fire & thunder.

                                       thunder    rumbles    and    lightning    ricochets    across    the    sky    ;    rain    falling    and    tumbling    down    like    petals,     bathing    esme    in    their     plight    to    drench     the     ground    and    all    that    surrounds.     to    anyone    else    the    storm    above    is    a    sign    that    past    days    events    aren’t    quite    yet    finished,     that    maybe    the    earthquakes    still    have    it    out    for    forks    and    aftershocks    and    chaos    are    in    their    midst.     however,     to    her,     and    to    those    that    know,     weather    is    a    signal    of    something    else    entirely.     (    —-    or    maybe    just    a    beacon   for   a    different    kind    of    misorder,    one    she    loves    all    to    well.    )     the    smile    that    graces    her    face    while    she    wanders    onto    the    grassy    field    is    unrivaled,     baseball    in    her    hand    tossed    and    caught    at    speeds     unseen    to    the    human    eye.     ❝     hope    you’re    ready    to    lose.     ❞

erica liked her job, more or less. sure, there was the endless organization to be done (made all the harder when certain customers would put books in random shelves), the customer service aspect of the job wasn’t always her favorite, but nonetheless, it was nice to feel like she was serving her community. 

she was working on reorganizing a shelf as a familiar face made an appearance, flocked by high schoolers, who almost immediately disappeared to do their own thing.

kira yukimura was someone erica had been rather aware of in high school. she was beautiful, of course, but there was more than that. she was kind, if quiet in their school days. being in different years meant they didn’t have a terrible lot of classes together, limiting their interaction, but that didn’t matter. erica was more than content to admire from afar at the time. 

now, though, things were different. she got the chance to see her every so often, and she always enjoyed their conversation, finding kira charming, funny, and bright. 

upon being accepted to columbia, her father’s alumni, kira naturally assumed she’d had a similar knack for what he did —— the classes were brutal, despite having registered as a major that didn’t appear all that frightening to the layman, but the kitsune persevered and would eventually resurface from the trenches of warfare that is an undergrad with a degree in history that made them fit for an open assistant teacher role in forks. 

so, for the second time in her life, they packed their rather small new york life up in a carry-on and a backpack and trekked across the country to the comfortable ( if not slightly claustrophobic ) corner of the pacific northwest where her parents still resided.

returning to forks only a year ago had triggered a sudden influx of memories of her youth spent in the quiet town, where she often felt outcast. if it weren’t for people like erica reyes, kira couldn’t say they’d have much of an interest in making a grand comeback after all.

admittedly, they had a crush on the human in their youth, and whenever they stepped off the plane and assumed their position at forks high school, carting along their students to the library and for the first time in years seeing erica again —— she realized that crush never truly fizzled out.