PhD in Booty

Well, another day, another shitty timeline and place.

Digging through the rubble, he tried to find something that could be of use in this decrepit place. He doubted it, but hey. You never know. Besides, he’d been in worse situations. This was like, more of a middle ground. Not necessarily bad, but not great either. Still had zero depth perception which was great. Doubted he was going to be getting those limbs back no matter where he went.

Tossing away some of the rubble, he made sure to throw it on the side he could see on---not wanting to chuck something at someone’s head on accident. Especially since most of it seemed to be rock. So far, it was all useless.

“Oh come on,” he called out, standing up straight and dropping another piece of brick. “Isn’t there anything useful in here?”

“Life…”

“…Is that really what this is?”

You shaved.

He was already aware the other was at the party since he’d run into Clover, but he was still happy to be able to find him. Smiling, he walked over and slung his arm around Light’s neck, leaning on him probably more than he should.

“Glad to see you made it to the pool party.”

Joshua’s pretty unamused by Sigma’s excuse for a bad joke, eyes narrowing as he glares at the other. “So you’re, like… actually competent. Huh, the more you know.” Tired of walking, he opts for his levitation, floating alongside Sigma at eye-level. He prods both of the other’s arms, feeling for any major differences between them. “You did a good job.”

“As for myself…” He waits until they can round a corner in Sector Three, walking right up to his mansion. “I finally upgraded, for one thing.”

“Yes I’m well aware I come off as a useless frat boy, but I am truly capable of doing something.”

As he said this, he felt his right arm smack into a pole, wincing a bit from the contact. So maybe he was doing worse with the depth perception than he thought. It was a learning process after all.

“And yeah sure, just go touching my arms while you float and shit,” rolling his eye, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Thanks though. Now I just gotta remember how I did it.”

Looking over at the mansion in front of them, he just stared at it for a moment. Figured Joshua would opt for a mansion.

“I’m certain it’s fine at a glance.” The smirk returns as he turns back to clean down the machine, wiping down any part used. It was often commented on how impressively deft he was, but really it was having Clover do the task in front of him, and then him simply repeating it a few dozen times.

They were practically vibrating out of their chairs every time he had to learn how to make a new machine. After the third time, they learned to simply give some of the drinks away. (Seeing-eye human indeed…)

“Robot eye?” He hummed in thought - who was it that asked him once if he would fix his vision if he could. Although their situations may be fundamentally different, despite the riff from before, he did have his eyes, albeit damaged ones.

Listening, not asking any questions about the future and the robot eye - he knew bits and pieces. He knew there were at least two Sigmas running around these timelines, and he imagined it had to do with a power he did not possess, but an esper power nonetheless.

“Well, it doesn’t quite matter, does it?” Sigma’s shift in tone indicated that he would rather not talk about it, and quite frankly Light was simply happy he was here, even if it was not in one piece. “I’ll admit to only knowing the bare minimum about much of your situation, and you’ve noticed I don’t pry into it much.”

“I know enough. I am simply glad you are here - albeit in more individual parts than before.”

Rolling his eyes, he smiled back at the other, happy to have easily moved back into their normal conversations.

Taking another sip from the latte, he nodded a bit before putting the mug down to speak. “Yeah it’s not like... It doesn’t really look like an eye. It was attached over the eye---I actually don’t really know how the doctor accomplished it or if he needed some help or something. But it functioned great.”

He knew better than to extend the offer to the other that if he did figure it out, maybe he could help with his own vision. Not to mention whatever he came up with would look... Pretty stupid over two eyes. He had to keep himself from laughing over the mental image, honestly. Though if he could actually accomplish making it look normal, maybe then he would consider asking. Even if he wasn’t in much of a rush to fix his own eye anyway.

“Mm... I wish I knew but frankly, from the scars on my arms I’m gonna just assume it was an explosion and stop it there. Hey who knows, maybe someone from the test site is in this city and can tell me. If Phi showed back up maybe she knows---pretty sure she was stuck with me there too. Thanks, though. For not prying.”

Smiling gently, he moved his hand to take the other’s.

Well if he was already running into people he knew it would make sense this was gonna happen one way or another.

Watching from a distance as Junpei tried to grab something off of a higher up shelf in the store, he contemplated what his options were here. Clearly he could just lift the other up to help him, that would definitely get some funny reaction out of him. But was it good enough. He had so many options of how to both surprise and terrify the other man at the same time it was boundless.

Eventually he settled on a classic.

With a little bit of a struggle, he managed to disconnect one of his arms, making note on how to put it back on later after this hilarious joke would ensue. Walking over to Junpei he smiled, holding out the arm.

“Hey, need a hand?”

“Nonsense,” he continued making something - a chai latte would be sweet and spicy enough so Sigma would enjoy it. And the working - the making something and the steam of the machine and the whirring of gears was enough to keep him distracted from both his own embarrassment and his excitement. He didn’t even know if they were still dating.

But that thought was pushed aside when Sigma made his joke. Setting the cup down on a platter, Light reached across the counter and took Sigma’s arm into his own. Concern crossed his brow as fingers lightly glided up the forearm. “It’s similar to mine.” He murmured, confirming for himself that Sigma’s light hearted comment was no joke.

However, he also knew it was best to take these kind of things in stride. “’Funny’ is not the word I would use,” concern left his brow as a wry smirk crossed his features. Holding on for a moment more, he let go of Sigma.

“You know,”

“You didn’t have to go and do something to utterly irresponsible. I was relying on you to be my seeing-eye human. Give Clover a bit of an early retirement. Now I’m not entirely sure your depth perception is up to the task.” Sliding the chai latte across to Sigma, he leaned on the other side of the bar.

“How did it happen?”

Before he could even bother to try and protest again he was already making him something. Well... If he really wanted to he couldn’t really refuse much more. Watching him make it, he enjoyed watching how easily it seemed to come to him to make such a thing. He must have had a lot of practice. Thanking him when the cup was set in front of him, he was about to take a sip before Light took his arm, letting him feel it.

“It is,” he agreed. “It’s a bit different though. It has the ABT I designed over it. I can see if I can make some for your arm too if you want---it’s basically indiscernible from human skin. I mean, clearly not since you could tell, but at a glance...”

Finally taking a sip from the drink, he almost choked when the other joked about him being his eyes. Smiling, he couldn’t help but laugh at the image. It was utterly ridiculous, and he was pretty sure Clover was a better fit since she could simply transmit images to him over the field.

“Yeah well so long as you stay on my left side, I think I can keep you out of harms way well enough. Besides, give me a month or two and maybe I can make my robot eye---it was pretty useful, tricked me into thinking i had full vision.”

However when he was asked how this happened, he went silent. He knew someone was going to ask that eventually---in fact he was pretty sure everyone he knew was gonna ask that. Still wasn’t like he had an answer.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, shrugging a bit. “Something happened at a test site that caused me to lose my arms and right eye, but I wasn’t there for that. The doctor didn’t bother to tell Akane what happened either so she can’t tell me. It’s a mystery.”

Particularly on days he wasn’t needed at the recording studio, or had any background music due, Light spent much of his time at the cafe. His usual job as a musician, followed by often helping his sister clean up. Admittedly, it was more his own concern at her being alone here at night.

And, well, much of his more popular customer base came at night. For whatever reason it was, he didn’t mind too much. The harp was a wonderful instrument around dusk, softly escorting night into the sky to match the incoming stars. He couldn’t see it, but he imagined it was quite beautiful.

The shuffling of feet as his performance ended, Light exchanged a few words with a few regulars, holding his harp balanced between his knees as he reached over for the case, pausing as someone else approached him. A professional, jovial expression was plastered on his face until the other spoke, and then it fell into one of surprise.

“Ah, you-”

Just how was someone supposed to react after spending a few months getting over someone, simply to find them back into your life when it was least expected. He hardly knew what to say, and he knew his expression would betray his shock. There was no playing it cool at this point, no use being calm and collected about the matter.

“You’ve caught me at a loss,” Light felt his face heat up in embarrassment as he set the harp to rest, standing. “I…You’re- When did you get back-” Light reached out, hesitating. What was he supposed to say? Were they still even together? Silence lingered as he heard the tinging of the bell signaling someone else had left the store.

“I just have to clean up.” He turned around, swallowing hard as he picked up his case, putting his harp away. “Sit down and I’ll make you something, on the house, of course. Just - a moment-” He fumbled with the case, feeling horribly like a teenager again as he did so. Why was he so nervous? Clover could surely feel how frazzled he was from across town.

Setting the harp case against the wall, he inhaled, rolling up his sleeves and moving behind the counter.

“What would you like? I can make just about anything non-alcoholic here.”

This was more or less what he expected from showing back up unannounced. A very awkward conversation, a very shocked Light, and he really hoped the other didn’t damaged his harp from fumbling from surprise. Scratching at the back of his head, he looked sheepish even though it was obvious the other couldn’t see. He really did feel bad now for giving no warning.

“Yeah... Sorry, they don’t really announce people that return. I got back today actually, I got groceries then headed over here.”

Watching as the other reached out, he froze, not sure what to do. He didn’t have to worry long about that however, watching as Light soon turned to put his harp away and keep talking, relaxing a bit. He really had not thought through how to go about this well enough before hand.

When he mentioned making him something, he was going to protest but he was already on his way over to do just that. Sighing gently, he followed after him, standing in front of the counter, leaning on it a bit.

“You don’t need to make me anything Light,” he said softly, smiling a bit at him. “But the offer is very sweet.”

Chewing on his lip for a moment, he had to think about what to say next. He didn’t want it to come out wrong or weird. It wasn’t exactly easy.

It had taken him a bit to find this place, but it was worth it in the end. The cafe itself was well done and modeled, he’d have to find Clover later and tell her how good a job she’d done. For now, he decided to just sit in a corner table and blend in with the crowd, happy to just listen to the music and read articles on his phone. He didn’t want to interrupt anyone at work after all.

When it got later and people started to filter out, clearly the place was gonna close soon, that’s when he decided to approach Light over at his harp. Admittedly part of waiting until he spoke to him was that he felt bad about disappearing so suddenly, and wasn’t entirely sure the other man wanted to know he was back. It could have been forever since he was gone---maybe he’d just be pissed off at him (he deserved that, honestly).

Still, he couldn’t just get back and pretend he wasn’t there.

“You know I never did get to hear you play harp until now, you’re really good at it.”

Sometimes he wondered why the hell these phones didn’t have the scientist’s own version of Google Maps or whatever. Honestly, it was impossible for anyone to find anything in this place save for word of mouth---and even then that was pretty damn useless more often than not. Either way, he was definitely not gonna find this place without some help.

Flagging down some dude on the street, he made extra sure not to run into anything on the street on the way over. He was definitely getting better at figuring out how to keep obstacles on his left side.

“Hey---do you know how to get to the uh... ‘Lucky Clover Cafe’? I need some directions.”

Groceries were such a pain to get. Why didn’t this city have a system already in place for just sending food straight to the citizen’s fridges? That would be so much easier and way more accessible to like... Literally everyone. If he ever saw one of those idiot scientists again he was definitely suggesting that for improvements.

Grabbing a bag of rice off of the shelves, he tossed it into his bag before turning and slamming directly into another customer. Curse the new lack of depth perception. They gave him ABT, why couldn’t they give him that cool robo eye too? This was cruel.

“Hey sorry about that, still getting used to one eye---”

Cutting himself off when he got a better look at who exactly he bumped into, he blinked once before registering who exactly it was. It sure as hell had been a while.

“Oh hey Aoi---how’s Akane have you seen her around?”

“ABT?” His eyes flitter to the arms across from him, but if he has any judgement, he’s reserving it for sometime later. This is a good chance to actually hear about Sigma’s world anyway, since it’s more than he originally thought it was– and Joshua’s realizing he actually knows jackshit about it.

He rolls his eyes as he continues home. “You can still walk and talk, right? I’ve got places to be and you’ve got things to explain.”

“Yes I can walk and talk, what do you take me for? Some old man? That’s only a small percentage of the time.”

Following after the other, he did good on his word and kept pace while still answering his other question and keeping the conversation moving.