yogen | npc contact.2

( Natsume watches her move, turning to see it better after a moment; she must be showing him an approximation of the charades her brother will go through, he realizes, and he tucks it into his memory.

(He realizes then, too, that the charades he has such an intriguing time figuring out and learning and understanding is something he's going to miss. They'll find another way to communicate; he won't let the progress they've made waste away.)

It's cute though, her showing him something like this, and he supposes she must have a lot of practice. )

Thank YOU. ( ... ) How long has your brother preferred action to WORDS?

Almost two years. He's gotten better. He wouldn't even try communicating, before.

[ She picks up the tea again, because maybe she does need the ginger to settle herself, thinking back on things she'd rather move forward from. ]

( Around when they lost their parents, right? He starts to put things back in their place, for a short while the only sounds between them the running water of the tap and, after drying, the quiet open and shut of cabinets.

...It must be an ache for her, too. )

I'm glad that he does NOW, ( he finally says, returning to her side. A little closer than before, but not much. ) And I'm sorry if I brought up something unpleaSANT. You had to learn how to understand him all over again, didn't YOU?

( No one is a mind-reader, and while two people can know each other like the back of their hand, there's still bound to be obstacles, to be problems, to be misunderstandings. )

[ Around when they lost their parents, and then... ... She looks over at Natsume when he comes back, staring, for a moment, as if trying to determine if he knows what actually happened. It doesn't matter, though; it's not something she ever wants to talk about, and having Hiro with her now is all that matters in the end. ]

It wasn't "all over again." We're siblings, after all.

[ Twins. Two people who've always had each other. Both of them just got very good at charades. ]

It's not something you need to concern yourself with, so let's drop the topic. Are you ready to go?

( he hadn't...

...well, it doesn't matter if he meant to offend her or not, but he can tell when she doesn't want to talk about somethint, and he can tell when he ought to press her for answers.

right now is not that, and glances at her tea, then out the window, and then to the door. well. )

As long as you ARE. I was waiting on YOU.

( he'll go on ahead, flicking the lights back on as he does, though he'll wait outside the door for her like a good nonromantic date. )

[ His presence offends her, it feels like sometimes, so there's really nothing to do about it. She doesn't look upset at him, at any rate, just back to that same peeved as always even as she drinks the rest of her tea in one go so she doesn't have to pour it down the sink and waste any.

She too washes the cup and sets it upside down on a rack before drying her hands and leaving, slipping past Natsume out the door and heading towards the music room, breathing out once she's back in the hall.

... ]

Since you're both idols, I thought you would have joined the music club like Akehoshi did.

[ A bit heavy handed, but the intention to change the subject is clear. ]

( She's so bad at this.

But he appreciates the attempt anyway, back to falling into step with her. )

Baru-kun and I are completely different types of people when it comes to that type of THING. He loves to sing; he's like a BIRD. I suspect it's because it makes him feel closer to his late faTHER, but he could just like IT. There's nothing wrong with either of THOSE.

( ... )

But that's him; for ME, I sing with a purpose in MIND, not just for fun or because I like to do so or because I'll die if I DON'T.

( And today has a purpose, he supposes. )

Are you going to ask me to join if you like my performance eNOUGH?

( he's joking, )

[ Yeah, she can tell that Subaru likes to sing, with all the energy and enthusiasm he brings to club every day that she can't imagine Natsume doing, regardless of how talented he may or may not be. Because he does what he does "to make people happy," and club isn't that; it's practice, it's drills, it's working on bits and pieces and starting and stopping and there isn't an audience. ]

I won't. Even if you would be an asset, I don't want you there if you don't want to be there.

[ She thinks of Leo and his talent— his absolutely horrid attendance record— and how she had scolded him for making things difficult for the club when he's not there. It would be the same for Natsume if he were to spend the entire time looking like he doesn't want to be there. ]

( He can't even say he'd like to be there just to see her—he can do that well enough just stopping by. )

And for that I thank YOU.

( ... )

Have you ever thought of joining any other clubs aside from muSIC? Prior to getting the extra busy position you have now, anyWAY.

No. Music is what I like most, and I wouldn't want to spread myself too thin.

[ Student council is at least a set every Monday and Friday, and if she has to work and miss a music club meeting, the rest of the members are able to practice with a recording and she can make it up at home with the keyboard in her room. ]

While you're part of the gardening club, the astronomy club, the gaming club...

[ And somehow still finds the time to go on Sunday dates ]

The astronomy club only meets at NIGHT, the gaming club is full of more individualistic people with different levels of interest in GAMES, and the gardening club's only strict ruling is on our watering schedule—that IS, which people take care of the plants on which DAYS, and that cycles between all of US.

( So he's not really as busy as he seems; he still has a lot of free time to do what he wants, be it make lunches for his friends, ask girls on dates, practice magic, do fortunetelling... )

...BeSIDES, I was only added to the astronomy club's list of names to make up the numBERS, though I do enjoy the STARS. Humans have looked to them for answers for thousands of YEARS, finding patterns and meaning in celestial bodies that might've died millions of years aGO. It's...

( ...he shakes his head, having the words but not the desire to continue. )

AnyWAY, the point IS, I don't have any trouble juggling my club responsibiliTIES. If anything, they're a nice way to keep busy; I'm used to having a more packed scheDULE, so having so much free time comparativeLY...

( He—can't help, maybe, making sure he has enough things to do. They're things he enjoys too; it's not that much of a waste, either. )

Edited 2021-11-11 05:06 (UTC)

[ Only there to make up the numbers, huh? She's going to keep that in mind the next time proof of club activity is due. ]

You don't need to justify anything. It's not as if I'm disapproving of you having hobbies.

[ Despite the general consensus of club presidents preferring their members not being in ten different clubs, lest they only come once a week at most. The difference between a hobby and a passion, maybe. ]

You just seemed happier talking about fortune telling and your virtual reality system.

[ They're not things you'd make a club for, but those seem more like it'd be worth his while, than watering plants and being a name on a roster. ]

( peace: this just means he's absolutely going to make natsume participate and write something up so maya doesn't DISSOLVE THEM )

I won't deny that I am plenty happy talking about those THINGS, but let me correct you: I don't have any hobBIES.

( ...literally, canonically, his hobbies are listed as "none," and the reason is— )

Growing UP, I was afford more freedom than any child should HAVE... My mommy could call upon any person in the world and have dinner with THEM, and my daddy would indulge anything I had even a passing interest IN. UnfortunateLY, I was—am—far too clever for my own GOOD, so I'd naturally pick up on whatever it was quickLY. ( ... ) It's no fun if it's not challenGING.

( So what is he left with? )

Whatever I purSUE, Little Wolf, I'm merely passionate aBOUT. ( Or extremely well-learned. If there's one thing Natsume likes, it's knowing more than other people. ...This can all be put under "advising others" though, an extension of telling fortunes, so maybe it still can't be counted as something entirely separate. ) I can't in good conscious call anything I have an interest in a mere "hobby" like THAT.

( Not when he's monomaniacal. )

[ Spoiled rich kids... It's a world wholly incomprehensible to her, the idea of just getting anything you want, whenever you want, and to grow up expecting that to be the norm. ]

...Are you only interested in me because I'm a challenge?

[ Because she didn't want to be friends, didn't really want anything to do with him, would turn him away instead of indulging him. And once she's figured out, like a puzzle to be solved, she'll only be a passing interest. ]

( It's a little insane, yeah, and he knows there's more people without that experience than there are with it. But on the other hand, Yumenosaki Academy is a private school, so the majority of the students there are comfortably well-off if not flat-out wealthy, or influential in some other way. )

...I'd be lying if I said that hadn't been a part of your appeal in the beginNING. ( What person doesn't see someone unapproachable and doesn't think, "I'd like to be the exception to that rule?" ) But NO, that isn't the reason I'm interested in YOU.

It isn't even in the top ten reaSONS. ( Reasons, because he has more than one, and he watches her expression with the subtle turn of his head. ) Outside of a romantic aspect, TOO. I told you once that I had my reasons for talking with you and that it wasn't a chore to do SO, and that it was worth my reasons, didn't I?

( Reasons isn't even a word anymore. And a little softer: )

That hasn't CHANGED. I still like you as much now as I did THEN.

( ...

Back to his usual tone, he's glad the home ec room is close to the stairs and the stairs aren't too many and the music room is also close to the stairs so he can just get the door for her and gesture her in, there's a performance to be had, we're halfway through date activities now—

Like the classroom before the tea break, there's a seat for her to take audience-distance from the piano. Otherwise, there's nothing too special... He knows how much she cares about this place and in particular her lovely instrument, he's refrained from messing around too much. )

Take a seat and I'll beGIN.

[ Her expression, as he talks about his reasons, borderlines embarrassed and trying not to look like she's embarrassed. She's absolutely not going to ask for those reasons, she doesn't need to know, even though she had assumed the only reason he talked with her in the first place was for information— because of that one message she'd written on the forum, because she became school president, because she's been here and knows just slightly more than him who woke up knowing nothing. There was no reason to want to get to know her, or try to be friends, or take her out on a date... is what she believed, anyways.

...No, not thoughts she wants to touch upon right now, pulling herself out of her head and focusing on the stairs in front of her. Too many conversations were held in this stairwell. Another thought she sweeps out of her mind.

She's quiet when she enters the music room and finds her chair, pulling it just a little bit forward when she lowers herself into it, sits up a little bit straighter. To watch his hands, inarguably her favorite part of a live piano performance. ]

( Natsume settles at the piano, resting his fingers on the keys; he isn't lying when he says (complains) that things he tries he picks up too easily, because piano is one of them. It isn't exactly his favorite thing, and he doesn't have that much of interest in it, but it suits a purpose right now. Which is to serenade her, an idea he was proud of having before about twenty minutes ago, give or take five, but he told her he'd perform for her. And so:

He plays, and he sings too, maybe a little more aware of the words of his song now than he's ever been before.

Because for marketing purposes, a solo is either about the idol themselves or a piece of fanservice, but this— isn't either of those. This is for her, a gently played melody with a gently sung story of a romance that isn't entirely unlike the way he's treated her. Not just today, but other days, too.

Maybe he should have changed his mind on which song to play before he'd made it up here; maybe he had, somewhere in the back of his mind, but he'd found himself hitting the keys for this one instead, and...

Natsume pulls his hands to his lap when it's over, half-wishing he were in a recording studio with people asking him to make this part softer, make that part stronger, to imagine himself in the role of that protagonist he played recently who was in love with a girl far too busy for things like relationships—

...he looks at her, expression teetering somewhere between embarrassed and trying not to be embarrassed. )

[ me, like three days ago: if Natsume manages to make Maya smile, I'll edit and upload a new icon for that thread
Natsume: manages to accomplish the exact opposite, where I had to take one of her only smiling icons and make it wholly embarrassed

Which is to say, Maya's expression looks wholly embarrassed, eyes remaining on his hands the entire way through and following them to his lap at the end of the song so that she's not looking up at him, cheeks flushed despite the indisputable, logical, objective fact that it's just a song— not one written specially for her, not one she's supposed to read too much into.

Natsume does always manage to surprise her, though. It's not always in good ways, but there's times like this, where she'd sat down expecting a piano solo and nothing more, certainly not a serenade about the peevish look in her eyes, or that- that he's a thorn in her side and that's why she can't not think about him. Or of all the times he had held his hand out to her. Or his warmth when she finally took it.

.....................................

What do you even do in a situation like this except sit and stare and be embarrassed for somebody else and also yourself. ]

( Oh, good, she also sort of looks like she wants to die. Perfect.

It's because of this song's lyrics he chose it to sing, but in the wake of ... today ... it's embarrassing rather than sweet and romantic and he's going to clear his throat, turning on the piano seat to face her. )

Red suits YOU, Little Wolf.

[ STOP don't look at her ]

No better than it suits you.

I'm seriOUS. I always am with YOU.

( ... )

Also, red is my image coLOR, so I'd hope it actually suits me quite WELL.

[ Is he always serious with her? him who says things to piss her off and then goes "just kidding" don't think she forgets all those times ]

I'm always serious.

[ to a fault, with everyone. Even though that was a kneejerk retort than a sincere complement. ]

You would look nice in black. Too much red stands out... it gets loud and annoying.

[ Too much, all the time, I googled his cards and he really is just flashy reds and purples and blues, he's too much ]

( HE'S THE RED ONE IN SWITCHHHH HE HAS NO CHOICE )

...I do prefer darker colORS, so I'll conCEDE. ( your local goth tiktok eboy. ) Did you enjoy the perforMANCE?

( please. )

[ "I didn't hate it" is on the tip of her tongue, because she didn't. But also I had his stupid song stuck in my head over the last two days and it's going to be the same for her, so preemptively she doesn't want to praise him too much. ]

Yes.

[ Begrudgingly, and wishing she could just leave it at that. ]

I wasn't expecting you to sing.

( Welcome to my every day life after the preview for Switch's album dropped. )

I have an audiENCE, don't I? ( an audience of one, but an audience nonetheless. ) ...Besides, singing is one of the tools of an idol's TRADE. It's only natural for me to perform like this--though admittedLY, I'm used to a little more moveMENT.

( But it's hard to dance, and he wanted to play it for her; he thought she'd like that a lot more than the squeak of sneakers on the floor and the potential of her poor piano getting hit. )

I thought you'd be more surprised by my playing piano anyWAY.

( He knows he's inquired her about teaching, but he'd said, back then, it wasn't really his interest.

...Technically it still isn't, but he can do it, so whatever. )

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