Who will be there for you?

[yattagarasu]

Who: yattagarasu and OPEN
Where: The fringes of Azalea Town, but not too far out
When: Friday, September 10th, evening-ish (forward-dated because I won't be here tomorrow and I only remembered this date not too long ago!)
Summary: Kay goes to pay respects to the deceased in the only way she can. AS USUAL, action or prose is fine with me, whatever sails your

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[bakaitoukid]

Stealth might not have been a part of Kid's modus operandi, but that didn't mean Kaito didn't have the ability to be sneaky in his repertoire. Like any good thief before him, he had managed to perfect the art of sneaking around, which made shadowing people a cinch when heists required him to do as such.

Even so, that was not how he wound up stumbling on Kay's private ceremony on the edges of Azalea (he liked to think he had plenty of respect for people's privacy, unlike certain detectives he knew). Drizzle or not, his Pokemon team was ready and willing to train, and Route 33 was the perfect place to do so. So with his backpack restocked with potions and other healing items just in case, Biz perched on his head and his still unnamed Eevee trotting close to his heels, he left the sleepy town of Azalea behind to spend the afternoon on Route 33.

Of course, heading out to Route 33 meant passing Kay in the process.

Upon catching sight of the short, ponytailed ninja thief in the distance, he stopped, tilted his head, and briefly asked himself what she was doing out here in the rain. From his angle, he couldn't see the flowers or the chocolates, just her back. Had she the same idea as him?

There was no reason not to say hello, was there? And possibly have a little bit of fun in the process (it had been a while since he had pulled any harmless pranks, after all). Hands in his pockets, he shushed both Biz and his Eevee so they wouldn't alert the girl to his presence and slowly approached Kay from behind, intent on placing his hand on her shoulder and startling her if she could.

"-- I just never got the chance to say goodbye"

He stopped short as he picked up on that part of her conversation, his grin fading as he immediately understood what the underlying meaning of her statement was. How many times had he said the exact same thing to his dad....?

Kay was doing something important, and Kaito had enough sense to know not to interrupt her. Which is why, upon realizing that he might be intruding, he slowly turned around to sneak off back toward Azalea.

[yattagarasu]

This was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder not more than a minute later, not intended to startle but to alert him to the fact that Kay was very much aware of his presence. Not that she had been, but she'd finished with what she needed to say, and timing had led to her spotting her fellow thief.

... Who had been startlingly close, now that she thought about it. She'd have to ask him for tips on stealth in rainy weather at a later point.

"I must have gotten terrifying without knowing it if I scared you off before I even turned around," she greeted him lightly. "Or did you just finish training?"

[bakaitoukid]

For the third time that afternoon he stopped in his tracks, this time prompted by the hand on his shoulder. The grin he gave her from over his shoulder was slightly sheepish (almost as if he had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar or something similar) and apologetic. She didn't seem upset or embarrassed that he had intruded on something so personal though, and that was a good sign.

"I was just about to start, actually," he said as he jerked a thumb toward the Aipom on his head, who lifted a paw to wave at Kay.

"And I didn't mean to eavesdrop either, in case you're wondering. Er. Sorry about that."

[yattagarasu]

"It's fine!" She waved off the apology just as blithely as she'd interrupted him, retracting her hand to return Biz's wave and idly stretching. Kaito might have been mischievous and stealthy, but he wasn't the type to eavesdrop on something if he knew privacy was desired. Though truthfully, Kay didn't mind either way. She just rarely had company when she'd visited her father's grave before, and she hadn't expected it here, when he didn't even have a grave to visit.

"I'm finished, anyway," she added on the same breath. "It wasn't anything too exciting, so you didn't miss much."

[bakaitoukid]

He glanced from Kay, over to the flowers and chocolates laying on the ground a few feet away, then back to Kay again. The drizzle might have been light, but he could already feel droplets of water dripping from his hair and soaking through his clothing.

"Is it for your dad?" He asked, tone slightly hesitant just in case she felt like he was prying. She had told him the story surrounding her father's death after all... so who else would she be paying her respects too?

[yattagarasu]

The expression on her face was more of a "guilty as charged" look than anything, but she nodded easily enough. She'd been lucky enough to have been spared additional deaths of anyone close to her (though she wondered if Lauren Paups would be doing anything for her father, or even if she could).

"It's the anniversary of his death," she replied-- in a softer voice now. "I didn't want to just pretend that it wasn't, so I thought I should do something for it. Even if his grave isn't here."

[bakaitoukid]

"I thought so..." his gaze flickered past her shoulder once again to the offerings. Biz and his Eevee seemed to both realize there was something serious about the situation, and both of them kept completely still and well-behaved as he lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Paying respects to the dead without a grave sounded exactly like something he would have done, and though Toichi's death anniversary was still a few months away, with each day that crawled by in Johto Kaito was 24 hours closer to spending it away from home (and without his mother) for the first time in years.

The idea of not being able to visit his own father's grave this year made something twist uncomfortably inside him, but he shoved the emotion down as quickly as he could.

"I bet he appreciates it," he offered in earnest. Grave or not, it was certainly the thought that counted. "Is this the first time you haven't been able to visit him?"

[yattagarasu]

Truthfully, Kay hadn't been pleased with the thought of not actually being able to stand in front of Byrne's grave. She'd always felt closer to him then, but that grave was in her world, and she... was not. It was that simple.

"Yeah." She sighed, tugging at her slightly damp muffler. She'd faithfully been to her father's grave every year, and to do it this way felt... odd. Not at all what she was used to, but then nothing here had been like what she was used to. That didn't make it a bad thing.

"To be honest, it's a little weird. And since a lot of people seemed worried already, I didn't want to just come out and say that I was going out to talk to my father." Kay shrugged helplessly, giving Kaito a wan smile. "But it looks like you found me out anyway."

[bakaitoukid]

He grinned at her last comment. "Only because I look at things through the same lens as you," he replied teasingly, though there was much truth to his statement.

He paused for a brief moment to collect his thoughts and dig through his bag for his umbrella (the drizzle really was becoming too much), before he spoke again. "Oi, Kay?" Brief hesitation, since he was well aware he was about to give her some advice that he wouldn't be likely to take himself. "Don't ever be afraid to tell us about stuff like this just because you don't want to worry us, okay?"

[yattagarasu]

"Or through only one," Kay replied just as mischievously, tapping an eye in a reference to his monocle. Her smile faded a few minutes later when Kaito spoke again, to be replaced by a thoughtful expression. It reminded her of the talk she'd had with Johan while she'd been recuperating.

After another long silence, she looked at him solemnly. "It's also because it's never really come up before back home. It's not that I don't trust you guys or anything like that. I just... honestly, would you do it? Johan's still been keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't keel over or something on him."

[bakaitoukid]

"Trust me, I've noticed," he said in response to her comment about Johan, "But he's not the only one looking out for you. That's what we're all here for."

He lifted his umbrella up to shield both himself and Kay from the drizzle, his Eevee giving a little shake to clear his fur of water. "I know what it's like to do things alone. There's a whole part of me my friends and family don't know about, because them not knowing keeps them safe." And keeps them from killing me for lying, he added mentally to himself. He could feel a small pang of guilt course through him at this thought, but he pressed on unflinching. "But here, it's different, right? You've got friends who do know what you do, and are more than willing to help you when you need it."

[yattagarasu]

She smiled up at him after a minute's pause, checking her muffler for patches of dryness before offering that to the Eevee. "I know. It's just that not everyone I'm traveling with right now knows it, and I don't want it to get out to everyone..." Kay frowned, not liking keeping secrets, but she had since learned her lesson. "Not after everything that's happened. And if I told you guys, there's a chance they'd overhear, even if it's just... talking about my dad."

[bakaitoukid]

Kaito's Eevee sniffed at the muffler for a few moments, his little black nose twitching with the movements, before he reached out to snag the cloth in between his teeth and tug on it gently. Clearly he thought this was a game.

Kaito understood the desire to keep secrets far too well, though he didn't like them anymore than Kay did. But sometimes... they were necessary. In his case (and her case as well), their secrets falling into the wrong hands could mean imprisonment (or in his case something worse), so there wasn't much he could say to refute that statement.

"I understand," he continued, "Keeping stuff like this from people you don't trust isn't always easy." This was certainly experience speaking. "You're still the only person here who knows my situation, after all. The more people who know a secret, the easier it spreads."

[yattagarasu]

At that, Kay looked up at him, suddenly reminded of that fact. Johan had known about the Yatagarasu relatively early, and she'd introduced herself to Crow and Kaito as that thief from the very beginning. She'd only become more cautious when she realized that certain people (like Franziska) didn't yet know the truth about the Yatagarasu, and before that, she'd wanted to be cautious because of Team Rocket. But Kaito had to have had it even harder than she ever had.

"Your secret really is safe with me," she assured him now, pressing a palm to her heart. "I know it wasn't easy telling me, either."

[bakaitoukid]

"I didn't doubt that," Kaito replied with a grin, "I wouldn't have told you in the first place if I didn't think you'd go around telling people."

His grin faded into a thoughtful frown quickly, however. "It'd be nice to have the ability to be up front about it, but things aren't that easy." And he certainly couldn't have a little alter-ego fun if everyone knew who he was. "I've been thinking about telling Johan, though."

He was almost positive he could trust Johan just as much as he trusted Kay.

[yattagarasu]

"A stealer of the truth knows how to put it behind seventy deadbolts and tightly sealed lips," Kay responded agreeably, tapping those lips with a finger and a grin that mirrored his earlier one.

Like that grin, it soon transitioned into something a little more pensive, and she rubbed the Eevee's ears. "Johan's a good choice," she said at last, her smile back but a lot less playful now. "I've never once regretted telling him anything, and I trust him just as much as I trust me." Then, because this was Kay, "... Maybe more than I trust me."