01 — i know that it's your soul, but could you bottle it up?

[sunfade]

[it's the slowest part of the day: the tail-end, just thirty minutes before closing, and she can feel the weariness sink into her like a wrecked ship. they've mostly gotten to-go orders for the past hour; no one's been wanting to stay to chat, what with the frosty gusts, and the probability of snow increasing with each day. if they had a drive-thru, their regulars would probably use that instead.

hell, she would too, if she had a car.

finally, having wiped down her last table, she calls out to the back of the coffee shop:] Hey, I'm finished out here, do you need any help?

Comments

[riotgun]

Thanks. You too, okay? [akira turns, watching sunny's retreating back with a small frown before he's interrupted by satoru grabbing a fistful of his collar with a soundless snarl again. a little more brusquely than he normally might handle someone, he pushes satoru's hand off and jerks his head in a nod toward a more secluded area and takes the lead, not checking to see if satoru follows.

he doesn't find it in him to protest against any of the accusations satoru levels at him in the argument that ensues. part of him is just—tired. worn out. he's heard the same things for a while, heard twenty different variations of "you're not going to get anywhere in life" for the past year. right when things seem like they're picking up, it all hits zero again, like a fresh slate without any actual new start. it's a familiar feeling now: internalizing that level of futility, the uselessness in correcting people's misconceptions when they don't care to listen.

it's a long night.




later, he gets home to an empty house and navigates like a silent wraith, mindful of all the different reasons he isn't supposed to be there. he crashes onto his bed—a temporary set-up in the attic—after a quick shower, as if a cold rinse will wash out everything he's heard in the past hour, and unlocks his phone. sunny's neat scrawl peeks out from the planes of his palm, half-hidden by the phone. after a pause, he navigates to add a new contact, titling it simply as "sunny".

another moment of hesitation, and he starts on a text.]

I'm sorry about earlier. That's one way to ruin someone's New Year's Eve, huh?

[he doesn't sign his name, but she'll probably get the point. it belatedly occurs to him it's late, and she should be sleeping, but hopefully she keeps her phone on silent at night... it's probably the last thing she needs to think about when she probably has work the next day. no rest, not even on new year's day, for people in the service industry. akira isn't on shift at the coffee shop on new year's, but he has some hours to cover at the flower shop, because even after new year's eve, it's still a busy time.]

s h i b e

[sunfade]

[the walls are thin in sunny's apartment complex, so the sounds of someone's day starting — a shower head turning on in one room, someone microwaving breakfast in another — easily wakes her up. she tries laying completely flat on her stomach, her pillow wrapped tightly around her head, but noise continues to filter through and she has no choice but to open her eyes.

rubbing away the sand and the sleep, she reluctantly pushes herself half-upright. she sits there for a few minutes, the inside of her head still a fog, before the memories of last night — technically, this morning? — slam into her with the force of a freight train. closing up the shop. running into a celebrity. splitting food with akira.

so... that hadn't been some fever-induced dream, conjured up by her poor, lonely, companion-deprived mind?

something from her peripheral catches her attention, and sunny glances sideways at her nightstand. the led light on her phone blinks at her. it feels a little mocking, as if it's daring her to thumb the home screen button. sunny's never done well with pressure.]

...one way to ruin someone's New Year's Eve, huh?

[she echoes the message to herself, contemplatively pressing the top-edge of her phone against her chin. a moment passes, and she returns her sights to her phone screen, quickly adding the number to her list of contacts. remarkably, she keeps a straight face as she inputs akirarara!!x2 into the name line.

similarly, sunny doesn't bat an eyelash as she writes her reply.]

hey! don't worry about it! you were pretty much the best part of my night

[pauses... and then appends the following sticker:]

wao

[riotgun]

[bzzzrt.

akira isn't exactly a heavy sleeper, but the sound of his phone vibrating from a notification almost escapes him entirely. at first, he nearly ignores it, his mind halfway between the notion that he's not expected at the flower shop until afternoon, and then the other half-formed worry that he's actually supposed to be on shift somewhere else for the day, in the morning, and maybe it's his manager calling to tell him he's going to get fired if he misses it. at the very least, it's not as bad as the time he dreamt he slept through one of his finals.

blinking blearily, hair mussed, akira rolls onto his side and unlocks his phone. he squints a bit at the notification.

sunny has sent an image

it goes without saying that he taps the notification and goes to look. then he blinks, properly registers the message that was sent, and rolls again onto his back so he can stare blankly at the ceiling.

it's too early to feel things.]

...guess she likes dogs.

[he could send one back, buuut...]

Same to you. Maybe another time it won't end as badly?

[...is that being too assertive? akira bites his lip, staring at the dim glow of his screen. "you don't want to ask about what happened?" is on the tips of his fingers, but he knows that asking that would really invite questions even if sunny's been considerate enough not to say anything.

instead of sending an actual message..............]

gimme the catfe au lait

[sunfade]

[time stretches by in painfully slow increments. waiting is a special torture but she throws herself in routine, makes sure that even when her eyes trail back to her phone, it isn't for more than a second.

hygiene? check.

uniform on? check.

breakfast made? er, check. technically. her toaster short-circuited last monday, so she's been using the microwave as a substitute for... warming her bread. day by day, sunny is realizing that the microwave is less of a close brother to the toaster and more of a deliberately distant cousin, twice removed. still, as with the growing mold in the corner of the bathroom, or the ominous creaking of the pipes every time she uses the sink, sunny endures.

ding!

her hand flashes out — and completely misses it mark, fingers clumsily hitting the phone's edge, sending it sliding off the kitchen counter and dropping to floor with a clack loud enough to be heard next door.

literally. she can hear the faint sound of someone asking what was that? goddamn it.

kneeling, sunny gingerly turns the phone over in her hands, inspecting it for damage. no cracks at least. a lot of lint clinging to the screen though. she holds the home button, watches her and akira's conversation open.]

...hah. So cute. [and yet sHE HAS NO IDEA HOW TO RESPOND??? if she should respond. a metaphorical fork in the road.

...

face disfigured in a grimace, she taps send.]



[her hands close over her face, as if to shield herself from her own embarrassment. a long, strangled groan escapes her throat and, through the insulation of her wall, someone says, dude, i think our room is haunted.]

here is ur catfe au lait.... except it is cold and 2 weeks late

[riotgun]

[akira doesn't bother to haul himself out of bed; since it's new year's, the main residents of the house will still be out of town visiting other relatives overseas, so for now, it's his domain. it's a strange mixed feeling—on the one hand, he almost misses the sound of other people bustling around the house, making it feel more alive and lived-in, but the privacy and peace of having it to himself are just as tempting.

he has until the time he needs to start getting ready for work, so may as well just lay in bed and catch up on rest. satoru's harsh words are still echoing in his mind, and having to stand there and take it again was exhausting on a deeper emotional level. there's an exhaustion that's carried over from mind to body, and everything just feels heavy.

that's the thing about satoru: it used to be a little endearingly exasperating sometimes, that he'd love to talk on and on, weaving stories touched up with just enough exaggeration to make even mundane events hilarious. but he doesn't realize how much he drowns other people out in discussion, that dialogue can be two-way, that sometimes you don't need to cut someone off mid-sentence to stop them from speaking. akira used to navigate the whimsies of his personality easily, the waters crisp and clear, but since the fallout, satoru's exuberance has turned dark and volatile, and he bears his teeth more fiercely than masato might, and more openly than saito ever would.

his phone vibrates again. his only reaction is a surprised twitch of his fingers, but it's a welcome distraction.]

...octopuses too. Octopi?

[he scrolls determinedly through his stickers...and...]







Good luck at work today.

I'LL STILL DRINK IT. I WILL CONSUME THE ENTIRE CUP

[sunfade]

[sunny's sudden laughter garners a few glances from the other people waiting for the bus to arrive, and, on any other day, she'd quickly quiet, her silence an apology. this morning, however, her eyes are too fixated on her phone to notice. millenials, someone mutters.]


you try and have a good day, alright!!! don't forget to have breakfast and stay hydrated!

[she doesn't notice the shuttle bus parked in front of her until everyone else has boarded. jolting up from her seat, sunny frantically pockets her phone, forgetting to close out of the message window.]

;lkoop
p
ppppppppppppppppppp
pp
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[[[po

[the driver watches sunny gather her belongings through the narrow entryway, bored. "time is money, hon."]

I know! Sorry! Thanks for waiting! [with that said, she clambers on, dropping into the first seat she sees, one next to a portly, middle-aged woman who presses herself closer to the window the moment sunny eases herself in beside her. smiling a bit awkwardly, sunny nods her head once, out of courtesy, and then retrieves her phone from her coat pocket, nearly dropping it as soon as her gaze falls on her past few accidental messages.]

ACCIDENT
that was an accident!!! sorry!!!

this reply was an intense combo of me writing at work and rigging up the posting on phone huehue

[riotgun]

[akira stares for a few moments at sunny's coffee cat, then the following text message. he's not really supposed to touch the contents of the fridge here unless he can replace the items he's taken. maybe if he can find something that looks like it's getting old in the fridge to finish off for breakfast...]

Not sure if there's any food, but I'll look.

[alternatively, he's not too hungry, so it's not reaaally a necessity...]

You stay hydrated too.

[hopefully it's not so busy that sunny would be forced to skip her breaks... that happens sometimes, and it honestly sucks. especially since they aren't paid for it.

he sets his phone aside during the ensuing quiet, drifting back to sleep in lieu of setting out to raid the fridge for old leftovers. akira awakens again intermittently as his phone buzzes insistently a few times and stares at the strings of characters in the notifications before snickering a little. maybe better to wait a bit to let her recover...?

it seems like a good move when the next three messages roll in.]

Beats accidentally butt-dialing someone at least? Don't worry. It happens to everyone.

[this is probably a sign he should get up for the day... okay, another sticker:]