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[ EVENT: So long and thank you for all the fish ]
Characters: Everyone in Death City
Location: Death City
Rating: G
Time: October 8th and onwards
Description: It's time to say goodbye
A day after Medusa's defeat, Shibusen makes an announcement on the network: BREW is acting up again but instead of bringing new people in, it has created a portal.
It's in the Kishin Chamber, available to anyone who wants to go through it. Anyone who looks into it will see the place they came from, frozen in time. The moment you step through everything resumes and, maybe you'll forget or maybe you won't. Either way, there's no need to hurry right now. Shibusen assures all of you they will keep a sharp eye on BREW's energy readings and tell you the moment anything changes. For now, the portal is stable so take all the time you need to say goodbye and settle everything before you go.
Location: Death City
Rating: G
Time: October 8th and onwards
Description: It's time to say goodbye
A day after Medusa's defeat, Shibusen makes an announcement on the network: BREW is acting up again but instead of bringing new people in, it has created a portal.
It's in the Kishin Chamber, available to anyone who wants to go through it. Anyone who looks into it will see the place they came from, frozen in time. The moment you step through everything resumes and, maybe you'll forget or maybe you won't. Either way, there's no need to hurry right now. Shibusen assures all of you they will keep a sharp eye on BREW's energy readings and tell you the moment anything changes. For now, the portal is stable so take all the time you need to say goodbye and settle everything before you go.
OTA
when he first arrived, he'd been a little boy, seeking vengeance against a man who— at the time— hadn't even been present. now he was edging into the role of tutor himself, and the changes he had gone through were deep and unyielding.
Sasuke hasn't entered the building, though he's heard the rumors. it was typical, that they would agree to send them all back in the end. their plan to steal the machine and secure their future in the city had not been necessary— but could anyone truly blame them? fear was an enormous driving force.
he should have known better.
but what it meant was an entirely different story. Sasuke was staying— he'd decided this a long time ago. but he knew the same wasn't true for everyone else. there were some he knew would go home, given the chance.
just as, with this final happenstance, Sasuke knows others will not return.
Rei. Sohki. Edward. Mustang. China. Saralegui.
countless others that had walked in and out of his life within Death City (Seimei) and changed it irrevocably.
but it's here he lingers, the length of his spine pressed against one of the now familiar trees lining the street. from here, he can see almost the full length of the steps, can see the glistening shine of the building the houses the Kishin Chamber and BREW. his expression is impossible to discern, save for it's silence. ]
no subject
Perhaps it was because he hadn't managed to fight in the front lines this time around, and there was no visceral rush of a soul-deep resonance to tie him down to the fate of this world. He's glad to have witnessed the balance being restored, of course, and happy to see the wish that started it all being granted. The conflict between this world and its witches will likely continue, but on more even terms; Shibusen will get to welcome the experienced fighters who'll decide to stay into their permanent ranks, and Kurapika...
Kurapika still has no idea why he got pulled here a second time. If the objective had been to add his strength to Shibusen's offensive force, then he'd failed spectacularly. As important as medics are to a war effort, his abilities would have been better used elsewhere. In fact, the only things of note he could be certain of obtaining (or contributing) were the friendships of a few precious people he never thought he'd see again, and some very weird ideas on how to regard his quasi-relationship with Kuroro Lucifer.
To put any of those ideas into motion, though, he'll have to remember what happened here, and he's not sure that going through the portal won't just mind-wipe him. Maybe he can go back to his apartment and grab one of Kuroro's Excalibur-autographed biographies. Any of those monstrosities should be garish enough to jog even the most tightly-locked memory.
The blond almost misses the presence lurking at the end of the road leading up to the Shibusen stairs. He stops just abreast of the last tree and turns his head to meet dark eyes--he remembers almost drowning in them before, in a spar a lifetime away, and for the first time since hearing about the portal, hesitates, his headlong rush to his ticket home checked, for the moment.]
no subject
of course. he hadn't even thought of it— there was nothing to hold Kurapika here. unlike Sasuke, who had his partner, Kuroro had never come back. he hadn't been here for the end of the fighting. for all intents and purposes, even Kurapika had returned to settle on the sidelines while they did all the fighting.
the realization that one of his friends was leaving, permanently, hits him like a punch to the gut, and when Kurapika turns to meet his gaze— Sasuke swallows. there is a part of him, avoidant, that wants to lock up and say nothing. watching the others go, people he didn't know, was one thing, but this... ]
... Kurapika.
no subject
Stranger things have happened.
Kurapika tilts his head and takes in Sasuke's stance: that defensive hunch against the tree, the fact that he's parked himself here, where he can see everyone going up the stairs, and count those who won't be coming back down--and he finds that he isn't surprised so much as suddenly... lonely. And slightly guilty, for realizing that he's the cause of the expression that settles on the other boy's face.]
You're staying, aren't you?
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he had thought Kurapika wouldn't return the first time. but this seems so much more final. (in a moment, he remembers Kurapika against the backdrop of their apartment, boxes everywhere and that godawful chicken. he remembers Kurapika sitting down to eat with them at Sasuke's quiet insistence in their newly purchased house. he remembers the desire to ask the other to move in with them, and never quite making it there.) Sasuke straightens from the tree and his arms go to his sides. ]
There's nothing for me there.
[ he says it without looking away. ]
no subject
And everything you need right here. Maybe Naruto will adopt a pygmy piglet next.
[Kurapika remembers the dog he adopted after everyone left. The pound had reclaimed him after he'd left, as is the practice for pets abandoned by owners subject to the whims of a fickle magical device. In retrospect, it was irresponsible of him to use another living creature as his crutch, but he'd gotten so used to having the calming presence of a meister with him that he had trouble dealing with an empty, silent apartment.
It's not the case anymore. The flat he claimed at the Communal this time around looks barely lived-in. He has no other loose ends he needs to tie up (all of it is back in his own world), and the differences between his and Sasuke's situations can't be more glaringly obvious.
There's just this... and perhaps he can fire off messages to the other people he'll find himself regretting not saying goodbye to.]
no subject
Sasuke glances away, and it may or may not be the fluster Kurapika was looking for. it wasn't subtle, that he would bring up Naruto after saying something like that. ]
Don't give him ideas.
[ he deflects, his weight shifting, his gaze coming back around to settle heavy as a touch on his friend once more. ]
no subject
Kurapika sighs and looks up at the long set of stairs, at Shibusen's spires, visible even from the lower levels of the city.]
I have unfinished business... and too many things that aren't here. I didn't tell you, did I, that I was one mission away from recovering the last of my clan's eyes when BREW brought me here again?
[One last mission that might span months, and involves a highly dangerous expedition into an unexplored continent, and the possibility of setting off a destructive political war if he pisses off the wrong person--but Sasuke doesn't need to know about any of that.]
And I need to give Kuroro a good kick in the head. [He looks back at Sasuke as he says this, tone light but rife with the possibilities his memories have presented to him.] I went right back to wanting to kill him after I went back, but I think... we were starting to remember. I can't stay here and leave things as they are.
no subject
and it wasn't until this moment that Sasuke stopped to consider what it might be like for the other boy. he'd been too wrapped up in what it meant to have him back in the city. but Sasuke had what he needed— not the least of which was his partner. Kurapika was all alone here in that way.
but as he'd said to Naoto, would it matter, if he didn't remember? Kurapika said they were starting to remember. Sasuke wasn't convinced. what he knew as that when Kurapika left, he'd be as good as dead. the chances of meeting again were so minimal... ]
Would you stay, if he was here?
no subject
I can't really tell you that I would, because he wouldn't. This world is too tame for him. He'd get bored out of wits and get into all sorts of trouble, and then I'd go mad trying to get him to behave.
[And that's already putting it lightly. He remembers being forced to turn Kuroro over to the Watch in the wake of China's disappearance, and all the mental anguish it caused him after--and then he shakes his head and makes another face.]
In any case, his presence or absence isn't the only thing that matters. I do have other friends. [And a life that doesn't, in fact, revolve around the asshole, but Sasuke is free to keep thinking otherwise. God knows how obvious it is that most of Kurapika's dissatisfaction with his current situation is due to him being called back without the meister that he'd come to rely so heavily on.]
no subject
[ the concept is foreign to Sasuke, that anything but duty would tie him down. he still isn't sure of Naruto's reasoning— why he would choose Death City, to stay with Sasuke when he would never see any of the people back in Konoha ever again. Naruto had far more ties than Sasuke ever did to that village, more so now that he's older, and what Sasuke had heard from the others...
but it wasn't his to argue. arguing with Naruto, Sasuke had long since learned, was akin to fighting with a wall.
Sasuke watches Kurapika as he speaks, like he could parse any hidden meaning out of his words. if it were him, if he had no more to hold him here— if he still sought his vengeance— he might choose the same.
it doesn't give him peace, but it gives him... something. stability, perhaps.
his fingers flex at his sides. goodbyes were never Sasuke's forte. but what he finds, here, is that he doesn't want to say goodbye. ]
permission to baby the woobie (not a hug this time, tho)
Kurapika exhales and beckons for the other boy's hand, at the same time stepping forward and closing the distance between them.]
Come here.
you always have permission ok
come here, he says. Sasuke takes a step forward, and it brings him half into the light from the shadow of the tree he'd been hunkered under. ]
no subject
His eyes are closed as he breathes slowly, and he uses the moment of silence to reflect and think of how to put his thoughts into words. He can feel--and hear--warm skin and the other boy's breathing mingled with his own, remembers how Sasuke was even a year ago, and realizes that he doesn't have to worry anymore.
When he next opens his eyes, he makes sure that Sasuke's staring straight into them.]
You'll be fine. [Softly, but firm with the conviction that he knows exactly what he's talking about.] This isn't goodbye, okay? And it's not the end... of anything.
no subject
but the blond pulls him in, anchors him, and Sasuke closes his eyes in the wake of it. the weather is cool, but Kurapika's breath is warm on his face. his hand is just as soothing on the back of his skull. the moment, chaste as it is, feels both endless and too short for the young Uchiha.
his hands are loose at his sides, but it's an effort not to lift them. to not grab Kurapika by his lapel and speak his heart as he'd learned to over the course of his stay in Death City: don't go. it cinches up in his chest, clutches at his ribcage and tightens his throat enough that Sasuke couldn't say a word if he wanted to.
the boy's eyes are black, heavy, and intimate when he finally forces himself to look. he doesn't pull out of Kurapika's hold, and can taste his words as much as hear them for how close they are. you'll be fine. he swallows, thick, and though his expression doesn't change, tears ooze through his dark lashes and crawl down his cheeks. ]
no subject
He pulls back a bit, to give Sasuke space, but doesn't let go just yet. He has a few more points he needs to hammer home, because he has a feeling that Sasuke might just be the type to get stuck on them.]
I know I can't offer any scientific guarantee that I'll ever find my way back here, but, well--us meeting like this was supposed to be impossible, in the first place. As long as we're alive, anything's possible. Who's to say that someone else won't make another badly-worded wish?
no subject
Sasuke's eyes jump between Kurapika's, like from this close he's trying to look into both of those dark mirrors at once.
anything was, of course, possible. there was no telling if the Witches would be forever defeated. there was not telling if, somewhere in the vast expanse of the universe, someone else might cry for help and they would end up in another world entirely. Sasuke doesn't dare to hope, because hope has never been in his repetoire. hope was left for people like Naruto, who weren't soaked in darkness.
he blinks, and a fresh swell of salt water eases over his skin, a steady stream Sasuke has no way of controlling. they aren't the ugly tears of before— but his sadness is deep and obvious. there's not much to say to that. Kurapika is right, but it's few and far between that Sasuke will openly admit to someone else that what they say is meaningful.
he takes a breath to speak. embarrassingly, his voice trembles like an autumn leaf. ]
Don't do anything stupid. [ he says, instead of don't die. stay alive. give us time to meet again. ]
no subject
I never break promises I make. And I won't forget you. If I do, I'll just have to remember you. [Kurapika's voice is fierce when it was soft just seconds ago, as if he can make it truly so just by saying it out aloud, and that might just be the case, because he and Kuroro are very strong, mentally. A memory block from an alien device won't last that long, and if they really are already on the verge of remembering, then this second trip might just trigger the recall for him that much faster. He can't--won't--forget something this important, not this understanding he's found with a teen plagued with the same hate, the rush of protective fondness coursing through his heart, and his own realizations after seeing Sasuke struggling with his demons.
There's regret, when he finally processes that this really might be the last time--but it's only for a while. He wasn't lying, when he told Sasuke to believe in the impossible. His grip on the younger boy's hand tightens for the briefest moment, a squeeze of reassurance, more for himself now, as he lowers his other arm.]
You stay safe as well. Don't let this world screw with you. And give my regards to Naruto.
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it was Kurapika that helped him foster his relationship with Naruto again. in so many regards, Kurapika changed his life. but this wasn't the parting his brother left him with. this was kinder— a far kinder thing than Sasuke has known in the past six years of his life.
when the other steps back, Sasuke remains rooted to his spot. he doesn't lift his hand to wipe his tears, as though by doing so would admit he was crying at all. but his lips part and he exhales (steadying himself, like stone) before he speaks again. ]
I will.
no subject
It's different. He's only surprised because it's rare for them to react to something other than all-consuming rage. And he feels warm, and light, buoyed by the knowledge that there will be someone waiting for him if he ever has cause or the ability to come back here. Kurapika closes his eyes one last time and breathes deeply; they're darker when he opens them, the near-violet of red bleeding into blue, but he doesn't care. This is love he's feeling, and he wants Sasuke to see and know: to have his clan's legacy trigger because of something positive for once is a gift to him.]
Thank you.
[He steps back, once, full into the light, gaze still holding the other boy's and committing everything into memory. He will remember, he swears, and the plan to retrieve one of Kuroro's Excalibur's books is forgotten because this, here, now, is more potent than anything he can possibly bring with him.]
Take care.