Your Unknown Colour [Rikkai troika, university setting]
Rikkai troika 'gen' (it's getting kind of ambiguous), University setting. 585 words. 31_days prompt: 25 October 2006. your unknown colour. Follows on from An Electric Michelangelo.
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Your Unknown Colour
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Once inside, they all have their rituals. Yukimura is always deferred to for first choice of seat; Yanagi and Sanada contrive to slow their paces until he is first through the door and he knows they do it. Once Yukimura has his seat - always beside the window - he shrugs off his rucksack and lets it thump beside him on the floor, sighing under the weight it carries and sagging until it is wrinkled up where it sits. This day he hunches up small in his chair and tries to absorb the heat from his drink through his fingertips.
Yanagi always gets his equipment out first; notebooks, folder, spare paper, pens and pencils. Once he has it all where he wants it only then does he remember to take off his jacket and hat and get comfortable. The hat goes into his bag, tucked away carefully so that Yukimura can't pick it up by the braids and whip it around his head, which he does if it is sat on within view and the temptation is strong enough.
The first thing Sanada does is take off his coat. He sits in his seat and waits for the warmth in the room to permeate his skin, his bag propped on the desk until he finds out what he is going to need for the duration of the class. Yukimura sits and daydreams about the art he didn't get enough time to look at, and the artist he wants to meet. The lecture goes over his head.
It wasn't nearly enough time to notice anything, but Yukimura thinks in terms of the basics. Yanagi and Sanada have their heads down, Yanagi making his neat organised notes with the bare minimum of information in short-hand that allows him to understand what has been said without unnecessary extra words. Sanada writes down everything word for word, scribbling at the speed of sound to be sure there's nothing he misses. When Yukimura works he tends to stop and pause now and then to reflect on information, sometimes writing and sometimes not. Sometimes he doodles. Yanagi always smiles almost condescendingly when he does that, and Sanada gets annoyed, but images help Yukimura remember better. Words aren't everything.
He can't help but realise it now, that Yanagi and Sanada are both so serious in their own ways, and both so orderly. Yanagi because it keeps him organised, and Sanada because it is right and proper. He isn't sure why they both gravitated towards him when he is so different. What he needs is someone to befriend who is more fluid and relaxed, like him. Someone with creative flair and an ease about them.
He doesn't even know the street artist, but he wants to. It makes no sense but Yukimura doesn't care. He is making assumptions based on a nagging feeling that he is missing out somehow. He loves Yanagi and Sanada both, but even between them there are still things they don't provide.
He realises suddenly what a dangerous path his thoughts are taking, and sits up a little. He devotes the rest of class to writing down all the things he should do afterwards that aren't, 'go to the park to find the street artist'.
The list is unconvincing, full of meaningless things that he doesn't need to do, and doesn't care about. Even 'spend time with Sanada and Yanagi' isn't enough to tempt him; they spend plenty of time together already, and even without him they still have one another.
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Your Unknown Colour
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Once inside, they all have their rituals. Yukimura is always deferred to for first choice of seat; Yanagi and Sanada contrive to slow their paces until he is first through the door and he knows they do it. Once Yukimura has his seat - always beside the window - he shrugs off his rucksack and lets it thump beside him on the floor, sighing under the weight it carries and sagging until it is wrinkled up where it sits. This day he hunches up small in his chair and tries to absorb the heat from his drink through his fingertips.
Yanagi always gets his equipment out first; notebooks, folder, spare paper, pens and pencils. Once he has it all where he wants it only then does he remember to take off his jacket and hat and get comfortable. The hat goes into his bag, tucked away carefully so that Yukimura can't pick it up by the braids and whip it around his head, which he does if it is sat on within view and the temptation is strong enough.
The first thing Sanada does is take off his coat. He sits in his seat and waits for the warmth in the room to permeate his skin, his bag propped on the desk until he finds out what he is going to need for the duration of the class. Yukimura sits and daydreams about the art he didn't get enough time to look at, and the artist he wants to meet. The lecture goes over his head.
It wasn't nearly enough time to notice anything, but Yukimura thinks in terms of the basics. Yanagi and Sanada have their heads down, Yanagi making his neat organised notes with the bare minimum of information in short-hand that allows him to understand what has been said without unnecessary extra words. Sanada writes down everything word for word, scribbling at the speed of sound to be sure there's nothing he misses. When Yukimura works he tends to stop and pause now and then to reflect on information, sometimes writing and sometimes not. Sometimes he doodles. Yanagi always smiles almost condescendingly when he does that, and Sanada gets annoyed, but images help Yukimura remember better. Words aren't everything.
He can't help but realise it now, that Yanagi and Sanada are both so serious in their own ways, and both so orderly. Yanagi because it keeps him organised, and Sanada because it is right and proper. He isn't sure why they both gravitated towards him when he is so different. What he needs is someone to befriend who is more fluid and relaxed, like him. Someone with creative flair and an ease about them.
He doesn't even know the street artist, but he wants to. It makes no sense but Yukimura doesn't care. He is making assumptions based on a nagging feeling that he is missing out somehow. He loves Yanagi and Sanada both, but even between them there are still things they don't provide.
He realises suddenly what a dangerous path his thoughts are taking, and sits up a little. He devotes the rest of class to writing down all the things he should do afterwards that aren't, 'go to the park to find the street artist'.
The list is unconvincing, full of meaningless things that he doesn't need to do, and doesn't care about. Even 'spend time with Sanada and Yanagi' isn't enough to tempt him; they spend plenty of time together already, and even without him they still have one another.
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