Barriers (A World Trigger fanfiction)

Distance make the heart grow fonder

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder."

That was a peculiar phrase that had always really spoken to Kodera. He was fond of the saying, and saw both the honesty and dishonesty in every letter each time the phrase met his gaze, or resounded in his ears.

Then again, there was many things about love that were contradictory, and a completely and purely honest statement about love, he believed, would never exist.

Kodrea knew that love could be destructive, and distracting, so he never tried to think to hard about it.

However, he knew that distance didn't make the heart grow fonder, it made the heart wish to close the gap between comrades. Maybe that only worked if the heart already wanted something. Or someone.

The ship trembled and bounced a bit, and Kodrea looked up from his work in abject horror. He was zoning out, but that made it all the more terrifying to have his thought interrupted. He was afraid of the velvet infinity that now surrounded him, and at the moment only a thin sheet of glass protected him from a royal, glittering doom. Space was a tad bit terrifying, and, unfortunately for Kodrea, got even more intimidating the more you read into it.

Kodera had certainly done his fair share of research on space. It scared him even more now. Go figure.

He had been hunched over piles of some rather crude paperwork, with charts and diagrams showing the popularity, assess ranges, and duration of views of Border broadcasts. A favor for Netsuki of sorts. He accepted the challenge, as he was away, to productively busy himself on the trip, figuring he wouldn't have much else to do. Besides, he knew how overloaded the Arashiyama squad could get, and was the least he could do to help them. He didn't talk to them much, other than Satori, but they were all very kind to him, and didn't speak down to him, which made him accept and appreciate their presence.

Originally, he wasn't even assigned to the cross dimensional expedition. However, Narusaka had gotten very sick at the last moment, and Kodera had been thrown into the fray last minute, as Narusaka stay home, being cared for by Toma.

...

Why was he not surprised?

He felt out of place for that reason, that he hasn't even made it on board in the first place. He avoided talking to the others for this reason, and tried to practice often, so maybe, just maybe he would be of some help when they got there, because as of now, he wasn't quite sure whether or not he was a waste of space, and he had a creeping feeling that maybe he was, and that the rest of the crew agreed.

Oh well. He leafed through his intimidating stack of papers, in an attempt to find the duration of listeners of a new talk show, surprise surprise, run by Izumi. It had only had three sessions, and was already one of the most popular extra curricular Border broadcasts. Kodera had only heard a few minutes of the first one, a session he was sure would be awkward and stuffy because, well, wasn't the 'first' episode of season of entertainment always like that? However, Izumi was a ham, and it already sounded like he had been running the show for years. He was witty, and relaxed, and had to many stories to tell, a few of them admirable, some were to be expected of a guy like him, but most of them stupid in that 'I can't believe he did that once, oh god, I want to hear more about this.'

Kodera smiled to himself as flipped through the papers as he recalled tuning into some ludicrous story about Izumi and Yosuke throwing a washing machine into the garbage dump of a nearby zoo, only to accidentally throw it into the otter tank. And he wasn't sure how to feel about the fact that he didn't doubt it. Same thing he always seemed to be doing.

The door opened.

He looked up again, he hadn't expected anybody else to be awake for another half hour. Last morning had indicated that the majority of the crew were anything but early birds. But there she was, standing in the doorway, her sweet smile of surprise spreading across her face. Kodera was unsure if she was the first, or last person he wanted to see at the moment.