lucetilogs | And here we go again

Entry tags:

And here we go again

Who:

generalflirt
What: A chance encounter
When: Later afternoon of the 1st
Where: The grocery store, the soda section
Summary: Katara needs her fix. Masaomi pretends Gold needs more soda, they met up.
Rating: TEENAGE MELODRAMA (so TV-Y7?)

[It's been three days - or well, it's the afternoon on the third day. Masaomi's passed off the events of that Alternate Luceti as something if not quite unimportant, certainly nothing to dwell on. Some of it (Shizuo, his stance on Mewtwo...) was odd to be sure, but some of it was nice. Some of it was better than the memories which flooded into him when the incident ended. All the same, remembering all that happened - his time with the Scarves, Izaya, Saki, what Mikado really meant - it just was confirmation, right? His parents were irrelevant and Ikebukuro, though important - just a place, just a setting.

Or so he'd told himself, trying hard to forget about the most pressing part of his week. Which was... in front of him now. Picking out soda, actually. He hadn't actively planned to avoid her, not really. But he also hadn't thought to run into her so soon. Well, not he had he had a few options - she didn't seem to have noticed him yet and he could just walk out. Part of him wants to but... no. It's just better to pretend nothing is wrong. Thus, he puts a grin on his face and races towards her, waving]

Kaaaaatara~! You look lovely today, as usual!!

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Ah.

[No, he's angry. But it's better to pretend - it makes more sense to just laugh and enjoy those moments and pretend it doesn't hurt that Saki isn't here and to pretend it's okay for her to be a close friend like Mikado was and pretend that he didn't have parents and... what? He was happy there. His head falls, and with it his apparent mood. Angry? Of course he's angry]

Well, you wouldn't upset me, Katara.

[He hangs his head here, because now he's sobered back to the reality here. Screwing with him]

[...but you are upset, aren't you.

It's in his tone, in the way he dropped his head. She doesn't have their counterpart's familiarity in dealing with him - not the certainty that she needs to keep the focus on him if she's going to get anything, or the almost instinctive ability to read his cues - but there's enough about this that she can tell.]

...I wouldn't blame you if I did. I was upset - with Trafalgar, when I woke up. [Her throat constricts painfully, and she still feels a little sick, remembering.] But I know it wasn't his fault. So... even if it's weird, I don't want to blame him, or you, or - [Zuko] - anyone but the Malnosso. I hate it when they do this.

[It's like what they did with Chouji...]

So... it's okay if you are upset. They didn't have any right. We just have keep remembering who we really are. And we'll get through this.

[Because she'd rather have the truth than the best lies, the most secure, the happiest feelings that the Malnosso can give.]

Edited 2011-05-05 07:04 (UTC)

[...] Ah, you were upset with Law-san?

[He's changing the topic, yes, and when he lifts his head there's a thoughtful and... colder, expression. He needs to understand a little more before he can possibly formulate a reply to something like that]

[...he does have a talent for picking up on exactly what she doesn't want to talk about.]

I was upset with a lot of things. [...she looks down for a minute before raising her gaze back up to him, and then it's a sigh and shrug to try to hide - if just a little - how much she misses her dad.] He's not my dad. But he was a good one. And that hurt.

[And she still needs to talk to him...

It's hard, though.] It made me feel like I was betraying my real dad, because of how the Malnosso made me feel.

[Because of how much she'd loved him. And to even compare the two... her throat starts to close up again and she looks down.]

Edited 2011-05-05 07:19 (UTC)

[He tries - he tries really hard to understand that, but he can't. He takes a sip from his soda as he tries to figure it out in his head, and then shakes his head. He leans back on the box, and then looks up at the ceiling. To the ceiling, he smiles a little because it just seems right to before he says]

You know, I think I preferred what the experiment did to my parental situation.

[Being an orphan, that is]

[That brings her out of herself completely. She blinks at him.]

What do you mean?

[You were an orphan, you had no parents.

...and then she thinks of Zuko.]

Well... I'm pretty sure my parents hate me.

[He says this to the ceiling. It's in an innocuous tone. It's not really sad or angry or happy or much of anything. It just is]

[Oh, Masaomi...

And for a moment, Katara fiercely wishes that she could say, with all the conviction in her heart, 'No, that can't be true.' But. Zuko. Nothing's going to keep the empathy, compassion... and cautious evaluation out of her tone, though.]

Why do you say that?

["Because they do" - but no, that's a silly answer and no one would or should accept that one. He sighs and looks back at her, a sheepish grin back on his face. In his eyes though - well, the anger's died down a little and he just seems a bit hurt now. He's trying to hide it, but]

Mm~ Well, we never really agreed with much, particularly after they split up.

[Divorce is a rarity in her world - one which still carries great stigma. She's more intimately familiar with it because of the recent experiment, but even though Sanji and Nami's children had been fine, she still thinks of it as a horrible thing, the breaking up of a family...]

I'm sorry. But... just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean that you don't still care about them. Sokka and I fight all the time!

[She knows it's not the same thing, but she's trying to make a point here. No banishment? Or orders to kill on sight? Probably not hatred.]

Mm... yeah, I guess that's true. [He shifts his position, and turns his head to look in her eyes. His face is a mask of impassiveness, trying hard not to show much of any emotional. Really, he's just feeling pensive about this. He takes a sip from his can before he clarifies in the form of-]

I moved up to Ikebukuro a few years ago because of the split. A year- or well, a year and half before I showed up - I moved out to live alone.

[...]

Why did you do that?

[Were you thrown out? Did something happen?]

Well, things got a little tense, I guess... I could tell I wasn't wanted and I didn't really want to be there either.

[So he was the one that walked away...]

I'm sorry you felt that way. [But you've got no way of knowing how true that is, since you just left.

And she thinks about her dad, and Toph, and Zuko, and her own recent experience with motherhood...] I think that sometimes it's not that parents don't want their kids... it's that they want us to be something we're not. Sometimes there's no way to work through that, but I think sometimes you can, if both sides are willing to listen.

[So don't give up on your parents yet?]

Ah, probably. [Who would want a gangster for a kid? He just shrugs that off and takes a longer sip from his soda - it's nearly empty now, and now with it like that, he just starts to spin it in his hands]

[She hates feeling like she's not able to help someone - especially a friend.]

How long have you been living by yourself?

Well, maybe eighteen months before Luceti. It feels like longer, sometimes.

Almost two years is a pretty long time. When my dad left... at least Sokka and I had our Gran-Gran. And the whole village, too. But it still seemed like a really long time.

[A really long time to be by yourself. Which sparks instant concern - normally she'd let Masaomi respond to that bit of information, but her concern overrides that impulse.]

You weren't by yourself that whole time, were you?

[She can't think of anything much worse than living completely on your own in a city for that long. A person needs friends and family.]

...No, not the whole time. Mikado moved up here a little over half a year ago. [There's a little smile quirking on his lips. Mikado, his best friend. Mikado, who used to look so out of place in the city. And before that... well. He used to have Saki and he used to have the Scarves before they stopped being a family, but they go unmentioned]

That's good.

[Hey may not be thinking about the Scarves, but she remembers them. She remembers her telling him he was a General. She's just... not sure how to bring that up, really, since he didn't.]

I'm glad you weren't alone.

It was, it was indeed! If only you could have seen his doefaced eyes when he first saw Ikebukuro! Oh, that was a sight to see!

[He laughs, and then polishes off the rest of his coke, gently setting it down on the ground after that]

[And she laughs along with him.]

You must have enjoyed showing him around.

Mmmhm~! I wouldn't mind showing you, either if I had the chance.

[...That comes out on reflex. He says this airly, with a little nod]

[She doesn't even notice any connotations. Because - of course. Friends would want to show friends their homes.]

I wouldn't mind showing you around the South Pole either - not that our village was large, but there were some really beautiful places back home.

...You know I can't help but thing that might be too cold for me- passions of the heart is one thing! But that's got to be freezing.

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