Turtle & Canary; Wednesday [07/29].

[sake_shinigami]

On the one hand, getting his days a bit blurred meant that Shunsui had wandered over to the park earlier that day to find himself entrenched in one of those Wednesday activities he'd been otherwise successfully avoiding instead of the nice park bench nap he'd been hoping for, but, on the other hand, it meant that he could remember that he should probably go into the store that day, too.

He made a bit of a disappointed face at the paperwork that Summer-chan had left out for him to sign, even if it was just a small folder of rehiring paperwork and spent more time digging around for where he'd put his signature stamp than it would have taken to just sign the things, and then very actively avoided anything to do with the whole dairy section, because the cheese panda was setting up what looked like an altar of some sorts and seemed to be preparing for the sort of thing that one was really better off not knowing about.

The fact that Apu-san seemed to generally be doing the same thing helped Shunsui not feel bad about it, either. Not that he really felt bad about it in the first place.

Today's Squishy Flavors
Parmesan
Camembert
Red

Turtle & Canary is open!

Comments

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had missed class again, this week. But at least it'd been because she'd been asleep at home during it.

And she was here now, still trying to shake off both last night's discomfort as well as the weekend's exhaustion. Maybe a Squishy would help with that? Only, she just ended up squinting at the machine.

"... Aren't those two types of cheese?"

She was surprised she even remembered that.

[sake_shinigami]

"They are ♥." The amusement of Shunsui's answer to that was undercut with a sort of reluctance to even try to be amused by that, although he supposed a similarity in Squishy flavors did open itself up to people trying them to compare and therefor pleasant conversation. "And I'm sure it's entirely by the influence of whatever cheese ceremony that panda has gotten himself involved in today. It seems to be some sort of religious thing..."

For once, he'd be happy to follow some of the apparent guidelines, according to Summer-chan, of things he wasn't supposed to ask about as a boss, and foe now, he was more than happy to turn his attention to something far more pleasant (if not necessarily less confusing), and he offered her a more direct smile.

"Konnichiwa, Octavia-chan ♥," he murmured cheerfully, and started to pour some sake from his jug into a cup as if it was nearly automatic by now, so that when he got to the second part of his greeting, he could hold it out for her to take if she liked. "It's good to see you."

[okteiviakom]

"Konnichiwa," Octavia replied, reaching for the cup. Fingers brushed against fingers just a little too long again, like a tiny, comforting ritual. "Sorry about missing class."

The class itself didn't actually matter.

[sake_shinigami]

While Shunsui's grin was steady, that tiny, comforting ritual that was returned in kind with a similiarily lingering, light departure of ever-careful fingers softened something about the rest of him in a small, subtle way. Because while such little gestures weren't so far gone in his memory as it was hers, time itself seemed a bit irrelevent when it came to things one had already compartmentalized into the misty, emphemeral notion of past.

"You missed out on the park bench lesson ♥," he informed her. "If you're to miss one, that's not a bad one, as it is luckily very easy to make up ♥."

[okteiviakom]

And his words, in turn, seemed to spark a subtle change in Octavia's expression. Like her gaze turned more inward, for a second.

Because she remembered something.

"That's how we met." There it was. She looked up at him again. "Right? The benches, by the pond in the park. You were napping."

[sake_shinigami]

Considering how that even felt like a while ago in Shunsui's own hazy perception of memory, it was impossible not to appreciate what that subtle spark from her entailed.

"And people wonder why park bench naps are my favourite ♥," he confirmed, with his smile quite a bit more balanced than lopsided this time.

"It was actually my first day back to Fandom, if I recall correctly ♥," he added, as he allowed more of that day back into his recollection. "Truly, an auspicious beginning to my return ♥."

[okteiviakom]

"I don't remember much about it beyond that," Octavia admitted. But, yes, it was surprising she even recalled that much. It'd been... something like eight years, at this point?

(A year and two weeks to the day, by Fandom's own timeline.)

Her expression softened again, just a little. Almost wistful, mixed with something wry. "I think I probably thought you were weird."

[sake_shinigami]

Perhaps that was meant to be their eight years that he'd speculated on when she'd returned, then.

Shunsui was just watching Octavia for a moment, since he always felt like she told so much in the littlest things that she probably suspected no one really noticed, that she might not even notice herself, and those little things lately had all seemed so heavy and distant.

"Do you think I'm weird now," he then asked, "Octavia-chan ♥?"

[okteiviakom]

"I always think you're at least a little weird, Shunsui," Octavia told him. Then she took a little sip, and shrugged. Didn't smile, so he had to discern that impulse from her -- what was it that Claire had just called them? Her microexpressions. "It's just not a bad thing."

[sake_shinigami]

"I should certainly hope not, Octavia-chan ♥," said Shunsui, chuckling a little, hlcontent to smile more than enough for the both of them, especially since he was used to doing that, and not just with her.

And his gaze went a little thoughtful, critical, considering, in a brief moment of decision.

"I've always been more of a flamingo than a duck, neh, Octavia-chan ♥?" he said, deceptive idle and dismissive for a potential strike at a different memory, once that seemed to reach back much further.

He took a sip and followed it up with, "I remember thinking that perhaps you were just a very lovely dream, and that is was so nice to have so much in common with a dream ♥."

[okteiviakom]

That definitely jostled another memory, though this one was even more distant and hazy than the last. Like trying to remember a dream she'd had a long time ago.

Pockets stuffed with cookies. Two kids, swapping food.

(Didn't everything always come back to food?)

"Most people would call me more of a nightmare," she rasped, just a little more quietly. "Now." Or at least two months ago, because now even she didn't really know what she was.

[sake_shinigami]

"Well," said Shunsui, after a moment, lifting his cup but not yet drinking, as if waiting as he watched her over the edge, weighing the balance of seven years with the balance of the cup in his fingers, "I never bothered much with nightmares, but I think I can think of a few worse than you, Octavia-chan..."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia lifted her shoulder just barely, suggesting a faint kind of 'that's fair' without saying as much.

Until she did, anyway. "Probably," she rasped, glancing away. (Towards the Squishy machine, except it wasn't really what she was looking at. Because she wasn't really looking at anything.) "Even with all the details."

Just maybe not very many.

[sake_shinigami]

Shunsui then tilted back the cup, using his eyes as he drank what remained slowly. Then poured himself more as he asked, "And what might all the details be," offered out the jug if she wanted more, more familiar rituals, in a sense, "Octavia-chan?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had barely done more with her first cup except just holding it, which she signaled to him with a little tilt of the cup, to show him it was still mostly untouched.

Made for a good distraction, too, a good reason for her to drop her gaze.

"Don't think those are fit for a place like this."

They weren't actually fit for any place.

[sake_shinigami]

"So ka," said Shunsui, with the soft beginning of another smile as he set the jug on the counter, as if to keep it close at hand should she suddenly decide to finish the cup after all. "For another time, then. Or at least another place ♥."

[okteiviakom]

"Both," Octavia replied, and finally took a sip from her cup. "It's... Not a good story."

Yeah no shit, Octavia.

[sake_shinigami]

"No," said Shunsui, because silly things like details hardly seemed necessary to discern that much, "I suppose it isn't. And today, I think...is far better suited to good stories. Wouldn't you agree, Octavia-chan? Ones about parks and benches and naps, of flamingos and ducks..."