thoughtformed | Closed Log

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Who: Sheska and Koizumi
What: plans, dinner, panic, dating
Where: the police station and Sheska's apartment
When: Tuesday, July 9th
Warnings: cuteness may ensue

Now that school was out, Koizumi finds himself working at the police station nearly every waking moment that he isn't busy with Kyon or Haruhi. It's hard work, and most of his fellow officers are definitively not people he would have normally chosen to spend time with, which doesn't make the job any easier.

Nevertheless, he manages to come in to work every day, not just with a smile on his face, but a genuine smile. And the reason for that is because the first person he sees when he walks in the door - as well as the last person he sees before he leaves for the day - is almost always Sheska, greeting him brightly and optimistically, with a smile to rival one of his on her face. It's not really something he's considered, but it makes his day considerable brighter, to have that smile to look forward to, both coming into work and in the middle of his shift. Even the days she's not working, he's encouraged by the thought of the smile she would be wearing when he walks in.

So it is that Koizumi enters the police station at 6 in the morning, a wide smile on his face as he greets the receptionist.

"Good morning, Sheska-kun. How are you today?"

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Her swollen heart jumps and catches in her throat to see him so laid bare. She nearly blurts out that she's made her decision and it's him, just to see that hurt and guilt go away. She never wanted to cause him any pain. It was such a poor way to repay his kindness, and he didn't deserve it. But that wouldn't be fair to Rudy, either... What a mess.

His compliments renew her smile even as she mutely shakes her head. It's nice to see some of that tension in him retreat, and she finds herself responding instinctively, opening up her posture some. She isn't expecting him to take her hand, her eyes widening slightly and the warmth deepening across her cheek again, and she dares to tentatively squeeze his fingers in return. Her heart is so loud... surely he can hear it... What does all of this even mean? Is a person always supposed to react like a giddy schoolgirl when confronted with someone who professes some sort of mad attraction to you?

"I'd like that, if that's all right," she says. "I, ah... I should tidy up, but would you, um..." She casts about for an idea. She didn't want this to go poorly, but what on earth were they supposed to do now? She wasn't going to let him help clean up. That's just rude. Her eye falls on the hall closet and she has an idea. "What about a board game? If you like them, I mean... I bought a few at Juanes a while ago, but I never did get a chance to open them and test them out."

His smile actually turns a little shy when she blushes and squeezes his hand, and a mirroring heat rises a little in his own cheeks.

He starts to open his mouth to offer to help her clean up, but he catches himself in time. Sheska would feel bad if he helped. His eyes follow hers to the closet. "I would enjoy that a lot, Sheska-kun. I used to play board games with Kyon all the time in the clubroom." His broad smile continues, a little more confident. "I'll go peruse our selection, shall I?"

He strolls to the hall closet, and examines the contents. Apologies!, Misfortune, Scribble, and Foursome are the first he sees. There are several more, and he spends a moment searching through them, but there are none he thinks particularly suit the evening. He comes back with Foursome, Scribble, and a deck of Tricycle® playing cards, holding them up for her to see. "One of these, perhaps, Sheska-kun?"

Edited 2013-07-18 01:02 (UTC)

She gathers the dishes, rinses, and slips them into the dishwasher - such a wonderful invention! Moving her flowers off to one side, she remembers to go put down food for the soulful-eyed hound and turns in a swirl of heavy skirt to find her guest carrying a few games. "Oh, good! I'd been hoping to have someone teach me those! Have you played either of them before?"

Sheska gestures to the table and comes over to join him, the prospect of learning something new entirely a delight to her.

"As a matter of fact, I have. We can start with Connec- er, Foursome, I think, since it doesn't take that long, and move on to Scribble afterward." He wears something of an amused and knowing grin. "Somehow, I think you're going to be really good at that one."

He takes out and sets up the Connect 4 ripoff, explaining the game. "Though strategy is a little more nuanced, the game itself is very simple. We each receive a color - red or black - and we take turns placing a piece into one of these slots at the top, where they slide down until they hit the bottom or another piece. The goal is the get four of your pieces in a row - vertically, horizontally, or diagonally - before your opponent."

Edited 2013-07-19 02:29 (UTC)

"Oh! That is fairly simple. Like tic-tac-toe, only with an added spot. All right!" Picking up one red and one black in either hand, she holds them behind her and mixes them up before offering him closed fists. "I think black goes first? Pick one!"

Inviting him to touch her. That was a step, right? An example of trust? It was probably too obscure, but... She's trying. It's hard to express.

"Exactly, except you have to start on the bottom and work you way up." Actually, Koizumi's fairly certain that red is supposed to go first. "I believe you are correct, Sheska-kun."

Luckily for her, he is at the moment extremely aware of all their actions, and the invitation does not go unnoticed. A small, soft smile graces his face at the gesture. Maybe she really does like him, after all.

He languidly reaches out and gently touches his fingers to the top of her left hand. "This one, I think."

Edited 2013-07-19 04:51 (UTC)

The red target rings gleam in her upturned palm and she smiles apologetically. "I suppose I start then." She hesitates for a moment, then chooses the most obvious strategic point - the center.

The game starts out quickly on her side of things, slowing down once they have three rows or so mostly filled. She tires to keep up a sort of light conversation, talking about the common games and children's rhymes of her home and how some of them match or differ from ones in this world that she's found. Several easy rookie mistakes and intrigued laughs later, it's clear that she's picking up some of the strategy quickly.

Koizumi makes no obvious errors in the early game, but though he gets close a time or two, it is obvious that his experience does not present him with much of an advantage here. After the first couple rows, he's rapidly put on the defensive, as Sheska displays a clear aptitude for the game.

Regardless of how he's doing, however, his cheerful smile never disappears, and he laughs easily. He takes to the conversation quickly, actually very interested in the topic, and what it might say about the relationships between the world or simply about human nature, with conjecture and ideas about both which he shares freely.

Though he tries not to think about it in such terms, he also wonders what it might say about Haruhi and her life and existence beyond four or five years ago.

When they are a little more than halfway up the board, he reacts to the trap Sheska laid for him, though it's a bare move too late for him to prevent it. Anything he does now will lead to her victory within two moves. He makes a noise of mock dismay, though he's laughing again moments afterward. "Oh, dear. That was well done, Sheska-kun. I'm afraid you have bested me.

Shall we play again, or would you like to move on to another game?"

Edited 2013-07-19 19:54 (UTC)

Sheska was a little afraid of his reaction - she'd never had luck with people she'd beaten in a competitive game - but she shouldn't have worried. Joining in, laughing releases any lingering tension in her and she doesn't feel a need to apologize, for once. "I wouldn't mind another game, but I must admit, Scribble is rather tempting. Though, I'm not sure it would be fair, if you're not as used to English spelling and such," she says, stacking her few excess pieces and examining the Foursome grid more closely. "How...? Are you just meant to tip it upside-down?"

Koizumi gives something of an unassuming shrug, still smiling. "Perhaps I would be at something of a disadvantage, but hardly moreso than I apparently am here. You very clearly met and surpassed my skill at it within the space of a single game. I have my doubts as to whether I'd fare better in the next one."

He leans forward, indicating and then pulling the lever at the bottom, and all the pieces come tumbling out. "You simply slide the bottom like this, Sheska-kun."

"Oh, no, really, I'm sure I just got lucky. I'm not usually-- Oh!" Her self deprecating commentary is cut short by her childish delight at the release mechanism. Capturing a few escapees before they rolled off the table, she laughs. "That's marvelous! I can certainly see why it's such a popular game. Children must love the end as much as the game itself."

She gathers everything to put away, nodding at the Scribble box. "I don't suppose you'd set up for the next one, then? I haven't had a chance to read the rules, but the box said something about forming words to score points?" She can, of course, quote the box word for word, but that would be showing off in the worst way, and she really doesn't want to put him off or boast. This is about having fun!

Koizumi doesn't continue the earlier vein, not wanting to give Sheska a chance for more self-depreciation. "I certainly know I did, as a child."

He takes out the Scribble board, two of the tile racks, a pen and a piece of paper to keep score, and then picks up the bag of letters, offering it to Sheska. "It's fairly simple. We each get seven letters to start with. The numbers on the letters indicate how much each tile is worth; blanks can be any letter, but you don't get any points from them. You start in the middle of the board, and then have to build off the words already played. Various squares on the board will make letters or even the whole word worth double or triple what it otherwise would have been, so placement is important." He spends several more moments explaining the little details and intricacies of the game. "I think that's about it. Make sense?

Tell you what, if you're worried about me being at a disadvantage because of my English, why don't I go first?"

After a few clarifying questions and running to go fetch a dictionary from her shelf, she was ready. Slipping her seven tiles from the proffered bag, Sheska lines them up on her little rack, already shuffling and reorganizing them enthusiastically. "Oh, yes, please do! It'll be a favor to me, honestly. Hm." She had a few options, but she was already seeing how difficult a game this could be. She was several letters short for that one, and one or two for that... Oh, an s, or even a d would probably make a difference! An e would be especially useful just at the moment, though. Hmm.

Koizumi smiles at her indulgently, glad that his offer to try to even the odds a little is received so well. He chooses his own tiles, lining them up on his rack and simply looking at them, very intently, for more than a minute. Eventually, he switches the tiles once, twice... and then his smile widens with a quiet 'ah', and he comes forward with the word 'fervid', netting an mildly impressive 34 points. That should allay her fears that this might be an easy game.

... Or it would, had she ever played it before, and had it been anyone other than Sheska.

Regardless, he smiles at her genially as he dives into the bag for more tiles. "Your turn, Sheska-kun." The game continues quickly for his part, never spending more than a minute or two on any particular word. "Failure", "leisure", and "enamor" quickly come and go as the game unfolds, and he keeps up a casual small talk with her, for all the world as if what had happened between them at dinner had never occurred.

Sheska is of course suitably impressed by such a good start, and fusses with her letters before coming up with 'impulse'. She's slower to come up with words, but the more they play, the faster she gets, and her greater vocabulary starts to come into play.

Homage...
Zealous...

She chats amiably, if a little distractedly, running through her mental dictionary to try and find something that fit best with her letters. Her poker face is dreadful, a little, intent half-frown of concentration that does nothing to disguise her excitement when she finds something she likes, nor her dismay when it doesn't work or he lays a word where she had meant to.

And then she discovers the trick of adding to two words with one letter. She stops dead in the middle of what she was saying and stares a moment, considering the options. Is that against the rules? She glances at Koizumi and reaches for the booklet to check. No... not against the rules. Hm. Hesitating slightly, she picks up her pieces and lays 'pleas' down so that the 's' matches the end of 'impulse'. Not a lot of points, but it still feels a little like cheating.

Edited (/headdesk) 2013-07-23 21:14 (UTC)

He's glad they can go back to chatting amiably after what happened at supper, though he's still a little intently aware of his reactions to her, watching her pure delight and disappointment in the game, noting just how open and honest her face is, and how well that suits her.

He had started out a little ahead, and managed to stay even with her up till this point, but as she's getting used to the game she starts drawing quickly ahead, and by the time the game is halfway through - though he isn't sure if she is even aware of the score - she's managed to take a sixty point lead, which no signs of stopping anytime soon.

He laughs delightedly when she discovers she can make two words with one letter, gently amused at her expression. He smiles broadly, and states, with enthusiasm. "Ah, now I really am doomed!"

Dismay and chagrin twist her lips and puts tight lines around her eyes, and immediately she's apologizing. "I'm sorry! It's not wrong, is it? I-I mean, I couldn't find anything about it in the rule book, but if it's a rule you don't play with, then I can do something else instead!" He doesn't seem upset at all, but she's been bitten too many times in the past.

He holds up his hands as if to forestall her. "Ah - don't worry, Sheska-kun, it's a perfectly legal play."

He shrugs elaborately. "I was simply lamenting my apparently inevitable looming defeat." This is obviously a lie. He's not lamenting it in the slightest.

She flushes, embarrassed. "I'm overreacting again, aren't I?" It's one of the things she's always been teased about, but he doesn't actually sound upset? Fiddling with her remaining tiles, she laughs a little, more self-depreciating than amused. "Well, um, your turn, then, I suppose."

"Ah - you are, a little, Sheska-kun. This is just a game - not something to get upset or embarrassed about. And you should never need to apologize for winning, because that is precisely what you're supposed to be trying to do."

She crinkles her nose, embarrassed over her reaction. "Sorry... I... I suppose I'm not very used to having someone want to play with me. I'll try not to get so flustered."

Squaring her shoulders, she tucks her hair back away from her face and frowns very seriously at the board.

Koizumi gives her a beatific smile. "Don't worry about it, Sheska-kun. Just try to have fun with it."

He cheerfully plays another word, garnering a rather uninspiring 11 points.

"Oh, it is fun!" she reassures him, forgetting to frown. "I really like this sort of word game. I'm just never sure how much I should temper my own skill or if it's something that I should just go all out with. It wouldn't be fun for the other player, I don't think."

She goes silent a moment, rearranging her tiles, glancing at the board, and running through a few pages of dictionary in her head, trying to find something that fit. No, no, no... Not quite... Hm. She has a terrible poker face, twisting her lips and occasionally counting out letters silently on her fingers. From time to time she brightens, hesitates, then shakes her head, going back to fiddling. She does have something of an unfair advantage, she reflects at one point. She's memorized the dictionary, so she doesn't have to look up words to know if they're spelled properly.

What if... Yes! That would work! She perks up, picks up her letters and manages to lay them in such a way as to get another twenty-seven points, herself.

"Ah, that's better. It's always nice to see you smile."

He reaches out almost immediately, playing a word that nets him another 18 points. "I assure you, Sheska-kun, you needn't temper your skill. I'd prefer you simply played your best. I'm having fun, and I will be, no matter how many points ahead of me you are.

Edited 2013-08-20 03:21 (UTC)

She flicks him a startled glance and her smile tempers to something shy and grateful as she goes back to sifting her tiles for hidden gems. "Well, don't you hold back either, all right?" she says, albeit a bit distractedly. "That's almost worse than trying to guess at reactions."

The game is getting a bit harder, all the obvious spaces taken up or somehow blocked for her particular combination of letters, and many of the most common letters were already on the board, so they had to be worked around rather than added in. She hums thoughtfully and sits back a moment to consider the whole. Her eyes flick back and forth from board to rack to board and back, unconsciously tapping a finger against her lips.

It takes a few minutes of close consideration, but finally she nods and manages a short word laid sidealong to a vertical word, winding up with five words in total and a slightly more robust chunk of points.

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dontmindmepleasecontinue - 2013-08-31 07:40 (UTC) - Expand

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why yes I did randomly generate which one he chose

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