Kaiholo smiles softly as he listens to you, gently swinging your hands as you walk. As you respond, you feel his forefinger tracing your knuckle slightly. Though his grip was tight, it still somehow felt like he was being tender.
"You know I'm a better listener. I like to hear about you, I don't like to talk about myself."
Kaiholo's other hand found itself tracing the buildings you passed, running his finger along the concrete or glass.
ok bitch
I watch as cars drift by, sending gentle waves of wind through both our hair. "That's a little unfair, don't you think? I feel like after all these years I deserve to hear your secrets, Kai." I push into him slightly to move out the way of other people. "I love talking, but I can't talk forever."
The Hexa floated through my mind. I spotted a neon logo with a hexagon shining through the haze. Many companies possessed this shape, but something about it made me favor it more than something so simply as a square or circle.
Kaiholo's head tilted downward, his smile fading ever so slightly.
"You deserve to be happy. My secrets don't exist anymore." He takes in a sharp breath of frustration as he adds. "And frankly, h-those secrets shouldn't have existed in the first place."
He turns his head to face you, the grin reappearing.
"How about we start with something cheerful; our first destination tomorrow will be where I was born."
"You deserve to be happy. My secrets don't exist anymore."
I squint my eyes and turn my head towards him momentarily. Kai always spoke in an odd manner, compared to the thousands of people I've met in my life, but sometimes there were phrases he spoke that were just slightly stranger than normal. Before I could question it, he continued talking, mentioning something that piqued my interest and effectively distracted me.
"No fucking way!" I exclaim, slightly squeezing his hand in excitement. "I finally get to know where?" With a pause, I add, "And don't think I'm letting you get away with not answering why I didn't know about the group."
Kaiholo's smile grew as the excitement in your voice did so. Your excited voice always cheered him up, and within seconds, he too had completely distracted himself from the discussion beforehand.
As you bring up the other question he avoided, Kaiholo holds his other hand against the nape of his neck sheepishly as he chuckles.
"That's a bit of a loaded question. But just know that you had to find out about it tonight, it couldn't have been any time before then."
i have caught on to ur secrets bitch
I hope u know that u absolutely the fuck have not HFKSHFJSJS
HAHHAHAHAHHA
"Very fate of you to say, Kai," I chuckle and decide to let it go for now. "Well, I'm hella excited to see where you were born. Are you excited to see it again?" I sigh quietly as I start to recognize my surroundings again. The sounds of the city are falling behind me.
"So to speak," Kaiholo murmurs, not even trying to resist a snicker as he runs an absentminded hand through his hair, brushing it with his fingers before rounding it all up in between his thumb and forefinger, pulling at the hairband on his wrist, and tightening it up into a low ponytail.
"But, yeah. I miss what it used to be. It's hidden for a reason, but I think it's still holding up, for the most part."
Kaiholo inhales deeply, clear stress built up in the exhale. "It'll be a great breath of fresh air. Quite a contrast from all the pollution here."
I momentarily let go of Kai's hand to let him do his hair. It looked so much darker at night, like a deeper, cooler brown compared to it's usual reddish rust. I felt a small urge to braid the long locks together, maybe weave vines through it. He'd look so pretty in braids.
"I'm sure it's nowhere near was it was before. It's alright though, I'll be with you and we can make the most of it. And, you're right, there's gonna be some sweet, sweet air there." Subconsciously, I breathed in the pollution, as if wanting to remember just how bad it was. But, I don't remember what it's like to smell anything else, so there is no scent.
My hand, feeling rather empty now, automatically reached back for his.
As he feels your hand reaching for his, he locks his fingers around yours and secures his grip, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.
"I'm sure Harmony would love to join us, but I know she cares too much about her shop to want to leave."
Even if she did have time to join, Harmony already experienced a vast majority of nature during her expedition to gather the plants in the first place. She's not the best storyteller, so you weren't sure exactly how magical of an experience she went through.
You wonder if she had any plants from Kaiholo's birthplace. You wonder if there even are any plants specific to that location; it's not like there's ready information about plants worldwide.
The plants in my room follow thought, and I feel a little bit more love towards them. I'll make sure they know that when I get home.
"We can take encrypted videos, I have a camera. I bet Anubis could help with that, so that no one finds them. I'm sure Harmony would appreciate the gesture." I'm suddenly aware of the way my shoes hit the ground, the solid concrete making a sweet clicking sound. The sound of Kai's voice made the usual environment a little more atmosphereic, as normal. Hanging out with him was always special and in a way, aesthetic.
"Hey, do you want me to do your hair tonight for tomorrow? I figure, since you're already headed my way, and I wouldn't want you to have to walk all the way home, it'd be more convenient."
Kaiholo grins mischieviously at your comment about Anubis, shaking his head subtly and in a playful manner. He listens quietly to your footsteps, and within a few minutes, your voice.
"What kind of style are you thinking?" He responds, the curious grin escaping his expression as his face already silently answered the original question. He absentmindedly traces the names next to the doorbells on the outside of the door, his finger stopping on the newly occupied one.
"Do you have a new neighbor here?"
He utters, his fingers still rubbing against the place where a name and apartment location would be. As you look at the name, there's no writing; instead, a vague scribbly line with no particular form.
dont steal my goddamn writing bro
"Hmmm, maybe we can do braids this time…" I wonder out loud as I search for my keys in my bag.
Kai asks, "Do you have a new neighbor here?"
The writing near the doorbell is about as useless to read as a doctor's prescription. I shrug and jam the keys into the keyhole. "Yeah, I tried to say hi, but he just coldly ignored me. Guess I won't be befriending him."
kai: HE?????????
no im deadass
Kaiholo furrows both brows, an air of shock in his breath.
"He? What male specimen managed to gain Myst's approval, and then have the audacity to ignore you?"
Kaiholo and you trudge up the stairs, the halls quiet due to the late hour. Nevertheless, Kaiholo was still curious, and traced his finger against the wall until he found the door in which the mysterious tenant lived. Without a second thought, and probably without even a first, he pressed his left ear to the door and listened.
"Do you know what he looks like?" Kaiholo whispered, his overwhelming curiosity evident in how distracted he was by this.
I chuckled at Kai's comment over Myst's sexism, although there lies truth in what he said. Why would Myst have a tenant that was so rude?
Kai stops in his tracks at the tenant's door and attempts to eavesdrop. I tug at his hand, feeling rather uncomfortable, as if the man could pop up at any moment. "I didn't get a good look… Dark hair? White shirt, taller than me, if that even means anything to you."
the hell is that supposed to mean bitch
"There's too many guys with dark hair and white shirts in this world." Kaiholo grimaces, leaning back toward your door as you continue to tug. "Anyway, let's hope that was only a bad first day for him, I suppose."
As the two of you enter your apartment, Kaiholo habitually gravitates to the plant by the window.
"Did you water him this morning?" He mutters, gently running his fingertips against the leaves. They felt satisfied; understanding it's circumstances but content regardless. Kaiholo wouldn't be able to give a diagnosis to a plant, but he knows a thing or two from Harmony, who spends most of her time studying plants.
Kai makes his way to my plant, Zain. I always had a habit of keeping things where there were, specifically the furniture, to avoid Kai tripping over things. He is quite used to the layout of my apartment at this point, although every now and then I'll tell him I've moved things and it'll take a day or two for Kai to remember.
"No, I woke up late and didn't get to open the window. You can water him if you'd like." I take off the work apron, along with the rest of my clothes since they got wet from the gentle rain. The nicer part of a sightless friend was that I didn't have to worry about myself being seen. As I pick up the old warm pajamas and throw them on, I call to Kai, "Do you need a change of clothes or anything?"
"Maybe just a shirt," Kaiholo responds, taking his hair out of the ponytail and running a few careless fingers through it once more, as if that would do any good to the obvious tangles in his dampened hair. He huffs a bit in reaction to the pulls in his hair as he finds a comfortable seat on the couch nearby. He was greatly anticipating the hair styling, but even still, he was quiet.
I find one of my oversized t-shirts and two thin rubber bands made for braiding. As I come back from my bedroom, I find Kai already made himself at home on my couch. The sight makes me giggle as I throw the shirt onto his head.
"I'll try to be fast, so that we can get as much sleep as we can. The shirt color is like," I take a moment to ponder over how light green feels. "how Zain feels, but softer. It also feels soft, too." I refrain from complimenting how cute he looks in green clothes. "We're gonna do two dutch braids, with a few pieces of your front hair left out. Get that wild look."
I position myself to sit on my feet so that I could access the top of Kai's head. Gently, I place my fingers on the sides and slightly adjust his head to tilt to the right. After years of doing his hair, the bandanna was no longer an issue to work around. My fingers expertly weave the strands on the right together, grabbing other hair from each side.
Kaiholo exhales slowly, attempting to remain as still as a statue in order to not interfere with your work. Often times he'd go weeks without brushing his hair, and it'd tangle to unholy messes. However, when he first opened up his bar, he decided to take more care of it, which led him to ask you for help on styling his hair after he got bored of a simple ponytail or bun. Sometimes he would even turn to you and ask if the style was okay, and most of those times he only managed to gather half of his hair into a bun.
Though he wasn't always aware of his hair, he somehow always knew whether his blindfold needed to be adjusted.
While you worked on his hair, Kaiholo fidgeted.
"I'm pretty curious to see how you'll describe my birthplace." He wonders aloud.
I complete one side of his head, moving the tail of the braid to the front for him to feel. "Hopefully I have the ability to, I'm running out of ideas and creativity. You might have to give me some time to think about it." My response is slow as I focus on the intricacies of the second braid. His hair wasn't the softest and I often complain about his dry ends, but Kai could be quite stubborn.
Kaiholo tries not to nod as he listens to your voice. He reached toward one of the hairs sticking from the front and messes with it as he lets out a responsive exhale.
"There is no end to creativity. One mind can hold hundreds of universes inside of it. We're just in one."
The corners of his mouth twitch into a sly grin as he returns to his original point.
"You've got time, though. To gather your thoughts."
I chuckle at his remark. The braids are complete and I tap Kai to signal that he can turn back around. I lean my arm on the couch rest and bring my legs up to my chest. "I know creativity can stretch on for miles, but this stressful universe makes it hard to focus sometimes, to really channel my creativity. Creative thoughts are absolutely a muscle, I think. But, hopefully this expedition will help."
A yawn escapes my lips. I realize it must be getting too late. Tiredness starts to creep up my body and urges my eyelids to shut. "Hey, we should sleep for tomorrow. Go take the bed, spider boy."