Salt

The text arrived at 4 A.M.

    From Kohinata Miku: hav smthg 4 u. am @ Hikawa Shrine. Prbly here til mdnt

Of course, 4 AM to Midnight is a long time, especially on a school day, so that doesn't make any sense. And yet, that's what the message read.

And indeed, Miku is at the shrine, alone in the early morning hour, huddled up in a warm blanket on a low berm of grassy hillock. She has a telescope set up in front of her, pointed towards the starry sky, but she isn't bothering to look through it. Instead, the teen is curled up in her blanket, mostly bundled out of sight, with even her short green hair tucked into the cloth.

If it weren't for the bookbag nearby and that telescope, one might mistake her for a hobo. But that would be silly. Hobos don't wear expensive jogging shoes beneath their blankets.

There's no response to the text, as it happens. For all Miku could tell, he might not have even actually received it, or he's just ignoring it.

Or he's having a hard time parsing japanese textspeak. Take your guess.

But despite the radio silence, the german boy is still on the move, as it turns out. It's not even that long since she sent the message off that the faint sound of frosted grass crunching underfoot reaches her ears to announce the presence of another person moving along the berm.

And it's soon enough accompanied by the vaguely familiar voice calling out, "Miku?" Still without honorifics, too. Because friggin' foreigners, am I right?

And so when she looks back, there's the tall german boy in a dark hoodie -- though the hood itself has been flipped back already for the sake of letting the girl see his face easily. No reason for him to hide from her right now, anyway.

"...Were you actually. Intending to sit here until midnight?"

At the call of her name, the bundle in the blankets shifts dramatically. She wipes at her face, and rubs at her eyes and blinks several times. Then she stands and whirls around to face him, keeping the blanket pulled loosely around her shoulders. And if her eyes are a little red, that's probably from allergies. Right?

"Raskoph-san," Miku greets when he comes nearer. She doesn't correct him on using her first name so frivolously. It's a harmless gaijin mistake.

But there's that question, and she probably ought to answer it. "Ah ... yes?" she suggests quietly, then shrugs and admits, "I don't know. Probably. I just ... have some things on my mind." Turning around again, she whirls the blanket off of her shoulders, revealing a pink pullover hoodie over jean shorts and black leggings. Laying the blanket out on the ground, she pulls it wide enough for two. Then, Miku seats herself on one half, and pats the other half beside her. "I didn't expect you to come so early. I just ... I don't know why I texted you at this hour. I guess I thought it would be easier for you. I hope I didn't wake you up."

Alex very clearly takes a few seconds to take count of the current state of the Miku, clothes and red eyes and all. If he catches on to what the cause really is, he elects not to say it. Or even really show it from his expression.

"I wasn't doing anything else," he declares then with a shake of his head, and the wordless invitation for seating on the blanket is met by him stepping up to her, and carefully lowering himself sitting besides her, with one knee raised up to provide a perch for an arm to drape over.

"It's not as if though I haven't sat in the night a lot, too," he murmurs then, in admittance, with green eyes set firmly forward and off to the distance for the time being. "Just thinking. About things."

Miku takes a steadying breath, clearly still working past whatever emotion she tried to hide when he arrived. His companionable words earn a nod of agreement, but not a verbal response. "I still hope I didn't," she explains quietly. "But ... I guess I'm grateful that you came."

Not necessarily because it's him, but because it's someone, and being alone--as it turns out--is so much worse. Miku sighs and lays back on the blanket, staring up at the stars above.

Silence reigns for a moment before she asks, "What do you do with those thoughts?"

"That depends... on what the thoughts themselves are," Alex offers. He spares only the briefest sidelong glance towards Miku while she's settling back to laying along the blanket, before his eyes turn to the sky, instead. "Even before I was. Like this. I was never the kind of guy who... likes issues I can't face... directly. I don't like to let them fester just because they are there, either. I just end up. Putting my mind to something else, in the end."

Beat.

"It doesn't really. Make them go away fully. But it helps to some point with me, still."

Silence answers Alexis for several moments, while Miku thinks through the answer--and whatever else is on her mind. The stars keep moving overhead, not relenting in their ceaseless track across the sky, despite Miku's wish to stop time and just dwell on her thoughts a while.

Eventually a soft sigh escapes the girl, and she closes her eyes against the stars. "I write mine down in songs," she eventually admits. "But tonight, I can't find the words. So it's just a melody, sad and sweet, dancing across my mind like ..." she pauses, and her breath catches a little as the desired analogy draws more emotion from her than she was prepared to contain.

Miku reaches up and wipes her eyes with the sleeves again, then shakes her head. "Nevermind," she whisper softly.

She rolls back to a seat, crosses her legs and leans forward to her leather satchel. Firmly, Miku puts those thoughts out of mind. "I did a little research. In Germany, Valentines' day is supposed to be between lovers, right? Hearts and cards and ..." she trails off. "It's not like that, here," she explains. "Has anyone explained it to you?"

Listening to Miku say all that is easy enough. But, actually coming up with some way to respond to it is a matter altogether. Would it have been easier for him if he wasn't suffering from an acute case of Dark Energy? He's not entirely sure, himself.

It's hard for him not to notice the series of reactions she's going through, after all that internalizing. Should he... be doing something? He's sure at least some of this should be familiar enough for him. He scours his memory through prior experiences, for ways he's behaved before-- and ultimately, he elects to reach his hand over, and set it down onto Miku's shoulder, companiably, once she's sitting up.

The whole matter of Valentine's Day and such, that brings less of a concerned look to his eyes and more of a curious one.

"It was that way in England, too," he says. "But no. I am not very. Familiar with the way... it is done here."

The companionable touch is appreciated, but not acknowledged beyond a faint glance. Miku has a mission to distract herself, and so she's going to do just that. "It's a little complicated," Miku explains as she pulls a small little box out of her bag. "Here, Valentine's Day is for the boys. Girls give chocolates to all of the boys they know, with special note given to the boys they actually care about. Not ... boyfriends," she notes.

"Fathers, brothers, bosses, teachers, friends. If you don't care for them, you give them a small bag of low quality chocolate known as obligation chocolates. Everyone deserves chocolate, but those who you care more about deserve more attention, see?"

Miku offers the box towards Alexis quietly, patiently. "I wanted to give you yours. I hope it's the right thing, but Japan's idea of what is right for Germany is sometimes a little off."

The box is not store brand anything. It is clearly custom made, and has Alexis' name written carefully across the top in silver ink. A brief inspection reveals that it smells faintly of almonds, honey, salt, and chocolate. "I didn't make it," she notes, "but I did find a chocolatier in town who would make it to order for me. I hope it's alright."

It would be generous to say that Alex's way of taking the explanation is one of bemusement. Truthfully, the most that suggests as much is the occasional, dleiberately slow blink of his eyes, amidst the otherwise eerily neutral expression.

The box, in turn, is stared at for might be a bit longer time than should be allowed to pass before he actually brings his hand slowly over to take it for himself, but he refrains from opening the lid yet. He does seem to study the box itself for a good moment, though. And the faint smell.

"This doesn't seem like. 'Obligation chocolate'," he points out. "Is this because. I punched that creep?"

Miku shrugs just faintly, as she puts her hands back in her lap. "That, and because I thought it might be nice to experience a nice Valentines' Day with few strings attached for your first time."

She clears her throat a little, then explains, "There is ... a reciprocal gesture which is custom. In four weeks, we have what's called White Day. On that day, the boys return the gesture, giving sweets to the girls who gave them chocolate. Usually it is expected that you will go to a similar effort as they went to for you, but ... that's not required, here. You don't have to get me anything."

"I see," Alex lets out, and his head shifts slightly downwards to more fully settle his eyes onto the chocolate box, quietly thoughtful for the moment now.

"We will see," he says then, and his head lifts back upwards again, briefly peeking sidewards to Miku. "There's a whole month to go. Maybe I can. Think of something appropriate, before then. Even if I am still like this." His eyes close then, just for a few seconds. "Thank you, either way. I never really. Liked the way the day is treated where I come from."

"There's still a lot of drama, here," Miku replies with a faint shrug. "And couples innevitably make a bigger deal out of it than they should. And it's worse for queer couples, since there's so much tradition tied up in the gender of each holiday. But we manage not to screw it up too much with our baggage," Miku explains with a half-hearted smile.

Reaching back into her satchel, Miku rolls back to a more natural sitting posture. From it, she extracts a songbook bound in leather, which she caresses gently for a few moments before opening the cover.

As she leafs through the pages, Miku's mind wanders a bit. Quiet voiced, she asks, "Do your parents know where you are? I'd bet they miss you, if they don't. They're probably worried for you."

"I suppose that would be a little easier if it wasn't seperated to two days," Alex murmurs thoughtfully, while he idly turns the chocolate box within his hands, occcasionally poking at it. "Old values and all that."

His eyes finally turn away from the box when he realizes she's bringing something else out from the satchel-- but his attention stays on the book for only a few seconds, really, before his gaze turns towards the night sky.

"They don't," he answers bluntly, in regards to his parents. "I have not gone back home. Since I turned."

"Geeze, Raskoph-san," Miku replies with a faint sigh. "Your poor parents." She finds a page that's got notes, but no lyrics written between the bars, and there stops a moment.

Miku spends a few moments reading over the page, humming quietly to herself. She has a pretty voice: a clear-pitched soprano.

After a moment, she sighs and starts to write a character in the book with her pen, then pauses to ask, "Have you ever looked at the stars through a telescope?" She doesn't look up; just keeps writing as she asks. "It was pointed at Venus, when I pointed it a few hours ago. I can reset it if you'd like to see."

"Me and my parents have not been in close terms to begin with," Alex confesses, head slowly shaking with that-- but he does let out a rueful sigh. It's not that he doesn't feel guilty about it, tell the truth. "It... Would not be safe for them, I think. For me to see them right now."

His ear twitches when she starts humming, and for the first time since he got over here in the first place, his eyes fully settle on her-- and remain there for actually longer than just a few seconds, too. Quietly watching her, while he listens. Maybe he still appreciates the musical tones, even in his current state. His eyes promptly wander away from her again, when the humming ends.

It's the telescope his focus settles on afterwards, with her question. "Not really. There was... A field trip. To an observatory, way back when. But I... skipped that day." Wow. What a jerk. He glances aside to her, either way. "Do you look at them a lot?"

"Mmm," Miku replies in an affirmative tone. "I've been trying to get Hibiki to find the time to come see them with me for more than a year now," Miku explains quietly, "but she's been too busy. And now ..." she trails off, then shakes her head clear of the pain. More writing in the book, and somewhere in the distance there is the crackle of lightning across the sky. A thunder storm out over the ocean?

"I love the stars," Miku explains quietly, her pen stopping as she considers them for a moment. "They're my inspiration. My hopes. My dreams. A world without stars would be a sad world, I think. And not just because our sun is a star."

Alex seems to consider this-- or maybe his attention is briefly drawn to the lightning in the far distance of the horizon. Who knows. Whichever the case is, once his attention seems to start drifting again, he decides to scoot along the blanket towards the telescope, close enough that he can lean over and press one eye to the optics.

"You keep mentioning a Hibiki," he points out the painfully obvious, while he's still peering through the scope. "This is. Someone close to you? Did something happen?"

"Mmm," Miku replies with a soft sigh. "Very close," she agrees after a moment. "She's my roommate, and my best friend. She's been gone for several months, now, on a secret assignment for Section 2. They haven't told me where she is or for how long she'll be away; only reassured me that she's fine. But they won't even let me talk to her."

The more she goes on, the more Miku's voice starts trending towards a squeaky, high-pitched whine. "I miss her so much. I'm so worried for her," she explains, as the floodgates of emotion open wide. "And I keep worrying she's hurt or injured or alone. And I know she's probably not; that they're probably not lying to me, but the last time we were apart this long it was because she was in the hospital for nearly a year. At least then I could go and see her. Now I can't even do that."

"..." Alex turns his head back from the telescope so he can look to her. His expression might not have changed al ot before during this encounter, but now he does look... distinctly helpless, if nothing else, while he watches her just barely keep herself from weeping, at least judging by outward appearances.

He *knows* what he would usually at least try to do when something like this happens. But-- it's hard to *feel* the actual part of it, the way he is currently.

But he decides to at least make the effort of going through the motions involved. Shuffling his way back over to Miku's side, he reaches his hand around her and onto her opposing shoulder, giving it a squeeze this time around in some effort meant for comfort.

"She'll be back, I'm sure," he offers, even if by all logic he shouldn't have any objective way to even be able to tell that. "If she's on some. Mission way out from here. They sent her there because... they trust she can do it, right? And come back from it, too."

The comfort should help. It should, but Miku doesn't let it. Instead, she pulls away just a little, wipes at her face with her hands, then shivers and hugs herself.

For a few moments she says nothing. Instead, she crawls to the telescope and puts her eye to the optic, then turns a few knobs to adjust the view. When she leans back, Miku replies, "That's what I keep telling myself." She moves away from the telescope and motions for him to have a look again. Within, the sight of Venus is almost as large as a fingernail or a small game token.

"I'm sure she's fine," Miku agrees quietly as she moves back to that leather-bound journal. "But I just don't feel like she's fine."

At least it's not difficult to ward the touch off, considering how uncertain Alex is about the gesture in the first place-- how difficult it is for him to process how to properly convey anything through it. So he settles both his hands back down to his lap, and he elects to just watch her, with some vague measure of concern mixed into his own uncertainty over just how to *handle* this.

"I can't claim that I understand how you feel," Alex admits then, after a moment. "Not with... how I am now. With how hard it is for me to process emotions like that for myself after I turned." He's scooting back to the scope after her urging gesture, slowly, but he does peek at her again briefly before he presses his eye to the optic to peer at the planet. "But I know the only thing you can really do. Is trust in her. She probably misses you too."

Miku shrugs just a little at his attempts at comfort. Rather than reply, she just sniffles a little and wipes her eyes, then sets her pen to the paper again. Desperately she tries to hold those emotions inside--to release them only onto the paper. And maybe the weather is inclined to help her hide, because moments later the first drops of rain begin to fall. It's just a light misting, for now, but as thunder crackles in the distance once more, it seems a stormfront is moving in.

A drop falls on the page, and Miku lets out a soft noise of upset. The book is closed almost immediately, and she clutches it to herself. The rains stop, for the moment, but they'll probably return soon.

"Tch," Alex lets out in annoyance himself, when the raindrops begin, and he starts lifting himself up onto his feet, slowly. "You should--" He starts urging, but then the droplets fade off away again, and he looks up the skies in brief surprise over that. "Hunh." He probably didn't make the connection to the book. Regardless of that, he continues to bring himself up.

"You should go back," he suggests to Miku then, once he's up. "You will catch a cold. It will probably rain more. Thank you for the chocolate, either way."

Nevermind that he probably will neglect eating most of them. Much like he's neglecting to eat most of anything.

Miku scowls at Alexis, then looks out towards the brewing storm. She wants to argue with him; tell him all the reasons why he's wrong, and that she should stay here. She's exhausted from lack of sleep, and too much emotional overload. She should be getting up for class in an hour.

But instead of arguing, she just sighs one more time and puts her book back in her bag. "Can you help me carry it all back?" she asks. "It's a lot, and if it starts raining ..." she trails off. It's a three kilometer hike back to the dorms on campus.

Alex looks towards the signs of the storm in turn, when she makes that request, and he wrinkles his nose briefly in consideration of it.

"I can," he offers, quickly enough, and he goes stepping towards her, slowly. "I can. Get us there quicker than by just walking, too. If you don't mind heights. Will have to stop just before school grounds, though. I don't think I should show my face there while I'm on register as a missing perosn."

"Uhhh," Miku tries to figure out what not minding heights means, but then just shrugs. "Okay," she agrees. "Fold up the blanket," she suggests, as she starts packing up the telescope. It has a hardcase for travel. It doesn't take her long to separate the telescope from its tripod, and pack them all away.

Once that's done, Miku turns to collect the blanket from Alex and pack it back in her bag. The thing winds up looking three times overstuffed, but she shoulders it and the telescope case without complaint. "I think that's everything," she mumbles, as another crack of lightning flashes across the sky. It's getting closer.

"Let me take that," Alex offers, reachign his arm over towards the general direction of the telescope case and the tripod over thataway. "And then come over behind me after. You're going to be getting on my back."

Well that might seem like it's coming a little out of the blue. But then he *is* an emotionally-stunted vampire and all.

Miku's expression is anything but amused. She frowns a little, but hands over the case for her telescope gingerly. "Be careful with it, it's fragile," she says, then distributes the weight from her bag more evenly, before putting her arms around Alexis' neck from behind. "This is embarassing," she mumbles to herself unhappily.

"It's quicker than walking," Alex declares in response to Miku's mumbles, peeking back over his shoulder at her while he's getting the case strapped over him and tugged underneath one arm. "Don't worry too much about it." His arms reach back too, to get at her legs for further support as he rises up to hoist her further into place there.

"You ready?"

Miku lets out the tiniest noises of uncertainty as she's hefted off the ground, but then she just shrugs. "Sure," she mumbles. "Yeah, let's just--" A flash of lightning cuts through the night sky, terrifically close. Miku startles and clings tighter to Alex, then emphasizes, "Go go."

"Hold on then," Alex tells Miku simply with that, and in the very next instant, he's moving. Not so much walking as suddenly running through the hillside-- much faster than she's seen anyone run at track, certainly, not that she might be able to tell from this particular vantage point. It's just a few seconds that that continues, however, before there's a sudden kick into the ground, and the both of them are sent flying upwards into the air.

If she hasn't closed her eyes yet, she's thus greeted by the sight of the night sky in front of them, and the cityscape rapidly moving below. The rapid descent towards a rooftop might be worrying, at first-- but something slips out from underneath his hoodie, something only briefly visible and dark thrusting down to the rooftop, and just a half a dozen meters before they actually reach the roof, the speed of the descend slows down considerably, and rather than slamming into it with enough force to result in whiplash, the landing is instead surprisingly graceful.

But he doesn't stop there. He's immediately running again-- and leaping for the next roof over.

Miku holds on tightly as Alex starts to run. As a track runner herself, she's used to running fast, but this is on a whole new level. Eyes open, she watches the ground blurr past as they move, transfixed by the--

--where did the ground go? Miku's eyes widen in surprise at the sudden sensation of flying and then worse falling. A scream starts to well up. Is this how she's going to die!?

But then they're down, and she's only breathing a little hard when jump again. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tries to concentrate on staying calm while he jumps them back the few blocks towards campus.

"Don't worry," Alex's voice rumbles after the second jump, and he manages to spare just the briefest look over his shoulder at her while they're still in the air like that. "I'm not going to let you fall." Onto the next rooftop, and it's only to leap to another one again, and so on and so on-- carrying them quickly through the city, towards district of the city where Verone Academy is located.

The green-haired girl grimaces as she hangs on tight, but she doesn't complain nearly so much, going forward. She just nods her head at his reassurance and hangs on, allowing herself to trust. Besides, it's definitely a good distraction from what's been on her mind.

When they're finally as far as he's willing to take her, Miku continues to hold on for another few moments before she realizes the ride is over. Unclenching her arms from around his neck, she slides slowly to the ground, then mumbles, "That was terrifying."

Alex remains quiet the rest of the way there-- focused mostly on the actual process of getting the two of them across rooftops. And finally, down onto street-level, a block or so away from where the wooded path to Verone itself begins.

"I'm sorry," he does offer there, though, while he lowers himself down to a crouch to allow her to get her feet on the ground easily. "Still. Faster."

"Not arguing," Miku mumbles, as she takes the telescope back from him. "Just terrified." She takes a steadying breath, then says, "Take care of yourself. And eat your chocolates. They're tasty," she promises. "And I paid good money for them, so don't let them go to waste."

"Hm." He watches her while she's getting herself re-settled after that particular experience, but the urging to get him to actually eat the chocolates makes him look at the box again, tucked underneath one arm. "... I'll do that," he murmurs in an attempted promise, then. "You look after yourself too. Don't be out late."

Miku purses her lips briefly in thought for that question, then says, "We'll see." She's sure not committing to not being out late. She has reasons to not want to be in her shared dorm very often, right now. "Good night," she calls, as she turns to go.

"Yeah," is all Alex says in turn to that-- and with her turning to the directio nof Verone, he turns himself to the opposite way. But rather than walking the street like normal people, she might spot him, very briefly, jumping up again, and arcing over the edge of a rooftop again.