Fitting Back Together

The Eternal Return

A/N: little side note, I realize that Lance and Pamela are rather different from what they are in canon and that's because I wrote the draft for this fic back during the first half of 11b - and I don't have the cognitive capacity or energy to rewrite things to fit better, sort of just struggling to proofread and sort everything into the right order atm. With that said, this is all set at the beginning of 11b and it's all Yumiko, Magna, and Tomi's interpretation of things so it could plausibly still align with what we're seeing in canon now.

. . .

"It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal."

― E.M. Forster

. . .

"You know, you don't have to tuck me in," Tomi said, as Yumiko worked the covers tighter around his frame. "You're not Mum."

"God forbid," she muttered, shoving the sheet more firmly under the mattress's edge. "And I'm not tucking you in. I'm trying to make these sheets so tight that you have no hope of escaping before morning."

She was determined to give herself at least a few hours of reprieve.

"That might be a problem if I need to use the bathroom."

. . . good point.

Reluctantly, Yumiko loosened the fabric a little.

Tomi raised a brow, clearly amused. "Afraid I'm going to follow you home?"

"Like a mangy stray."

And as much as she loved strays, her brother didn't possess nearly enough fur to be endearing.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Tomi placed his hands under his head, smiling. "Since I'm fairly certain you're not going home. . . unless that is the problem. Perhaps you're worried I'm going to follow you to where you're really going."

"Don't be ridiculous. The only place I'm going tonight is to bed."

"But your bed or someone else's, that's the question?"

So alcohol also had the added benefit of making her brother delusional. Wonderful.

Ignoring his words, Yumiko examined her work. Deeming it satisfactory, she stepped back. "Just stay put. Okay? I don't want to see your naked arse blasted across every newspaper come tomorrow."

He held up a finger. "That was one time. And it was the school paper so it hardly counts."

"You're lucky Mum and Dad didn't see it."

"No luck about it. I know you tracked down every copy you could find and disposed of them before they could ever get a chance."

Yumiko shifted. "I did that for their sake. God knows they'd already been through enough by that stage."

Mostly because of her.

"Mm." Tomi's smile was far from convinced. "Well, I appreciate it, anyway."

"Enough to stop drinking?"

"Enough not to follow you home like some mangy stray. Or wherever it is you're going."

"For the last time, I have no plans of going anywhere."

Again, he didn't look convinced.

It was the truth, though. Whilst Yumiko may have toyed with alternative arrangements, the last hour or so had worn on her - and any optimism she might have possessed. Now, all she wanted was this night to end.