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“What is your favorite color?”
What a trivial question. Krauser didn’t care that bad about having a specific favorite color. Flowers always come with green stems and leaves, so he guesses that would be his favorite.
“Green.”
Krauser had just finished bathing, it was quite earlier than everyone else but he had wanted to make sure he was alone in the baths because he’s not used to that part of Japanese culture yet. As he was heading back to his room, his thoughts were interrupted by a very loud voice.
“Uza-Uza!”
Oh christ. What does he want this time? It’s hard to tell with someone like him.
“Are you free right now? I just got a new game and I really really wanna try it but it’s not single player! Ah, the instructions should be super easy and this game doesn’t really have any reading so you wouldn’t get confused or anything. Everyone else is too tired to play, so please!” he pleaded.
Wow, he talks a lot. Krauser figured he had nothing else to do, really, and he’s never tried out that new game console Kirihara has, it looks interesting.
“Umm… Sure, why not.”
“Really? Thanks!” Kirihara shouted, a little too loudly in the dead hallway.
He’s way too enthusiastic over playing a game, but… it’s nice, refreshing. Krauser had issues showing his emotions at times, other than through tennis, of course, so it was nice to see someone show their true emotions without any shame. It’s also amazing how much of it you can see on his face. Krauser had always looked, well, mean. He can express emotion, but because of his sharp and cold eyes it just doesn’t look expressive enough. Even if he smiled with excitement, it’d just look scary.
Kirihara, though, you could always tell what he’s feeling, what he’s thinking. When he’s excited, his eyes would shine and sparkle. When he’s focused, he’d get the most intense look he’d ever seen in a human. When he’s angry, his eyes just somehow turn red. It’s always about those eyes. Those emerald green eyes. They’re huge, and it’s always the first thing Krauser notices about him.
(It’s hard to ignore that hair, though.)
They head over to the lounge room and Kirihara sets his console down on the table.
“See, you can just take out the controllers like this… And you don’t even need a TV for it!” He hands him the blue controller, and sets up the game. “There’s lots of little games you can play on this one, basically… hm, it’s kinda like… you don’t look at the screen for this game? You just look at each other and act it out I guess? Ah, I can’t explain it well, but let’s try the shooting one first!” The instructions play, and Kirihara was right, it’s easy to learn. Basically you “draw” the “gun” and try and “shoot” each other first once it says “Fire.” Guess that’s Kirihara's English lesson for the day, although he probably doesn’t even notice, or would remember it.
“Face each other…” said voice from the console.
He turns to face Kirihara and, for some reason, he feels… shy? It just now hit him. This is weird. Are they even friends? They injured each other in the past, and can barely communicate, but now they're staring into each other’s eyes playing video games.
“Ready…”
No, he’s not ready, he’s only just now realizing how strange this is. Isn’t this awkward? He feels awkward. Is this not awkward for him? Kirihara seems so fine with this. Isn’t this too friendly? Isn’t-
“Fire!”
Krauser panicked and hit the button too early. They turned to look at the screen to see who won. Krauser shot the dirt and Akaya landed a perfect hit.
“Hey you have to shoot me, not the dirt! I won, so whatever. That was cool, let’s try that one again!”
They start the next round and take position. Krauser looks into Kirihara’s eyes again and… He still feels nervous. His eyes (how are they that green?) are focused and are staring straight back at him. Krauser tried not to divert his gaze away out of embarrassment. He’s not used to direct eye contact like this, and with him it’s just… It feels strange, and he can’t really describe why. He can start to feel his heart rate increase and he can’t tell if it’s because he’s feeling anxious or what. He tries to focus on something else, like his face, because there’s not really anything else to stare at. Huh, honestly, he’s kind of… cute? God, what the hell is he thinking? This guy is so-
"Fire!"
Krauser hesitated before he “shot” the controller. The results screen showed an obvious delay before Krauser had actually hit the button to shoot, giving Kirihara a very easy win despite an average shot.
“You kinda suck at this more than I’d thought. Actually- wait, are you okay? You look kinda red. You didn’t have to play if you didn’t want to you know.”
Fuck, really? Ugh, this is stupid, whatever he’s feeling is stupid, and now he’s embarrassed himself. He doesn’t want stupid thoughts to distract him from playing games though, he wants to enjoy himself, and games are one of the few ways the two can interact and communicate well, so he wants to keep going. Maybe with less eye contact.
“No, I’m fine. I apologize. Let’s try one of the other games.”
“What is your favorite color?”
Oh, this question again.
He guesses the reporters needed to update their info, even though it’s only been a few months. What did he answer before again? Green? Initially he just chose that because of flowers, but recently he’s been noticing green elsewhere. A slight green tint in seaweed looking hair. Green tracksuit. Green eyes. Definitely the eyes. It’s such a specific shade of green. They were…
"Green. Emerald green."