[Jihatsu] Wataru wasn't able to meet with Satoshi when he was on campus, because he was in a meeting with his student advisor! Dang and blast! However, it is now later in the afternoon, and both Wataru and Satoshi have free time! Time to get coffee! The cafe is a few blocks from campus, tucked down a sidestreet, with red geraniums out front and a low wrought-iron fence. It is small, and cozy, and deeply European, or at least a Japanese ideal of what Europe should be: small velvet-lined booths, tiny mismatched handpainted cups, lace curtains in the window, potted plants, soft violin music playing. It is called Cafe Vienne, and there is no one in it right now except Wataru, slouching comfortably in a booth with a glass of water, checking his phone. --- [Ciara] Wataru gets a text from Satoshi: "Sorry, on my way! Ended up doing some actual practice so things took longer than I was originally planning!" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru is sipping his water when his phone buzzes. He replies: _Ok, no worries, see you in a bit!_ And after a moment's thought, he starts typing a second message: _I'm in a booth on the left, but also I'm the only person here I think so I should be hard to miss_ He types and erases various endings to that message - _haha, :), ^_^, ;), lol_ - and ultimately goes with: _I'm in a booth on the left, but also I'm the only person here I think_ --- [Ciara] Satoshi sends back an "Okay!" to Wataru's text. A little while later, he arrives at the cafe, scanning the booths to the left and spotting Wataru pretty quickly. He gives Wataru a quick wave, then heads for the booth. He's wearing a light blue button-up shirt and dark blue pants, his hair is pulled back, and he's got a somewhat bulky sports bag slung over his shoulder. When he arrives at the booth, the first thing he does before sitting down is attempt to carefully stick it under the table, if it will fit. It may be somewhat cramped. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru beams in a slow smile. It's still kind of surreal to be in the same room as Satoshi! He feels all tingly. "Hey," he says. "How was practice?" He's wearing brown jeans with a navy blue t-shirt with the Blue Sun logo from the TV show Firefly, and a light blue-and-green striped short- sleeved button-down open over it. --- [Ciara] Satoshi grins as he settles in, trying to scoot his bag over a bit so it's not taking up all the under-the-table space. "It went really well! It's great to be skating with a group, and it was fun catching up with Mitsuhiro-kun and meeting some of the other guys. A little weird because some of them were guys I used to play against, but... oh, speaking of that, Izumi's brother is practicing with them, too! At least I think that's her brother. There was a Motobuchi who played for Shunyo during a couple of my seasons and I'm pretty sure this is the same guy." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru's eyebrows shoot up. "Oh yeah! Yeah, that's right, that's why I was at that game all that time ago!" --- [Ciara] Satoshi smiles. "You're a very supportive friend." His smile widens into another grin. "Although it doesn't hurt that you also like hockey." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru has the smallest blush! "Well, you know," he says, and looks away with a smile, sipping his water <3 A middle-aged woman with a perfectly coiffed beehive, wearing and a trim black skirt and vest over a lace-collared white shirt, comes to their table and offers them both menus. "Will anyone else be joining you?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi takes his menu with a polite smile and a thank you. "No, it'll just be the two of us." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru loves the sound of that. <3; He hides his blush in the menu. --- [Ciara] The woman nods. "Let me know when you're ready to order." She walks off. Satoshi busies himself with looking at his menu. "What's a 'tisane'?" he asks. --- [Jihatsu] "A what?" Wataru peers at the menu --- [Ciara] Satoshi turns his menu around so Wataru can see it and points at the item in question. "Right here." --- [Jihatsu] "Ooooh. I'm not completely sure. A special kind of tea?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi turns his menu back around so he can look at it again. "Oh, there's more than one kind. It sounds like it might be tea, yeah. Maybe I'll try one?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru nods! "Yeah. Tea adventure!" _oh god I just exclaimed TEA ADVENTURE. I am the world's hugest nerd._ "I might, uh, I might have like a fancy coffee. I really like their Viennese coffee here." --- [Ciara] Satoshi grins. "Tea adventure. Why not? So what makes Viennese coffee different from, uh, coffee coffee?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru has a puckish little smile. "Whipped creeeeeam." He mimes a little swirl with his finger! "I'll let you try it if you want?" --- [Ciara] "Oh, sure. Thank you." Satoshi smiles. "Were you thinking about getting something to eat, too, or just a drink?" --- [Jihatsu] "I dunno, what about you?" --- [Ciara] "I'm actually feeling kind of hungry after practicing, so I think I will." --- [Jihatsu] "Cool, okay." Wataru looks at the menu. "Um, I guess I'll have the sachertorte?" --- [Ciara] "Oooh, what's that?" Satoshi asks. Then he laughs a little sheepishly. "Sorry, I swear I'm not aiming to ask for tastes of all your food." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru cocks a playful brow. "I mean, I'm happy to share. And it's chocolate cake. Also a Vienna thing, actually." --- [Ciara] "Well, thank you." Satoshi smiles. "And today is the day to learn things about Vienna, apparently." He scans his own menu for something that looks both tasty and inexpensive. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru has a soft giggle. "I guess so!" --- [Ciara] Satoshi spots the words "club sandwich" on the menu and his stomach rumbles. He blushes a little as he looks up at Wataru. "Guess I'm hungrier than I thought." It's not the cheapest thing on the menu, but the tisane is fairly inexpensive, so it should all work out. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru smiles! "Okay. Excuse me?" He gestures for the lady. She comes back and smiles expectantly! --- [Ciara] "I'd like the cafe special tisane and a club sandwich, please," Satoshi says. --- [Jihatsu] "Viennese coffee and sachertorte for me, please." The lady gives Wataru the faintest hint of an approving smile before heading back away to prepare their order! --- [Ciara] Satoshi leans against the back of the booth. "So, how did the meeting with your advisor go?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru groans. --- [Ciara] Satoshi looks somewhat concerned. "That good, huh?" --- [Jihatsu] "Ehhhhhhh," he says. "It's just, I've got to decide whether I want to do grad school, because that's gonna determine like, how hard I try to get papers published or grants or whatever in the next year. And my supervisor thinks I should stay in Japan? But I honestly don't know if Japan teaches the type of stuff I want to focus on, and, blargh." --- [Ciara] Satoshi listens intently. "Wow, yeah, that's... that's a lot," he says. "If you didn't stay in Japan, would you go back to America?" He feels an odd little wave of panic at the idea of Wataru going back to America, which is dumb, because *he* lives in America most of the year now, and if he becomes a professional hockey player then he'll continue to be living somewhere in North America for most of the year. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru nods. "Yeah, I mean, probably." He fidgets with a fork. "I sort of don't want to, but there's a lot of good socio research going on there. I mean there's Canada too, I guess, or Europe..." He taps the fork on the table. "I guess I could go back to England, hang out with my grandpa." He smiles. --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks. "Oh, wow, I didn't know you have a grandfather who lives in England. Is that where he's from originally, or did he move there at some point?" --- [Jihatsu] "Oh! Um," Wataru smiles, blushing a little bit. "Yeah. Edwin Price. He's British. From York." --- [Ciara] "That's really cool." Satoshi grins. "So now I know where Old York is. I guess they don't call it Old York, though. Have you been to England?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru giggles! "Old York. Right. It's just York. And yeah, I have, but it's been yeeeears...." He sighs. "Grandpa Edwin's great, though. He's my only grandparent who's still around, you know?" --- [Ciara] "Awww, yeah. Did... did you get to meet all of them?" Satoshi asks a bit shyly. --- [Jihatsu] "Almost," he smiles. "My Korean grandma only died a couple years ago, and I got to meet her a bunch of times. My Japanese grandparents died before I was born, though. Well. My obaasan did. My ojiisan died when I was little, I remember him a tiny bit..." --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinkblinks. "I also did not know you had a Korean grandmother. Apparently today is my day to learn about more of the international parts of your family in addition to learning things about Vienna." He smiles. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru blushes, two big red patches forming on his cheeks. "Um. I... I'm sorry?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks again, this time in confusion. "What? Why are you apologizing? You didn't... you haven't done anything wrong. I think it's cool that I'm learning more about you and your family. That's... that's what I was trying to say, at least." Now he's blushing. --- [Jihatsu] "Oh I'm ... um... okay... well... I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I guess? I don't know." He rubs the back of his head, looking away. "It's not like it's a secret. It just... it never came up." --- [Ciara] "Yeah," Satoshi answers, "it didn't come up until now. So now I know, and I think it's really interesting. Do you want to talk more about her? Or your other grandparents?" --- [Jihatsu] He smiles a bit, but is still blushing a lot. "I could, I guess! I just, I mean, it's, like, it came up with some other people like Haruko and stuff and so it kind of feels weird it never came up with you, despite all the other stuff we've talked about. I just never... I never thought about it until now." He exhales. "My mom grew up in England, um, it's her who's half-Korean. My dad's just Japanese from Japan." --- [Ciara] Satoshi thinks for a moment. "Okay, this is... this is maybe a silly question. Please forgive me if it's too silly. So does your mom speak English with a British accent?" --- [Jihatsu] He giggles...! "Actually? Kinda, yeah." He finally looks back at Satoshi, starting to relax back into the conversation. "I mean, she's lived in the US for thirty years or something, but it's not gone." --- [Ciara] Satoshi grins. "Okay, that's ... I guess the best way for me to say it is that I think it's pretty cool. Your family is... they all sound pretty interesting." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru has a soft giggle. "I guess. Thanks. It's always... I mean, people here get weird about it, so I guess I usually let them assume I'm just Japanese. Or Japanese-American or something." --- [Ciara] Satoshi nods. "Yeah, I get that. I completely do." He looks a little shy. "I've had some people in America assume that I grew up there, actually. Because I speak English really well, and I like hockey, and things like that." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru shies. "Well... people can be jerks anywhere, I guess." --- [Ciara] Satoshi leans in a little bit in what he hopes is a comforting manner. "Well, they're not trying to be jerks, necessarily. But people do make assumptions, yeah." --- [Jihatsu] He nods. After a pause: "Well, I hope we get to see that musical of Haruko's." --- [Ciara] "Do we need to get tickets for it?" Satoshi asks. --- [Jihatsu] "She has been unclear." ^^; --- [Ciara] Satoshi nods. "Okay, so I'll check with her about tickets. I think there's more than one performance. Do you want to go to the same one and we can sit together?" --- [Jihatsu] Oh Oh it is a second date IT IS A SECOND DATE AAAAAHHHHHHH "Yeah!" Wataru manages, in a squeak. --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks. "You okay? Should we ask for some more water?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru clears his throat. "Y-yeah, *cough* good idea actually." --- [Ciara] Satoshi tries to get the attention of one of the staff members. --- [Jihatsu] The woman comes back, and in fact, has their drinks already! --- [Ciara] Satoshi thanks her and also takes the opportunity to ask for more water for Wataru. Once she leaves, Satoshi takes a small sniff of the tisane. "Hmm. This smells pretty nice." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru hides behind his whipped-cream-topped coffee cup, watching Satoshi have a moment of tea-scented bliss. Oh, why is he so cute, what. --- [Ciara] Satoshi takes a sip. "Huh. It's sweet, but also tangy. Maybe some ginger in it? Do you want to try some?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru actually blushes, then, rosy cheeks he can maybe pretend are caused by the warm drinks. "Oh -- sure!" He smiles brightly. "You can try mine, if you like. It's - it's coffee with whipped cream." Blush. --- [Ciara] Satoshi holds out his cup. "It might be better if you try it before the coffee. I'm guessing the coffee is pretty sweet and strong." --- [Jihatsu] "Mm-hm~" Wataru smiles. He takes the cup, and has a small sip! It's only natural to hold it by the handle, rather than burn his fingers; it's only natural that, both being right-handed, both should hold the cup with their right hand. Completely natural, a quick sip and a thoughtful "hmm!" at the flavour - a flavour Wataru barely registers, because his brain has got itself doing cartwheels at the indirect kiss. "Very nice," he says cavalierly, handing it back, in such a natural way. "I've never actually tried it before." --- [Ciara] Satoshi takes the cup back with great care. "It's not quite what I was expecting, but I really like it." He sets it gently down on the saucer. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru can't resist a slow smile at that. Your word in Cupid's ear, Satoshi. "You wanna try the coffee?" --- [Ciara] "Sure," Satoshi answers, reaching out to take the cup. He sips extremely carefully, trying really hard to not get whipped cream on his nose or anything. That would be embarrassing. And because he's trying to be careful not to get whipped cream on his nose, he sips from the side he'd normally sip from... "It is sweet," he says. "But not too sweet. Like it contrasts the coffee, but it doesn't overwhelm it." He holds the cup out for Wataru to take. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru nods! "Yeah, I don't get it often but I really like it." --- [Ciara] Satoshi tries another sip of his tea for contrast. "Wow. This is a lot more tart now." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru giggles. "Sorry?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi laughs. "Well, that's why I tried it before I tried your coffee." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru nods, pleased. The server returns with more water for them. Is she giving them some kind of look? --- [Grysar] [The waitress makes sure both Satoshi and Wataru have a full glass of water. She noticed the exchange of drinks but seems pleased and in no way disturbed, obviously you fine young gentleman are enthusiastic about the beverages on offer from this establishment.] --- [Ciara] Satoshi is not entirely sure that's a look, but he thanks her politely for the water. He is a Very Polite Young Man who is Enthusiastic about Beverages. Yes. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru sips his water and relaxes. He doesn't know why he though this would be scary; none of this is scary. It's just nice, being here with someone like this, and Wataru feels a new, subtle confidence well up slowly inside him. He lets his fingertips ghost across the back of Satoshi's hand on the table for just a moment. "This is nice," he says, giving Satoshi a smile. --- [Ciara] Satoshi's eyes widen briefly, and his cheeks color a bit, and he looks like maybe he wants to ask something for a second, but instead he offers a small smile and quietly says, "Yeah. It is." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru takes another sip of coffee, feeling.... good. Feeling like something is growing here. Feeling potential, no further than his fingertips. "So, got any cool plans with other people?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi takes a sip of tea to clear his throat and maybe his head a little. "Not... really? I mean, nothing really specific yet aside from doing some practicing. I'm sure I'll figure out plans, I just... haven't really gotten to it yet." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru nods. "We should totally hang out with Katie sometime. There was talk of making cookies, right?" --- [Ciara] Satoshi nods. "I think we were going to try the peanut butter cookie recipe, if Katie provides the peanut butter." He smiles a bit more. "Do you have a favorite? We could definitely make those." --- [Jihatsu] He giggles. "Oh man. It's so hard to pick." --- [Ciara] "Yeah," Satoshi agrees. "There are a lot of good ones." --- [Jihatsu] "Hmm, snickerdoodles are so good.. or double chocolate..." He looks up at Satoshi, the soft blush, the strand of hair that's come loose, the gentle upturn of his tea-warmed lips... Does he seem a little flustered? What is he really thinking about that touch on the hand? --- [Ciara] Satoshi seems to be relaxing a bit as the conversation proceeds, his blush fading, because yes, he had definitely been flustered. Might still be, somewhat, but less noticeably so over time. His look immediately after Wataru touched his hand had been surprised, startled, though not in an unpleasant way, more in a "I think that just happened did that just happen?" kind of way. And then Wataru says the word "snickerdoodle" and Satoshi can't help but let out a small laugh. "Sorry, a what kind of cookie?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru laughs warmly! "A snickerdoodle," he pronounces carefully. "It's soft and cinnamony." As he tries and gets a read on Satoshi's reaction to the touch, he feels gently encouraged. That flustered interest is definitely not a bad sign. Little things like this, building for a while, and then the big confession, that's the plan... God, he just likes Satoshi so much, look at his FACE. --- [Ciara] To be fair, Satoshi is probably the world's worst judge on the cuteness/attractiveness of his FACE. "Ooh, that does sound nice," Satoshi answers, still smiling. "I've mostly had chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin and peanut butter." --- [Jihatsu] "I mean, all cookies are good cookies if they are in my mouth." Wataru squints. "Almost all cookies. My mom had a health-food baking phase and..." --- [Ciara] Satoshi laughs. "Oh no. Health food cookies. What even would one put in them?" --- [Jihatsu] "Let me start with the worst ingredient," Wataru says, leaning towards him, face dead serious. "_Seaweed_." --- [Ciara] Satoshi processes this for a moment, looking like he's giving actual thought to how seaweed would work in cookies. "I can't," he finally says, "figure out how that would even... I mean... the texture, and how would you bake them? Plus there's snacks that actually have seaweed in them already." He pauses and has another sip of tea. "Although I didn't really like those kinds that much when I was younger." --- [Jihatsu] "Don't get me wrong," Wataru says, taking a sip. "I actually love seaweed snacks. Give me literally anything with aonori on it, yeah? But it does not combine well with oatmeal and flax seeds and almonds. Oh, and grape nuts. The cereal. Have you ever tried it? Spoiler alert, there are no grapes OR nuts in it. It is the Rhode Island of foods." --- [Ciara] Satoshi makes a face. "No. No, I don't think that it would. Also I haven't tried grape nuts, although I don't think grapes would go all that well in cereal, either. Raisins, sure. But not grapes. Also I've been to Rhode Island - we've played against Providence - and you are right; it is definitely not an island." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru laughs! <3 At this point, the FOOD ARRIVES! Wataru's cake looks modest but amazing, and Satoshi's club sandwich is.... not. --- [Ciara] Satoshi is polite when the food is dropped off, because he is a Very Polite Young Man, but afterwards he gives his sandwich a look. "I may have made a mistaken assumption about this sandwich," he says, quietly enough that Wataru can hear, but it won't carry past the table. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru makes a face at it. "Agreed. I'm not sure I want to be a member of _that_ club." --- [Ciara] "Well, I am one for today, and so I shall deal with it." Satoshi picks up the sandwich and takes a small bite. --- [Jihatsu] It's not a _bad_ sandwich. But it's also not a good sandwich, and it's definitely not a club sandwich. It is a flat and flimsy single-layered thing of pale untoasted white bread with the edges cut off, ham, tomato, lettuce, and a drizzle of mayo. Meanwhile, the sound Wataru emits at his first bite of cake is nigh obscene. --- [Ciara] Satoshi raises an eyebrow. "Is the cake that good or are you also teasing me about my choice in sandwiches?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru blinks, then blushes. "I'm so sorry. No. Here." He passes the plate over. "It's really good." --- [Ciara] Satoshi laughs. "It's fine; I was teasing you a little, too." He picks up his own fork and takes a bit of cake, popping it into his mouth. His eyes widen a little as he tastes it. "Wow, okay," he says after a moment. "It *is* really good. In the future, in places like this, I should probably go with cake. Thank you for sharing yours." He passes the plate back. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru gives him a broad smile. And goes back to eating his cake. --- [Ciara] Satoshi has some more of his sandwich, then looks like he remembered something. "Oh, another thing I wanted to tell you is that I met up with Paul's long-distance girlfriend and Taki's former classmate today, before I went to meet up with the guys for hockey." --- [Jihatsu] "Those two, they're the same person?" Wataru scratches his ear. --- [Ciara] Satoshi nods. "They are. It's a really weird, very large coincidence, but after meeting up with her I can definitely say that's all it is." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru cocks a brow. "For real? So she's not, uh, she's not part of the club?" Wataru inadvertently eyes the sandwich. --- [Ciara] Satoshi notices Wataru's look and chuckles. "She's not part of the club. She started talking to Paul through some kind of online forum exchange thing, and it went from there." --- [Jihatsu] "Mmm, still fishy to me. But okay." He smiles wanly at Satoshi. "Thanks for checking, man." --- [Ciara] "You're welcome." Satoshi's smile is warmer, as he seems to be genuinely put at ease by the results of his investigation. He has another bite of his sandwich. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru catches this. He relaxes a bit, nibbling his cake. --- [Ciara] "So do you have any plans for hanging out with people coming up?" Satoshi asks. --- [Jihatsu] "Mmmmm well this is super weird but I am actually meeting up with Kyon in a few days. For like. Official stuff." --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks twice. "For official class stuff, or official club business, or other kind of official stuff?" --- [Jihatsu] "Oh, the other kind," Wataru says, strangely emphatic. He stares at Satoshi over the brim of his water glass. --- [Ciara] Satoshi realizes that he's not 100% sure what Wataru means by "the other kind," even though he was the one who used the phrase in the first place. Good job, himself. "I mean," he says quietly, "it is a little weird that you're actually meeting up with him. I don't normally think of him as someone you hang out with, even if it is on business." --- [Jihatsu] "Boy howdy is he not," Wataru agrees. "But we've got a lot of shit to discuss and, uh, I mean, I guess 'mysteries to solve' sounds weird but basically." --- [Ciara] Satoshi grins. "Yamada and Sorata, Consulting Detectives?" --- [Jihatsu] "YEESH," Wataru says, and bursts out laughing! --- [Ciara] "You could get business cards with it," Satoshi says, then has some more tea. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru covers his mouth to avoid laughing too loudly, and his eyes flick to Satoshi's very composed tea-drinking self. This is a new side of him, kinda, and Wataru really likes it. --- [Ciara] Satoshi flashes him a quick grin. "So I am kind of curious about these mysteries you're going to be solving, but I also get that they're mysteries. If you can talk about them with me later, I'd like to hear about how things went." --- [Jihatsu] "Yeah, for sure. Mostly, there was some weird dinner party full of old dudes who seem to be their OWN little club, and we're trying to figure out if any of that has to do with anything we should worry about." --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks. "Huh, okay; that sounds kind of wacky! Well, good luck solving it, and, uh, I hope working with Kyon goes well." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru rolls his eyes theatrically, but smiles. "Thanks." --- [Ciara] Satoshi smiles at him. "Got anything else coming up?" --- [Jihatsu] "Hmm." Wataru leans his chin in his hands. "I mean. Road trip?" He grins. --- [Ciara] Satoshi's grin is equally bright. "Yep, road trip! Man, this will be a lot of fun. I think at some point I offered to help Haruko look at places to stay. She had a small list and I was going to look it over some myself." --- [Jihatsu] "It's coming up pretty soon, yeah?" Wataru says, smile bright and a little dreamy. --- [Ciara] "Things like these have a way of sneaking up on you before you know it," Satoshi answers. "So it's good to get all our plans together." --- [Jihatsu] "I've ended up on commissary duty," Wataru grins. "So I've got to plan the food for everyone. Any special requests?" --- [Ciara] "Ooooh, hmm." Satoshi ponders. "Well, I'm guessing we're going to share cooking duties, and I make pretty good oyakodon, so if people like that, I'd be happy to put that in as a suggestion. Let's see, what else... Seaweed snacks." He grins. "And green tea - iced and maybe some to make hot if we have a cool night, oh, and maybe something with strawberries?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru beams at him, chin still in his hands. Satoshi is so cuuuuuuuute. "I can remember that. Green tea, seaweed, strawberries, and oyakodon. Roger!" --- [Ciara] "And I like pretty much most other things... Oh, what's your opinion on pancakes?" --- [Jihatsu] "_Hell_ yeah," Wataru says!!! He puts his hands on the table, palms down, with emphasis but without force. --- [Ciara] Satoshi laughs. "Okay, pancakes are definitely going to happen, then." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru grins. "A proposition:" he leans in... "_strawberry pancakes_." --- [Ciara] Satoshi blinks a few times. "Strawberries on the pancakes or strawberries *in* the pancakes?" he asks softly. It's probably ridiculously adorable. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru bites his lip, smile still there, and leans a bit closer to quietly say: "Could try both." --- [Ciara] "Ooh." Satoshi smiles. "I like that. We should do it." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru grins! --- [Ciara] Satoshi's smile widens into a grin. "This is exciting. I've never actually *done* a trip like this before." --- [Jihatsu] "Me neither!!" Wataru sits back. "I mean, not with friends. With family sure. But like... just going off somewhere and having fun with friends all together... It's so cool. I've maybe secretly always wanted this." --- [Ciara] "It's really, really nice to have people that we can do this with." Satoshi has a warm smile. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru finds himself blushing a little! "Yeah," he manages. "It really is." --- [Ciara] Satoshi happily sips some tea. It's almost done. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru digs into his cake, happily! --- [Ciara] "Oh, yeah." Satoshi seems to remember something. "Do any of the bookstores or libraries near you have some reasonable English selections? I feel like I should do more reading this summer, but I didn't want to ship a bunch of books back from America." --- [Jihatsu] "Ooooooo. Well, the library at Waseda has a pretty good selection! I could check you out some. There's some at the bookstore, too. Anything in particular you're looking for?" --- [Ciara] "Well, I'm making a list from some of my Maine friends' suggestions about books they read for English classes in high school, because it's a really different background from mine, so I'll pass that along to you when I'm done. If you have some things that aren't on the list, feel free to add them, although I've definitely been, uh, informed that for some people, high school English class reading isn't the most fun. So maybe also if there's just something you've read for fun that you really liked, that too?" He smiles. "Thank you for doing this." He eyes the remains of his sandwich. --- [Jihatsu] "Hey, reading is great. And it's super cool that you're majoring in English, like, both from a hockey career perspective thing but also because it means I can nerd out about books with you." --- [Ciara] Satoshi gets the biggest grin. "I don't know, Wataru. Am I allowed to be a jock *and* a nerd?" --- [Jihatsu] Wataru presses his lips together, fighting his own grin. "I don't know. It's a tall order. But if anyone can pull it off, it'll be you." --- [Ciara] Satoshi beams. "Thank you for your vote of confidence." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru sips his coffee smugly! --- [Ciara] Satoshi finishes off the last of his sandwich and then sips some tea. "Well, I look forward to nerding out about books with you, then." --- [Jihatsu] Wataru blushes! "Sounds good." He grins. "I'm gonna have to start thinking of which ones! Got any type or genre or whatever that you like so far?" --- [Ciara] "Ah, hm." Satoshi thinks about this for a minute. "Maybe some with adventure?" His voice quiets slightly. "And, uh, maybe a little magic?" --- [Jihatsu] "Nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd," Wataru says, absolutely beaming. "Yeah, I know what to give you." --- [Ciara] Satoshi laughs. "Awesome." He sips the very last bit of his tea. [And so Wataru and Satoshi finish up. The check is dropped off; Satoshi has a brief moment of worry when he's not entirely sure he has enough in his wallet to cover his share, but he double-checks and he's fine. He tells Wataru that he looks forward to nerding out about books, and they'll talk soon.] [End!]