let the light shine through [takeru]

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

As far as Sandra was concerned, it was much too early to be awake. Then again, it was one in the afternoon. She was a very bad judge of what "acceptable times" where when it came to sleeping. The girl tended to fall asleep pretty much wherever she could get away with it... and many places that she couldn't, too. It did get her into trouble a number of times. Her parents probably wouldn't have been happy with the detentions she'd gotten for that type of thing. Luckily, she was not in class today, as it was a Saturday. Also to be fair, she'd spent much of the last night awake watching things online -- at one point crying during a particularly sad point of a very, very sad movie -- so it was no surprise that now, well past noon, she was still in bed. She wasn't even asleep anymore, actually, but she was much too lazy to get up. It was, however, much too hot in her room, and after a while she whined aloud and shoved the blankets off of her, rolling over, off of her bed, and onto the floor. She groaned. Ow. The fall had been harder than she'd really expected.

Nobody would be home, she knew. Despite it being a weekend, Matthew seemed busy all the time, and unless she had school she rarely saw him in the morning before she left. Weekends, she mostly got up of her own accord and got herself food and all that... Sometimes she just stayed in bed or laid on the couch for ages before her hunger won out over her laziness. Today, she found that this would actually be impossible, though she would have very much liked to just lay there on the floor all day. There, her bed was shading her from the sun, which was beating in on her from the window. Ugh, that was so not comfortable at all. The floor was nice and cool, though, and she could almost feel herself drifting off to sleep again... and then someone knocked on the door. Moments like these, Sandra had to make a decision -- she decided that the person could wait, and she crawled over to the bathroom quickly. Her hair didn't actually look too bad considering she'd just woken up, but she brushed her teeth at hyper speed or something, flashing herself a grin in the mirror before running off to answer the door. Luckily, they were knocking again, which meant they hadn't given up in the... what, two or three minutes they'd had to wait. She knew that this was a pretty long time for someone waiting at a door.

Sandra opened it quickly, nearly hitting herself in the face with it as she did so because she'd forgotten that it was chained shut still -- but once she'd managed to get all of that sorted out, she swung it open and smiled, glad to see that she recognized the visitor. "Heyyyy, T.K.!" She was never afraid to employ nicknames for other people when she liked them, and she definitely did like Takeru. They weren't exactly close friends or anything, but they were neighbours and after all he was her brother's, like... BFF or whatever the dude equivalence was. "What's up? Looking for Matt?" She stood aside to let him in if he wanted.

[TAKERU KENTO MATSUZAKA]

It was kind of early on a Saturday morning. Takeru couldn't sleep anymore and so he got up from bed. His brother had already left so he had the place to himself right now. Sadly he had to work at noon so he didn't have a lot of time. He decided to take quick shower and then afterwards made himself some breakfast. Nothing big just enough to get him through the morning and afternoon until his lunch break. He normally carried some energy bars or fruit if he really needed the boost but normally it wasn't necessary. Takeru didn't mind working on the weekends. It kept him busy after all and it helped him pay the rent. His brother at first didn't ask for Takeru to help pay the rent but Takeru didn't feel right not doing at least that. As it was his parents were paying for his education since the Academy did charge tuition when it came the college. It made sense though. After all the high school was mandatory and thus free. When you graduated though it was completely your choice as to what you wanted to do next. Some like Matt chose to to college else where and some like Takeru continue their education at the Academy. So it made sense that they were charge tuition.

After eating and washing his plates Takeru finished getting changed. When he was completely dressed something on his coffee table. It was a notebook. Takeru didn't recognize it as his. Maybe it was Taisuke's? He grabbed the notebook and opened it up. He instantly recognized that it didn't belong to his brother. As soon as he saw the notebooks contents he knew who it belonged to. It was filled with different drawings. There was only one person the book could belong to and that was his best friend and neighbor Matt Chang. He must have forgotten it the last time he had come by. He chuckled a bit and put the book in his bag. Checking the time he saw that he had about forty minutes before his shift started. He finished getting ready and decided that he would make a stop by Matt's place to drop off the book. When he was ready he grabbed his back and locked his apartment door and walked towards the Chang residence. He knocked on the door. He wasn't sure if anyone was home. If no one answered he could just use the spare key to go in and leave the book. Matt and Sandra had told him about it but Takeru normally didn't use it. He knocked again just to be sure before he would grab the key but he didn't have to in the end. After another second he saw the door opening to reveal the youngest Chang, Sandra. "Hey Sandra." he said with a smile. He walked in and nodded his head to her answer. "Sort of. He left one of his drawing books at my place and I was coming to drop it off before I headed to work." he said taking the book out of his bag and placing it on the small table. "I hope I didn't wake you." It was the weekend after all. Some people like to sleep in as long as they could on the weekends when they didn't have anything to do.

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

She stood back to let him walk in and then shut the door behind him, figuring there was no point in letting total strangers wander in or anything. The area was pretty safe really, so she had no idea who she wanted to keep out, but then again, some of their neighbours were kind of obnoxious. Sandra would probably be too nice to just kick someone out of the apartment, though, but luckily no strangers wandered in, just Takeru. She wouldn't consider him a stranger at all. "Ohhh, did he?" she picked up the book from where he placed it on the table and flipped through it quickly -- definitely Matthew's. She wondered if he'd mind that they looked at it, but hey, really, if he did then he shouldn't have forgotten it at T.K.'s place to start with!

'What a guy, he totally would," she said, rolling her eyes a little, but she was just teasing, not that her brother was there to say anything about it. That made it kind of less fun... but meh, Sandra amused herself. "Nah, I was kind of already awake." Well, the emphasis was on the "kind of" part, but she would survive. She did like her sleep much more than the average person, to be sure, but she didn't live and die by it all the time, either. She liked people, too. "Or kind of. My room gets really hot and stuffy around this time because of the window," she blabbed, then realized he probably didn't care. It wasn't like that stopped Sandra most of the time, though. "When do you have work?" she asked curiously, changing the topic quickly. She was sometimes pretty spontaneous... or rather, she was random pretty much all of the time, just sometimes it was expressed in more direct ways than others.

(omg wow i'm sorry this is so short. my muse is... being weird.)

[TAKERU KENTO MATSUZAKA]

Takeru walked into the Chang apartment. The layout was similiar to that of his own apartment. Two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room area. If anything both apartments were the same except they were opposite locations and for the people living in them. In Takeru's apartmen there were two guys. In the Chang apartment it was Matt and Sandra. "Yeah. He was in a rush when he was leaving yesterday that he must have forgotten it. It had gotten stuck under some papers so I didn't see it until this morning. My brother must have found it and left for me to return." he said warmingly. Takeru had known Sandra basically as long as he's known Matt. Sandra had become a good friend and Takeru had come to see her as a little sister of his own. "So I thought I'd pass by before work and drop it off but by the looks of it I missed Matt. That is one busy guy." he said teasingly talking about his best friend. Matt did know how to keep himself busy. One of the benefits of leaving close by was that he got to see his friend when he could.

Takeru was happy to hear that he hadn't actually woken Sandra up. He would have felt really bad then, especially considering it was a Saturday where most people were trying to sleep in after busy weeks. The mention of a window caught his attention. "What's up with your window? Is it stuck? I was having trouble with my own window not too long ago but my brother was able to fix it." he said. His bedroom window had become frustratingly stubborn and would not budge. His older brother Taisuke had taken care of it and now he was able to get fresh air when he wanted. "I can have my brother take a look at it if you'd like?" although he was probably overexaggerating he always thought his brother could do anything. He checked his watch. "Umm, about 35 mins give or take. Working a double shift today to help cover for one of my coworkers."

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra figured that Takeru knew his way around the place. As Matthew's best friend -- and as their neighbour -- he had definitely been here plenty enough times to know where to find the kitchen and bathroom and what-not. Besides that, being a neighbour as previously mentioned, Takeru probably lived in an apartment that was similar if not identical in layout. She'd never been over to his place herself personally, though. For all she knew it was a very different world. "Huh, he usually takes better care of his stuff than that..." Sandra trailed off, shrugging. It made sense that he'd have forgotten it if he'd been in a rush -- though Matthew was most always in a rush, it seemed. She felt bad that her brother was so busy sometimes when she was literally just bumming around taking up space usually. "Yeah, he's always busy! Never at home -- not that I care 'cause I get the apartment all to myself to throw, like... totally sweet parties." Her tone made it clear that it was a joke, and she grinned. Sandra was far from the type to do that.

"Thanks for dropping it off though, I think he'd appreciate that," she added happily as an afterthought. It was probably no big deal considering the two were best friends and lived in the same building, but that was no reason not to appreciate the things other people did. She yawned widely and covered her mouth with the back of her hand as they talked about waking up and the like. Urgh, she would have probably stayed in bed for hours if she were able. "Huh?" She blinked. "Oh! No, it's not stuck or anything, it's just on this side of the building, so the sun's always shining in right about now." It was annoying, for real. "But thanks! Let me know if your brother can control the sun, too, 'cause then that'd be pretty useful actually." Otherwise, she didn't think there was much that Takeru's brother would be able to do. The window was in perfect working order, last she'd checked, but that had been a little while ago. "Ooooh." She didn't know what it was actually like to have a job, seeing as she didn't have one herself, but a double shift sounded kind of terrible. "Well, you still have a bit of time then, unless it's a far drive or something. Do you want anything to drink? Or eat?" Sandra figured she should have breakfast at some point, but there was no need to rush, and Takeru was there now after all!

[TAKERU KENTO MATSUZAKA]

"True, but you know how distracted your brother can be when he's in a rush." Takeru had basically know Matt since their first year at the academy. The two had hit off right away and had become close friends right away and of course he had met Sandra through Matt and had come to see Sandra as a little sister too. Neither of the two boys had really changed since their meeting. Matt was still the same artistic comic book geek and Takeru was still the same dancing klutz only they were older. Takeru giggled a bit and gave Sandra a skeptical look. "Is that so? You see now I'm hurt that I haven't been invited to these totally sweet parties." he said in a mock hurt voice and putting a hand over his heart in added effect.

"Tell him no worries. Plus since your place is literally on my way to work it was a no brainer. Besides, even if I hadn't brought it no doubt Mattie would have eventually made his way to my place for it." he said chuckling a bit. The pros to living so close to your best friend. Surprisingly it's kind of always been like this. In their high school days both boys lived in the dorms. So they saw each other on a daily basis aside from their vacation time since Takeru would go back to California with his parents. Then when they graduated Takeru chose to stay at the Academy and Mattie had chosen to go to an outside university. And instead of staying in the dorms Takeru moved in with his older brother in these apartments where Matt would choose to live as well with his sister.

Takeru was happy to hear that Sandra's window wasn't messed up or anything just badly located. "As much as I think my brother can do anything I don't think controlling the sun is his forte." he said with a smile and his smiled only remained to Sandra's reaction to his working a double shift. Takeru looked up to his brother. Perhaps a bit too much but he didn't care. "I promise it's not as bad as it sounds. It helps that I like my job. A bit of advice when your job hunting." said. He'd been working at the Music & Video store in town since the beginning of his freshman year at the Academy's university. The job helped him pay rent and help out with the groceries. Plus he got discounts and when you're a dancer always looking for music that was definitely helpful. "Actually, if you have orange juice that would be great."

[SANDRA HARU CHANG]

Sandra figured that everyone could be distracted when they were in a rush, so she just nodded, shrugging a little. Matthew wasn't particularly easily distracted, she didn't think -- that was definitely more of Sandra's thing than it was her brother's. She just wasn't very good at paying attention to... most anything, actually, but it was especially emphasized when it came to things like school or... okay, mostly just school. She just didn't like to do homework! That wasn't so bad! She couldn't help it if she wound up distracted whenever she tried to sit down to do Math homework -- that stuff was legitimately boring. "Oh, weren't you? Your invitation must've gotten lost in the mail," she said, laughing a little. She patted his shoulder in mock sympathy, fully aware that he was by no means actually upset. That would be silly. "And it'd serve him right for leaving it there!" she said when Takeru suggested that Matthew would have had to make his way over to the other apartment. "And it's not like it's far, you're like... down the hall," she continued, shaking her head. Her brother could have definitely made that trip himself, but okay, it wasn't like it was bad that T.K. had brought it over. She'd have done the same.

She was pretty sure that nobody could control the sun, so that was probably that idea out the window. Still, Sandra couldn't help but get a little whiny about these things -- she really didn't like when she wasn't able to sleep. Normally she was able to fall (and stay) asleep in most any situation. "Aw, that's a shame. We should try to learn that. It'd be good. What about buildings, is he able to pick them up and turn them around so that the sun's on the other side?" she asked, going with it. Sandra was sure that Takeru's older brother was good at things, though, just maybe not... the impossible, heh. "But I don't want to work either way," she said, sighing. She couldn't even handle school! Still, she'd really like to have some pocket change for when she wanted things -- her mom sent her money, she had some left over from working odd things over breaks (when she wasn't shipped off to Japan), and of course there were birthdays and Christmases and things... but it really wasn't the same. Regular income would probably be nice, but she was also lazy to go searching -- maybe a job would land in her lap one day. Until then, it wasn't really much of a necessity. "I'll keep it in mind, though! Only thing is I might fall asleep on the job and then that would just be... not good. But yeah, we probably have some!"

She waved a hand to gesture for him to follow her into the kitchen, where she peeked into the fridge. They usually kept a bunch of drinks around -- there always seemed to be friends coming in and out of their apartment, whether her own or Matt's old friends or even some new college ones, maybe. "Um... we have like... an orange-pinapple-mango juice thing. I don't know but it's better than it sounds?" she suggested, waving the carton around a little and giggling. "Is that okay? Or a bunch of other stuff, you can look if you want." She opened the fridge wider to let him inspect. Takeru could pretty much make himself at home around here, of course.

[TAKERU KENTO MATSUZAKA]

"Lost in the mail huh? When I live so close to you. I'm surprised it wasn't sent through Sandra express." he said teasingly. Takeru got along with Sandra just as much as he got along with Matt, despite the fact that they were very different personalities. Matt of course was a very organized, focused kind of guy. Sandra, wasn't. Takeru some himself as being in the middle of both personalities. It was quite funny in his eyes. "It's alright. I mean he may not have even noticed that he had left it behind yet. He has so many notebooks with his drawing. He'll be happy though that he left this one somewhere where he could at least get it back." It would have been worse if Matt had left it somewhere like a coffee shop or something where he would never see the book again. "Besides, gives me an excuse to come over." he said jokingly with a smirk. Not that he really needed on. Matt was his best friend after all. They were at each other's house all the time. Takeru even knew about the spare key and he knew that wasn't something the Changs shared with everyone.

Takeru chuckled at Sandra's joke. "He's still working on that one. Maybe after he has moving the earth down to a "T"" Earths could move the earth but he had never known one to be able to move a building with their ability. That would definitely be something that would be pretty awesome to do. "Yeah, sleeping on the job isn't exactly a desired quality." he said jokingly. Takeru remembered his first days having a job. They of course weren't overly difficult but they of course took some getting used to. He followed behind her to their kitchen. He took a peak into the fridge. He grabbed a bottle of apple juice. "Thanks." he said with a smile. His pant pocket started vibrating. Takeru pulled out his phone. It was a text from his manager. "I gotta go. They need me earlier than I had plan. Thanks for the drink Sandra, and tell your bro I say hi when you see him." he said with a bright smile and made his way towards the door. He closed it gently behind him.