[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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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.
no subject
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.
no subject
[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?
no subject
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.
no subject
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.