your life is always the post of something else.

[weightlessly]

Who: Heisuke Toudou wolfthatbarkstheloudest & Yuuki Kuran weightlessly
When: IC/OOC date/Backdated to/Before or After
Where: Toshizou Hijikata & Chizuru Yukimura's (ex??)-apartment.
What: tl;dr version is Yuuki being a stalker.
Rating/Warning: reptile cybuddies and just pointless stuff, I guess. so nothing to worry about.

---

She is pretty sure that has to be an easier way to do all of this, but the only other thought she has (which is knocking on every door until she finds him) is that not any less of a challenge. In fact, climbing is what it is, physical activity, but she's always at least excelled in that.

Somewhere in here memory, she's pretty sure she promised someone to not use this method of entering people's rooms, but since it's not Heisuke's room (she checked there already and four hours later of staring at the other side of the wall in the hall was enough for her).

There were a lot of people here, and even more apartments to go through, but at least hopping the windows made checking each one quicker than knocking and hoping someone would answer. (Besides she's pretty sure Heisuke won't answer when she finds him, anyway). And so, Yuuki walks the windows via their sills (jumping across any gaps), peering in when she can, pushing her head against the window sideways and ear against it to see if she can hear anything when she can't. It's been at least two hours of this, but it isn't as if she has anything more important to do than locating people she knows (and hopes they still know her).

So, while her attention span isn't all that great at times, her determination sees it all through in the end. Which is how she ultimately stops, slowing down at a particular window despite it seeming as if no one is even home. Ducking down a bit, she peers in (hands and face to the glass of the window) a moment, before pulling one hand away to knock on the window to get the occupant's attention.

She can't be 100% sure like she'd be with the window already open ( as she's done to Shinpachi before ), but she's not exactly shy enough to refrain from having the most awkward case of mistaken identity. Although he can't hear her very well, depending, she calls against the window as best she can his name. Maybe if he ignores the knocking, that weird mumbled sound will get him to come over to the window (and let her in...).

"Heisukkeee-kUUUN...!" Please open the window, it's probably the saddest story of how many people have her fingerprints on their windows after this, but it at least makes the staff washing the windows feel they're actually not wasting their time. "Open up, I already spent most of my free money so I can't pay for a broken window...!"

Comments

[wolfthatbarkstheloudest]

He'd tried sending the chain mail letter to Hijikata, but it had bounced back. Without really understanding what that meant, because what is technology, Heisuke decided that the best way to relay the message might be to seek him out instead... and so he'd set out to do just that. After all, Hijikata is an important person to him, so he doesn't want anything bad to happen if he doesn't get the message through.

...except what he found when he arrived was a door that was unlocked and a place that was no longer lived in.

A part of him had considered it, entertained the thought, but had promptly dismissed it because it's Hijikata. He wouldn't just leave them like that, would he? Well, apparently he did.

He'd found the letter on the table, but hadn't read it, instead sitting on the floor with Hijicroca, staring at the paper in his hands with an almost forlorn look on his face. Because of it, he nearly misses the knocking and the sound, so lost in his own thoughts. It's Hijicroca that alerts him to something amiss, its metal head lifting toward the window, and while it takes him a moment or two to figure out what's going on, his eyes widen when he sees the face on the other side and he picks himself up from the floor to open it.

"Yu-Yuuki?! What are you doing outsi-- You... do know we're up kinda high, right? How'd you get out there? Did you lock yourself out or something?"

[weightlessly]

Regardless of the weight she is excited when he notices her finally a and opens the window. She is sort of listening but her priorities are definitely different than his. Meaning to slip in underneath the window pane now that she can, Yuuki slips to the floor before pretty much hopping forward to hug onto the other happily, a joyous hum escaping her.

"There you are, I missed you!!"

This is important that he knows this, although after after a few seconds longer hugging onto him, she does finally respond. "And, ah, I really like to climb back home," is her excuse. "I didn't think too much of it, I just don't look down!"

The last thing she wants to tell him is the real truth, which involves being a vampire because yeah...

While she's busy clinging to Heisuke, it seems she isn't alone for soon after the head of a small velociraptor appearing peek in and makes a small clicking noise of interest, although it quickly decides to go from peering in to actually moving around fully to hop down into the apartment at seeing Hijicroca. The dinosaur Cybuddy is rather classic of a velociraptor save for its size (a baby, it could probably pass for in a real scenario if not for it's albino properties in terms of coloring), and of course the fact that it's usually skinny elongated bare neck is decorated with a rather intensely pink ribboned bow with sunflowers at the bow's center.

It doesn't seem to intend any harm, though, just peering curiously at the other reptile now that it, too, is on the same level.

[wolfthatbarkstheloudest]

He hadn't expected the sudden hug, and as such, he nearly stumbles backward, the melancholy forgotten with the happiness she exudes. It's just too hard to be sad when someone else is anything but. "Whadda ya mean you missed me? I've been here the whole time!"

But then the movement from the window and the clicking noise catches his attention and while Hijicroca starts walking toward it to investigate, Heisuke just stares. What is it? And what's with the bow?

"Ah, Yuuki... I think somebody followed you home." Never mind the technicalities on 'home', to him, home is where his friends are, so if she's there, then it's home. It still doesn't answer the question of what the critter is, which is clearly the most important thing right now. What if its owner is looking for it?

[weightlessly]

"But I wasn't and I haven't seen Heisuke-kun since I got here!!" she objects, although as she pulls back to get a good look at him her eyes widen and she practically squeaks.
"What did you do to your—"

Ah, something has caught the other's attention? Yuuki glances over her shoulder towards the one in question before letting for of Heisuke to spin around fully. She doesn't seem surprised, though, her entire posture suggesting she's quiet happy to be able to clear this up now for him.

"Ahaha, don't worry. Snowbell belongs to me!" She can't really figure out if the raptor is a girl or a boy yet so she just... avoids it all together!! "I couldn't say no to them, they looked so lonely in the shop?!"

Yuuki frowns, folding her arms across her chest in slight concern. "Maybe because Snowbell isn't fluffy like a dog or a cat...?" But it's okay, this raptor is officially her cutest new friend and the bow should make all the people who passed the Cybuddy up forever regret it now.

[wolfthatbarkstheloudest]

For a moment, he seems almost confused as she squeaks out a partial question, trying to figure out the answer to it when she turns toward the Cybuddy. What did he do to his...? His what? His face? His clothes? His ha-- oh. Yeah, that. Let's just let that drop in favor of more important things.

"Snowbell?" When it finally hits that it's the little critter's name, his eyes light up and he crouches down to hold a hand out to it. "Yeah, they're not really soft and fuzzy, but they're even better than those ones because they won't get all that fur dirty and need a bath. Actually, the reason I picked Hijicroca was because it ate Shinpattsu-san's Cere-thingie and he threatened to break it to get it back. I figured he wouldn't break it if it was mine, so I made him help me buy it. You shoulda seen how long it took to get the dent out of it's head! I felt really bad about that..."

And not even a breath later, he's grinning up at Yuuki, hand still outstretched toward the raptor. "Besides, these ones're cuter!"

[weightlessly]

"Dent?" Did Shinpachi beat on it?! How insensitive of him.

Yuuki smiles though, looking at the crocodile before clasping her hands together. "So, you saved him, then. You are great!"

Her attention turns to look at Heisuke, giving a nod at his claim of cuteness. That's right, these little guys are adorable and Snowbell seems well enough behaved, using its snout to push up curiously against the palm of his hand.

Content now, she stretches before glancing around the apartment, her cheerfulness fading a bit. Something about it is really lonely in here.

Why is Heisuke here?

"Did you get a new place...?" It doesn't feel like a newly settled-in environment, though. Furrowing her brow slightly, she takes a step past the other, looking a little more critically at the open area of the apartment.

It feels... cold, and she isn't sure it's so good of Heisuke to be here by himself.

[wolfthatbarkstheloudest]

Yuuki's comment makes him blush. If she knew what all had happened since Zelien, she probably wouldn't think that of him, but he isn't about to say anything. In fact, Snowbell's little snout against his hand immediately distracts him, his face lighting up with a bright grin as he reaches to pet its head. Yes, they're very cute, and nobody will ever be able to tell him otherwise.

"Eh?" It's her question, however, that has him pausing. "No... it's not mine. Hijikata-san used to live here... but he's gone." His voice takes on a more melancholy tone, sadness creeping in. "I came over to tell him something, but nobody was here. I mean, it's like nobody was ever here, y'know? Hijikata-san-- He let me stay with him when I couldn't speak right after... everything in Zelien, and he kept me company in this place when I couldn't hear."

Hijikata, wherever you are, you've got a little pup who's missing you right now. "I know I was usually more of a bother than anything, but he didn't treat me like one, and he let me stay with the Shinsengumi even though I left the group before I wound up in Zelien and then here. It was like it didn't matter to him. And..." His voice lowers as his head drops, eyes downcast. At least Yuuki won't get on his case about this. "...I miss him."

[weightlessly]

She does remember that time in Zelien. If only because it was the first thing she arrived to and something about watching Saitou try relentlessly for hours upon hours to get to them the same over and over again had been almost harder to deal with than the actual deaths ( because who needs to ever feel that useless and hopeless in an already awful situation?)

And while Yuuki spent most of her time fearing Hijikata thanks to Souji telling her terrifying things about him, she'd seen the way he did things even in the world she had originally been in, there were things in him that she recognized as tactics both her brother and even Zero implemented in their choice of actions to express themselves.

Taking a deep breath, she exhales slowly, realizing while Souji wasn't the same, this Hijikata that had been here and recently disappeared was just like Shinpachi and Heisuke with memories of time before here. That's... sad. Sad because it reminds her of things that she still have refused to cope with herself or even consider (—that Zero and Kaito are gone and they really will never be back and back home isn't the same of the relationship they had developed during their time together—).

"I think... it's natural, though, right?" It is upsetting to think and see Heisuke this way, even without it unintentionally relating to her... but... it's obvious to her if he's here feeling this way, he has no one he feels he can go for support to anymore. If anything, it seems as if Hijikata was that.

Turning around on heel she comes to crouch down near Heisuke, peeking a little forward to be able to look up at him despite his downcast eyes. "So, we have to make that much more effort to get him back, right? If that means trying all the more to solve the way this place works, then we'll do just that."

That's not really something comforting, however, she knows. So she pauses before lifting back and going to gently knock her forehead against the side of his own affectionately. "But, Hijikata-san wouldn't leave you alone if he didn't have faith in all you to succeed in his absence. Maybe now it's time to return the favor to him. I don't think he wants to be apart from any of you any more than he eve has to and will find his way back... but, in the meantime, meeting him halfway doesn't sound like an awful idea, right?"

[wolfthatbarkstheloudest]

It's the headbutt that makes him smile, her words reinforcing it bit by bit. Sano and Shinpachi had one another as well as their new friends and female companions so they never really seemed all that lonely, but Heisuke hasn't had much of anybody for a while. Even his best friends feel a little distant thanks to the way things happened both here and at home, and with Chizuru disappearing after they had that little fight with the whole him being deaf thing, it pushed Heisuke more and more into a corner where the only company is a mechanical crocodile. Throw Hijikata's disappearance into the mix, and he's really at a loss for things.

"Before I got here... well, even before Zelien, we were all together in a group because there was something we were doing that we all believed in, but one of the people who was in that group didn't get along with everyone else so he left and took his crew with him. When he left, I went too. Well, Hajime-kun and I did. I kinda felt like I had to, y'know? I mean, Itou-san and Kondou-san both had good ideas, and I'd followed Kondou-san's for a while, but I wanted to see which one was right so I left with Itou-san."

His voice is wistful, as if verbally reaching out for a time that he can't grasp hold of -the home he'd been torn from. It's not something he really told anybody else about (because a lot of them already knew), but it's also a thing that he's kept inside enough that it's been able to eat at him and affect his relationship with his two best friends. "Itou-san's men didn't really like me much, though. To them, I was kinda garbage because they said I betrayed the Shinsengumi when I left so what was to keep me from doing that to Itou-san? They really kinda treated me like shit... but it was my decision, so I tried to ignore it even though I missed everybody. I ran into Chizuru at a teahouse once, too, and I got to see her again even if we couldn't really talk openly and had to act like polite strangers. It was kinda nice, but it made me miss everyone even more, and then I saw her at a festival when she got lost trying to find her way back. I mean, she was dressed up, so it wasn't like anybody would've recognized her if they'd seen her with me, but it was the whole strangers thing all over again, and I almost messed that up when I asked her to tell the others that I was okay. It really hurt to say goodbye that time... and then Itou was killed at Aburano Koji, and everyone was fighting and Sano-san and Shinpattsu-san were there, and she was asking me to go back because she said that everybody missed me...but I never got to say yes because I ended up in Zelien."

Does he regret it? Absolutely. Can he change what happened? Not at all. Is there a point to him telling her this? He thinks there is, so that's why he's doing it.

"Hijikata-san...even though I left the Shinsengumi and he looked really different when I saw him in Zelien, he never treated me like I wasn't still part of them. I mean, Sano-san and Shinpattsu-san didn't really do that either, but they kinda don't include me in a lot of things that they used to anymore, so while they don't act like there's anything different, you can still tell that they think it. Hijikata-san didn't do that, though. I mean, I know I messed up a lot when I was in the Shinsengumi, and I almost screwed up things when the raset-- when we were the Roshigumi before that, and I know it sometimes seemed like he thought I was a burden and all, but after the ruby thing in Zelien, it was like none of that mattered. He let me stay in his room and everything, and after Chizuru and Sano-san... he didn't say anything, he was just there, y'know? But... now he's gone."

His smile falters a little bit, but the words she'd spoken come back to him almost as quickly as it does and they help to shore it up again. He's been dwelling on the doom and gloom and depressing for so long because there's not been anything happy or positive in his life to chase it away, but now that she's here, it's like someone lighting a candle at the end of a long, dark tunnel. It's small, and it flickers sometimes, but it's a light and the closer one gets, the brighter it seems as it starts to light up the surrounding area.

"I think..." Heisuke pauses, considering his words. Most every choice he makes is met with regret and second-guessing, so he's got to be sure that he's certain in what he wants to say. He's got to be sure that he's willing to back his words with his actions and push aside the urge to backpedal and regret. "I think it's not a bad idea. I dunno where to start, though. I mean, this is a really big place and I don't know a whole lot about this stuff here, so trying to find a starting point might be tough, but I think he'd like that, y'know?"

[sunshied]

Soramaru was still getting used to things in this place, but the one thing he grasped quickly was preparing food at his job as a barista. He still barely knew how to use the electronic things, but at least he could put together drinks and sandwiches together with easy. He was preparing an order when he spots her - Yuki was the girl from before, right? he'd met her when he had that weird dream about the movie theater that may or may not have been a dream. Quickly finishing and giving the customer their order, he moves swiftly to the other side of the counter as she continues onward, not looking in his direction.

"Ah- miss? Yuki, right?" He was glad to see her again. She had been kind to him even as the both of them were still finding their bearings. Maybe he could make her order? If she had one. He might very well pay for it if she doesn't insist against it.