tampered | Log; Complete

Current Mood: nostalgic

Log; Complete

When; This morning.
Rating; PG.
Characters; Rubedo/Jr. [

red_dragon_666] and Sakura Mizrahi [

mizrahigirl].
Summary; When Rubedo sees that Sakura is here, he goes to retrieve her and hopefully keep her out of harms' way.
Log;

He just couldn't couldn't couldn't couldn't couldn't believe this. He had known the City allowed the dead to walk with the living. So why hadn't the thought occurred to him? Perhaps he had just been so bent on getting back while getting to know the 'locals' that he just...hadn't let himself wonder about that?

There was no way he had forgotten. Never.

Rubedo had found himself racing out of his apartment and towards the fountain, only to come to a dead stop when he saw her. Somewhat frantic, he suddenly wanted to hide. What if she saw him? Well, wait, that was the whole point, wasn't it? He was being illogical. Freaking out. Acting like the CHILD he'd been fourteen years prior.

Swallowing dryly, he forced his rapidly beating heart to calm down as he walked up to her. She was dead. But alive. Here. Now. In front of him.

He couldn't even say her name. All he could manage at first was a smile that was the lamest of the lame. He wanted to hug her, but would that be too forward? Damnit, she'd been dead for FOURTEEN YEARS.

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Sakura stood waiting by the fountain, anxiously scanning the crowd for any sign of Rubedo.

Was everything really all right? He'd sounded so rattled earlier.

But there he was- just as she remembered him from before.

"Rubedo! It really is you!" She ran forward a few steps, hands outstretched, but dropped them slowly when she saw his strained smile. "Are you ok? Is anything wrong?"

Seeing her suddenly look so worried made his smile crumple, and he reached out to touch her cheek. It felt real. Letting his thumb brush against her temple, he convinced himself that it was real. This reality was not normal reality... So he could accept this.

And even if she was dead, he was going to do his damnedest to make sure she was happy while she was here. It was the least she deserved.

Dropping his hand, he took hold of hers and started gently pulling her away from the fountain. "Everything is wrong here, Sakura. We'll talk more about it when there aren't a bunch of people walking around us, okay?"

Rubedo's touch on her cheek was reassuring to the brunette, bringing back memories of a more certain time. Rubedo seemed calmed by the touch as well, as if he'd worried that she hadn't been real...

It was such a relief to have him release some of his tension and take her hand. "O-okay." She followed him away from the fountain, putting both of her hands around his, and walked beside him.

Just the night before he'd been knocking back drinks and flirting with a hot blonde, and yet a pre-teen girl was simply holding his hand and he was feeling as jittery as an ant.

Right. Pre-teen. Young. Kid. AND dead. Recipe for disaster. He was older now. Different.

Would she hate him for some of the things he'd done? Would she like it? How would she react to hearing about MOMO? And what about what he was trying to accomplish? Would it matter to her?

Rubedo kept his mouth shut the entire walk, his grip on her hand firm but gentle as he guided her out of the elevator and to his apartment. Once they were inside, he released her hand and shut the door. A pent-up breath was released, and he looked wearily over to her.

He was still suffering from a minor hangover, too. Fortunately he gathered she was too naive to figure out that was what was up. "Are you thirsty? Or hungry? I can make something to eat if you want."

Shock. This was what true blue shock was like. He couldn't smile, frown, laugh, or cry. Just deal with the situation as it hit him.

Sakura followed him quietly as they passed through parts of the city, and into a building, up an elevator and into a room. She barely registered the number on the door- 66, before they were inside.

She glanced over at him when he sighed deeply- Something really was wrong.

"I'm fine, Rubedo." When he kept looking at her, she added, "Really, I am. I'm just...confused, is all"

What was wrong?

Rubedo. Rubedo. He hadn't had somebody other than Albedo call him that in so long. Elena was an exception, since he had slipped and told her that name during that cursed day...

Stupid curses.

"I know. This place is...confusing." Ugh, where was he going to start? Telling her that he was fourteen years older than she remembered probably wasn't the best place. He would just start with telling her about the City by itself. He'd tell her about what was currently going on in his world once she absorbed that information.

Rubbing at a temple, he walked into the living room to flop onto one end of the couch. "You might want to be sitting for this..."

Sakura had seated herself as Rubedo had started his explanation of the city, and had quietly absorbed the information about the setup of the City, the carousel, what the fountain was, the Underworld, the seemingly random curses, the end of the world, and startlingly, the fact that this wasn't another world in the sense that she understood, but more like a separate dimension.

It had started to overwhelm the brunette, but when Rubedo went into explaining the presence of people from different times and the undead, Sakura went from overwhelmed to disturbed.

"This place...It allows people from other times?" Sakura could barely bring herself to ask the next question, but she couldn't not ask it.
"And...and the...the dead?"

Her simple, hesitant question made him hang his head with a heavy nod. He didn't know what else to say about that... Did she know exactly what had happened? Had it hurt? Did it still hurt?

Attempting to change the subject, Rubedo cleared his throat and glanced back up. "You also shouldn't be alone in the City. Not just because of the dangerous people, but when you're alone the ticking gets louder. I live by myself, but I see Ga--... Nigredo a lot, and have a few friends I visit. If you're going to be here, you should stay with company. Did you...want to stay with me?"

Sakura stared at the floor in disbelief after seeing Rubedo's nod. She had been so willing to abandon her original idea of what had happened after seeing him- but now it seemed that almost anything was possible here. She had thought...so many things, but all of the preconceptions of where she was and what had happened before were slowly being taken from her.

Rubedo was talking again. Sakura barely heard the first few words, but forced herself to listen. When she heard the name of one of the other boys that had fallen into her bedroom one night long ago, she almost summoned a smile. At Rubedo's slightly hesitant question, she looked up, trying to conceal her emotions.

"Really, Rubedo? Are you...sure I won't be a bother? I don't want to be a nuisance to you..."

Rubedo was quick to nod. Did she really think she would bother him? True, the very fact that she was there bothered him to some extent, but he was too happy to see her to think about that. "Of course I'm sure! I want you to stay with me."

Standing up, he rubbed at the back of his head. "You need to know some other stuff, though, first... Um..." Damnit, how to say this? He turned away from her, folding his arms across his chest as he paced away, then back.

"Uh. See, I..." Well he'd have to just jump right into it. "Sakura...it's been fourteen years since you... ....Since then." He crouched in front of her, nervous blue eyes gazing up into hers. "I'm way older now. So are Nigredo and Albedo. Although, they actually looks it..."

He glanced away. "I've kept my promise as best I could. I've been protecting your little sister. She's a lot like you in some ways, but she's also got her own personality. I think you two would have gotten along great..." It was hard to keep his voice steady. He was getting too choked up. Damnit!

Sakura smiled, assured that she wouldn't bother Rubedo. But his next statement took her rather by surprise. But her surprise was overridden by happiness that he had kept his promise to her.

"I'm so glad you took care of her!" Sakura jumped down off the sofa and hugged him.

But she pulled back as the implications of what he had said before sank in. Still with her hands behind his neck, she looked searchingly at him. "What do you mean, 14 years?"

The hug knocked him off balance, and he sprawled back on his rump, with her practically sitting in his lap all of a sudden. The close proximity would have embarrassed him if he didn't have his mind on other, more serious matters.

Rubedo reached up to pull her hands from around his neck, but he didn't push her away. Instead he just held them tightly, thumbs stroking the backs of her knuckles as he looked at her wearily. He still looked the same on the outside, but in his eyes it was obvious he had experienced a lot since that time.

"Your dad...he died... Your mom is still alive, though. She's been helping us with our missions. She and MOMO get along okay..." Though he wondered if Juli would ever accept MOMO as a real daughter. "Ah, MOMO's your sister. And we travel with a lot of other people... Nigredo and I go by different names now. To make things easier for us. We started a company called the Kukai Foundation. We named him Gaignun, after the cat we had... And I'm now legally Gaignun Kukai, Jr."

His cheeks reddened now, but only because he was embarrassed to be explaining all of this. How was a young girl supposed to absorb all this information? "...I just go by Jr. now..."

Rubedo's hands holding hers seemed like the only solid thing in the room.

"Dad... died?" The concept of her father's death was like a blow to her. She rocked back on her heels, still clinging to Rubedo's hands.

"At..at least my mom amd my sister are ok..." she said, her mind refusing to fully accept the death of her father. "You...you said her name is MOMO?"

She paused for a moment, watching the color rise to his face before asking rather haltingly "Do you...would you rather...I mean... Should I stop calling you Rubedo then? Would you rather I call you Jr.?"

Rubedo glanced back up to study her face. She was still so young. The very same age. She was having to come to terms with her father's death--not to mention her own. She probably needed something familiar and stable right now.

He cracked a smile and squeezed her hands. "Nah. You can call me by my old name. Man, I bet Gaignun will be happy to see you!" He stood and tugged her up. Sitting around and getting depressed over what couldn't be helped was a waste of time. He needed to cheer her up quick.

"You sure you aren't hungry? I still haven't had breakfast yet." Nevermind that it was almost noon.

Rubedo's smile made her smile back- it was the first time he'd smiled since he'd come to meet her- she was glad to see his smile.

She stood up as he pulled her up, and dropped one hand, keeping hold of his other hand.

"If you're going to have something, I can eat something. But I don't need much, really."

Rubedo thought about what he could make. Something easy as hell. He was in no mood to pull out culinary skills he barely had. Considering he usually liked to eat out anyway, his fridge didn't have a whole lot... But after releasing Sakura's hand and rummaging around, he managed to set out the makings for sandwiches.

"After we eat, we should go get you some stuff. Snacks. Clothes. ...Girly, er, products?" He didn't know what she needed all that well. She knew better than him!

Now did she want a turkey sandwich or salami? Uhh.... He chose both. Damnit, he didn't have any lettuce! Oh well.

Sakura watched as Rubedo made sandwiches for them both, and then looked up at him when he spoke.

"All right. Do you know where we can get them?" She smiled at Rubedo's mild awkwardness. "I can pick things out if you know where to go to get them."

She took the finished sandwich from Rubedo and took a bite. "This sandwich is very good. Thank you."

Rubedo smiled when she complimented the food. He knew it was just a crappy sandwich, but her compliments always meant something. Older, perhaps, but it was still just as easy to stroke his ego.

"Yeah, this place has a LOT of shops. I mean, aside from the...really REALLY terrible issues of the City, there are a few nice things to tide us over until we can leave. Things are so cheap here. LOTS of things are practically free. I don't even know why people work, since there doesn't seem to be a need... But I think some people work to keep on the facade of this City being normal, you know? Eh... I mean..."

He needed to learn when to shut his mouth. At least he was getting better at stopping himself.

"You want anything to drink?" He opened the fridge again, putting the food back after making himself a sandwich. "I got water and...water. Hey I bet mixing the water with the water would make a damn fine drink!"

Sakura laughed. The happiness of seeing Rubedo, and he was trying so hard to care for her- the joke just made her release some of the anxiety she'd been holding in, and left her, surprising even herself, capable of a sincere laugh.

Still smiling, she said "I don't think I need anything right now. But a little later we can go."

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