[backdated to 1 week post MirrorScape Gauntlet ORP]
She had sent her text message to Chara the day after he had stormed out of Peter’s brother’s house. Figuring that he probably needed space and he also probably wouldn’t have replied to a stranger’s text on his actual cellphone (and not wanting to bug Peter about it), she opted to send it via Senshi phone when she had briefly powered up. Give him some time, she reminded herself over and over again- but patience wasn’t her strong suit and she very desperately wanted to make sure her new friend was okay. Even if he didn’t think they were friends yet, they practically died together so that totally counted towards bff status.
A few days had passed at first, and Skadi being as stubborn as she was sent him a second text.
“I’m not gonna leave you alone until I know you’re okay,” the message read. Followed by a string of smiley face emojis, so he would know that she was super friendly.
A few days after that, it had been a full week since she had last seen Chara, so she sent one last one.
“I know we don’t know each other well but I’m here if you need me. I’ll be in the park tonight. -S” She would leave the invitation open if he wanted it, and would do her absolute very best not to be offended should he choose not to show up.
He’d show up, right?
Pacing back and forth along the dimly lit path in the park, heels clicking and echoing through the empty space, Skadi repeatedly checked her phone to see if Chara had replied.
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For the most part, Chara ignored his phone. He didn’t care whether it was from Peter or Skadi or the king of all gods himself, he had no desire whatsoever to answer it. Hell, for once, he didn’t even bother to power up for a few days, opting instead to take on more shifts at work and spend any other free time studying and avoiding anyone he recognized. Why he did so, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t as if this time around he was actively mad at anyone… Hell, he wasn’t even really sad, not like that night when they had all tried to be together at Peter’s brother’s house.
There was just too much… Even his adoration of Oberon wasn’t enough to keep him there, not when that agitation had built up so much that he was bordering the line of complete meltdown.
He really didn’t want to have that happen. Not in a strange place around stranger people. So he left.
Now that more time had passed, he began to feel guilty about all of his actions… Hell, he didn’t want to hurt anyone, and he really didn’t want anyone to be mad at him either, it was just so ******** hard to even know where to start. The only other person he really knew that was there besides Oberon was Oort, and he figured Oort knew him well enough that he understood why he had done what he done. But the others? Not a damned clue. The guilt was enough at this point that he decided he would finally look at his phone and try to see if there was a way to subtly talk to anyone, and to his surprise there was already a message waiting for him.. Two in fact.
s**t.
Fingers hesitated just before he hit send on the message, and deleted the ******** off he had typed. That wasn’t right, not at all… Skadi was only being nice, and he had no reason to lash out at her, a thought he tried so hard to bash into his head over and over again. Not everyone needed to be yelled at. Not every person deserved to be treated unkindly. And over all, he’d insist he wasn’t a bad guy. Just a dumb a** teen who had seen more than enough s**t in one lifetime. Instead, he sighed, and typed back a nicer text message. “I’ll see you then.”
Whether this came out nicely or not, he didn’t know, but it was far better than abandoning people again… So with a sigh, he headed to the park, hoping that maybe, just maybe, all this would be just a few short minutes of greetings and awkward pleasantries then he could hightail it back home. When he did finally see her in the dark, pacing back and forth… ********, he had no idea what to say, and only stood there dumbly for a bit… Maybe she’d say something first… Damn, he probably looked like a ******** idiot standing like this too…
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She first felt her phone vibrate, and as she quickly skimmed over the message she felt a power signature approach her. Turning to face her new-found company, her face lit up with an enormous smile. It was him! He came! Pushing her phone back into subspace, she practically skipped over to Chara and grabbed one of his hands.
“I’m glad you came, you seemed soooo upset last week. Are you okay? Did you get all of my messages? I’m sorry if I was bothering you I just wanted to make sure you weren’t mad or hurt or anything.”
The teenaged girl genuinely didn’t understand what Benji had gotten so up in arms about when they had arrived at Peter’s brother’s house- as far as she could tell aside from the initial shock of a hoard of teenagers showing up unexpectedly, everyone was perfectly pleasant… She did however realize that after the whole MirrorSpace nearly killing them ordeal that tensions ran high in general and she had tried to tell herself that’s all that it was. But for him to be so mad and disappear for a whole week? There had to be more to it than that!
And Skadi was determined to get to the bottom of it because what was personal space or boundaries?
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Oh god why?! Chara must have had one hell of a horrified scowl on his face when Skadi ran up to him and grabbed his hand of all things! Sure, he expected a greeting of sorts, but this was a bit much, and that feeling of being frazzled was quick to raise it’s ugly head. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t pull away immediately. Skadi wasn’t entirely a stranger, so the standard urge to just punch whoever touched him didn’t urge up, and he knew she really didn’t mean any harm. There were just people like that, and… As uncomfortable as it was, he was trying to remain civil.
“I didn’t not get them. I just ignored them. I ignored anything to have to do with that phone. You know, exam time and all… Stress, work, all that bullshit.” It wasn’t until he already started running his mouth did he realize just how rude he sounded. ********, he was trying to be good not some angry little s**t…
“You really don’t have to worry about me, okay? College is s**t, Work is s**t, senshi s**t is super s**t so… Yeah. It’s just that. I’ll deal with it. Not like you can really do anything for me. Uh… Not saying you can’t do anything, just… ********, I don’t really know you or anything so I’m not gonna just gonna whine to you.”
That made sense, right? It was no way to make friends but maybe it would be a way to get the girl to drop it and maybe ask about something else.
“Sorry about leaving though. I take it everyone left okay and made it home in the morning?”
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Oblivious should have been her middle name, as she completely missed the look of horror on Chara’s face when she held on to his hand as if they had known each other for years and years. She nodded slowly as she listened to his reasoning, and about how… well… everything was basically s**t. Her lips turned downward into a deep frown and while she did release his hand, she probably made things even more uncomfortable by pressing a palm to each side of his face on his cheeks. Staring him dead in the eyes, eyebrows raised, Skadi was having absolutely none of his s**t.
“Not everything has to be s**t. And maybe I can’t change any of it or help or do anything, but you’re my friend now so I’m gonna try. And you can whine to me any time! Because that is what friends do, and now you’re stuck with me. I mean, we almost died together, there’s no way I’m letting you off the hook that easy.”
The frown quickly returned to being a rather large smile. It didn’t matter the slightest bit if Chara wanted to be friends or no, because now it has been declared to be a thing and so it was a thing!
“We’re all okay. That’s what’s important.”
Ah, making friends was great. This was such a great night! Especially since Skadi was sure that she could win Chara over and the entire group would just live happily ever after.
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There was no real describing just what expression Chara had when Skadi’s hands met his cheeks. Maybe he flinched? Maybe there was a brief look of irritability, but whatever was there melted into something more akin to confusion. Why the hell was she being so nice? Her pretty blue and purple eyes met Benji’s own golden eye and eyepatch and something about that intense gaze made him feel small. Well, he was already small, but smaller than he normally felt in a long time.
“We’re friends, huh…?” That was another strange feeling to say, the word so unfamiliar to say out loud. He had one friend, one real friend, and that was Peter. And now this girl, some senshi he met for barely a few hours, was calling him one too? Just what did she expect of him, he didn’t know. And yet he still smiled at that, almost nodding, but not being able to thanks to Skadi’s touch. He did, however, put his hands over her own, and gave them a little squeeze as they remained smooshed against his cheeks.
“I’m not too good at making friends, worse at keeping them, but… Yeah, alright. We’re friends. And we’re all okay.” That wasn’t too hard, he thought to himself after a moment, knowing that maybe sometimes being nice had it’s advantages. And warm hands on his otherwise cold and scared face were definately one.
“It’s… uh.. Really nice of you to check on me. I do appreciate it, even with this attitude I can’t seem to get in check. If you want, I could give you my normal cell… I tend not to ignore that as much as the senshi one. If you want, of course, you really don’t have to accept it.”
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She was almost positive that Chara was going to either push her away or just full on punch her- but it really, really didn’t matter. All Skadi needed to do was get through to him. When his expression shifted to one of confusion, Skadi bit her lower lip and stood perfectly still. She nodded just slightly in response to his question of their friendship, unsure of how this was going to play out… And then he nodded (as best as he could), and put his hands over her own and everything was right in the world which may have been a little dramatic but he squeezed her hands and agreed with her so dramatic or not, this was a super huge, amazing, wonderful victory.
“You’re in luck,” she said with a grin as she pulled her hands away from his face finally. “‘Cause even if you’re not so good at it, I like to think that I am. You’re not gonna scare me off, I pinky swear it.”
Yes, even as a 17 year old, Skadi believed that the pinky swear was a very sacred thing. Interlocking her pinky finger with his, she vowed to be Chara’s friend forever.
“Of course I want your phone number! I’ll give you mine too. Ohhhh and I have an instagram account! Do you insta? What about snapchat? Oh and we can be Facebook friends!!” - maybe Skadi was a little on the overbearing side when it came to friendship, especially when she was excited about something. Her eyes widened and she smiled sheepishly when she realized that she basically just told the boy that she wanted to be friends with him on every avenue imaginable.
“Sorry, I um.. I can be a bit much sometimes. Just tell me to shut up if I am, ok? I’ll chill out, I promise. You may not be good at making friends but I’m not very good at being quiet so we’ll just have to work on it all together.”
Togetherrrrrrr~
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Never before had Chara met someone so… Strange. Someone so willing to slow down and talk to him like he was more than just some ugly looking frilly senshi with one hell of an attitude.
It was refreshing for sure.
The pinky swear… That too was strange, but he complied, squeezing her pinky with his and smiling down at it before giving her his number.
“I’m… No, not really.. Never had much use for it. Does Pinterest and Tumblr count? Though… I suppose those are more like dirty little secrets… So you won’t be getting those.” Scratching his head, he tried to think of anything else that they could share, but nothing came to mind except for tapping in his email just in case.
Stranger still, Skadi seemed to know she was a bit much, and that only seemed to make Chara smile more, him finding the honesty and self awareness endearing, in a way.
“Alright, I would say we have a deal then! Now… It’s kinda… Late, I guess, but wanna go grab something to eat? Getting all this stress off my chest has left me starving for a fat ol’ juicy burger. Or pizza.. Something artery clogging.”
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“Dirty secrets, huh?”, she asked with a grin. Shrugging her slender shoulders just slightly, she conceded to not forcing her digital life upon him. “Fair enough! I still consider this a win!” While she knew she could be a lot to handle, she was not in the least bit ashamed of that fact. The people that mattered stuck around regardless and that was good enough for her. And Chara had agreed to be friends knowing how she was, so that meant everything was just dandy.
She had lost all sense of time as they stood in the park, not at all realizing that the sun had set completely ages ago and her stomach was empty. The latter was realized when it loudly grumbled at the mention of food.
Purple-blue eyes lit up at the idea and without skipping a beat she slipped her arm around his and began to walk -- therefore pulling him along with her -- out of the park. “A burger sound ah-mazing right now. You totally read my mind!”
Her heels clicked on the path as they walked and she glanced at him briefly, “Thanks for meeting me tonight, I’m really really glad we got to talk.”
Friendship and burgers? This night could not have gone any better!
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“Yeah, that’s right. Secrets.” With what his handle was on tumblr, no one would find him, but it was still embarrassing to think about. It was hard to think about all those secrets hidden there with just how enthusiastic Skadi was, and so far, when she smiled, hell, he couldn’t help but smile back.
When her arm linked with his, he stumbled a little, but soon met her step and found himself rather enjoying the closeness without that real pressure that tended to linger about being pushed away suddenly. His own heels clacked right along side hers, though he did hope they had enough sense to power down before they left the park.
“Thank you for reaching out. Seriously, thanks. I don’t say this lightly, but I think you could be the best Senshi I ever met so far. Well, one of them. Maybe third… Naw, definitely second. But still the best. Let’s go eat!”
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