Dance Floor
Imugi Archives“Anxious, puppy?”
The music had switched up in tempo, slowing down to a more sedate number that allowed the bodies on the dance floor a chance to rest. Yerin had her arms thrown around Yuju’s neck, enjoying the moment as they undulated through the crowd to catch the eye of their target organically.
Yerin rarely involved Yuju in her little cons. It made Yuju uncomfortable, especially since Yerin had zero scruples when it came to pulling a fast one over other people. The shaman knew Yerin would never do it to her, and yet...it made her uncomfortable all the same.
It wasn’t so much the lies and the personality changes Yerin pulled off during her con games. It was the fact that she was putting herself in danger and Yuju couldn’t do a thing about it, despite being well aware that Yerin knew how to protect herself.
Already, too many eyes were on them. Yuju was dressed more conservatively, and didn’t think that the majority of the attention was on her. Yerin, on the other hand, was dressed to seduce, and Yuju could see the layers of suggestion woven into the glamours surrounding the woman in her arms. Look at me, want me. It was definitely working on the people around them. Yuju could sense their auras fluctuating in response, and it was unnerving.
She focused on Yerin instead. Yuju never understood why other people had trouble seeing Yerin. It wasn’t even an illusion that hid her features. A reasonably solid illusion would fool even cameras, but what Yerin had going for her was the power of suggestion instead.
It was a wild gift. Yerin could control it to some degree, but so much of it was merely a reflection of the beholder’s desires. People saw what they wanted to see, and while Yerin could tap into what the suggestions were, most of it was still completely on the person looking at her.
Yuju just ignored the suggestions and looked beyond instead. It was interesting to pick her way past the defenses and just gaze upon Yerin as she was. There was a surprising lack of artifice on her true face, but perhaps not so much if one were to consider how much Yerin banked on the suggestions hiding her. Yuju preferred her real face. It didn’t seem practical to indulge in mere fantasies when the real thing was already more interesting.
“You’re wandering again.” Yerin’s voice broke through Yuju’s reverie. The shorter woman leaned in, going almost nose to nose with Yuju. “Are you worried about later?”
She was, of course, referring to Yuju’s part in the upcoming mission. Yerin, more than anyone else, knew of Yuju’s reluctance to hurt anyone. It walked hand in hand with Yuju’s white knight complex, and more than once Yerin had had to stop the shaman from rushing into situations to save others without considering the damage to herself. It was almost a compulsion, but one they had learned to work with. The reverse side of that compulsion was just as inconvenient, but Yerin had never hesitated to get her own hands dirty to spare Yuju the trouble of having to hurt someone to protect herself.
This was not going to be possible later. Granted, they had a whole Eunha to throw at the dragon, but that would be the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb while they were still in the damage radius. Yuju was the best choice, and Yerin hated that it gave them no other practical option. She would do it for Yuju, if only she could.
“I will do what I must.” Yuju sighed, resting her forehead against Yerin’s, eliciting a surprised hum from the specialist. Yuju didn’t always initiate intimacy, and Yerin was never ready when she did. A satisfied sigh puffed out from the older’s lips.
It was the small moments she lived for. Rare, precious and fleeting. Yerin cherished every single one of them, as well as the girl who had anchored herself into her life. It was a steady constant, them holding on to each other while everything else changed around them.
“You need to go again, don’t you?” Yuju murmured, sensing the approach of a murky aura. Yerin closed her eyes, reinforcing her glamour with a thought as she steeled herself for the act before her. The shift was subtle, but Yuju caught it nevertheless. Lips ghosted across her cheek, an unspoken apology. Yuju tightened her hold around Yerin’s waist briefly, but let go when the smarmy voice of their mark asked to cut in, melting back into the facelessness of the crowd.
Yerin didn’t look at her after that, absorbed in her con game. But Yuju was watching, weaving subtle spells over herself, don’t-look-here’s and notice-me-not’s, the reverse of what Yerin had. She had learned that from observing Yerin’s gift in action. It wasn’t as good, but it was serviceable. It allowed her to remain close by and unbothered.
It also allowed her to watch as Yerin manipulated the mark coyly, playing hard to get and certainly being anything but her usual self. Or was this the real her? Yuju sometimes wasn’t sure. Yerin shifted too effortlessly between flirting and not, and the shaman for all of her powers, was not capable of reading minds.
She could be lying to you too.
And that was the rub, was it not? Yuju exhaled slowly when Yerin was led off the dance floor by the overly eager target, who had difficulty keeping his hands to himself. Yerin allowed some of it, but danced out of the way of others, just enough to tug at his leash and keep him slavering for more. She was indeed a master at her craft. It was almost impossible to tell what was true with her.
But Yuju wanted to believe. Yerin had never abandoned her in all these years. That had to count for something, right? She had always been there, until Yuju almost couldn’t remember a time before when she hadn’t been.
Yet she did. She did, and that made Yerin’s company all the more precious. Yuju remembered what it was like to be alone with only the wilderness and the spirits for company, afraid to seek out others for fear of hurting them. Her dreams were full of blood and fire, once. She no longer remembered what sparked them, but she remembered the pain and the fear. Some things stayed beyond memory. She knew that all too well.
Her nails were digging into her palm, and Yuju let go with a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Yerin and the mark were disappearing around the corner, going past the populated areas where simple misdirection would no longer suffice.
Stepping into the dark felt all too familiar, and Yuju let the shadows embrace her as she wove them into a firmer disguise, building on theory and practice both. Deeper, a voice within her whispered, and she acceded, letting herself fall into the waves. She was here and not, and only one step behind. Always there, and watching.
No matter what Yerin was, she couldn’t let her walk into danger alone. Never that.
Yerin was hers to protect. It was just as simple as that. Where she went, Yuju would follow, even if it were into the depths of hell. Loyalty like that was forged in fire, and what would she be without it? Nothing, and less than nothing.
I would be lost without you.
Let her be the seeker this time. She would never let Yerin down. I need you, Yerin had whispered to her, and for that alone, Yuju would do anything.
It was the least she could do. It was everything. It was who she was.
And nothing would ever change that.
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