[ mei does in fact stew in it for a moment, glowering at his back when he ignores her--how dare he ignore her, she's the queen--but mei tilts her head up when he steps close to her, that familiar fire in her eyes as she scowls at him, ready to bite back.
you look like shit is what he says, though, and it stops her for a second--in fact, she flinches. because mei knows she looks like shit. she hasn't eaten a real meal in months, her kingdom is in ruins, and her people despise her. naturally, miyuki kazuya can see right through every little wall she puts up.
it makes her mad and happy at the same time, and it's infuriating and sobering, enough that when she snarls-- ] I don't want your pity. [ --it's lacking in heat. ]
[ Even after the years since they last saw each other, Miyuki can pick up on every little detail in Narumiya Mei. The bitter stories told in her kingdom fill in the blanks, here, and he can tell that she's going to wind up in an early grave at the rate she's going. Whether she's starved or exhausted herself into it, or her subjects have put her there.
The snarl doesn't faze him, and instead he reaches out, curling someof her hair around his finger almost absently. The gesture is gentle, simple, and familiar, not something sharp like the evil queen may deserve. ]
Pity is reserved for the people that think you need it. [ Though a part of him does pity her, in a way, she doesn't need his admission of it. ]
[ it's the soft touch of his hand in his hair that really gets to her--it's familiar and easy, their lives together encapsulated in one tiny gesture. it's been a long time since mei's had any contact with another human, let alone one she cares about as much as she does kazuya, and slowly, some of the anger deflates out of her.
it's slow, though, because it's overtaken. a part of her wants to keep yelling at him, just to get it out, something cathartic and painful, because kazuya can take it, but his gentle touch utterly contradicts everything. it's frustrating, and she feels the wad of tears in her throat before they hit her eyes, rimming her baby blues and making her lower lip wobble as she stubbornly tries to keep from crying. ]
Then what do you want? [ it's not working, though, because she almost starts trembling. narumiya mei is a wreck, a queen sitting all alone on a broken throne, and this is the first time someone's reached out to try and pull her out of the deep, dark pit she's found herself in--the first time she's seen the light in ages. yet, still, she resists, prideful as ever, refusing help until she dies on her throne.
[ Amber eyes sharp, just as keen as they've always been, he picks up the way her eyes brighten with unshed tears and her lower lip trembles where the rest of her doesn't just yet. Miyuki knows how to read people without an ounce of difficulty, but above all else he knows how to read Mei like an open book. It used to be so he could banter, bicker, throw barbs. So he could survive as she crushed the rest of the world under her heel and he needed to find just the right ways to strike so that he could secure his freedom.
Now, he uses it for something else. The neighboring kingdoms have their own problems, and he's seen them as much as he's seen Mei's. They can't guarantee help, even if they accept refugees and send what they can where Mei can't see. But even Harada can only do so much when his daughter has been missing for most of her life, and Mei refuses even his help.
Kazuya has no reason to back down. His kingdom burned with his mother, his father gone not long after, until it was just him and a crown that he no longer wished to carry. If he has to become the bad guy to keep that from happening to anyone else, if he has to force Mei's jaw open to pour the medicine down her throat, then he will.
His knuckles brush into her shoulder, where he curls a bit more of her hair in his fingertips. ] I want you to eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.
[ it's bizarrely sweet, a kindness mei doesn't often receive from kazuya. she has always associated him with the sharp and the sour, the familiar, tension laced banter that led their relationship when they were younger (before mei was a queen, when she and kazuya were just two royals under the careful tutelage of their families).
so it's a little startling, though maybe not in a bad way. jarring, unusual, but needed. kazuya waltzed back into her life with his stupid magic and his usual, stupid plans (she wonders if perhaps he'd tried to get arrested on purpose) but she can't even be angry at him for it. not when he's telling her something so simple as eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.
it pangs something guilty in her chest, as she thinks about masa-san, someone whom she had always trusted. ever since itsuki went missing, he'd been a little different, and mei had slapped him in the face with it the minute she got the chance--they hadn't spoken since, and the crumbling of her last little support system was finally thing that had pushed her over the edge into straight up evil queen.
but maybe this was it coming back.
stubbornly, she sticks her nose up, flicks her gaze away from him for a minute, stubbornly swallows her tears and refuses to swallow her pride. ] I don't need your help either.
[ yes she does, she needs it beyond badly. she needs the medicine, she needs the care, she needs someone to say mei, you're a fool, and someone to hold her and stroke her hair for an hour while she cries and cries and cries over all her mistakes and the things she's broken. ]
[ It's easy enough for Miyuki to angle into her space further when she sticks her nose up, head cocking and gaze intent and focused on her face. Nothing has ever stopped Miyuki Kazuya, not when he has grand plans, things to do and prove and conquer and know. An arrest or two is just in the cards sometimes. Threat of execution, of rotting away. He'll take it all on if he has to. And a stubborn queen who was once a stubborn little girl wanting to prove herself just as much isn't something he's unused to, even with their time apart.
He clucks at her again, giving her hair an unimpressed little tug, the same way he used to when they were little royals in their mothers' skirts, chasing each other and throwing insults even when they were far less lethal. ]
Food's going to be done, and you're going to eat it. [ But he doesn't move away from her, even if he knows that he needs to babysit it a little more than he currently is. But he has magic - what good is it if he can't use it in the kitchen? - so he's not necessarily concerned. Rather, his attention is completely on Mei, who has overworked herself, pushed herself to the point that she's about to snap, has become loathed rather than loved. Harada doesn't like him, but he's tolerated him enough for them to talk at length about Mei at least once in the past year.
She needs his help. She needs help in general. And apparently Kazuya is the only one capable of giving it in full, and willing enough to stand before the evil queen, feared and fierce, and tell her to sit down and shut up without fear of repercussion. ]
I told you to get out of my castle. [ mei grumbles, but she seems just a tiny bit less belligerent. if mei knows anything about miyuki kazuya, it's that he's stubborn, just as stubborn as she is. it's resulted in plenty of arguments, plenty of mei booting him from her kingdom or sending her guards chasing a tanuki down in the dead of night, but here, it just might actually be beneficial... if she can get over herself. in the end, kazuya and her are similar, at least at their very cores, and maybe it's that that will turn her around.
(it could have been masa. if she'd stopped dangling itsuki's disappearance in front of him, it would have. but mei couldn't stop the nasty remarks from coming out of her mouth--it was a trainwreck, and she was watching from above the scene.)
but, perhaps the slight bit of allowance will help him. mei turns away from him when he tugs her hair this time, her fiery glare turning into more of a glower as she makes her way to the counter and leans on it, her arms folded.
she can't stare him out, as much as she'd like to. maybe it's a sign of acceptance. ]
And you banished me from the kingdom. And put me on a watchlist. And have a bounty out on my head.
[ Miyuki ticks them off when Mei turns, since his hands are freed now, fingers going up one by one as he goes down the list. And it's a long list, in reality. Mei has done everything she could to isolate herself from the world beyond her, even going so far as to close out her family. So he knows. He knows how stubborn she is, when she casts aside Harada and him and her adoring parents and siblings like it's nothing. But he's not about to let that stop him.
Yeah, Miyuki Kazuya is stubborn and closed off.
And that's not going to change, now. He simply steps away from where she's turned from him, clucking his tongue again as he waves a hand and grabs something to poke and prod and manage the food he's working on right now. Something light but filling, to give her some form of comfort but also ensure that she's not going to get sick. Something too heavy after so long of a malnourished life, and she'll just be throwing it back up.
Despite the fact he'd hold her hair back, he doesn't want to put her through that. She's been through enough, and he's here to put her back together, not to bring her down further. ]
Things you deserved, thief. [ mei mutters, because she was not wrong in this (well, she probably overreacted, but at this point everything she does is overreacting) but also because she's terrible at letting things go. instead, she has to get the last word in, but mei's always been like that. even when they were little kids, before things all went to hell, before miyuki's mother passed away.
and after, really, when she visited and leaned on him, whenshe shared her apple bunnies the chef made her at home because no one would make them for kazuya anymore. they had a long childhood together, and that's part of what's helping her at least open up a tiny, tiny bit.
she used to never let kazuya beat her at anything. at this game, she's already lost.
her nose is still turned up all the way in the air though, arms still folded. inthe light of the kitchen, it's clearly bad--her dark circles are massive, not even covered with makeup, her hair tangled and dull instead of shiny and golden. mei's given up oncaring about everything, and that includes herself. ]
[ Even if she's not looking at him, Kazuya levels her with a bland look before returning to what he's doing. The soup is something that his mother would make for him when he was sick, which is effectively what Mei is at the moment, broken and beaten and prideful as she is. But there's something else that he puts together, knifework easy and clean, replicating the very childhood treat that he only had when he was here, in Mei's kingdom, as a small boy.
He doesn't say anything else until he's finished, letting Mei sit there and wait for him to dismiss her. She might be the queen, but he has control of the situation right now - she's definitely already lost this game.
And he comes to bring her a bowl of soup, rife with hearty vegetables and little chunks of chicken. But rather than walk away, he sets down a plate of the little apple rabbits, lined up neatly and staring her down, bringing the past right to her door and refusing to let her leave it.
All the more evidence than Miyuki has no plans of going anywhere. ]
[ mei ignores the look he gives her on purpose, because she can understand a withering look when she gets one, especially from kazuya. she's been dealing with snarky, sarcastic, brilliant kazuya most of her life, so this is no different than normal. (except where it is, except where she's only seen him in the context of trying to throw him in jail)
she's dead quiet as he finishes his knifework, looking at the fridge or the counter or the food or anywhere but at him, even when he puts the bowl of soup in front of her. mei stares at it, sniffs her too picky nose and gets ready to turn it right up, but any reaction she has is silenced by the plate.
the apple bunnies stare up at her, innocent, two little seed eyes like her mom used to make for her and kazuya whenever he'd visited. her mom had told her that maybe someday she'd marry kazuya, and they'd be united as a kingdom, and mei had stuck her tongue out and told her gross, no thank you, that'd be weird, but she shared her apple bunnies with him every single day anyway.
this is their life right in front of her. it's kazuya returning the favor for what mei did when kazuya's mother died, sharing her snack at the funeral with her chubby little fingers.
she feels her eyes water up again, and swallows a thick lump of tears in her throat--but for the first time she can't stop it, and the tear drops down her cheek. ] What's this for?
[ Maybe the bunnies are underhanded. But given her reaction, the slight emotional manipulation is worth it. If this is what it takes to get her to break, for her pride to be brought down and shown that it's doing more harm than good, then so be it. Miyuki watches her, arms crossed, his expression blank as he just - waits.
And then he sees the way she swallows, even if he can't quite see her eyes from where he stands. But it doesn't take much for him to see the tear.
Kazuya reaches out, brushing a knuckle across her cheek and wiping the tear away. But after that gesture, he turns away, going to start cleaning up after himself in short order. He can save the extras, cast his magic to preserve them longterm so it's like the bowl was just poured fresh from the pot. So he's not concerned about waste, even if Mei has spent so much time starving herself. ]
Because someone used to give them to me, during the worst time in my life. [ His voice is even, but low, almost inflectionless. He hasn't cried in years, not since he was there when his mother died tragically and neither he nor his father could do anything to save her. But being given the innocuous snack, red and white and a clear memory even now, had nearly brought them forward again at the following funeral.
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no subject
you look like shit is what he says, though, and it stops her for a second--in fact, she flinches. because mei knows she looks like shit. she hasn't eaten a real meal in months, her kingdom is in ruins, and her people despise her. naturally, miyuki kazuya can see right through every little wall she puts up.
it makes her mad and happy at the same time, and it's infuriating and sobering, enough that when she snarls-- ] I don't want your pity. [ --it's lacking in heat. ]
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The snarl doesn't faze him, and instead he reaches out, curling someof her hair around his finger almost absently. The gesture is gentle, simple, and familiar, not something sharp like the evil queen may deserve. ]
Pity is reserved for the people that think you need it. [ Though a part of him does pity her, in a way, she doesn't need his admission of it. ]
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it's slow, though, because it's overtaken. a part of her wants to keep yelling at him, just to get it out, something cathartic and painful, because kazuya can take it, but his gentle touch utterly contradicts everything. it's frustrating, and she feels the wad of tears in her throat before they hit her eyes, rimming her baby blues and making her lower lip wobble as she stubbornly tries to keep from crying. ]
Then what do you want? [ it's not working, though, because she almost starts trembling. narumiya mei is a wreck, a queen sitting all alone on a broken throne, and this is the first time someone's reached out to try and pull her out of the deep, dark pit she's found herself in--the first time she's seen the light in ages. yet, still, she resists, prideful as ever, refusing help until she dies on her throne.
(kazuya won't let her refuse. even masa did.) ]
no subject
Now, he uses it for something else. The neighboring kingdoms have their own problems, and he's seen them as much as he's seen Mei's. They can't guarantee help, even if they accept refugees and send what they can where Mei can't see. But even Harada can only do so much when his daughter has been missing for most of her life, and Mei refuses even his help.
Kazuya has no reason to back down. His kingdom burned with his mother, his father gone not long after, until it was just him and a crown that he no longer wished to carry. If he has to become the bad guy to keep that from happening to anyone else, if he has to force Mei's jaw open to pour the medicine down her throat, then he will.
His knuckles brush into her shoulder, where he curls a bit more of her hair in his fingertips. ] I want you to eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.
no subject
so it's a little startling, though maybe not in a bad way. jarring, unusual, but needed. kazuya waltzed back into her life with his stupid magic and his usual, stupid plans (she wonders if perhaps he'd tried to get arrested on purpose) but she can't even be angry at him for it. not when he's telling her something so simple as eat dinner, take a bath, and go to bed.
it pangs something guilty in her chest, as she thinks about masa-san, someone whom she had always trusted. ever since itsuki went missing, he'd been a little different, and mei had slapped him in the face with it the minute she got the chance--they hadn't spoken since, and the crumbling of her last little support system was finally thing that had pushed her over the edge into straight up evil queen.
but maybe this was it coming back.
stubbornly, she sticks her nose up, flicks her gaze away from him for a minute, stubbornly swallows her tears and refuses to swallow her pride. ] I don't need your help either.
[ yes she does, she needs it beyond badly. she needs the medicine, she needs the care, she needs someone to say mei, you're a fool, and someone to hold her and stroke her hair for an hour while she cries and cries and cries over all her mistakes and the things she's broken. ]
no subject
He clucks at her again, giving her hair an unimpressed little tug, the same way he used to when they were little royals in their mothers' skirts, chasing each other and throwing insults even when they were far less lethal. ]
Food's going to be done, and you're going to eat it. [ But he doesn't move away from her, even if he knows that he needs to babysit it a little more than he currently is. But he has magic - what good is it if he can't use it in the kitchen? - so he's not necessarily concerned. Rather, his attention is completely on Mei, who has overworked herself, pushed herself to the point that she's about to snap, has become loathed rather than loved. Harada doesn't like him, but he's tolerated him enough for them to talk at length about Mei at least once in the past year.
She needs his help. She needs help in general. And apparently Kazuya is the only one capable of giving it in full, and willing enough to stand before the evil queen, feared and fierce, and tell her to sit down and shut up without fear of repercussion. ]
no subject
(it could have been masa. if she'd stopped dangling itsuki's disappearance in front of him, it would have. but mei couldn't stop the nasty remarks from coming out of her mouth--it was a trainwreck, and she was watching from above the scene.)
but, perhaps the slight bit of allowance will help him. mei turns away from him when he tugs her hair this time, her fiery glare turning into more of a glower as she makes her way to the counter and leans on it, her arms folded.
she can't stare him out, as much as she'd like to. maybe it's a sign of acceptance. ]
no subject
[ Miyuki ticks them off when Mei turns, since his hands are freed now, fingers going up one by one as he goes down the list. And it's a long list, in reality. Mei has done everything she could to isolate herself from the world beyond her, even going so far as to close out her family. So he knows. He knows how stubborn she is, when she casts aside Harada and him and her adoring parents and siblings like it's nothing. But he's not about to let that stop him.
Yeah, Miyuki Kazuya is stubborn and closed off.
And that's not going to change, now. He simply steps away from where she's turned from him, clucking his tongue again as he waves a hand and grabs something to poke and prod and manage the food he's working on right now. Something light but filling, to give her some form of comfort but also ensure that she's not going to get sick. Something too heavy after so long of a malnourished life, and she'll just be throwing it back up.
Despite the fact he'd hold her hair back, he doesn't want to put her through that. She's been through enough, and he's here to put her back together, not to bring her down further. ]
no subject
and after, really, when she visited and leaned on him, whenshe shared her apple bunnies the chef made her at home because no one would make them for kazuya anymore. they had a long childhood together, and that's part of what's helping her at least open up a tiny, tiny bit.
she used to never let kazuya beat her at anything. at this game, she's already lost.
her nose is still turned up all the way in the air though, arms still folded. inthe light of the kitchen, it's clearly bad--her dark circles are massive, not even covered with makeup, her hair tangled and dull instead of shiny and golden. mei's given up oncaring about everything, and that includes herself. ]
no subject
He doesn't say anything else until he's finished, letting Mei sit there and wait for him to dismiss her. She might be the queen, but he has control of the situation right now - she's definitely already lost this game.
And he comes to bring her a bowl of soup, rife with hearty vegetables and little chunks of chicken. But rather than walk away, he sets down a plate of the little apple rabbits, lined up neatly and staring her down, bringing the past right to her door and refusing to let her leave it.
All the more evidence than Miyuki has no plans of going anywhere. ]
no subject
she's dead quiet as he finishes his knifework, looking at the fridge or the counter or the food or anywhere but at him, even when he puts the bowl of soup in front of her. mei stares at it, sniffs her too picky nose and gets ready to turn it right up, but any reaction she has is silenced by the plate.
the apple bunnies stare up at her, innocent, two little seed eyes like her mom used to make for her and kazuya whenever he'd visited. her mom had told her that maybe someday she'd marry kazuya, and they'd be united as a kingdom, and mei had stuck her tongue out and told her gross, no thank you, that'd be weird, but she shared her apple bunnies with him every single day anyway.
this is their life right in front of her. it's kazuya returning the favor for what mei did when kazuya's mother died, sharing her snack at the funeral with her chubby little fingers.
she feels her eyes water up again, and swallows a thick lump of tears in her throat--but for the first time she can't stop it, and the tear drops down her cheek. ] What's this for?
no subject
And then he sees the way she swallows, even if he can't quite see her eyes from where he stands. But it doesn't take much for him to see the tear.
Kazuya reaches out, brushing a knuckle across her cheek and wiping the tear away. But after that gesture, he turns away, going to start cleaning up after himself in short order. He can save the extras, cast his magic to preserve them longterm so it's like the bowl was just poured fresh from the pot. So he's not concerned about waste, even if Mei has spent so much time starving herself. ]
Because someone used to give them to me, during the worst time in my life. [ His voice is even, but low, almost inflectionless. He hasn't cried in years, not since he was there when his mother died tragically and neither he nor his father could do anything to save her. But being given the innocuous snack, red and white and a clear memory even now, had nearly brought them forward again at the following funeral.
It's something he's held onto, all these years. ]