b l o o d .

At the first glimpse of red hair in the crowd, Dist had to know if, against what were surely impossible odds, that was one of his fallen companions (for a stretch of the term companion).

“Asch!”

The grin on his face was downright ghoulish.  The number of possibilities that could be true, if Asch was here … Dist could barely contain himself.

“I never thought I’d see you here, of all people.  It really makes me think: why, if you’re here, absolutely anyone could be.”

He gestured so broadly that he almost clipped Asch on the nose.

“Dunno.” A blatant lie; Asch remembered all-too-well the circumstances of his death. (Just because he and Dist had once been ‘comrades’ didn’t mean he would be cooperative. He vividly recalled the hand Dist played in how his -- and Luke’s -- life turned out.)

“ So this thing just makes fire. “ Ike was now fiddling with the controls a bit to see this activate and go off a few times, nodding his head curiously as he looked at the device from a few sides of it to see just how it worked.

“ Convenient. I can do a lot with this, actually.. so basically you’re just making stew, then? I can do that. Got a nearby river where you got your water from? “

“You’re kidding, right?”

Even if there were a nearby river, he would trust water from there about as much as clothing made of tissue. “We have running water.” He reached over to turn on the sink for a couple of seconds. “You can use that, okay?”

“ … Alright. It kinda looks like making a stew so I just heat up some water and add everything to it? “ Looking over at the stove where Asch was standing.. he was curious as to how to actually start the fire. 

“Are you crazy?” Asch stared incredulously at Ike. “Do you want to burn down the apartment?” He huffed, pointing at the knobs to control the stove; as a demonstration, he turned one of them on for a few seconds. “Use those.”

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The grin on his face is three parts smug, seven parts unmistakeable.

(And there’s no time for lingering – not for him, not for Asch. He doesn’t think about his glove against Asch’s bare palm, the heat that radiates from him. He doesn’t let the dizziness overcome him, a part of him that wants to pull back and make sure every part of him is still there. Asch wears shock better than he wears anger, and that’s what he needs to focus on right now.

That’s all Luke lets himself think about.)

‘You never told me how’re you doing,’ he points out, releasing Asch – eventually. They come apart like two normal people should, and Luke flexes his hands, wiggles ten fingers in front of his face and at the other boy. The autumn air is crisp, the leaves beneath their feet crunch with every step, and everything feels just a little more – loud. He is alive. ‘Or why you’re moping in a park. Did you think you’d see Natalia here?’

There is a pile of leaves just to his left, to Asch’s right. Luke turns his head to regard it, and he leans back, rubbing at his arm. The way he shifts his weight is all dive in, but he glances back at Asch, and the consideration in his eyes is push him in.

He rocks back and forth on his feet, a ball of kinetic energy.

(All his force is small talk, in telling Asch to keep going.)

Nope. So the best he can come up with is:

“I’m not moping.”

... Which is honestly kind of pathetic, and Asch clumsily attempts to salvage things by adding, “And I didn’t know she had a dog.” (Goddamn.) He lets out a slightly frustrated sigh, deciding to focus the all-too-familiar poke of irritation at the fact that Luke can’t seem to stop moving -- instead of at himself, and the astounding lack of eloquence he’s been graced with.

And he doesn’t miss what Luke glances at, either, or the look in his eyes that doesn’t bode well for Asch. He shifts his weight away from the other boy.

He sighs again. “I was just taking a walk,” he says. “Or is that something I’m not allowed to do?” Asch sounds a little defensive, offended even, but there’s not actually all that much heart in his words.

“And you?” he finally shoots back. “What are you doing here?”

He watches her with a wary eye as she floats down. The train still hasn’t arrived yet, which means he can either find somewhere else to stand and wait ... or he can stay. (The wisdom of the latter is questionable at best.)