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Rain flicked off the Void Hunter’s ears as she walked through the vacant streets. Shop owners raced to prepare for the storm pouring down on the city and close up their shops lest they get rained out.
She paid no mind to the current affair of weather, it was just another form of training to improve her capabilities.
Her walk took her to the quant area of Sixth Street, an area she found herself visiting repeatedly thanks to a set of proxies she had declared her own. One of those proxies stood out to her the most, Wise. She’d spent a lot of time near him as of late, including having him over for a few dinners at her home, much to her father’s satisfaction. He asked about him constantly, not that she minded the questions as she was quite happy to discuss him if he ever came up. He was insistent on digging into her thoughts about him.
A photobook is turned over, and Miyabi digs her fingernails into her thighs. The woman in them looks at the younger Thiren so lovingly.
She stopped to look at the video store, the warm interior lights beaming out from the front windows and making the store pop from the darker streets which was absent from the light of other shops that had closed for the night.
The proxies–especially Wise, were ones to burn the midnight oil in the hopes of bringing in customers needing late-night movies. They took their side job quite seriously and she had nothing but respect for them. However, she’d spent her last couple of outings with Wise observing the dark circles under his eyes. It wasn’t healthy at all but Miyabi certainly wasn’t one to criticize him. She was doing the very same thing right now.
Maybe she should stop by and check in on them. She was in front of their store currently looking into the front window after all.
While making her decision the door to the store opened with a ring of the bell and out stepped its co-owner, Wise. He held a box of garbage and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her, the two gazing into each other in silence while the rain continued.
A few seconds passed until Wise snapped out of his daze with a shake of his head. “Miyabi?!” He set the box down and began to walk up to her. “What are you doing out here in the rain?” His voice was laced with concern and curiosity.
“Waiting.” She responded to him, her energy suddenly whisked away at the sight of him.
“For what?” He looked at her quizzically. He shook his head and sent off his question. “Never mind that, come in. You’re soaked and you’ll catch a cold.”
Wise stepped the ten or fifteen feet to reach Miyabi, peeling his coat off and putting it over her shoulders, the fabric now bouncing the rain off of her. “Okay.” She offered no resistance to him as his arms nudged her shoulders forward.
Wise opened the door to the video store and ushered her in. “Here, c’mon let’s go to my room. I have a few towels to dry you with.”
She hummed in confirmation toward him and glanced at the state of the store. Most things were neatly stocked and put away. He seemed to have almost finished closing. A bangboo nervously peeked out at her from behind the counter.
She felt his warm hand tug her cold one along the stairs. He didn’t seem to notice his actions, not that she minded the physical contact.
On the way to his room, she noticed Belle’s door was wide open, the sibling being absent from their room. It was a messy and chaotic environment from the second she had to observe it.
Her brother’s room was the complete opposite of hers. Things were ordered neatly and held in a consistent, calmer color pallet. She noticed the pin she had given him while visiting the memorial was sitting in a neat display frame sitting between a few other items she did not recognize. Her pin was at the center. She’d been in here a couple of times but she hadn’t yet digested just how neat and orderly it was. A far cry from her own room which often had clothes thrown about and a sprinkle of takeout wrappers on her desk.
Wise opened one of his drawers and retrieved a white towel from it, walking over to her and handing it to her. “Here. The shower is out in the hall…actually, wait…you don’t have a change of clothes do you?” His cheeks flushed at her.
“Why are you flush, is there something wrong?” She turned her head at him, ears flicking off the last bit of water that coated them.
“N-nothing! Belle would get mad at me if I went through her stuff for you so how about I give you some of my clothes? I can just…” Wise opened another set of drawers and pulled a gray t-shirt and set of pants from it, an outfit not too dissimilar to his.
He walked over to her and set the clothes in her arms. “Here…just let me know if you need anything. Don’t want you getting sick or anything.”
“Very well, thank you for the concern. I’ll be done shortly.” She followed his instructions and entered the small bathroom.
She observed the space for anything interesting, finding once again how different the siblings were with matters of cleanliness. Wise’s side of the bathroom held various products and a very clean appearance while Belle’s side lacked all but a few bits of products and was a touch dirty.
Taking off her soaked clothes she set them aside, made for the shower, and went about warming herself up. She hadn’t realized just how cold she was until she finally felt something warm and hot. Maybe today’s training routine would need to be reformatted to better adjust herself for temperature differences.
Inspecting the shower, she smiled at the presence of a melon-scented shampoo on the shower rack. She had always smelled faint melon around him so it was nice to confirm what the source was.
After finishing up the shower she put on his set of clothes. She looked a bit…interesting in the mirror she had to say. His shirt was too large of a size for her and easily flowed around her body like some robe. His pants were a similar story but reusing one of the belts on her other set of clothes solved her issues with them not fitting. She did what she could to dry her hair but lacking the equipment to do so made it quite difficult to get anything as it once was. She figured Wise wouldn’t care if her hair looked disheveled and she wasn’t exactly trying to impress city officials tonight.
Wise…she felt her thoughts linger on him linger for much longer than any individual. She felt pulled into his orbit for an unknown reason. A feeling she had yet to understand and place was impossible. He was…interesting. It was the only word she knew that could have fit it.
She opened the door and stepped out into the hall, looking into Wise’s room and noticing his absence in his bedroom. Her ears jerked to the left as they picked up the sound of movement and things being set down, bringing her attention to the stairwell.
Stepping down the stairs she was greeted with the sight of Wise continuing about his closing duties that she had interrupted. “Wise.”
Wise looked over at her from one of the shelves stocked with tapes. She stared at him and said nothing, he did the same.
Something clicking in his brain, Wise turned his head while his cheeks flushed again. “H-hey. Everything was good?”
“We both use melon shampoo products. Interesting. I quite like the variation yours has. I smell like you now, I like that..” She stated bluntly, still not moving from her spot or gaze as Wise processed her words.
“Oh-oh yeah…I like its smell so I pick it out if it’s on sale. I’m glad that you like it. I like how you smel-” Wise’s sentence ran short as he cut himself off from saying something a bit too risky.
“Thank you.” She looked on. Silence lingered on before Miyabi spoke up again. “Is there anything I could do to help you?”
Wise nodded and sighed in relief, thankful for the break in tension as the two may have flirted stupidly. “If you want. Just set the tapes in that box back alphabetically. With all the action going around New Eridu people are getting more action movies to watch so business has picked up lately.”
“A blessing and a curse for you I’m sure. And myself as well, more work to do but it means some evils manifest, which need to be subdued.” Miyabi commented as she picked up the box of returned tapes.
“Yeah, balancing all of this when both jobs pick up in intensity can get a bit much. But we need the money with how things have been going up in price lately. Also all the Hollow operations.”
The Hoshimi family has money . A thought emerged in the back of her mind. She did state him as her proxy, she should care for her investments. All he had to do was take the family name and-
“You are perhaps one of the hardest working people I know, Wise. Perhaps I could convince my father to provide you aid, considering the deeds you did for me in the Hollows?” Miyabi spoke to him. The idea of helping him out brought her heart up a touch.
“I wouldn’t want to trouble you with that. We’re friends and partners, I don’t think I.O.U’s matter. I don’t expect anything back from you, Miyabi. You did save my life after all.” Wise spoke as he set tapes down into their respective spots.
Although she wanted to help she could understand why he wanted to do it himself. Self-sustainability and pride in oneself are incredibly important for the mind. Still, it was slightly disappointing, it would have put aside some of his worries and brought him closer to her. His presence was always calming to her.
This growing feeling toward him, she just couldn’t place it. There was a word someone had told her was appropriate to use for it, but that memory was lost on her for now.
“If you say so…” She spoke softly to him, her eyes and ears drooping a bit as she returned to slotting the tapes into their respective slots.
A silence settled between them as they finished up their tasks, the two listening to the rainfall and occasional blast of thunder.
After one particularly loud crash of thunder, Wise looked up from one of the displays and asked her a question. “What were you doing out there even, especially in this kind of weather?”
“Training to further adapt myself to sudden changes in the environment. Weather may turn at any pace and I must be prepared to handle those changes. It was a - achoo - success I believe.” She rubbed her nose.
Wise frowned at her. “I think being susceptible to the environment is just a condition you and most other people have. You didn’t even have any sort of windbreaker or raincoat out there.”
Perhaps she should change her standard uniform to be more applicable to all environments then? “So perhaps the lack of suitable fabrics was an oversight on my part. I will adjust my clothing appropriately next time.”
“I don’t think going out in a storm is a good idea no matter what you wear…” Wise reasoned with her, falling on deaf, rather tall ears.
Miyabi looked over to the door labeled ‘Staff Only’. It dawned on her that she had not seen Belle tonight. If she was not in her room then she must be in there. “Where is Belle, Wise?” She looked back over to him.
Wise walked over to the counter, set his box down underneath it, and helped her set down the last of the tapes. “She’s out with Victoria Housekeeping for the night. It wasn’t my shift tonight but I took it for her so she could have some fun. I stressed her out with all that happened when I fell into the Hollow and practically got right back to work after, so I wanted her to take a break.”
Back then, Wise was someone she planned to arrest yet had quickly come to vehemently defend after she had gotten to know him better. Without him, she would have likely gotten lost and perhaps even perished in the maze that was the Hollow. She saved his life twice that day, once by defending him from ethereals and properly caring for him after he left the Hollow. Nicole very poorly trying to perform CPR on Wise was an image that would never rid itself from her mind.
“Nicole.” Miyabi peeled her off of Wise.
“W-what are you doing, he’s going to die!” She cried out.
“That was not CPR.” Miyabi took over her position and properly compressed his chest. Bits of anxiety shot through her mind as she began to worry over his survival. She would not lose him.
“I see. How has your recovery gone since then? I’m very happy I managed to pull you out in time.” She stated as she set the last tape down.
Wise looked over her work and nodded his head. “It’s been fine. It hurt for a few days coming out of it but I turned out fine. It's hard to imagine even my heart stopped. Sorry for uh…worrying you.”
“Yes, that is one of the many consequences of exposure to the Hollow at a prolonged rate. I know how to assist others in combating these effects, which is why you are standing here today. Any worries I had at the moment were worth it knowing you survived. You are my proxy after all.” Her lips formed a small smile at him, one he readily returned to her.
“I’ll try my best to live up to that, Miyabi.” Wise dusted his hands off as walked over to the shop window to click off the bright neon ‘OPEN!’ sign, the humming ceasing as the sound of rain became the only source of ambient noise.
Miyabi’s ears flicked as she looked at him staring out the window at the street. Without much thought into her actions, she found herself tugging at his sleeve. “Wise.”
The shop owner turned and looked down at her. “Hm?”
“Could I watch a movie with you?” Miyabi asked him, glassy eyes looking into his orbits.
Embers singed in the recesses of her heart as that strange feeling came up again near him. Comfort. It is easy to just…be near him. It was something she had never felt for another person, it was a new experience. Whatever it was, it made her want to spend as much time as possible near him, to enjoy his presence—and again, caused another unexpected feeling–jealousy. When others got to spend time with him in her absence she just wanted to forgo her paperwork, run over, grab his sleeve, and run.
“Sure!” Wise clasped his hands together. “What movie did you want to watch?” Wise asked her as he stepped toward the staff longue, holding the door open for her to enter, a motion she accepted and murmured thanks as he led her in.
“I’m not certain.” She’d been in the staff lounge a handful of times visiting the store. It was a quaint little home, including the base of operations for the sibling’s online persona, Phaethon. She typically watched movies in his room but she didn’t mind the new environment, the TVs seemed to be of similar models so it wasn’t like it would create a drastically lower quality experience.
“Hmmm, in that case, let me look.” Wise walked up to a shelf stocked full of tapes and began to tap away at the array of movies until he arrived at a tape of his interest. “Here.”
His finger arrived on a well-loved tape titled ‘First Piece of Soil’. She had heard of the film before, a documentary delving into the foundation of New Eridu.
“Alright with this? If you want something else just give me a genre and I’ll pick the best, despite what one Belle would say.” He smiled at her while he pinched the tape between his fingers.
“I will be satisfied with whatever option you pick, as long as you are present.” She rested her hands on her lap, fidgeting with her pants even as she maintained eye contact.
“Well alright, let me know if you want something else still. I don’t know that many people who would willingly sit down and watch a documentary so I’m a bit surprised, Let me get this in here.” Wise turned over to the VCR and slit the tape into the player before turning on the receiver and plopping down next to her on the couch.
She watched the two’s figures in the reflection of the television before it flashed to life with the opening of the documentary, a triumphant orchestra playing underneath the pleasant voice of the narrator.
While Wise leaned back into the couch, Miyabi leaned forward to the screen to focus on the information presented as slow shots of the early city began to appear.
She observed as the documentary moved on, at least until a certain bit of information perked her ears up.
“The title given to the heroes of New Eridu was created that day by the mayor, Voidhunter. A title which gets passed along to this day by extraordinary individuals.” The narrator noted while footage of an award ceremony played.
Miyabi broke her focus from the screen to look over at Wise who glanced between her and the movie. “Did you…pick this documentary for me?”
“Maybe I did, they have a whole section on Voidhunters on here. It’s a dated documentary so it doesn’t have everything but it’s pretty good.” Wise noted with a short wave of his hand.
Miyabi nodded and focused. A feeling of coldness began to creep in as she shivered a touch, catching Wise’s surprisingly sharp notice. “Did you not warm up enough from the rain? Let me-.” Before Wise could stand she grabbed his arm and pulled him into her side, their shoulders touching.
“No need, you are enough, Wise.” She calmly stated as she grew closer to him, his warmth slowly bleeding over toward her.
His cheeks flushed while he struggled to form words, opting instead to sit quietly and focus in on the documentary. She certainly was doing it without any greater intent, she just wanted to be warm–that’s all, right?
Silence took hold between the two once again as they just let the movie play through, while it went on Miyabi felt a question within her burning brighter and brighter.
“Miss Miyabi is my fiance,” Wise stated calmly while he walked up to the fan pestering her.
“Fiance…” She parroted back his last words.
She hadn’t recalled the incident until a week had passed. Harumasa had been the one to bring up a new rumor that Miss Miyabi was marrying a certain gray-haired individual who addressed a fan in Lumina Square. Now after all of that, it left her wondering what he meant by that. It’s quite something to just up and state but yet again, Wise seemed a bit less confident with words much like herself, things just tumbled out at times.
“Wise?” Her voice interrupted the documentary, catching the attention of Wise who turned his head to look over at her.
“Are we engaged?” Her eyes stared into his.
Wise looked at her wide-eyed, his risky gambit returning to his mind after days of trying to bury it deep into the recesses of his mind. He gawked in silence for what felt like minutes until he finally summoned the courage to speak. “Um…no? I just kind of said that…sorry.”
Miyabi stared at him for a few seconds before turning back to the movie. “Oh, okay.” Wise noticed the fox Thiren’s ears droop a touch, betraying the calm expression on her face.
Wise didn’t dare ask questions or try to continue the conversation. The reasons for her ears drooping left him with more questions than answers.
He didn’t want to conclude she was bummed about his fiance comment not being true, there just had to be more, right?
The rest of the movie continued without incident, the two occasionally dropping comments about events in the documentary until the credits rolled.
Wise stretched his hands out above his head and with a yawn, stretched his arms out and gave a vocal sigh. “Well, what else do you want to do, Miyabi?”
Miyabi flicked her ears, uncertain of how to proceed with the night. “I don’t know. Perhaps I should return home, it is already late.”
Wise opened his mouth reluctantly. “It’s still storming out, are you sure? You can…um…spend the night.” He couldn’t meet her ever-observant gaze.
“That is satisfactory. Let me inform my father I will not be returning home tonight. He’s quite interested in you so I’m certain he will be fine with it.” Miyabi pulled out her phone to send her father a text about her whereabouts.
She was happy she revolved the tension between her and Wise after the night her father showed him her childhood photos and one of her mother had shown up, sending her mind into static noise. He was worried he had upset and hurt her when it was far from the truth. He wasn’t responsible for something her father had done.
“Are you going to marry him? He’s the closest I’ve ever seen someone get to you. I wouldn’t mind being a grandpa now-” His words over breakfast echoed through her mind.
“You can take the bed in my room, I’m fine on the couch.” Wise sat up and made for a set of blankets and pillows placed on one of the shelves.
“No. I will take the couch, Wise. I do not want to intrude on your sleeping routine.” Miyabi stretched out a hand and caught his, stopping him in his tracks.
He smiled at her before trying and failing to remove her grip from his arm. “I sleep on the couch a lot anyways, I don’t mind, really.”
Miyabi opened her mouth to say something to refute him but decided not to press it. “If you say so…”
All she had to do was wait for him to sleep, pick him up, and move him into his bed.
“Thank you for being so considerate, Miyabi. But you’re my guest and you deserve the best, plus I found you out in the rain so you deserve a warm bed tonight. Let me get you settled in.” Miyabi reluctantly let go of his hand after he gave a touch of resistance while walking toward the staff door.
It smells like melon, like him. Miyabi thought as she turned in his covers, trying to fight off the urge to sleep so she could bring him up here. Wise had taken great care of her, it was time to do the same for him. She couldn’t ignore the bags under his eyes any longer.
A powerful crack of thunder drove her up, her patience running thin as she made for his door. She quietly opened it and made for the staff lounge downstairs.
Stepping downstairs, Miyabi moved carefully through the darkened shop whose only source of light was the streetlight through the display window out front. Avoiding creaky floorboards she arrived at the door.
She locked eyes with the cute bangboo that stood outside the door, its little figure acknowledging her and opening the door for her. “Thank you.” She murmured to it as she crept into the room.
The only sounds in the room were the rain from outside and the beats of his soft breathing, a tempo Miyabi found particularly southing as she stepped next to the couch, monitoring him.
“Cute.” She thought to herself.
“Wise, that gentleman you’ve been spending so much time with recently, do you have plans to marry him? He’d be a great addition to the family.” Her father asked her as he pulled up a newspaper.
The memory stopped her in her tracks. Marriage…was this the answer to her strange feelings toward him?
And then another memory replayed in her mind.
“I think the term you are looking for Miyabi, is love. A crush if you’d will.” Yanagi looked up from her desk, tapping her pen against the woodgrain.
“So that’s what it is. I feel love, toward Wise?” Miyabi asked her.
“I think so, I can tell how happy you get when he stops by the offices. You spend a lot of your free time with him as well, don’t you? You talk about him a lot. Before you met him you never talked about people. I don’t want to put the wrong ideas in your head, so I have a question for you; would you feel satisfied if you spent your life with him? It would typically lead to marriage.”
“He already said I was his fiance.” She stated
Yanagi’s pen fell from her hand.
Miyabi wasn’t a delicate person in the slightest, her method of dealing with things was to nip the problem in the bud with a short and violent attack before it could get out of hand. This problem couldn’t be handled that way lest she cut the Proxy in half.
Miyabi awkwardly fished one of her arms under his shoulders while doing the same around his thighs. She struggled to get her hands any further down his thighs due to the disparity in height between them, which meant it’d be a bit more inconvenient to move him. Despite their height difference, Wise was deceptively light. Either she was stronger than she gave herself credit for, or Wise was underweight.
The bangboo standing by the staff door scampered up to open up the door for her. “Eh-nah!” Its stubby hands grabbed and tugged on the handle, letting her back into the shop.
Wise murmured something unknown to her as she moved up the steps while trying to avoid smacking his head against the walls. A bridal carry may not have been the best idea.
Stepping sideways to make it into the narrow doorway of his room Miyabi put her knees on the bed and leaned forward to bring Wise down onto the left side of the bed. Miyabi carefully retracted her arm that supported his head, letting it hit the pillow before she did the same with the one holding his thighs. Once he was settled without incident Miyabi huffed out an exhausted breath.
Almost failed an important mission once more, she had more practice to do.
Miyabi collapsed into the bed and turned on her side to face Wise who still slept the night away, unbothered. “Good night, Wise.” Miyabi tucked the covers over him, hand grazing dangerously close to his face.
Her hand froze just an inch away from his skin as waring ideas of how to continue clashed in her mind. She shouldn’t wake him from his sleep, the point of doing this was so he could get better sleep…but she also wanted to touch his face.
Extending her pointer finger out she ran it underneath the dark circles under his eyes before returning her hands to herself. She smiled at the soft, sleepy smirk Wise gave her as he registered the touch in his dreams.
She watched his face until the demand for sleep lowered her eyelids as well.
Belle waltzes up the stairs with her bag of clothes ratling against the wall, fresh from coming back from an early breakfast prepared by Victoria Housekeeping. She hummed a tune out as she looked around the hall, taking note of her brother's door being open.
“Wis-” Her voice cut short at quite the sight.
Hoshimi Miyabi was currently asleep in none other than her brother’s room, cradling a set of gray hair close to her face.
“I leave him alone for a single night and-” Belle mumbles before stumbling into her room and sending herself face-first into her mattress.