rassera | IC Contact

[It's a short, concise message-- hurried and quiet, since the sounds of the mostly-quiet road suggest she's outside.]

Hey-- hey, it's me. Call me when you get this, okay?

Edited 2017-02-02 09:01 (UTC)

[Kaneda had not been okay since Maya had left. With Tetsuo gone, and now her, all that remained close to his heart was Ken Amada, and that's honestly where he spent most of his free time--with Ken. Work could only do so much...the garage itself was a reminder of everything he'd worked for here, and it's not like he could use his girlfriend as a distraction, anymore. She'd gone too, and he'd cursed at himself for getting attached like the idiot he was.

He and Capsule often laid on Ken's bed, as if soaking in every moment he could of being with him.

Somewhat out of fear that one morning he'd wake up and the boy would be gone, too.

His phone rings, though, eyes glazing over at it humming for his attention, turning over on the bed to bury his face into Capsule's soft fur. It could go to voicemail just like all the others, honestly.

That is, until he hears her voice. He'd memorized it by now, right down to the speech quirks and tone. His muscles freeze on the spot, fingers clenching into his dog's fur as he shuts his eyes tight, not wanting to turn around and actually listen. Because there's a good chance this is a dream, or even worse, that the world's playing his heart like a fiddle.

Capsule, who can't understand why his master is so upset, licks his face a few times. It's enough to confirm he is, in fact, awake, reaching over to fumble for the phone.

His tone is not nearly as shocked and happy as it should be.]

It's me.

[Maya stops her walk immediately, holding her communicator almost stupidly hard against her face, and lets out a breath. He's still here. And in the morning Ken will wake up and answer her text later, and she'll know he's there too, surely.]

Kaneda. You're awake.

[She says with a relieved sigh, staying where she is in the middle of the street. It's not too cold, being that it's Heropa, but it's cold enough that she crosses her free arm over her chest and locks her knees together and sways. Or maybe it's the anxiety of the whole deal, but she certainly isn't going to say so.]

I-- I didn't wake you up, right? I thought you'd be asleep.

[Wow, that was useful information. Maya stretches her mouth into a line, frustrated at herself with such a fretful greeting. Then again, how else is someone supposed to say 'sorry I disappeared for a month I have no memory of this'.]

You're back.

[Despite his almost drawling tone, there's a hint of relief in there. As if happy she's back, but at the same time the exhaustion is just too much. He doesn't bother answering her question, hoisting himself up to a sitting position and keeping the comm loosely to his ear.]

You didn't have problems with that before.

Hey, sleep is sacred. I don't know what you're talking about.

[Maya teases, not raising her voice much. She smiles nonetheless, rocking from side to side as she listens to his voice. It's tired, but it's his, and it still feels comforting to hear. Gross.]

But yeah, I'm back. Woo.

[It's said weakly; not as though she isn't happy to be back, but as though she knows just how precarious of a situation this is, like a person stepping out onto thin ice and trying to breathe in tune with nature as though somehow that will reduce them to the weight of helium.

In the same tone she adds--]

Miss me?

Says the girl who threw rocks at my window when I was asleep...

[A laugh escapes, despite his best attempts to not really show too much emotion. A part of him is still convinced this is a dream after all, and it's better to take it cynically than actually think Maya was back, right?

Wrong. He couldn't pull that off if he tried.]

Miss you always getting your way?

...

You bet.

[Maya isn't sure what answer she was expected, but the one she receives sends a strange jolt through her. Guilt and something else, more like sparkling, settles below her diaphragm and all the way to her toes.]

Cool. Then you woooon't mind if I just kinda show up?

[She clears her throat and wiggles from side to side, unable to stay still.]

[Kaneda's pulling himself out of bed now, giving Capsule the command to stay by Ken for the rest of the night. No sense in waking the whole house up. Especially worst case scenario and this is a dream.]

I'll be in the kitchen, let yourself in. It'll be unlocked.

[It's not the response she was looking for, but when it hits her she finds she isn't surprised. Just disappointed. Of course, it makes sense-- she's been gone a while, though not to her own memory, and it's 2am and--

Well, she wouldn't have called him so early in the morning in the first place if she wasn't determined to see him first thing.]

Cool. I'll be over soon, okay? [She assures him, more for her own sake.] Don't go back to sleep.

[As if she wasn't already on her way.]

Well, then you better hurry.

[Not that he was going to go to sleep, but it's the closest he can get to a tease before he picks himself up, walking out the door and down the stairs into the kitchen. It'd been awhile since he'd had the nightly tea--ever since Maya had moved out, actually.

Maeve had cleaned up the kitchen a little, he noticed, a soft observation as he moves over to the top of the fridge to grab the teabags. That's right...Maya had yet to meet her. A new housemate, but a polite enough one that he could trashtalk and she wouldn't lash out.

So much goes through his head as he turns on the electric kettle, and none of it actually showing on his face.

He was tired. And not just because it was 2am.]

[Maya doesn't respond much to his request beyond actually hurrying-- not because she didn't recognize his teasing, but because she knows by now things aren't going as well as they seem. Maybe it was just the time.

Regardless she's quick to get there in her perspective but the time it takes still feels like ages in her mind, now that she's rushing to see someone. After pulling her scooter over nearby she hurries around to the kitchen door and stands in front of it, pulling her coat tighter around her as she'd underestimated the chill of riding on a bike.

She opens the door and peeks in before she actually steps inside, chiming--]

Morning!

[In a loud stage whisper, closing the door behind her.

Leaning back against it Maya stands and looks Kaneda over, pushing her wind-mussed hair out of her face and fidgeting, bouncing her foot. She wants to run up to him and crowd him like everything's alright-- but it isn't, so Maya hesitates.]

[There's no 'oi' or a motion that he's come to greet her like the usual puppy he is whenever she walks in. In fact, he was so lost in his own world that it takes him a moment to even notice she'd come into the house at all. Tea's made by the time she's arrived, cupped in his hands and looking into it with a smile on his lips, spread so softly that the wind could snatch it away at any given moment.

His eyes sparkle in the darkness, betraying his attempt at being solemn about the whole thing most of all.]

Did that feel like forever to you?

[Whether he meant the walk over or the time she was gone was a whole other story. Either way, the answer was the same to him.]

[Maya relaxes visibly when Kaneda speaks, her shoulders slacking and smiling a little more. She's quick to stride over to him, but hesitant about touching him; when she reaches out her hand to push her fingers through his hair, she stops halfway through.]

Kinda. Doesn't matter now, though.

[However long the wait, a day or a month, it's over now in her head-- or at least, she's isn't going to let herself focus on it.]

Guess I should say sorry for making you wait, huh?

Yeah.

[His head instinctively leans towards the hand, posture slouching ever so slightly.]

It was pretty quiet without you calling me up.

[Better. Maya puts her palm against Kaneda's cheek and leans to kiss him, light and quick and casual just as she had-- in her mind-- the day before. It's without thought, almost reflexive.]

Well. Finally got some rest, I bet...

[The kiss did it. It made him weak at the knees just like she always did, her lips soft and her hand soft enough to match. He leans into the touch like a plant reaching for sunlight, setting his mug down and gingerly putting his arms around her, hovering a second before scooping her into an embrace.

She was here. She was actually back.]

Not as much as you think.

[He's still upset, but there's something in his heart that had also come back to life. A small part, but a shining one that Ken had managed to keep from dying out while he waited.]

[Maya's taken aback just a little before she settles into Kaneda's embrace, resting her cheek against his collarbone. She slides her palms up his back and lets out a sigh.

Sure, she'd had no control of the situation, but it doesn't make things feel less like she's hurt him, and the guilt settles in her stomach just below her lungs in a fizzy tugging sensation.]

I'm sorry.

[She tells him again, and then tries to tease--]

You're not gonna kick me out tonight, are ya?

Edited 2017-02-06 02:12 (UTC)

[There's a small squeeze when she settles against him, as perfect as she had before she left. It was like no time had truly passed at all, even if his brain and heart had said different.

Her apology releases him from his shackles, though, shedding light on his dark world as he smiles against her hair, that same shit eating grin he'd given her the day they'd met at the zoo. The day he'd asked her what the hell a narwhal was, and if it was an actual animal.

The day he'd lost a bet and gotten a date with her.]

Don't get all mushy on me. [Says the guy getting mushy.]

If you help me make some rice...I'll let you stay.

[She could do jack shit and he would've let her. But hey, more reason for them to be as close as possible.]

[She feels the warm vibrations of his voice and breathes out another sigh-- a quiet, nervous one hidden through her teeth. Don't get mushy, he says, being the one making her feel mushy. Rude, and gross.]

Yeah, I can do that. [Maya chimes, clearing her throat and putting on a grin.]

Man, I haven't even eaten since I got back.

[She laments. Poor, poor Maya.]

Yeah? And when was that?

[It's only then that he pulls away, just enough to get the rice cooker out from under the sink. It's teasing, at least, when he asks. But it's more of a gauge to figure out how long he'd been moping up in that bedroom of Ken's.

He'd have to tell Ken...if she hasn't already.]

Mmmm, a little while ago. You're the first person I wanted to see.

[she admits, teasing and genuine all at once.

Her eyes flick down to the cupboard but she doesn't mention, if she's noticed, how long it's probably been put away. He'd been melancholy after Tetsuo had disappeared, and, well, perhaps it's best she doesn't bring attention to things like that.]

[There's something in that statement that warms his heart, that smile harder and harder to hide behind a steely resolve as he pours the rice in, adding the necessary water and swirling it around in a nice rinse.

He'd thought it'd be hard to go back to what he had. He'd lost too many people in his life, both back home and in this weird place, that he never really imagined getting them back. Sabriel was the first one he'd ever felt that hope lift, and a small selfish part of him hoped it would work like how Ken had when he ported out.

It did.]

I'd get pretty jealous if it was anyone else.

Except maybe Riku. [Riku had special bf (that's best friend you homos) privileges.]

Yeah? Aren't you supposed to get jealous or something? Maybe I shoulda gone to see him.

>[She says, waving her hand and grinning, following Kaneda and bumping him gently with her hip at the sink. She's teasing, of course.]

--Oh!

[And then she eagerly reaches for her communicator, pulling it out and holding it up above the sink with the camera function on.]

Get a picture with me! We can send it to Riku!

Hey, it's Riku.

[As if that answer just...said everything. His hips bump her back, maybe with enough force to push her just a little.

He's still mad, trust him.]

A picture?

[His body involuntarily leans in to get in the frame of the shot, although his questioning tone is still there...as if he were obeying merely out of no reason not to.]

[At the bump back Maya twists her lips into a petty little pout that quickly turns back into a grin. She steps up on her tip toes to be just tall enough to throw her arm around Kaneda's shoulders and pull him closer.

And then, to be the perfect height to bunny ear him for this selfie.]

A picture!! Send a picture to your friends and let them know you're having fun, that's the rule of the mobile camera.

[Listen they had outdated 90s cellphones in her 2010s she is Hype about these communicators

...aaaaand maybe because teasing makes this whole awkwardness easier for her to manage.]

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Feb 2, ass in the morning; voice

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