A/N: A bit on the short side... cos I didn't want to end this piece too quickly. I mean, I already had the end scene in my head fully conceptualized anyway.
"Can I follow you to work? It's fine if I can't go inside... I just wanted to watch over you."
Ace let out a long sigh as he perched on a ledge of a building next to Keiwa's workplace as he continued to watch his special someone at work. It was lucky for him that Keiwa's desk was somewhere near a window so that he could still watch him from outside. Guess that means... even when reduced to this fox form, he still had a good amount of luck in him. Or then again, perhaps his current source of 'luck' was actually coming from a different source?
Ace looked up to see Keiwa returning to his desk again, and starting to work on something on the computer.
Ever since he met with Keiwa, everything kept going at a really fast pace. Before Keiwa joined the DesiGra, usually a single game may take months to finish... or some even take years. Or for that one particular game, it didn't finish since the final round wasn't cleared. Yet, ever since Keiwa joined... he managed to go through several different DesiGra games and cleared them within weeks—days even. Was all that really a coincidence? Was the fact that Keiwa had been given a Tanuki designation, a coincidence as well? Considering the many other players' animal motives, usually involve 'normal' animals rather than ones that had any connection with any mythical legends...
Ace just shook his head to clear away the nagging thoughts. Those things weren't important now.
Keiwa told him earlier that he was worrying too much, and that there was no need for him to be too overly worried. But he still couldn't forget Win's cautionary words... and the man was right. There MUST be some kind of connection!
Like how his mother as the Goddess had to consume the energies and sparks from the past DesiGra players' unfulfilled wishes and dreams to grant any certain Desaity's wish to fruition. Or like how he needed to replenish his strengths before he could use his own powers of Creation. The same should be the case for now.
Except, the difference now was that he wasn't trying to create anything or do anything with his power. It was more to him trying to regain the powers that he had lost... but at what price though? At what cost?
He'll hate it if the cost had something to do with Keiwa. Can't either of them have some break from suffering already? Shouldn't the two of them have done enough to earn a bit of happiness at least?
.
Ace let out a yawn as he saw Keiwa do the same—Keiwa got up from his seat before heading towards what he assumed to be a pantry—and true enough, Keiwa came back with a cup of coffee... probably. Keiwa took a sip from his cup before resuming his work.
Ace let out a small smile at the sight, Keiwa was really so hard at work... which was good, he supposed. Considering how many times in the past Ace used to see Keiwa in suits as he kept trying to find a permanent job, but always ended up failing his interviews. Ace frowned suddenly. But...?
Was it normal for Keiwa to get so easily tired nowadays?
xxx
Keiwa reattached the leash to Ace's harness as the two of them started to head home. They'll need to catch a bus that passed through the neighbourhood where the apartment Keiwa lived with his sister was, and then they'd need to take a short work to get home.
"So how's your day?" asked Keiwa casually as Ace started barking his answers. Keiwa snorted. "I guess it's good that you're actually enjoying being outside after so long. Suppose it did get boring staying cooped up in the apartment all these times, eh? You did look like you had the best time of your life chasing Miichi the other day—"
Well, that was ONE reason why Ace asked to go along and accompany Keiwa to his workplace.
.
Ace glanced up towards Keiwa and the latter immediately fell asleep as soon as they got on the bus. Somehow Ace wondered if he should be worried about this current development. It might just be nothing... or something that signalled for even worse things to come.
He really does need to make sure that Keiwa has a proper rest after he comes back from work. Also to make sure that Keiwa remember to take care of his own health, aside from taking care of Sara-san. Since Keiwa tended to forget about himself often.
Ace started seeing some familiar landmarks as he quickly woke Keiwa up and Keiwa rang the bell to alert the bus driver to stop at the next bus stop. He barely noted the attention he received from the other passengers on the bus that kept exclaiming in wonder at how good Keiwa's 'service dog' had been acting.
A/N2: A slight trivia, which probably wasn't much of a trivia anyway:
Do you know the tanuki is a symbol of good luck and fortune? Like it'd explain why Tycoon used to get Boost buckle all the time... but then we found out that Kekera had a hand in that. On that note, Keiwa did tend to get 'lucky' during the DesiGra in some not-really... fun ways... unlike with Geats.
That said, a part of Ace's musings about Keiwa actually was meant for another Ace-centric piece I wanted to write but end up still in draft.