All At Once [Day 10, LE, Closed]

[Kuni Koyuki]

"I don't know if you can," she says, her tone doesn't seem any different. Not that it was easy to convey, but she truly wasn't sure. Closing her eyes she lets them rest for a moment. Letting the weight of her arms, legs, heart and stomach all just sink into the floor. Feeling them there as the pain and exhaustion lingers. That little ghostly feeling to her heart, like it was just sorely aching but didn't know how to ache anymore.

"But.. you can try," she manages to remember to add on. "After we get back from dealing with your problem. I'm going to tell her where I am, and wait. I'll see what happens. Just- know she will be trying to kill me. I think- I think she'll only focus on me but I don't know. It's impossible to know."

[Susumu Yakumo]

"I promised you before that I would help you how I can, Koyuki. I don't back down on my promises, even at risk to myself." Like how she had promised to deal with these gaki, knowing she was not exactly someone suited for it. She was still going to do it.

It did give her a thought. "Do you think she'd listen to someone else? Maybe me?"

[Kuni Koyuki]

"I know. Not- not doubting that," she offers, weakly but offers. Trying to think at it a while, at how possible it really was. Yet it was so hard to tell. Moriko seemed so different, so impossibly different and she'd gone first for her weapons. Wouldn't she listen to anyone else? Did she have the capacity to?

"Maybe. You would be risking yourself for the chance that a woman who has lived with the guilt of leaving her family to die, that tried to draw her weapons on me in the middle of Akatsubaki, would be willing to listen to anyone. You might just be risking your life to watch me or Moriko die."

[Susumu Yakumo]

"I would prefer neither of you dying, to be perfectly honest." Most of all Koyuki, but she had a feeling it would just hurt Koyuki more now if Moriko were to die.

"She might respond differently to someone else. I look relatively harmless compared to you, right?" Yakumo suggested, trying to think of how to approach the problem.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"About as harmless as a bee," she says, with rather expert selection of comparison. Barely calling up a tired smile at that little bit of pride for a good pick. Rolling onto her shoulder she rolls again and gets her hands on the ground. With effort pushing herself up from the floor, and onto her knees. Motions lacking that energy, or strength, she's slow about it and it takes her a while to eventually stand.

Stand she does, however. Walking over to the couch she sits herself down beside Yakumo and simply rests her head on the other woman's shoulder. "I would prefer neither of us dying too, to be perfectly honest. I don't know if I have the strength.. will to overtake her."

[Susumu Yakumo]

Yakumo let Koyuki lean against her, and brought a hand up to brush over her braided hair with a gentle tenderness, the kind a mother might show a child that had just gone through a difficult episode.

"Do you think she wants to kill you? Wouldn't she have had opportunities to do such already?" she asked, trying to get a clearer picture of their options and possibilities.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Maybe she's conflicted," she gives a slight shrug of her shoulders, noticeable against Yakumo's own. Mind too weary to think of much more than the problem directly in front of them, and the gentle brushing of her hair. Closing her eyes she gives in to that bit of a need to rest and calm herself.

"I was. Even when I wanted to kill her. When I thought I wanted to kill her..."

[Susumu Yakumo]

"Mm," nodding, the movement could be felt next to Koyuki's head. "She's probably conflicted because she still remembers, I think. If she felt the same way for you as you did for her, then yeah, conflicted seems right."

"Would her wife be any help?" Yakumo asked, thinking it might not hurt. Sure, she had kicked her out, but maybe she cared too still.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Doubt it. Kind of a bitch," she says, humorlessly. Having to give herself time for her breathing exercise after that one. Feeling the breath all the way in, and all the way out with mental focus and as much as she could muster. Luckily taking some of the cobwebs up in her head with it. Finding a little more strength of spirit returning enough to notice how gross her cheeks actually felt now.

[Susumu Yakumo]

"A bitch huh? Well... that's a shame." One less option to try then. Though it was somehow not surprising, as marriages across the clans often were arranged affairs, and it didn't seem like Moriko had found someone she loved to settle down with.

"Well... I'll help you how I can, alright? In the meantime." Yakumo kissed Koyuki's forehead and brushed a few stray hairs from her face. "You can use the facilities here as you need to prepare yourself for tonight, hm?"

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Y-yea," she says, briefly smiling at the touch of lips against her forehead. Soft but weighty breath at the touch to push aside the stray hairs. Looking off into the space in front of her as if to avoid how embarrassing it felt to ask, to admit the need. A vulnerability she couldn't take back, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to give. Yet..

"Can you just-" she blushes a bit, a full face blush from the embarrassment hidden mostly behind her painted face but poking out here or there. "-hold me. For a little while," she swallows hard like it might pull the words back in but sits there looking vacant.

[Susumu Yakumo]

The hand came down from the hair, and brushed against Koyuki's messy cheek. A miscolored thumb pushed away some of the drying tears and the mess it had made of her intricate makeup.

"Sure, I can do that," Yakumo nodded, and placed one arm around Koyuki to bring her in closer, then completed the embrace with the other arm wrapping around her. "I can do that." She repeated the words with a warm sigh.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Thank you."

Those two words linger in the air while she settles in against her, feeling the warmth as much as she can. Focusing in on it while the thoughts slowly knit themselves together into processed bits. There wasn't a need for anything to change for a little while, in this current moment. Not until the feeling of the itch that needed scratching was just being more teased at. With a nudge of her hand Koyuki doesn't quite look directly at Yakumo, but with a series of brief gestures and glances suggests the idea of laying down.

[Susumu Yakumo]

Picking up on the unspoken words, Yakumo still held onto Koyuki as she did lean back and down onto her back (and a bit on the side). "What's on your mind?" she asked, letting one thumb rub against the muscles of the Crab's upper arm.

[Kuni Koyuki]

"Too much," she answers simply.

Relaxing back with Yakumo she leans into the other womans comfort. Taking what she could make use of in the time, letting her be that bit of support. Thoughts that linger too close to touching on that topic though are killed on the spot. They wouldn't serve her, or anyone, right now. Right now she just needed:

"I'm tired."

Closing her eyes, she tries to let herself drift a little. Just for a little while.

[Susumu Yakumo]

Yakumo shifted slightly underneath Koyuki's form, making sure that she could comfortably rest her head on her. "Mm... me too," she agreed and kissed the top of Koyuki's head gently.

Arms around the Crab woman, and the hands slowly stroked her back in a comforting manner. "I'll wake you a bit before you have to go, give you time to fix your makeup, mm?"

[Kuni Koyuki]

Finding her own holds on Yakumo, pulling herself in snuggly for that extra bit of comfort. Koyuki nods her head against Yakumo's chest gently and with that already waning energy.

"Mmm," she tries to verbalize, but doesn't. Leaving that vocalization as much of an assent to those conditions as she could muster. Exhaustion hitting her with rapid pace it's not long before she drifts off for at least a little while.

As long as she can afford.

[Susumu Yakumo]

Yakumo didn't exactly know when Koyuki had to go, but for now, she decided that she could probably give her a quarter of an hour or so of rest before rousing her.

Not that she was the best of keeping track of time without a watch or so, but she did know about how much time each of her songs lasted. At first she just thought about the song in her mind, going through the lyrics, but that was boring, so Yakumo began to sing very softly as her hands continued to comfort Koyuki.

"The first word was "dream"
From the middle of sleep
Which secretly accompanies
The darkness in my heart

The second word was "wind"
Directing my journey
From God's arms,
Fanning wings

As if counting
the melting sorrows,
Yet another golden
apple fell

Not even looking at the scenery,
There is the place you're going
With merely a single life,
You struggle to reach that place

An old magic book;
moondrops; the curtain of night--
Only a premonition of meeting someday

We can fly
We have wings
We can touch floating dreams
Call me from so far
Through the wind
In the light

The third word was "hum"..
Caught by straining ears
As I softly release
Your trembling arms"

[Kuni Koyuki]

That weary tiredness Yakumo could feel in her seemed to drift when Yakumo had started singing. That drift pulling Koyuki along with it. Tension relaxing in her shoulders with a bit more ease. Soft insistence in the way she'd held Yakumo releasing ever so slightly as the presence of Koyuki mind drifts off on the softly sung words of Yakumo's song. Every pleasant note bringing her further and further from the tumultuous battlefield of her own mind to a state where she can simply be at peace.

Yakumo joined the ranks of a very select few women, those who calmed her with such a presence. Joining only Moriko and Koyuki's own mother up on those pedestals to which few have aspired and thus very few have attained.

For as long as she could, rocked gently toward it with Yakumo's careful and gentle ministrations, Koyuki sleeps and rests her spirit a while.

[Susumu Yakumo]

A long time passed, with more humming and soft singing, and intersped with moments of silence and peace. It probably felt too short as well, when Yakumo roused Koyuki.

"Hey," she said softly, almost a whisper. "You shouldn't leave the others hanging, mhm?"