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"Good thing you had a doll to curl up with," she hummed in amusement, sitting up for just a moment to reach for that soda he'd brought and pass it to him before tucking herself against him again. It was a bit of a muggy night, but for some reason, the warmth of him didn't bother her at all.

Dolls can be pretty.

People make dolls to be the companions that they lack. The companions that are always there for them.

Happily, Kuon started humming again, her feet swinging just a little bit. She was feeling... good. Certain, for once, a certainty that only comes from really understanding oneself for the first time. Resolute.

She can't be a loving girlfriend. She can't be a fun coworker, or a charming daughter, or anything like that. But she can be someone's doll, their support, there to comfort them and help them succeed.

Just like she was ready to do for EMMA. She'll do it for Takuto Maruki.

A doll...Maruki wasn't sure how to feel about that yet. She didn't find any offense to it- holding that title and cradling it in her hands with the wonder to cherish it. So much of what he had said had been blurred by lines that were caught in his throat that he wasn't even sure if he had spilled something unsavoury in the midst of his cries.

Still.

A miracle...

He held onto that, the same way she did to her own.

"Oh-! Thank you!" He beamed at her as she passed him the soda he had bought.

So much of her presence next to him felt freeing. Like he had finally found his own anchor after sinking for so long. Her humming warmed his heart in ways he had...missed.

He missed Rumi so much.

With her place next to him, Takuto popped open the can without really checking the label.

Which served to be a mistake.

His eyes widened as hd sputters after the first gulp.

"Pfft- ugh, oh no that's not-" he coughs as he turns his face away from Kuon. "Is that- toothpaste?!"

And sure enough, the label on the can read Mint Choco soda.

The sputtering did have Kuon jumping and sitting upright, just in case a very drunk Takuto was about to throw up - but laughed in pleasant surprise when he held out the soda, grimacing at it and the flavor.

Mint choco...

"Oh no, I hate chocolate sodas! Hahaha! They're vile."

Still giggling, she turned and rummaged through her takeaway bag and pulled out the last melonpan, tearing open the packaging.

"Melonpan to the rescue!"

A pitiful little whine slipped out of Maruki as he stared down at the can in betrayal, grimacing once more at the mint-choco label. Of course, it had to be mint-choco soda. Because the universe, clearly, had a sense of humor.

"Chocolate sodas... seriously? Nothing's going according to plan tonight, is it?" he muttered, shaking his head as he leaned down and set the cursed drink aside with dramatic care.

He perked up almost instantly at the sight of the melonpan in her hands. "Hurray for melonpan! You really can't go wrong with that."

Finally, finally, he settled next to her—less flustered and fidgety, more still.

Felt pretty healing, honestly.

A nostalgic sigh passed through him as he looked out toward the streetlights blinking through the muggy air. "Still... I doubt anything can live up to Shujin's melonpan. I used to grab them all the time back then. They sort of became my emergency breakfast on busy mornings. Just... rushing, always rushing, never time for anything proper."

He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck—then paused when he noticed the way she was holding the melonpan out to him.

"For...me?" he asked, blinking.

Then: a soft, earnest smile. "My hero," he said with a kind of playful reverence. "No, literally—you’re saving me from my tragically bad impulse purchases. I swear, I’m working on it. But between the soda and the, uh, alcohol... the memo clearly got lost somewhere."

Edited 2025-07-02 00:01 (UTC)

Despite the joke, there was nothing but warmth in his eyes as he accepted the melonpan. Instead of diving in immediately, he turned the pastry in its wrapper with surprising care. Carefully, almost ceremonially, he folded it in half—custard peeking slightly from the top portion—before gently peeling the wrapper down around the still-intact lower half.

Then, with a little grin and childlike brightness, he held that second half out to Kuon.

"Share?"

"Hah! That's the school the Thieves are from, isn't it? Say, there's not much saying we can't sneak in and grab a few sometime," she snickered, delighting in taking the offered half of the treat.

She got a 'my hero', too... heh heh. With how much lighter Takuto looked, messy from crying but like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, she did kind of feel like one.

"We make a perfect little best friends duo. Perfectly planktonic."

"A nostalgia trip...I will show you around in the nurse's office then. That's where I counselled most of them, save for Kitagawa-kun. His was...more impromptu." And does he know exactly how he was confronted.

It's a little funny thinking over how Yusuke had tried to poke holes into his plans. Guiding others rather then letting them heal...now that he really thinks about it, he was one of the first few who pointed that out in his logic.

Still, that wasn't his worry right now.

He continues to nibble away on his melonpan.

The planktonic term makes him blush a little. A little out of sheer fondness, the other out of embarrassment.

"I am sensing a pattern with how you talk about things. There's this...endearing aspect to it." He comments. "And it feels right somehow...talking to you about things I wouldn't talk about otherwise."

With his other clean hand, he reaches behind her and runs his fingers through her hair before settling on her shoulder. "Stay with me," he says. "Let's work through this together so I can support you and look after you too. If you would allow me."

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