Work Text:
multi knew what the result of the battle would be as soon as it began, Yuni lost she exhausted herself because she wasn't focused on the battle she heard toguro gasp in shock behind her clearly surprised at the loss but multi wasn't surprised, and part of her felt that she deserved to be humiliated she didn't like her not just because of the way she insulted and humiliated her teammate but also because of her cocky and self important personality, she closed her eyes and sighed at least people were voting for her that was a good thing that came from this loss.
Yuni was shaking and she had her eyes closed as she couldn't bear to look anywhere the sound of the noise of the cheering crowd drowned her in her despair as the reality of her defeat sunk in, how did she lose? she should've won that battle but somehow she still lost, humiliation and despair burned through her body as she desperately tried not to cry in front of the audience so she turned away from the stadium and walked back to where Multi and Toguro were waiting for her no doubt to berate her for her failure to win her vision was blurred as she felt tears run down her cheeks
the part of multi that felt that yuni deserved to lose vanished as soon as she saw the tears on Yuni's face and she felt ashamed for even thinking something like that because she knew how it felt to be humiliated and she watched yuni come close to breaking down, toguro tried to offer words of comfort multi respected him sure he had a shrewd way of blading but he was a good person, but Yuni didn't seem to acknowledge him as she hugged herself and thought tears said that she still should've won and Yuni's gaze lifted to meet hers and asked why?, so Multi in a tone that was softer than she intended told her and truth that instead of focusing on the crowd she should've focused on winning
yuni looked at her as if she couldn't believe what she heard and Multi resisted the urge to roll her eyes
then in a broken voice Yuni asked, "am I - am I weak?"
something in Multi shifted and suddenly she was 10 years old again it was another day full of loss no matter what she tried she could never beat her sister who looked down at her with a blank yet cold gaze that barely hid disdain, multi cried in front of the mirror of her bathroom her face stung after her father struck her a red mark was left on her face it was one of the countless times her father had beat her then berated her, and now looking into Yuni's defeated tear stricken face she saw herself and so her body moved on it's own she stepped in front of the taller girl and lifted her hands cupping her face wiping away her tears and spoke
"don't cry, you're anything but weak you're strong you put in a lot of effort and that's what makes you strong", yuni had stopped crying her attention fully on Multi her words comforted her in a way that made her heart flutter she then multi's hand on the back of her head her fingers running through her soft hair and her other hand rested on her back then multi pulled yuni into her chest and she heard multi's soft voice which sounded angelic to her in this moment "let's get stronger together, i believe in you we could do this together" and Yuni believed her hugging her back and while she still felt humiliated she felt hope and admiration she really admired multi and she smiled feeling something warm spread through her body
multi felt yuni smile against her chest and she smiled as she had given comfort to someone, comfort that she wished she had gotten, she looked over to toguro who had watched the scene a small smile on his face as their eyes and an understanding passed between them she looked up and the overhead screen it was her turn to battle she let go of yuni as the unicorn girl stood tall and smiled at multi
"you got this multi!" she said the enthusiasm in her voice was genuine and multi felt her heart flutter and she smiled at yuni as she went up to the stage it was time to put on her best performance