apotelesma - o. tooru

six.

Yuki walks home with her, linking arms with Mitsuha as they pass the main town center. It's been an exceptionally busy day for the both of them, but Mitsuha can't begin to fathom how exhausting it must have been for her best friend, who's practically falling asleep as they trudge along.

They wait for the traffic to pass by as they stand at the sidewalk. Yuki's eyes are so heavy that she nearly stumbled in front of a delivery van, making Mitsuha pull her back in sheer terror. It didn't help that Yuki nearly dragged her to her own death too.

"You need to sleep," Mitsuha chides, after they've safely crossed the street. Mitsuha's decided to take a shortcut this time, if it meant that they would be faced with more death than usual.

"I need food," Yuki drawls, her head on Mitsuha's shoulder. "And sleep. And a girlfriend. And a-"

"You need a lot of things, I can tell," Mitsuha chuckles, patting her head. "But first, sleep."

Yuki murmurs an inaudible response as they come to Mitsuha's neighborhood, which is quiet at this time of the day. It's evening anyway, which means most people are home.

Most people, but not the volleyball team.

She practically drags Yuki by her feet in the last stretch to her house. It's a difficulty to shove the gate open when you have the weight of a sloth resting on your arm, but Mitsuha manages it regardless. The steps are easy enough to tackle, because she carefully places Yuki's drowsy body on them and walks inside.

"I'm home!" she calls out, as she places her bag down and slips off her shoes. Her aunt calls out to her from somewhere inside the house.

Mitsuha steps outside again, rolling up her sleeves. She squats slowly, and slowly takes Yuki's sleeping body into her arms, careful to not hit her head on the steps. Her feet stagger as the rest of her body struggles to cope with the additional weight in her arms, but she manages to find her balance and carry her into the house. Without a second's notice, she pulls off Yuki's shoes and throws them near her own pair.
Mitsuha decides to head for the living room and put Yuki on the couch there, after having a minute long conversation to either attempt the stairs and leave her in her room instead. Realizing she valued her spine more than Yuki, she goes for the easiest option, which is the living room.

She stumbles the whole way through, trying her best to not hit Yuki's head on the walls. The sigh of relief she lets out when she finally reaches the couch and lays Yuki's body on the couch must have been heard a continent away.

Her aunt comes out of the study, where she had been painting, by the looks of it. Her clothes are stained with stray strokes of different colors, and there are some green dots on her cheeks, like freckles.

"I brought home a Yuki," Mitsuha replies, very out of breath. She slumps against the wall, trying to remember what being a functional human felt like. Her aunt peers into the living room, and chuckles when she sees one of Yuki's arms stick out.

"It looks like she's heavily drunk," her aunt comments, hands at her hips. Mitsuha shrugs. She wouldn't put it past Yuki to drink in school and somehow get away with it.

Mitsuha decides to get up-a bad decision, really. Her back aches from carrying Yuki, and she's starting to feel like she doesn't need her arms. Still, she manages to get to her feet and her aunt pats her on the back supportively, as Mitsuha gives her a pained smile.

Slowly, she trudges to the kitchen, opening the fridge to grab a bottle of chocolate milk from one of the shelves. Closing the fridge, she comes to sit near the kitchen counter and lazily opens the bottle.

Placing it to her lips, she's not ready for the feelings of bliss and pleasure that course through her when the liquid touches her tongue. It feels like a lazy day at the pool on a hot summer day.