adelphoi | (no subject)

[ being in insomnia again is.. strange. the city is the same as she had remembered, and yet so different, so strange after so many long years in tenebrae. this city seems so enormous and sprawling, sharp and stark in comparison, bright and chrome and full of people. though she remembers her time here, her earliest years, she was still quite young when her parents swept she and her brother back to the motherland, and those tender years of growth had been spent in a city very different, a home that she had grown used to, settled into.

and now they are here again, political tensions spurring her father to emigrate here, to lucis again. the empire has been still and quiet, and there have even been talks of treatise, but alisaie trusts her father's judgment, for all his political involvement. more than national pride, he hopes for his family to be safe and secure, and short of living in the bush, insomnia had seemed to him the ideal location. with the wall so strong, such a city must be impenetrable, yes?

alisaie does not know the details of it all, her father would disclose only so much - she and her brother were to focus solely on their studies, bettering themselves, and not to worry about such things outside of their control. lucis might not be a large nation, but insomnia is safe, and secure. it suits their needs just fine.

still, settling in, for alisaie, is not necessarily easy. unlike the rest of her family, smooth-talkers with political savvy, she has a hard enough time simply getting along with her own peers. her friends in tenebrae had been few and distant, their relationships thin and civil but little more. to have to start over again is.. a nightmare. but she is not here to make friends, she is here to finish her schooling, to graduate and prepare for university and beyond. there's nothing to be afraid of.

yet her knuckles are white around the books clutched to her chest as she climbs the stairs that first day, eyes forward, chin high, and it takes less than a week's time for her to earn a reputation as a haughty, conceited little snob, the little rich girl sort who is far too good to waste her time with those she deems beneath her - everyone, apparently. this is not entirely the case of course, but it suits alisaie's needs just fine. let them think what they want, so long as it affords her a wide berth and quiet time to herself, without the terrifying distraction of working her way into, and maintaining her place within, a social circle.

the weekend seems to take an eon to arrive, but friday is here at last. alisaie sits outside at a table on campus, alone, peeling the crusts distractedly from her sandwich, her advanced chemistry textbook open in front of her. three afternoon classes, and this horrible week will be over.. ]

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[ at the start of the week she had been.. quite nervous, if she's honest. the idea of spending so much time with someone who is all but a stranger to her now had had her quite anxious, tying herself up in knots over what they would do, what they would talk about, if he would even like her, now. surely she has not changed as drastically as he has, but she has changed. she's grown, and if anything her social skills have only worsened as the need for them grew more and more important. more than likely he will not like her - after all, no one ever has, really.

it certainly doesn't help that he's.. very cute. alisaie does not spent much time thinking overmuch about romance, but his freckles are charming and his smile is warm and magnetic, his eyes sparkling with every laugh. not that she has much chance to see it, given they do not share any classes, but still she passes him at times in the halls, or during lunch.

by the end of the week, she is coming to regret even that much contact. she had hoped that he might still be the kind boy she had once known, but age and puberty have changed him, it would seem. fit and stylish as he is now, it seems all to have gone to his head, and she supposes that she really should have braced herself for the truth of it, but it is still nonetheless.. disappointing. he's changed too much for her to reconcile, and that he seems to be close friends with the prince, of all people, surely does not help. how could anyone not become a snob, when associating so closely with royalty? and royalty like him, no less? from all she has seen of noctis he is a lazy, spoiled brat, hardly willing to put in the effort necessary to succeed, ignoring his instructors and napping through classes.

she should not feel so crestfallen as she is, yet here she is, let down. friday comes all too soon, the end of the day wrapping up, and alisaie has made no attempt to contact him or speak with him; she supposes that she should be thankful that they did not exchange phone numbers. perhaps she can wriggle out of this unscathed, without the need for confrontation..

so at the end of day she moves quickly to her locker, making quick work of her bag, jamming her books and folders and binder into it as swiftly as she can. ]

[ Yeah, asking her for her number probably would have been a smart move. But Prompto had barely made it through that first conversation with his wits intact. Asking a cute girl - no, not just a cute girl, but a cute girl who was his only childhood friend - for her number? Good one.

But now it's nearing the end of the week and they have made no further plans for their weekend meetup. He kept meaning to stop and talk to her in the hall, but every time they crossed paths it seemed better to just smile and say hi and let her keep going. He doesn't want to impose on her time too much, and with brains like hers, she must be so busy with coursework. Should he even try to meet with her this weekend? Surely she has better things to do than hang out with him.

But he had asked her, and she had said yes, and he will not renege on that arrangement just because he's a chicken. It'll be fine. Probably.

After the bell rings at the end of the final period on Friday, Prompto makes a beeline for her locker, hoping to catch her before she leaves. Gee, he really waited until the last possible moment, didn't he? He sprints down the length of the hall, zipping in between students as they head out, searching desperately for the sight of her at her locker —

She's still there. He hasn't missed her. ]

Alisaie! Hey, Alisaie!

[ He continues to dash right along — a little too eagerly, perhaps, as when he should be skidding to a next to her, instead he trips over his own feet and winds up in a heap at her feet.

Wow. 10 out of 10. Spectacular.

He picks himself up quickly, though, out of breath and wincing but grinning all the same. ]

S-sorry, I [ huff ] didn't want to [ huff huff ] miss you before you [ huff ] left.

[ But he made it, just in the nick of time, it would seem. ]

[ ah.. well, so much for that. alisaie leaps away in surprise when he completely wipes out at her feet, then draws herself up tall when she recognizes who it was that just made a fool out of himself.

so he remembered. she'd hoped that maybe he wouldn't, that he would find some far better way to spend his time, yet here he is. alisaie exhales a hard sigh and quickly closes her bag and hefts it over her shoulder, snapping her locker door closed. her voice is calm but chilly, her posture tight and her eyes hooded. ]

Yes?

[ Of course he remembered! He's hardly been able to think of anything else since they made their plan. However, in spite of that, he has no grand ideas for how to proceed. Mostly, he's just been nervous as hell. ]

J-just - wanted to see if we're still on for this weekend! But if you're busy, it's no big.

[ He has to offer her an out, just in case, whether or not she's really busy. He doesn't want to make her feel obligated to hang out with him, so it's only if she really wants to! ]

[ his nerves are palpable, but she cannot help but wonder if all of this sweet, shy boy persona is simply a ruse. how could someone so uncertain and kind be such an irreconcilable jerk? she'd seen it, she'd heard it with her own eyes and ears, the things he's said and done to his peers - how can she possibly believe him now?

it almost makes her sick, to have been so easily fooled. alisaie's face warms, not with demure shyness, but with fierce anger that writes itself into all of her features quite clearly. her eyes narrow and her shoulders stiffen, her arms clutching her books close to her chest, guarded and rigid. ]

I should think not.

[ she very nearly turns away on the spot, the audacity of it!! but she turns back at the last second, her nose wrinkled up and her chin thrust out, all but standing on her tiptoes to seem more threatening. ]

I can't believe you expected me to - too - oooh!

[ she's so mad!! ]

No, Mister Argentum, I would not like to catch up with you this weekend, or any other weekend, you absolute ass. To think I fell for it so easily -

[ ugh!! she's been holding this down all week, apparently, but she turns away now in her fury, charging away from him in a huff, her braid whipping behind her. hopefully whacking him right in the face. ]

[ ...What?

Maybe he had expected her to refuse. No doubt she's busy, it's a lot of time to ask her to make for him. Or maybe she's lost interest, no longer concerned with reconnecting with him, and he would understand that, too. He...is well aware that he's not really worth that much to begin with, and she probably just...realized that throughout the week. He would understand.

But this is so sharp, and he remembers her fire from the way she had stood up to those bullies so long ago but this is confusing, too. Was it something he had said? What had he done to offend her so deeply, so quickly, without even realizing it?

Was this just...how all his relationships with other people were destined to go? It would seem so. Noctis has been the only hold out, somehow.

His heart twists in his chest as her braid does indeed whip him right across the face. ]

I-I —

[ But she's leaving. Stomping away. Leaving him feeling cold and empty, like she has somehow exposed him as the fraud he is. That's it, isn't it? She's already seen past his facade. Didn't take long, but it shouldn't be surprising, with how perceptive she has always been. ]

Hah...guess that's a "no", then.

[ He doesn't follow her. He doesn't have the heart to. She's made herself quite clear.

(sad charlie brown music) ]