Well I got him a game since I think we did everything in animal crossing already so that was easy
but I got a scrapbook too cuz he takes about a thousand pictures these days and was like hey wouldn't it be cool if I personalized it? It would make it a lot more special than a blank scrapbook
[Jaime's room usually isn't the neatest place in the world, but right now, it looks like the God of Christmas stood up, inhaled a metric ton of wrapping paper, glitter and bows and then proceeded to spit it all back out all over his room. There is a patch of cleared space for him and Minato, but somehow, there's tape on the wall.
It's not all for Ken, though, which is obvious by the hastily, awkwardly shaped packages stuffed underneath his desk. Jaime loves Christmas, he loves his friends, and being gone just accentuated how glad he is to know them and how fleeting it is.
He may have gone a little overboard. Dramatically, he flops down on the ground and blows up a gust of air so that his bangs just wind up feebly getting out of the way of his eyes. He grabs onto the scrapbook and thrusts it into the air.]
[Wow. He's never heard his name said quite that way before.
Minato can't help it: the whole bizarre, Christmas explosion sight of Jaime's room with Jaime himself laying tragically on the ground with the scrapbook held above him like some offering... He huffs out a note of laughter, little more than a breath but distinctly there.
He walks over to stand above Jaime and stare down at him, the angle for once making his hair fall forward and both of his eyes visible.]
Jaime, [he repeats back, deadpan.] How bad is the damage?
Pretty bad. I'm pretty sure that those Pinterest ladies are magicians. Or... Pinterest dudes, I guess; I'm pretty sure Shinji's got an account on there.
[He passes the scrapbook to Minato so he can see for himself. What Jaime left out is the fact that he had picked up supplies at the dollar store and refused to get any special materials for it, which means he's making do with cheap supplies and no glue gun. He would, but he's pretty much broke, even when he accounts for his full-time job and government checks in the mail every week.
Whoops.
Either way, the scrapbook isn't as bad as it could have been, but it sure isn't good either. He started it off with some pictures from Ken's soccer games and some soccer stickers (which went well), some ribbon around the pictures (which didn't go as well), and a few other assorted bits and bobs in which liquid glue seems to have been his enemy with the way it's been smeared, scrubbed away, and smeared back onto the page again.
Scrapbooking is hard.]
You're neat, right? You can put this crap on straight.
[Minato's not surprised at all that Shinji has an account on Pinterest.] I should look his up, [he says speculatively.
But later. Snooping on his teammates will come later.
He accepts the scrapbook and then folds to sit on the ground cross-legged beside Jaime's stretched out length. He settles it in his lap and opens it, sees the damage, and makes a battle plan.]
If you're going to use glue like this, you have to be patient as you wait for it to set, [he points out. When Minato could be bothered to motivate himself enough to do crafts in school as a child, his had, as Jaime suspects, been uniform and pristine. If staid and unexciting.]
Why don't we cover this page with another piece of paper, like a colored backdrop? [He points to the worst offender, with glue smeared all over it in streaks, bits of glitter and other remnants of decoration attempts still stuck on in odd places.]
[Jaime looks a little doubtful at first, but then grabs the dollar store construction paper, unenthusiastically flipping through it, still lying flat on his back.]
I guess that must work, right? Even if it'll look a little lumpy. I don't even know what colour to choose, [he complains.] I'm so bad at this stuff.
[Or at least he was enthusiastic, right up until he sees something that finally makes him smile. He flips the page open, shoving it in Minato's face.]
Orange!
[When in doubt, don't think of aesthetics. Just choose the colour that the kid would like most.]
Okay. Though, we don't want the whole thing to be orange. Ken-kun doesn't actually mind other colors.
[Minato leans forward to accept the sheet of orange construction paper from Jaime, then goes about laying it flat over the messy scrapbook page and using his pencil to make tiny, neat hatch marks at the dimensions of the scrapbook so he can cut the paper to size.]
Blue looks good on orange.
[It's a serious statement... and also a very bland, tiny joke.]
Hey, we only have to decorate a few pages, so it's not like we'll have to think of that many other colour combos.
[Jaime hasn't got a great eye for colour. There's a reason why he tends to only wear plain T-shirts and button-up shirts, usually one solid block of colour that goes with everything... not that much won't go with the jeans he always winds up wearing.
Jaime doesn't have a good enough eye to know whether or not Minato's fashionable, but for these kinds of things, he simply has implicit trust in Minato. You don't get five million girlfriends (and boyfriends?) without having an eye for how things look.
He does snort, however, at the little jibe, raising a brow at Minato.]
Blue looks good with every colour, [he says, loyally.] Good idea, though. I'm pretty sure Ken will definitely catch on. It's your colour too, you know
[Minato had had an easy time learning aesthetics because he so flagrantly hadn't cared at all before that he was a blank slate. He mostly just wore his school uniforms at home, and when he wasn't wearing them, he defaulted to blue, plain, and inoffensive. So he hadn't had any bad habits to unlearn. He's still not great-- he has no creativity or instinctive eye for anything-- but he doesn't embarrass himself.
Just going about cutting out his construction paper now, looking bland. Definitely not joking with Jaime at all.]
Exactly. I don't know why you thought I was talking about you. I wanted to use blue for me.
[Jaime sighs, a long, beleaguered sound.] The worst part about you being so mean to me is that nobody else would believe me if I told them, [he informs Minato, sounding perfectly matter-of-fact about the whole thing, though he can't keep the twitching smile from off his face. One of them here is good at keeping a poker face, and it sure as heck isn't Jaime.
Jaime unhooks the pictures from the frames and picks off some more of the dried glue, readying the page for Minato to cover up the messy bits.]
So I guess you'll just get to keep on bullying me in secret, [he says, eyes lingering on the photo for a moment before he sets it aside. It's a good photo. A little blurry, sure, but Ken looks like a normal kid, having fun. It reminds him of the sort of pictures his mom has around his house -- had around the house. They lost all their pictures in the explosion.]
I should make digital copies out of all these and send some to you, y'know.
You really know Minato is comfortable around you if he's teasing you, that's for sure. It's his real personality-- a little biting, but well-meant. Showing his sense of humor isn't something that happens until he trusts someone; otherwise he's too firmly in social linking mode.
At the comment, Minato's eyes are drawn away from his tidy trimming and to the picture Jaime's referring to. A faint smile comes over his face before he realizes it. Once he does, he lets it stay. It's only Jaime.]
I had to start a box of mementos. People keep giving me things. [And they're not even max rank yet. Never will be, here.] I'm glad... to see Ken-kun look like this. I never got to at home.
He struggled a lot at home. Here... he's had a chance to do things like he should've been able to do them all along.
[It's still not as it should be. Ken should be able to be with a family, not to be preyed on by his inner demons, wracked with worry and guilt about the sheer amount of people he's had to watch die, but at least it's better. Jaime's convinced that it is. Even if his moments of pleasure are far and few between, it's worth it for those rare moments that he can just kick back and be a kid for a change.]
That's one reason I want him to have this. Sometimes my Mom would just sit down with all of our family's albums and just go through the pictures. It was to switch up whatever ones we were hanging on the wall, but I think she just liked going through them too, especially after things got crazy.
[Sometimes he wonders if those albums went untouched when he had gone missing, the prospect of seeing Jaime in the albums as a gap-toothed kid without a care too much for an already fragile family climate.]
I figure Ken can do the same thing. Look in here when he's down and remember all this, y'know?
It's a good idea. [Minato goes about carefully spreading glue along the back of his construction paper and then affixing it to the page, pressing it in place and holding it there patiently.]
I never used to understand the point of things like this, but... I think I do now. Proof that it happened when you need a reminder. [That something good occurred. Minato can't help wondering if somewhere out there there's pictures of him and his parents, but it's an abstract thought, without meaning. Just some distant notion that has no bearing in reality.
A moment later, quietly,] We can't control if we disappear, and I'm worried about Ken-kun if I did. He'd need something like this.
[Once again, Jaime finds himself biting his tongue, feeling a sudden, unexpected sadness despite the cheery holiday activity. He could say a lot of things here. If you died, more people than Ken would be upset perhaps, or maybe he's already lost you twice, or even he'll need a lot more than a scrapbook.
Or, of course, he could tell Minato that Jaime had lost him once before he'd ever gotten the chance to get to know him, but now he's not so sure how he'd be able to keep up trying to take care of everyone without his help, let alone the loss that he would feel. He prefers not to think about any of his friends going missing.
So instead, he says,] We'll look at that as a worst-case-scenario kind of thing. For now, I'm gonna assume that you're not going anywhere. And until then, we'll make sure to give Ken enough to fill this whole scrapbook. [Then, because with Minato, he can't quite deflect everything, he adds on,] And now, he's got plenty of people who'll take care of him.
[Even if both he and Minato went missing, Jaime thinks that Ken would be okay in this world. In Minato's world? Jaime still remembers that feeling when Ken got ported out, that strange moment of he can't be gone; he still needs me. But they'll cross that bridge if and when they get to it.
He smoothes down the page of the scrapbook and grumbles,] But if we don't get this right, then if I go missing again, he'll just remember me as that guy who can't freakin' draw a straight line with a ruler.
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Hey they set up the park with a bunch of christmas lights with the tree lot nearby. We should go check it out
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What are you getting him?
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but I got a scrapbook too cuz he takes about a thousand pictures these days and was like hey wouldn't it be cool if I personalized it? It would make it a lot more special than a blank scrapbook
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but yeah please help decorate at least a couple pages
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Sounds like fun. I don't do crafts very often. what are you using?
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It's all in my room you can come on over if you want
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Instead of texting him back, Minato ambles into Jaime's room one door down, poking his head in.]
You called for reinforcements? [he asks blandly.]
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[Jaime's room usually isn't the neatest place in the world, but right now, it looks like the God of Christmas stood up, inhaled a metric ton of wrapping paper, glitter and bows and then proceeded to spit it all back out all over his room. There is a patch of cleared space for him and Minato, but somehow, there's tape on the wall.
It's not all for Ken, though, which is obvious by the hastily, awkwardly shaped packages stuffed underneath his desk. Jaime loves Christmas, he loves his friends, and being gone just accentuated how glad he is to know them and how fleeting it is.
He may have gone a little overboard. Dramatically, he flops down on the ground and blows up a gust of air so that his bangs just wind up feebly getting out of the way of his eyes. He grabs onto the scrapbook and thrusts it into the air.]
I ruined Ken's present.
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Minato can't help it: the whole bizarre, Christmas explosion sight of Jaime's room with Jaime himself laying tragically on the ground with the scrapbook held above him like some offering... He huffs out a note of laughter, little more than a breath but distinctly there.
He walks over to stand above Jaime and stare down at him, the angle for once making his hair fall forward and both of his eyes visible.]
Jaime, [he repeats back, deadpan.] How bad is the damage?
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[He passes the scrapbook to Minato so he can see for himself. What Jaime left out is the fact that he had picked up supplies at the dollar store and refused to get any special materials for it, which means he's making do with cheap supplies and no glue gun. He would, but he's pretty much broke, even when he accounts for his full-time job and government checks in the mail every week.
Whoops.
Either way, the scrapbook isn't as bad as it could have been, but it sure isn't good either. He started it off with some pictures from Ken's soccer games and some soccer stickers (which went well), some ribbon around the pictures (which didn't go as well), and a few other assorted bits and bobs in which liquid glue seems to have been his enemy with the way it's been smeared, scrubbed away, and smeared back onto the page again.
Scrapbooking is hard.]
You're neat, right? You can put this crap on straight.
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But later. Snooping on his teammates will come later.
He accepts the scrapbook and then folds to sit on the ground cross-legged beside Jaime's stretched out length. He settles it in his lap and opens it, sees the damage, and makes a battle plan.]
If you're going to use glue like this, you have to be patient as you wait for it to set, [he points out. When Minato could be bothered to motivate himself enough to do crafts in school as a child, his had, as Jaime suspects, been uniform and pristine. If staid and unexciting.]
Why don't we cover this page with another piece of paper, like a colored backdrop? [He points to the worst offender, with glue smeared all over it in streaks, bits of glitter and other remnants of decoration attempts still stuck on in odd places.]
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I guess that must work, right? Even if it'll look a little lumpy. I don't even know what colour to choose, [he complains.] I'm so bad at this stuff.
[Or at least he was enthusiastic, right up until he sees something that finally makes him smile. He flips the page open, shoving it in Minato's face.]
Orange!
[When in doubt, don't think of aesthetics. Just choose the colour that the kid would like most.]
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[Minato leans forward to accept the sheet of orange construction paper from Jaime, then goes about laying it flat over the messy scrapbook page and using his pencil to make tiny, neat hatch marks at the dimensions of the scrapbook so he can cut the paper to size.]
Blue looks good on orange.
[It's a serious statement... and also a very bland, tiny joke.]
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[Jaime hasn't got a great eye for colour. There's a reason why he tends to only wear plain T-shirts and button-up shirts, usually one solid block of colour that goes with everything... not that much won't go with the jeans he always winds up wearing.
Jaime doesn't have a good enough eye to know whether or not Minato's fashionable, but for these kinds of things, he simply has implicit trust in Minato. You don't get five million girlfriends (and boyfriends?) without having an eye for how things look.
He does snort, however, at the little jibe, raising a brow at Minato.]
Blue looks good with every colour, [he says, loyally.] Good idea, though. I'm pretty sure Ken will definitely catch on. It's your colour too, you know
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Just going about cutting out his construction paper now, looking bland. Definitely not joking with Jaime at all.]
Exactly. I don't know why you thought I was talking about you. I wanted to use blue for me.
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Jaime unhooks the pictures from the frames and picks off some more of the dried glue, readying the page for Minato to cover up the messy bits.]
So I guess you'll just get to keep on bullying me in secret, [he says, eyes lingering on the photo for a moment before he sets it aside. It's a good photo. A little blurry, sure, but Ken looks like a normal kid, having fun. It reminds him of the sort of pictures his mom has around his house -- had around the house. They lost all their pictures in the explosion.]
I should make digital copies out of all these and send some to you, y'know.
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You really know Minato is comfortable around you if he's teasing you, that's for sure. It's his real personality-- a little biting, but well-meant. Showing his sense of humor isn't something that happens until he trusts someone; otherwise he's too firmly in social linking mode.
At the comment, Minato's eyes are drawn away from his tidy trimming and to the picture Jaime's referring to. A faint smile comes over his face before he realizes it. Once he does, he lets it stay. It's only Jaime.]
I had to start a box of mementos. People keep giving me things. [And they're not even max rank yet. Never will be, here.] I'm glad... to see Ken-kun look like this. I never got to at home.
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[It's still not as it should be. Ken should be able to be with a family, not to be preyed on by his inner demons, wracked with worry and guilt about the sheer amount of people he's had to watch die, but at least it's better. Jaime's convinced that it is. Even if his moments of pleasure are far and few between, it's worth it for those rare moments that he can just kick back and be a kid for a change.]
That's one reason I want him to have this. Sometimes my Mom would just sit down with all of our family's albums and just go through the pictures. It was to switch up whatever ones we were hanging on the wall, but I think she just liked going through them too, especially after things got crazy.
[Sometimes he wonders if those albums went untouched when he had gone missing, the prospect of seeing Jaime in the albums as a gap-toothed kid without a care too much for an already fragile family climate.]
I figure Ken can do the same thing. Look in here when he's down and remember all this, y'know?
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I never used to understand the point of things like this, but... I think I do now. Proof that it happened when you need a reminder. [That something good occurred. Minato can't help wondering if somewhere out there there's pictures of him and his parents, but it's an abstract thought, without meaning. Just some distant notion that has no bearing in reality.
A moment later, quietly,] We can't control if we disappear, and I'm worried about Ken-kun if I did. He'd need something like this.
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Or, of course, he could tell Minato that Jaime had lost him once before he'd ever gotten the chance to get to know him, but now he's not so sure how he'd be able to keep up trying to take care of everyone without his help, let alone the loss that he would feel. He prefers not to think about any of his friends going missing.
So instead, he says,] We'll look at that as a worst-case-scenario kind of thing. For now, I'm gonna assume that you're not going anywhere. And until then, we'll make sure to give Ken enough to fill this whole scrapbook. [Then, because with Minato, he can't quite deflect everything, he adds on,] And now, he's got plenty of people who'll take care of him.
[Even if both he and Minato went missing, Jaime thinks that Ken would be okay in this world. In Minato's world? Jaime still remembers that feeling when Ken got ported out, that strange moment of he can't be gone; he still needs me. But they'll cross that bridge if and when they get to it.
He smoothes down the page of the scrapbook and grumbles,] But if we don't get this right, then if I go missing again, he'll just remember me as that guy who can't freakin' draw a straight line with a ruler.