"One of my girlfriends was looking at you the other day, big guy. I had to distract her. What are you talking about?"

Jeez, another guy with multiple girls, what’s with that!

    this certainly wasn’t what she was expecting on her late-night trip to the convenience store. her ice cream and the latest issue of ‘girls goss’ would have to wait it seemed.

    “ woah … woah! you shouldn’t be standing up right now?! “

you shouldn’t be alive right now ???

having been one of the designated healers of her team back home, yukari seemingly acts on instinct - mind becoming clearer as she summons her persona, the faint image of io appearing behind her.

  “ try and keep this a secret okay? “

“ io, dia! “

the healing spell is cast over the much taller male and yukari breathes a sigh of relief, watching it heal his wounds as she sets down next to him. the brunette removes her sweater and begins to clean the blood off of him with it.

    “ there. try not to move for a bit okay? i’ll stay with you until you’re fit to go … how did you even get like this in the first place? “

Eyes snap up, her voice sounding fuzzed against the thunderous ringing in his ears. He wants to tell her to forget it, that he’ll be fine and had suffered way worse. But before words could materialise, she invoked some kind of apparition, and within seconds the pain was already ebbing. 

Not the strangest thing Shizuo had ever experience, but up there with the rest.

Hands ingrained with gentle intent ( where his knew only recklessness and violence ) spur a twitch of muscles, the contact so foreign that he can’t help but shy away, clumsily surrendering to it after with sagging shoulders.

❝You don’t have to do this, I’m fine.❞ His guilt accumulating as red stains soaked deeper into her sweater.

A battered down park on the fringe of the Mistwood is where he found an initial spot of solace. Out of bounds enough to avoid most trouble, not deep enough into the woodlands to get himself lost. Only, Shizuo wasn’t alone as he’d first assumed. Barely an hour after seating himself on an old bench's splintered frame and well into reaching the end of his first pack of cigarettes, a tiny girl came skipping into view. 

To say he was surprised was an understatement, to say he wasn’t extremely concerned about her presence this far out in the sticks, was another.

❝What’re you doing out here alone, kid?❞

❝I’ll have four of the sugar ghost cookies, please.❞

Continuing to pad around his bar tender uniform, the slow, dawning realisation that his phone--and its Spirazon Wallet app-- might have been forgotten on the kitchen counter in his haste to leave that morning, tugged a long, disheartened sigh from his lips.

❝Actually, nevermind.❞

❝What?❞

It’ll pass soon enough.

This wasn’t right.  No matter where he went, it felt like a wrong turn.  This ward had semblance to home, though it was rather vague, it just wasn’t quite the same.  To say he felt alone would be wrong, it was a sort of unsettling helplessness that had begun to rear it’s head.

He could pride himself on being a strategist all he wanted, but this was not something he felt quite capable of dealing with at the moment.  Naturally, his first instinct was to brood.  Tokoyami knew that wouldn’t get him anywhere.  Perhaps, the first step would be to find his living arrangements and work from there.

“Townhouse 254, huh…”

Trapped in a similar predicament himself after what feels like hours of walking around in circles, Shizuo can’t help but accidentally overhear the kid’s murmurings. His ears prick, slow strides carrying him closer to confirm he’d heard the number clearly.

❝Hey, did you just say Townhouse 254?❞

❝That’s where I am too.❞ 

As proof, he tugged a crumpled note out of his back pocket and presented it, giving his potential roommate a quick once over from behind violet tinted shades. The thought of sharing his living space filled him with deep, dark dread, but the kid looked ok. The bird head was a bit quirky, but who’s Shizuo to judge when his best friend is a headless faerie.