kawaii_complex | Room 226; Saturday Morning [11/20].

It probably seemed a little unnecessary to say that Sakaki's new life in Fandom was filled with adjustments and oddities. Even if it weren't for the fact that this place included things like falling into deep, dark holes or turning into a younger version of yourself for a weekend or even a beautiful and mysterious Shrine Maiden for a spell, there was also a big cultural difference between America and Japan. Some of it, she was grateful for--so many people here were so tall! Some even made her feel a little short!--and none of it seemed really that bad, just....different. Like the food, especially, and the language, although she could feel her English improving greatly day by day and she felt she had a pretty good grasp on it to begin with anyway! Still, things were different enough that she felt homesick around nearly every turn, which was why it was so exciting for her when she did get some mail from home.

Especially since that included her cat magazines!

She was delighted to discover this month's magazine in her mail that morning and, after grabbing a hasty breakfast, she hurried back to her room, to settle in on her bed, surrounded by all of her plushies, Neco Coneco especially draped over her shoulder so that they could read along with her, smiling softly as she flipped through the pages, marveling at all the adorable kitten pictures and cat drawings and the precious little comics about cats and cat life, pining wistfully over some new Neco Coneco merch advertised on practically every other page (they had a new one with cowboy hats! She obviously needed to get one! What was more American than cowboy hats???), and there was a puzzle on the back page, and it seemed like she wasn't turning into anything this weekend or getting sucked into somewhere weird, so this was a beautiful, perfect, normal Saturday, and Sakaki was definitely coming around to appreciating those!

[[ door and post are very much open~ ]]

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Sakaki was faintly beaming at having been right, that Kiem would appreciate it, and she almost felt proud that she had the magazine to show him. "It's all about cats," she confirmed, "yes. This one has bit of a farm theme; the comic I was reading is about Neco Coneco going to one to meet all the other animals!"

Which meant there were some painfully adorable photographs, too, of cats curled up on cows, cats playing with dogs, sleeping in hay bales...Sakaki was going to lose it just thinking about them!

"They tend to do a theme each month." Tied in closely to whatever new Neco Coneco was being released, imagine that! "Last month was a circus!"

Clown cats, Kiem! Clown. Cats!!

Kiem had never had a friend this enthusiastic about cats, or one who used a title that meant they were friends rather than the 'prince' and 'your highness' that he was used to.

"Sakaki-chan, I've never met anyone who loves cats as much as you do."

It was a compliment. Also, the -chan was a result of Kiem learning how to use google.

In a way, Sakaki hadn't even realized that she'd started calling Kiem by a friendly honorific the way she had; it had apparently just been a rather natural progression, she hadn't paid it much mind at all, but when he heard him called her Sakaki-chan...

-chan. Not -san...

Her eyes went wide and her face absolutely flushed with red. If it weren't for her hands being filled with tea and her magazine, she'd have been tempted to immediately hide behind them.

"Ch...chan?" she stammered out, suddenly convinced that, no, she had to have misheard him. Maybe it was something that sounded similar from his own world that meant something else entirely, because there was no way...no one would ever...

Somehow, the red in her face managed to get deepen even more. She was pretty sure no one had called her -chan, not even her own parents, since she was maybe nine years old.

Kiem nudged his cup onto the bedstand.

"Did I get that wrong? Sorry, I didn't mean to, I just looked it up on the internet, I thought it was the same as -kun. Sakaki I'm sorry."

He felt terribly awkward.

"N-no!" Sakaki, now mortified by her reaction, suddenly felt even more restricted by the things in her hands, because she couldn't even hold up her hands as if to stop the misunderstanding. "No, it...it is, that's right, it's just I...I..."

Oh, boy....how did she explain to someone from a different world the nuances of a language like hers and all the unspoken connotations behind what might otherwise seem harmless honorifics? How did she explain to him that, while -chan was a good compliment to -kun, it didn't really apply to her, because -chan quite often tied closely with cuteness, and not even her own classmates back home called her -chan, always -san. Noble. Respectful. Admired. But never cute!

How could she tell him....just how...silly it sounded, to have anyone call her Sakaki-chan?

Especially when she deeply, deeply liked it.

"It...it's fine. I just....you caught me off guard..."

Kiem was about to ask what she meant by that, maybe to apologise again, but just then he turned into a rabbit.

It was an odd sensation to turn into a rabbit.

He sat on the bed in front of Sakaki, looking as confused as a rabbit could.

Aaaaand now there was a rabbit.

It had been a perfectly nice, normal Saturday. She'd had a new cat magazine. Kiem brought her tea, and then had called her -chan, and she'd panicked, and now there was a rabbit where Kiem had been and it didn't matter that there was a magazine and a tea in her hands now, there was going to be flailing.

Just very small, controlled flailing, because the last thing Sakaki wanted to do was splash tea all over her bed and the Kiem-bunny.

Because she was convinced that, clearly, this had to be Kiem, because where else would Kiem had gone, and thank goodness for weekends like the last one to show Sakaki that sometimes funny things like this happened, and now her friend was a rabbit!

And once that small bit of panic was over, Sakaki finally set aside the magazine and her cup joined Kiem's on her bedside table as she leaned in a little closer, blinking at the rabbit.

And getting distracted for a moment, because...

"Kawaii desu neeeeeee," she quietly gushed, unable to keep it contained, because it was not fair, Kiem! Not fair at all, to not only turn into an animal, but one that was so CUTE!

With her hands now free, Sakaki was just going to cover her mouth with them as she peered down at him and tried to process/overcome all of this right now, because it was a lot.

Kiem, still confused, stood on his back legs, nose twitching. What was happening?

That looked possibly even cuter.

That did look even cuter! So much so that Sakaki was downright paralyzed as if attacked by the adorableness for a good two, three seocnds.

Then she blinked her eyes, which were threatening to pop right out of her head with how wide they'd gone and shoo her head furiously to get focused on the crisis at hand.

"Kiem-kun!" she said. "Are...are you alright?"

As if he could actually answer her.

Was he alright? Even if he could answer he wouldn't know what to say, but at least there would be some rambling about it.

He took a step, no, jump forward and sniffed at Sakaki's magazine.

There was a small trembling on Sakaki's part, because this was just a lot to handle, and it had nothing to do with the whole friend-turning-into-a-bunny thing.

"Oh," she said, seeing where Kiem was sniffing. "Did...did you want to read more of the magazine?"

She didn't wait for him to answer (and not just because he really couldn't) before she shifted it, opening it up to a new page and moving it as if to lay it out in front of him.

Sadly, rabbits didn't generally read, or look at pictures, but that paper looked really nice to chew at. He sniffed a bit more and tried to take just a tiny bite.

"Oh!" This time, the word was a little more surprised, and Sakaki pulled the magazine protectively away. "No, Kiem-kun, you shouldn't eat that!" She frowned at him a little. "So I guess you're more than just a rabbit physically, too."

Unless she'd just discovered something very bizarre about her friend, but no matter.

She got up off the bed so she could put the magazine somewhere that he couldn't reach and considered his position. "Here," she said, plucking a floppy eared patchwork bunny from one of her shelves and setting it beside him. "You play with Flopsy-Opsy for just a moment, I'll go to the common room to see if there's something better for you to eat, okay? But please, stay on the bed. I don't know how rabbit-proof the room is and you simply must at the very least stay away from Hedwig's cage! Understood?"

Room 226; Saturday Morning [11/20].

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