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[flightpen]

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[ Or you can text him! ]

Comments

[fogbornphantom]

[A text message arrives not long after Karasu makes contact.]

Are you all right?

I saw Karasu's conversation with Sparrow, so I just wanted to check in.

[flightpen]

[ Ren is not, in fact, all right. Nor is he in a mood to speak to Crow and swallow his fucking pity. ]

im fine
thanks

[fogbornphantom]

Are you absolutely sure?

You've already had so many people here resent you for merely existing, and I can't imagine he's any different.

Not to mention, his circumstances...

[flightpen]

listen
no offense but what are you trying to do here

[fogbornphantom]

Am I not allowed to reach out with concerns?

It's not as though I have some deep, sinister motive. I simply care.

[flightpen]

[ ...and that's that. Ren closes his messages and leaves Crow on read. ]

on the evening of 2/2

[pheasantboy]

Good afternoon, Ren. How would you like to get some coffee with me?

[Well, this is certainly normal and not ill-timed in any way.]

[flightpen]

[ No, he sure the fuck would not like that. In fact, he's been conspicuously absent all day. ]

right now?

[pheasantboy]

If you're not too busy for me.

[Which Ren often is, and which saddens him. Just briefly.]

[flightpen]

[ ... ]

no
we can go

[pheasantboy]

Wonderful.

[Just in this moment, he couldn't be happier.]

Just knock when you're ready to go. I'll be waiting.

[flightpen]

After a couple of minutes, Akechi will hear Ren's door open. There's no further sound. Several more minutes pass, his door opens again, and then comes the knock on Akechi's door.

Ren looks tired. He is tired. And he really doesn't want to be here. Oh, well.

[pheasantboy]

Akechi isn't completely unobservant. His face falls. "Ren, you look terrible. Come in, come on."

[flightpen]

If Akechi is saying that, it must really look bad. "I'm fine."

He steps inside. Once he's there, though, he just stands in the entryway, feeling strangely untethered.

[pheasantboy]

But Akechi's not having that. "Take your shoes off and sit down. We don't have to go anywhere. I can make you coffee here."

Alarms may or may not sound in the background. He rests on hand lightly on Ren's arm. C'mon, Ren. He really wants to go to Leblanc, for some reason, but Ren matters more.

[flightpen]

But Ren doesn't move. "Where were we going to go?"

He really hopes he's wrong.

[pheasantboy]

He stares worriedly at Ren, drawing back to fold his arms slowly across his chest. "Well, um. I thought we could go to Leblanc. I miss when we used to talk there, you know."

They haven't, in fact, been there together since Ren arrived.