EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY. those words are repeated ad - nauseam over the radio usagi had, somehow, someway, managed to get working again with two new batteries & a few well - placed SMACKS. he still refuses to talk about what happened the day japan was destroyed ; still refuses to share with her, kei, & kai what became of tetsuo & kaori. ( but it doesn’t take a genius with an IQ of three - million to figure out that it wasn’t anything pretty. ) she’s begun to take note of the way kaneda keeps looking down at the palms of his hands / she notices the way he’s been returning from longer - than - normal bathroom runs with red eyes & tear - stained cheeks / she places a hand on his shoulder when his body starts to tremble in the middle of the night instead of rest. the destruction of everything they’ve known & the losses they’ve all endured had been rough on everyone, but both kai & usagi agree that whatever it was kaneda saw that night at the stadium for the 2020 olympics had taken a toll on his usually - chipper attitude.
they sit in front of the rubble that once was harukiya bar. kaisuke refuses to look over at the pile of cement, stone, & rubar as kei travels ahead brandishing a pistol to scout the convenience store nearby for food. with shotaro sitting beside her on the same slab of concrete, young tsukino focuses on placing band - aids over fresh cuts on her hands & arms. though she is silent, her mind most certainly is not ; the biggest question on it that lingers is : WHERE IS MY FAMILY ?? were ikuko, kenji, & shingo looking for her ?? had they miraculously survived the chaos & carnage like so many other people had ?? OR HAD THEY NOT MADE IT, watching their crappy cable television in their rickety / old apartment building, waiting for their beloved usagi to return home that night, listening to the news report on shima’s telepathic rampage through the streets ?? it pains her, causes her chest to tighten & ache, to think of what was going through their minds when the blast wrecked neo - tokyo & everything in it.
trying not to think about it too much is made slightly - easier whenever kaneda does / says something that distracts her. his movement this time is silent but the action speaks louder than any word that could come out of his mouth would. her hand stops in it’s movements as boy’s forehead makes contact with her shoulder, an exhale through his nose HARDLY AUDIBLE but loud enough for her to catch. familiarly - rough, calloused hands grip her forearm, & usagi lets her head loll to the side, resting temple atop kaneda’s hair.
it wasn’t a rarity for them to be touching each other in SOME way ; back before civilization crumbled in an instant, usagi & kaneda were essentially glued to the hip, his arm thrown lazily but happily over her shoulders, or her arms wrapped around his, clutching it to her chest affectionately. now, moments like these between them held more weight than before. meant more than they ever did. life could be ripped away in a millisecond ——— it took that cosmic big bang less than a minute to end more than two million lives. so many things could happen in a flash that could end lives or end opportunities ; shotaro kaneda & usagi tsukino are just children who have had to adapt to not taking life’s little moments for GRANTED.
and even if he isn’t ready to tell her, or anyone, what happened with tetsuo & kaori in the end, she’d wait an eternity if she had to. ( whenever he was ready. )
affection memes !! || accepting !! || @badfored !!
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