Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [03/11].

[sake_shinigami]

After a week of finding interesting and exotic places in which to nap, it was both a little saddening but also comforting to return to one of the good old familiar nao locations. The counter at the shop had always been one of his favorites...not the favorite, not by a long shot, and, to be honest, it didn't even really cap the top five, possibly not even the top ten, but he did enjoy the fact that it seemed to give the illusion that he was still there and present and working.

Not a very good illusion, but he could make a case for it.

Not a very good case for it, but he would try.

Not very hard, but it would technically be an effort.

(And, apparently, it was even just the day for it, though Shunsui was not aware that such a thing existed, but if he was, guess who would have a new favorite holiday...or possibly religion).

Anyway, the store was still in one piece even with him and Summer-chan gone for a week, so he did give Apu-san his due credit and promised him a raise, to which Apu-san just shook his head and made the bold claim that sake that he wasn't even going to drink did not constitute a raise.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Oatmeal Nut Waffle
Apples
Red

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[okteiviakom]

It was Wednesday, and vacations - to Maine or the Philippines or wherever - were over. And so here was Octavia striding in like any other normal week.

As much as that word meant anything on this island.

But it meant that she didn't blink at Shunsui's current state at the counter, because that was definitely normal. And if she made her steps softer as she made her way closer, well, that was just instinct.

[sake_shinigami]

And it would take a much softer step (or no step at all) to slip Shunsui's notice during a nap at the counter on a Wednesday. But he did wait until Octavia was pretty much there before cracking open one eye, idly pushing his hat back away from his face, and greeted her with a contented smile and a deep hum to go along with it.

"Now there's a problem with a good nap ♥," he then drawled sleepily. "I can't tell if I've woken up, or merely managed to stumble into a particularly nice dream ♥."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia knew better than to expect to be able to sneak up on him, anyway. Much like she did with almost everyone else she regularly spent time around, because everyone seemed to have the unfair advantage of something supernatural - or just being really paranoid.

"You're awake," she rasped, with a tiny eye roll.

And an even tinier smile as she leaned against the edge of the counter a little.

[sake_shinigami]

"That sounds like just the sort of thing a dream would say ♥," Shunsui noted, sounding far too sleepily amused to get even close to shrewdly speculative.

"Luckily," he added, sitting up a little as he reached for the jug of sake that was never too far, "I know of an excellent test for this sort of thing ♥."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked faintly (but also fondly) amused.

"What, sake?"

[sake_shinigami]

"You've very clever for a dream, you know ♥," Shunsui complimented with a chuckle. "Because, yes; it is sake ♥. You see...." And here he had those two little cups balanced so perfectly and expertly in his hand as he began to pour, "if we drink, and we run out of sake, then clearly, I am indeed awake, because such a thing would never happen in any dream other than a nightmare, but a glorious vision such as you," his grin widened as he nodded to Octavia, holding out her up, "could never be a nightmare ♥."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia shook her head with a quiet huff, as she moved to reach for the cup. Slowly, as always.

"And what's it mean for whether it's a dream or not, if I say we're not going to drink until we run out?"

[sake_shinigami]

"I think that would definitely be a point for reality, Octavia-chan ♥," Shunsui admitted, "and then make me wonder where else you've got to be that so much more important than seeing what might exist at the bottom of a jug of sake ♥."

[okteiviakom]

"How often have I seemed interested in seeing what's there?" Octavia retorted. But pretty softly. "Doesn't have to mean I have elsewhere to be."

She didn't, this week. Not really, not in any kind of a pressing way.

[sake_shinigami]

"Perhaps not to the bottom specifically," Shunsui allowed with a little wave of his hand, and a lift of his own cup, to toast to her, her beauty, to life, and everything before taking a small sip, "but I know we have mused about making it to our lucky number eight some day, and if I were to go and find bigger cups, why, we'll manage both in no time ♥."

[okteiviakom]

"Not today, Shunsui," Octavia replied, even as she lifted her own cup. (Her toast, equally wordless, wasn't as elaborate. Because of course it wasn't.) "But one day."

Well, it didn't look like she was going to be leaving Fandom anytime soon, did it?

She took a sip, then tilted her head, just barely. Sort of telegraphing a question before asking one. "How was your break?"

[sake_shinigami]

"One day ♥," Shunsui agreed, smiling softly with a nod of his head, feeling fairly certain at this point that 'one day' might exist in that unreachable spot on the distant horizon, like so many other things, but that'd never stopped him from reaching for it anyway

Just, you know, not too strenuously.

But the smile grew with Octavia's question, easily, brightly, significantly, and he gave a wistful, pleased sigh. "Ohhhh, hato ♥," he grinned. "It truly does make all that hard work I put in for my class--" which involved literally just sitting around, talking, and drinking cocoa, "--worth it ♥. So many interesting places to nap ♥. And more beautiful women than I could count ♥! I am...very much looking forward to the next one already ♥. But what about yours? Did you get a chance to enjoy the queit ♥?"

An island devoid of so many people seemed just the sort of thing she'd appreciate.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's relationship with the island getting quiet for break weeks was actually aa little complicated.

So lucky her that that had been something she'd had to worry about, this time around. "Yes," she said, "but not here." Her expression lightened, brightened a little. "Duke took me north along the coast on his boat, to see the town where he grew up. We spent a couple days there --" That was the bit of the week that had definitely not been quiet. "-- then a couple of nights camping on a small island."

[sake_shinigami]

"That," said Shunsui, his smile warming just a bit more thanks to her own, albeit subtle, brightness, "sounds like an excellent use of a week, Octavia-chan ♥. I trust you had a good time?"

[okteiviakom]

"For the most part," Octavia said, with a tiny shrug. Her expression didn't dim, but it still look on a wry quality. "People in Haven are kind of rude."

Which she normally didn't care much about, but they were rude to Duke, and she very much had a problem with that.

[sake_shinigami]

"Now there's a shame," Shunsui mused over his cup. "Rudeness is one of the faults of weakness, and the 'the resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their own inadequacy and impotence' ♥." His grin went a little lopsided at his slight rephrasing of the quote. "Is that the reason you and your snogon only stayed the few days, or was that part of the plan all along?"

[okteiviakom]

For such a generally mild and stoic person, Octavia could be really obvious sometimes. Like with the warmth that a single word could bring to her expression.

She couldn't help herself, snogon was such a superior word compared to 'boyfriend', or any of the alternatives. She loved the word, the person it referred to, and hearing other people say it.

She shook her head. "We didn't have a solid plan to begin with," she said. "But that was a part of it, yeah."

[sake_shinigami]

And Shunsui was pretty sure it didn't even take a particularly good Octavia-reader such as himself (in his own estimation, anyway) to have picked up on that from the first time she'd said it, which was most of the reason he himself was so keen on using it, too.

"So at least it ended on what I assume is a high note ♥," he said, "with plenty of time to shake the inadequate and the impotent out of your systems ♥."

[okteiviakom]

"It did," Octavia confirmed with something softly amused about her tone. Subtle, but there. "It was nice to see where Duke came from, but... The parts at sea and on the island were great."

The jail incident in Haven might have had a little something to do with it, though. But she was just naturally drawn to the quiet, like he well knew.

[sake_shinigami]

"And how do you feel," Shunsui ventured in drawling conversation with another sip, "about being back, Octavia-chan ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

"I live here," Octavia replied, with a tiny shrug. It wasn't much of an answer to his question, or at least not a very clear one, but it was the best she had. "So does my brother."

And that was that.