"Kusaka," Mari pokes her head in through the kitchen of the Kikuchi home, the scent of broth pouring through the curtain dividing her and Kusaka.
"When is your birthday?" A sudden question, truly, but Mari's early childhood memories ran foggy and unclear. Some faces merge, dates change. She feels bad for asking him this actually, though it's hidden well enough through her smile. She takes a few strides over to stand behind him from his seat, curiously glancing at his book. Though, finding that he wasn't answering as fast to her liking, she playfully hits him on the back of the head with the soup ladle she was juggling from the kitchen.
"Hey. Did you hear me? When is your birthday?"
a habit unable to be broken, the way he sits there meticulously going over his hands with a telltale white wipe. even his gaze, as he stares out into the distance ― at nothing in particular ― gives an obvious conclusion ... something is on his mind.
he isn't keen to discuss what that something is, perhaps it's not even something he understands, himself. there's a lot that goes through his mind, a lot that he debates, goes over once; twice; thrice ... he can only trust himself, at the end of it all.
&, sometimes, it feels he can't even do that.
mari's voice doesn't draw him back to reality at first, or else he would've answered the question with no hesitation ... it takes her coming up behind him, the gentle whack of her utensil, for him to perk up a bit. he glances over his shoulder at the sound of her voice ― shoulder that is tensed, slightly, from how alarmed he was at being dragged back from his spacing out.
when his gaze meets hers, he offers her a kind, subdued smile.
" april twenty-ninth, " & then, a small chuckle. " why? don't tell me you plan on marking it down to get me a gift. "
but, of course, mari is too kind ... a shining light in a dark night. (a light that reflects off the pool of blood, a constant reminder of why he fights for what he does.) of course that's why she would ask. & he is glad to tell her, if only to get a look at that smile on her face.
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