Half and Empty [Open Thread - Especially to his friends!]

[poetryinfashion]

WHO: Hitachiin Kaoru {Alone at the moment}
WHAT: Cheering-up session ... or something like that.
WHERE: Eagle's Splendour
WHEN: 2nd Day after the ball

Comments

[de_novo_xiii]

He had made sure the newcomer Ritsuka was well taken care of the night before. He had taken a shining to the boy with the cat ears and tail. A tail! Just like he and Zidane had. But all the while his mind had been on other things.

After knowing for certain the Inn would serve the boy breakfast and give him new clothes, he had hurried to the darling little boutique that had been the source of his new attires over the past few days.

Kuja liked Kaoru because Kaoru knew what it was like to have a piece of you missing. Despite Kuja having found his brother here, they were worlds apart. They hardly had an amicable relationship, let alone a fraternal one. But Kaoru had a twin, a twin who was missing.

He walked into the store, calling softly.
"Kaoru? Sweetheart?"

[poetryinfashion]

Kaoru looked up from the desk. "Oh... Kuja, hi." He wiped his eyes. "How- how have you been?"

He was not the same boy that Kuja had met about three days ago. This boy was not fashionably dressed nor enthusiastic about his work, brimming with energy. This boy looked positively drained; drab in a white shirt and brown pants.

Nor did he smile. For Kuja he tried, but it came out as about a half-second lip twitch that felt entirely too fake for Kaoru to sustain. His hands in his lap, slouching, he tried to make eye-contact but just... hung his head, addressing the floor.

"Sorry you have to see me like this."

[de_novo_xiii]

"Oh sweetheart..." Kuja breathed, walking to him. He withdrew a kerchief from the sleeve of his blouse, cupping Kaoru's cheek before dabbing under his eyes with it.

"You don't have to try and be happy," He whispered, "I don't mind at all." Kuja looked around the shop, before going and throwing the curtains open so light streamed inside. "Let's try and chase the shadows out, hm?"

"Come on love, up you get." He coaxed him to stand, brushing creases from his shirt and tidying his hair. Slowly he leaned forward until their brows touched.
"I'm here for you, ok? No more silence."

1/2

[poetryinfashion]

No one had ever been that physical with Kaoru before - no one except Hikaru. He closed his eyes and sighed, trying to take a few deep breaths before speaking.

[roman_tragedy]

The news that came in the morning might have justified her restlessness for the preceding night. That, and the arrivals that had coincidentally came in lieu of the ball itself. The journals were always active

[kocho_blade]

Susumu had to admit, that after sleeping, the world seemed a much less dismal place. When he had awoken, his body had felt relaxed and energized. His shoulder had even felt better, thanks to the salve and bandages Lucretia had applied. The gauze was still wrapped protectively over his wound, visible through the slashed fabric of his dark clothing. His stomach felt better with food in it as well, the meal had been fresh and good. Different than what he was used to, but wasn't everything in this place

[poetryinfashion]

The knock at the door was startling. After a long conversation with Kuja, Kaoru had finally decided to take a nap.

Sitting up in bed and amazed he'd even slept at all, he rubbed his eyes as he called out, "It's open. Probably."

Not like he really cared who came in, at this point; they hadn't done much to furnish the place.

[roman_tragedy]

Lucretia looked across to Susumu for a quiet moment as her hand rested on the door's handle, a small and almost sad smile upon her features. She didn't know the details of his background and all that had brought the young man to that point in time, but his few words were telling enough.

"Me too."

Pushing the door open, Lucretia quietly peeked in to be sure that the face matched the voice before entering completely. She moved aside with the swing of the portal to allow Susumu to follow before closing it behind him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. We brought you some food." Lucretia first apologized before glancing between Kaoru and Susumu. "This is my friend, Kaoru." She told Susumu before making sure to check with the quiet boy, in a discreet way to give him an initiative, even, "Would it be all right to tell him your name?"

[amulet_heart]

It was scary during the end of the ball. Amu crying, Kaoru looking for his brother, people dying, it was all too much for the girl. Once Kaoru had gotten her back to her house she locked herself into her room and sat there, unable to sleep for the longest time. A couple of days later she finally sucked it up and headed out to Kaoru's shop.

She had tossed on a large beige sweater that reached her upper thighs, a pair of pink shorts, and pulled her hair into ponytails. Even after cleaning herself up she was scared as hell, but managed to get all the way to the shop.

Amu hurried inside once she was there, looking for Kaoru.

[notroubleplease]

Haruhi had wondered when the best time to visit Kaoru would be. She didn't want to overwhelm him where there were many visitors already and she didn't want to disturb him if he was taking a much needed nap. She decided, with full practicality, that she would come after she finished the laundry for the morning. Something that needed to be done, and vaguely reminded her of home. It didn't mean as much as it might have done to a more wistful person, because Haruhi reasoned laundry was the same anywhere.

She followed the now familiar route to the market district and to Eagle's Splendour and was heartened to see another girl hurrying in, glad that Kaoru had, since arriving, made sincere friends who cared for him. She followed suit and opened the door, fully concerned with her friend's wellbeing.

Morning, after Kuja came

[poetryinfashion]

Kaoru looked to the front of the store as Kuja had suggested. He whispered something to the man before coming near the two girls.

"Amu-chan, Haruhi... H- How are you?" It was about all he could manage to think of by way of formal greeting. Despite Kuja's slight bit of cheering up, he was still looking quite unhealthy - worn out and tired - and he wasn't smiling. For Haruhi he tried, like he had for Kuja, but it obviously had no heart in it. "The store's closed today, unfortunately."

He didn't think he had to say why.

Re: Morning, after Kuja came

[notroubleplease]

Haruhi had never seen Kaoru look more defeated, and it scared her more than when the twins had had the serious fight only a week ago (as she remembered it). She hadn't known the reason as for why then, but at least it hadn't been this. Then, she hadn't known what to do. She didn't know any better today.

Instinctively, she reached for Kaoru's hand and held it firmly. Haruhi was never one to initiate physical contact, but this felt quite natural.

"I'm fine," she replied, "but it's not me that matters right now."

She didn't return the question, because she knew the answer. "Talk," she said soothingly. It was not a demand. "If you need to say anything, let it out and you'll feel better."

She hesitated. "I can't imagine how much you're hurting, but Hikaru wouldn't want it. Kaoru, you know that."

[comme_ilfaut]

Now that Tamaki knew that Haruhi was safe, he felt much better. He would've liked to see her, but he had other things to attend to. Yes, so maybe the twins didn't like him so much and maybe they didn't always get along, but he needed to make sure Kaoru was okay.

. . . Because he didn't like seeing his friends hurting. And that was why Tamaki entered Eagle's Slendour fully intent on making sure Kaoru was (at the very least) still alive. Tamaki was melodramatic. Somewhere in his head, he thought that Kaoru might have killed himself.

Never mind that Kaoru killing himself would just upset Hikaru. That was the point of melodramatics - they didn't make sense.

"Kaoru? Are you here?"

Evening

[poetryinfashion]

Now there was a person he hadn't expected to see today. "Ah, Tono... Yeah, I'm here," he called - not exactly a happy voice, but certainly not utterly depressed anymore.

Kaoru had been in the back room working - he'd apparently misplaced a few spools of thread and some needles the other day - but reppeared in the front area at the sound of Tamaki's voice.

Compared to earlier in the day, he was looking considerably better. His clothes were wrinkled, but that just meant he'd been up and about rather than lying in bed trying to forget about the world right now.

Re: Evening

[comme_ilfaut]

Tamaki was happy, Kaoru was still alive. That was good.

He suddenly felt kind of awkward, he and Kaoru didn't know each other that well. Obviously, they spent a good portion of time together . . . But most of that was spent catering to the clients and not socialising.

"Ah . . . Has Haruhi been by today?"

Common ground was good. This was Tamaki applying host rules to a friend situation, but he figured it worked almost the same. After all, in both hosting and friendship, the point was to make the person forget and treat them like they were the most important thing in the world.

"I just, ah, stopped by to see if you were okay."

Re: Evening

[poetryinfashion]

Kaoru had no idea that Tamki had been worried about his life, but understood that it felt a little weird talking like this. He wasn't sure if he'd ever even had a conversation alone with Tamaki before... it'd always been with Hikaru standing next to him.

"Yeah... she came by. So did a few other friends," Kaoru said quietly. "And... thanks for stopping by, too." He took a deep breath before speaking again. "I wouldn't say I'm okay, but... I'm doing better. I'll be a lot better when Hikaru is rescued."

He tried another smile, despite the fact that he was sure Tamaki could read the half-heartedness of it. "What about you? Has anything... been going on lately? Despite being yanked from Ouran and all that, of course."

[kabukichoqueen]

Kagura came in the shop, chewing on a piece of jerky she took from one of the neighborhood kids after winning from a fight. She was just there to see if she can claim new territory, and was not expecting to see one of the first people she met in this strange, new land.

"Ah! Number 1!" Kagura called cheerfully, forgetting (or not minding) the boy's name. She hopped onto one of the tables and sat down, then looked around.

"Hey, aren't there supposed to be two of you? Where's Number 2?" she asked, ripping the jerky in half with her teeth.

[[OOC: Kagura is going to be so bad at this. D:]]

[poetryinfashion]

Kaoru was taken aback by Kagura's sudden appearance, but responded as best he could. "He's not here right now. I'm sure you've heard about the kidnappings from the evening of the Queen's Ball? Well... Hikaru was one of those taken."

He really had no idea what else to say; Kagura was quite a strange person - on the level of Tamaki's scatterbraindedness - and he wasn't quite sure why she had suddenly appeared in the shop.

[kabukichoqueen]

"Kidnappings? Are they not supposed to happen in a ball?" It was Kagura's first ball after all. And in the end she was too busy competing with Okita to know what was happening around her. Kagura's also been kidnapped before, and because she always ends up being saved by Gintoki, kidnappings didn't seem like such a dangerous thing for her