Understanding

"So, you really can't feel dynamis?" Fuuko says as she puts her forehead to Kiyoko's, and makes the older girl go still on the infirmary bed with one arm in her jacket and one arm out.

But Fuuko closes her eyes and after a moment Kiyoko does the same in resignation, knowing the other is trying her best to raise her spirits. They don't know each other that well, and wouldn't consider themselves close, but Kiyoko suspects Fuuko understands her situation like only another girl could. She suspects Fuuko is a gentler girl than the facade she puts up, and she reminds Kiyoko for a moment of her brother.

She opens her eyes downcast on the sheets when seconds have gone by and she feels no different. "No. Nothing. I guess it's completely hopeless," she deadpans.

Fuuko makes a slight nod in understanding.

"I see. . . . What if I do this?"

Before Kiyoko can protest Fuuko's lips are on hers and her cool, delicate fingers are touching her cheek that goes suddenly hot beneath them. Surprise gives way to a flicker of alien pleasure under the pressure of a mouth warm and soft and just like hers and of small, firm breasts leaning against her own. Disoriented, but wonderfully so, Kiyoko lets her eyes fall closed again and the Countess' callousness slip from her mind.

"What was that for?" she asks breathless, lips still tingling, when Fuuko pulls away.

The girl who is almost four years her junior flashes her a mysterious smile and says curiously, "I don't know. Maybe I wanted to see for myself why it is Tatsuya's so hung up on you."

Kiyoko knows she means well, or else she would not have come, but Fuuko's words make her heart sink because there is heartache and envy behind them, and Fuuko doesn't deserve to feel that way, just like Tatsuya shouldn't be hung up on his big sister, and it all just drives it home for Kiyoko that she doesn't belong here and he does.

She cannot maintain that fake smile like everything is fine for Fuuko anymore, and when it falls Fuuko asks "Did I say something wrong?" just like Kiyoko expected her to.

Kiyoko shakes her head but she doesn't feel like laughing, and avoids the other girl's gaze though she knows she can trust Fuuko with what she's about to say. "If I ran away from here," she says quietly, determinedly, "would you take care of Tatsuya for me?"

And as she expected Fuuko doesn't know what to say, but she isn't going to protest and beg Kiyoko to stay either. She understands like no one else around them would, not even Kiyoko's own brother; and even though she has no siblings of her own she understands just as well that this is not a decision Kiyoko can make lightly. That is why after only a moment of thought she takes Kiyoko's hand in both of hers silently and just holds it there between their touching knees.