Disclaimer: copy and paste disclaimer here
A/N: hey hey, enjoy
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Tohru pushed back the screen door to the living room, tipping the tray balancing on her shoulder. It came perilously close to toppling over, but her other hand steadied it.
She glided over to the table and set down the lunch. Uo and Hana were already seated.
It was always the three of them, never just Uo and Tohru, or Hana and Tohru – always Uo, Tohru, and Hana.
Tohru sighed, she knew they always came in a group to try to make it less obvious they were watching out for her, protecting her. But she had figured that out a long time ago. They should know better. I'm not going to suddenly explode, or cry, or run away. But she appreciated their attempts.
I can only feel it when they aren't here. She thought, breaking away from private reflections.
"Thank you Tohru, it looks amazing!" Uo chimed. Her comments felt increasingly chipper as the days went on.
"As always." Hana added, still in her glassy, thick voice.
They sat in silence for a bit. Conversation was lacking lately, and it was becoming harder and harder to find new, happy, neutral things to talk about.
Tohru let out a deep breath, setting her glass down, rather sharply. "I know you think that not talking about everything will numb the pain. But you can't protect me – you shouldn't. What happened happened, and I've faced that. But I need you guys back to normal. Because when you pretend nothing happened, you magnify the fact that now everything is different."
Uo and Hana blinked a few times, exchanging glances, though careful to avoid Tohru's.
Finally Hana said, "Tohru, we just want to make sure you're ok. And we hate that you've been through so much crap in your life. "
"I can't pretend the crap didn't happen. But I am ok. I did get through it. And now I need you to get through it too. So that we can talk about scary movies, or violence on the news, or love stories . . ." she trailed off, squishing a cookie crumb between her thumb and forefinger.
"Thank God! Because I saw this amazing movie the other day . . ." Uo burst in, going off about a slasher flick.
Tohru smiled – really smiled. She relaxed a little, and enjoyed the first normal moment in a long time.
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