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Sometimes I sit and think to myself, ‘Sam, why don’t you respond to the fuckload of threads you have?’ and the answer is always quite simple. Some days I would rather write things that are happy and nice and not as emotionally volatile as my muses generally are.

So, like. 

“What the hell do you want?”

He might know better than her, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to listen to him. Nostalgia might be like picking scabs for him. That’s fine. It isn’t exactly that for her.

There are things Karin misses that there is no harm in missing. It’s her right to keep that grief close and humor it when she feels she needs a reminder of how far she’s come.

She doesn’t.

It just helps that Suigetsu isn’t the biggest press on her sanity at any given moment. He drives her up the fucking wall and sometimes she dreams of zapping him with a taser, but generally his obnoxious antics distract her from the things that really piss her off.

Karin shrugs.

Masao was on his, technically, third cup of coffee and the night was still young. He’s spending more than his budget originally allocated– but he felt like it was worth the change in scenery. Previously, he had been a frequent patron of a different cafe run by students— the kind where you paid a certain amount to stay there for half a day with free flowing cheap coffee.

His younger self would never have thought he’d pay for free flowing anything that wasn’t alcoholic.

He wouldn’t call himself changed. He’s still chatted with half the baristas while procrastinating on his first thirty minutes here. But Masao promised himself that he’d work his ass off tonight so he could spend some time with his younger siblings tomorrow.

Ame would definitely hold him up to it. No excuses.

It was in the middle of that thought when he heard someone pull back the chair opposite him and put down a bag. Had he been expecting company?

Masao? He paused. That was a voice he was definitely familiar with, but also definitely not expecting her.

“Karin,” Masao laughed and gestured for her to take a seat. “Well, take it in ‘cuz it’s all real. Mitarashi Masao is actually studying and making lesson plans on a Friday evening.” He’ll be the first to admit that he isn’t that caught up in her life. (He’d like to be. They didn’t get along swimmingly all the time when they were younger. But why not? He wasn’t the best person then either.)

“I’m guessing from your school bag and the coffee, we’ll be here for a bit?”

“I never leave,” she sighs, moving her bag onto the floor and taking the seat it once rested in. “Except to sleep so I can come back and study even more the next time.”

He’s not completely spread out across the table, so she starts taking out the basics. Pen, paper, laptop. Takes a sip of her coffee and makes a face because it’s still too warm to drink and she doesn’t know why she always forgets that fact.