(Open) Relieving Pressure

Riku could not stop staring at the sky. He'd been in his early teens when it had gone red, and he had gotten used to it. Blue was beautiful, jopeful, wonderful. It made him happy to see it, he had not realized just how oppressive red could be. He was walking to the Nevermore to say hi to his in laws and surprise his wife. He had bluebells, lady's lace and scarlet pimpernel flowers. There was a greenhouse that sold certain flowers year round. They might not have been her favorites, but they were pretty and bright, and promised of summer to come. He got to the cointer and grinned at her. "Mrs. Lafayette. I feel I have not seen you in years" his face turned more serious. "How's Shadow? Gonna see him when I have more than an hour to spare"

"Well, at least he is alive and last I heard, stable. We are lucky he was only injured" This was also making Riku wonder if he should just make a ton of gris gris for the whole force, minus Pitch, if he came back. There seemed to be an awful lot of dark spirit and demon encounters going on. "I brought the scarlet pimpernel to brighten up the tables, get everyone ready for spring. If your parents don't mind of course. The other two are for you" he deftly separated them and put them out of the way of customers. "They can keep for a little, but will do netter in water" he grinned at her, excited. "Sun, I forgot what it was like to see a.blue sky. It is so beautiful"

He laughed. "No, actually. Scarlet pimpernel was also called the poor man's weather glass. In the book, the society used the flower to represent change. Rather clever, really. While in flower language it means youth, I thought you could see it with the book meaning. Change. I think we all need that, don't you?" He laughed as she danced, cimpletely overcome with joy. "I missed the blue. I adore this. Perhaps after visiting Shadow you and I could walk in the park? Just watching the sun set, blue sky turning purple. I would enjoy doing that with you" he just didn't know when that would be. People had need of his abilities, he was pretty good at getting rid of dark energy. But it was a lot of work.

"While I haven't used many English flowers, knowing every known plant and all recorded meanings and properties was a necessary part of my training. I think my parents eased up on Weiss in that regard, actually" he had been clever about it, dropping 'random' facts about poison and acting very excited when he found poisonous plants. His parents had abuptly cut the majority of the plants out of his lessons. He had been quite pleased with himself. He grinned widely when she agreed to the walk. "It might be cold, but the frost sparkles like diamonds, not rubies. Everything looks so nice, despite the city damage" he sombered a bit. "I hope Shadow can enjoy it soon, and nobody blames him for what happened. Thay wouldn't be fair to him"

"I think if we go back enough, a lot of people are half british or european in some context or another" he told her with a warm smile. "So if I were poking fun, I could be poking it as my stuffy parents as much as you, no offence. They're just the most extreme case of people I could think of" he grinned back at her before hesitating. "My cousin Ichabod always did say finish what you started. And Shadow did. He did start the apocalypse, and he ended it, brought back proper sunsets and blue skies. The city got wrecked, but we can rebuild"

Riku grimaced. "Tensions with Others, particuarly demons are high at the moment. But I don't blame Shadow. And everyone who really knows Shadow would agree. I mean, you Jane and Yang will happily defend him, and you three know him best out if everyone, besides his old partner. We are gonna protect him, and everyone with non human blood or traits, until the hate stops" some of the christians had yelled at him for devil worship. But it wadn't anythimg new, just a bit worse than before, but Sun didn't need to know. She'd worry. It was bad, but it would get better. Bad things always got better. The blue.sky was proof.

"They might happen uf we don't get tensions down" Riku said gently. "Every species has a dark and nasty side. It could get pretty bad" street fights were one thing, attacking people because of what they were was an ugly truth that still happened. He didn't want it to get worse than it was. He noticed her getting a little antsy. "Do you want to go on patrol with me? Aqua is doing something alone, so it'd be nice having someone to help with the patrol"