Chirem skipped out of his room, heading towards the kitchen. He placed two bottles of water and a piece of chocolate inside, before zipping it up and placing it on his back. Heading to the door, he was brought to a halt by a voice coming from the figure sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace.
"And where are you heading off to now?" Mhosho questioned, turning on the sofa to face Chirem more.
"Out." He simply responded with a smile. Mhosho raised an eyebrow.
"You usually do that at 4 am and drag me with you." Mhosho quizzed suspiciously.
Chirem pondered for a second before shrugging. "Wanted a change." And before Mhosho could respond, he left and shut the door gently behind him. Putting on a smile at the bright blue sky, he started on an aimless walk.
--
Rima let out a long and over-exaggerated sigh, pushing himself slightly on the rusty swing set. He watched the clouds evaporate into the air in front of his face. It wasn't that cold, he didn't think. Despite this opinion, he pulled the oversized grey coat tighter around his frame.
Turning his head to the sky, he could see the stars glistening, and the incoming clouds in the distance. The moon shone brightly, and he remembered how he'd been told that it would be at it's largest in a couple of days. They agreed.
Rima flinched and tore his attention away from the sky when he heard rustling beyond the fence leading into the dense and scary looking forest. Rima stared curiously towards where he thought the source of the sound was, before noticing how dark, ominous and scary it was in the forest, and suddenly feeling fear wash over him.
"I-is anyone there?..." He called out, still frightened but letting curiosity still control a part of him. He also considered saying 'Who's there?' but he always thought that seemed stupid. Because what if there wasn't anyone there? Then you just looked overly confident and stupid.
Rima was brought out of his thoughts when there was more rustling. He looked down at his hands, only to realise they were trembling, and so were his knees. There goes his advantage of escaping.
"S-seriously, is anyone there?" He shakily tried calling out again. More rustling was his only response.
Rima internally debated whether he could run back to the building he called his home quicker than a monster could climb a fence. No was his conclusion. Maybe he could punch them? No, he was a 'weak little flower' as someone had put it.
Startled, Rima jumped out of his skin as there was a 'psst' sound. He waited in silence for something else to happen, but all that came out of that was another 'psst'.
"Y-yes?" Rima nervously replied, hoping that was what the 'psst'er wanted. He was once again scared out of his mind when there was an "Oh!" from beyond the fence.
No more than a few seconds later, a face appeared from the bushes and stood on the other side of the fence. "I thought someone was here!" The face said, with a smile.
There was a long moment of silence which didn't appear to be all that awkward to the boy sitting beyond the fence among bushes and leaves. For the duration of this second, Rima looked positively distraught. He spoke up finally, anger unattractively blending in with his anxiety and fear.
"Wh-what do you mean you 'thought someone was there' ?! I was calling for a good minute!" It came out like a bark from a chihuahua, unintentionally, obviously.
The purple-haired male laughed awkwardly before deciding to respond. "Aha, yeah, sorry about that. I was all tangled in the bushes so I didn't really process it, I guess." He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, comically so.
"Who.... Who are you, anyway?" Rima hesitantly asked.
The boy scratched his chin, seemingly unable to not fiddle his hands. He stopped as he began to speak. "I'm Chirem if it helps. Would you mind introducing yourself, as well?" Everything he announced always sounded cheerful and calming to Rima.
"I'm Rima. But I have to say, Chirem is a very peculiar name."
"Speak for yourself, Rima" Chirem replied with a light-hearted laugh at the end. Rima giggled quickly with an 'I guess so'.
"But um..... Chirem," Rima stopped to check he had gotten his name right, and assumed so when the other raised his eyebrows to urge him to carry on. "Why did you come out of the woods? It's not very nice in there."
Chirem tilted his head slightly. "My house is in there. But what's so bad about it? I think it's quite nice" He shrugged to himself at the last part.
"It's scary and I fell off a cliff there." Rima looked forward instead of at Chirem, seemingly recounting the event, notably without fear, anger, sadness nor happiness.
Chirem's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "That sounds pretty bad!" He exclaimed, obviously alarmed and concerned. "Did you get hurt?"
Rima went into thought for a moment before turning back to Chirem. "No, but I did get turned into a tree."
"That sounds like a troublesome ordeal" Chirem noted, but didn't seem as surprised as he probably should have.
"Yes, but it was fine in the end," Rima concluded with a smile.
"That's good." Chirem theorised before the conversation came to an end.
There was another moment of silence, albeit longer this time, and Chirem seemed to take note of it this time.
"Hey, would you mind if I came over there and sat with you? You look pretty lonely by yourself," Chirem seemed pretty happy with his counter to the awkwardness.
Rima looked around him, seemingly stressed for a minute before turning to Chirem. "I- I suppose so... But you can't be long, I'll have to go inside soon"
Chirem accepted that as an answer and stood up as tall as he could on his tip toes. He reached up and placed his hands on top of the fence, wriggled around in the bushes for a second and then pulling himself up with a big push from his wings. Miraculously, he landed on his feet looking pretty happy with himself. Rima clapped enthusiastically.
Chirem made his way over to Rima and plopped himself down on the swing next to him.
Chirem observed the surroundings around him, landing and focusing on the creepy looking building that he guessed Rima lived in. "Hey, Ri?"
Rima jumped and looked up at him. "...Is that a nickname?" He looked mildly confused.
Not caring about going off topic, Chirem answered: "Yeah! Like... Ri-Ri !" He seemed to be enjoying himself.
Rima thought about it for a moment. "So... can I call you Chi-Chi?" He looked to Chirem pensively for confirmation.
Chirem's grin almost filled his entire face. "Yeah!! That's it!!"
Chirem's smile caught and Rima found himself smiling. "I always thought you had to be super close to someone to give them a nickname,"
Chirem shook his head "Nah, I find they're super fun to give out!"
Ruining their happy moment, a bell rang out from inside the looming building, still loud enough to hear due to open windows.
Rima's face immediately fell. "Sorry, that's the bell to wake everyone up, I'll get scorned if I'm not with everyone else..." Rima stood sadly from the swings, slowly waddling his way to the doors leading inside.
Chirem looked concerned but didn't hold Rima back. "Bye Ri-Ri!" He yelled to him, standing up to leave himself.
Rima stopped and turned to Chirem, looking slightly worried. "I'll see you again, right?!" He shouted across the park to Chirem's opposite facing body.
Chirem turned to him and smiled reassuringly. "Definitely!!"
Rima smiled to himself before turning and rushing inside.
Chirem watched him leaving appreciatively before hoisting himself over the fence once again.
--
The door creaked open as Chirem pushed it in, poking his head through to look inside. He was surprised not to find Mhosho on the sofa where he was when he left, so he made his way over.
He smiled warmly at what he found. Mhosho was sprawled over the sofa drooling and snoring in his deep slumber.
Mhosho woke up that morning with a blanket over him and a cup of tea.
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