[Open] Surprises

Now that Hawke's academic career was over, he'd decided to stay at the school until graduation. There was little point in flying home just to come back a month later, and thus he fell back into the routine.

As he limped into the canteen, he grabbed an unattended newspaper from an empty table, then sat down to read after retrieving a cup of tea. The first few pages were boring, a new monument was built in the next town over, some new campaign to combat drug use in light of the dramatic rise in drug-related deaths, a young boy commiting suicide...

A frown appears on his face. He recognised the boy in question. The unmistakable blue hair and the vacant expression...

"Ho-ly shit." He says, quite loud, in his deep voice. The attention of a few other students is caught, and one begins to walk over.

Toshiaki, carrying his quite substantial breakfast, picked out his neighbor's image from among the crowd. He walked over to the table, noting his expletive as he approached.

"Something the matter?"

Having another language was certainly useful for deterring unwanted eavesdroppers when the situation required.

Hawke simply grunts in response, reading the article intently. He mumbles back in English, "Somebody I used to know has committed suicide..."

The frown on his face deepens and he lets out a long woosh of air. "Shit." He says with a laugh. "This is weird."

Toshi quietly seated himself.

"Damn, dude. That's awful."

His mind flickered back and forth between his own past and the present situation, bringing unpleasant memories to the forefront.

"Did you know them well?"

"Not... not really. He was only at the school for a few weeks but... man, I've seen him sauntering around Townsville since then. You just... you don't expect it."

Without the article Hawke wouldn't even be able to remember the boy's name.. Eric Grimm. While they'd interacted little and less while at school, Hawke had felt a strange connection to him. As if they'd spent time together but he'd simply forgotten it. He'd seemed like a loose cannon, with little regard for rules, a man after Hawke's own values. Regret filled him, what if he'd committed suicide after having no emotional connections? Perhaps Hawke should have tried harder...

"Yeah. Hard to think, someone's just gone. Even if it wasn't a close friend."

This was a little more than Toshi was prepared to deal with this morning.

After a few moments of silence, he spoke up again.

"So, first day of classes for us new freshmen. Should be fun."

"It should be. I've got a fun day ahead... say, do you take English classes?" Hawke asks, curiosity spiking in his voice.

Today was the first day of his new job as a classroom assistant. His first port of call was the language department, seeing as he was actually English and also fluent in French. He'd already got the call that the teacher he was supposed to shadow, Hansa-sensei, had fallen ill, meaning he had a full day of teaching alone with no training whatsoever. Fun.

Toshi was puzzled by Hawke's sudden change in demeanor.

"Well yeah, it is a requirement after all. Even if it weren't, I would just to stay sharp."

Hawke simply nods in response, mind returning back to the death of Eric. He picks up a fork and pokes the lifeless scrambled eggs on his plate, mentally taking note that eggs weren't supposed to be grey.

"Figured you might be exempt, you seem pretty fluent."

"Eh. Honestly? Easy grade. I usually end up just using the time for reading anyway."

Toshi started on his own mountain of food – two plates full of eggs, sausages, and hash browns; an apple, a banana, toast with strawberry jam, milk, orange juice, and coffee.

A shrug is all that Hawke needs, but he adds "True. I scored 100% in my English test... but I feel like I have an unfair advantage." A smile breaks through Hawke's unusually cold demeanor, and he begins to file away the shocking news in his mind's less-than-capable memory drawer.

"Hey, that's just using your resources," Toshi responded, pausing between sips of coffee.
"Besides, you'd have to work harder than everyone else in Japanese language to make up for it, right?"

"Japanese grandparents. Bi-lingual from five years old." Hawke replies with a grin, grief already locked away for another day.

"Then we both put the work in early," Toshi replied, mirroring his grin.
"English/Japanese-American on one side, German/Japanese-American on the other," he elaborated.

"We're very similar, you and I." Hawke notes, "Musicians and linguists."

"So it would seem," Toshi replied before finishing off his toast.

"How long have you studied English for? I assume it isn't your mother tongue." Hawke notes, basing it upon Toshi's ethnicity.

"Like I said, family's from the US. Some Japanese, some European on both sides. English was actually both my parents' first language. Both their families decided to move back to Japan in the late 90's. Parents met in university here. Anyway, I learned both when I was little."

He answered in English, assuming that Hawke hadn't quite caught his earlier answer in Japanese.

Thought that much would be obvious. Don't see many pure Japanese guys that are 178 cm with pale skin and blue eyes.

Hawke pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out an exasperated sigh with his eyes closed, "Sorry!" he apologises, "Short-term memory is a bit crap. I haven't had time to take my pills this morning. Pretty hectic." He explains, referring to his condition, "It's a part of my, uh... y'know."

"No worries, I know the feeling," Toshi replied, trying to remember whether he had taken all his own pills when he woke up.
Recalling that he had, he resumed eating, clearing the second plate of eggs, sausages, and hash browns.

"You eat a lot." Hawke notes, nodding towards the plate.

"I''ll take that as a compliment," Toshi replied with a grin.

"But yeah, my metabolism's pretty crazy. I could eat like this three times a day and not gain any weight, even if I didn't exercise.
Which kinda sucks, being as I'm trying to put on some more muscle."

"Could it have been anything but?" Hawke replies, cocky grin at the ready. "I've kinda lost my appetite recently. I exist solely on a diet of mints."

As if to prove his claim, Hawke produces a tube of minty freshness from his pocket and pops one in his mouth, spearmint diffusing into the air around them. He turns the tube towards Toshi and raises his eyebrows, "Palate cleanser?"

"Sure, thanks."
He downed the last of his coffee and took the mint.

Grabbing his now empty dishes, he stood.
"Well, guess I'd better get going. Wanted to look around a bit more before class starts.
Nice chatting with you."

He started to walk away, but turned again, speaking in a quieter tone.
"And if you want someone to talk to, just let me know," he said with a small smile.

Seeing that Hawke was not going to say anything more, he left.