bakerstreet | ( they're bleeding! oh no. they are dead. )

( they're bleeding! oh no. they are dead. )

You or your meme partner has been hurt, but don't worry! This time around it's not that bad. You can still limp your way out of this mess.

INJURIES.
1. Sprain/strain. How did you screw up walking?
2. Broken bones. Simple fractures still hurt.
3. Cuts. Hopefully one of you has a sewing kit.
4. Burns. Location, location, location. Let's pray this one isn't on your ass.
5. Concussion. No, they're most likely not holding up fifteen fingers.
6. Other. I'm not a doctor.

HOW'D IT HAPPEN.
1. Stupidity. You did this to yourself.
2. Accident. Is an unintentional attack still an attack?
3. Attack. Don't lie, you deserved it.
4. Other. It's probably still your own fault.

WHERE'D IT HAPPEN.
1. Home. Did you remember to invest in a first aid kit?
2. School/Work. This should be excellent for getting you out of doing stuff!
3. Outdoors. Predators like the smell of blood. Clean up asap.
4. In the water. Hopefully there aren't any sharks!
5. Other. Like a hospital. That'd be handy.

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The short trip down the hall passes without incident, and then they're stepping into her complex. Shizuo follows Namie inside, and this time he does pause to toe off his own shoes too--since it's the polite thing to do and he isn't tipsy on blood loss this time. Ah, a lot of things are pretty different this time...but the layout of everything is still the same, as Shizuo notes when he straightens.

By the time he's finished with his own shoes Namie's already walked past the kitchen and turned into the hall; briefly preoccupied with considering her apartment in a not-recently-bleeding-out light for once, it's a few moments' delay before it occurs to Shizuo that maybe he ought to follow her. Right...but--turning the corner after her, he ends up catching her halfway through working off her tights, and decides abruptly that maybe he ought to just. Wait outside the hall a little longer after all. Which is what Shizuo does, stepping sharply backwards behind the corner again before he sees anything else he really shouldn't and rubbing at his face a little. Man, he really needs to remember to be more considerate in this sort of situation...

But, again, he's never ended up in this sort of situation with a woman before. With burns involved...well, of course clothing around those areas would be a problem. Where else was she burned? Her arm at least, he's pretty sure--maybe her shoulder too? Which means either they'll have to cut off her sleeve or get...the whole shirt off too....oh.

Namie emerges from the hall shortly, cutting off these musings abruptly--still standing close to the hall entrance, Shizuo draws a startled step back at her seemingly sudden reappearance, but attempts to arrange his expression into something not embarrassing. Or at least less embarrassing. He rubs at his neck instead. "--Oh, yeah. We need water to soak the burns for a bit, right?"

She hears his footsteps approaching the hall as she's getting out of her tights and, while the thought to say something to stop him from rounding the corner does cross her mind, she's honestly not so worried about it to bother. Her hands are out from under her skirt before he sees her, so he's spared the sight of anything that might further his embarrassment - something she already knows to expect the moment she catches sight of him appearing and disappearing from the edge of her vision. If his own near nudity was embarrassing for him between the two of them, she can only imagine what the eventual loss of her shirt is going to do to him, even when she has every intention of keeping herself covered up in front of him.

There's something almost amusing about his reaction to her when she exits the hall, maybe just the look on his face coupled with the knowledge that there are people out there who are scared of him. It's a little hard to believe when he looks like that.

Namie nods as she moves to lead the way to the bathroom, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Shizuo's actually following her and that he hasn't decided that he suddenly has other places to be. "Everything we need is in the bathroom and it's the easiest place to get to water and towels."

The end of her statement comes as she steps into the bathroom and switches the light on, taking a moment to get things out from the cabinet under the sink and the closet before she settles on the closed toilet. And, once there, she pulls at the rip in her sleeve to get a better look at the burn on her arm, rolling her shoulder with a slight wince.

True, Shizuo in his calmer states really isn't very scary in the least. Some people meeting him for the first time often find it hard to believe he really is the same guy that's built such a reputation for violence. (Though, generally, people also usually expect--someone rather larger.) But Namie has been quite fortunate to encounter him more often in his calmer moods than not.

Then again, she doesn't give him many reasons to be angry in the first place. --But it's even rarer to catch Shizuo being particularly embarrassed about things, too, and Namie has somehow managed to achieve this multiple times as well. At least it isn't intentional, on her part. Probably. Is that even normal, though, or is there some other reason...? Shizuo still couldn't explain it to himself if he tried.

Either way, Shizuo still follows Namie regardless, though it'd be lying to say he doesn't have some very vague second thoughts about the whole thing. But that shouldn't matter, he reminds himself as he steps into the bathroom, because it's not like he's going to try to make this weird anyway. Just keep things quick and painless. ...Well, as painless as it's going to get, with burns like these...

He lets Namie settle on the closed toilet, drifting over to the sinktop instead where she's set out things. Shizuo tugs off his sunglasses and tucks them into the usual waistcoat pocket before switching on the faucet, taking up a towel and starting to soak it. But he ends up glancing Namie's way as she tests her shoulder and winces like that, too. Right, looks like that counts for a burn on the shoulder for sure... "So, if I remember right--guess we should probably clean those burns up first. Which ones feel the worst right now, do you think?"

Honestly he half wants to ask what she'd like to do about her sleeve too--and her shirt in general, which already now feels like a miniature elephant in the room between them. But for some reason Shizuo can't seem to track down the right words to actually bring it up yet...and so he glances down to the sink instead for the moment as he debates this, frowning at the towel between his hands.

She does seem to have an issue with embarrassing him. Or they just have the misfortune of ending up in situations that are embarrassing for him, really. It's not something she aims to do considering how awkward it makes him, but she has some kind of knack for it, even without saying a word at times. Which is amazing, given that it's usually her bluntness that bothers people the most.

The bathroom isn't tiny, but having two people inside of it seems to make the room feel smaller. Probably because it's the first time she's been in it with anyone else. It's then that Namie realizes she's seen Shizuo more often than she's seen her own brother as of late and that's. Well, that's a strange things to consider. And it's stranger that she doesn't particularly mind it.

That's something she's willing to put on the pain that comes along with the burns, though. His question earns a look up toward him and there's no real consideration before she answers, "All of them."

But that's not a good answer and she knows it, so she pushes herself up from her seated position and reaches over, carefully pulling the largest dry towel from the stack before she motions to him, swirling a finger away from her. "Face the door for a second."

And then she's unfolding the towel and putting it down on the toilet seat so she can reach for the hem of her shirt, sure that the movement alone even without the show of skin will make him turn away if the request doesn't immediately work.

Shizuo honestly appreciates her bluntness quite a lot, if nothing else--being a pretty blunt person himself, at the best of times. Genuinely straightforward people are surprisingly difficult to come by, as far as he can tell, so it's almost refreshing when it does happen...as if conversation's easier, somehow. It'd almost be pretty ideal with Namie, really, if it weren't for that--inexplicable awkwardness she keeps seeming to set off in him, at the exact same time...

Lanky as he is, his height probably doesn't help the mild sense of crowding in the bathroom at present, even if Shizuo has already been folding his frame a little in his habitually innocuous sort of way since entering. But ah, speaking of bluntness...in retrospect, he supposes that maybe his question just now likely was. A little unnecessary. One burn probably does feel about the same as the other to most people, right? (And they all hurt like hell, as he and Namie have mutually established in earlier conversation...)

Before Shizuo can begin to properly feel chagrined about this or venture an apology, though, Namie is standing up and reaching for a towel all of a sudden. This earns her a startled blink, on Shizuo's part, before she motions for him to turn around and her intention finally clicks. Ah.

Well, that does resolve the tiny elephant in the room now, doesn't it? Shizuo at least has the presence of mind to fumble the sink's faucet into turning off, and moving the damp towel he'd been working on to the counter before he draws a quick step back.

"--Oh. Right." Another step away, and then he turns to face the door, one hand on his hip and the other at his face again. He sort of wishes he hadn't taken off his sunglasses now...but at least turned away like this, he doesn't have to worry about whether the slight heat creeping into his cheeks will translate to anything visible for Namie. --Not yet, anyway. Shizuo feigns a great interest in the doorknob. "Just--let me know whenever you're ready, yeah?"

She could've been a little more helpful in regards to the question of her burns, but she doesn't see much point in delaying what's inevitably got to happen when the one on her arm feels like it may be the worst of the three. That's what leads her to standing and to motioning to Shizuo and it's as she turns her back to him in return - a secondary measure of privacy just in case something leads him to looking back at her, as unlikely as that is - that she realizes she should've done this and then had him follow her in. More for his sake than for her own.

Taking her shirt off is more of a pain than she's willing to admit and it's with great care that she manages it, a frown on her face the entire time. Her bra follows before she wraps the towel around herself, securing it so she's covered before she glances back at Shizuo then at the clothing that's been removed, covering her bra with her shirt before dropping them in the nearest corner to save him from increased embarrassment.

Then she reclaims her spot on the toilet, careful that she's not pulling at the towel and making sure she's as covered as she can be like this before she speaks up. "I'm ready."

Her eyes are fixed on the back of his head as she speaks, waiting for him to turn around so she can catch a glance of his face just to see if he's as embarrassed as she thinks he probably is. It really would be closer to amusing without the burns involved.

Her doing this inside the bathroom while he's still outside probably would have been...marginally less awkward, yes. Being in the same room like this makes it very difficult not to hear the rustle of Namie's shirt and not envision exactly what she's doing with it about now. Not to mention, now he's thinking about it...it feels incredibly improper being in the same room at all for this sort of thing, even if Shizuo has absolutely no intention of trying to cop a peek or anything of the sort. Maybe he should have tried to excuse himself entirely for a bit...that would have been the polite thing to do...why hadn't he thought about that? He'd been pretty distracted, he supposes, but that's not really a very good excuse and now he's in this sort of situation anyway--

By the time Namie's finished, Shizuo has tucked his hands in his pockets for lack of anything better to do with them, the circle of his thoughts culminating into a heavy frown half at the doorknob and half at himself. When she speaks up he straightens, but there's still a very small pause of reluctance before Shizuo does turn around.

It's not a very surprising sight, at least, since Namie had made her intentions clear enough between asking him to turn around and taking up a towel. Shizuo makes sure to keep his eyes to her face, when he does look at her, before stepping back over to the sink and bending his attention back down to the damp hand towel he'd prepared a little earlier. He's clearly keeping his expression schooled in a neutral frown (this takes some effort), but Shizuo can still feel the heat in his face and a glance at the mirror confirms the color in his cheeks to match it; he wrings out the towel a little and turns away back to Namie. --Whatever, this is fine. This is fine! She's not making a big deal of it so he's not going to either. Quick and painless, right...

"Okay, so." He looks to her arm and shouler now, out in the open without the shirt, and the burns do seem rather bad there... "Looks like your arm's got the worst of it. You've got some burns on your legs too, right? But your shoulder might be a bit trickier to reach, I guess...you think you could work on cleaning up your legs while I wipe up your shoulder? Here--" He offers her the damp hand towel. "You use this one while I soak another, huh?"

Lucky for Shizuo, she's not interested in polite in this situation, otherwise she would've requested he step out of the room herself. She's seen enough of the way he reacts around her to know he's not going to try to look once asked to look away and that's all she really needs. It's more for convenience than anything else, otherwise she would've put a little more effort into making the situation easier on him.

But she finishes quick enough and she's not surprised by the blush, the frown, or the way his eyes remain at her face when he looks over at her. It's something she almost wants to comment on, but she's started to consider his reactions to the things she says and she knows it would only earn more embarrassment and awkwardness if she were to say something now.

So she remains quiet instead, the arm that's still in good shape folded across her midsection as she looks down at her other arm. It's when he turns toward her that she looks up again and the small movement is enough to make her realize her hair will be in the way soon enough. She lifts her hand then, after pulling her arm away from middle, and reaches behind her head to hook her fingers around her hair so she can pull it over her shoulder to keep it away from the opposite one. And it's once her hair is out of the way that she's paying attention to what Shizuo is suggesting, nodding at the offer of both of them taking care of the burns. It's a good idea on more than one level - he can get to her shoulder with less issue and the two of them taking care of them means this should go a little quicker.

"Thank you," she replies as she accepts the towel, leaning forward in her spot so she can begin carefully cleaning her burned leg. Her attention remains on her leg as he moves to soak another towel, but she decides against leaving silence over the two of them again when she thinks he might appreciate the distraction of conversation.

"Have you always lived in Ikebukuro?"

She pulls her hair to one side, clearing the burn on her shoulder of any interference and also exposing the curve of her neck. That's pretty, he muses to himself--and then he has to grab that thought by the metaphorical collar and haul it backwards. What? Well, her hair is sort of pretty, but--no, what kind of thought even was that? This isn't the time for that sort of thing at all. Whatever that even was. Shizuo looks away and bends his focus on taking up another towel, instead, soaking it in more cool water as he attempts to distract himself from further thoughts about prettiness and Namie's apparent capacity for it.

When he wrings out the towel and turns to Namie, it's to inspect the burn he's assigned himself more closely this time, noting the angry red of it. The memory of how a burn feels is pretty vague by now, sure, but that doesn't keep Shizuo from pressing his towel over it as gently as he can, as he leans down a little to apply it. His free hand ends up settling further up the curve of her shoulder, very gingerly, half to keep Namie steady and half to keep himself steady too.

It's times like this he worries a lot about this strength and his control of it, after all--when it comes to more delicate things like this. He has to bend all his focus into making sure the hand with the towel doesn't inadvertently press too hard, or something, and the tension this concentration brings about is probably already visible in the set of his frame. But Namie speaks up with a question, and Shizuo still leans into that sort of distraction a little thankfully anyway, even if his face doesn't show it. The silence has been starting to stretch a bit...

"Ah, pretty much, yeah. My parents' house is more out of the way, but we've never been too far out. --Went to Raira when I was in high school." Shizuo pauses, lifting the towel away for a moment to fold it and press a new clean spot to her shoulder. This is still a little preoccupying, despite the vein of conversation. "...Hey, let me know if this starts hurting too much or something, alright?"

The reaction to the movement of her hair isn't something Namie picks up on with her focus fixed on her leg. Thinking about it, she's not sure she's ever dealt with burns like this in the past. Not so much the pain since these feel very similar to the smaller burns that happen on occasion when she's cooking, but the size is definitely more than she remembers dealing with before. And the size is what makes them a pain to deal with. While none of them are huge, they're not the kind a person gains from a small brush of a finger against the side of a pot.

But the towel on her leg helps. It's cooling and that gives her some relief despite the heat in her arm and shoulder. Heat which Shizuo is soon helping with and she finds herself glancing over then, looking at his hand then up at him.

Suddenly, she understands the awkwardness that came from her being so close to him when he was barely dressed. Having a hand on her makes her realize just how close he is and, while she doesn't feel quite as awkward, it's enough to make her all to aware of the fact that he's seeing more skin than anyone has in some time.

She's considering that as she watches the look on his face, taking in the concentration even as he answers her question. The tension is clear and she knows what it comes from, which is why she finds herself lifting her hand, the one closest to his arm, to carefully rest it against his arm without actually grabbing hold of him.

"It's helping." It stings, sure, but that's to be expected. The coolness of the cloth is a vast improvement to the angry heat she's been dealing with since being burned. Her hand doesn't move away from his arm, though, and the beginning of their conversation is momentarily put on hold. "Relax. You're not going to hurt me."

Absorbed as he is with cautiously dabbing at her shoulder, Shizuo doesn't notice her hand reaching up until it's resting on his arm outright, faintly warm through the fabric of his sleeve. He pauses then, glancing over to Namie with a startled expression.

But then her words register, and the surprise gives way to something more wry. Shizuo huffs a small laugh that comes out more like a sigh. "It's that obvious, huh? ...I don't want to hurt you, yeah. But, also...I don't do this sort of thing a lot."

His arm is as solid as the rest of him generally is, more so with his initial tension so at odds with his painstakingly gentle application of the towel. Shizuo glances away from her again, back down to the burn on her shoulder; he lifts the towel away to eye it properly, though, and the line of tension in his arm does start to relax at her touch anyway. Just a little.

Still, though... "Did you know, Shinra has an entire cabinet full of steel cups in his kitchen? Specially ordered them from overseas, I think. Just in case I stop by his place and he wants to give me a drink." Shizuo shifts his position a bit, focus moving down to the burn on her arm now. Refolding the towel to another clean segment, he starts dabbing that spot too, his other hand slipping down from her shoulder to curl very lightly over her upper arm instead, fingertips just barely brushing over skin. This takes a fair amount of focus, too. "I don't know why he keeps trying."

"You're tense. That gives things away," she comments, tilting her head to watch his hand again. He's infinitely more gentle with things than she would be even with herself. And while she knows it's coming from effort on his part, she doubts that relaxing is going to end with her arm in a vice grip. Short of saying something with the intention of angering him, she knows she's fine in his hands. "You'll have more practice under your belt after this."

The comment is somewhat teasing as her fingers curl to rest on his arm, her gaze following the move to begin on the other burn on her arm as she listens to him, slightly distracted by the brush of his fingers against her arm. The touch shouldn't earn a second thought, but it does and it's cause to make her forcibly return herself to what's being said.

"I'm sure he tries because he likes you." That much seems obvious about any of the people Shizuo mentions and she's sure he knows it. She gives it a moment before she continues, looking up at him again as she arches an eyebrow at him. "Does he irritate you every time you end up there? If you ruin cups because of what he's saying, he should know better, shouldn't he?"

The burn on her leg is left as it is as they talk, the towel she was handed still resting over it to keep it cool as she allows Shizuo to focus on her arm. It's something she can get to afterward, when there's more space between them again.

The corner of his mouth twitches a little despite himself, at the teasing, and it leaves a dent in the heaviness of his frown up until now even after the fact. Focus settled firmly on cleaning her burns, the awkwardness of the situation is a little easier for Shizuo put off to the side for the moment--it's difficult to stay embarrassed and also be preoccupied with an injury at the same time, after all. Even if the prolonged hand on his arm does strike him as a little odd...Namie certainly doesn't seem to think twice about physical contact when she thinks it's necessary, but she hasn't tended to let it last either. --But he's not about to question it, so he doesn't.

The talk of Shinra actually has him shaking his head a little, though, more to himself than anything. His expression is definitely wry now. "Sometimes you wonder if being liked by a guy like that's really a good thing..." Shizuo lifts the towel away to check the burn again. Seems about as clean as it's going to get... "He thinks I'm neat or something. Ah, 'fascinating', that's what he says. He also talks way too much. And he knows that pisses me off, but at this point I don't know if he can even help it. He never thinks before he says shit..."

And the steel cups are next to useless. Honestly, Shizuo himself really couldn't explain why he puts up with the guy so much, even surgeon services aside. When a bad acquaintance sticks that thoroughly it seems like you have to either find a way to tolerate them eventually, or kill them. Shizuo straightens, both hands slipping from her arm. "Anyway, these are pretty clean now. I think it's just--ointment stuff we need to put on them?" He tilts his head, looking over to Namie's towel. "How's your leg looking?"

It's half thanks to the distraction of having him deal with her arm and half because it's a sense of evenness, having her hand on him while his are on her. It remains there probably because she prefers control and, short of taking over and brushing Shizuo away, it's as close as she can get to it in the moment, like having her hand on his arm means she can stop him if she feels the need to.

She listens to him talk about Shinra, glancing over at her arm as he lifts the towel. Both burns are cleaner than they started and that's good enough for the time being. "He says you're fascinating?" She shakes her head as she turns her gaze back to Shizuo's face. "I doubt I'd spend much time around someone who called me that." Especially someone like Shinra, who might take saying something like that to the next level. Thinking about it, she's a little surprised Shizuo hasn't ended up on an operating table if he usually goes to Shinra for help.

When hands slide away from her, her own hand drops to her lap as she nods at his first question. "Ointment and bandages are next." At the mention of her leg, she takes the chance to lean down and lift the towel from the burn, which is also clean thanks to her earlier efforts before he started on her arm. She pulls the towel away completely and straightens up to toss it over into the sink. "Better. There's not much left now."

Aside from seeking out medicine after they're done, but that's something she can do on her own.

"I wouldn't recommend it," Shizuo agrees, shrugging in turn as Namie makes her remark about Shinra's commentary. "Normally I wouldn't either, but we've known each other since gradeschool and he doesn't know how to give up on things. At this point I'd probably have to kill him to get rid of him. Lucky for him, he can be handy sometimes." And maybe Shizuo doesn't actually want to kill him--the same way he doesn't want to kill most people, actually, but also in the sense of a very reluctant companionship. Maybe Shinra has grown on him a little...like a fungus or something.... He gestures with the towel dispassionately, then sets it back down in the counter. "I get that a lot anyway, the whole 'fascinating' thing. People can be nosy bastards."

So, in a sense, he's gotten used to it--with Shinra and those assorted others combined. But one small silver lining of his temper, at least, is that those kinds of people also have a decent sense of self-preservation, and so the nagging questions don't tend to last very long. Shinra is about the only exception to that, but Shinra also has the best sense of self-preservation of all of them, at least as far as Shizuo's seen. At the very least, they both know that any attempt at an operating table without Shizuo's explicit consent (which is never going to be given) will amount to a genuinely attempted murder at the very least, no matter how marginally lenient Shizuo might feel about Shinra usually.

Not like anything could hold him down for long, anyway...

"Right, ointment then. Ah, have you already taken that out or is it somewhere else in here..?" Shizuo leans down a bit to examine the other things on the counter that Namie had put together before settling.

Edited ('grown in him'.......ah) 2016-04-18 04:54 (UTC)

Coming from Shizuo, the mention of killing someone is almost funny. Given what she's seen of him, she's sure he could hurt someone, likely with or without the intention to. But, kill? That's something she highly doubts short of the murder of someone he's close to serving as motivation. And given that Shinra actually sounds like he falls into the category of someone Shizuo is close to, whether or not he wants to admit something like that, killing him obviously isn't going to happen no matter how fascinating he finds Shizuo.

Admittedly, her thoughts have wandered to the idea of drugs and how they might work on Shizuo. But those musings come from a place of self-preservation rather than fascination, thoughts for preparing herself for the inevitable time when he finds out who her boss is and she's potentially lashed out at for her connection to Izaya.

"I can't believe you've known him so long and you still spend time with him." It's said as Namie straightens up again, looking over at the counter for the last of the things they need. A reach over and lift of the remaining towels - towels she moved to get to the one she's using - reveals a tube of ointment, some gauze pads, and a roll of tape. With those in sight, it serves as an answer to his question and she relaxes once more.

"So you two went to Raira together then, too?" She gives him a long look. "How old are you?"

"Can't believe it either, to be honest..." It's a grumble, but there's honestly not a terrible lot of heart to it. Shizuo draws back from the counter to give Namie some room as she reaches over to the towels suddenly. But--oh, there's everything else. Good enough answer to his question, now isn't it?

Shizuo takes up the ointment once Namie settles again, gingerly unscrewing the cap on it, but glances up at the question. "Ah, yeah. We were in separate middle schools, but then we ended up back in the same school again like that..." Because luck has a strange way of sorting people, apparently. But Namie's second question earns a more bemused sort of pause. "I'm twenty-four."

What an unexpected thing to be asked. Is there something relevant to be found about his age that Namie wants to check in on, or something? Is he even a typical sort of twenty-four year old, now he thinks about it...? Well, though that's a pretty stupid sort of question. Shizuo puts it aside instead of trying to think on it.

Instead he sets the ointment lid on the counter and draws up to Namie's side again. Less hesitant, this time, with more things to preoccupy him apart from her current state of dress--and especially because this is going to be even more of a delicate process than the cleaning had been, probably. He dabs some ointment onto a finger and leans over her shoulder again, the fingertips of his free hand bracing very lightly over the unharmed skin next to the burn while he starts very carefully applying the ointment on the burn itself with the other. He wouldn't be surprised if this stings more than the towel, so he tries to be as light as he can about it...

Then Shizuo realizes she'd probably notice him starting to tense up again, so he tries to break the brief silence at least. "--How about you, then? Lived around Ikebukuro for awhile too?"

The question is more one of curiosity than anything else, but the answer makes her eyebrows arch a little. She doesn't usually give the connections between people in depth thought - it's not something she cares about very much - but it's odd to realize how much earlier they could've crossed paths.

She doesn't offer any immediate comment after her question, though, instead quietly settling into thought as he moves closer to her again. The feeling of his hand almost makes her reach for his arm again, but she keeps her own hands to herself this time, focusing on keeping her hair from slipping back over her shoulder as she tilts her head away from it, wanting to give him the space to work.

The ointment does sting and it earns a small frown in reaction, but nothing else. The more she moves, the longer the care for it takes and that's not something she wants to prolong.

Shizuo's words bring her gaze away from the wall across from her and back to him.

"Most of my life. My brother and I moved in with my uncle when we were young and we've been here since." Her thoughts circle back around to school and her frown lessens as she continues speaking, her tone a little lighter as she admits her musing aloud. "I'm twenty-five. It's strange to think that I could have been your senior if I'd chosen to attend Raira."

Getting the ointment applied takes less time than cleaning the burn, at the very least, and Shizuo is soon moving on to the spot further down her arm again. Namie's continued measures to keep her hair away from this side are appreciated, too, even if Shizuo finds himself having to put a little effort into not giving the gesture as much...notice, this time. No, he'd best not get distracted from something as cautious as this anyway--

But her comment about schools and ages has him glancing up despite himself anyway, more visibly surprised now than he has been before.

"Ah, yeah, guess that would make you the older one..." Honestly, he hadn't really paid any thought to how old Namie might be at all before this, but. Somehow he's not too surprised about that, the more he thinks on it. More surprising is how close their ages actually are, rather...but as he considers the idea of her having attended Raira at the same time instead... "So you'd be a year above me there, you're right. You could have even been my senpai and everything, huh?"

He laughs a little, and the amused smile that comes with it lingers for a moment even after the fact, as he looks back down and resumes pressing on the ointment. Oddly, should Namie be paying attention, the remark and the laugh end up also being accompanied by a much lighter flush on his features for some reason--though it's faint enough to be easily missed. Shizuo doesn't even notice it, actually, though it's just--such an odd thought, that. And yet oddly almost plausible, as he tries to even picture it...?

The task is faster, she's sure, but she wonders if he's working with more ease now. He's not quite as tense or on edge as before, so she hopes that's the case if only to prove that he doesn't have to worry so much when he's close to people.

Or it could just be that the conversation is enough to make him relax, if his reaction is anything to go by. The talking seems to put him at ease - more than the silence does, anyway - though she's not sure why her statement is so surprising. Maybe it's the mention of ages or the fact that things really are smaller than they seem. If she'd made one different decision, one to attend Raira rather than a private academy that she'd deemed better for university prospects, they might've come out of school knowing one another and this might not be happening at all.

Something about it is amusing, though, and Shizuo's own assessment and amusement over it is enough to earn a smile as she gives a small shake of her head over the fact that they're discussing this at all.

"Mm, I could have been." It's not hard to picture, honestly, as she looks at Shizuo. What's odd is considering him in the uniform when she's used to that bartender outfit of his. But the thought of it is distracting enough that she misses the flush despite how close the two of them are. And it's oddly helpful in keeping her focused on the more ridiculous 'what if...' rather than thinking about the burns. "I wonder how that would've gone, meeting in school like that."

Truthfully it really is a combination of both, even if Shizuo doesn't quite realize it himself. The edge of his earlier tenseness is certainly gone, though, and the talking helps...quite a lot. Which would strike a little odd, if he cared to think about it more. Shizuo is generally a pretty quiet sort of person in his daily life, really--when his temper isn't being set off--and he rarely ever talks this much to anyone, even good friends on average days. Or maybe it was really just a matter of finding a good topic and decent company to have a conversation with after all, in the end. He's hard put to find people that don't inadvertently tread on his temper in their own ways of chatting, but Namie is turning out to be one of the few first-time exceptions.

Second burn tended to, Shizuo finally straightens, thought doesn't move away immediately, in favor of noting Namie's own smile and her reply. Evidently she's trying to picture it too, and that he's not the only one to find it a little funny. "Hah, who knows, right? Probably would have been better than our actual first meeting was. --Maybe..."

It's not particularly hard to beat running into a shootout in rain at an ungodly hour of morning, after all, but...Shizuo pauses a bit, smile fading as he turns to the counter. Absently he rubs at his face a little--oh, it's a bit warm, that's weird...but the line of thought he's preoccupied with now puts that oddity to the side. "Or maybe it wouldn't have been very quiet anyway, actually. Ah, I wasn't a very peaceful sort of student either..." He takes up a pair of bandages and turns back over to Namie again, a little sombered. But he offers her the tube of ointment too. "--Want to get the one on your leg? I'll start covering these up here on your arm while you're at it..."

This is easily the most casual conversation Namie has had with anyone in some time and she knows how odd it is, just like so many other things are in regards to Shizuo. She doesn't usually engage other people unless it's necessary on some level or she likes them, and the latter category is only held by a single person. So Shizuo still falls into that limbo in between, somehow managing to keep himself in a position that leaves her wondering if that category is going to expand by one person at some point in the future or if she'll eventually lump Shizuo in with most everyone else.

Her head tilts upward as he straightens up after finishing with her arm and she doesn't quite register that the smile is lingering on her face. Though her own slips away as she watches him and his after he speaks, her eyes following his movement as she waits for him to continue.

As he does, she lets out a quiet laugh, nodding as she reaches out to accept the ointment from him. She leans down and begins to carefully apply ointment to her last burn, trying to stick to the use of her uninjured hand so she can leave access to her other arm to him.

"I wasn't any nicer as a student," she comments, tilting her head to glance up at him for a moment before returning her attention to her leg. "Maybe our first meeting would have been surprisingly similar. I doubt the impression you would have left then would've been any different than the one you've left since we met."

"Some impression about bleeding too much everywhere, you mean?" The idea does curl some faint humor back into his tone despite himself. It's not even all that implausible, really, when she puts it like that...if anything, his temper was usually even worse back then than it is now.

He takes up a gauze pad and the roll of tape now, considering the prospect of bandaging. Hm, maybe it'd be easier to start on the lower one on her arm first...

"But hey, what do you mean you weren't a nice student? I'd have figured you were one of those model students, even. Can't tell me you weren't at least a class rep or something..."

With the way Namie carries herself, she seems like she'd have been the type. But well, the keyword is always 'seems' with anybody, isn't it? Shizuo presses the gauze pad over the burn and starts wrapping the tape around both it and her arm; the action is very nearly absentminded, with some caution added in to make sure he doesn't inadvertently bind this too tight or something. But he's very familiar with bandages at the very least, putting them on and taking them off or having other people do it for him in his stead...he must have gone through hundreds of bandages when he was a kid. Funny how that works...

"That one-" She agrees with a nod, a lilt of teasing amusement in her tone with the first part of her reply as she focuses on her leg. "And the impression of being decent company." Despite his temper and the fighting, of course. She imagines that, temper or not, he hasn't changed all that much since then.

His judgement of her life as a student is spot on and she can't help glancing at him again, a little surprised by it. But her attention returns to her leg almost immediately even as she speaks.

"Oh, I was a perfect student. First in my class, student council president. I didn't need to be nice to get those things." No, she excelled at her studies and she was the type that classmates listened to, so the position seemed natural and looked good for her future. "What I mean is I wasn't any less blunt then. I didn't have friends in school."

She finishes with her leg and slowly straightens up, trying not to disturb his care of her arm in the process. And, once upright, her gaze settles on his work, watching as he bandages the burn and musing over how few people have ever done anything like this for her.

"And what about you? What kind of student were you? Aside from not being peaceful."

Ah, decent company...maybe. But then, she probably wouldn't be putting up with him for this long otherwise, would she? It's still strange all the same, though, hearing it outright from somebody like that. Shizuo can't figure out how to actually acknowledge that, and so it earns an almost awkward sort of nod instead. He preoccupies himself with effortlessly tearing the tape from its roll, instead, once the bandaging seems to be wrapped securely enough. Then it's on to another gauze pad, placed lightly over her shoulder.

Talk of school ends up being easier to respond to, at least, and Shizuo is pleased to find that his guess was right. No friends, though...? He almost sniffs a little. "What, just because you're blunt? Still don't know why so many people think that's a problem..."

Bluntness and honesty tend to go hand in hand, after all. It's something he finds himself quite appreciating in regards to Namie, at any rate. She finishes with her leg and straightens, and it isn't too disturbing in the least. Shizuo starts working the tape over her shoulder as well, though the line of questioning shifts back over to him and his hands hesitate somewhat, as he thinks on it.

"The kind of student I was? Hm...average." His shoulders roll in a slight shrug. "Definitely wasn't a class president or anything, didn't really have the--ah, 'temperament', you know. Meanwhile I had too much of a 'temperament' for sports too, so I never got into much of that either...never really could hack the extracurricular things, I guess. My grades were alright." In the end he'd graduated on time, at least, which was probably enough of an achievement in itself. Even his parents had been a little surprised, what with all of his other...problems. But just learning was never really the issue, honestly. ...Still, a slight smile begins to edge on Shizuo's features again as another thought occurs to him. "Kasuka was the one who actually ended up being the star student, hah. At least one of us got to manage it, I guess, even if it's a little backwards like that..."

( they're bleeding! oh no. they are dead. )

god like three-fourths of this tag is just him being a giant nerd im so sorry...

giant nerd shizuo is my favorite, tbh. pls never apologize

wipes away single tear

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