[It's quiet. Chihaya knows quiet. That heavy silence when the house is resting after a huge upheaval, usually when there has been destruction and death outside. The silence in between the exhale and inhale. The house breathes, in and out, with stillness and peace.
Today the silence is suffocating with the peace of a tomb.
The morning is easiest. Fresh from sleep, it's the time of day where she can imagine Maruki is around the corner, just out of sight, only a little out of ear shot when she calls for him once, twice. The third call, quieter and weaker than the first two, is more confirmation than anything else that the tomb continues to stand. The afternoon is filled with whatever task she can get her hands on, in and outside of the house. The nights are the worst when she lies in bed and catches herself listening for familiar footsteps down the hall.
The others aren't going to be gentle about this. Chihaya knows this as fact. Maruki has surrounded himself with passionate, burning people and has dutifully fed the flames for awhile now. This won't be easy. She's not him, not as kind, not as brave, not as strong in more ways than one- but she will do her best to keep the house together for his return.
She can feel grief settle in her bones, the worry etching its way into the marrow. She watches Akira turn himself into a ghost, drifting through the halls like a shadow. She watches Akechi, jaw tight, enter Maruki's room and not exit for a long, long time. Haru looks like she is fighting a war on two fronts, the cracks in her smile growing with each passing day. Adachi's quiet heartbreak echoes and hangs in the air and she can only imagine how Eren is right now. How all the people Maruki has loved and loved him in return must be fighting to not shatter.
It feels like no one believes he will be back. No one but her. Perhaps she is cheating with her ability to continue believing but personally she thinks after all the hell she has gotten she's owed something positive. No matter how hard she tries however, the edge of her ability gives just before certainty on when exactly he will return. It's enough to shake her faith but she pushes it down. Maruki will come back. As surely as she worries, picking at every thread in her reading for him until it unspools, she knows that some day soon the sun will rise, the house will breathe, and the tomb will crumble.
Until then she will repair what she can. She'll patch whatever she can't so it can limp along. She'll make sure that everyone is as fed and watered as she can make them, and wait.
She is patient. Maruki will come back home and Chihaya will embrace him with open arms when he does. And if the trials he has endured leave him weak, she'll endeavor to support him until he can stand on his own again.]
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Surprise ❤️ (set during Maruki's absence in early October)
Today the silence is suffocating with the peace of a tomb.
The morning is easiest. Fresh from sleep, it's the time of day where she can imagine Maruki is around the corner, just out of sight, only a little out of ear shot when she calls for him once, twice. The third call, quieter and weaker than the first two, is more confirmation than anything else that the tomb continues to stand. The afternoon is filled with whatever task she can get her hands on, in and outside of the house. The nights are the worst when she lies in bed and catches herself listening for familiar footsteps down the hall.
The others aren't going to be gentle about this. Chihaya knows this as fact. Maruki has surrounded himself with passionate, burning people and has dutifully fed the flames for awhile now. This won't be easy. She's not him, not as kind, not as brave, not as strong in more ways than one- but she will do her best to keep the house together for his return.
She can feel grief settle in her bones, the worry etching its way into the marrow. She watches Akira turn himself into a ghost, drifting through the halls like a shadow. She watches Akechi, jaw tight, enter Maruki's room and not exit for a long, long time. Haru looks like she is fighting a war on two fronts, the cracks in her smile growing with each passing day. Adachi's quiet heartbreak echoes and hangs in the air and she can only imagine how Eren is right now. How all the people Maruki has loved and loved him in return must be fighting to not shatter.
It feels like no one believes he will be back. No one but her. Perhaps she is cheating with her ability to continue believing but personally she thinks after all the hell she has gotten she's owed something positive. No matter how hard she tries however, the edge of her ability gives just before certainty on when exactly he will return. It's enough to shake her faith but she pushes it down. Maruki will come back. As surely as she worries, picking at every thread in her reading for him until it unspools, she knows that some day soon the sun will rise, the house will breathe, and the tomb will crumble.
Until then she will repair what she can. She'll patch whatever she can't so it can limp along. She'll make sure that everyone is as fed and watered as she can make them, and wait.
She is patient. Maruki will come back home and Chihaya will embrace him with open arms when he does. And if the trials he has endured leave him weak, she'll endeavor to support him until he can stand on his own again.]