STARCROSSED.

[seiizon]

kaikxtsu·:

“Mm…” Miki shrugs. She wasn’t willing to take that much thanks for keeping the place tolerable. She looks Kurumi over for a moment, and then looks elsewhere, unsure of what to say now that there was company again. She wasn’t used to that. 

“…what’d you even do all that time? Is it some kind of job or something?” 

     How did she answer a question like that without immediately sounding suspicious, or like an outright criminal?

     Kurumi coughs, offering a light shrug as a hand reaches up to scratch at her neck.

     “O-Oh, y’know....” No, she doesn’t and that’s the problem. “I guess it’s kinda like that, yeah. I mean, it’s not... paid work or anything like that.... I-I’m under an NDA so I can’t talk too much about it, you know how that stuff is.”

     Probably not. She sure didn’t.

     “All I can really tell ya is that I gotta leave town a few days once a month, and that I usually come home feelin’ like shit ‘cos it’s so physically demandin’. I’m, uh... not really... in a position to break contract though, so....”

[seiizon]

kaikxtsu​:

“Yeah, yeah.” Miki lowers her book and huffs. Miki half expected to run off herself. But with the heat outside and and otherwise the lack of any other place to go, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to pick a park bench or alleyway over someone else’s apartment. 

There were a lot of moments of deliberation over that though. It wasn’t like she was unwilling to, and normally she didn’t like the idea of just…taking someone’s space like this. “It was messy…I cleaned it to pass the time. I guess I sort of forgot to take my window to scram, hm? Don’t overthink it too much,” She warns, putting the now shut book aside. 

     “Sure ya didn’t just miss me, babe?” Kurumi snorts, her tone playful and teasing as one leg folds across the other. Truth be told, she has no clue why Miki was entertaining her or this arrangement as long as she was, but the alternative of worrying too much over someone she didn’t even know well enough to justify it.... well, it would be equally parts stressful and annoying.

     And she has enough stressful, annoying stuff on her plate.

     “Thanks though.” She groans. “Gotta say, it was pretty nice comin’ back and the place not being a disaster. I’m so damn tired and sore, I feel like I could pass out for a week... “

[seiizon]

kaikxtsu​:

“Nothing too unusual…still getting an idea of the state of the rest of the country while I travel around. Reporting back to Rise with findings and writings…and to get mail meant for me, of course.” Going back to the University not only gave her a chance to give her notebooks to Rise, but it was also a solid address for mail addressed to her to go to. Which, this day and age, really only comprised of letters from Yuki, Kurumi, or Yuuri. 

“I wasn’t aware you missed my reactions that badly though. You must be a glutton for punishment, Senpai.” Miki giggled lightly, shaking her head. “How have your studies been?”

     The most she offers to that is a low groan, reclining back in her wheelchair as her head lolls idly to the side.

     “A pain in the ass, but I guess that kinda figures.” She huffs. “Too much work to keep up with and not enough time. I guess I’m hangin’ in there though; they haven’t found an excuse to give me the boot just yet.”

     Truth be told it was all a little daunting-- Kurumi wasn’t an altogether unintelligent person ( believe it or not ) but to say that her interest in medicine didn’t come entirely from her lived experiences would be a lie and the fact of the matter was, she was still making up for plenty of lost time both with her studies and with herself.

     Add in rehab and dealing with the kids always scrambling for her attention and she’s tied up in a lot more than you’d expect.

     “What about you, huh? ‘m guessin’ things have been goin’ pretty good on your travels if you’re still at it like ya are.” Wrinkling her nose, she adds, “That, or you’re just tryin’ too damn hard to get away from me.”

[seiizon]

kaikxtsu​:

Miki looks up from her book, passing time with it given there wasn’t much else to do tonight, and she just, didn’t feel like going out, for once. She normally didn’t like to be cooped up either, but it wouldn’t be the first time she cooped herself up because she just didn’t feel like doing anything else. She couldn’t complain that she actually had some kind of roof to do that with at the moment. With her recent eviction after the short incarceration she experienced, well…finding another apartment on her own would be a long term pain in the ass. She was probably lucky this woman was willing to put up with her or do something as unneedingly generous as let her stay here.

At the very least, she kept Kurumi’s place somewhat clean. She should probably find it stranger that she was gone just like that, for a while. But she had been forewarned that Kurumi just…did that.

“Hey…” The quiet, unsociable girl wasn’t going to be one for big greetings or excitement. Not even obvious surprise or curiosity. 

     Kurumi slings her small bag into a nearby chair before kicking off her shoes and taking her own seat across from Miki in the living room. It admittedly felt a little weird coming back to someone else but she wouldn’t really say she minded either way, and it was definitely nice being home again for sure. 

     With every full moon she endures the clock resets and she’s granted a little while of almost normalcy again, weeks before she’d have to worry about it again and plenty of room for her attention to focus on other things.

     Like, you know, the new roommate she accidentally got.

     “Kinda surprised you stuck around the whole time I was gone. I half expected ya to scram while I wasn’t around.” Maybe that was a little blunt. Clearing her throat slightly, Kurumi adds, “I’m glad it looks like you’ve been stayin’ outta trouble though.”

     And glad she didn’t come home to a stolen TV for her effort or whatever, but it’s not like Miki really... seemed like that type. Or maybe Kurumi was being far too naive for her own good, as she was more often than she’d admit. Oh well. It was a little late to be questioning that impulse decision.

     “... you have been stayin’ outta trouble, yeah?”

[seiizon]

@kaikxtsu​

     Oh, she was beyond exhausted.

     The turbulent chaos of a full moon was nothing new to Kurumi and the same could be said for the slew of ‘symptoms’ that came before or after-- this same song and dance was one she had done countless times by now, after all. She was sore, she was hungry, she barely felt like moving.

     But it was the first moon since Miki had started rooming with her, and that felt... maybe not exactly bad, but different. Knowing someone would be at home while she was out of town was strange and it was even weirder knowing that, really, if Miki wanted to cause trouble nothing was really stopping her.

     Still, when Kurumi unlocks her front door and returns with what minimal baggage she brought with her, everything is seemingly fine. Maybe even a little tidier than normal even.

     “Heyo-- I’m back.”

[seiizon]

schoollivingpresident​:

Despite everything–despite every hardship, every reminder of the cruel world they now inhabited–they’d made it. It wasn’t just the infected that had stood in their way, after all–plenty of living people had been just as antagonistic, and had been even moreso upon realizing Kurumi’s condition. What reason would they have to trust girls traveling with one of them? It was miraculous, really, that they’d managed to meet so many who were kind, who were understanding.

So many that had been willing to play along for her sake.

“Since…the activity day Yuki-chan planned, I suppose.” Everything had just been happening, and happening, and happening after that fun, laid back day–the day Miki had decided to truly become a member of the School Living Club. Even the quiet moments had been tinged with uncertainty and doubt, fear and loathing.

As Kurumi tries to push herself up, Yuuri can’t help herself, really–she gets up, walks over, and offers a hand. “If you need anything–there might not be much I can do, but I can at least…” She doesn’t want Kurumi to feel as if she’s pitying her, or belittling her–while she does feel sorry for her friend, she’s also very aware that sitting around and moping about it will do no one any good.

Her friend’s insistence that she’s there for her–that everyone’s there for her–does allow Yuuri to offer a small smile. “Yeah. I…know.” As things had gone on, she’d really locked herself in her own limited world, where all she could do was drag everyone down. Things were over now; things were beginning now. “I wish our rooms were closer together. Maybe, once Yuki-chan and I are a little better, we could…” What, ask to camp out in their friends’ rooms? That would certainly be childish, but…perhaps they deserved that.

     It’s almost a little comforting she’s not the only one feeling so mixed up and alone with the way things currently were.

     Years of constantly being beside the others certainly left its mark on Kurumi for one; the separation is nerve-wracking, not just because of the isolation but also because of the deep twist in her gut any time she can’t be sure they’re okay, even now. She doesn’t like the not knowing and the more she attempts to ease herself back into normal every day life, the more she realizes it’s... unpleasant.

     The uncomfortable reality was Kurumi was an orphan now, all four of them were really, and to be orphaned at the cusp of adulthood in a world like this simply meant one thing-- when all was said and done, Kurumi had nowhere to go back to and the only one responsible for sorting that out would be herself. She was a valuable specimen, sure, but no child, at least not anymore. As of now, it was all a big question mark and the question ‘where do I go from here’ has lingered like a ghost at her bedside.

     She didn’t even expect to be alive this long, after all.

     “When.... uh...” She pauses, a tongue darting out to wet her chapped lips as her gaze casts to the side. “Even when I’m stable again, ‘m gonna be stuck here for a while, with rehab ‘n all. They don’t really know how long it’ll be before I’m good to live on my own, since I can’t... really do a lotta stuff for myself right now anyways, and I don’t really have anyone to stay with so... “

     An awkward cough.

    “Iunno what the rest of you guys have planned, who’s thinkin’ about stayin’ or leavin’ or whatever but, um... since Miki’s gonna be around for monitoring a while longer ‘n all anyways, and you guys might not have any plans yet, I was thinkin’ about seeing if maybe you guys would wanna... iunno. Share a place for a while? They kinda gotta stay on my good side so I’m sure if I bitched about it enough they’d cave but, ah--”

     A stiff arm raises slowly and she rubs at the side of her neck.

     “I-I mean... o-only if... you’re not doing somethin’ else...”

[seiizon]

kaikxtsu​:

Miki smiles warmly, seeing the other woman approach the table, as she sits up a little more at the new, welcomed company. “Sorry it took me so long to find an opportunity…between your studies and my travels, I guess it gets harder than anticipated. The letters are always nice to get though.” 

She leans forward, arms crossed over each other on the table. “And it’s okay, I won’t escape that easily. That would imply letting you escape too. I can’t go and let you do that. That’d just be irresponsible of me.”

     Of course. The School Living Club had gone its separate ways but it’d be disingenuous to pretend there wasn’t something still strong enough to bring them all back into each other’s orbit, fairly regularly at that, and Miki was no exception to the rule. 

     Even in the long stretches without visits, her former junior still wrote eagerly as often as she could and with the mail system finally getting back on its feet.... well, it was a nice treat to hear from a friend more regularly in the middle of all her dumb coursework. 

     “Damn, still stuck with this troublesome kid?” Kurumi smirks offering a roll of her eyes. “How’ve ya been though? I mean, I know you’ve been keepin’ me filled in an’ all through the letters, but that’s not exactly the same as sitting face to face and really unpackin’ it all.”

     With a toothy grin, she points a finger over at Miki.

     “For one, I’m missin’ out on all those great reactions of yours, ‘n that’s hardly fair.”

[gummy-ghost]

[mangasoft]

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[infressiel]

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[seiizon]

kaikxtsu​:

@seiizon​

She’s gone quite a ways.

She contemplated when she wanted to drop by. Not that she didn’t want to at all. Just…there were still things to do, after all. Notebooks to deliver, things to report to Rise…

Maybe she didn’t want to seem too eager, too. She looked forward to actually visiting a bit too much. She hadn’t been able to since the group’s initial separation, after all. But, eventually Miki had to pause her travels. Eventually she needed to find something else to do, lest she burn herself out. 

She sighs, seated calmly in her waiting place she agreed to with Kurumi. It was just a little cafe near the location Kurumi handled her studies at. She had gotten here far too early, too, but she really couldn’t help that for once, she had managed to get herself ready and driven here in manageable time. 

     It took everything in Kurumi’s willpower to get through her day without just saying fuck it, dropping everything else in anticipation of her little meet-up. How was it not supposed to feel consuming though when her time with the rest of the former School Life Club was so sporadic and scattered these days? When they could hardly afford the time to do things like this, much less all together as a group?

     Things were changing, for better or worse she couldn’t say but Kurumi certainly felt like her life had breached the confusing and overwhelming stages of independent adulthood.

     By the time Kurumi shows up, Miki is already there, nestled in a seat and seemingly jittering with that same quiet energy she herself had felt all day. The thought brings a crooked grin to the corners of her lips as she wheels herself over to the table.

     “Hey you.” Her smile only grows, a familiar flash of jagged teeth that reaches her eyes. “About time you finally stop by ‘n see me. I was startin’ to think you’d escaped my clutches for good.”