equations of love

The moment he opened the door his face shifted into a look of abject surprise, possibly even bordering on shock honestly! "Ken…??" His tone was surprised as well. What on earth was he doing here! He was not… really the kind of person who was likely to simply arrive without calling in advance after all!  

Everyone he had been left with just ended up being so stupid.

“Do come in, it is a pleasure to see you." He drew out another chair at the table after stepping around it, and moved off to retrieve another cup to pour his friend some tea as well.  ”Do sit down. You already know my charming companion, after all, so I am sure we can settle down to business quite nicely without any awkward introductions.”

”Kent-san, it’s good to see you again,” she greeted him politely while Ikki was absent from the table. ”We have the first two clues, actually. What about you?” she asked, interest burning in her turquoise eyes. She would have tried to lean forward to get a look at his letter, but patience held her back.

Sitting up a little straighter, she read over both hints again – absently chewing on her bottom lip as she tried to make a connection. ”’Universes’ and ‘melody of the heart’,” she slowly repeated the words before her eyes. ”Maybe some place associated with music? People are moved by music, and songs – even albums – could be considered their own little worlds.” Maybe she was grasping for straws, but it was all she had to work with.

“I will see who I can contact." He was still sounding thoughtful. He had made a few friends here, but… any he could call on for something like this? Most were just casual acquaintances really. Hm. Well. They were going to have to do something. There was certainly no way to solve a riddle that was incomplete. And the second part, the part that he had received certainly did not seem conclusive enough to him. 

"Ikkyu." Voice straight to the point, he entered the apartment and shut the door behind him. "Riddles. Let's get started." He called as he walked into the apartment and towards the table where they sat, though the presence of a woman drew his glance for a second in curiousity before it switched to Ikki a few seconds later. "What did you get?"

He had absolutely no idea what was about to come next. 

He raised a hand and knocked at the front door, green eyes staring at it with quiet expectancy as he waited for the reaction; Either way it would be funny since he'd not told Ikki anything about him moving here. 

Green eyes peered down at the woman as she spoke, expression as plain as it always was; Did she really ask him something like that? Honestly. “For someone like you I suppose it would take 752, you have a small tongue and that impacts the results.” 

"You’re going to test this now?" His gaze stayed down on the candy, silently counting the number of swipes of her tongue. "Your tongue will get sore around the 219 licks mark."

He’d tested it when Ikki had jokingly asked him about it once. “It’s not the first time I’ve been asked about this.” He answered simply, wondering if it was really all the surprising to know; It was a common question after all wasn’t it?

He'd not expected her to quit not even a little bit into the experiment, so when he heard the crunch of her teeth breaking the lollipop he sent he shook his head. "It still needs to be verified." A test result wasn't a test result unless it yielded multiple results of the same type.

Green eyes peered down at the woman as she spoke, expression as plain as it always was; Did she really ask him something like that? Honestly. “For someone like you I suppose it would take 752, you have a small tongue and that impacts the results.” 

"You’re going to test this now?" His gaze stayed down on the candy, silently counting the number of swipes of her tongue. "Your tongue will get sore around the 219 licks mark."

He'd tested it when Ikki had jokingly asked him about it once. "It's not the first time I've been asked about this." He answered simply, wondering if it was really all the surprising to know; It was a common question after all wasn't it?

Green eyes peered down at the woman as she spoke, expression as plain as it always was; Did she really ask him something like that? Honestly. “For someone like you I suppose it would take 752, you have a small tongue and that impacts the results.” 

"You're going to test this now?" His gaze stayed down on the candy, silently counting the number of swipes of her tongue. "Your tongue will get sore around the 219 licks mark."