(no subject)

[stalking_horse]

[Once again, there's a disgruntled, bloodied Hakuba with bloody holes in his clothing grumping downstairs in the Inn.]

[Oh, he's got spare clothes that aren't mauled, he's just not going to worry about them at the moment.]

[If anyone saw him last time, it looks like his impalement this time was even MORE excessive.]

[Stupid Pyramid Head. Stupid angel.]

Comments

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

[The gentleman thing can rub tsunderes the wrong way, depending. Just being cautious.]

...just be careful. She had a bad relationship, so too flirty and she might dislike you.

[stalking_horse]

I'll be careful. [Depends on how long it takes her to realize that he's kind of a sucker in situations like that, he just hasn't realized it yet.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

[Pauses.]

...you can recognize when you're flirty, right?

DON'T BELIEVE HIM.

[stalking_horse]

... Yes?

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

....did you flirt with Ran?

[stalking_horse]

....No?

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

Or that girl detective from the koshien?

[stalking_horse]

... No, although I may have been a touch intentionally backhandedly obnoxious.

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

....

You don't know what flirting looks like.

This ... should be as terrifying as it sounds.

[stalking_horse]

.............. [something is not quite computing here.]


.... You haven't actually seen me trying to flirt.

[AND SOMEHOW AOKO STILL DIDN'T SEEM TO REALIZE THAT HE WAS FLIRTING.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

....

If you....

Hakuba, if that's not you flirting, I can only think you stop just short of me under the influence of those berries during that freaky love week when you do!

[It's AOKO. She's just...Aoko.]

[stalking_horse]

I don't go THAT far - I wasn't trying to get in her pants. Skirt. Whatever.

[He might actually be grumpily picking up an interesting shade of red.]

[You know the grumping is probably all the more obvious since you're still being held like an oversized plushie and he doesn't seem to have thought about this fact.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd hope you'd stop before reaching the point of sexual assault! [It's what he did. He knows it. It was just...minor. Sort of.]

[....]

Just...how...how can you NOT have realized it?

[And you know...plotting distracts him from dignity. So hasn't quite acknowledged this fact yet.]

[S-sob, so used to tiny body.]

[stalking_horse]

Baaya would've strung me up by my lower intestine if I did something like that. [And it's clear he's sure it would've been deserved, not that he's going to blame you, since you were, you know, Not Yourself.]

[PS there might be a clue to the problem in that statement.]

... ... [His normal behavior toward girls being "flirting" still may not be entirely computing.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

Any woman I know would do the same. [He pretty much let's it go without more punishment to himself due to the fact he's pretty sure there's nothing worst that can be done to him that didn't already happen aside from Ran finding out.]

Baaya?

[stalking_horse]

Baaya. Who I was sending messages to with Watson from Sunset Manor. She's been in the household forever. If I survived whatever Nakamori-san would've done in response to something like that, she would've done ten times worse.

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

...I'm going to guess Nakamori-san is this Aoko girl.

How involved was she in raising you?

[stalking_horse]

Yes.

...Usually if I wasn't around a police station of some sort, she was generally the one around when my parents weren't.

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

...I'm going to guess she's along in years? Proper manners and all that too?

[stalking_horse]

...Yes? [It's like there's HALF an idea what you're getting at, but it starts to form and then just ... gets lost.]

She was there the last time the pocketwatch stopped. Young, but there.

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

...what happened when it stopped the first time?

[stalking_horse]

My great-grandfather had been looking into something in Paris in the catacombs on an investigation; he'd taken a fall and broken his leg, and was trapped down there for a while. She was with the gendarmes that found him by retracing what he'd been doing, since she knew how to read his notes. [Why yes, it does run in the family.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

...in which case, that really does explain everything.

[stalking_horse]

.....

About? [At this point I think the part of his mind that does the psychological pick-apart trick has been bribed off with a few beers by that part of his mind that keeps him from realizing what a ... well, freak he is most of the time, to prevent it from chiming in.]

[17-going-on-8.livejournal.com]

You really don't get it, do you?