"I miss you two so much."
Spirit's voice is colored with static over the phone line and Kami is distracted by Maka's toddling movements around what is being to seem a very dangerous house in her newly maternal eyes, but the tone of his words makes her smile even though she's not paying a lot of attention to the meaning.
"We miss you too," she manages before she makes a grab for the back of Maka's dress. Their daughter burbles and continues trying to walk, succeeding only at churning in place while Kami holds her still by the makeshift leash. "You should see Maka, she is getting into all kinds of trouble."
"How is my little angel?" Spirit's voice drops into his special Maka-register, sacchrine-sweet ever over the distance of the phone.
"Troublesome." Kami gently tugs Maka backward and lifts her off the floor one-armed. She has gotten much better at maneuvering a squirming toddler as Maka has become more mobile and these one-handed interactions while on the phone have become more common. "Can you say hi to papa, Maka?"
Maka reaches for the phone and Kami surrenders it. It is hardly worth holding on to at the moment; at the indication of Maka's presence Spirit descended into an unintelligible combination of baby-talk and wordless affection. Maka usually can make more sense of it than Kami can; in this case she listens with an expression of precocious seriousness before grinning like sunshine. Maka's eyes have settled into a mirror of Kami's own, and her hair is coming in white-blond for now, at least, but that smile is all Spirit.
"Papa!" she enunciates carefully, and Spirit's chirp of delight is so loud that Kami can hear it even at her distance from the speaker. Maka listens for a few seconds longer, her expression serious in spite of the smile now affixed to her face, then hands the phone back to Kami with the careful focus of a child not yet very good with her finger dexterity. Kami sets her back on the floor and returns to the conversation.
Spirit is in full swing, rambling about Maka's perfection along the grooves of conversation worn soft and smooth with repetition. Kami can pick up in the middle without missing out on any real information.
"- she's so smart, did you hear how clearly she spoke? I wish I could be there all the time, there's not enough hours in the day for me to spend with her, and then to be away so often..."
"I know." Kami smiles. "We miss you too. Do you know when you'll be back yet?"
That brings Spirit down to a more functional level of conversation, as she intended it to. "It looks like tomorrow. We've got one more possible target Lord Death is worried about while we're here, but we should be able to track that one down tonight once the sun sets. We're making better time than he expected."
"That's great. I can't wait to have you back. Maka's got more energy than I do most of the time, and I know she'd love to spend some time with you while I spend some time asleep."
Spirit laughs. The advantage to his ever-increasing overseas trips with Lord Death is that his absence makes the things about him Kami loves most shine brighter, and his laugh is one of the few she can appreciate over the phone without having him physically present.
"I'll make sure it happens. I don't want Maka to forget what I look like."
"That's unlikely. I think her memory's a little longer than three days, Spirit."
"That's Death Scythe, thank you very much!" Spirit attempts a tone of offended pride, but Kami starts laughing at the incongruity before he gets halfway through, and he barely finishes the sentence before joining her.
There is a pause of almost-awkward silence before Spirit speaks again. All the father-sweet is gone from his voice and his tone is softer, like he's afraid Maka will overhear even with the protection of the phone. "How are you doing, really?"
Kami opens her mouth to declare that she is fine, that everything is great, that there are no problems and nothing for Spirit to worry about. Then she closes it, glances at where Maka is quietly (for once) amusing herself in a corner of the living room, and imitates Spirit's lower volume.
"It's not perfect. I don't have anything to do but take care of Maka, and that's too much and not enough at the same time, you know?" Spirit is so quiet Kami thinks he might have moved the receiver away from his mouth so as not to interrupt. She continues, speaking slowly so she doesn't say something she doesn't mean. "I miss you. A lot. Maka is just happy to hear from you and I know you want to be here too, and I know Lord Death needs you right now, but I really wish there was someone else he could take sometimes."
"I know." Spirit's voice is so soft now that Kami can only barely hear the words tinged with guilt and apology in equal parts. "There are some promising candidates at the Academy, but right now it's just me for most of the issues that come up."
"Don't be sorry," Kami offers. "It's not your fault that you're the best Death Scythe there is." Spirit laughs, but it is abbreviated into a token response rather than actual amusement.
"It's be okay," she continues. "There'll be some more graduates to help soon. Besides, you'll be home tomorrow. By the time Lord Death needs you again I'll be ready to steal Maka back all to myself again!"
"You'll have to take me down to get her back!" Spirit rallies, and Kami knows that she has recovered his mood from the downward slope it was following.
"Please," she deadpans. "I'm the one who made you a Death Scythe, Spirit. I've got the skills to take you down even if I am a little rusty."
This time when Spirit laughs it is sincere and warm, and Kami is still smiling when they hang up.