[FIN] Catching Up

[BlackFireKitsune]

Seraphine flopped onto her bed with a dramatic sigh, laid there a few moments, then reached over to her bedside table for her cell. "Hey Luke," she typed, her thumbs moving deftly over the letters, "we should hang out before you leave on that trip thing with Yuri." She sneered at the phone, not knowing why Luke would go with Yuri of all people, but she supposed they were friends, and grudgingly she could at least admit to herself (very grudgingly) that he wasn't all that terrible... "You wanna meet up at the park or something?"

The girl didn't even consider the fact Luke could currently be busy or out with anyone else, or maybe that he just plain wouldn't want to hang out with her.  

[Suudonym]

Fortunately for Seraphine, Luke was none of those things, and he responded to her message with a simple agreement. For several moments after he continued to sit on his bed, staring at the device in his hand as the screen dimmed out. Eventually he managed to summon the will to rise, checked to make sure he had all of his necessary belongings, and set out towards the park for the requested meeting.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While she read his reply, she didn't bother to send one in return; she had asked, he had agreed, and because he hadn't suggested another meeting place, that obviously meant the park was fine. Thus, the girl threw a few things in her purse and headed out the door.

Riding Luna expedited her already short journey, so Sera reached the park in no time at all, Isabella and Jacques following behind out of their pokeballs. The Rapidash slowed to a walk once she entered the park, and the brunette looked around for Luke, though she wasn't sure if she had arrived before him or not.  

[Suudonym]

Seraphine indeed arrived before Luke by some several minutes, though her amalgam of pokemon made her easy to spot upon his arrival. He approached with an expression that apologized for being late, raising a hand to greet her.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sera had, by the time Luke arrived, dismounted from Luna and had taken up a spot on a bench, and when he walked over she flashed him a smile and a brief wave in greeting. "Hey," she said casually as she moved over on the bench to make room for him, assuming he would sit there as well, "how've you been?"  

[Suudonym]

He took her movement as a signal to seat himself and did so, attempting to find an appropriate reply to the greeting. He'd certainly been much better, but he had also been significantly worse. He eventually settled for a shrug, deeming it an adequate representation of his current state.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Whether or not Sera had expected such a reply, she gave no indication. Instead, she accepted the shrug as an appropriate reply and nodded once to show her understanding, though she kept her curious gaze focused on him. "So you're leaving with Yuri soon, huh?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. "Do you know when you're leaving, or how long you'll be gone? ...and where you're going?"  

[Suudonym]

He gave a nod in response, though her ensuing questions required further detail. "In a few days," he said, rubbing idly at the damaged hand in his lap. "Not sure exactly how long. We're just going around to the different places in Kodo." Presumably they'd be back once they had seen said different places in Kodo.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Okay," the girl said with a nod, her expression displaying her comprehension of his words. Her brow furrowed at his disposition though, and she couldn't help but ask, "Are you excited? Or looking forward to it, I guess." Was that a better word choice? She really wasn't sure. Screw it, her word choice had been perfectly fine.  

[Suudonym]

He considered the question at length. It was probably the kind of thing he would have been excited about in the past, but now it just… wasn't. Yuri had invited him, and he had agreed to accompany on grounds of understanding that spending all his time at home wouldn't be very good for his mental health. He eventually gave another shrug; he wasn't excited, but he wasn't exactly dreading it either, he supposed.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"...are you okay?" She asked, brow furrowed again. All of his reactions thus far had been quiet if not completely nonverbal, and while she was perfectly okay with such responses, they were a bit troubling. Still, given all he'd been through over the past couple of weeks, she fully expected him to not be totally okay with things (because honestly, who would be after all that s**t), but this was... a lot less okay than she had figured. "You seem really... despondent or something." Something else wasn't wrong, was it? There was no way. Too much s**t had already happened to him in too short a time for life to try and screw with him again. Clearly he was exempt from anymore s**t for a while, right?  

[Suudonym]

He looked to her in a mild surprise, unaware that he had been displaying any indications of not being okay. Well, that made enough sense, he supposed. But 'okay' was a relative state, so he nodded in reassurance nonetheless, albeit insincerely. "Sorry," he said, his tone predictably reserved. "I'm not really in a great mood." As a general rule.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Hearing the fact that his mood was poor similarly troubled her, and she immediately wracked her memory for anything she could think of as the source of such a mood and when it might have started. He seemed to be in an okay state when they found him in Grand Ile - he'd certainly seemed happy to see them - and apart from their late night walk and his confession, he seemed to be okay the next day, especially when they were on the boat. So, "Why?" He'd seemed okay, relatively speaking, despite all that had happened... "Did anything happen..? Anything else, I mean," she amended quickly, raising her hands. "Like apart from all the crap and stuff lately, and.." Wait, what was she even saying anymore? That was an awful question, holy s**t. Immediately she began second-guessing her assumptions. What if nothing else had happened, and he'd just had time to think over everything and that put him in a bad mood? And now she was asking about it and bringing up something he probably didn't even want to think of, let alone talk about. "I mean, I just.. uh... Never mind," the girl ended sheepishly, and her cheeks turned a little pink as she turned her gaze to her knees. s**t, she was awful at this.  

[Suudonym]

He watched Seraphine speak and backpedal and try to arrive at her point in a way that wouldn't hurt or offend, and he shook his head with as reassuring an expression as he could manage through his inability to produce a proper smile. "It's okay," he said. "It's nothing specific. Just… everything." He shrugged vaguely, gaze lowering. "Kind of feels like I'm dragging things out for no good reason, but talking about stuff," he shook his head idly, "never really ends well."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She was still rather uncertain of whether or not anything else had happened or if it was everything she already knew about that was bothering him, so her gaze remained on her hands as they fidgeted a bit in her lap. "But you're not though," she said with a frown once she looked back up at him after a few moments. "Dragging it out for no good reason, I mean. But talking helps sometimes. Not always, though." Another frown, this time aimed at the grass before them.

The brunette hesitated momentarily before she chanced the question, "Did you say that because you'd rather not talk about things, or..?"