Dream 04 → 'The Love Which Suffers'

[insorrow]

Warnings: Spoilers of a not exactly critical nature for the fifth episode of a ten-year-old anime series. Head canon. Nowhere near as angsty as the title might imply.
Dream Effects: A mixture of happiness, regret and love.

Comments

d'aww Ken

[mykubochan]

[Have a Tokito replying. He's sitting on the bed with his ankles crossed and knees pulled up, the Dreamberry somewhere on the bed pointed upwards, a genuinely confused look on his face.]

I don't get it.

Why would loving her be a reason for not being able to be with her?

[1/2]

[insorrow]

[This would be a Ken on the defensive. Already prepared to take offense, but then waking up to discover the damn peanut gallery's weighing in on the matter of the ex-girlfriend you wish you hadn't had to leave will do that to a guy.]

Okay, what do you--

[2/2]

[insorrow]

[Oh. Hey there, not!bro.]

Oh! Sorry, I was kinda...

[Yeah. Moving on.]

It's... kinda complicated.

[mykubochan]

Huh? It's fine. [Whatever you're apologising for that is.]

Kinda complicated kinda doesn't say much though...Although if it's something you don't really wanna talk about, I guess I shouldn' ask.

[insorrow]

No, it's fine. She was... well...

[Okay, how do I put this. I'm an assassin and she'd probably have gotten killed? No. Absolutely not. But maybe--]

There was a lotta bad stuff going down back where I came from and she... well, it didn't involve her, right? But if she'd stuck with me it likely woulda, and it'd have ended way worse than breaking up. At least this way she stayed outta my messes.

[mykubochan]

...Oh.

I guess if it were me I wouldn' want people involved in my messes either, especially if it might end up like, well...like that. [If he's reading that "worse than breaking up" means is.

Well Kubochan had sort of made it a point that it was both their mess but, well, they were kinda special like that.]

'least you probably don't have that mess here, right? So it'd be good if you coul' see her here.

[insorrow]

That's pretty much it. I just couldn'tve. It wasn't fair on her. She had no idea about... any of it, really and if something'd happened just because she liked me, I'd never have been able to forgive myself.

She's safe now, I think. She moved far away. But it'd be nice to see her again and just... not have to worry about all that.

[Yes, it'd be nice if she came here. More than nice. But how could he hope for that?]

[mykubochan]

...That's good.

[And. So. Tokito's really awkward about this sort of stuff. Something like comforting. Kubochan always says that he's too blunt, but it's not like he knows how to change that...!

But, it's Ken. So he doesn' really wanna say anything wrong.

So, have some awkward silence \o/]

[insorrow]

Yeah... way better than the alternative, anyway.

[He's seen the alternative firsthand, and it was bad enough just seeing it. He wouldn't have wanted to put her through something like that - not Yuriko. He feels bad for thinking it, worse than bad, but if something as messed up as that had to happen to anybody, thank God it wasn't her...

[It's not fair of him to think this way.]

So, uh... [Say something.] Um, how've you been?

[Well it broke the silence, right?]

[mykubochan]

[Awkward silence end \o/]

Huh? Me? Fine. Boring, but fine.

[Really boring..............but, well.]

What 'bout you?

[insorrow]

[Ken starts slightly, as if he didn't expect the question to be turned back on him, then gives Tokito a slightly awkward smile.]

Me? Oh... well, I'm fine too I guess? When I'm not having really embarrassing dreams anyway. It's been kinda...

[He sighs deeply. It seems to surprise him.]

Omi left.

[Okay, maybe I'm not fine.]