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Mizuki ran her tongue along her lips, the familiar bitter taste of rejection sat heavy on them. Watching her roommate and best friend giggle and talk about mythology, the feeling of being a third wheel intensified even if she was just observing from the sound booth. It was the same feeling she had when she first arrived at Dates apartment, a sickening sensation that screamed at her 'you don't belong'. Always in Mom's voice just without a smack of flesh accompanying it. Not always, that was wrong, sometimes it was her Daddy's voice. She'd overstayed her welcome and excused herself back to Daddy’s office. It was technically her office now, not that she’d ever call it that.
Date had been talking about adopting her lately but it never sounded like he was doing it because he wanted to but because he was expected to. An overnight bag sat in the office so she could have another weekend sleepover with Iris, not that she was all that interested in them anymore. The novelty had worn off pretty quickly. She got on her Daddy’s computer and noticed that there were a lot of unread emails. The only one that interested her was one from her Mom’s email.
“Dear Mizuki,
Apologies for writing to you from Mother’s email address, I do not currently have my own and assumed it would be the optimal way to contact you directly. I am your older half sister, Ruby Nadami, and would like to give you my well wishes during these trying times. I would also like to open my home to you.
Yours,
RuNa”
She scrunched her face as she kept re-reading the email and decided she’d pay Ruby a visit. The office door opened suddenly and Iris peeked in, “Hey Mizuki! Me and Uncle are ready to go home.”
Mizuki’s eye twitched, she hated that Iris would always call her house Date and Mizuki’s home. It wasn’t, their home was Date’s apartment. She quickly glanced at her bag, it shouldn’t be visible to Iris who was looking increasingly more worried about her lack of response, “Um, I forgot my bag at home and I’ve been forgetting to take care of my cliones. Maybe next weekend?”
“Oh, are you sure you’ll be okay by yourself?” Concern laced Iris’ voice.
“Yep! If I get into any trouble I’ll call you or Date, promise!” She tried to sound chipper while lying through her teeth, not that people ever had problems lying to her.
Iris smiled but hadn’t left yet, “Uncle could take you to the apartment instead? Then you could get your things and come over!”
Mizuki tried not to let irritation creep into her voice, “I also really need to do some homework, you and Date should go have fun!” Iris frowned for some reason, “I’ll be fine, really.” She sighed and left, a weird look in her eyes. Mizuki got out some of the homework she’d genuinely been ignoring and got to work. A few hours had passed according to the clock on the computer by the time she’d finished and gathered her things to go somewhere, she still hadn’t decided where.
“He~ey, Prez!” She whipped her head around and faced Lemniscate’s receptionist, “Uh, Date and Iris asked me to tell them when you left, so are you leaving?”
“Yeah, I’m heading out! I’ll see you on Monday, Miss Enshu.” She waved as she left and quickly called up a cab.
~💧~
She gulped as she knocked on the door to her Mom’s house, she blinked a few times when it opened to reveal a very short girl, “Hi, I’m here to see Ruby?”
“Oh, that’s me.” She tilted her head, “You must be Mizuki. Come in.” She stepped away from the door, not that she really needed to.
“You’re much shorter than I expected…” Mizuki stepped into the house and looked around while her host just stood there awkwardly, “Thank you for having me.”
“No problem, Mizuki. I’ll be in my studio if you need anything…” Ruby scurried off and disappeared into a room letting Mizuki explore a little. The kitchen was pretty sparse like someone hadn’t gotten any groceries in awhile and there was a lot of stuff that looked like it hadn’t been touched since Mom’s passing, nothing was gross though. Just a lot of dusty plates and cups.
‘Ruby probably can’t reach them.’ She thought to herself as she continued her self guided tour, the door across from Ruby’s studio had her name on it so it was probably hers and Mizuki didn’t feel like invading her privacy like she would if it was Date’s room. There was a guest room nearby, right across from the bathroom, that she set her overnight bag and backpack in. The bathroom had a swimsuit in it for some reason alongside the usual things, she decided to put her toothbrush opposite Ruby’s.
Her next stop was her Mom’s room. She shut the door as soon as she opened it, the room was full of paintings of her Mom. Way too many of them. She decided to look again just in case she’d been seeing things and yep the room was full of art and all of it depicted her Mom. A few seemed to be anatomy studies at least. Mizuki decided not to open the door again and pretend she’d never even opened the door. A small part of her worried that as soon as she turned around Ruby would appear and do something. No one was behind her thankfully.
The final room of any interest to her was her Mom’s office, there was a bunch of pilates equipment and some boring office stuff and a photo of Ruby and her Mom. She stared at the photo for a bit, ‘Daddy and Mom never took me to get a family picture… Neither of them seem happy though, Ruby and Mom aren’t smiling.’
Her stomach growled so she decided to make her way back to Ruby’s studio, “Ruby… When is dinner?”
The artist whipped around to face her as she glanced at all the finished work of people she’d never seen and places she’d never been, “Oh yeah we should probably do that… Um, we can just get delivery if you're not too hungry?”
“Okay!” Mizuki watched as Ruby hopped off her stool and followed behind as she practically toddled into the living room. She picked up a phone and quickly went through the motions of ordering before handing Mizuki the phone, who quickly ordered what she wanted in large because Date would always get her a small. She stared at the checkout page for a few seconds and then looked at Ruby, “Why did you get a kids meal?” She was starting to doubt the other girls was older than her.
“It’s enough food for me and I collect the toys.” Ruby answered simply. Mizuki nodded and placed the order, “You can use the TV if you want, I’ve kept up with all the subscriptions Mother bought already…”
“Oh, cool! Date doesn’t even have a TV.” She started fiddling with the remote.
“Whose Date?” Ruby asked while bundling herself up in a blanket tent.
“My roommate, he kinda sucks.” Mizuki sighed and flipped through all the different Milky Moon’s available and settled on one from the 90s.
“Mother would complain about a Date, do you think it’s the same one…?” Ruby asked.
Mizuki thought for a second and nodded, “They used to drink together.” Ruby hummed her acknowledgement. They sat in relative silence as the old movie played until someone knocked on the door. Mizuki got up to answer it and thanked the delivery lady, “Foods here!”
“Thank you.” Ruby unfurled herself from her blankets and set out her food and Mizuki sat out her own food, happy with her large drink and fries. The old Milky Moon was also pretty good, she definitely preferred the new stuff though.
Her phone rang as she finished up her meal and she groaned when she saw who it was but still picked it up, making sure to pause her show, “Hey kid, I’m at the apartment right now wondering where you are.”
“Hi, Date.” Her voice was flat as she spoke, “Obviously I’m not there right now.”
“Yeah I can see that.” Irritation crept into his annoying new voice, “So, where are you?”
“Mom’s house, with my big sister.” She huffed a little.
“Uh huh, where are you really?” The doubt evident in his voice annoyed her more than his new voice.
“Like I said at Mom's house with my big sister.” She groaned, “Why don’t you believe me, huh?!”
“Because you were Shoko’s 1st and only child?” He had the audacity to scoff at her.
Ruby looked at her from the couch, slightly tilting her head in confusion, so Mizuki decided to take the call elsewhere in the house, “You're upsetting my big sister you know? She was adopted by Mom a few years ago.” She hissed as she walked away from the living room.
“What is with your attitude lately? First lying to Iris and now lying to me?” He sounded hurt, not that she cared in the moment.
She grit her teeth, “I’m not lying! Why would I lie about where I am!”
“Probably the same reason you lied to Iris about not having an overnight bag, I helped you pack it Mizuki and watched you take it with you.” His tone was accusatory now, “Look I’m just worried about you, okay?”
“Worried about what?” It was her turn to be accusatory.
“You’ve been acting out lately and I’m worried you're not telling me something.” He was trying to sound gentle but it sounded all wrong with that voice.
“What do you care!” She was probably a lot louder than she wanted to be but didn’t care, “I’m perfectly fine!”
“Mizuki-” She cut him off by ending the call and silenced her phone before throwing it on the guest bed.
Ruby looked at her as she stomped out of the room, a tinge of concern in her blank expression, “Um, I hope I’m not coming between you and your roommate.”
“No it’s fine he was just being an ass, like always.” Mizuki huffed as she sat down, “Acting like he cares about me…” She crossed her arms as Ruby tilted her head again, “Do you think I can extend my stay? Until… I honestly don't know when I’ll want to see his stupid face again.”
“Feel free to stay as long as you like, we will probably need to get groceries.” Ruby glanced over at the kitchen as she spoke.
Mizuki nodded in agreement, “We could go out shopping tomorrow! It is a Saturday so I don’t have school.”
“I don’t think either of us can drive…” Ruby said, a slight scrunch to her face.
“Oh… I guess we just have them delivered. Well, we can still go out! I should get more of my clothes from Date’s apartment.” Mizuki thought for a second, “We’ll need an adult with us most of the time won’t we?”
“I might be 18 but everyone assumes I’m much younger so probably…” Ruby said with a sigh, “One of the Nadami’s tried to insist on taking me home and another tried to insist on dumping me at an orphanage…”
“Oh, that sucks. Um, can we hug? I feel like we both really need one…” Mizuki asked, unsure of her sister's boundaries. Ruby nodded and held out her little arms and Mizuki quickly pulled her into a hug, careful not to crush her, while Ruby rubbed her face into her jacket. Mizuki carefully set her sister back down, “Yeah I feel a little better now… but who will supervise us? Almost every adult I know is friends with Date… Maybe Ritsuko…”
“Whose Ritsuko?” Ruby asked as she took back up her spot on the couch.
“The secretary at Lemniscate, that’s the entertainment company daddy owned. I own it now…” Mizuki scrunched up her face, “Yeah, I’ll text her tonight and see if she’ll go with us.” She settled back in to watch some more Milky Moon before bed.
“I’m going to bed, I think you figured out where everything is so… Good night dear sister.” Ruby bowed after putting her tablet away and toddled towards the bathroom. Mizuki waved her off and checked the time, it was about 8:30. No one would be there to tell her to go to bed on time, she could stay up as late as she wanted but she needed to text Ritsuko before she went to bed.
There were 5 missed calls from Date on her phone and a text from Iris that read ‘Get well soon!’, ‘Date probably told her I’m sick or something. Stupid old man.’ She pouted as she scrolled through her contacts to find Ristuko and accidentally called her
“Hey, Prez! What can I do for ya?” Ritsuko picked up surprisingly quickly.
“Hi! Um, do you mind hanging out with me and my big sister tomorrow? I’ll pay for everything.” Mizuki jerked her head away from the phone to let Ritsuko squeal, “I may even make you my, uh, personal assistant. That’s a thing company presidents have, right?”
“Uh, I think so?” Ritsuko sounded as unsure as Mizuki felt, “This is basically a promotion, right?”
“Sure!” Mizuki probably had that power, “I might also look into making you my legal guardian. You won’t have to house me, big sister is letting me stay with her but she’s only 6 years older than me.”
“Uh, okay! Sure!” Ritsuko sounded a little more confident about this choice. “So are we meeting at Lemnsicate tomorrow?”
“Definitely, around lunch.” Mizuki said, she felt a bit better having a plan in motion, “Goodnight Miss Enshu! See you tomorrow!”
“Goodnight Prez! Uh, sleep tight and don’t let the turtles bite!” Ritsuko ended the call leaving Mizuki to figure out what she had met. She shook it off and decided to watch one more episode of Milky Moon and then go to bed, she was kind of tired. Maybe, just maybe, she had found the family and home she’d been looking for since Daddy dumped her at that stupid, creepy, perverted old man's place.