| Watershed Moment; [Chika] | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 18 2017, 06:12 AM (399 Views) | |
| Czernobog | Jan 21 2017, 06:47 PM Post #21 |
|
Best Influence.
|
Naoya almost instinctively protested that he wanted to pay for her to get some dinner, but stopped himself. She raised a good point about paying, but that still left the issue of where. "Uh, I don't really eat around here that often. I had a job as a fry cook in an American-style place not far from here for like...two weeks after I got back, and before I started on at Ichiban. It's...not bad? There's also, uh...I think there's a sushi place around here that's not that bad. It's one of those conveyor-belt sorta establishments, which...y'know, I always found kinda weird, but...uh...how about that one? The sushi place." Mostly because he didn't know what she was planning to make, he didn't add the idle thought I might vomit if I try to eat another bowl of noodles in the next week. He probably wouldn't, and would happily eat anything presented by her. He got up, an act that was more like unfolding himself upward than anything else, and tossed back the last of his tea after he did. He gathered up their cups and the tea pot, and then looked around before spotting a bus tub. He spotted one, and then said: "An' I'm okay with not payin' fer both of us...but I, I got next, okay?" He set everything down in the tub, which had been behind him, located outside of his field of vision while they had been sitting. His posture was better, after the conversation they had had. His slouch was gone, and his shoulders weren't folded in to make himself seem smaller, and as he walked to the bus tub and back to the table, he didn't exactly swagger but he seemed a bit more comfortable in his movements. |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Jan 21 2017, 07:43 PM Post #22 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
American-style fried food, and conveyor-belt sushi. Chika found both moderately appealing, but it occurred to her that she'd had far more sushi in her life than she had American food. That was more Kyo's area, and more than once the green-haired girl had dragged her out to have some, but Kyo still barely knew what a third of the menu was. "I wouldn't mind tryin' that place you worked at," she said after a few seconds' thought, standing up along with him. "We can have sushi any old time, and I only go to that kinda place at the hours when I'm pretty sure it's all still fresh, anyways." Conveyor belt restaurants had that problem of leaving food on the conveyor belt for perhaps a little too long, which meant they were poor choices at hours that didn't match what the restaurant's cooks expected for big mealtimes. To Naoya's insistence that he pay next time, Chika grinned and said, "Deal." The idea that this would become a regular thing made her feel almost as buoyant as when she'd laughed her way through confessing to like him. When he got back to the table, she offered him her hand. The way was his to lead, after all. |
![]() |
|
| Czernobog | Jan 22 2017, 11:27 AM Post #23 |
|
Best Influence.
|
Naoya took her hand and began to walk, leading eastward but stopping to cross at the corner. He squeezed it gently and, shortly before the light changed, lifted her hand up. Given the fact that he was significantly taller, he had to duck his head down to brush his lips across the back of her hand, an act that had an odd note of supplication to it. He didn't look her in the face through the entirety of the act, keeping his eyes fixed on the light. When he lowered her hand from his mouth, he said, simply: "I'm happy." While his tone was quite clearly delighted, and there was still a smile on his face, he felt a small tremble of worry. He didn't have any reservations about what they were doing, but he wasn't quite sure what to do with the feeling. It hadn't really been there in a while. He put the worry aside. He -- they -- would figure it out. The light changed, and they began across the street. |
![]() |
|
| The One True Nobody | Jan 22 2017, 06:24 PM Post #24 |
|
"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
|
Chika knew more of what Naoya was feeling in that moment than most anyone else could have understood. She answered by drawing closer to him, slipping her arm around his. She was on his arm as the light changed and they took the first steps over the crosswalk, and as she did, she simply answered, "I am, too." The feeling of his lips on the back of her hand seemed to linger there for far longer than it should have, but Chika was not about to complain. Where things would go from here, she had no idea. All she knew was that she had accepted the ups and downs that awaited them in the future, because happiness always came when it would, where it would, and sadness also, and pain, and anger. It was just a matter of making the most of what choices life allowed, and she was fortunate, in her way, that she had survived long enough that she now had her own clear path forward. After everything that had happened, and even with the whispers of the past still following her, she could survive anything else she had to, for however long it took to make herself the life that she wanted. She only wished that her brother and father and mother could have been here to share it with her. But at least she had something new to tell them the next time she visited their graves back home. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Matechi Street · Next Topic » |
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
2:31 AM Jul 11
|






2:31 AM Jul 11