Title: through the speakers
Rating: G
Fandom: Lilja and Natsuka Painting Lies
Relationship: Lilja Meri/Utsugi Natsuka
Wordcount: 495
Short summary: Natsuka is on a trip per Lilja’s request but it doesn’t mean Lilja can’t still have Natsuka’s voice.
“Did you know today is National Travel Day?”
Natsuka’s cheerful voice comes through clearly on the speakers, as if she were right there in the room. But of course she’s not; there’s a background click-clack indicating that she’s currently on a train.
“Hmm.” Lilja wonders if today is the day Natsuka makes it to the park at the cape and finds the flower Lilja is interested in. “I probably heard it on a podcast.”
“Was it mine?” Natsuka laughs. “If so, that was one of my first… I was really looking for a topic to speak upon.”
Lilja hums as she tries to think back to when that was. Even with her relatively great memory, she has listened to thousands of topics from Natsuka and maybe… Oh, was it the time she described going to…
“Where do you want to go, Lilja?” Natsuka’s voice breaks Lilja’s moment of reminiscing. Unsuprisingly, as Natsuka is not one to let silences linger often in conversation. “Even though I can’t take you there physically, with my voice…”
“How about a mysterious place where it snows in the summer and rains in the winter?” Lilja finds herself speaking both of a memory and of a challenge at the same time. “Anyway, surprise me.” She looks forward to what Natsuka thinks up.
“Um…” A short pause as Natsuka taps on something wooden – perhaps the windowsill? “What about a place where the rain tastes sweet?”
“Hmm?”
“People there pray for the rain, especially the kids! It makes them happy.”
“Go on.”
Lilja lets Natsuka continue even though there are definitely holes she could poke into the worldbuilding. But she did put Natsuka on the spot to come up with all of this off the cuff, and, well… The most important part is being achieved anyway. Natsuka’s voice washing over her as she idly sketches with her fingers in the air… There’s a dreamy filter she would overlay if she were to paint this story, although she doesn’t feel like getting up. She just wants to listen and listen…
“And then someone realizes they could freeze and store the sweet rain and turn it into candy! Which makes it rain less often, even if children still pray for it, but I guess it’s less fun if someone just gives it to you instead of gaining it by your own hands…”
“Natsuka.”
Natsuka’s story comes to a halt upon hearing her name. And Lilja wouldn’t have interrupted except she had heard the name of a stop that Natsuka should be getting off at.
“Oh! I better get going! I know you really want that flower as well as a report of the whole scene. I’ll get back to you in a jiffy but first…”
“Safe travels.”
“Of course!”
The call ends for now but it won’t be too long before it starts up again. Still, with the silence, with the missing presence… It’s simple; Lilja can’t wait for Natsuka to return home.