It’s almost funny, the way the stares are more pronounced the farther they get.



The two local lines they take are no problem other than the fact that Kanna and Tohru are so utterly fascinated by the idea of turnstiles. That draws more stares in the middle of the city than Tohru's tail ever could.

“It’s magic?” she gasps and Kanna stares in awe as other passengers jostle around them, both curious as to what’s taking them so long and annoyed that they’re blocking an entire turnstile.

“It’s not magic. You just put the ticket through, it reads it, and comes out here. And then it lets you on.”

“It looks like magic,” Kanna comments and Kobayashi indulges her a little.

“Well, I guess it’s close if you’ve never seen anything like it. But still not quite magic. Now come on, there’s only two trains out a day and the next one isn’t until evening. We don’t want to miss it. We have to make a connecting one too.”

She might as well have spoken another language to them.

“Connecting?” Tohru asks and Kobayashi shakes her head.

“Don’t worry about it, just follow me.”

Kanna latches onto her hand and Tohru holds Kanna’s other one and she leads them through, teaches them how to read the train schedule, how to find what platform they need to leave from.

It’s good to see that there are still things that fascinate them like this. And it’s not just the first train, it’s all of them.

“Why are the seats different on this one?” Kanna asks every time, enamored with the different colors of upholstery and why some of them are more like benches and others like individual seats.

“It’s just a different rail company.”

Tohru likes to guess how fast each one goes and if she could out-fly it.

“Why do we have to take so many? I could’ve flown us,” she cocks her head.

“Well, it’s a small town, there’s not a very direct route. And I’m trying not to scare them, let’s save the dragon part for another visit.”

“If you say so,” she shrugs, smiling and takes to looking around the train again.

It’s a shame, she thinks, that being in the city is so necessary. There’s a vibrancy and relevance to it she would miss being out here. But just the way the grass and the trees look, the way it smells, the particular way the roads meander here is in her irrevocably. Whether for good or ill she’s not sure.

An older woman eyes Tohru’s horns and eyes Kobayashi too as she takes the piece of candy Kanna offers her. She remembers how calming it is to watch landscape flit by with almost nothing else in sight.

They catch their connecting train and Kanna falls asleep in her lap. She smiles at Tohru over her head as she strokes Kanna’s hair and sees the looks out of her periphery and they don’t get so much of this in the city.

As the buildings go sparser and the landscape changes a little, Kobayashi doesn’t doubt that interdimensional travel exists like Tohru has explained to her before. This feels almost the same as when Tohru or Kanna have flown her somewhere foreign. Except that it’s so familiar to her. So why does it feel like dimensions are colliding now?

These trees and trains have been things she’s known like the back of her hand since she was a child. She wonders at how they look the same and also completely different coming back after so long. How when she’s in the city it feels as if maybe this place and her childhood happened in a dream and when she’s here it seems like the apartment back in Tokyo might never have existed either.

But then there’s Tohru and Kanna and how odd and gratifying it is to see them here. It’s as if the two should repel each other but here they are in the same spheres.

They pull into the station. Oh god, she thought she was prepared for this.

“Is this it?” Tohru bounces in place on the seat and she can do this, right? If she shouted down Tohru’s father, jumped in the middle between the two of them when they could’ve destroyed her, made it through those days of deafening quiet without her, she can do this.

“Yeah,” she nods and gathers up Kanna because she’s still a little groggy to walk on her own.

It’s surreal to see them walking up the street she’s known since she was a baby. Kanna has perked up and she runs ahead even though she has no idea where she’s going. Her enthusiasm is helping her nerves. That and the fact that Tohru has an arm looped through hers and it’s grounding her, reminding her she’s there.

“Oh god, I can’t do this-” she mutters and Tohru smiles.

“They can’t kill you and they don’t pay your rent anymore. What’s there to worry about?”

“It can still be uncomfortable. I don’t even know what they’ll do.”

“Well you told them we’re coming right?”

“I told them I wanted them to meet someone important to me.”

“Oh dear,” she giggles. “That’s a bit vague. So it’ll be a bit of a surprise. But so what? They can’t be worse than mine.”

“Hm.”

When she gets there she nearly chokes because it’s not just her mother and father there. They must’ve picked up the implication that she’s probably bringing someone she’s dating because her aunt and uncle, her cousin, and her grandmother from the neighboring town are there too.

Of course. Her mother made this out to be an entire family event; she loves a little drama. She’s about to get a lot more of it than she wanted.

“Mom, isn’t this a bit much?” is the first thing she asks her but she doesn’t get a chance to answer because she hugs her too tightly and fusses over her.

“Absolutely not, we’ve been waiting for you to get married and-”

“Married?! Mom, I never said-”

“I know, but this is the first person you’ve brought home-” goes her aunt and her dad hugs her too. Her uncle and cousin gush about not having seen her for so long.

This is going well. Too well. Have they even really looked at her yet?

Have they seen Kanna?

“Well, where is he?” her grandma asks.

There it is. The catch. She thought they at least understood that there wouldn’t be any men coming home with her. Apparently not.

They look behind her and freeze. That’s more like it.

She turns and takes Tohru’s hand. She’s been fidgeting just over the threshold, still on the front step, Kanna hiding behind her. She draws her gently into the house and it’s deathly quiet.

“This is Tohru,” she tells them without any further comment. There’s no need to define the particulars of it when she’s brought her here to introduce her to them. They know.

And now for the real fun.

“And this-,” she ducks behind Tohru where Kanna is clutching her skirt, shyly peeking around from time to time. “-is Kanna.”

She picks her up and puts her on her hip and Kanna hides her face in the crook of her neck in front of the veritable crowd her mother has gathered.

And she thought it was quiet before. She wonders if negative sound is a possibility. If so this is what it sounds like.

“When the hell did you have a kid?” her cousin breaks the ice, with no time for pleasantries and she almost appreciates the candor. It’s easier to deal with than the wordless gaping the rest of them are doing.

“Well, I’m not her mother, but I am her guardian-”

“So when did you adopt a kid I guess?” she keeps at it mercilessly. She was twelve or so last Kobayashi saw her and now she’s in the middle of her teens and it shows in the way she raises a brow at her, unamused. She hopes Kanna’s teens aren’t like this. When will she even hit her teens? What are dragons like in their teens?

“Ah, I guess it’s been almost a year.”

“So, you’re her mom then?” she shifts her focus to Tohru and she shakes her head and smiles nervously.

“N-no, I’m also her guardian.”

Well, that’s more implicating. If Tohru were her mother, it might seem like she’s just gotten a little swept up, dating a woman who has a child.

But this. This is too deliberate.

Tohru takes advantage of the silence to cut in.

“Um. It’s so good to meet everyone-” and Kobayashi can tell she means it. She’s so unbearably excited to be included.

She’s not sure if Tohru’s picked up on the mood or not. Dragons seem a little more straightforward. She may not understand that quiet means tension or at least shock.

“Please accept this, um-”

Oh, she forgot. Tohru’s made the prettiest little cake and dutifully carried it the entire way.

Her parents very slowly take it from her, as if they’re not sure if there’s a catch. She’s written a cute little note on the box and where did she even find a box to put it in? It looks professional if she’s honest.

“Oh. You wrote the New Year’s card-” her mother takes one look at the writing and looks straight at Tohru.

“Yes-” she brightens.

“We knew it wasn’t her, her handwriting has always been so messy,” her father speaks for the first time and Kobayashi starts to deflate.

“Oh I know, she’s forbidden from writing on the calendar now, I can’t read it for anything-”

The little ripple of laughter they give is the most blessed thing she’s ever heard. Bless Tohru, what did she do before her? Let things hang, suspended in stilted conversation, she remembers.

“So are you a cosplayer or do you work in a maid cafe or something?” goes her cousin and the wall of tension is thrown right back up and Kobayashi contemplates putting her fingers in water tonight like they used to do to each other as kids.

“Oh, no, I’m Miss Kobayashi’s maid,” she grins and now everyone is uncomfortable and confused.

“Still got that maid fetish then,” she laughs mercilessly and putting her fingers in water won’t be enough for the level of retribution Kobayashi wants to bestow upon her.

They’re never getting the conversation back, she might as well just turn around and leave because-

“Kobayashi,” Kanna peeps and emerges from the crook of her neck, tugging on her sleeve a little. She’s put off because she hasn’t introduced everyone to her.

“I’m sorry, Kanna, I introduced you to everyone, but I didn’t introduce anyone to you,” she tells her and everyone’s eyes go soft. She introduces them all and Kanna tells each of them it’s nice to meet them in the sweetest, measured way.

They can’t really be too put off by it all, because Kanna is so wonderfully well behaved.

“Who taught you to be so polite?” her aunt asks, grinning, charmed by her already.

“Kobayashi,” she points at her and she can nearly see the shift in their minds. Kobayashi can only smile at her and she know she must look smug, but she doesn’t care. There’s no way to spin this the wrong way. Kanna is unarguably a good little girl.

“I wanna play,” she tells her and it’s like watching everyone’s resolve melt. If Tohru’s easy friendliness can’t sway them, Kanna’s cuteness will.

“I’m sure we can find something for you to play with,” she tells her and her father lights up.

“We still have all your old toys in the attic.”

“Really? You never got rid of them?”

“Didn’t have the heart to,” he shrugs, sheepish and gruff. “Do you want to go find them with me, Kanna?”

She nods vigorously at him and he gently takes her from her arms.

“I suppose I’ll start lunch-” her mother starts, remembering herself. At least they’ve all decided to go about as normal for a little instead of hang in the doorway. Tohru cuts her off with enthusiasm so vibrant she startles.

“Oh, please, may I help? Unless I’m overstepping, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Tohru’s a good cook, you should let her help,” she tells her mother and Tohru beams and looks ready to burst.

“Kobayashi! You think so?”

“A-alright,” her mother concedes, only a little hesitant.

Kobayashi just sits back and listens as her mother and her uncle bustle around in the kitchen with Tohru, as her grandmother mildly banters about her mother using too much salt or her uncle turning the burner up too high.

She notices that Tohru doesn’t get much criticism. If anything her grandmother is curious about what she does.

“Ah, I’ve never seen that trick, where did you learn that?”

“Oh, I found it online somewhere, I think.”

“I’m no good with computers, these two have a fit over me,” she gestures to where Kobayashi is watching Kanna and her father emerge from the attic with a dusty box. “They’re both so good with them. But I’m a bit too old fashioned to start up with them now, I just use old recipe books. Handwritten, of course, some of them are quite old.”

“Oh, I wish I could see them!” Tohru is over the moon to talk to her. Kobayashi doesn’t think she’s even had that much of a conversation with her grandmother herself. Is she really that quiet or is Tohru just that sociable?

“Oh yes, if I can get anyone to help me figure out how to send them to you, I could-”

Tohru can scarcely handle it. They’re all a bit taken aback by how everything excites her. No one in her family is terribly over the top about anything. Understatement is the tone of choice ,but there’s not anything understated about Tohru. They’re scrambling to keep up with her just like she is.

Her father might be enjoying the box of old toys more than Kanna. He’s reminiscing about each one, and he remembers them better than she does. She’s thankful he’s distracted so he doesn’t see Kanna examine quite a large spider on the dusty box before cramming the whole thing in her mouth.

Kobayashi can’t decide if she thinks it’s sweet to watch Kanna with the same things she played with as a child or if she’s terrified, waiting for them to do something odd that someone notices.

Her cousin hangs close and keeps asking about life in Tokyo. She seems to think Kobayashi is some sort of rebel for coming home with a woman, and a maid at that, and a child. She seems to like the idea that Kobayashi has bucked the norm and wants to emulate it. She is that age after all.

Kobayashi hates to break it to her that there’s nothing remotely rebellious about any of them unless you count wasting days under the kotatsu and letting dishes pile up and letting the phone ring off the hook.

Well, other than the fact that two out of three are dragons.

Lunch goes smoothly enough but she’s waiting for it. Her parents keep giving her this look that only she’s going to notice. Tohru and Kanna still don’t speak in hints and insinuations. They’re much too direct and if you don’t tell them something outright, chances are they’ll never clue in. But Kobayashi has had a lifetime to learn.

Her parents aren’t angry per se. But she can see them trying to let it rest and every time Tohru does something over the top they go a little quiet. They’re in that space between outright disapproval and worry and she’s going to get pulled aside about it by the end of the night.

It’s just after dinner. She intended to stay at least one night, if not two, and she told them so. But she knows her parents don’t know what to do about the sleeping arrangements now and it’s adding to everything else they’ve wondered about throughout the day and it’s hitting a breaking point.

She doesn’t even have to be told. She knows when Tohru offers to help them with the dishes and they don’t protest. They’d normally say no once to be polite.

She just quietly ventures back into her father’s study. It’s where they always go when they want to have some sort of uncomfortable talk.

“Oh. I wondered where you’d gone,” he smiles and her mother appears behind him.

“I knew you were going to ask me to come back here anyway, so I went ahead.”

“O-oh. Well-”

They’re taken aback by her candor. Tohru has rubbed off on her after all.

“We wanted to ask…W-what I mean to say is we’re concerned-” her father starts.

“We’re worried you’re being taken advantage of,” her mother finishes, always more forthright than her dad. Their eyes widen when she laughs outright.

“If anything I’m the one taking advantage, but go on.”

They share an apprehensive look.

“Well, we’re not sure she’s a good influence-”

“What has she done that’s seemed like a bad influence to you? All she’s done is cook-”

“You don’t need to cop an attitude,” her mother warns her.

They’re not used to dealing with her as an adult. This has happened a few times since she’s moved out. Parents have a hard time letting go of their children. They don’t like being reminded they can’t control them anymore and they’re surely going to try.

“We’re also worried about the nature of your relationship. It comes off as if you two-”

“You should treat us as if we’re married,” she clarifies.

They’re very quiet. It’s not necessarily that’s she’s ready for that sort of commitment and more that she knows this is the only way they’ll understand.

“I…see-” her mother pauses and now dad won’t look at anything but the floor

“I thought you knew.”

“Knew?”

Either she misinterpreted how well they understood or they were just hoping they were wrong not to expect her to bring any men home. And here she thought the ties she wears to work were talking for her.

“You should understand that even if it wasn’t Tohru…I’ll never be in the type of relationship you want-” she tells them, trying to be firm enough but without being too bold. It doesn’t work.

“Well there’s no need to be defiant, we’re just trying to look out for you-”

“Then listen to me. Look-” she shakes her head and waves at them to stop. “I didn’t come here to argue this with you. I came here because I wanted to see you and I wanted you to meet them.”

“We just don’t approve, or at least we’re worried, think about what it looks like-”

“You don’t have to approve. I’d like you to, of course. I’d like you to try to understand them, but if you don’t want to try, I can’t stop you. And you can’t really stop me either. The best we can do is try to work something out.”

They don’t like hearing that, they’re hoping to sway her. But they at least seem to decide to save it for another conversation since it’s getting late. She wonders when the sleeping arrangements are coming.

“She’s not sleeping in the same room with you, we don’t want to give everyone else the wrong impression,” dad warns and there it is.

“What, the impression that we live together? That there’s something going on? Because both are true.”

“Do you have to be so crass?” her mother sighs before she looks at dad. “This is from your side of the family, you know.”

“Hm. But if you don’t want to give the impression that something is going on, wouldn’t you let her sleep in the same room? If she’s just a friend, isn’t putting her out on the couch really suspicious?” she smirks and she knows she has them.

“You used to do this when you were young,” mom huffs. It’s true. She always caught them if something they told her didn’t add up. Mom throws her hands up. “Whatever, sleep however you want.”

She nods and leaves as soon as she can.

They still have her room here just the way it was when she left, although she can tell the sheets are freshly laundered.

She gets that feeling again, nestled in with Tohru and Kanna in the room she used as a child. The one where it seems like worlds are overlapping where they shouldn’t, even though she’s glad they are. She remembers being in this room and in this bed and quietly realizing, one nondescript day. She wishes she could show her younger self this. She would’ve been quite impressed with herself, she thinks.

“I think it went well,” Tohru grins. “They’re all wonderful, but I expected that because you are-”

“Are they really that fascinating to you?”

Kanna is already asleep on her other side, unperturbed by their conversation.

“Oh yes! You look like your mom, and you act like your dad, and your grandma is so cute. And I really expected more of a fuss, they all took it so well!”

She doesn’t answer and Tohru notices.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know if they took it as well as you think. Just because they didn’t forcibly try to take me away doesn’t mean they approve.”

“Oh. How do you know?” she asks, clearly puzzled because she hasn’t seen anything terribly implicating.

“Little things. The way they give each other this look and they’ve made some hints. They pulled me aside to talk to me-”

“When? They never even asked to talk to you.”

“Didn’t have to. I already knew.”

Tohru is completely confused.

“But they never said anything to me about any of it.”

“They won’t. They’ll never tell you, they’ll tell me. And even talking to me the way they did was very forward for them, usually they’d just drop little hints and expect me to catch on.”

She sniffs, annoyed.

“That seems cowardly. They should have the respect to tell you.”

“Maybe you’re right. I think to them it’s respectful not to. It’s rude to tell people things outright out here.”

She sighs.

“Humans are confusing.”

“Yeah. They are.”

“What do they think of me?”

“I don’t know if it’d be helpful to tell you-”

“I’d rather know,” she scowls darkly and Kobayashi forgets she’s a dragon until she glowers like that.

“Okay, fine. If you really want to know. They think you’re taking advantage of me, they don’t like that you’re a woman, they don’t like how you dress, and they didn’t say it, but they don’t think either of us should be taking care of a child. And they’d prefer it if I left you, found someone more suitable to take care of Kanna, and ideally moved home because Tokyo is dangerous and morally questionable to them.”

“You got all that from just a few looks?”

“Pretty much.”

“Was it even worth it, then? Coming here?” she asks.

She’s not sure. She’s missed it here, on one hand. But it’s never simple. She envies people that can come home without implications. For whom home is an uncomplicated notion. Who’ve even stayed here and never left. But she wanted them to see where she grew up, not argue the whole time.

Maybe that’s what she should do instead.

“I want to go flying.”

Tohru jerks back, incredulous.

“Are you okay? You never want to go flying.”

“Yes, I’m fine, and I do now. Let’s go.”

“You’re sure?” she asks but she can’t hold in the smile any longer and she’s already got one leg out of the bed.

“Yeah. And there’s not much out here, it’ll be easier for you to fly, we might as well take advantage.”

“Okay!” she grins.

“Should we wake up Kanna?”

“I think so, she’s still little, she needs to practice flying more than she gets to.”

“Kanna?” she nudges her gently. She stretches and yawns and she’s so soft-looking when she wakes up.

“Kobayashi?” she blinks, disoriented.

“Do you want to go flying with us?”

That does it. Her eyes, still a little red with sleep, go wide and she nods and stumbles out of bed.

Kobayashi warns them which steps to be careful of on the stairs, how to open and close the back door silently. There’s so much more space out here. Her backyard is big enough for Tohru to transform and stretch out her wings.

It’s so small, she thinks, when they’re airborne and the town is just a little cluster of buildings with barely any lights on in the dead of night. It’s just nestled into the countryside. She can see the next town over if she looks hard enough.

She tells Tohru to fly a little lower and they glide over it, as slow as they can.

“That’s my high school!” she calls over the wind.

“Oh! I bet you looked so cute in a uniform!”

“I didn’t. I didn’t fill it out, it was huge on me. I wanted to wear the boys one but no one was going to let me, so I didn’t ask. Oh and look over there, Kanna, that’s where I went to school when I was your age.”

Kanna blinks at it and makes a little noise of assent.

“What were you like in school?” Tohru asks, amused.

“Not very different. Quiet. I wasn’t really in any clubs or anything, I kept to myself.”

“What else do you want to see?”

“There’s not much else here. It’s just nice to look at it really.”

They circle the skies over her hometown for hours. They venture to the next town over once too so she can show them her grandmother’s house. She tells them stories if she sees anything that reminds her of something she thinks they’ll enjoy.

The time they taught her to drive and she nearly drove into their neighbor’s mailbox the first try. Her favorite foods her mother makes and she knows Tohru is filing them away for later. The time she got in an altercation with a boy in class when she was Kanna’s age, very much like she did only a few weeks ago. The man who owns the little corner store who, to this day, will give her a free piece of candy every time she comes in even though she’s long since grown.

Funny, how she loves it so much more when she’s with them. How much more nostalgic it is to her looking down on it from a dragon’s back.

They finally venture back because Kanna is getting sleepy. But Kobayashi stops Tohru before she transforms.

“Wait. I want to do one thing.”

She wonders if she should feel bad. But this is so much better than putting her cousin’s hand in warm water. Tohru taps on the window of one of the guestrooms with a claw bigger than her parents’ car.

Her cousin can’t even yell. She just chokes, seeing Tohru’s glaring yellow eye peering through the window. Tohru ducks down so she can see Kobayashi too, casually leaning against one of her horns.

Kobayashi looks over though the window as if she’s just noticed her.

“What’s with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Kanna lets her get a good look at her too before they duck below the window, transform and hide before she gets out of bed to look.

They run upstairs as quietly as they can and dive into bed before her cousin comes bursting in.

“T-there! There’s a dragon out there, n-no, two dragons! You were riding one! It had horns like those but big!” she gestures to Tohru.

“What? What are you talking about, it’s two in the morning,” Kobayashi croaks, making a show of looking sleepy.

“No, I’m serious! There was a big green one and then a little white one! The little one was even as big as the whole house!”

“What’s going on, Kobayashi?” Tohru murmurs, rubbing her eyes. Kanna does a good job of pretending she’s asleep the whole time.

“It sounds like she had a nightmare, just go back to sleep.”

“No, it wasn’t a nightmare!!”

“It was, go to sleep before you wake everyone up.”

“Fine! But don’t come crawling to me when it shows up at your window!”

“I thought I was riding it, why would it show up at my window? And how would I have gotten in here?”

“Whatever!” she snaps and slams the door shut and Kobayashi’s aunt is out in the hallway scolding her daughter for it in seconds flat. They all giggle silently together under the covers, trying so hard not to make a sound. She falls asleep smiling between them.

Tohru isn’t there when she wakes up. It’s light outside. She must’ve gotten up early like she does at home.

She hears voices and she slips out to listen from the stairs, leaving Kanna still quietly asleep.

She hears Tohru humming. Her mother politely excusing herself to duck behind her to grab something. It’s eight in the morning and no one else is up yet besides them. Her mother probably isn’t terribly happy to have her kitchen encroached upon but isn’t saying anything yet.

“You’re up early,” comments mom and that’s as good as telling Tohru to leave the kitchen. She’s not going to catch on, of course.

“Oh this is late for me, I get up at four at home.”

“Four?!”

“Yes, well Kobayashi is up at seven and starts at nine, so I have to have breakfast and lunch done by then. And then I have to get Kanna ready too-”

She chats on, telling her about what she does every day.

“Do you really need to do all that?” her mother asks.

“No. But I want to.”

“I’m sure it helps that you get paid, though,” she belies the pointedness of it with a laugh.

“Oh, I don’t get paid.”

“Oh? That’s a bit odd.”

“Not really. I do it because I love her.”

She holds in a wince. That’s not going to go well.

“I know that upsets you,” Tohru continues. Maybe she is learning to read little hints after all.

“I never said-”

“You didn’t have to.”

The silence is painful. She may have learned to pick up hints, but hasn’t learned to respond indirectly.

“If it helps, my father disapproves too. He actually tried to force me to come home.”

“Why didn’t you listen?”

“I did for a little while and came back. He was very angry. Actually, he would’ve tried again if not for your daughter.”

“What?”

“She argued with him to let me stay. It was brave of her. My father is very intimidating.”

“Why would anyone disapprove of my daughter?”

Tohru laughs.

“My father would say the same thing if he knew you disapproved of me.”

“I think it’s very bold of you to make statements like that as a guest in the house. And my daughter is a respectable girl and-”

“Then why don’t you trust her?”

Mom sputters. She’s never been confronted quite like this and Kobayashi just knows she’s going to want them all out of the house after this. She’s livid.

“I do trust her!”

“You don’t. She told my father the same thing. She defended me against my father and I’ll defend her against you, even if it makes you hate me. Kobayashi is a smart girl. She knows a lot more than me. She knows what bills are, and how to get an apartment-”

She’s doomed. That’s not going to convince her mother at all.

“And she works hard, and stays late a lot. She tells me when I do a good job, and she takes such good care of Kanna that she thinks of her as a mother. And she may not always know how to say it, but she loves us.”

Thank god. Thank god she knows it. Because she isn’t good at telling her and she’d hoped she understood.

“But it just sounds like you’re taking advantage-”

“She’s not that stupid. If we’re still here, there’s a reason, isn’t there?”

“I don’t approve. I just don’t think you can work together.”

“My father said that too. You’re really not that different.”

“We are different, and I’m just trying to protect her-“

“Then why have you only scolded her since she got here? You can’t make her do anything. She can’t make you do anything either. The best you can do is try to compromise. She’s already tried by coming to see you. With all due respect, I think you haven’t tried at all.”

With that, Tohru leaves and rounds the corner. She makes it up two stairs before she spots her and freezes. Kobayashi smiles at her and waves her up the last few stairs and puts her arms around her gently. She just holds her on the stairs.

Her mother comes around, probably to say something else to her in anger. Tohru can’t see her. Her back is turned. But Kobayashi can, and she watches her stop short like Tohru did. She doesn’t try to move. Just lets her see, and looks at her from over Tohru’s shoulder.

It’s uncomfortable for a few hours. Everyone else proceeds as normal, but there’s an invisible thread of tension between mom and the two of them.

Kobayashi distracts herself by going to sit next to her cousin. She jumps.

“Sleep alright?” she grins and she grumps back.

She almost misses it, teasing her cousin. Mom sneaks over and quietly taps Tohru on the shoulder.

“I wondered if you wouldn’t mind helping me with lunch.”

Tohru nods, a little stiff, but with enough politeness.

Kobayashi listens carefully. It’s silent for a while before mom speaks again.

“Can we start this whole day over?”

Mom looks straight over at her. It’s as clear as she can make it. She’s saying it somewhat for Tohru, but more so for her. Kobayashi nods once and looks back to where Kanna is watching TV in her lap.

“I’d like that,” Tohru answers and smiles over at her too.