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Who: Ebisu, Aomi, and various out-temple workers
What: Time for a relaxing trip to Kanagawa, before the next thing blows up.
Where: Kanagawa
When: Sometime after that compound mess

Kanagawa Prefecture has a lot of good points. There's an opening to the ocean, a lake for touring, beautiful views of Mt. Fuji wherever you look, and all sorts of interesting museums or temples. Aomi, the organizer of this little trip, agrees for everyone to meet at Iiyama Kannon an hour or two before noon. An easy famous place that people hopefully won't get lost going to, and all. Until then, well, people are free to go wherever they like. They don't even have to stay in Atsugi, where the meeting area is supposed to be. There are beaches not that far off, zoos to enjoy various animals, parks where carefully cultivated flowers are in gleeful bloom, a bustling Chinatown, and even the little island of Enoshima.

When the time comes to meet up, however, Aomi can be found alongside Ebisu with a bulging backpack and he does a quick headcount to make sure everyone is there before continuing on. The ultimate destination isn't any of the many tourist attractions in Kanagawa, but rather he leads away from the cities and towards the forests of the prefecture. Aomi would have made sure to remind everyone that morning over text to wear hiking boots.... so hopefully they all remember to do that, because the path chosen is one that has no actual path at all. Hopefully no one gets hurt, although it shouldn't be too hard.

What's the destination? That much becomes obvious once they hit some more even land, where a small stone monument has been placed at the base of a fully blossoming Japanese wisteria. Here, Aomi will let everyone know it's fine to take a break, and settle down. It's here that he'll help spread out some various picnic blankets and begin unpacking from his enormous backpack. He's been courteous enough to pack lunch for just about everyone, and a good variety in case any one dish doesn't suit someone. There's delectably spicy yokosuka curry, juicy shirokoro horumon, rare to get shonan pork sausages, and a variety of sushi that takes full advantage of being from a seaside prefecture. Everyone is free to relax beneath the wisteria blossoms and enjoy the view peeking out from the trees.

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"Thinking about things?" Suzaku focussed on his friend now, looking away from the mountains around them.

"Is it anything you want to talk about. Sometimes that helps in figuring things out."

Sometimes. Suzaku isn't the great at talking about things himself, but the few times he has made himself talk to Saber about things that worry him he has mostly felt better afterwards.

"No offense, Suzaku, but I think you're not the person to talk to about romance." Considering his friend had, as far as Edge knows, never so much as flirted in his entire life, and generally seemed more serious and somber than anyone else? "Actually, most people in the Far Shore aren't."

"I'm not offended." He really didn't know much about romance. Though he did have a memory of a day spent with Euphie. He had definitely liked her that day, when they had met. But he has no other memories of her, no knowledge of them even meeting ever again. She was a princess and he was a traitor and possibly a murderer. Even if it was safe to think about his past... Edge was right he really wasn't the person to talk to about romance. He didn't have a clue.

"I can listen though, sometimes it helps just to speak problems out loud." Even if he couldn't give advice.

"There's no help for it, really." That was the reason Edge was so serious about it. Ordinarily he'd just charge forward and find a way through, after all. "I like a girl, she likes me, but something in her past is stopping her."

"Something in her past?" Suzaku blinked at him, all of a sudden concerned. "Something known? Or something she doesn't remember?"

Because the former could be worked through, he supposed. But the latter, if she was a shinki then she and Edge could be in danger.

"The latter," Edge said, a little grimly. "I don't blame her at all, who knows what's in her past? It's just a lousy situation. So there's nothing to be done about it, no problem to solve, it just is what it is."

"Oh." Of course it was the dangerous one. It was for the best then that they didn't try and figure it out then. As Edge said, not a problem to be solved, just something that was.

"I'm sorry Edge. That really is a difficult situation." The worst kind, where there was nothing that could be done about it.

What can he do but shrug? "Really, as long as she's happy, I'm happy too. This may not be perfect, and it leaves us in a really weird sort of grey area, but..."

"I guess that's what matters in the end, that you are both happy." Though he gets the feeling that despite Edge's words, his friend isn't really that happy with the situation.

It must be a strange thing to have to try and deal with. "I'm sure you will figure a way to go forwards though, despite the strangeness."

"Yeah, we have." Edge just shook his head. "This place is hell, I'm more certain of that than ever."

"Edge..." It had been what Edge had said when they had first met and Suzaku had hoped that his friend had changed his mind. That becoming Lord Saber's shinki had calmed him a little, that he had become to see the heavens in a better light.

But it seemed he hadn't. Suzaku looked out at the mountain again. He certainly didn't think the heavens were perfect, a lot happened and some of it was dangerous or upsetting. But it was far from hell. From the little Suzaku could remember of his life before, this was better.

"I'm sorry you feel that way Edge." He truly was, and he wasn't sure how to help really.

Okay, Suzaku, honestly -- 'becoming Saber's shinki calming him' is about as likely as 'stepping into a tornado made his day'. Don't get Edge wrong, he quite liked Saber, but that didn't mean he wasn't constantly wrestling his god onto a sane path. Edge considered himself the adult in this temple, which honestly wasn't a ton of fun. The personal growth it had pushed him through, he didn't notice.

"Well, I'm trying to make it better. But it seems impossible to even make people smile, some days."

Suzaku nodded, "It's sometimes difficult. But I guess some days are not ones for smiling." There are days he finds it difficult to smile, though he usually makes an effort for Edge and for Saber.

"You always try though, that's a good thing." Edge really was the rock of their temple, calmer than Saber himself but more light hearted than Suzaku he struck a middle ground that the two others would struggle to find on their own.

"Sure. I'd just like to succeed, you know? Maybe that's the problem." And more to the point, HE'D like to succeed. He'd like someone to smile because of HIM. Edge was that selfish, after all.

"Perhaps." Suzaku's voice is non judgemental. He truly is trying to understand even though there are many things he doesn't understand when it comes to Edge. They are very different people, but they get along fine regardless.

"You make me smile though, so that's one success I guess." He smiled now, it was true. Edge had a way of cheering him up.

"And if you were a cute girl I'd have solved all my problems." Edge chuckled, at least managing to pull himself out of his own funk enough for that. "This whole hiking thing seems to be doing you some good, at least."

"I am sorry." He smiles, to show he is joking. He wishes there was a way to solve Edge's problems but it seemed his friend was just unlucky in that regard.

"It has, I'm enjoying it." He sounds surprised at that, but perhaps he should have guessed that being outdoors and exercise would be things that cheered him.

"Is it the physical activity or the being outdoors?" One was easier to solve than the other, but anything that cheered up Suzaku from his usually glum and dour attitude was something worth doing more of in the future.

"Perhaps the outdoors." After all Suzaku didn't lack physical activity in his day to day life, practically the only times he was ever still was when a task at work meant he had to sit and concentrate or when Saber had him sit and watch a film with him.

"Perhaps the mixture of both." And being with people he liked and trusted, spending time with Edge and Saber doing something different that wasn't killing ayakashi or battling cultists.

"I'm keeping this in mind for you the next time you get gloomy." Edge made that into a threat, though obviously not a terribly dangerous or effective one. He was pretty bad at giving Suzaku any advice that would actually cheer him up or improve things, so finding another way to get the boy from being way too dour might just help a lot.

"You don't have to worry about that." Edge had been right the day they had cleared the restaurant of ayakashi, he had to get better at internalising things. It was almost embarrassing how both Edge and Saber always knew when he was feeling less than happy, especially when he tried to hide it.

He didn't want them worrying about him.

"Like hell I don't!" Edge rolled his eyes dramatically, to make sure Suzaku got the point. "You'll just go around trying not to show it and it'll be awkward when we have to point out you're terrible at it. Besides, we're friends."

Suzaku was really lucky to have friends. Like most things he felt that gratitude had little context, he was just glad he had people who called him a friend and seemed to like him. The few moments he had remembered of his life had not painted a picture of someone who was well liked.

Despised more like it. "Thank you Edge. You're a good friend."

He doesn't have tears in his eyes, that's just the wind, stinging them as he stares out into the distance.

"You're not so bad yourself." Actually acknowledging that was a bit uncool, so Edge did it with casual arrogance to make it seem all manly.

Suzaku just smiled again, "We should catch up." He nodded to the walkers, who had gotten a little distance ahead.

They probably needed to go distract their god and save whichever of Ebisu's shinki he had decided to talk at...

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onehandsomeslickninja - 2019-04-06 19:37 (UTC) - Expand

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