I'm vulnerable, I'm vulnerable I am not a robot You're lovable, so lovable But you're just troubled Can you teach me how to feel real? Can you turn my power off And let the drum beat drop?
that's the short of a very long story that begins with narumiya mei betraying an internationally acclaimed spy organization--a corrupt one, thank-you-very-much--and ends with him getting shot dead in the chest with a perfectly aimed bullet. by the time he woke up, he could thank kuramochi youichi for not double tapping him and thank carlos for slipping his badge in his chest pocket to be an asshole. all things considered, narumiya mei's pretty lucky to be alive. his final mission--to get the intersect out of the hands of the organization and into the capable (and clueless) ones of his college roommate--had succeeded, and he had every intention of breaking in to see him now that he was a walking dead man. to, you know. check in on him. maybe apologize for stealing his girlfriend and getting him kicked out of college.
(wakana was really cute.)
bygones should be bygones when you attend someone's funeral! he needs to know what sawamura did with the intersect and he needs to know as soon as possible, so that he can continue to track its progress hopefully to safer pastures. finding sawamura is easy enough, as he looks him up and makes his way to the apartment complex, but showing up at the door to haruichi (and probably furuya, he would imagine? they seemed happy back when he and sawamura lived together, but that means little) might be more complicated.
window it is then.
there are many benefits to being a super spy. mei's spiderman skills are more or less unparalleled, and he picks the lock on the window without a single sound, a black-suited blonde blur that slips from wall to window to carpeted floor in a dark room. maybe he'll sit in a chair and turn the light on when sawamura comes in for effect, seeing as how he can hear the shower running.
mei relaxes as much as a former dead man can, and turns to shut the window behind him, for a brief moment, completely off guard. ]
Edited (check the weather????) 2016-01-21 21:40 (UTC)
[ To Mei's credit, it's entirely likely he'd go unnoticed until Eijun wound up squawking at the mere sight of him skulking around in some dramatic setup, as per his style. The fact that Kazuya even notices anything is because he leans back in the kitchen, looking to check the time, and notices that there's a peculiar shadow being cast by the dim morning light.
He doesn't really have any reason to be awake so early, but sometimes it's hard for him to stay asleep even with his mask and Eijun tucked up against him as white noise and a source of warmth, so it's better to just be productive rather than lay in bed trying to get more sleep. Making breakfast is his number one chore for their household, anyways, and it's one he'll happily do to busy himself.
But his primary role in the household is that of a guard dog, so he moves to investigate, padding silently on socked feet, prepared.
With Eijun in the shower - which will probably take a while, he pretty much zombie shuffled in there, it's likely he won't even realize he turned the shower on until the water starts going cool and he has to adjust the knob - and the lovebirds sleeping, Miyuki figures that he can make this quick. Breakfast is basically done, just in the final stages of cooking, so he untucks his sidearm from the inner pants holster tucked at the back of his hip and brings it up to bump the back of the intruder's head, flicking the safety off, though his finger stays resting along the side of the trigger guard rather than on the trigger itself.
Sure, he doesn't have a silencer attached, but it's a myth that those completely mute gunfire, and, anyways, one of these days they're going to have to explain things to Kominato and Furuya. Worth it if it's because he shot someone sneaking into the house.
Especially when - ] Either this is a very poor joke being played, you haven't been reading the obituaries, or the zombie apocalypse has started. [ - he'd recognize that figure, that hair, in a darker room than the tiny hallspace. ]
[ to his credit, mei doesn't hear kazuya come in. he's attuned to listen as always, but he only realizes exactly what happens when he steps close and mei feels a presence near him. he doesn't have enough time to turn around or whip out his gun, but his hand drops to his side where his glock's holstered anyway, very slow. he's not particularly troubled--it makes sense that sawamura would have some kind of protection on him, considering his old friend was an idiot and did probably pass on the entirety of the state's secrets, and all he does is roll his eyes.
really, he's about to open his mouth and say something snappy himself, twitching his elbow to let the knife hidden on his forearm drop into his hand, but then the person with a gun on his head speaks.
and mei stops.
if there's one single thing mei regretted on his meteoric rise to power and imminent destruction for his own good, it's this. it's kazuya, kazuya miyuki who had been his partner since the moment they were both out of the academy, mei tailing him until the agency put them together for his own good. if they weren't bickering at each other, they made an incredible team, and that extended from missions to a lot more than that. budapest, cairo, washington dc, hotel rooms with single beds and kazuya's mouth on his, kissing with all the acid that comes off his tongue: mei had loved him, that was for sure, in everything complicated and terrifying that love was.
but he couldn't tell him. he had no reason to, no want to, and it had nothing to do with "i don't want you to get hurt". (maybe a little.) mei had to do this on his own.
the way he holds his breath is silent, but the faint relaxing of his shoulders isn't, and mei smiles, a little bitter, blue eyes fluttering shut as he lifts his head back into the muzzle of the gun. ] If I'm a ghost, do you really have to point your gun at me? I didn't think you'd go totally crazy without me, but I must have been wrong.
[ a pause, and he says his name like it's something weighty. ] Kazuya.
Flirting is one thing. There's never any attachments that need to form, just meaningless fun that he can have every now and then, without worrying about what the agency will say or, worse yet, do to the person that he's chosen to hook up with. He's nothing if not a gentleman when they're talking, even if he still plays at the happy and carefree goofball all throughout, and if it gets so far that they sleep together he does his best to treat them right.
But he doesn't ask them out on dates, and he doesn't keep seeing them.
In this case, however, one night of flirty banter and heavy making out would have been enough if not for the fact he's pretty sure the sultry Japanese girl he'd almost spent the night with ("I don't give it up without a real date!" she'd told him with a wink, while wearing only his jacket and her underwear, while in his lap, which was entirely understandable but also the worst tease in the world) has been finding ways for them to run into each other. Which is interesting, given the fact he doesn't have a set pattern for when he goes out.
So she's probably stalking him, and he probably has some background checks to run on her, but that's after he winds up dealing with a couple of... well, dates.
Such as the one they're finishing up now, as he brings her back to her hotel yet again. Choi Luciel, ever the gentleman. ] Here we are - at this rate, by the time you leave, you'll have seen all of Seoul.
[ on the other hand, this is exactly what mei intended to happen.
international espionage tends to be a zero sum game. it's one that mei has been familiar with for most of her life working for an organization of her own, though hers doesn't always has the best of intentions. inashiro has always been a machiavellian sort of group, and if their end meant taking out spies from other organizations, well, consider it justified.
that's mei's current case. there's a wildly talented hacker, codename 707, that's become a problem for the people who hired inashiro, and taking out 707 will collapse their entire hacking operation. in her time as a spy, mei has been many things, but the femme fatale is the one that's always suited her the best, and it was a no brainer to assign her to his case.
seven--luciel, though she'd never share that she knew it, has been a difficult nut to crack online, but when it comes to real life? well, he's a young (attractive) human man. some things are easier than computers, as she told shirakawa on their past check in call, and this is one of them.
it's been a couple of weeks since she arrived in seoul, ever the picture of a wide eyed tourist, and so far, everything's gone just the way she wants it to. she runs into seven in various places, looks surprised and cooes her happiness at it, and bit by bit, she gets to know him, cracks away at the veneer he's presenting until they've been on a couple of real dates.
it's only a matter of time, now.
she's holding onto his arm as he brings her back to her hotel, a lower class boutique hotel where she's not actually staying (just renting a room on inashiro's money) and the fingers of her right hand dance absently up his bicep underneath his coat as she plays it up, all innocent and pretty blue eyes, long eyelashes that she bats at him. ] Maybe at customs if they quiz me, they'll think I've lived here my whole life and let me stay.
[ she squeezes his arm gently to go along with her teasing remark, and then glances away, coy. ] You always say you're a gentleman. Are you going to, maybe...walk me all the way upstairs?
[ Most of the RFA and a great deal of the agency - Vanderwood, especially, to be honest - think that Seven is talented and intelligent, but not serious. Not necessarily smart. But Seven is far more observant than they give him credit for, especially after everything he's had to deal with in his life. After the third time Mei had run into him, in such a big city as Seoul, he had a feeling that she was far more than she was letting on.
But, hey. He can handle himself, and has proven that in every situation thrown at him. So he plays along, doesn't break his usual character in the process. Besides, it's not like he's not enjoying himself as he keeps an eye out for some double cross that'll come out of a girl that's almost half his size. Appearances are always deceiving! He knows this better than anyone else ever could. ]
I mean, you could probably sweet talk them and they'd let you without thinking it over. [ Because she sure knows how to sweet talk and bat her eyelashes. There's no denying that Seven does like her, and enjoys talking to her a great deal. They have a weird, easy rapport, all flirty banter and Seven teasing and joking, just to ruffle feathers - either to have her huffing and puffing at him, or to get her puffed up and preening.
Now though. Now...
Seven curls the string of his jacket around his forefinger, fiddling with it absently with his thumb as he regards her out of the corner of his eye. While she's looking away, his expression is more serious, thoughtful, rather than an easygoing little grin. But he brings that back up like flipping a switch, humming to himself and looking up at the hotel. ] I certainly could, if that's what you wanted. In fact, I'd be happy to.
[ When Itsuki was first brought to her tower, and for the years after, she'd been told it qas for her own good. And, for the most part, she hasn't questioned it. There are plenty of things for her to do throughout her stay here - reading and cleaning and cooking and sewing, the list goes on and on - even if she's never left.
Things are brought to her. She doesn't need to leave.
But it's lonely, when she's here by herself. Itsuki misses people she barely remembers, fuzzy faces and fuzzier voices. It makes it hard, and makes her actually cosider leaving her tower, if only to see if she can find those people she desperately wants to remember clearly. Who were they, especially to her?
Save for Akamatsu Shinji, she doesn't know.
Akamatsu, who stumbled face-first into her tower and found himself laid out by a mean right hook from a girl he hadn't expected to see there. But she remembers him, a little, which makes her really enjoy his visits even though she's pretty sure he doesn't remember her. Which - is fine, so long as he keeps coming back. The visits are something she didn't expect, even if he said he would come back soon. He has so many stories and adventures out there in the world, she wants to hear all of them. Nevermind that it makes her want to leave all the more, especially when he leaves.
And, especially now, when she hasn't seen him for a month. She can't help it - she sulks and pines, thinking he's finally left for good. ]
[ akamatsu, however, does not really remember itsuki.
it's not his fault. he was maybe two or three years old when they first met, and while he should probably remember a pretty girl carrying him around, that pretty girl used to have thick, dark hair. not like the one who hit him in the tower, who has blonde hair. and more hair. and more hair. in fact, it kinda goes on forever.
so, hopping a fence and climbing up a giant tower ended with him getting socked in the face, but it also ended with a friendship. shinji had been surprised when she said she'd never been outside--who's never been outside?--but, he'd resolved to bring her something cool from the next time he went wandering out to steal something.
it hadn't taken a full month to get to the ocean and back--it was the avoiding the castle knights (queen narumiya is, after all, ruthless when it comes to lawbreakers, and akamatsu kind of likes his head) that made him take so long. it was only when he was totally sure he wasn't going to be bringing the trouble back with him that he stops at the bottom of the tower with a basket on his hip, craning his head up.
his smile's carefree as he lifts a hand to his mouth, calling out as if he was only gone an hour-- ] Tadano-senpai, knock knock!
[ Maybe she should leave, she considers to herself in that month without Akamatsu. He would encourage that, she thinks. But the idea of going out alone, into a world she hasn't known since she was four or five years old, is scary. And she can't ask Mei-san if she can leave, even though she's been much better about her captivity than her original "guardian" was. (Which is saying something, given how Mei can be sometimes.)
Those thoughts are derailed immediately.
Perking up as she hears him call her name, Itsuki scrambles up to all fours and pulls herself up to her feet properly when she gets to the window. Her hair pools around her, cascading down her shoulders and almost off the window sill as she stares down at him with round eyes. ]
[ ever since she was a little girl, mei wanted to be a queen. what she got was nothing like what she wanted.
mei rules a kingdom, that much is true. queen narumiya is revered and feared, a shadowy presence over her lands as she takes and takes and learns. people leave with every mistake she makes, and her court has evaporated in the years of her rule, leaving her alone in the gaping, cavernous castle she calls home. mei's lost everyone but she persists, her pride and her anger leaving her to brood and stew alone.
...until recently.
there's another person in her castle, a prisoner who she set free because despite everything, despite all of her cruelty and everything she's done with her power, there's not a way in hell she could ever kill miyuki kazuya. and maybe it was a breaking point, to be staring down the barrel of a metaphorical gun with him and to walk away.
whatever it was, mei's following him now to the kitchen quarters, through the end of the cold hallways, past the empty dining hall, her hands wrapped around her forearms, stubbornly staring at kazuya's heels as she shuffles behind him and leans against a counter when he starts looking around. ] I don't know what you're looking for. Shouldn't you be running out of here with your tail between your legs?
[ this would not be the first time Miyuki Kazuya has been thrown into a dungeon to rot. It would, however, be the first time he hadn't made an escape attempt. Rather, he'd broken his shackles and sprawled on the floor like he was at home, and he waited.
With his own kingdom burnt to the ground when he was younger, he's traveled to others, weaving his magic everywhere he's gone. Chris' is one of his favorites, for a variety of reasons, but Mei's... is a piece of work, for a variety of reasons. It would be an understatement to say he's got history here and with its queen.
Which is why he saunters out of his cell when she releases him, a leisurely stroll not for the exit but rather the kitchens. The empty corridors are as dead as her kingdom beyond, but he doesn't indicate that he's aware of it.
Miyuki also ignores her as he scrounges through the pantries of the kitchen, the cold storage, everything, for food that hasn't gone bad in the lull of staff and services within the castle walls. Where he finds rotten fruit and vegetables, stale bread, he revitalizes them with a curl of magic. Meat and eggs and dairy he can conjure up, under the pretense of it already bwing there while Mei sulks in the background. ]
Why would I do that? [ He clucks his tongue in disapproval, setting things out. ]
Because you might be less of an idiot than I've always thought? [ mei says that just a little wryly, her mouth curling up a hint at the chance to banter with kazuya again. she and miyuki have history, history with a capital H, and it's a familiar and old relationship. it's human contact, human contact with the same bitter, sharp edge that mei has taken on in all of her relationships since becoming the queen. but, with kazuya it's familiar. it's fixed with affection, a relationship built on the same things that she's done to break every other one she's had.
she watches him move through the kitchen, feels the prickle of magic on her skin when kazuya does something in the pantry but mostly ignores it, instead choosing to lean on the large table in the center of the kitchen and watch him with her arms folded over her chest.
having someone in here is strange, now. mei hasn't been in the kitchen for months, choosing to subsist of an apple or an orange from the garden every now and then instead of cook for herself. she's a wreck; even kazuya must know.
(her stomach growls, but she refuses to admit it was her that made the noise.) ] You're proving me wrong, though.
it's only been a few hour since everything went down, from mei's very short lived (literally) marriage to kazuha appearing out of nowhere. a tearful mei a little later explained to the guards that the fiend--that dredd pirate--appeared and killed her wonderful husband. it's the same teary falsetto she uses when she doesn't mean a word of it, as she clutches a handkerchief to her mouth and retires to her room after meeting with his advisors, claiming she needs some time to process.
and that's not really untrue. after all, there are a lot of things to process here, but none of them really have to do with her (fortunately) dead husband or her newly bared ring finger.
they all have to do with the girl she knows is sitting in her room at the moment.
kazuha. mei had been stunned to see her the first time, when she'd gone rolling down the hill making fun of her (mei had always said that she'd pick one of her terrible, shitty remarks as her hill to die on, she didn't necessarily mean it literally) and mei had pounced after, not caring about her dress for the first time in her life. kazuha had been missing for years, and now she was back, playing the part of the swashbuckling pirate, the boy.
it was a lot of emotions to feel at once, and that combined with the despair of thinking her life was over--and the pure, brief elated happiness at kazuha suddenly appearing behind her to rip a dagger out of her hand, exhausted and beaten but alive, despite the sacrifice mei made to keep her safe, despite everything--has left her exhausted.
and wanting to see kazuha.
maybe she sees it now, she thinks, her hand on the doorknob. to anyone else, she looks like a mourning widow, too distraught to do anything, but mei is reconciling a feeling she never truly had before with who she's always thought she was. it's like moving from the shallows to the ocean depths, and for the first time in her life, maybe she's ready to dive in.
taking a deep breath, mei opens the door and steps in. she shuts it quietly, leaning against the door, and looks across the room to kazuha. there's the urge to run to her and hug her, but she holds still for now, ever bad with her feelings, even if her heartbeat has sped up in her ears. ] I thought you might have left.
[ not really, but it gives her something to say besides--i think maybe i am in love with you. ]
[ When Kazuha had decided to come hone, she wasn't quute sure what to exoect. Admittedly, her plan had entailed the kidnapping of an asshole prince's bride-to-be for a ransom and the Dredd Pirate's final score before passing on the mantle. To say that she definitely didn't expect that bride to be Mei would have been a goddamn understatement. She had been hoping to be able to prepare herself before seeing two people again: her dad, and the best friend she had realized she was in love with over the past decade or so.
A tumble down a hill later, and an adventure through the very forest they had been banned from as kids, and it was all the more obvious to her just how much she was still in love with this bratty girl. This bratty girl that needed rescuing, so that she could freely be the orincess she was instead of acting like a vapid ditz.
Narumiya Mei was no idiit. It was funny, for five minutes. Until Kazuha got to meet the prince she was supposed to be marrying, and wanted to take his head off within five seconds.
Of course, he had thrown her into his torture sungeon first, but she and Mei had gotten the last laugh in the end.
She ransacks the room while Mei gears herself up to mourn, steaks some things to make the story more believable, and thrn waits. The adrenaline crash that comes from her anger and desperation to get to Mei winds up taking her out, and she sits by the window as she... waits. Listens. And the second the door opens, she looks up at Mei - or the shape of her, anyways, a little fuzzy around the edges - and quirks a tired smile. ]
No dashing escapes for the Dredd Pirate today. He's a little out of steam, and has left the stunning princess behind one too many times already.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
i am not a robot ( ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ғᴇᴇʟ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴏɴᴇ )
I am not a robot
You're lovable, so lovable
But you're just troubled
Can you teach me how to feel real?
Can you turn my power off
And let the drum beat drop?
Guess what? I am not a robot
tell me our story
in the middle of our story where idgaf about timelines
mei lived.
that's the short of a very long story that begins with narumiya mei betraying an internationally acclaimed spy organization--a corrupt one, thank-you-very-much--and ends with him getting shot dead in the chest with a perfectly aimed bullet. by the time he woke up, he could thank kuramochi youichi for not double tapping him and thank carlos for slipping his badge in his chest pocket to be an asshole. all things considered, narumiya mei's pretty lucky to be alive. his final mission--to get the intersect out of the hands of the organization and into the capable (and clueless) ones of his college roommate--had succeeded, and he had every intention of breaking in to see him now that he was a walking dead man. to, you know. check in on him. maybe apologize for stealing his girlfriend and getting him kicked out of college.
(wakana was really cute.)
bygones should be bygones when you attend someone's funeral! he needs to know what sawamura did with the intersect and he needs to know as soon as possible, so that he can continue to track its progress hopefully to safer pastures. finding sawamura is easy enough, as he looks him up and makes his way to the apartment complex, but showing up at the door to haruichi (and probably furuya, he would imagine? they seemed happy back when he and sawamura lived together, but that means little) might be more complicated.
window it is then.
there are many benefits to being a super spy. mei's spiderman skills are more or less unparalleled, and he picks the lock on the window without a single sound, a black-suited blonde blur that slips from wall to window to carpeted floor in a dark room. maybe he'll sit in a chair and turn the light on when sawamura comes in for effect, seeing as how he can hear the shower running.
mei relaxes as much as a former dead man can, and turns to shut the window behind him, for a brief moment, completely off guard. ]
have we ever tho
He doesn't really have any reason to be awake so early, but sometimes it's hard for him to stay asleep even with his mask and Eijun tucked up against him as white noise and a source of warmth, so it's better to just be productive rather than lay in bed trying to get more sleep. Making breakfast is his number one chore for their household, anyways, and it's one he'll happily do to busy himself.
But his primary role in the household is that of a guard dog, so he moves to investigate, padding silently on socked feet, prepared.
With Eijun in the shower - which will probably take a while, he pretty much zombie shuffled in there, it's likely he won't even realize he turned the shower on until the water starts going cool and he has to adjust the knob - and the lovebirds sleeping, Miyuki figures that he can make this quick. Breakfast is basically done, just in the final stages of cooking, so he untucks his sidearm from the inner pants holster tucked at the back of his hip and brings it up to bump the back of the intruder's head, flicking the safety off, though his finger stays resting along the side of the trigger guard rather than on the trigger itself.
Sure, he doesn't have a silencer attached, but it's a myth that those completely mute gunfire, and, anyways, one of these days they're going to have to explain things to Kominato and Furuya. Worth it if it's because he shot someone sneaking into the house.
Especially when - ] Either this is a very poor joke being played, you haven't been reading the obituaries, or the zombie apocalypse has started. [ - he'd recognize that figure, that hair, in a darker room than the tiny hallspace. ]
nope
really, he's about to open his mouth and say something snappy himself, twitching his elbow to let the knife hidden on his forearm drop into his hand, but then the person with a gun on his head speaks.
and mei stops.
if there's one single thing mei regretted on his meteoric rise to power and imminent destruction for his own good, it's this. it's kazuya, kazuya miyuki who had been his partner since the moment they were both out of the academy, mei tailing him until the agency put them together for his own good. if they weren't bickering at each other, they made an incredible team, and that extended from missions to a lot more than that. budapest, cairo, washington dc, hotel rooms with single beds and kazuya's mouth on his, kissing with all the acid that comes off his tongue: mei had loved him, that was for sure, in everything complicated and terrifying that love was.
but he couldn't tell him. he had no reason to, no want to, and it had nothing to do with "i don't want you to get hurt". (maybe a little.) mei had to do this on his own.
the way he holds his breath is silent, but the faint relaxing of his shoulders isn't, and mei smiles, a little bitter, blue eyes fluttering shut as he lifts his head back into the muzzle of the gun. ] If I'm a ghost, do you really have to point your gun at me? I didn't think you'd go totally crazy without me, but I must have been wrong.
[ a pause, and he says his name like it's something weighty. ] Kazuya.
maybe for like a hot second, once upon a time
nah
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
hey baby, i think i wanna marry you
but i'd love to be in trouble with you
no heroes, villains, one to blame
nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy
racing to an early grave
no subject
Flirting is one thing. There's never any attachments that need to form, just meaningless fun that he can have every now and then, without worrying about what the agency will say or, worse yet, do to the person that he's chosen to hook up with. He's nothing if not a gentleman when they're talking, even if he still plays at the happy and carefree goofball all throughout, and if it gets so far that they sleep together he does his best to treat them right.
But he doesn't ask them out on dates, and he doesn't keep seeing them.
In this case, however, one night of flirty banter and heavy making out would have been enough if not for the fact he's pretty sure the sultry Japanese girl he'd almost spent the night with ("I don't give it up without a real date!" she'd told him with a wink, while wearing only his jacket and her underwear, while in his lap, which was entirely understandable but also the worst tease in the world) has been finding ways for them to run into each other. Which is interesting, given the fact he doesn't have a set pattern for when he goes out.
So she's probably stalking him, and he probably has some background checks to run on her, but that's after he winds up dealing with a couple of... well, dates.
Such as the one they're finishing up now, as he brings her back to her hotel yet again. Choi Luciel, ever the gentleman. ] Here we are - at this rate, by the time you leave, you'll have seen all of Seoul.
no subject
international espionage tends to be a zero sum game. it's one that mei has been familiar with for most of her life working for an organization of her own, though hers doesn't always has the best of intentions. inashiro has always been a machiavellian sort of group, and if their end meant taking out spies from other organizations, well, consider it justified.
that's mei's current case. there's a wildly talented hacker, codename 707, that's become a problem for the people who hired inashiro, and taking out 707 will collapse their entire hacking operation. in her time as a spy, mei has been many things, but the femme fatale is the one that's always suited her the best, and it was a no brainer to assign her to his case.
seven--luciel, though she'd never share that she knew it, has been a difficult nut to crack online, but when it comes to real life? well, he's a young (attractive) human man. some things are easier than computers, as she told shirakawa on their past check in call, and this is one of them.
it's been a couple of weeks since she arrived in seoul, ever the picture of a wide eyed tourist, and so far, everything's gone just the way she wants it to. she runs into seven in various places, looks surprised and cooes her happiness at it, and bit by bit, she gets to know him, cracks away at the veneer he's presenting until they've been on a couple of real dates.
it's only a matter of time, now.
she's holding onto his arm as he brings her back to her hotel, a lower class boutique hotel where she's not actually staying (just renting a room on inashiro's money) and the fingers of her right hand dance absently up his bicep underneath his coat as she plays it up, all innocent and pretty blue eyes, long eyelashes that she bats at him. ] Maybe at customs if they quiz me, they'll think I've lived here my whole life and let me stay.
[ she squeezes his arm gently to go along with her teasing remark, and then glances away, coy. ] You always say you're a gentleman. Are you going to, maybe...walk me all the way upstairs?
no subject
But, hey. He can handle himself, and has proven that in every situation thrown at him. So he plays along, doesn't break his usual character in the process. Besides, it's not like he's not enjoying himself as he keeps an eye out for some double cross that'll come out of a girl that's almost half his size. Appearances are always deceiving! He knows this better than anyone else ever could. ]
I mean, you could probably sweet talk them and they'd let you without thinking it over. [ Because she sure knows how to sweet talk and bat her eyelashes. There's no denying that Seven does like her, and enjoys talking to her a great deal. They have a weird, easy rapport, all flirty banter and Seven teasing and joking, just to ruffle feathers - either to have her huffing and puffing at him, or to get her puffed up and preening.
Now though. Now...
Seven curls the string of his jacket around his forefinger, fiddling with it absently with his thumb as he regards her out of the corner of his eye. While she's looking away, his expression is more serious, thoughtful, rather than an easygoing little grin. But he brings that back up like flipping a switch, humming to himself and looking up at the hotel. ] I certainly could, if that's what you wanted. In fact, I'd be happy to.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
something brought us together. fate, destiny...a horse.
no subject
Things are brought to her. She doesn't need to leave.
But it's lonely, when she's here by herself. Itsuki misses people she barely remembers, fuzzy faces and fuzzier voices. It makes it hard, and makes her actually cosider leaving her tower, if only to see if she can find those people she desperately wants to remember clearly. Who were they, especially to her?
Save for Akamatsu Shinji, she doesn't know.
Akamatsu, who stumbled face-first into her tower and found himself laid out by a mean right hook from a girl he hadn't expected to see there. But she remembers him, a little, which makes her really enjoy his visits even though she's pretty sure he doesn't remember her. Which - is fine, so long as he keeps coming back. The visits are something she didn't expect, even if he said he would come back soon. He has so many stories and adventures out there in the world, she wants to hear all of them. Nevermind that it makes her want to leave all the more, especially when he leaves.
And, especially now, when she hasn't seen him for a month. She can't help it - she sulks and pines, thinking he's finally left for good. ]
no subject
it's not his fault. he was maybe two or three years old when they first met, and while he should probably remember a pretty girl carrying him around, that pretty girl used to have thick, dark hair. not like the one who hit him in the tower, who has blonde hair. and more hair. and more hair. in fact, it kinda goes on forever.
so, hopping a fence and climbing up a giant tower ended with him getting socked in the face, but it also ended with a friendship. shinji had been surprised when she said she'd never been outside--who's never been outside?--but, he'd resolved to bring her something cool from the next time he went wandering out to steal something.
it hadn't taken a full month to get to the ocean and back--it was the avoiding the castle knights (queen narumiya is, after all, ruthless when it comes to lawbreakers, and akamatsu kind of likes his head) that made him take so long. it was only when he was totally sure he wasn't going to be bringing the trouble back with him that he stops at the bottom of the tower with a basket on his hip, craning his head up.
his smile's carefree as he lifts a hand to his mouth, calling out as if he was only gone an hour-- ] Tadano-senpai, knock knock!
no subject
Those thoughts are derailed immediately.
Perking up as she hears him call her name, Itsuki scrambles up to all fours and pulls herself up to her feet properly when she gets to the window. Her hair pools around her, cascading down her shoulders and almost off the window sill as she stares down at him with round eyes. ]
Akamatsu-kun! You came back!
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
oh, who would ever want to be queen
no subject
mei rules a kingdom, that much is true. queen narumiya is revered and feared, a shadowy presence over her lands as she takes and takes and learns. people leave with every mistake she makes, and her court has evaporated in the years of her rule, leaving her alone in the gaping, cavernous castle she calls home. mei's lost everyone but she persists, her pride and her anger leaving her to brood and stew alone.
...until recently.
there's another person in her castle, a prisoner who she set free because despite everything, despite all of her cruelty and everything she's done with her power, there's not a way in hell she could ever kill miyuki kazuya. and maybe it was a breaking point, to be staring down the barrel of a metaphorical gun with him and to walk away.
whatever it was, mei's following him now to the kitchen quarters, through the end of the cold hallways, past the empty dining hall, her hands wrapped around her forearms, stubbornly staring at kazuya's heels as she shuffles behind him and leans against a counter when he starts looking around. ] I don't know what you're looking for. Shouldn't you be running out of here with your tail between your legs?
[ a pause, and she sniffs. ] Literally?
no subject
With his own kingdom burnt to the ground when he was younger, he's traveled to others, weaving his magic everywhere he's gone. Chris' is one of his favorites, for a variety of reasons, but Mei's... is a piece of work, for a variety of reasons. It would be an understatement to say he's got history here and with its queen.
Which is why he saunters out of his cell when she releases him, a leisurely stroll not for the exit but rather the kitchens. The empty corridors are as dead as her kingdom beyond, but he doesn't indicate that he's aware of it.
Miyuki also ignores her as he scrounges through the pantries of the kitchen, the cold storage, everything, for food that hasn't gone bad in the lull of staff and services within the castle walls. Where he finds rotten fruit and vegetables, stale bread, he revitalizes them with a curl of magic. Meat and eggs and dairy he can conjure up, under the pretense of it already bwing there while Mei sulks in the background. ]
Why would I do that? [ He clucks his tongue in disapproval, setting things out. ]
no subject
she watches him move through the kitchen, feels the prickle of magic on her skin when kazuya does something in the pantry but mostly ignores it, instead choosing to lean on the large table in the center of the kitchen and watch him with her arms folded over her chest.
having someone in here is strange, now. mei hasn't been in the kitchen for months, choosing to subsist of an apple or an orange from the garden every now and then instead of cook for herself. she's a wreck; even kazuya must know.
(her stomach growls, but she refuses to admit it was her that made the noise.) ] You're proving me wrong, though.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
when the moon fell in love with the sun
no subject
no subject
it's only been a few hour since everything went down, from mei's very short lived (literally) marriage to kazuha appearing out of nowhere. a tearful mei a little later explained to the guards that the fiend--that dredd pirate--appeared and killed her wonderful husband. it's the same teary falsetto she uses when she doesn't mean a word of it, as she clutches a handkerchief to her mouth and retires to her room after meeting with his advisors, claiming she needs some time to process.
and that's not really untrue. after all, there are a lot of things to process here, but none of them really have to do with her (fortunately) dead husband or her newly bared ring finger.
they all have to do with the girl she knows is sitting in her room at the moment.
kazuha. mei had been stunned to see her the first time, when she'd gone rolling down the hill making fun of her (mei had always said that she'd pick one of her terrible, shitty remarks as her hill to die on, she didn't necessarily mean it literally) and mei had pounced after, not caring about her dress for the first time in her life. kazuha had been missing for years, and now she was back, playing the part of the swashbuckling pirate, the boy.
it was a lot of emotions to feel at once, and that combined with the despair of thinking her life was over--and the pure, brief elated happiness at kazuha suddenly appearing behind her to rip a dagger out of her hand, exhausted and beaten but alive, despite the sacrifice mei made to keep her safe, despite everything--has left her exhausted.
and wanting to see kazuha.
maybe she sees it now, she thinks, her hand on the doorknob. to anyone else, she looks like a mourning widow, too distraught to do anything, but mei is reconciling a feeling she never truly had before with who she's always thought she was. it's like moving from the shallows to the ocean depths, and for the first time in her life, maybe she's ready to dive in.
taking a deep breath, mei opens the door and steps in. she shuts it quietly, leaning against the door, and looks across the room to kazuha. there's the urge to run to her and hug her, but she holds still for now, ever bad with her feelings, even if her heartbeat has sped up in her ears. ] I thought you might have left.
[ not really, but it gives her something to say besides--i think maybe i am in love with you. ]
no subject
A tumble down a hill later, and an adventure through the very forest they had been banned from as kids, and it was all the more obvious to her just how much she was still in love with this bratty girl. This bratty girl that needed rescuing, so that she could freely be the orincess she was instead of acting like a vapid ditz.
Narumiya Mei was no idiit. It was funny, for five minutes. Until Kazuha got to meet the prince she was supposed to be marrying, and wanted to take his head off within five seconds.
Of course, he had thrown her into his torture sungeon first, but she and Mei had gotten the last laugh in the end.
She ransacks the room while Mei gears herself up to mourn, steaks some things to make the story more believable, and thrn waits. The adrenaline crash that comes from her anger and desperation to get to Mei winds up taking her out, and she sits by the window as she... waits. Listens. And the second the door opens, she looks up at Mei - or the shape of her, anyways, a little fuzzy around the edges - and quirks a tired smile. ]
No dashing escapes for the Dredd Pirate today. He's a little out of steam, and has left the stunning princess behind one too many times already.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)