A Messy Return (Open)

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Naozumi's return from his summer vacation had started two weeks before classes ended, and ended two weeks after classes started. He'd heard that he missed some important lecture that all the seniors had to attend. Which only made him glad that he was still two years out from being a senior, having only just began his sophomore year in high school. He might be able to get away with the same schedule next year, but probably not the year after that. The school calendar was strange at this school, not at all like his previous high school, which had a summer break which lasted from the end of May all the way up to the middle of August. Two and a half months. He usually stayed with his aunt for the whole summer. However, at the cost the plane tickets were to travel from Pilot Ridge all the way to Ishigaki, as opposed from San Francisco, he might just have to convince his parents that it wasn't worth the cost and to just let him stay at the school for summer.

Maybe he could stay with Ray....

Naozumi blushed at the thought, mentally batting it away from his mind. While a possibility, there was no way it would be with the meaning that Nao was imagining. They were just friends. With kissing benefits.

This thought brought yet another blush to the 15-year-old.

The boy's mind was easily getting distracted with these thought, no matter how many times he tried to push them away. As such, he miscalculated the distance it would take for him to move up the stairs by only one step and came just short of the one after it. This caused his sandal to slip of the edge and down a couple more steps, effectively bringing the taller boy to his knees and elbows, his skinny torso splayed across the length of several steps. He heard his roll-away luggage tumble down the stairs behind him followed by the sound of a million small marble-like candies scattering across the floor below.

Whoops.

That had been happening a lot lately. The clumsiness, not the candy spilling. It was mildly confusing for him, as he'd only an inkling of an idea for why it was happening, but most of all, it was just so darned frustrating! The clinician back in Ishigaki said that at the rate he was growing, he should expect to gain at least another few inches by the end of the year. Inches!? That couldn't be right! That was way too fast! he'd protested. But the best explanation they could give him was that it was somehow related to his power. Like maybe he was supposed to start earlier, but his manifestation delayed it, and now all that missed height gain was catching up with him as fast as it could.

Naozumi supposed that made sense, but he was more disturbed by this than he was by his manifestation, which was barely even an event to him.

Sighing, the skinny boy clumsily returned to his feet. It was quiet in the dorms, as expected when it was only three in the morning. His flight had only gotten in to Burlington about an hour ago. The first floor of the dorms was dimly lit in most areas. Nao didn't suppose that there was anyone around at this hour. He shrugged, straightening his wolf-ear hoodie, and started (carefully!) down the stairs to pick up the mess he'd made.

[Kunikpok "Kuni" Arrluk]

Kuni's incredibly embarrassing ordeal at the Talk had made the normally very social boy almost hide in his room sometimes now. People who knew it had been him teased him about it - some in a friendly way, others not so much. He felt awful for causing damage to the building and lawn, and stupid for not being able to control his ability in the first place. He knew he would get over it eventually, but he just wanted it to pass over as quickly as possible.

He'd woken up in the middle of then night with a growling stomach. Kuni rummaged through his cupboards until he remembered he'd run out of snacks that day and needed to run to the store when the day came. He wanted something to eat now, though, so he grabbed some pocket change and, not bothering to put on anything besides the shorts he slept in (it was still too warm at night, in his opinion), he clomped downstairs to the vending machines.

Kuni rarely used the machines, so it took him some time to figure out which one he wanted and how to get it. By the time he was pressing buttons and waiting for the Snickers bar to fall to him, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Who else would be up at this time?

The person started going up the stairs, apparently not noticing Kuni (which wasn't a surprise, it was dark and he wasn't moving), so he didn't say anything until he heard a thud, and then several more thuds, and the luggage the boy had been carrying reappeared with the sound of... Marbles?

Blinking, Kuni grabbed his snack and walked over, realizing something had spilled from the luggage. He stuffed the candy in his pocket and leaned down to help clean the round things up, glancing up the stairs as he did. "Are you alright?" he asked, his expression concerned. "What, um... What are these things?" He lifted up one of the brightly colored balls to the boy, who looked, thankfully, unhurt as he came down the stairs.

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How troublesome this was. Naozumi wasn’t completely bothered by it, he just had to pick up the mess, but he’d just finished traveling for nearly two days non-stop. Even if his body could claim to still be on Japan time, anyone would be exhausted after traveling for that long. Nao was looking forward to crashing in his bed and sleeping until long after the sun rose.

Well, he couldn’t actually do that, since he was still expected to be at classes come morning, but he could dream, right? Nao had always been fairly strict with himself about going to bed and getting up at reasonable hours, but lately he’d just been feeling like he needed five more minutes every five minutes until he’d ended up snoozing for the better part of an hour before finally tearing himself away from the bed. He was starting to understand why Ray seemed to do that so often now. It wasn’t just because he was lazy.

As Nao reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed movement out in the darkness and kept his eyes on it until that movement was revealed to be what seemed like another student.

He was a student, right?

The boy was so…tall…and…

Nao may have been staring at the giant boy with the chiseled features, admiring the form of what he might have to say was the most pleasing he come across yet since coming to Hammel; dark hair, dark skin, strong jaw, tall. Nao had to take a moment to shake his ogling from his mind before finally realizing that the other(older, he assumed) boy had said something.

“Um, yes. I’m fine,” he said in his usual soft voice, a touch deeper than before, but still light enough to be mistaken for as a child’s. Or a girl’s. He looked down at the mess and squatted down with his new companion to assist in picking up the small, hard globules. “They’re candy. Like…” Nao tried to think of how to explain it. Because no doubt this boy didn’t know what Meito candies were. Or any of the other numerous kinds of Japanese candies which he’d self-assorted in that bag. “I guess they’re kind of like life-savers, only shaped like balls instead of rings.” Naozumi picked one up and held it up to the light. “And it has a chewy, juicy center.” He smiled and popped the plum candy in his mouth and started sucking on it. “They’re good. Try one.” It didn’t occur to Nao that taking the candies straight off the floor might be a bad idea.

[Kunikpok "Kuni" Arrluk]

Kuni didn't recognize the boy, especially in the dim light - he looked a couple years younger, and quite a bit shorter, but then again, most people were short compared to Kuni. He didn't notice the boy's staring, too intent on capturing the still-rolling little bits of whatever that had spilled from the bag.

"Oh, good, I'm glad you're alright," he said with genuine concern. "Those stairs can be a little steep, especially when you're tired." Kuni had tripped on them a time or two himself, when he tried to take the stairs too fast. "I'm, uh, I'm Kuni by the way. I... I don't think we've met." He always felt it was necessary to get introductions out of the way quickly, so he could remember the person the next time he (hopefully) saw them.

"Candy?" he repeated, blinking and looking at the several balls in his hand with new interest. Candy was a strange but delicious delicacy he'd grown to enjoy after he'd come to Hammel. But they didn't usually look like this. "Life-savers... Are those the ones that come in the cylindrical packages?" he asked, wracking his brain to remember. He'd had them a time or two. They were good. Fruity and sweet. "I like candy," he added, taking the invitation gladly and popping one into his own mouth. The flavor (strawberry?) burst on his tongue and he gave a pleased hum. "S'really good," he mumbled around the sweet. "Thank you." He obviously wasn't too concerned about eating off of the floor either.

"Oh, um, here," he offered, handing over the candies he'd already picked up in his large hand and offering them to Nao. "I don't know if I can see where all of them went..." Some of the sweets had rolled some distance, and Kuni crawled off after them to try to get as many as he could.

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It would be interesting to point out that these two people, who hadn’t seen each other before, were actually neighbors in the boy’s dorm. But Nao had been gone for a over a month, and even before that, he wasn’t a terribly observant person. And over the past month, Nao had actually changed quite a bit in his appearance. Not a monstrous change. But enough to likely get a few second glances from people who did know him.

As for why Nao didn’t know him….well, Naozumi went a whole 5 months without ever speaking to one of his roommates. He wasn’t exactly the most sociable person.

But regardless, Naozumi was thankful that he’d met such a nice, good-looking person to help him upon his return to Hammel. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I’m normally not so clumsy.” It was going to take some getting used to, not being a midget anymore, but he couldn’t even guess how long that ‘getting used to’ was going to take. “I’m Naozumi,” he returned with a small smile. “My friends call me Nao.” It was an awkward name for Americans to pronounce either way, so he didn’t really care which people used.

Nao nodded. “Yeah. Candy. Mostly fruit flavors.” And actually, he thought that they were sweeter than the life-savers he was comparing them to. His smile grew slightly as Kuni tried one and seemed to enjoy it. “You can have more if you like.”

Naozumi grabbed the small bag they’d been in from his luggage and started putting in the candy marbles he’d already collected. When Kuni offered those he’d gathered, Nao held the bag open for him to deposit the lot. “Thank you.” Nao looked out into the dark hallway where the marbles had rolled off into. “Do you think we can turn on the lights?” Nao had never been down here in the middle of the night before. He was usually in bed before 12 if not as early as 10. “Do you think we’d get in trouble if we did?”

[Kunikpok "Kuni" Arrluk]

Kuni, on the other hand, was quite a social person, and might have seen the boy around before but just hadn't had a reason or chance to talk to him. No matter - they were talking now, and that was all that mattered, right?

"Trust me, when you're almost six-foot-three and heavily built, the last thing you do is make fun of people for being clumsy," Kuni chuckled. "I'm lucky I haven't hurt myself tripping on things." He hoped that he would become less of a klutz as he got older, but maybe he was just destined to be that way. His power didn't exactly help. "Now-zoo-mee," he replied, over-pronouncing each syllable with interest. He wasn't mainstream American, but it was still an interesting name, perhaps even more so to the Inuit native. "I'll stick with Nao," he added with a slight chuckle. That would be easier for him to remember.

He beamed at the offer of more candies, and popped another into his mouth, this time a green one. "Be careful what you offer, I might end up eating them all," Kuni said sheepishly. Big guy like he was, Kuni oftentimes didn't realize how much he'd eaten until he was done. "And the only thing I could really repay you with is fish jerky." And, sadly, most people didn't seem to like that.

He put the candies in his hand into the bag that Nao offered, sad to see them go. "Anytime," he replied with a smile. "Um... I don't know why not. It's not like anyone is down here, right?" Would the lights wake anyone up? Nahh... Kuni doubted it. "Here, I'll just..." Kuni stood and fumbled around until he found the switch, squinting as the light came on in the hall. It was brighter than he remembered. "Let's just pick these up quickly and be done," he suggested, leaning down to start snatching every colored ball he could find, his bare, toned back flexing with each twist and turn.

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Nao laughed softly at the joke. “I guess you would have that problem too,” he observed. “My…friend has the same problem. He’s always tripping over things, even his own feet. I didn’t realize how difficult it was for him until recently.” Especially with a growth spurt that was happening a lot more quickly than what was supposed to be average. And he didn’t know when it would stop, so Nao was having to get re-used to himself all the time now.

He nodded. “That’s right.” Kuni’s over-pronunciation was actually something that a lot of people didn’t do and what Nao had to do for them so they understood better the semantics. Japanese sounds did not come naturally to a lot of Americans. “That’s what most people do,” he said with a small smile. Nao didn’t expect anyone else to call him by his full name. He knew that even just Nao could be confusing for some.

“You can’t eat them all,” he challenged. “Because I’ll be eating the other half.” And by pure logic, that meant that Kuni couldn’t succeed. “Fish jerky?” Nao asked, his eyes lighting up at the sound of it. “I don’t think I’ve tried that.” He wondered what it tasted like.

After Kuni had deposited the candies, Nao swiftly took up another and popped it into his mouth. Those things were addictive. And terribly yummy. Nao remained squatted, watching the large figure wander in the dim lighting until suddenly, the entire hall became illuminated. It still felt awkward though, with there being no one else down there and in the middle of the night too. Naozumi nodded. “Okay,” Nao agreed. He essentially started crawling across the floor to retrieve the candies which had rolled away, but couldn’t help looking over his shoulder to take a peek at the muscled boy as he moved around. He must have gotten lost in thought and started staring, though, as he eventually lost his grip over the candies he’d collected, letting them roll once again across the floor. “Ahh!” he exclaimed, and started crawling after them once again.

[Kunikpok "Kuni" Arrluk]

Kuni nodded with a good-natured smile. "I can sympathize with your friend. Maybe we should start a "Clumsy" club," he joked. It was easy for the Inuit boy to make fun of himself; he wasn't a very prideful person, and he often found people liked you more if you could laugh at yourself, so that was what he did. Except the whaling incident... He was still embarrassed about that.

"Is that.... Ahhh.... Chinese?" he asked obliviously. "Sorry... English isn't my first language, and I'm still getting used to living here. I am not very knowledgeable about other cultures." It was something he was interested in learning more about, he just... Hadn't yet. Reading was dull and hard for Kuni to do for too long. He gave an apologetic smile. "My full name is Kunikpok, but everyone seems to prefer Kuni, so that is what I usually introduce myself by anymore."

"Oh?" he responded with a grin and a raised eyebrow. "I bet I could eat them faster than you if I tried," he replied good-naturedly. Kuni would never actually do that; they were Nao's candies, and he was just happy the boy had shared. "Yeah, I really like it, but... Most people don't," he admitted sheepishly. "It reminds me of home, though. I have some if... You'd actually want to try it." Most people didn't.

He was oblivious to Nao watching him as he picked up the last few stray candies he could find, some of which had rolled an impressive distance. Kuni ate a couple more, but left most to put back in the bag that Nao had just... "Oh, no," he said with a exasperated but entertained chuckle. "Um, here..." He handed the ones over that he'd already picked up before he started going at the other ones again, snatching them up as quick as he could. He felt his shoulder bump against Nao's and shot him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I told you, I'm clumsy." He picked up the last piece near him and sat back on his knees, popping one last candy into his mouth before he handed the rest over with the extension of one large, muscled arm. "Should I carry them for you?" he joked, smiling.

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“I think there might be a few of us who could join that,” he said with a short laugh. “I know I would. And my friend.” Maybe they could get Xun in on that too. He was pretty tall, wasn’t he? Then again, Nao remembered him saying something about getting past those points already.

“It’s Japanese,” he said softly. It irritated him a little when people got the languages mixed up, but he supposed he could understand a little. Maybe. Chinese and Japanese didn’t sound a think alike, at least not to Nao. Japanese and Korean sounded more alike than the other two. But maybe he only thought so because he had such a deep interest in languages. “It’s okay, a lot of people aren’t,” he said, trying to be reassuring. “Kunikpok.” Nao repeated the older boy’s full name, feeling the syllables roll awkwardly over his tongue. “I guess I’ll call you Kuni as well.” Kuni sounded more like a Japanese name anyway, so it was easier to remember.

Nao stared at Kuni, somehow taking his challenge seriously. “I honestly don’t think so. I’m a pretty fast eater.” His super speed helped him significantly in that area. And the fact that it was candy made it all the more likely that he’d be able to do it quickly. Nao smiled. “I always like to try things first before deciding if they’re good or bad.” Because you couldn’t know unless you tried it, right?

Clumsiness strikes again, it seems. That’s what caused this debacle in the first place, and what seemed to keep it going on longer than necessary. It was actually a little funny. “It’s alright. We just need to gather them again.” Which was a little troublesome, but Nao was actually really patient. Naozumi grabbed what he could of the candies and this time successfully put them into the bag. He blinked at the offer, not really understanding that it was a joke. “I don’t think I need you to,” he replied with tilt of his head. “They’re not heavy, and I just need to secure it better this time and put it into my suitcase.” Nao looked over to his luggage that was still toppled over at the bottom of the stairs.