The wine is starting to grow on her.

Marie doesn't usually drink much, and when she does her tastes run towards the variety that is distinctly pink, but Azusa is with her and her friend refuses to be seen in public with her while she is drinking what the other weapon will only refer to as "that trash," so tonight it has been nothing but the dark reds that the crossbow favors. It wasn't the best at first, but by now Marie is starting to appreciate the bitter tang at the back of her tongue, and Azusa is happy, and this is at least as much a party for the other girl as it is for her.

Azusa isn't looking at her, has been staring off at the far wall for some time now, but her high cheekbones have been flushed for quite a while now, and her usually sharp tongue has gone surprisingly quiet. Marie expected the verbal directness to only get worse with the addition of alcohol, but she can't seem to stop talking so Azusa's unusual silence is a perfect backdrop at the moment.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do, you know?" The wine in her glass is catching the light, drawing out the pattern of ripples as she swirls the liquid absently. "I haven't been on my own in ten years now."

"You always complain about Stein being gone on other assignments and leaving you alone," Azusa points out, but her voice is soft and dull-edged, just honest instead of painfully so.

Marie's smiling admission turns into a self-deprecating laugh in her throat. "I know. I know I do. But there's you, and Sid and Nygus, and all the people I've gone to school with all these years and I know this city and oh god, I'm going to get so lost."

Azusa actually laughs at that, a short explosion of amusement before she cuts herself off. "You will."

"It'll be terrible," Marie says, but there's no real panic in her tone because she can't remember ever hearing Azusa laugh before and she can't stop smiling. The alcohol is warming her body and making her feel relaxed and faintly sleepy, and it stops her from thinking before she reaches out to rest her hand against Azusa's wrist.

The other girl very nearly jerks away. Marie can feel the muscles go tight in her arm, can see the lingering amusement vanish from her face as if it were never there, but when she leaves her arm where it is Marie doesn't move either.

"Azusa."

There is something in her tone that gives her away; Azusa raises an eyebrow smoothly even through her nervous tension and the faint slip of consonants on her tongue. "I didn't know you got touchy-feely with wine."

"Look, Azusa." Marie gracefully handles her friend's commentary by entirely ignoring it. "I'm really going to miss you." Azusa's eyebrows go down, her mouth straightens from its adopted quirk of a smile. "You're basically my best friend, really, and I know I've been an idiot about a lot of things and especially Stein but I'm going to turn things around. I'll go to Oceania and I'll find some nice guy and get married and I don't know that I'll ever see you again but you've been great, really great to me, and I just appreciate that because I know you don't really like Stein and it must have been a pain to listen to me all these years. So just - thanks."

"You're thanking me for being your friend." It would be a question if it were someone else and it would be dark amusement on another day for Azusa, but she goes straight down the middle of the two options and it just sounds like a flat statement.

"Yes." Marie smiles again and can't stop, grinning until her face hurts, and even then she can't get her amusement under control. Azusa's glasses, always inexplicably more reflective than Stein's, are whited-out with glare, and something about the dulled edge in the other weapon's tone reminds Marie of her...ex-meister, she supposes would be the proper term.

"You kind of look like Stein when you do that," she is saying before her brain can catch up and pull back the words.

Azusa's chin comes down sharply as she briefly tries to rearrange every aspect of her face into something else. With the shine gone, her eyes are visible and the resemblance vanishes. Marie forgets that Azusa's eyes are blue like they are, so dark they look black if you haven't seen them frequently.

"I assume you mean that as a compliment." The younger girl's sharp tone is back, turning the last word into an insult as she enunciates it with razor clarity.

Marie laughs. She knows how Azusa feels about Stein, and she hadn't really thought it through, but it's very hard to feel like anything at all is important just at the moment. "Of course I did."

"Of course you did." Azusa echoes back, but there is a tiny twist of a smile at the corner of her mouth. Marie considers herself forgiven.

It is hours later that they finally leave, and Marie doesn't remember much of their conversation, just the slow unravelling of Azusa's regular tension, the bubbling laughter that composed a greater and greater part of their conversation. Azusa walks her home, steadier on her feet than Marie thought she possibly could be or at least doing a better job of pretending to be. The reality of her impending transfer doesn't hit Marie until she's outside the grey laboratory, her room inside filled with mostly-packed boxes and only hers for the night and the morning.

Azusa's arm is around her shoulder, holding her somewhat steady, but the other girl doesn't pull away when Marie twists towards her and wraps her in a hug.

"I -" She doesn't know exactly what she wants to say, has said it all already. "Thank you. I'm scared and frightened and really pretty drunk but thank you, so much."

Azusa's arms catch around her shoulders, press her tight in reciprocation for just a moment. "He never deserved you," she says, clear and as sharp as if she hasn't had anything to drink at all.

Marie laughs into Azusa's shoulder. At least this is the same, as if nothing is changing, as if she'll still have her best friend in the morning instead of a new home on a new continent and nothing but strangers all around her, and maybe that's what makes her answer Azusa's comment for once.

"No. But he needed me."