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npc contact.3
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well, those kinds of sacrifices. Sometimes they're necessary.
It's hard to figure out a question though, a plethora of choice, and-- really, the last time he ever brought this up they didn't speak for weeks (though there was a little more to that, too), so he's a little hesitant, but. It's been on his mind, seeing that guy again. )
...What was your relationship with Seki-senpai?
( He'll put it in the past tense, for her. )
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...We were friends, but not anymore. He's a liar.
[ "I do not trust Kouji Seki and neither should you." or something like that. ]
Why do you care?
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It's been on my mind since I saw him again last MONTH. ( A small shrug. ) I understand exactly how you felt interacting with me at the beginning of the year now, by the WAY. I'm sorry for the trouBLE.
( Kouji and Chiaki are such headaches... )
Hiro-kun and I talked about him a week or so ago too--raTHER, he came up as a topic of conversation because of what we were speaking about THEN...
( ... )
What's your favorite BOOK?
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Watership Down. What were you and Hiro talking about?
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TalLIES. Why is it your favorITE?
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It's an epic about a group of rabbits finding a better place for themselves.
[ Most importantly, rabbits. To say nothing about the themes of leadership and the dangers of the world. ]
What did you think about Hiro's tallies?
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Don't give me that LOOK. I always let him know he doesn't have to answer me if he doesn't want TO, but he did anyWAY.
( but what did he think... )
Three is a good numBER. It's auspicious in maGIC, and it's still low enough that if by some miracle he wanted to make FRIENDS, people wouldn't give him a wide BERTH. Being your brother aSIDE. One of them is from when he stabbed Seki-senpai, but that's about all I KNOW.
( honestly. )
Why does it matter what I THINK?
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Because he's my brother. [ And Natsume is Natsume. ] If you thought badly of him, I would have to retract my statement about not pushing you off the roof. So I'll rephrase: what do you think of Hiro, knowing his tallies?
[ Not his situation, not how people will react towards him, just Hiro himself. ]
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( but okay. )
He's a quiet young man with an incredibly overprotective older TWIN, who wants to have friends and trust peoPLE. Simple, but that's what I like about HIM. Despite the fact he doesn't like speaKING, I have a good time talking with HIM, and I'm touched he considers me a FRIEND. ( ... ) His art is very nice and I'd like to draw with him again someTIME, though my skills pale in compariSON.
( and none of that has to do with if those tallies are from dying or from killing or anything. natsume sets his chopsticks down and leans back on his hands, expression slightly guarded. )
Do you think differently of me knowing my talLIES?
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It's still not exactly what she's asking, but it's better than the alternative. Simple, trusting, one would almost fall into the trap of thinking he isn't a threat, if the tallies on his wrist didn't warn of his capability. ]
Yes.
[ But, quite the opposite from him, Maya looks a little more relaxed, turning her attention back to her food. ]
He'll be happy to have somebody else to draw with. Why don't you ask him?
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He sighs, slow and soft, picks his chopsticks back up after a long moment, and starts arranging pieces of rice on his bento lid. )
I'll get too competiTIVE. ( Which sounds SO STUPID, he's looking very hard at what he's doing now. ) Are you going to keep asking after your broTHER? We only have four questions each left after you answer this ONE.
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Yes.
[ Very easy question to answer, much easier when it's not about her. ]
He's important to me, after all. And you needn't worry, because he hates competition and would sooner draw on your picture to make it both of yours. [ She glances over at Natsume picking at his food, then looks away ] He likes tamagoyaki, and will eat snow peas without much of a fuss, so can you include those more often?
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...He also doesn't sound half as disgruntled as before; more bemused than anything, he's terrible at staying mad at people who don't deserve it. )
You're the worst to play anything WITH. I'll be sure to—it's getting colder THOUGH, so maybe I'll make some snow pea soup inSTEAD...
( As if it isn't getting cold already; not so much the afternoon, really, but in general. )
And that was a reQUEST, not a quesTION, so you can still ask something ELSE.
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[ Asked that way on purpose, because she is the worst to play with but she will still follow the rules. She never was very interested in asking Natsume questions unless she needed something, which was rare that she did and couldn't find the answer herself, and he might get the sense that she and Hiro don't talk much during meals. ]
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Hiro-kun says this is something that just the two of you KNOW.
( He's completed it, and I'm too lazy to grab the image again but it's the "trust" symbol Hiro gave him, that he asked about before, but made with rice; he pushes the bento lid towards her, going back to eating little bites of his lunch. )
What does it mean to YOU?
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...It's a symbol of trust.
[ She picks up the lid and uses her chopsticks to return the rice to Natsume's box. Eat this too. Don't waste food. ]
What do you know about it?
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Just THAT, and that we're the only three people who know IT.
( "Knowing" is a stretch for him right now though, he supposes, but all the same. He's never shown it to anyone else—it's felt like something only he was supposed to be privy to, despite not knowing all the details. )
When we first became friends at the beginning of the YEAR, and I asked him for his TRUST, he drew this on my HAND. ( ... ) Enlighten ME?
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It's nothing so deep or mysterious. Back when he stopped talking, he could only convey so much, so I gave him some shorthands. If somebody showed me that symbol you did, then I know they're somebody Hiro trusts enough to share.
[ Other symbols mean other things. It's something, in the end, very select people become privy to despite not knowing all the details. ]
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Everything matters, he reminds himself. )
...That's GOOD. ( But Hiro's not that hard a person to win over.
Except, he's still the only person outside of the two of them to have that symbol. That's still doing something to his head, just like the twins always do. ) Your ninth quesTION, Little Wolf?
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But she does trust her brother. And as bribable as he is, he too can be as guarded as Maya is. ]
Are we really going to play until we finish twenty questions? It's enough to eat and enjoy the food.
[ Instead of talking, and enjoying the person. ]
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We ARE. What do you think a date -- or even spending time with someONE, if you're going to make that face -- is FOR?
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To like each other more, and are you aware this is accomplishing just the opposite, Sakasaki?
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He pauses though, presses his lips together, and sighs from his nose. )
...My apoloGIES. To like each other more, certainLY, but also to get to know one another betTER.
( ... )
We can stop NOW.
( Despite it being time for his final question, the twentieth between them if his math isn't wrong (and it isn't), he doesn't have to ask her anything it's fine.
They can just eat. He's more used to quiet meals on the whole anyway, he supposes; he just got used to people talking the past year or so. )
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Do you feel like you know me any better now, or was this a waste of time for you?
[ Was it pretty much what he'd expected of somebody who doesn't like talking about herself, nor learning about others, talking in general... cute bento boxes that she has to eat around all the extras before finally getting to the main character, the way that, if she isn't making that face at him, she tends to look out into the distance at the forest, as if the only reason she likes being on the rooftop at all is that you can sit here and not see any of the school and pretend you aren't there. ]
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He shoots her an irritated look, but it relaxes after a moment; he doesn't answer right away, even if the answer is easy for him to come to: that this wasn't a waste, really. Even if she spent most of it asking after her brother, even if their questions weren't particularly thoughtful otherwise, even if she's frustrating and... even if it were a waste of his time, he wouldn't mind it being so, if it was her wasting it.
But as it stands: he never considers time spent with her "wasted" in any amount, even with fruitless games. He'd only said it to get her mind off of his in-poor-taste joke, and she'd gone with it presumably for the same reason, and it had worked. Is that a waste? And is it a waste to watch her carefully strip the cats of their additions instead of actually just eating them normally, or to admire her profile when she looks out at the woods, or to think that maybe one day they'll be seeing the exact same scenery? Is it a waste to know she loves her brother and that she's happier talking about him than she is herself or discovering anything new about anyone else, because at least she knows she can trust Hiro above anyone else? And is it a waste to know her favorite book is about heroes and fighting an unjust system and, of all things, rabbits? Is it a waste to find someone he can trade off so comfortably with -- someone he thinks she can too, since she had no problem with asking questions after her initial first one -- something that is a delight for someone like him who delights in conversation?
Is it a waste to think about the day's culminating understandings to this question too -- to think about the way she looks when she's watching the stars, pretending no one else is there but who wanted him to watch with her anyway, even if it was because it was a waste - it was weird - for him not to; or the way he felt her gaze on his back when he'd confessed, quiet but sure, and the drop in his stomach at the silent but, but that he knew would come with any reply of hers (that he knows will always come with her reply); or the coolness of sweat on his forehead orchestrating a constellation's walk across the room and a curtain of galaxy between them, the sharpness in her look and the concern she has despite perhaps her better efforts not to have any at all for other people -- no, individuals? Or the redness of her cheeks after he sang for her and her genuine snap of how red didn't suit him (even though it really did suit her, to him; it was cute, it was wonderful and new and if he were worse person he might have k), or the duet they played after and the static electric buzz he felt wherever they brushed like he was fifteen years old again being dragged around by the sun on a cool spring afternoon?
It is a waste, maybe, to be offended at how relieved she is that he isn't asking questions -- but she likes to be in control, and she doesn't like being known. One of these things he can let go of easier than the other, and he wishes he could be sorrier that it isn't the second, because he's too selfish to let it be. )
I think I do, actualLY.
( Know her better. That's all he's going to say on that though. )
...Have you seen the movie for Watership Down, or can that be our next hang-OUT?
( You can't talk during movies, and she likes the book. It's not a terrible idea. Date aside. )
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