This snippet might be a bit unexpected, but my brain leaped to this point when I considered continuing the 'Matsuri Wins' chapters. So you could say this is Matsuri Wins part 17? idk lol. angst warning

Yuzu didn't know how long she had been sitting on the front steps of her home with her hands holding a sheet of paper. Instead of coming home to Matsuri she came into a house empty of half of its belongings and sapped of life. When she saw Matsuri's letter sitting on the kitchen counter, her breath staggered out of her lungs until she blacked out. The next thing she knew she was sitting outside, lost and wretchedly empty and alone.

"I can't do this anymore, Yuzu-chan..." Her mind reread the first line of Matsuri's letter over and over, taunting her. It was happening again. She was being abandoned again.

She almost didn't register the shadow of a figure standing over her. When she did realize who it was, she couldn't bear to look at her.

"Mei, please… go away. I can't do this right now," Yuzu croaked, nearly unable to speak.

Instead, the presence came closer. Mei gingerly sat down on the steps next to her, far enough away that Yuzu would have to reach to smack her again if she wanted to.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Yuzu's eyes closed in exhaustion at those words as she shook her head. She thought she couldn't possibly have any more tears left, but they were brewing hotly behind her eyelids.

"What you need right now… is family," Mei's soft voice managed to reach her, making Yuzu almost smile bitterly at the irony of her words.

'I wish I could just hate you.'

She wondered when she became the broken one out of the two of them. Did Yuzu's need to feel wanted by someone make her the villain of her own story, turning her heart wounded and bitter?

If she didn't have love, then what did she have?

'I have family,' the depts of her mind provided. A lifeline to keep her from spiraling into rocky depths further than what she's reached before when Mei left her. She released a shuddering breath and managed to open her eyes again.

"She left," Yuzu whispered, staring at Matsuri's letter crumbled in her hand.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's my fault," Yuzu said as the letter continued to crunch in her clenching, trembling hands. Her vision and words were blurred. "I didn't understand anything. I'm the worst."

Mei, wisely, did not offer empty words of comfort. She placed her hand on the steps between them. "I understand your feelings," was all she said.

Yuzu's chest felt like it was rattling as she breathed, realizing that Mei probably did understand. That their break up had hurt her just as much. She bit her lip until she was probably bleeding. "I miss her," her heart rasped even if she had no right to say those words. Blindly, she reached out until just the tips of her fingers touched Mei's. At the contact of their fingers, Yuzu's tears burned all the harder. She was pathetic and she hated herself for it.

The other woman didn't move away. "I know," she said. Her presence was solid and serene. She was whole with understanding while Yuzu felt more hollow than ever.

Mei silently sat with her for the rest of the night.