Procrastination {Private}

[Nicolette]

[Note: English will be written as normal, but Japanese will be in italics]

The third week of school came to a close as the weekend arrived, providing students with two full days away from teachers to do as they pleased, as long as they behaved. Surprisingly, the first few weeks had been quiet, which a certain intelligence force of the Student Freedom Force was thankful for. She had even gotten some time to herself in the dormitory room as her roommate had been spending some time in the room next door.

Haruka Amagi had returned to her dormitory room immediately after school that day and had planned to enjoy sitting in her bedroom, typing away at her computer, but she had only gotten to take off her school uniform when she heard the sound of the dormitory door open and two voices emerge. Faye had brought home her friend? Wrinkling her nose, she went to her closet and grabbed a white tank top and a white dress shirt. She slipped the two items on, though she left the dress shirt unbuttoned. She slipped on a pair of black slacks and slipped her feet into black dress-like shoes before picking up her briefcase.

Grabbing her jacket from the back of her desk chair, she slipped the warm, black material over her shoulders before she left her bedroom, locking it behind her before waving her hand over her shoulder as she walked to the door, motioning to Faye. "I will return at a later hour." She commented as she left. She doubted the girl had heard her, but she felt it would be polite to at least let the girl know she would be gone.

She departed from the dormitory room and walked to the elevator, taking it down to the lobby before leaving the dormitory and walking out into the cool January air. She shivered a little and hugged her jacket closer around her as she walked in the direction of the town. She had no where else to go since school didn't seem like quite an option and she did need to eventually go into town...

She walked down the cold streets until the bookstore's name caught her eye. She remembered the countless times she had gone in there and spent hours without realizing it. She would use their internet and be just fine. However... Before going in, she decided she needed something to help her keep focused. She went into the convenience store across from the bookstore and bought a few energy drinks and a bag of chips. Yes, not the most healthy snack, but it would hold her over for a while. She paid for the items and then made her way across the street to the cafe.

She went inside and smiled a little at the warmth she felt from the store. She made her way through the maze of shelves until she came upon a little area near the back that had a few couches and chairs with tables. She moved one of the tables closer to the arm of the couch she sat down at and set her energy drink down on it with her bag of chips. She placed her feet up on the longer coffee table that was in front of the couch and placed her briefcase on her lap. She went through the process of opening it. It began with placing her thumb on a special scan tron that identified her as Haruka Amagi and then asked for a code. She properly entered the code and the briefcase opened and unfolded at the bottom so she could comfortably use the keyboard of the laptop inside.

She went through the various prompts, entering user names and passwords as asked and she soon made it to her desktop. She clicked onto the internet and she found she just wanted some relaxation for a little bit... She typed an web address in the address box and clicked into it. An online manga distributor. She could read manga for a little while. She found a manga she had been reading on and off for a while and found the place she had left off.

Without letting her eyes stray from the screen, she reached her hand over to open one of her energy drink cans and she brought it to her lips, shivering as the cool liquid went down and sent a bit of a jolt through her body. Ah, how she missed the familiar sensation she got from sugary, caffeinated drink. With a content smile, she focused her dark grey eyes through her glasses to read the next case in her manga.

[Faye]

Finally, the third week of school had finished and students were escaping back to their dormitories to enjoy a nice Friday night which would generally consist of staying up late, playing video games or watching movies, perhaps even sleepovers between some of the girls. Or, people could even sneak over to the opposite gender's dorm room. It was a wonder how many people got caught doing that during the night, and how often.

Rai Aikaryu had retired to his dormitory which he didn't share. He threw his school bag onto the couch and wandered over to the kitchen sink where he grabbed a glass of water. The liquid vanished into his stomach within a few seconds, he had been feeling thirsty ever since last period. He placed the glass back down and sat down on the couch where he glanced over to his lovely fish tank which was occupied by three tropical fish. One was an angel fish and was coloured with black and white stripes with the odd yellow spot or stripe here and there over it's silky like body. Next was a brilliant blue coloured fish with grey spots all over it, it's nose was a lot longer and thinner than the other fish. Lastly, he owned a wide, flat pink and white coloured fish that seemed to look like a place mat of some sort if it lay completely still and flat on the floor of the tank. He smiled at them and stood up from the couch so he could feed them.

Feeling bored he went into his room and undressed out of his uniform. He stood in front of his wardrobe in his boxer shorts as he debated within himself over what he should wear into town. He thought he may as well go for a walk to kill some time before he should think about getting dinner or maybe he could try find someone to talk to. He picked out a pair of dark blue denim jeans and a white and black striped t-shirt. He put the two items of clothing on and slipped on his black low cut converse shoes and also grabbed his black but white on the inside hoody which he slipped over his white shirt but left it unzipped.

"I'll be back later~" He said to his fish as he waved to them and exited his dormitory. He locked the door behind him and placed the keys into his jeans pocket. In his other pocket was his cellphone and in his back pocket was his wallet. See, no need for a bag of any sort. Besides, the pockets on his jeans were quite big so they could fit almost anything in them.

His hands were placed into the pockets of his unzipped hoody as he walked down the street, his eyes scanning the darkening town, he wondered where he should start on his walk. He could always head into the bookstore, they had such cute picture books in there~! And he could possibly add to his manga collection. That was a little small at the moment, he wanted to expand it some more so he could show it off. A smile crept onto his lips as he entered the bookstore, a bell ringing to signal the shop owner that a customer had entered the store.

He smiled to the girl at the counter and went straight to the manga section of the store where he had walked right passed Haruka without even noticing. With his back turned to her, he began pulling out different manga to look at what they were about.

[Nicolette]

Haruka should have been off in town buying food to put in the mini refridgerator she had put in her bedroom when she had arrived in her dormitory. She had even told Rai that she needed to go shopping... But she would always get so distracted and then it would be too late by the time she realized she needed to get the shopping done.

The sound of the cafe's door opening caused her to glance up just barely before she went back to her reading. She took another long sip of her energy drink and set it back down. She wasn't entirely hungry enough to divulge into her chips, so she left them alone as she clicked a button on her keyboard to move to the next page of her manga. The case was getting good. The boy was getting so close to solving the case! She was just trying to figure it out before he could...

It had to be the butler! It just had to be!

[Faye]

Rai was getting frustrated there were so many Yuri or Yaoi manga shoved onto the shelves it wasn't funny. There was nothing good there so Rai decided to secretly go to the kiddies section to look for a picture book to 'aww' at for a little while before he went back to the manga shelf to look for something a little more action packed. Like Spiral or D.Gray Man or something... there were quite a few but Yuri or Yaoi manga seemed to be taking over, especially with girls. It was creepy.

As he was making his way over to the other section he noticed something. His blueish grey eyes caught a glimpse of the girl he had met yesterday. He blinked a few times to reassure himself that it was her. It was. Well, that was surprising, he never thought he would see her so randomly like this.

Of course she was glued to that laptop of hers, he shook his head and walked over to the couch she was sitting at and waved lightly to her. "Hey, Haru-chan" He said in Japanese, just like they had yesterday. He was hoping it would jog her memory somehow if she had forgotten about their encounter.

[Nicolette]

Ah! It was the butler! She was right! Feeling triumphant, she took a victory sip of her drink, only to nearly choke on it when she heard a voice greet her. She set the can on the table next to her and sat up, taking her feet off the coffee table in front of her and setting the laptop on it before she tried to cough a little. It didn't take too long for her to catch her breath and she looked up to see Rai sitting next to her. Ah, she thought she had recognized the voice. Plus, he had also greeted her in Japanese.

"Ah, Aikaryu-san. You surprised me." She said, smiling weakly as she pushed her glasses up. "But it's quite fine. I didn't expect to run into anyone I knew outside of school... Mainly for the fact that I know you and Saito-sama, but no one else. Sad, ne?"

[Faye]

Rai couldn't help but laugh a little bit as Haruka nearly choked on the drink she had been drinking as he greeted her. He didn't mean to startle her and felt bad about it but her reaction was pretty funny. He had sat down next to her on the soft, fluffy like couch, he wasn't too close to her as he was sure she wouldn't feel very comfortable about that at all.

He stole a glimpse of her laptop screen and noticed that she was reading manga on there. The manga seemed familiar but he couldn't quite place it plus he didn't want to look for too long in case she got annoyed at him for looking at her laptop without her permission. The laptop did seem pretty secretive.

"I didn't mean to startle you though, sorry," He sweatdropped and leaned back a little more on the couch. "That's not too bad, you and Kyerin are the only people I know, too, well... personally, I actually know a lot of people but you two are the only people I really talk to now," They both seemed a little lacking in the friends area.

[Nicolette]

"Well, at least we know someone." Haruka commented as she pressed her back comfortably into the couch and she reached over to take another sip of her energy drink. She couldn't stop drinking it! It filled her with the energy she needed to stay awake for a good hour or two without drowsiness.

"What brings you to this neck of the bookstore?" She asked before she noted the manga section was near by and she then looked back to him. She couldn't help but let an amused smirk slip on her lips. "Does a certain eleventh year boy still enjoy his share of manga?" She asked teasingly.

She had actually been quite surprised that manga was in the bookstore. However, the large bookstore was made with many different sections, with books in many different languages. It was rather comforting to sit in the Asian section of the bookstore, the Japanese section to be more exact.

[Faye]

Rai smiled as he watched Haruka scull back her energy drink, it seemed addictive to her. Just watching her made him want to go out and buy one but he didn't want to leave her here. In fact, his want to stay and talk to her was far more stronger than the other. He blinked a little and thought about his realy reason for coming down here. He didn't really come here often... Just on the odd ocassion. Like now. "Umm... I'm not sure, I just came here to burn sometime," He smiled as he spoke, he did like manga, though... "I guess I also came down here to see if there was anything worth buying to increase my manga collection back at my dorm," He continued, starting to trail off into his own thoughs.

The eleventh year shook his head, to bring himself back from the little world he travelled off into. "Do you come here often?" He asked, curiously. By the way she was sitting and how comfortable she was, it seemed like she did.

[Nicolette]

Haruka closed her eyes for a moment as she rest her head against the couch and smiled slightly as she nodded to his words. She opened her eyes and looked over at the boy sharing the couch with her.

"This is one of the few places I go to when I'm not in school or in my dorm room." She looked over at her laptop and shrugged as she sat up and leaned forward to exit out of the manga she had been reading. She had remembered what page she'd left off at. She shut the laptop, leaving it in standby mode and turned to face the boy again.

[Faye]

Rai nodded. "I see~" He said, his tone holding a nice cheerful feel. He honestly didn't seem the least bit bored with talking to her at all. Usually he would get bored with how lame their conversation was heading but he liked talking to Haruka, it was.. Fun. A lot more fun than other people. He wasn't sure why, it just was.

Ignoring the fact that he wanted to say something about what he did when not in his dormitory, he moved on to talking about her some more. "Soo... What were you reading? I hope I didn't interrupt anything.." He was curious to see what kind of manga she was into. It seemed kind of detective like from what he saw on her computer screen. With a smile he leaned back a little more into the couch, getting comfortable.

[Nicolette]

Haruka glanced back over at her computer and smiled fondly as she shut her eyes and leaned more into the cushions of the couch. They were so comfy.

"I was reading a series known as Detective Conan. It's about a teenage detective who was turned into a child because of a weird drug he had been given. So he goes throughout the series, trying to find a way to become his normal self again while also solving crazy cases."

She opened her eyes, her cheeks turning a gentle pink color. "Ah... I didn't realize I had been rambling...."

[Faye]

Rai laughed. "Don't be sorry, it's fine, you weren't rambling," Besides, if she hadn't elaborated more than that, he probably would of asked what it was about and everthing else since he hadn't heard of that manga before. It sounded interesting. He may look it up later on when he returned back to his dormitory. He had a computer, but it was only a desktop. But, he liked that... sort of, he did wish he could sit in front of the television on his couch and surf the net. Oh well...

He shifted his position on the couch so that he was now facing Haruka directly. He had his leg closest to the back of the couch tucked underneath his other leg loosely to form a more comfortable position while he chatted with his new friend. At least this way, he could rest his head on the incredibly comfy seats without having to turn his head all the time. "What other kinds of manga do you like?" He asked, asking some more questions.

[Nicolette]

Haruka smiled a little as she watched him get more comfortable. When he asked his question, she brought her hand up to run through her black locks, thinking it over for a moment. She liked pretty much anything with a good plot, but she was trying to think of a more genre base.

"I like mystery a lot... But there is a special place in my heart for shoujo manga. I can never get enough of the shoujo-stories. I know they're cliche... But I just can't help it." She smiled sheepishly. How was it that she was so comfortable talking to Rai when she'd never really been a sociable person to begin with?

Maybe it was because it was sort of like a new beginning. Someone who spoke her language and didn't know anything about her horrid past... It was nice.

[Faye]

Ick. Shoujo stories were so cliche it almost sickened him with their plot stories. But, he was male, she was female, totally different story with her than it would be for him. However, what she said about it made him smile a bit, hiding back his little disgust of the genre. "Heheh, I'm not really a fan of Shoujo manga but the mystery kinds are good... I also like fantasy, action.. Oh and science fiction, sometimes," Of course. Such a male.

Although there was a few things he left out of his list of manga that he liked. He would never tell, however.

Even with the enormous lunch he ate today his stomach growled, quite loudly. Well it just seemed loud from their lack of speech during that time. Rai's cheeks turned a light pink colour as he clutched his stomach, feeling awfully embarrassed.

[Nicolette]

Haruka actually started to snicker, and then she full out started to giggle. She didn't do that often, but it was too much for her to take. That was the most hilarious thing, to her. She smiled as she reached over and took her bag of chips, turning and handing them to the boy next to her.

"Here, maybe these will hold you over until we can get to some food." She said, her smile still on her lips. She rose to her feet, picking up her briefcase and pressing a button on the side to shut it down completely. She grabbed her second drink and then turned to the boy.

"How about we grab a bite to eat. It'll be my treat... As long as you go grocery shopping with me afterward. Deal?"

Haruka could be sociable. There was never really a time that she'd been anti-social.. It just depended on the situation. She didn't do well in crowds and she didn't speak to someone unless they spoke to her first. She was shy, yes... But once someone actually showed her kindness, she could really be a nice person.