museboxofmuses | Bother bother bother

Go socialise with the other children.

Easier said than done.

Yamato sat at the very edge of the park, on the scraggly grass near the painted fence. There were a few parents mingling by the fence, but they were mostly near the benches - on the far opposite side to Yamato, and he preferred it like that. He had no idea what Alcor had been thinking, abandoning him here, but Yamato did not want to socialise with any of the screaming children flailing about the place.

They were sticky, and dirty, and- and loud! And he knew enough psychology to know that someone who appeared so out of place as himself would just invite ridicule!

Yamato despondently pulled at the dry grass, tossing the clumps up in the air out of boredom. He would take a nap - it was one of his rare breaks after all - but he might get kidnapped while his guard was down! It was why he was staying away from the adults. Paedophiles (whatever they were but they were spoken of in very disgusted tones) were adults, and they normally prowled parks like Fenris looking for stray sheep.

He was so kicking Alcor in the shin when he came back.

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"...Hi!"

Apparently, Kaito has practiced the fine art of appearing out of nowhere since he was a wee lad.

Yamato twitched slightly, but was otherwise cool as ice. Hah! Alcor had sprung at him out of nowhere so many times he couldn't startled by that anymore!

He lifted his head, giving the other boy a hard, scrutinising stare. He was a bit bigger than him (okay a lot bigger, Yamato was a very small, scrawny boy, more on the delicate side), with messy dark hair and bright blue eyes.

...Um.

"Good morning," Yamato said carefully, pulling his knees right up to his chest and peering at the other boy from beneath his fringe. "What do you want."

...What does he...want? What kind of question was that?

"Um, nothing." He paused...

"Is it your birthday or something?" Why else would he be wearing something so formal?

"No," Yamato wrinkled his nose slightly. "My birthday was last week."

Not that he did anything for his birthday. Unless meditating until his brain felt like it was melting out of his ears counted as celebrating his birthday (if so it was a horrible present).

He pulled some more at the grass, resting his cheek on his knees as he broke eye contact with the other boy. "Shouldn't you be, I don't know, playing, or whatever it is children do?"

The boy....laughed, and the strange thing was that it wasn't a mocking laugh. It was more like he was laughing in surprise.

"Playing by yourself isn't fun! You wanna go on the slide?"

Yamato straightened up at the laugh, his gaze shrewd as he stared back at the other. Was he laughing at him? Or, just laughing? Kids apparently laughed without reason. He hesitated, a bit confused on the proper path to take.

Barely two minutes in and his brain was already starting to struggle with this.

"I- the slide? What's...a slide?"

...Wh...What's a slide!? Is he messing with him? Oh dear, this was very serious. This will have to be remedied with Serious Playtime.

"It's...a slide. You know?" How do you seriously explain a slide. "You see that thing over there where you climb up and then there's a flat thing?" He helpfully points to said object in the distance.

"That's a slide."

Yamato stared over at the construct that the boy pointed at. It was tall, far taller than him, with a step-ladder leading up onto a curved metal chute that led into a churned up sandpit. Children were happily clambering up it, shrieking as they slid all the way down.

It...looked sort of scary.

"It doesn't seem very safe to go on," Yamato said, reluctance clear in his tone. "I don't see how it can be fun at all"

"It's totally safe! I've been on it tons of times."

And he looks totally okay.

Well.

Hm, with that evidence put before him...

Yamato slowly climbed to his feet, shifting his weight as he tucked his feet a bit better on his wooden geta. The teeth sunk into the dry dirt, but he had practised a lot in walking in this footwear to stumble or trip over.

"Alright. We shall try the, um, 'slide'."

"Yeah! Come on." To his credit, he wasn't dragging Yamato behind him haphazardly, but instead went a little bit ahead of him, then waited for him to catch up, then went ahead again, then waited...

Yamato didn't hurry after him. Instead he walked after him with his head held high and steps small and confident. A Hotsuin walked like they were royalty - that was what he was told. You have to walk with persistent purpose, whether you're in your casual yukata, or in full JP's uniform - which Yamato will one day have to don.

They reached the slide, and it was taller than Yamato realised. It was more than a little daunting.

"...ah, I never caught your name," Yamato asked after a pause, trying to stall for a few minutes to muster his courage.

"Oh, sorry! I'm Kaito." And he was about to climb the ladder thing to demonstrate the fine art of Sliding, but was waiting to see if Yamato wanted to go.

"Yamato," he returned, looking up uneasily at the tall structure again. "This looks taller close up..."

"Yeah. Come on!" Aaannnd up he climbed. Catch up, Yamato!

"Mnngh."

Yamato followed slowly. He carefully put his geta on each step, climbing higher and higher on the metal construct until he was near the top behind Kaito. He could see the entire park from where he stood.

Scary...

"A-Ah, I think, I will pass on the, the slide aspect of this..."

Bother bother bother

bitty kaito gogogo

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