semi-closed;

[orangehoodie]

WHO: Ken + castmates/housemates and CR; planned threads
WHERE: Nonah#005, De Chima#001, and various places as needed
WHEN: May 19th to perhaps the 24th
WHAT: the aftermath of this and reconnecting with friends
WARNINGS: like last time, talks of death and suicide and shit

i: Nonah #005; (the prompt is for the 19th, but other days work too)
On the 18th, he left with a note on the refrigerator that he was sleeping over at a friend's with Koromaru and wouldn't be home that day. That, he thought, might keep his housemates from worrying when he didn't show up that night. But Ken ends up home anyway, much later into the night, with a certain blue-haired man in tow, and he curls into bed and falls asleep almost immediately then. When he wakes up, it's past noon and he has a headache but he's feeling oddly refreshed.

There are things he lied to his housemates about. There are things he wants to ask them, and clear up. He doesn't feel like putting on clothes so he just throws his jacket on over his pajamas and steps out of his room. It's a weekday, so he doesn't know who's going to be home, but he has plenty of time. Whenever he comes across someone who's at the house, he shuffles over to them, hesitating just once before mumbling: "Can I sit with you?"

ii: De Chima #001
After the talks at Nonah have been had, De Chima is his next stop. He isn't sure how far the news had spread, if it had at all, but he's sure he'll find out once he's there. It's daunting, but it's hardy the scariest thing he's dealt with at this point... right?

Lies. Facing his friends is the scariest part. Scarier than running off alone with a knife in his pocket and no idea where to go. He's absolutely terrified of confronting them, even if there's a voice in his head whispering that it really wouldn't be a confrontation. It doesn't help the nervous twisting in his gut, though, so he clutches the straps on his backpack as he enters the house.

And the nervousness is overwhelming. He can hardly handle it. It's to the point that the moment he runs into anybody at De Chima #001 and they so much as greet him, he jumps and lowers his head and immediately blurts out a hurried, "I'm sorry!" ... Sorry about that.

iii: a text message
And maybe you're not at either of those houses when he is and Ken still wants to see you, or he feels like going somewhere that's not the houses to talk with you. In such a case, there will be a text from Ken to you, short and to the point. He'd make it more specific, maybe explain more, but he ended up getting nervous and sending it off quickly so the actual message ends up saying nothing more than:

Can we meet up somewhere?

((ooc; I'll likely also make this a catch-all for Ken stuff during June, so if you'd like to do something with him, whether it's about the above stuff of anything else, feel free to shoot me a message at squigstuff!))

Comments

[orangehoodie]

"Kirijo-senpai's your example for that?" It's said with a laugh, maybe slightly more than humorless although it's not one out of joy. Of all the people to use, Minato went for her. But it made sense, he supposes, considering what kind of person Mitsuru Kirijo carried herself as. So even she wonders, huh? But then... he thinks he remembers, on occasion, coming across her in the dorm and she has a hand to her forehead, frowning, and she'd stand up straighter the moment she noticed him.

"I guess you're right, though. I'm not surprised. I think I remember, too.

"Can I ask you for a favor?"

[dormition]

"She's the person I thought would seem the least likely to question herself," he confesses, since he's well aware most people didn't get his perspective on Mitsuru. He didn't get it until the very end of the year, either. Minato wouldn't be able to betray her confidence, even here-- he knows how closely she guards herself, and it's too like him not to understand it-- but something this vague, it's alright. Of course she's human, underneath everything.

Minato hadn't been expecting the request for a favor, but immediately says, "Yes."

There wouldn't be any different response if it weren't the day after Ken had tried to throw himself in front of a train, but that certainly isn't hurting Minato's earnestness. He hasn't been given too many requests since he's gotten here and he may have some pent up desire to fulfill them. He likes direction; it's much less complicated.

[orangehoodie]

"That makes sense," he says, his answer short and lame but acknowledging Minato's reasoning all the same. He couldn't agree more, anyway; Akihiko was like a bullet in how he shot forward once he decided on a part of a thought, but Mitsuru seemed to live her life with a different kind of conviction.

Of course Minato would be the one allowed to see past that. He can understand that, he thinks, with Minato's arm around his shoulders, feeling warmer and more relaxed than he thinks he has in years. He shifts only enough to grab the Gekkoukan jacket thrown on the bed beside them and to reach into his hoodie's pocket, pulling out the slightly-wrinkled SEES band.

"I took it off, when I decided -- it felt wrong to wear it and-- ... Can you put this on again? "

[dormition]

Minato had been all raring to go off on a quest for Ken, and has to settle himself at this seemingly innocuous request. But he understands it, he really does. If Minato had ever felt like he was undeserving of SEES, that they wouldn't want him around...

He'd take his own membership band off with a heavy heart. But he wouldn't claim something that wasn't his.

He wants to make Ken see that is is and always will be his. Minato doesn't speak immediately; his eyes soften and he nods, his deft, delicate hands taking up the strip of cloth and Ken's jacket and attaching it.

"In the future," Minato says, pinning it carefully so it'll lay straight when the jacket is on, "I think it should be my decision whether it comes off. So... come to me if you're thinking about it."

Which conveniently also means that when he's dead, Ken can never take it off. Minato can't deny he's thinking about that with well-hidden sadness, quickly swallowed. He can't keep going if he reflects on how his death will affect Ken and the others. He just can't.

[orangehoodie]

Ken watches quietly as the armband is pinned to the jacket, his expression solemn but paying apt attention. Koromaru, now that the boys' moment of stillness has passed, hops onto the bed and lays his head on Ken's lap and watches, too, letting out a soft sighing breath.

"Can I come to you even if I don't think about it?"

He's pretty sure it's inevitable. He'll want to, maybe as soon as the first night Minato stops spending in this house. Maybe even as soon as tomorrow morning. But he'll hang it outside his closet, he thinks, so he can look at it if he needs to. And if it isn't enough...

"I spent the last two summers by myself in the dorm. Everyone went to Yakushima, too, but I was at the shrine with Koromaru... can we do stuff? Maybe with everyone, but... if you're not too busy."

[dormition]

"You can always come see me," Minato says with an air of solemn promise, his eyes heavy with meaning. No flippant, easy assurances here. Minato withdraws his hand, wondering if he can manage to say how alone he's been sometimes, too. Not literally alone, like Ken, what with how often Minato goes out and spends time with others.

But in the past, he has often been like that. And now, sometimes he feels like he can't breathe for thinking of the looming future ahead of him. If it's bad, he'll be stuck with Erebus again-- a fate and a memory Minato has carefully blocked out in any detail-- and even if it's good, and he's alive in truth, that comes with decisions and responsibilities Minato had thought he'd set down for good. He understands needing to be around others to distract his mind from reality. It doesn't do him any good to be thinking about it.

No, this isn't something he knows how to say articulately.

"I only work a couple days. And... I'd prefer not to be alone, either."

[orangehoodie]

Minato's answer is short. But while it doesn't convey every subtle nuance of the thoughts that led up to his answer, it's enough for now, and Ken nods. It's certainly odd, hearing words like 'alone' from someone like Minato, but Ken knows very well how the number of people around them has only so much do with how a person would feel about it. Ken himself will probably never feel as at home as he did when it was just him and his mother, even if he had all these friends like he has here. And Minato... Minato stood in a position that separated him even from the members of SEES, with his multiple Personas and the strange fate he seemed to be following and his status as the leader.

"Thank you," he starts, then turns slightly to face him better. He stil has one arm is around him, but now he raises the other too to grasp the front of Minato's shirt, tugging him quickly, and briefly, into a fuller embrace.

In all honesty, it's sloppy. He pulls out of it with embarrassment burning up his cheeks, and a part of him laments that he just can't pull off things like this right. But he'll take that over the darker, colder thoughts he knows he hasn't escaped from -- the ones that'll come back to whisper at him sooner or later -- and he drops his forehead against Minato's shoulder again once he pulls out of that awkward hug.

"Thanks, Leader."

[dormition]

Minato is bemused by the hug but not at all embarrassed. He oftentimes doesn't know what to do with physical contact, but it doesn't bother him either. He's neutral towards it, and if it's a neutrality he's learned from lack of exposure, he doesn't dwell on it. Minato isn't someone who craves things that he doesn't have.

He appreciates what he has now instead, belatedly raising his arms to return it and shortly thereafter having to lower them again. He keeps his left loosely curled around Ken's shoulders, not contesting it as he hides his face in his jacket.

"You're welcome."

It's now, at last, that Minato feels the tension in his chest ease, that wondering that was constricting it, and his breath comes easily again.

Ken is going to be alright. He'll make sure of it.