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Shiho bounces from one leg to another as she stands in front of the apartment door in Yongen-Jaya. The chill is starting to get to her despite her sweatpants, but she knows she'll get warm later.
"Come on! Open up!"
The door forces itself open after four rapid knocks. Akira's tired unwashed face peeks out, hair extra frizzy. He must have woken up a minute ago at most.
"... Hey."
"Good morning!"
Akira rubs his face. "Are you here to steal my man?" He quips, despite looking ready to crumble onto the floor right now. He'd probably fall asleep if he did.
"Yes, it's for my blonde collection," Shiho quips back just as easily. She tosses her water bottle up and down.
He gestures for her to come inside, opening the door wider for her.
"Don't tell me he's asleep," Shiho groans as she steps in. She stays on the genkan, too lazy to take off her shoes.
"He is, and so was I five minutes ago."
He slips through from next to her, stretching his arms the way that makes one's back arch as he stands in the middle of the room.
Like a cat.
"Why are you staring?"
Shiho smiles, brightly and innocently. "It's nothing."
With a shrug, he opens the sliding doors to reveal their bedroom, Morgana slipping out. "Morning, Mona," Akira murmurs before approaching the bed with Ryuji's prone form in it, voice getting louder. "Wake up, hun. Your fellow psychopath wants to exercise."
"Good morning, Morgana!" Shiho greets the cat. She gets a loud meow in response. "Come here, lemme pet ya."
Morgana trots over to her, and true to her words she starts to comb his fur with her fingers. He purrs at the attention. She sits down to be nice to her legs.
"Ryuji, goddammit, this is why you shouldn't stay up late."
"How long was he up?" Shiho asks from the genkan, still busy showering Morgana in affection.
"Midnight. Played video games with Futaba online." Akira shakes him. "Wake up!"
"Uuuuurrrgggghhhhh."
"Shiho's here."
"Mmmmmmmmm."
"I know, hun. This is called the consequences of your actions."
Shiho sits there with Morgana in her lap as Ryuji gets ready. It doesn't take too long, at least compared to Ann, and soon they're leaving with Akira waving them goodbye.
"Are you sure you don't wanna come with?" Ryuji asks.
"Very sure. I'm going back to bed."
"You're going to lose all that muscle you built up if you keep going like this," Shiho teases.
He looks at them with a deadpan expression. "I'm not running with you at 5 am and that's final."
They close the door behind them, giggling all the way down.
"Where are we going?" Shiho asks once they're outside the apartment complex.
"Uhh, we can have some warm-up rounds around the neighborhood, you can decide where the real running takes place."
They stretch along with massaging their legs before the warm-up jog. Kind of convenient that they have roughly the same leg problem, so it's easy to exchange tips and keep up with each other.
As they run, they talk. About multiple things; like life, college, part-time jobs, relationships. They don't talk about the past, they don't need to.
It's… nice.
Shiho remembers her hopelessness, her despair. If one asked Shiho of the past what she thought the future would hold for her, she would've never have answered that her future would look like this. She wouldn't dare dream that anything could get better for anyone, especially for her.
It's not a new revelation, but small things like this make her really appreciate being alive.
"Warm-up's over, Ryuji! Race you to the ramen shop?"
"Hell yeah!"