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WHO: Mitsuru Kirijo (

penthesileia) and Kidou Yuuto (

tacticianing)
WHERE: Maurtia Falls #003
WHEN: October 5th
WHAT: Housemates finally get to know each other
WARNINGS: Really shouldn't be any!

Mitsuru rarely interacts with her housemates, to be honest. She's mainly content to live and let live, respecting their space as she'd want to have hers respected. If it hadn't been for her conversation with Junpei, she really wouldn't have given much thought to the young man Ken's age living in the government housing with her.

She's making tea in the kitchen when she hears him come home and footsteps go up the stairs to his room. When she comes out, she finds a book on the floor-- it's a textbook, American History. He must have dropped it, she thinks, and picks it up.

She makes her way up the stairs and down the hall, pausing for a moment before knocking on the door to Kidou's room.

"Kidou-kun? You dropped something downstairs."

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Kidou accepts it with a grateful look. "No," he answers softly after a glance at the title. "This one's from the school library. I borrowed a few like it."

Which is why he didn't immediately realize it was missing, he realizes. He hadn't needed to look for it yet.

"I see," Mitsuru says, nodding as she hands the book to him, her hands coming to rest atop one another in front of her hips. She glances past him to the books on his desk, and notes that this book wasn't the only American History book he has on there. It's just like he'd said, then.

"Are you a fan of American history, then? For such a young country, it does have some rather interesting periods."

"Not exactly. I'd like to know more about the Cold War, but mostly I want to do well in my history classes. It's all new to me."

In another world, in a foreign country. If he's not diligent enough, he could get a bad score...

The Cold War he knows he has to look into for his own reasons-namely understanding why America and Russia are at war now. They were then, too...and his coursebook doesn't cover that at all. Instead it focuses mostly on World War 2 or the Civil War, or other things that don't answer his questions.

The fact that you're going to external sources to better understand your academics instantly elevates you like twenty points in her eyes, Kidou. She smiles at him. "That's very diligent of you. I'm impressed."

"Though," she appends, "is the course book insufficient? In my experience, the teachers here don't ask anything that isn't covered by the assigned material."

"While I don't know if I need to know them, it references some events I'm not familiar with. I suppose that's to help put together a timeline. And we get quizzed on current events in the news every week, but I don't understand the reasoning behind most of those things, either. America and Russia weren't at war in my world."

He looks down, thoughtful. "What good is knowing things if I can't understand them?"

"It's the same where I come from," Mitsuru nods. "If you'd asked me six months ago, I would have said that the Cold War had been long over. It's taken some getting used to."

She crosses her arms over her chest, lifting one hand to tap against her lips. "I really admire that you seem to be going the extra mile, Kidou-kun. Would you like any assistance? I'd be happy to help tutor you, where I'm able."

If she'd been expecting any hint of bravado or pride to Kidou's answer, she doesn't get it. He has plenty of pride, but he's never been one to let that blind him or to turn down assistance when he needs it. Well... not if there's nothing at stake, anyway. Or if it's not personal.

Kidou stares at her - blinks in surprise behind his goggles - and then smiles a little in gratitude.

"I'd appreciate that."

He has, after all, a lot to get through in a very short amount of time, and he's got other classes he's got to be dedicating himself to, too... it'd been worrying him.

Not bravado, per se, but young men can be prideful and bold, she knows. Or rather, she suspects. His willingness to accept her proffered help is fairly refreshing, and Mitsuru can't help but smile at him. "Wonderful! I really do admire anyone who devotes themselves to their education."

She pauses for a moment. "Do you have free time right now? If you're doing homework at the moment, we can certainly revisit the topic later tonight."

"I do have free time. There wasn't much homework assigned today."

Kidou steps to the side in silent invitation, He won't tell her to come in in order to provide her an easy means to refuse. If she's simply asking if he's busy because she is right now, he'd rather not put her in an awkward place.

But, this is what he'd been setting up to do.

If she comes in, she'll note there's a penguin backpack on the floor propped on the far side of the desk, as one more obvious belonging. Between that and the penguin woodcut box, there's a theme going here.

Mitsuru has absolutely nothing going on right now, so she steps in as Kidou steps to the side, looking around the room. It's the first time she's really been in here since she moved in, and...

Ah, right. The penguins. She feels a minor headache coming on. "You certainly like penguins, don't you, Kidou-kun?"

"Yeah," Kidou agrees with a small, almost embarrassed smile. He'd decorated a little. Hopefully that was acceptable... but if not he'd understand. "Is it that obvious?"

Considering it's the only demonstrated interest he's displayed... yes, Kidou. Yes, it really is.

"Well, between the decorations and our earlier conversation, it wasn't a difficult conclusion to leap to," she explains before deciding to pivot away from this topic. The penguins made no sense, at least not in a soccer sense.

She moved to stand next to the desk, scanning the titles of the textbooks. Struggling in History class or no, these seemed far more advanced than a boy of his age might be reading. "Where are you currently in the course, time period-wise?"

"Various places. We're to assemble a timeline of North Carolina together, so we're supposed to each get a list of events to suggest."

Which gave him free reign to give in to obsessive overboard research into everything.

"A timeline? From what date range? The more specific we can get, the more thorough."

"From the foundation to now, I suppose. We weren't given a range."

"Hm," she says for a moment, scanning the table and all the available textbooks. "Then I suppose we ought to be comprehensive. Wait one moment, I'll go get a chair."

It seems that they'll be here for a while. Sure enough, she soon comes back holding a chair that she's carried up from the kitchen. "Of course, if we're too comprehensive, then that makes our data less useful. We need to hit only the important parts."

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