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Who: Hanasaki Tsubomi, Tsukikage Yuri
Where: Greenhouse Car
When: 3rd of Grasshopper
What: Meeting Up

Tsubomi had been troubled for some time. To whit, the recent murder on the train (of a new friend no less), their coming back, and the punishment of the party involved... well, she hadn't been involved, and mostly kept her nose out of it, but it hadn't exactly made her feel happy. As such, she often turned to the place on the train she liked best... the greenhouse car.

Tsubomi made a point to come once every day, and often, she would find herself spending hours there when not with her friends or doing chores. By now, she had gotten into a routine, of watering the plants, measuring their growth, and doing many of the things her grandmother had taught her during her many visits to the greenhouse back home. It hadn't reached the point of being an unhealthy distraction, but she had realized she was spending a lot of time here.

And why not share that? On a whim, she'd made plans with Yuri-san to meet up here, and Tsubomi had resolved to show her some of her progress. A particular group of flowers had begun to thrive under her care, and Tsubomi was quite proud.

"I'm glad everyone is healthy today," she said to her charges, as she waited for her friend to arrive.

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Yuri, for her part, was still sort of ... not really sure what to make of things. One might think her overly cautious, but rumblings of some rather unfortunate things happening here and there did not exactly sway her paranoia to be lessened by any real degrees.

Still, she wasn't about to turn down an offer from Tsubomi, so she arrived precisely when she was supposed to.

She enters quietly, overhearing Tsubomi speak, before approaching her.

"Ah, Tsubomi... how are you?"

Tsubomi's eyes lit up when she heard her friend's voice. "Yuri-san!" she exclaimed, as she headed over to her. "I'm just fine, today! It's good to see you!"

Short, to the point, and.... well, she saw Yuri all the time, but it was nonetheless true.

Edited 2020-07-18 15:28 (UTC)

Yuri just smiled mildly, but nods as she nears. "Likewise." It's true, even if she's still fairly uncomfortable in this place. She looks around absently. "Well, at least there's SOME place around here that feels a bit... nicer, I suppose."

Tsubomi had t resist the urge to frown. She knew this was still difficult for Yuri... so she tried to focus on the positive.

"I agree," she said. "It reminds me of being back at Grandma's... though I wouldn't mind being able to see the sun outside, you know? Still, it's peaceful here. Comfortining."

Yuri blinked a little at that. It was clear Tsubomi was trying to be positive, and she couldn't begrudge her that.

"Yes, I suppose it does, at the very least... Although there's definitely some unique flora around here. I'm sure Kaoruko-san would be interested in them."

Tsubomi lit up at that. "There is!" she said. "I've been trying to keep an eye on them, study them a little, since I got here... maybe I need to get a journal, so I can share them with her when we make it back home!"

Yuri gives a nod, looking around. "Logging them WOULD be a good idea, I think. At the very least, it'd give yourself something to do." She focuses back on Tsubomi. "I could help, if you'd like?"

Tsubomi's grin grew even wider, even more than it did moments before, as she nodded her head.

"Ohhh! That'd be wonderful, Yuri-san!" she said. "We'd almost be like real botanists and florists, wouldn't we?"

"Well," she pondered that for a moment.

"I suppose, yes. But you already help run your family's shop, as it is - if anything you could probably show me a thing or two."

That... actually made Tsubomi laugh a bit.

"Then maybe you should call me Tsubomi-sensei, or something," she said.

Yuri cocks her head a little to the side, and gives a light chuckle.

"Ah, we'll see - don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, hm?"

Clearly she's not completely serious, but that can be sort of hard to tell with Yuri.

The humor isn't lost on Tsubomi; she's managed to figure out some of Yuri's mannerisms after all. So she laughs a little.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to get a big head, Yuri-san."

"Heh, I wouldn't think so, in all seriousness," she says, leaning over to look at one of the more foreign looking flora.

"Still... I am at least glad both of you are here, sorry as I am you're also stuck in this mess, if I'm being honest."

Tsubomi blinked, and then stepped up alongside her.

"I'm glad to be here with you too, Yuri-san," she said. "I think we can all handle this if we're together... just as we always have, right?"

She thought of what it was like before Yuri became a Precure again... when her older friend had so much she was carrying with her alone. She didn't want her to ever go through that again.

"Well, yes."

She says this in a matter of fact manner, turning to face her with an actual, genuine smile.

"I think I know better than to try and tell you otherwise, hm?"

Tsubomi blinked, then blushed as the meaning of Yuri's words sunk in.

"You always give me such good advice, though," Tsubomi said, looking down. "If I say anything important, it's because you helped me get there."

Yuri shakes her head. "Don't just give me credit. It's as much you, you realize that, right?"

Tsubomi nodded. "Oh, trust me. I'm well past the days where I'd have no self confidence," she said. "I'm just... I wouldn't have gotten here without you, or Itsuki-san, or Erika..."

She laughed slightly. "But... I suppose that's true for both of us. We've had others lift us up, right?"

Yuri raises an eyebrow, hoping that Tsubomi would respond... well, basically how she did. She smiles and nods back.

"Of course - we are a team, and friends. We're not going to get anywhere apart."

"... Nowhere apart..."

That made Tsubomi look down, frowning.

"... I hope Erika is doing alright."

Yuri actually gives a small, short laugh to that.

"I have little doubt she's fine. If anything, she's stubborn enough I doubt she can be much OTHER than fine."

Tsubomi nods, but her expression doesn't change.

"I'm just... worried she's going to be lonely. She seemed that way before we became friends. But I suppose she has the rest of the fashion club..."

"She does, at that, and..." She shrugs a little, stooping down to look at another flower. "Give her a little more credit, hm?"

Tsubomi laughed, quietly, before letting out a sigh.

"Maybe I'm the one doing the missing here... but that's fine, right?"

"Of course, that's only natural."

She lets out a breath herself before glancing back at her. "That's why it's our job to make sure we make it back in one piece."

"Right!"

Tsubomi walked up beside Yuri, and smiled. "I will say though... I am glad I'm here with you, Yuri-san. At the very least, it's a chance for us to get closer, right?"

Yuri tilts her head to one side for a moment, pondering that before she nods. "Well, of course - after all, we have to rely on one another now a bit more, don't we?"

Tsubomi actually frowned a little, before replying, a bit more shyly:

"Well, I meant... I meant besides that! I really care about Yuri-san, and I thought we could become better friends through this, you know? You're older than I am, and I've felt there was always going to be a gulf between us because of that. And what's more, you'd be going to college before long..."

Yuri's eyebrows raise, and she scolds herself a bit mentally. "Ah, I see... Well, I- don't think I'd put it like that. Especially after everything that's happened, whatever 'gulf' there is I don't think matters that much anymore..."

She smiles. "I'd have been lost without you girls to point me in the right direction after all. Besides that, it doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere anytime soon."

Tsubomi looked up, somewhat surprised. "Really? You don't... you don't think there's distance between us? Because... I really do care a lot about you, Yuri-san."

At the rest, she blinked, and laughed nervously. "No, I guess you wouldn't be going anywhere. But when you say 'us girls', uhm..."

She blushed. "I was wondering if you, uhm. Saw me differently. Like, when we were fighting Dune, we had that moment, and I reached out to you... I just felt a really strong bond with you, you know? When I think back on it, I just get this sense... you're really important to me, Yuri-san."

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