aoba Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: May 7, 2026
- IC Date: Mon, Nov 5, 2012
- Summary: Miho returns from work and finds that Yua is not coping well today. She heads back to their room in order to check on her, finding her still in day clothes. She coaxes her to eat dinner, and they talk.
DATE: OOC date may 7 2026 is IC date Mon Nov 05 2012! Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua's been... trying. She hasn't managed a return to /work,/ yet, but she has at least made an effort to get back to /cooking./ If she can prepare dinner, everything's normal.
Everything's fine.
Except of course that nothing is, which explains why it's /Tyrrha/ who answers Miho as she gets home from work. (Tiger greets her, too! After a few days of sulking, he's back to ruling the house.) "Yo, Mimama!" Tyrrha calls, waving a tea-towel in salute. "Yumama's takin' it easy, but don't worry, me and Ikeda-san made dinner."
"Welcome home," Eiko bows, behind Tyrrha, both a touch less tall and exuberant. "Would you like to bring it in for her...?"
The one good(?) sign, at least, is that Yua was neither deep enough in slumber nor sulky enough to ignore the distant sounds of someone entering; indeed, not just /someone,/ because Yua can identify Miho's footsteps as easily as her face. And so, when Miho pushes open a door left closed yet ajar, she'll find Yua pushing herself up into a sitting position, blankets spilling off of her. "Welcome home," Yua offers, her smile fragile. "Sorry I didn't get up, Mimi..."
There's a story, told in the way she's /sleeping/ in her /day clothes,/ a thing which simply isn't done under Miho's exquisite roof. Those clothes tell a story of their own, long sleeves and track pants, all baggy enough to hide the features beneath. ... she took off her makeup, at least; it would stain the fancy pillowcases, otherwise.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Another day, another day at work. Miho of course /has/ gone to work; as long as she has that job, she's going to do it. ...Though she was tempted to try to stay to look after Yua. She didn't, though. Not this time. Yua has great riches in terms of people to look after her...
Which mes when Miho arrives, she notes that it is Tyrrha who answers. "I'm home," she says first. "Hello, Tyrrha. It's good to see you."
And she nods. "Ikeda-san," she repeats her greeting, and kneels down a moment to pat Tiger.
"...Yes," Miho says. "I would. Thank you both."
"Yua," Miho says, and Yua doesn't have to guess. "It's fine," she tells her. "I'm glad to see you regardless."
She listens to that story, but for the moment, just brings in dinner for Yua and herself. "Here... Let's eat."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Yua wishes she could ask Miho to stay... but she knows she can't.
She is, at least, certainly not /unsupported;/ there's Eiko in the home, of course, but there is also their /home nurse,/ Sachie, who comes to visit. Seiji is /strikingly/ capable of locating Yua and escorting her back to the car if she can't quite figure out her exit, too. Ritsuko came to visit, the other day, to check up on her and ask a few sensitive questions about what she /means/ when she says she was attacked by Miho's stalker; and Yua knows why she would be particularly sympathetic, when she hears it wasn't just a physical assault.
Why, even little Yume's getting in on the action -- Yua took Tyrrha out to meet her and get her to show her around Seven Sisters, today, after school. And while Yume was a little sceptical that someone like /Tyrrha/ might be her distant cousin, the explanation that her branch of the Ooshiros moved to another island was at least /plausible./
Unfortunately, that meant chatting to her coworkers, too... and even if her leave's been approved, that doesn't necessarily mean that the average working adult in Japan thinks /well/ of someone who doesn't appear any worse off than being a little run down abandoning her duties. Most of her fellow teachers believe the implicit story that she's taken the time off to help situate her new daughter, but...
Well, at least Tiger's happy again. Listen to that purr!!
"Heheh... does that mean I'm gonna get Mimi in bed in your suit? That's funny... that never happens when we're just resting!" Yua is, at least, making her best /effort/ to be sunny, as she always was; and part of her /is/ delighted by it, or at least she remembers that she would have been, a week ago.
"What's that... chicken and rice? That sounds nice... nice rice..." And because Eiko's thought of everything, she gave Miho western-style spoons instead of chopsticks when she prepared the tray for her to bring out; spoons, after all, are less likely to drop food into the sheets. "Mimi, you eat too, okay?"
If Miho eats with her, Yua will surely have the bravery to take a spoonful of rice, all mixed in with diced vegetables and chicken, and... chomp!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho and Ritsuko have been talking a bit, too--and even her brother Juuzou has made time for her given the attacks' frequency. (He's asked if he needs to make any arrangements. Miho has declined... for now.)
But it just doesn't bring Miho joy to threaten Yua's co-workers into being kinder to her. At least Mr. Watanabe is always nice to her... but even if he's performing the role of a vice principal, he's only one of a few who probably are.
Tiger's great though.
"It does," Miho says. "That's fun, isn't it?" she asks, and plays along with that sunny approach.
She smiles then. "Yes," Miho agrees. "I will. I'm quite hungry, actually."
And soon, they can both eat! Miho encourages Yua by taking bites of her own, though not so quickly as to leave Yua behind; she doesn't want to prompt her to eat too fast.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Miho, of course, has her own arrangements...
... not that Yua can tell she's being shadowed by a protection detail of shinobu, even if she knows they're there. They're /very/ sneaky.
Yua /did/ make a note to introduce Tyrrha to the acting vice principal, though, specifically /because/ he is kind.
"It can be really fun!" Yua chirps, brightly. "Though... /that/ kind of fun... it's a little hard right now, huh." Whatever they might get up to with suits in the bedroom is certainly stymied, right now, by the way Yua's attempts end in floods of memory.
Yua's chomps are slow, particularly at first; she has to tell whether her stomach's rebelling, today. But the new medications she's on are making things easier, and she has a /little/ hope, at least, that she might be one of those people who gets better by week twenty. (This time tomorrow, she'll have started on week nineteen...)
"How was work, Mimi?" Yua asks, and it's the same question she's asked a million times. Normal.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Unfortunately, against the /real/ threats they're unavailable--but at least Miho can be secure that happenstance will not further injure Yua.
"That's all right," Miho says, and she is trying to both comfort Yua and demonstrate that she herself is fine with that. Yua's feelings just now take strong precedence, obviously.
But chomp, chomp... but eventually, they do start eating together. And that's nice.
"Work was a bit better than usual today," Miho says. "The irritating things remain irritating, but our cases had an interesting puzzle to them today--I had to trace money through a number of shell accounts..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Yeah..." Yua sighs, looking a little down about it all. "But... I don't want to give up on that stuff, either... it's no fair if she took it."
It's not hard to guess why /Yua/ wouldn't feel entirely fine with it; intimacy has always been a big part of her life. When she escaped, the point when she'd recovered enough to invite Miho to be physically close could practically be charted on a /graph,/ given how much she improved after that.
Sorry, kids, the ballerina fucks.
Or, well...
... but losing something like that is too much, isn't it?
Yua perks up, though, hearing Miho have something /good/ to say about work. "Really? Yay! Puzzles for Mimi!" Yua even manages a /sparkle/ as she smiles about that one. (The sparkles are metaphorical, of course. It's understood that a sparkly portrait just suggests /the expression of joy./) "Shells, shells... did they come from beaches in Cayman?"
The Cayman Islands, of course. Yua's heard about them from /previous/ dinner chats about work.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"I agree," Miho says. "...When you're ready." She'll certainly be there. She can wait; she'd rather not wait /forever/. But they're of the same view on that front. She remembers how much it helped Yua to be able to do such things...
Not to mention her own preferences.
Losing something like that would be too much.
"Yes," Miho answers. "I'd have more fun if they gave me things like that more often." She did almost get her PI's license, after all. "They certainly did," she says wryly. "A popular place to get one's shells..."
"But I cracked through all of them. Our little crab was not so sneaky as he thought."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I hope I'm ready soon," Yua pouts, and in the process makes explicit that they are, in fact, on the same page. "It's so frustrating... she's not allowed in here!"
And that, at least, is a small victory; she has at least gotten a little more comfortable with referring to that evil woman by /pronoun./ ... she still hasn't said her name, though.
What she doesn't say, though Miho may have still intuited, is that Yua is not only mad but /scared;/ what if Natari has broken her forever, and she's lost the ability to kiss Miho /for real/ instead of just giving her a brief smooch, and she's locked inside herself forever and she can never synch herself up to Miho's heartbeat and she becomes so alienated that she doesn't even get along in society any more and --
-- of course, those fears are self-realising; putting so much pressure on herself to /get over it/ or else she's irrevocably /changed/ all but guarantees those flashbacks, keyed to threat. It means that Miho's reassurances are the best thing she can offer; the safety of acceptance is a balm against fear.
One day, Yua will be able to fully appreciate that patience.
Right now, though, she appreciates Miho's /day./ "They should give you those cases!" Yua huffs, cheeks puffing up. "You're really good at finding stuff, Mimi! Like me! I'm stuff!" Yua knows just /why/ Miho contemplated that career path, after all.
She giggles, hearing Miho's wry tone. "Hee hee... he should have gotten a better house! Did you know I once found a hermit crab who'd made his house a can of /drink,/ Mimi? Normally, I clean that stuff up, but I didn't want to hurt him... I bet he was the best protected crab on the beach!"
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"Definitely," Miho agrees. And she is glad that Natari is not /allowed/ in here, the way she puts it. ...Miho gets it, insofar as she can from her position; she understands the fear, sees it in Yua, and her patience will not be exhausted in /this/. It's just what Yua needs right now; she will accept her.
But now, "Hmm. Yes, they should," Miho agrees. "They'd be getting more value than leaving me with boring things..."
But of course, the men must seek their glory.
A smile then. "You're my favorite stuff," Miho agrees.
"Oh, is that so?" A better house indeed, but, "That's very funny. But I bet he was. A well-armed crab..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
This penthouse, at least, is Yua's castle -- and not /just/ because its size and luxury speaks to ostentatious wealth. Here in her home, she's able to feel more powerful than she does out there; she's more able to feel /offence/ and /outrage/ at any insults given to her, in her nest.
Miho treats her like a Queen, just as she calls her her King; she's absorbed some part of that, despite all the injuries to her self-worth she's suffered.
... that's why this was the most devastating place for the Black Mask to assault them.
Which explains why Yua wanted their bed to be fixed so /quickly./
"And it's more fun for you!" She insists, when Miho talks about the /value for the company./ "Value for Mimi! Mimi's values!!" Those are two different things, but given that Yua's quite sure Miho's values include cleverness...
She also happens to know that Miho values /her,/ but it still delights her to hear it. "Yay!" She smiles, and -- well, a lot of her smiles have been a touch strained or performative or wounded, over the past most-of-a-week, but /this/ smile is just as sunny as the ones she had for Miho before Halloween. It's not entirely a /surprise/ -- Miho's gotten /most/ of Yua's best smiles out of her -- but it's still nice.
"Though, I guess to people it would be easy to get him still," Yua supposes, tilting her head. "Since if you cut through the alumininium," she added an extra 'in' to that word, because she's saying it wrong on /purpose/ to be /cute,/ "it's easy to pierce a can... but crabs can't make metal, so to crabs, I bet it's really strong!"
Through the power of Miho's company, Yua's even managing to get through her whole bowl of rice...
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho would be glad to hear that some of it's sunk in.
...She prefers not to dwell on the Black Mask. She gets broody when she does.
"True," Miho agrees. "Both of those would be improved by it." She doubts they'll be so smart as that, but it's fun enough to play with the idea for now. And Mimi's values /do/ include cleverness, as it happens.
This smile... this is a special one, one that Miho will remember. It's so /very/ sunny, brilliant like the day after the fog for her. And fog for her can be deep indeed.
"To people, but then... a crab does not expect to fight those as gods to him," she points out. "A crab will primarily face other crabs. It is they whom his defense must stop."
"As you say. To crabs, it's very strong. And that's what matters."
Mmm, food.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
And Yua gets scared, when she thinks of him.
No wonder she's found every reason not to bring him up.
"Your work should treat you better," Yua huffs. "Memimi is the smartest! Paperwork is boring!"
Time with Miho, as it happens, is /also/ special.
"If you think about it," Yua says, poking at the remains of her rice, "we're kind of like crabs, too... there's stuff we can't fight, but we're good at fighting the stuff we eat."
In this metaphor, crabs are predators. Are crabs predators? Yua would know. The narrative will not comment at this time.
"All gone!" She announces, to Miho, proudly showing her her bowl. She pulls herself up on her knees to reach around Miho and put the bowl back on the tray... only to reveal her master plan when she slumps back down to cuddle up against her side.
She will, at least, let /Miho/ finish eating before hugging her more insistently.
"Tykko and I went out again today," she says, then. "Remember how yesterday, we went to the park? She still sticks out... but she seemed to like Sevens." Because, of course, their plan /today/ was to introduce Tyrrha to the school. Miho knew the plan! "Yume-chan was a little rude, but she didn't mean ill by it... she did her best to be understanding! She even showed her around the school, which was lucky, since I don't know how the students think of it..."
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
"They should."
They won't. But that's why she might do something else...
For now though, Yua picks up on the unspoken thought that Miho had about crabs. There's stuff they can't fight against, but...
"Then we, too, must find a stronger 'shell', I think. One not so easily pierced..."
But Miho finishes her own as well--not long after smiling. "Good," she says. "Very good."
Clack goes her bowl on the tray, and then Miho holds onto Yua, hugging her close. To the park, yesterday, and...
'That's good," Miho says. "...Yume-chan is often a little rude," she points out. "It's her age." And her personality, but that's less nice to say. Miho says both fondly, though. "Hmm. That's good, then."
"Yes, a student's perspective is best there..."
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"If I had a shell," Yua says, thoughtfully, "I'd want it to be mother-of-pearl! Pearl is so pretty..."
And while it's easy to dismiss her thoughts on shells as superficially fixated on beauty, nacre isn't /just/ pretty -- it's also surprisingly tough. The reason it seems to break so easily... is all because it grows brittle when it's taken out of the water.
Just like Yua.
She's flourishing under Miho's praise, though, and her arms around her. "Memimi," she chirps, happily, hooking a leg around Miho's so that she can drape on her /fully./
Yume /does/ have a difficult personality, but, well... she's a middle child. Yua can't blame her!
"I spoke with everyone there, and... they were okay with taking Tykko on," Yua goes on, cheek squished against Miho's collarbone. "But..." She heaves a deep sigh, and pauses, for a long moment.
"I had another daymare," as opposed to a nightmare, and it's Yua's way of characterising those flashbacks she really doesn't know enough medical jargon to name. "Seiji-san got me back home, so I was okay... but I'm done for today."
And now Miho's got a Yua on her, /she's/ done, too.
Hopefully, she doesn't end up having to sleep in her suit...