As I start taking bigger steps [closed]

[cdconspeeddial]

CHARACTERS: Suki Sasaki and Souji Seta
LOCATION/SETTING: North Quad lobby
DATE & TIME Sunday afternoon
WARNINGS language?
SUMMARY: Was transferring schools always this difficult?

Comments

[sosouji]

And it was right at that unlucky moment that someone haplessly walked into the line of fire. A rumble in his belly had sent him down to the cafeteria to get a snack, and his pockets were bulging on the way back up to his room when Souji stumbled, almost literally, on a girl carrying way too much.

He watched her suitcase sail through the air, almost in slow motion, and his look of dull surprise changed to one of high alert as he reached as quickly as he could to try to catch it. The keyword, unfortunately, was 'try,' and he missed completely. Unfortunately, coming even closer meant a direct impact was imminent, and he winced to brace himself.

It wasn't as bad as he expected, but having a heavy suitcase hit your foot is never all that pleasant. His wince grew pained and sharp, and he breathed roughly through his teeth as he suppressed a shout. And to think, the day started so well.

[cdconspeeddial]

She just... dropped that suitcase on someone's foot. Her expression went from shock, to intrigue, to sheer horror, and froze that way as she stared at him. Still frozen leaning forward, she just stared, completely dumbstruck and somewhat concerned.

Her mouth slowly opened, but her attempt at asking if he was okay sounded more like a strangled gasp than any real words. It took her a few seconds before she just blinked twice and quickly turned her gaze to the floor.

Okay, so she dropped her suitcase on his foot. So what. Stuff like this happened... didn't it? Well, it had to have at least somewhere. The thought didn't comfort her at all, but she finally found enough courage to quickly look at the floor and reach for the handle. And with that, she mumbled.

"S-sorry about your foot... 'll get this... 's not... broke... is it?" she apologized somewhat.

[sosouji]

Of course, pain had this strange way of working. The impact was never very pleasant, then it lessened a little, and then it really started. Souji winced when the ache started setting in, but he heard the girl stuttering and mumbling awkward apologies, and his instincts kicked in on the spot and overrode the hurt. He reached down and picked up the case to offer to her, naturally.

"No, no, nothing broken," he said, voice only slightly strained from ignoring his foot hurting, "I've had a lot worse." The way she looked made her nationality pretty obvious, so he shifted his language to Japanese to make things more comfortable, "You're just moving in today, aren't you? Let me help you with your things, you don't want any more accidents."

[cdconspeeddial]

Nothing broken? Oh, thank goodness. She found herself sighing in relief, just glad that he wasn't hurt. But she had still dropped it, and already her cheeks were brightening by the moment. Frustrated, she stole a glance, just enough to reach for the suitcase--

but paused.

The sudden language switch had her staring, eyes wide. Some Asian language, she could tell, but which one? A few seconds of thinking passed before she finally squinted and furrowed her brows in thought.

"Uh... what?"

[sosouji]

That wasn't quite the reaction Souji had been hoping for. All too quickly, the clues he'd been ignoring due to the fact that he had a throbbing distraction came trickling in: she didn't have a remotely Japanese accent, did she? Right, he'd just spoken in a foreign language to someone that just looked like she would understand. Suddenly, things got awkward again.

"Ah..." he hesitated, mentally switching back to English, "Sorry. I forget not everyone speaks Japanese here." That was a lame excuse, but it was partially true, and that was true enough. "I said, let me help you with your things, you must be tired of carrying all of them by yourself, right?"

[cdconspeeddial]

"Japanese, huh... My mom's Japanese." Once he switched back, her directed her deer-in-the-headlights look to the floor, hair falling into her face. This was just ridiculously awkward, and the longer she stood in front of the new stranger, the faster she wanted to find her room.

When he suggested to help her, she shook her head quickly, reaching for her suitcase again. She didn't want to keep him any longer, especially not when their first--and hopefully last--interaction went so horribly. "No, it's okay, I can get it--"

The moment she grabbed the suitcase's handle, she dropped her room key.

"Fuck!"

[sosouji]

"Oh, so you're..." Half-Japanese. Wow, he really was the best at picking out people of his own nationality. The awkwardness in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, so Souji just hoped she'd take his offer, he could see her to her room, and that would be that with no real harm done.

But of course it wasn't so easy. She declined, and all too hastily took the suitcase back, only to drop her keys to the floor. Automatically, Souji bent over to snap them up, heedless of where his head might be going, such as right into the path of her own head as she might have bent over to pick up the keys herself.

"Oh, here, let me--"

[cdconspeeddial]

"Half, yeah. Can't speak it, though." Not past the simple heard-on-TV nonsense, anyway. But right now, she didn't want to even think of learning it. Just curling up in her bed and thinking of things in English would be nice. From the broken French at the convenience store to the random Japanese...

Then she was soon seeing stars as their heads painfully clanked into each other. Suki dropped the bag of laundry supplies and quickly fell with it, her now-free hand grabbing for her head.

"Agh... Fuck fuck fuck, that hurt!" Payback for the suitcase, huh.

[sosouji]

All that stuff about her lineage and wondering about just how funny it was that a Japanese-looking girl that spoke English was in France was going to have to wait. Souji realized just too late that leaning down like that was a terrible idea, and before he could even slow down to blunt the impact, there was-- well, impact.

"Agh-!" Yes, and it hurt. He reeled back and, thanks to his earlier foot smashing, lost his balance completely to fall backward. Thankfully, he knew how to take a fall and managed to do nothing more than slightly bruise a shoulder as he twisted.

That didn't make him look any less stupid half-splayed out on the floor and looking up at the girl he'd just headbutted, though. This was turning out to be a wonderful day.

[cdconspeeddial]

The bruised noggin and an introduction that was far too painful, in more ways than one, had Suki all but trying to flee at this point. It felt like fate just had it in for her, and her hopeful trip up to her dorm was now landing her with a headache.

But in a way, she felt bad for the kid she had run into. Whoever he was. Getting a suitcase on his foot, wasting time talking to her, clashing heads... She actually almost felt bad for trying to escape so badly. After all, it just seemed to get worse the faster she tried to go, and he ended up getting caught in it. The only problem was trying to slow down and keep herself calm enough to leave, hopefully without more injuries to either of them.

Knowing her luck, it'd be pretty much impossible. She inhaled for one long moment, then exhaled in a sigh, dark eyes turning to him. "Uh... you, um..." No, she couldn't do this. Her eyes went back to her suitcase. "You okay? Sorry about that..."

[sosouji]

Hastily excusing himself and going to lie down for a while seemed like a very good idea at the time. He didn't even know this girl's name, but Souji had managed to make an awkward acquaintance for life in all of a few minutes, wasn't that special?

But no, escaping was a bad thing. It was horribly rude, and what if she really did want help and just wasn't able to say so due to nerves or pride? Souji had known people like that, lots of them, and now he was conflicted as to what to do. So, it was time to just try to man it up and slowly climb up to his feet, very careful this time to make sure there wasn't a repeat incident of unnecessary bodily contact.

"I've had worse," he kidded, flicking his eyes back and forth in a nervously-amused sort of way, "Sorry you had to get into something this weird on your first day."

[cdconspeeddial]

She shook her head, freeing a hand to wave idly at him. Getting into weird things was just what she did, so this was no different. This just hurt a bit, but already the shock was wearing off, leaving her with just the dull throbbing. Suki ignored it.

"Nah, nothing too different than usual."

Grabbing her key, she slipped it into her wallet and grabbed the bottle of bleach in the same hand as the box. Then, her suitcase... She eyed it suspiciously before finally seizing the handle again. She had this. Sort of... not really. But she was going to try.

[sosouji]

Nothing too different? What kind of person should have something like this happen normally? It wasn't his business, sure, but Souji was curious about this girl now. He stood still for a minute, just watching her gather up her things and halfway hoping she really could manage it all, but she looked stumped with one item still out of her hands.

There was a limit to what he really should offer, but he'd give it one last try for the road.

"I really wouldn't mind carrying it," he nodded toward her suitcase, "As an apology for, um... bumping you."

[cdconspeeddial]

And Suki sighed, loud and exasperated. The answer she wanted to say was no. She didn't want to accept his help, or to waste more of his time by letting him carry her bag to her room. But, from the looks of things, she was still far too ridiculously new, and she had no idea where her room was, let alone how to get upstairs more easily.

However, fact of the matter was: she obviously had trouble trying to do this alone. And just knowing that bothered her. Staring at the ground, her lips curved into a frown, and she reluctantly gave a nod.

"Sure... fine, sure," she mumbled. Then, turning away, she also added a shy but still barely audible, "Thanks... You're too fucking nice."

[sosouji]

Part of Souji hoped she's say no, so his conscience would let him get out of dodge guilt-free, but she wouldn't let it be that easy, would she? The second she nodded, he was moving to pick up the case. From the independent streak that seemed to be all but oozing off her, he guessed offering to take something else as well would likely do nothing more than get her a little angry.

"Ah..." That was a first. He didn't even know there was such a thing as too nice. "It's just the way I was raised. I sometimes have trouble just taking no for an answer," he sheepishly tried to explain with a nervous laugh, "I'll just help you to your room and we can forget this ever happened."

Now, where was that room, anyway? They wouldn't be tromping up a half-dozen flights of stairs, would they?

[cdconspeeddial]

"Hn... good plan." She'd take it. The more brief the interaction, the faster they could forget it. So she grabbed her key again, the laundry supplies, and the laptop, and just stood up, staring at the paper with her room number written. Fourth floor, somewhere.

She looked up at him, holding up the paper. "Does this place have an elevator?"