Hello not-quite-stranger

[wisdom_of_cats]

WHO: Herakles and Kiku
WHEN: June 5th, afternoon
WHERE: The Royal Cafe
WHAT: Curiousity reunites Heracles with a penpal from many years ago.

Comments

[mystiklsushi]

Kiku blinked up at the stranger, mind trying to jump from the thought process of calculating finances to deciphering what the man had just said to him. It had been in Japanese, though it was not very good. Or much of a normal question, for that matter. But it was certainly not the first time a customer had decided to practice on him. As far as he knew, LU did not offer Japanese courses. Therefore, he usually humored anyone brave enough to attempt to study his native language on their own merit. Admittedly, it was refreshing not to hear 「かわいい」in the first sentence, even if there had been a seemingly inadvertent 「です」.

"はい。日本人です、" he replied slowly, politely. Yes, he was Japanese.

[wisdom_of_cats]

Heracles grinned, relieved he'd both been understood and understood the reply himself.

"Watashi wa Heracles desu," he continued, this time remembering to avoid the final -u, "Ah... girisha desu," he added, slightly less confidently, before smiling a bit sheepishly. "And that's about the extent of my skills, I'm afraid."

[mystiklsushi]

Kiku smiled, asking politely, "how long have you been interested in studying Japanese, Heracles-san?" The name-tag was something he almost did not add, but thought better of it. If a person approached him with an interest in speaking Japanese, they always seemed to enjoy having them used.

[wisdom_of_cats]

Heracles brightened up visibly, partially because he could talk in a language he was actually fluent in. It gave him an unpleasantly... restrained feeling to not be able to say what he wanted.

"Well, I'veonly studied it on my own, really... I used to have this Japanese boy as a penpal when I was a kid and he taught me some basics... only written stuff, of course, and it was a long time ago," he chattered.