1381/We All Meet in the Middle

We All Meet in the Middle
Date of Scene:	04 April 2024
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	Koji and Mamoru catch up, finally, and discuss whether they'll still be roommates this year.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Koji Silvia

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The new school year has begun! New teachers, some new classmates, classes switched around, new textbooks... new monsters, new fights, new teammates.

"You know, one of them's going to want to move in with the amount of absolute BS that's been coming down the pike. I'm sorry AGAIN about not coming home until like 1 AM because of vampire, last month," Mamoru says as he deposits the ugly-ass garden statue back outside the door, so Koji can come into the shed. "Did I tell you the details on that eventually? I forget if I did or if I just kept meaning to."

He really is so much... better when he's not stressed literally all the time. It's remarkable what a lack of dark energy can do.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Stepping into the Shed after so long away, Koji is just dressed down to his school uniform, a new and sleek-looking backpack for his books and school computer, and a generally bemused look on his face, "No, I missed the vampire."

The younger-looking teen just exhales and then grins just a little as he adjusts his new glasses, "I think you've been meaning to. And you know... we can always try and ask to move down the hall to the three-bunk room if you really want one of them to move in. Or... I could move to a single and we could be neighbors. I mean... with you and Usagi-chan becoming a bigger thing, and a new year..."

Of course he's offering to sacrifice his own peace of mind for your own, "This is going to be weird regardless... I mean. We spent most of last year with you being dark, me keeping secrets, and the whole Obsidian cold war thing... it was pretty intense. This feels... almost like we're starting from scratch."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"There's an actual legit vampire who drinks blood and steals energy, and he calls himself after that urban legend -- or maybe IS the urban legend -- the Back Street Slasher. He has magic knives that come out of his hands and suck blood out-- getting stabbed with them doesn't hurt, it feels really weird-- and he's HUGE," Mamoru says firmly, shutting the door. "And your glasses are new, aren't they? They're very cool."

He toes out of his shoes, then deposits himself on a desk and his feet on its chair, and leans forward with his elbows on his knees. "Kazuo's in a single," he says, then exhales. "I don't know what I want. Sometimes it's really comforting that you're there -- and you're NOT as much of an overprotective mother hen as Zoisite is, by the way. Sometimes I just want to be alone. Sometimes I want to just, you know. Be with one of them. And then there's the fact that people do now drop in at all hours, either dying or almost dying, asking for me to heal them. I wished I could do it, when I couldn't, and now I wish there were more of me so I could get everyone without collapsing of tired."

He EXHALES after getting all that out, and then he sits up and rubs at the back of his head, sheepish grin all over. "Sorry. Yeah. I don't feel like a different person, though, I'm just not in pain all the time anymore."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Slipping out of his own shoes for now, Koji actually slips them into a slot on his backpack along the back that someone might use for something like a bike helmet or a skateboard or something... or at least it looks like that. Taking off the pack, he actually sits on a spot on the floor, and then stretches his legs out in a 90 degree angle, just before he just lays back with his head balanced on his hands.

"Mamoru... there's two sides to this for you. If I'm there, I'm always going to BE there. And I don't mind that. Sure it's a little crowded at times, but at the same time, I know you need a sort of... what's the word... lighthouse from the crazy. Even if I'm also part of it."

Turning his head, he looks up and over towards his still-roommate, "The other side is if you're alone in the double, you get peace and quiet until things are interrupted, and then the other person gets to use the other bed for resting up, or just for staying over. They also don't feel like they're intruding because this space is obviously yours and mine."

There's a pause from him, and then he closes his eyes, "So... just... wow. A vampire. On top of everything else. I hear these things and honestly? Part of me just ENVIES the normal kids. You know? Like... who wants to know this stuff? Who wants to really KNOW that this stuff is out there, and we're fighting it just so they continue to not know. But I still envy them."

Finally he sits up, "Thanks about the glasses. I like them too. These ones do the cool thing where in the sunlight the darken into sunglasses."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"They don't take too long to lighten back up for inside?" Mamoru asks curiously, tilting his head a little. "I was at one point vaguely considering being that cool, but I was worried about the speed..."

He leans forward again, regarding the floor-Koji. "I don't envy them at all, but I grew up with magic, so I guess it's just different. But I'm having a problem with figuring out what you're trying to say about doubles and singles. If you're there, you're there. But then you're not there and other people are using your bed?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Grunting as he moves to sit back up, Koji instead lays back again, scissors his legs shut, and does a picture-perfect kip-up. Reaching up to brush his hair back after, he adjusts his uniform a little and then says, "Sorry... I guess I'm dancing around it."

Moving over, he sits on the other side-edge of the desk, "I'm cool with whatever you want to do. I'm just trying to make sure we both know the pros and cons. If I'm your roomie, or if you want to be by yourself. Because I care about what you think and what you want to do. Even if what you want to do is not talk about it and kick it down the road. One of the perks of being friends."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You're still dancing around it a bit, because I don't know what you mean -- like, are you talking about if you move out into a single and i keep the double? Because I don't think they'll let me keep a double by myself. But maybe we should move to a different room either way, since my old boss and her lackeys know where I live..." Mamoru trails off, then taps his feet on the chair's seat for a moment.

"Listen though, you haven't actually said what your preference is. Or if you have, it's been so couched in dancing-around that I couldn't tell it was a preference." He doesn't sound even slightly annoyed -- just amused. "And I mean. There's another con that you haven't listed, and that's that if Kazuo and I are doing study time in our room, that's you having to see me and Kazuo studying while like, leaning against each other."

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's a mask that comes on quite subtly. Only people used to masking can see the mask as it slips down Koji's face, turning him from the slightly animated to just... placidly amused.

"It's okay." He says softly, "If you and Kazuo are... doing that. I don't mind. I don't get how this whole thing works, but I can still respect it because you all care for each other a lot."

With a sigh, he pushes off the desk, walks a couple steps away, and then turns around to face you, hands behind his head and elbows out. There's a smile again, but it's one of those ones you see when someone doesn't know what else to do, "I don't like change. But I've had to deal with a lot of it over the last year. Magic, dark beings, nearly getting killed by a little girl, seeing you defect from your entire LIFE... finding out that we all almost got sucked into a shadow copy of Tokyo. Through it all, there was always the room. And then that got changed too. A bakaneko, the flood, your girlfriend."

He catches himself wandering off topic, and then just shakes his head, "I don't like change. It interrupts all these plans I make in my head and never share... so I really don't have a right to complain when other people DO things. What I mean is... I'm a little scared. It's all so much, and I want something I can rely on... but how fair is that to you?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Is it still the room for you? I mean -- I've been trying to keep stuff off you, but I don't have to," Mamoru offers, pulling his legs up and scooting back a little on the desk, so he can sit cross-legged on it. "I just don't want anybody bleeding on the floor and then you cleaning it up like it's your job when technically the mess is my fault. I don't want me canoodling with Usagi or Kazuo to keep you out of the room. Maybe if you wear really good earplugs at night, I won't wake you if someone comes in with cracked ribs and a harpoon through the arm or something. You've been really lucky the last few times, you were either at your parents' place or you were out, yourself."

The prince lifts his hands to rub at his face. "My life has legitimately gotten weirder since we escaped Obsidian. And my Shitennou..." He shakes his head, then lets his hands drop and laughs a little. "I think what I'm saying is... there are a lot of things I can't be relied on for. That the time you've spent in the hurricane of changes is only the beginning. I mean-- I got a whole other lifetime's worth of memories flooding into my head all at once in the middle of December. I wasn't even fully put back together yet when the flood hit. I'm still trying to figure out if Mamoru is even a separate person from Endymion, and what on earth it means if it's the case. I still have my ex-boss after me -- especially now that she knows I am the prince she was looking for all that time."

He pushes his own glasses up, then runs a hand through his short hair, making the cowlick spring back up. And then he sighs. "I'm not saying 'oh no it's dangerous you'll get hurt' -- I'm just saying don't expect it, or me, to stay the same, so if you're thinking that us still being roommates will be safe and unchanging and something you can hang on to as a bastion of sanity... well, uh. It won't be. So consider what you want, truly -- me to stay, or the room you come back to being predictable and unchanging?"

Koji Silvia has posed:
Koji just stares for a long moment after all of that... and then he just starts LAUGHING!

Turning, sitting down on the floor, with his back against the desk... he just LAUGHS, letting the sound fill the space.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru tries to wait it out, a little uncomfortable. He fidgets.

Finally, exasperated, "What! I was being serious!"

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's a sniff from down on the other side of the desk, followed by a wiping of the nose on Koji's sleeve. In a weird move, he just rests his head back on the desk enough that he can look up at Mamoru from a weird sort of cat-like angle, "Sorry. It's just funny. We're trying to out-convenience each other... when the reality is... neither of us are very reliable... unless it's the room. When we're there, it's just like... the room. It doesn't even need to be that room. Just... a place where you know I'm not going to freak out over the next thing that comes through the door, and you're not going to judge me for being stupid and holding back."

He blinks once from that odd position, and then says, "Getting a new room is a good idea. I don't care how many times they've cleaned it since the flood. I swear I still smell something moldy." there's a pause before he adds, "Besides, no one else is going to throw people out of the room when they need to leave. You're too nice, and if any of your boy band was there, they wouldn't do it unless you told them to. Even the mothering guy... Zoe?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
For a moment, Mamoru gives Koji side-eye, but then he settles and listens.

Then he makes FROWNY-FACE. "Izou, if you're going to be like that. He picked Izou Saitou because it sounded close enough to his preferred name." His frowny-face intensifies and he leans forward again, over his crossed legs, just to make sure Koji knows it's an aimed thing. "Maybe I should ask you to start calling me Endymion. It's exactly as much my real name as Mamoru is, I answer to it just the same. Or Endy. Endy would work too."

He does sit up for that last part, not intense at all, more considering. Then he shakes his head and returns most of his attention to Koji again. "The thing is, though -- we need to go into a new room, together, but keep in mind that at some point during the year I might decide I should actually be rooming with one of my boy band -- just because they were literally my guard, last time around, and they have every reason to be paranoid, since they all remember seeing her kill me, back then. I need to look after their mental health as well as my own -- at least until they re-learn how to self-regulate."

He waves his hands in the air. "I don't mind it! God knows I'm happy they're back, they're on my side again. But they were messed with a lot more than I was. Twice. So if there's melting down, I might move. Or, maybe just-- not officially move, but not sleep in our room most of the time. If something happens. Like if she almost gets me."

Koji Silvia has posed:
There's a frown back, "Okay Prince Darien Mamoru Endymion Chiba Shield of Planet Earth..."

The tension is gone as he break the serious face and then shrugs, "This isn't going to work until I MEET them and we see if it's going to be a problem. And I mean meet them... Not bundle them up to go camping and then just hide out in your own tents for two days."

He waggles his finger at you for that one, standing up and turning to lean in close before relenting, "Because the truth is they don't know the you I've come to know over the last year. And I don't know the you that came out once all your memories came back. So... we all meet in the middle and see what happens."