Sports were nothing of particular interest to him, but when she spoke and explained, words rattling off her tongue in that nervous, staggered tone that said she knew only basic audience pieces of information about it, he listened. He tilted his head and let his head hand forward, sandy hair covering his gaze as he looked at her just barely from across the room. His hand tugged on a few strands that got in the way and he breathed slowly, so focused on her voice rather than the fact that this was the longest he’d ever really been in the room consciously.
His princess always had such a strange effect on his habits.
At one point of her explanation, the thought popped in his head. It made his lips curl upwards in light amusement, probably very out of place and without a semblance of that control he was so fond of, let a chuckle follow. He cared far too much what she thought of him, but that was because she was a beautiful stroke across the page while he was just a bunch of black paint somebody’d gobbed up in a spot. Least, that’s what his mind told him. He never wanted to be with her or beside her, really. He just wanted to watch her be and keep anything from tearing up the canvas she laid upon.
That single blue eye that had been watching her pace about the room as she talked and move her hands and attempt to mimic the actions of a sport much more physical than her in such a small way had now shut in the midst of his own comedy. His hand returned to its spot, cupping his knee and eventually, his torso bent forwards and he had to lift himself back up. He’d honestly forgotten everything she’d said about the activity of hitting people with foam bats and knocking orbs off, mostly because he hadn’t the imagination for it, but also because there was little desire to put so much effort into a thought. He was a boy who preferred to lounge about and conserve his energy, to read and to do whatever he needed to do as quickly as possible. Ace couldn’t imagine she’d feel the same, not when it was obvious she yearned for sights that other people hadn’t seen.
He guessed they had their differences. Most of his lied with the fact that he was curious, but rarely questioned things. If it couldn’t be explained in a glance or a single question, he’d rather not know. Her differences made her more like the classmates he couldn’t understand. The ones that wished to experience things, or really, like the one that seemed to question everything about the morals of the world they lived in.
She was like Rem, but… artistic, instead.
“They probably look funny with all those orbs on them.“ The youth finally recovered from his earlier stumble. It was a funny thought, really, to have an assortment of spheres attached to one’s person and then to run around and hit another person who looked just the same. At least the humiliation of such a get-up was shared, he assumed. ”Can’t say it’d be too popular over here.”
Honestly it felt incredibly inane, going on and on and on about a sport that she knew barely nothing about, but she continued onwards. Really she wasn’t even sure if he was listening to her, if he was registering her words, but he was watching her and appeared to be absorbing at least the sound of her voice, which was good enough. Even if she continued to speak mindlessly about nothing and everything, so long as he appeared somewhat less distressed, that was generally enough for her.
So she mimicked the actions and pretended that she was holding a bat and tried to remember the stances that people took, but everyone stood differently as far as she knew. Personality certainly had a play in the sport, as personality dictated how and why the person played, but that was the same for most things in the world. Such as how Ace preferred to sit and remain in one place and read whereas she strove for new knowledge, somewhere deep inside of her wanting to move and find new things and experience the entire universe for herself. Essentially they were different, and that was an undeniable truth as all people differed from each other.
Finally she paused and he spoke once more and she looked at him and there was another pang of relief to hear his voice, hear him say something, to know that he had been registering her words. Perhaps her level of worry was ridiculous and unnecessary, because surely he could take care of himself, but it was a second nature that she could not quite deny. The need to worry about him because he was her friend, had willingly become her friend, even if in the beginning it had been somewhat odd.
”They do look silly, yes,” there really wasn’t a way around looking weird with various orbs strapped to one’s body, though they all managed in one way or another. It was all just rather odd when it came down to it, though not enough so that it was a laughable sport—after all, everyone who lived in Twilight Town enjoyed it immensely. Silliness of how all of the players looked aside.
And for a moment her thoughts were cast to how people who lived on the world both of them were standing in would react to Struggle. Did they play sports at all? Was there something that everyone on the world knew of, could rally around and enjoy in spite of potential differences? Things that she did not know by any means because she never asked, never thought to inquire or pursue further information about the world. After all, Ace was her reason for being there, and there was little other reason for her to be there—yet how odd it was, that she hadn’t even bothered trying to find more information.
Being around Ace distracted her, evidently.
Somehow she imagined that questioning it would not be received all too well however, because the world that the blond lived in was at war and he was a soldier in it. That much she knew, and that was really all that she knew of what happened outside of the walls of the school that she spent a sizable portion of her time in. A sad fact, but all too true. ”Struggle really is only a sport I’ve ever seen in Twilight Town, so I wouldn’t imagine it would be very popular here.”
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