- Your kalon decides to go shopping for some vacation souvenirs!
prompt 09: What do they buy and who is it for?
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a solid slap on the back of our favorite beach boy finn. he almost stumbles
forwards, and spins around to see his cousin almost looking apologetic, if it
weren’t for his wack grin. “man, where’d that all that power come from ??”
“i’ve no idea!” ruka yells enthusiastically, and it seems that maybe raw
excitement is enough to let them borrow the sun’s powers. ( they are, of course,
always excited, and over nothing at that, so maybe the sun was just being
generous today. ) “you wanna check out the local shops? i haven’t gotten to yet
for, uh, reasons.” reasons like, it was three am and none of them were open, and
i was busy battling the beach crabs.
“oh heck yea, i wanna buy more hawaiin shirts.”
ruka stares. “i’ll ask somebody else.”
“aw man, c’mon! what if i don’t buy any hawaiin shirts?” ( an empty bargain,
because he would buy those shirts regardless. )
“yea, fine,” ruka gives in (rather easily), and begins a minute’s journey to where
hira and mika are usually found: the lounge chairs that face the sea. passed that
then when neither of them are there, ends up wandering around for awhile until
they spot one of them on some cliff. ruka turns to finn as they walk. “where’s
reuben?”
“passed out when we got back.”
“fair enough. hira!” they call to the undoubted tallest of their squad, sitting alone
today— or, well, not alone, but not with mika, which was an oddity. being joined
at the hip was what earned them the nickname “mikaeth,” mika + hiraeth, because
if you were talking about one, you were talking about the other. but no, it was just
hira today, quietly accompanied by another kal.
hira looks to ruka. it’s about as much a hi as you’ll get from him. he isn’t unfriendly,
just. socially inept.
“where’s mika?”
“ah,” hira sets down a little pamphlet, something about whale watching, “he left
to spend some time with atashi.”
“aw, feeling lonely?” ruka chuckles, waves off the joke (hira didn’t much give any
response), and gestures for hira to follow them. “we’re going shopping if you wanna
get any souvenirs with us.”
“i’ll get something for mika.” hira waves to his whale watching buddy, bids a silent
adieu. he joins the other two, and he doesn’t think it, but it’s weird to be alone with
ruka (and finn)— there’s usually mika to talk between them.
they arrive at a little row of shops; modest, as you’d expect from the small island
village. when their cruise first wrecked, a local had told them this isn’t a tourist
attraction. so when the stores did actually offer a selection of souvenir type items,
it was assumed these were here explicitly for the vacationers. smart.
they wander as a group, poking in and out of the small buildings. hira is, obviously,
the first to end up several feet away and make the other two wonder where he’s gone.
still in eye shot though, and ruka steps over to him. “got something there?”
hira’s staring at a glass blown squid. it’s sort of unnerving, but well crafted. hira grabs
the plush next to it instead (also a squid). “for mika.”
“you think he’ll like that?”
“squids remind him of home.”
“and what home is that?”
hira doesn’t reply, and only pulls out his wallet to pay. it makes just another question
on top a pile of questions that have gone unanswered about mikaeth. as much as ruka
can put together, they don’t like to talk about their past— doesn’t know why, though.
ruka reachess in their pocket and takes out. something.
“what’s that?”
“no idea!” ruka plays with the thing, a little wooden contraption of sorts. “i think some
sort of toy. i got it for atashi. they like things they don’t understand.” they hand it over
to hira, and he messes with it for a good minute, gets nowhere, hands it back. ruka puts
it away. “i got a little space pendant for nora to give to her wife too.”
hira nods. “cas will like it.” this confirmation might have been what ruka originally
walked over for. “you haven’t bought yourself anything?”
“well, neither have you. i’m still looking.”
“and finn?”
ruka glances back, doesn’t see finn. “pretty sure when i looked away he bolted to buy
some shirts.” hira doesn’t look to understand that, and ruka doesn’t explain. “meet you
back at the beach later?”
hira agrees.
it’s about an hour later when ruka returns, and finn is wearing a hawaiin shirt. there’s an
energy between them that spelled i’ll strangle you and you won’t. impressive that ruka
would dare challenge anyone’s fashion, given that they crop half their shirts.
mika and atashi have regrouped, and the former is hugging the goofy squid plushie. seems
pleased enough, and ruka has to rethink what they honestly know about mikaeth. mika
says hello, and asks, “so? get anything for yourself ruka? hira said you were having a hard
time finding anything.”
ruka whips out an opal blade. “a knife!”
“no!”
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