tp5: kippei and shinji

Kippei stared down at the note on his bed, and read it three times. Then he dropped it, letting it flutter to the floor like a dead leaf, and rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at the wall where, if this had been a groundbased structure, there would probably have been a window. Shinji was spending the night in Brown, to visit Inanna. That was fair enough. Fucking curfew. It was too late now to go after him. Kippei ignored the oddly crushing sense of disappointment, and went about getting ready for sleep the way he used to, before Shinji.

It was like saying before space travel, or before the war. Before something that changed the world so completely that you could barely remember what it had been like... but it hadn't been that long, really, and habits died hard.

Or not, because once he'd changed into sleeping clothes and stood beside the bed, it looked decidedly unattractive. He went out to sit on the couch for awhile instead, until he was tired enough not to care that his bed was far emptier than it should be. He fell asleep there, and woke up early in the morning with a stiff neck and cold from lack of blankets. Dammit. And Shinji still wasn't home, probably wouldn't be until this evening, and didn't that just suck. Since he was awake anyway, he went ahead and went to work, even though it was much too early, and by the time he came home again he was, for some reason, half expecting Shinji to still be gone.

oob: sanada and ann

Sanada knew that Tachibana An was going to be at this tournament also. He was not at all surprised to find that she was on the same flight. He was surprised when she ended up in the seat next to him on the plane, looking slightly nervous but cheerful as usual. She looked surprised to see him too, but pleased, which was... odd. At least she was true to her word, not holding anything against him for the previous incidents.

He nodded politely when she sat down, and let her chatter at him, inwardly a bit amused, if not a little taken aback. Women in general were mysteries, but this one--she didn't fit any of the normal conventions that he was accustomed to. She was loud and bold and she had a temper, and strangely enough, all of this did nothing to make her less attractive. That she played tennis, and that very well, probably helped. He shook his head. Was he really thinking this? No, he was not. He started paying attention to what she was saying.