MBAME Entry #3: More Fun With Two
Your username: arahyacinth
Title of the work: More Fun With Two
Rating: G
Genre(s): Fluff. With a side-helping of mild, introspective angst.
Character(s): Sheldon, Kyoko
Summary: Sheldon makes a space in his schedule to take Kyoko to the carnival. Minor AU, due to living arrangements that never happened.
-More Fun With Two-
The streets were crowded today, Sheldon observed with mild interest, wending his way through the hubbub and taking it all in with his usual contemplative glance. There was a celebration of some kind taking place in the city, and he had gotten the impression from his coworkers that it was the sort of event which came around yearly. It intrigued him a little. Not for his own sake - he wasn't much of a one for parties of any kind; but Kyoko loved everything about parties, especially big, open-air fairs like this one. She reveled in the bustle, the street vendors, the silly little game booths whose owners were always so shocked when she inevitably won. He and his bubbly housemate hadn't been in this area long enough to understand the whys and wherefores of local tradition, but for Kyoko, just knowing that it was a celebration was enough. She had no need for trivial information, such as what exactly she was supposed to be celebrating.
That was why he was going to her school to pick her up today instead of letting her walk home as usual. Kyoko had been working hard at her studies lately and deserved a treat, and Sheldon, his head as level as ever, thought that they might as well make use of the entire afternoon if they were going to do this at all. He could survive through a few extra hours in the sea of humanity; and to Kyoko, who took her greatest pleasures in the little things, those few hours more would mean the world.
They were a good balance of personalities, and though Sheldon usually preferred solitude over companionship, he was enjoying life with Kyoko. She was loving and friendly, yet fully independent, and indestructably cheerful in counterpoint to his own solemnity... she breezed into the small spaces of his existance, opening up doors he had closed long ago with the staunchness of logic and reason. She made life fun.
Today, he wanted to give her a little of the same. He knew that she enjoyed his company (although he didn't know why), and also that his necessary preoccupation with his true work of late had left her rather disappointed - perhaps even a little lonely. There would be more of that to come in the future, he had no doubt, but for this moment in time, he wanted to take his chance and express his gratitude to her for putting up with him through it all. A street carnival, he thought, would be the perfect occasion. After all, wasn't Kyoko always saying that outings were more fun with two?
There had been a parade of floats, dancers, musicians, and merrymakers winding their way through the streets since early that morning, and everyone who had any chance of doing so had put off their business until another time, rendering the flow of traffic almost nonexistant. Sheldon followed the sidewalks in contented invisibility, allowing the crowds to wash over and around him as they would, the waterfall sounds of hundreds of happy beings filling his ears and going, for the most part, unheard. Colours dazzled the eye in every direction: the whirling skirts of the dancers, the bright toys which served as prizes in the carnival games, the softer tones of traditional food and drink in the tiny vendors' carts. The tall city buildings rose to towering heights above the gaiety, trapping the sounds, the sights, and the smells within their own contained little world. To Sheldon, it was like viewing art.
To Kyoko, he knew, the same scene would mean playtime.
He arrived at her school just as the last bells finished ringing. The sidewalk in front of the double doors was already flooded with rapidly escaping teenagers, most of whom were in a state of high excitement probably related to the carnival not ten yards away, and the sheer volume of the girlish voices as they blended was both astounding and painful. Sheldon found himself ducking instinctively out of the way of the whirl of youthful riot, not overeager for a trip to the hospital. He settled in the shadow of the arched stone entryway and made himself small there, keeping an eye out for Kyoko in the thickest parts of the action.
To his mild chagrin, the horde of schoolgirls seemed to slow and clot around his position as he stood waiting, and every time he chanced to glance at one of them he found her staring surreptitiously back, usually followed by a nudge to the girl beside her and a whispery conversation half-drowned in giggles. Such close notice always made him feel uncomfortable. His line of work and his personal preferences both leaned towards blending in, becoming invisible. He found himself fronting a falsely serene smile as a shield against the stares, wishing childishly that Kyoko would hurry up and save him before someone took it into their heads just to eat him where he stood.
Sure enough, before long one of the girls (with the help and encouragement of her friends) had worked up the courage to approach him, and began her trembling journey toward his feeble refuge. He could see her testing opening lines in her head as she walked. His smile faded a little as he worked to suppress a heartfelt groan.
He was so preoccupied with not looking like a harried animal that the tremendous blow which caught him across the side nearly knocked him from his feet. Kyoko graciously gave him a moment to recover from her full-body tackle before latching onto him once more, bouncing joyfully on her toes.
"Sheldon!" she squealed right in his ear, nearly deafening him. "You came to walk Kyoko home!" Twining herself around Sheldon's arm, she graced the world at large with a broad, cheerful, and proprietary grin, and the crowd began to melt reluctantly away. The approaching girl, looking half-disappointed and half-relieved, scampered back to her friends and vanished with the rest of the students in the direction of the nearest festivities.
Sheldon breathed a sigh of relief, casting a warm look at his saviour.
Kyoko relaxed herself a bit, but kept one arm hooked loosely to Sheldon's elbow with an air of the princess escorting the prince. She smiled brightly back at him, her eyes lit and glowing.
"Did you see the festival? Everyone from class says there are parades and games and special food all over town! Kyoko's been wanting to see it all day, but the teacher said to settle down and do our schoolwork." The girl pouted indignantly, lifting her chin. "Kyoko thinks that's not fair. Playing is important too!"
"Well, I suppose that's true," Sheldon agreed thoughtfully. He began to propel them away from the school at a gentle stroll, and Kyoko amiably followed his lead. "There are times set aside for each, I think. Everything can't be play... but everything can't be work either.
"That's why I came to meet you here, Miss Kyoko," he informed her, smiling a little at the expectant expression on her upturned face. "I know I've been very busy with work lately, and I haven't been able to make much time to relax and enjoy your company.
"So. How would you like to spend the rest of the day enjoying the festival together?"
Kyoko's eyes became as wide as saucers. "Together, with Sheldon? Really?" She squealed again and hugged him with all the enthusiasm of a small child.
"And," Sheldon added, feeling better already, "I'll treat you to a festival dinner."
"Yay!"
Although the entire city was brimming with activity, Sheldon and Kyoko didn't have to walk far to find plenty to keep them occupied - in fact, they quickly found all that they wanted already set up and waiting between Kyoko's school and their apartment six blocks away. Six blocks might have seemed a dangerous distance for a young woman to walk every day by herself, but not for Kyoko; in spite of city crime rates, Sheldon never had to worry whether she would make it home. She had given up her life of violence, but that didn't mean that she couldn't protect herself. He had been proud to discover that she had quickly become the champion of her school, for the simple fact that it had never occurred to her to be anything else. In Kyoko's mind, bullies deserved what they got.
Sheldon sometimes wondered if it occurred to her what most people considered him.
Sheldon had not given up violence. He had left the Hoshi no Shito behind him, as Kyoko had, but while he had encouraged her to rejoin the path which the masses called 'normalcy', they had both understood that he could not and would not do the same. And while they rarely spoke about his nightly activities - his after-hours job - it wasn't because it was a secret between them. She knew when a report came on the nightly news whether or not it was his work, and sometimes she even commented on how much of a success it had been. He liked that about her: that, even while she had taken on a new view of life through her hero-worship of the Black Cat, she respected his own differences of opinion and happily went her own way.
But it was difficult sometimes to juggle, in essence, two separate lives - the front he put on in order to stay with her, and his real calling always hovering behind the scenes. Though Kyoko made wide allowances for him, Sheldon didn't think that she really understood. Even during her days with the Hoshi no Shito, she had never bothered to hide herself behind an act, and he knew that she thought he was strange for trying; he himself couldn't honestly say why he did. Except that Kyoko was the first person in his life who had cared to call herself a friend, and the only person who had ever accepted him at face value. She deserved a real life, not one spent flitting from shadow to shadow with no sense of rhyme or reason. And in giving her that life... perhaps he had discovered that he wanted some semblance of one, too.
Even if it was only taking Kyoko out to play.
The afternoon went by too fast, but for all its fleetness of foot, it was certainly full enough. They spent the first hour just walking, drinking in all of the colours and the hustle and attempting to get an itinerary in order. For a while Kyoko was content to watch the passing parade, fascinated by the myriad floats, the bold movements of the dancers, and especially the lush, elaborate costumes, which she spent the better part of a second hour critiquing enthusiastically.
Then there were the games. Kyoko loved games; video games were her specialty, but really, she could find enjoyment in any one so long as it didn't depend too heavily on chance (chance, she said, ruined the fun). In half an hour she had defeated two card players, three ring/small object tosses, a shooting gallery, and one game of logic, and sported a new keychain, a cute hat, impressive amounts of candy, two dollars in quarters, and a medium-sized stuffed animal of uncertain breed with a rather skewed face. Sheldon didn't go in for carnival games himself, but he had to admit that it was fun watching Kyoko win them. She went at them with such deep intensity... fire, if one could pardon the pun. He had never seen anyone who gave their battles and their games equal status, and it was strangely refreshing.
She quibbled with herself over the goldfish game, stopping often to ask his advice. She wanted badly to try her hand at dipping one of the chubby, 'adorable' orange fish out of the water, and of course, she had no doubts about winning; but she worried over the fate of her prize if she were to take it home.
"He's a good kitty," Kyoko explained with eager anxiety, referring to her stubby black kitten, "but he likes to catch things too..." Rocking on her heels like an expectant father trapped in the waiting room, the girl cast her companion another pleading glance.
"Does Sheldon think it's okay...?"
After a few minutes of this back-and-forth banter, it was decided that the goldfish would live a long and happy life under Kyoko's loving care as long as she put it on the wall shelf in her bedroom, where the kitten couldn't reach; and sure enough, in the twinkling of an eye, Kyoko was the proud owner of a ten-cent goldfish. To Sheldon's mild embarrassment and ill-concealed amusement, she immediately christened the fish 'Maro'.
"Because he looks fat, but he's not," she announced with complete sincerity, peering into the water-filled plastic bag which was the fish's temporary home. "Mr. Maro would like that!"
Sheldon had his doubts, but said nothing.
For an additional two dollars, the enterprising game-owner was also selling small glass fishbowls, so Sheldon purchased one to put the fish in; then, he and Kyoko walked home to get it settled, and to deposit her many winnings.
"Ah!" Kyoko cried when the fish was at home in its new bowl and they were ready to go out again. She skipped quickly to her wardrobe and threw open the doors, searching for something inside.
"Kyoko has a festival kimono she just got a little while ago! Sheldon, you go wait out there," she commanded in excitement, spinning from her work with a forefinger outstretched. "Kyoko will be out in just a minute!"
Sheldon went obligingly into the corridor. From within Kyoko's room came a muffled cry of discovery, then strains of satisfied humming, mingling with the opening of drawers and closets; still, Sheldon waited. With Kyoko, exercising patience was always best.
At last, this patience was rewarded as the door swung open to reveal Sheldon's roommate in full, very becoming Japanese festival regalia.
"There!" the girl exclaimed, and twirled on sandal-clad feet into the center of the hallway, her black hair swinging around her shoulders. Her expertly glossed lips traced an expectant smile, which extended, sparkling, into her dark eyes, and Sheldon couldn't help but smile back at the picture she made.
"How does it look? Is it pretty?"
It was pretty, so telling the truth was no difficulty at all. "It's lovely, Miss Kyoko," he assured her, and the calm sincerity in her voice stilled any further questions she might have had. She giggled, twirling again just for the fun of it.
"Good. Now - Sheldon promised a festival dinner! Kyoko wants cotton candy!"
Sheldon swallowed laughter.
"Cotton candy it is," he agreed; and together, they made their way down the apartment stairs and waded a path back into the crowd.
-End-
The last one for now! Still waiting for the others, which will be posted as I receive them. Who got what will be revealed once all the fics are posted! ^^
Title of the work: More Fun With Two
Rating: G
Genre(s): Fluff. With a side-helping of mild, introspective angst.
Character(s): Sheldon, Kyoko
Summary: Sheldon makes a space in his schedule to take Kyoko to the carnival. Minor AU, due to living arrangements that never happened.
-More Fun With Two-
The streets were crowded today, Sheldon observed with mild interest, wending his way through the hubbub and taking it all in with his usual contemplative glance. There was a celebration of some kind taking place in the city, and he had gotten the impression from his coworkers that it was the sort of event which came around yearly. It intrigued him a little. Not for his own sake - he wasn't much of a one for parties of any kind; but Kyoko loved everything about parties, especially big, open-air fairs like this one. She reveled in the bustle, the street vendors, the silly little game booths whose owners were always so shocked when she inevitably won. He and his bubbly housemate hadn't been in this area long enough to understand the whys and wherefores of local tradition, but for Kyoko, just knowing that it was a celebration was enough. She had no need for trivial information, such as what exactly she was supposed to be celebrating.
That was why he was going to her school to pick her up today instead of letting her walk home as usual. Kyoko had been working hard at her studies lately and deserved a treat, and Sheldon, his head as level as ever, thought that they might as well make use of the entire afternoon if they were going to do this at all. He could survive through a few extra hours in the sea of humanity; and to Kyoko, who took her greatest pleasures in the little things, those few hours more would mean the world.
They were a good balance of personalities, and though Sheldon usually preferred solitude over companionship, he was enjoying life with Kyoko. She was loving and friendly, yet fully independent, and indestructably cheerful in counterpoint to his own solemnity... she breezed into the small spaces of his existance, opening up doors he had closed long ago with the staunchness of logic and reason. She made life fun.
Today, he wanted to give her a little of the same. He knew that she enjoyed his company (although he didn't know why), and also that his necessary preoccupation with his true work of late had left her rather disappointed - perhaps even a little lonely. There would be more of that to come in the future, he had no doubt, but for this moment in time, he wanted to take his chance and express his gratitude to her for putting up with him through it all. A street carnival, he thought, would be the perfect occasion. After all, wasn't Kyoko always saying that outings were more fun with two?
There had been a parade of floats, dancers, musicians, and merrymakers winding their way through the streets since early that morning, and everyone who had any chance of doing so had put off their business until another time, rendering the flow of traffic almost nonexistant. Sheldon followed the sidewalks in contented invisibility, allowing the crowds to wash over and around him as they would, the waterfall sounds of hundreds of happy beings filling his ears and going, for the most part, unheard. Colours dazzled the eye in every direction: the whirling skirts of the dancers, the bright toys which served as prizes in the carnival games, the softer tones of traditional food and drink in the tiny vendors' carts. The tall city buildings rose to towering heights above the gaiety, trapping the sounds, the sights, and the smells within their own contained little world. To Sheldon, it was like viewing art.
To Kyoko, he knew, the same scene would mean playtime.
He arrived at her school just as the last bells finished ringing. The sidewalk in front of the double doors was already flooded with rapidly escaping teenagers, most of whom were in a state of high excitement probably related to the carnival not ten yards away, and the sheer volume of the girlish voices as they blended was both astounding and painful. Sheldon found himself ducking instinctively out of the way of the whirl of youthful riot, not overeager for a trip to the hospital. He settled in the shadow of the arched stone entryway and made himself small there, keeping an eye out for Kyoko in the thickest parts of the action.
To his mild chagrin, the horde of schoolgirls seemed to slow and clot around his position as he stood waiting, and every time he chanced to glance at one of them he found her staring surreptitiously back, usually followed by a nudge to the girl beside her and a whispery conversation half-drowned in giggles. Such close notice always made him feel uncomfortable. His line of work and his personal preferences both leaned towards blending in, becoming invisible. He found himself fronting a falsely serene smile as a shield against the stares, wishing childishly that Kyoko would hurry up and save him before someone took it into their heads just to eat him where he stood.
Sure enough, before long one of the girls (with the help and encouragement of her friends) had worked up the courage to approach him, and began her trembling journey toward his feeble refuge. He could see her testing opening lines in her head as she walked. His smile faded a little as he worked to suppress a heartfelt groan.
He was so preoccupied with not looking like a harried animal that the tremendous blow which caught him across the side nearly knocked him from his feet. Kyoko graciously gave him a moment to recover from her full-body tackle before latching onto him once more, bouncing joyfully on her toes.
"Sheldon!" she squealed right in his ear, nearly deafening him. "You came to walk Kyoko home!" Twining herself around Sheldon's arm, she graced the world at large with a broad, cheerful, and proprietary grin, and the crowd began to melt reluctantly away. The approaching girl, looking half-disappointed and half-relieved, scampered back to her friends and vanished with the rest of the students in the direction of the nearest festivities.
Sheldon breathed a sigh of relief, casting a warm look at his saviour.
Kyoko relaxed herself a bit, but kept one arm hooked loosely to Sheldon's elbow with an air of the princess escorting the prince. She smiled brightly back at him, her eyes lit and glowing.
"Did you see the festival? Everyone from class says there are parades and games and special food all over town! Kyoko's been wanting to see it all day, but the teacher said to settle down and do our schoolwork." The girl pouted indignantly, lifting her chin. "Kyoko thinks that's not fair. Playing is important too!"
"Well, I suppose that's true," Sheldon agreed thoughtfully. He began to propel them away from the school at a gentle stroll, and Kyoko amiably followed his lead. "There are times set aside for each, I think. Everything can't be play... but everything can't be work either.
"That's why I came to meet you here, Miss Kyoko," he informed her, smiling a little at the expectant expression on her upturned face. "I know I've been very busy with work lately, and I haven't been able to make much time to relax and enjoy your company.
"So. How would you like to spend the rest of the day enjoying the festival together?"
Kyoko's eyes became as wide as saucers. "Together, with Sheldon? Really?" She squealed again and hugged him with all the enthusiasm of a small child.
"And," Sheldon added, feeling better already, "I'll treat you to a festival dinner."
"Yay!"
Although the entire city was brimming with activity, Sheldon and Kyoko didn't have to walk far to find plenty to keep them occupied - in fact, they quickly found all that they wanted already set up and waiting between Kyoko's school and their apartment six blocks away. Six blocks might have seemed a dangerous distance for a young woman to walk every day by herself, but not for Kyoko; in spite of city crime rates, Sheldon never had to worry whether she would make it home. She had given up her life of violence, but that didn't mean that she couldn't protect herself. He had been proud to discover that she had quickly become the champion of her school, for the simple fact that it had never occurred to her to be anything else. In Kyoko's mind, bullies deserved what they got.
Sheldon sometimes wondered if it occurred to her what most people considered him.
Sheldon had not given up violence. He had left the Hoshi no Shito behind him, as Kyoko had, but while he had encouraged her to rejoin the path which the masses called 'normalcy', they had both understood that he could not and would not do the same. And while they rarely spoke about his nightly activities - his after-hours job - it wasn't because it was a secret between them. She knew when a report came on the nightly news whether or not it was his work, and sometimes she even commented on how much of a success it had been. He liked that about her: that, even while she had taken on a new view of life through her hero-worship of the Black Cat, she respected his own differences of opinion and happily went her own way.
But it was difficult sometimes to juggle, in essence, two separate lives - the front he put on in order to stay with her, and his real calling always hovering behind the scenes. Though Kyoko made wide allowances for him, Sheldon didn't think that she really understood. Even during her days with the Hoshi no Shito, she had never bothered to hide herself behind an act, and he knew that she thought he was strange for trying; he himself couldn't honestly say why he did. Except that Kyoko was the first person in his life who had cared to call herself a friend, and the only person who had ever accepted him at face value. She deserved a real life, not one spent flitting from shadow to shadow with no sense of rhyme or reason. And in giving her that life... perhaps he had discovered that he wanted some semblance of one, too.
Even if it was only taking Kyoko out to play.
The afternoon went by too fast, but for all its fleetness of foot, it was certainly full enough. They spent the first hour just walking, drinking in all of the colours and the hustle and attempting to get an itinerary in order. For a while Kyoko was content to watch the passing parade, fascinated by the myriad floats, the bold movements of the dancers, and especially the lush, elaborate costumes, which she spent the better part of a second hour critiquing enthusiastically.
Then there were the games. Kyoko loved games; video games were her specialty, but really, she could find enjoyment in any one so long as it didn't depend too heavily on chance (chance, she said, ruined the fun). In half an hour she had defeated two card players, three ring/small object tosses, a shooting gallery, and one game of logic, and sported a new keychain, a cute hat, impressive amounts of candy, two dollars in quarters, and a medium-sized stuffed animal of uncertain breed with a rather skewed face. Sheldon didn't go in for carnival games himself, but he had to admit that it was fun watching Kyoko win them. She went at them with such deep intensity... fire, if one could pardon the pun. He had never seen anyone who gave their battles and their games equal status, and it was strangely refreshing.
She quibbled with herself over the goldfish game, stopping often to ask his advice. She wanted badly to try her hand at dipping one of the chubby, 'adorable' orange fish out of the water, and of course, she had no doubts about winning; but she worried over the fate of her prize if she were to take it home.
"He's a good kitty," Kyoko explained with eager anxiety, referring to her stubby black kitten, "but he likes to catch things too..." Rocking on her heels like an expectant father trapped in the waiting room, the girl cast her companion another pleading glance.
"Does Sheldon think it's okay...?"
After a few minutes of this back-and-forth banter, it was decided that the goldfish would live a long and happy life under Kyoko's loving care as long as she put it on the wall shelf in her bedroom, where the kitten couldn't reach; and sure enough, in the twinkling of an eye, Kyoko was the proud owner of a ten-cent goldfish. To Sheldon's mild embarrassment and ill-concealed amusement, she immediately christened the fish 'Maro'.
"Because he looks fat, but he's not," she announced with complete sincerity, peering into the water-filled plastic bag which was the fish's temporary home. "Mr. Maro would like that!"
Sheldon had his doubts, but said nothing.
For an additional two dollars, the enterprising game-owner was also selling small glass fishbowls, so Sheldon purchased one to put the fish in; then, he and Kyoko walked home to get it settled, and to deposit her many winnings.
"Ah!" Kyoko cried when the fish was at home in its new bowl and they were ready to go out again. She skipped quickly to her wardrobe and threw open the doors, searching for something inside.
"Kyoko has a festival kimono she just got a little while ago! Sheldon, you go wait out there," she commanded in excitement, spinning from her work with a forefinger outstretched. "Kyoko will be out in just a minute!"
Sheldon went obligingly into the corridor. From within Kyoko's room came a muffled cry of discovery, then strains of satisfied humming, mingling with the opening of drawers and closets; still, Sheldon waited. With Kyoko, exercising patience was always best.
At last, this patience was rewarded as the door swung open to reveal Sheldon's roommate in full, very becoming Japanese festival regalia.
"There!" the girl exclaimed, and twirled on sandal-clad feet into the center of the hallway, her black hair swinging around her shoulders. Her expertly glossed lips traced an expectant smile, which extended, sparkling, into her dark eyes, and Sheldon couldn't help but smile back at the picture she made.
"How does it look? Is it pretty?"
It was pretty, so telling the truth was no difficulty at all. "It's lovely, Miss Kyoko," he assured her, and the calm sincerity in her voice stilled any further questions she might have had. She giggled, twirling again just for the fun of it.
"Good. Now - Sheldon promised a festival dinner! Kyoko wants cotton candy!"
Sheldon swallowed laughter.
"Cotton candy it is," he agreed; and together, they made their way down the apartment stairs and waded a path back into the crowd.
-End-
The last one for now! Still waiting for the others, which will be posted as I receive them. Who got what will be revealed once all the fics are posted! ^^