thefolder | [ Closed ] Check-ups after dust-ups.

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[ Closed ] Check-ups after dust-ups.

Who: Seifer and Roze
What: Checking on a friend who refuses to be a friend.
When: September 30th, evening.
Where: Seifer's casa.

Roze showed up about an hour after texting Seifer, smelling like soap and clean dampness that only came from recent and very hot showers. Instead of her usual skimpy clothes she had opted for an oversized black turtleneck sweater that swallowed her hands, only her fingertips curled around the cuffs keeping them from sliding completely down. Black tights under that, her usual heels abandoned in favor of a plain pair of sneakers she'd been using for morning jogs. Even her hair was out of its usual twists and braids, damp and curling around her face.

She'd come over as quickly as she could without going out of her usual way to primp and preen, resulting in what looked like...a pink-haired high school girl. Aside from the chest stretching the fabric she looked almost wholesome. Especially without the extra six inches of height.

she could have walked in, but chose instead to tap on the door lightly, standing in the hall with her D-T sitting on top of a plain white box in her hands.

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Seifer lifted the coat out of the box. There was a part of him that, despite the despair or whatever he was feeling, that wanted to be happy. So he laid it on the bed in order to see the whole thing, looking over its design. It was different, but it wasn't bad.

"Why did you get me this...?"

It looked expensive. Still, he had plenty of Bit stashed away. He could have bought another coat himself; Roze didn't have to... go out of her way like that. What was wrong with her?

Then he remembered yesterday morning and quickly appended: "You're the one who gave Squall his new coat?"

"Nah. That was Shorty, mostly. I picked it out and put a little money in, but I had already spent most of what I had on yours. I woulda got you both one myself, but I really wanted to get you this one, and Shorty insisted he be responsible for Pretty Boy's. So it was from both of us. But this one," she reached out, picking a piece of thread off the shoulder of the coat, "is just from me."

She sniffed dismissively, leaning back, fists pressed on her thighs again as she looked up at Seifer, even though she wanted to look away.

"Why shouldn't I get a friend something? Your coat was a mess already, and even worse after the mission. You're...a coat guy," she mumbled, a little lamely in explanation. "You'd seem odd without one. I know its not the same but I tried to get something that wouldn't look bad on you and could be at least a little useful. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe it was stupid..." she sighed, laughing weakly and reaching out to pick up the box and tissue paper.

"...Well. Its okay. If you don't want it you can give it away or...trade it for bits and get something better. I just wanted to get you something. I suppose I should have asked..."

"Thanks... Roze...."

He smiled faintly for the first time in over a week. She was a dumbass, wasting her money on a coat like this. A coat for him, some... second-rate nobody who was completely useless; who didn't even have a purpose anymore. Maybe understanding why she did this would be impossible to him. It felt that way even after her explanation.

"I like it," he said gently. He was being truthful. Sure, his old coat was sentimental for him, but it was tattered up. Now he had a coat and he didn't have to walk around feeling awkwardly bare-armed. Someone was looking out for him; someone cared. He shifted, kneeling on the mattress as he slid the coat on to see how it fit. The blank tag he normally wore was absent, so her opinion would have to be based on the coat alone; no accessories.

She blushed, completely red-faced when he thanked her. Looking away immediately Roze tilted her head down enough to hide behind her hair until her skin didn't feel so damned hot. Clearing her throat and ducking her head even more she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Eh don't worry about it. Anytime. Its cool. Just uh...glad its cool n'all," she sniffed, looking back up and scratching an eyebrow as she tried to play it off, casting him a cocky smile. It faltered the moment she looked at him in the coat.

"Wo-ow..." she murmured, blinking twice, staring despite the stupid half-smile on her face. "Ha...heh. I like it too."

"I know you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," he said suspiciously. If she was checking him out, even in a coat as nice as this, she had bad taste. He was positive that fever wasn't doing anything for his looks, and even if it weren't present there were burns and scratches all over his face, not quite "battle scars." On top of that, his hair was still rebelling, most of his bangs on his forehead rather than neatly combed back. Hell, he probably looked like some feverish little kid who needed his mommy... not handsome at all.

Seifer lowered himself onto the bed again, coat pooling around him. "I honestly do appreciate it, though. Most people don't like the idea of givin' dumbasses gifts. So... I'll take care of it. Better than I did my last coat."

Unfortunately for Seifer, Roze's recall was damned good. That, and those she flirted with back home ran the gamut - even undead were not safe from her. He could have been missing an ear and she would have found something to like. It wasn't to say that it cheapened her compliments - she simply saw more to like than other more shallow people.

That and Roze had a powerful urge for care-taking. A sick man made her want to spoil them. She simply restrained herself because people seemed to take it poorly around this place, when you cared even a little. Really Seifer and Squall were ruining it for other guys that liked being doted on.

She still tried, though. Stubborn as ever.

"If you take care of the coat, you'll be takin' care of yourself. I'd say that's a pretty fine deal," she remarked, nodding slowly as she folded her arms and held her chin.

"Look. I gotta get myself somethin' to eat anyways, so I'm gonna go down to the kitchen and get some soup and stuff. You go take a shower. Please, for the love of Hotei, don't argue for once? Just take a shower, soak the sick off of you and get dressed comfortably. I'll leave my D-T here and you can go through it for books and stuff. And if you're not feeling like bein' a dumbass, let's watch a movie? You can eat, watch a movie, I'll split and you'll have whatever books to read that you downloaded. In the end its all a sweet deal. I'm only the best company this place has to offer. I mean come on, Princess!"

Seifer ran a hand through his hair and exhaled gently. He may have had a fever, but he wasn't some little kid that needed to be told to take a shower and take care of himself. Still, that didn't mean he didn't like the attention. He just wished it wasn't so... motherly. Something like that messed up his whole dynamic.

"Yeah, yeah. All right," he said finally. "Since I technically owe you from the other night. Skippin' movie night'n all." She could have just told him to take a nap. Without her, there wasn't much else he felt like doing right now anyway. And, depending on the movie, it would probably happen anyway. Provided she didn't punch him awake.

Roze gave two kinds of attention - motherly or intimate. Right now, he didn't really seem to need anything outside of care, comfort and time to get better. She could get back to flirting and cajoling later. At the moment, she just wanted to see her friends well.

Which it occurred to her that Squall was probably just as bad off, the idiot. Hm.

"I'll be back in a bit. You can go through the books on my D-T. Uh...what kinda movie you wanna watch? I'll think about something while I'm gone."

She waited long enough to hear his answer, positive or negative, before heading out into the rest of the building. She stopped in front of Squall's door and raised her hand to knock, then thought better of it and drifted off down the hall, heading for the cafeteria.

Seifer had plenty of time to shower and get situated while Roze went to get food and borrow Neku's cord for the D-T again. When she came back, she stopped in front of Squall's apartment, peeked in, set a bag with tupperwares of food in it on the floor near the door with a note tacked to it that simply said "FOR PRETTY BOY", then headed back into Seifer's place.

"You decent?" she called, eyes rolling skyward as she restrained herself from going to look and wiggled her bare toes on the floor impatiently.

[ OOC Note: Roze's D-T has a variety of books on it, though the collection is fairly limited from what she had on her ipod. There are a a handful in text format and a few audio books. She has a lot of high fantasy historical romance novels.

There's plenty of things like 'The Black Knight' by Connie Mason, loads of stuff with knights and fair maidens, dragons and vampires and saving the girl and the reward of the happy ending. She has all the standard classics such as Moby Dick, Around the World in 80 Days, the Time Machine and Call of the Wild. She even has Little Women, Oliver Twist and Peter Pan.

Most of her reading is fantastical and light-hearted, smutty romance and the odd instructional book like The Book of Five Rings, The Art of War, The Code of the Samurai and a translation of the Shoninki. She also has an large amount of shonen manga, a handful of cookbooks and numerous collections of short stories ranging from The Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid to more standard fare of ghost stories, though those lean in favor of Japanese mythology.

The most recently read novels appear to be a Sleeping Beauty trilogy by Anne Roquelaure, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, The Adventures of Robin Hood, a Christmas cookbook, and A Child Called It. ]

"I'm decent," he called back. "You can come in." To be honest, he was a little surprised. Since when did Roze care about whether or not he was decent? He figured that she'd barge right in, that she didn't have any qualms about that sort of thing. That she'd probably be happier if he weren't decent.

While she was gone, he'd taken a shower and changed his clothes, even though he already took one in the early hours of morning. Oh well. Extra showers wouldn't hurt anyone. Besides, Roze was right; it did make him feel a little better. He'd also taken the time to sort through her reading material. There were more books on there than he'd expected, unsurprisingly from people he'd never heard of. That didn't bother him at all, though. He could have skimmed through them all, but not wanting to miss out on something he might like, he decided to transfer everything. That way, he could read what he liked, and if he got bored with one he could move onto another. Since there were so many titles to transfer, he skimmed a few pages of random books while he waited for them to find their way to his own DT.

"I just took everything. It was easier that way." In fact, he'd skimmed enough to add: "Guess you didn't care that I saw your dirty book collection, huh?" His voice wasn't accusing; he was trying to joke around a little to make up for his sour attitude for the past week or two.

"You wha--everythi--wait what? No no no, uh...Haha. No you uh...you don't want to take everything..." she mumbled, eyes wide and face full of a mix of mild horror and embarrassment as she shuffled around and climbed beside him, setting the bag aside. She crowded him, leaning around and staring at the two D-T screens, lip curling and nose winkling as her cheeks colored red enough to look like apple slices.

"T-theres just...you know there's...books that are just really really boring and all and I figure you'd kinda...pick some you really wanted like...uh...the...the...Romeo and Juliet or uh. Twelfth Night. Fff...." she grumbled, head dropping to thump on Seifer's shoulder as she pointed ineffectually at the D-T. "You better not judge me for the shit that's on there."

Seifer laughed at her horror and reached around her to gently pat her head. "What are you? Seventeen, eighteen? You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who didn't have a collection of dirty books or magazines by that age, or at some point in their life."

There was nothing to judge. From what he'd skimmed through, he was sure he'd be reading at least half her collection. She had good taste, even if part of her taste involved tasting others. Nothing wrong with that.

"But, if your hair were red instead of pink, it'd match your face. Speaking of which, why's your hair down, anyway?"

If she could have turned any more red she might have, at the risk of fainting. Fortunately all she could do was sink even lowing and press her face into a pillow, muffling her voice.

"I took a shower. My hair won't dry fast enough if its up. Its too thick."

She groaned, barely reassured by his words as she oozed onto the floor dramatically, lifting a hand into the air and trembling before collapsing as though slain.

"I came over immediately out of the shower...I didn't want you changin' your damned mind on me," Roze grumbled, fingers crawling across the floor in search of the dinner bag. Sitting up like a zombie, she drew the sack closer and rummaged through the contents, eventually holding up a large plastic container of wonton soup.

"Ha! Lots of broth, some meat and starch. Always helps me when I'm feelin' fluey. I also got some delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwiches because I was in a mood for heavy meat sandwiches. And lots of water bottles. Because you need fluids. I got juice too though. I hope you're cool with pomegranate?" she asked, holding the bag over her head like an offering.

With raised brows, Seifer watched as Roze collapsed onto the floor. Was she going to be okay? At least her over-dramatic reaction put him at ease a little. Earlier, Roze had seen him at his lowest point so far in this place. Watching her act like this took his mind off it, and hopefully hers, too.

"Soup, meat and water. And some fancy juice. My kinda meal." Seifer took the sack from her so he could peer into it to see for himself. "Cafeteria?"

"Yeah, I just asked for the stuff and waited around. I dropped some things over at Pretty-Boy's place too. Hopefully he's not stupid and he eats and drinks like he oughta," she grumbled, standing and arching her back, hands pressing against her lower spine until there wasa loud crackle. The air rushed out of her and for a moment she looked relieved until her face turned a bit grey.

"FUCKING OW...shit...stupid fuckin'...ow...ow..." she groaned, wilting and flopping over to rest face down next to Seifer once more, uttering a weak whimper as she groped for her D-T. Yeah, those ribs, still not quite in the best of shape. Mostly healed, but definitely not all. She'd taken to dressing moderately more conservative just to cover the massive, ugly bruise. It was faded from its horrific purple, but the rotten-banana color was no better in her opinion.

"Movies....moooovieeeeeessss...." Roze wheezed, raising her head just enough to stare at the terminal, flicking through the files.

"What do you wanna see, Princess? Dragons and action, drama, romance, somethin' scary. I got movies from all genres. Not as many as I HAD but...hey, whatcha gonna do?"

There was an obvious frown on his face when she mentioned 'Pretty Boy,' but it passed quickly enough, falling into a more subtle expression after a moment. When Roze stretched and swore in pain, he automatically put his hands out on either side of her. "Damn, take it easy. You're scoldin' me for not taking care of myself, but at least I don't do that."

The frown was back, this time for a different reason. Doubting she wanted to talk about those injuries, he carried on with the other topic. "Got anything with dragons, magic and romance?"

"Dragons, magic and romance....Dragons, magic and romance," she repeated, mumbling to herself as she tapped through file names and pondered the contents, some movies she hadn't watched in ages and had nearly forgotten.

"Okay there's Earthsea, The Hobbit...well, there's a dragon in the sequel and unless you count the bromances there's not really romance...uh. Beowulf, Dragonslayer, Willow, Enchanted, Spirited Away, sorta...I don't have a lot with all three requirements, but I do have a lot of movies with magic and romance. Hmm. Stardust, Peter Pan, Secret of Moonacre...Beauty and the Beast."

She rolled onto her good side, looking up at Seifer from her angle laying down with a sigh.

"Sooo. Like. My ribs are still sore is all. I wanna get this outta the way. I know I really oughta stop runnin' around so much but there's a lot I've gotta do and people I wanna see and all. I really do appreciate the concern though. I really, really do. I just..." she shrugged, pursing her lips and rubbing her nose.

"I don't like looking weak in front of people so I push on despite lookin' like shit and feelin' like bigger shit. Some people take it pretty poorly, other people might baby me too much, like Miwako. I love her to death but I don't like feelin' like I'm made of porcelain, y'know. I get enough griping from Musashi. I mean, every girl likes to be taken care of sometimes but no girl likes to be made to feel pitiful. And right now...honestly Princess I feel fuckin' pitiful. And not very cute at all. So...yeah. There."

Leaning his elbow onto the bed, he hovered over her so he could frown at her more directly. "Hey, if I'm comin' off as treating you like porcelain, that ain't what I mean. I know you can take care of yourself'n all, just like you know I can take care of myself. Doesn't mean I'm gonna let you off the hook when you stretch like that and end up hurting yourself."

Then, using his free hand, he gently flicked at Roze's forehead. "You're not pitiful. Loud, obnoxious, full of energy and caring and kinda cute, but definitely not pitiful. Princess."

Edited 2013-10-02 01:31 (UTC)

She stared at him, cheeks puffed and red as she hunched her shoulders. Typical embarrassed teen girl toad-face. Every time he complimented her. It was one thing to make remarks about her of a sexual nature - Dante did it all the time, as did Bro - but to call her cute or drop the Princess nickname in retaliation was more than she could computer. She flopped her face back into the bed again, propping the D-T up on her head, turning it towards him.

"I highlighted all the magic and romance movies I have with and without dragons," she mumbled into the mattress, toes curling on one foot, then the other, back and forth.

"I'm real sorry but the big ones like Dragonheart and Dungeons and Dragons didn't make it. So, mostly just the ones I already mentioned have dragons or draconic monsters. I recommend Beauty and the Beast for just magic and romance, but I'm biased. Its a childhood favorite. Otherwise Stardust is pretty damned good. Lots of magic in that one."

She kept doing that and he didn't understand why. Why did she fluster so easily? It seemed so... weird, in combination with her boisterous personality. Elbow still digging into the mattress, he leaned the side of his face against his hand, drumming his fingertips lightly along his cheek.

"Anything you think's good is fine with me. I already know nothing will ever top my favorite movie, so it's about time I started lookin' for a runner-up."

"Fine!" she barked, perking as she propped herself up, nose to nose with him, eyes narrowed and expression fierce, though playfully so.

"Then we're watchin' Beauty and the Beast. And you don't get to complain when I sing along with the songs. After that we can watch some dragon movie if you're not already asleep. You might like Dragonslayer. Its pretty old and not very fast-paced but its good."

She nodded, snapping her teeth at his nose without touching it then kissing between his eyes before pushing herself carefully to sit up on the bed and set up the D-T connection.

"If you really dig the romance angle though, we've gotta watch Stardust at some point. Its got everything but dragons, shockingly. There's witches and unicorns, magic, sky pirates, ghosts, sword fights. All kinds'a stuff. Someday though I want you to watch Kitaro no Gegege with me. You can kinda get a feel for like...my life and job. On a very childlike approach but the principle remains the same."

Edited 2013-10-02 03:59 (UTC)

"What? Oh no," he argued, sounded slightly offended. "I get to complain. No one told me there was a singing clause involved."

Wasn't she the playful one, acting like a dragon? Although he was pretty sure dragons weren't quite so affectionate. In a way, she still reminded him of Rinoa, too. Energetic and playful... the pushiest, bossiest person around. He was even calling her princess, although that was partially in retaliation even if he did think the nickname fit her.

"Witches, magic and sword fights, huh? Consider me pinged. And I guess I wouldn't mind learning about your job and lifestyle," he added. Maybe it would make more sense than fathers masquerading as their daughter's best friend or... whatever... that was that happened. He was still a little foggy about that.

"Shaddap. I sing pretty well. I used to sing a lot until mom made me feel stupid for it," she remarked, grunting as she pushed herself to sit up next to him, shoulder to shoulder.

"Serve out the food while I get this started? I snagged plates, bowls and cups. No chopsticks this time. Spoons for the soup, napkins for the rest. Gonna eat those sandwiches like real men. Aw yis."

She grinned happily, nudging him gently and setting the D-T on her lap as a controller and giving him a moment with the food. Meanwhile she busied herself lifting her shirt enough to check her bandages, tucking her finger under the edge and sliding it around to smooth wrinkles.

"You want me to fix your bandages later? They didn't look very snug before," she offered. It was a casual question, not mothering in any way. Just one warrior to another pointing out that his first aid left something to be desired. "Musashi does mine so they're pretty tight. Gotta keep shit from shifting too much. Hard to breath sometimes, though. Shit."

"Yeah, sure thing," he said quietly. Okay, so serving food wasn't some kind of monumental task, but... it was nice. It made him feel a little useful, something he'd sorely been missing as of late. It was pretty pathetic that this made him feel useful, but he accepted the feeling for now. So, without a single complaint, he organized the food into two meals he felt were adequate enough for two people with bottomless pits for stomachs.

"No, I'm... fine. They may not be tight, but they're good enough that nothing will get infected." His may have been loose, but Impmon's were tightly secured. He could handle himself... decently. "Thanks, though," he amended. Even if he didn't want her help, he appreciated it. It felt different than getting help from Squall. Different enough for him to thank her in the first place. She wasn't offering to look down on him. Probably.

"Huh?" she looked up, squinting at him in response to the thanks. Eventually she smiled and shrugged it off, accepting that casual was more comfortable for him than her tendency towards pushy. She tried to oblige.

Really he could thank Squall for that. For good or ill the other gunblade user was making her have serious doubts about herself in a lot of ways. Other things had started the process and Squall merely exacerbated the problem.

Meanwhile, Seifer benefited, though the difference was marked.

"As long as you're sure. I dunno what the extent is on yours, but if mine aren't pretty tight, shit gets uncomfortable. Fast. Feels like having broken bamboo kitchen utensils shifting around in there sometimes," she muttered, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Long term injury was not something she could find any even remotely academic reason to like. How humans managed for months and years was beyond her ability to understand.

"How are you healing up though? If you don't mind my asking. I mean I try to pay some attention back home because I've gotta be careful how much I hurt someone on purpose or accident, but this is all kinda...well, fuck it. No. Its REALLY frustrating. I'm used to healing up in a week at most but this is absurd..."

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[ Closed ] Check-ups after dust-ups.

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