me: i have no time to rp anymore

It’d been awhile since he’d gotten a hug like that. 

He knew it couldn’t have been the most pleasant sensation, considering the usual layer of filth and grime, but he held on what could otherwise be considered an uncomfortably long time, smile beaming. 

It felt nice, being missed. Being loved. 

Of course, he had a bit of a hard ass reputation to uphold, so he let the joy in his chest bubble over into a laughter, “What, you think I’d just go up and die on you or some shit? When’re you gonna learn that I’m basically invincible?”

         The longer the hug lingered, Shion could feel the rise and fall of her chest, her heartbeat fluttered much like a Ribombee. The smell at first was at the front of her sense, but it slowly became less of a problem. She tried composing herself, slowed down her breath and gave a satisfied sigh of relief. 

        ❝ You little bastard, I’m pretty sure if you were in any trouble I’d be out there to get you out of it. Either that -- or it’s me knocking you out. ❞ While she jokes, a little part of her brain had genuinely thought that was the last time she would get to see him. But it came from a fear of her own life than his. ❝ I... Uh... ❞ Her words stumbles a little. 

The sign and the cup were discarded for now, dropped without a second thought in favor of throwing his arms around the woman, pulling her into the tightest, bone crushing hug he could muster. 

“I missed you too. Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth- I gotta get a fucking cellphone or somethin’, I swear.”

❝ Hey ---! ❞

Her hands were already opened up the moment she saw him coming. The impact almost made her drop her glasses, but even if it did she would not have cared. If the hug is cutting off blood circulation, it did not matter to her in the slightest. She returned the big hug with as much gusto, perhaps even a little more than Shige’s. 

Shion was - to put it simply - happy. 

He doesn’t usually register the faces of passerbys, but after a tenner in the cup, he had to look up. 

“Shishi!” 

       An eyepatch, that unruly hair, and always looking for a quick buck or two? That’s Shige, alright! Shion drops her shades and gives him a little wink and puts her wallet away. 

Cumin

You see yourself so clearly that you can see the gaping hole inside you where you lost a piece long ago. It's there and it's ragged and painful and bleeding and you don't know how no one else can see it when it takes up so much of your awareness. You run from it, fight it, try to find it but nothing bandages up that hungry mawing void inside yourself and when you're tired, uninspired, you swear it grows and grows. You promise yourself you want to be alone, promise yourself that you want to be different, want to be special, love having this hole inside you and point it out in words or song or jokes and stories and take pride in that pain, in your uniqueness in this world of grays and storm clouds. You are 5 am rain on asphalt roads and sputtering street lamps. You are petrichor musings and messy guitar chords and a thousand contradictions wrapped inside a quiet cry, an evening of coffee and jittering hands and a promise that you're okay or that you're fine until you're falling apart in someone's arms or messages and pretend you're alright in the morning. You taste so strongly but sometimes you wonder if all you are is ash. 

He considers it for a moment, brow furrowed, before he speaks again.

“Not that this lends to my defense to the contrary of being a himbo or whatever at all, but what the hell is a vibe? Is that just another word for impression?” He knew it was short for something else, but that didn’t fit in this sentence.

Ah boy, just how much lingo does Shige even know...? 

“No fuckin’ idea. I ain’t so good at English- is this another one of those boomer things? I know what that is.”