天道 あかね (asanequal) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-03 20:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, akane tendo, yue katou |
Who: Akane and Katou
What: Katou invites himself to dinner
When: Late November (Weekend)
Where: Tendo-Saotome home
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Well. That had been interesting. As expected, Katou had ended up inviting himself over for dinner which normally wouldn’t be a problem. And really, it wasn’t a problem. The problem was Ranma who had decided that now was the perfect time to stop showing up to meals. To say that Akane was getting frustrated would be an understatement. She had no idea what was going on and a part of her was beginning to worry that it went deeper than some random argument that she couldn’t even remember happening.
Stupid dreams. Stupid Ranma. Making her worried. Who did he think he was?
Needless to say, the normal carnival of dinner at the table between Genma and Ranma fighting for food and her getting pulled into it hadn’t happened. Genma didn’t seem too concerned, but that wasn’t surprising. Instead, she just helped Kasumi take the dishes to the kitchen before going back to join Katou. Maybe he had some idea on what was going on.
The first couple of weeks after Jin had moved to Korea to take care of some stupid sick relative, Katou had spent most of his time trying to pick fights with anyone who was stupid enough to fight him. It had recently occurred to him that that would probably lead him down some dark path he wasn’t that keen about exploring again. He was trying to make better life decisions. He was supposed to be a better man now than he had been, and he couldn’t let himself backslide just because he’d been dumped.
And so he figured spending some time with friends was probably the better call. He couldn’t really talk to any of them about it because he hadn’t exactly told anyone he had been dating Jin in the first place, but he could still spend some time with them. And a Tendo-Saotome dinner seemed like a great way to take his mind off things. Except Ranma wasn’t there and it wasn’t nearly as chaotic (or as fun) as it had been the last time Katou had eaten over there.
“I feel like it’s been forever since the last time I had genuine Japanese food,” Katou said. “Definitely needed that. I can’t quite place my finger on it though, but I feel like someone was missing.”
“Well, like I said, Kasumi was happy to have you over.” And she was. Leave it to Kasumi to want to take in all of the friends they came up with. Being able to cook for more than just the family. The comment on feeling like someone missing was met with an eye roll as Akane crossed her arms in annoyance.
“It would seem Ranma has taken avoiding me to new levels. I’m sorry. I thought he’d have come down.”
Really, she had no idea what was going on. It was annoying. It was one thing to just leave for and from classes without waiting. It was something else entirely to not even show up to meals. Not like Akane even knew why he was avoiding her. But it was pretty clear that was exactly what he was doing. One day of it and whatever. Things happen. But this had been going on since Tuesday.
“I’m guessing he’s said nothing to you then?” Not that she cared. Or liked to ask other people about Ranma. But well… the longer it went on, the more it meant that maybe it was something more.
Katou laughed a little. “Well, she’s free to invite me over whenever she wants. This whole not having a job thing means that I’ll take all the free food I can get.” Not that Katou didn’t usually make enough money to squeak by with his busking or his squeeging, but it wasn’t like that was a reliable source of income.
“I ain’t really seen him much lately,” Katou said, a little bashful. He’d been caught up in his own problems and hadn’t really taken much time to check in on his friends, and now he felt kind of bad about it. “You guys have one of your idiotic fights again?”
“I’ll be sure to let her know.” She knew that Kasumi wouldn’t mind it. Then again, Akane sometimes wondered if there was anything Kasumi actually minded. The reason for why they moved, the pushing of Genma and Soun seemed to be the only things. Otherwise? Kasumi was just… Kasumi. Which was also unnerving with how at ease and happy she always seemed to be.
“Hn.” And then Katou asked about one of their fights, and while she knew she should take affront to them being described as idiotic….? They really were when one thought about it. They just knew which buttons to push and once they got started? Well. They fought. But it never even lasted an hour. “Not that I know of. Monday night we were fine. Tuesday morning, he starts avoiding me. It’s annoying.”
Because being annoyed was easier to acknowledge and deal with than actually thinking about what it might mean. Or feelings. And yet Akane was probably the more emotionally aware of the two.
Katou propped his head up with his hand and frowned thoughtfully to himself. “Maybe he dreamed you found a new boyfriend or something.” Normally ‘fine one night, weird the next’ had to do with dream shit. The dreams were a pain, but at least that much was almost predictable. “Any cute guys checking you out in your dreams?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively at her.
The dreams. Well, that was one of the things she had been beginning to consider as something that might be a cause. But she still had no idea. Though she did shoot him an odd look for that. Because, well, absurd. Even so, Akane did think back on her dreams.
“There was Shinnosuke… but that was worked out since I was repaying a debt and he was a friend.” Not that Ranma had given her a chance to explain initially in the dreams. Of course Shinnosuke had confessed his love for her. But she had gone home with Ranma. They had teamed up and everything had worked out. “I don’t see why that would make him go out of his way to avoid me.”
Then again, most of the guys who hit on Akane in the dreams were annoying. It seemed the only times Ranma had shown any sort of...annoyance or whatever was with Ryoga or Shinnosuke, but they were both friends. Nothing more. Besides, he was the one with two extra fiancees and then Kodachi and the random time he switched to Nabiki to be his fiancee.
Katou looked at Akane, a little surprised that her first thought of ‘maybe you have a new dream boyfriend’ was ‘there was this one guy but I was just repaying a debt.’ Then he pinched the bridge of his nose, because their dreams were so weird. There seemed to be a whole lot of ‘dating and/or getting engaged to people because of debts’ going on. Maybe it was something you had to be there for. Maybe to outsiders, his dreams seemed a whole lot less straightforward than they seemed to him too.
“Your dreams are so fucking weird,” Katou muttered, more to himself than to Akane. “But guys can be weird sometimes, so who knows what’s going on in that head of his. I mean, maybe you guys ain’t actually dating but you’re still engaged. I might start avoiding someone if I thought they was gonna start getting cold feet about the whole deal.” Well, he’d probably start avoiding someone the minute he got forced into an engagement with them, but that was neither here nor there.
It was hard to explain everything that happened with Shinnosuke. Ranma hadn’t wanted to stick around for what was actually happening and just made up his own mind on what was happening. Only to be pulled into it and things worked out. Though their dreams really were strange. Akane was well aware of that. Between engagements, suitors, every variety of martial arts under the sun in things that one wouldn’t consider being able to have a martial arts form for, random kidnappings to get to someone, Happosai (he was an entity all of himself) and just the general weirdness, often times it felt like a ‘well, it could always be worse’ situation.
“Guys are definitely weird.” Which was better than Akane’s typical annoyance with them. Lack of the hentai horde at least had it so that she didn’t hate all males because of the never ending fighting. Though the fact Katou was thinking Ranma was worried she would get cold feet? Seriously? There had been avoiding and fighting when the engagement news first broke. Trying to fight back because they were friends and why were their families meddling. But between family honour and the fact that they were friends, it just fell into a weird holding pattern that the dreams like to mess with.
But to be worried about cold feet? Akane didn’t think that was it when they were still trying to postpone the stupid thing.
“That doesn’t explain the skipping meals thing.” Because really. Ranma would never turn down food. Last time he had it was after a fight with Genma and Akane had just brought him a plate and they’d discussed getting away from it all. “I don’t know.”
Sighing, she shook her head. “Sorry. This is probably a very boring conversation.”
For all Akane and Ranma fought the wedding stuff, Katou always had the feeling that there was something there, even if neither one of them seemed very keen on admitting that. He wasn’t going to push the matter because it really wasn’t any of his business and he was pretty sure doing so would just make them both dig their heels in more. Still, he wouldn’t be surprised if something happened that made Ranma think Akane had zero interest in the whole thing.
“It ain’t boring,” Katou said. “You guys are my friends, so, you know.” He wanted to help them out, not that he’d ever say it outloud. And maybe there wasn’t anything he could actually do, but he still wanted to be around to offer whatever support he could. If nothing else, it would take his mind off the fact that two of the people he’d been closest to just up and ditched him within weeks of each other. “If I run into him, I’ll give him a stern talking to.” Or something.
If there was one thing Akane knew how to interpret, it was the brushing off of comments to show an interest in wanting to help or anything of that nature while not actually saying it out right. So she simply nodded in understanding. Because Katou was right in that pushing them would end up with heels in the ground and a spike in stubbornness. Genma still hadn’t figured that out yet, or just didn’t care. At least Soun seemed to understand, or Kasumi just told him to stop. Either way.
“Good luck with that.” It wasn’t that Akane didn’t appreciate the measure, but she also knew that Ranma was stubborn and the idea of Katou doing a ‘stern talking’ to about the avoiding and skipping meals just was a hilarious image that could end badly. Depending. It would help if Akane knew what the hell was going on in Ranma’s mind.
Not that she cared. It was just annoying and at some point Soun would start to ask questions. He already sent her looks as if she was supposed to know what was going on.
“Oh trust me. The kid in my dreams is a fucking idiot and I still managed to talk some sense into him.” Actually, Katou had just thrown him into a fountain (which might actually be even more hilarious given Ranma’s little problem), and then Kira had done all the talking. But Katou had been present for a lot of the ‘make Setsuna grow up’ talks, and that was probably good enough.
“How’ve you been though? Alright?” Specifically, he wanted to know how she was dealing with Ranma’s avoidance, but if she wanted to take it a different way, he wasn’t going to pry.
“Sounds like you have experience with that level of stubbornness, then.” Because there really was no other way to describe how Ranma was acting. Especially now that he was skipping meals altogether, which was so very much not like Ranma. The idea that it was dream related at least made sense of the timing. But if that were the case, did Akane even want to get to wherever he was?
“What? Oh. Yeah. I’ve been fine. Busy with school and the dojo.” She enjoyed teaching her students, they tended to be excited about learning. But even they had asked where Ranma was and that was weird. “It’s just a lot.” Ranma’s avoidance tied into that, not that she would admit it, or even acknowledge to herself that it bothered her more than simply being an annoyance. She was just...distracted.
“You gotta be stubborn to survive my dream world,” Katou said, smiling a little as he thought of his companions in the dreams. Not that many people actually survived his dream world (maybe no one had, for all Katou knew), but those who didn’t have a stubborn streak didn’t tend to last very long.
“Well, you know, all work and no play make Akane a dull girl,” Katou said, winking at her. “You oughtta do something fun to take your mind off things instead of just work and school and shit.” He paused. “Though, speaking of work, you guys ain’t looking to hire someone with terrible people skills and no martial arts background, is ya?” With a sell like that, how could anyone say no?
“I can understand that.” While her dream world wasn’t nearly as dangerous, with the sheer amount of martial artist competitions, pride and overall insanity, stubbornness was a requirement to keep from going insane. Or from giving up and leaving. Nerima was just… special. Honestly it was a good thing that most of the wrecking crew wasn’t in Orange County. Not only would it complicate things but there would be a lot of property damage as well.
“I probably should.” The trick was finding something that would work, and then actually focusing on it instead of being distracted by her worry and frustration. If anything she might just go to the gym. Work out her frustration. That was healthy, right? Though then Katou was asking about the dojo hiring and she blinked. “Not that I know of. But I can look into it?”
“You ever play pool?” Katou asked. “I mean, it ain’t something you really lose yourself in or nothing, but shooting billiards with your pals is a good way to take your mind off shit. Some friendly competition or whatever.” He actually laughed out loud when Akane said she’d look into it. “Naw, don’t worry about it. I’d definitely do more damage than good. Scare away all them little kiddies you teach or whatever. I’m just fucking with you.”
“No, I haven’t.” Then again, friendly competition and Akane tended to end up as full on competition. Never let it be said she wasn’t competitive. She was exceptionally competitive. Not that she had that many friends to play it with but it was something to look into. She was pretty sure one of the student centres on campus had a pool table. And then Katou was saying he’d been fucking with her and she blinked. “Oh. Right.” Sometimes (a lot of the time), Akane took things at face value. But she wasn’t bothered by it so she just smiled and nodded. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find something that will fit.”
“Well, we should go,” Katou said. “I’ll show you how it’s done. I’m sure there’s gotta be a pool hall someplace around here.” Or, at the very least, a bar with a pool table in it. He did manage a wry smile when Akane mentioned that he’d find someone that would fit. He wasn’t so sure himself. He didn’t imagine there were a lot of places that were a good fit for an anti-social junkie, but stranger things had happened. This was the OC, after all. “Yeah, maybe,” he said, shrugging.
“That could be fun.” And it could be. Besides, anything to keep from dwelling on Ranma’s strange behaviour. Even if only for a few hours. It was getting ridiculous, really. But she did have faith that Katou would find something as she tended to believe the best for those she considered her friends. “I was right about you passing last year, wasn’t I?” And that was all there was to say on that.
Katou managed a soft smile at that. “Yeah, I guess you were right about that.” He’d thank her, if he ever thanked anyone, because it was true. He’d been convinced he wasn’t going to pass his classes, and he’d somehow managed to pull it off. Finding a job would probably be a breeze compared to that.
“Well then, get your shit. It’s my turn to teach you a little something.”