It was a rather chilly evening at Beacon, enough so that Velvet decided she needed cocoa. She got up and grabbed her favorite mug from her desk, she had gotten it as a gift from her little sister years ago. It was tall and narrow with a comfortable handle, black and glossy and simple but she had never found another one like it.
She stopped at the door and glanced over her shoulder to ask her other two teammates if they wanted anything and seeing as how Coco and Fox seemed quite busy being distracted from homework by each other she decided to leave them alone.
With a small chuckle she headed out and down the hall. She wondered where Yatsuhashi had gone, she hadn't seen him since class had ended for the day. Her question was answered a moment later when she turned the corner and bumped into her missing partner.
She literally ran into him, bouncing off the larger man and falling down. Her landing on the floor was accentuated by a loud shattering sound and her heart sank as she realized that had been her favorite mug.
"Oh, Velvet, are you okay?" The over sized teddy bear of a man asked her. "I didn't see you."
"I'm fine…" She sighed sadly, reaching over and picking up the pieces of her shattered mug. It had broken into four large pieces and two small ones. Yatsuhashi moved to help her up, seeing the mug he fowned.
"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…." He apologize.
"It's not your fault… I should have been watching where I was going." Velvet replied, accepting his help up and looking at the pieces of her broken mug.
"Can you fix it?" He asked her.
"I doubt it… oh well…" Velvet sighed, carrying the pieces back to the dorm room and dropping them on her desk.
Yatsuhashi felt awful, he knew how much that little item had meant to her and he hated to see her sad. He couldn't sleep it bothered him so much. Getting up, he quietly took the pieces of the mug and slipped them into a bag. He then dug through his things until he found an old, large piece of jewelry. It was very old and made of solid gold. It had belonged to his grandmother and he figured since he had broken something precious of Velvet's it was only fair to use something precious of his to fix it.
With those items gathered he left, calling an old friend on his way into Vale.
Velvet woke the next morning to the sound of Yatsuhashi snoring loudly, which she found odd considering he was usually up before her. Sitting up and glancing around she looked sadly over toward her desk then had to do a double take as she saw her mug sitting on her desk, not only repaired but with gold painted on it.
No, not painted on it, she realized as she got up and went over to pick it up. Repaired with it. She looked it over. Gold, real gold, holding it together everywhere it had cracked. It also had a fresh coat of glaze so it was safe to drink from again. She walked over to her sleeping partner and flopped over him in a big hug.
He snorted and woke, looking at his partner as he woke.
"How did you do this?" She asked.
"Kintsugi." He yawned.
"Kin-wha-huh?" She asked, confused.
"It is an ancient form of repair, it means the item is more beautiful for having been broken. I knew it meant a lot to you, so I fixed it." He smiled sleepily, obviously this had taken all night.
The mug was actually still slightly warm from the kiln.
"But, it's real gold, how could you afford that on student's wages?" She asked, concerned.
"I already had the gold, some old keepsake is all. It wasn't doing any good just laying a drawer." He said simply. From his tone she could tell it had been something that had meant a lot to him and she was about to cry.
"What's wrong?" He asked, worried.
"Thank you." She said, kissing his cheek.
He smiled and she blushed.
"Mind covering for me in class today?" He asked her.
"No problem." She smiled.
End.