[Keiko is, at this very moment, about to put the finishing personal touches on her new room at the Lutece residence. The move didn't take much; she doesn't have that many belongings to her name, so she hasn't even needed to ask for help. It's let her make this space that's all her own, and if that's a little lonely after the strange, wild coziness of Kurama's flower shop, it's also a relief. She's had time to settle in, and is currently allowing herself one small, childish indulgence in the form of a roly-poly stuffed bird from the toy shop back in town.
What she's not expecting is for a call to come in. What she's not expecting is to open the watch and hear a voice she knows as well as her own--or better.
'Hey. Nice kiss.']
Yusuke.
[The stuffed animal slips from her suddenly nerveless arms with a soft paff. She breathes in sharply as the truth sinks in.]
Yusuke! You're--
[You're back, you're all right. Keiko's mouth is open, but there are so many things she wants to say all at once they get stuck in the space above her tongue and fill her head with cottony blankness. It's Yusuke. He sounds like he always does, short and awkward as he is when there's nothing to be angry about, when there's no fight to be had. When the world he's in is her world, the one the never quite fits around his hunched shoulders.
Immediately, she turns on her heel, runs out her door and down the stairs in her stocking feet, forgetting for the moment the racket she must be making. Sorry, Dr. and Dr. Lutece. She keeps the watch to her ear, as if the second she stops hearing his voice, she might lose him again, might lose this lifeline to her best, dearest friend.]
voice;
What she's not expecting is for a call to come in. What she's not expecting is to open the watch and hear a voice she knows as well as her own--or better.
'Hey. Nice kiss.']
Yusuke.
[The stuffed animal slips from her suddenly nerveless arms with a soft paff. She breathes in sharply as the truth sinks in.]
Yusuke! You're--
[You're back, you're all right. Keiko's mouth is open, but there are so many things she wants to say all at once they get stuck in the space above her tongue and fill her head with cottony blankness. It's Yusuke. He sounds like he always does, short and awkward as he is when there's nothing to be angry about, when there's no fight to be had. When the world he's in is her world, the one the never quite fits around his hunched shoulders.
Immediately, she turns on her heel, runs out her door and down the stairs in her stocking feet, forgetting for the moment the racket she must be making. Sorry, Dr. and Dr. Lutece. She keeps the watch to her ear, as if the second she stops hearing his voice, she might lose him again, might lose this lifeline to her best, dearest friend.]
Where have you been? We were worried about you!