[AQ] Show & Tell [Yasuko/Yukiya]

[Yukiya]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}Show and Tell
+ Description: Next week is Show and Tell! The theme is ‘Your creative talents!’ Whatever it is - be it singing, dancing, writing, or drawing - you’ve been assigned to make something or do something pertaining to that theme! How do you go about it?
+ Work on something with all of your heart and present it flawlessly!: +1 Guardians, +2 Faberge, +1 Roost
+ Work on something, but something goes wrong during the show and tell: -1 Guardians, +2 Faberge
+ Have your Guardian Character help you out so as to get a good grade: -1 Guardians, +2 Roost
+ Collaborate with someone to make/program/choreograph something: +2 Guardians, +2 Faberge
+ This is stupid, why spend time on this anyway? You decide not to make anything for it: -1 Faberge, +2 Roost
+ Requirements: None
+ Submitted by Paps and Yukari

"...so, I decided, why not let the students show off their creativity! And all the teachers thought that was a great idea. You can team up with anyone you want, just as long as you can finish your project before the end of next week when the mayor comes to visit! Isn't that fun?"

Yuki's teacher had been droning on and on about some special visit to Seiyo including some important government officials. He wanted to fall asleep, but this teacher already had it out for him so he kept doodling to keep himself awake. But since what they wanted was a bunch of students to do some kind of creative exhibition, it caught his attention.

"What kind of presentations do they want to see? Like, can I do a game or comic?" A girl asked.

"If you could do that by next week. But please, be tasteful! We want to show how wonderful Seiyo is!"

Thankfully the bell rang soon after! Time to head home for once - but the gears in his mind were turning. This would be a good chance to show off what he'd been working on...but at the same time, was he ready to show his drawings yet? Two weeks wasn't enough time to draw something great...he should probably do something short.

He checked his Twitter as he walked out, and was surprised to see Yasuko post for the first time in a while. So she was still having some writer's block...well, wouldn't this be a good time to start working on something? He headed toward the first years' classrooms and tried to look for her. Could they even work together on something? He had been wanting to read her stories for a long time...he wanted to take the chance if he could.

Yasuko Kobayashi

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

Yasuko wasn't really listening.

It was a strange thing for her not to be listening to something like this - normally, she would have pounced onto the opportunity immediately, to try and employ all of the things she had learned, and to prove to herself that she could definitely have a career in writing. And to use it as some kind of learning experience to better herself for similar kind of task, should there ever be one in the future.

But here she was, barely listening.

She idly rolled the mechanical pencil across her notebook, the teacher's voice went in and out of her head. Her ears picked up snatches of words here and there, but her mind was elsewhere, flicking the pencil across the book without much of a care in the world. All these things felt like something that belonged to another life - a life that was normal, not the life she now led with the magical eggs inside of it. Her pencil rolled down the notebook again. There were stories she had wanted to write, but they were not for the audience that the teacher had wanted to show it to. It was for someone else. She had been so determined that day, when she wanted to write all the stories for her to hear - to inspire her the same way she had inspired the first-year - but when she had returned home, her mind was blank. No matter how much she wrote, she didn't like any of them.

In the end, she had thrown most of them away.

Her eyebrows furrowed. Her fingers snapped and--

Clink! The pencil made a sound as it suddenly rolled off the desk.

Oh.

The bell rang. The sounds of scraping chairs and student's chatter - and the occasional exasperated voice of the teacher yelling above all the other sounds - filled her ears as everyone began their mad rush home. A normal part of high school life.

Yet she felt so far removed from it all.

She sighed, pushing her chair backwards so that she could bend down to grab her pencil. Man where was it?

[Yukiya]

As Yuki passed by the first year classrooms, he struggled against the tide of kids leaving their classrooms. It was bad when they were in groups especially. "Man, these kids are getting bigger," Yuki muttered to himself - despite only being a year older than them. He thought he'd might see Yasuko among them, but he didn't. Did she leave earlier? She didn't seem the type to do that.

When he took a look inside the classrooms again, he saw one where a student was bending over to pick up something. Upon further inspection, he recognized the bun in the student's hair and walked inside. He wondered what Yasuko was looking for? He took a few more steps when he stepped on something.

A pencil?

He picked it up. He thankfully didn't break it, but he rubbed off any dirt that was on it just in case.

"Uh, Yasuko-san," he said. She was still trying to look for something, so hopefully he got her attention. "Is this pencil yours?"

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

Her hands patted onto the floor, her eyes sweeping from left to right as she tried to catch the glint of the metallic sheen of her silver-coloured mechanical pencil against the dark-coloured ground. Her eyebrows furrowed as she ducked under her table, crawling through as she took a look around. Where was it? she grumbled internally. Her hands continued to tap against the floor, as she continued to search for her pencil.

She frowned. It couldn't have rolled that far, could it?

"Uh, Yasuko-san?"

Huh?

She looked up. And blinked.

And immediately shot back up straight.

Dammit, that was embarrassing. Walking into the classroom while she was bending down on the floor, crawling around as she attempted to try to find her pencil. It didn't look very mature, did it? Quickly, she began to brush her skirt off, as if she was trying to pat away any dust and dirt that collected there - but it was clear by the flush on her cheeks that it was more of a way to conceal her discomposure. "Uh-" she started, giving a bit of a cough as she tried to gather her words. The familiar silver sheen however, caught her eye. "Oh," she suddenly said, staring at the pencil in his hand. That was definitely hers, right? "Yeah that's mine," she answered, reaching out to take it off of his hands.

Come to think of it, it was the same pencil she used all those nights ago, trying to find the right stories to tell to Miuna. The ones that Yukiya had told her to write; to inspire the girl to dream again. Her eyes took on a faraway look, as she stared at the pencil now in her own hand. How long ago did that happen? It felt like ages ago, that she was in that restaurant, telling the second-year what had happened. Yukiya had tried to encourage her then, to hope, to dream - yet she failed to produced one story for Miuna to hear.

Was she really good enough for this?

...But a question suddenly occurred to her.

"Wait, what are you doing at the first-year classrooms?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in bit of confusion.

[Yukiya]

"Don't hurt yourself now," Yuki responded as Yasuko tried to regain her composure. She was blushing a bit - from being startled or from being caught in an odd position, he wasn't sure - but he turned away, chuckling a little. As she grabbed for the pencil, he suddenly raised it high, out of her reach. "Whoops~"

It'd been a while since he had decent human interaction that wasn't his family - or Ai, but somehow he was starting to become more and more like family these days - and he hoped that Yasuko would forgive him for messing with her. After a while of her struggling, he eventually brought the pencil back down and let her take it back. "Sorry, sorry."

He folded his arms and leaned against one of the desks, just about to ask her about the exhibition when Yasuko asked him why he was in the first year classrooms. "Oh, I was looking for you. I just read on Twitter that you were having some trouble writing, and I wanted to help again!" He grinned. "Especially since there's a exhibition next week. Wouldn't it be good for your career if someone influential read your work - especially someone who could help you get published?"

He took a better look at her, but she seemed a bit out of it. "Wait, you all right? Something come up again?" he asked. He was hoping that his little pep talk at the family restaurant would've helped, but this was a town where negativity seemed to pop up no matter how much you tried to fight it.

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

Yasuko gave a yelp of surprise as the second-year suddenly raised his hand up high - before she shot him an annoyed frown. "Hey!" she cried, stretching her arms as far as they could go, jumping as she tried to grab the pencil from his hands. The nerve of him! She knew she was short, but he didn't have to remind her of the fact that he was way taller than her! "Cut it out!" she said, swatting comically under him as she still tried her obviously futile attempts at getting the pencil back from him.

The moment he brought the pencil down to reachable lever, the girl immediately pulled it from his hands and shot him an irritated glare. She gave an annoyed "Hmph!" as her response, turning her head away as she was about to walk back towards her table to pack in her stationary.

Yet the boy's answer made her pause.

A twitch of an eyebrow; a drawing of lips into a thin line; she didn't look at him as he spoke, grasping the pencil in her hand tightly. Though she was the one who had written it publicly, a part of her regretted ever allowing people to read it. You were having some trouble writing. It was the truth...and yet, she didn't want to admit it in front of him. To hear him say that only reminded her of her own incompetence. She couldn't even write a single story to which she could tell it to Miuna...

Wait, you alright?

Those words jolted her out of her reverie. "Oh um-" she began, turning around to look back at him. "It's nothing," she said, shaking her head as if trying to dispel the notion that anything had come up. Really, she had bothered him enough with her problems, she didn't need others to fuss over her one more time.

It was only then did his earlier words finally entered her brain.

"Wait, an exhibition?" she said, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She hadn't heard of something like that. "What exhibition?"

[Yukiya]

He felt just a teeny weeny bit bad for teasing Yasuko but...well, her reactions were amusing. She always tried to act mature and for the most part she was, but there were times like this were she acted a little more her age. But Yuki hadn't come here to make fun of her, so he calmed down quickly. ...okay, he might've laughed when Yasuko hmphed him, but he was really here to do business!

He wasn't expecting for Yasuko to be on board with his suggestions right away, but she was more out of it than he expected. She didn't really look up or even react about the exhibition. He took a better look at her, but with her head down it was a bit hard for him to read her expression. But the fact she was hiding her face in the first place...

His worry only increased when Yasuko tried to push him away. He stopped smiling and leaned his head closer to hers. Yeah, he wasn't that close to her, but he wanted to be the kind of guy that could help others when he could.

"If it's really nothing, then I won't bother you, but you know you can tell me..." he began, when Yasuko finally registered what he said earlier. He paused, and then started chuckling. "...yeah, there's an exhibition next week. And it's for creative work too, so I thought it'd be a good way to cure that writer's block. Your teacher didn't say anything about it?" he asked, tilting his head. But still seeing her lost expression, he softened his excited tone. "...it would've helped if they gave us a theme or something, but I guess what we make is up to us." He wanted to ask more about how she was feeling, but he figured that she would clam up right away. He just offered a small smile as he folded his arms, wondering how Yasuko would react.

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

Yasuko's eyebrow twitched a little in response to his words. He was...a little closer than she was used to, but she didn't move either way. She was fine really; she didn't need anyone to fuss over her. Not when she had already bothered the same person many times.

She was fine.

She shook her head at his words, before looking back at him as he began his explanation. "Huh," was her response at first, a hand raised to her chin as if beginning to ponder over it. An exhibition for creative work? Why hadn't she heard of it before? Or...had the teacher already mentioned it and she hadn't noticed at all? She always paid attention, but truthfully, she hadn't exactly been doing that as well as she used to...

But her eyebrow twitched once again at the boy's suggestion, and she turned her head away as she chewed a little on her lip. So that was why he was bringing it up to her...to help with her so-called writer's block.

Honestly, all she did nowadays was make people worry about her.

"Maybe," she replied, rubbing the back of her neck. She didn't want to mention the possibility that perhaps, perhaps maybe, she hadn't been listening much in class this week. She wasn't really sure what to say. Was he here just to tell her about the exhibition thing? Was it some roundabout way of saying that maybe she should enter? In the past, if that had been brought up, she would already have been signing up for it, but now...she wasn't so sure. "It certainly would yeah," were her words; if anything, they were a more lukewarm response from the first-year.

But wait. "What about you?" Yasuko asked, looking back at him. "You planning on joining?"

[Yukiya]

Yuki was starting to feel just a little discouraged about all this. Should he have really butted in like this when Yasuko was still not 100% okay? He still wasn't used to being so pushy or persistent when it came to other people. But...when it came to Yasuko, he just wanted her to pursue the dreams that she had. Maybe because they were similar to his own? Or he didn't want her to go X? But he was already here, and he didn't want to back down just yet. Kanpa wouldn't want him to do that - and neither did he.

He tried to hide his worry by smiling patiently as she processed what was going on. "Haha, it's fine. I just thought it was an opportunity you'd like to know about," he said. "Hopefully you're not too busy or anything?"

But Yasuko asked if he was joining, and he faltered. "Oh, um...I..." he began. He was still debating with himself if he was ready to show his art again. He was still rusty. And the memories of defeat still lingered. At the same time, Kanpa would probably yell at him - and Suna would probably say something - if he didn't take this opportunity either. And if he was still sort of good, he hoped a few people would compliment him like they used to.

There was the chance that maybe, maybe Yasuko would join if he said he was joining too.

"Yeah," he said after a pause. "I...I used to do things like this as a kid and...I miss them," he said. Back then, he had a lot of friends in the art classes he took. They were always excited about what he was going to make. He wondered if he could give other people the same excitement or at least make them feel what the characters were feeling. "Have you ever exhibited your work before? When people tell you how much your story or art touched them, you feel so proud of yourself. It's...one of the best feelings in the world," he said. His fist was clenched, and his eyes gazed above, a smile on his face just thinking of how it used to be for him.

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

I just thought it was an opportunity you'd like to know about.

Yasuko paused at those words, hand on her cheek, a faraway look in her eyes. An opportunity huh? It was one after all. Though she wasn't exactly enthusiastic, the way that he called it an 'opportunity' caught her attention a little. Maybe her response wasn't exactly one on the excited spectrum but...it was a chance right? Something she could do that reminded her of her past self. Of her normal past life. In a way.

Should she join? She hadn't a clue what she would do though, even if she did. Just joining something without a plan wasn't exactly her style but then again, had things gone according to schedule as they used to in the past? Now her life felt far more unpredictable - and that made it difficult to plan for.

Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Yukiya's answer broke her out of her thoughts, and she looked back up at him expectantly. She blinked at his answer. I miss them. He missed doing it huh? She tilted her head a little, wondering about herself. Did a part of her miss doing something like this too?

But it was the second-year's later words that made her turn her head back in surprise.

When people tell you how much your story or art touched them, you feel so proud of yourself.

She stared at him, a little bewildered, blinking, unsure of what to think of those words. It wasn't something she had expected him to say. She looked away, a hand on her chin, a furrow her eyebrows, as she stared at nothing, her mind deep in thought.

It's...one of the best feelings in the world

Hadn't the reason she decided to become a writer was so that she could incite the very same feelings that those books did for her? To arouse, to inflame, to inspire, to encourage - to give them the same awe and wonder that all of those books had created when she first read them. To give them that feeling of passion and excitement as they turned the page, waiting with bated breath of what would happen next. That was her whole reason wasn't it?

Would joining this exhibition allow her to do it?

She looked back at him again.

And she was struck by the smile that he wore. It wasn't something she was used to, and her eyes widened a little in surprise. Yet, there was something warming about it too. And she couldn't help but give a small tug of a smile on her own. "I...suppose it is," was her answer. "It's...a wonderful feeling to have; the feeling of a work that touched your heart. And stay with you for years to come." There was a fondness in her voice, as if she was talking about a real piece of work that had created those very same feelings for her; a book that she loved coming back to time and time again.

She took a deep breath, before releasing it slowly. "Okay," she said, though it seemed more for herself than anything. "I guess I'm joining...?" She gave a bit of a nervous laugh. "Though I don't really know what I want to do yet."

[Yukiya]

Yuki had been so lost in his own memories for a while that he didn't notice Yasuko's reactions to his words. It wasn't until she finally spoke again that he was brought back down to earth, and it surprised him so much he turned his head down a little too hard. He rubbed his neck, but seeing Yasuko smile gently and describe the wonder and awe that came with a good book or a good story in general made him grin. "You get what I mean!" He laughed, partly out of his own joy and partly to shrug off how seeing her smile made him feel all bubbly inside. He had a mission to complete and he was almost there!

Finally, after she took a deep breath, Yasuko confirmed that she was going to take part, even if she wasn't sure. Hell, he had just sort of made the decision a few seconds ago himself, so he didn't blame her for hesitating. "Neither do I," he said, laughing again, "But I know what I usually do when I need inspiration. ...if you're not busy, you want to come with me? Maybe we can think of something," he said. Although, he was starting to have gears turn in his mind already. "We won't go far. In fact, we'll still be on campus."

[Yasuko Kobayashi]

Yasuko couldn't help but smile a little at that, giving a small chuckle in response when the other laughed. It felt...good somehow. Strange, but good. The past few days had been rather heavy, that she hadn't realised how much it affected her until today.

It was nice to have something light-hearted for once.

But his offer surprised her a little. She tilted her head to the side slightly, her eyes widened a fraction. She hadn't expected him to ask her something like that. But I know what I usually do when I need inspiration. That made her look down a little, her eyebrows furrowing in thought. Talking to Yukiya reminded her of all the things that she did in regards to her own creative endeavors - and perhaps unconsciously she was comparing her own methods with his. Did she have something like a 'thing' for her to get inspiration? In fact, had she thought about 'inspiration' in any shape or form?

She was the kind of person that was more goal-orientated; creating a goal, working towards it, and trying to accomplish it. Focusing on the technical aspects of creating, of making her vocabulary better, her writing better...all of that. But wasn't being inspired a crucial key element of being a creator? Wasn't she first inspired by something to begin with, before she became a writer? In fact, wasn't being continuously inspired what keeps one to continue writing? Why hadn't she thought about it before?

But now...now wasn't she surrounded by inspiration?

All of the people around her...weren't they all, in fact, a form of inspiration?

It was a strange thing to think about.

But she soon realised that she hadn't responded to Yukiya at all. Thinking about this could wait. In fact, a part of her was a little curious as to what exactly the second-year meant by his own 'inspiration'. She gave a small smile. "I guess we could. I don't...really have anything to do today anyway."

[Yukiya]

Although Yasuko was just simply lost in thought, her hesitance made Yuki nervous. Had he overstepped his boundaries? Maybe she had something to do today and didn’t want to say no right away…or maybe he was being too pushy again? His stomach churned. He …he really wanted to hang out with her but even now, he wasn’t really sure how she felt about him.

So when Yasuko agreed to go – and said that she was free the whole day – he brightened like a Christmas tree. He tried to play it off and smoothed his hair as he turned away from her and toward his ‘place of inspiration’ – which was a hilly area close to the Planetarium. The sky had a few clouds and there were a few trees around them. Thankfully for him it wasn’t so windy, so the falling leaves wouldn’t distract them so much. It overlooked one of the school gates, so it was also easy to see people coming and going. As they arrived, Yuki plopped down on the grass and laid down, waving his arms and legs to the side like he was making a snow angel in autumn. He had a dumb smile on his face. “Welcome to my little slice of heaven, Yasuko-san.”

After he was done playing around, he got up. Grass and dirt were on his back and his jacket, but he didn’t care. He just pulled out his notebook out of his book bag. He had a lot of notes and doodles, mainly on the manga he had been working on for a few months now, but turned to a blank page. “...ah, what to do,” he said. The problem with blank pages was that it was like a road block for inspiration, so he quickly sketched the scenery below them so he could think about something. “There we go. Hey Yasuko-san, what do you think is going down there?” he asked, pointing to their fellow students going home. “…don’t worry, you don’t have to be a mind reader. This is inspiration part one. Just pick one of the groups going home and take a guess, just based on their actions.”

Most of the students were not really doing anything interesting. But there was one group of five friends walking in a circle, two of the members walking backwards. One of them was raising their hands and jumping excitedly. Another group of guys were punching each other, but weren’t exactly fighting. And just coming out of the school was …

“Dang I can see that guy’s silver hair from here,” he muttered, with a laugh. Next to him was, surprisingly, his little sister. They were…talking? He couldn’t tell and, Yuki, overprotective brother that he was, had to go on his tippy toes and squint. But it didn’t look like anything was going on besides them just talking and leaving, most likely to the Faberge building.

He walked back and sighed. “Sorry. I just saw a friend of mine and my sister and…didn’t realize they were friends,” he said, ruffling his hair. “B-But anyway, forget that. Did you find a group to look at it? What do you think they’re doing? What’s their relationship to each other? Why are they doing what they’re doing? It’s a good way to think about characters. …if you have any good exercises for settings and worldbuilding though, I’m all ears,” he said with a nervous laugh. “…I might’ve said it before, but that part isn’t my strong point.”