RP Log: Sakuno and Shinji

[gimme-a-boost.livejournal.com]

Date: Tuesday, October 16
Rating: G
Summary: Shinji's looking for something to eat, Sakuno needs a taste tester.  Much disappearing ensues.

"Hm hm...hmmhmmhmm~" Sakuno hummed a cheerful little tune as she stirred chocolate diligently in a double boiler over the stove in Ryuhana's kitchen. The pumpkin flavored nougat and ice cream balls she'd already prepared and frozen were set out on the counter, ready to be dipped in the sweet confection as soon as it cooled just enough.

 

The month so far had already seen her going through a dozen pumpkin recipes she'd thought up, but treats for the festival were going to have to be special, she decided. Her group had essentially left the food and treats for the tea party up to her, and she suspected that just maybe Yukimura had said a few good words to them for her. So she had to be sure to make them her very best!

 

And, just to make her week even nicer, a little time with Yagyuu-sensei had been helping her a lot with her concentration on her power. She'd managed so far to stay visible at least half of the day, and currently most of her was still visible. She was practicing even as she worked, and since it was so much easier working with only a portion of her body at a time, her head and upper torso bopped along over the stove on invisible legs.

Shinji walked through the cafeteria towards what he had been told was the kitchen.  He was glad to have a bit of time to himself after spending almost the entire day with Rin.  At first Shinji had been glad to help Fuji and his friend, especially since it meant he could spend time at Ryuhana with other mutants. But he didn't realized he had signed up to be Rin's shadow.  Even this small break was gladly welcomed so he could think quietly to himself.

He smelled something sweet as he got nearer to the kitchen doors.  Internally, he was both excited to meet another mutant, but at the same time he realized his quiet time was out the window.  He pushed the door open and looked around the kitchen for a moment.  Not seeing anyone, he stepped inside and called out, "Is anyone in here?" half hoping there would be no response.

Sakuno had just been taking a wee bitty taste of the melted chocolate--she was glad she'd found some organic melting chocolate, it was a lot richer without tasting too sweet--when she heard a voice at the door. Startled from her thoughts, she gasped and had to save the chocolate when she bumped the boiler.

 

Thank goodness chocolate melted at lower temperatures. Otherwise she might have burned both her hands.

 

"U-um, I'm here!" She called out needlessly, looking down to check that most of herself was still visible. "Ah...um..." she batted a stray strand of hair from her face that had gotten away from her braid. "Can I...can I help you?"

Shinji sighed quietly to himself.  No luck for him today it seemed.  "I was just looking for the kitchens."  And obviously he had found them, judging by the various utensils he saw lying around on counters. 

He started walking through the area he was in and looked around.  Someone had certainly gone to town with baking recently, some cookies were cooling on racks on a few of the counters, and the smell made Shinji's stomach rumble.  He rubbed it absentmindedly; he realized he hadn't had breakfast that morning in his eagerness to get out of the house.

Looking up, he saw a door through which the voice had probably come.  He figured whoever was in there was probably the person in charge of baking these treats.  Maybe they would let him eat one or two to ease his hunger pangs or they might have some other food with them.  He walked through the door and started a greeting "Hello,sorry to trou-" and promptly cut himself off when he saw a girl's body floating with no legs.

"O-oh. Well, this is the kitchen!" Sakuno didn't recognize the boy that came in, but she assumed he was another student she just hadn't met yet. She still got a little nervous meeting new people, but she thought she was getting much better lately. She'd been watching Tomo-chan and An-chan a lot, and they always smiled and gave cheery hellos to people.

 

So she gave it a try, tipping her head a little to the side and giving the blue-haired boy a little smile. "H-hello! Um...did you need anything? I can finish up if you need to make anything..."

Shinji blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes.  Yes, this girl definitely had no legs.  But she was floating.  He was about to ask what was going on when he remembered where he was. This is Ryuhana.  A school for mutants.  Who's to say there aren't legless, floating mutant girls here?

"Uh... Oh!  Nope, I don't need to make anything.  I was looking for something to eat.  Rin told me there would probably be something to eat in the kitchens."

Oblivious to the boy looking at her invisible legs, Sakuno looked around the kitchen. Actually, there wasn't much right now, unless he wanted a sandwich. All she saw where the treats she'd laid out to cool, and the ones she needed someone to taste test for her...

 

"Um...well...I'm making things to try at the festival...and i need someone to try them...ah...would you mind? I have these pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips, um, pumpkin-ginger bread...ah...oh, and these pumpkin-cinnamon rolls I made with cranberry applesauce filling and a cream cheese frosting glaze..." She pointed each item out in turn on the table, inches of her right braid slowly vanishing from sight.

 

She remembered her manners by the time she got to babbling about the chocolate pumpkin bark and snapped up with a blush. "Ah...I'm so sorry! I-my name is Ryuzaki Sakuno..." She gave a polite little bow, embarrassed to have forgotten to introduce herself, and trying to push her treats on another student.

Shinji's stomach grumbled loudly as the girl pointed out some cookies on the table and he covered it with both hands quickly, giving an apologetic look to her.  He smirked slightly at her sudden rush of manners and bowed back.  "Ibu Shinji.  Nice to meet you Ryuzaki-san.  And don't be sorry.  I did ask, after all."

He picked up one of the pumpkin-ginger bread cookies.  "You're sure you don't mind?"  He wanted to be polite, but the smells from the cookies were making him even hungrier.

"N-no, not at all, Ibu-san! Really! I'd be so grateful..." Eager to have him try one, she even went to get a small plate, making a hasty little arrangement of goods on it.

 

Folding her hands in front of her anxiously--Oh, what if he doesn't like them--she started to notice something odd as Shinji ate. More of herself was starting to fade from view, almost as if it was out of her control. She tried to concentrate on staying visible, but only seemed to fade faster. Trying harder, she put her hands on the table, then stared in surprise as the table slowly started to vanish beneath her fingers.

 

She could see the floor, right through the 'missing' hole in the table. And she could only watch in mounting alarm when it rapidly grew and spread out along the table to where Shinji stood, holding the plate she'd given him, and he too started to disappear from the hand on up.

 

"Ah...Ibu...Ibu-s-san?"

No sooner had Sakuno assented than Shinji took a big bite out of the cookie, smiling as he chewed to have something to et.  Finishing the cookie, he was about to say how good it was when Sakuno practically pushed a plate full of cookies into his hands.  He continued smiling  and picked up another pumpkin-gingerbread cookie.  "These ones are very good.  A bit sharp for me, but still-" and he cut himself off as he watched Sakuno fade out of sight from the waist up.

He looked at the table and watched as a small hole began growing out from where Sakuno's hand had been before it disappeared as well.  The plate he was holding, and he knew he was holding it since he could still feel it, was also gone, along with- Where's my HAND!  Shinji dropped the plate back onto the table and watched as the rest of his body turned invisible starting from his arm and spreading from there.

He closed his eyes for a moment.  "Ryuzaki-san, you're a mutant, right?  Don't move."  With that, Shinji started backing away from where he last saw Sakuno, hoping this would end.

Somehow, the more Shinji backed up, the more everything seemed to inch back into visibility, until Sakuno was left standing there, hands over her mouth in dismay. The moment everything seemed  normal again she burst out in fevered apologies.

 

"Ibu-s-san, I'm so s-sorry! I don't know how that happened, r-really, I've never d-done anything like that before! I'm so sorry, a-are you all right?" Out of concern, she took a few steps towards him, and let out a squeak when the floor began to disappear under her feet again. Hastily she tried stepping back, and it reappeared.

 

Oh...had the floor disappeared before? The first thought that came to her mind was that she was wearing a skirt...until she remembered that she'd been invisible too. Feeling a little guilty that she'd thought of herself first instead of how Shinji must be feeling, she looked up apologetically. He must have been scared; she knew she had been the first time she disappeared!

Shinji cracked an eye open and glanced around, glad to see his body underneath him.  He sighed as Sakuno apologized to him.  Shouldn't he be the one apologizing to her?  He backed up as Sakuno approached him and held up his hands.

"Wait.  You're a mutant, right?  And I'm guessing you make things invisible?"  He lowered his hands and looked at them, flexing the fingers to reassure himself that they were there and visible.  He looked back at Sakuno.  "I'm sorry Ryuzaki-san.  That was my fault.  I boost other mutants' powers, it usually ends with something going out of control.  I guess I should be more careful around here, I don't know what mutants do, and I can't turn this down at all yet, I don't want to run into a mutant who explodes, or would start burning everything, like that time with Yuuta, or what if there's a mutant who breathes some poisonous gas and I get near them,then everyone would get sick or die because of me, and I don't know when I'm doing it, or how I'm doing it.  I think I need to talk to Ryoma about controlling this, now that I'm staying here..."

Shinji trailed off and picked up another cookie and started taking small bites out of it, staring off into space.

Collapsing into a chair, her baking forgotton, Sakuno looked across the room at him, still shaken. Her hands were already wrapped around one braid, twisting it slightly before she forced them to stop and fold in her lap.

 

Well, she just made things invisible, right? At least no one was hurt, she told herself firmly. "Ah...you boost mutants? When you get near them?" She thought about how hard that must be, much harder than her own power. Making other mutants powers go haywire probably wouldn't make Shinji very popular, and it could get him hurt too, if he was around a powerful mutant.

 

And...he looked a little lonely sitting all by himself, nibbling one of her cookies.

 

She knew he warned her away, but she couldn't make him think she was afraid of him coming close to her, right? It would be okay to make things invisible around them for just a little bit; no one was around to crash into the tables or anything. Even if it was a little scary how fast everything had faded around them...Sakuno stood up and walked over to sit down next to the blue haired boy. And gave him a little hug.

 

"I-I'm sorry, Ibu-san. That was more scary for you than it was for me. I don't mind, um, and my power doesn't hurt? Everything is still there...just invisible." Even as she spoke the entire room was beginning to disappear, right down to the insulation behind the walls.

Shinji nodded absently at Sakuno's questions, chewing thoughtfully on the cookie.  It really was quite delicious, and he picked up the plate again and picked up another cookie, not really looking to see what kind it was.  The flavor was a bit more subtle, a bit sweeter.  He was about to say something when he noticed Sakuno had walked towards him and sat down.  That is, he saw part of her sit down, she had mostly faded from sight by the time she settled down.

He was about to get up and move away when he felt something wrap around his shoulders and neck.  It took a moment to understand what had happened, then he realized she was hugging him!  He watched as his body dissolved away, along with the floor, the cookies, and more of the room.

He searched for one of her hands and took it into his own.  "It wasn't scary." Okay, that was a lie.  It was one of the more terrifying things he had experienced in a long time.  "And no, your power doesn't hurt.  It's just-" weird. unnerving. scary. "-odd to see yourself disappear."  Shinji gestured to the spreading invisibility around the room, forgetting that the gesture wouldn't be visible either.  "Or the room around you.  I just wish I could turn this off so this kind of thing wouldn't happen unless I wanted it to."

"I wish I could turn mine off too", Sakuno sighed, feeling comfortable like this, with Shinji holding her hand. She was being close to someone without being a nervous, blushing wreck! Mentally, she scored herself a point and was happy with her little progress, and she was glad to know that it didn't bother Shinji much, even if they were making the entire kitchen disappear between them. She smiled even though he couldn't see it and squeezed his hand back.

 

"Well, ah...until we learn to turn them off, we'll just have to make sure not to get too close if there's too many people around", she said, then paused a little uncertainly. "Ah...I mean if its okay with you if we're friends, Ibu-san..."

Shinji chuckled quietly.  "I don't think too many people would know what to do if the room started dissolving away before their eyes."  He squeezed her hand back.  "And I'd like that, Ryuzaki-san."  Shinji closed his eyes again and smiled. There weren't many people who knew he was a mutant and wanted to be friends with him.  Even though no proof had ever come about at his school that he didn't destroy the car, it still ostracized him from his classmates.  No one wanted to be friends with a mutant. 

The smiled dropped from his face when she mentioned not getting too close to other people, though.  He really needed to work on his control, or carry around a sign warning mutants to stay away.  But driving away mutants, the people who understood him, did not appeal to Shinji at all.

Shinji swallowed and forced himself to smile, if only to keep the tone of his thoughts out of his voice.  "But if we're friends, you can just call me Shinji."

"Really?" Sakuno blinked at the permission, a little smile blossoming on her face. "Then you can call me Sakuno, Shinji-kun." She hugged his arm...at least she hoped it was his arm. "I promise I'll work very hard at controlling my powers! So it won't be so hard for you."

Shinji's smile relaxed as he felt the hug on his arm.  "And I'll try to control mine, Sakuno-chan."  He felt around with his free hand for the plate of cookies and picked one up.  "Cookie?  Don't know what it is, but I'm sure it's great.  The last two certainly were."

Feeling along his arm to his hand to the cookie, Sakuno broke a piece of it off blindly and tasted it. "Pumpkin ginger", she declared and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad you like them, Shinji-kun. I wish you could be my official taster! I need to decide what I'm going to make for the festival."

Shinji rested his head on Sakuno's.  "I'm still kind of hungry Sakuno-chan, I don't mind taste testing for you."  Shinji was very content to sit and eat cookies with Sakuno, even if he couldn't see what he was eating.  The fact that he could be near her and not worry about destroying something and at the same time be accepted for what he was meant a lot.  "What other cookies do you have?"