Safe
She was some kind of beautiful. An entirely different, wonderful kind of beautiful. And he had known her for how many years before he realized this?
Sitting there, across from him in the small, pearl bathtub, laughing at a comment he had said, she was something else. Her normally long and flowing hair had been reduced to a thinner clump of a wet mop, or something like that. She had paled a little at cold of her damp clothes and water evaporating from her skin, but she still smiled. Her nose and her cheeks were pink, her eyes a little so because she has scrubbed the mascara off. It was strange why she wore make-up all the time, and as he sat there, looking at her stripped make-up-less face, she was even better-looking than when she was dazzled up.
She was weird, but he liked it. She would lie on the spur of the moment, and then she'd apologize and say it wasn't true. She would strike up the most random conversations, just to talk to him and hear his voice. She'd find the smallest ways to touch him, to tell him that everything was going to be alright. She would always sit and listen to his problems, even if she had her own. She always joked around, but she could be serious right when he wanted and needed her to be.
She was just something else.
"Hiwatari," she said, studying him. "I think I see one."
He stared. "Pardon?"
"Hold on." Risa stood and hurried to the counter, where a stack of paper cups were waiting. She picked one up and made her way back to the tub. She leaned in and held the cup right below his eye. He blinked and felt the tiniest tear slide into the cup.
He chuckled. "We can preserve it for posterity."
She looked into the cup, then at him. "That's it?"
"I think so... I don't feel anymore coming."
She nodded, accepting what she had. Sitting back into her spot, she put the cup to the side. "Well, if you feel anymore, tell me and I have to cup right here."
Satoshi stared, shaking his head the slightest bit. "Who are you?"
She didn't hesitate, and said with a straight face, "I'm your good friend Risa." He looked down, his mind unable to grasp why and how she put up with him. She grinned. "Tissue?" And she leaned forward, wiping her hands clumsily about his nose and face.
He couldn't help but smile as he listened to the sound of her laughter. "Come here." They met in the middle, then he scooped her into his arms, his chin resting nicely on her shoulder. Her arms were around his neck, and the two of them breathed. She scratched his back.
"How are you feeling?"
He took in her scent. "... Safe... Whenever I'm around you, I feel really safe... like I'm home."