Yuuki hands Kiomi a neatly wrapped present, a small card on top that just says "Happy Birthday!" A smile was on the Magus' face as she was oozing happiness. "Hey, Kiomi! It's your birthday today! I'll make you a small piece of cake later, but here! Enjoy your present!" She let out a small airy laugh. Inside the neatly wrapped box would be a framed photo of the two, the photo she snapped of them having Ice Cream, with Yuuki wrapping her arm and ice cream close to Kiomi's face as she took a picture. It was in a neat frame with 'Friends Forever' written on the bottom of it, and the date/time written on the back of the encounter. "I'm glad you're my friend! Let me know what you'd like for dinner and I'll make something special! If I can't figure it out, I'm sure I can get help!"
When she was younger, Kiomi saw bonds as a luxury for those in power. Someone like her who was nothing more than a convenient tool couldn’t afford it-- wasn’t allowed to partake in something so grand and important. ‘You’re alive only for this cause. Be grateful and want nothing more.’ So she did just that. No matter how much she hated that man, his ways, and the burdened legacy that was dumped onto her hands, her adoptive father’s words were ingrained into her very being, not unlike mark that had been burned upon her skin. So the hapless child did what had been expected of her. When even her little animals that she befriended were taken away, when the manor’s help had been told to keep their silence around her, Kiomi realized that the best way to avoid any unwanted expectations was to simply close herself off. Follow the steps that could only possibly merit and reward her some hate, distrusts, rage-- doing that would probably-- no, it would surely lead her to a road where being alone was not even a choice, but the only option.
“This is beautiful…” And yet, as she opened Yuuki’s present, heard out her kind words, the offer of a hand-made meal… but more so, more than anything material-- a present that was a reinforcement of bonds that had been forged… to think something as precious as this was actually something that she could have. Friends Forever. She wants to be my friend...forever...? If she could meet a younger version of herself, perhaps now she can tell her that good people like a certain Nemuru Yuuki existed; that because of this, all that hardship would mean something.
In that moment a sincere smile would tug upon her lips. “I would like a Yuuki special then. I’m sure anything you make will be real tasty. And then after, we can get some ice cream.” Came the reply.
Right now, saying things like she was also glad to be friends in that same lively, vigorous way was beyond Kiomi’s capabilities, but what she can’t express in words, she’ll endeavor to showcase in a different form.
One day, for sure. She’ll protect that smile along with everything else that’s become important to her during her stay here with Chaldea.