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Benio makes a long, annoyed noise in her throat. She's reclined on the grass, clothes rumpled and rather a lot of skin down her neck and chest exposed. Reaching up a hand to tidy her hair (and where did she put down her butterfly ornament? They'd better not have rolled on it), she says, "You knew what you were getting into."
Hinoe, lying across from her with her eyes shut, rubs her face, fingers digging unrelentingly into flesh. There's nothing of her usual elegance as she pushes herself upright, pulls her hair back from her neck, and sighs. "I know."
She must be really smitten if Benio's attempt at carnal distraction has already failed. Benio feels her afterglow seeping away and suppresses a sigh of her own.
Hinoe's eyes dart to the tree trunk next to them, to the clouds in the sky, anywhere but at Benio's face. "But she doesn't really hate youkai. She just thinks she does."
A hard laugh in response. "Would you suggest that I only think I hate humans?" Benio sees her hair ornament over to the side and leans over, graceful where Hinoe's a wreck, and retrieves it. As she begins to work it into her hair, she adds, "She's not stupid. She may be a human, but even I will admit she's not stupid." The girl sidestepped the usual tricks Hinoe plays on humans lost in the forest. That was no easy accomplishment. Benio can't recall any other human who's managed it. But the girl, Reiko, had stormed off a few days ago after some kind of argument, leaving Hinoe in this pathetic state.
"Sorry," Hinoe sniffs. "You're right." Hinoe is always in control. And even when she isn't, she is loudly, boldly out of control. This sodden, limpid woman in front of Benio is both alien and repugnant. "She's just... she's just playing a game. That's all. I like games," Hinoe adds, as if trying to remind herself.
Benio makes another noise, even less patient this time. She stands up, adjusting her clothes and checking whether they've been dirtied; the grass is damp today. "Tell yourself whatever you want, Hinoe."
Hinoe glares at Benio. "You're not jealous, are you?"
This hint of Hinoe's usual self is cheering. Benio lets one eyebrow arch up delicately. "Me? I could be. Such a young, stupid thing. But why should I waste my energy? I have only to wait." Silly human; she'd die soon enough.
"That's so cruel, Benio!" Hinoe's face crumples. Benio feels a stab of guilt. And Hinoe can be sheerest ice for months when she's truly angered. It isn't worth risking the loss of Hinoe's warmth next to her, Hinoe's hands slipping down Benio's skin and through her hair.
Benio dips her head in what might be construed as apology or acquiescence. "Maybe she's busy." She tries to make the suggestion neutral, closing her mouth on any other words: maybe the human is dead, maybe she decided youkai were scary, maybe she just doesn't like Hinoe after all.
"I went to her house," Hinoe says. "She wasn't there. The other people in the house were there. She wasn't."
Benio clenches her teeth. "Maybe she went on a trip or something."
"She hasn't missed a day so far. Not since we met." Hinoe's hands flutter up in distress.
"Maybe she's testing you." If so, Hinoe's failing. Bested by a human after all these years! Benio wouldn't believe it if someone told her, but she's seeing it happen right now.
"A test? Do you think so?" A glimmer of a smile appears on Hinoe's face. "So she'll come back?"
Benio hides a cringe, for Hinoe's sake. Instead she says, "I don't know. Maybe. Probably." She turns Hinoe away from her. "I'll put your hair up." Hinoe is quiet for the few moments it takes Benio to finger comb her hair and secure it with Hinoe's favorite hairpin, the same one the clever little human girl saved from the crows.
Hinoe gives her an uneven smile and exhales forcefully. "I feel better."
"Do you?"
"Yes!" Hinoe says. "Thank you for... for being patient." She squirms a little and shrugs, hands flying up again. It's a bad sign. Hinoe has never been much for gratitude. It's part of what Benio loves about Hinoe: her prickliness, the way her humor can twist abruptly and slice to the bone.
Benio's only seen Hinoe this off-kilter once before, and that was when she and Hinoe were figuring out that they wanted to sleep together. Benio had probably been pretty unsteady herself. They've been together for a long time. How long, Benio can't remember, and she knows Hinoe wouldn't be able to either. There are dalliances, sometimes for one of them and sometimes for each of them and sometimes there's someone else they play with together. Hinoe and Benio always find each other again, whenever everyone else has moved on. They've never exchanged sweet words. Both of them are too proud for that. Benio has no need for them; she understands these things without having to say or hear them. Hinoe is the same way, something else Benio knows without having to ask.
Youkai don't always have homes. Some of them settle in the same places for decades, but others wander, the freedom of immortality allowing them to change direction at a whim if they want to. If pressed, Benio would say that her sense of home is more shaped by where Hinoe is than anything else. But it's the kind of sentimental garbage humans like to spout, not a thought that she'd ever voice to herself, much less Hinoe.
"Hinoe," Benio says, "why don't we try and find your human girl, then? I'll help you." She smiles, and if she can't keep all the edge out of it, it's not for lack of effort. "I want to meet her too." She won't do anything to her. Nothing big, anyway. She just wants to see the human that's enchanted Hinoe so very much.
"Oh, I think you'd like her," Hinoe says, brightening. "She's not like the other humans."
Benio wrinkles her nose. "She's still human, though. That's a flaw that can't be changed."
Hinoe makes a soft sound. The wistfulness in it lodges like a blade inside Benio, in that place in her chest that holds all those unsaid words of love. Hinoe says, "I used to think that too, Benio. But there really is something special about her."
Benio bites her tongue on a sarcastic reply. "Well, we'll see once I get to meet her."
Hinoe sweeps Benio into a hug. Benio is simultaneously suspicious and angered. Whoever this human is, she's made a mess out of Hinoe, and Benio would like her old lover back, even if she still has to share her with a human.
"All right." Benio disentangles herself from Hinoe's arms. "Let's just go find her, all right?" Her smile, despite her efforts, is strained as they set off.