pullmeoutalive | Entries tagged with character: makoto kikuchi

[ She's endured various levels of teasing and embarrassing questions from her fellow idols for this moment. Azusa, at least, had been encouraging (and equally embarrassing when she'd insisted on doing fortune-telling for the day) and now Makoto surveys the set-up with a proud nod. A one-year anniversary was nothing to scoff at, and with her parents out of town for the weekend (something she suspected her mother had coordinated for certain reasons), it was the perfect time and place to invite her boyfriend over. Just for a night. But she's actually cooked (ramen and some other things involving chopped vegetables and several band-aids) and cleaned and there are non-scented candles (because her dad still decreed them unmanly) around and she is so bound and determined to make this good.

Worse comes to worst, she has a whole stack of movies they can power through.

Makoto waits outside her house now, clad in a longer black skirt and one of her favorite tops, white with frills down the middle. All right. She's got this.

Hopefully. ]

jitensha

[ so, Makoto may not be very good at video games. But one outing (date her mind had supplied, even though she'd turned pink just thinking about it) had led them to an arcade, and she'd thought to try and improve by doing a round of games.

... She hadn't been very good.

But that was before she'd seen the DDR systems in the corner.

Sorry, Makoto, your girlfriend is over there and enthusiastically trouncing her competition. It's been awhile since she's been able to just dance like this, and it shows. ]

jitensha

[ work, as she'd predicted, has been getting increasingly schedule-jamming. Not that Makoto minds, but in between work and studying and the few occasional moments of free time she could get with the other idols, it's been even harder to get the chance to see her... boyfriend (and she'll get used to thinking of him like that sooner or later, but it never fails to make her feel unusually shy).

Well, she'd reasoned, he had a training camp, so even if she'd had the time, he would have been gone anyway-- but that doesn't stop her from texting him, taking a breather from the rehearsal with Mami and Haruka to do so. ]

Hey! How'd the training camp go?

jitensha

[ with Makoto letting her know that he'd be close by her venue of work for the day, she'd thrown herself into the job with even more energy than her usual; the Producer had been awed and exhausted just watching her by the time it had ended.

She's just heading back to the car, pulling out her phone to call--

And that's when she hears a small, familiar voice. Ren...?

When she speeds up her steps, it's to find not just Makoto and his siblings, but some very disgruntled-looking high-school boys crowding them. ]

Hey--! What's going on?!

jitensha

[ the weather had been nice on her end, when her last job of the day had wrapped up. And Makoto still had a good chunk of day left over, so after a call home to let her mother know where she'd be, and a text to her fellow Makoto to make sure it was okay, she'd hopped the train.

... And then it had started to rain.

A lot.

Luckily, she has a baseball cap this time, which helps, although once she's off the platform (and subsequent bus) and out in the weather, there's little hope for the rest of her staying dry in this downpour. Then the question became... where was she even supposed to find Makoto? Swimming practice couldn't happen, unless they had an indoor pool... should she ask around town? Was it that tiny of one? Or maybe she should just cave and call him. ]

I probably should... this weather isn't exactly making it easy to spot anyone.

jitensha

[ it's strange to be back here again. Not that Makoto found being near the ocean to be a particularly odd thing, but it's been a year, and so much has changed since then. They hadn't been as well known back then. They could run down the beach or leap into the ocean or get hit on without fear of being overly crowded (though the latter was mostly Miki). For the time being, staying in the ocean had kept recognition to a minimum, and the other idols had split up to stay low and relax in their own different ways.

In Makoto's case, the ocean was still the place to be, and she's happily trotting towards it after some additional time spent on dry land (mainly keeping the twins from burying the Producer completely). Is she expecting company?

No, but at least she's open to it. ]

jitensha

[ it's a little awkward, being in a locker room and waiting for a certain someone to finish his primping. Even more embarrassing when 1/3 of his teammates knew you were there and teased you about peeking at shirtless guys.

This is, however, better than waiting outside where there were plenty of girls who were just leaving, because Makoto didn't wish to spend the afternoon fending off potential fans. For now, she's content to plunk down on a bench and sweep off her hat with a sigh. Maybe it smells too much like Sweaty Guy in here, but she'll endure it. ]

jitensha

[ so the thing was, Makoto didn't get sick. It took a series of unfortunate events, a moment of stress-induced weakness, and doing the idiotically chivalrous thing of trying to make her way home in the pouring rain and likely spending too much time in soaked clothing, despite Kise's best efforts.

But the point was, Makoto didn't usually get sick, and when she did get sick, it had to be sick enough to buckle her knees and keep her under her covers with a fever that could warm cold palms in an instant. She'd tried to go to work, but hadn't made it further than her own doorway before she'd gotten too dizzy to stand without the aid of the frame and had been promptly ushered back to bed.

And of course, she hadn't wanted to worry Kise, but that had backfired and for some inexplicable reason, she felt worse than ever. She'd have to change the compress again, she thinks distantly, as she tries to push herself up on her elbows to give him a properly chastising look. At the very least, her parents were now out for one of her dad's races, but... ]

You... really didn't have to come.

[ what if she's contagious? It's bad enough that she feels awful and she's sweaty and her hair's a mess and her face is all red and this isn't very romantic at all-- ]

jitensha

[ Makoto had heard it on the highest authority (Miki) that girls should always be fashionably late to their dates. It left the guy 'frothing with desire', or something like that. And she'd dwelt on it, she really had, even as she sifted through her closet for the sixth time.

Makoto has always been Makoto, though, and that meant she didn't feel right purposely taking her time. It's why she's waiting near the entrance-- has been waiting for ten minutes with the long black skirt and the white shirt with the artfully placed frills and the red heels that click so cutely when she walks. It's a far cry from the jeans and sweatshirts she usually runs around in.

But she'd like to think it's not bad. ]

jitensha

[ it's rare that she can garner enough time away from a packed schedule and her own school hours to drop by Kaijou, but even if it's just a practice match, Makoto likes to faithfully attend what she can. She's always liked basketball, so growing closer to Kise had only made that fondness stronger. It's fun to watch them get into the game, and it's fun to lose herself cheering for them.

But it's warmer today than it's been all week, and with the hat crammed over her head to hide her identity (she so optimistically felt), it was doing little to cool her head off. Strands were starting to stick to her neck.

... In a sense, it's a happy realization, that her hair was growing longer by the day, but for now, it was a little bit troubling. Still, she waits until the court's cleared out, enough of Kise's squealing crowd dissipating to allow her to sweep her hat off and try to salvage her hair.

It's a shame she can't see what she's doing. ]

jitensha

[ as continued from here. ]

Huh? [ and from the look she passes along, it's fairly evident that if Kise says anything dumb about disregarding doctor's orders or not treating it seriously, she's going to Have Words. But she'll hear him out. ] What about it?