[FIN] Let's Be Honest

[BlackFireKitsune]

"I could," she said with an airy shrug to try and mask the vague discomfort she felt, her gaze lingering on the wall opposite them, "but I just said not three minutes ago that it's nothing I wanna talk about. Just in case you didn't know, that's applicable to this too. So, I could but I won't." Another shrug before she shifted her gaze to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Why?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Excuse me. I thought you didn't want to talk about honesty and denial, not song lyrics or what you thought of them. If you felt like talking about anything, I might have known you thought they were connected. But if you don't feel like talking at all, you could have just said that, too." He shrugged. "Seems like you just don't want to communciate with me."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Arceus, why was he being so nit-picky? She didn't want to talk or even think about some of these topics at all, and having to explain or point out which ones or why would only irritate her. It seemed to her, though, that that was what he was going for anyway. "Excuse you," she agreed with a deep frown, annoyance evident in her voice as she turned to face him more fully. "You think I don't want to communicate? Fine, let's communicate. I don't want to talk about honesty and denial in regards to my life. I don't want to talk about song lyrics that are relevant to my life either. I don't want to talk about anything personal. Also, don't even try to tell me you picked that song randomly, cuz there's no way I'm going to believe that you didn't pick it on purpose because you thought it was relevant to me or something." An irritated huff concluded her words as she returned to facing the opposite wall, her hand curled tightly around her left arm as she folded them both atop the counter in front of her. If that wasn't the type of communication he wanted, then that was just too damned bad. "There. Better?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Not exactly. You just communicated that you don't want to communicate," he said. "But it's a start." Getting up, he put a few bills on the counter as a tip for the bartender. "I started a tab here," Akira told Seraphina. "Feel free to order however much of whatever you want whenever. Thanks for coming tonight." That said, he went and stood against a wall to watch dancers from a corner of the room.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Akira wouldn't get very far before Sera caught up to him and reached for his arm. "Whoa, hold on there - two can play at that game," she said, her irritated expression still present. She was quickly losing her patience - both with this conversation and with him, though she had no intention of leaving without making at least one or two things perfectly clear. "I never said I don't want to communicate. In fact, I said the opposite - I said I do want to communicate, and then told you exactly what I will and won't talk about, so don't go putting words in my mouth. And, if I heard that right, then you just communicated," Arceus she was getting sick of that word, "that the only thing you're at all interested in talking about is personal stuff that I don't want to talk about. Is that right? You don't want to talk about anything unless it's personal and will make me uncomfortable?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

He blinked at her quizzically. "Sorry, I must've missed what you said you will talk about. What would that be?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His quizzical expression caused her brow to furrow, as well as go over what she'd just said to see what she missed. No, she'd thought she made it quite clear... "I won't talk about the things I mentioned, but I'll talk about pretty much anything else. If you want to talk about song lyrics, that's fine with me, as long as you don't pick songs that you think relate specifically to parts of my life that are obviously sensitive. If you want to talk about practically anything else, that's fine - I just don't want to talk about personal stuff." Maybe he'd mistaken that to mean that she'd meant everything and wanted to talk about nothing at all.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Alright, then what should we talk about?" he asked, holding out a hand to give her the chance to pick a topic. "Obviously I seem to only be picking things that you don't like, but I really don't know what else you'd want to talk about."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She glanced at the hand he held out, unsure if he was using it simply as an indicative gesture or if he meant to take her hand - regardless of what it was, she folded her arms in front of her chest, her right covering her left. "Alright," she said, watching him as she briefly debated on a topic. "Let's talk about why you were insistent on me coming out here, and why you weren't going to take 'no' for an answer."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Heh, I would, but that might be headed back in the direction of conversations you won't have," he said, sticking his own hands in his pockets. "There were a bunch of reasons. I wanted to sing you that song, for one. Wanted to get your feedback on it. Maybe get you to dance. And maybe see if I could figure out why you're being so sensitive about certain things," he admitted. "But I can see now that's probably not going to happen."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Well," she began, her arms still folded over her chest, "you got maybe half of those things. You should know at this point that you're not getting the other half. But, maybe I'm being so sensitive about certain things because I actually am sensitive about certain things." A pause. "Why that song in particular - or would that possibly upset me too?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Laughing sheepishly, he scratched his head. "I honestly don't know what would upset you anymore. Before, I didn't think there was much I could do or say that would bother you in that way, but now I worry every little thing might offend you. Which sucks, because I'm one of the worst unintentional offenders around."

Akira pulled on his bangs. "I don't even know why you think you have a reason to be sensitive since there isn't anyone here who would matter. Why would you care what anyone here things of you? They're all nobodies." He held out his arms in a vague gesture to indicate the entire lounge of people. "Including me."

"I thought you'd know why," he answered in reply to her question. "Now answer me this." He leaned in toward her so their noses were almost touching, his mouth unsmiling. "Who says?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Honestly? Before, there wasn't a lot that could really actually upset me," she said with a shrug. "Usually if there was, I'd just get mad, curse it out and leave. But, I used to think that same thing - that nobody mattered. Why should I care what anybody else thinks? It's not like they matter," she scoffed, one corner of her lip turning up in a slight sneer. "But that's the difference, I guess, and I'm glad I realized it. Everyone matters at least a little, but the ones who matter the most are my friends." A pause, in which she looked him up and down with a light sigh. "At least who you were pretending to be was my friend - I can't tell if who you really are still is or not. You're kind of making it difficult to tell, to be perfectly honest."

When he leaned closer and their noses almost touched, she took it a step further and inclined her head forward so their noses did touch, as well as rested her forehead lightly against his. "Alright, fine," she murmured, her expression similarly devoid of any hint of a smile now, "but first, just so I know exactly how to respond - who says what, exactly?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"The friends of yours that matter to you aren't here," he told her. "As far as me...I guess I'll leave that for you to figure out. But I will say that if I've learned anything about friends over the span of my life, it's that real friends - true friends - don't always coddle you when you're down."

"Sometimes it's a true friend and only a true friend who can slap you in the face and tell you to get a grip, because even if they know that's not what you want, sometimes that's what you need. 'And I'm sorry that I'm getting on your case, but true friends, they stab you in the face'. As quoted from the song 'Super Trouper' by Superchick."

His thin line of a mouth didn't remain a line for long as her forehead came into contact with his. His face heated up and flushed, but he spoke steadily with a small smile. "Who says you're not perfect?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"To be perfectly honest, I think life has slapped me across the face enough times already. If my friends started doing that too, I don't think that would help a single thing. Not one damned thing." In fact, it would probably only make matters worse.

The contact did little, if anything, for her, unlike what it did for him - her expression didn't change until he spoke, and a small, bitter smile replaced the thin line on her lips. "Who says? Well," she began in a murmur, though she dropped her left arm and raised her right to both push him away as well as to push off of him and propel herself backwards a little, forcefully separating them as her voice returned to normal. "I can give you a list of them. All of them nobodies, too, and I bet you can already guess whose name is at the top. But, then again," she paused as she tilted her head, taking a step back which was, consequently, in the direction of the exit, "how does that one saying go? 'Nobody's perfect,' if I remember right. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise." She had thought otherwise, once upon a time.