Rec Room

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Plot: Sundays are the only days off the students have, and you can usually find a bunch of them in the recreation room those days. It's called the 'rec room' but it's a small building unto itself. There's a lounge room with a pool table, television, drink bar, a quiet room with books and chess tables, sitting room, computer room, and more.

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Kaname leaned against a pool table, no one playing a game at that moment. She considered shooting a bit, but it had gotten a bit boring when she had hustled the upperclassmen out of most of their money in the first year, and no one would play with her anymore. At least, not for bets. Idly wondering if the new comers had heard or if people decided to let them find out the hard way, she smiled while taking a sip of her nice, cool strawberry daiquiri -- virgin, of course, to her dismay. No matter how hard any of them tried, they could never get the bartender to add a little extra something to their drinks.

Instructor Mao, however, could often be counted on to order you a drink or two if you asked nice enough. And if she trusted you enough.

She watched the game on the television, not knowing the teams playing and not particularly caring. Without knowing the teams, it was more about the game itself, and she got bored watching. Something told her only die hard fans of those teams would care, as it didn't seem like either of them were particularly competent. So far, it was a lazy, boring day at the rec room. It was still early, though, and there was still plenty of time for it to liven up.

Leisurely walking down the hallway, his nose still buried deep within his newly received pocket copy of 'Sun Tzu's The Art of War', Sousuke made his way over toward the Rec Room. There of course had been no real set time, nor had they ever really made plans to do so, but it had become customary over the last year to meet up and spend some time with his fellow team mates there for at least a few hours a week. It made the rest of the school week easier to bear if they could spend some time just being friends instead of friends and team mates.

Aside from that, he also had come to enjoy the time he spent with them there. Andrei said that by spending time amongst the other students when he had the time, that it would give him insight as to how to better conduct himself when in civilian society. As if on autopilot, he pushed open the Rec Room door and strode over to a corner arm chair, not even noticing if he had been the first of his friends to arrive yet or not.

Looking over when Sousuke came in, she smiled and waved. He seemed engrossed in his book, headed straight for a chair, and she pouted that he had ignored her. Shaking it off, she walked over to the bar area and got a cranberry juice for him. Drink in hand, she walked over and set it on the end table beside him with a decisive clink. "Hey, Sousuke! New book?" she asked, standing in front of him and in what would have been his personal space if either of them were a different person.

A tad bit startled at finding Kaname so close after looking up from his book, he marked his place and set it down on the table. "Uh, yes Chidori. My ...uh, step-father just gave it to me. I used to have a copy when we lived in Great Britain, but we lost it when we moved here to the school. Uh, thank you for the juice." Taking a sip, he was pleasantly surprised to find it was cranberry, one of his favorites. It was something he had only mentioned offhandedly one of the first times they all gathered in the Rec Room to get to know each other better, and to this day it never ceased to amaze him that she had remembered so little a detail. "I'm sorry if I was late. To my knowledge the three of us had never set a specific meeting time this week, and I was finishing up some class work before heading down."

She shrugged and smiled, taking a seat on the arm rest of the chair he was settled in and crossed her ankles. She was wearing a skirt, after all, and she did have her modesty. "It's no problem, I figured most people would be finishing up class work anyways. I'm the nerd that always has it done ahead of time, remember?" she laughed, though realistically, it was less about being a nerd and more about the fact that it was so simple most of the time that she liked to just get it out of the way. "So what's the book?" Lifting her drink up, she took a sip from the colorful straw, looking at him from over the glass with raised brows in wait for the answer.

"It's a pocket copy of 'Sun Tzu's The Art of War'. Back in Great Britain, it was one of the first books I had ever read on my own, and losing our first copy in the move had been a bit...depressing." Running his hand lightly over the surface, he remembered how large the copy Andrei had kept on his bookshelf seemed. Granted the first time he had sat down to read it by himself, he had only been about twelve, but even so, it was an accomplishment at that age to Andrei, if no one else. "Anyway, I'm sure you don't wish to hear about much more of it when you could just as easily read it yourself if you wished."

Nodding with a smile, she made a mental note to check out the book as she took another sip of her drink and surveyed the room. "It's pretty quiet right now," she observed in a subdued tone. Turning to Sousuke with a grin, she shrugged, "Though I suppose that'll change when Kurz gets here, huh?" It usually did. Not that it was a bad thing, the way he tended to bring life to a group. In fact, at that moment, she was looking forward to it. She was bored, and she didn't want to interrupt Sousuke's reading anymore than she already had. It wasn't often she saw him reading anything that wasn't a military magazine, and she wanted to encourage it. Perhaps she could get him to read some of her books later on, if she read some of his first and engaged him in conversation about it.

"Affirmative. He does have a certain...way about him, doesn't he?" Taking another sip from his juice, he wondered at just how much longer said team mate might take to arrive. He hadn't seen him since breakfast was called in the mess hall that morning, and though all of them had mentioned finishing up some of their class work that was left over from the previous week, Kurz had not been doing it in the dorms, so he couldn't be sure just where he was. "I am sure he'll arrive soon. It wouldn't be like him to miss out on a gathering of any kind, and even he did say this morning that he had to finish up some work for class as well. I think he should arrive shortly."

Making his way his way down the hallway, a bounce in his step from the tunes flowing out from his mp3 player, Kurz softly hummed along with the music, occasionally singing along when he just couldn't hold it back any longer. So far the day had been going well, at least well enough for day that had been mostly wasted in the library. He still had a few assignments that needed to be completed, and figured that the best place would be where all of the school's accumulated knowledge was stored. Thankfully it was also boring enough in there that even when he lost interest and slacked off, it wasn't for very long. Still, when all was said and done, homework sucked ass no matter where it was done, and it had taken him a few hours before he could finally slam those damn books closed and leave that god-forsaken place.

Sliding backwards on his toes for a moment, Kurz turned down the last hallway that would lead him to the Rec Room, the music in his ears shifting from one song to the next. A particular favorite, he couldn't fight the urge to sing along, regardless of who else might be in the hallways. Normally a more specific meet time was discussed over breakfast, but today it seemed everyone had wanted to keep things open ended. Sundays usually ended with them all there anyway, but if something was supposed to be planned, then it was be there or be square. With a dramatic spin into the doorway, he only spared a second's glance before locating his team mates over in one of the corner lounges.


Throwing on a big smile and making a show of coming over, Kurz playfully took hold of Kaname's hand, standing her up and spinning her around before dipping her in time with the song only he could hear.

Laughing at Kurz's antics, Kaname slipped away from him with a shake of her head. "You're crazy, you know that?" she put down the drink she had been forced to hold onto tightly, the cold hurting her fingers. Sticking her hand into the denim skirt's pocket to warm it up, she grinned at him and taunted, "Don't you remember what happened the last time you grabbed me like that?"

His eyes widened at the rather outstanding display his friend had made upon entering the Rec Room. Sousuke waited until the whole debacle had concluded before daring to take another sip of his juice, wanting to make sure he had been readily available in case a repeat of the first time Kurz had done something similar would occur. "If memory serves Chidori, you smacked him hard enough to, at least as he put it, forget Mathematics. He claimed the same thing whole following week as well if I recall correctly."

She snorted in response, remembering Kurz's whining after the beating. "Please, if I'd wanted to cause brain damage, I would have. He'll use any excuse to get out of doing schoolwork, no matter how far fetched!" Shaking her head, she picked up her drink once more and finished it off, wincing at the brain freeze she received from the action. She stomped her foot on the ground to distract herself from the pain until it passed, wondering how it was she'd made it through to the very end of the drink without getting that.

Ouch...Kaname's comments on his work attentiveness hurt more than the last time she'd hit him for doing something stupid, but in all honesty, Kurz couldn't disagree. He really could, and most likely should take his schooling a tad more seriously, but it was just sooo boring! If they could maybe try turning math and physics class into something more active like when they were practicing on the shooting ranges, then maybe he'd be more motivated. Hell, he did plenty of both when they were at the ranges anyway, so why couldn't they just combine the classes and cut out the incredibly shoot-me-in-the-face boredom of having to sit through 45 minutes of the other two?

Taking the ear buds out and stuffing them into his pocket, Kurz slumped to a crouch, looking up through messed blond bangs with large puppy dog eyes and hoping to all hell that what he was doing would work to get him back on her good side. "Aw, come on babe! Kaname, I was spending all day in the library catching up on everything! Please? Points for effort?"

"If you did your work regularly, you wouldn't have to 'catch up,'" she retorted, making a face at him. It broke quickly into a laugh and a smile though, and she shook her head, "But yes, very good, glad to see you starting to take it seriously." She leaned over and patted his shoulder consolingly. Standing straight up again, she took her seat on the arm of Sousuke's chair once more, swinging her legs over the edge and looking between the two. "So... It's been pretty boring in here. Anyone have any fun ideas?"

Watching with interest as Kurz's tactic seemed to work well enough for the moment, Sousuke took another drink from his glass, setting it back down on the table as he scanned the main Rec room. There weren't very many people there today, though he couldn't say he was surprised. Yes, Sunday was their only real day off during the school week, but Saturday's were half days, so if productive enough, one could get all of their work done after last bell on Saturday, thus leaving all of Sunday free. As if anyone ever really did that though. Aside from a few scattered people, it was pretty much dead at the moment. "We could always access the computer room if we wanted. I believe remember hearing from Alexander that Unreal Tournament, Left for Dead 2, and Boarderlands had recently been installed and are ready for Lan parties."

Glad that she had, at least theoretically, given him the points for effort he had requested, Kurz made a mental note to check with a few of the other people around their dorm if they might be interested in maybe putting together something along the lines of 'Extreme Studying' or something. "Hm...there's always the Playstations they have set up over near the big screen, it's been pretty nice outside so we could always use the pool, we could get some extra practice in too if we wanted. Pretty much anything sounds good to me right now as long as it doesn't end up with me still buried in textbooks."

"Hmmm," she considered the options presented, kicking her heels against the chair and pouting. She wasn't sure just want sounded good. Swimming would be fun, but she would have to get get her swimsuit, practice just sounded like work, and she'd had enough of that just then, and she was never much for video games. Sighing, her shoulders slumped with defeat. She looked around the room, trying to get some inspiration for fun. "Hey... What about karaoke?" she asked hopefully, lifting her chin and smiling at the two.

"I love you."

Sousuke barely resisted the urge to choke on his juice, coughing to prevent the liquid from slipping into his lungs. Looking down in complete shock at Kurz, his mind whirling at the seriousness on his face as he had said that looking up at Kaname. The expression holding on Kurz's face, Sousuke had to wonder for a moment if the man was serious! But....he had been proclaiming for the last year that he was head-over-heels in love with Instructor Mao! What was with THIS development!? Just as he was about to voice his questions, he caught Kurz's expression crack, letting loose with a raucous laughter as he fell back on his heels. His expression shifting from shock back to some distorted version of relieved and his usual deadpan look. "You confuse me Kurz..."

Still laughing at the reaction he'd gotten out of Sousuke, Kurz could hardly speak clearly. Still trying to push himself back onto his feet, Kurz was just too entertained by the sight that Sousuke had made when he had pulled that. It honestly had been freaking priceless! "Honestly man, if I didn't anymore, I'd have been worried about you! But seriously, Kaname, I am so down for some Karaoke. I say we do it!"

She just stared at Kurz after he proclaimed his love, blinking the only thing to change her stone-faced expression. Sousuke's coughing caught her attention, and she turned to look at him as he sputtered, and she felt a smile creep up on her lips as she realized how strong of a reaction he had to someone saying those words to her. Shaking her head, she nodded to Kurz when he agreed to the karaoke, grinning, "Sounds great!" She turned her attention back to Sousuke, slipping off the arm of the chair and leaning over in front of him, hands on the front of her thighs to keep her balanced and braced.

"You okay?" she asked with concern, reaching out with one hand to swipe at some of the juice he had managed to splash on his cheek. If nothing else, Kurz had provided her with an excellent opening to try to bridge that gap and maybe get closer to Sousuke, and she kept her eyes locked with his as she brought her finger up to her lips to suck the lone drop of juice off of it.

Eyes glued to her as she tasted the small bit of juice that had splashed on his face, he felt his heart thundering in his chest and a light sweat begin to form near his hairline. From the way she was presenting herself, it took a considerable amount of effort to not focus on the fact that she had her breasts pressed together, and rather close to his face at that. Trying to swallow past the lump that had grown in his throat, Sousuke forced himself to stand abruptly, keeping his eyes trained forward on the rooms across the way from them where the Karaoke equipment was set up. "I-I'm going to secure us a karaoke unit then!" Practically running over to one of the far rooms, Sousuke made sure he could not be seen from the other side before letting out the deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding. 'What the hell....what in the world does she do to me that this happens so often?'

With a grin that would make the Cheshire Cat jealous, Kurz stood, chuckling at the intense reaction from his friend. Taking a moment to bow deeply to Kaname, he offered his hand to help her stand. She obviously didn't need it, but it was the gentlemanly thing to do, so why not? "Kaname, babe, you are a freaking riot. The two of us would be so damn bored if you weren't around."

Pouting when Sousuke bolted, she sighed and planted a hand on her hip as she straightened, wishing he'd have responded instead of fleeing. Not that fleeing wasn't a response in and of itself, and she was satisfied with what it meant, but he still ruined her fun regardless. She grinned at Kurz's comment, shaking her head slightly and sauntering past him, "Oh, I'm sure you'd find something to keep yourselves entertained. Knowing you, though, you'd probably get yourselves expelled within a few weeks!" Laughing over her shoulder, she winked to let him know she was just teasing him, and then she lightly jogged over to where she'd seen Sousuke disappear.

He was far too much fun to torment, and she hoped one of these days he'd just break down and act on the things she knew she had to be making him feel. Unfortunately, she wasn't sure that he knew what it was, but he was sure stubborn enough to not give in to something he didn't understand. Putting a hand on his shoulder, she smiled encouragingly to him, letting her hand slip down his arm a bit, "Hey, you never answered my question. First you choke on your drink, then you run away, and now you're looking a bit flushed. You feeling okay?"

Jumping slightly when Kaname entered the room, Sousuke was still conflicted over the mad rush of strange feelings she continued to evoke in him. He hadn't meant to offend or hurt her feelings however, she simply wanted to know if he was alright after nearly choking on his juice. "EH, y-yes I'm fine, Chidori. I apologize for worrying you. I suppose I'm still not used to others treating me as you and Kurz do, and at times, it still seems a bit overwhelming at times." Hoping that that would help her to see at least part of what had him so flustered, perhaps they could get along with their activities, and allow him to ponder yet more things he didn't fully understand later.

She pursed her lips together and nodded, a smile slowly turning up the corners of her lips. "All right. As long as you're okay," she winked and tousled his hair. Laughing quietly, she took a step away from him, forcibly removing herself from the temptation that wide-eyed puppy look of his caused. The last thing she wanted to do was push so hard she drove him away, and if she stayed standing next to him any longer, she was like to act more bold than she even really felt, on pure instinct alone. Not that a kiss on his cheek or forehead would be that big a deal, but the overwhelming urge scared her, even if she was well aware of her feelings for him already. She wanted him to make the first move so that she didn't embarrass herself, never quite sure if he was actually attracted to her, or if she just confused him that much.

"C'mon," her voice was tight with the restrained emotion, her back to him now as she tried to hide her strong emotions. "Let's have some fun and get singing!"