[afternoon] A Tale of Two Students [Hatsuharu] (Social Link)

It was an interesting morning when Achelle arrived at the academy and when she met her fellow Cadets. She found one of them laughable, another annoying, and the two she worked with the night prior alright. The selection that graduated wasn't something she personally felt would be a good team or have great synergy. But well, that's honestly to be seen since she only knew how Hatruharu, or PHANTOM, as he called himself, and Athena operate since she fought with them. When the meeting ended, Achelle went to class and then the lunch break happened, which was nice.

While she was wandering about the school and grounds she, somehow, ended up walking into the masked man himself up on the roof.

"Oh, Phantom, how nice to see you." She said. She raised her lunch bag. "Mind if I eat here?"

This particular event happened in the time frame he had open before the investigation started and way before he left the school to start that fateful walk with Maria to the scene that would lead to events that would alter his perception on life forever. In fact this, event happened exactly 1 hour after he had left Class Zero.  Instead of leaving the school immediately, the pop idol had found himself expertly timing when to move to avoid crowds as he made a beeline not for the exit door, but the roof door. He figured the roof would be the best place to clear out his thoughts undisturbed before the big meeting and figured it was probably the safest place to smoke without anyone giving him flack for doing it elsewhere.

So he had headed to the roof with the intention of simply relaxing a bit before a job. Once outside and being quite certain no one would mess with him, he had settled on one of the ledges used for sitting and after getting comfortable he had lit a cigarette and prepared for a small reprise. So imagine his surprise and disappointment when said tranquility was broken as someone else came out onto the roof.

On instinct, he tensed slightly as he looked over to the one that had come; however, he found himself relaxing slightly when he noticed it was Achelle. He remembered her from the night before and also from her arrival in class not too long ago. He still wasn’t too sure what to make of her, so his reaction remained neutral as he observed her for a bit, his cigarette being held in his left hand lightly. However, that neutrality would disappear as he heard her words. He would close his eyes with a lightly annoyed sigh.

“You do realize that is a work related name and not to be used so casually outside of that, yes? If you must call me something, call me by my name: Hatsuharu or Hatsu if the former is to much of a mouthful to say.” The response was stern one, but he wasn’t being hostile about it. He was just setting the record straight. He honestly didn’t want his job compromised due to slips of the tongue. He was supposed to be able to trust those under the Queen no? And had she not given fair warning what would happen if someone were to rat him out? Honestly did she not care or had she simply missed that part last night?

Alas they were alone, so the offense was minor causing him to be less on her case than he would’ve been had the situation been different. Regardless of this, when he reopened his eyes his expression was calm. When she asked her question, he raised an eyebrow at this.

“I suppose so. It is not like I can chase you away from a public space, now can I?” he would say, his words seeming at first blunt and cold, but if one were to look he actually had a small smirk on his pretty face showing he meant nothing by the words.

What happened due to this was unknown, but eventually the smirk would fade as he looked away and towards the city behind the high gates of the roof. He was quiet for a moment as he let the wind play with his hair and toss the smoke from his cigarette here and there gently. When he spoke again, his words were his usual calm and soft tones. "You come out here to eat alot?"

Not being a student himself, he had to admit he was curious of the trends around the school and while he didn't show it he was even more curious why Achelle had decided to join him. So he attempted the thing called idle chatter...and just prayed he didn't mess it up too bad.

Notes:

She was sightly reprimanded for calling him "Phantom," personally she saw it as a 'cute nickname' but well, Hatsuharu has other thoughts and well, she'll have to deal with his proper name. She waved him off after he was finished, flashing a somewhat sheepish smile. "Right, right, I'll remember that Haru."

When he basically surrendered to share his presence with her she smiled wider and produced from her bag a Tupperware container filled with a brown liquid and what appears to be some noodles.

When he asked if she came up here often, she shook her head as she pulled two forks out of the same bag. "Not all that often, only when I think the day is well enough." She said as she popped the lid off and took a nice deep smell of her lunch.

"Ah, mom's gotten better at making stroganoff." She said as she twirled one fork in her hand. She paused for a second before looking back to Hatsuharu, "You want some? Mom always gives me way too much."

The earlier annoyance would ease up slightly as he was waved off by the other. He didn’t exactly appreciate that, but at the same time he wasn’t one to make a big fuss over the trivial so he let it go as he relaxed in his spot. When he was called Haru rather than the options given, he didn’t seem to mind the usage of the name. It was the name he had given the night before, so it wasn’t a big surprise she had chosen to use it here.

Regardless of that little hiccup, Haru would become relatively laid back as he took a drag on his cigarette before letting the smoke out quietly. Through the small cloud, he would see the smile given when he let her stay….although he didn’t quite get what was so pleasing about the situation. Maybe he was simply missing something in the end. Whatever the case was would be pushed aside as the other pulled out a container with something brown in color within.  He supposed it was food of some sort, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what sort of food had that color. Maybe it was a gravy though why it was over noodles was something he wasn’t quite sure of.

Despite the curiosity over the food, his attention would be drawn back to the girl as she answered his question.

“Mmm. It is a nice quiet place to be on a good day,” he would say looking away as he gave the blue sky an appreciative glance. It really was nice here, wasn’t it?

Hm? The other’s words brought his eyes back to her as she spoke about her lunch.

“Better? Was she not good at making it before?” he would ask with a slight tilt of his head and then to the following question, he’d simply blink. He wasn’t expecting that sort of offer and for a few seconds he didn’t reply back as he mulled over some things.

On one hand, he found it strange to be offered this sort of opportunity. While he had no issue eating off the same plate as another, he hadn’t met too many that would allow such a thing even with separate utensils. Most of the time folk seemed quite particular about the concept of sharing especially when it came to someone they didn’t know. Yet…she had offered him food from the same container she had. Maybe she was open-minded.

On the other hand…he kind of liked to eat and while not starving, food didn’t seem like a bad idea at the moment, so….Hmm.

He would continue to think a second longer his expression unreadable until he finally came to a decision and looked up at the other.

“I suppose I could help. Thank you for offering,” he said before pausing and finding a proper place to put out his cigarette. Once he put it out, he would move to a spot where he was closer to Achelle. Taking the extra the fork there he’d look over at the other.

“Ladies first,” he would tell her with a faint smile before becoming quiet as he waited for her to start the meal whichever way she had planned to do this.

"Nah, Mom's not bad at cooking, she liked experimenting from time to time, but stroganoff is pretty technical for a simple dish." She said as she speared a cube of beef and a few noodles.

"Gotta cook the pasta just right, gotta cook the meat just right, then you gotta spice the broth just right, then you need to put them all together and cook the whole mess just right." She rambled as she then popped the fork into her mouth. After a moment of chewing, she swallowed and continued.

"Get the pasta wrong and it's either rock hard or a mushy mess, get the beef wrong and it'll either be under cooked or a charcoal brick, get the broth wrong and it can either be water or burned." She said. "Mom gets it right more often then she doesn't, but she still dislikes making it unless Papa asks."

"But enough about me," She said, "since we're a unit now, I should get to know you a bit more Hatsuharu."