1351/You Said You Missed the Onsen

You Said You Missed the Onsen
Date of Scene:	26 March 2024
Location:	Sugata's House
Synopsis:	Sugata has a new house, and Wako needs some encouragement from her boys!
Cast of Characters:	Sugata Shindo, Takuto Tsunashi, Wako Agemaki

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Sugata Shindo has posed:
At the far end of Juuban Ward, where the homes are large and largely older, sprawls a newly built manor, a stunning example of classic Japanese architecture brought into the modern world. This sprawling three-story property is newly built, and the not-nearly-distant enough neighbors are grateful that the construction is finished - enough money will buy you 'round the clock efforts. It's a good thing Tokyo has such robust public transportation, as it's only a short bus ride from the school - not that the trio standing in front of the wrought-iron gate took a bus; no, they'd caught an uber, at Sugata's expense of course, though the idea of flying had been bandied about.

"What do you think?" Sugata is tossing a ring of keys up and down, the jangle of metal loud in the quiet of the area. They stand at the front of the long driveway, and graveled paths with stones which lead to the far side of the property, newly planted trees providing ample shade.

It's not as big as the Shindo house on Southern Cross, but it's a big house.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto just starts laughing, and the sound of it isn't just amusement, it's mingled disbelief and total belief and no small amount of delight, because of course, but also, "It's so BIG! In TOKYO! Someday my jiichan will have to come visit! I think he'll like you--"

Honestly he must like the place; this is the first time he's ever actually spoken about his grandfather like a person who is alive on this earth and can be easily met and in fact should be met.

He bounces on his heels. "Can we go look around?? It's SO BIG, Sugatakun, did you also get an army of roombas for Tiger and Jaguar?"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"It's about what I expected," says Wako, proving that she has not yet fully naturalized to life in Tokyo; "but I can't believe you had it finished so fast." She looks around at the grounds (in TOKYO), the long graveled paths and the trees and the painstaking landscaping work. Something is nagging at her, just a little bit, but it takes a bit longer for the dots to connect in her head.

"...Takuto-kun, wasn't this where the spa was before? The one with the youma?"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
Your grandfather is alive?

Sugata isn't insensitive enough to ask, but he's tempted to be - this is the first time Takuto's ever hinted that the man might be alive enough to have an opinion on anything. A visiting relative... well, it might be interesting to have a meet the family moment. It's not like he's ever spent a day in his life not knowing Wako's grandmother.

"As it turns out, if you offer enough money, miracles can happen." A smug aura radiates around him -

And then dies, when Wako asks that fatal question. "?"

Yes, his aura of question is so strong it's practically vocal.

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"... I think it--" starts Takuto, and then stops, and backs up to look across the street, then looks back, and blinks. "It's completely the place where the spa with the youma was. You know those pictures Wako took where I was small and climbing on a mermaid-looking lady monster? That's where this was!"

Then he's immediately over by Sugata, hugging his arm, "THAT'S AMAZING it was such a good spa and I checked it out again later and it was already closed but now it's YOUR spa and you LIVE here and I can mooch again--"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako hastily brings up a hand to cover her mouth, mostly to hide a giggle at the look on Sugata's face. Oops? Then Takuto is hanging on Sugata's arm and she has a better excuse to laugh, and she lets her hand drop, moving to grab the other arm. "Come on, you have to give us the tour!"

She tugs a little, urging Sugata and attached Takuto along down the walk. "Maybe we could convince Grandmother to come for a visit, now that you can host her here. She deserves a vacation."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"You said you missed the onsen," Sugata says, trying and failing to regain an aura of smug cool guy. His pride has been punctured a little by the thought of buying the place Takuto was de-aged in.

Though Takuto's quick praise - and his one-armed hug - are enough to buoy his mood again, and he allows Wako to tug them forward. "Of course I'll give you the tour. Would you like to see the grounds first, or the inside of the property? There's plenty to see either way."

And then, without skipping a beat, he wriggles the lower half of his arm free from Takuto and tosses a pair of keys up once more.

"You two have your own keys. You don't have to ask, if you'd like them to come and stay for a visit."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
At the very least, Takuto seems the opposite of bothered by having been de-aged-- and then Sugata both half-frees his arm and tosses the keys and is he trying to get Takuto to chase the keys because it almost works. Almost. But Takuto does not let completely go, at least not for a moment. Instead, there's a squeeze.

It's progress!

Then Takuto points to the house. "House first! Interior I mean! Are there beds or mats or what? I'll ask jiichan over break, maybe? No, that's too soon. Maybe in a little while! After the new school year starts."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"The grounds!" says Wako, at exactly the same moment Takuto says house first. Laughing again, she shakes her head and relents-- "Inside is fine. You can show Takuto-kun the dojo." A teasing look across Sugata towards Takuto. "And I need to find a good place in the house where I can rehearse--"

Abruptly she looks pained, and actually turns her face in against the arm of Sugata's that she's hanging onto. "Ughhhhhhh, I really am going to have to start rehearsing. I volunteered to sing at this princess prom thing the school is doing."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
The grounds! from one side. The inside! from another. Sugata shakes his head, saying grimly, "Unfortunately, my first phase doesn't let me split in two."

Woe, wow for them - but no, of course Wako would surrender. That's fine - it will make the grand reveal at the end better.

Catching his keys by the ring and curling his hand around them, Sugata leads the pair up the driveway, avoiding the path of stones for the sake of having both of them right next to him. What? He can be selfish too. He's regaining some of his enthusiasm after the reveal that the grounds were probably definitely used for the sake of an attack on his partners, and has decided to reembrace showmanship.

"You're that eager to see Takuto flailing and limping?" He starts to tease, only for Wako to bury her face in his arm and he stops them on the porch, surprised.

"You're performing? At the prom that's in what, a week? And you didn't tell us?" Sugata has never done anything boyfriend like in his life. Why then, is he mentally plotting how long it would take to find an appropriate shop and tailor to have the most brilliant outfit possible made for Wako?

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
    (Probably because she should, obviously, have the very best.) Takuto's blinking, though, and he looks around Sugata at ... the side of Wako's head since her face is buried in Sugata's other arm. And he looks delighted all over again. "Do we get to listen to you rehearse?"

He has not yet thought through 'people will be dressing up for this thing, he will be expected to dress up, despair'. He'll get there. Right now, his spiky head is filled with the memories of Wako singing into her phone for Sugata, still stuck back on the island, and the memory of her singing for Sugata's birthday before everything went wrong again, and the memory of her singing just for him on the beach, and the memories of every time he's gotten to hear her sing, and he's thinking about what a privilege it is, and he's saying before thinking, "Oh no, we'll have to share you!"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Like a week and a half," says Wako, muffled. Then she pulls back to give both of them the most plaintive look with the biggest honey-brown eyes. "I'm not ready, I'm not gonna be ready. I'm just gonna get up there and embarrass myself."

Takuto's 'oh no' cuts through some of her abject weh, enough that she smiles a little. "You can always listen to me rehearse," she says. "I don't know what I was thinking, though."

When was the last time she was nervous about singing like this? Maybe never. It's not like she wasn't in the drama club, she's performed for audiences before. But this is different.

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Of course you're ready," Sugata says matter of factly, though he does look pained when Takuto points out the dreadful truth: they'll have to share. "You could call it off though, if you wanted. Sing just for an appreciative audience instead of a crowd of awkward teenagers hanging by the walls."

It's a minor miracle the porch doesn't cave on him having the nerve to call anyone else an awkward teenager.

He gets his keys out, opening the door, thinking -

"On the other hand, if you don't sing, they'll probably be stuck with someone far worse, the event will be ruined, and you'll never forget how you could have saved the prom."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto doesn't have a single thing to add to that, not really, so what he says is -- while peering around Sugata into the house -- "Agree one hundred percent, no notes. Well. No notes on key unless you sing them~"

And then he glances back to Wako and his eyes sparkle at her, with that particular face he gets when it's a shared secret but also teasing, but also serious. "If you sing, I'll ask Sugata-kun to dance, right up front."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako nudges Sugata with her shoulder, a gentle push, before she lets go of his arm to let him manage the door. Already the ground feels firmer under her feet, as it were, and there's a renewed sparkle in her eyes as she looks from Takuto to Sugata and back. "I'm holding you to that, you know," she informs Takuto, pink-cheeked.

"I'm not the only one singing - I'm going after an actual professional idol and some kind of princess with a magic voice." The fretting has subsided so the words are mostly just wry. "It shouldn't be any different from singing for drama club back on the island, but... it's Tokyo." No further elaboration on that. Instead she shrugs and smiles at the both of them, standing back to wait for Sugata to let them in the house. "Anyway this means you both have to be there. Especially now that Takuto-kun has to ask you to dance, Sugata-kun~"

Sugata Shindo has posed:
"We'll need dancing shoes," Sugata sighs, adding it to the mental list. He unlocks the front door and pushes it open, stepping in and to the side to make room for them as he slips out of his shoes. They're left neatly to the side as he slips into house slippers, directly the pair of them to where they can select their own if they don't want to sock-slide down the wooden floors.

Even from the entrance way they can see that the house is in fact just as large as it looked from the outside, the entire structure as traditional on the inside as it was on the outside. Unlike the hardwood floors of the Shindo mansion back home, here there are tatami mats, warm cedar beams, and the majority of the doors they can see are fusuma, sliding doors that would open easily and quietly.

To the immediate left is a small tearoom with an alcove and plenty of natural light from the windows; shoji screens dim the light from something irritably bright to a more soothing warmth. There's a teapot warmer inset into the floor, surrounded by tatami mats, and a lone, low table set up with tea supplies. To their right, the hallway continues, towards bedrooms and bathrooms, and to their front, it opens into the first of two living spaces. The majority of the furniture that they can see is largely crafted in traditional styles too.

"So you're going to have the opportunity to show up an idol and a princess," Sugata says with a shrug, "A good day for you."

He means what he says. He's confident that of the three of them, Wako will have the better voice - but he's biased, of course. He's prized every opportunity to listen to Wako sing, and has no doubt that she alone has the greatest voice in all Japan.

"I was already assuming one of you would take me."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Bold of you to assume it wouldn't be both of us~" says Takuto, taking off his shoes as he looks around. "But maybe you should ask Wako anyway, say something like, 'Wako, will you go to prom with me and Takuto?' and see what she says."

This he says in front of Wako, of course; he's only gently teasing. "I need a new suit, too, the only one I have is too small for me now." Suit, he says. A suit. "It is Tokyo," he agrees with Wako, "but it's also just a school dance, if that helps? You can think of the prom as practice for being an idol, even while you're showing up those other two girls."

And then he absolutely takes off to do a running on-purpose sock slide down the longest space he can immediately see. "Jiichan would love this house, too!" he calls from out of sight around a corner.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Just one of us?" says Wako, a breath after Takuto's 'bold of you to assume' - she flashes him an amused look, that glitter of a shared joke that isn't a joke but also is again, and when he's done telling Sugata to ask her to prom she adds airily, "I was looking forward to having you both as my escorts, but if only one of us can be your date it should be Takuto-kun, since I'm performing~" It's more teasing, bright and playful, the internal flailing of a few moments ago soothed by their reassurances.

"I suppose we should go shopping for prom outfits, then." And then she breaks up giggling as Takuto takes off to do his running sock-slide. "It's a beautiful house," she tells Sugata, as she finishes taking off her own shoes and steps into the waiting house slippers. "Everything looks amazing. Tiger and Jaguar must've worked hard to get it all set up so fast."

Sugata Shindo has posed:
They're both evil. Terrible. Punishments for something he did in another life.

Of course, the same could be said about him.

"And have the arrogance to assume both of you would ask?" He says dryly as they enter the house. He deposits his keys in a little bowl meant for just that purpose and secures the door behind them. "But fine, Takuto is right, I shouldn't presume -"

And he clears his throat and sweeps into a bow straight for one of the drama club's productions and proclaims, "Wako-chan, you most beautiful woman in all the land, would you deign to allow such humble creatures as Takuto and I to escort you to the prom?"

The tone and delivery are laughable. The intent gaze fixed on her face is anything but. But then - a mere moment later, perhaps before she can even gather her wits, he's straightening and turning with a faint smile, "They were happy to have a small army of workers to boss around, yes. We accepted some of the suggestions of the working crews, so they in turn worked hard for us."

Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"People always like being listened to," says sock-foot Takuto from Over There. "I'm going upstairs! I found a staircase! You guys are taking too long!"

And then there is the sound of thump thump thump up stairs, and an immediate muffled squeak of joy.