The Depth of Green

Chapter 15

Chapter 14 recap: I continue on my quest to drive Yuri to madness. The pooy boy. Yuri is taken aside and given a prenatal exam in which he is refused the knowledge of the baby's gender and informed, none too gently, that the child will be given up for adoption the second he births it. Because, you know, consent doesn't matter. Direcctly following, he finds Otabek with Hana (mean girl no. 1) at the showing, and, though Otabek finishes their conversation immediately upon seeing Yuri, Yuri is hurt by this. He snaps at him that he doesn't want to talk about it when Otabek asks what's wrong, and they spend the rest of the showing awkwardly with Otabek trying to cheer Yuri up. Later, Yuri is harangued by Mila and ends up exploding that she was supposed to escape the house. He cries in her arms.

~~~

It had been three days since Yuri had broken down and effectively convinced Mila of his insanity. Honestly, he was finding it difficult to care that she was now evidently concerned for his state of mind: he was just happy to have her back. He hadn't realized just how much he'd missed her snarky comments, her lended ear, even her fucking hair ruffles until they re-entered his life, and, yeah, maybe Yuri had to endure Mila's continuous attempts to get him to like Sara, but it was a small price to pay for the return of his best friend.

What he wasn't sure how to feel about, though, was the combination of Minami plus Mila. Though he loathed to admit it, they, together, were too high-energy for him. And, admittedly, some of that could be attributed to the flu Yuri had, of course, contracted, making him woozy, lethargic, and cold constantly, but he knew his current state of being, and knew that his exhaustion when around the pair was more than he could blame (successfully, that was) on a seasonal ailment.

The beginning of the end, as he had taken to mentally calling it, had come when Mila and Yuri were alone in Yuri's closet, a little bit before dinner and working on a few parasols (Mila was sewing on some beads; Yuri had taught her the simplest thing he could think of when she'd demanded to help, and, in spite of himself, was grateful for her assistance), when the door of the closet was cracked open, Minami's lithe frame slipping into the room.

He took in the sight of them together, sitting curled up and leaning against each other's shoulders, and blinked. "Oh, so you two are friends again?"

Yuri raised an eyebrow at Mila even as the stupid kid sat down on his other side, burying his head in Yuri's shoulder for an interesting effect; his hair was so fluffy.

Mila shrugged. "I mentioned to him that you were icing me out-- you can't blame me, Yura, I was starved for company. Those bimbos are so stupid: it's like talking to a flock of vapid pelicans for all the intellectual stimulation they give you."

Yuri snorted, inclining his head in agreement. "Does this mean you miss me spouting Marx at you?"

"Yes."

Minami, making Yuri's arm vibrate, laughed. "I don't pretend to know who that is," Yuri gaped, "but I'm glad you're talking again; it was so weird to pretend not to know both of you."

Yuri and Mila shared a side-eye, before deciding not to pursue the topic. The kid's nonchalance could be endearing, but it was also a little weird. Then again, so was the kid himself, so his straight-forward nature wasn't too much of a surprise, considering.

Mila hummed in response, likely knowing as well as Yuri did that Minami required some form of audible validation, and handed a parasol across Yuri ("Excuse me--") to him.

"Here," she said, "work on that beading. Hana wanted the purple ones, right, Yura?"

"Yeah," Yuri rolled his eyes, "apparently they make her yukata sparkle or some shit-- she was very specific about the shade."