Mahou Madness!

"Oh! One of my friends used to live in an apartment... I haven't talked to them in years though... Not since I moved".
He declared, seeming to look steadily more interested as they went, though some of that interest was tinged with concern at seeing the clearly less well off state of the area... At least he didn't look grossed out or anything.
"Hahh, I think I prefer Eastern architecture... It's so much prettier".

"Oh! So are you gonna lead the way in? And what floor are you on? Is it really high?"
Lucas asked, seemingly just overflowing with questions, likely curious about how less well off people lived... Which sort of made sense, as a magical girl it was possible he might one day end up being one of those less well off people...
 
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"Third floor," Namiko said as they stepped inside. "It's not too high, but it doesn't matter much anyways. Not like you can see much." This was only a half-truth. Only a half-truth, that is, if you consider an alleyway a 'view'.

The inside was less decrepit than its exterior would suggest. It wasn't clean but it looked like some effort was made to make it look presentable. No trash was visible on the floor and the walls were free of chips, a clean if old layer of off-white. To Namiko it was like the whole area summed up in one little thumbnail - a sad looking place until you really got to know it.

A plain red carpet welcomed them into the lobby. A few meters ahead a small woman slept at the counter.

"That's Mrs. Kimura," Namiko whispered. "She's nice, but she doesn't like it when people wake her up. Let's be quiet." Namiko pointed to a door labelled 'STAIRCASE' and began to walk there.
 
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"Ahh... That's kinda sad... I like looking out the window... You need to come over to my place next time so I can show you our view".
Lucas declared, his house was also near a beach... So he had hoped she might go swimming with him, something that for some reason no one else was willing to... Boys said he was too girly and girls... Well they didn't want to swim with a boy.

"This place is... Nice..."
Lucas said as they entered the lobby, it wasn't terrible at least, and he didn't want to offend her, it wasn't even that he disliked it... More that he couldn't really see a lobby as much more than a stop on the way to the apartments.
"Oh... Okay..."
Lucas replied in a whisper, following her up with the careful tread of someone used to sneaking past sleeping adults.
 
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They walked up the stairs. The stairs. The stairs were normal.

Eventually they came to a hallway carpeted in rough bloody red. Namiko's room was two doors down the right from the staircase, a plain white door with '303' inscribed in small bronze font on the front. Namiko pulled her keys out and tried to stick them in, but they seemed to be caught. "Darn..." she muttered. Pulling her palm back, she paused and then smacked the key, jamming it in with a crunch. She unlocked the door and opened it.

The first thing one notices upon entering Namiko's room is the trash can sitting near the counter, filled to the brim with upside-down paper plates. One of them was on the floor. Her brown carpet had a bristly feel to it. Otherwise it was fairly normal, if small. The bathroom immediately to your left upon entering, a closet right across, and then her room right ahead of the bathroom, behind a closed door. The living room contained a single low table with some leftover food on it, including a canned coffee with a brown droplet hanging precariously off the lip and a controller right next to it still plugged in, its wire semi-taut. A small flatscreen stood on a drawer so that you would be eye-level with it when sitting in the seiza position. In the little cavern of the drawer there were multiple game consoles of varying colors and makes and models, old and new, only some of them plugged in, and they were perhaps the neatest thing in the while house, arranged left to right with an architect's precision. The walls were all painted a light sandy brown.

"Well," Namiko said, "welcome home."
 
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Lucas was a little concerned when the door didn't open and was going to ask if they needed to fetch someone to get the door open... Then Namiko forced the key, the crunch was worrying, was there something jammed in the lock? If so it might be good to remove it... Still, at least it was an extra layer of security, if the key couldn't open a door what chance did a thief have?

Lucas took in all the sights silently, seeming to appraise Namiko's room before smiling... He was doing that a lot today wasn't he? And then speaking up about the room.
"I like this place! It's WAY more cozy than my house... At home it's all lonely and big and cold... But this actually looks like someone's home!"
He declared, bouncing over to look at the consoles after removing his shoes, another odd thing about Lucas's outfit... He said he was just trying it on since he was fixing it... But surely that didn't include the hairband, ribbons and frilled socks?
 
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Namiko waited with bated breath for Lucas's reaction. What would it be? A polite condescension? Outright disgust? A "Wow, see you later?" The more outlandish the reaction the more likely it seemed he'd use it.

Lucas opened his mouth. "I like this place!" he said with a grin so infectious that Namiko couldn't help smiling too - an entirely genuine smile, without affect. She really was innocent, as innocent as her looks, like a child playing hopscotch in a school playground with frills rippling on every gust.

Wait...she? Her? Namiko shook her head. Not unless he - she? - wanted to be called as such. This was still somewhat confusing.

"I'm glad you like it," she said. "Sorry about the mess. It's been a...while, since I've had visitors." Clearing her throat, she said "Well, what do you want to do? I have games and junk food."
 
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Lucas continued to look around, gaze eventually settling on the consoles and how neat they were with a slight blush?
"Heh... They are way neater than mine... I should probably be more careful with my stuff..."
His consoles and games were scattered around his room, and any attempt to play required a quick search to find out which console was plugged in where, the location of a game case, and then in some occasions, which case the actual game disc was in.

"It's okay! My room gets kinda messy sometimes... I don't really get visitors either..."
He said with a sad grin, looking for somewhere to sit as she asked what he wanted to do.
"Umm... Let's play some games! Have you got anything we can play together? I never get to play any co op games that aren't offline!
 
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Namiko noted Lucas's melancholy expression upon mentioning his lack of visitors. Suddenly she was overcome by an urge to tackle him to the ground in a hug, but withheld herself. Instead, she gestured for him to sit on the pillow near the table and went to dig into her video games.

"Let's see...I should have an extra controller for most of these, and I do have a lot of co-op games..." she said. "What do you want to play? Fighting game? Shooter? Platformer. I have everything. Pick your poison."
 
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Lucas sat down carefully, ensuring he didn't pull on the dress's skirt or flash, and crossed his legs, did he have practice or was this just natural?
Either way he seemed comfortable now and waited for her to dig out a game.

"Hmm... Fighting game! Do you have Soul Calibur? I LOVE that game! Dibs on Talim though!"
So, apparently games got him excited, and he liked Talim, that was normal enough, she WAS a decently good, cute character after all.
"Oh umm, if you do have it, do you have a favorite character?"
He questioned, wanting to keep some sort of casual conversation going rather than just descending into silent gaming.
 
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Namiko cringed. She did, indeed, have Soul Calibur V - a used copy from a local game store - but she only played it once, just to try it. "Well," she said, "I do have it, but...well, I haven't played it that much. But, better now than never!" She plugged in her PS3 and turned it on. After some digging she unearthed an extra controller in a box and slid it across the table to Lucas and sat down beside him.

"Well," she said with a wry smile as the game entered the menu, "looks like it's your turn to be sempai."
 
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"Oh! I'll have to go easy on you... I played it a lot... Most people don't like five but the customization is really good..."
He declared, taking the controller as the game booted up and preparing to play, even mimicking the voice at the opening in a perfectly timed, though enormously more feminine tone.

"Okay! I'll teach you everything I know!"
He stated as they started, he made sure to explain how everything he did worked, and would happily play that and other games for hours unless interrupted, not taking note of the time or quickly darkening sky.
 
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Namiko learned very quickly why she didn't continue to play Soul Calibur V. She sucked. Usually her visualization skills came in handy but for some reason her they failed her. Perhaps it was because she kept sneaking glances at Lucas as her taught her how to play, noting the muscles in his cheeks as he smiled or spoke, his grey hair bobbing as he played? ...No, she wasn't doing that. She couldn't be doing that.

She played mainly as Patrokolos, not knowing who else to play as, and would continue to until the sun wound down for the night.

Eventually Namiko looked outside. "Wow," she said, "we've been playing for a while. Shouldn't you be going now? Your parents might get worried."
 
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Lucas was very clearly holding back, it looked like he could choose to completely roll over her character at any moment... But did his absolute best to get her to learn any combos, though admittedly... He sucked at Patroklos too, was there anyone who didn't? At least she wasn't using the second form of patroklos... That would have been embarrassing since he knew none of his combos and got through the campaign by button mashing...
He didn't notice her glances, though did sometimes look over himself...

Pausing the game, Lucas got up and stretched as he looked out the window, and then at his phone.
"Umm... Not really... They are working again now... But I should get home... Umm, bye?"
He waved, heading for the door so he could get home, seeming to have completely adjusted to the dress, not even showing slight embarrassment now.
 
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Namiko paused briefly. Before Lucas could get outside, she grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into an embrace, closing her eyes. She felt hs breath, gripped the folds of his dress, caught a whiff of his hair, feeling for a second like a single strand in that tapestry, a child in frolic. It felt right, so right.

She opened her mouth and whispered in his ear. "When I was a kid," she said, "living on the streets for a month, I ate everything I could find. I dug into trash, I ate trash. I picked up pebbles and chips of pavement and ate them. I ate wood. I ate rotten apples and chalk and plastic. I know what plastic tastes like, what glass tastes like, I know the taste of rotten dog meat and of cloth. I consumed. I should have died on those streets, but I lived. And still I consumed. But in different ways. And three years later I did it again. And after that I almost did it again." She paused. "There is a lot you have to learn, but that's okay. But whatever you do, you have to make sure you don't change. And I don't mean something like your gender—I mean your attitude. Because things are going to get so much worse so much quicker. Let me put it like this. You came today dressed like a girl of the fields, something with roots and green leaves, clean as nature allows, fresh, untouched. You will see things and learn things, but no matter what, you can never stop being a leaf. A fern." And with that, Namiko pushed him gently out the door and locked it.

She stood for a long time in front of the door, just staring at the spot where Lucas was, remembering his dress, his scent. She stood, feeling nothing, thinking nothing. Just waiting. Waiting for nothing.
 
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Lucas let out a cry of shock at the sudden hug... Sure he had wanted to hug her, but there was no way she could have known that... And he didn't think he looked sad... But at that moment he was very glad of the hug, though was too awkward to wrap his arms around her like his brain was screaming at him to do...

The story froze Lucas for a minute as he listened, and then caused him to finally wrap his arms around in an awkward but hopefully comforting gesture...
She had been through all that while he lived in a big house with a plenty of money and more than enough to eat, yet he was always complaining and griping to himself about his loneliness and how he couldn't wear a dre...
He nearly shook his head, that thought had popped up an inappropriate time... Not that there even WAS an appropriate time...
The mentions of gender caused Lucas to freeze up again, making it easy to push him outside, where he was frozen for several minutes... Lucas almost knocked on the door again but instead decided to call a taxi and head home.

Once there he went to bed still dressed, getting up for school and heading out as usual... And this time waiting for Namiko at the entrance, he didn't know what to say after the previous night, but knew he should be there anyway... He was also becoming increasingly... Confused... And wanted someone somewhat familiar to keep everything normal... Well as normal as a world of magical girls and monsters could be anyway.
 
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Namiko slid across the pavement to school, feeling nothing but waves of data rolling over her body like so much rain.

She saw Lucas waiting for her at the gate. He was in his normal school uniform, unadorned, it seemed. She sidled up to him. "Hi, Lucas," she said with an oblique little smile. There was worry clouding his face, which was the last thing she wanted. "Is anything the matter?"
 
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Lucas perked up noticeably as he saw Namiko approached, almost smiling even! Though the worry was still there.
"Oh... Hi! Umm... No, nothing's the matter... I'm fine".
He lied rather badly, apparently not wanting to talk about it, though it was probably safe to assume it had something to do with the previous day, since Lucas had been fine before.

"Umm... Anyway... I was thinking of quitting the drama club... Umm, I really shouldn't spend so much time hanging out with oth... Uhh, I mean those girls, and I probably shouldn't keep trying the dresses on..."
Even as they said they wanted to quit... It was kinda obvious Lucas didn't want to.
 
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Namiko's face drooped exhaustedly, and she ran her fingers through her hair. It was uncombed, ruffled; it looked like the hair equivalent of the Dust Bowl, a product of overexertion and natural causes, thick and brown and sharp. "Lucas...you don't really want to do that, do you? Be honest with yourself." Her hand fell limply to her side and she sighed. "Anyways, Lucas, let's go inside. I want to get this day over with. We have work to do later." She walked past Lucas, but held out her fingers just before she passed him, so that they brushed against his shoulders, as if inviting him to come with.
 
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Lucas didn't reply to her question... To be honest he didn't want to leave at all... But he was just so confused, and the club was one of the things adding to that, so he felt he should cut it out... Namiko was also adding to it... But Lucas really didn't wanna cut her out no matter what, even if she wasn't keeping her alive in his new role, she was a friend...
"Right... Work... Okay".
He followed after her, eyes locked on her hair...
"Hey uhh... Do you... Mind if I brush your hair? I have a brush and comb with me... It's just kinda messy".
 
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