exsiliumlogs | (closed) this too shall pass in a parade of confetti and falling raindrops

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(closed) this too shall pass in a parade of confetti and falling raindrops

Date & Time: December 31st, mid-afternoon
Location: Apartment Halls
Characters: Yosuke Hanamura & Collette
Summary: Collette put up the mistletoe... now she's taking it down. Then she meets Yosuke.
Warnings: None! Teenagers being teenagers.

Collette had a plan. In fact, she dared to say her plan was pretty close to flawless. It was her duty in asking to put up decorations to take said decorations down after the fact, and use less help than she had fanangled in getting them up in the first place.

Which meant she needed to get creative. So it came to be on the morning of New Years Eve a pigeon had been flying around the halls, strategically pulling down clumps of mistletoe from the walls and ceiling like a misguided bird on a mission. She'd tried blending in with the decorations when folks had appeared in the halls, which either went over well or was a testimony to their obliviousness to the strange things going on all around them.

Either way, it'd gotten part of the task done. Some people had unwittingly helped with the second part, picking up bundles and tossing them into trashbins like so many holiday elves on clean-up crew. For the rest, Collette had gotten back to her rightful self, taking everything floor by floor with a trashback in her lap. She'd braided her hair back, a loose attempt at a french braid, and was whistling snippets of different songs as they came to mind. Leaning over the side of her chair, her fingers hooked around another red ribbon, tugging a batch of mistletoe up off the ground and stashing it in the trash bag with all the rest.

When she saw someone else, she smiled, waving and pointing toward a clump lying nearby. "Hey! Do you mind tossing that my way?" She winked, tugging on her trashbag. "I'm trying to finish this up before midnight hits. Out with the old, in with the new!"

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Yosuke was still in a bit of a daze. Even a month later, being sucked into the future was a real trip. Try as he might to play it cool, his eyes were almost permanently a bit wider, and more alert. Which was useful in situations like this, where someone was addressing him at random. Not long ago he would have daydreamed his way right past the girl, lost in whatever was whirling around in his head and the bass line thumping in his headphones.

But not today. This time, he glances up-and then down to where she is-startled easily out if his thoughts. "Huh? Oh. Sure."

And he does toss it to her, though unlike his life at home, nothing here is rushed. There's more time to kill than he can honestly bear, and he's bored completely out if his skull nearly all the time. So, he doesn't walk away after fulfilling the request. Instead he glances around looking for more. "Do you need some help?"

The offer to help strikes her as interesting. He didn't look like the out and out helpful sort, but she knew peopel weren't always what they appeared. This guy looked more bored than anything else, but bored or nice or some third yet unknown trait, Collette was happy to have the unexpected company.

"Yeah, sure," she said, gesturing down the hall from both of them. "I've got two halls or so left of this stuff to pick up. Kind of a bummer to throw it all away now, but who needs mistletoe all year long?"

She smiled, meaning the question to be rhetorical. She hoped he didn't ask how the girl in the wheelchair got left with pick-up duty, or how all the mistletoe was taken down but not thrown away at the same time.

Pigeons aren't good for carrying much long distance.

He glances up, looking for more in the doorways. But for some reason, the stuff is on the ground. His brow wrinkles a bit, confused. How the hell did that happen? If someone took the time to pull it down, why didn't they throw it away instead of leaving it for someone else? Namely, this girl with obvious mobility issues. He frowns a little.

"What happened to the clean up crew? Did they bail?"

It's not a complaint, though. In fact, he jogs energetically around, gathering the discarded bits of decoration. "It's Hanamura Yosuke, by the way. Obviously I'm here to help."

The joke probably doesn't translate, but he winks anyway so she'll know that he's teasing her.

Collette found herself laughing, unaware of any greater joke. She had only shrugged when he asked after the clean-up crew. "My hero," she said instead, winking when she caught his eye. "I'm Collette. Nice to meet you, Hanamura."

She held up her trashbag, barely full after the last three had been tossed. "You can add all that to my growing collection!"

"What could a girl like you do with all this mistletoe?"

He's got a bit of a sparkle in his eyes now, happy for the easy banter and the distraction from the tediousness. Hell, this girl might be crippled, but she's kind of cute anyway. Is it alright to think that? Hmm. Hopefully, because that wink seals it.

Not that he has any intention to pursue it of course, but a bit of harmless flirting feels good. It's just what the doctor ordered, in fact.

It's nice to find someone around her age willing to flirt back, bringing her grand total up to two: Hanamura and Alfred.

"Tie it off to those rubber suction cup arrows and prepare for Valentines, of course!" She didn't take her own suggestion too seriously, not all that interested in Valentines as a rule. Unless peopel were planning to buy her chocolate.

Oh, she loved chocolate. Especially dark chocolate, for reasons she'd never been able to fully articulate.

"Why? Got any bright ideas yourself?"

"For Valentine's? I usually like to sit really low in my seat so no one notices my desk is empty. But I don't think there's any use for dead plants besides mulch. And isn't mistletoe poisonous?"

He deposits the mistletoe in the bag, and glances around to see if there's more. Hmm. Yep, up there a little farther. Had that all been hanging there this whole time? How had he never noticed?

"No one believed in bringing enough candy for the whole class? I can sympathize. But unless you're really fond of those little chalk heart candies, you probably weren't missing much."

She snorted, shaking her head. "No, I mean like Cupid! You know, shooting arrows at people to make them fall in love? Though I guess mistletoe'd just be telling people to kiss."

Not exactly the same thing, huh?

"What? No, it's choc-olate, not chalk. They're nothing alike."

Yosuke gives the girl a funny look. They definitely have Valentine's Day in America, how is she getting it so screwed up? Jeez.

"Though I wouldn't mind a kiss instead I guess...just make sure you have good aim!"

She laughed, not inclined toward correcting their misunderstanding. He was lucky if he'd never run into those tiny chalk hearts. Be mine! Only if you started buying swizzlers!

"Just give me a heads up on who you're aiming for, and I'll do my best!"

"I'll have to think about that."

He winks, and then the imaginary suave has to be set aside for a moment to crawl under a table and fetch a stray bit of mistletoe.

And it really goes out the window when he sits up too close to the edge and cracks his head off if the damned thing.

"Ow!"

"Haha! Oh man, are you okay? That looked like it hurt!" Collette does her best not to look amused at his unfortunate clumsiness. She can at least relate to the feeling. She's hit her head god knows how many times.

And no way did it have any reflection on her personality now, thank you very much.

"Here, I'll take that off your hands. Want ice for that or something?"

She wheels close enough to hold out a hand for his retrieved mistletoe, quirking an eyebrow up in question.

He hands it over, with a slightly woozy grin. It's always nice when a girl is concerned for you, after all. Boys tend to just laugh or walk away. But girls? Girls offer you ice. How cool.

"Sure, I guess we can take a break for that."

"You're just lucky we're on my floor," she said, amused when perhaps she should have been sympathetic. "Come on, if I don't have ice, I think I have a pack of frozen peas."

That'd been a favorite with her mom, but here it was more of a joke than a reality. She had yet to even buy peas in Exsilium!

Unless Isaac had stashed something in the freezer she hadn't seen yet. Or even Snow...

Collette moved down the hall, waving for Yosuke to come along. "We can finish this off in a little! No one's complaining yet." She laughed. "I heard more complaints when everything went up!"

"Are they the English kind?"

It's so-so as far as attempts to tease go, but he's a little preoccupied with holding his head at the moment. He'll step up the game later on. Maybe he can think of more mistletoe jokes or something...

"I think they're French." She grinned, fishing her keys out of a pocket to unlock the door to 403. Pushing it open, she rolled on inside.

"Take a seat on the couch! I'll bring the ice to you. And no matter what you do," she added, looking back at him over her shoulder. "Absolutely do not fall asleep!"

"Is that something that happens a lot when you bring boys home?"

The place is nice inside, same as his place really. He still thinks these lofts could use some personal touches, though. Displays of important items and things like that maybe.

Yosuke drops onto the sofa as instructed, and waits there while he looks around.

He'd find her own did, if he looked around. A finger painting of what might be a busty woman on the wall, a few colorful pillows, a throw blanket on the far end of the couch. Everything is kept neat, which might have been surprising. Teenagers have a greater reputation for messiness than they do effective cleanliness.

Collette laughed from where she was in the kitchen, opening the side by side fridge's freezer half. "Number one problem! I send all the boys straight to bed."

As in sleeping. It wouldn't be too far off her luck, if she considers Caesar as her prime example.

She rolled back to the living room, holding out a kitchen towel and a bag of frozen corn. "I have no idea why we have corn," she admits, "But it should work pretty good. Have you got a bump there yet?"

Man, she wouldn't mind feeling it. Those sorts of things tended to be a morbidly curious event to Collette, so used to watching and observing the swellings of injuries on her own body with a detached, necessary curiosity.

"I think my bump has a bump."

Yosuke retorts, as he takes the corn with a funny look and applies it to his head. Ooh, cold!

"So, where did you come from?"

"Before this place? California," she says without hesitation. Collette didn't find herself shy admitting to where she came from, or even what she did there, if the conversation warranted discussing such points. "What about you?"

Yosuke on the other hand was still skittish about admitting to the whole Persona thing. But he had no problem talking about where he came from, or nearly anything else besides powers, either.

"Tokyo. But a few months back my Dad's job transferred him to a new location in the middle of nowhere. So I was busy experiencing the small town life just before I got here."

It's all said in the pleasant tones of a storyteller, and the smile is a little too bright to be genuine now. Almost as if a switch has been flipped.

Collette doesn't need to know him well to know that tone. She's used the same one, and the same sort of smile, more than her fair share before in life. The real question to her was if pushing it was necessary, or if letting him unwind in his own time was a better idea.

"Which sounds nice, but like you're glossing a lot of whatever really happened. Didn't you hate it? I thought everyone whined about moving out of the big cities."

She was never the most patient of people if she didn't need to be. "Tokyo! That's in Japan, right?"

"Seriously?"

The look she gets for that comment is real at least. Just short of rolling his eyes, in fact.

"I slept through geography every day but I still know my major metropolitan cities. I mean, I don't think Toronto is in the US or that New York is next to York."

But he grins a little in spite of himself. And sidesteps that pesky question about not enjoying be thrown into the middle of freaking nowhere halfway through his high school career.

"Oh my god, you mean Toronto isn't in the states?" Collette's mock horror at this "unknown" fact leaves her with her hands held up to her face. She lets him sidestep for now. It's enough of an answer to begin to sate her eager appetite.

"Too bad none of those cities are still around. Who knew we'd all end up in future London?"

Well that wipes the smile off his face. The sparkle goes out if his eyes and the corners of his mouth pull tight. For a moment, he gets lost in that thought. It's an awful one.

He uses the ice as an excuse as soon as he catches himself at it, leaning forward and ducking his head so his eyes are hidden behind his fringe.

"Yeah. I guess I never expected to travel this far."

It's not hard to see she's put her foot in her mouth again, a skill she's only pleased with when it helps make things easier for others at the expense of herself.

"I don't think any of us did. Good thing most people end up boomeranging back sooner or later. It's like you miss nothing at all... just get a whole bunch of fun stuff to live through in the meantime! It's pretty okay here," she adds, smile softening. "Really, it is."

"Yeah. I had a friend here at first, but that...he was gone again really suddenly."

He's definitely still miserable, but he does his best to lighten his tone for the girl's sake. There's no reason to bring her down, too.

"How about you? Any friends from home?"

"Ah, hah, the same sort of thing as you, really. Marco was here for a while, got here right before I did and stuff, you know? Then he was back home."

She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest in a mock pout. "Before we even got to finish planning out the barbeque! How rude is that?"

"A girl who shares her frozen dinner with people who bump their heads can probably make some new friends, right?"

Yosuke adjusts the makeshift ice pack a bit and throws another customer service grin her way.

"A boy who helps pick up a mess of mistletoe and gets injured in the process can probably make some new friends, don't you think?" She winks, tossing it back at him along with an amused smile.

He doesn't really think so, actually. But there's no reason to ruin a perfectly good flirting session, after all. So he winks at her before he slides the corn over his eyes again.

"I'm allowed to sleep now, right? 'Cause this sofa is comfortable. I think I might just have to stay here. For medical reasons, ya know?"

Collette found herself laughing, rolling her eyes in a good natured humor. "Sure, if it's that hard for you to stay awake. Be glad I don't think it's much of a head injury or I'd be forced to make you stay awake. By whatever means necessary!"

Not that much of what came to mind was all that terrible. She was serious enough, wheeling away and back toward the kitchen. "Rest as long as you need!"

"You don't think I need to be monitored, doc?" But actually, it's true that he's pretty comfortable. And frankly, during the slow times this place is pretty boring. There's a distinct possibility he's still a bit jet lagged from traveling halfway around the world...and into the future like a bazillion years. He leans back and settles in, oddly relieved for the impromptu napping opportunity. Maybe it's time to get his circadian rhythms back in check.

"If you want a doc, I can call one over! How do you feel about feathered pauldrons?" she tossed back from where she was in the kitchen. There are dishes to put back in the places she uses for her things, roommates to think on and to miss.

She expected no answer, putting off the rest of mistletoe cleanup and concentrating on the small sorts of busywork that meant she wouldn't be staring at her impromptu guest.

"...Feathered what? If that means a girl with wings, it's better not to."

Yosuke grabbed the nearest conveniently placed sofa pillow and hugged it under one arm, supporting his spine from the wrong side. Taking the trouble to turn over and do it properly seed like a lot of work at the moment.

"Nawh, just an interesting fashion decision. Have you met Anders yet?" She never knew who people had networked with beforehand. "He works in the Transport Clinic. I think he's pretty good, as far as adults from before the time of fridges and microwaves or indoor plumbing go."

He? No, thanks. Better a hot nurse than a competent healer dude any day. Yosuke wrinkles his nose somewhere under the frozen veggies.

"The name doesn't sound familiar, but sometimes I forget to ask for one."

"Kind of a bad habit to fall into. Though I think I've done the same thing..." She trailed off, remembering. Whoops. It's kind of like never asking Alfred for his name, just flirting from the get go.

It was sort of exciting that way.

She said nothing further, soft clanks and thuds marking her progress through the kitchen. Drawers were pulled out; silverware and odds and ends were put away. She wondered if her guest really would end up sleeping. Guy kinda seemed like he needed it.

The lack of a reply was probably answer enough. Yosuke's breathing had slowed and deepened, made more obvious by the funny angle he'd twisted himself into. As if he'd attempted to roll over after all and stopped halfway through. His shirt pulled up on the side from being dragged, showing off the bottom of his rib cage. He abdomen had a layer of wiry muscle just starting to show underneath. Not a six pack by far, but slightly better than the taught, smooth expanse it had started as.

Frankly, he looked ridiculous lying there with the frozen vegetables on his face, long legs starting to slide off the end of the sofa.

She eventually rolled back over, curiosity giving in and forsaking a certain flavor of privacy in order to relieve Yosuke of his frozen veggies. With aching slowness, she tried to pull them away, not feeling that he'd appreciate the sodden mess he'd wake up as otherwise.

If she succeeded in that venture, she'd cursorily toss a throw blanket over him, finding her eyes sliding to the expanse of skin showing and trying to decide if she was more interested or distracted.

Distracted, she decided, which made the 'attempt' to warm him with the throw almost more valid. Almost.

[Thankfully, his face was numb where the vegetables had been, so he didn't notice their removal at all. The throw being tossed over him on the other hand got a drowsy blink, but no alarm. Obviously, he had parents at home who occasionally did the same.

He did, however, finally register that it was no parent bringing bed to him when he wouldn't go to bed. It was that little peek Collette took, that glance that just lingered slightly, that clued him in. He gave her a lazy grin and fought to stay awake just long enough to tease her:]

'S room.

"Yeah right," she says, lips quirking up. "Exactly where, Mr. Couch Hog? On your lap?"

She gives him a teasing wave of her fingers, feeling some heat rise to her face since she'd thought he was more out of it than he was. She feels no shame -- she lilkes boys, she likes looking -- and very little embarrassment. In fact, it's the easiest thing to tease in return, because that's all any of this is. When no one's serious, it's all the easier to kid around with the guy she'd basically invited in after knocking his head on a table trying to help her out.

"Sleep off the headache, hot stuff. Come find me after you're up again." She has things to do as distraction, quieter and in her room if not out in this area.

His eyes won't stay open, but the grin sticks around for a few minutes longer until he drifts off again. Somehow the joke has become a self fulfilling prophecy, but he's not complaining. It's a pretty cozy sofa.

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(closed) this too shall pass in a parade of confetti and falling raindrops

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Whoops sorry. Gotta stop tagging at like 4am.