Coming Home to the Wife

They reached the forest in no time thanks to Rei's speed, though Muika wasn't any less embarrassed about being carried.

"This is it." She said once they reached her home.

She was glad to be back, even if she was due for a lecture upon returning. She hadn't exactly explained to Rei what her home was like, so such a small building was likely a surprise but at this point Muika didn't care.

"I can stand now." She added, if she'd had to walk the whole distance back she'd have likely collapsed at the front door but she hadn't so she felt she at least had the energy to hold herself upright now.

Iyuki's glasses fogged up from the vegetables once he pulled the lid off the steamer. However he was too worried to take them off, his one link to finding Miss Muika and watching her fading colors as time grew. They were still strong enough to follow, if he had to... But he didn't want to.

Instead the dark haired young man started cooking. With the addition of a generator outside he could make hot meals easily using a variety of electrical skillets and such. It was the best purchase he could have made, with his first set of tips from his new job. Now working at a cafe, the quiet young man with glasses on made a lot in tips. It helped that he was very good at making confections and sundaes, things to make any person happy. He also was a fair hand at coffee and tea, though he didn't understand why the girls who came in asked for his schedule and tipped him well for his service...

Still, Miss Muika had need of his services and if the job had odd parts... they needed the money. Miss Muika ate awfully if he wasn't there to coax her into eating more and better. She had been gone an awful long time...

Long enough he had almost completely a full dinner for them both after he got home. Even the rice had had time to soak and become soft enough... Wiping his hands on the frilly apron he had gotten for quite cheap with all the pockets he required, and wearing to save his uniform any stains, Iyuki looked outside to see odd colors swirling towards the cabin.

Oh no! Grabbing a long metal ladel, he rushed outside brandishing it like a weapon. His glasses were tilted slightly and at the end of his nose while he wore dress pants and shoes with what looked like a butler outfit... Topped by the frilliest, pinkest apron around. He made quite a sight with his war cry and ladel.

Rei nods as Muika states that they had arrived, placing her on the ground and checking her over, making sure that she was safe and taking care that she doesn't damage her, very careful about her wellbeing after their training earlier.

of course, that's her plan, up until a warcry sounds from behind her, triggering an instant, instinctual response drilled into her through years of intense training. She turns, stepping away from Muika, and uses her Bringer's Light to race toward him, blade drawn in one, fluid motion, the sound of metal on metal barely having begun when she slices through the ladle, arm slamming against his chest, leg hooking around one of his to drive him to the ground. Rei kneels on top of him, tip of her blade pressed against his neck.

"Who are you and why are you attacking us? Answer quickly, before I decide to just end you."

"Eh...Ah!" Once Muika realized what was happening it was already too late to stop Rei's first strike. "Wait Rei! That's Iyuki, dont'!"

With confirmation from her she hoped it would be enough to stop her, she walked, or mostly limped, her way between the two. "He's Iyuki, the one I mentioned before. There's no reason to attack him." She said, in a less hurried and more calm voice to let Rei know she could lower her blade.

She looked at Iyuki, who she figured was probably terrified at the moment and gave him an apologetic look. "Iyuki, are you okay? I'm sorry that happened."

With his only real chance of attacking taken away, Iyuki glared up at the person futilely. They held him in the dirt and all he could see were the swirling colors around them with vague outlines. He couldn't and didn't want to move his hands to remove the glasses that in actuality were fogging his sight instead of improving it.

Still, the person (female from the sounds of things and the vague shape of the colors) couldn't be one of the ones he needed to look out for since they had...distinctive tainted ones... UNLESS this was a deep cover agent!

Miss Muika's voice however stopped the lithe man in his tracks however. Uh oh... "I... I thought you were an enemy coming to lay ambush to Miss Muika, Lady Rei. My apologies and sincerest regrets. If I could make amends, there are forty cakes in the cabin that need eating and I would offer one to you. Potentially more, if you so desire."

Maybe Miss Muika wouldn't catch his forty cakes comments. He had made some at work, for practice and while worried had also made a ton... It was how he dealt with stress. Baked it out. "...I am okay Miss Muika. The dirt can be shaken from my uniform and my apron is quite all right."

A smell came from inside, something was over cooking! "My cabbage! Please, I must go or it will be overcooked"

She blinks, nodding and standing, flicking her blade to the side out of habit before returning it to its scabbard, letting out a breath as she shakes her head.

"You should be more careful next time. Go."

She turns to Muika, raising an eyebrow.

"Do your friends usually attack allies on sight like that?"

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"...I am okay Miss Muika. The dirt can be shaken from my uniform and my apron is quite all right."

She let out a sigh of relief, not even realizing she'd done so.

So he was alright, that was goo-'Wait what was that about cakes...?'

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"My cabbage! Please, I must go or it will be overcooked"

Before she had the chance to question his earlier statement, Iyuki began to panic about something else.

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"You should be more careful next time. Go."

Once Iyuki had run back inside she noticed Rei turn to her.

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"Do your friends usually attack allies on sight like that?"

"It's likely he couldn't tell you were an ally. We're both...I guess, a bit edgy when it comes to people suddenly showing up here, considering it's in the middle of nowhere practically, and..." She stopped there, there wouldn't be a way to explain to Rei that people were after them, or her specifically, without explaining everything and involving her directly.

She shakes her head, sighing. "On top of that, he seemed obsessed with cakes... Fourty of them. Really?"

At Muika's exact words, she frowns, looking at her for a few seconds.

"Why would you be worried about people coming here? It is unlikely they would come anywhere near..."

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"On top of that, he seemed obsessed with cakes... Fourty of them. Really?"

'So I hadn't misheard...'

"It's...how he deals with stress."

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"Why would you be worried about people coming here? It is unlikely they would come anywhere near..."

"...It's..." Muika stopped, cutting herself short before shaking her head. "Let's go inside, I really need to sit down."

She needed to rest her legs, or well, needed to rest her body in general.

"Sorry it's small." She said limping over to the door, hesitating slightly before opening as she was worried about what exactly was on the other side of that door thanks to Iyuki's baking.

Giving a small, inaudible sigh she turned the doorknob and opening the door.

"..." What she saw definitely went beyond her expectations. Baked goods, cakes to be exact, were everywhere. The small building was filled with them...

"I...Iyuki..." She stood there for a moment, taking in the room, before she limped over to her bed in the the back corner to sit down.

The cabbage... was ruined. A minute too long, and now it was soggy and gross, and Iyuki was nothing if not a cook snob when he was cooking himself. If it wasn't worth doing perfectly, then there wasn't any reason to do it when it came to cooking.

He set the pot aside, sighing as he did. It'd cool and then be put aside for the compost heap he hoped to make. Miss Muika needed a good garden to help supplement her diet...

Once he saw the two walking in though, Iyuki realized he had too many cakes. He'd have to move them to make room in the cabin for the other woman to sit. Though they weren't full sized cakes, most being one to two person mini cakes, some were elaborately done while others were simple. The bakery part of the cafe had had a power outage and didn't want the icing to go to waste, along with a few of the cakes he had finished just before it went. About ten of them were from the bakery... the rest were stress related ones. Still, there were all sorts of flavors and decorations, though other than the bakery ones were the prettiest.


Miss Muika's sigh made Iyuki upset but he hid it well behind a smile as he dusted off his apron. "You didn't come home, so I panicked and baking keeps me from doing something quite idiotic like searching and following your trail. Dinner will be done soon, Lady Rei and Miss Muika."

She raises an eybrow, finally realizing what she had been called. She mulls over Muika's words as she walks in, hands folded behind herself, looking around before finding the one square foot of floor not covered by cake and lowering to sit on her knees on the floor there, shaking her head. "I will be fine. Though I must ask... Lady? I am hardly noble. Just a swordsman's daughter, really." she nods, relaxing, eyes closing. "So. Again, I ask, why are you afraid of being found?"

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"You didn't come home, so I panicked and baking keeps me from doing something quite idiotic like searching and following your trail. Dinner will be done soon, Lady Rei and Miss Muika."

"Mm, yeah...Sorry about that." She apologized, she really did feel bad about making him worry and she was mad at herself for doing such a poor job as a guard, even if she had been training herself in the time she was gone.

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"So. Again, I ask, why are you afraid of being found?"

Muika averted her eyes from Rei, after what Rei had seen in that...illusion, which she herself was still a bit shaken up about, she knew Rei was already too deeply involved for her liking. "...Please, remember what I said about not wanting to involve people..."

It was already too late, in the back of her mind she knew that.

"Even if..." She let out a breath. "I know you saw, you saw that room because of...that illusion...but..."

Already involved.

"It was...what it was." A torture room. A punishment room.

Too involved.

"That's...where I grew up."

Rei was smart, she could likely piece it together after that, or so Muika figured...That room, what she'd been screaming when she'd seen it, about having finally escaped, and how she was living out in the middle of nowhere and cautious of being found. After all that, it was only a matter of piecing it together...

"No apologies need Miss Muika." He wasn't one to listen when others told him to stop with the formalities, so he ignored Rei's words. She was Lady. Iyuki was curious what Muika had experienced but kept quiet. He moved enough Cakes to make room for food, pulled out his server tray and started moving the appetizers to it. Luckily he always made enough in case Yamato stopped by.

Shrimp yakisoba was the main dish, but he had some pickled radish onigiri, red beanpast onigiri and some steamed assorted vegetables to hold them off until the rest was done. Setting some bowls, Miss Muika's chopsticks and the guest ones (not Yamato's) and napkins on the tray, the lanky man set the whole thing down and went back to his work. They could munch while talking.

She frowns, looking into the middle distance as she thinks on what she'd been told, what had been revealed about Muika...

Well.

That is, what Muika had assumed she didn't already know.

She'd reasoned all that out some time ago, but figured she might as well let her have her explanations.

"I assume they are still looking for you, and you are here because it is out of the way and unlikely to be noticed, but if I might suggest... It would not be wise to stay here."

She smiles to Iyuki as he serves them, nodding and eating... very, very slowly, speaking between bites.

"In a place like this, human life is scarce, especially human life like us, whatever that means. If they can track you to this city, they will likely notice the hotspot here in this shack and come looking, just in case. I assume they likely know what you feel like, as well, and will recognize it in this place."

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"No apologies need Miss Muika."

Muika, while taking a bite from one of the onigiri's gave a small nod in response, she still felt bad though for worrying him.

She watched Rei as she pieced together the information she'd been given, keeping silent.

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"I assume they are still looking for you, and you are here because it is out of the way and unlikely to be noticed, but if I might suggest... It would not be wise to stay here."

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"In a place like this, human life is scarce, especially human life like us, whatever that means. If they can track you to this city, they will likely notice the hotspot here in this shack and come looking, just in case. I assume they likely know what you feel like, as well, and will recognize it in this place."

Muika gave a shrug, "I ran as far away from that place as I could...and, it's been around two years now." She knew for a fact they were after her though, or well, Seiya was. "They only know of my killing potential, I didn't possess any abilities beyond human capabilities until the day I escaped."

After taking another bite, she swallowed before giving a breath.

"Before I go on...You mentioned back there that I'd said something that'd disturbed you. What did I say?"

"I can see them if they get too close, Lady Rei, as well. They have a special... taint to them that I recognize." Iyuki pushed his glasses up self consciously, before quickly going back to preparing the dinner. Everything was done, he was just putting it on easy to access serving plates and gathering other dishes.

His curiosity was eating away at him and he almost had to bite his lip to keep from asking a whole list of questions. Miss Muika liked her privacy and secrets, he wouldn't attempt to pry right now in front of a guest. He'd keep quiet... "Dinner is served."

A medium sized bowl held the steaming shrimp yakisoba, and a plate of sweet bean paste buns was set down along with proper dishes for everyone. "I may not have much fighting potential, but my abilities are search or guarding are much more."

"Those abilities are very useful, Sir Iyuki." Might as well give him a taste of his own medicine, in the most passive-agressive way possible. "A good scout and guard is as useful, if not more, than a good warrior. Caught by surprise, any warrior can be felled, and with forewarning, even the weakest can come out victorious." She takes her food, beginning to eat silently and slowly.

"Miss Muika has been training me a bit in self defense, though attacking is a bit beyond me yet. Lady Rei, you seem to know quite a bit as well, I would appreciate pointers." Iyuki cared not one bit if the lady called him a sir. All that mattered was he showed the proper respect, it wasn't like she was a friend to him or anything anyways.

He felt an off air coming from them, though. What was going on? Lady Rei and Miss Muika seemed like they were having trouble talking fully. He could help them along, though it might seem a bit rude for now. "Are things all right, Ladies? What exactly happened?"