sirenspull_logs | [OPEN] Look in front of you NOW. Do you have a waffle?

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[OPEN] Look in front of you NOW. Do you have a waffle?

Who: Replica Riku, AKA: Joe Fieldman ....and OPEN to everybody!
When: Wednesday, 1pm
Where: Brinners, in the Underground Mall Food Court
Summary: It's Wacky Waffle Wednesday, and who can turn down food that just costs a buck, and comes with all the toppings you want?
Warnings: This could get unreasonably silly.

Joe Fieldman didn't always know a great deal when he saw one.

But waffles-for-a-dollar with a loaded waffle bar included? Sounded like a great deal. Enough to make a trek down to the mall for them, anyway, and loudly inform his whole apartment, if anyone felt like tagging along.

Of course, the trouble with great deals, especially when they were announced over the public newsfeed, was that a lot of other people seemed just as eager to take advantage of them.

So Just-a-Buck waffles turned out to be over a fifteen minute wait, and by that time Joe had seen so many people pass by with Tantalus Torture piles of whipped cream and strawberry syrup and chocolate chips and sliced peaches and sausage gravy that he decided to buy himself a stack of about <i>eight</i>.

Luckily, he's brought along a old half-forgotten journal he'd found underneath his bed last week (Ciel Phantomhive had managed to make him so self-conscious about the state of his bedroom that he'd actually decided to give it a clean) to amuse himself. He couldn't for the life of him remember where or who he'd gotten it from (Christmas before last, maybe? Or for a 'birthday'?), but it came with all sorts of entertaining instructions for what to do with the pages, and so he went about doodling bubbles and poking pencil holes, dog-earing pages and blackening the edges while he waited to aquire some food to stain the stain log with.

Okay, so it was slightly immature. So were overly-loaded waffles, but plenty of people seemed to be perfectly fine with partaking.

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"Yeah." There's uncertainty, awkwardness, as he watches her carefully across the table. Even after so long, living right there with her close by in the apartment ever day, sometimes it feels like there's a distance with Namine that he just can't seem to cross.

In part it's because he desperately doesn't want to scare her, make her nervous.

On the other hand she's made it clear so many times that Nobodies aren't like most people, they don't have hearts, they're lacking certain important things to do this right. Joe's been adamant about pursuing her anyway...but it's slow goings, maybe a little too much thoughtful hesitating, not knowing when it's okay to try and be someone more for her. The little gifts, the tiny things, they pile up of course. But it's not like Xion and Ven seem to be, and sometimes that's frustrating.

He wishes he could tell her being a Nobody doesnt matter at all, at that she'd actually and wholeheartedly (...oops) believe him.

"You could do the...draw some circles page? I haven't really figured out what to do that's creative, for that?"

The subject change comes at a good time, and her smile is small, earnest. As closed off as she can be with their relationship, as terrified of hurting him with her affections or lack there off, she's still wanting and striving to please him.

She ponders over the offer, twirling her fork around before spearing another waffle, coming up with ideas. Once she thinks of something, Namine looks up and nods. "I think I might have an idea."

"Here-" he turns the fat and battered journal around, presenting her with the (mostly) untouched page. All the corners have been dogeared, and the page numbering's been handwritten in.

"It's all yours."

She takes it carefully to her side of the table, examining it for a minute before riffling through her bag for a pen. She's got an idea, though it might not be the perfect drawing that she's done. It would probably be something her teachers don't like, but this is only for Joe.

So Namine gets to work, creating small little circle in the upper areas of the page, numerous little circles. By the time she's done with it and moving onto another area of the page, it's in the formation of a star.

Joe settles his chin on one hand, munches a mouthful of food, and watches her work with neat little bubbles on the page, closely joined. He's wearing an expression that probably reads clear all the way across the food court as the unmistakably infatuated blush of adolescent adoration.

She could be scribbling up the most shameless wreck of them all, for all he cares. But instead she's drawing the symbol of their promise, and so something in him melts faster than the ice cream sandwiched between his waffles.

She keeps going on the page, creating other stars with varying sizes in no particular pattern, never once looking up at him to see his expression. Only when she finishes with the eighth star, that she looks up, and locks eyes with him for a moment. A very long quiet moment that makes her cheeks hot.

"Umm..." Namine glances back down at the pages, eyes scanning the surface for some more inspiration. Stars were okay, but it didn't feel like it was enough. And she had already created something for him involved Destiny Islands. Scenery of the Port could work, but from where? Their apartment? It couldn't be anything too big since she was only drawing in circles.

"What else do you think should go on it?" She looks back up at him. It is Joe's journal after all. It should have something he really wants.

A pleased, warm feeling bubbles up, when her eyes lock on his. The kind of look that makes him eager to swoop up, lean across the table and kiss her, but the mall food court isn't exactly the most romantic of places for it. And his mouth would probably taste like waffles and syrup.

While one hand reaches across the tabletop to smooth at the top of the journal paper, the other's very tempted to reach beneath the table and brush at her knee, where the hem of her summer sundress should give way to softer bare skin.

He's still not so brave as he'd like to be, when it comes to Namine. Maybe because he's still a bit afraid of that special bond Terra talked about not working just right.'

"Circles?" He shrugs blankly, wishing he could muster a little more directive imagination. A fingertip traces along the part of the pen that extends from the top of her pen, then settles over her hand. "Just draw whatever you want. The page is for your wrecking, I gave it to you, okay? You've got my permission to do anything you want to it. It's a free pass. The whole book's supposed to be like a huge free pass."

That seemed to sum up a lot of things he'd been wanting to say to her. About everything.

It was probably the close proximity of their hands, or the choice of his words, but her expression sobers up quite quickly. Almost as quick as that blush on her face. She almost wants to refute with him, tell him that maybe he shouldn't, but Namine reminds herself that it's his book, his choice. And he was drawing something in it for him.

Not for her, and not for one else.

"A-alright," that isn't really helping her slight dilemma here, and her eyes shoot downward to the book far too quickly. For a while her stokes on the page are faint, loose and vaguely in the form of a circle. But after a moment or two, they start to take a more tangible form; rails and shapes of tall buildings in the background. While she might have been thinking about the apartment, it looks more like the fire escape that they sat on months ago.

He sinks his chin into his hand and watches as lines form shapes, and finally an image he can recognize- it's sort of marvelous, how Namine transforms those careful lines across the paper.. A bit more angular, in the end, than the intended circles, but hey, who cares about following the directions anyway?

Joe takes a wondering interest in whatever she does. Especially the things that Namine creates from her own mind. From what could be her own heart.

She doesn't always say the things she's feeling, so often he tries puzzling them out of her pictures.

A few more lines of circles and borders, and she paused, lifting the pencil up from the page. It was a little too sketchy in her opinion, having had her teachers comment about trying to finish up pieces as best she could without a lot of mess, but it was good enough. After all, it was the meaning behind the drawing and not the quality of it.

She glanced up at him, turning the book around in his direction so he could see it better. "How's that?"

"It's great!" Joe gushes with a grin, holding the sides of the 'wrecked' journal, and one very lovely fire escape doodle in the middle of all the mess.

"Your ah- oh, what's it called," (Because he wasn't so sure, when it came to art terms, he'd only flipped through her textbooks and sketch exercises whenever she happened to leave them out in plain sight in the main room of the apartment) "perspective has really gotten better and better since you've been practicing it for school. I mean, the way you draw nowadays keeps getting more and more real-looking."

Which was meant to be an earnest compliment, on her improvements.

"Thanks," she blushed lightly, grateful for the compliment. It was hard to notice how she improved from her perspective, but now that he did mention it, she could see what he meant. She has gotten better since her faceless scribbles from Castle Oblivion.

"A lot of assignments have us do different things - scenery, still life," she glanced down sheepishly, "They're things I wouldn't think of if I didn't go."

Another pause before she looked up at him. "You really think it's a lot better?"

"Well," Joe considered carefully, because what he could say might not earn him more than plaintive skepticism. He couldn't say she put her heart into it now, because she still didn't believe Nobodies could have their own. "I think the difference is, even if they're assignments?"

He cast his eyes wandering over her carefully sketched lines. "You're still drawing things now because you want to, not because you have to."

Not because Marluxia or Larxene are making you do it, or because you're fixing a mistake, mending Sora's heart.

"And I think...that way, you get to put more of your true self into it."

Her true self? A while ago, she probably would have considered that to be Kairi, the original and the one with the heart. But now, she wasn't so sure that was true anymore. Namine glanced away, eyes focused on a tile in the food court floor. With all that's been revealed to them, things have been difficult to accept. More so than for Roxas.

"I guess... that is true," she bit the inside of her lip thoughtfully, taking a chance and looking at Joe for a minute before keeping her eyes down again. Her tone is soft, but neutral, neither annoyed nor particularly sad.

"One of the teachers has always said to put a little bit of yourself in what you do. To put your heart into it."

A phrase that, while she knows it's true, never exactly sat well with her.

"You do a good job at it." He assures her gently, no matter where she comes from, or where her heart lies. Somewhere, there has to be heart that's just for her- even if Kairi already exists, with her own.

"Never let anybody tell you otherwise, you got it? What art you make is wonderful."

Her gaze falls again, and the blush returns, more prominent than before. There's an earnest smile on her face that she can't help, and it's a moment before she looks back up, nearly beaming. He's always so good to her, so kind and supportive, and she always is so grateful for his support.

"Thank, Joe. I really appreciate. And I wouldn't forgot that."

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[OPEN] Look in front of you NOW. Do you have a waffle?

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