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kondo kozue | 近藤 梢 ([info]anthesphoria) wrote in [info]disappear_rpg,
@ 2009-09-23 13:23:00

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Entry tags:keiichi, kozue

Who: Kozue & Keiichi
What: A visit.
When: The evening of June 15th--the night after Kiriko's Dungeon.
Where: Dorms, Keiichi's Room
Why: Well, he did get nearly murdered by a Shadow.
Warnings: I guess, also, includes discussion of sex. IN CASE THAT IS A PROBLEM.


The temptation to skip school today had been fierce--really, really, really tempting. She'd been wandering around Ikeda-san's subconscious, fighting monsters and having exploding things thrown at her, way later than bedtime actually was: naturally, she was tired the next day. But she'd hauled her butt in to class, inspired mostly by the idea that if they all skipped, it'd look suspicious. And she'd get another black mark on her attendance record. Which... You really wanted to be careful about those at Nanakamado. But she had dozed, or mostly dozed, through most of her classes, and staggered home to take a long, long nap.

And her roommate had been gone when she'd gotten home, too--there was a note about a meeting with her parents (which Kozue found odd, since Ayako's parents lived in Osaka, and that was one awful long distance to come for some "meeting"), but Kozue mostly ignored it. Ayako still wasn't there when she woke up, but, whatever.

While she was scrounging for something to wear instead of her school uniform--she'd wrinkled the skirt by falling asleep in it, good job, Kondo-chan--she thought of Keiichi for the first time all day. (Unfortunately, she didn't have the presence of mind to feel guilty about it, even though she was mostly sure that, had their positions been reversed, he'd have worried about her much sooner.) Was he okay? She knew he'd been hurt at the end of Ishinomori's... Thing, and the injuries he'd gotten from Kiriko's Shadow had been much, much worse. Like. Ew. She felt a bit ill thinking of it even now: all that blood.

But now that he wasn't bleeding (at least, she hoped...?) she found room to push away the disgust and natural aversion, and feel sympathy. She should check on him. It was, if nothing else, a lot better than doing her homework--and maybe Kozue felt a twinge of guilt that Maeko had saved him, instead of her. Just a twinge.

So she pulled a dress out of her closet, arranged her hair so it didn't look like she'd been sleeping all afternoon, and headed out of her room for some good old fashioned rule-breaking. Slipping past hall monitors was easy; a few of the upperclassmen who were in the hallway of the boys dorms gave her a knowing grin or two--she heard a guffaw behind her back, but apparently nobody was going to call the authorities on her. So it didn't take her long to get to Keiichi's door. She rapped twice on it with her knuckles, and then stepped back to lean on the wall beside, one foot raised and propped against the wall.



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[info]keiito
2009-09-24 02:55 am UTC (link)
For Keiichi, missing school had been easier. All the Dia spells in the world could take away the outward appearances of injury and a bunch of the pain, but they couldn't take away the fact that something just plain LOOKED wrong with him, to the point where even his homeroom teacher had ordered him back to bed, a rarity at Nanakamado.

"One moment," Keiichi groaned, dragging himself out of bed. He didn't look TOO worse for wear, though he was moving slowly enough that one might judge him to be twice his actual age.

Opening the door, he was surprised to see, well, his girlfriend there.

"Hiya," he tried, leaning against the door for support. "It's nice to see you. If I'd have known, I wouldn't be in my pajamas."

Yeah, slightly awkward, that.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-24 03:13 am UTC (link)
She laughed a little, pushing off of the wall and giving him a smile. Wait, she was supposed to complain about pajamas? "I'm sorry, should I have texted you or something?" She clasped her hands behind her back, looking around a little--she probably shouldn't linger out in the hallway. Just in case some really, seriously rule-abiding student wandered by.

"So, how are you holding up?" Her attention went back to Keiichi. He looked... yeah, not so great.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 02:33 am UTC (link)
"No, no, it's fine. Don't worry about it. Come on in."

He liked having a single for a wide variety of reasons. It was quiet, away from most of the louder students. It let him concentrate when he had to. Really, Keiichi needed alone time every so often, especially considering how often he was with the group.

TOO often, considering how he felt now.

"I'm okay, I guess. My pride's a little hurt and I'm probably an idiot for charging Kiriko's darker half, but--" Closing the door behind them, he shook his head, limping back over to sit on his bed. "It sort of felt good, up until I got knocked into next week. I'm just so tired of being powerless, you know?"

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 02:42 am UTC (link)
And, you know, having a single meant his girlfriend could come over whenever she wanted, without having to chase away a room-mate. And Kozue always felt so awkward about that.

She followed him in, watching the limp. Oh, dear. Had Dia not fixed it all? The thought made her frown... if Dia couldn't help it completely, it made her that much less useful in Paradise. And she was already sort of a spare part. And that thought led her neatly into what Keiichi had said — wait — he thought he was powerless?

"Sempai, you're not powerless at all," she said, sitting down beside him. (What, she wasn't supposed to sit on his bed? Why, nobody'd ever objected before!) "You're a strong fighter, and — and you stand up for people, and you've got superpowers that let you fight monsters."

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 02:48 am UTC (link)
"Yeah. A lot of good those superpowers actually *do* me."

Her presence was comforting, particularly because his current opinion of himself wasn't especially high. No. That wasn't really accurate -- his opinion of certain OTHER people was just particularly low.

"I should have charged Satou. Or Shirai. But...they're our teammates, as fucked up as that is." Cursing was something he only did when mad. "What they did was just..."

His eyes flashed with anger, and he almost felt back in the moment again. Tensing up, though, made him wince with pain, and he slumped against her.

"I can't even defend you. What good am I as a boyfriend anyway?"

The Reizo thing was probably the most galling. Weren't bullies supposed to shy away when you tried standing up to them>

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 03:00 am UTC (link)
"Ah." She sighed, and let him lean on her. As difficult as that was, comparing their relative sizes and masses. "You —" she tried to think of a way to cope with that. "You — you told Kanaye to shut up once," she pointed out, after thinking for a while. Because there'd been enough times in the last forty-eight hours when she'd waited for Keiichi to defend her and realized nothing was forthcoming.

When Reizo had chucked her through a window. When Kanaye had called her Ko-chan. When Kanaye had talked about her panties. When Reizo had flipped her skirt and shown them to everyone.

"What they did was just stupid," she acknowledged, finally, "and dealing with the Shadow was more — m-more important."

My, how convinced she didn't sound.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 03:08 am UTC (link)
Yeah, he noted that she didn't sound especially convinced.

"I'm sorry for not being more proactive. Not that it would have done anything, considering Shirai's dropped me on my ass twice for *looking* at him the wrong way." A slight sigh. "Even if I knocked them out...what would happen? Everyone would be mad at me for hurting the group. I don't especially think we need Reizo or Kanaye, but there's a good chunk of the group that does. Particularly Ikeda...at least, in regards to Shirai."

That was an issue he really didn't like thinking about at all.

"So, as per always, I'm in a situation that I can't win with. By now I should probably be used to it."

Really, in other circumstances he would probably have apologized a thousand times. But the interesting thing about developing a backbone is that you don't usually control when it comes out.

"Though, while we're on the subject of disappointing things...why was Akuba-san the one who ended up helping me? I guess you're right. Dealing with the Shadow *was* more important..."

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 03:23 am UTC (link)
She stiffened — something he'd be able to feel easily, being propped up against her as he was. "I guess it was. I guess it's more important than keeping your word, too. Or — lots of things," she said, quietly, turning to look at him with hurt in her eyes.

It was a feature she was very proud of: sad puppy eyes were one of her best.

She scooted off slightly: "Would you rather I left? It was a hard night for all of us. If you want to be alone."

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 03:29 am UTC (link)
He was about to retort with something else snappy, when a little voice inside of his brain told him that this really wasn't the time or place for it.

"Look," he began, taking a deep breath in and blowing it out. "I'm not upset at you. I'm upset at myself, and I'm upset at the two of them. Please don't go..."

He didn't really know what she *wanted* from him. Right now, Keiichi was trying to walk the very difficult line between their relationship and the fact that, realistically, the team was on extraordinarily shaky ground.

"I...don't know if I can go back in there with them, Kozue," he admitted. "And judging by how upset you seemed, I don't necessarily think you want to, either."

Considering they were all a team, that was a considerable problem.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 03:48 am UTC (link)
She closed her eyes, and breathed out as well; "That was just a tough place. You were pretty angry about it yourself, by the end." Enough to chew out the Shadow and then try to tackle it. Yeah, that counted as angry. "I was just pretty upset."

But she didn't go anywhere.

And, as far as going into Paradise went... "Not go back in with them? But, there's not another choice, is there?"

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 03:55 am UTC (link)
"There might be. Maybe we go in in smaller groups? I don't know. I'll put thought into when I don't want to punch things."

He was quiet for a moment, as if trying to put everything in perspective.

"Would you...mind staying for a while?" The question was whispered, but his voice was firm. "I don't want to think about Paradise anymore. I've done that all day."

One of his hands came to rest on her shoulder, and his eyes looked into hers. "I just want to be able to think about you for once. No Paradise, no Cooking Club, no monsters. Just you."

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 04:15 am UTC (link)
"I — sure, I don't mind staying," she said, looking up and smiling. "Although I don't know if it's even possible to spend time together without that coming up... It feels like it's just eating up my life."

It was true: she was dating someone else who was involved with Paradise — more and more of her time was being taken up hanging out with other Persona users, or investigating disappearances, or being stalked by Sagaki.

"But we could try. And... think of something else to think about." She reached up with one hand and caressed the side of his cheek — a show of good faith. That hey, she'd try and ignore Paradise for the moment.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-25 04:24 am UTC (link)
Behind all of the good-naturedness and Cooking Club presidency and Misaki-lite friendship speechery, Keiichi was a guy. Honestly.

Her touch reminded him of that fact, rather acutely. Keiichi's own hand went to mirror hers, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. "I can think of something else," Ito breathed more than whispered.

It always seemed so complicated and nervewracking in the novels and movies, but really, he felt quite at ease as he leaned closer to brush his lips over hers.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd almost died that was inspiring him towards this, but at the moment he didn't really care.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-25 05:01 am UTC (link)
But it wasn't complicated or nerve-wracking. It was the easiest of things in the world. At least, for Kozue, it was. She closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss.

[ and then it's time for a Persona Fade To Black (tm) which is really only supposed to happen at S.Link 10 but shhhh. ]

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[info]keiito
2009-09-26 04:47 am UTC (link)
[And as we come back from that fade to black (oh, and the >Keiichi and Kozue spent a long while together)...]

Making very sure not to trip on his way back into the room, Keiichi returned with omelets for both himself and his girlfriend. They were simple, French-style, with mushrooms, peppers, and mozzerella cheese (embarassingly, Japanese rolled omelets were somewhat difficult for Keiichi).

"Food's ready," he said, a note of satisfaction in his voice as he closed the door behind him, and looked at Kozue again. He didn't quite think he'd be able to look at her the same way again, nor could he keep the smile off of his face.

Yes, in spite of the universe's staggering ability to work against him, Ito Keiichi was, for once, undeniably happy.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-26 05:09 am UTC (link)
Kozue's head perked up: food? Food! She had been sprawled quite languidly across his bed, and had, while he was busy cooking, managed to reclaim a few articles of her clothing. The important parts, at least. "That smells yummy," she declared, stretching slightly, and looking up.

"Eggs?" She looked at the dish, slightly perplexed, but stayed where she was; on her stomach, elbows propping her up. He could just bring it over to her.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-30 02:52 am UTC (link)
"Yes, eggs," he replied. "Omelets, to be specific. French-style."

Walking over to her, he placed her dish down in front of her. He fetched some plastic silverware from his desk, handing her a knife and fork before settling down with his own omelet.

He was quite hungry, but devouring the omelet would have been impolite. Besides, he was still sort of in the afterglow of everything.

"That was..." he searched for the word, before settling on "wonderful."

Keiichi smiled at her, a bit self-consciously, before taking his first bite of omelet.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-30 03:10 am UTC (link)
She accepted the dish, and shifted position slightly so she could eat it without moving too much. Really, being as lazy as she was was actually kind of hard work at times. "Let's eat," she said, lifting her own fork and knife and starting to saw off a small piece of the omelet for herself. She nodded, and smiled rather sweetly, at his declaration, and popped the first piece of dinner into her mouth.

"Wow, this is great, sempai!"

Her delight—and her need to express it— nearly stopped her from chewing first. Nearly.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-30 03:17 am UTC (link)
Keiichi couldn't help but smile. He truly enjoyed cooking for other people, after all.

"Really? I'm so glad."

Forking a bite of his own omelet, he had to agree. It was a pleasant surprise; he thought his own cooking had deteriorated a bit since going into Paradise for the first time.

Making conversation was somehow...awkward. What did you talk about after....that?

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-30 03:27 am UTC (link)
Between bites, Kozue started on the conversation, since Keiichi seemed a bit at a loss. Not that she entirely blamed him.

"So, I was your first, huh?"

Well, she didn't have any trouble starting a conversation, judging from the very easy, matter-of-fact way she asked the question. Whether or not it was any less awkward than Keiichi's difficulty was a more nuanced question.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-30 03:43 am UTC (link)
"Yes, you were," he admitted, shyly. "Could you tell?"

Sure, he had finished quickly -- but how was one supposed to withstand such things. Besides, he'd tried to do that entire "foreplay" thing, but she hadn't shown much patience for that.

She also seemed to know what she was doing. Quite moreso than he did.

"I wasn't yours," he asked, quietly. It seemed a reasonable guess.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-30 03:50 am UTC (link)
That, and, Keiichi. Sweetheart. Dear. You're the President of the school's Cooking Club. Of course you were a virgin.

Not that Kozue would ever say that: instead, she continued smiling just a little, and left half her concentration on sawing off another bite-sized piece of her meal. "I just assumed."

It was also nicer than 'yes I could tell'. His second question, though, did kind of throw her for a loop: "I—you didn't think I hadn't—I thought you knew that," she finished, voice deflating slightly.

Well, that sure was a doozy.

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[info]keiito
2009-09-30 03:55 am UTC (link)
He shook his head. "No, I didn't. Well, until we started, then it was sort of clear that you knew what you were doing a lot better than I did."

That...thing where she'd crossed her ankles over his lower back almost killed him. It really did.

"People say mean things about you and what you've done, but I don't believe rumors. People make them up to be spiteful."

He also tended to ignore them because they tended to be about him and weren't very nice, either.

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[info]anthesphoria
2009-09-30 04:07 am UTC (link)
"You should believe some things you hear," she pointed out, before taking another bite. It gave her time to reflect. A bit of time, at least. He really hadn't thought that she...

By the time she finished the next bite, she at least thought she knew what to say. "People exaggerate things, sure—but it's usually based in truth. Or maybe people just don't have to make stuff up about me as much…" You know, because she gave them so much material to work with. "Does it bother you?"

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