Full Moon Lily

Interaction Starters: Dramatic

Ran blinks as she walks into Marukyu Tofu, moving aside as a couple of people left in a huff. The one whose pained voice she had heard was standing behind the counter, dressed as a store worker with a kerchief over her hair.

Ran listened to her answer… and panicked slightly as Rise started to cry. “N-no, don’t-… I’m sorry, Rise-san. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories. We can drop the subject…”

Frantically, she wracks her brain for something else to talk about.

And then she was back, offering her a small package. “Samples? Ah... are you certain? Then... thank you.”

I want the K || selectively accepting || 4. Forehead Kiss

College is rough. Even though Ran wasn’t a super party-hard-er type of girl, well something must have knocked her out this early. Perhaps that new game people had started talking about around campus? Anyway, Minako can relate to being kept up all night for… quite a multitude of reasons. 

She takes no offense that tonight’s hang out has been cut short. Instead, she moves the pillow to the foot of the bed (should she wake and reach for it), and tucks her comfortably into sheets. With a squeeze to the shoulders and a sweet kiss upon the girl’s forehead, she departs.

Ran would wake up in the morning, feeling almost as if her forehead had been resting in dust, and when she tries to rub it off her face, will wonder why her hands smell like rusted iron. 

Ran stared at her hand as the coffee-maker chugged and percolated, discharging dark fluid at double the usual strength. After the last few nights, she desperately needed it. Kouya had been adamantly investigating this ‘Midnight Game’, and while it had been Saya’s job last night to keep an eye on him, Ran had watched after him the previous two, and...

Well, it wasn’t called the ‘Midnight Game’ for nothing. They were often up until two in the morning. He was used to that, but Ran was used to rising with the sun and going to sleep at a decent hour. Several extremely late nights in a row... that was probably why she’d passed out.

She didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to Minako, who must have left before her roommates got back. She’d have to call her back later.

(Who wouldn’t. Who couldn’t. After what she’d been through. A normal college life is a gift. Being able to let loose on a whim without another apathy victim. Another shadow strike, another wound to a friend.)

Minako clings tight, so tight to the arm she holds. If only she could tell Ran, and yet, no. Being part of this new life is a joy, is her new, strong friend in a new, strong chapter. 

This is safe and this is joy. Ran is safe and Ran is joy. 

The tune is stopped for a melodic giggle. 

So is dainty, albeit stumbling, step. 

“Mmmmh!” continued, vague noises point the way, with head gestures this time. Her cranium won’t be thanking her in the morning.

But what Minako’s hands lay on is not her dorm building. They aren’t anywhere close. No, her fingers curl as she keeps herself standing on a park bench.

“Here!,” she begs, with voice suddenly softer, “For a bit. …If you like.”

Her pointing switches from forward to up, beyond the bench, beyond the trees. Into a night sky.

But at other times... like this one, where she fairly danced in the street despite staying latched onto Ran, humming a tune she didn’t recognise but which sounded so bright and cheerful and so like Minako that it hurt--

No, Ran couldn’t find it in her heart to be angry with Minako for her antics.

Though for a moment, she was tempted when they arrived at the park bench, and Ran briefly wondered if Minako had been lying about having her own place all these months, and was sleeping on a park bench...

“... oh. To rest, you mean.”

Crisis averted, she followed Minako’s gaze and gesture past the tree line, seeing the stars with a bit more clarity now that the street lights were obscured.

“They really are.”

A brief poem she’d recalled reading a while back came to mind; without really thinking of it, she recited it from memory.

“Love is like a shooting star; If you don’t watch carefully, it might pass you by. Gone forever into the nights sky; Gone forever in the wink of eye.”

After a few moments, she flushed, realising just how she’d embarrassed herself this time. Looking down to Minako with an abashed expression.

Ran was also a very uninhibited drunk, or so it appeared to Rose. The more she drank, the less reserved she became… and the more overt her behavior. Nothing too seriously, fortunately; Ran wasn’t the type to randomly hit on women or pick a fight with someone. But she stopped being quite so circumspect about staring at some of the prettier women at the bar, occasionally mumbling things under her breath like ‘she’s so cute’.

And inevitably, whenever it seemed like Rose had overheard her, Ran would flush, look away, and get this guilty expression. After the third time, she finally sighed and swirled the ice in her drink (her fourth? fifth lime chuhai? Ran had certainly lost count) before setting it back down on the table.

Her little blushes whenever she noticed Rose had been observing her behavior were so cute, and Rose wanted nothing more than to tell her that she had nothing to feel embarrassed about. That is, until Ran finally spoke up.

“Oh no, Ran it’s completely alright. You seem to be having a fun time, and I didn’t want to ruin that. I’m perfectly content to sit and drink.” Especially since she could afford to do so for a long time. “I’m American actually. I’m out here traveling for work.” As a teacher, she had many opportunities to see the world to enrich what she taught in the classroom.

“American, really? Ain’t that a coincidence. I’m a quarter m’self.” She gestures vaguely to her eyes, which were a bit cloudy with drink by this point. “Gran’dad was an American GI from the second World War, stationed here after all that went to hell. I got my height an’ eyes from him. My mom and bro, they got the blond hair. Sato also got the height, damn him. Bloody bastard’s taller than me...”

She takes another quaff of her fizzy, tart drink, swallowing it thoughtfully.

“Aside from what I said earlier? ... honestly, I haven’t been in the boss’ good books for a while. I could’ve stayed home and come in with unpaid overtime done, but if not that or this, I’d’ve looked like I didn’t care ‘bout my job. And let’s be honest, given the choice... I’d rather make a good impression by gettin’ soused than doing mindless paperwork...”

Persona 4 - Naoto Shirogane

Okay, context, because I commissioned this.

That’s Naoto for one of my AU, called Night Shift, which I have RPed for pretty much half a year with @fullmoonlily. Yes, it features a one-armed Naoto being a badass against vampires, werewolves, magic, Shadows, Personas, you name it.

19. 

“Let me kiss you…”