fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

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!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

Whatever aspect of the island made sure the weather was nice on picnic day didn't seem to be able to control the temperature. It wasn't freezing, but it would definitely more comfortable out on the lawn with a coat on. Thankfully, the conditions were just right for a bonfire in the center of the lawn, so people could gather and stay warm once they'd made their introductions.

Once the tables and chairs were set up and everything was properly glittered, all that was needed were people!

[OCD is up! This is part one of the picnic, specifically for meeting siblings, roommates, and teachers. The rest of the picnic is happening here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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And all the while she was quiet, Shunsui was quiet, too, watching her thoughtfully and finding it all too easy to forget, at least in that moment, that they were in the middle of anything else but this.

His head tilted a little, almost as if to follow her downcast eyes, while softly taking the cup from her hand.

He didn't need long at all to know what his next one would be.

"And that our wounds," he said, "only make us stronger."

The cup wasn't bigger than the first and there was no difference in the amount of sake it held, but Shunsui did take a little more time to drink what remained than he had the first, before lightly setting it down to join the other, and leave the last remaining one.

Ritual spaces were like that. Didn't always need to be a physical space.

Okay, last one. Octavia didn't remember she'd done this same thing last time, so maybe the switch to Trig just seemed like the most natural thing, after she'd picked up the last cup.

"Gon deimeika, gon..." She trailed off a little, hesitating. Then decided. "Gon skaifaya."

A little on the nose, but it would do.

She drew in a breath, closed her eyes. "En gon natshana."

And with that, the ritual space got smaller still, small enough that even Shunsui felt that he was intruding in on it now. But he was more than willing to let her have it. To have all the space she'd ever need. Which was really no different than usual.

And giving her that space also allowed him to attempt to decide if the mystery of Octavia's last toast should be reflected in his own.

Octavia kept her eyes closed for a moment longer, holding the cup in her hand.

(Half-empty, half-full.)

Even when her eyes opened, she didn't look up this time, either. Just held it out for him on her open palm, for one last exchange.

(But when he reached for it, she was going to mutter, only half out loud, "Omon gon oson." Almost involuntarily.)

And even if she did not look up to see it, Shunsui's head bowed again in deference as he lightly took the cup from her hand. And he doubted she would be terribly surprised by the soft, rumbling "Arigatō gozaimashu" that slipped out of him when he did.

Nor by the Japanese that responded to her Trig in kind, after a long, long thoughtful moment.

"Otte," he murmured, "iru taka kara nigeru...furueru hato no tame ni."

And he paused again with a faint smile before he drank the last of what remained of their o-toso, reverently setting down the third and emptied cup on the table to join the others.

Another moment of silence went by before Octavia finally looked up, and nodded.

"Thank you for that," she said, softly. For the ritual, for the space that went with it, for all of it.

And yes, she'd caught the hato in the middle of the syllables she couldn't decipher.

It...had been a while since that word passed his lips...

The next duck of Shunsui's head came in response to hers, and added a small tilt of his hat. "Tondemonai, Octavia-chan," he said. "And thank you. You know I always enjoy sharing sake with you, and who could ever begrudge o-toso with a beautiful woman to begin their year? If it goes downhill from here, I have only myself to blame, for setting the standard much too high at the beginning ♥."

Octavia gave that a faint huff. Amused, maybe, probably.

It was a very Shunsui thing to say, either way.

Another pause, and then, "I haven't been visiting." It wasn't an apology, but acknowledgment. Followed up with an explanation of a sort. "We took a trip, for about a week."

Well, she certainly didn't need to tell him about not visiting. He knew he did a wonderful job of appearing aloof and disengaged, but he actually had noticed, if you'd believe it.

What he didn't know, for the most part, was whether or not it mattered.

At this moment, it didn't seem too terribly important, and he found his jug again to refill two of the cups.

Just because they'd finished their o-toso, that didn't mean they couldn't still enjoy themselves, neh?

"Oh?" he prompted as he poured. "How did it go?"

One of Octavia's shoulders lifted up into a vague shrug. "Well," she said. "I guess, for the most part. Beginning was kind of a mess."

But most things were, lately.

"A rocky start," Shunsui offered, picking up one of the cups he'd poured as he did, "does not mean the path won't smooth out as you go along. I'd rather begin with a mess that gets sorted out than be faced with one at the end of an otherwise lovely time..."

Octavia reached for the other cup.

"I think that's about what we did," she admitted. "We had a... thing, that we had to sort through before everyone could actually relax a little."

"Clear the air, as it were?" Shunsui guessed, with a small tilt of his head. "A small price to pay, if it meant being able to relax and enjoy the rest of the trip, even if just a little ♥. Certainly does it more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise, neh?"

With little details to go off of (though he certainly could make assumptions), Shunsui found himself mostly just thinking of surviving through Captains' meetings before getting to run off with various lieutenants...

Because Captains' meetings truly were the worst.

"Yeah," Octavia said, before falling quiet for a little moment, taking a sip. Maybe deciding whether she wanted to provide the context she knew was lacking from all of this.

"It was a trip with Duke." That much was probably obvious. Or easy to guess. "And, Lucifer."

The sake was clearly doing its work to loosen Octavia's tongue; she was being downright chatty compared to their conversations recently!

"Good thing you got everything smoothed out early, then," Shunsui noted with an amused tone of encouragement. "It would be a tragic waste of excellent company otherwise ♥."

The routine of who Octavia talked to the most had been... shaken up a little, by all the recent developments. Maybe some of it was now spilling over where it could.

"Well, the trip was only supposed to be a couple of days," she said. "Ended up being over a week. So, guess that's a good sign."

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Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part I

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