2025-11-20: It's Different
- Log: It's Different
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki, Ichika Kawase
- Where: Kawase Household, Iwatodai
- OOC Date: 2025-11-20
- IC Date: Mon, Aug 13 2012
- Summary: Ichika comes back to report her successful date, and finds Tsubasa knee-deep in business reports and spreadsheets. (Devastatingly uncool.) Luckily, she has something far more fun to immerse them in: releasing all those pent-up feelings in the form of makeouts. If anyone asks, they did NOT fall out of their chair.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Tsubasa's in the study this evening! They're using the Kawase's computer, in here, to go through records from the Electronic Disclosure for Investors' Network; it's dry work, but it goes much easier on a monitor than a phone screen.
(They showed Dr. Kawase what they were up to when he poked his head in, and explained that they were helping out the Kuzunoha Detective Agency with some grunt work, and they could point to enough actual records they'd pinpointed and notes they'd taken that he might even believe he didn't catch them tabbing to a convenient excuse.)
They're in a military-green tank top (they got it in the same sale Ichika did) with that binder visible underneath it, plus a usual pair of board shorts, and their hair today is magenta and green. Their makeup's still on, right now; it's still too early to wash up and turn in.
Y'know. Gotta leave room for hitting the streets at night. They're punks.
What? Punks can do data entry, shut up.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika is just getting back from being Out, and she's in a good mood. Tsubasa may hear her come in, though they won't be able to hear the details of her conversation with her mother before she trudges up and back to put her shopping bags away in her room a few minutes later. But after that--
Well, after that, she has a brief moment with her father. But after that one!!
Ichika knocks on the study door, and pokes her head in. "Tsubasa?" she wonders.
Ichika's dressed in layered tanktops, a very short skirt, and thigh-high stockings with sneakers, along with a bunch of bracelets. And--
She's curious!
"Daddy said you were working on some paperwork stuff..."
Her rep would probably be hurt if people saw her at home, but she could still kick a few asses about it, so maybe it's a wash.
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yo!" Ichika gets an exclamation mark with her greeting, and that's how she knows Tsubasa's happy to see her, straightening up from where they'd been slouching in their chair. (One foot up on the cushion, obviously, though it drops down when they look up. They're a teenager; they can't sit in a chair right. It's illegal.)
"Yeah, jus' some borin' shit," Tsubasa says, gesturing her over. "You can have a look if you want. Ain't much here, tho'. Jus' like, all kinds've shit gets slipped inta these reports what no one clues into since goin' through 'em's like pullin' teeth, like --"
They tab into a word document titled ALL THE SHADY SHIT FKI TSUMA GROUP LTD IS UP TO, filled with annotated screenshots with comments like 'can you believe this shit? check E55140 shit's copy paste' and 'maths does NOT check out lost 12k available-for-sale debt investments over 1yr??? other increments as noted' 'note E02315 against total acquisitions where'd half the park go' and also, just, so many equations. How is it even possible to input those kinds of equations into a text document, aren't you supposed to type the English letter 'x' to times things.
"Y'know. Boring crap." Tsubasa hits control-plus-S and spins around so they can face Ichika more properly. "Never mind that shit, Ichika, dish! How'd it go?"
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Ichika smiles. She's happy with her exclamation point, and slides into the study, closing the door after once Tsubasa makes clear she's welcome. She is not in the sneakers she was in anymore, actually, because she's got on house slippers, but Tsubasa can probably remember the outfit. In the meantime...
"Sure," Ichika says, looking over a bunch of stuff that has no meaning to her. "Wow," Ichika says. "This is some serious smart people stuff," she says, impressed. "I can't even read it."
But she smiles when Tsubasa faces her. "Welllll," she starts, drawing it out a little--
"It went great!" Ichika says. "I told him some stuff, he told me some stuff, we decided... it was OK. Like, he was all worried about what I see in a guy who doesn't have much experience, rather than thinking I'm all damaged and stuff. And I was like... I mean, maybe I should pay more attention to manga and less attention to detailed life plans, right?"
"And we talked about... how things can grow, but they don't have to yet. Like, he still hasn't kissed me or anything, but I think that's OK."
"We went out and got ramen."
"But... He also--like, he was kidding, but he asked if you and me were a thing? And I was like, not exactly, but then I explained, and..."
"He seems cool with it? Like I explained it's Different, and that I didn't want to go behind his back or anything, but..."
"He's cool. And we're cool. And everything's... cool?"
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"It's jus' 'cuz ya don't know the language, man, shit's like learnin' English or some shit," Tsubasa says, though they're not about to assume she wants to learn, anyway. It is, as they say, boring crap. "Guess it's kinda cool I know it, tho'." It is not cool. It is so devastatingly uncool that not even knocking out every punk in the building would save them if Kasugayama realised that they were a goddamn pencil-pusher. Luckily, none of them have spies in the Kawase household!
But anyway, Ichika went on a date, that's way more important, c'mon.
(Incidentally, Tsubasa is terrible at speaking English. Did you know that? Ichika knew that.)
They lean forward on the armrest, fixing her with attention, which of course might be precisely what she's going for. And then--!! Then, she declares it went great, and Tsubasa actually smiles. "Yeah, dude, guy fuckin' loves his ramen," they surmise. "See, what'd I tell ya? Nice work."
Tsubasa shrugs, reaching back to rub at the back of their neck, when she goes on to say talk about how he took them. "Uh, y'know, guess it would normally be kinda farfetched," because of course girls dating anything other than boys is some form of practice, culturally speaking. "But he was, yeah? So like, he's really cool with it?"
They pause, looking sidelong to Ichika, from where they'd been wrenching their neck. "So, uh... you an' me..." They start, and trail off, awkwardly. "...?" Yeah, the raised eyebrows and tilted head really communicates the rising tone you didn't add in there, Tsubasa. Maybe it would help if you could figure out where you're sitting between nervous and excited.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Learning English... Ichika's not great at English, either. Maybe in another world, she had a boyfriend who knew the language and taught her stuff. But not this one. She'll have to learn it the old-fashioned way if she wants to get any good. Still, "I think it's good. Like I said, smart people stuff." 'Cool' would be a lie. 'Good' is true! But Ichika's not gonna say it's uncool, either.
Ichika is indeed going for exactly that. So she gets a smile out of Tsubasa! "Yeah!" she says. "It's like... guy still blushes when he sits too close. Drives me crazy. But in a good way? It's nice."
"Yeah he wasn't expecting it, but he seemed fine when I explained that it isn't exactly the same as boyfriendgirlfriend, even if it's definitely not the same as 'just friends' either. Like, it's more than that..."
"So yeah I think he's cool with it. I was all 'are you sure' and he still said yeah, so..."
Ichika listens to Tsubasa's question that doesn't even sound like a question. "Well..."
"Let's just say that when you feel up to making me your girl," Ichika says, "That I can be both." Her voice takes on a certain hush; her eyes take on a certain heavy quality.
"...We're on," she clarifies. "In case that's not clear."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
"Yeah," Tsubasa says, with the ghost of a smile. It took Ichika some effort, but she eventually got them to accept the compliment!!
They bark out a chuckle as their smile cracks into a grin, as Ichika dishes more of her deets. "Heh, he's like that? Yeah, I bet." Paying more attention to manga, huh...
Tsubasa files their thoughts on that for now; they're busy being happy for Ichika.
And then they promptly make a complete ass of themself laughing over Ryuji, because her tone drops, but, like, they're the one suddenly submerged in this sea of anticipation. Their lips part to take a breath, and at some point in that motion their brain forgot the command to make them pick their jaw off of the floor; their gaze flicks down, and then back up to her eyes, but that's not to say they ever looked away from her.
"Oh," they say, eloquently.
would it be weird to turn this chair back around and run a quick search about whether hot girls actually CAN give you a heart attack or nah tho --
"... you, uh..." Tsubasa, who is apparently smart enough to parse dense business documents, has forgotten how to string two words together. "I mean -- would it be weird if I..." ... well, it's not that thought, but they don't quite manage to get it out anyway.
Walking into a wall technically is a symptom of a heart attack, Tsubasa. You COULD just go to hospital.
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
Success!!
Not that Ichika reads that much anyway. But maybe she should! It might be nice.
But Ichika thinks, score, as Tsubasa seems to forget how to talk. In these tanktops it wouldn't surprise Ichika if Tsubasa's gaze didn't make it back up to her eyes for a lot longer than those few moments, especially the way Ichika has leaned down a little closer to Tsubasa.
It would be weird to do the search, yes.
But...
"No," Ichika says, and leans down a little further, putting her hand on the armrest and putting herself that much closer to Tsubasa. It's... a position she can't hold forever, but it's making her point pretty nicely.
"It would not be weird."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Ichika's perch is precarious, because this is a spinny chair, though it helps that Tsubasa's planted their feet quite firmly at this point. And any view of Ichika is a good view, but this is some real billion-yen beachside real estate shit, and frankly the fact that they have this thick fake tan and all that makeup on is not going to save them from the perception check at this point.
They lean forward, and one of their hands drops down, to rest over Ichika's on the armrest. Suddenly it's feeling a bit hard to breathe in that binder, but that's probably just because the whole quality of the process has changed in the last few moments. Hesitantly -- shyly! -- Tsubasa's other hand reaches up to smooth Ichika's hair back, coming to rest behind her head and urging her forward a little more.
c'mon man you definitely don't remember how to do this shit what are you DOING would you at LEAST do some fucking research first you're going to look like an IDIOT --
All that to say there's that moment of hesitation, as her face starts swimming in their field of view, before Tsubasa tells their head to shut the fuck up and closes the space.
The small noise they make, when their lips meet, really speaks a thousand words; and more, still, for how long they grasp her before they have to sink back and take a breath. ... Ichika may note, with all her experience, that it takes less time for them to run out of air than most guys she's kissed; though the extra pressure on their breathing suggests they sure weren't holding out on her.
"Wow," Tsubasa says, still entirely eloquent. "Ichika..."
Another breath, and another. "I never realised... how much I wanted to do that," they actually find a real, genuine, mint-condition complete sentence somewhere in that overoccupied head of theirs. "God, your lips are so soft..."
<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
It would be very, very funny and not at all the thing Ichika's going for if they both fell on that spinny chair. ...But she's counting on Tsubasa's planted feet and the sheer gravity of the moment. For her part, Ichika has a really easy time breathing--in fact, Tsubasa can tell. Her breathing is faster, and that means her chest rises and falls a little faster still.
Ichika takes the guidance easily, dipping forward when Tsubasa urges her. So there is a little hesitation that Ichika notices--but she notices because she's just closed her eyes and has to wait a fraction of a second.
Ichika makes less noise, just a little ghost of a sigh against Tsubasa's mouth. Ichika does note that fact about running out... but somehow it's not a problem in the least. Ichika's eyelids flutter open, lashes and all, as she looks down into Tsubasa's eyes.
"I..." She trails off for a moment, but smiles as she says, "I think I knew how much I wanted you to, anyway."
"And ah, well..."
She thinks about Tsubasa's lips, which she thinks aren't so rough as they might imagine, and finds herself saying of her own, "I moisturize."
<Pose Tracker> Tsubasa Seki has posed.
Just a sigh, but Tsubasa hears it, anyway. Still, you know what? The heart attack's worth it, so they're just not going to worry about how much theirs is pounding right now.
"Then... glad I could make you happy," and stoic Tsubasa cannot actually stop smiling, right now, it's physically impossible. "I am, too..."
But she moisturises, and Tsubasa's hand slips forward to cup her jaw gently, running a thumb over her lip. "Yeah...?" They echo, still a touch breathless. "I can tell..."
They shift forward, again, gaze still intently on her, as if they could embrace the whole of her with their eyes alone.
"... can I do that again?"
And even if they don't get much further than learning her lips, they do, eventually, need to find a more secure perch than the spinny chair.
It's at least really funny when they almost both end up spin-tipping right onto the floor.