Domino Effect (Yukio)

11. Deception

Upon arriving, I took a quick moment to look around for any idea where I might be.

Immediately my face became visibly pink out of pure embarrassment.

"Really?! Why here?!" I groaned as I covered my glasses with a hand in reaction.

Yuri tilted her head in confusion for a moment.

"What's wrong, Yukio?"

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath before answering.

"Why are we, I mean, why am I inside the girl's dorms? That's just, I don't... You see it's not appropriate for me to be here as a teacher and... Can I just go outside instead?" I asked, knowing that I didn't make much sense which seemed to amuse her.

She took a step closer and stared at me for a moment before bursting in a fit of laughter.

"You're being serious? Ha! In the common room of all places? I'm sorry, but that's just way too funny! Such a prude!" She laughed, adding in to my embarrassment.

Still covering my face, I was still hesitant to look but I decided to do it.

When I finally opened my eyes fully a moment later, I saw Yuri looking up at me as if waiting when I was going to face the fact that I was in the girl's dorm. The students who were lounging around the dorm were dressed casually, making clear it was a weekend on campus.

"So... What do you think?" Yuri asked innocently while waving a hand out to show the room I wasn't willing to see at first.

"Well it looks a whole lot nicer than the boy's dorm, and smells nicer too, but I still have no clue why we're here. It's almost like you only brought me here just to poke some fun at me."

"Me? I wouldn't do that... But since you put it that way..." Yuri said with a light laughter, making me roll my eyes.

"You got me, I admit." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "But no, seriously, what am I doing here?"

Yuri turned around, but not before I noticed she wore a sad smile when she thought about it.

"You see, in short, I miss this place. It's changed a lot but, I mean... It was my home at one point."

"Home?"

She turned back around and nodded her head.

"Yup. The first place where I had filling meals guaranteed, where I had access to so many books, where I made so many friends and memories... It was comfortable. It was rather exciting to have a place to come back to. I didn't always follow the rules of course, but it was really... Warm, if that's the right word for it, while I was a student here. Don't you consider True Cross your home too?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"Well, I go to school here-"

"No, that's not what I meant." She stopped me. "I'm asking, since you've made so many memories here, whether they were good or bad, don't you like having a place like this? A place to return to?"

Considering what she was saying, I gave it much more thought. My brother and I moved here from the monastery where father raised us, and everything changed from then to now.

"Yes... I guess at first it did. But after what happened recently, I don't really know what to call this place anymore."

I walked over to the nearby open window and leaned on the windowsill to look up at the clear blue sky. Yuri placed a hand on my upper back, the warm touch instantly comforting and got my attention.