3nanashi | (no subject)

(no subject)

Quatre's always been good at staying in touch. But in recent months, he's taken to emailing nearly every day, from and to one account or another, even if sometimes it's just a glorified hello.

Trowa is a little amused by this, but not objecting to it.

Yesterday's message said, amidst very polite grumbling about diplomatic visits and the scheduling thereof (and veiled reassurances that the diplomatic visits were nothing to pay too much attention to), that Iria might be contacting Trowa sometime soon. Trowa considered that, and the lack of associated detail, and wrote back, Okay.

(He added a few more words to address the other paragraphs. But Quatre's emails are pretty consistently longer than the replies they get.)

So this morning, when he goes to turn on the coffeemaker, he leaves the phone function of his laptop turned up a little higher than he might otherwise.

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Iria usually makes calls after work, but she'd asked Quatre for when she'd actually catch Trowa.

When she calls, she's sitting at her desk in her office at the hospital; the workday hasn't officially started, but she's in early. Everything is in light woods and varying shades of blue.

The laptop beeps once -- Trowa closes the coffeemaker and presses the button -- and then a second time.

Just before the fourth beep, safely back in his chair, he picks up. "Iria," he greets her. "Hello."

It's a couple hours earlier here than on L4, but they're relatively close as time zones go. And Trowa is, indeed, an early riser.

"Hello, Trowa," she replies, warmly. "How are you?"

"Fine."

It's best to just accept that Trowa will always suck at small talk. He's telling the truth, at least.

Nonetheless: "How about you?"

"I'm doing well."

Iria's well enough used to the fact that Trowa doesn't engage in small talk well. She also generally feels rude to skip to business without having a brief conversation first.

However, she's been long taught to circumvent awkwardness wherever she can, so:

"Quatre suggested you may be able to confirm some statements he made, last night." Iria hesitates slightly. "I don't want to worry you, nothing seemed problematic, it's just--that they were worthy of a double-check, from their oddity."

Ah.

If it's something that sounds strange, and if Quatre would tell Iria, and if he suggested Trowa as confirmation--

Trowa believes strongly in hypothesizing, but not in guessing aloud. He nods, instead.

And, because he knows Iria is overriding her own social preferences for efficiency (and because Iria is Quatre's older sister, and one of the more sensible ones), he says, "Okay," and lets his tone say I'm listening.

"Apparently there's a restaurant--ah, called Milliways?--that the two of you have each visited?"

Start with the simple things.

Primary hypothesis: confirmed.

Trowa nods, and chooses to let his face relax a little with the gesture. "Yeah."

"I know how it sounds. But I can verify."

"As glad as I am to hear that," Iria says, a little amused, "I'd still like to hear a basic description of the place, if you wouldn't mind. Sometimes my brother's observations..."

Iria's hesitation is silent, and small, she covers it with a gracious smile as she continues: "aren't always the same as those of others."

Neither are Trowa's, to be honest, although in a rather different way. Nonetheless, he knows what she means. (Or has his own perspective on the matter, anyway.)

Iria and Trowa aren't exactly friends -- they don't have enough in common for that, and haven't spent enough time in company -- but they understand each other fairly well. And it helps that Iria is, so far as Trowa knows, the only one of Quatre's sisters who really knows some of what happened in the war.

(They both know some things to look out for.)

"I could hypothesize on the exact nature," Trowa says, "but it would be fairly pointless. There's not enough clear data on the mechanism. But sometimes doors lead there instead of where they usually do."

There's no need for a full briefing. But a basic overview he can give.

"It's a self-contained area. The restaurant and attached rooms for temporary rental are the bulk of it."

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