( closed ) what sends them to this backwood

[hitokiller]

WHO: Okada Izou and "friends".
WHAT: Catch-all for TDM/event prompts.
WHERE: Various sites around Kyoto.
WHEN: Most of May.
WARNINGS: Animal gore, BDSM talk???. Will update as necessary.

Comments

[wheft]

I think that's not the only reason you're becoming softer, Izou.

[ half fond, half deadpan. she's not the only one who's changed since then. having more positive influences definitely helped.

but, well. she's going to give the guy a little break since the two girls whose names start with the letter M don't give him anyway, so she's going to reroute this topic right back. ]

Tell me more about this Sakamoto guy.

[hitokiller]

... More on, Ryouma?

( it comes out fonder than before, almost on accident, and that pains him more than he thought it would. sakamoto. he should've mimicked what she said, and just said sakamoto. sakamoto. sakamoto ryouma, the hero. sakamoto ryouma, the man with a dream grander than anyone else's. not ryouma, the man who went and abandoned them. not ryouma, the boy who sobbed himself silly when tripping over a sharp rock.

he turns her question over in his head, realizing it was easier just to bring him up as a lead-in to another topic. he didn't think he'd have to... )

Like I said. We grew up together. But that all changed the day he— ( and his brow furrows, unable to choke down the sudden irritation, ) —went and abandoned us without a word. Left us on account 'a his dreams or whatever. ... Look. You'll get more about him from a book than ya will from me. Half the shit he's done happened after I died, anyhow.

( he kicks forward onto his feet, heavy droplets plodding against his skin and hair. )

[wheft]

[ she could let that go for now. it's a touch topic, and ishmael would react the same way if someone were to bug her for very personal details. but even she can sense that tone of hurt in his voice - maybe even a little more than betrayed about his friend's decision. izou isn't usually the type to declare friendship right off the bat, so this guy must've hurt him that much.

all she can do is sigh through her nose, leaning back on her seat to continue watching the solemn view before them. ]

I guess he's more fortunate that way. Most people aren't even that important enough to have their story written in some book. [ she thinks about her friends that are now at the bottom of the sea, and clenches her fist. ] Do you think... he thought of you while he was away?

[ me being seated for the ryouma/izou agenda ]

[hitokiller]

( think... of him?

the question makes his entire body tense up.

"i'm real sorry about this, izou-san," is the first thing that comes to mind, that casual dismissal of his outrage in the white halls of chaldea when they were first re-united. he just stood there and apologized, that damn serpent woman and her ruby-red eyes staring holes into the both of them. apologized with a smile reminiscent of those times when he did return, the two of them so distant in their ambitions at that point even if izou would've run to be at ryouma's side if he'd wanted in a heartbeat, and ryouma knew that. but things between them had grown too distant, and ryouma, too, had started to act like izou wouldn't understand a single thing that was going on or how the country was changing.

he didn't like it, that smile—not now, not then, not ever. ryouma must've known that too, a hand, weaker than the expression on his face, clenched in the pocket it was stuffed into.

so, no. he didn't think ryouma thought of him back then, at least not in the way that izou wanted him to, and now... even with the occasional mission they'd been forced to undertake together, it was hard not to feel like a blade was being twisted into him every time they spoke. )

... Don't matter if he did. All that's long over and done with.

( he practically spits out the answer, clearly growing annoyed with the way this conversation has veered. )

Storm's 'bout to be worse than it looks. Let's hurry on back to that base before we get washed out.