A/N: Sorry about the delay! Mom told me we'd be back home before 6pm, but it didn't turn out that way.
Anyways, a really good data recovery place in CA has my hard drive and should be able to recover my chapters. But since they're not ready yet, one scene in this chapter might be a little cheesier than the end product. Just a little! To be expected from a fic with OUAT origins.
(Speaking of which, going by the latest episode, I think it's fully fair to believe that Rumple and Belle's travels included Japan during Heartbreak Cure's timeline. After all, I see he started taking a liking to walking bridges ;D)
Enjoy!
[Chapter 18]: Ryou's Crisis
Yukine was already inside with Ryou by the time Yuri, Kanade, and Otonashi arrived. The door was unlocked, so the other three let themselves in with a "sorry for the intrusion" and made their way into the sitting room, where Yukine had her charm books scattered on the coffee table and Ryou's head in her lap.
"I used a charm like this on myself once," Yukine explained to the curious onlookers. She patted Ryou's hair, most of which was matted to her cheek from tears. "It was for sleeping well, but I found that a variation helps with peace of mind."
However, Ryou looked very much wide awake, and the glaze over her eyes was not from exhaustion.
"It's not working," she said miserably, sitting up and wiping at her face. "How could I ever have peace of mind after this?"
"Ryou, what happened?" Yuri asked, feeling an old sisterly pull at her heart. She faintly remembered warning Sunohara not to hurt Ryou, or she'd tie balloons to his pants and watch him sail away into the sun. She'd been living with Ryou then, and Kyou had overheard and cackled happily. One of the rare times she felt welcomed by Ryou's sister.
Ryou blinked, stood up, wiped at her eyes again. Then she gasped, "Yuri!" and rushed across the room into her arms. Yuri returned the hug with vigor; she didn't get to see Ryou very often because her friend's nurse career kept her busy. When they parted, Ryou looked up at her, flabbergasted, still grasping her arms. "You're here? In Mizuzaka? Did Naoi-?"
"No, I came back for you!" Yuri said, making a mental note to ask her what she knew—at a better time, of course. "What's the crisis? Why didn't you call me?"
Ryou looked guilty. Among other things. Her eyes, red from crying, nervously danced away from Yuri's, and she started twisting at a lock of damp hair.
"I'm sorry, I… I just didn't think this was something you wanted to hear about." She moved back to the couch and sat down, locking and twiddling her fingers. She picked up a charm book from the coffee table and thumbed through it, too fast to actually be paying attention.
Yuri frowned. She rounded the coffee table and stood by the edge of the couch, having the distinct feeling that this was a Ryou way of being insulted.
"What do you mean by that?" she asked. "Why wouldn't I want to hear about your problems?"
"You never want to hear about my love problems!" Ryou burst out, voice shaking with emotion. Even Otonashi and Kanade were startled, standing in the background as know-the-faces with moral support. "I've tried talking to you about Youhei, but ever since you…" she hesitated, biting her lip, "…ever since you moved, you haven't been helpful. You give advice like someone who's forgotten how to love. Like someone who can't love!"
Yuri crossed her arms, hurt. Her heart gave an offended twinge. "I can love!" she insisted, narrowing her eyes at the inaccuracy of it all.
Of course she could love! She brought love into the Afterlife, where it shouldn't have bloomed. She loved so hard that she filled a whole room of computer screens with full red hearts. Then again, she'd proceeded to shoot every computer in the room until all the hearts and screens had shattered, sputtering and fizzling pathetically.
She had a defensive urge to tell Ryou about all that, leaving out the last bit. But that was a long time ago, and the Afterlife was something Ryou knew nothing about. It was something she'd never talked about with her. Just like how Ryou didn't try to talk about Sunohara with her anymore. As much as she hated to admit it, Ryou was right. She felt vaguely detached when Ryou had brought up boyfriend struggles on the phone, because she couldn't relate. Maybe there were things that she and Ryou just couldn't share.
Wait, but that wasn't entirely true…
"I… I loved Naoi, didn't I?" she pointed out, feeling triumphant.
Ryou stared at her. "You don't remember that."
Her triumph collapsed. "But I did."
"You loved him," Ryou said, lowering her eyes, "and look at where it got you."
Yuri felt awful. It wasn't her fault she couldn't remember Naoi. She didn't ask for some magical spell to be cast over her, or to feel like she'd never been in love. Anyway, maybe she shouldn't have to know romantic love to care about what her best friend was going through.
With a sigh, Yuri sat down next to Ryou, sandwiching her between Yukine and herself, and patted her hand.
"At least tell me what happened."
Ayato got home before the Kyuuya trio, who arrived five minutes later with empty fast food bags, Hinata sucking down the last of his soda, Shiina clutching a toy from a kids' meal, and Yui dancing around erratically as soon as she got out of the car. He rolled his eyes and let Yui into the house to use the bathroom.
"Hey, aren't we going to Ryou's place to meet up with everyone?" Hinata asked, following him inside.
"After dropping off our stuff," said Ayato. Then he remembered something he'd thought about on the way home, and turned to him after dropping his bag onto the couch. "By the way, you and Yui can have my bed this time. Just please don't... mingle in it."
Hinata smiled. "And just when I was going to give you points for being hospitable."
"You're disgusting."
"You're the one who kept making gross innuendos," said Hinata with a cheeky grin. "I've earned my revenge."
Ayato stared at him, unblinking. "No, you're disgusting for thinking about fooling around with Yui in the same bed where Yuri and I—"
Hinata clapped his hands to his ears. "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! It's been six months, it's decontaminated!"
Ayato laughed, gave him an unconvincing pat on the shoulder, and walked into the kitchen. At first he hoped to unnerve his guest with silence, but he felt a fleeting moment of mercy. "If you're so concerned, I have a couple of spare mattresses I can dig out."
"It's fine," Hinata's voice came from the other room. "Yurippe and Shiina can have them."
"Shiina?" Ayato arched his eyebrows. "Does she sleep?"
Floating by the kitchen pass-through, Shiina sent him a wicked ruby glare. It was especially vampiric and only furthered his suspicions.
She almost always wore scarves, didn't she? Maybe she was covering up a bite mark.
They didn't stay long. Ayato offered to let them just hang out here in case the others ended up bringing Yukine back from Ryou's house, but Hinata waved it off. Some sappy, corny comment about new friends and "the more the merrier." Outgoing people were so bizarre.
He drove them over in his car, after Yui and Hinata fought over who got to sit in the back with Shiina. He would have pointed out that there were three backseats if he weren't mildly offended. Shiina punished them by sitting in the front, but he could see in his peripheral vision that she was clearly pleased by the attention.
At Ryou's house, people weren't quite so tickled. Ryou had her face buried in the couch, and Yuri had a look on her face like she'd been repeatedly swatted over the head with a rolled up newspaper. She caught his eye and frowned hard, chewing on her bottom lip. Oh great, Ryou-ness was contagious.
Ayato gave the house a quick once-over. The entire surface of the coffee table was covered with what he assumed to be Yukine's charm books, about five cracked open. Some of the covers he recognized from the eccentric bookstore where he'd found information on hypnotism. Yukine was over in the kitchen with Otonashi and Kanade mulling over a different book. His guess was that Yukine had started to be of service to Ryou, but then Yuri had commandeered the crisis intervention. He raised an eyebrow, searching curiously for traces of candy wrappers or tubs of ice cream.
"What's the crisis?" Yui asked, unabashedly making her way into the sitting room. "I'm good at girl talk!"
"I'm fine," Ryou said, muffled through the couch cushion.
Yuri made a considering noise. "No, maybe Yui and Shiina can help. At least Shiina knows what it's like to have loved and lost."
The mood in the room instantly soured.
"Sunohara broke up with her?" Ayato scowled, remembering their confrontation a few days ago. Maybe he had hypnotized the wrong person. "Is that why he texted her the other night?"
That idiot, he was lucky to have her. In fact, the brat had insinuated as such during their run-in. Because we don't throw away what we have with the women we love. Indeed! Utter nonsense. He wanted to roll his eyes so hard they disappeared into his sockets just thinking about it.
Ryou raised her head from the couch. "No, I broke up with him," she said, tears staining her cheeks.
Conflicted, Ayato wrinkled his nose. His first thought was, good on her. Sunohara was whiny and obnoxious and full of himself. He strutted around with an unearned confidence – probably from having a girlfriend – and made far too many dirty jokes. Even when Ayato had known very little about Ryou and found her squeaky and peculiar, he didn't think that Sunohara deserved her.
And yet Ryou looked pretty miserable without him.
"Meanwhile, apparently we can't get her sister Kyou over here because she's out on a date with her stupid boyfriend," Yuri said spitefully.
Ryou tilted her head at her. "You don't know he's… stupid," she said, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "You've never met him."
Yuri dismissed it, sniffing, "He's either really stupid or really important if he's keeping her from being there for her little sister. I thought she'd protect you from everything!"
Ryou looked sheepish. "I… I never called her."
"WHAT!"
"I didn't want to bother her!" Ryou squeaked, wide-eyed. "Not when she's on a date, no matter how much it hurts! You know how—!" She paused, looking flustered, and looked briefly at Ayato before continuing. "You know how I can be."
He nodded thoughtfully. Ryou really could be too considerate for her own good.
Yuri frowned in disapproval, fishing out her cell phone. "I'm calling her."
"Don't!" Ryou shrieked, diving at her.
Obviously the girl had never tried to fight Yuri before, because after about ten seconds of scuffling and squawking, she ended up pinned on her back with empty hands. Yuri held the phone up in the air with a triumphant yell – until someone snatched it away from her. She blinked twice when her right hand only grabbed air.
Hinata stuck the phone in his back pocket. "Come on, Yurippe," he said. "If someone broke my brother's heart, I wouldn't want to hear about it on a date with Yui."
Ryou gave him a watery smile; Hinata grinned back at her. His grin only widened when she sniffled and turned to Yuri curiously. "'Yurippe?'"
Yuri snarled very much. Ayato wasn't sure if it was the spread of the nickname or Hinata's betrayal.
"Yeah, but I gather that you wouldn't kill me if I didn't tell you about it immediately," she said wryly. "In fact, you'd probably be too busy running off to give her a high-five."
Hinata laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, I would."
The situation was still bothering Ayato, who right now didn't care about siblings being busy on dates or Hinata's friction with his obnoxious brother.
"Why did you break up with him?" he asked, then furrowed his forehead. "Besides the obvious reasons."
Ryou sniffled again, and buried her reddening face in her hands.
"He told me he loved me," she said meekly.
Ayato sucked in his cheeks; he did not understand women. Metaphorical full moon strikes again.
"So what?" he asked, giving her a baffled look. "He isn't lying. I heard him say it when I ran into him on Wednesday." Was six months really too early for that? He thought a girl like Ryou would want to hear her boyfriend say it by now.
"It's nothing like that." Ryou blew her nose on a tissue Yuri handed her. "I know that he meant it."
"Then what—"
Kanade, still immersed in the book Yukine was showing her, spoke up from the kitchen: "Ryou has lost faith in love."
Ayato's mouth fell open, aghast. Ryou? The one who had, just a few days ago, gazed at him in misplaced wonder like he was some knight going off to fight a dragon or some villainous suitor for the heart of his dear princess? To him, the fairytale analogy was still ungodly, but Ryou! It was like finding out she didn't believe in… well, magic, anymore!
"Lost faith in—" He closed his mouth abruptly, trying to process this. "What the hell for?"
Yuri clicked her tongue. "Apparently it's because we didn't work out."
Dismayed, Ryou squeaked in defense – something incoherent about not blaming them and "just being realistic" or "careful" or whatever it was she was yelping about.
Ayato turned his eyes heavenward.
"Lost faith in—" He marched over to the couch and stood in front of her, arms clasped behind his back. "Can I speak to you for a minute alone?"
Despite her flagrant lack of enthusiasm and energy, she nodded and hoisted herself up from the couch. Since it was her house, he let her show him into a room, one that appeared to be a guest room. This must have been where Yuri was staying until she moved to Noroi...
Ryou cleared her throat, and he shook the thoughts away. Right. Best to stay on track. Sighing, he gave her a stern look.
"Is what Yuri said true?" he asked. Her eyes skittered away from him, but he was persistent and held her gaze. "You've lost faith because of us?"
Ryou shrunk under his stare. "You're not trying to hypnotize me again, are you?"
The accusation made him take a step back.
"What?" His eyebrows shot all the way up his forehead. He was more than a little offended. It wasn't like he'd tried to hypnotize her on Thursday night. "No! I—"
A bothersome voice reminded him – much like Shiina and Yuri, she had every right to be suspicious.
Ayato sighed, repentant. His history with hypnotism could be tiresome at times. "I'm sorry for hypnotizing you without your permission," he said, letting his arms fall at his sides. "I let myself believe the ends justified the means."
A look of understanding crossed her face. "I know. You wanted to find Yuri."
"Do you know why?" he asked.
"Because…" Ryou eyed him hesitantly, rubbing her arm. "You were going to reunite her with the rest of her friends."
"Is that all the cards said?"
Ryou continued to stare at him, now in stony silence. Maybe it was her card-reading expression, or maybe she thought he was just humoring her. Well, not this time.
"It's because I missed her... I wanted to see her again." Ayato closed his eyes. "And when… when she didn't know who I was, it destroyed me."
When he opened his eyes again, he saw fresh tears in Ryou's. He resisted the urge to curse out loud. He was never a fan of womanly tears, especially growing up with his mother, and Ryou was a dangerously sensitive girl. But she had to hear this from him.
"But I went back to Noroi the next day," he said firmly, "because you told me not to give up."
"You both gave up six months ago!" Ryou said, bleary-eyed and with a fervor that startled him. "After three years of marriage, you just decided out of nowhere to get divorced for no reason! If you could fall out of love with Yuri so suddenly, after all you've been through together, why should I believe in what I have with Youhei?"
"Circumstances were different!" Ayato insisted. As far as he knew, Ryou and Sunohara would never have a reawakening quite like theirs. "I made a mistake letting her go. I will never give up on Yuri like that again, I promise you that."
Ryou inhaled sharply, a shaky post-sob gasp. Her hands were trembling, so Ayato seized them both.
"I'll do whatever it takes to bring back her memories. I won't give up on love." He looked at her steadily. She was biting her lip again. "So don't you give up on love either."
She took on a measured look, then drew her arms away – and flung them around his middle.
"Thank you, Naoi," she mumbled into his shoulder.
Once again, Ayato was aghast. When did he start stealing Yuri's friends? He had hugged exactly two other women in his life – Yuri and his mother. Still, he supposed Ryou was alright enough to be a third. He let his arms wrap around her shoulders.
"We should go back out there," he said once they broke apart, with a sheepish smirk. "Some of my friends have minds like Sunohara."
Ryou glanced over at the closed guestroom door and promptly blushed like a strawberry. She squeaked once more and rushed over to it, yanking on the doorknob.
So skittish. She reminded him of someone. But who?
When he realized, he felt the color drain from his face. Kurimu Aoki—or Kurimu Hejjiguchi, her married name—that was who she reminded him of. His and Yuri's friend from high school. Hopefully she wouldn't meet the same fate…
"Naoi?" He blinked back into focus and saw her waiting at the door, which was half-ajar. She smiled at him, thankfully dry-eyed. "Do your best."
He nodded, trying not to picture her with wild honey-brown hair and orange bows.
"You too," he said, and followed her out into the hall.
In the sitting room, he caught up with Ryou just as she was running into Yuri's arms to give her a hug. Mystified, Yuri returned it and stared over Ryou's shoulder at him. She sent him a questioning look that he decided not to answer for now, so he just shrugged modestly.
Ryou pulled away after a minute, looking happier than ever.
"I'm sorry, Yuri. I don't blame you for anything," she said sincerely. "I just need to believe in myself. Love's not predictable, and that's okay."
With that, she dug her phone out from between the couch cushions and started walking towards the front door.
Yuri watched her go, still wide-eyed from the apparent 180 degree mood swing. "Wait, where are you going? What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to call Youhei and tell him I love him too!" Ryou called back to her, just before the door swung shut.
Once she was gone, all eyes fell on him.
"Did… you do that?" Shiina asked, peering at him from her spot in the corner next to the doorway.
"I guess so."
Otonashi looked impressed. "Great work, Naoi," he said, grinning.
Ayato felt pleased. "God works in mysterious ways."
Elsewhere, in the space between the kitchen and the sitting room, Yukine leaned over to Shiina, Hinata, and Yui. "He's spiritual?"
"He's narcissistic," Yui replied.
Yuri overheard and snorted with laughter. Though she clapped a hand to her mouth, he could still see a smile through the cracks in her fingers. Ayato felt even happier.
Since Ryou was outside making amends, Yukine made her way over to the coffee table and closed the open charm books. When she got to the last one, she lingered over the cover and gave a thoughtful hum.
"Well, since Ryou has no more need for my services, how can I help you all?" she asked, turning to the group. "You mentioned wanting a locator spell for long lost friends. Do you want to borrow some books, or would you like me to help you—"
"We'll rent the books," Yui interrupted. "You probably want to head back home to Kyuuya anyway."
Hinata rolled his eyes at his wife. "Of course, Yui, and then she can drop by Shiina's place to pick them up when we're done with them."
Yui frowned hard. "Oh," she said, like she'd just realized something.
Oblivious, Yukine beamed helpfully at them.
"It's no trouble, actually. I told Ryou I'd stay for the weekend if necessary. I'm here as long as she doesn't have a date with Sunohara." She scribbled something down on a piece of paper, then walked over to Yuri and handed her the book and the paper scrap. "Why don't you borrow one or two for now, and if you need help with research or enacting any spells and charms, you can give me a call."
"You're as helpful as ever," Yuri said with a grin, taking the book. She didn't seem to mind too much when Yui stole it out of her hands.
Bashfully, Yukine laughed and bowed her head at the compliment. "I'll be researching too," she said. "And anyway, it's not the first time you've needed help finding someone."
The comment gave Ayato pause, particularly as Yuri's grin faded into deep thought. Who did Yukine mean by that? Yuri couldn't have gone looking for the Battlefront before, or else she wouldn't be trusting in Yukine's help now. Perhaps she'd wanted to find her parents. Or, at the most far-fetched of hypotheticals, a certain fellow gymnast.
No matter. A reunion like that was unheard of. And according to Hinata, Yuri had been lonely when they found her, so whoever it was mustn't have been too important.
And now more than ever, Operation Battlefront Reunion was underway.
A/N: Every good OUAT-related fic needs a nice hope speech. ;) As Zain knows, I had some trouble fixing this chapter's ending to its former Vaio glory but I've done it! (It's a shame, though, quality Hufflepuff jokes are hard to cut out)
Anyways, I just realized that the next chapter has stuff that could be construed as Halloween-appropriate (completely unintentional as I wrote it so long ago), so I might be publishing Chapter 19 on Tuesday instead of next Saturday. Might be. We'll see!
Preview:
"I didn't starve without you, Nakamura."
"Didn't he just tell you to shut up?!"
"You could tell him about the time I stabbed you."
"Ooh, I found something!"
"What can you tell us about Locus Felicis?"
"Mizuzaka is such a magical place."
[Chapter 19]: Locus Felicis.
