[week five - thursday]

[ceded]

[ Tired is starting to feel like such an inadequate word for how she feels all the time.

Sunset on Thursday finds her sitting on the porch of the hotel, bracing the heels of her palms on the wood beneath her and staring up at the sky. Watching blue slowly fade into purple and orange reminds her of...

... long ago times, that she'll never have again.

It's nicer to while away the time out here than it is inside. She always gets caught up in her own head when she stays in the hotel lounge, her thoughts chasing themselves in increasingly nasty circles and haunted by images she can't forget burned into the backs of her eyelids. Out here, with a faint breeze stirring her hair, she feels more ... peaceful.

What she isn't expecting is...

... ...

Really, it's probably not a good thing she's gotten so attached.

But she'll smile anyway, even if he can't see it, when he approaches. ]

Hey, Shinnosuke.

[ She's not ... like, cheerful. Honestly, she hasn't been that way in a long while. But this is ... the best she can do, you know? ]

Comments

[ceded]

[ That gets a quiet laugh, and she just pushes on his shoulder instead. ]

Yeah, and you're one of the best at it, that's for sure!

[insincerely]

I'll take that as a compliment.

[ceded]

[ She finds herself smiling at him,

in a way he probably wouldn't appreciate,

if he could see it. ]

You would.

[ She looks away, through the town. Dusk is settling, the color leeching from the world as the sun disappears. It's almost hard to believe that barely 24 hours ago this town is the same place Sei was trampled to death. That in just a few hours from now, more people will die. ]

... come on. We should head in. It's getting late.

[insincerely]

[With no way to see the colour of the sky anymore, he has to take Xion's word for it.]

All right.