when takumi had been informed of the avatar’s coming birth and his impending journey to republic city, his thoughts wandered immediately. he saw her face exactly as he’d seen it that fateful, final time - that same feeling of regret piercing his heart as he’d forced himself to leave, not by his own accord but by her wishes. he’d promised to never subject himself to the humiliation of that rejection again, not even the memory of it. yet, like an addict sick without his fix, he finds himself seeking her out.
it’s not hard to find her. he knows her, intimately well - at least he likes to think he does. he can hardly bear to think that she does too and by that strain of thought, she’s most likely expecting him. there’s no surprising asuka, which is annoying to takumi. she makes him feel powerless. so why is he looking for her again?
he stops just short of making contact, though there’s no sense in hiding. takumi doesn’t really blend in. he stands uncertain and awkward, hands slipped into his pockets in a calculated act of nonchalance. it’s robotic and he knows it, but he can’t just do nothing. maybe because he doesn’t expect to find her here of all places, a sense of naive hopefulness had carried him to this spot. the first spot in all of republic city asuka had ever taken him. to takumi it held an uncomfortable amount of sentimental value, though he figures for asuka it’s nothing more than a beloved haunt. she doesn’t think about you, takumi.
‘ happy or repulsed? ’ he figures they’re the only acceptable options as he musters the courage to approach, ‘ - to see me, i mean. i’m happy to you if that counts for anything. ’ he tries to smile innocently. tries. @deadcrvshed
with the celebration of the avatar’s birth and the resulting visiting families from the four nations, nothing can really catch her off guard. she knows she’ll be seeing faces that are pleasantly familiar and faces that aren’t. lord yuu’s eldest son happens to fall under the latter. for justified reasons, if you ask her. she’s never been a very forgiving person. however, that’s the past. therefore, he’s been reduced to someone she doesn’t care about any longer. grudges aren’t worth the effort.
it’s out of pure coincidence that she’s standing by one of the greater spirit wilds in the city, the green glow of the spirit portal just a few blocks down casting a faint greenish hue over the area. there’s a tea shop nearby she frequents often and she simply decided to stop by after buying some tea leaves. it doesn’t even occur to her that this is where she first took him.
it takes a moment for her to place the voice with his name and she nearly laughs at how predictable he is. it’d been around two weeks since the families started arriving and it was only about time until he came to find her. for some pathetic reason, he’s still attached, despite her making it clear that nothing will ever happen between them again. she never repeats her mistakes.
“ neither. ” she turns slightly to spare him a courteous ( insincere ) smile that morphs into a straight line. “ huh. interesting. ” her dry tone says otherwise. she looks back at the spirit wilds, watching the small spirits wander about. “ do you want something ? ”
