Brunner Street isn't that bad of a place to live. It tethers on the cusp between the lower and middle class, but if he's remembering Maki's age right, she's probably just familiar with the college apartments.

The clouds above him look heavy, even as they curl themselves around the midday sun. They lack the dark grey sickness of impending rain, but Tatsuya still guides his bike to sit under a dark green steel roof that hangs over the sidewalk of Brunner Street's more attractive looking buildings.

Which, he notes while staring at a torn poster for some west coast starlet's tour, isn't to any higher standards here.

Removing his helmet, Tatsuya glances up the flank of the building, and tucks the helmet under his arm to wander forward, counting the building's numbers before he stands before something that resembles an apartment building's exterior. He opens the door and steps inside, feeling something he wants to call anxiety settle in his teeth as he ascends a staircase to the second floor.

It's not fear, he reminds himself when he steps foot on the open floor. He wonders if Naoya's grown his hair our, or if he stopped matching grey with grey like a boy's school uniform. A young woman on her cellphone walks past Tatsuya, turning to walk down the stairs without any more of a glance towards him. She speaks loudly into the lit up screen of whatever conversation she's having, something about college roommates, while Tatsuya waits by a drab looking apartment door -

It opens with only a few moments between a knock and the silence that follows. Tatsuya's hand is still in the air when he stares Maki Sonomura in the eyes, whose own widen in anticipation of someone else.

"Tatsuya?" her mouth breaks into an incredulous grin as she says his name, reaching forward to take his lowering hand in both of hers to shake it. "How did you know we were here!? I haven't heard from you in so long!"

"Maki," he manages to say, the tension of his shoulders relieving when it isn't Naoya he finds greeting him. He shakes her hand with muted enthusiasm - but when you're reconnecting with a man like Tatsuya, that's the best you can expect. "Met up with Inaba while I was looking for your boyfriend. You're - still together, right?"

"Of course we are," she says with a tug of her hands, pulling him in and reaching forward to hug him close. Maki airkisses the space below his ear, and then holds Tatsuya in a warm embrace from around the shoulders. He can feel her smile pressed against the leather of his jacket, and his one-armed return hug is as earnest as he can manage in the position he's in. Dropping down off her tip-toes and to her posture once more, Maki gives Tatsuya the space to enter the hallway and reaches to close the apartment door behind him.

"Do you want something to drink? Naoya went out a while ago. I can make you some tea, or coffee-"

"Tea," Tatsuya says, walking forward with a curious step towards two open arches - his left leads to the kitchen, and the right into a small living area. He can hear Maki turn into the kitchen behind him, as he sets his helmet on a table close to the room's entrance.

It's small. There's a couch beside him, in front of that table, which holds a lamp in the middle, two photographs of separate families, and an ash tray on the farthest end. The paint on the walls are a drab sea green, though Maki's paintings from highschool and some after line the walls at varying heights. The television impresses him, but everything surrounding it reminds Tatsuya of early 2000s furniture, possibly scourged from their parents' basements and thrift stores. He takes a seat on the middle cushion of the only couch, and notices the coffee table - it has a deep mark down the center's edge.

He remembers that mark from when he was younger. This is the coffee table that once was in Naoya's parent's living room. A coaster with a floral pattern covers a heat stain, created by a too-hot dinner plate Masao Inaba ate off of back in tenth grade.

In the kitchen, he can hear Maki run the sink and catch the water in a kettle.

"You're looking for Naoya, right?"

"Yeah."

"Is there a reason why? Did you call him up recently?"

"I didn't know you two were back here," Tatsuya says, reaching for the cigarettes he bought on the drive over, pausing before he opens the Redwood box and pulls one out. "Am I allowed to smoke in here?"

He can hear the pause between Maki's breath and the response she was about to speak. "That's fine. Just use the ash tray."

Tatsuya reaches around behind him to pick up the ash tray - he glances down into the bowl and notices a little design, a small smoking devil looks up at him with a blue and white design, grinning deviously as he smokes a little devil-sized cigar. Placing it on the coaster, Tatsuya pulls out his lighter and lights a cigarette. He can hear Maki reaching for mugs in the kitchen.

"I didn't have your number either," she calls to him. "Naoya mentioned he wanted to go see you once, but I take it you two never met up."

"Do you know why?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just forgot - I promise he'd never intentionally do that to you, Tatsuya. You two are close."

"Yeah," he muses, leaning back on the couch as Maki comes in with two teacups with a fake china appearance. Two teabag labels hang over the lips, and she places them on two other coasters.

"I'll bring in a plate to put your teabag on. Do you like sugar or milk with your tea?"

"Not really," he admits, sitting up and tapping the ash into the tray. "Thank you."

She smiles, standing up and quickly moving back into the kitchen, where she returns with a rather large plate with the same porcelain appearance, a small pitcher of milk, and a sugar bowl half empty with soft white sugar, a spoon sticking out from within. She takes a seat next to Tatsuya, who moves out of the way and brings the ash tray with him, and prepares her tea, spooning generous amounts of sugar into the murky liquid.

"What brought him back from Florida?" Tatsuya asks, and Maki leans her head to the side, as she pours the milk into her tea.

"I think it was getting too expensive to live down there," she says, stirring her tea. "Masao told me that they had a really nice apartment in Orlando, and that it was really nice for a while. But they both lost their jobs in 2012, and they started struggling to stay on their feet when they got new jobs."

"Were you two still talking while they were down there?"

"Sometimes. We'd see each other being active on LifeInvader most of the time, but we emailed every so often, too." Maki pauses to take a sip, and Tatsuya mirrors her, drinking the scalding tea for a short sip. It's chamomile. He's impressed that she could tolerate drinking it as anything other than plain. "He definitely started chatting to me more often towards the end of 2013, though. Said he still thought about me, and wondered if I felt the same way."

She looks at Tatsuya with a flirtatious smile. "I told him, of course. I missed him a lot, you know. We only broke up because he was moving."

"Good for you," Tatsuya says, taking another sip of his tea, before deciding he doesn't like it after all, putting it back on the table.

"They've only been back for a few months. Again, I promise, they weren't hiding from you or anything."

"I believe you, Maki. I'll just ask him myself."

There's a key, rattling in the door down the hallway. Maki's eyes light up, and Tatsuya's do as well, in their own way. She immediately is up and out of the couch, as Tatsuya muses how he's summoned him - or maybe Masao, depending on if laundry's done or not.

"Keep quiet, I'll lead him here," she says, practically bursting with excitement for the coming reunion. He can hear her socked steps bounding down the wooden floor, and when the door open, a man's voice remarks her in surprise.

"Welcome home, baby!" Maki beams, voice muted with the distance between. "I have a surprise for you!"

Tatsuya adjusts how he sits, arms on his knees. The anticipation sits in his throat again, and he suddenly isn't sure if he should be standing or sitting. If the tea wasn't so bitter, maybe he'd take another sip, calm his nerves as Maki leads her boyfriend down their apartment's hall, tells him to don't peek! as she leads him forward into the living room, stepping to the side -

"Tatsuya, he's home!"