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Things had been quiet, but not in a way he usually preferred. Maybe he was being a bit neurotic. Wait— no maybe, he was definitely being neurotic. However, Blue was volatile and finicky at the best of times. She hadn't replied to him. Not to mention leaving in such a hurry. Before, he'd figured she'd ran out of coyness, but now he wasn't so certain. Shinra had never been eager to see anyone. Usually, his presence was a bad omen.
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Still, he hadn't expected her to be silent. Not even a gruff "kay" or "whatever", silence was even worse somehow. Blue wasn't silent even when she was mad. She couldn't help but make her irritation known, so this wasn't natural. He didn't know when he'd grown so self-conscious, but it was eating him alive. Not that it had been a lot of time, but it was enough to reconcile the many questions flitting around his head lately. Only to have it double over and rot with self-contempt and insecurity. He was a lot more dramatic about this than he thought he'd be.
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He hadn't heard the bang on the door at first, it was only half processed as he peeked around the corner of the couch to look at the front door. With a sigh, he shut the book he was reading with a defined clap. If it was one more door-to-door salesman, he'd snap their neck and make it look like an accident.
[break][break]
"Look, I'm not—" He started as he opened the door, not anticipating the body that slammed into him and knocked him backwards. The sound of her voice was immediately recognizable, but the noise she made was not. The panic was uncomfortable, constricting up inside of him.
"Blue? What happened? Are you okay?"


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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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The truth was that she wasn’t okay. Not by a long shot. There was a lot that she still had to sort through—even more so after the conversation she’d had with THEO BECKETT in the wake of their return. Nothing was alright. Half a lifetime had been lived and then uprooted again in the blink of an eye. She wasn’t sure how anyone could handle that with ease. Anyone who actually remembered, anyway.[break][break]
But right then, looking at Shinra standing in his doorway seconds before she collided with him, it felt okay. It felt like she could be okay. Something in her soul clicked back into place, her tilted axis balancing again. Twenty years of foggy memory was nowhere near as impacting as hearing his voice with her own ears.[break][break]
“Shinra,” she blurted, the only word she was able to babble out for a moment as she clung to him. Twenty years of melancholy and longing rose to the surface, constricting her throat. Everything in her sagged, knees going weak as she held on. There was no fight in her, only relief that he was real and whole, and probably confused as hell.[break][break]
“I’ve been waiting years to see you again.” She knew it probably didn’t make sense to hear her say. It didn’t stop her from saying so, though. It was true, even if it broke the conventional idea of reality. “I’m sorry, I was—I know I said I’d call. Work…kept me.” It wasn’t even a lie. He just didn’t know how long it had actually prevented her.[break][break]
Her arms slid up, clinging around his neck. She was soaked through to the bone, but she didn’t care. The last time, she’d shyly let go and she’d ended up regretting it for the better part of two decades. In her pocket, her phone buzzed with the alerts that began to roll in, unreceived by a signal that had been stuck in another world. “I missed you, so much.”

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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The panic he felt right then was rivaled only by a venomous temper that he hadn't felt in a long time. Not since Kanto. Even then, that fury felt pale in comparison to the one stoked at the thought that something was horribly wrong. That something terrible had happened to Blue to make her behave this way. It wasn't like her to be like this. Things had changed between them, of course, the last time they'd been together. He'd be lying to say he hadn't been anxious all week, fearing that he'd ruined things by being so forward.
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Yet, right then, her prior silence was loud. He'd been sitting around fretting over her lack of response and something clearly wrong had occurred in his absence. "Blue, what happened?" He didn't like his tone, the nakedness of his own fear. It was abnormal, but nothing about their relationship was normal to him. "Blue—" His voice lightened, growing softer as he tried to coax the truth out of her. He didn't try to pry her away or pull answers from her. Instead, he simply held her.
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Yet, he'd not been expecting that. "Years? What are you talking about?" Okay, so he was confused. She had said years, right? She sounded so broken that he felt helpless, like he couldn't help her with whatever she was experiencing. "Hey, hey... it's okay. I understand. It's no big deal. I mean I was wondering, but it's only been like a week so..."
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Shinra felt clueless, but let her hold him anyways. The wetness seeped into his clothing, damp on his skin. He ran his fingers through stringy wet hair, pushing it out of her eyes. It was such blatant affection that he wasn't sure where it came from, but with Blue, it felt natural. It felt immediate and instinctual, like the something he had been missing all his life. "I missed you too."

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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She could tell that he was confused. Who wouldn’t be? But there was something protective and safe in the curl of his arms. When was the last time she’d felt something like that. Really felt it? Maybe she never had. But it was so easy to let herself sink into. Or maybe that was just because it was Shinra who was holding on.[break][break]
“Twenty years,” she insisted, eyes pathetically wide. “I know it doesn’t make sense. But the mission I was on…I was gone for so long, Shinra.” She couldn’t explain it, that was the frustrating part. Blue knew how insane this made her sound. How could she rationally put two decades spent in an alternate reality to words.[break][break]
“A week?” she echoed, pulling back enough to look at him, though her fingers remained knotted in the fabric of his shirt. She was pretty sure they’d only been gone a day or so in that time lapse, but…right. It came back in patches. She’d been nervous to contact him. Not because she wanted to avoid him. It had just been nervous jitters. Anytime she’d looked at her phone, her face had turned red at the recollection of the last time she’d been there.[break][break]
Uncertainty of what it all meant. Where they’d been meant to go from there.[break][break]
That didn’t matter now, though, did it? It all seemed so silly in comparison to what she’d just endured. A small smile still crossed her lips at his words. “Yeah?” She watched him as he pushed her hair back, head leaning into the gentle touch. Something she’d never really expected from someone like Shinra. Somehow, that made it all the more special. One hand slid up to rest against his cheek. “It’s really you..” Maybe she was still in a daze, though she’d been back for a little bit now. No longer was she left with only her dreams and imagination, left struggling to recall the cadence of his voice with the passage of time.[break][break]
Blue leaned in again, forehead resting against his chest as the adrenaline wore off and the cold from the rain seeped in. Her skin shivered from it. “I can’t do it anymore. Rocket.” Her breath shook too. “I just can’t.”

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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It wasn't like Blue to bend under comfort. She was far more the person to break herself in attempt to flee from it. They were alike in that, only Shinra firmly believed himself incapable of responding or appreciating such softness. It had never affected him before, so how could this possibly change things? Well blue murtagh changed things. She changed everything. To a point that it was frankly terrifying.
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Shinra frowned at that, still not understanding. How could she possibly have gone for so long? He assumed she was being hyperbolic. It wouldn't be the first time, especially in expressing her irritation. Though this was not that, clearly. She did not expose her vulnerability with such ease or grace. It hardly came natural for either of them, which meant this had to be painful for her.
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"Yeah," He whispered, running fingers through her hair as she continued to cling to him. "But... I believe you, okay?" It wasn't said with complete certainty because he couldn't fathom that reality. He understood that clearly it was painful for her regardless of his ability to understand it.
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He smiled at that, with softness he wasn't familiar with. "Yeah, it's me."
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Rocket. It wasn't as if he had no idea. It was easy to discern that Blue was in rocket. He'd known the first time he met her, which had devolved into an attempt to prove it. He had been planning, at the time, to arrest her. Things hadn't worked out that way, obviously.
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That failure should have reflected on him with severity, it always did, but he didn't care about that. Not anymore. "Okay, you don't have to. You can be whoever you want to be, Blue. Just tell me how I can help."

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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She blinked up at him, the bright scarlet of her gaze somewhat bright in the obvious confusion she betrayed. “You do?” He accepted it with so little question. It was almost a little distressing–she wouldn’t believe her. She knew how insane she sounded. She’d never known Shinra to be someone who accepted facts or stories alike without careful evaluation. To practically tedious degree. So was this just a fluke? Or did he believe what she said, because it was her? His voice wasn’t clear and definitive, but he said it regardless.[break][break]
Maybe not because it was her. Maybe just for her.[break][break]
That was something that might’ve made her angry. Before. Twenty years ago. But right now? The burden of being believed and not rebuffed or pushed away made her shoulders sag. The sobs that had choked her throat before had subsided, but she could’ve cried in relief all over again. She didn’t, but her eyes were still watery and burned at the rim as she looked up at him.[break][break]
Yeah, it’s me. Her heart ached. It ached with something so stupidly tender, she couldn’t believe it was her heart that was feeling it. “I missed you,” she repeated dumbly.[break][break]
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do, or how you can help,” a humorless laugh broke apart her words. “I’ve never done this before.” The last–far less major–group she’d been a part of had been busted up. She’d simply fallen through the cracks. A nameless girl forced to fight for the locked up big boss. They’d pinned who they wanted–she didn’t matter. A nobody.[break][break]
She was still a nobody within Rocket. But also not.[break][break]
“My…” How did she put words to someone like THEO BECKETT? Once her boss, turned steadfast companion over the span of half a life. Someone dear. She swallowed down the thick, uncomfortable feeling in her throat. The sting of their argument still fresh. “My…friend. He said that we would have to leave,” her voice sharpened as she spoke, fingers curling tighter in Shinra’s shirt.
“That if we wanted any chance of really getting out, we’d have to go. But I can’t. I don’t want to lose you again.” Her face flared with embarrassed, sheepish color in spite of everything she’d already said. In spite of the way they’d already looked at each other and how she’d shamelessly hung onto him.[break][break]
Expressing affection, an eternally clumsy thing for the likes of her.[break][break]
“We argued about it. He told me to leave.” And she’d gone without looking back. Blue stepped back and rubbed her nose, the motion petulant like a disgruntled child. “Sorry, ‘m getting you all wet.” And then in the next breath, smaller and far more embarrassed– “Can I..stay here tonight?” She didn’t know how to face the old familiarity of alone yet.

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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"Yeah, I do." Even as the words left his mouth, he felt a sense of wonder. Shinra was a man of skepticism. He didn't believe anything unless he could see it with his own two eyes. He didn't care, under normal circumstances, to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Then again, Blue was not just anyone. She was someone. She'd snuck her way into his life, and not even subtly. She'd done so with two middle fingers to the air. Unapologetic and mean. He liked that about her.
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He liked this version of her too though, but it frightened him. She was soft and vulnerable. Admittedly, he was terrified that he would break her on all of his sharp edges and blunt ends. Anything he said right then could inflict damage on its own.
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We'd have to go. Something ached right then, sharp in the chest like a serrated blade. What did that mean? We, who? Her friend or him? As much as he hated it, he couldn't help the bite of toxicity that followed. Jealousy, that wasn't an unusual feeling for him but never in relation to a person before. Had she been with this person all that time? Twenty years, he was still trying to wrap his head around what that meant. How had she changed during that time? It was a long time. Yet she was still there, reaching out to him.
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"What do you mean? Go where?" Was he allowed to follow? Could he even? He didn't ask those questions aloud and he didn't dare answer them. "No, you're fine. That doesn't matter." He swept his hand through her hair, bare hand. He didn't shiver, the contact didn't burn or make him flinch. It almost felt natural. "Of course, you can."


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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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It was almost more unbelievable to hear that he accepted her words for what they were. Not that she believed Shinra to be incapable of it, but more because Blue barely believed what happened herself. In the weeks that followed, reports would come out—a litany of experiences of varying degrees of detail. All tied to the strange alternate world dozens of others also experienced. Twenty years. Half a lifetime.[break][break]
But right now? It was fresh. The reality of the passage of time hadn’t been real at all. Awkwardly, her hands shoved in her coat pockets, and her fingers closed around fabric. The eyepatch, stitched with ornate threading around the edges, she laughed in disbelief as she held it out to him. “I lost an eye,” she said, a sliver of her crooked smile finally returning as she looked up at Shinra. “I think I looked pretty fuckin’ badass.”[break][break]
There, that sounded way more like her, didn’t it? Crass, even in the pristine space of his apartment.[break][break]
The boldness flickered away, though, oscillating back toward the strange vulnerability that she found herself capable of with him. That was a frightening thing, being offered that safety, as much as she craved it. And as the conversation turned toward Theo, the raw cut of their disagreement wept with fresh pain all over again.[break][break]
She didn’t like the look that crossed Shinra’s face at the mention of her mentor, friend, either. That stricken expression that he worked to quickly hide, but that Blue caught anyway, out of the corner of her eye. “He said we’d have to flee Hoenn. To avoid repercussion for abandoning Rocket.” Her face set in a frown of stubbornness again, cheeks tingeing with color. “He’s…sort of important there. But I said I wouldn’t leave you behind.”[break][break]
She couldn’t, not when she’d finally made it back. Back to Shinra.[break][break]
Even if she’d come to accept her life in not-Galar Galar, or wherever they were, with a degree of peace—the hope had always been there nagging at the back of her mind. Home, was where Shinra was. Like the feeling of his fingers tangling softly in her hair. Blue’s eyes fluttered closed and she let out a breath, leaning into the contact. Something, she didn’t fail to note, wasn’t gloved. No small thing. “Thanks, Shin.”[break][break]
No formality, and not derisive nicknames. Just Shin.

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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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Shinra tried to imagine everything that Blue was telling him, but it was difficult to imagine. He had always been an analyst, believing only the numbers and the facts presented to him. Even then, he'd been a natural skeptic. He might not have completely understood what Blue was telling him, but a softer part of him wanted to give her the comfort of seeming to understand. He would accept her words because that was what made her happy.
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Such a sentiment was unheard of.
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He was the cold, cruel, tactical hand of justice. He didn't believe in anything but the cutting down evil things in the world. A version of him, only months ago, would have believed Blue guilty of evil. That version of himself would have cut her down like a frigid and unfeeling blade and he wouldn't have thought twice about it.
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Admittedly, he wasn't really sure who he was or what he believed in when he was around Blue.
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Everything changed when she was involved. He was the thing he feared most, a hypocrite.
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"Leave Hoenn..." It wasn't poised as a question, he was still processing. Like an old computer, struggling to consume new data that contradicted current programming. He couldn't just leave Hoenn. He was posted there. His job was there. Even then, he said nothing. He leaned into the contact and, for once, it didn't make his skin crawl. This was new and frightening, but he liked it.
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Shin. He smiled at that. "I'm glad you're here."


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Shinra Moro // m: post-goodbye galar

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