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

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:]