She only knocks on his door once before she can hear him coming to answer it. And she doesn't have to wait too long before he opens it, allowing her a sliver of a view into the dark unknown of the world beyond his doorway and a full view of him.

He's dressed in pajama pants and a rough looking t-shirt that clings to his bones and shows off every contour and every lithe line of hard worked sinew. But she wouldn't be thinking about that now.

It doesn't surprise her that his eyes are dry and assertively examining her face and the boxes balanced precariously in her arms. While her eyes are red and puffy, and underlined in pensive plum colored circles. And that she has a bright red nose from wiping it so frequently against the sleeve of her tattered sweater. And her stubby nails are broken down from picking and re-picking apart the threads of her own aching heart.

However he looks perfectly normal.

Except for may'be his crazy silver hair, which apart from looking a little flat on one side is sticking up all over his head like a crazed chicken. But that was probably from just having woken up from a deep satisfying sleep. And usually she'd have to fight to stop herself from reaching out and smoothing down his unruly mane. But he was never really one for physical contact.

And she has no fight left in her anyway.

For a second she wonders what he must think of her. Showing up on his doorstep so obviously un-put together. And for another second they simply stand and stare at each other. Taking each other in and breathing in the tension, exhaling unspoken words.

Until finally he runs a weary hand through his thick hair and with a sigh like a vacuum, sucking the air from her body he says "Um...do....come in Kurenai." His voice is flat, but his one eye is so pained it's almost endearing. And she can't think of any plausible way to react, which seems to be happening more and more as of late.

So she tosses her dark hair over her shoulder and says "Well, if we're going to do this, we might as well get it over with." and pushes past him before he can answer bewildered, setting the boxes down on the floor and already shrugging out of her coat and peeling off her shirt.