▬▬ the sound of life. ;
He’d been uprooted, placed in the care of a new family — the word “care” being used loosely in this case — in a world ravaged by war. A far cry from what he was used to; already much too much for any one individual to handle. And now he was apparently engaged with no prior notification or request for his consent. Well, he had always liked the idea of marriage. Family was an important concept to him. Having a family of his own he wouldn’t have even considered until much later in life. Definitely not at sixteen. And to someone he had never even met?
That couldn’t possibly go well.
But he was determined to at least meet his husband-to-be. Which explained why he was here, shaking the man’s hand. Who knows? Maybe they’d get along. He certainly hoped. Not that the other necessarily looked the bad type, but considering the hot topics of conversation lately…
He’d almost gotten an introduction out, before his betrothed cut him short. He hadn’t expected something so straight-forward. It definitely felt awkward now; now that Seto could practically feel the heat radiating from his cheeks.
"Thanks?" More of a question rather than his intended expression of gratitude. Oops. Exactly what duties were those, again? “Oh, right. I’m Seto!” He nodded. "I promise to do the same, of course!" Said in what was probably a comically serious tone. The last thing he wanted was to be a disappointment, after all. He had every plan to be a good husband — forced into it or no. There was a slight pause (too long for him, seconds felt like lifetimes) before he blurted out the first thing that came to mind, in an attempt to keep the conversation going. "So…we should probably say a few things about ourselves. To get to know one another?" Because that wasn’t at all overused. He was doing great so far — he’d be lucky if Eight didn’t laugh in his face.
If this was what blind dates felt like he couldn’t possibly see the appeal.
"Alright. It's nice to meet you, Seto," he nods (smiles again, attempting friendliness.) There's awkwardness, but more than that, Eight feels the unbreachable distance between their mentalities (it's a sensation similar to getting your head pushed under cold water.) Seto seems oddly peaceful; there's no smell of death clinging to his skin, no visible scars tainting his complexion, no hostility or wariness -- there's a boy, one that possibly haven't fought a war before, and the realization that it's his first time meeting someone like this is distressing at best (painful at worst.)
Despite the slight cultural shock, he decides that he can work with this kind of warmth; it's unfamiliar, but he's always wanted to know something more than what his life offered him. Curiosity overwhelms ignorance, and he finds himself more interested than disappointed, even though he's sure that all of this could've gone much better. Sadly, just like the boy sitting across the table, he doesn't have much of an experience as far as dating goes -- he had a crush, once, and never did anything about it, choked the life out of unnecessary feelings that could've corrupted his focus.
But this isn't battlefield, and he doesn't need to overanalyze anything, doesn't need to resort to brutality and violence to deal with the simplest of daily routines. A small sigh escapes his lips when the other speaks again, but it's not one of exasperation -- more of discomfort, mostly because he has nothing to tell the other boy (or rather, nothing that he'd possibly want to hear.)
"Alright, well -- name's Eight. You know that. It's actually... not my real name, just a military codename, but I don't remember anything else," he hums, leaning on his elbow. "I'm a soldier of Suzaku, and a cadet of Class Zero of the Magic Academy Perystilium. I --" there's honestly not much else to say: the last thing he wants is to scare Seto away, after all. "I guess you could say my life was pretty straightforward up until now. And also, I don't know how a computer works," he adds after a moment, cracking a nervous smile. "The technology in my country was more.... magical, you know? Weird stuff."
He pauses for a beat, tipping his head to the side. "Your turn?" Truth be told, that's what he's more curious about -- having never even had an opportunity to go to a normal school, he's perplexed and fascinated with everything this world offers, no matter how seemingly insignificant.
