outfields | open post ; reunited meme

THE "REUNITED" MEME

for all of your shipping multiplied by time and distance needs.

I. atmosphere:
01. bittersweet: you parted with unfinished business, or circumstances are less than ideal. whatever it is, this isn't a fairytale reunion of long lost lovers.
02. angry: whatever happened last still has you itching to tear someone's head off, or you're outraged by what they did while you're apart, or you're going to set the record straight once and for all--!
03. excited: you can't wait to see them again.
04. anxious: what if things have changed too much? what if you're not the person they liked before? what if? you might know this is irrational, but that isn't going to stop you.
05. hurt: they left you behind, or in a time of need, or without saying goodbye, and you're anything but over it.
06. tender: you've been apart, but you care about them, still. always.
07. distant: whatever separated you, you've decided to protect yourself, and if that means pretending not to care that you've seen each other for the first time in five years, then so be it.

II. circumstances:
01. accidental: you ran into each other at the grocery store, you rang a number you can't bear to delete from your phone without meaning to, you stumbled on their twitter and followed because the app is shit, wait shit we both changed our online handles and made friends all over again.
02. new information: you haven't spoken to them in months or years, but something you've only just found out changes everything.
03. purposeful: you sought them out, for one reason or another.
04. set up: someone else is pulling the strings, and arranged it to put you together again.
05. in a crowd: it's your class reunion. you knew you might see them there, but even when you do reunite, there's people who know you both around.

III. wildcard.
what it says on the tin. make it yours!

as usual, drop top-levels with or without a starter, or let me know if you want someone in particular and i will provide!!

the tumblr post i stole the concept for this from is here if you want ideas.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maki never intended to come back like this. Five years into a self-imposed embargo from both cycling and his high school friends, and he's now a design assistant... High enough in the fashion designer's stable to go to Japan's fashion week. He's been trying to stay away from walking around too much outside, even though running into someone he knows is nearly impossible, right? It's not like he's been hiding from his friends... He's texted them, and Toudou still calls him... If his responses are a little rushed and terse, it's normal to be busy when you're building a career in fashion.

The messages petered out after a while, though. Most of his contact was through Tadokorocchi and Toudou, and... Well, the bottom line was that he'd lost contact with Onoda. He'd come back for a summer, and... things were different. Onoda was older, and he was... It was awkward. It was Onoda he was avoiding, really. For everyone's sake. He was hung up on an underclassman and it was embarrassing for everyone. He could only mess Onoda up even more if he saw him and then went back to England.

He clears his throat and stands up, waving the model whose hem he'd been pinning up towards the sewing machines. He needs a little bit of fresh air. There's fibers flying up from the sewing machines and hovering in the air and his throat is parched. He grabs a water bottle and ducks out into the hotel's hallway. There's a breeze outside, so he walks into the first floor lobby and out onto the sidewalk. The angle of the building is perfect to get the full impact of the breezes.

The hotel's not too far from Akihabara... It's stupid, Maki's sure Onoda can't be going there any more... But he still scrutinizes every person riding bikes in front of the hotel, with a mixture of nerves and excitement.

In high school Sakamichi hadn't thought much about what came after. It was why Makishima's departure had been such a bone-deep, affecting loss: he hadn't known what he was losing until he lost it, and then he had to rebuild around a hole Teshima had helped him sew closed. Those stitches remained through years of unanswered letters and unreturned phone calls, scabbed over through failed entrance exams, became knotted scar when he was scouted professionally while practicing. These days, Sakamichi's bought his mother a house, rented an apartment in Tokyo, and learned a new route to Akihabara.

He's home for a few weeks of vacation, in a city more alien than Paris and Munich despite his questionable command of German and French, humming a years-old anime theme song as he sails along the bike path downtown, when he looks up and spots a form so familiar he thinks it's a mirage. It wouldn't be the first time wishful thinking had him chasing down someone who didn't know him, leaving an ache in his throat nothing like the one that starts to sting when he looks again, taking in a hunch of shoulders almost unchanged from high school, and then he looks ahead of him, forcing his pedals back with a squawk so he doesn't crash into either the old woman on a mommy bike ahead of him or the streetlight on his other side.

It's a close thing, but as soon as the bike's stopped he's putting his weight on his foot, letting the bright yellow road bike between his thighs lean sideways.

Makishima - it has to be him, doesn't it? - hasn't moved. Hasn't disappeared. A smile so wide it almost aches spreads across Sakamichi's face, and he raises his voice. "Makishima!"

If Sakamichi's smaller glasses, newish yellow helmet, and stylish cropped blue pants and tan cardigan combo made him unrecognizable from a distance, his voice is a more mature timbre of the one he'd had in high school, and the sparkling pink aura that he almost physically gives off probably give him away.

Sakamichi moves to smack the button on the machine at the crosswalk, and takes off as soon as the walk sign changes, bike zipping around pedestrians until he can hop off of it, walking it gradually slower. His initial excitement hasn't gone anywhere, but now anxiety thrums in his chest. Makishima had stopped talking to him after that last, awkward summer, and he had to have had a reason for that. Maybe he wouldn't be as happy to see him as he was to see Makishima.

Oh God. He hears him before he sees him. At first he thinks it's got to be an illusion, somehow. He doesn't realize it's something he's hearing with his ears, instead of being called back into his heart from the memory of the tousle-headed kid with the huge glasses. He trembles and reaches into his vest pocket and his eyes laser in on Onoda. His heart sinks, but sings. He looks different, just a little bit. Not enough so that he couldn't recognize him, of course. His smile is exactly the same... He's so tall.

He doesn't smile as he watches Onoda slither through the crowd, just draws a pack of cigarettes from his vest and shakes one out, trying hard to look casual. He catches Onoda's eye and gives him a brief, two-fingered wave. God, he looks good.

But he's only here for a few weeks, and Onoda must be on vacation, too. Of course he'd heard about Onoda's being scouted. And he's busy, he's so busy... He can't... He resolves to shut it down before it has a chance to start, and even though he can feel his cheeks burning (when did Onoda's legs get so LONG) he pinches the end of his cigarette and forces his feelings down.

He opens his mouth to speak, and manages a shaky, "O-O-Onodaa...! You- don't have to bowl people over!"

open post ; reunited meme

sakamichi onoda | m/m

NYE HEH HEH 7 and 1

arrives ten years late

YOU'RE HERE TO DESTROY ME