Work Text:
Ena huffed. Today was not going her way.
It started off small; waking up later than usual, not being able to find her toothbrush, miniscule things.
It didn’t seem much at first. Mildly frustrating, yes. But nothing she couldn’t handle. Even then, it felt like a lot more than it was. She ignored it.
Unfortunately for the artist, it seemed to progress into bigger things. Things that seemed too big for her.
Such things consisted of accidentally spilling her cereal at breakfast, losing her pen for her tablet, and Mizuki wasn’t even home for the morning! All Ena wanted was to just be in her girlfriend’s arms, but the day had to keep moving forward. So she decided she’d pass her alone-time by finishing some of her art assignments.
Which leads her to now - sat in her bedroom, ignoring a fiery pain flaring up in her wrist as she dragged her pen across the page. Even on her best days she hated wearing her wrist brace, so picture now - in pain, lonely, and nothing was going her way.
Not to mention that fuzzy feeling she felt clouding her senses. She refused to let it in. She hadn’t let that feeling in for years. She hated it. It turned her needy, clingy. Ena wouldn’t admit wanting attention normally, let alone when she feels so vulnerable. So, she ignored it.
Her drawing wasn’t going well. Like everything else. She hated it. She hated everything about it. She tried changing it time and time again, but nothing looked good! It was so stupid! It was ugly. She couldn’t convey her motive through it.
Her wrist was burning. She ignored it the best she could, but it was starting to get to her.
Ena didn’t notice the click of the front door. Didn’t notice the padding of feet down the hallway. Didn’t notice the knock on the bedroom door. She only noticed when the bedroom door opened, and Mizuki appeared behind her.
“Ena, didn’t you hear me come in~?” she cooed, placing her hands on Ena’s shoulders.
Ena jumped a bit under the touch, before melting into it and leaning her head back to look at Mizuki, trying to hide the grimace on her face from the pain shooting through her arm.
“Sorry.” she said, her voice was soft, hardly above a whisper.
Mizuki giggled, kissing Ena on the forehead. She had that goofy grin plastered on her face as always, “It’s alright, you must’ve been really into your work huh?”
“Hmh, I guess. It’s not really working out though…” Ena lifted her head, turning to her tablet, correcting a section she’d been trying to perfect.
“Is it not? Can I see?” The animator leaned over Ena’s shoulder, trying to peek at her work.
Ena snatched the tablet and cradled it close to her chest, not willing to let Mizuki see. “No! It- it’s ugly… and it’s not even finished yet.”
Mizuki frowned a little, before kissing the crown of Ena’s head, “Okay, okay. I would beg to differ but I’ll leave it for now. How’s your day been?”
“Mmmh.”
“That bad huh? Maybe you should take a break?” Mizuki suggested, threading her fingers through Ena’s hair.
“No!” Ena whined, holding her tablet closer.
She felt fussier than usual. She wanted nothing more than to just do nothing and lay with Mizuki, but she didn’t want to just give up. Even if it seemed too much for her. It was all too much for her.
“Woah- Hey Ena what’s wrong?” Mizuki jumped back slightly, caught off guard by Ena’s refusal.
She was used to Ena not willing to take breaks, but she definitely wasn’t used to Ena yelling at her over it.
Ena didn’t know what was wrong. Everything, technically. Her thoughts were contradicting themselves. She wanted to keep drawing but her wrist hurt so much. She wanted Mizuki to take care of her but she didn’t want to be a problem.
Tears brimmed her eyes, she stood up, staring at the floor. Her wrist hurt, her head was beginning to hurt too. There was so much going on but not enough at the same time. Everything was going wrong. She hated it.
“Ena it’s okay, do you want a hug?” Ena nodded, shaking under Mizuki’s hold. Mizuki drew circles into her back with one hand and ran the other through Ena’s hair.
Now that Ena was settling, Mizuki took the tablet from her grasp and placed it on the desk. Going back into the hug, Ena clutched her wrist against her chest, hoping Mizuki wouldn’t notice.
They stood there for what felt like hours, but only could’ve been around 2 minutes. Mizuki kept doing the same repetitive motions, soothing Ena slightly.
Despite this, Mizuki was still annoyingly observant. She pulled away from the hug momentarily, much to the artist’s dismay, and stared at Ena’s hand - the one it looked like she was protecting from who-knows-what.
“Ena, is your wrist hurting again?” Mizuki asked bluntly, as if it were hardly a question.
Ena shook her head, she knew her hopes of successfully denying it were slim, but she’d try anyways. Mizuki sighed and clicked her tongue, Ena knew that she knew. Ena knew that Mizuki saw right through her.
“C’mon,” the animator took Ena by the arm, “let’s get your brace, ‘kay?”
“Don’t wanna…” Ena muttered, her gaze was still fixated on the floor. She hated wearing that brace. It was uncomfortable. It felt like a piece of fabric was telling her that she couldn’t do anything. Like this was the universe’s way of telling her that she should give up.
Mizuki raised an eyebrow at Ena’s immature speech. Usually, Ena’s defiance of the brace would be a lot louder, aggressive, assertive.
In this scenario, Ena almost seemed… shy? That’s how Mizuki would put it. She suspected something was going on, but wanted to get some more evidence first.
“I know, sweetheart, but it’ll make you feel better, won’t it?” Mizuki cooed, pulling Ena to the other side of their bedroom, where the brace was kept.
“Mmmm ‘s not the point.” Ena mumbled, watching in discomfort as Mizuki searched through drawers.
“No, Ena. I think that’s the entire point. Come on, just wear it for a bit?” The animator pleaded, pulling the brace out from the drawer.
Ena didn’t respond, instead reluctantly giving Mizuki her hand to put it on. Ena hated every second of it, but knew she wasn’t going to win this fight. Especially when she could feel herself slipping more and more by the second. She imagined that if she just kept quiet, it would go away.
How
wrong
she was.
Noticing Ena’s spaced-out state, Mizuki brought Ena back over to their bed, sitting her down. “Ena?” she called, watching Ena’s head lift, Mizuki continued, “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Confused, Ena slowly shook her head, trying not to aggravate her headache.
Mizuki sighed, crouching to Ena’s level. “Ena, do you feel small right now?”
The words hit Ena like a truck. She didn’t want to be perceived like that. In a panic, Ena shook her head aggressively, “No!”
“Ena it’s okay! You’re safe with me, you know that.”
“No! ‘m not small! Jus’ tired…” If Ena wasn’t feeling so horrible right then, she’d have known that was the worst excuse in the world. But this version of Ena seemed to think it would work.
It did not.
“Ena~ you don’t have to lie to me.” The animator began, “I want to take care of you honey. I want you to be happy and comfy. Doesn’t that sound nice?”
Ena pondered for a bit. It
does
sound nice. Mizuki taking care of her… but Ena didn’t want to be selfish. She didn’t want to be another thing on Mizuki’s plate. Yet, she found herself nodding. What was the point in continuing to lie anyways? She knew deep down that Mizuki would see through it no matter what.
“There we go~ How old do you feel baby?”
Ena held up 3 fingers, letting her body fall forward into Mizuki’s. She’d tired herself out so much from pretending. She just wanted to fall asleep right there.
To her dismay, Mizuki got her up to go eat and drink something. Assuming that Ena hadn’t eaten much - or anything - during the time between breakfast and when she’d returned.
“Ena,” Mizuki began, sifting through cupboards as Ena sat at the dining table, “do you want painkillers for your wrist?” she asked, Ena hummed in confirmation. She wanted them not only for her wrist, but her head too. Mizuki handed her a cup and two pills, which she assisted Ena with taking.
In the living room, Mizuki was on the couch and Ena sat on the floor in front of it, some of her pain and exhaustion having subsided. Some kids show Ena wanted was playing on the TV. Despite this, Ena didn’t seem like she was paying much attention to it, instead scribbling in a colouring book with some crayons. Mizuki was secretly glad that Ena didn’t care much for colouring inside the lines right then.
Whenever she would finish a page, Ena would shove it in Mizuki’s face, awaiting her response; each time, Mizuki would make a big show of it, dramatically gasping and praising the drawings, even if they weren’t Ena’s best works, Mizuki still treasured them.
Mizuki scrolled on her phone for a while, occasionally looking up to make sure Ena wasn’t setting something on fire.
“‘Zuki!”
Mizuki looked up, expecting another page of coloured in flowers. To her surprise, it was an entirely separate piece of paper.
Mizuki looked at it, eyes tracing the details.
It was a drawing of a pink cat, with a big arrow pointing to it, with “MIZUKI” written on the other end - and a brown circle next to it…? The circle had another arrow pointing to it, “ME” written on the opposite end.
Mizuki pointed at the circle, “What’s this meant to be baby?”
Ena huffed, puffing out her cheeks.
“Is
obviously
a hedge’og. Look! I did the spikeys an’ the ears!”
Oh.
Mizuki internally facepalmed. Realistically, only Ena would’ve known what it was, but Mizuki thought she could understand her.
A smile spread across the animator’s face, “This is really good, Ena!” she exclaimed, “This is me and you as a hedgehog and a kitty, right?”
“Yah.” Ena nodded. Turning back to the coffee table and taking another plain piece of paper, her colouring book pushed to the side. She picked up a purple and red crayon, placing the red one to the side and drawing with the purple one.
Ena showed Mizuki numerous drawings after, such as a purple bunny with a red dog, or all four previously mentioned animals together in their respective colours.Mizuki swore her heart melted at each one. Seeing Ena express her affection in such a way almost awoke something in Mizuki.
Ena wore her heart on her sleeve, but struggled to express her feelings verbally sometimes. Yet with her art, it was almost like you could really see into her world a little. Mizuki cherished moments like these. Even now when Ena was reduced to a younger state, she was still showing her feelings through art.
At some point, Ena had tired herself out again. She was holding her chin in her palm, eyes drooping slowly as she attempted to look awake.
Of course, Mizuki noticed. Getting up and crouching down next to Ena, “You feeling sleepy?”
Ena nodded, leaning into Mizuki.
Mizuki picked her up in a bridal carry, making her way to their bedroom.
-
Now they were cuddled up in their bed, Ena’s eyes drooping as she pressed her head against Mizuki’s chest, her caretaker’s heartbeat soothing her.The former mumbled random noises quietly as she felt sleep overtake her senses.
She was safe.
Mizuki would keep her safe.