Fitting Back Together

Hungry

"I'm glad you found your brother," Magna said softly. "That you get a second chance with him."

"Thankyou." Yumiko knew how much those words meant, considering Magna would never have a second chance with her own brother. Not to mention that gaining that second chance had come at the cost of Yumiko living here. In the Commonwealth. Came at the cost of Magna coming to live here as well. "Me too."

Magna squeezed her hand, smiling weakly. "Don't waste it."

"Wasn't planning to." She hesitated. "He's why I stayed. . . or, one of the reasons, anyway."

She wasn't ready to get into the other. But this had been the first reason. The first thing to keep her tethered to this place long after her heart and common sense had tried to draw her back home.

Magna's face creased with confusion. "What?"

"Earlier tonight, you said that you thought I'd come back. And I was planning to. I actually had one foot out the door when I found out that he was here. I had to stay."

Not forever. She'd never planned on staying forever. But when she'd seen that photo of herself on the wall on that wall, she hadn't been able to walk away. No more than she'd been able to walk away from Magna all those years ago.

She'd had to stay.

"I get it," Magna said, more easily than she'd expected. "And I mean, it probably worked out for everyone that you did. As much as I hate this place, I can't deny that it's certainly a hell of a lot safer than being out there. Better for the kids, you know?"

"I know." Kids had always been Magna's weak spot. "But you prefer it out there."

There was no accusation in her voice this time.

No judgment.

Magna hesitated. ". . . I fit. That world, the hard one, the one that isn't safe . . . I fit in it. In a way I can't fit here. That world's always been easier for me than the one we came from before."

"I know that too."

It was something Yumiko had tried to change in that first year out of prison. And something she'd failed to.

She wondered whether she would fail here as well.

"Can we talk about what you said earlier?"

Magna side-eyed her. ". . . If you hadn't noticed, I kinda said a lot earlier."

"About this place. Feeling disposable."

She shifted, eyes drifting away. "I'd rather not."

"Magna-"

"Not right now, anyway."

"Okay," Yumiko said softly, reluctance gripping her chest. She hesitated before moving closer, wrapping an arm around her. "But just know that you're not."

Magna raised a brow.

"Disposable."

She swallowed. "Everyone's disposable to someone, Miko. Always been that way. Some people are just more disposable than others."

She clenched her jaw. The tension in her muscles faltering when Magna's lips pressed softly against it. "But I appreciate the sentiment."

Yumiko exhaled, cupping her head a moment as she lingered there - before reluctantly letting her go.

She hated injustice.

And right now, in this instant, there seemed no greater injustice in the world than people believing that Magna was disposable. That she could ever be.