Iwatobi Swim Club
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Post by Reeve Kasamatsu on Mar 25, 2016 3:33:02 GMT
Kept on the inside
Sometimes a shadow wins The cafeteria at Iwatobi high school felt large, even though it was the same size as any other cafeteria he'd been in. Actually, it was probably a little bit smaller than the one at the junior high he'd been to. Still, it was buzzing with students all cliquing up and finding their seats. Reeve clutched his brown paper bag with both hands, looking around as he desperately searched for an empty table to take a seat at. Now he was just wishing he would've decided to eat outside. At least then he could lean against the school building in a corner somewhere. Reeve bit down on the inside of his cheek and chewed on it as his search continued.
When he'd finally spotted an open area, Reeve walked slowly toward it while looking around. He was half afraid someone was going to swoop in and snatch the table up before he even got close to it. With that in mind, he pathetically walked a little bit faster until he reached the table. He was safe. No one else had stolen it from him. Reeve took a seat and began neatly pulling the food he had out of his bag and setting it on the table. His lunch was simple, and a bit bland. It consisted of one sandwich and two rice balls which were doused in so much pepper that it should have been illegal.
Reeve unwrapped his sandwich, picked it up, and took a huge bite before setting it back down. He then proceeded to chew slowly while pulling the sleeves of his uniform sweater over his hands until he was ready to take another bite. Reeve was always so cold, and he had no idea why that was. Even in nice spring weather like this, he felt as though he was in Greenland hiking ice mountains or whatever it is they do in Greenland. He kept his eyes down at the table to make sure he avoided making eye contact with anyone that might have been eating their lunch at a near by table. It was only the second day of school, so the jitters in his stomach were far too intense.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2016 3:56:12 GMT
His second day of school, not that he was enjoying it much as he wished he could just be home schooled again. Aki hated the groups that the other students had formed and he hated just being in the crowded rooms. He missed curling up on the bed with his work books, missed being able to listen to music or tv shows in the background with snacks at his side. Able to do what he wanted when he wanted. Being the trouble maker or close to it as he had become, he had skipped the last two classes. But there was no way he was going to skip lunch, he wasn’t hungry but was thirsty.
Aki carried his brown bag into the lunchroom after he stopped by the school store and grabbed a couple juice bottles, four of them two apple, one grape and one orange. A slight groan was given when he seen the tables close to full. Maybe this is why students ate elsewhere. Add it to the list of things he needed to know about this place and things he was starting to hate. After looking around a second time, he found a table with just one person and headed over that way.
Finding the last seat at the table away from the other student, he sat down and plopped his lunch bag down. Having no idea what his adoptive family packed him for his lunch. He told them they didn’t have to do this, saying he could afford to buy something at the school or something on the way. But they wouldn’t hear anything about it. It wasn’t like he was tight on money or anything with all the award money he had and then again there was the trust fund his father had set up for him that he wanted nothing to do with.
”Sorry, it’s the only seat open.” He said quietly, his voice carrying a bit of a British accent. Aki finally opened the bag and pulled out a box and after opening the top; he found some egg rolls and fried rice with homemade chocolate pudding for dessert. ”Guess you don’t want this?” He pushed the food away from, not even hungry. Just the look of it made him feel sick to his stomach. Instead, he opened the orange juice and took a sip from it. Aki sat there staring at the table wondering if he should just skip the rest of the day and head down some place where wanted to be.
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Iwatobi Swim Club
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Post by Reeve Kasamatsu on Mar 25, 2016 4:22:37 GMT
Kept on the inside
Sometimes a shadow wins While Reeve was looking downward, he saw a paper bag almost fall onto the table in front of him and his eyes opened wide for a brief moment before returning to normal. It had startled him to say the least. It also meant that someone was actually sitting with him. He was usually avoided, looking a little two weird for everyone's taste with the clearly visible scar on his face proceeding to wrap around his neck and then down his body where no one else could see the rest of it. Not to mention his hair was such an odd white color. He wondered if he was supposed to look up to see who ever had just dared to sit with him, but he kept awkwardly staring downward instead.
Then the boy spoke, and Reeve felt forced to look up. "T-that's alright," Reeve responded with a stutter in his first word. His voice was so quiet that it was barely audible. He looked the boy over as carefully as he could without seeming strange. He had some of the most interesting eyes he'd ever seen. His own were rather strange themselves, but to see someone else with an eye color that also seemed unique was fascinating. They were just so bright. Quickly, he looked back down at his own food, not wanting to linger any staring too long.
Reeve pushed up the sleeves of his sweater once more and took another bite of his sandwich. He felt more uncomfortable then before, unable to help but wonder if the boy was judging the way he ate. There wasn't anything weird about it. Reeve was a neat eater, almost too neat, but because his father had always called him a slob, he felt incredibly self conscious. He looked at the boys food, and was surprised he didn't seem to want it. It looked absolutely delicious. Still, he shook his head in the direction that had meant no and awkwardly continued to eat his own sandwich. If he left quick enough, maybe he could avoid grossing the boy out with his face and his eating habits, neither of which were actually as bad as his mind let him believe. Reeve was always way too hard on himself.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2016 5:13:37 GMT
Aki didn’t mean to startle anyone by tossing his lunch on to the table; he was just tired and annoyed. So the cheapest thing to take that out was his lunch at the moment. Back when he was competing, he had a hard time taking losing and would often lose his anger. Koi taught him instead of beating himself up by punching something; he should take his anger out on whatever was the easiest and cheapest thing to replace. Since then his anger had become something he control but once and while he needed to take whatever he was feeling out on something. Since the crash though, he was feeling his control slip away.
He had seen the other color of the other’s hair as well as the scars but said nothing about nor even reacted to them. After all he had no room to speak, his hair was as red as it could be and never did what he wanted it to. It always looked like he was walking around with bed head. Then there were his amber eyes, a family trait that skipped a generation or two and he was the lucky one who ended up with them. Not to mention his own scars that he hated and wished would go away. So he could only picture what the other student was going through. A stuttered voice caught his attention and he looked over with a soft look and gave a slight nod of his head.
Aki could see how nervous and self conscious the other was, he slowly undid the top few buttons of his dress shirt and moved it away from his left shoulder to show a nasty jagged scar a couple of inches long. ”Everyone has scars buddy, some more than others. Nothing to be bothered by, some show on the outside and some run deep on the inside.” He said quietly before button his shirt back up. It was just one of his scars, the worst one was on his left leg though, something he never show to anyone.
When the other kid shook his head, he glanced back down at his lunch. ”Are you sure? The family I am staying with runs a restaurant. So its good stuff, I am not hungry. And I am sure it beats a sandwich.” Aki drank the rest of the orange juice before putting the empty bottle in to the brown bag before opening one of the apple juices. ”And you might want to slow down before you choke on your sandwich. I’m not going to bite or anything. I’m Akihiko but everyone calls me Aki.” He felt like he could be a little bit more open with this student and not have to be worried about him finding out who he was anytime soon. The last thing he wanted to go around this school, let alone that he was a rich kid even though he refused to do anything with his father.
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Iwatobi Swim Club
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Post by Reeve Kasamatsu on Mar 25, 2016 5:41:35 GMT
Kept on the inside
Sometimes a shadow wins He looked up and his eyes widened for a moment as the boy started undoing the buttons on his shirt. Reeve had no idea what he was doing, and he turned his head from left to right to see if there were any teachers around. If he was stripping for whatever strange reason, surely he was going to get in trouble. That would mean there would be a commotion and all the students would be looking in this direction. Reeve really didn't want anyone looking in this direction. His mind raced quickly, almost too quickly as he had a mini panic attack for the short moment in his head.
Then, he realized what the guy was actually going to do. Reeve blinked three times, starring at the large scar he was showing him. Concern immediately made his eyes quiver as he wondered where that could have possibly come from, but he didn't ask. He didn't like it when people asked him, so of course he'd bite down the curiosity when it came to asking another. Besides, he wasn't brave enough to ask him any kind of question like that anyways.
Reeve's eyes trailed back down to his sandwich as the guy buttoned his shirt back up. He took another bite, not saying anything. The white haired boy had way too many scars, both inside and out. Someone had given him to him, and he really didn't want to think about that. Unfortunately, it was far too hard to escape. It was constantly on his mind, haunting him, whether he wanted it to be or not. As he chewed once more, he did realize that he felt a tad better now knowing that this boy might not have been so uncomfortable with the scar trailing his body as most were. After all, it trailed around his neck. It was far too odd for people not to usually wonder. He never blamed anyone for how they reacted to him. He was just too weird.
Reeve looked at the food being offered to him again, chewing even more slowly. He really wanted it, he just couldn't push himself to take it. Things always came with a catch, and even when they did, he just felt rude about. Reeve shook his head slowly to turn down the food once more.
He put his sandwich down and looked up at the boy again. He was introducing himself? That was different. No one usually bothered, and Reeve wondered how to even answer him. He pulled his sleeves down over his hands as he hesitated for a moment. He guessed giving his name couldn't really hurt. "Ummm... Reeve," he responded in a quite voice. "K-Kasamatsu Reeve," he added when he wasn't sure if it was polite to have only given him his first name. He didn't exactly have any friends or many previous experiences meeting people that worked out okay to reference from. "It's.... um.... nice to meet you."
He pulled one of his sleeves off of his hand again before extending his arm across the table to offer it to shake. He didn't dare make eye contact as he continued to stare down at the table.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2016 16:55:46 GMT
When it came down to it, Aki didn’t much care for what the teachers thought of him. If he were to get into trouble, it wasn’t like they could get a hold of his parents. His father was in another time zone, oceans away and his adoptive family wasn’t listed. And he had tried his hardest to talk that family into letting his just study own his own when not helping in the restaurant… as he rather do something like that the rest of his life these days. He didn’t much care for his future.
However he did have that side to him that didn’t care what others thought and would allow him to do things like this without a second thought. If it suited his needs and wants, he would have fully taken off his shirt just to get his point across. Aki was kind of weird and carefree like that. Even though most of the time he came across as withdrawn and antisocial. But once those walls were down, there was a different version of him.
But from the corner of his eyes, he could see how nervous the other student had become. Wondering if he didn’t like being the center of attention then again even he hated being the center of attention these days. Going from being annoyance in his father’s life then to being the next big sports star out of Japan slash the UK then doing his hardest to avoid being noticed or in the limelight. Aki didn’t care about the rumors going around about him now; he just didn’t want to answer the questions about what happened. It’s why he didn’t want anything to do with being the center of attention.
”It was an accident…” Was all he could managed to get out about his scar after he saw the concerned look. ”But its apart of who I am now, a part of my past that shaped me into who I am today. Good or bad, it’s something I have to live with. Nothing I can do about, nor something I let control my life.” The last part was a lie but he wasn’t going to say otherwise nor give a hint that it was a lie. Aki had glanced back down at the bottle of half drank apple juice, wondering why he was trying so hard to make a connection with this other student .Why was he going out of his way to be so open like this. It didn’t make sense to him at all… Then again, he never had been one to judge a book by its cover and he used to be open like this before everything.
When he noticed the other looking at him, he lifted his head up a bit and offered a soft smile. Aki’s mother had taught how to be a gentleman, how to always introduce himself to someone else when they were talking. However he did forget that being Japan, one always added their last name into their introductions and that he wasn’t overseas anymore. It wasn’t until Reeve gave his last name that it dawned on him. ”Pleasure to meet you Reeve Kasamastu…. Oh I guess it would be Akihiko Takahashi. Forgot I was back in Japan…” If that didn’t make sound more out of place and like a transfer student, he didn’t know what else would. He hated that he had to transfer in this time and couldn’t just blend in with the new school year next year, it would have been easier.
When he noticed the hand extended out to him, he reached out with his own hand. Carefully taking the smaller hand within his own and offering a firm but gentle handshake. ”It’s okay Reeve, you don’t have to be so shy around me. I’m easy going and there isn’t much that bothers me. You could tell me to go to hell right now for bothering your lunch and I wouldn’t care.”
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Iwatobi Swim Club
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Post by Reeve Kasamatsu on Mar 25, 2016 23:28:21 GMT
Kept on the inside
Sometimes a shadow wins There was no why Reeve would ever recognize someone like Akihiko. He never really followed sports growing up. His father watched them drunk off his ass, and Reeve spent his time with his nose in a book trying to avoid the abusive bastard. Sure, he was on the swim team, but that was only because his psychiatric doctor was practically making him. He thought a trial method to helping Reeve was to push him into social activities. He'd made it mandatory for Reeve to participate in one. So, Reeve had picked swimming. He did enjoy the water, but he was terrible at it. In fact, he was sure that as soon as their club had a few more practices, they would all see him as the anchor, and not the one at the end of a relay. He was the kind that was going to pull them all down. Hopefully they wouldn't even give him a spot in any competitions. He picked swimming, because it felt like more of a solo sport. Aside from people telling him what he needed to do, he wasn't really obligated to communicate. At least, those were his thoughts on the matter.
"Mine was... no accident..." Reeve spoke quietly in response. Mostly, he was just uttering to himself. In fact, he regretted any noise coming out of his mouth at all and just hoped the boy hadn't heard him. He rubbed his sweater-covered palms together nervously. This boy was different then him if his were accidents. That didn't mean he didn't view the boy as strong. Whatever had hurt his shoulder was obviously very painful. Scars like that often came with deeper stories, and he was sure he was only getting one loose end. Even if he seemed to be okay, Reeve felt there had to be a part of him that wasn't. Did people really get over the bad things that happened to them? Reeve never would as much as he hoped for it.
When he mentioned that he was back in Japan, Reeve wondered where he had been before this. There was a slight accent in his voice, but he couldn't place it. Again, it was just another question on Reeve's mind that he would never ask out loud. He was filled with questions, and choking them down seemed to be a talent of his.
Though he still wasn't looking, he felt the boy take his hand. It had been a while since he'd touched another human being without feeling as though he was about to be hurt in some way. It was an innocent touch, one that was completely unfamiliar to Reeve. Even when the doctors at the institution he'd been in touched him, it'd never felt quite so innocent. When he spoke, Reeve wondered if that was exactly what he should have told him. If he did, it wouldn't be because it was what he wanted. It would be because he was afraid of other people. He was afraid of himself around other people. Fear was ruling his life. Instead, Reeve just looked back up at him and blinked three times. He said nothing once more, probably making the entire situation awkward. Reeve really wasn't a talker. It was another thing that drove people away. Would this boy just get annoyed and walk away all on his own too?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2016 18:05:53 GMT
”I’m sorry to hear that, buddy.” Aki wasn’t want to dig into someone’s personal life unless they gave him a reason to or they showed that they wanted him to know more but didn’t want to say so without his help. Normally Aki just avoided people and kept to himself, afraid that they would end up leaving him or worse. But this was out of the normal for him and maybe he figured that talking to this other student would stop any rumors in their tracks that he was some tough banchou from overseas. He had already heard a few of the rumors that were starting already about him. It didn’t help that the tailor had gotten his size wrong and his pants were baggy on him.
Every move that Reeve had made, showed Aki how nervous he was and his mind couldn’t help but to wonder what caused the other to be as nervous as a little bunny. Then again, he knew how nervous he could be when it came to his own scars. Sure he showed them off just now but he did so without thought, as something he could to try and do to comfort the other. But one of the reasons he no longer swam was because those scars were out in the open and he hated seeing the looks on the other’s faces when they saw.
After shaking Reeve’s hand, he moved his hand back to his side of the table before moving to open the last fruit drink bottle. The juice had made him want to go out and find a store around here that sold slushies or see if he could find the stuff to make one at home. It’s one thing he had missed the most from the states….well that a cheese chili hot dogs. His eyes looked down at his hands, wondering more about Reeve wondering how someone so skittish and shy made it through a day in a school like this. It seemed like there were groups of people some larger than others and it had to be heard seeing those people having fun and doing things teenagers did… and how lonely it must be looking from the outside in.
Then again he was pretty much in the same boat. Sure other students show interest in him but he wasn’t going out of his way to do anything to make himself see friendly or really addressed them. He wasn’t looking to make friends currently; he was too busy trying to think of how to be homeschooled again. His amber eyes looked back towards Reeve for a second before speaking. ”Do you know any good places to go for snacks after school? Or any place to have fun around here, like an arcade or anything like that? He asked, still not very familiar with this town. He had been here a few times but that was just to visit his coach’s family for a little not like he had spent much time here before moving in with his coach’s family.
He surprised himself with how he was trying to drag this other person along with him after school or even asking for advice from him about what to do around here. Normally he would just go out by himself and roam around, exploring all he could before he would be track down by his coach... But now there was no challenge in doing that. And today he been ordered to stay out of the kitchen so he had nothing to do after school. Aki laid one of the empty juice bottles down at the table and rolled around, watching the bottle for a moment. "What goes tick-tock, bow-wow, tick-tock, bow-wow?"
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Iwatobi Swim Club
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Post by Reeve Kasamatsu on Apr 7, 2016 0:06:46 GMT
Kept on the inside
Sometimes a shadow wins Reeve appreciated that the boy could say he was sorry without Reeve having to explain it all to him. There were so many people that weren't able to just say that without having to know everything. Reeve really wasn't comfortable talking about it, and when he did, he just caused mouths to drop open and then the other person without awkwardly excuse themselves. He hated having to deal with that, because he just felt so bad on the inside about it all. Reeve awkwardly shifted in his seat, sad red eyes looking downward for a moment at the palms of his hands in his lap that he'd pulled his sleeves over.
He'd remembered the boy he was talking to from a few kids talking about him in class. They seemed like they were almost intimidated by him just based off his looks. Reeve was intimidated as well, but he was intimidated by everyone. He was always afraid of them talking to him, but that was mostly because he was afraid of himself. He really didn't understand what those kids were talking about now, because this boy actually seemed to be really kind. It was all the more reason Reeve wished he would have just walked away. He highly doubted he'd change into his darker side on him now, but that didn't mean there wasn't always that super slim chance that it would happen.
Then the boy asked a question, and Reeve shook his head. "Not really, I'm sorry...." He spoke in his quiet little voice, rubbing the palms of his sweater-covered hands together nervously. "I-I mean there's an ice cream shop not too far from the school, and I hear kids talking about it." Reeve shrugged awkwardly, almost like he was unsure if he was even allowed to do such a straight forward action. "I-I've always wanted to check it out, but I just never have." He took a breath that was strangely deep as he tried to keep his composure straight from talking so much. He was going to keep going on about maybe the theater or something, but the words stopped after the ice cream talk. It was like his brain was telling him that was enough talking or he'd start crumbling under the pressure.
Reeve looked up from the table, dragging his eyes to the boy across from him as he asked an odd question. The white haired kid looked confused, almost afraid to answer. Nevertheless, he did his best to force a response out of himself. "What?" He head dropped slightly to the side in curiosity.
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