[ It's an incredibly tense timeskip, with Ruka unsure what to say, or where to start, and opting to say nothing of consequence until well after all is said and done and they're back out in town proper. His confusion and his hurt, in smothered fragments though they are, is like a dull ache in her chest.

She's grateful for somewhere to start. ]

Oh, no. Not for a long time. I— well, I yo-yo'd out and back, a couple times, after you left. The second time I was gone long enough that Kanaya let the lease expire. She kept most of my stuff in storage, though, so I imagine she had one set aside for you, too.

[ She says the name with an easiness that Karkat won't recognize — nothing had ever been easy between them, even after Eridan was gone — but the melancholy is obvious, and the softness of her face as she talks.

After all. If Kanaya were still here, she would have been here by now. ]

So... I'm back, living here. Down the street from our first place.