InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "so i herd u liek mudkips"

kondo kozue | 近藤梢 (anthesphoria) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-06-14 23:26:00

Entry tags:

keiichi, kozue

WHO: Kozue and Keiichi
WHAT: Present! A Present!
WHERE: Chagall Cafe.
WHEN: After Seiko's Dungeon.
WHY: Kozue cannot resist her compulsion to buy the world.

Kozue had been medicating her doubts and worries in much the same way she had done after other stints in Paradise—aside from her own—shopping and ice cream and cake. Of course, she had covered two out of three of those things in her own place in Paradise. So she was out for coffee and cake; she was also being productive.

At the used bookstore, when she'd meant to buy a Feel Better gift for Renju, or an I Regret That Your Head God Is On Vacation present (they didn't make cards for that), she had ended up buying... More things. For other people. At least, in a used book store, she hadn't found anything for herself, which had probably saved her some money in the end.

She'd texted Keiichi to let him know she had something to give him—and she'd gotten a piece of peach pie while she waited. With a side of ice cream. If Ito showed up in time, he could have some.

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keiito
2010-06-30 01:42 am UTC (link)

Perception was never Keiichi's strong suit, but repetition was at least giving him the ability to recognize patterns. "Sorry, let's get back to shopping" was a pretty clear effort to change a subject that may or may not have actually needed changing.

"It's no problem at all," he replied. The search for further produce had been temporarily forgotten. "What is it, Kondo-chan?"

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anthesphoria
2010-06-30 10:34 pm UTC (link)

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head a little and hoping that it seemed at least vaguely convincing. "I mean, unless you want me to explain all of the ways in which that's not true, and I'm not—" The words were ahead of her, and she stopped, not quite physically biting her tongue but coming close to it.

"Well," she took a breath, and made herself speak again, brushing another curl out of her face (they kept falling at her, maybe it was time for another trim or at least time to do something new with her bangs; the stray thought crossed her mind and vanished). "I don't really want to spill all of my... all of this out in the vegetable aisle, for one thing."

It was a very good way of avoiding two things. First, the immediately threatening descent into self-doubt and misery, and second, admitting the first thing to Ito.

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keiito
2010-06-30 11:00 pm UTC (link)

His head cocked to one side. He was getting better at this sort of thing, in tiny increments. Keiichi made no move to speak, just continued to listen.

It was probably the first time that Keiichi was aware of that her inadvertent playing with her hair hadn't forced a temporary derailment of the choo-choo train that doggedly powered Keiichi's higher thought process.

"Would it be better if we talked about it while I cooked us dinner," he asked. "The kitchen in the dorms may as well be mine by now, no one else ever goes in there. Everyone else subsists on cup ramen..."

He frowned a bit, but really, he was thankful for having his own kitchen. It meant he could eat well, and prepare his by now signature Post Paradise Cookies (tm)

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anthesphoria
2010-06-30 11:18 pm UTC (link)

Kozue nodded; "The kitchen can be, like, barricaded or something. At least, the door can be closed, and the stock boy isn't staring at us." She tipped her head slightly, and, indeed, the stock boy in the little red DuperMart apron (probably a high school student, maybe even a Nanakamado student, though Kozue didn't recognize him) was watching them, and had all but ceased shelving apples at this point.

She didn't seem perturbed; being stared at was just part of her life. But she wasn't going to go talking about things that made her genuinely miserable while random strangers and potential schoolmates were about and eavesdropping.

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keiito
2010-06-30 11:34 pm UTC (link)

"Of course we can wait...what?"

Keiichi turned around, and there he was, Mr. DuperMart Stock Boy.

"Sometimes," Keiichi said, leading her away from Stock Boy and selecting a few peppers, "I feel like a celebrity when I'm with you."

With peppers in hand, he stooped down to pick up a conveniently left-there basket, and transferred the groceries into it.

"How do you deal with it," he asked, quietly, once out of eyesight of Stock Boy on the way to checkout. "I'm sort of private and shy. I'd go nuts."

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anthesphoria
2010-06-30 11:40 pm UTC (link)

She followed, mood improved by that throwaway comment or joke or whatever it had been. Like a celebrity was nice. It was a lot nicer than freak or foreigner or someone running an embassy, certainly, for which Kozue found herself thankful.

"Well, I guess I just always have?" The rising inflection really did make it sound like a question; Kozue wasn't sure. "It's not like people actually want to bother me, or get to know me," well, some of them did, and some of them just wanted to touch her hair. That had happened a few times. "So I just try to tune it out. It's better than when I was a kid."

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	keiito 2010-06-30 11:59 pm UTC (link)
	"Mmm." Keiichi could see that. It probably came with being pretty. Though, as he continued to listen, it sounded like there was a more sinister explanation lurking under the surface. "What happened when you were a kid? If you don't mind me asking, of course," he quickly amended, as they arrived at the self-checkout station. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

anthesphoria
2010-07-01 12:02 am UTC (link)

She hovered, for a moment, around the checkout, before stepping off to the side and looking upwards. Somewhere into the middle distance. She shrugged. "Well, now, I'm pretty. People look at me for that. When I was little, it was all about being half. People stared because of that. My hair, and my eyes, and when I was out with my mom? Her, too. When I was out with someone else, they tried to figure out whether or not we were related." She clasped her hands in front of her, purse dangling from one wrist. "And people'll say stuff to a kid that they'd never say to a teenager or a grown up, you know?"

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keiito
2010-07-01 12:24 am UTC (link)

"Yes," Keiichi agreed. "You are pretty. Very pretty."

He began to slide the groceries across the scanner to price them as they carried on the conversation. It was getting dark outside, and he wanted dinner to be at a reasonable time.

"My dad had to deal with that, or so he told me," Keiichi said. "His mother was American. Of course, his father was also a pro wrestler in the states before he moved to Japan, so it wasn't as if anyone would dare say anything to his or his family's face..."

Keiichi was just beginning to learn about the first generation of Ito to wrestle, Masafuji Ito, mostly from dad stories.

"I never really had to deal with any of that. I'm a quarter, and I don't so much look it. Besides, my dad's...sort of nuts about things like that. You know how he can be. I think he'd suplex anyone that tried to insult him or his family."

A wrestling rant was coming, Keiichi figured. But it was, for once, a helpful sort.

"Gaijins are really important in Dad's line of work," Keiichi said. "They help fill the arenas, because everyone wants to see the natives beat them. But they have to win sometimes, too, or they aren't credible. That's why most Japanese wrestling companies try to bring in the best foreign talent. If you're a native and beat one of them, you're made for life."

Reaching into his pocket for his bank card, a sudden thought came to him. "Maybe my heritage is why Oubai hates me," he reasoned. "Or would if he knew, either way."

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	anthesphoria 2010-07-01 12:55 am UTC (link)
	Kozue listened, though her eyes were still fixed elsewhere; after he was done, she let out a breath. Apparently, she had been holding her breath as he spoke. And now that it was let out, she sounded tired, and small. "You're lucky you had someone to stick up for you, then." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

keiito
2010-07-01 01:01 am UTC (link)

"Your mom didn't?"

He looked...surprised was probably a good word for it. He knew a little about Kozue's late grandmother and her...issues was probably a nice way to put it, but the fact that her mother possibly hadn't said anything was foreign to him.

After swiping his card to pay for the groceries, he gathered her in...sort of a half hug, with one arm. Keiichi wasn't especially one to care what people saw when comforting was needed, and by now was fairly used to the usual Nanakamado rumor mill.

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anthesphoria
2010-07-01 01:23 am UTC (link)

Kozue had opened her mouth to explain, that her mother hadn't always been there, and that it was hard to stick up for your blond child when you were the implicated blond mother, and even harder when Kondo Fumiko was hovering over your shoulder, but then she was being hugged. Or one-arm hugged. It was... it counted as a hug, didn't it?

It took her a moment, but she responded anyway. "… Well, she was away a lot. Or we were with my grandmother, and that never went well. Even when she was there, it's…" It was cruel to say it's different than with your father, but it was, at least from Kozue's perspective, true. They didn't look as different as she did. "Come on, let's go," she added, pulling forward—briefly contemplating slipping an arm around him, because that was a thing that one did, but then that'd send all sorts of slightly wrong signals, wouldn't it? So she changed her mind.

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	keiito 2010-07-01 01:41 am UTC (link)
	"...not exactly as if your mom could have suplexed people," he offered, by way of reply. He understood a bit. Not entirely, not even close, but... Keiichi wasn't particularly upset when she pulled away from him. Public was public, after all, and it wasn't as if they were dating. "Alright," he said, agreeably, and the pair left the Iburi Duper Mart. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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