false
Junior Member
Asuka Tomoe
Posts: 76
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Post by false on Aug 7, 2011 16:36:45 GMT -5
Somewhere along the line, Max's arm had snaked its way around her shoulder, so light and ephemeral that it took her until the end of her one-sided recollection of her past to finally realise that he was offering him comfort. Her eyes remained fixed forward, afraid that if she moved at all his presence would fade away, dust to dust. "No, Max said, his next words a jumble of sympathy, regret; the words themselves couldn't pierce through the veil of disbelief - she'd found someone who cared, someone who understood - but the crudely expressed hope he'd given shape towards the end was enough to make her turn her head, look him straight in the eye.
In the corner of his golden-brown, leonine eyes, a fresh group of tears had taken root. This all resembled some sort of ridiculous, melodramatic pity party - it doesn't matter, Asuka thought, leaning in closer to him, letting her face rest against the vaguely scratchy material of his uniform. Max's warmth behind her - his arms, his breath, his words - were akin to the big brother she'd never had but always wanted - someone to vent to, someone who was always there. "I hope you're right," she said, looking at him again as she pulled away. "It's not going to be easy. Demons are terribly difficult things to escape from." Fuck, the last time she'd cried at school - omitting those days where the world on her shoulders had drug her down and she'd spent hours in the toilet stalls, alone - was when she'd gotten into that pointless, pyrrhic fight with Ren Yukio. The apple she'd eaten for breakfast did a 360 in the middle of her stomach, her own mistakes too insurmountable for her to face or even think about at the moment.
"Thank you, Max. You've no idea how much this means to me." Asuka smiled a smile that borderlined heavily on wan, but it was a smile nonetheless.
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Max
Junior Member
Max Kimori
Posts: 99
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Post by Max on Aug 8, 2011 23:06:03 GMT -5
Asuka moved closer to him, only a bit, but it was enough to convince Max that he was helping. The weight of her head on his shoulder -- among everything else that rested there already -- was still bearable. The feeling that came with helping someone and said someone being grateful for it -- in Max's opinion -- was something that everyone need to experience at least once in life. And if he genuinely cared for the person, it was never a difficult task for him once he figured out how to lend a hand.
He squeezed the girl's shoulders tightly just before she pulled away. The brunette found himself wishing she hadn't, though, realizing he needed the comfort as much as she probably did. That was an odd feeling for Max -- or, rather, sharing a feeling with someone was odd for him.
Normally, he felt heartbroken while the people around him were celebrating, angry when the others were having a laugh, near death when everyone else was so full of life. It was sickening. He glanced down at the shattered cellphone on the ground, his foot moving to step on the screen, another satisfying crunch! filling the otherwise soundless hallway for a brief moment.
"It's not going to be easy." Asuka said, "Demons are terribly difficult things to escape from." A few more tears fell from her eyes.
Max sniffed, squashing his own tears and focusing again on the girl before him. She's much too pretty to cry like this. He rolled his eyes at his stupidity, petty cliches that Max was glad he hadn't uttered aloud swimming in his thoughts.
The girl next to him felt much more like a sister to him -- after only a short conversation -- than anything else. He never wanted to see Asuka shed a tear again, and, while that sentiment could -- and probably would be sometime down the line -- misconstrued as romantic, it really held no meaning close to that for the boy.
Sure, Asuka was very pretty, and obviously very smart, but Max felt nothing akin to "love" for her on any level above family. Family? What the fuck? Max blinked, a disgusted look taking shape on his face. Max, dude, your family consists of some old bitch that didn't even think to take you to the hospital when you came home beaten to a fuckin' pulp, man.
The blood boiled in Max's veins, his mind on loop of that day now -- calling the guys at the warehouse to tell them he was spending time with family that day... none of his friends knew he was adopted --, but he kept composure, hoping Asuka hadn't noticed his whiplash-inducing mood shift. His old "friend's" words floating back to him at a time like this made him want to find the pricks and beat them within an inch of their lives and the laugh at them -- Karma could be used as en excuse --, much like they had, but the girl beside him stopped his rage from taking him under its wing and showing him how to "live it up."
"Thank you, Max. You've no idea how much this means to me." Asuka said, her voice low and hidden behind something Max assumed was supposed to be a sad smile.
He reached up quickly, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. Max smiled softly back down at her. "You're the first friend I've made here," he froze for a moment, was it too soon to call her that? "And I don't want to see you cry, so I'll do whatever I can to keep you from doing that."
Once again, the boy had no clue whether he should have been saying any of that out loud, but something about the situation caused the part of him that worried about contracting "foot-in-mouth" syndrome for the billionth time in his life to shrink back in to the corner of his mind. That was a good feeling, too.
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false
Junior Member
Asuka Tomoe
Posts: 76
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Post by false on Aug 12, 2011 13:34:01 GMT -5
Max stomped on his cellphone again, crushing the monsters that it had once tied him to by proxy. It was a satisfying sound - maybe she'd helped, after all. Me? Help? Days before the idea would have been inconceivable, but after their pity party slash comfort party, Asuka legitimately felt as though she'd built someone up rather than tearing them down. A pro at the latter, the former was something she'd have to get used to.
For a moment, she sensed something hostile boiling within Max; his facial expression was one of annoyance, though there was no possible way it could have been directed towards her. Was there? Concerned, Asuka glanced over at him, watching the pent-up rage melt away as he smiled and wiped one of her tears to oblivion. Whatever he'd been thinking about - no doubt something pertinent to his 'friends' - had been tossed out the window in favour of reality. Good. Dwelling on the past only made everything worse.
Did he just call me his friend? Asuka blinked slowly, replaying the sentence over and over in her head. A small, barely perceptible flush appeared at the tips of her cheeks; only one other person had called her that in her entire life, but Chiaki was hardly a kindred spirit like Max was. She looked at him again and realized that she'd spawned another awkward silence with her relentless, eternal introspection. "Friend, huh...?" Asuka mused, smiling a little. "I like how that sounds." Max was a pretty nice guy - it must have been fate that he'd thrown that phone at her. She smiled a little larger, realizing for the first time how lucky she was to have met two very, very kind boys in such a short stretch of time.
"Mhm. I'd rather you didn't cry anymore, either." Asuka brushed a stray strand of her bangs from her eye so she could see. "If you ever need to talk, find me, okay?" Another glance at Max had her thinking about the people he'd once called his 'friends' and what, specifically, they'd done to make him this way. Asuka felt her stomach churn at this thought; if they ever bothered him again they were dead. That much was for certain. But this was hardly the time or place to mention that she was violent, bellicose, and had deep-running emotional scars that manifested in the form of several mental disorders; Max probably understood, anyway. The important thing was that she would fight for someone other than herself, wanted to protect someone even though they were a total stranger.
Friend. Asuka played this word again in her mind, giving it Max's voice as it resounded. It felt nice.
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Max
Junior Member
Max Kimori
Posts: 99
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Post by Max on Aug 16, 2011 12:41:14 GMT -5
Asuka was silent for a long moment, considering something and, thankfully, not looking at Max in the eye. Something angry still twisted in his gut, and he was sure it was noticeable on his face... actually, he knew it was. Asuka could pick it up if he was carrying it in his back pocket. "Friend, huh...?" the girl spoke softy, a ghost of a smile tugging the corners of her lips upward. "I like how that sounds."
The boy next to her smiled as well, blinking away the last few tears and the stinging in his eyes. He hated that -- the pain that still lingered after he'd tried to wash everything away by crying, letting things out, but, no matter what, it still hurt in some way afterwards. "I'm glad," Max said, quietly, not knowing what else to say.
He was, though, glad that Asuka was interested in being his friend. He hadn't had a real one in so long, and, even though he'd only known Asuka for about thirty-seven minutes now, their budding friendship felt more genuine than anything Max had felt before. He could trust her, she'd shown that by trusting him, as well.
"Mhm. I'd rather you didn't cry anymore, either." Asuka flipped her hair away from her face, glancing at Max from the corner of her eye. Max found himself trying to decide if he could stop crying, just for a little while, and just for Asuka. He would try, though, despite how hard it would be. "If you ever need to talk, find me, okay?"
Removing his arm from around the girl's shoulders, Max stood from the windowsill and retrieved his bag and sketchbook. "I hope you're prepared for me to take advantage of that offer," Max said, smiling softly and stretching a hand out to her. "It's been about a month, and I only really had one person to talk to..." he trailed off uneasily, the hand not offered to Asuka reaching up to run through his already disheveled hair. "What's your first class, I'll walk you there."
Truth be told, Max had no desire to attend classes that day, but, for Asuka's sake, he'd suck it up and try. For the longest time, Max hadn't known anyone worth trying for -- not even his adoptive parents, despite how shitty it felt admitting that -- and, now that he'd met Asuka, he felt like... finally having a friend gave him something to -- what the hell is the right word? -- aspire to be. She said she would be there for him, so he would try his damnedest to be there for her, too.
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false
Junior Member
Asuka Tomoe
Posts: 76
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Post by false on Aug 16, 2011 19:56:37 GMT -5
"I hope you're prepared for me to take advantage of that offer," Max said, holding a hand out to her. He was smiling; it was genuine. "It's been about a month, and I only really had one person to talk to..."
Asuka smiled back - her eyes still felt puffy from the unexpected outburst, the outside air stinging them slightly, but it was a good sting. It feels good, she thought, taking his hand within hers, to have someone to cry with. Max was quite possibly the only person she'd ever truly sympathized with. While they'd hardly known each other for an hour, Asuka had already unraveled him - it felt like they'd known each other for an eternity - and that in itself felt absolutely wonderful. "What's your first class, I'll walk you there."
"I have English," she said, letting him take the lead down the hallway. "Not that I need to go, or anything, but it's bad to skip classes." Making a point to stomp on the shattered remains of Max's cellphone, her footsteps felt strangely light as they walked together. Asuka continued to smile - I have a little brother, now, she told herself, feeling all the white noise and the thunder and the howling wind in her mind subside. His hand was an anchor, and while it couldn't parch the ocean, it was really all she could ask for.
/end
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