014 | ❝We promised we'd make a snowman when it snowed...❞

[pitiedthefool]

Characters: Yu Narukami and you
Setting: All around the tower
Format: I'll follow you.
Summary: Nanako is sick with that special variety of the flu and goes missing, which equates to the Sister-Complex Kingpin of Steel her "brother" silently flipping all the goddamn tables no matter how late it gets.
Warnings: "Death", all the feelings, inability to can, Yu flipping tables better than Thor, and pissed/far-too-sympathetic headgod.

[So not long after the post (finally) goes up on the network, he begins searching high and low for one bitty whose voice somehow always reached him no matter what happened. She had to be scared right now, wherever she was, and in this place...

He may not ever voice it, but he is, too. There's no Velvet Room summoning to make him stop and calm down, either. Only more flights of stairs and more floors to search. And right now he didn't give a damn about the cold, so long as he could find her and keep her safe like he'd promised. He promised...

Maybe that's why he didn't care about the time, either. Or stop unless told to. Outwardly, he's still mostly calm until a monster shows up and then it is way beyond overkill on any floor where powers aren't disabled.

Suddenly the red gaze of his other self is not so warm and caring...

Though eventually he will tire, sitting on the 25th floor in front of a large fire to warm up before going out again. There is no rest for the weary.]

Comments

[pitiedthefool]

[Yu sighs, not minding the slight lean against his arm. Poor kid must be tired with both the cold and everything going crazy at the same time. Damn it, Jason.]

Aa. It has, huh.

[He tried not to notice, but it did worry him when it came to the others. He always was one to think of himself, last.]

[miseris_socios]

You need to take care of yourself, too.

[He's seen how you worry about others first.]

... I keep losing feeling in my fingers and my legs. I don't think I have enough body fat to keep my entire body warm like this...

... Is it bad that I'm so tired all the time?

[All he really wants to do is hibernate, but he does have to eat sometimes.]

[pitiedthefool]

I know. [But finding little sis comes first.] ...Do you have anything warmer to wear? Or in layers?

[It's definitely a thing to ask, considering.]

... A little concerning, but with the cold...

[Yeah, he's going to just put another piece of wood on the fire.]

[miseris_socios]

I have some blankets, but they're hard to keep on when I'm moving.

[He looks down at his shorts.]

These are the only clothes I have left.

[pitiedthefool]

...Have you asked your friends for help with that?

[Because he isn't exactly the best with a needle and thread Kanji is still teaching him, sob.]

[miseris_socios]

Chidori's making me a jacket, I think.

[pitiedthefool]

That's good. ...Just hope this cold doesn't last much longer.

[miseris_socios]

Yeah.

[He pulls a key out of his jacket pocket and looks at it. It's got a very used look about it, but it looks like it's been well-taken care of otherwise.]

... Do you ever miss home?

[pitiedthefool]

[Yu's silent for a moment, gazing into the fire as he thinks over the answer. It's almost funny, really. He's always been a city boy, had thought he would feel like an outsider in Inaba, and then the case happened and he met so many people... Before, he always thought that it was the city that was home.]

... Yeah. [He rubs the back of his neck, staring up for a moment.] But most of all, I miss all the people that made it home... and the freedom to choose our own path my friends and I fought so hard for.

[Even if they'd all died and Got Better in the process of earning that freedom.]

[miseris_socios]

... I don't know if I do or not. The others are here, and we don't have to hide and search for food... they have medicine... we don't have to fight Shadows all the time.... I'm not saying that it's good here, but in some ways it's better than home.

I've changed in some ways that might make some things easier if I get back... but we're still in bad shape. I don't know how we can get food or anything without stealing it or killing people. No one will hire someone my age...

[pitiedthefool]

Everything has it's pros and cons, I guess.

[He won't deny that Ken has a point; it would be another four or five years at least before they even allow him to apply for part time jobs.]

...If there's anything I still believe in, it's that anything is possible. It may be hard to find, but there's always a third option.