when the zetas fill the skies, will our leaders tell us why

[priorcommitment]

The moment that someone steps into Semele's is the moment that they register on Ishiah's radar. It's important to be able to look into the background of a customer, especially if they later become a regular patron. Most of the time, it's nothing too interesting. Your average salaryman, come to Semele's to have a break and to indulge themselves with good food and drink, sometimes with a family in tow.

When one young man asked recently to see the owner within fifteen minutes of entering, however, Ishiah decided to keep a closer eye on him.

Afterwards, it became a waiting game. The boy's surname was familiar, as was the color of his eyes. Ishiah had considered briefly trailing after the young man and speaking to his more well-acquainted brother, but the brother comes into Semele's often enough on his own, and the last thing Ishiah wants to do is raise alarm before it becomes necessary.

So he waits until Rin comes into the restaurant again late one day, heading directly for a booth at the back of the restaurant and ordering his usual soda as he waits for Nuriko to finish her shift.

Casually, Ishiah makes his way to the table, and seats himself across from Rin.

"I met your brother recently," he says with a slight furrow of his brows, without greeting or preamble.

Comments

[phosphor]

Rin lifts his head in surprise when he hears Ishiah's voice, straw still clenched between his teeth where he'd been rolling it back and forth, paying more attention to his wandering thoughts than the usual clientele of Semele's. He never could mind sitting to wait for Nuriko to get off work. It gave him a chance to relax, weirdly Nobody gave him a second look in here, even when they could plainly see him for what he was.

He plucks the straw out of his mouth, staring up at Ishiah's stringent face. It doesn't give away any emotion to match with the words, forthright and without any misinterpretation. The topic of this conversation is Yukio. Ishiah doesn't even bother to say 'hello.' It figures.

"Yukio," Rin replies, plucking the straw out of his mouth and dropping it back into his glass of lemon-lime soda. "He was in here? I guess he would have. He always wants more info to figure out how he feels about something. He didn't ask about me, did he?" Rin says, grumbling. Anything else doesn't bother him; it's just Yukio. But if Yukio wants to know about Rin, he can just ask like a human being.