Incomplete.

[cacoethic]

Who: Eike & Tamaki.
What: Eike wants to meet Tamaki. Tamaki is bored and would enjoy the company.
Where: The new home Genkaku and Tamaki have relocated to, since their old house sort of collapsed like a flan.
When: About now.

Comments

ldmdl oh my god times two now with fewer typos. D:

[cacoethic]

There.

Not a few moments after the knocking bled through the door, Tamaki was flinging it open with open, welcome arms, apparently brimming with delight. It was surprising how much a relief it felt just to see Eike again; he didn't tend to think of himself as the sort of person who depended on social affairs to get by, but being deprived of his role in the prison had certainly taught him over time that he needed to have something, anything stimulating to play with, or he'd drive himself mad.

If only the social structure had some hierarchy, some hill to climb, he could probably get somewhere. For now, though ---

"Mr. Eike! What a pleasure to see you." It didn't evade his notice that Eike looked a little rough around the edges; his clothes had clear marks at the elbows and knees, as though he'd been crawling around in the dust. Something on his face looked a little wounded, a little dejected. It did a little cheer him up.

Had he been scraping around in the ruins of their home? Were it anyone but Eike, it might have begged enough suspicion to rouse Genkaku from upstairs and have a more intense chat than usual, make sure he hadn't been rooting for evidence of what might have happened there or anything else that could upset their growing friendship. But then, anyone but Eike would have noticed that something was amiss in his strange meeting with Nagi and Genkaku in that house, would have noticed the heavy and unsettled atmosphere, the wobbliness of the lies. Someone other than Eike would have had every reason to check.

But this was Eike, and Eike was a blissful idiot, and Tamaki loved him for it. He stepped away to let him enter the house, smiling brightly all the while.

"I was starting you might've come unstuck along the way, somewhere! You didn't have any trouble finding the house, did you?"

[todefydestiny]

"No, nothing like that." With his free hand, he lightly waved off the concerns. His fingers lightly clenched around the gift that he had for Tamaki. Eike wondered how he could possibly begin to say this to him. He closed his eyes for a second as he continued to walk forward, trying to think of how best to answer. Opening and jolting from his walk as he nearly walked straight into a wall.

Turning on his heel, he tried to continue as he was and not "Actually, I went to visit where you had once been living." His words were careful, not wanting to bring up unnecessary and sad memories of what had happened. Lowering his head slightly, he instantly thought that this wasn't the kind of expression that he wanted to give when he was trying to cheer someone else up. It was wrong to appear sad when he had come to cheer up Tamaki. Though, it really did seem like the man was all right. That just meant that he was much stronger than Eike thought. Well, stronger was not the correct word. He made a soft thoughtful sound, before giving up on what descriptor that he thought would be best.

Straightening his shoulders, he smiled brightly as he reached out with his free hand to take Tamaki's so that he could place the cigars in that hand. It seemed more like he was forcing the gift now that he thought about. Once it was out of his hands, he lightly rubbed the back of his head as a sudden rush of embarrassment came over him. Eike laughed somewhat nervously. "I thought that it would be nice to have something from your previous home." A pause. "Even though the end was sad ... the times that you had in it were nice, right? So I wanted you to be reminded of just those happy times."

He kept on smiling even though he thought about how if someone thought too much on the sad events of their life, they would forgot about those nice memories. The memories of meeting all the people, of all the times that they were able to overcome, of those warm feelings that make living wonderful. All the things that he had once taken for granted. He didn't like the idea of someone who might be on the verge on forgetting why it's nice to be around. The people in the city were so nice. Regardless if people thought they were enemies or not, there would always be sadness if those people were not in their lives.

That was is just what he believed of the world.

"I just was worried, because you're such a nice person." Eike finished, worry creeping into his words and into his smile slightly.

[cacoethic]

Oh! Tamaki thought as Eike produced the cigars like a precious memento, carefully transferring it from his hands to Tamaki's. How typical.

Tamaki took the crumpled, dusty, trodden-flat mess from Eike's hand - having very little choice, after all - and gave it a strange look before he could help himself. Honestly, who would look at something like that and think it held any kind of sentimental value, any more? If Eike had returned something of genuine, transferrable value, it might be different. And if Tamaki's mood weren't lifted, if he were still as cynical as he had been, he would have excused himself, retrieved a bat of some kind, and beaten Eike to death with it.

But that was what made Eike so damn enjoyable, wasn't it? That he was like a foolish animal bringing presents and seeking approval and a truth he could believe in? So Tamaki tucked the crushed cigars into his back pocket with a pleased sound, clapping his free hand around Eike's and giving it an affectionate, friendly, only vaguely too-tight squeeze. "Well! Isn't that awfully thoughtful? You went through all that trash - the debris, that is - just to find something nice to offer?" He wouldn't laugh. He was quite sure he could keep himself from laughing.

He waved a hand for Eike to take a seat. "I've been worried about you, too! Knowing that you're such a sympathetic person," - his mouth twitched dangerously - "I thought you might be having a hard time with keeping up morale. But there's no reason to be nervous on our behalf! Although Nagi has been taken from us by some renegade party in the city, we haven't given up on finding him."

Which was generally sort of roughly symbolically true, even if he'd rather idealised the circumstances surrounding it. Renegade party, rescue effort... they both started with an R, didn't they? And they would get Nagi back, or have an awful lot of fun trying. He drifted away from Eike as he spoke, behind the small window that led to the kitchen.

"Tea?"

[todefydestiny]

A bright smile came as it seemed that the gift which he had brought was accepted, and did seem to brighten the mood a bit. Perhaps, it really was all in his head, but he felt that it was nice to be able to do something like this for someone. He shook his head lightly at the praise that he was given, feeling just a little embarrassed by it. Always nice to be given praise when done something good for someone else, but that wasn't the point of doing things, was it?

His smile softened some, before he began to speak. "It's more that ... I realize that things have not been particularly easy for you, Mister Tamaki, but you were able to reconnect with someone that you trust." A brief pause, lightly rubbing the back of his head (and messing his hair up slightly in doing so). "So, I wanted you to be able to think only of the good times that you had in that house over everything else." For him, it seemed like the only reason to do anything for anyone else was to make the person happy. And happiness was always contagious wasn't it?

Lightly patting the top of Tamaki's hand, he was still quite happy that he was able to transfer some good will and moved away so that he could take the offered seat. His hands folded neatly in his lap as he took in the new surroundings. It still had a nice feel to it. Maybe it was because it seemed like any place could be home so long as there were people inside the walls who cared for each other. These positive thoughts faded as he swung his head back around to stare at the man. "Renegade party?! I thought that ... I thought that he had been released."

Eike nodded slightly at the offer of tea. It seemed like he would be needing something to drink. He would be concerned about smoking in front of Tamaki -- as he was aware some people did not enjoy the smell -- if he had not remembered that Genkaku also smoked. Digging about his pockets, he produced the box of cigarettes. The end of said box was tapped hard into the center of his palm before he produced the cigarette, trying to pack as much tobacco as he could into the end. "That is absolutely terrible, Mister Tamaki. But I'm happy that neither Genkaku or you were hurt too bad." A pause to light and blow a bit of smoke.

"People really do think poorly of you... I wish I could do something to sway their opinions..."