Rei and Takemichi drove to the prison, Reis anxiety had grown every single second that passed. "We didn't tell him you were coming for this visit so if you decide you aren't up for it you can change your mind." The blonde said, looking over at her from the driver's seat as she fiddled with the strings of her oversized sweatshirt. "I promised Keisuke I would take care of him. There is no changing my mind at this point." It was the first time in months she'd said Bajis name, it sent a sharp pang through her heart when she did. Even months later the hurt hadn't gone away, the ghost of his smile lingered on her mind. Though it was better than the alternative that would occasionally hit her, his body laying on the ground slowly growing colder.

Eventually the jail came into view, Takemichi parked her van in a parking space. "You want me to come in with you?" He asked and Rei thought about it for a moment, while a bit of moral support would be nice she needed to do this alone. "No it's ok, I'll see you when I'm done, thank you Takemichi." He nodded and she exited the vehicle taking a deep breath of the warm summer air.

Once she moved into the building she was surprised by how sterile it was, it almost reminded her of a hospital. Approaching the front desk, which was hemmed in by plexiglass, felt nerve wracking. "Uhm Hi, I'm here to visit Hanemiya Kazutora?" Her voice sounded so meek and the woman looked at her with a warm smile, setting her a bit at ease. "Yup, just go through those doors over there, and take a left and you're gonna want room three. We'll let him know someone's here to visit." Rei nodded, moving towards the doors she'd directed her too and stepping through them. Making her way down the tiled corridor and making a left. When she got to the room numbered three she took a deep breath in order to calm her racing heart down a bit before she entered.

Luckily she'd gotten here first and peered around the room as she sat down. The room was small with a thick pane of plexiglass splitting it into two sides, a little circle in the plexiglass with a number of holes in it to allow for talking. There was a small counter that she rested her arms on as she waited for him. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long and her heart practically stopped when the door popped open and Kazutora stepped through. His hair had grown out a bit, the blonde highlights he had were beginning to fade. But it was undoubtedly Kazutora, he stopped dead when he saw her just inside the door. His sandy eyes taking her in, watching her carefully like if he blinked she was just going to be gone. "You're really here?" He asked, finally approaching the window she sat in front of, though he did not yet sit himself. "Yeah, I'm really here. Sorry it took me a while. I was…I am still kind of a mess." She rubbed the back of her head, suddenly feeling embarrassed at the state she'd been in for the last nine months. He was staring at her, still in total disbelief that she was here. "I didn't think you'd come see me." He said, finally moving to sit down and she gave him a small smile. "I promised you I wasn't gonna abandon you this time, remember?" He looked like he was about to cry, her heart squeezed uncomfortably in her chest. To see him was amazing,but to be separated by a pane of plexiglass was killing her. She wanted to hug him, to tell him she wasn't going anywhere. "I remember, but that was before…everything had happened." Rei nodded quietly, it was true. That fact didn't matter though, she'd made a promise. She told him she wasn't going to abandon him and she meant it, her promise to Baji only solidified that. "A promise is a promise. I still intend to kick your butt when you get out too. Didn't forget that part of the promise either." She teased and he smiled, God she was so glad to see him smile again. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. "I'll be looking forward to it. Just as long as you still patch me up afterwards." Rei pretended to think about it for a moment. Tapping her finger against her lips as if deep in contemplation. "Hmm I had promised that hadn't I? Suppose I'll have to uphold that as well then." Giving him a small cheeky smile, her heart ached a little bit. She knew eventually this time would come to an end and she'd have to leave. "I missed you so much. I've been worried about you. Chifuyu and Takemichi would only tell me so much." She could tell he was looking over every part of her he could see, she hoped he didn't notice how much thinner she looked. It would probably only worry him. Hearing him say he missed her felt better than it should have. "I missed you too. Honestly, just picture Chifuyu trying to get me to eat ramen while I'm just curled up in a blanket nest. That's a pretty accurate summary of the last nine months." She left out being thrown fully clothed into showers by Chifuyu, crying a lot, having to be led to school by the hand by Hinata and Takemichi. "So how's everything been in here? Chifuyu and Takemichi didn't tell me much either." The last thing Rei wanted to do was talk about how depressed she'd been, she wanted to hear him talk. Even if it was about nothing at all, she just wanted to hear his voice. "It sounds like he took good care of you. Things here aren't bad, I'm trying to get better. I'm in therapy now, been doing a lot of reading, thinking about you a lot…and Baji too." She was glad he was in therapy, hopefully with ten years ahead of him he'd get better. The thought occured to her she may also want to look into therapy considering her nine months of depression. "I'm glad you're working on getting yourself better. I…I think about you and Kei a lot too. It's weird though it wasn't so much actual thoughts as weird disjointed memories of you and him. You with your dumb haircut and him wearing those ugly glasses he thought would make him smarter." She snickered at the memory as it was one she found crossing her mind randomly. Kazutora cracked a little smile. "My haircut wasn't even that bad." He tried to defend and Rei shot him a look. Absolutely astounded even all these years later he couldn't admit it. "You looked like such a tool! Me and Keisuke both thought so, but you demanded that it was cool!" Kazutora enjoyed seeing her smile, the one that said she couldn't believe him. The way her eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth quirked the littlest bit. "I missed that face." He said and her cheeks lit up a warm pink color, God he'd missed how flustered she would get. "Yeah well you're about to be really sick of it, Takemichi told me you guys can do video calls and I expect at least one every week." The thought of being able to talk to her at all made his head spin. He'd spent so long without her and the thoughts and even dreams he had of her didn't do her justice. "I could never get sick of your face, Rei. I'll call you whenever I can if it means I can see you." Her face got even more flushed and he grinned, wondering if she'd still be this cute over a video call. Something led him to believe that she would in fact always be this cute. Before she could think up a retort there was a little buzz that signified their meeting time was up. She felt a bit panicked, she'd been so worried about seeing him she hadn't even thought of what leaving him was going to be like.

Clearly Kazutora noted her panic as he stood up and put his hand on the little divider. "Hey you're alright, I'll call you tomorrow night ok?" Gingerly pressing her own hand against her side of the plexiglass wall she nodded, still feeling as though she may cry. It felt so wrong to just…leave him here. "Ok, I'll talk to you then" she tried to smile at least a little bit and she could tell that he also didn't want their meeting to be over so soon. But after a moment his hand dropped from the panel that separated them and he walked out of the room, though she did not miss the backwards glance he cast at her as the door slipped closed.

It was only once he was gone that she let her hand move from its spot, moving to exit the room. While she was happy she'd gotten to see him her heart also felt heavy, knowing that this was going to be as close as she could get to him for the next ten years. Rei tried to shake it off, making her way back out to her van. 'He isn't gone forever, just for now. He's getting better, he needs help to get better.' was the thought she chose to keep in her mind as she got back into her van with Takemichi and they began their drive back home.

The rest of that day was a blur, Kazutora took over her thoughts entirely. Takemichi didn't really seem to notice her change in mental state, but Hinata did of course. That night while she was sitting in the younger girls room, while Hinata sat braiding her hair she simply said it. "You really love this Kazutora person, don't you?" Reis' face lit up, unable to move to face her as she was still only midway through the braid. "W-what makes you say that?" She asked with a bit of a stutter and she heard Hinata giggle. "Because ever since you came back you've had this faraway look on your face. Smiling out of nowhere, you are, very obviously, smitten." The younger girl said and Rei felt a bit embarrassed that it was so apparent. Here she thought she'd been doing a good job of hiding exactly how she felt. Then again Chifuyu had noticed it as well before everything happened. "Am I really that obvious?" She asked as the girl finally tied off her braid and she felt the weight of it hit her back. Turning around in order to actually face her now. "Maybe not to everyone else, but I see it. So are you gonna wait for him?" She asked laying back into her bed and Rei leaned against it, thinking for a moment. "Yeah, I mean I don't even know if he feels the same way as me. But I'll still wait." Remembering the night he'd kissed her, the night she told her she loved him came rushing back to her mind. The thought of him kissing her and the feelings that had elicited in her turned her cheeks red. But he'd never said he loved her, to the contrary he made her leave.

The two girls spent most of the night discussing this, going over their relationship in detail. Until finally it was nearly one in the morning and Rei went to bed. Collapsing into the soft sheets and very quickly finding herself unconscious.

The next day she was on pins and needles the whole day, just waiting for Kazutora to call her. She had her interview for the transcriptionist job Hinatas mother had helped her get. They'd given her the job and she was expected to start within two days. Rei found herself beyond excited to work her first actual job. She'd called Chifuyu and told him all about it and he of course had been happy for her. The two had also talked about her visit with Kazutora, she had admitted to him that the hardest part was leaving which he'd understood. 'Just remember don't put your whole life on pause Rei, you can wait for him to get out. But don't stop moving forward.' Chifuyu tended to surprise her with how sharp he was, the level of insight he had. She of course had promised him she would keep moving forward.

Now of course here she sat just waiting for him to call her as he'd promised he would the previous day. She'd checked her ringer at least a thousand times, made sure she had the app for the video call all set up with her number. Hinata and her family had left the house for the evening, apparently her father had a break in a case he had been working for awhile so they'd gone to celebrate. Of course Rei had been invited but she'd declined, saying she was waiting on a call from a friend. Hinata of course gave her the cheekiest of grins when she said that.

Rei finally made the decision to shower, figuring it would kill some time while she waited. Of course no sooner had she put shampoo in her hair that her phone started going off. She fell out of the shower, scrambling to grab the phone and answering it. Kazutoras face popped up on the screen and when he saw her his face lit up with an amused smile. "Am I interuptting something? I can always call back." He said and Rei, still half on the floor half I'm the tub shrieked a. "No! No it's fine! Hold on lemme just get this crap outta my hair." Setting her phone down on the toilet lid so he wouldn't get an eyeful of her boobs while she pulled herself up. "You're adorable, did you fall out of the shower trying to answer my call?" He saw right through her ask always and she yelled out an indignant 'No!' as she rinsed out her hair, quickly grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself and picking back up her phone. "You totally did. If you were busy I could have called you back." He offered again and Rei shook her head, making her way back into the guest room that had slowly become her own. "I wasn't even that busy, I was just taking a shower. I can always take another one later." She said dismissively as she moved to sit on her bed, not even bothering to get herself dressed. "You know you're gonna catch a cold if you stay like that." Kazutora commented and she rolled her eyes at him. "Ah yes thank you I appreciate your insight. What're you my mother?" She quipped and Kazutora chuckled a bit, adjusting his tablet ever so slightly in his grip. "No, I just worry about you Rei. Last thing you need is to get sick." It was sweet that he was worrying about her in such a way, it made her smile a little bit. "I'll be fine, promise. So I got good news, got myself my first legit adult job now." Kazutora was impressed, she'd only just pulled herself out of a nine month depression and she already had a job? "No kidding? So fast?" He asked and she nodded huge smile cracking across her face. "I know right? Hinas moms company was hiring work from home transcriptionists, she set me up with an interview and I dunno I guess I did good? I start in two days." She was rather proud of herself, and Kazutora was proud of her too. It also took a weight off of his mind that she wasn't going back to selling herself as she had been previously. Though now that he thought about it he hadn't seen her do that for a long time. "That's awesome, and obviously you did good. I would expect nothing less." He said with a small smile and she was absolutely beaming with pride. "You're really sweet you know that? I can't wait, I can totally set everything up for us for when you get out. Not like I don't have awhile to get it all sorted, but I'm still excited." He felt his heart lurch ever so slightly, she'd just gotten this new job and the first thought in her mind wasn't what she could do for herself. It was what she could do for them, it was her planning for ten years down the road for him. "Oh yeah what kinda things are you gonna have set up? now you got me curious." Kazutora really just wanted to hear her say it, to regale him with all of her plans for the future. A future she was planning for both of them. "Well I figure first I gotta start small, get myself in therapy like you so I'm all mentally stable or as close as I can get. Then I gotta get an apartment, figuring I'll get one kinda close to where you are now so I can come see you more. Make sure it has two rooms, cuz for now I can use the second room as an office and if I still live there when you get out that can be your room. Also a new car and-hey are you crying?!" Rei panicked as much as he was smiling she could see tears even from the other side of the video call. "You weren't supposed to notice that." He said wiping at his face and she stared at him. "This was supposed to be a happy thing, I didn't mean to make you cry." Now she felt bad, immediately assuming he was sad she was going to be doing all of this without him. "It is a happy thing Rei, but don't…don't plan your whole future around me ok? You might decide down the road I'm not what you want. Ten years is-" she cut him off entirely. "Kazutora Hanemiya knock that right off! I am not planning my whole future around you. I am planning a whole future for us. I promised Keisuke I would do three things 'live a good life, take care of Kazutora, be happy' and I am keeping that damn promise. So don't give me none of that ten years is a long time shit cuz it's not. Lemme give you some perspective, If I manage to make it to an eighty year old lady. Tits down to my knees, ten years will be one eighth of my entire life. That really isn't even that much." It was only once she stopped talking that she realized he was merely sitting back in stunned silence. Maybe she had gone too far? Or maybe she'd said the words in a harsher way than she intended to? "You really put a lot of thought into this huh?" He asked, breaking the silence and Rei nodded, she had for the last two days. It had been all she could think about. "Yeah, I am….planning all this out has actually really been helpful. I know there are gonna be times that are shitty and hard to cope with. But it's all just character development for the eventual happy ending you know? Just gotta keep that end goal in sight." Rei didn't know when the conversation had taken such a serious turn. Her words were honest and concise. Though she left out the part where if she wasn't planning for the future for him and her together, even if not in a romantic sense, she knew there was the potential she would lose herself to despair. Losing Baji and having Kazutora taken away had done a number on her for months. Rei didn't want to backslide into that again. "So you're an anime protagonist now?" Kazutora asked with a little smile and Rei snickered. "Yeah I guess so, if I'm the protagonist then what does that make you?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head and the littlle smile he'd been wearing grew ever the slightest bit. "Obviously I'm the love interest." Rei practically fell off the bed at that, and whatever face she was making was clearly a good one as Kazutora began laughing. "You're such a menace! You can not just say things like that!" Rei said, which only caused him to laugh harder, clearly trying to stifle himself with an arm. He was cute when he laughed, she'd missed seeing that more than she ever would have realized. "It's true though, you're basing your desires, your goals, the things you want to do, around me, around us. That's basically the definition of a love interest. It's actually rather sweet." Rei rolled her eyes at him, he knew how she felt and he was using it. God it was driving her crazy. "You're a brat. Fine so if you're the protagonist of your own anime plotline am I your love interest?" The question wasn't necessarily as blunt as 'do you love me' but it may as well have been. He seemed to think about it for a moment before he answered her. "Yeah, I mean I started doing therapy and all that for myself cuz I knew I needed it to be better…but now I kinda realized the reason I even want to do better is you. So yeah I guess that would make you my love interest." Reis' heart absolutely soared and she had to hold herself back from jumping up and down. She was the love interest in his story, he felt the same way she did. "Ok now it's my turn to cry, that's probably the nicest thing you've said to me since we were little kids." She said sniffling just the littlest bit, and for a moment he looked confused. "What did I say that was so nice when we were kids? I've had to have said nicer things since then!" He almost appeared offended, causing her to laugh a little bit. Sure he'd said some nice things but nothing to this level. "Nope, do you remember when we were at the mall in Shinjuku that one time and some old guy in the aquarium store yelled at me?" It took a moment but he nodded. "You remember what you said to me after you got done yelling at the guy?" He raised an eyebrow at her, he remembered the day. She had wandered off to go watch the fish, he'd gone to find her and found an old man yelling at her. He'd yelled at the guy and ended up dragging her away by the hand. It was the first time he'd ever seen her cry. But he didn't remember saying anything in particular. "You told me I was stupid first of all, which was really rude, but then you told me that I shouldn't wander off because if I did then you couldn't keep me safe. You made me hold your sleeve for the whole rest of that trip. You were a little rude about it, told me I was killing your ability to pick up chicks. But it was still sweet. Almost every time we went somewhere after that I would always hold your sleeve." She smiled the littlest bit, it was one of the best memories she had of him. Kazutora was surprised she remembered all that but when she said it he remembered the conversation. Looking back on it now he realized that she'd never held his sleeve before that day. But every time he saw her after that, she would without fail hold his sleeve pinched between two fingers. If he wasn't wearing long sleeves she would hold the back of his shirt. "I had totally forgotten about that, have I seriously not done anything nicer than that til now?" Rei shrugged, there were a few things that stuck out but most of them were punctuated by him being mean to her. "Honestly? Not really. I remember one time you told me you'd teach me to swim, I was like all excited and shit. But your version of teaching me was to just shove me in the pool and let me drown." Looking back on it the memory was hysterical, she was all excited standing at the deep end of the pool and he'd just…shoved her in. But at the moment it had happened it had been rather traumatic. "That was how I was taught! I didn't know!" He exclaimed, feeling entirely embarrassed, as this conversation continued on he genuinely wondered why she had stuck around, why she loved him. Yet somehow she was laughing, like it was the funniest thing ever. "Yeah I know that now but I didn't then. But yeah that's like ninety percent of my memories with you. I don't mind it though, it makes me really appreciate the good ones." Rei was glad she had him in her life, despite all the craziness they'd been through it was worth it to have him in her life. She realized he was now the longest standing person she had in her life, the only one who knew everything there was to know about her. "Well I promise I'll try and give you some more good ones. As much as I don't wanna leave, I gotta go, we've about reached our time limit." Rei saw the one minute warning on her end and felt a little pang of sadness, once again she wasn't ready for him to go. Didn't want the moment to end. "I'm gonna hold you to that promise. I hope you have a good night Tora." She gave a small smile, hoping he couldn't see how sad she was that their time had once again run out. "You too Rei, I'll talk to you later ok? Go finish your shower, try not to fall out this time." He said with a laugh and before she could retort their call was disconnected. She fell back into her bed taking a deep breath, reminding herself once again this was just for now not forever. 'He'll be home eventually, just gotta set up for that to happen.'