Title: Coming Home
Characters: Possum Cade and Akashi Yuuna
Genre: Angst, friendship
Rated: G
Timeframe: Just after the Youkai Festival
Spoilers: It helps if you know what happened to Possum during the festival and the weeks leading up to it. This side story takes place during Chapter 15: Gone, before the incident with Ayumi in the baths.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009, Early Morning Before School
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Student Number 15, Possum Cade, said as she stood next to Akashi Yuuna in front of the dorm building. "I mean, what about...'you know what'?" she asked.
Yuuna cocked an eyebrow as she looked over at the girl. Despite the age difference, they were about the same height. "'You know what'?" Yuuna repeated. "You sound like a girl talking about her first dirty book. Look, vampirism isn't some horrible disease or anything." Yuuna paused a moment. "Okay, well, so I guess it is, but it's not like you'll be sucking your friends' blood or anything, right? You aren't planning on doing something stupid like that, are you?" she asked, giving Possum a penetrating stare.
"No! I would never!" Possum said frantically, waving her hands in front of her. The very thought of such a thing horrified her and made her want to vomit. The things that the vampire expert the headmaster had brought in from England had said made her feel a little bit better about the situation, but still...she was scared. Terrified would probably be a better word, in her estimation. The bottom line was this: she didn't know what she might do as a newly created vampire, no matter what anyone said. She just...didn't want to hurt anyone.
"Well then it's not a problem, right? I even convinced them to let me work as the dorm mother for a while, since the last one stormed out. What did you guys do to her, anyway?" Yuuna asked, grinning.
"That was all Rosemary and Youko!" Possum said defensively. "I didn't have anything to do with it!"
Yuuna just looked at her.
"Okay," Possum said reluctantly. "So I put that laxative in her coffee, but she deserved it! She was picking on Taro, just because she didn't like her!"
Yuuna nodded. Lots of people didn't like Possum's best friend Urashima Taro, mostly because of the girl's natural independence and the way she didn't trust authority figures. The previous dorm mother had blown into town like a whirlwind, claiming to be some sort of expert on the psychology of teenage girls...Yuuna rolled her eyes. She had a feeling the woman had been assigned as a dorm mother to show her just how wrong she was, and, from all accounts, it had worked. The woman had stormed out after two weeks and hadn't been seen in Mahora since. Yuuna couldn't help but grin at the thought. She had never been able to stomach being around people like that woman. "I believe you. And honestly," Yuuna paused, looking back and forth to make sure nobody was listening. "Nice job," she whispered conspiratorially, grinning. Possum blushed.
They stood side by side for a long moment, looking at the dorm's front door.
"Do you want to wait until everyone leaves for school?" Yuuna asked.
"Y-yeah..." Possum said, shuffling nervously.
"Gotcha," Yuuna said. "C'mon, we can go to my room and kill some time in there," she said, taking Possum's hand.
"Wow," Possum said, awe in her tone as she looked around the small room Yuuna had been assigned. The various things she had collected during her two years of world travel lay strewn about or poking out of boxes. Possum let her gaze move from the exotic kris knife to an eerily translucent chunk of rock to what had to be the stock of a military-style rifle poking out of a box. "Wow," she said again.
Yuuna stood beside her, chest puffed out, preening at the attention Possum was giving her collection. "Oh, it's not that amazing," she said, clearly impressed with herself. "I've just saved a few countries, met a few celebrities...you know, the usual."
Possum's eyes were drawn back to the kris knife, which, judging by the material left behind on it, Yuuna seemed to be using as a butter knife.
A few minutes later, after Yuuna had cleared some room for the two of them to sit down, she faced Possum across the stacked crates that served as a small table. "So," she said. "How do you feel? Thirsty?"
Possum, eying the kris knife again, shook her head before turning her attention back to Yuuna. "No, I had something to drink before you came to pick me up." Yuuna just sat there across from her, grinning in amusement. It took Possum longer that she thought it should to realize Yuuna hadn't been talking about the regular sort of thirst.
"No! Not since...not since the festival," Possum said, looking down at her lap.
"You don't have to hold back, Possum," Yuuna said quietly, turning her head to look out the window. "If you're thirsty, you're thirsty. Don't hold back; that's the worst thing you can do in your situation. If you're thirsty, just tell me; I'll get you fixed right up," she said, looking back at Possum.
Possum looked back down at her lap. "I'm really not thirsty like that, though..."
Yuuna shook her head. "Whatever. Just let me know whenever you do get that way, okay?" She waited for Possum's sheepish nod, and replied with a nod of her own. "Good. Remember! I'm your trainer, right? If you can't tell something like that to me, who can you tell it to? Anyway," she said, "it sounds like the morning rush is over; it's probably safe to go out now."
Yuuna stood up and headed for the door; Possum followed. When they were out in the hallway, Yuuna lead the way upstairs, where she paused in front of the room Possum shared with her classmate Kara Stride. She turned to Possum. "Got your key?"
Possum nodded and stepped forward. She hesitated before the door until Yuuna cleared her throat, and sheepishly unlocked it. The room was much as she remembered it; even though she had been gone for two weeks, it appeared that no one had messed with her things. Even her bookbag was still lying on the dresser, right where she had left it. She felt absurdly thankful to Kara; the other girl had evidently believed in her eventual return enough to leave her stuff alone.
"Come on," Yuuna said, stepping into the room. "Let's get some stuff together and go up to the baths, okay?" she said, grinning.