COTE: Fragments

Fragment: Homecoming

Homecoming:

Kiyotaka graduated high school with little fanfare. Soon after, the White Room fell. 5 years later, he and a certain pair of individuals from his old school have traveled all over the world, plying their trade.

However, a message from an old friend convinces him to take a break from work and drag his partners on a vacation trip to... A high school reunion?

(Do you think about me now and then?
Do you think about me now and then?
'Cause I'm coming home again)

—-

7:35 PM.

Year Five.

Approx. 100 km North of Idlib City.

Syria.

Huh.

"Well, that's certainly interesting." I thought to myself.

I was currently seated on the side of a rather small hill in front of a rather small campfire. This was not an uncommon occurrence for me, as my job tended to involve a lot of wilderness camping, so I was quite used to that.

What was an uncommon occurrence, however, was the email notification addressed to me that had appeared on my personal phone. Usually, any job requests were sent directly to my team's shared email account. I hadn't received a personal message in at least a year.

And that time it was only because Kakeru had given his contact information out to some woman in Monaco. Annoyingly, I then became the recipient of several days of flirtatious messaging and risqué photos, followed by an angry tirade by the husband of the woman in question.

Well, ex-husband in all likelihood, now.

I spared a quick glance to the man who caused the aforementioned incident.

Ryuuen Kakeru looked up from the skewer he had positioned over the fire to meet my eyes.

"What? Get your own food, man, I killed this one myself." He lightly glared at me and I returned his look, unbothered.

"Tch." He clicked his tongue. "No, seriously, Kiyotaka, what's up?" Kakeru took his attention off his food and looked at me curiously.

"Nothing really. I just got an email and thought it might have been your fault. Again."

He snickered at the memory briefly before refocusing on me.

"Wasn't me. Why don't you just open it and find out instead of dicking around?"

A good point. I supposed I should stop beating around the bush.

I opened the email. It had been forwarded to me from the original recipient, along with a short message.

'Kiyotaka, isn't it about time you took a break?'

- AS

Temporarily disregarding the message, I focused on the actual email that had been sent.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Huh." I said to myself, and read it through once more for good measure.

"..."

Ryueen glared at me.

"You know, you're being kind of grumpy right now Kakeru." I pointed out, before leaning out of the way of a rock that was launched at my head.

"Will you just shut up and tell me what the email said, you little prick?"

"Touchy..." I muttered.

He took a deep breath. Held it. Then released.