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“You don’t think so? But, can you at least agree that it’s at little stupid.” Michiru sipped from her milkshake as she happily walked beside one of her closest friends. “It’s not like there is a different way to calculate averages... I guess it’s a little ridiculous though.” Shirou shrugged.
They wanted out of the house, having nothing to do for the mayor and having a relatively quiet day, they were both stuck inside. Nina was busy today, Nazuna has been kind of a jerk recently, so Michiru didn’t have anyone to go out with and Shirou just preferred to stay home whenever he had free time. With enough convincing and nagging, Shirou agreed to go with Michiru around the city. “Just a walk around the block, we can get ice cream and come back! You’ll enjoy it.” Shirou didn’t want to, he didn’t like crowds or people all that much... but she said it’s something friends do. Go out and just spend time together. Maybe he never got to grasp that concept because he shut himself out from any form of relationship. It seemed weird, so he was dreading it. Michiru, however, was over-joyed. She got to get out of the house and spend time with Shirou, someone she actually enjoyed being around much more than she ever made verbally clear. Shirou... was also the same way...
Long story short, they ended up holding conversation, Michiru starting it, of course. Somehow school and testing came up and Michiru was pretty much ranting about school exams and how they don’t help but in fact harm students. She would fail tests but have fantastic grades throughout the year. They were talking and enjoying each other so much, they ended up walking to the local park since Shirou didn’t mind it and Michiru was not ready to go home yet.
“Oh hey! A play set! An EMPTY play set!” Michiru spoke up, running over. Shirou sighed and followed behind, taking in a spoonful of ice cream. Michiru ran up the set and immediately went down the tall, curled, plastic slide.
Her and Nazuna would sneak out and go to their old elementary schools play set at ungodly hours and just remanence in the memories of being kids. It was fun... she missed it dearly.
It was only 6:30pm, the sky was dusted in yellow, gold, and even pink and blue. The sunset looked really nice from this park. Shirou sat at one of the swings as Michiru ran over to him. She still had her milkshake in hand and yet managed to climb through the play set with ease. The ice cream place was pretty close to the park so they weren’t yet finished with their food. She threw herself on the swing beside Shirou and caught her breath. “Nazuna and I loved doing this type of thing.”
He glanced over at her.
“We’d usually go to an elementary school playground. The same one that we’d have recess on all those years ago. Michiru didn’t realize that time has really flown by, she’s 24 now...
“It would always be past midnight and neither of our parents would even know we were gone. We’d have the best conversations and have the most fun in the dead of night. It helped us escape from the stress of high school.” She quietly laughed to herself, staring at the lid of her frozen treat. Those small, fluffy ears of hers flattened. Shirou noticed the sadness wash over her as she spoke about her past. He had a drastically different childhood than modern beastmen (and humans..), and when it came to schooling, he was practically self-taught. Lots of reading, lots of forced practice.
With a small pause that filled with silence between them, he looked away and sighed. Getting off the swing, he removed his jacket, for once he wore something other than that heavy trench coat, and along with the jacket, he placed his empty cup down on the bench. “I... don’t know to... “play”, like you did, but I do know a few games. When the mayor was younger, she insisted we’d play hide and seek, so... we could do that.” Shirou was looking at the wood chips that covered the ground below, feeling too strange to make eye contact with the tanuki in front of him. She may just tease him for this offer. He was standing by the bench, so Michiru was looking over her shoulder. Her expression was as if she’d seen a ghost. Was he being serious? Was he putting down his walls to act upon these childish instincts with her? “It’s almost dark though, do you want to be out so late?” Michiru questioned.
“I’ve had fun today, no point in cutting it short if we don’t have too.” He admitted. Shirou was being vulnerable, putting down that mask he wore all the time. Right now, he didn’t want to shut Michiru out. Shirou trusted Michiru and Michiru trusted Shirou.
They were stuck together like glue even if they didn’t want to admit that.
Michiru smiled at him and walked over, placing her cup beside his things. “Count to 30, trees are allowed, the boundaries are inside the park, okay?” She hummed. Shirou felt his lips curl into a small smirk, a quiet huff escaping out his nose.
“One, two, three..” He started counting and turned away from her, covering his eyes with his gloved hands. She didn’t even snap that he started the game.
“Oh! Shit!” She laughed and ran off.
Hopefully the Horners weren’t expecting them for dinner tonight.