OOC
Because Idgie and Tif are horrible, horrible enablers.
The thing about Itsuki is that he essentially has two categories of people-- people he puts before himself, and people he puts himself before. It doesn’t really have anything to do with respect or admiration or anything but his own strange system of importance. Pretty much, as of right now, the only people who have made it into that category of people he always without fail will put above himself are Haruhi and Kyon. A lot of this is because of the whole saving-the-world thing: his own sense of duty means that he’ll be putting himself and those two above anyone else he knows. They’re kind of the exceptions to the rule as far as people go, too, so they get a whole paragraph to themselves.
Haruhi’s a bit of a complicated one, because he can really only ever show her what he’s supposed to show her, so no matter what he’s actually thinking he will be nice and polite and gentle and always agree with her. This doesn’t mean he won’t try and manipulate her to make things go the way they need to, but it’s not out of any sense of cruelty or callousness-- it’s because sometimes when the entire world depends on one person being happy, you have to steer things a little sometimes. Kyon gets the honor of being one of the only people Itsuki occasionally wants to grab and shake for being a complete dunderhead; usually he doesn’t honestly care enough about when people get in their own way to try and steer them the right way, but he’d probably do it to Kyon even if the world didn’t depend on it. He’s kind of an essay on his own right-- so is Haruhi, but for different reasons-- partially because their friendship has been extremely strained lately, which is one of the reasons Itsuki hasn’t really been all that happy in quite a while now-- he’s kind of stopped messing with Kyon for the lulz, at least for the moment.
Everyone else he likes? Itsuki will mess with them, and prod at them, and poke around things they’d really rather keep secret. Sometimes he does it because he’s curious, sometimes it’s to get a reaction, and sometimes it’s just because he’s bored and he wants to see if he can get away with it. The thing is, though, is that if he’s messing with you? He likes you, or at least finds you interesting, which amounts to the same thing. The only common denominator between the friends he’s made, really, is that they somehow fascinate him. People that bore him he will be nice and kind and unfailingly polite to.
Why he does this is a bit more of a difficult question. A lot of it is honestly rooted in the whole ‘mysterious’ persona he puts up. It’s not exactly a lie but it’s not exactly the truth, either, and that leaves his relationships with people a little... confused, because half the time he’s not even sure what he’s like any more. (That’s ANOTHER thing that’s a whole essay in itself.) He thinks someone’s worth his attention, and things he pays attention to he likes to try and figure out; he’s essentially a very curious person who’s actually not all that great at relating to people, although a lot of the time he thinks he is-- he treats most people as something to be read and figured out, although sometimes he gets it dead wrong.
It’s also a bit of a shield. Itsuki doesn’t much care whether people like or hate his persona, but he can’t stand the idea of people hating him for who he really is, especially because he knows there’s a lot to dislike. Especially since the last time he really blatantly showed the negative side of himself to someone, it got him punched in the face. He will poke and prod at your secrets but if you start getting curious about him it’s like hitting a brick wall. A brick wall which will then proceed to give you wrong directions and confuse you into thinking that’s where you wanted to go in the first place. He has a strange sort of appreciation for people like Cuddy and Minato who tend to be able to see straight through his BS, though, which is a bit of a contradiction in his nature. He’s protective of his inner core but when someone actually figures him out, he’s a little pleased they’ve been paying enough attention to him that they know him that well, because he's really not all that used to being the one that gets the attention.
Frankly, a lot of it comes down to him not being used to caring about people on their own merits. He was forced to find Haruhi and Kyon important before he started liking them for who they were, and he’s forced to use his calculating side rather often, and it’s going to take him a while to figure out that it’s all right to care about people even if there’s no obvious reason to outside of him liking them. He’s probably a little scared to; anyone he gets close to he’s always, always going to have to put second to Haruhi, no matter what. And so he messes with people and annoys them and holds them at arm’s length because that’s easier than admitting he cares about them, because showing vulnerability is something he’s really not at home with.
...Ask questions in the comments if you have them, because I get the feeling that got a little confusing at the end. xD
The thing about Itsuki is that he essentially has two categories of people-- people he puts before himself, and people he puts himself before. It doesn’t really have anything to do with respect or admiration or anything but his own strange system of importance. Pretty much, as of right now, the only people who have made it into that category of people he always without fail will put above himself are Haruhi and Kyon. A lot of this is because of the whole saving-the-world thing: his own sense of duty means that he’ll be putting himself and those two above anyone else he knows. They’re kind of the exceptions to the rule as far as people go, too, so they get a whole paragraph to themselves.
Haruhi’s a bit of a complicated one, because he can really only ever show her what he’s supposed to show her, so no matter what he’s actually thinking he will be nice and polite and gentle and always agree with her. This doesn’t mean he won’t try and manipulate her to make things go the way they need to, but it’s not out of any sense of cruelty or callousness-- it’s because sometimes when the entire world depends on one person being happy, you have to steer things a little sometimes. Kyon gets the honor of being one of the only people Itsuki occasionally wants to grab and shake for being a complete dunderhead; usually he doesn’t honestly care enough about when people get in their own way to try and steer them the right way, but he’d probably do it to Kyon even if the world didn’t depend on it. He’s kind of an essay on his own right-- so is Haruhi, but for different reasons-- partially because their friendship has been extremely strained lately, which is one of the reasons Itsuki hasn’t really been all that happy in quite a while now-- he’s kind of stopped messing with Kyon for the lulz, at least for the moment.
Everyone else he likes? Itsuki will mess with them, and prod at them, and poke around things they’d really rather keep secret. Sometimes he does it because he’s curious, sometimes it’s to get a reaction, and sometimes it’s just because he’s bored and he wants to see if he can get away with it. The thing is, though, is that if he’s messing with you? He likes you, or at least finds you interesting, which amounts to the same thing. The only common denominator between the friends he’s made, really, is that they somehow fascinate him. People that bore him he will be nice and kind and unfailingly polite to.
Why he does this is a bit more of a difficult question. A lot of it is honestly rooted in the whole ‘mysterious’ persona he puts up. It’s not exactly a lie but it’s not exactly the truth, either, and that leaves his relationships with people a little... confused, because half the time he’s not even sure what he’s like any more. (That’s ANOTHER thing that’s a whole essay in itself.) He thinks someone’s worth his attention, and things he pays attention to he likes to try and figure out; he’s essentially a very curious person who’s actually not all that great at relating to people, although a lot of the time he thinks he is-- he treats most people as something to be read and figured out, although sometimes he gets it dead wrong.
It’s also a bit of a shield. Itsuki doesn’t much care whether people like or hate his persona, but he can’t stand the idea of people hating him for who he really is, especially because he knows there’s a lot to dislike. Especially since the last time he really blatantly showed the negative side of himself to someone, it got him punched in the face. He will poke and prod at your secrets but if you start getting curious about him it’s like hitting a brick wall. A brick wall which will then proceed to give you wrong directions and confuse you into thinking that’s where you wanted to go in the first place. He has a strange sort of appreciation for people like Cuddy and Minato who tend to be able to see straight through his BS, though, which is a bit of a contradiction in his nature. He’s protective of his inner core but when someone actually figures him out, he’s a little pleased they’ve been paying enough attention to him that they know him that well, because he's really not all that used to being the one that gets the attention.
Frankly, a lot of it comes down to him not being used to caring about people on their own merits. He was forced to find Haruhi and Kyon important before he started liking them for who they were, and he’s forced to use his calculating side rather often, and it’s going to take him a while to figure out that it’s all right to care about people even if there’s no obvious reason to outside of him liking them. He’s probably a little scared to; anyone he gets close to he’s always, always going to have to put second to Haruhi, no matter what. And so he messes with people and annoys them and holds them at arm’s length because that’s easier than admitting he cares about them, because showing vulnerability is something he’s really not at home with.
...Ask questions in the comments if you have them, because I get the feeling that got a little confusing at the end. xD