Before Yena could see the sun high up in the sky, before she had a peak at the clear morning, she first felt the warmth on her chest and against her body. Before succumbing to sleep last night, she had told herself that today would be the start of something wonderful. It seems like the world had agreed, as that wonderful something was lying in her arms, fast asleep.

And so she finally opened her eyes and took in the view, both the morning out her window and the girl nestled perfectly in her body. She was no longer afraid, and she would no longer make the same stupid mistakes. This time would be different.

Months prior, she had said that all she saw in Yuri was the crying image of her father. When Yena looked in the mirror after the fact, all she could see in herself was Yuri crying as well. But now, as she looked at Yuri, all she could see was Yuri, beautiful, sweet, kind, precious Yuri. And she thought, if she looked in the mirror herself, right now, what would she see? She didn’t know. But what she did know was that she wouldn’t be the one to make Yuri cry like that again.

Yena smiled down tenderly at Yuri, just watching her as she slept.

She’s so cute.

A few minutes later, Yuri began to stir, bringing a fist up to rub her eye as she mumbled incoherently. Yuri opened her eyes just as Yena closed her own, feigning sleep so that Yuri wouldn’t notice that she had been staring at her all this time. Could you blame her? There are certain treasures of the world, and sleeping Yuri was one of them.

Yuri raised an eyebrow as she took in Yena’s clearly-not-sleeping form, her lips quirking upwards as she poked Yena’s cheek with her pointer finger.

“You’re really bad at pretending that you’re sleeping.”

Yena’s eyes opened as she began to pout.

“I’m not! You just have crazy super powers.”

Yuri rolled her eyes and flicked Yena’s forehead, causing the latter to whine in mock pain.

“How could you! That was my last brain cell. Now I am brain cell-less,” Yena cried, sobbing dramatically.

“Wow, you’re telling me that you had brain cells before? Now that’s a shocker. Maybe it didn’t work because it was all by itself or something,” Yuri retorted thoughtfully, a finger on her chin as she pretended to be in deep thought.

“Shut up.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the doorbell rang, Yena opened it without a thought (not the smartest thing, but her last brain cell was dead). Neither she nor Yuri were expecting anyone.

Yeah, Yena was not expecting her dad to show up.

“Dad!” Yena exclaimed, pulling him into a hug, “What are you doing here?”

Her father returned the hug heartily, grinning at his daughter.

“I’m here to visit my favorite daughter! Have you seen her anywhere?”

He laughed at his dad joke as Yena aggressively rolled her eyes.

“Remember when you said you wanted me to meet Yuri and help her destroy some of her demons?” He whispered with an eyebrow quirked.

Yena’s mouth formed an ‘o’, snapping her fingers.

That’s right! Stupid Yena, how did you forget that?

“Yena, who is-” Yuri began, freezing as she walked in and made eye contact with their guest.

Yuri’s eyes were comically wide, her eyebrows high up in the air.

“Yuri, this is my dad. Dad, this is Yuri, the girl I told you about,” Yena stated proudly as she pulled Yuri over, the latter still having trouble processing what was happening.

“Hi, Yuri, nice to finally meet you. Yena’s told me a lot about you,” he smiled warmly, taking Yuri’s hands in his own.

“I am so sorry that my child is such an idiot. I have no idea where she got it from. I swear I raised her well, but somehow she managed to turn out like this, you know? So once again, deepest apolo-”

“Dad!” Yena interrupted, face palming.

Yuri laughed softly at Yena’s red face combined with her father’s wide grin. It was an adorable sight. She took a deep breath, ready to unleash all of the apologies and promises that she had formulated in her head.

“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand to silence whatever Yuri was about to say as she looked up at him in surprise.

“No apologizes. Don’t even think about it. In fact, I’d like the thank you,” he continued, his warm smile returning.

“Like I said, Yena is an idiot-”

“Dad!”

“-but I’m glad she has you.”

Yuri’s eyes blinked rapidly, her head tilting to the side in question as she tried to process what exactly was going on.

“Listen, Yuri, from what I’ve heard, and from what I’ve seen now, too, you’re an amazing girl. I’m fine, see? Please don’t feel guilty for anything, please. In fact, your parents shouldn’t either. I don’t blame any of you.”

He pulled Yuri into a hug.

“If you feel like you need to make it up to me or anything stupid like that, then live your life with happiness. Smile more, laugh more. Smile until your face aches. Look forward to every morning. Make the day yours. Yuri, please, that is all I ask, and don’t offer anything else. This is all I want.”

He felt the shaky arms slowly return the embrace, her small hands slowly coming to clutch the back of his shirt. He felt the sobs and the trembling, the emotion pouring out of her.

Perhaps if this was the Yuri of the past, she would deny any kindness, fight against his words, push apologies into his hands. But she wasn’t the same girl anymore.

She had Yena, and she had herself, stronger, happier.

She took a deep breath.

“Thank you,” she whispered, smiling.

“You’re welcome!” Yena exclaimed as she joined in on the hug, grinning happily.

“Hey! I was trying to have my moment,” her father complained, violently rubbing a fist against Yena’s hair.

“Yeah, yeah, tell it to someone who cares.”

Yuri giggled at the exchange, and the other two looked back at each other and smiled.

Piece by piece, Yuri was going to be whole again.