Orbit
By SMYGO4EVA
"Do you suppose this is real, that any of this is real at all?" Mai asked, her voice firm.
This still gave Ishizu the impression of absence, but it was more endearing than insulting by this point.
It's an interesting question – it was a nonsensical and unprovoked one, but – interesting. Most things about Mai were that way, Ishizu had found. (She kind of liked it, she thought Mai had found.)
"Real," Ishizu repeated slowly, feeling out the sound on her lips. "What is it that you mean by real, exactly?"
Mai's brow furrowed pensively, and she raised a hand to her chin. "I…" she paused, tapping her pouty lower lip with a slender finger.
"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I think what I mean to ask – if we're not just imagining one another. Or perhaps –" her eyes, heliotrope and pretty with maturity mixed with a sparkling innocence that Ishizu thought was a little charming, widen as though she had a breakthrough.
"Perhaps it's only one of us that is doing the imagining. I have seen you before, back in Battle City, but do you suppose it's possible that one of us doesn't exist?"
She said it with a distinctive lack of bitterness; it's simply the curiosity of a young woman who never really grew out of her phase of childhood whimsy.
The Egyptian shifted, a little uncomfortably, and remarked, "We are both here, aren't we?"
The blonde duelist nodded, conceding, but looks as though her mind was still muddled with the thought.
To keep Mai from bringing it up anymore, Ishizu kissed her.
It felt real, at least, and that was enough for her.