This Is Important [Kokoro/Yugiri]

This bed was pretty comfortable. She never would've thought they would be so comfortable outside of home. She really was picky when she was younger huh?

Lots of random thoughts came to her head lately, all dancing around the feeling of emptiness and loss that Yugiri had. That feeling of grim loss that wanted to be filled but she didn't know how to do that. She looked at the letter to her side and sighed while turning her attention back to the ceiling. It was a nice ceiling.

Just before she could get too lost in thought she heard a knock which was a surprise. Did Erchanhardt order something? Before he went out to have a peek around the Rukongai? No way. So stretching a little as she got off the bed and adjusted her clothes to make sure they didn't look to scruffy she opened the door and peeked out at Kokoro while contemplating her words.

"What is it Kokoro? Did something happen?"

She got caught up trying to figure out that she had forgotten her manners and opened the door to gesture her to come in. It was rude to keep a noble lady like herself waiting in the hall after all, so she led Kokoro to sit down on the bedding with her.

Okay, well that was obvious. It's not like much of Kokoro's antics went unnoticed by people, she was pretty out there. Yugiri was just trying to figure out where she came into this, why did Kokoro need to apologise to her for these actions which didn't connect to her in anyway other than the fact she disapproved growing up or by name.

No, there was absolutely no reason she needed to apologise for all her sleeping around or general attitude so why-

Oh.

Everything kind of stood still. Her neurons stopped firing and kind of just froze while she looked at Kokoro like she didn't register it, like she didn't hear it properly. What would Rio do? Yeah. Rio was always good at this kind of stuff, what would she do if Kokoro or Chidori came up to her and confessed feelings of love?

Oopsie. Someone spilt vodka all over the computer because it was broken. Yugiri couldn't fathom any kind of situation or reaction from Rio and that option was just burnt away. If she was still her old self she might've slapped her and told her to not be ridiculous, it kind of disgusted her when she considered trying to fall back on that kind of attitude to handle this situation.

"Kokoro..."

Her hand shook with uncertainty when she brought it up. Like it had yet to decide if it would be hostile or comforting. When it finally reached her cousin's head she finally realised she was breathing again, it hadn't occured to her that there was so much tension from hearing that her breathing had come to a halt.

"I can't..."

She furrowed her brow, hoping she guessed this course of action right. Maybe she could screw up the process but arrive at the correct answer.

"... Because forgiving you implies you've done something wrong..."

This was weird, this was uncomfortable. How deep was this affection? Was it sexual? What uncomfortable thoughts were filling her head as she ran her hand through Kokoro's hair to try and comfort her.

"I'm sorry I don't feel the same way but you don't get to decide who you love. It's hard to defy the will to love."

Hey, you can't break down like this or else she'll lose her cool like this. That's not fair! She was trying to be strong right now but Yugiri felt sad watching Kokoro break down, awkward even. Enough that it kind of took her calm and well-handled expression and smashed it on the ground.

"Hey hey! Don't say embarrassing things like that. I wasn't cool okay? I was really mean and a bitch and everything else!"

She pulled Kokoro up and tried to move her to sit down on the bedding like she originally wanted and put her arm around the girl's shoulders to try and relax her. While trying to avoid those lewd thoughts of wondering how much 'in love' meant for Kokoro towards her, it was not the time.

"It's okay. You're really respectable. You've never done anything wrong Kokoro, you're really brave and ougoing. You're not afraid of how people see you, even though you are a noble you've never tightly wound and always relaxed... I'm sorry I never appreciated it about you. I- I was very stupid to criticise you about it."

Yugiri wasn't crying, if anything though she was deeply embarrassed and her cheeks showed that. This was all so overwhelming what should she do? How did she go about this now? What was one supposed to do in this situation? She kind of wanted to give her a small kiss, a reassuring one but that was probably going to be taken romantically right? Would it just be fuel for fantasies?

"Hey uh... I don't want to give you the wrong idea... but mmm..."

Asking it just made it weird, it came to her midsentence that she thought this and stopped abruptly before leaning in and giving her cousin a small peck on the lips and pulled away to hug her. The entire exchange was incredibly quick, Yugiri didn't really know how long to keep it held for where it changed from a friendly one to a romantic one so she just fled after that.

"It's okay Kokoro. Of course I respect you.... Wait. That was my first kiss!"

She hugged her for a little while quietly after her initial bit but the wave of realisation kind of spluttered out as she said it to herself and Kokoro inadvertedly. She never really had any parents to kiss, at best other people kissed her cheek or she kissed their's. So...

"Well it wasn't like it was romantic or anything but uh... don't tell anyone k? Not Chidori, not Rio... not anyone else either alright? Promise."

Yugiri kept a tight hug in place to prevent the flusteredness being seen but it was pretty evident what this probably was.

It was their little secret.

That was weird. To be told that she wasn't a bitch when everyone seemed to act like that was the case. She didn't want to think too hard on it though. She couldn't really, not with Kokoro taking so much of her attention right now.

After that little moment of affection Yugiri pulled away shyly and awkwardly sat there trying to figure out what to do next. All this thinking about how stuff affects people was hard work, and the circumstances didn't make it any easier on her poor mind either.

"You're welcome..."

Drawing out her sentence she reached up to put her hand on Kokoro's head to gently pat her.

"You'll make everyone proud. You have a lot of time still you know?"

Yep. Wise Yugiri, that's right. Keep it up, it was working so far. At least as far as she could tell on the matter. She really couldn't tell honestly. She just hoped she was judging this right. Maybe Kokoro was actually super hurt on the inside and was trying to be strong, she'd be really good at feigning emotions if that was the case. She'd have praised her actually for it.

The next part sure left her a little at loss for words.

"Oh..."

She had to think about this though.

"And why is that?"