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Over the last couple weeks, waiting for all the pieces to fall into place, Seiji had been feeling incredibly restless. He'd been attending his classes, every one, managed to keep up with all his homework, did he usual morning training, and still found himself with free time he wasn't entirely sure how to fill. Sarias had been...busy, lately. Increasingly preoccupied, troubleshooting distant. It had been easy to over look before, but now, with his mind picking apart every little thing, it was impossible to miss.

What he really needed was a good distraction. Something to get him off campus, so maybe he could leave his worries behind for a little while, and just turn off his mind.

A long walk, Hikari in tow bouncing at few feet ahead of him, with ea rbuds snug in place and music blasting loud enough to drown out the world around him and making thought utterly impossible. The ghost didn't have a destination in mind, he was just wandering, letting his feet take him wherever they willed.

He was nearing the train station with the Ofuda scareon perked up noticeably. Pale ears snapped forward as her small head turned, and red eyes focused on something, or someone, through the crowd of bodies heading that seemed to have just stepped off a train. Blinking, the boil stared curiously in the direction Hikari was fixed on, wondering just what had grabbed her attention, and felt a flicker of a conflicted frown cross his lips when he saw the familiar figure of a ghoul weaving her way through the crowd with a large trunk on wheels, smaller bags dotted here and there. A couple in her hair, one in her hand.

He pulled one of his ear buds out in time to hear Hikari let out a loud, excited yip, then the ofuda was off, racing across the sidewalk to dance around the futakuchi-onna's feet/

Ah jack, of course Junko would come home as things started to unravel. Eye's rolling skyward, he gave the universe at large an 'are you kidding me?' look, before drawing in a deep breath, letting it go slowly with a roll of his shoulders, and returned the ghoul's little wave with one of his own before heading in her direction. "Hey stranger."

He'd heard through the grapevine that Junko had been out of town, a trip of some sort, he wasn't sure if it was vacation or business related, but she'd been gone for a very long time. Since she had graduated it wasn't as noticeable, her not being around, but the town and the school had felt just a little more empty without her. Call it lingering sentiment, nostalgia, whatever, but after a year apart with very little contact, the ghost was startled to find he'd really missed the ghoul.

Given their history, it made sense, but it had taken a really long time for Seiji to forgive the girl for how things had ended. It had taken dating someone else, trying to move on, to really find that forgiveness. Absence makes the-

Nope. Not going there.

By the time he'd reached her he was actually smiling, a small one, but genuine. Her presence still managed weigh on him, it probably would for a long time yet, but that mean they couldn't reacquaint, right? Maybe try giving friendship an honest shot, like she'd wanted all along for them after things had ended. "Good to see you again. Halloween town seemed a little dimmer without someone so bright lighting it up everyday."

Given their past, given everything, it was impossible not to notice how lovely she looked. The dress she wore was somehow simple, but not. A complimenting number in black with intricate designs in modest cut. "You look good. Where ever you went, it agreed with you." Seiji himself was in a pair of dusky bluejeans tucked into boots. His wifebeater was simple, dark red, and a black, sleeveless hoodie completed his look. Since the last time she'd seen him he had gotten himself a couple new piercings(snakebites), along with some ink, though the later was less immediately obvious.

Well, he'd been half joking. She'd been gone for ages now, but even before her trip, he'd sort of cut her out of his life. It hurt to much to be around her, and then there were other complications, and things had just never really been resolved. It felt like he didn't know her anymore, which was just wrong, because he probably knew her better than anyone else did, except for probably Lizzy.

When her compliment derailed he frowned, not quite sure what she was talking about until she reached up to poke him in the lip. This resulted in a grunt, the boil reaching out to catch that dainty hand in his to keep it from further prodding. "A few months back. They're called snake bites." His grip on her hand was delicate, letting her pull away if she wanted, or linger a moment longer if not.

When he did let go he reached up to catch his lower lip so he could pull it down to show her he flat backs of the studs on the other side. "They don't hurt," it came out distorted, half grunted because of his hold on his own lip.

It was goofy as ********, and he didn't care.

The boil fell to nonverbal communication, shrugging in response to the name thing. He wasn't sure why they were called that, just that that was indeed their label.

After she'd gotten a good look he lip his lip go, licking over it before straightening back up and sliding his hands into his pockets. The weird comment had him smirking at her, lips twitching in the beginnings of a grin, head shaking, as she flushed. It was familiar. Really really familiar.

"I'm alright, making a lot of progress on getting my butt to third year so I can finally graduate." He was done being a slug, it was time to get his life going. "Amity is Amity. Wild as ever. Some weirdness went down not too long ago. I lucked out and missed it, but Yaya was there. The horsemen have taken over the tower of the ancients. There's talk that their leader, that Medea chick, killed Death, bit I find that kind of hard to swallow." Not that he didn't trust that his fellow students were speaking truthfully, but they might not have known what they'd seen. From the sounds of it, it had been really chaotic up there. "Hunters were there too." His voice almost purred with anger, but he hid it well, forcing the smile to stay in place, though it was a little sharp around the edges now. "One of them hurt Yaya, but she's alright. You should visit her some time, she misses you." He wasn't trying to guilt her. It was just a fact.

The topic was Sarias was a little harder to talk about. Not so much because of their shared past with the banshee, but because things were falling apart, or had fallen apart. Seiji honestly wasn't sure, but he was getting really tired of feeling invisible.

Jack, he hoped he'd never made Junko feel that way. He knew he'd been a bit of a hermit for a while, but she'd been a constant through all that. When everything else sucked, at least he'd had her.

"It's..." he frowned. "Honestly, I think that's through." No need to get into detail.

It was rather hard not to puff up a bit with the praise and pride she'd shown at the news about his school work, but he'd shake his head at the sympathy, the smile returning, though not quite as cheery. "It's alright. It's not like, well." She'd know what he meant, and they didn't have to discuss it further. Honestly, now that he was actually saying it, it felt like a weight was lifting off his shoulders. Well, part of the weight. There was plenty more there from the meeting, and his plans, and he was definitely not going to bring that up right now.

But this was nice. He'd expected things to still be awkward, and really, they weren't. It was pleasantly surprising.

"Oh!" Obligingly he moved to grab the handle of the trunk she'd been pulling, and then managed to extract another pair of bags from her hair. "Of course. I should have offered right away, sorry." It struck him then that he had no idea where Junko lived now. "Ah, lead the way." He flashed her a sheepish grin.

Hikari meanwhile was on cloud nine in Junko's arms. She hadn't seen the ghoul in forever, and it wasn't as if Seiji could explain to his pets what had happened and why their favorite monster ghoul was never in his room anymore.

"If I had more arms I'd carry more." Alas, he did not.

As she started moving he fell into step beside her, head turning to glance back at her hair and just how long it had gotten. Still dark, still lovely, but it seemed like it had more than doubled since when he'd first met her. Made him wonder if her neck ever got tired, with all that extra weight, but since she was a futakuchi-onna, and that was sort of their thing, probably not.

The teasing accusation drew his attention back around, and he grinned. "Oh yes, I'm just awful. The worst." It was alarming how easy it was to fall into what felt like woefully familiar banter.

And truth be told, it was hard not to notice how adorably bell like the stiff skirt swayed on her hips as she walked. Which was just a terrible thought, but he was still male, and she'd been his ideal image of a woman for good few years before things had gone south.

Thankfully she offered up the distracting topic of food. "I have not eaten lunch yet." He also hadn't had breakfast, which was very unusual for him, but he'd had a lot on his mind. On cue his stomach gave a low grumble, he coughed, trying to mask it, but she probably still heard it.

The look was still completely disarming, and Seiji's shoulders sagged as she hit him with it, scolding him. For a fleeting moment he pulled on his best petulant mask, but it faded quickly, a look of defeat following. "I skipped breakfast after my run and Hikari and I have been out all morning," he based, looking at his watch. "And afternoon." No wonder his stomach was growling.

The building she lead him to was nice. Not overly swank, but certainly not run down in anyway. It was neat, and tidy, and modest, and in the ghost's opinion it really suited her.

It was also something of a relief to him, knowing she was in a nice neighborhood, somewhere safe, and wasn't struggling at all. He'd wanted that to be his job, but... Well, she was doing really well for herself. She'd stepped out of her family's shadow, he was proud of her.

The elevator was a good idea, and he followed her to it after he'd let her in, though he kept an eye on that bit of hair that'd been groping about in one of the bags he was carrying. Seiji remembered the Mistress. "What floor is your apartment on?"

Third floor, check. Mental note added to that occasionally sluggish Rolodex that Seiji called a brain. As Junko settled against the wall with Hikari, Seiji leaned to jab at the little round button with the '3' on it.

Then, hearing the ghoul cooing at his pet, the boil turned a half-hearted scowl on her. "She at this morning with the other pains in my a** while I went running." Please, Seiji took care of his pets. The chin scratching had the ofuda squirming affectionately in Junko's arms, and Seiji sighed, watching them. "She wouldn't say no to a snack though, I'm sure."

Grey lips pursed. "She probably misses Momo."