June 29/Moving In/PG/Closed

[Greg]

Characters: Hiroya Kouno & Atticus Finnigan
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Dorm 10A

Hiro walked into the dorm room with the last box of his things. This made 6 boxes, total. 2 being street clothes for when he's out or just relaxing around the dorm, 1 being his TV, 1 containing all of his books, and the other 2 holding any random stuff he threw in them from his room. He also had a silver case sitting on his bed, but he just let that sit there. Other than those boxes, the dorm room was pretty empty. "Huh. I wonder where Atticus is?" Hiro asked himself, but he just shrugged, knowing he'd show up sometime.

"Well, guess I should get started..." He thought and sighed, as he looked at them all. He really didn't want to do this. But it was easier than packing them all, he knew that from experience. He got through one of the boxes of clothes, filling up a little more than half of his dresser.

When he was done with the box, he threw it to the side. There were still 5 boxes. He groaned as he tossed himself, face-first on his bed, silver case sitting just below his feet. He really didn't feel like doing this right now...or ever.

[miyaji]

Finally, Atticus was able to get to his dorm. After his first day of official school, the boy still hadn't been able to settle in. He stumbled towards his dormitory room, lugging along a cart with at least eight boxes and a giant suitcase as well. A good portion of the boxes contained necessary camera equipment, his laptop, and props for his online videos. The boy arrived at the dorm and fished the key out of his pocket. He opened the door and headed inside, dragging the cart behind him.

"Oh, hi Hiro!" Atticus greeted, waving enthusiastically at the boy he had met that morning. "How are you?" he continued as he started to pull the boxes off the cart and set them at the foot of the closet. He whirled around to face Hiro once more, but what caught his eye was the silver case.

"What's that?" Atticus asked curiously. "Looks pretty important." He said, leaning against the ladder rung of the bunk bed.

[Greg]

Hiroya looked up from his bed, turning his head just right so he could see the door. "Hey, Atticus!" He greeted his roomie, sitting up on his bed. He watched his roommate unload his boxes. "Oh, I'm alright. Just a little tired and not really in the mood to unpack right now. But...trying to force myself to. Kinda failing, though." He said, looking down. "How about yourself?" He asked.

Hiro looked at the case when his friend asked about it. He sighed, I probably shouldn't have left it out in the open...but I didn't think I'd find it so difficult to want to explain. Oh well...guess it's too late now. He thought. "Well...that case has a story behind it." He picked the case up, placing it in his lap. "And, you should probably be prepared for what you're going to see...'cause even I still sometimes find it a little weird. But this explains my behavior in class this morning...with all the stretching." His voice was a little shaky. He'd never really gotten like this before. Why did he find it so hard to talk to Atticus about this? He didn't care what anyone else thought about him...why only him? Hiro shook the question from his mind.

Slowly, Hiro unlatched and opened the case, revealing his metal limbs. He then set the case to his left. "It's gonna feel so good to do this, these are really getting on my nerves." He said, pulling off his right arm with his left, setting it on the bed, and attaching the metal arm. He then did the same with his left leg. With that done, he looked up to his roommate to see what his reaction was.

[miyaji]

"I'm not going to unpack right away either," Atticus admitted with a laugh, "But I'm going to eventually, stuff I need for my videos are in there. In fact, most of my stuff is specifically there for my videos." He gestured at the giant pile of boxes he had left outside the closet door. He leaned back against the ladder railing, watching as Hiro suddenly sighed.

Did I ask something that shouldn't be brought up? Atticus thought a bit worriedly, but he couldn't help it. His curiosity wasn't something that was easily tamed, and although he felt bad about asking what seemed like a personal question, he was also incredibly looking forward to what Hiro was about to show him. The blonde watched in awe as Hiro opened the case to reveal the metal limbs.

"Whoa..." Atticus couldn't help it, he was amazed. He wasn't scared, he was intrigued. This was something he had never seen before in his life. The boy was fighting the temptation to take out his camera and snap pictures of it to post on his blog. No matter how interesting this was, it was still Hiro's personal life. Atticus couldn't just allow himself to publicize something like this.

The boy didn't even flinch when Hiro pulled off his fake arm and leg and attached the metal ones. "T-that..." Atticus began, his voice slow and shaky. He couldn't remember the last time he had been this surprised -- probably never. "That was amazing." he finally breathed, "That was amazing." he repeated again, his face still frozen in an expression of shock and awe.

"H-how long have you been doing this?" Atticus asked, finally looking up from Hiro's arm and leg to his face.

[Greg]

Hiro's eyes widened a bit. "That was amazing." Atticus said...twice. Hiro was a little caught off-guard by that one. "That's...not what I was expecting." He chuckled.

"H-How long have you been doing this?" Hiro paused for a moment, "Hmm...let's see. The accident happened in 7th grade," he thought out loud, "so...4, almost 5 years now." He looked back at Atticus, then shifted his gaze to the floor.

"I was thinking about telling you and Hiromi in Acting earlier...but I didn't really feel like explaining right then. Starting tomorrow, and for the rest of the year, I'll be walking around with my metal limbs...only wearing the human-like ones on stage. These are just more comfortable. So I'll have to explain to a lot of people tomorrow, I'm sure. It's not everyday you see an almost half metal guy, right?" He said, laughing when he was finished.

"I just...it's not that I didn't trust you enough earlier...I just didn't want to share. I'm sorry." Hiro added, his gaze still aiming at the floor. "It was nice just having everyone think I was normal for a day; not having everyone staring at me funny...even though it was just for a day." He let out a sigh and looked back up at Atticus, smiling. "I guess I should thank your awesome personality for not having you freak out on me. I don't think I could've gotten a better roommate." He grinned.

[miyaji]

"What were you expecting then?!" Atticus laughed, throwing his head back, "For me to scream in disgust and ran away? I'm living with you for the next year, right? That'd be kinda bad if I ended up being scared of you." he shook his head. He stopped laughing when Hiro started to speak again. "Five years, huh?" Atticus asked, not sure if he should pity Hiro or be amazed by him.

Atticus's eyes once again dropped from Hiro's face to land onto his metal arm. It looks so...metal-y and robotic. So unnatural-seeming, and yet Hiro is one of the most natural guys I've met since coming here. "Does it hurt?" Atticus suddenly asked, glancing back up at the other boy, hoping that it wasn't too much of a personal question.

"I'm sure you'll do fine!" Atticus nodded, his eyes gleaming in determination, "At first, some people thought I was crazy for screaming in the hallways about the most random things, or that I was weird for recording myself in the middle of a public place... but you know what? Like I said earlier, it's who I am and this --" he gestured at the metal arm and leg " -- this is who you are, yeah? So don't be worried about it. Just do what makes you comfortable."

"No need to thank me!" Atticus laughed, shaking his head modestly, "No, come on, I should thank you! That was quite a sight to see, it definitely made today ten times better."

[Greg]

Hiro laughed a little awkwardly, "Heh. Maybe not so dramatic, but most people are a bit afraid when they see it. I haven't had too many friends since the accident." Hiro sighed, thinking back to how most of his friends started avoiding him when they saw him back at school. "Yup. 5 long years. It used to be annoying, but I guess it's just become a second nature to me." He shrugged.

"Does it hurt?" Hiro looked at his arm and leg, like they would give him the answer, "No, actually. It did at first...but I guess, after a while, you just get used to it. It hurt really bad when I first got them. It was to the point where I didn't want to put them on, I would've rather gone with only 2 limbs." He laughed, "But...after a while, the pain lessened...and now, I just snap them on and that's that." He said, rather nonchalantly.

Hiro smiled, "Thanks, Atticus~" He thought on his friend's words for a minute, then looked up at his roomie and grinned. "You're right! If you can't accept yourself, how can you expect anyone else to?" He asked, rhetorically. "I just need to be confident..." his voice drifted off as his gaze lowered back to the floor, however he didn't have a sad look on his face. "And, if all the other people I know here are as cool with it as you, I'll be fine."

Hiro just chuckled, "If you say so...glad I could make your night." He said, and grinned.

[miyaji]

"I'm glad you got used to it!" Atticus grinned cheerfully, "Well, I don't know if my opinion matters or anything since I'm in your position... but I think it's really cool! When I was little, I really wanted to be, like, a robot or something! Not that I need to stand out more but... really, I think if you look at it... it's sorta cool you know?..." The boy trailed off after realizing that he wasn't making much sense, but the grin reappeared on his face when he remembered that he almost never made any sense.

Actually, I still want to be a robot. But that's besides the point.

"Man, everything comes with a price." Atticus said when Hiro described what the pain was like, "Everything would be better without pain, but I guess you can't avoid it."

Atticus felt rather flattered when Hiro complimented him. "Oh, don't mention it! I'm sure more people than you expect will be cool with it as well. I mean, metal limbs definitely don't look normal at first sight, but if you got used to it then I'm sure everyone else can too! Personally, I already think it's really cool-looking. It sorta matches you~" he laughed.