Work Text:
Preference
“Do you like what you do?” Yuri asks once, in a quieter moment. She’s taken to following Nanno around nowadays, and while she still tends to stick her face into things that don’t concern her more often than not, she’s getting better at being patient, more inclined to sit back and watch Nanno work.
She’s learning.
“You have real emotions, sometimes,” Yuri goes on when Nanno doesn’t answer, meeting her eyes with a sharp gaze. “I know you do. I can tell when you’re showing them. You don’t like flowers, and you prefer when the weather outside is cold.” She juts out her chin in an imposing manner, an action that is lessened by the fact that she feels the need to do it in the first place. “Am I right?”
Nanno takes these accusations – because that’s what they are, she has no doubt – in stride, acquiescing with a gentle tilt of her head. Yuri’s already shown that she can be observant when she wants to be, this is just overkill.
Does she like it, putting people in their places? Yes, she does. And yes, Nanno does have likes and dislikes that come with her task; she much prefers it when she’s allowed to take her time with the subject, to study them and learn what they fear most of all. She likes bringing them to their lowest point and seeing if they can climb back out themselves. She likes humanity, and she likes how persistent some people can be.
Nanno likes it much less when Yuri decides her plans are going too slowly and takes matters into her own hands. She likes it much more when Yuri stays quiet and watches. She dislikes when things get out of hand; those are the ones that itch at her, those jobs finished gracelessly. These are Yuri’s fault entirely, nowadays, though she doesn’t see them as failures like Nanno does. She will in time, if she wants to stick around.
But Yuri knows these things already. She’s just asking to ask, really, to get Nanno talking and off her guard, as if Nanno will slip up and give her some secret knowledge. What she’s truly fishing for, Nanno’s unsure, but Yuri likes to pretend that she’s not nearly as crafty as she really is, and Nanno’s long since realized that when dealing with Yuri, it’s better to speak less.
So Nanno just smiles, having perfected the art of silence a long time ago. Yuri grumbles under her breath when she realizes she won’t get a spoken answer, but ultimately doesn’t prod any further, choosing instead to push off from the wall and dangle her legs over the side, entirely without fear. Nanno could push her, and she considers it for a moment, but decides not to. She genuinely doesn’t know the limits of Yuri’s mortality, and it’d be boring to get rid of her now.
Besides, she’s learning.
It would be a shame to ignore Yuri’s potential.