#return of the fruits basket subplot baby!!! tohru honda in the building at last

[charaznablescanontoyota]

for the ask meme - Roxas and exploring on his own?

roxas pushes the car door open onto the smell of sea salt and the sound of ocean waves crashing against sand, and feels his throat constrict. joy or grief, he doesn't really know, but - a beach. there's a beach on the train. he's wanted to go to a beach for so long that it feels like all he's ever wanted - first with axel and xion, then with his friends in twilight town - and it feels uncanny to see one in front of him, close enough to touch.

he toes off his shoes carefully, leaving them near the door as it swings shut, and walks slowly and carefully down to the water. the heart that he isn't strictly supposed to have is pounding in his ears. his breath is shallow as he squats to trail his fingers through the seafoam, thinking in spite of himself, this can all vanish in a second. someone could come and take this away from you. or the ocean is actually acid, or there's a monster denizen underneath, or it's all a cover-up for something horrible in some other way. and even if none of that's true, you still have nobody to share it with.

in theory, he's just waiting for jason to catch up. has to believe that jason will catch up, actually, because if jason's not going to stay consistent, then what the fuck have they even been doing for the past several months. jason wouldn't (couldn't?) stand him up. shoka, his hopes are less high for, but...a part of him still hopes.

beneath the sound of the waves, another noise registers. sniffling. roxas wonders if he's crying without noticing, but he touches his face and his fingers come away dry. he glances to his right, then his left, and sees a girl planted on her knees in the sand a few yards off.

he might recognize her. he thinks he recognizes her. long, brown hair tied back with a ribbon on either side - there's something about it that rings a bell, but she doesn't look like she'd be an apex kid. then again, books, covers. roxas straightens up and tilts his head to one side, considering.

he only remembers it's rude to stare when the girl looks up, rubs her eyes on the back of her hand, and coaches her expression into a smile that looks panicked in its haste.

"i'm sorry, roxas," she says, softly. "i didn't see you come in."

"you know who i am?" he asks. he should be used to that by now, people who know his name without him remembering them, but it still feels uncanny.

her eyebrows tilt quizzically. "from the apex?"

"oh," roxas says. should have trusted his first instinct, then.

"we didn't talk much," the girl says. "you were always with those other two, jason and shoka. you seemed like good friends."

"yeah," roxas says. "good friends." he swallows, and feels absolutely no change in forcing a change of subject. "were you crying?"

the girl laughs; it feels forced. "oh, please don't worry about me."

"are you okay?" he asks, in spite of what he's just been told.

"yes," she says. her eyes are still red-rimmed. "i'm fine, i promise."

"why aren't you with the rest of the apex?" he presses her. maybe she is, and the rest of them haven't caught up to her yet - but he would hate for that to happen. the apex shouldn't be allowed to destroy a car this peaceful.

"a lot of them split up and went their separate ways. i couldn't decide who to go with, so i left on my own," the girl says. "i think it's about time i go home, but i don't really know how to do that." she blinks, like she's just realized something. "are you all by yourself?"

roxas digs a foot into the sand. "what's wrong with that?"

"do you want to be all by yourself?"

he frowns. there's an easy answer to that question, and an answer that is true.

"not really," he settles for.

"me neither," the girl says. "but now you're here, so neither of us are alone." she turns, and nods towards a boardwalk in the distance. "want to go get ice cream?"

roxas doesn't give himself time to think about this one; he swallows past the lump in his throat and says, "yeah, okay."