Gotcha☆ (Kiyama)

[Kiyama Ryuichiro]

While Kiyama held the pen, he caught Suzuki staring at him again. And again, he stared back. He knew that she was thinking something strange, probably about him, but he couldn't say what. If pressed, Kiyama might guess it had to do with being the stupidly awkward tall guy with the infantile interests.

After a minute of that, she sighed and folded her legs. "Keep it. Take it as an apology for… earlier. I’ve got plenty of them."

It seemed like a strange "apology," but he'd take it. Pens were nice. He often lost his own, so having an extra one around certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

He lowered it and turned back to the bookcase across from them. The sound of the rain was a pleasant kind of noise, and in the barely-lit room he found himself feeling a bit sleepy. In all that had happened, he'd forgotten how late it was. The thought crossed his mind to check exactly how late it was, but his phone was dead and he didn't really want to through the trouble of getting up and looking for a clock, or even asking Suzuki.

Speaking of which, as that thought crossed his mind he caught a sudden movement out of the corner of his eye. Suzuki was shivering, and hard. Was it from the thunder? It seemed like it had been storming for a long time by then, and she didn't seem upset by it before. Was she nervous all the sudden? She'd just yelled at him and gotten violent and now she was acting like this?

Kiyama... was pretty sure he didn't understand Suzuki, and that wasn't going to change any time soon.

He watched as she seemed... different? She was moving differently than before, but he couldn't identify exactly how. Was he really making the girl so uncomfortable? He'd moved over to see if she was crying, but now that he knew that she wasn't, he wondered if he should move back to make sure she had no reason to start.

There was a small sound that almost made Kiyama jump, and he turned to look at Suzuki again. A wave of relief washed over him when he saw that she was just talking. "I wonder when the weather will lighten up…" she mused, her eyes geared toward the roof. Her voice was much softer than before.

Kiyama looked upwards, too. "Not soon enough," was all he could really come up with.

There was definitely something up with Suzuki, he was sure at that point. Maybe it was that she was having hard time trying to stimulate conversation? Kiyama should say something else, right? But what else... He supposed that he shouldn't ask anything related to time, as it might remind her about how long she had to be stuck there and she seemed so keen on getting time to pass quickly not too long ago.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek, coming up blank for topics. He didn't know this girl, and really didn't want to make himself look any more dumb than he probably already looked, not risk getting her upset again. There wasn't anything... except...

Kiyama closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would need composure to get though this. He'd lied to himself just now. He knew two things Suzuki liked -- books and stuff for kids.

He moved to open his bookbag again. After slipping the pen into one of those internal pockets, he pulled out the book he'd made such an effort to hide. It was a hardcover, the but corners were fraying and the ends of the book had yellowed with age. He thought about how many other people had checked it out before he did.

"Since we're stuck here... and since you asked..."

Luckily, the room was lit enough so he could make out the title: Kayo and the Space Pendant. On the cover in pastels and watercolors, was an illustration of the titular girl holding some kind of shiny thing he supposed was the pendant, sitting on the beach with exaggerated star systems and planets in the background. He examined the picture as best he could with it being so dark.

It was... really cute. Maybe this would work!

He held out the book this time, hoping that he'd get more luck with it than the pen. Somehow, a kind of self-defeating smile found its way on his face as if to say, See, look! A dumb kid's book! Go ahead and laugh! Of course, Kiyama didn't find it him to go as far to talk like that. As silly as it was, these books had gotten him through many a tough night so long ago, and maybe it would help them get through what would be another one.

[Suzuki Keiko]

ooc: THIS POST IS MADE OF FAIL AND IT TOOK FOREVER D:



This guy, Kiyama, mumbled something in his deep voice, and Keiko could only assume it was in answer to her pondering. She closed her eyes, at a loss at what to do. After her… minor freak out, she couldn’t get up and return to the sitting area. That would all seem too… odd.

She shook her head, definitely odd.

There was a rustle from beside her and she glanced over. Kiyama was reaching into his bag, pulling out… a book?

The book he checked out earlier. The one she asked about and later accused of being porn.

Her face grew hot, but she kept her eyes on the object.

"Since we're stuck here... and since you asked..."

Despite the fact that the power was out, the emergency lights made it possible for her to make out the title. Kayo and the Space Pendant. She had never heard of it before.

She tilted her head, hesitantly reaching out. Gently taking the book from the boy, she peered at the cover, daring to open the cover to reveal the first page. It was obvious the book had been read multiple times by the feel and look of the pages, and she gingerly began to finger her way through the book.

It was, without a doubt, a children’s book, and Keiko felt a smile crack on her lips. This Yankee… liked to read children’s books?

There seemed like all the Yankees she met recently didn’t fit the usual Yankee label that was thrown around. Ryosuke was the only one she knew who would openly cry at a beach, and from what she heard about Azuma Wataru, he wasn’t at all like what the rumors said.

It was a strange thing, and Keiko wondered for just a moment if all Yankees were silly, the dangerous act they put on was only for show.

She closed the book, offering it back to Kiyama. “It looks… like an interesting book.”

Keeping her gaze on the book, she still felt a little off balance. Only a few minutes ago she realized she was stuck in an empty building with a delinquent who liked to read children’s book. Then again… she liked children’s TV shows and was that any better?

She lay her hands in her lap, despite that she had looked through the book; she doubted he wanted her to read the whole thing and ignore him. In fact, she thought it was a stupid idea, but she knew they would be at a standstill… a worse one than before, if she didn’t speak up.

“Um…” She played with the hem of her shirt, knowing her face was probably red, “do you… mind reading it?”

[Kiyama Ryuichiro]

OOC: I'm like... so sorry this took so long! You know how I've been struggling with this one, and it was getting so long, too... >.< I ended up doing something a bit different from what we talked about so let me know if I need to add something or change it! Sorry, it just kinda ended up like this @_@


The girl stared at the book for a while before she finally accepted it.

As soon as it left his fingers, Kiyama turned back to the bookcase in front of him not exactly sure what he should do next. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the smile that appeared on Suzuki's face, something at made his own fade. He tried his best not to imagine what she was thinking, instead, just blankly looking at her as she thumbed through the pages.

She seemed to take her time in doing so, as it took her a while to get through it and finally offer it back to him. As he took the book back she said, "It looks… like an interesting book."

Kiyama wasn't sure how to take that. So he just nodded, and made a move to slip the book back into his school back until he heard Suzuki's hesitant voice once again.

"Um… do you… mind reading it?"

Kiyama blinked, his eyes wide at the girl beside him.

What.

Suzuki... she worked at a library, was in the school literary club, she was obviously pretty smart, but she wanted him to read to her?

That was the last thing that he thought would happen. In fact, the more the seconds ran by the more he'd wished the silly girl would've just laughed at him. Somewhere in this fantasy that went on in his head he'd expected her to laugh at him and he'd nervously join her, this tension that was starting to get to even him would lift. Then the rain would stop, one of the building managers would come knocking at the door, and he'd back in his warm bed in time to catch a few hours of sleep before the sun came up that morning.

It was supposed to happen like that.

That was when Kiyama stopped to think for what seemed like a very long time to him.

This... was supposed to be another one of those intensely personal experiences, but strange librarian girl was imploring him to read to her. Then again, he was the one that invited something like this. He'd pulled out the book in hopes of quelling her and making her feel more comfortable. The fact that her comfort would come at the expense of his own... seemed oddly appropriate. While he considered all that, he didn't realize how intensely he'd been looking at the girl, or how slow and careful and serious he sounded when he finally responded with an "okay".

As dim as it was in the room, he figured that Suzuki wouldn't be able to see the illustrations from that kind of distance, so he shuffled over and closed in on some of that space he'd been so careful to observe not long ago. Still not sure how the girl felt about being around him... or how he felt around being around her for that matter, he looked over to the girl, gesturing with the book. "So you can see," he almost whispered, with a brief glance to Suzuki. Then he took a brief breath and opened the book. In a hushed voice, he mumbled the title and the author's name -- heck, they've been through that too many times already -- before flipping past the title page and letting the words begin to flow.

"In a town by the sea lived a girl named Kayo. She was just like any other girl in her little town, but she had the biggest dreams..."

A thought occurred to Kiyama, but he pushed it away as continued reading.

Every so often one of two nagging feelings almost dragged his discourse to a halt. One was the sheer amount of embarrassment he felt, being this supposedly tough imposing yankee and reading a dumb kid's book to a girl he didn't know out loud. The other... was this weird feeling he didn't know how to place.

He turned another page and read about the night Kayo went to the beach and found this shiny little trinket to wish on, and she took it home. The page after that talked about how frustrated and bored she was with her life, of her dreams of a world with magic and miracles. The page after that described a fight she had with her parents over eating her vegetables, and she ran to the beach where she found the pendant, and looked up to the stars in the sky.

"And she wished with all her heart. Then a strange thing happened." Kiyama narrowed his eyes for a moment. He was beginning to remember where the story was going, but he couldn't be sure. Again, he pushed his thoughts aside and continued on.

"When Kayo woke up, she found herself in another town by the sea." This illustration had an ocean that glittered with hues of violets and golds and blues, though the sky was completely grey and devoid of color. The illustration was striking to Kiyama, though he couldn't figure out just why. Making sure not to break his prose, he continued.

The little girl wandered into a town that was like hers in many ways, and in many ways, it wasn't. It definitely wasn't like the world she'd imagined in her dreams. She didn't like her new home; she couldn't get used to the people or how they lived or even how they thought. And more than anything, she grew homesick and nostalgic for the way things used to be, the way things were supposed to be in her house, in her town, in her world.

All the while, that feeling that had been weighing on Kiyama had been going stronger. He stopped reading out loud, opting to flip through the last few pages on his own. It didn't take long for him to finish, and when he did he all but slammed the book shut.

For a while, he was quiet as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"Y'know..." he started... and quickly stopped. He didn't know how to explain it, as he wasn't sure how to articulate it himself, but he felt that he owed the girl some kind of explanation. "I'm gonna stop here. The truth is that..." He looked not at Suzuki, or even at the bookcase that was in front of him. Kiyama finally sighed and laid the book on the floor in front of them.

Even in the dark, he could see that cover was damn cute. It just irritated him more. For what seemed like the hundredth time that night, he shoved the book back into his schoolbag.

"That book is stupid. Sorry for making a fuss over it. It's not like that's all I read, anyway." Kiyama finally ventured looking ot the girl again, clearing his throat. He was well aware that he'd probably done nothing to help the awkward situation with that turn of events. "Uh, you wanna show me what kind of stuff you read? Or... is the a vending machine around here? I could use a bite."

[Suzuki Keiko]

ooc: Wrote this at midnight, and I don't know if you want them to move or anything so I left it up to you without even moving them \o/ Sorry this took forever.



Oh, right, Keiko mused to herself, like a Yankee would read her a children’s book. She must be crazy, completely so, for bringing up the idea. She was so busy reprimanding herself over the idea that she barely missed his low “okay”.

Well then.

Kiyama moved closer, something that made Keiko tense until he motioned to the book, "So you can see," he almost whispered, with a brief glance to Suzuki. She nodded, but her body was still upright, even as he began to read.

Multiple times Keiko glanced up at the older male, studying him as he read on about how the girl in the story went on into a magical world, and it struck her that he seemed… distracted. After a while, he stopped reading, but at this time, Keiko had stopped listening to his low voice, and watched as he flipped through the remaining pages before closing the book entirely.

She waited.

"Y'know..." he started... and quickly stopped.

She blinked. Biting her lower lip, she finally turned back around, focusing on the bookshelf in front of her. Making him read a book to her was a stupid idea, and it seemed like he thought the same.

"I'm gonna stop here. The truth is that..." She nodded, waiting for him to voice her thoughts. There was a sigh beside her and then the sound of something being pushed into a bag, "That book is stupid. Sorry for making a fuss over it. It's not like that's all I read, anyway."

Shaking her head, she kept her eyes forward.

"Uh, you wanna show me what kind of stuff you read? Or... is the a vending machine around here? I could use a bite."

Keiko rubbed the back of her neck, “Ah… Most of the stuff I read… is really boring.” She looked down, “But my favorite author is Murakami Haruki.” And then she reached into her bag, the item still sitting in her lap. “I have some stuff in my bag… but yeah, there’s a vending machine in the lounge.”

Producing some of those bagged pieces of bread from the school and a few more of Kappa Ebisen, she laid them out on the floor. “I don’t know if you like any of these… If you want, we can go to the lounge and I can unlock the vending machine in there…”

She reached for a piece of melon bread, one of the few last ones before the rush grabbed them all, and fiddled with the plastic. “Actually, maybe we should go to the lounge. Anything is better than sitting on this floor.”

Keiko put some of the snacks back in her bag and then got to her feet, “I think there are also some water bottles in our fridge. So we don’t have to keep going to the water fountain” She gave a half-hearted attempt at a smile, “I guess that’s a good thing, right?”

[Kiyama Ryuichiro]

OOC: This took a while to do, yet I didn't really move it anywhere! My apologies... :S


Kiyama sat there, wallowing in how tired and thoroughly embarrassed he was feeling. In addition to the failed attempt at storytime, he was actually about to admit that to the girl -- wow, he must really be tired or hungry or... And then there was that obvious topic-changing effort...

But Suzuki seemed to roll with it. After looking pensive for a moment, her gaze fell to the floor as she answered. "Ah… Most of the stuff I read… is really boring. But my favorite author is Murakami Haruki."

"Murakami... he's pretty cool," Kiyama all but mumbled, nodding in approval. That guy wasn't boring at all. He didn't know anyone else that read Murakami. Considering his acquaintances, perhaps that wasn't such a big surprise.

The girl moved to get her own bag. "I have some stuff in my bag… but yeah, there’s a vending machine in the lounge."

And then Suzuki started pulling out several wrapped snacks and arranging them on the ground. Then she added, "I don’t know if you like any of these… If you want, we can go to the lounge and I can unlock the vending machine in there…"

Considering the percentage of his diet that was convenience store fare, all of it looked palatable. They were obviously in one of those "beggars can't be choosers" kind of situations, anyway.

"Actually, maybe we should go to the lounge. Anything is better than sitting on this floor," she continued, replacing the snacks in her bag. Kiyama's eyes lingered on one of the breads as it tucked away before he focused back on the librarian. "I think there are also some water bottles in our fridge. So we don’t have to keep going to the water fountain. I guess that’s a good thing, right?" With that, the girl smiled, something that caught Kiyama a bit off guard.

For the first time that evening Suzuki was coming across as nice, and not weird or annoyed or whatever. It was the slightest bit comforting, but it really didn't to much to take the edge of this somber feeling that the yankee just noticed. Maybe it was the being stuck in a dark library with a total stranger thing. Maybe it was the ominous storm outside that still didn't seem like it would let up. Or maybe it was the book...

Kiyama tried to return the smile, but it ended up being something that probably looked forced at best. Shaking that off, he stood up as well, tossing his bag over his shoulder.

As Suzuki was the... kind of host that evening, he gestured with his hand for the girl to take the lead to the lounge and its fabled riches.