[Deleted]

Akira's excuses were half about him and half about the family. He was selfish enough to want to control their impression of him to good things while concerned enough to want to protect them from apparently becoming whatever it was he thought was so horrible about himself he couldn't even share it with his own closest relatives.

"You've tortured people, killed people, fucked with their heads? You and thousands of others, Kee." She set down her tea cup with a hard clink against the table. "Do you really think we'd disown you? You think we'd see you as a soldier before we saw you as a brother and son?" She took a breath, shook her head, and gave him an incredulous look.

"Have you been this much of an idiot your whole life? Or did that explosion do something to your head?" It was harsh to call back to it, knowing how badly it'd changed him. But she was trying to make a point.

"Your family are the ones who should see you for who you are! Distance hurts us more than it'll ever help you." Her stare was unwavering, sharp. She was right on the edge of being proper pissed off at him. Did he really believe what he was saying? Did he really believe his job would force some unmoving wedge between himself and the people who loved him the most? That it'd twist their feelings so badly that they'd see him as nothing but a monster?

There was the very high possibility that Akira would throw the same thing back at her, claiming she'd followed his lead in keeping her kunoichi progression some kind of secret. But that wasn't it. Kyoko hadn't kept her lifestyle a secret from the family. Their parents knew. Their sisters knew. It was only Kee who'd been shielded.

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

The incidents of others didn't diminish the evil of his own acts even if they had been buried in a sea of other people's actions. It was easy in one frame to say what Kyoko was saying: but what if he had been responsible for a genocide? Could she really say the same sentence in the same way?

No, he didn't think they could.

It was harsh of her to bring up that explosion, that wasn't what he was talking about. There were plenty of other things, people, things he had done - good things as well but he felt them drowned out among all the noise. "That's not fair." Akira had his own guilt about it much less it being brought back up for him. In no point had he thought the life of a Kunoichi would be good for them.

His hands were beginning to burn against the hot ceramic and yet his fingers didn't move.

"And what- no, when I become the Tsuchikage - and I bring this nation to war through my actions, will you say the same thing?" Akira would speak coldly. He knew of his own abilities and where it would take him one day. Only been a Jonin for one day, and this was where he was heading: a young Jonin, indeed. There was one thing to say they would back him and another thing for it to be lived through, and he didn't want to chance the possibility of it ever happening.

He'd place the cup down, his right hand tapping on the wood as he spoke - light, but rhythmic. But he couldn't hide his lifestyle from her now, they would run into one another at some point or another now. "I'd give you anything, tell you anything to get you to stop." He was serious.

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

He was right. It wasn't fair. But neither was keeping secrets and expecting everyone else to be an open book. Kee's aspirations about becoming the Tsuchikage someday were ambitious to say the least. Not impossible, but up there. Would Kyoko still be just as steadfast if he committed similar atrocities under the title of leader? "Who's to say," she offered flatly, giving a small shrug. She couldn't possibly know that for sure and she wouldn't lie to support her case. But up until now? He'd done nothing so bad it would tarnish how his own family viewed him and loved him. Sometimes as a shinobi you had to be less moral and more fatal. Just part of the job.

His last line was ironic to her. He'd "give anything or tell her anything" to get her to drop out of the kunoichi lifestyle? A wry smile curved her lips. "Funny. If you'd done that from the start, maybe we wouldn't be here right now." Her gaze stayed fixed on him even as she brought the tea cup to her lips again, daring him to challenge her on that.

There was a poignant silence on the heels of her words, though, as if she meant to say more. And she did. Her gaze dropped to the tea as she set the cup down, then snapped back up to him. She took a breath, clearly building something up in her head before unleashing it for him to analyze. And she knew he would.

"When you withdrew from us after the incident, you...changed. I didn't feel like I knew you anymore. And you just got further and further away as years passed. I chose this lifestyle in part to better understand you. And better protect you." These last couple words were more bitter. The village had cruelly deprived her brother of any kind of "normal" by forcing him to become a jinchuuriki, and the leadership, in her eyes, clearly didn't have his best interests at heart. But Kyoko did. And she always had.

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

When the reasoning failed - what else was there to try? Instead of naming a price, it was like Kyoko was laughing at him internally. He didn't like it in the slightest, not when he was putting himself out there with how he felt: exactly what she'd asked for, only to be given a quip in return. In short, it angered him.

Akira would've been pleased with Kyoko's choice taste or wording and argument had it not been focused on his situation. She mingled honesty and diplomacy together as was their nature. But he did not appreciate her tone of voice, or condescension for their situation. Instead, she ended up with the man who's put his tea down with a scowl condescending onto his face.

"BULLshit." she hadn't done it to help him. Where was the help? He didn't need help! She didn't need to understand him by becoming a Shinobi! Akira was angry. "You're doing this to spite me for not being around, wanted to see how I'd like it if the shoe was on the other foot. Not. On!" even Akira couldn't help the unintentional leak of his own chakra as emotions ran high. But still, he had fared through worse without entering a tailed state.

There was no agreeing to be had. It was likely that only hindsight could be the teacher for him here, because in his current state he wasn't going to be agreeing with anything she had to say, and was on the defensive for the pure defense of himself.

"What I needed was time! Not counselling, not a family meeting, I needed time. Nothing you can understand, but you will, what, being a Shinobi." there was nothing good that he could say that would come out of her new (to him) profession. All Akira could be was hurt now, if something happened to her.

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

He didn't believe her. And spite? Well, there was that, yes. It was mixed into her feelings, sure, but it wasn't the root of her decision. Kyoko was no brute. She wouldn't have joined the military out of spite alone. She'd have sunk a fist into his face, maybe. But sign her life away? No.

She would stare him down, an even, unchanging gaze, as he argued. She thought to comment that maybe he wanted her angry with him because some part of him felt guilty and felt he deserved it, but ultimately she decided he simply didn't understand her motives--in the same way she didn't fully understand his.

Even staring him in the face, the facts just made him argumentative. She sipped at her tea.

"Time? You isolated yourself. You might have spent that time with us. But you didn't. And look at you now." He could take that one a few different ways but none of them were pleasant. "Did you really think you could protect us by making us blind?" By making us ignorant, she finished in her head.

He could blame her all he wanted, but he wasn't without fault himself. It was true Kyoko had kept him in the dark about her decision, ensured he didn't catch wind of her promotions. And that--that had been out of spite. But at her core, she really did want to connect with him. To understand. And if he couldn't eventually come to see that, then he was much more far gone than she had thought him to be.

They were siblings. Why couldn't this just be...easy?

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

Akira was being ungrateful for his sister's understanding of his issues throughout the years and how she had been so good to him - all things came to their natural end, and it had been replaced with what Akira was seeing now. An utter bitch. Her sitting there with her precious stare and silence and drinking of tea, all things that were making him silently angrier.

"What I am now, is a Jonin, respected in this field of work, a leader of his own squad. Whether you choose to realise it is your own choice. Ignorance is bliss in this line of work. You should know that." The man's tone didn't give much way in the realm of arguing, but Kyoko likely would.

Akira was finding it harder to face their surroundings equally and he found himself more facing her as he spoke. Clearly - there was some passion there that they were even talking about this to begin with. But he had another question in mind. "How long have you been a Shinobi for?"

---

SPOILER: Click to show

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

Dropping his title again, like waving it around as part of the argument would help. It didn't. And what the hell was that, "ignorance is bliss"? Kyoko flashed a disbelieving smile, huffing the air out through her nose and shaking her head. "Right." There were times when that statement was true, but in this situation, with the two of them? It was absurd to even try using it as a defense. But there was only so long she could argue one point to a wall before she sunk her fist through it.

Again her brother asked the question he'd broached up on the plateau. She'd expected as much before he'd walked in.

"I graduated from the academy at seventeen. Do the math."

Another sip of tea, her impassive gaze waiting for whatever remark or blowup he'd deem fitting upon hearing she'd been at the game five years already. In its own way, starting the academy so late in life and climbing to chuunin within 8 years was impressive. But it'd be less than that to her brother, who she was sure would fixate on the negatives in that timeline rather than concentrate on her success.

And so hurdle number two came into view.

"It wasn't just you, you know. I picked this life to be closer to you. But my choice in study was...because of Asako, mostly." She shrugged gently, pouring herself more tea. She would top off his cup, too, if he allowed it.

Kyoko would wait on diving into the details on Asako--on the robbery. If her read on her brother's mood was accurate--and it usually was--his temper was basically that pressure plate you didn't dare put too much weight on all at once less it exploded beneath your feet. A poor analogy, really, but she honestly wasn't trying to send him into some blind rage. Pacing mattered, and the heart could digest only so much at once.

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

So she had been a ninja for five years?

That was a very long time. Akira was shocked, and he had taken a moment. Searching her face for any clues of lying, any mistruth, or anything that could give away the truth but there was nothing for Akira to read into: this was all as far as he could tell, a bold faced truth- and it set him back.

The tenseness in his shoulders set back, disarmed - or slumped backward. 'Well.' Akira really didn't know how to respond, being gobsmacked. Impressed, hurt that it had been hidden from him for so long, or how she'd managed to do it. Had he been so selfish and kept up in his own work? She had made lies for a long time as well, the times she'd been out - at "work" as she would call it. And taking five years to become a Chunin from Academy Student was of some merit, Akira had made Jonin in roughly eight years: so there was a difference in their quality, he supposed.

"Wow," He would be surprisingly short for what she had expected. A brow rose though with her study being because of their younger sister. "Asako? Why?" There was a puzzle piece that Akira was missing - likely because his lack of involvement with their own lives. Akira took some tea to the mouth, taking some time to think about what was actually being implicated.

He even felt lacklustre in his own response! Akira was trying to think of each conceivable memory that he could over the last couple of years. He hadn't even been a Jinchuuriki at the time, shortly after he'd just become a Genin.

Shortly.

"Aoshi and Naoda, huh?" Kyoko had met them plenty of times. How could they have not? They were inseparable, with nights spend in their homes; the amount of noise they'd create together, keeping their families up and being overwhelmingly annoying, then multiplying each household. All of that had changed after they had died, and that would've roughly made when Kyoko would've started the academy. That was something that Akira didn't understand- but he would keep the thought to himself while he let her comment back on the memory.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

His reaction was subdued. Lacking, even. Maybe he'd been too shocked to get instantly pissed about it, or he just didn't know what to make of her quick promotion. Kyoko had expected more out of him but maybe that would all culminate later. At the least, the tale involving Asako would compound on any stress he wasn't showing.

He asked the "why," and her gaze drifted down to her hands atop the table. "A couple years back, when I was still a genin, she and I were out shopping. Late night, side road. A group blocked our path, grabbed her first. Guy held a knife to her throat while demanding all our cash. His other hand lost itself under her shirt, and she--" She paused abruptly, her eyes finding his, and there was a hard edge in her voice now. "She looked at me, crying, and the only thing I could do was watch. They ran off with our bags but they took more than money from her. She sobbed like a child in that street, Kee. I couldn't leave her. She'd never-- That'd never happened to her before. She was petrified. And me? I was fucking powerless." The bitterness in her tone permeated the air between them.

"Decided if I ever saw any of their faces again, I'd turn the lot of them to a bloody pulp with my bare hands. Taijutsu's good for that." She shrugged, picking up her teacup again, and her voice softened out once more. "I wanted to be strong enough to protect her, after that. To protect all our family. Still working on it." She flashed him a weak smile and sipped from the cup, prolonging the gesture as she sorted her thoughts.

Akira would bring up his childhood friends, though, and Kyoko was puzzled on the connection he was trying to make. "What of them?" She wasn't making light of it, or them, but unless he was dwelling on the jab she'd made earlier or musing to himself, she didn't see where he was wanting to go with it.

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

Asako would've been, 14 at most. That was ... chilling to Akira. Only made him angrier. He did actually have the memory for it as well, her being very upset and him not being interested - around that rough time. But then again, plenty more had happened with emotions being tense, and that had been nothing to think about.

"You what?" Akira was stunned, and angry. "Why didn't you tell me? I would've dealt with it!" The only shinobi in his family and the only one who hadn't been told, so he thought. Inside - a redundant argument. Akira knew that it had past by him because he wouldn't had known how to respond and even done something worse, if the circumstances were right, he'd not been in the correct headspace to deal with it effectively. But the time had passed and he didn't see that as something that should've avoided his ears.

It gave further insight to her field of study, so she could beat people to a pulp. That wasn't a good reason for becoming a Shinobi but Akira didn't chastise her on it, because that was now said and done: not much he could do about it. It had been the same for it. It still bothered him, though.

All of it - all of it was meant to rest on him. Akira wanted to be the protector, and it infuriated him that Kyoko sought to be the one in his place, even - dare he say it - jealousy in no longer holding the sole spotlight of being the only Shinobi. Now there were two of them, and any thoughts he had of it were shattered from up to five years ago when that had come to an end.

"Five years ago is when they died." Akira answered bluntly. Five years ago was when she'd It always maanged to crop up again, he would never be able to finally let it rest. He just needed to ensure their legacies weren't tainted. He'd need to visit them again soon.

While her body was reticent and thinking of the memory, Akira's was tense and showing off the response that he really didn't like the thought of all of this being hidden from him, though it was less directed at her and more at these faceless men inside his mind daring to touch his sister. The man exhaled through his nostrils, features prominent.

"I... appreciate... your going into this field." He was trying so very hard to be cordial. But he couldn't find himself being supportive of the idea, for whatever hypocrisy he was swallowing up. "That guy you were with in the bar. Boyfriend?" Akira asked inquisitvely, coolly. Referring back as to when he'd been interrupted.

There it was again, brushing through things.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

Why hadn't she told him? What good would that have done? He hadn't been exactly present back then nor witnessed the robbery. "You would have charged off into the night like an idiot," she pointed out. "And you were fighting your own battles." Dragging her brother into it would have only muddied things. And Asako didn't need revenge that day. She'd needed kindness.

Akira would line up the time frame, Kyoko's induction into kunoichi life coinciding with the incident that'd killed his friends. It'd all been roundabout the same time period, everything happening so close together, one consequential decision after another. An unfortunate coincidence that everything had happened when it had. Kyoko gave a solemn nod to that fact, but there was nothing she could've said that would've helped him in the moment. Deep violet eyes flickered about his face, his body, noting his posture and positioning. He was tensed, near rigid, no doubt angry and struggling to grapple with things in his head.

Kyoko could respect, at least, that he chose a constructive reply. Appreciating that she entered her field as she had, well, that wasn't the same as saying he approved of it. But he could see the rationale for it and he hadn't reduced himself to furious screeching yet, so that was a start. "This is what I chose. It's not something I'll be going back on, so even if you don't agree with it...your ears being open means a lot." Her tone was sincere. Kyoko didn't believe for a second that Kee would be leaving her apartment in a good mood, but things weren't going as horrible yet as they could have been. She was a little impressed with herself, actually. She'd woken from a dead sleep to deal with all of this and her tolerance was usually lower.

But this... This had been a long time coming.

Akira asked about the man she'd had with her at the bar. "Ataro?" She snickered. "Not exactly. But we're...close." She sipped at her tea, holding her gaze on him. She might have retorted that it wasn't any of his business, but after everything they'd just talked about, she wasn't going to snub his efforts to actually take an interest in her personal life. Setting her cup back down, she'd add nonchalantly, "He stays the night sometimes, if that's what you were really wondering. He's good to me." Kyoko had her pick of men, but Ataro treated her well and she liked keeping him around. Things weren't very serious but there was some level of loose commitment that existed and she was content with where things were at.

"What about that bubblegum barbie you had with you?" she tossed back. "She looked ready to claw my face off when she saw me eyeing you. Defended you like you're somethin' special to her." Kee had said at the time the woman was a colleague. The pinkette's choice of using "-sama" in reference to him had Kyoko wondering just how far beneath him in rank the woman was. Except her mannerisms implied she was older, not younger. Either way, the whole thing had been sort of cute in its own way. Her little brother wooing some bombshell like it was no big deal--he was totally following in her footsteps.

---

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[Deleted]

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

She told the truth, he would had spent time easing off his own frustrations in the best way that he knew how. Even so, there wouldn't had been a guarantee he'd had been able to do anything other than get beat up, but he would've tried. It was definitely a bad time in his life and one of the first things to knock him down, so there was little surprise that it'd been kept out of his own ears.

To him, his ears being open and actually listening were different - Akira understood the words coming through her mouth but didn't really want to hear what she had to say. She identified that, and it would cause Akira to flicker his eyes between her gaze and his own cup. Resigned to the truth. While he was there to argue his corner, it was difficult when that serious argument was directed at his sister.

Ataro! Akira had forgotten the man's name in the time he had had the interaction. Why would he? The man wasn't of any importance. But he wasn't about to start taking an interest in who she kept for her company - Akira himself made some questionable decisions. "Hm." He responded as an afterthought.

The nickname got Akira looking over at Kyoko with some confusion until he realised who it was she was talking about. But then again, he didn't know how to look at this moment, the confusion visible.

Akira could come to a stand, beginning to admire the plants around her living room, as they spoke. He couldn't just sit there doing nothing, especially if it was going to turn out about him talking about his feelings.

Kyoko's question about Yoko didn't have Akira on edge, but he'd certainly kept their last encounter fresh to his mind where she'd pegged it out his own home all quiet like, and he had dismissed the idea. It was a bad timing, that question. Akira's shoulders rose and dropped. "She's another medic. Don't you see her at the hospital?" Akira inquired, subtly redirecting the conversation, especially not saying Yoko's name, and to another train of thought that had been following him. Kyoko didn't need to know about that.

He didn't exactly. "I guess... we have an arrangement?" Akira didn't want to go into much detail, it was bad enough having to discuss the thought of it with Kyoko. "'s not something special." but given the talk they'd had about Keiko, and the assumed 'girl', Akira hadn't been the best judge of what was special or not - and held a special denseness about some emotion for someone who was supposed to be empathic.

Akira wanted to tell her, he was having a difficult time - not knowing who he was, about some of the things - about Arashi. His pride stopped him. No manner of talking would make him less angry about her being a Shinobi, but she being as headstrong as he: knew not to push it further or it would reduce to an inevitably circular argument. What good would they be in not talking if Akira was never around anyway?

There were things that could not be resolved with a single conversation, not everything was just as simple as it seemed and the attitude he'd cultured over the past five years, enough to self ostracize had been some of his own undoing, but not something he could wind back up again.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

Didn't she see her at the hospital? Kyoko rolled her eyes. "Yeah because all medics know each other. You know every other jounin in the military?" Her eyes followed him as he took to admiring the plants. But that's not really what he was doing. Kyoko wasn't an idiot. His body language just screamed "uncomfortable," and he'd only left his seat once she'd asked about the woman. What had he introduced her as? Yoko-san?

Following up "we have an arrangement" with "it's nothing special" didn't sit well with her. She exhaled through her nose, rotating her cup atop the table a bit before settling a piercing stare on her brother. If he didn't turn to face her and kept looking around the room, he wouldn't see it--but somehow, he'd probably feel it.

"Then what is it, Kee?" she asked, her voice like stone, an expression to match. "You gonna let this one crash and burn too like that other girl? Too stubborn to even talk about it?" Clearly that was it, but if he wasn't even comfortable casually discussing that little "arrangement" with his sister in the privacy of her apartment, what hope did he have for dealing with the actual person in a healthy way if shit hit the fan?

Akira had closed off a part of himself after his teammates' deaths and that had taken its toll. She could see that in him even now, like he was reluctant to just feel around people, or feel because of people. Like no matter how beautiful the lake was, he would always pause on the dock, second-guessing if it was even worth jumping in.

And while Kyoko might have shrugged it off if he'd merely said it was a "friends with benefits" thing (which she could understand, him being his age and all), he hadn't said that. She didn't know him to carelessly sleep around and his past history with women was...not too great.

---

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PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT,

"Noted." Fair point. There were a lot of Shinobi and a few hospitals, and many different branches: all types of people were needed. Akira was just in a different field to her own - and she still had something to say.

Why was it his sister who had to get the mouthy side of the family? Why couldn't Kyoko be more like Asako? Or even Hachibana for that matter? Akira didn't need to look to know how her facial expression matched her tone of voice. All in the aim to just antagonise her brother.

"This is different." Akira would turn to face her, squinting, then back to the plants. "We haven't defined anything, it, isn't anything." he had short, curt responses that were being underlined and bolded with his diction. Why couldn't women just keep it in their mind-pants and stop trying to make something else of whatever little evidence they had already. Like there needed to be a label on it. It did bring about his own little conundrum, that she'd come to him looking for intimacy.

"I broke things off with Keiko. I met her and I told her." something he'd still not shared with his family, and had shared little since the argument that had driven a wedge between them - at least Kyoko would be able to feed back to his family that he'd done something about it, being unintentionally evil. "Then, I actually ended up seeing that girl, the one I mentioned in our talk, and that didn't go well either..." his hand lightly grazed the underneath of a plant, careful not to damage it, inspecting it.

He was talking in such a way that one might discuss how the weather was, trying to leave his feelings at the door, it was how he'd always done it.

"Then Yoko comes, and wants intimacy from me, clearly upset about something, she won't tell me what it is but I think I know - she won't let me help when I offer it, but it's the night before I'm about to confront my feelings to this girl, enough of bottling it up, enough of keeping it to myself." Akira didn't want to pointedly look to her that he was trying to resolve his issues of self exile. But if he could, he would've.

"It's been three years, and for me it was all for nothing. You ask me if Yoko will crash and burn? Probably. I.... really don't care, Kyoko. We aren't an item, we didn't even like each other up until a few months ago. I've seen her, what, five times? In total? It's too early to say, sister." Akira sighed, dejected. His heart hurt. Nothing had been going well lately. But he hadn't set up a pity party, and Kyoko had gotten what she wanted: exposition. His thoughts, and here he was offering them up on a plate for her. So he was annoyed at her as well, and his voice was showing it. She'd got it.

Kyoko would have something hurtful to say, and Akira was ready for it. Ready for the 'I'm disappointed', but that's what he'd grown to know for the time being.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

AND MINE IS THE FURY

dandy ♫

[Deleted]

Each word that came from his mouth added to the trainwreck of what Kyoko knew on her brother's love life. Which, admittedly, wasn't much. But despite what Akira might have thought about her motives for asking, she wasn't trying to poke and prod him into being more irritated, or remembering the hurt, or dwelling on his shitty decisions. No, it was deeper than that.

She could've been bitter--and a part of her was instantly sour with how he described this new woman in his life, like he didn't care if his actions hurt her somehow, too. Because no one deserved that. But as soon as her mouth open to lash at him, it would close again, and her palms would find the floor behind her, the woman leaning her weight back upon them and tilting her head lazily to look over at him. She wasn't staring him down anymore, just watching. Kyoko decided she couldn't snuff him out for being honest about it all--even if that honesty made him out to be a major jackass.

"I think you care more than you realize. But you push it away and convince yourself you don't. You and this colleague still sorting things out? Whatever. I saw you two out together and just thought... I thought maybe you were spending time with somebody that actually brought a smile to your face. I thought you were surrounding yourself with people that made you happy. That's all I was hoping to hear." He really needed it, whether he admitted it to himself or not.

Kyoko's gaze drifted up to the ceiling, her head lazily rolling back to rest against hunched shoulders, some of her hair falling away from her forehead. Her voice was even, almost void of feeling, but the intent was there. "I'm no expert on not-relationships, but if a girl comes to you for intimacy it's usually because you give her something she can't give herself. You don't give a damn if she crashes and burns? Fine. Sounds like she cares, though."

She sighed, but there was more effort and sound in it, as if the conversation was beginning to weigh more heavily on her. "All I'm saying is, you need positive relationships in your life. I don't care what you label them. I don't care who they are. But you need people in your life--your personal life, not work--that'll help you get out of whatever funk is still fogging your brain and making you so keen on distancing yourself."

It was tiresome continuing on and on as they were. This was the longest conversation she'd had with anyone in probably two months. Not that it wasn't fruitful in ways, because it definitely was. Real talk was important. But Kyoko also didn't know how much of it was going to stick given Kee's disposition when he'd arrived.

---

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