adsum | npc contact.1

[Steph and Hiro are sleeping through class twins now. but, she does manage to wake up enough to scribble out a quick note and pass it behind her.

lunch, auditorium?

except she. disappears, about 45 minutes before lunch. asks to go to the restroom and then just doesn't come back. but, should he choose to go the auditorium, he will find her there, curled up in the corner, her head resting on her knees, sound asleep.]

[ She's going to have to set it on top of his head because he's asleep, but he does wake up when the class disperses for lunch, finding the note and reading it over. Lunch, auditorium...

He eventually makes his way to the auditorium, paper still in his hand, with what could almost be legible as "ok" scrawled below her note like he was going to pass it back to her but saw that she was already gone, so now he has to carry this piece of paper around like a hall pass in case anybody sees him walking around and asks him what he's doing.

He brought his lunch... alright... okay. Slowly, he lowers himself to sit beside Stephanie with his knees pulled up to his chest, and gives her two minutes to wake up on her own accord. If she doesn't by then, he doesn't think about waking her up. He just unwraps his bento and balances it on his knees to start eating, making sure to save half, just in case all she has is nuts and fruit again. ]

[luckily, the fun part about being a nightmare-plagued insomniac, she's learning, is that while you sleep all the time, you also wake up all the time. and she does so, about five minutes after he arrives, startling awake with a strangled half-cry. she blinks, tries to figure out when her bed got so hard, and slowly returns to reality. which sucks, but she smiles when she sees him.]

Hi. I'm glad you showed u-- [she yawns, covering her mouth with her arm.] ... Gosh. Sorry about that. I'm basically a walking magic battery for a crazy guy right now? It's a long story. And I don't really wanna spend any time telling it, 'cause I have another story I wanna tell you.

[she glances at him unsurely.] Is that okay?

[ He looks back at her, also unsurely, but he nods. He doesn't mind stories, especially since that means he doesn't have to talk, and now he can eat his half of the bento at his own pace instead of doing the mental calculation of how much longer they have to the end of lunch and if Steph doesn't wake up by X time and there's still Y amount of food left, will he be able to scarf down the rest of it if he eats at Z pace because he can't bring the bento box back with food still left inside or Maya will be mad.

But anyways, yeah, he nods. ]

Thanks. [she pulls her legs back up to her, resting her head on her knees again.] I have a friend back home who's a superhero. He's... perfect, really; he always says he's not, but I've never seen him make mistakes before, not once. Until this one day, when he suddenly started just... He'd trip over nothing, and fall over doing tricks, and just mess up things that had always been easy for him. And we were scared. We thought he was hurt, or sick. And we just started doing all the things he'd done for us when we were hurt or sick...

[sighs]

Sometimes, you become so convinced that you know exactly what went wrong, that you know exactly what to do to help somebody, that you don't help them at all. I assumed I knew what was wrong with Sportacus, and I was wrong. And then, like the dummy I am, I came here and did the exact same thing to you.

[she reaches into the pocket of her jacket and brings out a carefully folded piece of construction paper. she places it on the ground next to him, still not looking at him directly.]

I made this for you. I'm actually never going to the art room again, ever, in my life, so this may be the only drawing I ever make for you.

[when unfolded, the paper reveals a colorful crayon picture of hiro and stephanie playing Actual Bowling under the wisteria tree. in bubble letters underneath, it says "SORRY FOR THINKING YOU MURDERED A GIRL <3!"]

[ He's having a little trouble following, listening as diligently as he can and trying to look at Stephanie while she talks, but after he misses his mouth and pokes himself in the cheek with his chopsticks twice, he goes back to staring at his food until he hears the rustle of paper.

...

...??

There's his own rustle of paper, him pulling Stephanie's lunch invitation out of his pocket and he has his own pen to scrawl with before he slides the paper in front of Stephanie's face. ]

not to seki?

[ for thinking Kouji was a girl? ]

... Did he die?

[ uh

he does that... wavey hand motion thing ]

Hiro that is very much a yes or no question?????

[ wavers his hands in mild distress...

sort of dead? not yet dead? it's a work in progress ]

How do you not know?!

[ He shakes his head but he's also like, not looking at Stephanie.

HE'S BEING YELLED AT..... ]

[SHE'S NOT YELLING her voice is just a full octave higher than normal she's under a lot of stress right now.

but, finally, she just. breathes slowly. it's fine. she's sure he's fine.]

... I mean, if they didn't tell you, he's probably still alive, right? I'm sure he's fine.

... And, anyway, that's not who I thought you... y'know. It turns out one of us did it. You were innocent, and I was wrong.

[ She's yelling in his general vicinity and since he's the only person here it feels like it's directed at himmmm

but then she calms down and he feels secure enough to look over too- really look at the picture and pick it up and wrap it around his knees just in case Maya walks in. Maya can never see this. It has to stay rolled up in his locker at all times and he can never use his locker again.

With that game plan in mind, he turns to Stephanie and mouths "who?" ]

[there's... a moment where she considers not saying it. because as sharp as the disconnect she feels from Komaeda now is, he's still One Of Us. and Hiro, as much as she loves him, is still One Of Them.

... but, no. she already showed an unfair amount of distrust to Hiro. she can trust him with this.]

... Komaeda. He murdered the president before your sister. [she blinks hard, but at least she ran out of tears after yesterday.] He did it for hope.

[ Hiro's going to immediately turn around and tell Maya

Maybe not so immediately. Hearing a name— a name he recognizes, even if it's one he doesn't associate with anything good— makes it all so real. Personal. But then unreal at the same time, because for hope? He doesn't get it, shifting the bento box away from him on the floor so he can rest his arms on his knees and bury his face in them. ]

Yeah. Welcome to my life since yesterday.

... I made up this whole... romantic backstory in my head, or something. Where you and Maya had killed her to avenge Nao... None of it even seemed real, honestly. I didn't know her. It was like characters in a storybook.

... I really did think he was harmless. [sigh] Everyone's right. I'm just a dumb kid. I have no idea what I'm doing.

[ Was that supposed to be romantic... In either case, Hiro just sits there like that, silent and unmoving, for a good while, before lifting his head again finally. He unwraps one arm from around his knees and points at himself and nods.

Big same. ]

[vengeance is super romantic. look she had a pirate phase okay.]

You're not dumb. You're just sleepy. And you're older than I am.

[...]

... Do you remember? Your life before you got here.

[ He can be dumb and sleepy and old all at the same time.

He pulls his hand back to himself, and does that little wavey motion again. ]

I hope whatever you can remember is nice.

... Do any of them belong to the counselor now?

[ ...haha

He looks over at Stephanie, a little confused, taking the moment to think a little... but ultimately shakes his head. It's not like he would know. ]

I'm never gonna trade any to him, if I can help it. I'm pretty sure he just eats them. Maybe he turns them into pistachios... But, I kinda got one from him. He took it from Hyde, and I guess I just got dragged in...

... Do you know anything about people being buried alive?

Edited 2021-07-02 05:41 (UTC)

[ She'll just trade Hyde's memories, I see.

Hiro looks almost amused at the idea of anybody turning memories into pistachios, but then she mentions people being buried alive and he pales immediately, ducking his head to hide the distress that takes over his expression. In the darkness of his arms, he squeezes his eyes shut. ]

[she frowns hard at his reaction. sure, it's definitely a spooky thing to think about, but it's all that...

... and she's a bigger idiot than she thought. nobody would scream out that name if they were in trouble. except.]

... Oh. Oh, Hiro. [and to force her hands to do anything but hug him, she places them over her mouth.]

6/29, hiro

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