damned_institute | Day 38: Lunch

Yukari hoped he wouldn't mind the vague response; sure, there were simple answers to it, but they were problems she wasn't quite up to explaining the whole story behind right then and there. Considering how shocked Renamon seemed to be at one of them, Yukari wasn't about to dump that on Kaito, and she had enough of interrogations today as it was. "Well, you know... Stuff not going as smoothly as you hoped. The usual unexpected 'surprise'."

Ha ha. Right. Something like that.

Knowing he wanted her along made her feel better. "I'll have to say tomorrow," Yukari answered. "I've gotta go somewhere tonight, and my senpai want all of us from home to get together for a bit." Although, she was a little reluctant to do so after last night, but what could she do other than get it over with? "That way we can make sure we don't waste any time this round."

"Ah," Kaito said, nodding in understanding. Things (usually plans) not going smoothly was something he was well-acquainted with, especially here. He didn't press further; it was up to Yukari how much or little she wanted to say.

He was a bit curious about her senpai and how many people she knew from home were here, but business came first. He could always ask some other time.

"Alright, tomorrow then. Any preference for where to meet up? The courtyard could be good if we're going over the wall again, but there could be something out there..."

Yukari made a face at the mention of the wall. "That again? As long as you have a better stunt than what you tried to pull last time." At that, she made a smirk at him.

"I wouldn't mind meeting up by the doors on the way out," Yukari answered. "Waiting outside is a little creepy, right? And you'd probably get there before I could." If she was assuming right-- she ran into Kaito coming out of the blocks on his own when she went to visit Adelheid, so his room must have been nearby.

Kaito laughed. "I'll do better; promise," he said. Doing the same thing as last time would probably have the same result, given the poor traction of the slippers, but there had to be a good way to get up the wall on his own after he helped Yukari up. If nothing else, he could try to scale up the entire height, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to get enough footholds.

"Alright, doors it is. My side, then?" There were two doors out, but the only one he'd get to first was the one on his hall. "Or would you rather I come to the door in the girls' hall?"

"I hope so," Yukari responded. "Y'know, it wasn't easy pulling you up. All that trouble and the night ended as soon as we both were up there anyway..." She had been mostly kidding about the stool idea before, but right now it was sounding like a good idea.

"Yeah, sure. With as many times as I've been that way, I could probably find my way in my sleep by now." The layout of the blocks where she was roomed wasn't any different, of course, but she'd prefer to do that in the end. "So I'll head in that direction."

"Yeah, the timing really sucked," Kaito said. "But that means we'll definitely do better this time, since we... didn't do much of anything last time."

If only he could get his hands on a pair of real shoes... They'd gotten them for that trip to town, but they'd been taken away just as quickly. Maybe he could find a pair somewhere; they had to keep the clothes for field trips on-hand, right?

"Okay. I'll be waiting."

Edited 2009-01-19 03:16 (UTC)

At least it was only because of timing. "Sounds like motivation enough to me."

Now all she had to do was let Mitsuru know-- thinking as much made Yukari internally sigh. Of course she was going to be keeping tabs on them all, but it felt like she suddenly got a chaperone... Business as usual, she supposed.

"Got it." With an affirmative nod, Yukari paused for a moment as she looked down at her tray thoughtfully. "Have you heard about anything past the walls? I gathered it was still kinda dangerous, but I haven't caught any details yet."

"Not really," Kaito admitted. "When I ran into you the other night, I'd only just decided to try to get outside, so I hadn't had time to find out anything beforehand. And with yesterday and its surprises… I didn't really think about it. I'll see about finding out something, though; it'd be nice to have an idea of what's out there."

Good preparation, after all, was often an essential part of success.

Only just decided? Yeesh, talk about impulse planning-- it really was a good thing she decided to poke into his business after all that night. It didn't sound like he had anyone else to go with regarding this idea of his.

"Right, I will, too," Yukari replied. "I don't like the idea of walking out there blindly, so I hope somebody knows something. If not... Then we're gonna have to find out for ourselves."

Kaito nodded. "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

A grin spread across his face. "Don't forget okay? I'd hate to be stood up on our first date," he teased.

If the girl across from him had been Aoko, he'd expect her to (try to) hit him for the joke. Then again, if she'd been Aoko, he probably wouldn't have dared make it in the first place, and would have just flipped her skirt instead. Yukari's reactions to his teasing had, so far, been much less violent than Aoko's. Which meant he was safe.

Probably.

You could never account for girls and when they might strike.

"A what?" Narrowed eyes immediately shot up towards Kaito, and if he were beside her she would have jabbed an elbow at him. But for now, he was out of reach, so all Yukari could do for now was heave a sigh and roll her eyes. "Is that what this is to you? Jeez, I swear, nothing ever changes between guys no matter where you go..."

Kaito laughed, pleased he'd survived without getting hit. She seemed a bit exasperated, but that was okay. Yukari never failed to show some sort of reaction, so it was just too much fun to tease her.

"I'm just kidding!" he said once his laughter had abated. "Here... a peace offering."

He reached out his hand across the table and with a flourish, produced the pink tissue paper flower from arts and crafts.

"And don't take it the wrong way; it's just as much for you as it is for me. I've been going nuts without doing any magic... Teasing's all I've got left."

Yukari's annoyed expression faded, leaving her simply blinking at the little flower Kaito suddenly produced. Eventually she reached out herself to grab it. "It's nice," she commented with a tiny laugh. Yukari couldn't say any guy had ever done that for her before, whether they were trying to be a terrible flirt or not. "Did you make this?"

Carefully, she twirled it in between her fingers absentmindedly, then raising an eyebrow at him. "Wait, magic? You don't mean the..." Yukari trailed off, wiggling her fingers with her free hand. "'Special powers' kind, do you? Everybody else who's got it claims they can't use it, either."

"Yeah, the other day," he said, nodding. She seemed to like it (and wasn't mad at him), so that was good. "It'd be better if it were a real flower, but hey. Beggars can't be choosers and all that."

As for magic... He picked up a fork from his tray, made a show of displaying it and then made it seem to disappear during a flourish of his right hand. "No, not the special powers sort. The sleight of hand variety," he said. Another flourish, and the fork reappeared in his left hand. "I've been doing it my whole life... Learned from my dad."

"You could try getting to the greenhouse outside," Yukari suggested. "I was there the other day-- there's some really nice ones around. Er-- I mean, I like this one, too. Any real flower wouldn't last very long, not without being able to give it water..."

Yukari's eyes widened when the fork seemingly disappeared, and for a moment she glanced around trying to see where it ended up. Of course, she never found it, but not long after it appeared again out of nowhere, and she could only look dumbfounded as a result. How did he...? "O- oh, you mean the kind in shows and television." Yukari chuckled to herself sheepishly. "You must be pretty good, huh? I already know asking how you just did that won't get me anywhere."

"Even if they don't last long, I may have to snag a few," Kaito said. He'd been to the greenhouse once before, but he'd been rather preoccupied with Homura knowing about Kid at the time… Next time, though, those flowers would be his.

But even though the one he'd presented hadn't been real, Yukari liked it, and that was enough. Pleasing the audience was what magic was all about, after all. She seemed to like his basic trick with the fork, too.

"I am pretty good," he bragged. "Dad was better, of course, but he was one of the best in the world, if not the best. And you're right; a magician never tells his secrets!"

Yukari couldn't help but smile at all the admiration Kaito had; it was like listening to a little kid gush over their biggest idol. He sure was lucky...

"Yeah, I thought as much," Yukari said. "He must have been pretty famous, from the sound of it."

~~[There is this magician. You may have heard of him.]~~

"He was," Kaito confirmed, grinning widely. "Maybe you've heard of him? Kuroba Touichi."

Or maybe she wouldn't have. She would've been a kid, too, when the accident had happened... Unless she was really into magic then or now, it was probably pretty unlikely by this point. "Oh, but I won't be surprised if you haven't, though," he added quickly. "It's been a long time since his final show."

"Hmm..." Yukari stared off into nowhere in particular, trying to recall the name from anything. She shook her head when there was nothing; she couldn't remember if there was anything on TV or heard anything in passing.

"Nope, I don't think I have," she responded, then curiously asked, "Why'd he stop? If I were that good at somethin', I know I'd keep at it."

Although Kaito wasn't surprised, he was slightly disappointed that she hadn't heard of his father. His dad had been the best, after all.

"There was an accident," he explained, his grin fading. It was a little strange to be talking about his father's death; most of his acquaintances back home already knew. Stranger still was to be talking about it as an accident now that he knew it wasn't, and finding out that maybe dad was still alive... Yukari knew a little about his visitor from the other day, and maybe filling in the gaps wouldn't be a bad thing. "He died in it. Or... so I thought. The other day, he was the one who visited me."

As soon as his expression fell, Yukari had the feeling that perhaps that wasn't the best of questions to ask.

But Kaito was still willing to explain-- which surprised her, if anything. Mostly, though, she felt guilty for asking; Yukari knew that sort of thing was hardly an easy thing to talk about. His father... This must have been some sort of crazy coincidence. That sounded just like the sort of explanation she would give, even if it was brief.

"Sorry," Yukari apologized after a moment. "That was stupid of me to ask." Of course, it made sense now, but she felt like she should have made the connection before. "But... now I do understand why you want to do this."

Kaito shook his head. "It wasn't stupid," he said. "You didn't know; nothing wrong with that."

He wondered briefly if he would have been as willing to talk about this with someone like Hattori. The detective was his friend and all, but honestly? Kaito felt like he could be more open with Yukari. With her, there wasn't the need to be careful about what he said for fear of dropping clues. And with her, he could be sure she really did understand, rather than just saying so. She'd said the other night that her own visitor had been someone she'd thought to be dead; she knew what it was like to lose someone.

"It's-- well..." Despite the reassurance, Yukari still looked at fault. "Oh, look at me; I don't even know what I'm saying anymore."

She let out a small, wry laugh towards herself, brushing a hand through her hair. "I think what I mean to say is..." For a short second, Yukari trailed off. "I never thought someone else would tell me that, but now I feel like it was a good thing I ran into you the other night. To be honest, I'm still kind of afraid to find out the truth, but in the end, I have to. My visitor was my dad, too."

It was funny how easy that was to spill; were it anyone else, Yukari didn't think she could do it. "So I'm going to try to do everything I can."

[Aaaaah, sorry for the incredibly long wait!]

Kaito winced when Yukari admitted her own situation. He gave her an understanding smile, shaking his head slightly. "You too?"

He'd known that Yukari's visitor had been someone that she'd lost, but for it to be her father as well... He gave a wry laugh of his own then. "Man, the two of us... What do you think the odds are on being in the same boat? But... I think I understand why you said you weren't sure you wanted to find out if he was the real one or not. Losing a parent when you're a kid... It's different than losing anyone else. And to find out that there's a chance they were alive for all those year, or... even just alive now..." He trailed off, falling silent.

[s'ok bb ♥]

One she didn't think was very likely, Yukari thought in response to Kaito's question. Most of the time it felt like everyone else in the world had a normal family and were happy with it... that is, in the normal world outside this one, but even here, who would understand?

Well... Besides Kaito, now. It gave her a new sense of relief that she wasn't alone in this feeling, and perhaps even do something about it.

Yukari made a small nod in agreement. "That's something we're gonna have to learn soon enough, huh?" Easier said than done, but... "Whatever really happened, I don't want to run away from it. I thought I knew what actually happened to him, and that... it hurt, but I decided on what I had to do about it. Now..." Her face fell into disappointment. "Nothing about this is easy at all."

Day 38: Lunch

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