[Day: Monday, March 3rd. Time: 8:30 p.m.] [Weather: It's a chilly, clear night.] [After today's little trip to Chichibu, everyone took the train back home, missing their chance to visit Yurika Miataka at the jail. Instead, they met Fuyuko and her overly-controlling insane brother Yushiro, who will be moving to Tokyo on Wednsday. Isn't that nice?] [Anyhow, once everyone got home, Satoshi called Katie and asked her to meet him at the ice rink which, lucky for you guys, is open until 10:00 p.m.] [Mini Start] * Katie walks to the rink, jacket closed and hands in her pockets. It's cold! * Satoshi is standing just inside the entrance. When he spots Katie, he waves. * Katie waves back and hurries in. Hi, Katie. I'm sorry about bothering you like this. But thank you so much for coming. It's fine. Are you okay? * Satoshi sighs. "Kinda... well, no, not really. But... well, I know you haven't exactly been doing so well lately, either. And I kinda wanted to talk about both things. If that's okay with you." * Katie blinks at him, then nods. "Yeah, well. I'm here, so why not. Where to?" How about one of the locker rooms? Most people store their stuff other places in between games, so it's fairly clean and nobody's really going to be back there. Sure. * Satoshi leads the way. * Katie follows! [The locker room is pretty standard. Buncha lockers, benches for people to sit when they're suiting up, stuff like that. This one's mostly empty.] * Satoshi sits down on a bench. * Katie looks around, then has a seat on another bench, facing Satoshi. So, anyway... I... well, lately I feel like I've been losing ground. With all this Arcana stuff. I mean, it's not like we know a lot about it, but I feel like I just keep getting more and more confused, and I can't figure out how to get on top of things again. Well, as on top of things as I can get. * Katie nods. "Yeah." I mean, for a while we had some ideas, like with the Reversed Cards and all, but then Jin showed up, and we keep getting taken to all these different places, and then we got attacked... and I'm not really helping, am I? I'm just rambling. * Katie shakes her head. Sometimes what you need to do is get it all out. So get it out. We can go from there. * Satoshi nods. "Okay." And, well, while this might not seem all that important compared to everything else... I'm kinda confused about Taki, too. * Katie toys with the zipper on her coat as she listens. Then she blinks. "Taki?" Yeah. Why Taki? Well... okay. I thought that she was... you know... interested in me. Maybe. I mean, she turned down Jun, or whoever it was that sent that letter. But... I tried to ask her out the other day, and while she didn't flat-out say no, she didn't seem all that interested, either. And she didn't open her birthday present, either. I mean... well, I'm not trying to criticize or anything, but if she'd given me something, I'd have been so thrilled that I would've opened it right away. * Katie nods, listening. She considers. She didn't say yes? That's weird. I thought Taki'd jump at that. I kinda thought so too. We have been busy lately, so I can understand wanting some time to rest, but... I dunno. * Satoshi sighs. "Guess maybe I was hoping too hard?" Well... I don't know if her not opening her present yet has anything to do with you. You know Taki, she's... um. * Katie frowns, trying to think of the word, then switches to English. "" Or maybe she wants to wait for everyone to be around. * Satoshi chuckles. "Yeah. I've kind of noticed. Her and Haruko both, really. So I probably shouldn't take that personally." Maybe that, too. * Katie nods. "Yeah." She studies Satoshi. "You really like her, don't you?" * Satoshi blushes slightly. "Yeah, I do." * Katie chuckles. Well, maybe she'll come around. You never know. I think she likes you, too. * Satoshi smiles a little. "I hope so. Maybe she's just overwhelmed by everything. Like me. And maybe all of us. Except Kyon. I don't even want to think about what it would take to jar him..." ( Jin isn't! ) * Katie removes her jacket; it's plenty warm. "Let's hope we don't find out." (Well, yeah, but Jin is special. ^_~) * Satoshi nods. "Definitely." So, yeah. Lots of stuff to think about. * Katie nods. And right now, seems like all we can do is speculate. And even that's not all that helpful sometimes. * Katie grimaces. "No, it isn't." * Satoshi notices Katie's look. "Yeah. I thought so." She means well, you know. I know. I know she means well, but... * Katie throws her hands up in the air. "Meaning well doesn't help by itself." * Satoshi looks slightly embarassed. "Yeah. Which is why I want to try and sort things out as best I can. So I can stop just reacting to stuff after it happens. Maybe be... what's the word for it?" * Katie tilts her head. "Calm?" Oh! Um... I don't know the word. * Satoshi considers that for a few moments, mouthing the word silently to himself. Yeah. I think that might be it. * Katie nods. That's what I'd like. If we can just get a solid... anything, we can start acting instead of letting things happen to us. Exactly. There's got to be a way somehow... We'll find it. I hope so. I'd just like a direction to be pointed in. We have one. The drugs. I think that's why Kaede wanted to go to the jail, right? Yeah, it was. * Satoshi frowns. * Katie blinks. "What?" I just don't like this whole situation with the drugs. I know, I know, whether or not I "like" something isn't all that important, but... It's dangerous. Seriously dangerous. Especially since it seems like some of the really powerful Arcana are involved. It's important. You're involved. * Katie smiles faintly. "Yeah, well. Danger is going to be something we'll all just have to learn to live with, I guess." I'm trying. It just seems like every time I think I might be starting to live with it, something else happens. Like the biker attack. I've been practicing, you know. Working on my control. * Katie nods. "It been going okay? I've been working on mine, too, but I still can't do much." Yeah. I'm getting better at checking my swings, and at aiming. And Haruko explained how to work the stick, so I shouldn't have anything like... that... happen again. * Katie nods again. "That's good. And it's not your fault, Satoshi." I know. I got really lucky. But I don't want anything like that ever to happen again. Hell, the fact that I carry around a weapon now, even an unconventional one, bothers me. But... I'm beginning to realize that it's probably necessary. I've been carrying around mace since... well, a long time. I shouldn't have to. I think that's what's wrong about it. * Satoshi nods. "Yeah. I guess I've never had to worry about that. People don't exactly want to mess with me for some strange reason." He smiles briefly. * Katie chuckles. "I'd never guess why. You're cuddly." * Satoshi laughs. "Yep, that's me. World's most non-violent hockey player." Guess you can tell I probably wasn't always that way, though. Oh, probably. What happened? Had a slight... disagreement with a guy about twice my size. Mind you, I started it. I was young and stupid. Okay, maybe not that much younger. Definitely stupider, though. ( He used to be the world's most violent ice-skater. ) (*snerks* Not entirely off the mark. ;p) ... About what? ( Whether or not feeding the turtle was fun :P ) (Whether or not sleeping in the open is good.) Oh, it was dumb. Thought he was making fun of my skating. Said I skated like a pretty-boy figure skater. Okay, so he was *right*, but... back then I was a lot more sensitive about things. * Katie nods. So, yeah. Got myself a good pounding. Straightened my head out a bit. * Katie giggles. "And your nose." * Satoshi grins. "No, no. The nose is definitely *not* straight. And I doubt I'm going to be starring in any toothpaste commercials any time soon, either." Ah, but it's not how many teeth you have. It's how shiny they are. Shiny enough that the light goes *ting* off of them? * Katie nods. "Exactly." * Satoshi laughs. "I'll have to work on that, then." Stick with me. I'll make you a star! * Satoshi shakes his head. "Nah. Don't really want to be famous. Well, maybe famous in the NHL. But I'd be happy living a quiet life too, I think." A quiet life in the NHL? I don't think that's possible. Well, I meant a quiet life instead of the NHL, but... yeah. I'd be a big news story, I'm betting. Don't think there are any Japanese players in the NHL. Paul Kariya of Anaheim's the closest person, I guess." (Ignore that last quote. And, yes. Satoshi's mentioned this before. It's in his bio, too, I think. I hope it is, anyway.) See, you'd be a first. Yeah. It might be nice to make it. Might? From what I can tell, it's your dream. * Satoshi blinks. "Yeah... yeah, it is." Then there's no might about it. You'd love to make it in. * Katie folds her hands behind her head and leans back. "Looks like you're on your way, too." ( If a Chinese guy could get into Basketball... Except it's 2001; I don't think he's actually a basketball player yet. ) (2002. If he isn't there yet, people are talking about him.) I'm trying, at least. I have to keep on trying. * Katie nods. "You'll do it." I hope so. But there's a lot that we all have to get through first. Yeah. But, see, we will. You can't give up your future because of now. * Satoshi sighs. "I know. I just have to be reminded of that every so often." * Katie grins. "Then I'm here to remind you." * Satoshi laughs. "Thanks. I really do appreciate that. Is there anything you'd like me to remind you of? ...that didn't exactly come out right, did it?" * Katie giggles. "Not really." She sobers up pretty quickly. "But I think that usually, when you need to be reminded about something, you don't know." Well, yeah. I mean, if you knew you needed to be reminded, then you'd just take care of it in the first place. No reminders necessary. Yup. So... in all seriousness, is there anything else you think I need to be reminded of? I'm not saying that there is... just that you might have noticed something that I wasn't aware of. * Katie spreads her hands helplessly. "Don't give up? There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?" * Satoshi chuckles. "That wasn't exactly what I was getting at, but I'll keep it in mind." How about giving yourself some credit sometimes. * Satoshi looks a little embarassed again. "Yeah. I know. Not exactly great at that." * Katie nods, thoughtfully. Satoshi? Can I ask an unfair question? * Satoshi blinks. "Hmm? I guess... but if I thought it was really unfair, could I choose not to answer?" * Katie laughs. "Of course." Okay... shoot, then. * Katie regards Satoshi for a moment, then asks, "Why do you have a crush on Taki?" Why? Well, um... well, she's really nice, and enthusiastic, and a hard worker... she almost never complains... and she's pretty fun to be around... and... well... * Satoshi 's voice drops a bit. "...she's really the first girl to ever be interested in me..." ( Aw. You could find plenty of people in this game who'd be interested if you gave them a chance ;_; ) (Try telling that to him. ^_~) * Katie peers at Satoshi. "Is that really why? Because she's interested in you?" * Satoshi looks down. "It's not the only reason..." * Katie sighs and gets up, going to sit next to Satoshi. She taps him on the shoulder. "Don't be ashamed. I just want to make sure." I guess there's no real... right reason, or anything. And I'm probably not the person to talk to, since I went out with Taro and all. But some are better than others, and- * Katie stops herself. "I'm just making a mess of things." * Satoshi looks back up at her. "Well, you didn't know Taro was a creep when you first started, right? So that's not your fault. And you're not making a mess, really. I just figure... well, it's better to be interested in someone who's interested in you, than with someone who isn't." Yeah. And you can't really control it. * Katie smiles faintly. "But if the big reason you like her is because she likes you, you might want to take a closer look. Get to know her better, right?" * Satoshi nods. "Yeah. That's true. Maybe I can ask her again, but with less pressure. Less of a date-type situation and more of just hanging out or something. It's not like we aren't together at practice and all." * Katie nods again. ( Except there's a lot more guys at practice, too :P ) * Satoshi smiles at her. "Thanks, Katie. I feel a lot better now. A bit less overwhelmed. I hope this maybe helped you, too." [Mini End]