A/N: If you read these over on my LJ, you can see the pretty pictures that accompany it. The URL is nyanja14(dot)livejournal(dot)com .

031: TIDES

One day without really knowing why, Yoite got on a train and rode to the town by the sea.

When he got off at the station, his feet started pulling him to the church, but he turned around. He doubted anyone there would remember him and he doubted even more that any of them could recognize him now, but he knew that if he sat down for even just a moment to look towards the windows he wouldn't be able to get up again.

So he went the opposite direction, avoiding the busier main streets and walking down the outskirts of the residential district. The town had changed; the paint on the houses looked a little duller, the roads were a little bumpier, and there were almost no children outside. He'd changed too, he realized. A trip that would have taken him two hours two years ago was cut in half by his longer stride.

He passed a few people whose face he thought he seemed familiar, but nobody paid him any mind; that much was still the same.

It was starting to get dark by the time he reached the old neighborhood. He knew he'd have to head back soon if he didn't want Yukimi asking questions. Yukimi didn't care if he went out so long as he got back by the end of the day and didn't "hurt anybody that wasn't askin' for it."

His feet slowed as he went through the neighborhood, but finally he was there.

The house had changed a lot too. There was a car sitting outside. Someone had started a box garden hanging from the kitchen window. It surprised him, though it shouldn't have. He knew that someone else had moved in, knew that some other family was living here now. Still, it surprised him.

He crept around to the side of the house where the barred basement window had been. But it wasn't there anymore. Someone had filed it in with brick, so neatly that it was like the little hole had never existed.

He stood there staring at the spot for a long time, trying to figure out what this feeling was pressing inside his chest.