AN: Cheers for 684 hits!

Occurring in and around the timeline of this chapter:
K: Seven Stories - Circle Vision - Nameless Song. (Manga/Movie)


Daybreak.

"Yata, hold that thought until we can finish a drink here." Mister Mikoto told him, taking a seat at the bar, and thumping an arm down around Mister Kusanagi's shoulders.

"In that case, let's take our time." Tatara added.

While Homra's trio drank to their last moment together in the waking-dream. Anna and Yata shared a look, both of them simply happy to see the three best friends making the most of the opportunity, even if Kusanagi was ugly crying through it.

Taking Anna's hand, Yata made to lead her to the kitchen so they could prepare something for everyone to eat together.

But before making it to the door that led to the back room, Mikoto called out to him. "Hey, thanks." Mikoto nodded in Yata's direction, before his attention was pulled away by Kusanagi blowing his nose.

Yata wasn't entirely sure what he was being thanked for, there was something ambiguous about the way Mikoto had said it, that made him think that was the intent. He felt himself alight with pride all the same.

It was only after their meal of fried rice. With Kusanagi talking to Tatara, and Anna nodding off in Mikoto's lap, leaning back against his chest. That Yata resolved to bring something up with Mikoto. "So, a lot happened since you died." He started, his words stilted.

"Yeah." Mikoto acknowledged, he didn't sound surprised.

"Saruhiko and I reconnected."

"Good to hear."

"I didn't realize how much he was going through at the time, I was just so focused on what I was doing. It's a great feeling you know, belonging to a social group. Since my parents were busy raising my younger half siblings, and I'd cut ties with everyone from school except Saruhiko. I was excited about making new friends and becoming an adult, and I guess I just never realized Saruhiko wasn't joining in. That he- I don't know, hadn't found a place to belong to like I did." Lifting his head from his beer, Yata found Mikoto wore a frown.

"It doesn't help that my power reminded him of his old man." Mikoto got out at last.

"He said that to you?" Yata wondered.

"Anna let me know."

"Ah." Yata let an easy quiet span out, then commented. "He told me how it happened, how he joined Scepter 4. He told me, you encouraged him to choose for himself where he wanted to be, and accepted his choice. I didn't get that back then either, that you might support his decision."

"That brat finally grew up huh." Mikoto seemed to say more to himself than for Yata.

Having said so much already, Yata continued the momentum. Summoning all his courage to say what he had to say next, like he might summon flames. He spoke under his breath. "I uh, I realized I like him, as in-"

Mikoto saved him from spelling it out. "Is that so."

"I think I'm gay, maybe bi? But probably gay."

Mikoto just nodded, and breathed out a cloud of smoke.

Forging on Yata asked boldly. "It's similar for you and the Blue King right?"

Mikoto let out another puff of smoke. "Yeah."

"How?" Yata asked inarticulately, hoping he would be understood. "I mean, you fought with him from day one through to-"

At this Mikoto actually snorted a laugh. "All part of it. But if you're looking to me, to know how to tell Fushimi what you feel. I'd recommend your usual approach."

"Huh?" At first Yata couldn't decipher what Mikoto meant, but in the next instant he practically jumped in his seat. "Straight forward...except less 'straight' I guess." He couldn't help a lopsided grin at his own joke.

"I'm going to tuck her in." So saying. Mikoto lifted a soundly sleeping Anna in one arm like she weighed nothing. And headed for the back, were the stairs lead up to the floors above.

"Mister Mikoto thank you!" Yata called after him, loud enough to be heard, but avoiding waking Anna.

Without pausing, Mikoto lifted a hand in acknowledgment.

Once the two had disappeared through the door, Yata realized the further meaning of Mikoto's thanks earlier. Mikoto had been able to see the man he loved again, due in part to Yata's dream.

This realization convinced Yata that he needed to let Saruhiko know how he felt, once he woke up. Unlike Mister Mikoto, he was fortunate and had the chance, if Saruhiko felt the same way, to spend his life with the one he quite possibly loved.
_

By time Mikoto reached the upper floors, Anna had come around, though she was still bleary eyed.

Nudging the laundry door open with his foot. Mikoto sat her on the laundry basket's lid, and handed her her toothbrush with the paste already on it, as well as a cup of water to rinse with. Brushing his own teeth and washing his face, while she sleepily scrubbed away, as per their routine the past few nights.

Resting his hands on the sink, Mikoto blinked water from his eyes then glanced at Anna via the mirror. "You still have your strain powers." It wasn't a question, in this waking-dream they were still sharing thought, feeling and memory. He could sense her drowsy gladness, and the resolution to return to the waking that tempered her good spirits.

"I can sense how happy you are." She told him in her honest manner.

He at last met her red eyes over his shoulder instead of through the mirror. "It's been good seeing you."

Setting her toothbrush in the cup, she let Mikoto take it to be washed. "It's not going to be easy living life without you near." She got out in a small voice. "But I can feel it, you won't forget me, and that when I see you again I'll still be your daughter. I don't need our red to be sure of that."

Lifting her onto his hip, Mikoto carried her through to her bedroom. "It's like you say." His voice held and his words were understated. But he knew she must be able to feel for herself, feel how everything in him burned to remain here to watch over his daughter, to see her grow up. But he consoled himself with the knowledge that her father, Munakata, would be there for her every step of the way.

Sitting her on her bed, he pulled her canopy across, and turned away to let her change into her pink nightgown in privacy.

She announced, after a moment's rustling "You can look again."

Swiveling back, Mikoto tucked her blankets up around her little face.

Anna wiggled around to get comfortable. "There's something else, isn't there, a separate reason you've been so happy. Reisi?"

Mikoto dropped his head, but she still saw his smile, and returned it.

"Yeah, who would have guessed he'd propose." He answered.

Anna let out a little gasp, and clapped both hands over her mouth, but her laugh still escaped. "It's like a story book. What did you say?" She asked excitedly.

"'Yes' of course, he and I are doomed to each other." He used subverted language, but his heart betrayed him, becoming weightless at the thought of that night and each successive night shared between them.

Taking a hold of his hand, Anna promised. "He and I will do our best in the waking." Then hopefully. "But while we're still here, could you read to me until I fall asleep?"

"Alright." Nudging her cheek with his hand affectionately. Mikoto opened the book on her bed stand to the page marker, and dropped down in the bedside chair.
_

Yata woke at daybreak, becoming aware of three things simultaneously. One; he had either had the most lifelike dream experienced by any human ever, or that boy who called himself the voice of the slate, had really drawn people from all over time and space to one patchwork of a dreamscape. Two; he needed to give Saruhiko a call right away. Three; it was Anna's foot falls on the steps leading down to the bar, that had woken him as well as Mister Kusanagi beside him.

In the next instant, the owner of those foot falls was rounding the bar, to collect something from the floor. That something Yata saw, was the marble she lost the day she moved out, now broken. For a long while Anna peered at the pieces of glass in her hands, an expression of concentration shaping her features.

Yata for his part, got the impression he shouldn't interrupt or distract her, so said nothing. Very slowly and quietly, descending from the bar seating, Mister Kusanagi doing the same.

Closing her fingers around the broken marble, Anna shut her eyes tight. Opening them again, and releasing a slow breath, she turned to Yata saying. "My powers are gone."

Starting surprisedly at this announcement, Yata tugged aside the neck of his top, finding that the symbol of Homra remained. Holding out his hand, he attempted to gather the flames to his palm, but there simply weren't any flames to be gathered. It had been so long since he had been simple blood and bone, with no heat or energy to direct as he willed it, that the sensation was strange to him now. It was a feeling a bit like being numbed, he could only imagine what it must be like for Anna.

"Izumo? Misaki?" For once Anna sounded entirely unsure, her voice colored by concern.

Yata shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm-we're all going to be ok." He told her, and despite that his voice sounded distant and unreal to his own ears, he knew that what he had said was true. No one dared speak it, but they had all been ready for this eventuality when they decided to break the slate, and until now their powers had been in decline. They'd all make it through this, they'd all adapt.

"That's right." Mister Kusanagi sounded much more sturdy than Yata. "But that doesn't mean we're not Homra any more, Homra is it's people, not power." He assured Anna and Yata both

Even though Yata knew that much already, it was a comfort to hear. He noted the same tension he felt, visibly ease from Anna's face.