Day 59: Game Room (Fourth Shift)

[razing_phoenix]

Guy's head was still spinning from finding out that his friend was back once again. He realized that he'd done a good job of keeping his cool while explaining everything to Luke, mainly because nothing would have been solved if both of them had been reeling, but

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[oneman_onekill]

Man, today had been great so far. Probably not so much for Badd and Byrne, but that...didn't really matter. He probably wouldn't be able to do this kind of stuff as much very soon now that Shiina was here (Personal safety was now relevant.), so it was for the best that he just enjoy himself as much as he could for the time being, right?

Right.

Niikura strolled into the game room and wondered what he could do around here to amuse himself. He wasn't really looking for a game to really throw himself into, just something light that could adequately pass the time between now and dinner...

Or he could talk to someone. Talking was more of his thing than game-playing, so as soon as his eyes fell on a lone shounen protagonist, he knew that he'd found his entertainment for the hour--conversation, not Ippo in general. Had to make that clear to himself. Ippo already got the short end of the stick enough as it was.

"Hey, what's up?" Niikura plopped himself down next to the other boy. The last time they had talked, they'd ended up giving each other bro-hugs...yeah, that wasn't happening again. "Gonna play a few rounds of solitaire or something?" He jerked his head in the direction of the deck of cards in Ippo's hands.

[rolling_go]

Putting down his third layer of cards for his first game, Ippo looked up from his table when he heard a familiar voice close by.

"Niikura-san..." he said automatically as he stared up at his friendly face. "Ah, yes, well it's... it's about the only game I know how to play." Looking down at the cards, he continued making his stacks as he talked. "That and Go Fish... Oh!" The featherweight champion turned his gaze back to Niikura with an odd expression on his face that actually mixed hope and resignation together rather successfully. "Would you like to play Go Fish with me?"

[oneman_onekill]

Go Fish and Solitaire: those weren't too high on the intelligence scale. But Niikura felt like he had done his share of heavy thinking for the day; he deserved to sit back and do something dopey like this for a while. And with Ippo, well...he did also have a few things to ask him about too, now that he thought about it. Maybe if he played his cards right (pun intended--oh he was so good), he could sneak one of them in and not get shot down.

Or he could just play Go Fish and leave the interrogation for another day.

Whatever! Niikura shrugged internally and smiled; he'd go with the flow. "Sure! Gonna warn ya, though, I'm pretty killer at Go Fish." He was pretty killer in general, actually.

he's a fisherman, okay?! OX

[rolling_go]

"Oh, really?" Ippo asked. There was a look of eagerness in his common brown eyes as he began piling his cards back into a deck and shuffling them once more. "It was one of my favorite games as a kid. I haven't played it in awhile, though." The game lost some of its appeal when they were down to only two players at his house. It was this big reminder of what he and his mom had lost.

Once Niikura had taken a seat, Ippo started tossing out fourteen cards between them. The deck was placed in the middle and the first card was flipped over. As he collected up his seven cards, the boxer glanced hesitantly over his hand at his friend. "I haven't talked to you lately, are you--That is, have you been... alright? I mean, you're all right--you're in one piece!--but, ah, y-you know what I mean..."

cutting people slack is for sissies :|

[oneman_onekill]

Niikura waited patiently as Ippo dealt the cards and then scooped up his hand, glancing through his cards first before sorting them out. "Huh? Me?" He swapped the position of two cards and then smiled at the other boy over his cards. "Heh, I'm doin' fine. Havin' a good day and all that, haven't suffered any life-threatenin' injuries yet. How about you? Saw ya got into a spot of difficulty a few nights back, somethin' about a sheep..."

A sheep, and then walking around with Badd: he wasn't sure which one he was more intrigued by, which was saying something. "Guess it's better than gettin' attacked by somethin' outta your league, though. And I start, right?"

He scrutinized his hand again and then asked, "Got any fives?"

[rolling_go]

Ippo expected that. He expected it, but it didn't make it sting any less. Groaning, the young man's expression darkened with an embarrassed and defeated scowl.

"Y-Yes, a sheep, but nothing all that exciting happened, so it's best we talk about something else! Go fish," he mumbled and brought his cards closer to his face. Niikura was a new friend, so the boxer didn't know how far he liked to pry. His gymmates could usually be lead astray by playing it cool, as if the new gossip really wasn't all that interesting. Sometimes. Or sometimes, they would gang up on him and squeeze the information out of him like a tube of toothpaste.

His life was never a predictable one.

"Do you have any twos?"

[oneman_onekill]

"...okay." He shrugged awkwardly as he drew a card. Looked like Ippo wasn't ready to talk yet. That was okay; he probably should've been more subtle about it anyway. Could slip it in later if he wanted to, but it really wasn't a crucial topic, just something to satiate his curiosity.

That and he just felt bad about innocently needling and teasing Ippo so much. It was part of his nature, but when the guy was so...so...well okay, he couldn't really think of the right word, but what Niikura did know was that he got just the smallest feeling of guilt in his stomach whenever he did troll Ippo, and if he hated anything, it was doing things he would regret.

"Nope! Go fish. Got any queens?"