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“I’ll be alright,” Korekiyo said, although they were staring down into their teacup instead of at Himiko. The porcelain had to be painful to the touch, the way they had both hands wrapped all the way around it with no regard for the handle, but they didn’t flinch. They just breathed in the grassy scent of matcha, eyes closed as if meditating. “There’s no need to worry about me, Himiko-chan. I have a wonderful support system in the form of you and our other friends, and that’s really all I need.”
“How can you be so calm about this?” Only after the words were already out did Himiko recognize her own excessive forcefulness, heat crawling up her neck in embarrassment. “I know your family sucks and everything, and yeah, it’s better to be away from them, but still. For things to end like this...”
“It came as something of a shock,” they allowed, opening their eyes again to gaze across the table at her. Their makeup was perfect, no indication that they’d shed a single tear. By their own admission, they’d packed a bag and come straight to her, so it hadn’t been long at all since they received the news. “But primarily a shock of it happening today. I knew it was very likely that we’d be parting on unpleasant terms sooner or later, so I was prepared in that sense.”
“You didn’t even do anything,” Himiko continued, well aware that she sounded more broken up about Korekiyo being cut off than they did. Maybe it was a bit silly of her, but she hated the thought of anyone treating them with such callous disrespect, especially their own family. “It’s so unfair. They shouldn’t be able to do that.”
Korekiyo lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug, then took a sip of their tea. Himiko poked her own cup with a fingertip and still found it nearly too hot to touch. They were really impressive. She picked up a cookie instead from the selection she’d hastily dumped out onto a plate. She broke it in half and watched crumbs fall onto the table in front of her. Messy, imprecise, childish compared to Korekiyo’s eternal composure.
“They won’t be doing it anymore, I have to assume,” they said eventually. “This is the end. The final injustice, if you wish to think of it like that. I’ve lost access to my family’s wealth, but so too have they lost access to me. Kicking me out burned a bridge I don’t intend to repair, regardless of whatever regrets they concoct when they find they miss having a scapegoat.”
“I guess that’s true. Still, I wish I could do more than just give you a place to stay. It’s going to be hard finding a job and everything.” She paused to take a bite of her cookie. Himiko hated her own part-time job, on principle more than anything else. Working at the library wasn’t so bad on days they didn’t have many visitors, but she’d much rather not have to work at all. It would be an adjustment for her too, no longer being treated to whatever she wanted, courtesy of the Shinguuji family coffers.
“I’ll manage.” They picked up a cookie too, examining it with the faraway gaze of someone thinking about something entirely different. As Himiko expected, they didn’t shed a single crumb. They used that old trick of theirs for eating under their mask too, something she didn’t expect. After so many years, they normally felt comfortable taking it off in front of her when they were in private. A sign the day had shaken them more than they wanted to admit, perhaps. “I’d prefer to take some time before informing anyone else though, if that’s alright with you.”
“If it’s alright with me? Ah, jeez, dealing with you is such a pain,” she whined with exaggerated melodrama. “It’s your life, why wouldn’t it be alright with me? You can tell people whenever you want, or not at all, or whatever. And if they poke at you too much for details, I’ll just have to cast a really nasty curse on them, and it might tire me out a bit, but that’s fine, because doing it for you is worth it.”
All that said, Himiko finally took a drink of her own matcha, peering at Korekiyo over the rim of her teacup. They looked fondly thoughtful, the cookie vanishing beneath their mask, and she knew she’d said exactly the right thing.
“Can I ask one more thing of you then, Himiko-chan?”
“Of course. Anything.” She leaned forward in her chair, prepared to leap up to fetch them something, or to grab her phone to message someone on their behalf. At first though, they just nodded, as if her automatic agreement to do as they asked was really all they’d needed to begin with.
“Will you... continue to be here for me? Forever, through thick and thin? Can I trust that you’ll do that?” Their expression, what she could see of it above the mask, wavered for just a millisecond. She hopped up out of her chair, as she’d already been poised to do, and went around to their side of the table. Her arms wound tightly around them and squeezed their thin, fragile frame in a sideways hug, breathing in the lightly floral scent of their shampoo.
“Yeah. You can always trust me to do that, Kiyo-chan. For a mage as powerful as I am, that’s the easiest task in the world.”