[Miu turns to him and for a moment she doesn't move, just observes him. At length she crosses over and holds out her hands, silently accepting it and curling her fingers around it.

She stares at it for a while, expression blank.] Higanbana. [She mutters the word, rubbing the pa of her thumb over one delicate limb of the flower-like decoration.] I never really thought about it before. They're associated with death, you know. Their poisonous, so they're planted at graves to keep animals from eating the bodies. But because the flower and the leaves never bloom at the same time, they're also a symbol people who are kept apart and can't meet.

[The blankness is gone again, her expression once again looking pained as she curls her fingers tightly around it and holds it to her chest, eyes staring at nothing in particular.

They flicker to him briefly and she feels herself shaking again. She hates it. She shouldn't be-- What? Effected? Showing this much weakness? It isn't that big of a deal. People have dealt with far worse things, so what right did she have to be this shaken up by something she'd known to be true all along, even if she'd been lying and lying to herself about it?

Lying hurts. The truth hurts. God, she was sick of it all.

He didn't ask. He doesn't, she thinks, probably even care, but the words bubble up in her throat, a physical pressure that has her blurting out:] I found my mother. [And then silence again, another hard swallow and she's shaking again and hating herself even more. Her vision blurs and her fingers tighten until she's again afraid she might break what's in her hands.]

...Can we sit somewhere? [Her voice sounds impossibly small and tinny to her own ears.]