[In some ways, it's a miracle someone like Lenalee managed to survive in the DR as long as she has. Even her resolve has its limit, and she'd found herself straining at the edge of it upon living here for more than a decade, drifting in and out of restlessness until one day, she finally realized she'd grown old here
( ... )
[At least one thing she can count on is that Solo will never stop asking her uncomfortable questions. And by now, she's too familiar with them to bother pretending uneasy. Worn down like driftwood.] ...Yes.
[Clearly they shouldn't! You still unnerve her a little, though.
She crosses her arms in a way that implies she's more holding herself than irritated, then shrugs half-heartedly.] It's not that. I've been here so long, I almost don't know where my real home is anymore. Can I really forget more than ten years of this place so easily?
[Kanda's said some of his last goodbyes, and is taking one last trip around the halls before he'll take his leave. Anyone he can't find after it will be presumed to have already left.
And he spots a familiar figure just in time as he's about to round the hall.] Lenalee.
[Stopping nearly dead at his voice. Out of everyone here, Kanda was one of the people she'd been afraid would go without saying anything. He'd never been the sort to linger on goodbyes in the past and she'd wondered more than once if that habit would come back now, in these final moments. It's a good feeling to know that it hadn't. She turns towards him, brushes her hair back, and smiles.] You didn't leave yet.
Not yet. [He can go ahead and spare the extra time to actually give a farewell since this will probably be permanent (even if it's not really his style to. He's not fond of goodbyes).]
[Does he think she's any fonder? She hates goodbyes; there have been too many of them in her life already. But she hates not saying it even worse, because she's never had the chance to far more often.
And if he won't, then she's going to take it upon herself to close the distance between them. She grasps for his hands, because she can't think of anything else to say just yet.]
[Here's hoping that not moving at all counts as a first move. She can't find it in her to move closer or further away. Just standing here, holding onto him, will have to be enough. Lenalee ducks her head and blinks hard once or twice.
Thickly, after a long silence:] Twenty years, you know. Since I first met you.
I know. [Even if he wasn't technically her Kanda, and she wasn't technically his Lenalee. But it had been nice to think of each other like that while they were here, because they were so familiar.]
[It's still twenty years of knowing Yuu Kanda. And now she's known him as long as she has her own, so really, it's not hard to blur the lines a little. She wants to blur the lines a little.]
If I can go home and make it to thirty years of knowing you... [a heavy breath] I think I'd really like that.
Guess you'll have to make sure I stick around, then. [Because he probably will manage to muck that up somehow on his own. Or run off without a goodbye again.]
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Worried?
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You've probably faced more scary things here than you might see out there. Then again it does lack the rather crude safety net this place has created.
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She crosses her arms in a way that implies she's more holding herself than irritated, then shrugs half-heartedly.] It's not that. I've been here so long, I almost don't know where my real home is anymore. Can I really forget more than ten years of this place so easily?
[May as well be honest.]
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And he spots a familiar figure just in time as he's about to round the hall.] Lenalee.
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And if he won't, then she's going to take it upon herself to close the distance between them. She grasps for his hands, because she can't think of anything else to say just yet.]
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Thickly, after a long silence:] Twenty years, you know. Since I first met you.
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If I can go home and make it to thirty years of knowing you... [a heavy breath] I think I'd really like that.
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