Post #1828225 in Our Second Selves, a roleplay on RPG

Groaning softly, Kiku pushed herself up to her knees, minding the shards of glass that now littered her hallway. Ugh, damn it all. . . . she mentally cursed, angry. Why the hell was she so sick that she couldn’t even navigate her own home? Really, what had she gone and done yesterday that made her feel so . . . yuck? Where was her memory?! With a huff, the brunette got herself up to her feet, coughing a bit. “Screw it, I’m just going back to bed.” She muttered, turning on her heel to go back to her bedroom, only to stop in place when she heard someone knocking at her door. This caused her to stop in place and to turn her eyes back to it, glaring. Who would even be bothering to knock on her door? It wasn’t like she had any friends who would dare do so anyway.

What? Did someone hear the picture break and dart over here to be my knight in shining armor? she thought sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Pft, like she needed someone to go and do that when she already had her own prince. . . .

”Kiku~?” she heard someone’s nonchalant voice call out from beyond said door. Kiku just froze when she recognized it as Ryu’s. In her mind, he was still an annoying guy she had tried to get answers out of before, only to realize that she recognized him in some weird way. He got on her nerves and she wanted nothing to do with him. "Kiku, it's Ryu! Hey, hey, check it out, my hair's changed colour again! Come to our apartment when you're ready, or awake, or something!" Kiku hissed to herself as she heard him go on, sounding overly excited for some reason she couldn’t have conceivably cared less about.

What would I care if he dyed his damn violet hair another weird color? she thought herself, continuing back to her bedroom with a rather sour expression on her face. For the life of her, she really couldn’t remember what had happened to her yesterday. “Well, whatever, it isn’t like I care right now. All I want to do is sleep without having some freakish nightmare.” She sighed, laying herself back onto the soft surface of her bed, shutting her eyes as she attempted to go back to sleep. . . .

☼☼☼☼☼

As she went about her business cooking, making sure not to burn the pancakes in the frying pan . . . Evande knew full well that Nikolas was sitting on the counter next to the stovetop, she just sort of choose to act as if she had entirely tuned the world out, save the quickly cooking pancakes and the simmering syrup. Honestly, that was kind of easier for her to do as things were, her face still red with shame regarding her earlier behaviors, she wasn’t yet ready to really speak for fear she’d screw up what she had to say and upset her alter again. And the otaku really, really did not want to do that again. She’d only known Nikolas less than three days, but he was sort of an important aspect of her life now, though that might have sort of sounded creepy if one didn’t know the circumstances regarding the two. . . .

It was true though, Evande had found her silly self getting attached to Nikolas rather quickly, something she could only chalk up to the fact that she had isolated herself from everyone for six years, and deep down inside had actually desired some form of companionship. Those mere six years when tacked onto what she had felt with Kassia’s sorrowful and lonely life . . . it was a weight she didn’t want to bear again. Those things were enough to make Evande actually fear the concept of having to go back to being alone. If that’s how things were, then it seems strange that she wouldn’t try to branch out more after all of that, to try and make friends with people besides her alter. Honestly, Evande still found herself untrusting of most people thanks to what happened to her in junior high school, the whole experience with being abandoned by her so-called friends.

It left her bitter toward the majority of people, as Kiku has said in her mocking the other day, she was tormented so she rejected the rest of the human race for fear it might happen to her again. Even if the brunette had no right to act as she had, and to mock her past pains . . . she hadn’t been wrong, and that’s what had upset Evande the most, and made her tell the girl off. The strange reality of that whole incident though was sort of funny, if Kurosawa had not gone and upset her so then she might have just gone ahead and shooed Nikolas and Ryu away from her and cut them out of her existence then and there, at least, she probably would have tried that. The otaku had a feeling that even if things had taken that route, she still would have somehow wound up bonding with her alter.

Obviously, the whole situation at hand was some divine set-up. If herself and Nikolas were suppose to be two halves the same whole, and had been this way for countless lifetimes, then the two of them suddenly existing at once was the work of some greater being. This revelation wasn’t exactly shocking news for Evande by any means, while she wasn’t the most religious woman on the planet, it wasn’t as if she didn’t believe in a higher power—it was more like she just never thought about it, thinking that anything divine had better things to go and do than to listen to her petty problems and worries. It’s just, she figured that all of this was the handy work of something she didn’t understand, so no matter what would have happened with meeting Nikolas, she simply guessed that they would have been pushed together in one way or another. Even if she didn’t know the reason, that’s just how she felt.

And . . . well, it wasn’t as if getting attached to Nikolas was something Evande was against, it was a nice thought to think that she might not have to be alone anymore. Thanks to feeling like this, the black-haired woman believed she needed to really be more careful of herself from here on in. Even if there were divine forces at place here, that didn’t mean she could just go and act however she damn well felt.

Sighing softly to herself, still ashamed she had acted so childish, Evande went ahead and flipped the pancakes in the frying pan with a forlorn look on her face, completely aware that Nikolas was watching her intently. Probably trying to figure out how I haven’t burnt anything when I have the setting turned up so high. . . . she smiled a bit at this thought, remembering what he had told her when she’d offered to cook him an omelet . . . ‘plate of black goo.’ Without missing a beat, Evande went ahead and stirred the syrup in its pot on the back burner.

As Nikolas went from staring at the cooking food to looking at her face, Evande felt herself tense up; she didn’t like being stared at directly, few did. Her face went redder before she heard him speak up, ”Evande, well. . .” he started, voice lowering into a whisper, edged with some semblance of regret. This caused Evande to look up and away from the food and right at him when she recognized the tone in his voice, she just looked at him with a glint of confusion in her eyes, why regret? ”S-sorry.” he apologized, his voice so low that Evande could barely even hear it herself, despite being so close to him.

The apology caused Evande to tense up, and to stop breathing. Why was he. . . ? Why apologize to her when she had been the one who acted so stupidly? Biting down on the inside of her cheek, the otaku barely responded to that, only a whimper came from her throat, one so low that it wasn’t barely audible. Her heart just sank into the depths of her stomach when he apologized, it made her feel all the more guilty for her idiocy, for going and upsetting him. Without a word, while Ryu seemed to be laughing over on the couch, Evande just turned her brown eyes back to the food, quickly moving any pancakes that were done from the frying pan and onto a nearby plate before pouring more batter into the metal cooking utensil. How many of these things am I going to make. . .? she questioned herself, mindlessly just going about the task. Truthfully, she probably had made enough food for herself, Nikolas and Ryu, but there was still some batter leftover and well. . . .

Sighing to herself, Evande went ahead and continued making more food, deciing that she would go ahead and just use the extra batter to make something for Kiku. The hypercritical girl was as much a part of this alter ordeal as herself, so why leave her out of the ‘fun?’ She heard some commotion coming from Nikolas and Ryu behind her on the couch, but ignored it. "I would help cooking, but we'd end up having to evacuate the building." she heard Nikolas laugh, guessing he was speaking to her.

Quietly, Evande looked up and at him with a blank expression, seemed he was in a better mood. . . . That’s good, she thought turning her gaze back to the stovetop, she reach over the hot surface and clicked the burners off before moving the last of the pancakes off the frying pan and onto the designated plate. “It’s fine, I’m done cooking already anyway, and I’m used to doing it on my own.” Evande said to him quietly as she went about looking through the things she had brought over from her own apartment. Finding that which she sought, Evande proceeded to empty the pot with the cinnamon syrup she had made into a syrup dispenser, dropping said pot into the sink along with the pan and things she used to cook.

Brushing her hands off against each other, Evande turned on her heel and walked passed Nikolas who was inside his fridge looking for something it seemed; quietly she moved his blanket and her sketchpad off the top of the kotatsu and onto the couch so she’d have a place to put the food. The otaku moved back to the kitchen area of the apartment, but stopped in front of Nikolas, deciding now was as good a time as any to apologize to him for her behavior. Tugging on her ponytail nervously, Evande sighed softly, “U-Um Nikolas? I wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier, no matter what was going on, I shouldn’t have just . . . gone and acted so much like a child, I’m sorry I made you upset.” She murmured softly.

Her cheeks went a little red, “I-If I remember anything about one of your lives or something, I’ll make sure I tell you right away since those memories are yours and not mine.” Shaking her head a bit as she continued to prattle, Evande continued to speak, “A-Also . . . even though I was acting like an idiot earlier with that stupid act of mine, I do want you to know that when I said there was someone important sitting close by me. I meant that part of it, even if the rest of it was just a part of the whole ruse. You are significant to me.”

Sighing quietly, she turned on her heel and went to go and get the food she had made. Face still red, Evande walked by Nikolas again, heading for the kotatsu while Panda and Kiseki still were wrestling around with one another. There was a clinking sort of noise when the plate and syrup dispenser hit the device’s surface. Standing back to her full height, the woman blinked before setting her hands on her hips and opening her lips again, “Hey Ryu! Do you think you could go get Kiku for me? I made enough food for her to eat with us, but I doubt she’d come over if I invited her myself. If she’s still sleeping or something, you can get into her apartment with the spare key she keeps taped to the top of her doorframe.”

Evande knew that Nikolas wasn’t fond of Kiku, hell, she herself wasn’t, but Kiku was connected to Ryu like she herself were connected to Nikolas. And since Nikolas and Ryu lived together . . . it seemed best to her to try and get along as far as she was concerned.

Snippet #1828225

located in Japan, a part of Our Second Selves, one of the many universes on RPG.

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