Delicate Love

"Oh? Really?" Shiori asked. "I-I mean... Yeah, that sounds great! But... It'd be a shame to make ya tough. Ya such a sweet soul." Oh shit, what a mortifying thing to say. She averted her eyes and stared into her half empty cup of tea. Penny would definitely think Shiori was hitting on her now.

Shiori was biting her lip, but then she looked a bit worried. "I hope ya ain't needin' to defend yaself too much," she said. Though she didn't know Penny all too well just yet, the thought of the soft woman having any threat against her made Shiori... Really pissed off. How dare someone do anything bad to such a sweetheart?

Something about Penny's constantly quiet, peaceful demeanour just made Shiori relax in an instant. "Ya so smart," she blurted out dumbly. But it was true, Penny was thinking ahead in a way that Shiori rarely did. Speaking of thinking ahead, it was starting to get late. "I, uh, better go," she mumbled, standing up. "Thanks for the tea 'n stuff."

"Y-yeah," Shiori agreed. "I don't need no more books though... N-no wait, I'm sure I do," she stammered. In reality, she didn't, but she wanted an excuse to see her cute new friend some more.

Somehow, Penny looked dorky and adorable when she just waved goodbye like that. Adorkable. Shiori bit her tongue and held back from teasing her about it, though Penny could see she looked clearly amused. "This was... Nice," she said. "I'll see ya." She waved back in the same fashion before exiting Penny's apartment of joy back into her own glum world.

And that was the last time Penny saw Shiori for about two weeks. Life, as it was prone to do, got in the way. At first, Shiori wanted to stay away so that Penny couldn't see the state she was in, and then she was just too embarrassed to show her face for a bit. Finally, two weeks to the day after she'd been to Penny's apartment, Shiori returned to the quaint little library. Penny was talking to, or rather being talked at by a man who'd been frequenting the library for a long time. In the last week, he'd been very forward and effectively harassed Penny, who was too shy to tell him to leave. Shiori almost turned and left, seeing Penny engaged with someone else. But something about the other woman's hunched shoulders made her want to keep an eye on the situation.

"It weren't the books I wanted, honestly," the man was telling Penny, and he laughed heartily like he always did. Though, it was more obnoxiously loud than hearty. "C'mon, Penny," he goaded her, somehow making her sweet name sound vile. "Let me show ya a good time. I know you been looking at me all this time." He was leaning over the desk and taking up way too much of Penny's space. The way his eyes were eating her up made Shiori feel sick.

"Pfft, no one's got interest in books," countered the man, leaning over the desk even more. "It's what's inside that counts~." Penny didn't wear low cut tops, but was so buxom that even her sensible jumper revealed some cleavage. It was clear where the man's eyes were. Shiori didn't remember ever feeling this angry. She charged forward and and shoved the man away from the desk. "She said leave," she snapped, looking very intimidating in all of her 4'9" stature. Even with one of her arms in a sling. The man was not impressed. "Get lost, pipsqueak, the adults're talkin'."

"C-c'mon," scoffed the man, clearly pissed about the change in situation. He pretended to regain his cool and grinned at Penny. "See ya tomorrow, then, babe." Shiori's angry face clearly scared him off or made him realise it was more effort than he'd thought. Shiori still looked pissed when he'd gone, and scowled coldly at the desk in front of Penny.

Penny's gentle, polite voice was like an ointment on Shiori's ears. On all of her, physically and mentally. "Ya gotta be tougher," she muttered, still frowning down at the desk as she picked a stray splinter from the wood with her good hand. "But then... Ya might get hurt. Heh." Her chuckle was lifeless and mirthless, as she stiffly shuffled her bad arm around inside the sling. "So, uh... Ya been okay besides him?"

"I'm fine," Shiori said shortly, turning her body to hide her arm behind herself. She was trying to speak gently to not frighten the timid, lovely Penny, but her rough voice and lifetime of being on the defensive made her come off as harsh in that moment. Plus, the way Penny obliviously leaned across the desk and exposed more than she needed to of herself was... Something.

To many normal people, it might have come off as incredibly clingy and naive. But Shiori was not normal. When she looked up at Penny again, her expression was soft and pleasantly surprised. "Ya... Ya missed me?" she asked quietly. In truth, she'd missed Penny a lot too, and not just because she was a great person. Being with Penny meant being somewhere safe and happy for a little while. "Um, well, I mi... I missed ya too."