(open) illuminate the no's on the vacancy signs

[notyetwonderwoman]

Date & Time: January 19th - January 31st
Location: Apartments; the Hold; parts of the City close to the Hold; a park.
Characters: Haruno Sakura & fill in the blank
Summary: Sakura is a not very confident child doing her best to hang on to the distinct memory that it's okay she's here, and that she knows the name of this place, but has next to nothing else to rely on in a strange grey city that feels nothing like home.
Warnings: Legitimately sorry if she ends up crying in every thread, it's a possibility.

At first, Sakura makes herself go still and quiet. Faint memories tell her she's not in a place she's not supposed to be, even if the place she finds herself in is strange. She holds her fear close to her stomach, like it's something she can hold, and tells herself a good Academy student learns all she can about her surroundings. It's one of the shinobi rules. When in an unexpected location, observe everything you can in order to become familiar with the place you find yourself in.

It relates to a rule on capture, but she doesn't feel that's what's happened. She's not one of the clan children. She has no great worth in the scheme of things, as far as Konoha is concerned. She's not kidnapped. She's simply... misplaced.

After the first day of quietly moving around the apartment building that feels like she's dreamed about before, she starts to venture a little further outside. When in an unexpected location, observe everything you can...

Her first encounter with a car sends her scrambling backward, slamming into anyone and anything in her way. She's wide eyed and frightened. She's never seen anything like that before. It's enough to start her crying, though she rubs furiously at her eyes, determining that if she can't see, the metal beast will simply come back and gobble her up.

On Sunday, she realizes there are letters and stories kept on the strange, stiff scroll-like-a-book-but-not-made-of-paper in her room. The first story has her name on it, saying she, Haruno Sakura, is teaching a self defense class. Her heart speeds up realizing how impossible this is. She breathes too fast as she reads on, thinking this is some very odd story indeed. Prince Arthur offering assistance. Ask if needed. She takes this small note on the side and swallows. If this is true, and not a story, then she'll need help.

Thus she sets off with her stiff scroll-like-a-book-but-not-made-of-paper held tight to her chest, asking in her quiet, sometimes brave voice where a Prince Arthur can be found. She tries to remember the proper protocol when dealing with royalty. She hopes he's not so terribly offended with her plea that he has her tossed into someplace distinctly unpleasant.

Weak in the knees, she continues her search, hoping and fearing all at once.

On the fourth day, she learns how to escape the metal beasts by losing herself in the groups of people who cross at corners, no longer inclined to jump every time she hears one humming along. It's a little less scary, she tells herself. She's observing. She'll make Iruka-sensei proud.

There are times she gets lost. There are times where she thinks the snow, fairly novel, is the best place for her to crouch down and roll a tiny packed ball of snow into something larger and larger, eventually dwarfing her and unable to move it any further. There are times when she manages to pick her way through rubble to reach the top, basking in her small victory over the world. There are other times where she seems fascinated by a puddle back behind the apartments, standing at the side of a particularly large one and considering it before gathering herself and leaping across with a grin.

On the day she tries using stones as substitutes for working on her aim with throwing stars, however, she may be luckiest if no one happens to be anywhere near-by. A stone hurled with her force is enough to hurt, and she's not so bad as she thinks she is.

Comments

[futurarex]

Morgana's reversion is weighing heavily on Arthur these days. If he were in Camelot, he might go out for a hunt, or at least a ride--but his options here are limited, and so he turns instead to walking, getting to know this city better. He's already been here for far too long; he knows the streets better than he'd like. But at least his familiarity means that he can walk without concentrating too hard, which means he can let himself become distracted by the roundabout thoughts of Morgana--

But he's not so engaged in thinking that he doesn't hear his own name being spoken aloud. He's near the market, he realizes, absently, as he comes to firmer focus. Near the market, and the voice asking after him is unfamiliar--and so is the girl, when he finally picks her out. Pink hair is not so common (in Camelot, at least), and Haruno Sakura rises briefly to mind--and is instantly dismissed. She is a young lady, not a child.

He goes over to her anyways, carefully, intent on not disturbing her. He'd be first to admit that he's not good with children, but he can at least not frighten this girl, who already seems vaguely afraid.

"I am Prince Arthur Pendragon." He stops a small ways off--close enough that they can talk and hear one another, but just short of being too close. Uncertainly, he tugs at the edge of his tunic, straightening it just slightly over his chainmail. "Why are you asking of me? What help do you need?"

[notyetwonderwoman]

She whirls around to look up at the man speaking. What she sees makes no sense, from how he's dressed to how he seems to be lacking bodyguards, or anything she'd expect of someone from the nobility. She's heard all of the stories, after all!

Sakura swallows, tablet held tight to her chest. She considers if this might not be who she's looking for, but the fact remains no one else has responded to her questions or her calls.

Realizing she has no idea what the proper way to ask really is, Sakura goes for the greatest showing of respect she can remember from stories and lessons in etiquette should a kunoichi be on mission and made to interact or playact like she's working for, around, or part of the nobility.

She drops down to her knees, tucking her tablet into her lap as she bends over. She places both hands on the cold, wet ground and lets her forehead come down to rest on her wrists.

"Prince Arthur Pendragon, this humble person begs of you a great favor!"

Please don't be angry with me.

[futurarex]

What...?

Arthur actually takes a half-step back at that. He's used to courtesies and manners of the court--he's used to formalities and official procedures--and of course he's used to people bowing to him. That's been a part of life since before he can remember; even when he was a child there were people bowing. And, honestly, he's missed formalities.

That makes this sudden outburst no less strange. After all, prostration isn't the same as bowing.

"Er," he says, first, and then, recovering slightly-- "You can stand up." Has he met this child? No, the only girl he's much spoken with was Cat, who now seems as clueless as Morgana. "Stand up. What's your favor? And what are you called," he adds, not so much a gesture of courtesy as an honest attempt to work out how this girl knows about him.

[notyetwonderwoman]

Granted permission to stand, Sakura does so, awkward in her shuffle of limbs and tablet and damp hands she wipes one at a time on the bottom of her shirt. "Haruno Sakura, Your Highness."

She didn't meet his eyes, focusing instead on a point on his chest. Nobility was frightening, even if they dressed so very strangely. "I, um. I have this note, about a class I..."

Sakura stops, clutching her tablet tight to her chest like it will impart its odd knowledge directly into her brain. It doesn't do anything of the sort, but it almost gives her confidence.

"I'm supposed to teach a class that I don't know how to, Your Highness. You'd made this person an offer of assistance which I'm not humbly begging you to grant now."

Finally daring to look at his face, her own is pulled into an expression of earnestness mixed with fear as she waits for his response.

[futurarex]

Arthur is listening, but all thought more or less stops when she says her name--which means he misses a majority of her actual request, but that's quite all right, because it's the first bit of this that is actually giving him the hang-up.

"You're Haruno Sakura?" he says, incredulously, nearly as soon as she's finished making her request. Begging? He catches that word at least, and mentally runs over what it is she's asked, what he's distantly absorbed as he stood there staring at her tiny face and trying to work out how it is that the grown Haruno Sakura could have become a child.

Morgana is one thing. She's forgotten her magic; he can accept that, mostly. Perhaps because he wants to. This is different.

This is weird.

"Look, this isn't a joke, is it," he says, suspiciously. "I understand some pretty strange things are happening around here--" The work of sorcery, of course, and his mouth tightens a little-- "but this is a bit much."

[notyetwonderwoman]

She's never been questioned on her identity before, finding herself opening her mouth to protest and slamming it closed again as she waits for her time to speak. He asks questions, and she hesitates. Will he tell her to speak again?

Her lapse in responding is notable. "I'm... I'm not joking! I'm really Haruno Sakura. I've always been Haruno Sakura, ever since the day I was born." Her voice quiets as she defends herself, pulling her tablet tight to her chest and feeling tears burn at the corners of her eyes. "I am. I'm not joking. It's the truth," she says, chancing a look up to the prince's face.

"You don't believe me?" Oh no. She feels this venture already going horribly wrong.

[futurarex]

Oh hell, Arthur thinks, vaguely, as he stares down at the small face turned up at him. Is she going to cry? Is he going to be responsible for making this little girl cry? It's not that he has a heart that melts at the sight of a woman's tears-=he's not soft--but this isn't even a woman, this is a small girl--

--Who is also Haruno Sakura, and he has to accept that. The insistence of her reply is convincing, but it's given support by what he's seen going on in the city around him for the past days--by Morgana's strange conversion, a subtle shift that's no less dramatic than what he sees before him. Thank God Morgana didn't grow young again, he thinks distantly; that would be unbearable. This is strange enough on its own.

"No," he says, quickly, "that's not it, it's not that I don't-- look, it's difficult to believe. That's all. I remember you quite a bit... older. And taller. And probably less prone to crying." Perhaps he shouldn't have said that one aloud--she seems the sort who might cry at the mention of crying--and so, hastily, he moves on. "Er-- right. So you're Haruno Sakura. I accept that, this isn't a joke, it's just-- stupid. Now what are you saying about a class--your defense class? You can't possibly mean to teach that, not now."

[notyetwonderwoman]

Horribly wrong... and then wonderfully right! Sakura blinks her eyes rapidly, shifting her tablet to one arm so the back of her wrist can wipe swiftly at her eyes. No, there's no time for crying. He was just testing her. The Prince knew who she was, no matter how much littler she was now.

"No, I don't know anything enough to teach," she says, visibly brightening at an admission that made part of her heart sink. She didn't know it right now, but she would in the future. A future she can't wait to return to after this time spent away.

"That's why I had to find you, Prince, to ask you to help. Like you said you would, once, if I needed it. When I was older," she adds in, sounding more uncertain again.

He did remember... right?

[futurarex]

"Well-- yes." He had said that, and he had meant it, too. In this place, it was a bit rare to find someone as competent as Haruno Sakura. Arthur liked few people, especially here, but he had found himself impressed by her sense of order and her intelligence. And her respect, too, though of course it was a subtler thing than the dramatics her younger self seemed prone to.

"Of course I will help you," he says, standing a bit taller as he assumes a more princely air. She's not crying anymore, though she could start again at any moment, if he's not careful. "I am true to my word, and my service is yours, no matter your-- er. Age. You want for me to teach for you, until you are restored to yourself?"

[notyetwonderwoman]

Her relief was imminent and freeing. It'd been frightening to think about asking what she has, let alone the doing to get to where she could ask. She sees now how worth the fear it'd been to take this chance on someone who clearly was a Prince among Princes.

Not that she's met any, but Sakura's relatively certain that not all Princes would act as he has. "Yes, my Lord." She's unsure about the proper form of address (yet again). "I hope it won't be for long. Ino tells me this is only happening right now, and I should be the right age again before too long. I'm not supposed to worry," she confesses, offering him a very shy smile. "I'll do my best so you don't have to be burdened by this for long."

It's one way of trying to let him know he doesn't need to worry either. Ino said it would be okay. Sakura's not so naive to believe it's that simple, but Ino hadn't felt like she was lying. Sakura's more inclined to trust her gut instinct on that level, when it comes to her first true friend.

[futurarex]

"And this Ino is some expert on the stupidity of such sorcery?" After all, how would someone know the temporary nature of this enchantment for a fact? But he says it more dryly than cruelly, and even restrains his eyeroll to a small thing before he goes on.

"It's hardly a burden. Truthfully, it's good to have something to distract myself with, especially with things as the way they are now." He pauses a moment, glancing her over, with some small uncertainty. She must be getting on all right, or else she would have said. And whoever Ino is--well, it is good that she is not alone in this place. There are dangers. "You remember a surprising amount--more than many of those affected by this enchantment. At least enough to remember to ask for me."

[notyetwonderwoman]

Sakura felt her gaze drop again, this time smiling in her own personally embarrassed pleasure. "I don't remember so much," she says, compelled to honesty, "But I wrote a lot of notes. Which I read, once I figured out they were from me."

She lets her tablet drop away from her chest, cradling it in one arm to tap on images there with deliberate precision. When she finds the one she wanted, she turns it around to show to Arthur.

There are precisely typed notes, with headers and bulletpoints, something titled with "Arthur" coming under a larger heading of "Self Defense Classes" and a schedule of dates and times. It's simple information, nothing that would be damning or too telling if read by unfriendly eyes.

Sakura's almost aware of this, if not aware to what extents her older self went to make anything that could be hacked be as simplistic and straightforward as possible. What was here matched anything that could be traced over the network. Nothing more, other than a few colorful vocabulary words. Arthur's name carries "trustworthy appearing" and "well-intentioned."

"I wouldn't lie, so... I went with what I said."