Zinnia - Thoughts of absent friends

for the ever darling yyeann , thank you for listening to me bitch and moan and still telling me i'm cute. 3

[G]

It's been a while, actually a really long time, since he's been home. It'll be good to see everyone again, Kid, Black Star, Tsubaki, everyone.

no place like home

He hadn't been back to the desert in years. The heat was oppressive and prickling across his skin. How he managed to wear a jacket for school was beyond him.

The airport hadn't changed much, but then airports don't really change at all. Soul walked across the tarmac, his bag in hand and sun pressing down on his shoulders. There was a tang to the air that he hadn't realized he'd missed.

He grinned at nothing in particular. Kid had recalled him after nearly five years of working in Europe. From what he had gathered Black Star and Tsubaki were in the area still and had a kid. There were knicknacks and presents in his bag, because he was obviously going to be the coolest honorary uncle ever.

It'd be good to see them again, Tsubaki had always been such a stable friend and Black Star, well, he was his own special kind of crazy, but he was still Soul's bro. No matter how long it had been since they had hung out.

Kid too, as the new Lord Death they had spoken through mirrors for the past five years but it would be good to see him in person. Liz and Patti had sometimes been in the back ground, but Soul was really looking forwards to seeing them again as well. He was going to have to grill Liz to see what music he'd missed. And undoubtedly, Patti would have some kind of weird new scheme in place to sabotage Kid's perfect symmetry.

Man, so many people so see and catch up with. He'd have to play basketball with Kilik and Harvar. Blair was probably going to jump him, but that wasn't anything new, hell, it'd been so long he was looking forward it. Kim and Jackie had actually ended up on a mission with him in Russia, but that had been a few years ago.

Kid had already mentioned that he wanted Stein to give him a check up since he had been so long since the last one. And he was really excited to see Stein's kid. Hopefully she took after Marie more than her father.

And Maka? Where the hell was she anyway. "Oi, slowpoke, you coming or not?"

"Ugh! You could have helped me, you butt!"

Soul turned around to grin at her, "Was just waiting for ya. Good to be home?"

"It'll be good to be home when we are actually home. I'll believe it when I see it that Blair kept our apartment and didn't turn it into a sex toy shop or something."

Soul laughed and held out his hand for her as she stepped down from the stairs. "Yeah yeah, it'll be fine. Let's go, mumma."

"I'd like to see you hurry when you look like you're hiding a beach ball in your shirt!"

She was really quite very pregnant. They had just managed to fly home before she really did pop, because as his wife had said, she was not having their baby "in an igloo in the frozen tundra of middle of bumfuck no where!"

Their accommodations had been a bit nicer than that, but not much.

When she grasped his hand he pulled her against him and pecked her lips. "Sorry, let me know if you need a break."

"We've been over this, I am not made of glass, god damn it."

"I know, come on. Let's go see everyone."