"Are we seriously going back because of a stupid dream?" grumbled Takeru as the group of gods walked down the street, attracting lots of eyes as they went. (Balder was attracting more than just eyes, and he cheerfully spoke to all of the men and women that gathered around him, saying that, no, he didn't have a phone and no, he wasn't interested in going on a date some time.)
"It wasn't just a dream," Apollon insisted, face pale. "Are you not even slightly concerned that your brother slept with Yui?"
"My brother is about as tactful as a pillow." Judging by his tone, Takeru was jealous that there was even a possibility that his brother had slept with Yui. "There's no way that they slept together." Despite his angry tone, he didn't sound so sure. "A dream no reason to be heading back to the shrine."
Apollon didn't respond, but he did look as if he were about to vomit.
"Whatever the hell ya wanna do, then," Takeru groaned, slumping over as he walked.
"Your groaning is not helping, Susanoo," sighed Thoth.
Takeru straightened up, giving Thoth a glare and crossing his arms as he walked.
"Yeah, your groaning is not helping, Susanoo," snickered Anubis, finding it all so funny, as he did everything.
"What's up with that mutt repeating everything you say, teach?" asked Loki.
Thoth seemed almost amused at the way that Loki worded it, while Anubis looked angry.
"Hey, I am not a mutt!" Anubis defended.
"Oh, look! It can think for itself!"
"I'm not an 'it'!" Anubis said. "Kabalala! I'm a 'he', obviously!"
"Obviously?" snorted Loki. "You're wearing a leopard print crop top and you have a woman's haircut. In no way is it obvious that you are a man."
Anubis crossed his arms, smiling brightly. "You're just jealous because I have better fashion sense than you, red-haired Norse god."
Hades sighed softly. "Would you all please stop fighting? I believe that my nephew has a headache because of it," he said, making his voice loud enough to be heard over the fighting.
Everyone turned towards Hades, looking surprised. He'd never raised his voice above a mutter, and now he was suddenly speaking loud enough to be heard over their yelling?
There was silence amongst them for a moment, and then various apologies.
"My apologies," said Balder, though he was innocent, offering a gentle smile.
"Yeah, sorry," said Loki sarcastically, rubbing his neck and grinning.
"Sorry," said Takeru, looking down and blushing, kind of embarrassed that he got chastised.
"I apologize for commenting on the idiocy," said Thoth.
"I apologize for commenting on the idiocy," mimicked Anubis.
Even the innocent one of the bunch apologized. "I'm sorry," said Thor.
"There is no need to apologize," Hades said, voice going back to normal. "I know that it is my misfortune that is causing the conflicts..."
"When will you stop it with this 'poor little me' garbage and admit that it's not always your fault, Aidoneus?" Takeru asked, voice angry but in a sympathetic way.
"It is not garbage. The curse-"
"-has nothing to do with how I act or how anyone else does," completed Balder, voice firm but soft. "Hades, I realize that you carry the burden of the tortured souls of the underworld, but you must understand that the curse isn't affecting any of our actions."
Loki snapped his fingers in his right hand, grinning. "That's right, Green Boy. None of us are affected by your 'bad curse' or whatever."
A teeny, teeny, teeny smile appeared on the face of the god of the underworld. "Thank you for the words of assurance."
•••
Yui came out of her room at about ten o'clock, cramping terribly. She walked to bathroom, sore abdomen crying out with every step.
She groaned when she saw her reflection in the mirror that was mounted on the door of the medicine cabinet that hung above the sink. She was dressed a yellow bathrobe that she only now realize was way too large for her. Her mascara was smudged and streaked from tears and sleep. Her purple hair was mussed up, knotted, and sticking out at random places. She felt like utter rubbish, and she looked the part.
She grabbed her makeup wipes from off of the bathroom counter and pulled one from the package. She began to gently rub circles on her face, being sure that she got every single bit of the mascara.
After she finished this task, she looked in the mirror again. She smiled vaguely to herself when she saw that her dark purple eyelashes were hardly visible because of how short and straight they were. She didn't like how she looked without mascara, but to see her face without the smudges made her feel a little better.
She tossed the makeup wipe into the trash and grabbed her brush from the second drawer below the bathroom sink. She stated into her eyes as he began to slowly and patiently work out all of the knots in her hair. She grimaced when she accidentally pulled her hair a few times.
Once she finally got all of the knots out, she ruffled her hands through her hair, sighing deeply. Though she loved her bangs, she regretted not growing out the rest of her hair to match the longer strands of her hair. It looked normal now that it was down, but it looked odd to her when it was up.
She grabbed a ponytail band and took her time separating the long hairs from the short hairs until she was able to gather the long hair into a low ponytail. She smiled at her reflection. Looking better...
She opened the third drawer and pulled out her makeup bag. She pulled out her mascara, her eyelash curler, and her pink-tinted lipgloss. She had a lot of other makeup supplies, but she hardly used them.
She struggled to align the eyelash curler with her right eye, and she let out a grunt of anger as she struggled to get the cheap curled to close. When it did, she gasped in pain. It'd pulled a few of her eyelashes out when she'd closed it. She sighed deeply, checking her reflection and making sure that she still had some eyelashes left. She then moved on to her left eye, though this time she found it to be much less of a struggle.
She then unscrewed her mascara from its tube and rubbed some of the extra off on the inside lip of the tube so as not to waste it. She opened her mouth and opened her right eye wide. She meticulously began to apply her mascara to her right eye, careful to make sure that none of her lashes stuck together. She did the same with her left eye.
She blinked a few times, making sure that it was on there just right, before smiling gently at her reflection and rescrewing the cap onto the mascara.
Next was her lipgloss. She applied it easily. She spilled one swipe on each of her lips, rubbed her lips together, and then let them go with a soft pop.
"You look nice today, Kutanagi!" said a voice from beside her.
She jolted in surprise and turned her head towards the voice.
On the counter stood the wonderful little doll-man, Melissa.
"Oh, Melissa!" Yui sighed in relief once she saw that it was the creature. "You startled me! When did you get here?"
"I followed you in," he said. "I didn't say anything because you looked so tired, but I was sitting on the toilet seat."
She laughed at her unawareness. "Sorry that I didn't notice you sooner, Melissa!"
"Pfft, that's nothing to apologize about, Kutanagi," Melissa said, swatting his arm in the air dismissively.
Yui smiled vaguely at his mispronunciation. "Er, Kusanagi."
"I know. Kutanagi."
"No, Melissa. Ku-sa-na-gi."
"I have it down! Ku-ta-na-gi!"
Yui shook her head, but inside she was smiling. Something about that cheered her up.
Just a little brightness in Yui's dull day.
•••
"Mornin', Yui-san," greeted Dionysus casually as Yui entered the dining room. He sat with his feet propped up on the seat across from him, and he had his hands folded behind his head. He gave Yui a quick once over. "You look just as pretty as ever, even though it's only eleven. How're you this morning?" Dionysus lifted his feet out of the chair across from him and sat up straight so that she could sit in that chair.
Yui gave a smile. "Good morning, Dionysus-san. I'm okay this morning." She was looking down at the table.
"You sure? You seem off. You embarrassed about somethin'? Hiding somethin'? You seem more mellow than usual. And you're blushing."
"I...yes, I'm fine."
Dionysus frowned, blinking at her. Nope, something was off, and he knew it. And he'd find out what.
"Is your stomach hurting?" Dionysus asked.
"No, it's nothing like that."
"Oh, so it's not physical?"
"...it's nothing."
"So it is physical?"
"No, I'm just sore."
Dionysus smiled a little. "Oh, from sword-practice?"
"N...yes, actually." She looked up, clutching her abdomen. "There was no medicine for pain around the house..."
Dionysus rubbed his chin, then realized, "Oh, hey! Wine alleviates pain."
"Anything to help."
He grinned. "I will go fetch us some, then." He stood. "Hold tight."
