Lila & Zaika Interactions Story (Hiiragi Kirai) [Part 1]

The Whole Story Lies Under Here

"Oh, God..."

Lila muttered to herself in front of a square mirror, hands grasping the edges of the sink.
She stood weakly in the bathroom, which was lined with moss and dirt, wall-to-wall. She stared at herself and noticed that her clothes were wrinkled, her cream-colored hair was tangled up, and she looked much more pale than usual. Much, much more pale.

Ghostly, even.

"What-... What happened to me?"

Looking around, she noticed that this wasn't her house's bathroom. Opening the nearest
door and silently shuffling out, the floor transitioned from square tiles to carpet. The hallway she let herself into was somewhat thin, and her surroundings- only brightened from the bathroom light and some other light-yellow glow- gave off a homey feel.
Then, she heard a noise, and quickly looked over to its source, only to see a closed door.

Lila approached the door, listening in closer, to hear... crying? Then, a "thunk" fully
convinced her that someone, or something, was going on inside. She hesitated to open the door, but as she heard this voice groan in pain, she knew what had to be done. She put her hand on the doorknob, gave it a soft twist, then pushed into the room cautiously.
Still from a pale, yellow light, she saw a young woman, curled up on the carpeted ground.

Her hair was long and grey, while their facial expression- or perhaps just her several face piercings- gave a much younger appearance. The stifled sobs could still be heard. It didn't seem she noticed her. Lila couldn't tell if she was hurt or not, and said in the most gentle voice she could manage,

"Hello? Are you okay?"

The stranger looked up at her, and froze.

Then, Lila began to worry. Why was she in someone else's house? Was she intruding in
on something? Should she have opened the door at all?

"I've gone too far, now," she thought to herself, "so I should do my best with the situation at hand. Anyhow, she looked unhappy, so maybe I could figure out what's going on."

And so, Lila gave the stranger a warm smile. Their eyes widened, and their breathing
became audible. Lila muttered from habit,

"Everything will be alright,"  then, said louder, "mind telling me what's going on?"

The stranger drew in a deep breath before responding, 

"Who are you?"

"My name's Lila. You?"
"Z- ..Zaika."
"Wonderful to meet you, Zaika."

And so, the conversation continued just like that. Back and forth, Lila tried to make them
comfortable by her presence, hoping to learn more about the stranger and their surroundings. She quickly realized that Zaika lived alone, and that they didn't know anything about each other, aside from looking "a little familiar." Then, as Zaika got more accustomed to Lila's presence, she explained that she was crying due to feeling overwhelmed, and Lila attempted to comfort her further.

Then, as the conversation went on and on to many different topics, Lila sat down, and
Zaika leaned against the side of her bed. Slowly but surely, Lila realized that she was probably becoming tired.

"Were you just going to bed?"

"Mmhm..." 

Zaika's voice had gotten quieter, before she let out a yawn, opening her mouth wide. Her upper lip was notably... Spikey? It was shaped like two W's placed side-by-side, almost like that of a child's drawing of a monster. It wasn't like any sort of piercing or surgery she'd seen before, but Lila tried to focus on how she was planning to go to sleep tonight instead.

"Then, would you mind if I stayed here for the night, or possibly longer? I'm not fully
sure on what I'm doing here, but something tells me I should stick around. As well, I wouldn't know where-"

"Sure. The guest bedroom's just across from mine. I've-" Zaika interrupted herself with
another yawn, "-got extra blankets and pillows if you want them. Sorry if you don't like snakes..."

"Oh." Lila was taken aback by her quick response, but glad to have somewhere
comfortable to sleep. Zaika responded,

"Do you not... like snakes?"

"No, no- I'm just thankful. That's all. Say, do you like snakes?"
"Mhm."
"Why's that?"

Zaika's eyes went wide, as she couldn't help but smile. Soon, she was going on a
full-blown explanation with how cool she found snakes, and, for whatever reason, Lila felt a sense of familiarity. But, over time, Zaika took longer to think of what to say, and soon, fell silent.

"I never knew that about snakes. I think that's pretty neat."

Further silence.

Lila continued, continuing to keep her voice low,

"Do you know if they can be trained by humans to do specific things? Say, like coming over when you say their name, or-"
Lila paused. She sighed and shook her head, before getting up once more. A smile grew
on her face.

Zaika had fallen fully asleep.

Lila walked over to her and carefully picked her up, before placing her in the bed she previously fell out of. Then she muttered a "Goodnight" and left the room, closing the door behind her. Afterwards, she hesitantly opened the door across from Zaika's room and looked around the room from within the doorway. Nobody was inside, thank goodness. She let herself in fully, before closing the door and turning on the light.

It gave the room a bright yellowish-orange hue. Lila was forced to squint due to
the sudden brightness, but still tried to see what was inside. There was a desk, a window, two swirly chairs, and a bunk bed, all neatly aligned across the walls of the room, leaving an open space in the middle. Observing the bed closer, both the top and bottom bunk held a mattress, while only the top had a blanket and pillow. Poking out from underneath the bed was an enormous plushy of a snake- and, again, Lila felt a sense of familiarity. Not the sort you'd feel walking into your home, but rather, the sort you'd feel going to a park you thought you'd long forgotten. The sort that brought back feelings, but not quite memories. These feelings that Lila experienced made her almost choke up, just almost, but somehow with both comfort and heartbreak.

Of course, Lila had no clue what was causing these feelings. She decided that being tired
wasn't helping her stirring mind, and so, she should try to lay down and at least get some sleep. She knelt down next to the bunk bed and crawled in, hardly feeling the soft mattress underneath of her. Almost as if, she thought to herself, she was partially passing through it. It was enough to make her believe she was comfortable, and after tucking herself in with the provided blanket, she dozed off.

And soon, it became morning.

[THE END. Hope you enjoyed!]