if you love me, don't let go

The Soft Season Will Come

A/N: yeah so I don't know if I've mentioned this but I've just started these meds and they're making me really foggy and it's becoming very difficult for me to write. I might go off them but for now I've decided to split Miko's Chapter into three parts just so it's a little easier for me to get through and not fuck up too much. Especially because I've been struggling with my application of perfect past tense in her parts - cos there's a lot of looking back on her history without it actually being its own scene and therefore able to be done in past tense - and it's really kicking my ass. My brain not function enough for this right now. Her part is also like 8000 words so I felt like it could survive being split. It just means the story is going to be two chapters longer and take a little longer to finish. I hope that's okay with everyone.

Due to that, Miko's backstory is going to play more of a part in the next two chapters rather than this one.

With all that said, I'm a little worried about my chances of finishing the sequel oneshots I have in mind - though one will most definitely be getting finished and it's the fluffy one so hopefully that's something.

Also, special thanks to Eleanor for feeding us so well with her insta stories during this trying time. Her service is much appreciated.

. . .

She knew that Magna blamed herself for Bernie's death, every bit as much as Yumiko blamed herself. And now with Connie. . .

She was worried. Neither of them handled losing people well, both of them took on the weight of responsibility for the loss - even when there was nothing they could have done. But Magna . . . Yumiko had always suspected that each death brought her back to her cousin, to that first 'failure'.

She hadn't been entirely honest when she'd said Magna never talked about her cousin.

She did. But only when she was drunk. There'd been one night, less than two months before the world ended, when the other woman had gotten drunk on the anniversary of Maisie's death - too drunk. Yumiko had ended up having to extract her from the clutches of some overeager leeches at the only 24/7 bar within seventeen miles of the truck stop.

She should have realized what was going to happen when Magna had declined a ride home from work due to having other plans - because not only was Magna having other plans almost unheard of but she didn't go to bars (or, at least, she'd never gone to any and invited Yumiko along for the ride) - and she'd known, she'd known what day it was but she hadn't found it within herself to judge if the other woman wanted to drown a little in her sorrows, considering the last few years she'd had. So Yumiko had brushed off the momentary concern and even offered herself as a cab. There was no point in Magna spending her shift-money on a taxi and every inch of her had rebelled at the thought of the twenty-two-year-old woman walking to a seedy bar alone at one in the morning - and then having to find her way home drunk after the fact.

Magna had reluctantly accepted - mostly because by that point in their friendship she'd managed to resign herself to the fact that Yumiko could be an absolute bloodhound when it came to the safety of those she cared about, and Yumiko had noticed that Magna was even slowly starting to open her eyes to the fact that she was now among those ranks.

After they'd escaped the diner and Yumiko had, through some small miracle, managed to guide her over to the car and into the passenger seat - almost receiving a black eye for her trouble when she'd startled Magna by leaning in too quickly to do up her seatbelt - Yumiko had driven her home. Her home.

It hadn't been the first time she'd seen Magna drunk but it had been the first that she'd seen her so out of control. And Magna . . . Magna was an emotional drunk, either prone to fits of overwhelming feeling - both good and bad - or dark moods that managed to cause an even greater worry to rise up inside Yumiko. From her vantage, it'd seemed to be like having all your PMSes for the year in the space of one night, and it could be frightening to watch.