[ closed ] well, it's all I used to believe.

[errandry]

When; January 18th, well after this.
Rating; PG-13, for Agito.
Characters; two-thirds of Kogarasumaru!
Summary; One bright day in the middle of the night.
Log;

There was nothing about this that wasn't a bad idea.

Kazu had a hazy idea of the areas and hours Agito liked to run—kind of the same way, he suspected, fish would mark off certain parts of the ocean in their tiny fish-brains with red alert warnings: DO NOT SWIM HERE—PREDATORS ABIDE. A few months ago, he wouldn't have needed more information; the idea of calling Agito to account felt not unlike tying a red scarf to one's face in a bull pen, and only Ikki would do that. But that was the funny thing about time—pretty much the only funny thing. Time passed, and the passing kicked you down and hauled you through paradoxes until your boss was waking up in the next room with all the wrong accessories, and the only thing you could think of doing was to keep running.

Towards something, though, not away—and that idea was a new one.

(That goddamn wheelchair. If the deities hadn't picked that moment in time out on purpose, Kazu'd eat his own hat. Of course, the conversation had died as soon as Kogarasumaru's leader had bitched them out of it, casual and oblivious as it was. And Kazu'd let it go 'cause what could he say? But the thought hadn't gone anywhere. That was the point, wasn't it?)

He yanked himself out of his thoughts as the throng of buildings slid low, opened into cleared, flatter spaces. Stranger grounds. Winter had begun to ebb out of the City—but that still left flashes of ice on sidewalks here and there, and air like swallowing knives. Kazu kept his breaths shallow as he wove around the slippery patches. He ducked his head low, pulled his collar stiff and his gloves tight over his knuckles. Headlong he went, cutting sparks and speed out of the dark, straight into shark country.

He had the night to look, and the advantage: Agito wasn't running from him anyway.

Comments

[errandry]

It shouldn't have felt this weird. There was plenty of stuff they didn't tell Ikki—hell, most of it would've worked against them anyway. Self-preservation and all that. It made sense not to fuck with the future—and what would Ikki do, anyway, if he knew? Take Genesis on months early from his chair? Go walking like a prophet, talking madness and treachery until somebody took him down? So he'd find out when he went back. He'd deal. They didn't have to complicate this, being here—and how much was it worth it, anyway, to explain a fucking mess like Takeuchi Sora just to push the extra weight from their own shoulders?

The Fang came as it was meant to—like a warning he felt in his bones, the infinitesimal tremor that was as good as words spoken out loud: your time's up. get the fuck out before this turns into a real hunt. A heartbeat's notice was enough; Kazu spun out of the way without even bothering to vanish. He knew lines, drawn and crossed. There wasn't any real answer he could offer to that anyway.

Aloud, he said, "Yeah, yeah." Spreading the beanie open, Kazu jammed it back over his head again. He twisted away, back towards the City's streets and mazy lights. Over his shoulder, he glanced back once, briefly. "G'night, Agito."

Then he evaporated, leaving neither smoke nor shadow to betray his direction. Getting the last word, after all, probably qualified for a Level 10 Offense with a shark.