Kohaku and Harley, Backdated to May 13
May. 13th, 2013 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainKohaku's out flying and spots Harley playing around. They meet and chat, and are generally darling!
Harley wasn't used to reading books that were actually... long. Back home, the point had always been to meet academic requirements quickly and move on. In real school, they seemed to prefer a much slower approach, and Harley had A Tale of Two Cities to prove it.
Unwilling to totally waste the day, Harley compromised by heading outside to read. The sunshine felt nice - weaker than she would've liked, but nice. She'd made it through a good, um, fifteen pages or so, when she decided on a stretch break. Just to keep her blood flowing, of course, so her brain would keep working. But a few simple stretches led to a few more complicated ones, and after a while Harley was essentially just playing balance games on the steps, the book abandoned a few steps below.
From above, it was difficult to tell what Harley was doing. Flying low overhead, the girl caught Kohaku's attention and held it so long that she nearly flew into the leafy canopy of a grouping of trees. She yelped softly, managed to angle up and avoid the mess before circling back around and stumbling into a clumsy landing near the lowest step. Once she realized that she'd made it safely to the ground, she exhaled and dropped down to sit in the grass rather than standing on wobbly knees.
Kicking out of her handstand, Harley scampered down the steps to check on the girl who had just tumbled out of the sky.
"Hey, are you alright?" Harley asked, crouching by the girl and touching her arm. She looked shaky but unhurt.
Kohaku bobbed her head in an exaggerated nod, but stopped when she realized it only made her more disoriented and fixed her eyes on Harley instead. "Yes," she assured the girl, her voice meek at first but quickly bouncing back to its typically cheerful soprano as she continued talking, "Yes, I'm all right. I guess I saw you and I got distracted. I've never seen anything like that! What you were doing." A short-lived pause interrupted her mounting enthusiasm and curiosity brightened her face, "What...were you doing?"
Harley smiled at the girl's accent, but was definitely in professional athlete mode, watching carefully for signs of serious trouble. Was she a little... dizzy, maybe? Reaching a hand into her Pocket where she knew her water bottle would be, she pulled the bottle through distorted space and offered it to her.
"Um, just some gymnastics," she said (to the girl who had just been flying like it was no big deal). "Have some water, I bet that'll help."
It seemed like some clever slight of hand to Kohaku. One moment there was no water, the next there was a full bottle being held out to her. She blinked, looked a little dumbfounded, then smiled sheepishly. It had probably been there all along and she just hadn't seen it. Like the trees. She shook her head carefully and insisted again, "I'm all right. Really! Just a little dizzy. I don't usually maneuver like that..." She gestured with one hand, mimicking the abrupt angle and the tight circle she'd made to avoid a collision, looking close to embarrassed by the time she was done and dropped her hands on her knees. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your gymnastics."
"Water is good for dizzy," Harley said with a smile, but didn't push it. Instead, she set the bottle on the ground between them and sat cross-legged so the other girl wouldn't feel rushed to get up and be okay. "And no sweat, I was just messing around. I was supposed to be reading," she gave a wry grin and pointed toward the book with her thumb, "but I don't sit still very well. Um, are you the girl who just moved in down the hall?"
Sunshine, at least for Kohaku, was good for dizzy too. And there was plenty of that. She shook her head again and then glanced at the abandoned book before focusing her attention back on Harley. She grinned, the expression suggesting that she might also know a thing or two about abandoned homework. About to admit as much, the question caught her and her expression softened, now radiating more warmth than subtle mischief. "Hai! Yes. I just moved in a few days ago." She paused, considered, then added, "You're new too. Aren't you? I remember from the journal..."
Harley nodded eagerly, extending her hand to Kohaku. "Yup. I'm Harley." A pause as she realized the journal said this girl was 16. Seriously? Huh. "Nice to meet you. Everything okay so far?"
Kohaku took the girl's hand and, barely suppressing a squeak of surprise (and pain) at Harley's unexpectedly firm grip, shook it energetically. The gesture was still fairly novel to her and she liked it. "It's nice to meet you too! Everything is..." Her words trailed off as she retracted her hand and she seemed to be thinking about it. "Everything is wonderful. Different. But...wonderful. I never thought I'd get to live in a place like this." She settled her hands in her lap, then asked, "What about you?"
Harley blinked in surprise - Kohaku definitely seemed to be handling her arrival better than Harley had. Sure, things were looking up, but she hadn't reached 'wonderful' yet. With her family and gym so far away, she wasn't sure she ever would. But for a temporary residence, she supposed that super power school was kind of awesome.
"I guess I was having some adjustment issues" - air quotes - "but yeah, this place is pretty cool. And everyone seems pretty chill for the most part. How long have you been able to fly?" she asked eagerly, finding the topic much more interesting (...and not really wanting to explain about 'adjusting').
Adjustment issues. Kohaku didn't know what that meant exactly, but the concern that swelled in her chest showed on her face too and lingered there even after Harley had changed the subject. The girl didn't seem to want her to ask, though. She pushed the expression down as much as she could and, fidgeting, answered instead, "Oh! For...a long time. I think I first did it when I was ten."
Kohaku was so expressive! Harley smiled at her, partially just so she'd stop worrying. "Ah, that must be the difference! I just found out about my ability a couple weeks ago, and came here the very next day. It still seems crazy," she said thoughtfully, like 'crazy' wasn't technically a bad thing. She shrugged, then grinned at Kohaku. "But dude, flying? That's gotta be the best. Gymnasts always talk about 'flying,' but you've got us way beat!"
The grin seemed to work, coaxing the worry out of Kohaku's face. She smiled and shook her head adamantly. "I can fly, but I can't do anything like what you were doing! You looked so graceful!" Her hands clasped in her lap and she looked at the younger girl with admiration as a sheepish quality tinged her expression. "I'm too clumsy. I'd trip over my own feet..." At that she paused, then fixed curious eyes on Harley. "Your abilities are still new, then? What can you do?"
Oh, Harley thought the water bottle trick had given it away. This was way more fun, though! "There's big science words for it, but basically..." She closed her eyes, trying to feel where she'd tucked her hoodie earlier. "I have magic hands, and a special Pocket..." Ah, there! She seemed to plunge her hand into the concrete, then pulled it back with a pink sleeve in tow. She beamed at Kohaku. "See?"
Kohaku's eyes followed the movement of Harley's hand and widened as the girl reached down through the concrete path they were sitting just alongside. She touched the ground for herself, found it as solid as ever, and gawked as the girl's hand returned holding a bright pink hoodie sleeve. "Sugoi...!" she murmured, touching her hands to her face until her lips turned from a surprised 'o' into a vibrant smile, "How do you do it?"
"Um..." Harley faltered, not sure how to explain without using lots of science words that might not translate well. "There's a bubble around me, but, uh, in a different reality. And my hands can reach into it, so other stuff can go between. Here!" She handed the hoodie sleeve to Kohaku, exposing the distorted space where the pink ended and the pavement began. "Just pull, it'll come through. How does your power work?"
The expression on Kohaku's face was a blend of curious excitement and confusion, but she obediently took the sleeve and pulled until the pink garment flew up out of the ground. After staring at it for a few delighted, dumbfounded seconds she began to fold it and smiled sheepishly. "I don't really know," she admitted, "I absorb sunlight and store it and turn it into energy that I can use. I can also adjust my size by breaking my mass down into energy that I store in the same way. At least...that's what Dr. MacTaggert says." She hugged the now-folded hoodie against her chest and added, "It's complicated. I guess all powers are."
Harley watched Kohaku with less obvious delight (but only by comparison, she was definitely grinning). The look grew confused as she explained her power though. Like a plant... like a shrinking plant... that flies... Nope, no easy metaphor sprang to mind. "Yeah, I'm not great at the science-speak, but that sounds really cool. My science words are 'extradimensional pocket' or 'interdimensional anomaly' or something - which didn't make much sense to me, but one of the girls kind of... showed me about my power. In my mind." Just, y'know, as you do at mutant school. "So when you say change your size, what do you mean? Bigger, smaller?"
"I like your explanation better," Kohaku admitted with a smile and offered Harley her now-folded hoodie, "It actually sounds like English." Once the hoodie had gone back to its rightful owner she folded her hands in her lap again and answered, "Oh! Only smaller! I don't think I want to be any bigger and I don't think I can anyway..."
Harley took the hoodie and awkwardly tucked it back into the pavement, nodding at Kohaku. "That makes sense. But I dunno, bigger could be fun. I mean, I don't wanna be any taller, but there are some really high shelves around here." After a moment's pause, she reconsidered. "But then, if you can fly too, problem solved I guess." Then, with a giggle, she added, "Bet you always win at hide and seek!"
Kohaku leaned forward a little, hands still pressed against her thin legs as she nodded in agreement. "I would much rather fly than be big!" she said enthusiastically, then paused, "Hide and...?" Kakurenbo. The translation clicked in her head and she grinned. She could see why she would be good at it, but... "Actually. I've never played."
"Wait, seriously? Never?" She might as well have said she was from Mars, because Harley was stunned. "What do little kids play where you're from?"
"Kids play hide and seek in Japan," Kohaku explained, shaking her head, "I just never have." She paused, pushing back a bit of the blonde hair that was trying to fall in front of her face, then added, "I wasn't raise around other children. Sister Hisui played with me, and Father Ransho did sometimes too, but...it was nothing like that."
Harley hopped up and went to retrieve her book - and the phone she'd left next to it. Plopping back down in front of Kohaku, she immediately started typing. "Oh we are totally going to fix that... Lemme see if Justice and Victor are around, I bet they'd play. I'll tell Justice to grab anyone else who might be interested," she said with a smile. Finishing her text, she grinned up at Kohaku. "We can play just the two of us, but it's more fun with more people. Since you've never played, we'd better do it right!"
Startled and visibly confused, Kohaku stared at Harley as she jumped up and ran to the bleachers and came back. She didn't get her intention until it was spelled out for her and then a happy smile overcame her face. "We're going to play? We aren't...too old?"
If Harley had remembered that Kohaku was older she might've been embarrassed, but Kohaku just didn't feel like an older girl. So instead, Harley gave her a disappointed look and said sternly, "Careful. That's how you grow up." Then her face broke into a smile again. "No, of course not, especially now that we can play with super powers. It'd be irresponsible not to play!"
Grinning helplessly at this playful scolding, Kohaku bobbed her head in agreement. "Hai! I'll do my best! I'll hide so well you will never find me!"
The phone chimed, and Harley grinned at Vance's enthusiastic response. "Justice says he's on his way, and he's bringing Victor." Her grinned turned mischievous (a look that suited her) and she bounced to her feet. "Wanna get a head start? For practice, of course," sensible nodding, "I think we'd better go find a good hiding spot before the boys get here."
Harley wasn't used to reading books that were actually... long. Back home, the point had always been to meet academic requirements quickly and move on. In real school, they seemed to prefer a much slower approach, and Harley had A Tale of Two Cities to prove it.
Unwilling to totally waste the day, Harley compromised by heading outside to read. The sunshine felt nice - weaker than she would've liked, but nice. She'd made it through a good, um, fifteen pages or so, when she decided on a stretch break. Just to keep her blood flowing, of course, so her brain would keep working. But a few simple stretches led to a few more complicated ones, and after a while Harley was essentially just playing balance games on the steps, the book abandoned a few steps below.
From above, it was difficult to tell what Harley was doing. Flying low overhead, the girl caught Kohaku's attention and held it so long that she nearly flew into the leafy canopy of a grouping of trees. She yelped softly, managed to angle up and avoid the mess before circling back around and stumbling into a clumsy landing near the lowest step. Once she realized that she'd made it safely to the ground, she exhaled and dropped down to sit in the grass rather than standing on wobbly knees.
Kicking out of her handstand, Harley scampered down the steps to check on the girl who had just tumbled out of the sky.
"Hey, are you alright?" Harley asked, crouching by the girl and touching her arm. She looked shaky but unhurt.
Kohaku bobbed her head in an exaggerated nod, but stopped when she realized it only made her more disoriented and fixed her eyes on Harley instead. "Yes," she assured the girl, her voice meek at first but quickly bouncing back to its typically cheerful soprano as she continued talking, "Yes, I'm all right. I guess I saw you and I got distracted. I've never seen anything like that! What you were doing." A short-lived pause interrupted her mounting enthusiasm and curiosity brightened her face, "What...were you doing?"
Harley smiled at the girl's accent, but was definitely in professional athlete mode, watching carefully for signs of serious trouble. Was she a little... dizzy, maybe? Reaching a hand into her Pocket where she knew her water bottle would be, she pulled the bottle through distorted space and offered it to her.
"Um, just some gymnastics," she said (to the girl who had just been flying like it was no big deal). "Have some water, I bet that'll help."
It seemed like some clever slight of hand to Kohaku. One moment there was no water, the next there was a full bottle being held out to her. She blinked, looked a little dumbfounded, then smiled sheepishly. It had probably been there all along and she just hadn't seen it. Like the trees. She shook her head carefully and insisted again, "I'm all right. Really! Just a little dizzy. I don't usually maneuver like that..." She gestured with one hand, mimicking the abrupt angle and the tight circle she'd made to avoid a collision, looking close to embarrassed by the time she was done and dropped her hands on her knees. "I am sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your gymnastics."
"Water is good for dizzy," Harley said with a smile, but didn't push it. Instead, she set the bottle on the ground between them and sat cross-legged so the other girl wouldn't feel rushed to get up and be okay. "And no sweat, I was just messing around. I was supposed to be reading," she gave a wry grin and pointed toward the book with her thumb, "but I don't sit still very well. Um, are you the girl who just moved in down the hall?"
Sunshine, at least for Kohaku, was good for dizzy too. And there was plenty of that. She shook her head again and then glanced at the abandoned book before focusing her attention back on Harley. She grinned, the expression suggesting that she might also know a thing or two about abandoned homework. About to admit as much, the question caught her and her expression softened, now radiating more warmth than subtle mischief. "Hai! Yes. I just moved in a few days ago." She paused, considered, then added, "You're new too. Aren't you? I remember from the journal..."
Harley nodded eagerly, extending her hand to Kohaku. "Yup. I'm Harley." A pause as she realized the journal said this girl was 16. Seriously? Huh. "Nice to meet you. Everything okay so far?"
Kohaku took the girl's hand and, barely suppressing a squeak of surprise (and pain) at Harley's unexpectedly firm grip, shook it energetically. The gesture was still fairly novel to her and she liked it. "It's nice to meet you too! Everything is..." Her words trailed off as she retracted her hand and she seemed to be thinking about it. "Everything is wonderful. Different. But...wonderful. I never thought I'd get to live in a place like this." She settled her hands in her lap, then asked, "What about you?"
Harley blinked in surprise - Kohaku definitely seemed to be handling her arrival better than Harley had. Sure, things were looking up, but she hadn't reached 'wonderful' yet. With her family and gym so far away, she wasn't sure she ever would. But for a temporary residence, she supposed that super power school was kind of awesome.
"I guess I was having some adjustment issues" - air quotes - "but yeah, this place is pretty cool. And everyone seems pretty chill for the most part. How long have you been able to fly?" she asked eagerly, finding the topic much more interesting (...and not really wanting to explain about 'adjusting').
Adjustment issues. Kohaku didn't know what that meant exactly, but the concern that swelled in her chest showed on her face too and lingered there even after Harley had changed the subject. The girl didn't seem to want her to ask, though. She pushed the expression down as much as she could and, fidgeting, answered instead, "Oh! For...a long time. I think I first did it when I was ten."
Kohaku was so expressive! Harley smiled at her, partially just so she'd stop worrying. "Ah, that must be the difference! I just found out about my ability a couple weeks ago, and came here the very next day. It still seems crazy," she said thoughtfully, like 'crazy' wasn't technically a bad thing. She shrugged, then grinned at Kohaku. "But dude, flying? That's gotta be the best. Gymnasts always talk about 'flying,' but you've got us way beat!"
The grin seemed to work, coaxing the worry out of Kohaku's face. She smiled and shook her head adamantly. "I can fly, but I can't do anything like what you were doing! You looked so graceful!" Her hands clasped in her lap and she looked at the younger girl with admiration as a sheepish quality tinged her expression. "I'm too clumsy. I'd trip over my own feet..." At that she paused, then fixed curious eyes on Harley. "Your abilities are still new, then? What can you do?"
Oh, Harley thought the water bottle trick had given it away. This was way more fun, though! "There's big science words for it, but basically..." She closed her eyes, trying to feel where she'd tucked her hoodie earlier. "I have magic hands, and a special Pocket..." Ah, there! She seemed to plunge her hand into the concrete, then pulled it back with a pink sleeve in tow. She beamed at Kohaku. "See?"
Kohaku's eyes followed the movement of Harley's hand and widened as the girl reached down through the concrete path they were sitting just alongside. She touched the ground for herself, found it as solid as ever, and gawked as the girl's hand returned holding a bright pink hoodie sleeve. "Sugoi...!" she murmured, touching her hands to her face until her lips turned from a surprised 'o' into a vibrant smile, "How do you do it?"
"Um..." Harley faltered, not sure how to explain without using lots of science words that might not translate well. "There's a bubble around me, but, uh, in a different reality. And my hands can reach into it, so other stuff can go between. Here!" She handed the hoodie sleeve to Kohaku, exposing the distorted space where the pink ended and the pavement began. "Just pull, it'll come through. How does your power work?"
The expression on Kohaku's face was a blend of curious excitement and confusion, but she obediently took the sleeve and pulled until the pink garment flew up out of the ground. After staring at it for a few delighted, dumbfounded seconds she began to fold it and smiled sheepishly. "I don't really know," she admitted, "I absorb sunlight and store it and turn it into energy that I can use. I can also adjust my size by breaking my mass down into energy that I store in the same way. At least...that's what Dr. MacTaggert says." She hugged the now-folded hoodie against her chest and added, "It's complicated. I guess all powers are."
Harley watched Kohaku with less obvious delight (but only by comparison, she was definitely grinning). The look grew confused as she explained her power though. Like a plant... like a shrinking plant... that flies... Nope, no easy metaphor sprang to mind. "Yeah, I'm not great at the science-speak, but that sounds really cool. My science words are 'extradimensional pocket' or 'interdimensional anomaly' or something - which didn't make much sense to me, but one of the girls kind of... showed me about my power. In my mind." Just, y'know, as you do at mutant school. "So when you say change your size, what do you mean? Bigger, smaller?"
"I like your explanation better," Kohaku admitted with a smile and offered Harley her now-folded hoodie, "It actually sounds like English." Once the hoodie had gone back to its rightful owner she folded her hands in her lap again and answered, "Oh! Only smaller! I don't think I want to be any bigger and I don't think I can anyway..."
Harley took the hoodie and awkwardly tucked it back into the pavement, nodding at Kohaku. "That makes sense. But I dunno, bigger could be fun. I mean, I don't wanna be any taller, but there are some really high shelves around here." After a moment's pause, she reconsidered. "But then, if you can fly too, problem solved I guess." Then, with a giggle, she added, "Bet you always win at hide and seek!"
Kohaku leaned forward a little, hands still pressed against her thin legs as she nodded in agreement. "I would much rather fly than be big!" she said enthusiastically, then paused, "Hide and...?" Kakurenbo. The translation clicked in her head and she grinned. She could see why she would be good at it, but... "Actually. I've never played."
"Wait, seriously? Never?" She might as well have said she was from Mars, because Harley was stunned. "What do little kids play where you're from?"
"Kids play hide and seek in Japan," Kohaku explained, shaking her head, "I just never have." She paused, pushing back a bit of the blonde hair that was trying to fall in front of her face, then added, "I wasn't raise around other children. Sister Hisui played with me, and Father Ransho did sometimes too, but...it was nothing like that."
Harley hopped up and went to retrieve her book - and the phone she'd left next to it. Plopping back down in front of Kohaku, she immediately started typing. "Oh we are totally going to fix that... Lemme see if Justice and Victor are around, I bet they'd play. I'll tell Justice to grab anyone else who might be interested," she said with a smile. Finishing her text, she grinned up at Kohaku. "We can play just the two of us, but it's more fun with more people. Since you've never played, we'd better do it right!"
Startled and visibly confused, Kohaku stared at Harley as she jumped up and ran to the bleachers and came back. She didn't get her intention until it was spelled out for her and then a happy smile overcame her face. "We're going to play? We aren't...too old?"
If Harley had remembered that Kohaku was older she might've been embarrassed, but Kohaku just didn't feel like an older girl. So instead, Harley gave her a disappointed look and said sternly, "Careful. That's how you grow up." Then her face broke into a smile again. "No, of course not, especially now that we can play with super powers. It'd be irresponsible not to play!"
Grinning helplessly at this playful scolding, Kohaku bobbed her head in agreement. "Hai! I'll do my best! I'll hide so well you will never find me!"
The phone chimed, and Harley grinned at Vance's enthusiastic response. "Justice says he's on his way, and he's bringing Victor." Her grinned turned mischievous (a look that suited her) and she bounced to her feet. "Wanna get a head start? For practice, of course," sensible nodding, "I think we'd better go find a good hiding spot before the boys get here."
