Work Text:
- emu r i s e s
emu perchs on nene's chest and cocks her head. she is completely unbothered by nene being flat on her back on the costume room floor and rapidly turning red in the face.
"what do you mean?" emu asks.
"i mean that—", nene can't think of how to say it. she groans in frustration and knocks her head against the wooden floor. "it's just—you can't! it just doesn't work that way!" she clenchs and unclenchs her fists, but makes no move to buck up or push emu off.
"hmmm, i wonder..." rui's voice is heard from the hallway a second before his face appears thru the doorframe. "if emu and nene could have been here the whole time," he finishs with a fanged smile at them.
"rui!" emu chirps happyly, "i got nene!"
"i see that." rui answers neutrally. he stands for a moment more before walking over to sit on the floor next to nene's head.
"and how is nene to be got?" rui asks nonsensically, leaning forward and tapping lightly on nene's face with a finger for each syllable: her forehead, the bridge of her nose, a side of her mouth, a cheekbone, her forehead again, the side of her jaw. then brushing a finger lightly over each eye so that nene feels her eyelashs swish against the pads of his fingers as she blinks rapidly.
rui pulls away just as nene reachs over to swat at the closer of rui's hands. nene huffs and curls her fingers, then clasps rui's hand in hers firmly. not letting go, she lets her arm drop onto her face to cover her eyes.
a gentle smile can't be keeped from rui's face as he rolls his and nene's hands side-to-side a bit.
"is that a yes?"
"me, me!" emu excitedly bounces in place and makes grabby-hands towards rui.
nene exhales dramatically at emu's weight suddenly squashing her lungs. emu makes high-pitched apologetic sounds as she exagerates freezing in place, no bouncing to be seen. nene exhales again, this time a huff of laughter, lips twitching into a smile.
emu grins before returning to her original goal. she looks expectedly at rui. he obligingly offers his free hand, and emu gleefully takes it in both of hers. emu squeezes her eyes shut and squeezes rui's hand in hers with a squeal of undirected happyness, then intertwines her fingers with rui's with one hand and places the other hand back on the floor to keep balance. nenes aren't very steady surfaces to perch on.
emu hums. she swings her and rui's hands back-and-forth in large motions. rui smiles at emu with a bit of confusion, then glances at nene. she still has her arm across her eyes and her face is tilted slightly away from him, but her shoulders are loose and her breathing is deep and steady.
emu gradually slows to littler swings of her and rui's hands.
with the hand that is in nene's hold, rui squeezes, just to check. nene immediately squeezes his hand back. heh, she's fine.
emu quiets until she's just holding rui's hand joined with hers, looking. she turns it around and cranes her head to see all the different angles.
emu looks down. she observes the available floor space and then carefully places one foot, not on nene but next to nene on the same side as rui. emu tentatively shifts her body weight then pauses. hearing no nene-sounds of distress at any misplaced extremitys, emu continues, planting her second foot down literally on top of the first. for a moment she manages to keep her balance, then she giggles and lets herself topple against rui.
rui obediently braces himself, waiting for emu to wiggle herself upright (hampered by one hand still intertwined with rui's and maintaining "bean emu" position with her knees tucked under her chin).
emu regains her bearings and leans against rui again but this time snuggling and not propping herself up. nene had shifted her arm slightly to be able to look at emu and rui, and now seeing emu's contented snuggling makes nene yawn. she puts her arm back over her eyes like a makeshift eyemask.
"we aren't going to actually sleep here", rui says, just so he can get that out there.
"mmmm, i'm not that far gone", nene mumbles without moving, "'s just a break".
she squeezes rui's hand. rui squeezes back.
"yeah!" emu chirps, ambiguously in response to either one of them or to no one. rui can feel emu smiling against his shoulder as she speaks.
she knocks their clasped hands against rui's side and he knocks back against her leg in kind.
rui figures he is not getting any hands back at all for the time being and leans his cheek against the top of emu's head, and decides to close his eyes for a bit too.