[right][h2]Kyo's Catharsis[/h2]
[@tadcfnaf][/right]

The bell over the door answers first, the same two-note chime Kyo used to hear as a child, and with it the smell of coffee and butter, low jazz playing somewhere in the back, the warm yellow dimness that has nothing to do with what time it is outside.

A few tables in, a teenage girl is gathering used cups onto a tray. She's in a half-apron, hair pulled back at the nape with a clip that's losing the fight, a few strands working loose at her temples. Aiko looks exactly the way Kyo remembers her: same age, same face, same everything, as if no time has passed for her at all. She catches sight of Kyo, and the cup in her hand stops halfway to the tray.

[i]"Oh, Kyo, come in!"[/i] Aiko half-turns toward the curtained doorway behind the bar and calls back through it. [i]"Mom! Kyo's here!"[/i]

From past the curtain comes the clatter of something being set down too quickly. Then the muffled scuff of footsteps on the kitchen floor, getting closer.

Tomi pushes through the curtain a moment later, hair pulled back from her face. Her face is the same one that used to set cups of cocoa down in front of Kyo, year after year. She takes one look at Kyo, weapon and all, and shakes her head with a smile.

[i]"Well, look who it is. Put that thing down and have a seat."[/i] On the way to the counter, she adds: [i]"The usual?"[/i]