Mmm...it's so warm in here. Kyoko snuggles closer to the source of the heat happily. I could stay like this forever! Then she notices an odd weight at her waist that isn't normal, so she tries to get away from it, but it gets heavier. Or is it tighter? She opens her eyes and all she sees in the darkness is skin in front of her face. Wait. That isn't right. Something doesn't add up here. Her mind tries to wake up a little more. Anxiety tries to rise to the surface, but it's smothered somehow, forcefully twisting it around into curiosity. She studies what's in front of her eyes and noticing that it's moving slightly every so often, and that it is most definitely human. Who is it though? Where am I again? Why am I lying next to them? Why is he so warm? And comfortable? And smells kind of good? Her cheek rubs on his chest and she sighs contently, forgetting about her worry and weight across her waist with her sleepy mind, even as the person shifts her closer. You know what? Never mind. She lets go of any hesitation. I feel relaxed and so does this person, obviously. It isn't often I feel this comfortable...let's just stay like this a while more. It's late anyway. So she dozes off again to the slow, steady beat of Ren's heart as he sleeps.
Natsu takes a breath, having dodged a bullet. It wasn't unnatural for her to be in the control room, as she had to be there for when Kyoko acts, but she felt like soon one of the grudges may question her tweaking things here and there. The grudges didn't move anything on the control board after coming out of the box, but begrudgingly lets the spirits mess around as she is in and out of character. Kuon owes me is I get caught intentionally changing Kyoko out of my character or without her choosing. Apart from times like last night at least. I'll even make Ren owe me more if I can. She laughs in her head, picturing last night. The grudges really like Ren's bewildered expression. They even left the spirits in peace in the room last night, leaving us in charge. Natsu watches the little screen with Kyoko's current dreams on it while waiting for the next time she would be needed. Her only tweak to the dream to suit her own taste was to dim the sparkles and, to help Kyoko, make Ren the 'prince' character.
.o.0.o.
The next time Kyoko wakes up, she find she most definitely has to move, so she carefully removes herself from the bed in order to get up and used the restroom, which she finds easily for being half asleep. It's only after that is done that she looks around the bathroom and wonder where she is, not recognising the master bath that is connected to Ren's room. Again, the feeling of nervousness tries to rear its head, but it's sidetracked as she spies something on top of the counter. She picks up the little case on the counter next to an open bottle of solution. Contacts? Huh. Do I know of anyone with glasses? Wait, I know Yashiro-san! He has glasses, so does that mean I'm at his house? There is nothing else telling her anything about where she is at, so she wanders back into the dark room silently, barely making out the bed. Well, the alarm clock says two-thirty, so if it is this early, I don't think waking the person up would be the wisest thing. Besides, I still feel kind of tired. We'll just deal with this in the morning, at a more appropriate time of the day. With that settled, her legs move apart from her mind to make tracks for the bed and climb in. She snuggles in close to her adopted heater that gladly welcomes her back. This isn't so bad, I guess.
It's always easier working wth a half-asleep person...changes to their behaviour doesn't take as much work and it is relatively unnoticeable to the grudges here. Next time though, I'll probably be brought in for questioning though. Might as well go talk to Kuon about what he owes me then.
.o.0.o.
When the clock reads four-thirteen, Kyoko wakes up for the last time, noticing right away that her heater as left her. After getting over that loss, she notices the smell of coffee in the air and the shower in the connected room is running. It's too early to be up though, she thinks, but then realises that she doesn't feel tired herself anymore. Let's hope he's made enough for me, she thinks as she yawns. After stretching out her muscles, she walks out of the darkened room to stop like a deer in the headlights in the sun-brightened apartment she instantly recognises as Tsuruga Ren's.
Panic starts her heart beating quickly as her mind tries to take in the fact that she was most likely sharing a bed with the man of the apartment a short while ago. However, like a connection being cut with the force of a machete against weeds, she is calmer suddenly. Unknown to her, Natsu having cut her panic down in her brain entirely, and will soon be up against the grudges. Well look at that. I didn't know that button did that. Hmm...and now it's broken. She laughs as the grudges start circling her, having caught her final act. She isn't the normal Kyoko now, but hopefully this stalls her reactions a tad. Enough for it all to come upon her gradually. But hey, maybe now she'll react like a normal human for once. Natsu is led away from the scene of the crime in cuffs in front of her with an air of confidence and carelessness as the grudges call up repairmen to get to work on the mess of the steaming control board. While they wait for the mess to be fixed, they set Kyoko's controls to a default palate from the closet manually. They check the other systems, noting that only emotional responses were crossed, not physical reaction.
Sun? Isn't it four in the morning? Wh is it lower in the sky? She brushes the questions aside and pours herself some of the coffee into a mug from by the coffee maker and checks the cupboards. That man hardly keeps anything in the house, so I'll have to go out to make things for the next meal. After drinking the rest of the mug quickly, she sets te washer for their clothes to start in a half hour, hoping it's enough time for him to get out of the shower before putting her shoes on, grabbing her purse, and heading out to the little store around the block they frequent.
.o.0.o.
Ren dresses quickly after getting out of the shower and finishes scrubbing off that penned X that told him that last night had actually happened and wasn't a dream. He steps back into the black room, realising after a minute of squinting through the dark and adjusting to it, that his precious girl wasn't even there anymore. He opens up the curtains after that revelation and leaves the room to look for her. "Kyoko?" He looks around the living room and the kitchen area for signs of life, but all he finds is his coffee mug, still slightly warm from use, which should be weird, but doesn't catch his attention. He fills the mug again and sips from it, moseying towards the guest room. Maybe she still felt tired and didn't feel like sleeping in my bed anymore. "Hey Kyoko?" He calls softly into the room, but gets no answer. Peering inside, the room is devoid of life. Now where did she run off to? He goes back into his room and finds her clothes gone. On a hunch, he goes to the door to see that her shoes and bag are gone, but that there isn't a note. Please tell me she didn't just bolt without thinking! He puts the coffee down, grabs his phone, and calls Yashiro.
"Hello, Ren? How did you sl-?"
"Have you heard from Kyoko? She seems to have left without a note. I didn't have the chance to tll her that I had you cancel everything today, so she may be in a panic and headed to LME-"
"I messaged-"
The washer starts in the other room and Ren's ears perk up at the sound as a dog's would. "Nevermind. I think I just heard her in the laundry room." He hangs up without saying anything more and makes his way to the named room, only to find her not there either. He picks up his phone to call her cell, thinking that he really should have done that first instead of calling Yashiro. The noise of electronic bells and flutes is hunted down to a little pink phone, not unlike his own, left on the side table next to the couch from where he put it after calling her kinda-guardians last night. His mind is left to wonder at what may have happened to her as he sits there, staring at this pink piece of technology that won't give him the answers he wants.
He starts when the front door is opened and closed, so he walks over to find his Kyoko slipping on the slippers he got just for her here with a couple of plastic bags and her purse on her arms. "Good morning!" She says, brightly, but then looks confused. "No, that's obviously wrong. It's afternoon, so it's 'good afternoon!', bot morning I guess."
"You went to the store?"
"Yes. I had to go. Don't you think it would be good to keep some food here? More than one or two meals at a time? I mean, what if there was a typhoon or something and you couldn't go out? You would starve, and I would be sitting over at the Dayaruma, worried sick that you wouldn't make it!"
"We can't have that..."
"I know!"
"I guess that means that I'll have to get you to stock up my house."
"Good idea." She goes into the kitchen and starts whatever it is she chose to make.
"But I can't cook, so it would be pointless in the long run."
She thinks about it for a moment, remembering the Maui Omurice he made. "Hmm...then I guess when a storm is expected to arrive, I should just come over here to make you something. That way I can be at peace of mind." She looks across the counter. "Oh, I thought I finished that before I went out." She grabs the mug of coffee off of the counter and drinks from it before Ren could tell her that it was his. That would only trouble her mind.
"You went out in that?" He motions to her clothes. Or rather, his clothes on her body.
"Yes, I did. I was thinking about changing into mine again, but decided that they needed washing. Oh! Has it started already?"
"It did. I didn't know that it had a delayed start setting on it, so I had thought you were in there."
"It was my first time doing something like that, so I wasn't sure I could actually set it correctly, but I'm glad that it did start. Screw wanting to see her cook in her own apron here like a new wife...I kind of like her walking around comfortably in mt shirt like now.
"Not that I don't mind or anything, but why aren't you freaking out like you normally would?" He sees her slightly tense.
Her brows shift in slight confusion. "What would I have to freak out about?" It isn't like anything too indecent happened. We just slept near one another.
"Well, for one, it's about five in the afternoon. I thought you would be freaked out about missing work or something." The fact that you woke up in my bed. He thinks back to just before the shower. I felt like I was in heaven, waking up with you in my arms. That was hands-down the best sleep I've gotten in a long time.
"Oh, I saw a message from Yashiro-san about saying the day was pretty clear. I just had one LoveMe jo that I should be able to make since they couldn't find a replacement for." Oh yeah, he was saying something about a message. "And if it's about sleeping this late into the day, I guess I really must have needed it if I was out that well. Same for you, Tsuruga-san. I guess while I tried getting you to look after your own health more, I neglected mine just enough that I just shut down or something."
"Oh, okay then." I didn't think she would be that quick with an excuse for herself. If I didn't know better, I would have believed that was it.
"I didn't know you wore glasses, Tsuruga-san," she comments offhandedly, remembering the case slightly from earlier.
What? "I don't wear glasses."
She stops stirring the pot of soup and looks at him watching her. "I thought you did."
"I haven't ever needed to apart from a few acting roles that called for it." He looks at her confusedly. "What on Earth would make you think that I did?"
"Wait, you're saying that you have perfect vision?"
"Twenty/twenty, all my life, yes."
She stares at his for a while, absently stirring the boiling pot on auto-pilot. "So why do you have contacts?"