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Aki was getting frustrated by the wrapping paper. It never seemed to do exactly what she wanted, and she found herself repeatedly just crumpling up the wrapping paper to start again. "You're wasting paper," Martha said, startling Aki. "We only have so much wrapping paper. Try to be more careful."
The reminder that she was wasting paper felt like an insult even if Martha hadn't meant to cause any ill will. Even now, Aki had a difficulty controlling her emotions. So she stood up quickly, walking out of the room before she could say anything she'd regret. She was angry, but not really at Martha. No, Aki was angry with herself. It felt like she'd missed a critical skill in wrapping presents, and she felt the weight of her own failures clenching around her heart. She sunk to the floor, trying to remind herself it was just wrapping paper. She heard footsteps, and was about to get up to leave when Yusei's boots came into her line of sight. "Aki," he said gently, squatting down next to her. "Are you okay? Martha said you just got up and left and was worried about you."
Of course. She couldn't even leave a room without causing issues, could she? "I just," she said, trying to think of what to tell Yusei. Aki didn't want to lie to him, not when they'd been so honest with each other thus far. "I know it's stupid. It just... didn't feel good when Martha reminded me that I was wasting wrapping paper."
Yusei's brow furrowed. After all, he couldn't exactly contradict Martha's point, and Aki knew that. She didn't want him to give her some sickly sweet statement on how wasting resources was fine, actually, especially when she knew he didn't mean it. He moved to properly sit next to her, putting his arm around her. "You didn't learn how to wrap presents, did you?"
How did he do that? Aki didn't understand how he could see through her like she was made of glass. Yusei somehow struck to the heart of the issue, and Aki felt her cheeks heat up as she nodded. "I... well. I never got to wrap presents when I was still living with my parents... and while I mean, I still had Christmas at the Arcadia movement..." She paused, not sure how much Yusei wanted to know about holidays when she'd been living under Divine's rule. He didn't interrupt, so she continued. "I just... never wrapped any gifts. Divine... didn't like presents and I wasn't really close to anyone else there enough to consider buying them a gift."
"So you just never had a chance to learn," Yusei said immediately, with no room for argument. "If you'd like... I can teach you how to wrap a gift. We can take some paper up to my old room and the twins' gifts, and I'll show you."
Aki flushed, nodding. "I'd like that."
Yusei stood up, holding his hand out to hers. And it felt like a promise when she took his hand, letting him lead the way.