The best way to meet people is running them down with a bike.

[foreignstorage]

Who: Kura and Haruka.
What: Kura goes out for a jog without looking where he's going, and Haruka can't really look where she's going, either...
Where: Sidewalk in the shopping district near Chitoku.
When: Saturday May 13th

Kura had always been a jogger - it was how he burned stress, and how he kept himself in shape! He'd never had to go to a gym or anything to do it, either, so he never really had to deal with the looks he knew he'd get. Not that it really mattered! It was just people weren't comfortable with how he looked, and that was... whatever! He just didn't care that much about it, everything considered. He just picked up jogging instead.

At the moment, Kura had changed up his uniform for his beanie plus a simple short-sleeved shirt meant for runners and proper shorts! If it were colder, he would have probably gone for a hoodie, and even now he really kind of wanted one, but it was maybe too hot for that; he'd get sweaty long before he was tired! That'd be bad. (Still, he'd made sure to bundle all his hair under his beanie - meticulously, even.

Anyway, today, Kura was a bit more distracted then he'd liked to have been: distracted enough to not notice a blind girl on her bike heading basically right at him; he was used to being visible enough people went around him, and not the opposite. He was about to pay for that mistake, from the look of it: by being run down by a blind girl. Wow. What a great hafu.

Comments

[allisnothing]

Feeling hands (large, steady) help her up, she suppressed a sigh and instead let out another, longer, "Huh."

She turned her head to face him, seeming to study him for a moment, before replying, "It's okay, it's just bleeding a little. Nothing super painful? Think the expression's, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger anyway." She shrugged. "Bruising's no good though. It totally needs ice before it spreads."

[foreignstorage]

He didn't really know what to make of her 'huh', so he just ignored it; just like he did with everything else that seemed subtly strange or odd. Who knew if he'd be able to do that with Haruka much longer, but they'd see.

"Well, yeah, but! It's still important we get a bandage on it, uh..." He started off strong, but faltered. He sounded embarrassed, before: "Um, what's your name?" He felt kind of awkward, having to ask, but he wanted to know and wanted to ask, anyway!

[allisnothing]

"Maybe? I think party who got run over gets priority though." She replied, reaching down and picking up her bike. She grunted a little as her knee stung again but she just wiped aside another droplet and facing him.

"I'm Shikata Haruka. you?"

[foreignstorage]

"I think the party who gets hurt worse gets priority! And I'm fine!" He would totally just keep saying he was fine, really. Persistence was a strong point, with him.

"Nishiyama Kurausu! But everyone calls me Kura! It's nice to meet you, Shikata-san!" ... That felt weird to say. Like, weirdly formal, he guessed? He'd try a nickname later! See how that went over! For now, though, he'd go with that.

[allisnothing]

"Huh." She tilted her head at the name. Sounded foreign? No accent though. After a beat, she said, "Nice to meet you then, Kura-san?"

She put her headphone back in her ear and hit a few buttons on her piPod to reset the GPS tracker. They shouldn't be too far anyway. "About as okay as you? So we might as well grab a bandaid while we grab something cold?"

[foreignstorage]

It wasn't that foreign! Jeez. It did kind of solidify the opinion that he was foreign, though... Much to his chagrin. He just wanted to be recognized as a hafu...

"Right! Might as well do both at once!" He would agree, as long as she didn't brush off getting herself treated, first! "That's more practical, then, y'know, not!" He might have asked her where she stayed, but that didn't matter that much, right? Sure, it might mean she had to walk a ways farther when they split, but... oh well.

"There's a convenience store that should have one this way!" And it was kind of evident he hadn't picked up on the fact she was blind, since he didn't say the damn way - he probably pointed. But the direction his footsteps were moving was... probably enough, if Haru focused.

[allisnothing]

She heard him stomping off with the excitement of a hyper puppy and tilted her head again.

Huh...

After another moment, she put the tracker on play and walked on the yellow path exactly. If it wasn't for the bike, she'd take her cane out but it wasn't too crowded out. She didn't think she'd be smacked into another hyper puppy today, unless this was a day of coincidencies and comedic narrative causality. She took her time as her tracker reported back where she was passing but she eventually caught up to Kura. Or at least, he was loud enough it was hard not to lose him.

[foreignstorage]

Thankfully, this wasn't a day of comedic narrative causality or coincidences - he led Haruka to the store, stopping only when he realized he was outpacing her - and when he did, he just doubled back slightly and waited before continuing on.

He stopped in front of the store, looking back at Haruka and smiling. (Hey, she'd probably kept up!)

"Here it is, Haruharu-san!" Someone was being informal, just curiously to see if Haru minded. She could ask him to dial it back if she liked; he just did it without thinking. She just... didn't feel like a Shikata, she felt like a Haru! Most protagonists were named Haru-something, if they were ladies, and that just made him feel unreasonably good about Haruka, and calling her by her surname instead of her family name.

Puppy, no.

In any case, he'd let her be the first to go in - both out of chivalry, and also because why not. He wasn't aware the cashier was currently enforcing a 'less (gaijin) people in the store the better' policy, but he'd find that out in due time.

[allisnothing]

Haruka didn't seem like she minded the informality as much as she looked mildly surprised. Weird. She seemed to have some sort of attractor field for this since coming to Chitoku.

"Give me a sec," she replied with a nod, before pulling up the bike close to the nearby pole and chaining it. It took only a few minutes to get her cane out and unfolded, the familiar tapping filling the air again as she walked up to Kura and the entrace of the store. She asked, looking curious, as she heard the automatic door open, "Haruharu?"

She was unaware of the sudden attention the cashier was paying them as they walked in.

[foreignstorage]

Yep! She didn't seem angry about it, or anything, so he was happy enough to get that confirmation. He let her chain up her bike, noticing her cane - and wait what a cane was she blind or something how did he not notice? He tilted his head questioningly at that, but she broke him out of thinking about it with the question. "Yeah! Haruka's a super cool name, thought you might like a nickname! If you don't, I can stop, but!" He gave a pleased little laugh, moving to step in before--

"Excuse me! You're going to have to wait outside. There's a limit on how many teenagers can be in the store." The cashier sounded pleasant, but the look on her face sure wasn't - irritation, annoyance, so on.

Kura jumped a little at it happening, before sort of wilting, and giving a little nod. "Uh, okay... Um, Haru-san, are you gonna be alright just getting it by yourself?" He was already looking through his wallet to get some money for her to use. From the sound of things, this wasn't entirely unexpected on his part.

[allisnothing]

Cool huh... She didn't seem like she minded too much, and was about to say 'Interesting logic' with a smile before she heard the cashier's comment. Her head turned in her direction, bewildered, and then she turned back to Kura as she seemed to regard him for a moment. After a beat, she said,

"Yeah? Can wait outside if you want to do it instead though."

As she said that, the cashier's face showed even more displeasure.

[foreignstorage]

Kura totally caught that displeasure in the cashier, and he shook his head. He got a feeling he knew why this was happening, and didn't want to make the cashier angry, or anything.

"No, uh, it's fine! You go! Here's some bills..." He offered the other some cash; it wasn't very much, but it was more than enough to handle what they'd talked about.

It might not have been too obvious to Haruka, given that his tone had only dropped off instead of becoming obviously sad, but he was wilting a little. He didn't like this kind of treatment, even if he was used to it; and, as it was, he didn't want to just send in Haru alone. But he got the feeling she'd be upset if he switched places with Haru, so...

"I'll be waiting right out here!" And he would; even if Haru snuck out another entrance of the building, he would wait right there, and trust Haru would come back. (And if she didn't, that was okay, too - it wasn't fun, but he wouldn't blame her.)

[allisnothing]

"Huh." That one hung in the air, ambiguous - as though she may or may not be picking up on the vibes around them right now. After another beat, she reached forwards and felt the air a bit before she caught a bill and then adjusted her grip to grab the rest. These weren't marked like hers but she could figure them out later. For now, she simply nodded and said,

"Oh okay then. What do you want to drink?"

The clerk, meanwhile, seemed to relax at this outcome. They went back to fiddling behind the counter, though they occasionally still looked over.