[short] Happy New Year
Baron Mind
"Mima, please," I hissed,"stop this nonsense. We're going to get into trouble."
"It's fine," Mima replied loudly, as if we weren't in a restricted area. "Rikako turned off mister security cameras so no-one can see!" She waved at the camera in the corner without taking her ear off the wall, then went back to knocking, listening intently.
"And when security notices the cameras have been turned off, or someone walks by while we're in here?"
"Yu, stop worrying and take it easy already!"
Suddenly Mima put an arm around my waist and flung me at the wall. I closed my eyes, raised my arms... and she pulled me up short several steps after I should have broken my nose.
It was dark and smelled of oil.
"Wh-" I began, but Mima raised a finger to her lips.
With an almost painfully tight grip on my wrist she dragged me down the cramped passageway. I quickly learned to duck a second or so after she did or risk cracking my skull on the many low-hanging pipes, conduits and other obstructions I could barely make out in the gloom.
All at once we came to a door. Mima swiftly entered a number on the keypad under the knob, opened it, and yanked me through.
Outside.
Mima still didn't let go, pulling me across uneven concrete and between large, shadowy shapes I couldn't identify by the light of the stars. Finally we came to a stop in front of something I could recognise: a tall, shiny fence topped with razor wire.
"Mima, no," I whispered urgently, tugging hard on her arm. "We can't - "
My whisper became a startled squeak as Mima abruptly scooped my legs out from under me and swept me up in her arms. I squeaked again when her wings flared into existence and inertia tried to drag me out of her grip.
A few moments later we were back on the ground, and Mima gracefully set me back on my feet.
"I can fly by myself, you know!" I huffed, smoothing down my dress.
"Yu?" Mima tilted her head in a painfully pretend show of innocence. "Mima could have sworn she heard Shinki say she couldn't just now?"
"We're not supposed to be out here!"
"Yuuuu, if that's what Shinki means then Shinki should say so! "Can't" and "not supposed to" are very different mister words!"
"They're phrases, not - oh, drat it, you know what I mean!"
I stomped my foot and glared at her. She just grinned infuriatingly.
"Come on," she said, grabbing my hand rather than my wrist this time, "it's almost time!"
"Time for what!?"
Mima just laughed and dragged me along at a run. We raced past all manner of things I didn't even know the name for. Buildings, lights, vehicles. Lots of vehicles, with their headlights shining as they roared past. Mima punched a box attached to a post and stopped, then raced forward again as the vehicles stopped to let us cross their path.
And then we came to the humans. A huge crowd of humans, more than I'd ever seen in my life, never mind in one place. For a moment I stared out over a sea of strange faces, hairstyles and clothes. And then the realization hit me, that I was looking over the crowd. That everyone I could see, could also see me.
"M-Mima, wait!" I called out over the wash of human voices. "Slow d-"
Mima looked back at me, and for a fraction of a second I caught sight of her face: a depressingly familiar grin, overflowing with mischief. Then she pulled hard, at exactly the same moment I did, throwing herself backward and catapaulting me into the crowd.
"Eep! Sorry!" I blurted out as I promptly collided with someone.
"It's quite all right, miss," a well-spoken but clearly yukkuri voice replied, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
I looked down to see a Luna hovering in front of me. She had a round, shiny badge with the letter 'P' on it pinned to her hat. Her smile became a curious frown as we made eye contact.
"Pardon me for asking, but are you -" she began, but another voice cut in.
"Mom, come on! We gotta get there before all the good spots are taken!"
"Sorry, I have to go. Happy new year!" She zipped over the crowd in the direction of a large Kogasa's umbrella and disappeared.
"See?" That wasn't so scary was it?" Mima said, hugging me from behind.
"That's not the problem here!" I retorted.
Mima just giggled and started leading me through the crowd. She shoved and shouldered her way through quite rudely, still only looking ahead, always knowing where to go next. I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or apprehensive when she slipped into the narrow gap between two tall buildings.
"Mima, where are we going?" I asked.
Mima grinned again. "Up!"
Even with a warning I couldn't dodge her picking me up again. I squeaked even louder than last time as the walls flashed past, closer than Mima's wingtips.
"I told you I can fly by myself!" I said. It came out an octave higher than it should have.
"Not like Mima can!" Mima cackled.
"Nobody in their right mind would fly like you do!"
"Good thing Mima isn't in her right mind then! Being insane is the best!"
I felt a bump as Mima landed, but instead of putting me down, she sat, and deposited me in her lap. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me close. I could feel her breasts pressing into my back, followed quickly by my face heating up.
"Mima! What would your husband say!?"
Mima made a thumbs-up sign. "It's okay! Mima got Yuuka's approval beforehand!"
"She knows!?"
An explosion startled me into silence. And then another. And another. A whole cascade of crackling bursts and shimmering flames erupted from the surface of the river below us, filling the night sky with a kaleidoscope of color.
It scared the living daylights out of me, and yet there was a mesmerizing beauty to it.
"Wh... what in the world?" I breathed.
"Fireworks!" Mima cheered, as if that explained life, the universe and everything. "Happy new year!"
I was too busy gaping in awe to respond. Mima rested her chin on my shoulder, one hand on my stomach while the other grasped mine and squeezed it gently.
We sat like that for a very long time.
"Yu, Mima's lovely thighs have gone to sleep now," Mima grumbled once we were back at ground level. "Shinki has put on too much mister weight!"
"Mima!" I snapped. "I haven't put on weight, I've grown up! I'm not a little one anymore!"
"Shinki will always be Mima's little one~"
"Stop messing up my hair! You're not my mother!"
"How nice of you two to drop by."
Mima and I both whirled. Doctor Ridgely was leaning on a nearby vehicle, cigarette in hand.
"You've saved me the trouble of running around like a headless chicken looking for two yukkuri who can't seem to understand that rules exist for a reason."
"I-I'm-"
"It's Mima's fault!" Mima stood up straight and raised her hand. "Mima will take full responsibility!"
"Oh my god, that changes everything," the Doctor deadpanned. "Wait'll everyone hears that miss straight-A's model student here put the entire facility on lockdown and got them all called away from their holiday at oh god o'clock in the morning."
"I'm really sorry," I said, hanging my head.
"Save it for Esther. As soon as we get back I'm giving both of you to her for a month."
Mima whimpered and gripped her hat tightly.
Doctor Ridgely took one last puff on her cigarette before throwing it on the ground and stamping it out. "Now get in the damn car. The sooner I get you two home the sooner I can go to bed."
I meekly took my place in the back seat. Mima sat beside me. She had to take her hat off to fit, and cradled it in her arms with an exaggeratedly miserable expression.
Then she caught my eye and winked. I scowled and turned to look out at the strange sights whizzing by.
It was my first and last time in a human city.