View source for 2023-01-29: Emilia - Love's Blossoming

*'''Log: 2023-01-29: Emilia - Love's Blossoming'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Emilia Eschonbach]], [[Character :: Milly Ashford]]
*'''Where:''' Inoue Hospital, Tsutsujidai
*'''OOC - IC Date:''' 29 Jan 0097
*'''Summary''': ''Milly and Emilia have lunch in a hospital cafeteria. Emilia finally says what she needs to say. ''

----


 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>
        The Inoue Hospital is starting to return to normalcy. The arrival of the Carpenters, or at least some of them, has meant that reconstruction has begun and the need for shelter is lessening.

        That means the cafeteria is now functioning, again, as a cafeteria. Supplies are still limited- after all, Tsutsujidai is as limited on food production as any other PLANT- but the low population means outside help can be effective.

        What this means right now, however, is Emilia is returning to a table for two with cafeteria hamburgers, fries (with little plastic ramikins of ketchup and mayo on the side) and a strawberry soda for Milly and an actual name brand cola for herself. She places everything in front of herself and her dining partner, and moves the tray to one side.

        "Th-there we go!" She says, a little enthusiastic. When Emilia arrived a few days ago, her face was awash in worry, but she was trying her best to hide that. Since then, she's been a constant presence at Milly's side- barring when she goes to a nearby hotel room to sleep and shower. (Even then the first night she slept in a chair next to Milly's bed.

        A few days in, though, she's... honestly a bit more firm than normal. She's still being Milly's limbs when she needs her- and sometimes when she doesn't. She's been quite firm, too, when Milly's tried to work. Acting president's orders stand, after all.

        "Y-You really s-s-seem to be getting b-better... I hope th-this isn't too much."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
<poem>
Milly's recovery has been a little slower than anticipated. Keeping her under observation proved to be the right call; her being noticeably out of it didn't abate after discontinuing pain meds, which revealed acute lead poisoning and subsequently required ''more'' treatment. Now, of course, Milly's doing much better -- but it did delay her exit even more than she'd have liked.

Pain is the worst part -- while it's low enough for her to be off IV pain meds, placing any kind of weight or strain on her core is excruciating and her energy levels are miserable. She's using a cane -- both for balance and to take some weight off her core, especially on that side, too.

Getting seated with Emilia slowly, Milly gives her a smile as she settles in for a burger. "I definitely feel a lot more with it, even if I'm still not doing great," she says, and there's some relief in it. "The doctors are telling me I need to get up and around more or else things'll get worse. I'm pretty impressed with the quality of care here."

She takes a bite. Her sense of taste is still a ''bit'' off, but it's not bad at all. "I'm still pretty angry about the vigil. I don't like the idea of being treated like a martyr by people who demonstrably couldn't have cared whether I died or not." It's rare for Milly to feel genuine anger -- but she ''is'' angry, even if it's muted by fatigue.

Swallowing, she asks, "How have you been coping? I saw the news about..." She chews at her lower lip, finishing, "the PLANTs. I don't even know what to think anymore. I'm glad they relocated us out to Side 4..."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        "Th-that's good." The sudden complication had been... slightly terrifying. Now that it's been sorted out, Emmy's been able to relax soon. "M-Maybe we could g-g-go for a walk around l-later then? Or. Up to... the g-garden?" Little easy suggestions that they can do together. "If it's not t-t-too much f-for you, that is."

        Emmy gives a quiet smile to that. "...About th-that. After th-the v-vertex chat I, um, c-contacted the P-Principal." She pauses, taking a sip of her drink. "Th-there's an o-official m-missing persons l-list on the GUTS website, a-and the schools are. R-reporting returned students." Her v-voice is getting faster. "Th-they q-quickly rebranded to a. Um. Vigil f-for the." Emmy stops, and takes a breath. There is a venom in her voice when she speaks next. "The 'valiant Britannian Soldiers lost during the incident'. Th-they had t-to issue a st-statement for m-misinformation. About you." She sighs. "Th-they probably got wh-what they wanted but. Not as m-much."

        She dips her fries in the mayo, and takes a few big bites, before speaking up again. "I... w-was doing p-p-pretty bad. I c-c-could barely f-follow anything else. I w-was trying to h-h-handle the student council and. H-help Miss Leina and K-Kaname with G-G-GUTS." She looks down. "I... e-e-even skipped w-work a f-few times." She sighs. "Wh-when things w-were real bad, um, Professor Martel a-asked me to stay at her h-house. I th-think she s-saw how lonely I w-was... and sh-she didn't w-want me to be a-alone if Grandfather t-tried something."

        Emmy kind of startles herself out of her own sad thoughts. She doesn't want to be miserable with Milly, after all. She's been through so much worse. "I h-had some good t-times though! I w-was helping with m-makeup on a f-film Sheryl and R-Ranka were working on! And Miss Leina invited a bunch of GUTS st-students to a f-f-fancy event so I c-could h-have some t-time with Audrey on New Years Eve." She pauses, thinking about Tessa. Another lonely girl who she reached out to. She doesn't know the rumours Sheryl has unwittingly spread.

        "B-but... Um. Don't laugh but... D-Dr Hell t-turned up. H-he made a big d-donation and said he w-wanted to apologize and M-Miss Leina nearly shot him in th-the head. It... s-seemed to e-end okay." She shakes her head. That's not reassuring at all.

        "M-Mostly th-though... I w-was worrying about everyone, l-like Nunnally, Kallen and S-Sousuke." She looks directly into Milly's eyes when she speaks again. "A-and esp--ecially you."
</poem>

 <Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
<poem>
Milly listens to Emmy; it takes her a second to fully parse which direction the misinformation is going, but... "Well, that's better than the alternative. It seems like we're in a good situation when it comes to that, at least, though I'd like it better if it had never happened." She nibbles at a fry; her appetite's a little low, though it's clear she's at least trying, and knows she ''needs'' to eat even if she doesn't necessarily ''feel like'' eating.

Continuing to listen as Emmy moves onto her own personal struggles, she says, "I could tell, but... I'm really glad that there were people there for you. I wanted to send a message, but I felt like if you got a lot of undelivered messages after something had happened to me in here, you'd get the wrong idea and it'd be even worse than if it was total silence until I was okay..." A beat. "Wait, Professor Martel? That's not who I was expecting, but... good. I'm glad the school is still taking care of people."

Emmy continues winding through her story -- and while it goes up and down, Milly comes out of it ultimately happy. "It sounds like you've made a lot of friends. I'm really glad about that... you deserve it."

Another bite of burger. Man. It really just ''doesn't'' taste right. "I missed you a lot, too, Emilia. I was worried you'd get hurt, with how things have been progressing..." Shaking her head, she admits, "For once, though, I just don't know what to do. I don't feel comfortable slowing down, even though I know I have to..."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        Emilia nods slowly. "At least... e-e-everyone got o-out before. Th-they h-held them." She pauses. Almost everyone. Emmy finally goes for her burger, and takes a big bite, her eyes widening. She's surprised at how good this is- different than the burgers at school in a subtle way. Is the meat just better?

        Emmy seems to look away as Milly talks about sending a message. "I-I'm just. Glad you're g-g-going to be okay." She pauses, slightly. "I, um." She pauses. "I h-hope it w-wasn't a bother. Getting a-a-all those missed c-calls. " She does look a bit surprised. "Um, she's b-been tutoring me in. Um." She shakes her head. No need to be secret. "I a-asked to t-teach me a-about the o-one year w-war, a-and my D-Dad." She stops. "Um. I h-haven't told her. Though."

        "Y-Yeah. I have." She pauses. "I th-think... I think you can m-move forward, a-a-and not have to worry th-that I w-won't catch up." That takes a lot of bravery to say... but Milly needs to know that before she raises the important point. So she needs to be brave to be brave. "...Th-thanks. I g-g-got through okay. N-nothing r-really bad happened d-d-directly, at least. The Knightpolice d-did a lot of crackdowns but I... t-t-tried to keep our st-students out of it." She doesn't mention Nina's recent... shift in attitude. That might be selfish.

        "You m-mean..." She shakes her head. "You d-d-decided you w-wanted to go into sc-school administration, right? Th-then... M-maybe it's not about s-slowing down. M-maybe... you n-need to let others c-carry you f-forward while you. While you recover."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
<poem>
Emilia's meaning in 'Everyone' is taken just fine; Milly doesn't really have the energy to agonize about the particulars at this point, so she breezes along. Her appetite gets a momentary uptick and she seizes on it, taking another bite of delicious burger. "Mmh -- I know my sense of taste is off from being IVed for so long, but this ''is'' good for a hospital burger," she murmurs.

"It wasn't a bother at all," Milly says, about all the missed calls. "I wish I'd been a little more with it when I'd gotten them, but it was nice to get the reminder that people care about me even when I'm not running the Student Council." Ashford sounds like it's holding steady, even without her, which is a nice trial run for graduation -- and, yes, moving forward...

Emilia brings it up, then -- that she might need to let others carry her instead of actually slowing down. "Hm," Milly says, and for a moment she has about the same face on as when she's expecting a rotten egg burp from dealing with the lead poisoning. But... "I'll try. I've never been good at slowing down, but maybe I do need to let the Acting President show how much she's learned. Maybe next year it'll be you who's Student Council President." That gets her a bit more enthusiastic, as she offers, "We'll call this a trial run!"

And then: more fries. The appetite's starting to hit again.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        "Yeah... I w-w-wonder what's different. I b-bet that Miss Korts would kn-know." Of course sometimes what makes a meal taste better is not the ingredients. It's who you eat it with. The true secret ingredient.

        Emilia nods. "The others w-were worried too b-but..." She pauses. "I g-g-guess... you going m-missing so close to the a-anniversary of mom's d-death. I got really scared. So when... I was the f-first person you messaged... It made me really happy."

        Her attitude shifts slightly. "...D-d-did Lelouch ALREADY find a way to weasel out of it?" Her eyes are a little flat. "H-he and Rivalz... I s-swear..." Still, Emmy smiles. "S-s-setting the new A-Ashford record for t-treasurers wasn't e-enough?" She's teasing, and god it feels nice to tease. "Th-the president's t-trial by fire, huh?" She takes another bite of her burger, then soda.

        For a moment, she eats thinking. Psyching herself up. Is this the moment, or?

        "U-um, Milly... r-remember h-how I said I had s-something I wanted to t-tell you. In person?" She looks across at the other woman, determination in her eyes. "Is it... okay if I t-tell you now?"

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
<poem>
A slightly more alert Milly might notice the question of who 'Miss Korts' is, but Milly is... not quite at her hundred percent. She's ''up'', to be sure! Chelation has been nice to her! But lead is lead and Milly is Milly.

It's serious time. Milly looks Emilia square-on, though she does have to bring a hand up to her head to rub at it a little for mundane headache reasons. "The timing couldn't have been much worse, yeah... I was really happy to make it back. Hearing your voice right away was nice too, even if I was a little out of it..."

She moves back on, though. "There are... ''reliability questions'' there, yes," Milly says wryly, as she eats some more fries. "If you're happy with Treasurer, that's fine. But I think you'd benefit from giving the Presidency a shot. It's usually seniors, but there's no reason a junior can't; I did!"

The determination in Emilia's eyes gets Milly's attention. "Yes. Now's a perfect time," she answers, giving a nod.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
<poem>

        "I'm g-glad. M-Mr Ozma got me h-here as quickly as h-he could but... I am g-glad a little bit of me was... h-here for you." Emmy takes a breath. "W-well, I s-still have a f-few months to th-think about it." A few months to think about a lot of things. "B-but... I-I'm going to d-do what I c-can to keep our f-fortress a fortress."

        She finally takes the deep breath. "Wh-while you were gone... I r-realized some important th-things. About me and... a-about you. And I. It's r-really important th-that I. T-tell y-you e-everything out l-loud." She puts her hands flat on the table, and quietly slides her food to the side.

        "I th-th-thought I w-wasn't changing f-fast enough. But I w-w-was wrong. Sometimes... s-s-sometimes change n-needs a catalyst. And. I found m-mine and I ch-changed enough that..." Her soulful green eyes look into Milly, not sad but... hopeful. 

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-qO3sPMjc

        "That if I d-don't do this now, I'll r-regret it m-more than anything else in m-my whole life."

        She doesn't give Milly a chance to respond, to try and dissuade her. The table isn't wide, but wide enough that Emilia has to half climb onto it to lean forward enough to reach Milly, but it puts them eye to eye. Her body shifts, she pushes forward with one foot on her chair, and kisses Milly on the lips. It's chaste, and sudden, but filled with longing, feelings held back far, far too long. It only lasts a few seconds before Emilia leans back again, but not very far. Emilia's breath is heavy for a few seconds, the emotion surging over her. It took a lot to be so brave... but she have to hold onto this bravery a little longer.

        "I l-love you Milly Ashford... and I n-never want to b-be away f-from you th-this long again."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
<poem>
'Keep their fortress a fortress...' That's a lovely thought, to Milly, and it makes her feel like no matter what happens, she can graduate with Ashford in good hands.

(There is of course the matter of actually graduating; Milly ''has'' been told by her doctors, privately, that if she doesn't focus entirely on recovering and her studies in that order, she's going to have some problems in the short term. Heavy metal poisoning is no joke, and even if it didn't get ''direly'' bad, she can expect some cognitive effects in the short term. She'll have to take exams seriously rather than simply getting exactly the percentage she wants as an elaborate year-long joke.)

The hope in Emmy's eyes draws Milly toward her. "E-emmy?" she starts, and -- as often happens in moments of high sincerity -- Milly just barely misses her cue. Emilia genuinely gets the drop on her, as lips touch her own. Her eyes widen -- and then half-lid as she presses into the kiss, allowing herself to ''really'' commit to it for the few seconds it lasts.

When Emilia pulls away, Milly -- who'd been so ''pale'' for most of her hospital stay -- turns visibly pink. She's ''giddy'' -- it catches her completely off guard, and for her that's such a rarity...

Meeting Emmy's gaze, and taking her words in, Milly hesitates for just a moment -- and then says, in no uncertain terms, "I love you, too. I don't have any plans to be away from you this long ever again, either."
</poem>

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