alma_karma | 1/idek (Reply)

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[If there's something to be said for their petty bickering, it's how it makes their interactions so much easier to manage. This being only their third conversation since 'llujah's arrival, Allen... Doesn't quite know how to deal with him yet. Even disregarding the Alma situation, there are still too many years wedged unspoken between them; years briefly outlined in that very first time 'llujah looked at him with the refracted curiosity of the unfamiliar, then summed up in an abrupt, 'Japan. You're not there.' The arguing feels natural in comparison, a bit of familiar middle ground Allen can navigate deftly enough to glean the differences between this Kanda and his own without having them expressly stated. It's a series of chain reactions he's well-acquainted with. Push, get pushed, push back. Keep it up long enough and they'll get somewhere. It worked last time. It's supposed to be, theoretically, mostly safe. So he's quick to notice when something falls out of rhythm; when that scowl on 'llujah's face looks a tad too― Affected to be written off as customary annoyance. White eyebrows tug that minute fraction closer, confused. He's been careful to avoid potential triggers and anything 'llujah hasn't already taken a shot at himself, because even in their most heated fights, there are some lines you just don't cross, yet that look on 'llujah's face says he's gone bumbling into a landmine. A quick mental review of their conversation leaves him coming up blank, it doesn't seem to have lent its course to anything more blighting than petty name-calling (nothing new) and profound levels of tsun in the form of DNW (also nothing new). And yet, if Allen didn't know better, he'd almost swear 'llujah's―]