InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "a hickey the size of FRANCE!"

Yoshida Kouki [吉田興起] (kykyoshida) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-03-02 16:04:00

Entry tags:

kai, kouki

meanwhile, back in Iburi...
Who: Kai and Kouki
What: Artist meetup!
Where: Kai's house
When: While everyone else is in Okinawa
Why: Because they're bored.

A creaking noise resonated up and down the street that Kai lived on, akin to a rusty gate doing battle with a ten-foot-tall mouse. Upon investigation, the source would prove to be none other than an old bike straining to head down the street. On the bike was none other than Kouki Yoshida. Every time he pushed the pedals, the bicycle gave another shriek of protest, until he finally reached his destination and flung the weatherbeaten thing unceremoniously into the Yamada family's bushes. The bike had barely hit the ground when Kouki sprung away from it and made a beeline for the side door, where he'd been told to enter. After a brief pause to orient himself to potential things to climb on, he began to knock on the door vigorously.

"Kai-dono! Kai-dono! I'm here now!"

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the_nadeshiko
2010-03-03 06:48 pm UTC (link)

Kai jumped back slightly as Kouki came flying up to him, only to feel foolish when Kouki stopped himself at the last moment and smiled. Was Kouki laughing at his reaction?

Shrugging it off as yet another of Kouki's eccentricities, Kai nodded. "Yeah, let's - uh, Yoshida-chan?" he said as he watched Kouki head off in the direction of his bathroom. "Kitchen's this way." He jabbed his thumb in the exact opposite direction of where Kouki was headed and then went there himself. "Huh, ride? Did you come on a bike?"

They had to go through the living room in order to get to the open kitchen-slash-dining room area. It was surprisingly well-ordered in comparision to the rest of the house, the L-shaped sectional couch set up against one wall in front of a fairly large television set, and only two cardboard boxes piled on top of it.

"Sorry about this mess - we haven't been very good about getting the house set up since it's only summer," Kai said, feeling self-conscious as he pushed yet another box (this one full of pots and pans) out of their way with his foot in order to get to the refrigerator. "We're also just a little lazy," he added with a smile over his shoulder to Kouki.

He opened the door and pulled out two water bottles, holding one out to Kouki because he didn't trust the other boy to catch it if he threw it. Kai would rather not have his parents come home from running errands to find smashed furniture from where Kouki'd tried to "go long". "Are you sure it's okay if we just stay here, or would you like to go do something in town?"

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kykyoshida
2010-03-03 11:01 pm UTC (link)

"Oh!" Mid-stride, Kouki pivoted on a heel to follow Kai in the right direction, still grinning like a lunatic. No amount of failures could phase him, or so it seemed.

"You got it! I came on my bike, so it's... outside now. Not to worry!" He now bounced through the living room, much more graceful than before, and no longer in danger of crashing into more boxes. "This isn't a mess! You haven't seen a mess until you've seen Masaru-nii-kun's room. It's a million times more of a mess than this could ever be."

As soon as the bottle of water was handed towards him, Kouki snatched it up in one hand. "Thanks!" A twist of the cap and a long gulp of water preceded any further words. "Mmm, that's good. But..." He nodded vigorously. "I wanna stay here to see your room! We can go somewhere after, okay?"

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the_nadeshiko
2010-03-03 11:19 pm UTC (link)

"That's good to hear, then." Kai smiled at Kouki's reassurance.

"You're welcome. Okay, sounds good. It's this way," he said, walking back through the kitchen and down the hallway, stopping in the middle of it to open his bedroom door.

Walking in, he realized that he really should have tidied up more instead of lazing around. Boxes had been unpacked and furniture set up, but their contents were strewn all around the room, covering his bed, desk, dresser, and parts of the floor. It wasn't that Kai'd meant for things to get out of hand so much as it just...slipped his mind to tidy up every evening. When he was home after a long day or in the middle of a project, his mind jumped from one thing to the next so quickly that anything he didn't do right that moment would quickly be forgotten. Like his room.

If one were to look carefully, they would've been able to spot a few points of interest among the clutter. The sewing table in the corner, machine kept in good condition and surrounded by thread spools, cloth, scissors, and pins. Lying across the back of the chair was what looked like a half-begun shirt, bright dye making it stand out, and when Kai remembered it (and exactly why he didn't want Kouki to ask questions about it yet), he quickly moved through the piles of junk to grab it and fold it, dropping it into the tote bin on the floor beside the table before sealing it. "It's not done yet," was his only explanation to Kouki, and it was obvious he seemed a little too jumpy about it.

On his bed was his sketchbook, still lying open with pencils beside it, the jacket he'd been working on clearly visible. And perched on the end was yet another bag with sewing supplies in it, a small blue-and-red stuffed bear made of velvet sitting next to it with a needle still stuck in it so that Kai could return to work on it later.

Kai rubbed the back of his head. "Ah, this is my room," he said with a small nervous chuckle.

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kykyoshida
2010-03-04 12:23 am UTC (link)

With all of the grace of a drunken elephant, Kouki made his way into Kai's room. He stepped on a book here, kicked over a pile of laundry there, made a surprised noise when he stepped on a thimble, and generally made a nuisance of himself. Clothes and belongings practically flew off the floor when Kai dove to put away the unfinished shirt, as Kouki leapt after him to peer nosily over his shoulder. "Rats! I wanna see it when you're finished, 'kay?"

As quickly as he'd rushed over, Kouki pushed off of Kai and bounded over to sit on the bed between the sketchbook and the bag. "Cool, Kai-dono! I really like your room!"

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the_nadeshiko
2010-03-04 02:33 am UTC (link)

Kai watched Kouki demolish his room in bemusement. Well, there went any hope of having it clean by the end of the day. It's Yoshida-chan being Yoshida-chan, was about to become his mantra with the way he was repeating it to himself again and again.

"You will. Be patient," he teased, reaching around to flick Kouki's nose as he spyed. If Kouki was determined to ruin Kai's present for him, so be it, but Kai was even more determined not to let it happen.

"Thanks. I'm happy the mess didn't scare you off." Looking at Kouki, his eye was caught by the bag the boy was near, and the bear by it. "Oh, sorry, I'll move that." He stepped over, now having to navigate the new mess Kouki had made of his room, and plucked the bag and the toy bear up. "It's kind of delicate, but I keep leaving it around the house. It's a wonder it hasn't been torn apart yet." He looked down at the toy and stroked its sleek fur admiringly, a soft smile on his face. "I'm making it for my nephew, Chiaki-chan, so it's special."

He turned to set it and the bag down on his desk. "Of course, he's sixth months old so the most he's probably going to do is drool on it, but it'll make Mami-nee happy," he said, his tone going from sentimental to realistic in a heartbeat.

He gestured to the sketchbook next to Kouki. "You can look if you want, Yoshida-chan, while I get out my projects to show you."

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kykyoshida
2010-03-05 02:13 am UTC (link)

Kouki watched the bear leave the bed, smiling. "It's a nice bear! Reminds me of my favorite toy when I was a kid..." His eyes took on a sort of glazed, distant look, until he pulled a crumpled lump of paper and a ballpoint pen out of his pocket and quickly sketched something. The something looked to be a misshapen doll with crude, lumpy, mismatched limbs and a leering face. The only clue to its identity were a pair of floppy triangles on the top of its head and a length of yarn attached to its backside. Apparently, it was a cat.

"Midori-nee-san made him for home ec a million years ago, then gave him to me as a present. His name is Scruffles the Third!" Though the drawing was anything but cute or endearing, Kouki smiled as though it was. "I think Chiaki will like her. She's a good bear, and she's your art. That means she's got a soul."

When the sketchbook was offered, he literally jumped for joy, bouncing up and down on the bed (though it lacked springs, thus a testament to Kouki's sheer bounciness). "I'd love to look! This is so cool, we're being fellow artists..."

Soon enough, he trailed off speaking. The sketchbook had completely enraptured the boy, which showed in his slow, reverent turning of the pages.

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JFC my love affair with long tags may need to stop

the_nadeshiko
2010-03-07 08:04 pm UTC (link)

The mental image of a big sister making a present for her little brother was positively adorable to Kai. Not even Kouki's awkward drawing of it could stop the warm fuzzies that were starting to make Kai glow. "Awww, that's so sweet! Do you still have him? Scruffles is such a fitting name 'cause he's so cute (he said this in spite of the actual drawing, the words being fueled by some serious Happy Family Goggles on Kai's part)." He rapid-fired the statements at Kouki with his hands clasped in front of his chest, leaning in to look closely at the drawing.

"I...thank you. I hope it does." Kai was rather touched by Kouki's inexplicably kind words about his bear. "I like to do things for others when I can. And also it was a great art project! ...You really think that much of my art?" Kai was deeply flattered to hear that, and could only think to return the words in kind: "I love your stuff, too, Yoshida-chan. You've got this...indescribable aesthetic that I can't get over. It's fascinating." He said this not with his usual nearly-saccharine kindness, but with a genuine interest and respect apparent in every word, nodding at the end of his speech to affirm it. "I think we really are fellow artists, y'know?"

"Awesome! I'm just happy to have someone who finally shares my interests! When school starts again, do you think I might belong in the Art Club?"

The answer to Kai's query may have lain inside his sketchbook, which when Kouki opened it and began turning the pages was filled with drawings - some half-finished and some fully colored - of clothing ideas. On one was a recognizable Nanakamado uniform, with some notes and close-ups around it detailing Kai's plans for customizing the uniform (custom bold-print lining was only the beginning...), and on others were doodles of shirts with splashes of color dotting them to see how they'd look, what might've been a pair of pants that had been hastily scribbled over almost to the point of unrecognizeability, and a short, bold dress. Noticeably, the obviously feminine clothes seemed to be more detailed and better drawn than the more masculine or androgynous ones - all of which seemed a little awkward or forced, like the designer in question was having trouble wrapping his mind around the male aesthetic.

While Kouki looked through the sketchbook, Kai was busy pulling plastic totes bins from seemingly random places around his room, going by a system of organization only understood in his head. Inside of the bins, carefully wrapped in paper, were half-started pieces of various design - shirts, some kind of skirt, and some strips of vibrant fabric that looked like they had yet to be made into anything. Kai pulled open the bins and laid out the unfinished pieces one-by-one on the bed next to Kouki.

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