[PRP] That's... not how you use chopsticks (Shiloh & Melany)

[shibrogane]

Melany shrugged. "He didn't give me his name," she said. The sudden shift in Shiloh's expression seemed to unnerve her; she looked away, bit her lip. Her glittery lip gloss shone in the lighting of the restaurant, a pink counterpoint to the gold dust on her eyelids. "No, I didn't know the voice. It was... really spooky, actually."

She pressed her fingertips together in front of her, eyeballed the edamame and the tea as it was delivered like she had never seen anything so welcome in her life. "You remember how to eat these, right," she joked, but it was half-hearted at best. She sprinkled salt over the edamame and picked a piece to start with.

"I'll text you, don't worry," she said. "All the time. Even if I'm not hearing things."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh's expression was still set deeply in concentration, his eyes falling to the edemame and the tea. He went to take a slow sip (and it definitely wasn't near as good as soda, but he wasn't going to say anything), before tilting his head at her. "Yeah, I do." He didn't. He'd never seen edemame in his life.

"That's good though." He was mimicking her with the salt, but he hesitated and lingered before picking out one for himself, instead going for another sip of his drink. "It's just... concerning, is all. I don't..." He licked his lips and looked down into the tea, "I don't like the sounds of it. Gives me a bad feeling."

He finally picked up an edemame of his own, but he was still waiting before going in for the first bite. "Are you still going to be free after this? There's a place I wanna show you."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany shrugged. What could she do about it? Nothing. Maybe, like, buy earplugs? But what if the voice wasn't just in her head? She popped the little soybeans out of their shell and into her mouth, discarded the shell on her plate. "Yeah," she said. "It's my weekend. What kind of place?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh watched her, and then slowly copied the motion of eating the edamame. It was far less graceful or practiced than Melany's attempt, a little on the sloppy side, but Shiloh was kind of a sloppy person. It dawned on him that he didn't know how to use chopsticks either, and he wasn't sure if that could be something he could learn by simply watching.

"A really, really weird place." He started slowly, nervously seasoning another piece of edamame. His voice dropped very quietly, "A magic one," And then it rose up again, but only a hair, "I'm not sure if you could even go there, actually. Only certain people can."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Might as well try," said Melany cheerfully. "Is it that, um, place you used to talk about? The rainy one?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Yeah, that's the one." He ate another edamame. The cheeriness was accepted, his mood lightening a little. "But it doesn't rain all the time anymore. It's got normal weather now, ever since December." He discarded the remnants on his plate.

"That too..." He said after a slow moment. "I wanna tell you what happened in December, but it's really..." He pursed his lips again, "Complicated. But I think you should know. It can wait until after this though." The look on his face was an apologetic smile, guilty, "Since it's kinda heavy. Plus the sushi should be here soon, yeah?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany nodded, and turned over her shoulder to look at the sushi bar. There was a bright green one that was kind of avocado-looking. "That's the avocado roll..."

Soon enough, after light chit-chat, their sushi appeared. Melany served with the blunt end of her chopsticks: one roll from each plate to each of them. "Don't put your rice in the soy sauce this time, dork," she said to him. "It'll fall apart again."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Oh." He watched as the food was served, and then as Melany picked her chopsticks up. "I'll keep that in mind..." When was the last time he had even tried soy sauce? It was super salty wasn't it? His brow furrowed a little as he turned his chopsticks over before finally breaking them apart.

Naturally, he was holding them backwards as he tried to finagle them into his hand properly. It felt... awkward. He had meant to keep the conversation going, but he was very intent on the mess that was going on in front of him; his fingers not dexterous enough to move the utensils properly, his grip weak (not that he was especially trying anyway, because he didn't want to make a mess or god forbid lose a piece of the sushi off of the plate). He looked a little flustered, the swears mercifully silent but very readable on his expression.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany watched this for a minute, and then reached over to flip the chopsticks the proper way for him. "It's okay," she said. "Try 'em like this." She held her hand out between them, showed him her grip on them. "Give it a try on some edamame. And if you don't wanna bother today, you can just eat the sushi rolls with your hands, okay? They're meant to be finger food anyway."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh in turn watched his hand for a very long moment, like his brain was trying to process what had just happened. Touch from Melany was still painfully weird, mostly because it wasn't harsh, it was gentle, meaningful, not a strike or a hit. His face didn't show it, but behind his eyes was something a little sad and a little painful, both things he wished he didn't have to relate to someone's care and reassurance.

Whatever, at least it was sushi time.

"Thanks..." He said awkwardly, but he managed to smile again, fingers readjusting the grip in his hand. It felt a little easier. "I wanna get the hang of this." He was glad she wasn't questioning him, since it was obvious that this wasn't a first visit. The edamame was still slipping between the chopsticks, but he got it after some maneuvering.

"Sorry," he breathed out an embarrassed laugh, "I should probably know how to do this."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

There was something weird and plaintive in Melany's face. Her gray eyes were clear as water. She watched his hand, too, and then she shrugged and laughed it off. "Yeah, okay," she said, taking a slice of hosomaki roll. "It's just weird, that detective said weird stuff had happened in December and I was like, no way, but... Something did, right? And whatever it is made you different from the you I knew, too."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was silent as he fished (ha) around for a piece of sushi, eventually getting it balanced on his chopsticks long enough to shove it into his mouth. Melany was right about the sushi being phenomenal anyway; this was heaven. He made a mental note to come back with Jamie sometime.

"You're not wrong." He said after a while. "Something really, really big happened. Changed ********' everything. Changed the me you remembered, changed the you I remembered too."

But he wasn't sure he wanted to get into that last part just yet. He was lazily fishing around for another piece of the roll, but all he was really succeeding in doing was push it around in an effort to grab it. <********' magic." He said under his breath, though it sounded more remorseful than harsh.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany looked down at her plate, and seemed to be not very hungry anymore, since she was pushing her hosomaki around her plate like a kid with a plateful of peas. "Alright," she said. "I'm sorry." She meant it, too. Her clear gray eyes were regretful behind her bangs.

"But at least the sushi's good, right?" She tried to laugh it off, but it didn't work.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh watched this for a moment, something like dread and anxiety settling in his stomach. It sort of reminded him of the way Jamie would get when he'd accidentally say the wrong thing, what with the way she was pushing things around on her plate and trying to brush it off.

"It's great." He forced some enthusiasm back up to the surface before reaching over to steal some of her hosomaki (and almost lose it to the table too). "Shouldn't let your guard down like that." He said, somewhat cheeky. Sure he was still a little sad, but...

"s**t happens." He shrugged. "Take the bad with the good or whatever. Roll with the punches." He motioned vaguely in the air with his chopsticks. He leaned closer to the table and lost his voice, chopsticks still motioning around wildly with his voice soft, "S'not the first time magic gave me a gigantic '******** you', won't be the last. You just gotta give it a big ol' ******** you right back." He was speaking crudely. He was also speaking like this despite fluctuating between "god kill me I want to give up" and the aforementioned "god ******** This".

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany smiled. It was (what the ********) shy, maybe even sweet (what the ********??) and she laughed at Shiloh's antics. "Okay," she said. "No more melancholy, way more ******** yous." She sighed and ate one of her rolls. "Can I start on the ******** yous later?"

Melancholies