personavelvetroomdr | [MINGLE] chocolate and roses

Dove wasn't expecting to be stopped like this, and he blinks with a mildly surprised expression.

"Hamuko-san! It's good to-- hmm?"

His eyes lower from Hamuko's to look at the nicely wrapped bundle.

"...Ah, yes. It is Valentine's Day, isn't it? With how busy I've been, I'd nearly forgotten..."

He looks back at her, smiling a bit.

"Oh, it's Dove again! Hi!! Don't worry, I'll get used to your Look soon enough," she laughed, bubbly and energetic, offering that bundle.

"I wanted to get to know everyone, but here's to you helping me look sharp when we first bumped into each other!"

Dove can't help but blink as she offers him the bundle.

"For me? Oh, I..."

He's honestly flattered. He wasn't expecting to get Valentine's Day gifts from anyone. He used to get plenty of giri chocolate from people back home (At least, from what he remembers), but here...

"...Thank you, Hamuko-san. That's very kind of you."

He smiles softly at her as he gently goes to take the bundle of cookies from her. He'll certainly have to give her something on White Day!

"I think this is an excellent way to brighten peoples' day. You'll be sure to make plenty of new friends, as well."

"That's the plan! It's definitely not my first rodeo 'moving in' to a place where no one knows me, though I definitely think I'm handling it a lot better than the last few times," she laughed brightly.

"Everyone's been a hoot so far. Bird pun accidental, in this case, heheh."

Dove listens as Hamuko speaks, and the idea of Hamuko moving multiple times sounds... weirdly familiar. Too familiar, perhaps.

Being moved around multiple times... Unfamiliar places... No, that's...

"...Moving...?"

His head grows fuzzier as his ears begin to ring, and heavily blurred images flash before his eyes. More and more of them. He tries to focus, and yet his pounding in his head prevents any degree of focus.

"...I..."

He's barely holding onto the bundle of cookies, and seems almost as though he's somewhere else entirely. His eyes are suddenly looking beyond Hamuko, somewhere she can't see.

"Yeah, mostly from bouncing between foster homes, and..." Hamuko'd started to answer, though she trailed off as she saw Dove's brows furrow. That looked...

...

She gave him a few seconds, an uneasy knot forming in her gut.

"...Dove?"

At first he doesn't respond. He still seems lost somewhere in his own head, trying to reach for something only he sees. He grows slightly pale as his pupils shrink a tad, as he seems to be on the brink of some sort of revelation...

...One he doesn't seem so happy to uncover.

Soon enough though, Hamuko says his name, and that seems to snap him back to reality just enough to clench his eyes shut, and pull one his hands towards his head... unfortunately dropping the cookies in the process, as he doesn't quite have the focus to juggle the bundle of cookies on top of everything else.

"...I... I'm sorry, what was I...?"

He feels dizzy all of a sudden, the memory having gone from frightening close to resurfacing to fading instantly... leaving him to try to regain his bearings through the headache.

They're just cookies... they can fall. Hamuko's hands reached out and hovered, ready to catch Dove if he swayed and fell, a little relieved exhale coming from her as she watched the way his expression evolved from the precipice of epiphany into a blinding headache.

Actualization. This had to be what people meant.

"Are you okay? I can find you a seat, Dove," she gently assured, still there and ready to lend a hand.

Dove takes a solid handful of seconds to nurse his head, and to let the pounding in his head slow as he tries to focus on the now instead of the images he had been seeing.

"No, I... I should be fine in a moment... Thank you, Hamuko-san."

He lets out a deep sigh before slowly lowering his hand from his head. He cringes slightly as he feels one last twinge though, and manages to set himself upright.

"...I apologize, this happens on occasion. You see, my memory is..."

Making a noncommittal hum of understanding, Hamuko bent down to pick up the package and make sure it hadn't split. Thankfully the cute foil over parchment paper kept everything from spilling or cutting open, so with a light dusting, the cookies were ready for him whenever he was ready.

"Say, there's a nice looking cafe around the corner - why don't we go get a drink to help with the headache pain? And I gotta see if they make any decent hot cocoa," she added, giving an extra incentive push to make Dove feel less like he was imposing if he agreed.

Dove only just lifts his head back up to meet Hamuko's eyes as she straightens back up from picking up the cookies.

"Hmm? A cafe...?"

He really shouldn't, and he goes to open his mouth to say as much. Unfortunately for him, Hamuko beats him to the punch with her added incentive.

"...I hate to impose, but..."

...Maybe it would do him some good to get something to drink, and to get seated. He feels a bit lightheaded still.

"Please, lead the way, Hamuko-san..."

"You got it! It's just over here," she nodded her head towards the direction she'd come from, giving Dove a steady smile before leading the way. Lo and behold, there WAS a cafe just around the corner - nothing fancy, not boasting any particularly unique aesthetic.

But it had cozy looking tables or even booths to choose from, and it was comfortably warm inside, with the coffee smell filling the whole room.

"I'll bring the order - you claim a seat for us!" she cheekily split up the duties even if it was pretty obvious she was doing so in a way to encourage Dove to sit sooner. "What should I get you?"

A calm and warm cafe. A nice atmosphere, just enough for him to relax a bit.

"Right, yes..."

He can find a seat for them easily enough, but when she asks him what his order is, he starts to answer...

"The house blen--"

He stops, reminding himself quickly that this is not Leblanc. Which... leads him to a horrifying revelation.

He doesn't actually know what he actually likes. He has a sweet tooth, but he's always ordered the house blend on principle. Has he... ever visited a coffee shop other than Leblanc?

"..."

Of course there are so many coffee beans that he knows the names of, but through the headache's haze they all sound practically meaningless.

Did he like something other than the house blend before his memory was altered? What was it? Why was something as simple as that altered?

As he has a quiet dilemma, he finally manages to say something.

"...Apologies, that was a slip of the tongue. Could you order a sweet drink for me? Anything will do, thank you."

With that, he goes to sit at a booth not too far away, resting his head in one of his hands.

If Hamuko thought anything about that confusion, that crisis subtly playing across Dove's expression, she didn't say anything. She just nodded.

"I'll be there in a jiffy!" she nodded, getting in line. It at least wasn't a very long line - the strange 'people' didn't pay much mind to anything, just to sort of filing through pleasantries. That was still very strange...

After a minute or so she does come over with a nice caramel coffee, some cream and sugar added, in addition to her own hot chocolate. She took a seat after setting the drinks down, brushing down her skirt.

"There we go! How are you feeling?"

Dove gently takes the cup as Hamuko sits down, staring into it somewhat blankly.

"...Thank you, Hamuko-san."

He slowly takes a sip, trying to focus on the taste and everything around him. Focus on reality, not how scattered he feels right now.

He sets the cup back down with a gentle clink, raising his eyes to meet with Hamuko's once again, and while he seems slightly less faint, he still looks a bit disoriented.

"A bit better, thank you. This... happens at times. It won't take long for me to return to normal, I assure you."

His fingers fiddle with the coffee cup he's holding, and his eyes drift back to it. Just focus...

"No apology needed! Believe it or not, I think I kind of understand... memories used to be a problem for me as well," she reassured, settling into her seat and taking a sip of the cocoa.

Ahhhh... rich, dense, and not too sweet. That's lovely.

"Wanna talk through it now that we're sat down?"

Is it really similar for Hamuko? To have distant memories is one thing, but...

"Truth be told, there isn't much to speak of. I couldn't remember anything clearly. I only saw images, and... I felt things I couldn't quite understand."

He just stares into his cup, as if it has all the answers. He knows very well it doesn't.

"...I felt small. Everything around me was much larger and louder, and I... I'm not sure what any of it was. It wasn't a good feeling in the slightest, and it was all too hazy for me to fully piece together."

He could have reached for it, but... he has a strange feeling that if he had, he may not have been able to handle it quite yet. Whatever it may have been.

Listening, Hamuko nodded, taking sips as she thought about it, tried to picture what sort of feelings he was trying to put into words.

Feelings were a little bit frustrating like that - sometimes, words didn't really accurately describe a feeling, especially not one from the midst of trying to... recall what feels like you're forgetting.

Even something massive, and frightening, like a missing year - like remembering what you and your friends had fought for leading into the end of January.

"Are there triggers in conversations that seem to instigate it a bit more?"

"I'm not certain. The feelings vary depending on the memories that try to resurface. In this case you were speaking about..."

He has to take a moment to recall. It's on the tip of his tongue, it really is, but it all feels like sand slipping through his fingers...

"You... said something about moving, I believe? I'm not certain why, but you said something of the sort, and suddenly all sorts of images began overtaking my mind, and I experienced those sensations."

He lifts the coffee again, getting ready to take a sip. He looks back up at Hamuko again before he does so though.

"...Other times I feel something different. Sometimes it's simply familiarity. Others it's fear. There's also... some kind of tension in my chest. Adrenaline at other times. Always memories that have a negative connotation, but something I cannot see or hear clearly. It's never consistent..."

It's maddening. So, so maddening.

He finally goes to sip his coffee again, to savor the sweet taste.

"Right... I was mentioning that I was used to moving around a lot. That's because I'm an orphan, so I got bounced between foster homes quite a bit. Maybe that sort of thing or something similar is what triggered it?"

She said it with a calm and matter-of-factness... it was clear from her tone that she was mostly paying attention to Dove, more than anything else.

Dove stiffens slightly, and he pulls the cup away from his lips slightly.

"...?"

The look in his eyes seems to go rather vacant again, though not quite in the same way as before. In this case, the gears are trying to churn behind those eyes of his, but they've been stalled. They grind against one another, something snagged in them, preventing his thoughts from proceeding smoothly.

He's fighting to put two and two together, but unfortunately the actualization wins out, as he asks:

"...Apologies, but... what is an 'orphan'? Or 'foster homes' for that matter? I... should know what they are, I imagine, but I'm..."

...What? How does... someone not know what an orphan is? Or a foster home? At his age, too.

This really isn't different from Morning, is it?

"Wow... uh, well. When I was seven years old, both of my parents and my brother died. So for all the years after that, I had to live with different families that volunteered to take care of me - they're called foster families."

That seems to snap Dove back to reality to a degree.

Right. Death exists. Children whose parents have died... Some of the other Akechis here have lost their mothers... Does that mean they're orphans? Did some of them go to foster families?

"...I see. Thank you. Apologies, I... had never heard the terms before, but I am familiar with the concept of death and loss to a degree."

...But what about him then. If he had that kind of series of images pop up when he heard about the idea of being passed around like that... what does that mean for him?

"...With that in mind... I can think of one particular conclusion regarding my past."

He probably doesn't need to say it, does he? He probably lost his mother like the other Akechis, and was taken by multiple families only to be thrown to the next.

The more he tries to visualize it, the more his head starts to hurt again, ouch...

Painful, both with a headache and a heartache, huh...

"It'd be something we had in common, at least. So... painful or no, there would be someone who knows what it felt like."

She paused, waiting and watching - she could give him little pushes and nudges, but Hamuko was also waiting for any sign to immediately stop.

A similarity between them... That is true. It doesn't quite ease the discomfort he's feeling, but it's also a nice sentiment.

"That is correct, yes. I... I must apologize for reminding you of such difficult memories. I never intended to."

His hands tighten around his cup a bit, apparently against himself.

"...It's just that... times like these are when I begin to waver. Memories like this... Feelings like these... How do I...?"

How does someone bear them all without breaking apart? Was there a time he knew how?

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wipingallout - 2025-03-03 21:25 (UTC) - Expand