RP Log: Niou & Ryoma
Oct. 21st, 2005 01:43 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tenipuri_xpDate: Monday, October 17
Rating: G
Summary: Mostly fluff: Ryoma ditches training to go rollerblading with Niou. :D
As soon as Echizen came in the door after class, Niou slammed the laptop shut with a small billow of dust and bolted out of the swivel chair, still ignoring the small piles of sand kicked to the sides of the room like he had been all day. If he had to do one more how-to-empty-the-vacuum demonstration in the near future, that thing was going to die again.
“Got socks?” he asked, far too enthusiastically. He himself had had to go down to the mall just to buy a pair that morning (after taking time out to find his shoes). Anklets, damned things. But necessary if one was going to be hiring skates. “The nearest rink is a couple of stations away by train; let’s go before the salarymen start heading home <3” Because god knew Japan's train system could get deathly crowded sometimes.
Ryoma blinked – holy shit, his room was a mess. Well, okay, so it looked like Niou had already done a fair bit of cleaning, but there was still sand everywhere. The other unpleasant objects Niou had mentioned were gone, at least – though there were still one or two odd stains on the carpet here and there, and he could tell his bedsheets had been changed.
But that wasn't important right now; he grinned as the taller boy bolted out of the chair - huh, he didn't think he'd ever seen Niou move so fast, even if it was just to stand up. And he might have just been granted access to leave Hanamura's this morning, but damned if he was going to go to training instead of blading with Niou. The utter chaos of the weekend notwithstanding, he still did not want to train and could still shield himself just fine, now that his power seemed to be back on. Better, even, since everything felt sharper, clearer than before. Yamato seemed to understand, at least.
"Yeah," he said, still grinning as he dropped his schoolbag onto the floor. "Some people wear 'em on a regular basis, you know." He lifted one pantscuff to show Niou that he was indeed wearing socks with his shoes. He rooted around in his backpack for his wallet. "Let's go."
“Let’s,” Niou agreed with a laugh, threading his fingers through Echizen’s and leading the way. The train ride and walk weren’t too long, and they were at the skating rink soon enough. Paying for entry and then going up to the other window to hire skates, Niou looked down at Echizen’s feet and decided to state the obvious: “You have new shoes.”
Ryoma was mostly content to be pulled along in Niou's wake, still half-thinking about all the... crap that seemed to have happened to him in the past twenty-four hours. But they arrived at the rink in what seemed like no time, and he was certainly perfectly happy to forget last night and this morning completely to grin up at Niou. Everything else could wait.
"Yeah, my old ones were getting kinda small. They weren't that old, though... think I should give 'em to Dan?" It might have been a bit of a shame to replace his shoes so soon... but then, that meant that he really was growing. And he was not about to complain about that - not in the least. He was at least as tall as Sakuno now. "Got these the other day when I was out."
Aww, but lookee, the cute. He was so happy! And come to think of it, there hadn’t been much of that ‘damned late growth spurt’ muttering, lately. Niou chuckled, ruffling Echizen’s hair. “Is that so? Ask if he wants them.” His own feet had stopped growing years ago, and he got the same sized ‘blades as he had last time going skating, shuffling over to a nearby bench to put them on. With socks. “Did you know the length of your foot is the distance between your inner elbow and wrist?”
"Might as well put 'em to good use." Ryoma received his skates and sat beside Niou, putting them on the same way the other was. They were just skates - even though he'd never actually skated before didn't mean he couldn't figure out how to put them on. He glanced over, first eyeing the other's socks and then smirking at his comment.
"I didn't know that, no. You're so educational. Better than science class," he said, then nodded towards Niou's feet. "Don't think I've ever seen you wear socks before. How're your ankles faring?" He grinned and put both feet on the ground, rolling them back and forth a bit though he was still sitting on the bench. This probably wasn't that hard... but still. He'd never done it before.
“Oh, please, I think I can handle it,” Niou grinned (or tried to). He didn’t like socks for a reason, but as soon as he had the ‘blades done up tight enough – and he did now – it wouldn’t matter so much.
Reaching over, he tugged at Echizen’s buckles – they were your standard, with ridged plastic things that dragged over sideways to tighten – making sure they were done up tight, which they were. “Good <3 Worst thing for blisters is loose skates,” he said absently.
Standing, he skated a little circle on the spot to find his legs. It’d been a year or two since he’d last skated. Though over a decade since the first. Cue grin back at Echizen. “C’mon, Ryo-chan~” Heeling the brakes, he offered his hands out, palms up, to the other. “Or solo from the get-go?”
Ryoma allowed Niou to tug on his skate buckles, then watched the other stand and skate in a small circle. No... didn't look too hard. Couldn't be that bad. And there were plenty of kids littler than he was out on the rink. "I can get up," he said, pushing himself up off the bench -
Except... yeah. Now he was rolling forward. That's what happened when you had wheels attached to your feet. Great, that was fine, but there was the small matter of stopping. He swayed a moment, arms out slightly, not-quite-pinwheeling until he stopped rolling. For the most part. It was kind of weird. He felt significantly taller (well, okay, that made sense too - the blades gave him at least another couple of centimeters due to the wheels) and his feet kept... moving. Even when he was trying to stand still.
He glanced up at Niou. "So... is there a good way to stop on these things? Or should I just smack into you from behind?" he smirked, though he could see the other was... extremely amused. To say the least.
Niou was trying not to laugh too much, really. But, ah, the memories. He’d initially fallen over dozens of times himself – though he’d been a third of Echizen’s age, then. Though to be fair, wheels were wheels. “If you must,” he chuckled. “But be nice and give me warning? Here.” Rolling over, he took Echizen’s elbow. “Point your toes in to slow. Out to go faster. And remember to push off, or you’ll end up doing the splits <3” Which was bad for certain parts of the anatomy, to put it lightly.
Okay... didn't seem too hard at all, then. Ryoma nodded, still smirking. "Well if I gave you warning, I'd go right through you, huh? That wouldn't be good."
Toes in, slow, toes out, faster. He'd start with straight then; Ryoma got his balance, then pushed forward. And again. And again. Slowly, sure, but he wasn't about to fall over. This really wasn't so bad. "Okay... I think I got it..." As long as he didn't go too fast, he'd just roll to a stop without falling over. And really, it was kind of like... walking in sand. You just had to push against the floor more than you did when walking normally.
He made his way about a meter in one direction, then made a wobbly turn and came back the other way. "Yeah," he said, grinning up at Niou. "Not so hard."
Until one skate kept going and he crashed over sideways. "Ah! Shit."
Right, right – no hyperventilating, because that was bad; Niou abruptly found himself kneeling beside the sprawled Echizen, doubled over in silent laughter. Ow, and these knees were going to bruise tomorrow, but hell. Only if he didn’t die of suffocation first. “It always is… until you stop… concentrating, Ryo-chan… <3” Reaching over, he ruffled the other’s raggedy hair.
"Yeah well... apparently so's breathing." Okay, it probably was kind of funny. Maybe. Ryoma rolled his eyes and planted his hands firmly on Niou's upper arms, using the other to pull himself back to his feet (wheels? whatever). Once he was mostly upright, he glanced back down at the mop of silver hair. "Glad to provide you with oh-so-much amusement - if you're not gonna die, wanna try that again?" he snerked, poking Niou (carefully, so he didn't fall over again) with the toe of his skate. "It wasn't that hard, anyway... Next time I'll be sure to drag you down with me." Though Niou seemed quite capable of doing that himself.
“Sure, sure…” Niou chucklesighed the last of his mirth away, and stood (with somewhat undue caution) himself. Always the downside of laughing at someone: you had to make sure not to do the same thing (…please don’t be listening now, karma). Taking Ryoma’s hands without asking this time, he skated slowly backward, bringing them to the rink proper, and waited for a slight ebb in the skaters going clockwise. And, what? No, that wasn't him still randomly grinning.
... And now he was being led. Well. Niou seemed to be enjoying himself. And at least this way Ryoma didn't have to do half as much work. Nor was he likely to fall, demeaning as this was. He sighed and tossed a half-annoyed, half-amused look up at Niou, but he had to admit... This sure was a helluva lot better than training. Demeaning or not.
"How long'd it take you to be able to skate backwards?" he asked, noting that Niou hadn't run into anything yet.
The flow of skaters thinned, and Niou began to lead him out onto the rink. He glanced around cautiously, but the other seemed to know what he was doing well enough, and no one else seemed about to run into them. He concentrated on actually skating as opposed to being led - how else was he going to get the hang of it? One foot, then the other... it wasn't so hard, not the moving part. It seemed that stopping was harder than going.
“Not long,” Niou chuckled again as Echizen got it down pat soon enough on the slippery surface and let go of his hands, returning beside. “It’s not so hard as hitting the brakes without pancaking anyway. Hey…” – picking up the pace a little (just a little for now, though Echizen was the self-proclaimed fast learner, and he was) – “Catch me if you can <3”
"Yeah, well, not long as in a few hours, a few days, or a few years?" Ryoma asked, working a bit to keep his balance as Niou let him go. He was not going to fall over again - at least not if he had anything to say about it. It was harder to keep everything moving the same, but definitely not impossible. It really did feel like he was getting the hang of it.
"I think I'll just hit you if I have to hit the brakes," he said, watching as Niou sped up. "... Not fair," he called, but he was grinning - he really didn't know the last time he'd had this much fun. At least, not for a while. He didn't even have to think about his stupid power here - it was shielded better than before, since his link with Hanamura was... somehow stronger. And there weren't any other active mutants he could feel here anyway... Just a few very latent ones...
He really could feel a lot of the room, though. A lot - as in... the entire rink. His range hadn't been that good before... He blinked and shook his head before he completely spaced and ran into something or fell, and put his concentration into catching up with Niou.
Niou eyed Echizen’s momentary half-gone expression with a lopsided smile. He vaguely wanted to ask something like ‘is your brain alright?’ (though he’d done it already online – but reading journals wasn’t anywhere near the same as reading faces), or maybe ‘how the hell do you sleep with that just around the corner?’ and they’d both know what he was talking about–
But it wouldn’t do to mess up a good atmosphere. Instead, he skated back close, tongue darting out a fraction to lick the other’s nose. “Hit me?” he chuckled, clasping Echizen’s forearms with a tight grip. Quickly making sure there was no one in their immediate vicinity – “I’d say hold on instead <3” – he planted his right brake down and hauled back left.
"Eh?" And suddenly the rink - no, they were spinning, not too fast, but it was definitely a good thing Niou had a decent grip on his arms. Ryoma returned the hold, grabbing Niou's arms and watching the room around them spin past, fairly impressed with Niou's command of his blades. Sure, he'd seen ice skaters do something like this - but he hadn't really been aware you could do quite the same on wheels. And not while hauling another person. Maybe he really did need to get out more.
"Heh, you didn't tell me you were this good." He glanced back up at Niou's grin. He certainly made this look easy - Ryoma wasn't sure if it was or not. "You this good on all sorts of skates, or did I just pick the right one?" he asked with a smug grin of his own.
Niou laughed – “The right one,” he admitted, slowing a little before Echizen got too dizzy. Well, blades and skates were the same, but his sister’d first pulled the move on him – with a lot more speed and less warning – on ice (which was cold and wet… well, the cold was mostly fine – but there was something evil to be said for damp pants). He’d practised with his brother ‘til it worked perfectly on skates just to get her back when she wasn’t banking on it.
“Also, you picked the right one,” he added with a wink. It just didn’t work with a spazzcase – things fell apart and fell over.
"Mm, lucky, then." They'd slowed now; they swung around another time or two before pulling into the forward direction again. It took a moment to get his bearings, but then he started off again, a bit slowly at first and then building up some moderate speed. "We'll have to try something you haven't done next time then."
He was definitely getting the hang of this now - but he still wasn't going to risk going too fast and falling again. Niou would get too much of a kick out of that. And Ryoma was sure there would be more falling before the end of the day. Like when he actually had to stop. "Any ideas? Momo wants to play soccer but I'm not so sure about that. S'long as it's not tennis." There was absolutely no way he was going to even look sideways at a tennis racket if his dad was actually sticking around. Which he really hoped he wasn't, he thought, stifling a yawn.
Niou glanced at Echizen with a hidden frown, skating a circle around him. Concerned? Of course; anyone with half a brain would be, once he knew a kid had a dream like that – and stuck in it for two days? It’d drain even the best and their pet monkey. Going to say anything about it? Of course not. But maybe this’d be enough so he’d crash out dreamless.
“Mm, soccer?” Niou chuckled. “I used to play goalie at school way back; it could be fun <3 Not into the other standard ball games?” And there was the dad-and-tennis grousing again. For someone apparently disliked for all intents and purposes, Niou found it funny how much Echizen actually mentioned his old man…
"Don't have anything against soccer, I guess. An' Momo already said he'd play." Ryoma had only ever played sports at school, but really he supposed most of them weren't so bad. "Mostly I don't care." He shrugged, still working a bit at keeping his feet straight, but it seemed to be becoming second nature. He tried going a little faster, just a bit, watching Niou skate around him. Faster took more work; skating definitely seemed to suck energy, though it didn't look like it should.
Though speaking of energy - "You? Goalie?" He snickered a little. "I'd say you didn't strike me as one to play a sport, but then you picked the position that moves the least." It was kind of amusing, he had to admit. As was imagining a slightly younger (shorter!) Niou in a soccer uniform.
“Compulsory sports, go figure,” the phaser grinned softly in return. “Brainstimulating as it may be, daily chess so does not cut it in the long run. Starting a soccer club up could be okay.” Given, of course, Echizen got home in one piece. Because he looked just about ready to fall apart and sleep on his feet, which was… probably a good thing?
Reaching over, Niou laced their fingers again, matching Echizen’s pace (...just in case, okay?). He'd thought of something earlier, and now seemed as good a time as any to pose it. “Let’s camp out in the courtyard tonight <3” …that’s big enough to null your synch radius, isn’t it? “Or over the other side of the library.” Because growing little brats need their sleep for a reason… And Echizen could fill in the blanks himself.
Ryoma made a face - compulsory sports, huh? Not so appealing. He was glad Seigaku hadn't required its students to join clubs - and the schools in America certainly hadn't cared whether he'd stayed after school or went right home (or somewhere else). "Yeah, maybe we could try soccer." He supposed he'd give it a shot. Karate wasn't all that bad.
He blinked as Niou's hand slid into his, glancing up and considering the other's offer a moment. Was he saying what Ryoma thought he was saying...? "Mm... other side of the library's farther from the dorms," he said, thinking a moment. "... C'n I synch you, then? Trancing's almost as good as sleep, right?" He'd actually wanted to try it for a while now - and tonight was as good a time as any. He (intentionally) hadn't slept at all the previous night - sure, he was used to that nightmare by now, but two days straight of it had been... unpleasant, to say the least. Plus the only shields up right now were his - though they came from the link with Hanamura, he was the one in charge of them and she was less likely to notice if he took them down. He could probably block her well enough that she couldn't tell.
And if nothing else, it would give him a chance to spend longer with Niou's power. Maybe he could figure out exactly how Niou's sleep was regulated. The past two times he'd synched hibernation mode, it had been while he was asleep. Maybe if he did it while he was awake, if would give him more insight as to how it worked.
“Mm, if you’re lying down and have your eyes shut, I don’t think most could tell the difference…” Though of course this clever teddycat wasn’t ‘most’. “But the if’s a question for you, isn’t it? Reckon you can avoid passing out again?” Cue laugh and doublepoke in Echizen’s side <3
"That's fine, then," Ryoma said - sounded just about the same as sleeping, only not quite. That sounded... really good about now. "I think I can - last two times I synched your hibernation mode I wasn't awake when I did it - "
He squirmed as Niou poked him in the side - then realized too late that no, that was not a good idea on rollerblades. He went down, but not before grabbing frantically at the closest thing: Niou. Which meant, of course, that they both ended up in a heap on the rink floor, Ryoma sprawled beneath a shocked-looking Niou and for once, the pain of banging his elbow was worth seeing that look on Niou's face. He couldn't help but laugh, hiding it behind one arm as best he could.
The phaser just blinked – and again – before some logic kicked in and he rolled a little off Echizen, curling up lest someone ran his legs through (because that would be funny). “Don’t laugh at me, you evil child,” Niou whined – and, what? No, that wasn’t him trying not to join the laughter – most abused and plaintive voice making a show for the occasion. “You said you were a fast learner and I believed you!”
"I am a fast learner," Ryoma sputtered - though the laughter was dying down now and he could breathe properly again. "I only fell twice in how long? Don't poke me and I won't do it again. Since when am I evil?" He smirked, finally pushing himself upright and tugging at Niou to do the same. He eyed his elbow - a lovely shade of pink, that'd probably bruise later but oh well, it hadn't hurt that much, and definitely worth it - and tried to get his skates beneath him to stand again.
“Since when?” Niou chuckled, “I would’ve thought it came innate with a kid like you…” Phasing his hand a few times as he climbed to his feet (and not pulling things back together so most of the cold remained), he took Echizen’s elbow with a lopsided grin. So useful to double as a sleeping pill and icepack, really <3
Though next time, Echizen was not getting away with trying to hide that smile. A little loss of image for a little loss of image was only fair, after all.
Niou's hand was pleasantly cold on his elbow - hm, a good use for that side effect, really, Ryoma thought, glancing smugly up at his companion. "True, but it's taken years to refine my skills," he remarked, grinning. "Let's go before we get run over," he said, eyeing the skaters making their way around them as they stood in the middle of the flow. He pushed forward again, but slowly, so he could stay in contact with Niou.
"Though... we should call it quits soon before you forget and poke me while I'm on these things again, huh?" He could do with a couple more rounds around the rink - he was actually enjoying himself, and really starting to get the hang of it - but his head was also feeling strange. He wasn't used to being around this many people anymore, and he still had that half-floaty feeling of sleep deprivation as well, though neither of those were things he couldn't handle.
“Heh, you mean ‘before you are once again felled by a mere poke’,” Niou snickered. But it wasn’t as if skating was taking away the dark smudges under Echizen’s eyes.
"Yeah, you'd like to think of it that way," Ryoma said, smug grin plastered firmly on his face. They stayed a while longer, but soon enough found themselves on the train on their way back to Ryuhana. It was late enough now that there were seats available, one of which Ryoma collapsed (discreetly) into as the train started moving. The simple act of sitting down seemed to suddenly remind his body how tired he was - he'd been up nearly 30-some hours by now, a feat which he'd never managed before. He found himself jerking awake more than once as his chin hit his chest - and damn, he still had cleanup duty at the dorms when he got back. He wondered vaguely if anyone would care if it waited until tomorrow... the idea of dreamless-near-sleep was awfully appealing, if only he could stay awake a little longer.
"...stupid brat," Niou snerked softly, slouching to rest his head on Ryoma's shoulder. And damned if anyone was going to call him out on that fact. One Echizen Ryoma might've been a fast learner and mutantchild-genius and all that, but he was fundamentally brainless sometimes. Just sometimes. And the fact was far cuter than anything had a right to be.
The room could stay like it was for another day; not like anyone was going to be there, anyway. Because this little boy was going straight to sleep when they got back, yes he was.
Rating: G
Summary: Mostly fluff: Ryoma ditches training to go rollerblading with Niou. :D
As soon as Echizen came in the door after class, Niou slammed the laptop shut with a small billow of dust and bolted out of the swivel chair, still ignoring the small piles of sand kicked to the sides of the room like he had been all day. If he had to do one more how-to-empty-the-vacuum demonstration in the near future, that thing was going to die again.
“Got socks?” he asked, far too enthusiastically. He himself had had to go down to the mall just to buy a pair that morning (after taking time out to find his shoes). Anklets, damned things. But necessary if one was going to be hiring skates. “The nearest rink is a couple of stations away by train; let’s go before the salarymen start heading home <3” Because god knew Japan's train system could get deathly crowded sometimes.
Ryoma blinked – holy shit, his room was a mess. Well, okay, so it looked like Niou had already done a fair bit of cleaning, but there was still sand everywhere. The other unpleasant objects Niou had mentioned were gone, at least – though there were still one or two odd stains on the carpet here and there, and he could tell his bedsheets had been changed.
But that wasn't important right now; he grinned as the taller boy bolted out of the chair - huh, he didn't think he'd ever seen Niou move so fast, even if it was just to stand up. And he might have just been granted access to leave Hanamura's this morning, but damned if he was going to go to training instead of blading with Niou. The utter chaos of the weekend notwithstanding, he still did not want to train and could still shield himself just fine, now that his power seemed to be back on. Better, even, since everything felt sharper, clearer than before. Yamato seemed to understand, at least.
"Yeah," he said, still grinning as he dropped his schoolbag onto the floor. "Some people wear 'em on a regular basis, you know." He lifted one pantscuff to show Niou that he was indeed wearing socks with his shoes. He rooted around in his backpack for his wallet. "Let's go."
“Let’s,” Niou agreed with a laugh, threading his fingers through Echizen’s and leading the way. The train ride and walk weren’t too long, and they were at the skating rink soon enough. Paying for entry and then going up to the other window to hire skates, Niou looked down at Echizen’s feet and decided to state the obvious: “You have new shoes.”
Ryoma was mostly content to be pulled along in Niou's wake, still half-thinking about all the... crap that seemed to have happened to him in the past twenty-four hours. But they arrived at the rink in what seemed like no time, and he was certainly perfectly happy to forget last night and this morning completely to grin up at Niou. Everything else could wait.
"Yeah, my old ones were getting kinda small. They weren't that old, though... think I should give 'em to Dan?" It might have been a bit of a shame to replace his shoes so soon... but then, that meant that he really was growing. And he was not about to complain about that - not in the least. He was at least as tall as Sakuno now. "Got these the other day when I was out."
Aww, but lookee, the cute. He was so happy! And come to think of it, there hadn’t been much of that ‘damned late growth spurt’ muttering, lately. Niou chuckled, ruffling Echizen’s hair. “Is that so? Ask if he wants them.” His own feet had stopped growing years ago, and he got the same sized ‘blades as he had last time going skating, shuffling over to a nearby bench to put them on. With socks. “Did you know the length of your foot is the distance between your inner elbow and wrist?”
"Might as well put 'em to good use." Ryoma received his skates and sat beside Niou, putting them on the same way the other was. They were just skates - even though he'd never actually skated before didn't mean he couldn't figure out how to put them on. He glanced over, first eyeing the other's socks and then smirking at his comment.
"I didn't know that, no. You're so educational. Better than science class," he said, then nodded towards Niou's feet. "Don't think I've ever seen you wear socks before. How're your ankles faring?" He grinned and put both feet on the ground, rolling them back and forth a bit though he was still sitting on the bench. This probably wasn't that hard... but still. He'd never done it before.
“Oh, please, I think I can handle it,” Niou grinned (or tried to). He didn’t like socks for a reason, but as soon as he had the ‘blades done up tight enough – and he did now – it wouldn’t matter so much.
Reaching over, he tugged at Echizen’s buckles – they were your standard, with ridged plastic things that dragged over sideways to tighten – making sure they were done up tight, which they were. “Good <3 Worst thing for blisters is loose skates,” he said absently.
Standing, he skated a little circle on the spot to find his legs. It’d been a year or two since he’d last skated. Though over a decade since the first. Cue grin back at Echizen. “C’mon, Ryo-chan~” Heeling the brakes, he offered his hands out, palms up, to the other. “Or solo from the get-go?”
Ryoma allowed Niou to tug on his skate buckles, then watched the other stand and skate in a small circle. No... didn't look too hard. Couldn't be that bad. And there were plenty of kids littler than he was out on the rink. "I can get up," he said, pushing himself up off the bench -
Except... yeah. Now he was rolling forward. That's what happened when you had wheels attached to your feet. Great, that was fine, but there was the small matter of stopping. He swayed a moment, arms out slightly, not-quite-pinwheeling until he stopped rolling. For the most part. It was kind of weird. He felt significantly taller (well, okay, that made sense too - the blades gave him at least another couple of centimeters due to the wheels) and his feet kept... moving. Even when he was trying to stand still.
He glanced up at Niou. "So... is there a good way to stop on these things? Or should I just smack into you from behind?" he smirked, though he could see the other was... extremely amused. To say the least.
Niou was trying not to laugh too much, really. But, ah, the memories. He’d initially fallen over dozens of times himself – though he’d been a third of Echizen’s age, then. Though to be fair, wheels were wheels. “If you must,” he chuckled. “But be nice and give me warning? Here.” Rolling over, he took Echizen’s elbow. “Point your toes in to slow. Out to go faster. And remember to push off, or you’ll end up doing the splits <3” Which was bad for certain parts of the anatomy, to put it lightly.
Okay... didn't seem too hard at all, then. Ryoma nodded, still smirking. "Well if I gave you warning, I'd go right through you, huh? That wouldn't be good."
Toes in, slow, toes out, faster. He'd start with straight then; Ryoma got his balance, then pushed forward. And again. And again. Slowly, sure, but he wasn't about to fall over. This really wasn't so bad. "Okay... I think I got it..." As long as he didn't go too fast, he'd just roll to a stop without falling over. And really, it was kind of like... walking in sand. You just had to push against the floor more than you did when walking normally.
He made his way about a meter in one direction, then made a wobbly turn and came back the other way. "Yeah," he said, grinning up at Niou. "Not so hard."
Until one skate kept going and he crashed over sideways. "Ah! Shit."
Right, right – no hyperventilating, because that was bad; Niou abruptly found himself kneeling beside the sprawled Echizen, doubled over in silent laughter. Ow, and these knees were going to bruise tomorrow, but hell. Only if he didn’t die of suffocation first. “It always is… until you stop… concentrating, Ryo-chan… <3” Reaching over, he ruffled the other’s raggedy hair.
"Yeah well... apparently so's breathing." Okay, it probably was kind of funny. Maybe. Ryoma rolled his eyes and planted his hands firmly on Niou's upper arms, using the other to pull himself back to his feet (wheels? whatever). Once he was mostly upright, he glanced back down at the mop of silver hair. "Glad to provide you with oh-so-much amusement - if you're not gonna die, wanna try that again?" he snerked, poking Niou (carefully, so he didn't fall over again) with the toe of his skate. "It wasn't that hard, anyway... Next time I'll be sure to drag you down with me." Though Niou seemed quite capable of doing that himself.
“Sure, sure…” Niou chucklesighed the last of his mirth away, and stood (with somewhat undue caution) himself. Always the downside of laughing at someone: you had to make sure not to do the same thing (…please don’t be listening now, karma). Taking Ryoma’s hands without asking this time, he skated slowly backward, bringing them to the rink proper, and waited for a slight ebb in the skaters going clockwise. And, what? No, that wasn't him still randomly grinning.
... And now he was being led. Well. Niou seemed to be enjoying himself. And at least this way Ryoma didn't have to do half as much work. Nor was he likely to fall, demeaning as this was. He sighed and tossed a half-annoyed, half-amused look up at Niou, but he had to admit... This sure was a helluva lot better than training. Demeaning or not.
"How long'd it take you to be able to skate backwards?" he asked, noting that Niou hadn't run into anything yet.
The flow of skaters thinned, and Niou began to lead him out onto the rink. He glanced around cautiously, but the other seemed to know what he was doing well enough, and no one else seemed about to run into them. He concentrated on actually skating as opposed to being led - how else was he going to get the hang of it? One foot, then the other... it wasn't so hard, not the moving part. It seemed that stopping was harder than going.
“Not long,” Niou chuckled again as Echizen got it down pat soon enough on the slippery surface and let go of his hands, returning beside. “It’s not so hard as hitting the brakes without pancaking anyway. Hey…” – picking up the pace a little (just a little for now, though Echizen was the self-proclaimed fast learner, and he was) – “Catch me if you can <3”
"Yeah, well, not long as in a few hours, a few days, or a few years?" Ryoma asked, working a bit to keep his balance as Niou let him go. He was not going to fall over again - at least not if he had anything to say about it. It was harder to keep everything moving the same, but definitely not impossible. It really did feel like he was getting the hang of it.
"I think I'll just hit you if I have to hit the brakes," he said, watching as Niou sped up. "... Not fair," he called, but he was grinning - he really didn't know the last time he'd had this much fun. At least, not for a while. He didn't even have to think about his stupid power here - it was shielded better than before, since his link with Hanamura was... somehow stronger. And there weren't any other active mutants he could feel here anyway... Just a few very latent ones...
He really could feel a lot of the room, though. A lot - as in... the entire rink. His range hadn't been that good before... He blinked and shook his head before he completely spaced and ran into something or fell, and put his concentration into catching up with Niou.
Niou eyed Echizen’s momentary half-gone expression with a lopsided smile. He vaguely wanted to ask something like ‘is your brain alright?’ (though he’d done it already online – but reading journals wasn’t anywhere near the same as reading faces), or maybe ‘how the hell do you sleep with that just around the corner?’ and they’d both know what he was talking about–
But it wouldn’t do to mess up a good atmosphere. Instead, he skated back close, tongue darting out a fraction to lick the other’s nose. “Hit me?” he chuckled, clasping Echizen’s forearms with a tight grip. Quickly making sure there was no one in their immediate vicinity – “I’d say hold on instead <3” – he planted his right brake down and hauled back left.
"Eh?" And suddenly the rink - no, they were spinning, not too fast, but it was definitely a good thing Niou had a decent grip on his arms. Ryoma returned the hold, grabbing Niou's arms and watching the room around them spin past, fairly impressed with Niou's command of his blades. Sure, he'd seen ice skaters do something like this - but he hadn't really been aware you could do quite the same on wheels. And not while hauling another person. Maybe he really did need to get out more.
"Heh, you didn't tell me you were this good." He glanced back up at Niou's grin. He certainly made this look easy - Ryoma wasn't sure if it was or not. "You this good on all sorts of skates, or did I just pick the right one?" he asked with a smug grin of his own.
Niou laughed – “The right one,” he admitted, slowing a little before Echizen got too dizzy. Well, blades and skates were the same, but his sister’d first pulled the move on him – with a lot more speed and less warning – on ice (which was cold and wet… well, the cold was mostly fine – but there was something evil to be said for damp pants). He’d practised with his brother ‘til it worked perfectly on skates just to get her back when she wasn’t banking on it.
“Also, you picked the right one,” he added with a wink. It just didn’t work with a spazzcase – things fell apart and fell over.
"Mm, lucky, then." They'd slowed now; they swung around another time or two before pulling into the forward direction again. It took a moment to get his bearings, but then he started off again, a bit slowly at first and then building up some moderate speed. "We'll have to try something you haven't done next time then."
He was definitely getting the hang of this now - but he still wasn't going to risk going too fast and falling again. Niou would get too much of a kick out of that. And Ryoma was sure there would be more falling before the end of the day. Like when he actually had to stop. "Any ideas? Momo wants to play soccer but I'm not so sure about that. S'long as it's not tennis." There was absolutely no way he was going to even look sideways at a tennis racket if his dad was actually sticking around. Which he really hoped he wasn't, he thought, stifling a yawn.
Niou glanced at Echizen with a hidden frown, skating a circle around him. Concerned? Of course; anyone with half a brain would be, once he knew a kid had a dream like that – and stuck in it for two days? It’d drain even the best and their pet monkey. Going to say anything about it? Of course not. But maybe this’d be enough so he’d crash out dreamless.
“Mm, soccer?” Niou chuckled. “I used to play goalie at school way back; it could be fun <3 Not into the other standard ball games?” And there was the dad-and-tennis grousing again. For someone apparently disliked for all intents and purposes, Niou found it funny how much Echizen actually mentioned his old man…
"Don't have anything against soccer, I guess. An' Momo already said he'd play." Ryoma had only ever played sports at school, but really he supposed most of them weren't so bad. "Mostly I don't care." He shrugged, still working a bit at keeping his feet straight, but it seemed to be becoming second nature. He tried going a little faster, just a bit, watching Niou skate around him. Faster took more work; skating definitely seemed to suck energy, though it didn't look like it should.
Though speaking of energy - "You? Goalie?" He snickered a little. "I'd say you didn't strike me as one to play a sport, but then you picked the position that moves the least." It was kind of amusing, he had to admit. As was imagining a slightly younger (shorter!) Niou in a soccer uniform.
“Compulsory sports, go figure,” the phaser grinned softly in return. “Brainstimulating as it may be, daily chess so does not cut it in the long run. Starting a soccer club up could be okay.” Given, of course, Echizen got home in one piece. Because he looked just about ready to fall apart and sleep on his feet, which was… probably a good thing?
Reaching over, Niou laced their fingers again, matching Echizen’s pace (...just in case, okay?). He'd thought of something earlier, and now seemed as good a time as any to pose it. “Let’s camp out in the courtyard tonight <3” …that’s big enough to null your synch radius, isn’t it? “Or over the other side of the library.” Because growing little brats need their sleep for a reason… And Echizen could fill in the blanks himself.
Ryoma made a face - compulsory sports, huh? Not so appealing. He was glad Seigaku hadn't required its students to join clubs - and the schools in America certainly hadn't cared whether he'd stayed after school or went right home (or somewhere else). "Yeah, maybe we could try soccer." He supposed he'd give it a shot. Karate wasn't all that bad.
He blinked as Niou's hand slid into his, glancing up and considering the other's offer a moment. Was he saying what Ryoma thought he was saying...? "Mm... other side of the library's farther from the dorms," he said, thinking a moment. "... C'n I synch you, then? Trancing's almost as good as sleep, right?" He'd actually wanted to try it for a while now - and tonight was as good a time as any. He (intentionally) hadn't slept at all the previous night - sure, he was used to that nightmare by now, but two days straight of it had been... unpleasant, to say the least. Plus the only shields up right now were his - though they came from the link with Hanamura, he was the one in charge of them and she was less likely to notice if he took them down. He could probably block her well enough that she couldn't tell.
And if nothing else, it would give him a chance to spend longer with Niou's power. Maybe he could figure out exactly how Niou's sleep was regulated. The past two times he'd synched hibernation mode, it had been while he was asleep. Maybe if he did it while he was awake, if would give him more insight as to how it worked.
“Mm, if you’re lying down and have your eyes shut, I don’t think most could tell the difference…” Though of course this clever teddycat wasn’t ‘most’. “But the if’s a question for you, isn’t it? Reckon you can avoid passing out again?” Cue laugh and doublepoke in Echizen’s side <3
"That's fine, then," Ryoma said - sounded just about the same as sleeping, only not quite. That sounded... really good about now. "I think I can - last two times I synched your hibernation mode I wasn't awake when I did it - "
He squirmed as Niou poked him in the side - then realized too late that no, that was not a good idea on rollerblades. He went down, but not before grabbing frantically at the closest thing: Niou. Which meant, of course, that they both ended up in a heap on the rink floor, Ryoma sprawled beneath a shocked-looking Niou and for once, the pain of banging his elbow was worth seeing that look on Niou's face. He couldn't help but laugh, hiding it behind one arm as best he could.
The phaser just blinked – and again – before some logic kicked in and he rolled a little off Echizen, curling up lest someone ran his legs through (because that would be funny). “Don’t laugh at me, you evil child,” Niou whined – and, what? No, that wasn’t him trying not to join the laughter – most abused and plaintive voice making a show for the occasion. “You said you were a fast learner and I believed you!”
"I am a fast learner," Ryoma sputtered - though the laughter was dying down now and he could breathe properly again. "I only fell twice in how long? Don't poke me and I won't do it again. Since when am I evil?" He smirked, finally pushing himself upright and tugging at Niou to do the same. He eyed his elbow - a lovely shade of pink, that'd probably bruise later but oh well, it hadn't hurt that much, and definitely worth it - and tried to get his skates beneath him to stand again.
“Since when?” Niou chuckled, “I would’ve thought it came innate with a kid like you…” Phasing his hand a few times as he climbed to his feet (and not pulling things back together so most of the cold remained), he took Echizen’s elbow with a lopsided grin. So useful to double as a sleeping pill and icepack, really <3
Though next time, Echizen was not getting away with trying to hide that smile. A little loss of image for a little loss of image was only fair, after all.
Niou's hand was pleasantly cold on his elbow - hm, a good use for that side effect, really, Ryoma thought, glancing smugly up at his companion. "True, but it's taken years to refine my skills," he remarked, grinning. "Let's go before we get run over," he said, eyeing the skaters making their way around them as they stood in the middle of the flow. He pushed forward again, but slowly, so he could stay in contact with Niou.
"Though... we should call it quits soon before you forget and poke me while I'm on these things again, huh?" He could do with a couple more rounds around the rink - he was actually enjoying himself, and really starting to get the hang of it - but his head was also feeling strange. He wasn't used to being around this many people anymore, and he still had that half-floaty feeling of sleep deprivation as well, though neither of those were things he couldn't handle.
“Heh, you mean ‘before you are once again felled by a mere poke’,” Niou snickered. But it wasn’t as if skating was taking away the dark smudges under Echizen’s eyes.
"Yeah, you'd like to think of it that way," Ryoma said, smug grin plastered firmly on his face. They stayed a while longer, but soon enough found themselves on the train on their way back to Ryuhana. It was late enough now that there were seats available, one of which Ryoma collapsed (discreetly) into as the train started moving. The simple act of sitting down seemed to suddenly remind his body how tired he was - he'd been up nearly 30-some hours by now, a feat which he'd never managed before. He found himself jerking awake more than once as his chin hit his chest - and damn, he still had cleanup duty at the dorms when he got back. He wondered vaguely if anyone would care if it waited until tomorrow... the idea of dreamless-near-sleep was awfully appealing, if only he could stay awake a little longer.
"...stupid brat," Niou snerked softly, slouching to rest his head on Ryoma's shoulder. And damned if anyone was going to call him out on that fact. One Echizen Ryoma might've been a fast learner and mutantchild-genius and all that, but he was fundamentally brainless sometimes. Just sometimes. And the fact was far cuter than anything had a right to be.
The room could stay like it was for another day; not like anyone was going to be there, anyway. Because this little boy was going straight to sleep when they got back, yes he was.
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