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                               Today's Weather:

        The air is crisp and clear, but the cold delivers a shockingly
sharp sting when it lays its windy kisses upon the cheek. The sun is
slightly obscurred by the clouds overhead, with the sky remaining a steely
blue behind it. A small breeze wisps down the streets picking up loose
papers and the few remaining leaves from fall.

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Lights are still on, late in the evening, though dimmer than usual. Nobody
in the living room. Back in the kitchen, there's a presence: the pattern
back there is stronger than she might have expected, though. Not vastly
so, just a little, but /more/ than Kitty usually is. In addition, the
walkway to the door has finally been shoveled clear of all the snow but
the last twenty-four hours', nad the car is likewise clear.

Not one blind or drape in the house is open.

Seishi's knock on the door is brisk, rat-tat-tat, a little more urgent a
sound than usually heralds her arrival. And then quiet. She stands on the
front step, muffled in her thick grey coat and holding a box gift-wrapped
in white paper and shivering quietly because DAMN, it's COLD.

It is indeed. Kitty's not as quick to answer the door as usual - her steps
and reactions are a little slowed. But the door's tugged open a crack,
then shut and opened again /without/ the chain this time. "Seishi!"
Subdued pleased greeting. "Merry Christmas. Belatedly." Subdued grin, too.
A little too much eggnog last night, apparently.

Standing there, Seishi actually looks a bit sheepish. "Merry Christmas,"
she replies. "I'm afraid this isn't for you; I need to ask a favor." And
she pauses, dark eyes narrowing as she considers Kitty thoughtfully. "I
see what he meant," she murmurs, then explains, "I just came from Erik's.
He, um, filled me in."

Kitty winces, and steps back out of the doorway. "He got a very quick
version," she admits. "We kind of, uh, got interrupted in the middle of
the explanations. What d'you need in the way of favors?" This? /Oh/. It
took her a little while to register the box's presence. Slow on the uptake
as well as slow on the moving.

Seishi scoots quickly in through the door, holding the box out in front of
her. It's not very big, wrapped in white paper and sporting a large
black-and-white Ninja Burger sticker. "I need you to sneak this into
Erik's apartment for me, if you can."

Kitty's grin broadens as she closes the door behind. Here, warm up for a
minute. She reaches out and takes the box. "No problem. Tonight? Or
tomorrow? And anywhere in particular /in/ his apartment?"

"Whatever suits you," Seishi answers quickly. "Just leave it somewhere
that he'll find it quickly. I also need to apologize to you, I'm afraid."
She grins, running a hand quickly over her hair, but it's a rueful,
uncomfortable, apologetic grin and it doesn't last too long.

"No problem," Kitty repeats. "I haven't had much of a chance to sneak
around lately. It'll be fun." She flashes a grin of her own, there and
gone, before a trace of uneasiness shows. "Apologize to me? What for?"

Seishi draws in a deep breath and lets it out in a rush. "I have to leave
the country. I've got a flight in few hours, and I'm not entirely sure
when I'll be back. By New Year's, I hope."

Kitty pauses only a moment. "As long as you make it back in one piece and
inside the first five days /of/ the new year, forgiven. D'you need a ride
to the airport? Or is your roommate handling that?"

Seishi shakes her head, hands fidgeting at her coat for a moment before
she makes them be still. "I was going to get a cab from home; I have to go
back to get my bag. It's horrible timing and I'm sorry, but it can't be
helped. I talked to James - Kaber; I told you about him, he's my friend
who's been seeing things - he's been seeing more things lately, and
getting upset about them. He said he's been dreaming about a tidal wave
that hit Sanriku a century or so ago; he's convinced that there's
something there that needs to be settled. So that's where I'm going."

"You don't need a cab. Pete can drive you - he's a night-owl to start off
with, and unlike me, he's /not/ hung over." Any more. "Timing - timing's
okay. We can handle this, Seishi, we really can. I think -" Kitty glances
away just for an instant, then back again. "I think you're right, this is
something you need to do." Then she pauses, and laughs, helpless. "Sorry.
I've been thinking about Claire too much. The cryptic is catching. Is
there anything you need before you leave?"

Seishi bites her lip, thinking quickly. "I gave James the number for your
cellphone. I'm going to give you his number, too; I'd like you to check on
him if you can. I hate leaving him alone right now. And, ah. If things get
*really* bad here and you need me, or if I'm gone too long, Erik will be
able to find me. Just tell him I'm in Sanriku. Japan," she adds, in case
that was unclear.

Kitty takes a breath. "I can try to check on him. Or sic somebody else on
him, if it gets too dangerous for me to go out - and yes, I'll make sure
it's somebody who's clearly innocuous." Teasing, just a little, as she
steps over to snag paper from the printer to write down the number.
"Sanriku. Check."

Seishi reads off the number, slowly so that Kitty can get it down. Once
she's sure it's correct, she adds, "I'd like you to look in on
Holmes-sama, too - he probably won't be in yet when I go back for my bag.
Of course, he'll know exactly where I've gone," a weak laugh. "But, well."

Kitty repeats it back to double-check. "We'll do that," she promises. "On
the off chance that he miscalculates which tidal wave you're checking
into, or something. It /could/ happen." She hesitates. "Seishi - in case
you do get back when you're expecting - there's actually a favor I'd like
to ask you, too. That I probably should've a while back."

Seishi flashes a quick grin, and not a nervous one this time. "Name it,"
she says without hesitation.

"Well..." Kitty shifts weight, folds the paper and put it down, then quits
stalling. Mostly. "I'm, uh. Getting married in a week and a half, and I'm
still kind of short a maid of honor. And now that I finally got Pete to
promise that Constantine was staying /out/ of the wedding party, I was
kind of wondering if you'd be willing to, um... I /promise/ you wouldn't
have to learn any Hebrew."

That derails Seishi entirely, leaving her to regard Kitty with an
absolutely blank look, and when she shakes that off it's to laugh -
bright, delighted laughter. "Well, the notice is a little short, but if I
don't have to learn Hebrew, I think I can manage," she teases. And then,
more seriously, "I'd be honored. I'll do everything I can to be back in
time."

"At least," Kitty asserts, "you've got a good margin." Like, one hundred
percent of the time she expects it to take. And then she grins back at
Seishi. "And, nope. Not a word of it. And ... thanks." She shifts again,
straightening. "I hope everything goes okay in Sanriku. You can swim,
right?" Teasing, mostly. Tidal wave!

Seishi laughs again, more quietly, just a little chuckle. "Happily, yes.
But you're just going to have to pick me out something to wear at the
wedding while I'm gone, I suspect. I trust your judgment." Again she drags
a hand over her hair, making a frustrated noise. "Agh. I can't believe I'm
rushing off like this. I feel like I'm forgetting a dozen things."

Kitty says amusedly, "Well - Kess decorated the wedding dress partly after
the pendant you gave me. So I suspect you probably have /something/
that'll work fine." Little dragons around the hem. They may have to haul
Pete into the ceremony bodily after he sees it. "You probably /are/
forgetting a dozen things. But you can probably live without eleven of
them. Passport? Money? Weaponry you can sneak past security and customs?"

"Passport, I've got," Seishi replies, "and money. Weapons are no good;
I'll have to find something in Japan if I need it. I don't have anything
that will get through without a lot of fuss."

"Hopefully it'll be nice and peaceful and you won't need anything." Kitty
rolls her eyes amusedly. "Who are we trying to kid. Still, passport and
money and return ticket - with those you can improvise anything else."

Seishi rolls her eyes as well, echoing Kitty's expression. "Yeah. Well,
I've had some lessons in improvisation, so we'll see how they took. I
suspect that I'm doing something phenomenally stupid, really. But it's got
to be done."

Kitty glances down at herself with a wry grimace. "Know /that/ feeling.
Good luck with it. Try not to get washed away or anything, huh? And sit
down for a couple minutes - I'll go get the car started warming up, and
yank Pete down to give you a ride back to your place. Unless you drove, in
which case, he can have a few more minutes."

Seishi sits down obediently and folds her hands in her lap. "I walked,"
she admits. "Are you sure you'll be all right? I hate to leave you in this
situation."

"Yeah." Kitty says that with fair confidence. "It's not like it's the
first time anything's been chasing us. Besides," and yes, amusement as she
goes to dig out coat and gloves, "Kess's been making me body armor, too.
And we know ... we've got a good idea what to expect. Claire warned us
last summer. It'll be okay."

"I know you're not alone," Seishi says. "I just - hate leaving, when I
might be needed. Although there's not a whole lot I can actually do about
angels and strange psychic projections or whatever this is."

Kitty sighs faintly. "No idea /what/ it is," she admits, tugging the
leather jacket on over her sweater. She really needs something warmer than
that, but she's reluctant to put it away for the winter. "Just trying to
deal with it is weird enough. And - I won't say I won't be relieved when
you get back. Because oh, man, I will."

Seishi nods vigorously. "I'll get back as soon as I can," she promises. "I
wish I could be more sure of how long I'll be, but I barely know what I'm
going there to *do.*"

"This is not," Kitty agrees, "a month for things being predictable. Or
making sense. We /will/ keep your roommate from forgetting to eat the
whole time you're gone, though."

"Oh, good," Seishi drawls. "It would be just like him."

Kitty sighs, and tugs a somewhat fuzzy knitted hat down almost over her
eyes. "Wouldn't," she says with exaggerated dolefulness, "it just."

Seishi grins wryly and settles back in her seat, falling quiet as Kitty
goes out to the car. The mental wheels are spinning wildly, trying to pick
up anything she might be missing before it's too late.