damned_institute | Night 43: F1-10 Hall

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Night 43: F1-10 Hall

Breaking down the bed frame after she'd eaten some of her meal had given Teresa something to do while she waited for the night time phenomena to arrive. Having not been conscious when it occurred the previous night, she was curious. She was not disappointed. The overhead words were certainly something different.

As the door opened, Teresa finished wrapping shredded bedding around the bottom portion of the six foot long metal bar that had once been a main side support of the bed's frame. It wasn't good quality metal by any means, but it was better than nothing. At least, she didn't think it'd break the first time she hit something with it given her reduced strength. As she hefted the weapon, she swung it around to get a feel and decided that it would do for now. Should she manage to find the right kind of stone or a file, she could even work a rough edge onto it.

A few more strips of cloth and the hybrid tied the makeshift weapon across her back, the 'hilt' sticking a foot and a half above her shoulders, and fashioned the cloth so she could pull on the knot by her right shoulder for a quick release. That done, Teresa took her flashlight and exited the room.

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There was a time when Sheena was a very young child and the world was full of wonder where anything and everything was possible, that someone told her that crying was good for the soul. That it wasn't shameful and it wasn't a sign of weakness. It was a sign of life and cleansed the very core. Every living creature on Tethe'alla, she was told - the field mouse to the winter wolf to even the great spirits - cried in their own way when it was needed.

Somehow, throughout the years, Sheena had forgotten this. Between the way she was treated after the Temple of Lightning, how her tears at that time had been yet another source of scorn, to having to build up a thicker skin so she could survive in a place she knew didn't want her, she convinced herself that crying was wrong and should be fought against with tooth and nail. As her tears finally died down and she was burdened with hiccups and not wracking sobs, she realized how much the simple act of crying her head off in the warm embrace of someone that cared about her really did make her feel better.

Even with Raine, she'd still held back something. The youkai, unfortunately, got it all. Was that really such a bad thing?

It seemed the storm was coming to an end. Hopefully Sheena was feeling better for it; Yukari, for her part, mostly just felt like the front of her dress had been under a faucet, but that was neither here nor there.

"There, there," she crooned softly, gently patting the girl's back, her silk gloves cool against the ninja's skin. "That's better, isn't it?"

Gently stroking the ninja's hair with her other hand, Yukari continued to hold her close for as long as she needed.

The ninja nodded, letting go with one hand to wipe at her face. She hiccuped a few more times before she managed to find her voice.

"C'mere off floor. Gotta hurt your knees," she said, having realized that this whole time (which was for Origin knows how long), Yukari had been kneeling on the cold, hard floor. She kinda felt bad about that.

Yukari's knees were smarting a little and it was very stiffly that she disentangled herself from the ninja and stood up before sitting down on the bed. She laid a hand fondly on the girl, ruffling her hair.

"You just have to let it all out sometimes," said the youkai. "If you keep everything inside, you're liable to explode." Or have it compact into something cold and hard and dark, but Sheena didn't seem like the type. "And I'd prefer to keep my ninja in one piece."

Sheena shifted back to allow room on the bed for Yukari, grabbing her discarded shirt to clean her face with. That was when she realized she wasn't wearing it. And Yukari was right there. Oh well. Too late now. With a sigh, she set the shirt aside and pulled the covers up a bit for modesty.

"Yeah... keeps the soul clean or something," she replied, blowing some of the hair out of her face. "I don't... do that. Often. Or really at all." Not unless something shoved her face first over the edge like this had and everything associated with it.

Sheena rubbed the back of her neck to ease the crick in it, before she gently took Corrine's bell back into her hands. It wasn't much too look at, to be honest - round, no bigger around than a single gald, and it shone with a tarnished gold color that spoke of age and hardship. One one side, there was a little dent in a corner from her time in Sylvarant, back when she and Corrine had been enemies to Colette and the others. It wasn't noticeable, the bell's sound unaffected, but Sheena knew it was there.

Resting her hand with the bell in her lap, Sheena looked at it for a long moment before she suddenly looked up at Yukari. "Since when am I your ninja?"

Cleansing the soul with one's tears? There was something poetic in there somewhere. Or vaguely commercial - clean your soul with saline solution!

"Oh-ho, embarrassed? What does it matter; it's not like we aren't both women," said the youkai with a smile that said it surely did matter. "And you have been since I decided so. Just now." A smirk.

Still, that bell was interesting. Yukari hadn't seen it before, so was it a gift from her visitor? Not that Yukari had gotten anything, but there weren't many physical items she was too attached to. The way Sheena held the bell made it seem important to her.

A bit of color tinged Sheena's cheeks at the look the youkai gave her. "That's got nothing to do with it," she retorted. "I don't normally sit around and talk to anyone while only in my bra." She made a face. "A rather unflattering one at that. I prefer my own damn undergarments." One of which happened to be in her closet with her yayoi. Thank the gods, whoever had decided to give her the ninja outfit back also gave her the proper bra; the current piece she had on was worthless for support when in combat. Plus, the shoulder straps bothered her.

Her expression turned into as bit of a glare, though there wasn't much in it. "And don't I get a say as to whether I'm your anything?"

"Standard issue underwear is usually not made with the idea of being 'flattering' in mind," said the youkai with a shrug. Not that it was much better in Gensokyo, stuck as it was a few hundred years in the past. At least Yukari could go shopping in the Outside World whenever she wanted to.

"Oh, you want to lodge a complaint?" asked Yukari with a smile, leaning over the ninja ominously. Still grinning, she placed a hand down on either side of Sheena. "Sorry, but I won't take 'no' for an answer."

She knew she was going to get smacked if she continued down this path, but it was too fun to pass up.

"Glad I have my own, then," Sheena replied.

The ninja stayed her ground when the youkai hovered in a vaguely evil way that made Sheena wonder when she was going to want to hit Yukari and if she even had the energy to follow through with it when it was needed.

"Considering I don't know what being your whatever entails, I'd only be complaining just for the sake of complaining. Which I might do anyways," Sheena pointed out. "What are you going to do if I say no? Right now I don't see any benefit to being your whatever."

"It mostly means you'll never have a moment of peace again," said Yukari with a grin. It was a complete and utter lie; Sheena wouldn't be bothered whenever the youkai was asleep, which was more often than not.

"Oh, the things I could do if you said 'no'," she replied vaguely, a playful spark in her eyes. There were certainly a number of ways to tease the ninja she just hadn't gotten around to, what with the monsters and zombies and brainwashing. "Besides," she murmured, leaning closer, "there are plenty of benefits to being mine."

That response made Sheena simultaneously uncomfortable and a little more excited about the possibilities than she cared to admit - on both accounts. So, she wasn't going to admit it, except she always had been an open book to anyone looking for certain reactions.

"Like what?" She swallowed. "I, uh... need to weight the pros and cons of this matter. Since you kinda already don't let me have moments of peace anymore. I'm not really the docile, obedient type, Yukari. Not sure I like the idea of belonging to someone." And that was just as much of a lie as the youkai's; the idea had such a pull for a girl who grew up in a place where no one wanted her.

Sheena's reaction was just so believable; whatever was Yukari to do to convince her?

"Oh, I never said you had to be docile and obedient," explained the youkai. "I'd be far less interested in you if you were." She grinned and gave a little shrug. "Well, the cons would include invasion of privacy, being followed all around and never being left alone. The pros would be that I'd be invading your privacy because I want to know more about you, following you around because I enjoy being with you and never leaving you alone because I'd hate for you to be lonely."

She drew closer yet still, until their faces were almost touching, vibrantly violet eyes gazing into the ninja's own.

"Sounds pretty horrible, huh?"

Assuming Yukari wasn't lying about the pros, it sounded really...

"Terrible." That was how bad of a liar Sheena was.

"Torturous." In more ways than one.

"I wouldn't know what to do." Completely and totally true.

"Might have nightmares just thinking about it." If only because this ranch denied her real dreams.

"Well... if it's so bad, maybe I should just let you alone already?" said Yukari with a sigh. Despite these words, the youkai was laying her body on top of the ninja's, leaning on her elbows and squishing up against her, their faces still just a breath away.

Maybe she wasn't going to get smacked...

Sheena shifted just a little to account for the youkai's added weight, and a flush she didn't even notice ran down her neck and across her shoulders. The back of her mind was waving a flag, warning her that Yukari was probably going to bite her again, but Sheena ignored it.

"Maybe," Sheena replied, her voice dropping the tiniest bit. Her hand slowly moved up Yukari's arm, sliding along the glove to stop and stay once she felt the youkai's skin. "Might be my only chance to escape such a horrendous fate."

Tilting her head just enough for the faintest contact possible with the youkai's lips, Sheena asked, "Right?"

Yukari's smile lazily grew as she felt the ninja's hand gliding along her arm, enjoying as it crossed the boundary of indirect contact to skin-to-skin touching. That Sheena was actively bringing them closer together rather than the youkai was not a distinction she missed.

The almost ephemeral touch of the girl's lips on hers sent a shiver down Yukari's spine. Gazing down with eyes heavy-lidded, she began to bring their lips together... then stopped.

"Well, I suppose I'll let you go tonight, on account of your injuries," she said quietly, starting to draw back from what could be, almost, just maybe...

Her smile bordered on a smirk.

Sheena screamed. Okay, not really, but she wanted to. Her mind screamed, and her body screamed - close enough. This just wasn't fair and on the edge of being mean.

Her hand moved to encircle the youkai's arm, gripping it firmly, and she hooked a leg around Yukari to keep her from going anywhere. The movement inadvertently pressed her body more against the ninja, but that hadn't been the point. Sheena didn't want her gone. She wanted... she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted, but whatever it was, that damn youkai had it.

"That's never stopped you before," Sheena breathed out, a twinge of frustration slipping into her voice.

Yukari's face remained just on the line between feigned innocence and mischievous maliciousness as the ninja pulled her close, but inside she was triumphant; she had, at least for the moment, Sheena wrapped about her little finger. It was such a satisfying feeling, that sort of control.

"I'm full of exceptions," replied the youkai with a shrug, though she made no move to try and escape. "Why, was this chance to get away unmolested not what you were looking for?"

Her face hovered just tantalizingly out of reach of Sheena's. If the ninja wanted them closer, she'd have to move towards Yukari... or pull the youkai to her.

Torture. That's what this was. Complete and unadulterated torture. She didn't think it could get any worse.

The youkai was right there yet so damn far away. Sheena could fix this issue by just taking control of things and manhandle the youkai, but she didn't want to. Aside from the fact that the bed wasn't terribly big and the responsible part of her mind (as tiny and generally ignored as it was) reminded that falling off the bed if she reacted like normal (normal?) was a very real possibility, she...

She wanted Yukari to kiss her, not the other way around. And it was really frustrating that the youkai wasn't because she'd picked up on something a couple seconds ago.

Argh! She hated Yukari for doing this to her. Life was so much simpler when she was just worried about stopping a crazy angel from turning her worlds into the Land of Apathetic Eternal Boredom and not this... this... wonton spirit that she kind of, sort of, really had a thing for. The end of the world was so much easier to deal with; IT MADE SENSE.

"You're full of a lot of things, Yukari," Sheena replied, the frustration giving her voice a bit of roughness. She wasn't letting the youkai slip free anytime soon. She did release her grip on Yukari's arm, knowing she really didn't have to hold her there with both her hand and her leg. Her nails scraped lightly up the youkai's arm, coming to rest with her fingertips just underneath the purple sleeve.

"Damn you."

And she said she didn't squirm, Yukari recalled smugly. That certainly didn't seem to be the case here. Sheena looked about ready to explode from frustration. So much for keeping her ninja in one piece - hadn't that been what had started all this anyway?

"Full of whatever I want to be, dreams, stories, hopes and fantasies," she said whimsically, every bit as casual as Sheena was tense. "Was there anything in particular I should be? Or was there something you wanted from me?"

As if she couldn't tell, pushing her lips out sensually as she was as she watched Sheena struggle. Just as Sheena wanted Yukari to kiss her, Yukari wanted her to admit it out loud.

"It doesn't matter what you should be; you're just going to be whatever you want to be," Sheena pointed out. "Why does my opinion matter? It's not going to change anything - you'll still just be you." Which the ninja actually preferred, though she'd never admit it.

"And you know exactly what I want. Stop pretending you don't and do something about it."

"Oh, so you do understand!" she said, the subtle upturning of her lips turning into a full-fledged smile. Which in turn became an outright evil grin. "So you know asking like that won't get you anywhere, don't you?"

Drawing closer, then farther away again.

"Perhaps you overestimate my ability of perception," she continued, still smirking. "Just what could it be that you want, hmm? I just don't know..."

That was it. Sheena had suffered enough, having reached her the limit of her tolerance. The pads of her fingers pressed into the youkai's skin as the ninja let out yet another growl of frustration just as the other woman's words began to trail off.

"Damnit, Yukari! Just shut up and kiss me already."

Yukari chuckled darkly, her smile an extremely satisfied one.

"As you command," she whispered softly as she leaned close the ninja, bringing their lips together.

The taste of victory was sweet.

...and a little bit salty, but the ninja had been crying earlier.

With a faint sigh of satisfaction, Sheena let herself fall into the kiss. Marveling in the youkai's lips, she returned it in earnest and her arms came up to drape over Yukari's shoulders. She liked this feeling, this closeness, that of the embers smoldering inside her heart. For the moment, she didn't feel alone; she had Yukari. Even though Yukari would eventually leave her, hurt her and she'd be alone again, right then she had the youkai.

She didn't want this feeling to end.

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