892/Hibiki's Homecoming

Hibiki's Homecoming
Date of Scene:	20 January 2016
Location:	Uminari City - Central Harbor
Synopsis:	Hibiki returns home unannounced, and Miku's excitement is highly audible.
Cast of Characters:	Hibiki Tachibana, Miku Kohinata

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Miku Kohinata has posed:
For the past several months, Miku Kohinata has lived alone. For many kids at Verone Academy, this isn't terribly abnormal; many of them fight over the few single-bed apartments, just for a little privacy.

For Miku, however, it's the first time she's ever truly been alone in her entire life. For thirteen years she lived at home with her parents, and the year after that she and her best friend Hibiki not only shared a room at Verone, but went so far as to share the top bunk. So for all that Miku knows where Hibiki has been, it's the lack of warmth in her small home that has truly hit the hardest.

She hasn't slept on the top bunk, the whole time Hibiki's been away. She tried, the first night, but sleep never happened, and she spent the next day existing on coffee alone.

Since then, she's slept alone on the bottom bunk, behind the pair of sheets they strung up to make a small secluded room beneath their bed. Nominally itserves as their closet, but Miku moved most of the things to the real closet.

It's been a rough several months, even with constant texts.

Tomorrow is the first day back in classes, and Miku has the doors to the closet open. She reaches up to finger one of Hibiki's blouses, briefly, and says, "Hibiki. I miss you." Then she shuts the door and heads towards the dresser to start pulling out her clothes for the evening.

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki is back! Well, almost. She had been on her way back all day, after Genjuuro-sensei had decided that she had progressed 'enough to not make a fool of herself on the battlefield'. But he said it with a twinkle in his eye that let her know he was proud, and that made /her/ proud. Of course, he had also decided she couldn't afford to miss more school, which was why she was coming back in time for 2nd term.

    Hibiki was less thrilled about /that/ part. But she was excited to see Miku again! She had missed her friend, too! Of course, she had been busy. Real busy. Genjuuro-sensei kept her working from sunup to sundown, and when she finally collapsed in the evening she had been too tired to dwell on loneliness.

    But now, as she lugged her bag up to the dorm door, she couldn't contain her smile. She was going to see her sunflower again! She used her key to open the door, and begins dragging her oversized duffle in. "Miku! I'm hooome!~" She calls, as if she had just been down the street and not away for several months.

Miku Kohinata has posed:
The sound of a key in a lock startles Miku. Her world has been so alone for so long she's almost forgotten what it sounds like to have someone enter uninvited. Not that Hibiki needs an invitation, given it's her home, too! Miku starts and turns to stare, then gasps when she sees her friend come through the door.

"HIBIKI!" squeals Miku, a little loud in her excitement. She rushes across the distance and flings herself at her friend, wrapping arms around Hibiki's neck and hugging her close and tight. "Welcome home."

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki actually winces at the squeal from Miku, which is quite a bit louder than she's used to the other girl being. She then finds herself the target of a flying tackle, in essence, but she laughs as Miku clings to her, wrapping her arms around her friend in turn and squeezing her tight.

    Miku will likely notice that Hibiki feels a little tougher, a little harder than she was when last they hugged- she's been training hard for months! It's not that she feels like a bodybuilder or anything, but beneath her clothes she's definitely more fit than she was when she left.

    "Thanks! I missed you." She says sincerely, beaming at Miku as she leans back to look her in the face. "How has it been?"

Miku Kohinata has posed:
Miku tries to squeeze her friend, but all of the squish she's accustomed to is gone. She leans away to stare at Hibiki, examining her as if for the first time. "You've changed," Miku notes, a little more soberly, then smiles at Hibiki again. "I missed you so much. It's been ... okay."

"The Noise haven't attacked while you were away, but I guess it never was terribly frequent." Short bursts of activity followed by long waits. "Section 2 practically shut down with you and Genjuuro-sama away, but I have been monitoring some of the things Virtue has been doing."

Miku reaches down to pick up Hibiki's suitcase and carries it into the room for her. "I've been doing my best to stay busy. To stay connected so that I can help you. I know there's not a lot I can do, since I don't have my own symphogear, and I'm not a magical girl, but ... I'm not useless," she promises, her jaw hardening a little as she repeats what sounds like a bit of a mantra.

Miku pulls aside the curtains to the bottom bunk, revealing the emptiness, and begins unloading Hibiki's suitcase for her. "I know you've been busy, so ... I bought you all the CDs that came out by your favourite bands. There were a few. They're waiting for you by the DVD player." Limited edition copies, with the inserts and everything.

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki /does/ squeeze Miku, and she's a little better at squeezing than she used to be too. Hopefully she doesn't leave any bruises! "I've been doing my best to change." She says, earnestly. "Genjuuro-sensei says I'm not useless anymore!" There's such a tinge of pride in her voice, despite the harshness of the statement- but Miku knows Genjuuro well enough to know the spirit in which it was said.

    She doesn't seem to think anything about Miku taking her suitcase and starting to unpack it for her. She's well-trained. She just trails along in the bustling wake of her friend- at least until she's told about the new CDs, at which point her face lights up further and she scoots over to peer through them. "Eeeeheehee! You got me the special editions!" She squeals, looking at first one, then the next, practically wiggling in place. "You're the best Miku! Thank you!"

Miku Kohinata has posed:
"I still don't know why you don't just download the music," Miku explains as she sorts 'clean' from 'dirty' clothes. "But I know you like them, and I didn't have anything better to do with my time while you were away, so ..." she trails off, then turns to smile at her friend. "I'm glad you like them."

With the dirty clothes dropped into the hamper, Miku begins hanging up Hibiki's cleaner clothes, once more beginning to fill the space beneath their shared bed. "So what did he have you doing, anyways? Your texts were so short; I figured you must be very tired. Was it really so hard?"

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki turns around. She's literally hugging the CDs, in a fan, against her chest, her orange eyes shining like miniature suns. "Because digital music is so impersonal! I want the inserts and the pretty pictures and I want to see them on my shelf!" She enthuses, wriggling in place again with her excitement.

    Then she drops the CDs back onto the table and prances over to throw her arms around Miku from behind, draping over her shoulders as she tries to hang up clothes. "Thank you Miku.~" She giggles, and then pauses as she's asked what she was doing. "Mostly excercise. You know.. training. It really wasn't that interesting.. or at least, it'd be boring to hear about. Push-ups and sit-ups and forms and kicks.. all day every day. It was super tiring! But also really satisfying. I feel like I'm a lot more suited to being a protector now than I was before."

Miku Kohinata has posed:
It is difficult to hang up clothing when your very strong friend is enclosing your arms with her own. Miku just smiles and leans into the hug, rather than complain about the disruption to her activities. "I don't think it's boring," she notes to Hibiki.

But then, she wouldn't. "I won the 5k right before the winter break. I didn't get a trophy or a medal or anything, but the headmaster said he was very proud of me."

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki is proud, too! "Wow, that's great!" She exclaims, hanging on Miku a little more intensly, as if to test her strength. "And that's dumb! You should totally have gotten a medal!" She nuzzles at Miku's hair, then pulls away to prance back across the room. "I'll have to win you one at the arcade! That stupid claw machine has a keychain that kinda looks like a medal!"

    She slaps her fist into her other palm, looking fierce. "I can't wait to get back there and show that stupid machine how hard I've been training. And I'll win you a medal too!"

Miku Kohinata has posed:
Miku blushes, just a little, when Hibiki nuzzles into her hair. "H-hibiki," she starts to complain about the intense hug, but just when it's getting too much, the other girl lets go and prances away. Miku stands still for a moment more, then smiles broadly and turns back to her task of putting Hibiki's laundry away.

"You don't have to win me a medal," Miku replies. "Just getting to spend time with you is the only reward I need. I wish you could have come to see me race, but I know that your training was very important. "In just a few weeks, Mercury's going to be at its greatest elongation. I was thinking of borrowing a telescope from the school to go try and look at it. Would you like to come?"

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki, as is usually the case, shows no shame in her actions and no indication that she has any idea that boundaries exist or when she's nearing them. She's happily oblivious as she shrugs her shoulders, smiling back from where she is eyeing her new CDs again. "Aw, but I want to get you a medal, too." She insists. "My company isn't all that special."

    But at the mention of the stargazing, she perks up. "Sure!" Miku knows she's always found astronomy fascinating, even if in more of a romanticized sense than anythign academic. "That sounds really cool, of course I'd go with you!"

Miku Kohinata has posed:
"It is," Miku says happily. "Mercury will be as far away from the sun as possible in the sky, which makes it really beautiful to view. We have to go in the early morning, though. It will be at about six AM."

With Hibiki's clothes put away, Miku doesn't exactly have a lot left to do with her hands. So she goes back to what she was doing when Hibiki arrived: straight to the dresser, to begin pulling out her pajamas.

Hibiki Tachibana has posed:
    Hibiki makes a face at that, looking at her roommate over the top of an insert she had unfolded and been eagerly perusing. "Six AM? Ugh.. I didn't even know there /was/ a six other than the one right after dinner.." She kidding of course. She sighs after a moment, and smiles. "Buuut, I guess to see pretty stars with my Miku, it's worth it. But you have to wake me up. I know I won't be able to on my own."

    She goes back to pulling apart the CDs as Miku changes, poring over each of the inserts, exclaiming over various minutia of trivia that Miku probably has no interest in and could have gone her entire life without knowing. One thing is sure- with Hibiki back, it's not quiet anymore.

Miku Kohinata has posed:
Miku smiles at Hibiki, then undresses and puts her dirty clothes in the same pile as her friend's. Once she's put on her pajamas, she moves to claim a seat at her computer so she can read for a bit before bed. "Don't worry," Miku promises. "I'll wake you when it's time."

"Welcome home, Hibiki," Miku says honestly. "It's been so quiet and lonely without you. I'm glad you're back."