[b]Prospero[/b]
The door to Naoto's house opened and closed suddenly, the sound of it shortly followed by a slight *[i]thump![/i] as Prospero hit the floor, apparently having wandered in last burned out and soaked to the bone from the rain. In fact, he had been forcing himself to try and run additional laps, then gotten lost toward the end and by now he didn't seem to be able to do more than lie there like a human puddle on the floor panting heavily, at least at first.

although he seemed catatonic for a minute or so, the young masked boy managed to prop himself up and after a little while of catching his breath, mumbled something that was probably meant to be "I'm home!~" before he fell over again and started giggling to himself as if that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. Despite having forced himself to go further than instructed and feeling completely burned out, he felt happy. 

[i]But why not feel happy? After all this time, the target I've been aiming for is probably right in front of us, and I'm getting closer and closer to achieving my goals. That's worth some happiness, right?[/i] That was a lie though. He'd become good at telling himself lies, and at the moment he didn't particularly feel like looking too closely at this one. The reality was thoughts of revenge had nothing to do with his odd feeling of happiness. If he was honest with himself, then he would probably say it had something to do with the smell of hot tea in the background. Or maybe the fact that the people vaguely nearby him were recognizable as something other than assistants and managers and mindless fans with which he never really interacted. Or maybe it was the fact that, even if he wouldn't admit it, when he'd jokingly said "I'm home!~" for just a second it had felt more true and more warm than anything had felt in a long while.

But all that was ridiculous wasn't it? Only revenge could really make him feel happy these days, right?

He perked his head up and seemed to register something for the first time. "Oi...Naoto-nii...s'that tea?...Gimme some....'m'freezing!" Regardless of whether revenge was what would make him happy, it couldn't keep him warm. It was, after all, generally served cold.