Spinster: Whoa! Holy blazing saddle socks! Has it been THAT long since I've done anything Metal Fight related?
Nile: Yeah, it appears so. Good to have you back at least
Madoka: Where have you been all this time!?
Spinster: Burnt out for a while and lost my drive to write, happens to us all.
Reiji: Well, welcome back at any rate.
Spinster: Let me just mention before we start, I'm not 100% happy with the ending, but I'll leave that entirely up to you.
Reiji: And on that note, let's get started!
"He's gotta talk sometime, you know, say a word or something" Madoka began talking quietly to Tsubasa, who was stood beside her as they just simply watched a silent Reiji, sat on the couch reading some sort of book. Madoka found Reiji after Gingka had saved the world from Rago and Nemesis, he was wandering and staggering around the streets, seemingly with nowhere to go. Madoka took pity on him and despite everything he'd done to her friends, she offered him a place to stay. Reiji accepted, without talking, only communicating via head shakes and nods. The others were reluctant to accept him at first, but thought that anyone should be given a second chance.
"I'm surprised he hasn't said anything either" Tsubasa muttered to Madoka almost as quietly as Madoka had spoke earlier, he sat arms crossed over his chest, seemingly concerned and interested in Reiji's current behavior. "He's been living here for six weeks, he hasn't even muttered a word, not even a grunt. He seems to communicate via post-it notes for some reason" as a demonstration, Tsubasa grabbed a blank post-it note and scribbled down the words 'What are you reading?'. He then passed the note Reiji, who studied the note for a few seconds, before scribbling an answer down as he passed it back to Tsubasa.
"What does it say?" Madoka asks, leaning over Tsubasa's shoulder in an attempt to read it.
"It says 'I'm reading a book on the history of Britain, it's a good read' I must say, he has great writing skills to write all that on a post-it note that size and perfectly readable too" Tsubasa said, answering Madoka's question while studying Reiji's note. "Also, did you duct tape Gingka's mouth shut?"
Reiji nodded.
"Why did you do that?" Madoka asked. Reiji then scribbled down another note, and passed it to her. "'Cause he was getting on your nerves' Do us a favor please Reiji, do it more often please?" Madoka pleaded with Reiji. To her's and Tsubasa's shock and surprise, Reiji cracked a smile. It wasn't one of his evil sadistic ones either, it looked rather innocent and playful. This definitely surprised Madoka. Reiji gave them A-OK sign to their pleas to regularly shut Gingka up as he continued to read his book, staring intently at the pages
Madoka was left wondering, were they having some sort of effect him? Cause Reiji never smiled like that.
A few hours later
Madoka lay wide awake in bed, struggling to get to sleep. She heard a door open a few minutes beforehand, but she reasoned with herself that Reiji had probably got up to use the bathroom or something like that. She then decided to think about Reiji. When it came to interacting with people, Reiji seemed content to listen to people, but seemed to have not much patience with annoying, obnoxious people like Gingka and Masamune. He preferred to be in the company of Tsubasa and herself. If he wanted to communicate with them, he'd do via sign language when he didn't have post-it notes at his disposal, she was thankful that Tsubasa had taught her sign language in his spare time.
Another thing she wondered about was his sleep pattern, he always seemed to be up really early. She normally would get up early, but Reiji would get up a good twenty minutes before she would. She always found him in the kitchen, reading the morning paper or devouring a bowl of corn flakes, though she giggled when she remembered when he wouldn't stop eating all the boxes of Krave's.
She wondered what would take him five minutes to use the bathroom for, and why his door hadn't shut yet (That's what she was hoping for) Then she heard a massively loud thud, followed by a few others. Springing up from her bed, Madoka scrambled to her feet and carefully opened the door. She did not see anything at first, then she looked down the bottom of the stairs to find Reiji, face first on the floor. And what looked like blood underneath him. Madoka began to panic and ran fast down the stairs to Reiji's side.
"Ugh..." Reiji began to groan as he slowly lifted himself up and looked at the blood on the floor. He then looked at Madoka, who got a good look at the cut on his face, which was slightly above his left eye. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but Madoka was still worried.
"Reiji... Are you alright?" Madoka asked.
Reiji groaned again, but managed to give a firm nod.
"Let me get you some bandages, that cut looks bad" Madoka began to worry as she helped Reiji to his feet and took him to the kitchen. Flicking the lights on and making Reiji sit on a seat at the kitchen table, Madoka searched for the box the bandages were located in. She eventually found them and brought them to the table, moving Reiji's hair slightly, Madoka proceeded to wrap the bandage around the cut and tied a knot in it at the back of his head. When she was finished, Reiji looked up.
"..."
"Are you feeling better now, Reiji?" Madoka asked, hoping for some kind of answer.
"Th-Thank... you" Reiji finally spoke, struggling a bit to get the words out.
"You can talk!?" Madoka asked excitedly, giving Reiji a big hug. "It's a miracle, you can talk!"
"Whoa, easy Madoka... Still feeling... light headed a bit here" Reiji smiled, listening to his voice for the first time in a while, it seemed a bit rough from inactive use. Madoka then released her grip and looked Reiji dead in the eyes.
"Why? Why did you not talk for so long?" Madoka began to question, wondering why it had taken so long for a single sound to exit his mouth.
"I... really don't know. I guess I just didn't know the right things to say. It's not like I've ever really had a "Normal" conversation you could say, so I sort of watched how you guys communicated, studied you guys a little should I say. I wanted to learn what it was like to be remotely "Normal""
"I'd give up on the "Normal" part, Gingka's nuts beyond all belief!" Madoka began laughing, too which Reiji repsonded by pulling out a whole roll of duct tape.
"That's why I got this you could say" Reiji smirked as began to unravel part of it. "Say, I really think Gingka needs to listen sometime. What say I use some of this duct tape in "Listening Therapy"?"
"Please, please do!" Madoka pleaded with Reiji, all the while smiling.
"Heheheh... Your wish is my command, Madoka"
The end
Spinster: Well, that takes care of that
Nile: So, are you back for good and sticking around? Or are you off again?
Spinster: I'm sticking around at least, if I can get my writing drive back, you'll see me more often.
Madoka: Hopefully you can get Flatmates updated
Spinster: All in good time, and on that note. See ya next time everybody!