maskormenacelogs | I've got halos made of summer, rhythms made of spring

[Because really we're gonna have a million]

[Maybe most people would have taken some time off after being held captive on a submarine for nine days, but Barnaby isn't most people. Besides, with an extraordinarily rare trip out to Disneyworld just around the corner, Barnaby knows he needs to take care of a few things before he leaves.

As it so happens, one of those things includes laying the groundwork for future collaborations with the Pink Princess, also known as Maya Fey. The talks have been lengthy, with people from both teams brimming with ideas. He's reminded a little bit of Agnes, his producer from back home, and how excited she'd get at the chance for some good publicity for her heroes. It's refreshing, actually, working with people who care about their work so much.

But even the most invested people need a coffee break sometimes, and Barnaby sips at a steaming mug as he gives his strained eyes a much-needed break by gazing at sky outside.]

[It's true, things have been busy-- especially after the trip to Russia. Still, if Maya's at all tired from it all, it doesn't show in her or her team. With her producer, JJ, at her side, Maya's excited to get things started.

Of course, getting to know the people you'll be working with is important as well, so when Maya passes Barnaby on his break, she's quick to stop by and say hello.]

Hey. You busy?

[She's serious too, okay, she has no qualms dropping everything to get to the café. Besides, she's already in Heropa after a meeting with JJ and the morning's daily training with Tex. When Maya arrives at Cass's, she slips in quietly and heads straight for the back, looking for Cass upstairs first.]

Hey-- Cass? You up here?

[He regards Maya with a professional, well-practiced smile.]

Not at all. Why do you ask?

[It was finished. After spray painting Tetsuo's room, and seeing his jaw-drop reaction to it, he'd felt a little more confident in doing things other than just weapons. Sure, he'd customized bikes before, mostly his own or Yamagata's, but he never really went any farther than just colour replacements. It was easy--match the colour to the rider. But this...this was different.

It'd taken him almost all day in the backyard to do it, and he'd asked Komasan to keep Maya busy (with whatever that entailed...Komasan seemed to have some very strange ideas in the brainstorming session of that conversation) while he worked. His project? The vespa he'd ~~extorted~~ bartered with Edgeworth over at New Years. With Maya staying at Nonah 05, she didn't use it, and Kaneda had kept it at Edgeworth's place for the time being. No harm in keeping it there, right?

But now...he had an idea, thanks to Tetsuo, and with a dozen cans of spray paint, his mask, and a lot of free time, he began to decorate it. The day went on, and it wasn't until mid afternoon that he takes the mask off, sealing in the last of the finish on.

Perfect.

Now all he had to do was get it out front (the easy part), and then go and grab Maya. Once it's out and parked, Kaneda enters in from the front door, jacket zipped up to cover up any paint marks that might've gotten on his shirt. Hopefully Komasan had kept her busy enough to not look out the window...]

MAYA???

[Because why go find her, right?]

I'm here!

[She is, in fact, around! And coming out toward the stairs in fact. She's carrying out a new box of napkins to put out front, and stacked on it is a bottle of dish soap. You have to make sure everything is stocked! She brightens visibly when she spots Maya.]

Hey sweetie.

PLACEHOLDER

[The last time Ken actually sat next to Maya without a huge party around them was when they were on the warship and he was bleeding, freezing, and falling asleep. Not a good last time to have. And since then he's healed his shoulder, had Tadashi slowly start to heal it, and he's also met up with Tetsuo. His usage of the address 'Tetsuo-sama' isn't exactly difficult to overhear, so Maya may have heard it already. He hasn't explained that to anyone. Things have been weird around Ken Amada.

But as if he hasn't noticed any of that weirdness, Ken sits down next to Maya today small and orange as usual, and in his hands he's holding a bundle of strings that may be familiar to her.]

Maya-san. Can you teach me?

[Valentine's Day.

In all Kaneda's years of dating, he'd never once officially celebrated it. Part of it was because it wasn't really his job to. In Japan, it was always the girls who celebrated Valentine's, and the boys would pick up the slack on White Day in March. On the off chance that he was 'dating' a girl around that time and they gave him something, they were gone by White Day.

But this year was different--not only was he ~~threatened~~ talked into celebrating, but he was the one taking Maya out. The only difference? She doesn't know, and he's hoping to keep it that way. He'd treated this like a normal date, like the one they had at the laser tag place just didn't count. And in his mind, it didn't.

That was her returning a favour. This was a real date.

So that's the mantra he keeps to as he stands outside of Nonah 05, waiting for her to get ready. The plan for today? 50% off pancakes at the local pancake house. He had his eyes set on strawberries and cream and no one was going to take that away from him.

Yes, clearly the reason for going.]

Hey!

[Maya smiles Cass's way, and then hurries over to grab that bottle of dish soap. Cass may be the dish-and-box-carrying champion, but it's good to lend a hand sometimes anyway.]

Where're we headed?

[Oh Kaneda, you sweet summer child.

There's no way Maya can't have known, though there's also no reason for her to have assumed Kaneda wanted to make this valentine's day date romantic. The date-- February 14th-- has been hammered into her head through tons of marketing talks for the past two months and the day before she'd received the first wave of fan prizes. It's still a relatively slow thing since Pink Princess is just starting out, but that doesn't make flowers showing up at the studio any less annoying.

She knows it's Valentine's day and that's honestly why she's glad she's spending it with Kaneda. He's a ton of fun, and hell, maybe he'll help her get rid of all the flowers. That book burning party had the right idea. Burning flowers sounds fun.

That doesn't mean she's completely against the idea of Valentine's day, though. No, the kitschy decorations get her giggling all the time, and she thinks the aesthetic of it all is pretty adorable. Besides, any holiday can be fun if you let it be, right? So she's unafraid to dress the part, too. She's dressed up in a red-hearted dress and other red accessories, and yawns as she opens the door, obviously not treating this like any special day other than her somewhat eclectic fashion choices.

Closing the door behind her, she calls--]

Hey, y'ready? It's cold, y'know.

[Yes he knows it's cold you make sure to let everyone know it's cold out these days, Maya]

[Her voice is the first thing he hears, Of course it's cold, Maya, you only make it a part of your regular day to point this out. Bonus points if you happen to mention how warm it is in Heropa, and extra credit if you mention the sunshine.]

It's February. It kinda gets like that sometimes.

[There's a cheeky little smile as she says that, at how easy it comes out. This whole time he was waiting, he was wondering what to say. He was never good at THIS kind of dating--something romantic and serious and specifically for devoted couples. Talking like this was more casual, and if he could just keep up that appearance for the whole day, it could slide by as just another one of those dates like Laser Tag had been. Something fun they could enjoy together.

Yes. It'd be so simple.

--

At least, until he looks at her. Proverbial glass shatters as his attention turns to that dress. Noticing the little patterns on it, more importantly how perfect she looked in it. A heart cut out--completely noticeable by him for OBVIOUS REASONS--and a bunch of red accessories to accent it...

Oh no.

This wasn't--she looked great in it. Beyond great. But this...this was Valentine's, wasn't it.

His head tilts to the side, rocking back on his heels with that realization. Conflicting feelings fogging his head and stomach, letting it twist unnaturally as he tries to find words.]

Ah! ...Ready.

[That wasn't it.]

[The way he looks at her-- like he's surprised, he's so not subtle-- she has to roll her eyes, hurrying up to him and raising her brows. What kind of reaction is that?]

Y'sure? You're kinda just standing there.

There's pancakes waiting, ya know.

{fresh, heart-shaped pancakes that can be ordered in red velvet flavor so fuck everything.]

[BECAUSE THERE'S GONNA BE SO MANY OF THESE I CAN ALREADY TELL]

[Well can you blame him you come out all "it's cold" when you're the hottest thing here???]

Yeah! Yeah, there is, isn't there?

[Pancakes. That's all this was, wasn't it? It was just an excuse to get 50% off pancakes shaped like hearts with strawberries and cream piled on top of them and a limit of 5 per customer* *says the website

But that dress says different, and he has to hold up his hand as she hits the last step. Before his eyes...wander back to it.]

Wait.

[Sigh.]

It's Valentine's Day.

[Thanks, genius. DO YOU THINK SHE KNOWS?!]

[The weather in Nonah was drizzly. Phoenix could almost hear in his mind's eye a certain visor'd somebody talking about how it weighed heavy on the heart, a rain that you felt way down in your soul-

Or something like that.

Truth is that he might not be entirely wrong about that, but it was more the weather that was causing Nick grief. It hadn't been that long since it had happened, for him.

He replays the scene over and over in his mind - fire, a bridge, a plummet into a river below-

shivering, feverishly pressing the Magatama into Edgeworth's hands, feverishly entrusting him with the case that could have saved or doomed her.

He nursed the coffee he had warming his hands - he hadn't figured out how to take it black, not yet, but between the coffee, the rain, and the date - February 7th, of all days-

he was feeling melancholic, and it wasn't that hard to tell.]

Edited 2016-02-14 08:45 (UTC)

[Maya stops, staring at Kaneda a bit blankly.

Did he really think she missed that?]

...Yeah, that's why the pancakes are half off. They come in red velvet flavor, too.

[IS THIS NOT ABOUT THE PANCAKES shit Kaneda oh no don't make this weird]

Nick?

[It hasn't taken Maya long to find him. She'd been planning on spending the day in Kaneda's room, alone-- she knows what day it is. But Nick had appeared, and things had gotten crazy, and, well. Perhaps Maya should be leaving Phoenix alone for now, to get adjusted, but she can't seem to find the will to. She'd gone upstairs to put on proper pajama pants (the main floor's a bit chillier) and had returned quickly, eager to return to her dear friend's side.]

'M back. You okay?

[Not with that outfit he doesn't. But he has to admit, that outfit is the whole reason why his stomach is twisting into knots right now, hand going through his hair to try and find the right wording for this.

But her answer says it all.

His head snaps back up, eyes now completely focused on her in a different way. They're more lighthearted and relaxed. Like she'd said the perfect thing just now. ]

And there needs to be two of us to get those pancakes, right?

[A cautious tone, as if...seeing if there was more to this.]

Oh, hey, Maya.

[Maya was alive. That still floored him - and the date was only making him more keenly aware of how lucky that was. Twice in two months, she'd nearly been taken away from him. If it wasn't for Godot, if it wasn't for a whole lot of people other than him intervening at just the right time-]

Yeah, I'm okay, I'm just... thinking.

[She'd really be dead. And no amount of tricks of false-tunnel entrances would have saved her.]

[Oh.

Oh. She looks down at her dress and-- suddenly, bursts out laughing.

He wasn't making this weird. She'd made it weird without meaning to, and then had thought... he was making it weird again. Good job.

Pushing her hair out of her face with her cheeks tinted red (from the cold, okay, not from being embarrassed!) Maya answers--]

Yes? That's why we're going, right?

...Mind if I think next to ya?

[See? She's funny. Totally funny and not at all down or afraid or needing him today of all days. It'd been amazing timing, honestly.]

It's cold out.

[It lacks the usual energy.

It's cold.

She doesn't like it, and saying so is a message.]

[He can tell, just by the way she's saying it, he knows that it's cold - not just outside, but inside, too. That chill of knowing what happened-]

Of course, Maya.

[There's a small smile on his face - bitter, maybe, like the coffee he still wasn't entirely used to taking black.]

[There's a long enough pause for him to try and take enough of a sip, before responding.]

...Cold as it was that night, you think?

[His grip on the mug tightens, just every so slightly. Not because he doesn't want to talk about it - of course he does. That's why he's beating around the issue. But it's hard.

It's hard for both of them.]

Nah.

[She takes her place beside him, where she almost always is. Right next to him, right behind. She leans her head against his shoulder, breathing out slowly. She doesn't want to talk about this.

But she knows better than to think she can get away with it.]

You shoulda seen Russia.

I've got halos made of summer, rhythms made of spring

Kaneda "Teen Boy Trash Disaster"

lmk if I need to change anything!

sorry for the wait!

For Cass, following a text a few days ago what is time

no worries!

Feb 8th; action

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Feb 9th; action; fight club

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Feb14th; Day

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Nick

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Feb. 7th? Late Morning.

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