Chapter Text
Ruby isn’t sure why Dia insists on tagging along. These kinds of events are usually beneath her, and she’s already promised not to drink. As the youngest, she’s used to being the DD and Ruby doesn’t particularly care for drinking anyways.
“It’s not fair for you to have to babysit seven unruly drunks,” Dia affirms, but Ruby knows her sister well enough to pick up on when she secretly wants to do something. Dia visibly shudders. “And besides, the last time we were all together you saw things you should never have to see.” This was also true.
“Mari and Kanan apologized already. They even promised that the club we’re going to doesn’t allow table-dancing.”
“That will only encourage Mari.”
“It’s ok if you want to come, sis, but you shouldn’t worry so much.”
“That you say that makes question your judgement.”
Ruby smiles and doesn’t try to mask her joy that Dia, despite having plenty of school work, is adamant on going. The two of them haven’t gone out much together since Dia was always busy with either work or school. She goes out a lot with Chika and You by themselves, but it’s a whole different beast when all nine of them are together. Apart from July’s Table-Dancing Extravaganza, those kinds of outings make her incredibly happy to have as many crazy friends as she does and being able to share that with her sister warms her to her toes.
“Well, if you’re ready, sis, let’s go ahead and pick up Hanamaru.”
“Does she ever plan on getting her own car?”
“This arrangement is fine. It’s safer, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely. I only meant that it’s weird that she’s almost 22 and doesn’t have a car.”
“She’s terrified of cars,” Ruby says with a light giggle, remembering how the girl in question would hang onto her whenever cars passed them on the sidewalk. Hanamaru likened them to metal death traps.
“You have bizarre friends.”
“They’re your friends too, Dia.”
–
Hanamaru waits expectantly on the bench just outside her dorm. She fidgets relentlessly with her skirt, wondering if it would’ve been better to just wear pants or even shorts. She wishes that it shouldn’t matter how cute she looks, but since Ruby had informed her last minute that Dia was coming, all of a sudden it became imperative that she looked adorable. The skirt itself is pretty form fitting, which seems appropriate because it will be less likely to catch on things like the car door and nearly come all the way off and—when will she ever move past that night? Her face flushes. At least her underwear got complimented.
Ruby pulls up just as Hanamaru reaches for her phone, lightly tapping the horn even though Hanamaru can see her and makes her jump. Even from the bench she can make out Ruby’s features and how hard she’s laughing at Hanamaru’s very well communicated phobias.
“You’re not funny, zura,” she bemoans as she crawls into the car.
“It was a little funny,” Dia replies and Hanamaru is only too glad to be in the backseat where Dia can’t see how red her face is becoming.
“You look cute, Maru!” Ruby says immediately. “I’m almost too distracted to drive!”
“Please don’t joke like that while I’m in the car.”
“But don’t you think she looks cute, Dia?”
Hanamaru wants Ruby to stop. Badly. As she contemplates kicking the back of the seat, Dia apparently decides that furthering Hanamaru’s desire to vanish is a perfectly acceptable way to expend energy.
“Yes, that outfit does look good on her. It definitely enhances your features, Hanamaru.”
Hanamaru’s face heats to a broil. She wants to throw compliments at Dia’s face but worries that such hurried word-vomit will haunt her for the rest of her life and chooses to direct her attention at Ruby. “W-well I’m not as cute as Ruby!”
“Please don’t make her swerve off the road. My blood pressure is high enough knowing Kanan and Mari are anywhere near alcohol.”
She can’t help but remember when the entire group of nine had last gotten together. Her memory is understandably hazy, but in the brief flashes between black outs Hanamaru remembers loud music, inappropriate touching, exposed breasts and a lot of shouting.
“What about You and Chika?” she asks, thinking it odd that Dia would be more concerned with Kanan and Mari’s predictably homoerotic behavior than two actual drunken shitlords. “They were pretty awful by themselves until Mari climbed onto that table.”
“There it goes.”
“There what goes?”
“My blood pressure.”
–
Kanan and Mari arrive first, as per usual. It’s not very late in the night, so Kanan isn’t surprised that the club is somewhat vacant. Mari hurries her along, absolutely beaming and a little wobbly from her pre-gaming attempts. Why a girl who already has no tolerance for alcohol should drink before going out for the express purpose of drinking is lost on Kanan. American idiosyncrasies. She’d never understand them.
While loose in her own mind, wondering how long it will be before someone a little less insane arrives, Mari slaps her shoulder. The girl’s nose crinkles from her smile and Kanan tries to keep herself from falling in love with this irresistibly goofy blonde all over again. So far her efforts are fruitless and her heart flutters when Mari offers her hand.
“Dance with me, Kanan! While I have you all to myself!”
Kanan happily obliges, keeping a hesitant pace at first in a weak effort to avoid attracting attention. That notion flies right out the window when Mari backs herself right into Kanan’s crotch and begins a steady grind. Without really even thinking about it, because at this point she’s just trying to keep from turning Dia’s list of banned public activities into a checklist, she grabs hold of Mari’s hips and starts moving accordingly. The music isn’t loud enough that she can’t hear Mari’s drunk giggles and suddenly she wants to do more with Mari than just dance.
She doesn’t notice Chika standing right behind her, arms folded in front of her and bearing a smug look. “Wow, that’s pretty gay, Kanan.”
Kanan doesn’t miss a beat. “You’re just jealous because Riko doesn’t have an ass like this.” She hadn’t realized until she stopped and actually turned around that Chika wasn’t the only one there. Riko’s smile crackles with electricity, but Kanan knows she’s already deep in her own grave and accepts her fall with dignity. “I stand by my statement.”
Chika feigns an appalled gasp. “Bro!” She throws her hands out dramatically. “You better apologize. Everyone knows you don’t disrespect a dude’s girlfriend!”
You approaches in time to offer her own two cents. “Yeah, Kanan what the fuck. Just because your girlfriend is every teenage lesbian’s wet dream doesn’t mean you get to talk down the rest of us.” You is wearing that ridiculous ‘Female Body Inspector’ Snapback that Kanan hates and in spite of her first inclination to rip it right off her head, she hooks her arm around Mari’s waist and stands a little taller. You balances four beers precariously between her hands, grinning wildly even though she’s supposed to be offended as she divvies them up among herself, Chika, Riko, and a disgusted-looking Yoshiko.
“It’s not even 10 and you’re already trying to whip it out in public, Kanan? Really? Think of the children,” she finishes as she grabs a less than amused Riko’s arm.
“Kanaaaaan,” Mari whines, amazing everyone with her silence thus far. “I really wanted to dance with you.”
“Holy shit, are you already drunk, Mari?” Chika exclaimed. “You, did you bring the funnel? We’re not losing to Tits Mcgee!”
Mari laughs, probably louder than intended. “You guys do not compare to how Americans party. I haven’t seen a single glow stick and honestly I’m disappointed.”
Chika snickers. “Hey, Mari, let me take you out back and I’ll show you my glow stick.” You high-fives Chika at the exact same time Kanan stabs her with her eyes.
“Riko, control your girlfriend,” Kanan implores.
“I don’t know, apparently she’s more interested in your girlfriend. She’s jealous or something, remember?”
“That’s ice cold, Riko, but I respect it.”
–
“Has anyone heard from Ruby and Hanamaru?” Riko asks, looking around. She’s missing the moral support of the two least horrible members of their circle. Not that she minds Chika’s company, which she hopes to hoard entirely, but the collective amount of brain cells in the club is disconcerting.
“Yeah,” Chika answers, putting her arm around Riko and pulling her close in one of those competitive forms of bravado she parades whenever Kanan and Mari together. Riko loves her simplicity. She doesn’t love the intense stench of Axe body spray. “She’s on her way, but she’s bringing the fun police.”
“Ew, why?” You is already finished with her beer and eyes Yoshiko’s greedily, and it doesn’t take many bats of her eyelashes before she’s awarded with what she wants. She’s ordered to return with more.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Kanan sighs. “Dia is a fucking lioness when it comes to protecting her sister.”
“Ah, yes!” Riko understands this reference, actually, thanks to the forced viewing of the source film with Chika a few nights ago. She eagerly pounces on a chance to feel witty. “A lioness protects her cub!”
She doesn’t understand the judgement shooting out of Kanan’s lilac eyes. “Did you…really just quote Secondhand Lions?”
“I-isn’t that what you were going for?”
“No, I was going for Dia being an actual lioness that will rip your face off and shit out your bones.”
“Fucking furry.”
“Shut up, Chika.”
–
Dia expected to walk in on a group conversation about her. She slaps on her angry eyes the moment they enter the club, the crowd parting before her like the Red Sea as she passes through. She prepares divine retribution.
“Sis.” She feels Ruby’s small hands wrap around her arms. Those little puppy dog eyes can get her to do pretty much anything and they both know it. “Please don’t go off like you did last time.” The quiet in Ruby’s voice makes Dia feel a twang of guilt, but remembering just what Kanan and Mari had done to earn her fierce reprimands sends it away. She decides, though, to leave Armageddon for another day.
“I’m not a furry,” she hisses through her teeth.
“Yeah, she’s not a furry,” Ruby adds in a soft, but stern voice. Dia loves her sister so much.
Hanamaru approaches last, still huffing from the exhausting endeavor of trying to match Dia’s strides with such short legs. “Hi, everyone!”
Riko is the most excited for their arrival. She leaps onto Hanamaru and pulls her into a hug, and Dia doesn’t strain her ears very hard to hear a desperate “help me”. Riko is tolerable, but Dia is quick to count heads for the rest of the degenerates. She sees Chika first, slouching of course with You at her side, then Yoshiko, then Kanan, and then…
“Where is Mari?”
“What do you mean, where’s M—
Kanan is genuinely shocked that Mari isn’t attached to her hip and Dia can’t believe she hadn’t walk in on them acting out some form of softcore pornography. She watches amusedly as Kanan turns her head this way and that in frantic sweeps, but by now the club is filling with people making even a tall tuft of blonde hair difficult to discern.
“I have to go find her,” Kanan husks. “She’s the worst combination of excited, horny, and rich.”
“Isn’t that how she is all the time?”
“You’re not helping, Yoshiko!”
She turns on her heels and pushes for the bar, the most likely place for Mari to be. Dia relaxes her shoulders and turns to the remainder of the group.
“So how has everyone been?” she asks, but she’s inadvertently distracted by You’s hat. She stops herself from commenting, because she’s not willing to risk embarrassing her sister by burning a piece of clothing in the middle of a club parking lot.
“Pretty awesome, actually,” You is quick to assert. “I bench pressed 220 yesterday.” Dia remembers You’s sports scholarship and asks how that’s been working for her. Her answer is in the physique shown off by a tight, grey tank top and orange Chubbies. You flaunts her muscles and Dia thinks for a second that she’s almost attractive, but You opens her mouth again. “You should come with me next time I go to the gym, Dia. We can get hot, dirty, and sweaty…and then work out afterwards.”
“Why are you like this?”
“Honestly, I think it’s because I’m trying to find validation in living up to my own stereotype.”
“What?”
“Let’s get wasted.”
“What is happening?”
“Come on, Dia, you obviously came out to have a good time. Don’t be so uptight. Have a few drinks, dance a little bit. There’s plenty of people here, you’re bound to bump into somebody you like.”
“And if you don’t like anybody, have a few more drinks and try again,” Yoshiko says all too confidently. “Now go, be free! Get out there and seize the jugular of your next lay.”
“Metaphorically?” Hanamaru asks.
“Literally.”
Irked, Dia turns towards her sister and places her hands on her shoulders. “Ruby, I’m going to get a drink. Will you be ok with me leaving you by yourself?”
Ruby nods. “I’ll be fine! Besides, I have Hanamaru with me. Have fun and be safe!”
“I should be telling you that,” Dia says with a laugh and she pretends not to hear You yelling at them to get a room. She hugs her sister and heads into the crowd. She won’t admit that she is in fact looking for a jugular to seize—well in not so many words. Or any of those words at all. Dia has been single long enough and she sets her mind on leaving the club tonight with a date. Thinking of Mari and Kanan dry humping each other during every social function only fuels the fires of her determination.
–
She’s not drunk enough. Mari slams her hand on the bar table and demands a shot of something. When it doesn’t arrive immediately, she fishes a 10,000 yen bill from her purse and smashes it on the table. Shots appear and she downs them all, gritting her teeth as the taste fills her mouth.
“Stupid Kanan,” she snarls. Mari feels hands wrap around her waist. “Stupid Kanan.”
“Hey, hey, what did I do wrong?” Kanan asks, nuzzling into the crook of Mari’s neck. Mari doesn’t fight the embrace, but won’t acknowledge her girlfriend. Kanan pokes her cheek. “Mariiiii.” Her singsongy voice is cute enough that she struggles to stay angry. “You’re being unreasonable.”
“I wanted to daaaance.” Mari pouts into a shot glass and Kanan chuckles. “Don’t you dare laugh at me, Kanan. I will end you.”
“Mari, I have to help you get the lid off the pickle jar.”
“I will pay someone to end you.”
Now Kanan’s chuckling has evolved into full-blown guffaws and Mari feels her cheeks heat up, but blames the alcohol. Kanan’s grip on her tightens. “Hey, beautiful. Dance with me.”
“Hang on, I just bought like, twelve shots.”
“Was cirrhosis part of your agenda for tonight?”
“I don’t know Kanan, was ignoring me in favor of your stupid BROTP part of your agenda?”
“Aww, I’m sorry I made you feel like that. Here, let me help you with those shots and we can hit the dance floor. I’d like to continue where we left off.” Kanan’s grin is wolfish and Mari can’t argue with how badly she wants Kanan’s hands all over her, but smacks these very hands away as they reach for the shots.
“Get away, you gold digger. These are mine.”
“Jesus H. Christ, Mari are you really going to drink all of those?”
“Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, Kanan. Jesus gifted me with the money to buy all these shots and he will damn sure gift me with the ability to drink them all.”
“I don’t care how much you want to party with Jesus, I’m not letting you demolish a perfectly good liver.”
“Come and get them.”
–
You has a clear view from where she’s standing that Kanan has successfully located her errant girlfriend and Mari expresses her gratitude with open mouth kisses. Tongue kisses. Dia has already gone on and not a moment too soon, because now Kanan is sitting in Mari’s lap, hungrily pawing at her like a cat with a ball of yarn.
“Well, Kanan’s gonna be busy for the rest of the night.” You waits for Chika’s commentary, but when she looks she sees that Chika is wrapping her arms around Riko and nuzzling into her. You lets her remarks fall flat and tries not to put on a jealous grimace but ends up making it anyway. “Come on, do you really have to do that? Right here?”
“Riko’s feeling lonely,” Chika purrs, but You isn’t amused. Chika peppers Riko’s neck with light kisses and then hikes Riko’s leg up over her hip. “Not on my watch. And Dolphin Bieber doesn’t know what she’s talking about! You’ve got a beautiful ass, baby.”
“Your responsibility to your girlfriend is great and all, but it’s scaring Ruby and Hanamaru.”
“I don’t mind,” Hanamaru says, a little more interested in their romantic display than she should be.
Regardless, You shoos the two lovebirds away. “Go find a wall to ram her against or something.”
Riko’s already breathing hard and the lust in her eyes speaks loud and clear. Riko often pretended that she wasn’t a complete thirst-machine, but it didn’t take a genius to see through that sham. You doesn’t work hard to imagine the scenario playing out in Riko’s head. It’s on her face as plainly as if they were acting it out right there. Chika, boasting a frisky grin, tugs at Riko’s arms and they disappear into the club. Probably to a wall. You doesn’t care anymore.
“So what about you guys?” She directs her question towards Ruby and Hanamaru, banking on Yoshiko still wanting to hang out with her. “Ruby, you’re not drinking so I expect Hanamaru to drink twice as much in your honor.” Hanamaru lifts her hand to her forehead and gives You a mock salute, which You returns in earnest. “At ease, sailor. I trust you’re going to take good care of Ruby?”
“You can count on it!”
“Ruby!” You waits for a startled squeak and continues. “As my protégée I want you to have the best night ever. Challenge mode: no alcohol. Can you handle it?”
“I’ll give it my Rubesty!” The tiny fists she pumps into the air nearly bring a tear to You’s eyes. As long as they’ve known each other, Ruby has never liked drinking and that is perfectly fine. She readily tags along whenever You and Chika go out and always has a great time. You’s confident that tonight will be no different. She doesn’t miss the sideways glances Hanamaru and Ruby are giving each other and figures it’s best that she frees them do their own thing.
“Alright, you two go have the night of your lives.”
Hanamaru dips her head respectfully and in a heartbeat she and Ruby are holding hands and heading straight for the bar. You wagers that the next time they bump into each other, Hanamaru will mostly likely be red-faced and in the middle of a terribly important astronomical sermon. You makes a mental note to avoid Hanamaru like the plague.
“Well, Yoshiko, it’s just you and me now. Wanna get weird?”
Yoshiko grimaces, but in the way she always does when she’s trying not to smile. “You’re an animal.”
“Why don’t we talk about my animalistic tendencies over another round of beer?”
“Only if you’re buying.”
You smirks, but she can’t stop thinking of Chika and Riko. She groans internally, tired of the persistent grossness bubbling in her stomach. She wants to drown it in alcohol. She’s determined to get so drunk that she can’t spell her own name, much less suffer the aggravation that’s steadily creeping up her throat and into her mouth. Yoshiko is still with her. Maybe she can salvage the night. Or at least keep it from sucking ass.
–
Success. They find a wall that’s not crawling with bystanders and Chika pushes Riko against it, as per You’s suggestion. Riko giggles as she tries not to spill her martini. “Chika, let me drink this at least.” Chika pins her easily, having already downed her last couple beers. Riko watches her intently as brings the martini glass to her lips, drinking it slowly and—ok, she was too cute. Chika couldn’t stand it.
Chika drops her shoulders as she heaves an irritated sigh. “Why didn’t you get a shot? How am I supposed to tend to you if you’re busy Double-O-Sevening?”
“Sorry! It was an impulse decision,” Riko hums as she takes a sip, but she keeps snorting into the glass ungracefully as Chika glares at her. “Ok, seriously, stop making me laugh I’m trying to drink this.”
“I can’t believe this. I get us a nice secluded spot along the wall—and I mean prime real-estate—and you’re just gonna stand there and drink your martini.”
“Yes.”
“Ok, that’s fair. You enjoy your drink, Riko, and I’ll keep you company.” Chika shimmies between Riko and a polite stranger who is much too concerned with their own circle of events to pay the two any mind.
“Thank you,” Riko says from her martini, which she’s not even halfway through with. Frankly, Chika’s fine with how things are at the moment, because she is absolutely taken aback by how Riko glows beneath the club lights. Her eyes, her jewelry, the gloss on her lips—it all comes alive as the strobes flicker over them. Chika fawns over how elegant Riko makes leaning against a dirty club wall look and she traces her features like an artist might their subjects, hovering for a moment over that punishingly half-full martini glass.
“What does that taste like?” Chika asks, curious because she’s really only had beer, Jägerbombs, Fireballs and that one weird concoction You had given her with like, six different alcohols in it. Riko swirls the drink in her hands for a moment before passing it to Chika, but she is dissatisfied with just trying it. She leans in smooth, silky, and brushes her mouth over Riko’s and tastes what is probably the nastiest drink she’s ever had. Her face scrunches as she’s overpowered by bitterness, pine needles and regret. Riko is beside herself, of course.
“Can’t handle it, hoss?”
“What the fuck is in there?”
“Gin. Vodka. Lillet. Oh, and they threw a lemon peel in there too!”
“The worst part of the whole lemon…”
“But it complements the different alcohols so nicely! Are you sure you don’t want to try it outright?” Riko again offers the glass and Chika’s stomach flips.
“Dude, no thanks. I got a whiff of that gin and I’m out. I can’t do gin. Not after…” She winces as the painful memory of spending an entire Saturday puking in the bathroom comes back. She didn’t know how, but somehow she also pinched a nerve in her back while being bedbound for the day, which led for a very painful month of recovery. After that horrifying experience, she’d almost sworn off booze entirely, but she settled for just never looking at gin again.
“Does that mean you…don’t want to kiss again?” Even in the dim ambience of the club, Chika can see Riko fidgeting. She holds her martini close to her chest, close to nearly half of it.
“Girl,” Chika begins in a honeysweet tenor, “you could have a mouth full of bees and I’d still wanna kiss you. I mean, I might try to get rid of the bees first, but yeah.”
Chika loves the way Riko’s shoulders bounce when she laughs and even more that she’s responsible for such sweet, contented expressions. Beyond all the kissing and wall-domming and hungry touching, she will never love anything more than Riko’s smile. She leans in again, this time slowly, and they kiss a little deeper. Chika fights the taste of gin on her tongue and is rewarded with a gentle moan.
Shifting to pin Riko to the wall again, Chika presses a knee between her legs and elates in the strangled sounds that she works out of Riko’s mouth. She parts their lips only so she can nibble at the tops of Riko’s ears. “Did you wear a dress hoping for this to happen?” Her breath must be hot on Riko’s neck, because the girl trembles as she speaks.
“Would it…matter if I did?”
“Well,” Chika says in her regular voice, pulling herself off of Riko completely, much to the latter girl’s dismay. Chika relishes the bewildered look in Riko’s eyes, her messy hair and the way her dress is crumpled up around her knees. “You finish that martini, ok? I’m gonna go grab another beer.”
“Chikaaa!” She hears Riko whine as she heads towards the bar.
–
If there’s a prize for rotten judgement, then she guesses she’s already won that. Her head is screaming get a grip, girl, but then You turns and they make eye contact and her brain turns to mush before she can start humming the tune of that insufferably accurate Disney song. They’re standing outside, probably because You is too annoyed with everybody to want to be anyplace that she can see them. The air is cool, albeit a little humid, but Yoshiko doesn’t hate it.
About an hour has passed since they’d arrived and by now, she’s a little too overt in her ogling. It’s hard to feel guilty about the special attention she’s giving You, because You refuses to remove that ridiculous FBI hat. She’s talking about her workout plans for the following week and how she’d like to try out a different blend of nutrition shake for her pre-workout fueling, but Yoshiko is struggling to pay attention with so many beers muddling up her cognitive functions.
Every so often You slicks her hair back, undoubtedly without the intention of seducing Yoshiko further but that’s the effect it has. Yoshiko curses her horrible, unshakable bad luck. Through all of her persistence, You has expressed zero interest in her and that is hell on her ego. As often as You complains about being single, it’s a kick in the teeth that Yoshiko isn’t even a candidate. In spite of the Promethean aspects of it, their sloppy, drunk make out sessions are enough to keep her coming back to the doomed romantic exploit again and again.
“Do you want another beer?” You’s directness startles her. As if realizing she’s caught Yoshiko in the middle of her thoughts, she repeats herself. “I’m gonna head back in, did you want anything?”
“Yeah, actually.” She’s got room for more drinks. She’s not buzzed enough that she’s lost awareness of her limit, because if that were the case then she wouldn’t be standing. What’s another drink going to do? Yoshiko opens her wallet, but before she can pull out a single bill, You stops her.
“Nah, I got this one.”
“You’ve bought every round so far,” Yoshiko says as she shoves the money at You. “Take it.”
“It’s ok. Look, I’ve been kind of a shithead all night.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m still having fun.”
“No you’re not, you’ve been entertaining my bullshit since we got here. I’m so focused on Chika and Kanan and been dragging you around with it. I’m keeping you from having a good time.”
Yoshiko is surprised that You is so vocal about her feelings. Her vexation over being the only single person among her friends has always been poorly hidden, but she’s never been bold enough to throw it out in the open. She’s not sure what she should do, but first she puts her wallet away. The weak smile that puts on You’s face makes her heart sink.
“I’ll go with you at least,” she offers and You accepts. Yoshiko follows behind her, ducking under You’s ungodly buff arm as she holds the door open for her. For being such a fuckboy, You’s attention to courtesy came as a shock from time to time. As she ran down the list of all that made You girlfriend material, she was momentarily jostled out of her fantasies when a hand grabbed her wrist out of the darkness.
Just as she bowed up in preparation for reprimanding whoever dared to lay their filthy hands on her—because really who just grabs somebody in a club in this day and age and expects not to get a firm ass-kicking—she heard a weird, somewhat slurred greeting from…
“Zuramaru?”
“Yoshiko!” Hanamaru peeped, and fully ignoring Yoshiko’s correction to Yohane, she gripped Yoshiko tighter. “I’m so glad I found you, Yoshiko!” she hiccupped between a few words and her breath reached Yoshiko’s nose despite the two arms’ lengths between them. Sweet Lucifer that girl could put away a drink.
“Where’s Ruby?” Yoshiko asked, scanning for who everyone agreed was the smaller girl’s keeper. No Ruby in sight. Unusual. Not good. Hanamaru’s hamster cheeks were bright red and the giggles she could somehow not contain worried Yoshiko. She should definitely not be away from Ruby.
“She went to the bathroom and I was instructed not to move, but it’s impossible not to move because the earth is constantly rotating so I figured there was no way me moving independently of the earth’s rotation would—
“Zuramaru, I need you to focus.”
She snorted. “I need you to stop being taller than me, but that’s not stopping you.” Hanamaru pushed into Yoshiko’s shoulder with a pointed finger. “How’s the weather up there, Hellboy?”
“Zuramaru!”
“Yoshi Island!”
“…what…?”
“Let me tell you about space.”
“Nooo!”