Kyouhei hadn’t taken Bellevue to be a ‘spontanious weather’ kind of place - or maybe it hadn’t really been spontaneous and he’d merely been caught up in his class notes and hadn’t noticed the storm rolling in.
Either way, he was now fairly soaked and dodging back and forth looking for a reasonable place to hide from the downpour, which appeared to be satisfied with its current location, to his dismay.
“Fwuh, what a terrible storm…” He hissed, finally taking shelter under a tree that more or less did what he wanted it to do. Turning to assess his situation, he realized there was already someone hiding there, and grinned apologetically. “Sorry, did I get any water on you?”
“I agree with that” Izumi shrugged slightly. He sure would have preferred any meeting that didn’t involved him getting stared at by random people or having to deal with a crying person. However, the kid -kyouhei- seemed to be calmer by now. No tears incoming for the time being.
“Well, that alone is better than nothing” Izumi commented, a tone that sounded so done, and yet reassuring. Like saying ‘i can’t believe how idiot you are but at least you learnt something’.
“Hmn, well, searching for the source problem could be one thing. And trying to build your self-confidence might be another” he commented, seriously advicing the other in his problem “Interacting with more different people in friendly spaces could be another good chance to develop a stronger control over your emotions. As long as it isn’t forced of course. Which is the biggest problem of this ‘plan’ of yours, I would say”
Kyouhei let out a little sigh, unsure of what to take from Izumi Sena’s words for the moment and too exhausted to break down again - speaking of which, the chocolate was really good. He washed down another piece with some water.
“I… more-or-less… know what it stems from.” Not that he wanted to go into details at the moment. Especially not in front of a stranger - it would be oversharing something extremely personal, and he’d already cried on Sena today.
“It’s not really a self-confidence issue!” Kyouhei quickly denied, making sure to smile confidently while saying this. He was of the firm belief that - while he had his moments - it was a lack of self-confidence that made him cry. “I’m just… not used to negative critique. So I react emotionally. But you have a point.”
Not that it helped him much - as a new arrival to Bellevue he didn’t have many people that he could comfortably interact with, or ask to toughen him up - if there was anyone that qualified for that in his life.
[水] - Haha! So he got himself lost? Well that’s understandable, he’s been there and he’s done that too. So he’s lost… huh?
“Well… you are… here. Like you are near the swimming pool.”
That’s where he did some self-practice. He didn’t know where the guy was trying to go so he couldn’t help him find his way around.
“So like, what’s your name again? I think I missed it. I can maybe help you find your way around, but where are you going?”
If you simply wanted a buddy to walk around the campus with, and possibly get yourself even more lost, then he could certainly help you! He can send you on some wild goose chase! Just let him know and he can just grab you by the arm and ZOOOoooOOOom!
“I know that.” Kyouhei let out another laugh, gesturing at their surroundings animatedly, not minding the sarcasm (?) because it didn’t seem condescending at all. “But, I mean… what section of the University? What’s it close to?”
Honestly, the brunet should’ve grabbed a map, or a guide, for this magnificent disaster. But then who knows what would’ve happened.
“You didn’t miss it, I just haven’t introduced myself yet!” He should be ashamed, where were his manners? He certainly wasn’t making it easy for Mizumachi to help him. “My name is Kyouhei, and… I’m still exploring? But I need to find my way back to the dorms, soon. So that’s my destination.”
One thing Kyouhei never had to deal with as an only-child in a fairly wealthy family was shopping. He could count the instances that he’d gone out shopping for food or supplies on his hands. It couldn’t be too difficult, though, right?
Wrong. There were five different brands of everything on the shelves, and he couldn’t recognize any of them. He really should’ve looked some stuff up beforehand, there was no doubt some handy-dandy website somewhere.
“I’m almost ready to go home without buying anything…” The brunet muttered and adjusted his cap with a sigh.
In a last-ditch attempt to find something, Kyouhei backed up so he could see the labels on the higher shelves better, but all he ended up doing was bumping into someone.
“Oh, whoops!” He turned to properly address whoever he knocked into with a grin. “My bad, there, wasn’t paying attention. You’re okay, right?”
God, was he crying again? really? He hadn’t even said anything -too- mean this time! Just how much of a crybaby must you be to react so easily to being teased? Izumi sighed hard and rolled his eyes, leg ticking against the floor. He felt annoyed by the situation, and for the constant crying. he wasn’t good dealing with that.
But the boy had a point. You would expect to grow up from those crocodile tears by age 10, right? At lest that was the case for izumi. In fact, he haven’t cried in years -except when peeling onions but you can’t blame him for that.
“Ahh, how did you even survive this long? You whiny thing.” he sighed low, rolling his shoulders a bit. Was this guy going to be ok? He probably should -try to- control his rudeness with the guy or he’d end up getting even more tears.
“I’m Izumi Sena. I study law here. And I’m a professional model as well” he introduced himself in a short and concise way “Well, you aren’t completely wrong, but I hardly think this kind of… training, is the right way for dealing with your problem. Also get a bite of the chocolate, the sugars will help you avoid a headache after this much crying.”
Ugh, Kyouhei wanted to get mad, but he knew there was no point - this Izumi Sena was completely correct. Maybe transferring away from home so quickly was a bad idea. He’d never even moved before this, and it was a split second decision!
There was no going back now, though. He slowly began to unwrap the chocolate and then broke a piece off with his fingers before plopping it into his mouth - only having the patience to let it melt for a few seconds before chewing it up and swallowing.
He did feel a bit better - being out of the sun, plus the sugar and water were slowly building his mood back up to something more positive, although he was still bummed about his predicament.
“I’d say nice to meet you, Sena, but honestly any situation would’ve been better than that one. I am thankful for the snacks, though.” Kyouhei joked, still a little embarrassed but not wanting to linger on the moment in a negative light.
“Mm, I can see that now - hindsight 20/20 and all that, but that doesn’t help me at all - all I learned was not to put up random ads for help.” The brunet’s lip twisted downwards with displeasure (although it looked more like a pout than an upset face) and he cautiously looked at the accidental volunteer.
[水] - Mizumachi had just finished some self-practice and was on his way to the dorms when he heard a voice speaking out. He ignored it at first, because he didn’t think they were talking to him, but a quick glance around showed that there was no one around but him!
Could it be? That the person was actually referring to him? Ehhhhh—?
“Ya talking to me? I’m a sir? Nhaaha! I’m not a sir, dude. Just call me Mizumachi.”
He laughed, a ‘sir’ was just too stuffy, wasn’t it? It was just so… so… serious sounding? Like an uppity old man who was all about like… he didn’t know—whatever it was that old guys did. Mizumachi was as free of a spirit as water was like… formless.
Okay, he was done laughing. He looked at the guy with a broad smile.
“So what did ya need again? I forgot.”
No, you didn’t forget, he just never told you what it was he needed yet.
“Ah, izzat so?” Kyouhei laughed a little too, charmed by the informal way the stranger spoke and being able to relax because of it. “Mizumachi it is then.”
This was a stroke of good luck on his part - this guy seemed friendly, definitely the right person to ask for help! He returned the spirited strangers smile in kind.
“Well, actually, I was hoping you could help me figure out where I am?” The brunet explained, a little embarrassed but not much, his hands clenched in his pockets. “I was wandering around the University - it’s so big, yanno? Begging to be explored! - and I took one too many turns without paying attention and now I’m lost.”
So Kyouhei it was. He nodded in acknowledgment, though it was more likely that he’d use once more the ‘shitty tears’ or maybe even a ‘crybaby’ as way of calling the other.
His blue eyes widened quite a bit as he listened to the -admiteddly crazy- story of how this situation came to be. An ad? So more or less he had asked to be insulted to train himself or something?
“What type of idiot does that?” he ended up voicing his thoughts, clear confussion and mild annoyance painted all over his face. It also angered him that his classmates had thought he’d be ‘ideal for the job’. Preposterous. Even if it somehow did worked out.
“Ahh, I can’t deal with this.“ he shook his head “And why aren’t you drinking the water? You need to hydrate yourself you shity crybaby.”
With such rough words, Izumi gave a light kick to Kyouhei’s chair as if to call for his attention.
A desperate idiot, Kyouhei thought glumly, this time actually tearing up - but not as much as earlier. He’d lost a lot of liquids from that crying session, so this time only a few tears collected in the corners of his eyes.
With a little sniff, he reached up to wipe them away before opening the water bottle and taking a long swig, which cleared up the congestion in his ears caused from all his hiccuping earlier.
“Well I can’t just stay like this - that’s just begging for disaster!” The scene earlier was just a multitude of evidence towards his point, but he wouldn’t use it for sake of redundancy.
“Besides, isn’t it weird to be like this at nineteen? Right? So something has to change, and I can’t just lock myself up for the rest of my life!” Although biochemistry might allow him to do that, with all the time necessary for quiet experimentation… which was beside the point.
Kyouhei took another drink of water before capping the bottle and setting it beside his chair and folding his hands in his lap. “That’s the long and short of it really. Ah, and can I know who you are…?” It was getting a bit awkward of mentally referring to him as ‘the volunteer’ or ‘the silver-haired guy’.
“Hmn, you were intelligent enough to stay. I’ll praise you for that" he said upon walking in, and all the way to the side of the other boy. With him standing and the other sitting, it was rather easy to just look down on him.
A click of his tongue, he pushed the things he had bought onto the other.
“There. You need to hydrate yourself after crying. Also get some chocolate, the sugar is good for you. If you feel like eating something then there’s the energy bar as well” he explained in a rough tone before going for a chair to sit down himself.
Legs and arms crossed he looked over at the boy.
“Ok so, what the deal with this, shitty tears? Explain it so I can understand.”
When the volunteer - Kyouhei really needed to get his name - returned, the brunet didn’t notice until he started speaking, and blinked up at the pompous-looking male, not having quite caught the first bit, but…
“Thank you?” He set the foodstuffs on his lap for future use. Feeling a little silly for having missed whatever was said. Hopefully, it wasn’t important.
Maybe this guy wasn’t that bad? Ah, but there he was with the insults again. So… there was a bit of each. Sort of. He had to breathe deeply in order not to tear up again, because… wow, that was mean. “My name is Kyouhei, actually.
“And it has to do with um,” Kyouhei couldn’t help but turn a little pink again, before clearing his throat to continue, “how easily you made me cry earlier? I know it’s a problem, I’m… emotional. And so I put out an ad asking for someone to toughen my skin? As you can see….”
It wasn’t really working. He’d cried pretty easily. That about brought them up to date, with the little bits of information he’d been provided, the volunteer didn’t know what he was volunteering for and somehow ended up doing it anyways? Weird.
Soon enough they were right where izumi wanted to be. After checking through the small window on the door that the room wasn’t occupied by someone else, Izumi pushed with his shoulder and lead the boy into the room.
“Hah? You already tangled me into this mess, don’t go feeling guilty now” he hissed slightly “Now sit and wait right here.“
He glared at the boy once as if to make his point before leaving. He walked fast, and straight to his objective. The vending machine. Taking some change from his pocket he bought a bottle of water, an energy bar and some chocolate.
Then he returned as fast as he had left. If the boy had left in the meantime he’d be fucking pissed.
Kyouhei blinked, staring with eyes narrowed in confusion at the place his unwilling volunteer had been before looking around the empty room for a place to sit down.
This gave him some time to decide if he really wanted to go through with this - admittedly not thought through - plan, and if he was really ready for the level at which the guy who’d disappeared was on.
He didn’t want to be a crybaby all his life! Eventually, his immunity to older people talking down to him would disappear because he’d be their age, and he was very sensitive towards words from people his age.
While considering this, Kyouhei narrowed his eyes at his feet and began to wring his hands out, his options on a glowing screen in his mind, waiting for his choice which could be right or wrong or a mix of both.
“Hah? Why are you suddenly assuming I didn’t wanted to, you idiot? I just didn’t had a choice, this was practically forced on me anyway” he ended up raising his voice again -involuntarily- at what he felt, was a stupid question. At least the guy was intelligent enough to follow him instead of refusing to do so.
Thanks to that, they had managed to get away from the center of attention, and were now making their way through one of many halls, a nice shadow covering them from the heat of the sun. It was however, rather awkward how he started to march rather than walk halfway through it.
“Yeah, pretty much” he accepted, a little frown on his face “Just like that thing you’re doing right now. This isn’t a marching band so just walk normally, would you?”
Kyouhei tilted his head and did his best to totally relax and strengthen his smile a little - reminding himself that they were out of sight now, that there was no one to impress, really, if he didn’t count the person still leading him along.
The brunet wondered when he’d let go. Not that he was uncomfortable.
“Sorry. Force of habit.” Just like apologizing seemed to be, yikes. He gave himself a mental note to halt the ‘sorries’ for a while. “I’m not sure I should thank you for coming, or ask for your help, now that you’ve explained… I’d feel bad.”
Oh god, this was so awkward. People was seriously staring, so much he felt like just leaving right there and then before it became a big deal. And he might have done exactly so if it wasn’t because this poor crying guy seemed to terribly defenseless. It was ridiculous.
Ahh, goddamn it this was annoying!!
Moving forward, he placed a hand on the other’s back, rubbing it gently as if to try to make him feel a bit better.
“Hah? An ad? No idea. I was just told to come here by some unwanted acquaintances” he explained, continuing with the awkward contact even after the other had stopped wailing. Now he looked around, he knew of some study rooms not so far away, so still patting the other, he made the sign to start walking “Come. It’s super embarrassing to have you cry out in public like this, so we better go somewhere else.”
He wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. This boy needed to sit and calm down, and it’d be easier if they weren’t in the middle of such a public place. In fact, he started walking, an arm around the other’s back as he guided him towards the building and away from prying eyes.
Kyouhei had been a little startled when the guy who’d insulted him (who was still insulting him, technically) approached and actually began to rub his back, which made him feel a bit better.
“If you agreed t-to come, why didn’t you read the ad…?” He was more curious than upset now, and rational enough that he allowed himself to be directed by the stranger… which would probably be fine because there were witnesses-.
Oh, there were witnesses.
Kyouhei looked around, his face slightly red both from crying and embarrassment. Unconsciously, he started to stiffen up, his walking becoming more even - as close to a march as he could get without pulling ahead from the… volunteer.
“Sorry about that. You’re right, that was…” totally embarrassing, a disgraceful show. He felt kinda gross, too, “rather weird of me, huh?”
Izumi wasn’t specially aware that the request was for him to be rude in order to toughen up the other boy. He was as oblivious as one could be. He just happened to be rough spoken to everyone all the time. He just wanted people around him to be though enough to deal with anything. In a way, it could be said he really was ideal for this job.
Even so, he wasn’t used to people reacting by immediately crying and apologizing more. Was this guy for real? Would he be ok living on this rough universitary world if that was the only thing needed to get him crying?
“O-oi… wait! Stop crying, it’s so annoying!” he splurted, not sure of how to react to this situation.
The place wasn’t exactly private, so now there was a lot of people looking at them. Some assuming Izumi had just rejected the other’s love confession. The others thinking he might have bullied him until making him cry. He had just said two sentences!
“Stop already, it makes it look like I’m bullying you!”
“W-well, if you’d-hic!” Kyouhei had to stop and start over when the hiccups interrupted him, giving him a chance to wipe his face one more time, even though it was hopeless - more tears just kept coming. It was probably the “annoying” comment that did it.
“If y-y-you’d waited b-before be-being-g so mean,” he gulped and tried to regain control of his voice one last time, feeling something thick build up in the back of his throat - a feeling that usually accompanied his crying fits - and finally found a moment of calm within himself, though his eyes were still shiny with tears.
“Then I would’ve taken you to the place I talked about in the ad!” Ah, that was a bit snappish. Kyouhei looked a bit sheepish, but at least it distracted him from his crying. “Didn’t you read it?”
In all honesty, Izumi didn’t knew why had he been directed to this particular place at uni. Apparently someone had asked for something very odd and specific, and all of his acquaintances thought that Izumi was just the right person for it.
Peer pressure is not to be mocked, the annoying insistence of the interested people so terrible it almost seemed better to just give in and go. So that’s what he did, annoyed to no end because they wouldn’t even tell him what was expected of him. What should he do? Just sit there and wait?
He was already annoyed -angered to no end, to be more precise- and the lack of puntuality of whoever needed him there only worsened his mood.
So when the cheerful looking guy came and started apologizing, he snapped.
“So you’re the one to request me here? I didn’t expected such a dumb-looking guy” he said, standing up so he could properly look down on the guy “Moreover, how do you have the nerve to show up late? Have you no manners at all? Don’t you think that stupid grin and a lazy apology is gonna get you out of this!”
Ah, so they were starting already. Still, that was pretty cruel of him! The nerve of this guy, to be so mean right off the bat… and of Kyouhei, for assuming no one was going to come. For being dumb looking. He should’ve… oh.
Wet, hot tears spilled down his cheeks, shocking his thoughts into silence for a few seconds before he began to fidget in embarrassment.
“Aah, I’m-m sorry!” Wait, this person said that kind of apology was lazy, right? The brunet reached up to scrub at his eyes using his forearm and bowed from the waist, not knowing what else to do. “I-I appeared to hhhave as-sumed s-something wrong-g-gly!”
This was awkward, he was falling apart already, and only after a few sentences! And here he’d thought he’d done really well that day, only having teared up once during a lecture when he’d been corrected rather meanly.
He stood up straight again and attempted for a more apologetic smile, all wobbly and uncertain mixed with the tears still rolling down his cheeks… he must’ve looked pathetic.
So what if it was a weird request. Honestly, there were probably weirder out there - some browsing on Craigslist would back him up, surely - so asking someone to toughen him up couldn’t be… horrible.
What was horrible was that he was going to be late to his own assigned time - although he’d almost forgotten where’d he asked that the person to go so it could’ve been even worse.
Honestly, this was not Kyouhei’s day.
It didn’t appear to be all hopeless, though, because the place on-campus he’d directed whoever was interested in meeting up at had a person already there - which meant they were probably there to give Kyou’s request a shot.
“Excuse me! Hello! My apologies for being late!” The brunet called out, cheerfully, as he sprinted to their side, grinning widely but with an otherwise apologetic expression on his face. He hoped they weren’t too mad.
One hobby that Shu didn’t indulge in often was the art of puppetry. Much like the way he had directed Kagehira and Nito once upon a time on the stage, Shu was actually quite proficient at handling the strings and motions of puppeteering. Though he didn’t own his own puppet.
Now that he was in Bellevue and had finally settled into something resembling somewhat of an actual schedule in regards to classes, work, and the time he spent nagging Kanata, he had been looking around the city for a store that either sold puppets or where he could buy parts to make one himself. He’d make his own from scratch, because he was so picky about things like that, but those skills weren’t in his skillset. Yet.
It had taken a while of searching but he’d found a small antique shop and a suitable puppet within the store had been procured. The first manner of business was clothing the puppet in a newer set of clothes. While the outfit it came with had been fairly nice, there were patches that needed fixing. Shu saved those for a later project, making a mental note to track down the fabric necessary to do so.
Matching the new outfit to one that was reminiscent to the old Valkyrie uniform felt natural. Even Mademoiselle had a matching dress.
His darling doll was sat with him as he worked, detailing out loud to her what he was doing. A black shirt like Kagehira had worn… the white ribbon that Nito had worn… the outer jacket that he himself had adorned. Shorts and leggings like Nito’s old uniform. Small black boots and a black feather earring like Kagehira had had. And a miniature top hat like the one that now sat at the back of his closet. There. A nice matching outfit to Mademoiselle’s dress.
Leaving the house with Mademoiselle on one arm and the new puppet on the other. Shu wandered for a while till he arrived at a fairly empty park and found a nice shaded area to settle down in. He carefully sat Mademoiselle down and stood before her, bowing to her and slowly, as if remembering the motions, directing his new puppet to do the same.
Happy with the smoothness of the puppet’s movements and the way the clothes he had made moved easily with the ways he was manipulating the doll, Shu sang as he directed the puppet into dancing across the grass, attention completely focused on this impromptu show and not on whether or not he was attracting attention.
Kyouhei’s love of the earth often had him looking up local parks and trails to adventure in, so it was only a matter of time until he actually went to visit one, and why not do it in the best conditions?
Between breathing the fresh, foresty-y air deeply and the feeling of the sun on his skin, what could be better? Aside from sitting in the dirt or running around with a dog, or some friends of course!
It was a surprise he heard anything over the background noise of the park, but it was mostly because the noise was so striking/surprising that he sought it out.
After all, what kind of person sang in public parks?
Curiosity driving him forwards, Kyouhei didn’t consider for a moment that his attention would be unwelcome as he approached the source of the noise from the side, stopping when he was close enough to see what was going on.
“Is that a marionette?” He wondered out loud, leaning against a nearby tree with his hands in his pockets, content with listening to the person (male, pink hair) while he directed the puppet.
Kyouhei loved exploring, so it made sense that as soon as he found out (and made mental notes) on where his classes were in the University were, he’d want to see the rest of it.
It was a big place, after all! No doubt there would be lots of cool things and even more friendly people (an exciting prospect, followed by an even better one).
Unfortunately, both factors were spelling his undoing - the Uni was too large and his curiosity and will to explore were too strong, he ended up a little lost. Lost enough that he definitely needed help finding his way back to the dorms.
On the lucky side of the situation, there was someone right there! He sped up so that he would reach them quickly, smiling a bit nervously, and spoke up before approaching them (him?) politely.
“Excuse me! Could I steal a moment of your time, sir?”
Everyone knows that the ultimate combo, the god tier of any meals, is coke, pizza and chips. Of course, he would settle for something more… gourmet, when it came to work reunions, but whenever he got ready for an all-night raid to grind some levels, the god tier combo made its glorious apparition.
A basket with three large cokes and several bags of chips hanging from his arm, Itaru was now looking for some frozen pizza he could warm up through the night.
A smile as he found someone looking for the same thing as himself
“Ah, some top-tier taste~ Nothing can really win against pizza, amirite?”
After a long day of studying, Kyouhei had desperately needed to go out and indulge in some greasy food, maybe even some soda and dessert if he remembered to bring enough money with him.
The last thing his work-exhausted mind expected was someone to try to talk to him, and so his first reaction was to make a sleepy, startled noise and nearly drop the pizza he’d been (lowkey) drooling over.
Slightly red from embarrassment, he lowered the box and turned his head to look at the person who’d spoken up, grinning brightly.
“Yeah, but I prefer to get take-out or homemade than store-bought, admittedly!” Kyouhei rechecked the kind of pizza he’d grabbed in his drowsy stupor (meat lovers, acceptable) and then placed it in his shopping basket. “You gettin’ pizza for any particular reason?”
Like this post for a thread with Kyou-chan, which will no doubt involve him being boisterous or clumsy in some way! Capping at four notes, expect starters over the next three days.
Like this post for a thread with Kyou-chan, which will no doubt involve him being boisterous or clumsy in some way! Capping at four notes, expect starters over the next three days.
I had something typed up and then my laptop died and if that isn’t my life, in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.
My name is Gray! I have a wonky laptop that likes to shut down in the middle of my frequent writing projects, but all my icons are saved to Google Drive so we should be good for business.
This is my second roleplaying community and I’m here because Kit Kat seeks my death through writing. It’s their fault I’m here (not that I mind).
I’m super excited and looking forward to interacting with lots of people. I’ll post a starter call in a bit! Feel free to message me if you wanna talk plot or just introduce yourself!