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One of the gifts they received was a small case of lemon balm tea that a friend of their mother's had picked up while overseas.
Their mother had thanked the friend, but both Yui and Rui suspected that it was just a leftover souvenir that hadn't been given away yet. They didn't say so (at least not where their mother could hear them), of course, but neither of them had ever particularly liked that friend.
Regardless, the tea did end up being drunk by all three of them over the course of two weeks. It was different from their usual tea, so it was a nice distraction from the fact that one member of their family was no longer there.
Years passed, and the tea was forgotten. Yui joined the force and Rui entered high school.
One day, loss hit them again.
Or rather, it hit Yui. Rui had known Mako for years and certainly liked her well enough (the whole damn city did), but she harbored no illusions as to who was hurting the most by her death. The worst part was, Rui wasn't sure how she could properly comfort her sister. Not only was Yui going full-throttle in trying to find the culprit, but lots of things were going on regarding the case. Even without her precognition, Rui could tell that something big (and bad) was coming.
Comforting Mika had been easy; she always had been the type to bounce back from such things. It was ironic that Rui was having a harder time with her own sister. An idea didn't occur to her until she opted to make a cup of tea during a slow day at Company F. She remembered the tea that her mother's friend had given them after the funeral. Rui remembered the brand name, but it wasn't one that was typically sold in Japan, nor did the nearby foreign goods store have any when she went to check after closing up shop.
Frustrated, Rui chose to spend the evening looking up how to order it. The price was a bit of a pain, and it would take a couple weeks for it to arrive, but Rui decided it was worth it.
As Rui had (not really) predicted, several things went down in the time span it took for the tea to reach the Yamase home as October was slowly coming to a close. Regardless, Rui let out a sigh of relief as she read the address, then began preparing a cup in anticipation of Yui's return from work that evening.
"Are you making tea? This late?" The sound of her sister's befuddlement made Rui bristle with eagerness.
"Yeah." Rui answered back as Yui rounded the corner. "Care for a cup? It's different from our usual."
"Alright." Yui still sounded skeptical, but Rui heard her take a seat as she prepared a cup.
When she placed it in front her sister, Yui lifted it up and brought it to her lips before pausing.
"The smell..." Her eyes widened only ever-so-slightly. "Is this...?"
"Yeah, it's the same brand that Fukuda-san gave us."
"Oh yeah. I remember." Yui let out a chuckle. "I remember she and Mom had a falling out a couple years ago. Did you buy this?"
"Yeah." Rui nodded. "After all that's been going on this month, we haven't really had a chance to talk."
Yui gave Rui a surprised look, but it faded into a smile fairly quickly. It was a somewhat tired one, but there was clear warmth behind it.
"We really haven't."
It was late into the night when the sisters both decided to retire. Before Rui shut the door to her room, she heard Yui.
"Thank you, Rui. Good night."
Rui poked her head out of her room to smile at Yui.
"Good night, sis. I'm glad I was able to help."
As Rui settled into bed, she felt had a warm feeling inside of her that she knew wasn't related to the tea.