Hello stranger, how long has it been?

DATE | 23th May
TIME | Around 5 pm
PLACE | Bread Ahead
ATTIRE | outfit


“You okay with closing down Kasumi?” Kasumi dropped down a giant bag of flour and dragged the back of her hand over her forehead “Yeah, just go” Kasumi said with a soft smile, even as her eyes told a story of how tired she was. But how was she about to deny this kid of going off spending Sunday night with her newfound boyfriend?

The banshee turned around placing her hands on her hips, there were so much to do before she could shut down Bread Ahead for the day. It had been insane how many people had been through this day. And after three nightshifts at the hospital this week, it was no wonder that she was about to fall over from exhaustion.

Instead of starting the cleaning and wiping down, Kasumi sat down on a small chair and pulled out her new acquired phone, it was a used older model iPhone. But it had helped her making sure that she knew just how much more she needed to do before the rent was covered. “Short almost fifty quid” she mumbled for herself and could feel the overwhelmed feeling of failing overcome her. Small tears started glide down her cheeks she quickly dried of. Things had been going okay, she had found her old childhood friend Lazarus, even though he had been very weird about everything in the start. She had made it clear that she needed to figure out what she wanted, before he could take his confession seriously.

Well, she hadn’t really told him off like that. But she had been so close to just run out of the coffee shop that day. And after everything else that had happened after, it was a little blurry all of it. Truth be told, she was just hanging on by the skin of her teeth.

The store bell rung, and she made a small curse, before she stood up putting her phone away and drying of her tears. But she stopped dead in her track as she felt the aura. That, it couldn’t be, could it? She forgot how to breath as she slowly walked towards the door that would lead her from the backroom out to the storefront. “Joel?” she whispered, and turned around the corner, there he stood. Seven years had gone by and he stood there is no time had gone by at all. “Oh my god, it’s really you, please tell me it's really you” she finally got out and put her hand in front of her mouth. Tears started streaming down her cheeks and even as she wanted to run towards him and pull him into a hug. She couldn’t move, so afraid that this was just her sleep deprived showing her something that wasn’t really there.

His mind was a real murmur and from what he recalled Joel had been told that this was a minor part of his memories. It had made him stay at Jezebels place for a while, trying to find an order to the memories. When did what happen? He truly had no clue, and to be fair… He didn’t want to have whatever they felt they were gifting him with. He wanted control of his powers and he wanted to see Kasumi again. That was the only thing in the world he wished for – except for some good baker bread and a package of butter. He could use that right now, and therefore he had taken a bath and gotten dressed so he wouldn’t seem too much of a homeless person. He had pulled om a lightblue tanktop and some black pants, containing his phone, keys and wallet.
With his phone in his hand, he had googled bakers in the area and tried to find one that him and Jezebel hadn’t tried yet and this one Bread ahead, seemed like the perfect choice to buy bread!

The bell rung  and he started to look at whatever leftover there was left from the day. Maybe he should bring a cake home to Jezebel as a thanks for all of the help? Or a cake for Eos? Completely occupied in his thoughts he stared at the cakes, even though he was there to get bread.
Joel?
The voice was way too familiar. Way too missed. Something he could recognize. His light brown eyes darted up from the cake in the direction of the voice.Kasumi.
His eyes widened. Was it really her, after all of this time? “Kasumi,” he said, almost out of breath. As if he was kicked back to reality he quickly and almost too flawlessly jumped over the counter, to land on his feet slightly unbalanced, before he rushed towards her to swing her arms around her. Embracing her skinny body. “I’m so sorry. I tried to find you. I really did,” he apologized not wanting to let go of her. Finally. After so many years. He had found her. The source to his will to live. Joel’s one and only.

It was first when he put her arms around her, she really dared believe that it was him. She sank into his embrace, but it took a while before she let her hand fall from her mouth and her arms gently found their way around his waist.
“It’s really you” she sobbed and heard how he told her that he had tried to find her. How was he even here? It didn’t seem like he had come in knowing that she would be standing behind the counter ready to take his order. There were so many questions going through her mind, and she had no idea how to being or finish. She just wanted to hold him close and never let him go again. The voices the small buzzing in the back of the head quiet down and she let out a sigh of relief. She could just fall asleep in his arms and sleep for a hundred years. But there was no time for sleeping, she needed to ask her questions even if she didn’t know which on to start with.

“Let, let me see you” she finally got out with a small laugh, and pulled out and took his face into her hands. Her brown eyes looked over his face, he looked like he was okay, and she breathed out a sigh of relief. He even looked shaved and clean, who would have thought! A couple of months in the Canadian forest had him looking like a good old caveman. But he looked, so nice.
And her on the other hand, with her giant dark circles under her eyes for not sleeping. Being in a city only brought more voices out, so many lost souls here in Gaia. She had later learned that a zombie outbreak had happened, and a lot of people had died back then.
There were so many lost souls that wanted her to find people and tell them that it was okay, and they could move on. One person in particular kept popping up, a girl named Maya, but she had yet to find her and tell her that her team didn’t blame her.
But that wasn’t important right now.
“I’ve missed you so much, you just disappeared” she said with a voice filled with sorrow while she looked at him “I thought you were dead for so long, but then Selene wrote me and told me she had met you in Bulgaria, and I” she swallowed the big lump in her throat and her hands started shaking. “So, I came here, looking for you” and she finally found him, but seven years were such a long time and how should she react? Kiss him, could she do that? What if he had found someone else by know? So many questions and somehow, she was too afraid to actually ask them.

“Me too” she whispered with a small smile, she had to stop her trembling lips by biting down on her lower lip. If she hadn’t come, she wouldn’t be here right now with him, and all the hardship she had to go through the last past months had been worth it. Just for this moment of being with the person she had loved for the first time. The person she had seen a future with and someone she had never really given up hope would come back to her. He had always been there to keep her truthful to herself even with her not even realising him doing it.
The way he had made her laugh and made her heart pound when she had looked up and seen he was already looking at her. The warm spring breeze telling them that summer would be around the corner. The plans they had made together about what they would see and do, all just to be gone from one day to the other.
Her brows furrowed as he tried to explain what had happened. Calling him? Like, then he teleported or? Because first she thought he meant like on the phone, before she quickly thought it could be like the voices in her head from all of the dead ghosts trying to get her to convey a message to the people left behind. And then there was occasionally mad ghost that wanted to live again, not that she could help them with that.
Again, there were so many questions she wanted to ask him, but before she could even get a word out, she felt how his hands moved behind her neck and a rush washed through her body. A familiar feeling grabbed her stomach, and it was almost hard to breath.
Seven years was such a long time.
But as he pulled her closer and their lips met, it was like the whole world around them dissolved and there were only them.
Her arms found their way around his neck and she pulled him closer. First it was very innocent as she hadn’t kissed anyone for so long, but with him it all came back so natural, and she just let her body melt into his and the same with her lips.

It was that missing piece of her that fell into place as his arms wrapped around her and he pulled her closer. With everything that had happened over the last few months, none of them seemed very important. Because she had finally found him, and he was here; he was really, here.
An almost impatient hum left her as he pulled away. She wasn’t ready to go back to the real world where she had to close down the shop and go home. Was he coming with her? Maybe he had other places to be, seven years apart was a long time, and even though he was kissing her now. Who was to say what he had been up too, who he had met and how his life situation was right now?

A soft smile formed on her lips as he asked her if he could help her shut down. She wasn’t sure. Kasumi looked around to remember what needed to be done before she could close the shop. As he started to move her around to make her laugh and she shook her head a little. “It’s okay Joel, I’ll just do it really quick, and then we can catch up, how about that?” she turned him around and placed a quick peck on his lips. Then she found her little check list for what needed to be done. She quickly checked them off that had already been done, and faster than she would have done hadn’t her long lost love just walked through the doors.

“So, what are you doing in Gaia?” she asked, as she started sweeping the floors and get the rest of the cakes into the fridge. Everything needed to be cleaned down, so the morning shift didn’t have any problems with starting up when getting in.

She made a small snort that turned into a slight giggle as he told her that she was overworked. She was overworked, she had overworked herself she knew that. But she had too, there was no other choice really, since she didn’t have an agree or had worked before she wasn’t really qualified so she had to take whatever came her way.

Therefore, she just didn’t comment on it, mostly because she knew that he would be upset at her for pushing herself this much. She had just needed enough money to pay rent, get food and save money to travel. Travel so she could find Joel, but luckily, he had found her. Everything was falling into place.

“Must be exhausting if you get summoned without warning” she spoke, looking at him with a slight frown. He was worried about her, but the same would go for her to him.
“Oh, they can, you do?” the smile that appeared on her lips, was bright and cheerful. She didn’t even for one second think about the very fact that him getting his memory back would hinder them or do anything to tear them apart again. Him understanding who he was, where he came from and finding out that there were other people out there that had been looking for him, and loved him? Of course, he should have that.


She was finally ready and turned towards him as she had taken of her apron and put on her jacket. “Do you have time, to maybe walk around with me?” she asked, he had told her that he was staying here, so he had somewhere to be. But hopefully. Her eyes shimmered with hope as she looked at him, her hands almost ruining the lining on her jacket as she waited for his answer. “If you, I mean if you don’t have to get back to your friend right away?” she mumbled, giving him an awkward smile looking down on her feet. One would think seven years would make her more mature. But being around him? It brought it all back, and just how hopelessly in love she had been. But also the sadness and hurt when he had been gone, leaving her all alone in a tribe that didn’t want her.

No, she couldn’t think like that. It would get better, he was here, they could talk. Everything would be alright.

She gave him a small smile as he told her that he would love to walk around with you. She couldn’t help but take a breath in as he told her that he didn’t have to get back to the person right away. He had said friend, right? Her overworked and tired mind couldn’t really catch up with everything, seemed like a hell of a friend since they were living together. But he wouldn’t have kissed her if there was someone else, right? Oh how seven years were a long time being apart, especially when their relationship hadn’t been put in stone before he had went away. She knew that she loved him, and with each passing day after his disappearance, her heart had ached for finding him again. If that wasn’t love, then she wasn’t even sure what love was.

“Let’s go” she finally spoke and led him out the back door, turned around and put in the alarm before locking it, checking twice that everything was in order before taking his hand and started walking towards one of the parks that was nearby. She was quiet for a while; she took in the information that he had told her. His name wasn’t Joel, but Uriel – the archangel for hope – she looked up at the sky and saw how the darkness was about to let them see the beautiful stars. She felt tears prick at her eyes as she took in a sharp breath, it felt like someone had sat down on her chest. She was in love with an archangel? How would that ever work, how could that work.

She didn’t even realize she was crying before the wet sensation of tears glided down her cheeks. A small laugh left her as she tried to cover up how helplessly it made her feel. Finding Joel, only to realize that in the end, he would have to leave her again. And she would never be selfish enough to ask him to stay with her. She was just, her.
Kasumi took her hand from him and tried to dry of her tears. “I’m sorry” she whispered “I can only imagine how it must feel like finding out just how much you have lost with your memories”
She sank a lump in her throat and walked over to a bench to sit down and looked down on her shoes. She really needed a new pair. “Just, feels like I’ve lost you just as I found you again” she finally said as she looked up towards him, admitting defeat against the tears that kept on coming.

Her brown eyes found his as he sat down in front of her, she really tried but couldn’t hide the pain away that was filling her tired eyes. Maybe if she had been able to sleep it would have been another question. For just a second Kasumi contemplated what she would be like if she could actually sleep through a night without the voices. She had been able to with Joel beside her, but even then, they had been sleeping in the woods where you couldn’t always rely on just sleeping through the night.
He got her back to reality as he placed a warm hand against her cheek, and without even thinking twice she leaned towards it and closed her eyes. When both of his hands cupped her face, she opened her eyes again. Joel was right there, he was, her Joel. But what if he wouldn’t be there when Joel became who he actually was. Uriel.

A smile filled with anguish formed on her lips as he promised her that it wouldn’t change what he felt for her. She wanted to tell him that he couldn’t do that. That it was to cruel to promise her something he wasn’t sure he could keep. But she wanted to believe so bad, that instead she just leaned forward and placed her lips towards his in a soft and brief kiss. “I’ve missed you so much” she whispered as she placed her forehead against his.

She could feel how her heart settled down as he told her that he had missed her too. It helped, it helped a lot knowing that she hadn’t been the only one looking or missing. But it still didn’t help with the fact of what he really was and how scared she were to lose him again. She took in a sharp breath as she felt how his fingers glided over her cheeks, a soft chuckle left him. He still had the same calming affect over her, as he had had back then.

“mmh?” she got out and opened her eyes as he said her nickname. Her cheeks became bigger as her smile went up when she felt his lips on her skin. Going back to her place and relax, that sounded like a really good idea. “Yes, I would like that” she whispered not getting up right away as he kissed her other cheek and then placed his forehead against hers again. It was all that mattered. Maybe he was right, they should just focus on the good things right now.

“Okay, let’s go” she finally spoke and got up, letting her hand find his and interlocked their fingers. Her other arm placed in front of her chest before her hand found his upper arm so she could rest her head against his shoulder while they walked, her leading the way to her small apartment. Luckily, she had been grocery shopping the day before, so she didn’t need to do it today.

It took around a small fifteen minutes before they were at her place. A small apartment complex not far from the pedestrian street. She let go of Joel as she found her keys to opened. Then she walked through the door and kept it open for him. A small and nervous smile formed on her lips as she waited for him to come in so she could walk up to the first floor and open up to her small one-bedroom apartment. There was a small kitchen, that was connected to both an eating area and a small living room. There were some plants here and there, most of them dying at this point as she wasn’t really home enough to water them. But nothing more personal than that. “I haven’t, really had much time to make it personal” she almost apologized as she let him through the door and closed it behind him. She took off her jacket and placed it on her small hanger after that she took off her shoes. “Coffee, or tea?” she asked and walked towards the kitchen, fidgeting with her fingers as she opened her fridge and took out her milk and put on the kettle to boil some water. She placed her hands on the counter letting out a breath. He was really here. Who would have thought they would find each other like this?

She made a small laugh as he commented it on being personal and then looked around while she put on the kettle. Maybe he was right, even though she didn’t really like what it told about her right now. The fact that she couldn’t even care for her plants said something now that she had the powers to actually heal them. Another thing, her not having enough energy left when the day was over to make her plants whole again.  

“Thanks” she decided to say as she then nodded as he asked what he wanted to drink. “One coffee coming up” she said with a big smile on her lips as she took down two cups and then the instant coffee she had. Nothing fancy but it would made do, at least for now. As she had already took out the milk, she just waited for the water to boil, almost monitoring it without taking her eyes off it. Forgetting the famous saying that nothing would boil while looking at it. She turned the moment that Joel placed himself beside her and asked how she was doing. She looked away letting her hands hug around the counters edge and took in a deep breath. “Not good” she truthfully told and closed her eyes. “Big cities have a lot more dead people than I thought, it’s been a long time since I gotten a full-time sleep” she decided just to be honest, mostly because she knew that he could see how she was looking. The bags under her eyes. How thin she had gotten. There wasn’t really any reason to hide from it. She knew she looked terrible. The kettle finally made the well-known pop and she poured in the water in the cups with coffee in it. “Milk?” she asked as she poured in her own waiting for his answer, she then put away the milk after making the coffee ready and then gave him his. “There” she said with a smile looking at him breathing in. She still couldn’t believe that he was really here.