Work Text:
01.
"Yukari. Yukari, please wake up."
Something hard is prodding her repeatedly in her side. The brown-haired girl lets out a loud yawn and opens her eyes to find herself nose-to-nose with Aigis, whose brows are furrowed and lips pursed in concentration.
"Analysis complete." Aigis uprights herself as Yukari sits up and stretches a bit, grimacing at the stiffness in her back from being hunched over the dining room table for so long. "No trace of drugs or toxins can be detected in your system. You were simply in a state of rest."
She looks at Aigis and first notices her coat blowing gently as if there's a breeze in the room - which there shouldn't be, since the windows are closed. Then she notices the shattered window behind her and automatically pinches the bridge of her nose.
"Aigis, the window...did you...?"
"Yes." Aigis straightens a little more and clasps her hands behind her back with an innocent expression. "I pressed the buzzer several times. When you did not answer, I began to worry that something had happened, and took the necessary actions to confirm your safety. I'm glad you are all right, Yukari."
Her idea of "necessary" is highly debatable, especially considering the fact that some passerby could have thought she was breaking in and called the police. But Yukari is too tired to explain in great detail the consequences of her decision, nor question why she didn't have her key with her, so she merely nods and makes a mental note to call someone tomorrow to fix the glass. "Thanks, Aigis."
"You are welcome." She looks up at the clock. "It's well past your bedtime, no?"
Life goes on. Aigis cleans up the broken glass the following morning. Yukari lodges some old cardboard laying around into the window frame to keep the draft and the bugs out, counts her spare change, and calls a repairman. Life goes on.
Minato doesn't come back.
Life goes on.
...
02.
For some reason, Yukari still can't quite accustom herself to these new nights, the ones where the Dark Hour doesn't exist. She's so used to watching the clock on her wall with bated breath, waiting for the moment when it would strike twelve and immediately stop working, and her room would be swathed in green light. Some nights, she would just lay back down and (try to) sleep through it. Other nights, she would pin a red band to her sleeve and pull her bow out of her closet, then trudge downstairs to meet the rest of SEES in the lounge.
She understands that those days are long gone thanks to him, but it's still hard to grow used to.
Apparently, Aigis is going through the same thing - either that, or it was never programmed out of her. But every night, exactly at 11:59, Yukari hears Aigis leave her room and thump-thump-thump her way downstairs. A few seconds later, the front door opens and closes. She lays still and counts her breaths, waiting for the clock to stop, the room to turn green, anything at all.
Midnight arrives peacefully and uneventfully. The buzzer sounds and Yukari quickly hops out of bed to let Aigis back in.
...
03.
"Don't touch those!"
Yukari dives at the calendars (the calendars she's bought each year and marked on ever since Minato left, crossing off each day she's had to live without him) stacked neatly on the floor and snatches them up, holding them to her chest tightly. Aigis blinks and twirls the broom in her hands.
"I was merely moving them to a more convenient location, so they wouldn't get in the way while I swept. Are they important to you?"
"............."
Yukari takes a deep breath. That's right. Aigis doesn't do these things on purpose. Even though she's far from what she was when they first met at Yakushima, she's still an android with her own patterns and tendencies and things she still doesn't understand. She isn't trying to be a nuisance; she's just trying to help.
That's what she's been doing since day one.
"...Yeah. Yeah, they're really important to me." Yukari licks her lips and straightens the calendars in her hands, setting them on her bed in an organized pile with a weary sigh. "I'm sorry, Aigis. It's not you. I'm just...feeling really skittish, okay?"
"Would you like a massage?" Aigis asks, setting the broom against the wall and raising her hands. "I have been watching plenty of health channels, so I believe my skills should be quite impressive by now."
"W-what? Uh, I'm fine - ow, ow ow ow! Aigis, no, that hurts - !"
...
04.
One day, Aigis comes home and finds Yukari sitting at the kitchen table, gripping a mug of quickly cooling tea with white knuckles and staring straight ahead into nothing.
"I miss him," she says numbly. "I really miss him, Aigis."
Aigis stands there and stares at her for a few minutes before her eyes soften. She steps forward and gently pries the mug out of her hands, setting it on the table, before leaning down and hugging her tightly.
"I do too, Yukari," she says softly. Yukari buries her face in her shoulder and heaves a sob.
(It's in those moments, she thinks, when Aigis seems even more human than her.)
...
05.
Oddly enough, the front door is propped open by a bucket.
It confuses him for a second, until he looks up and sees the windows are also open. And, through one of those windows, a voice he immediately recognizes floats out:
"Come on, Aigis! If you're going to dust the place - cough, cough - at least open the windows so we can still breathe! Oh, ew, look at the layer of dust on these things. Aigis, when's the - gaack, hack - last time we dusted?"
Another easily recognizable voice responds, "From what I recall, over four months. Would you like me to access my memory banks for a more approximate measure?"
"Uh, I think I'm good. Look, Aigis, how about we do this later so I can help you? I've got a really important paper to finish and I'm only halfway done, so - "
He doesn't know why, but he presses the buzzer anyways, even though he could walk right in because the door is, well, open. A blonde head sticks out from one of the open windows and blue eyes stare at him before disappearing as quickly as they'd appeared.
He walks up the stairs, steps over the bucket and enters the lounge.
...
06.
"Aigis, where are you going?" Yukari tries to grab her roommate's wrist before she zooms out of the room and misses by a few inches. "Who was it? Aigis!"
She doesn't respond, forcing Yukari to hurry after her and nearly trip over the duster she carelessly abandoned on the floor. As she runs, she listens for sounds of a confrontation, but only hears silence.
When she gets to the bottom of the stairs, where Aigis is standing motionlessly, she slows down her frantic jog to a stroll and huffs, "Geez, Aigis, who is it? You took off so fast I thought you'd seen a - "
Then she looks up.
And stops.
Ghost never makes it out of her mouth.
That same slouch with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. The same Gekkoukan uniform that he always wore just as wrongly as everyone else in SEES did, and cared even less. Those stupid bangs covering one eye that seemed to grow back faster than she could cut them, on the days that he finally gave in to her pestering and let her do so. The other eye stares at her with uncertainty, wonder, love.
"He's back," Aigis breathes, and her eyes are shining.
Before she can fully register that her legs are moving, Yukari is throwing herself into Minato's arms.