stuff and some other stuff

"Oh! Tomo-chan thank you so much. You've been extremely helpful to me!"

Tomoko stifled a sigh of relief as JK closed his book and jumped up from the table. She wasn't sure JK got what she was trying to explain to him - he kept on checking his watch and nodding at inappropriate moments and asking her to repeat concepts and definitions over and over again. But if he said they were done, then they were done. She wasn't going to argue with him about that.

The rest of the club had gone home - or at least, that was what it looked like. Tomoko got her things and went with JK to the door, then waved goodbye to him when he dashed off. It was just her now, just the way she liked it. Just the way it should be.

Oh, well.

She took her white snake skin out of her bag. Would it help her find Meteor today? It had been failing her recently, telling her Meteor was around when he wasn't.

She wondered if it was worth the trip of having it replaced with a new one.

Tomoko set her phone down on the table, and sighed. She was finally at the end of a busy day; there were a few meetings she attended and, while she wasn't expected to do more than smile and nod at times, she found them draining, nonetheless. Her agent did most of the talking, and while she's grateful for that she also found it mildly annoying that it meant her presence in these meetings was mostly for show.

But that was over. Her next appointment with him would be in two weeks, so for now she was free to do as she pleased. Which included meeting up with an old friend - one she hadn't seen for quite some time now.

Idly, she wondered how well he was doing, and if he was still in touch with the other members of the Kamen Rider Club.

And if he knew where Ryusei was.

Tomoko sighed again.

...maybe not.

For today, just for today, Tomoko was going to wear her blue dress.

Perhaps it didn't really matter, she thought, as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. The dress's shade was a blue so deep and rich it was almost black on certain angles, yet it still felt so foreign on her skin. It was a far cry from her usual selection of clothes, which was her thought when she opened this gift from Miu. She thought she wouldn't really be wearing it anytime soon.

Tomoko thought wrong.

The doorbell rang.

She hadn't even worn her headdress yet.

But there wasn't time for that - it usually took her fifteen minutes to find the perfect spot at the side of her head for it - and she really didn't want Ryusei to wait. So Tomoko did another unexpected feat, and brushed her hair and left it free of any adornments.

She rushed to the door. Smoothing her dress and calming her suddenly-frazzled nerves, Tomoko opened the door and smiled.