Scene #8268: The Hanging Out Of Girls That Are Friends

Owner	Pose
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki inviting Petra out has absolutely nothing to do with everything she was informed about yesterday. Why would you even think that? Don't be ridiculous. No, it'd be blatantly wrong to say it doesn't, but asking someone to talk about personal things over open band has never ever gone well, and outings that involve food from the get-go are cursed at least half of the time. That, and it was a convenient way to help pull her out of withering under what was being talked about on the radio, so win-win. Though how she'll feel about what Hibiki had chosen as their backdrop today is still up in the air; the coordinates and address given to her lead to the site of a karaoke bar right on the fringes of a bustling entertainment district. Yup, one of those - multi-story building, register at the front desk, and go on up to the room you've gotten for your group for the next hour or three. It's just big enough to justify the elevator so you're not suffering walking up several flights of stairs. Hibiki is paying, of course, and has actually already made sure to handle that in the time it'd take the other girl to get here. She's just waiting right outside the front doors now, hands in her jacket pockets and leaning against the wall beside them. No Miku or anyone else in sight this time. Just her.
Petra Soroka	To the detriment of everyone, especially herself, Petra is able to continue talking in the radio during her flight over in the Kana. She takes a break from getting corncobbed, though, to get changed into a cuter outfit, given that she dashed out of her room in the space station and into the Kana the moment that Hibiki invited her out. Forsaking her typical bomber jacket for once, Petra wears her sparkly denim vest over a green t-shirt and jeans, and a golden chain necklace with white and yellow stones in a formation vaguely suggestive of flowers. Her arms are bare for maybe the first time Hibiki's seen, and Petra seems extremely conscious of this fact, fidgeting around and crossing them together frequently. Petra approaches the building with an apprehensive look, hands looking lost without any jacket pockets to hide in, and timidly smiles at Hibiki. "Heyyy, Hibiki. Karaoke, huh?"
Hibiki Tachibana	There is no force in the universe that can stop someone from getting entirely corncobbed on the radio. Sometimes that just how it is. Though Hibiki can only frown to herself listening in on it as she waits, she's back to normal - at least on the outside - by the time Petra shows up. Dressed up a fair bit differently than her usual, which Hibiki notes with some muted surprise on her face before lapsing into a small smile back at her. "Hey, Petra. Sorry if you don't like it, it was one of the first things I thought of. Turns out it's pretty good for both relaxing or screaming your lungs out, whichever you feel like doing more." Pushing off the wall, Hibiki gives a single nod and starts stepping inside. "...I like the outfit. I'm not really the one who should be saying it, since I'm always wearing this, but I guess dressing up to go out isn't so bad once in a while?" She takes her own hands out of her pockets in a show of solidarity, gives a brief chuckle, and makes straight for the elevator. Top floor is where they're headed, which gives a chance for some small talk. "Sorry if me asking you was kind of sudden, too. I thought you might've wanted a break from...you know, everything else going on. Plus, I've been wanting to do something like this for a while anyway."
Petra Soroka	Petra curls up under Hibiki's stare, drawing in her shoulders and crossing her arms. She almost sounds a little guilty. "I-I, it's a little warmer today, so I just thought I'd," Her right hand opens and closes around the opposite bicep, tapping it in an irregular rhythm. "Anyways. Yeah. It's nice to change stuff up sometimes. Even though my only new clothes in months were these things that Sarracenia shipped me." She tugs on the shoulder of her shimmering vest for emphasis. Following Hibiki into the elevator, Petra beelines to the back wall and leans up against it, kicking her foot back to brace against the wall. It's very... transparently delinquent; the disaffected pose rests poorly on her body. She runs a hand through her hair, then drops it to hold onto the railing, looking tired, but smiling. "You know, I've never actually been to a place like this before. I mean, I've done karaoke, but not at a proper karaoke bar. It's a little exciting, and a little scary." Petra's smile falters and her grey eyes lock onto Hibiki for a moment. "So, if you've wanted to do this for a while... why so sudden? Why's it just us? Where's--where's Miku, or the others?"
Hibiki Tachibana	"Sarra's really nice no matter what anyone says," Hibiki agrees, looking over the vest as they step inside. "I don't think I ever did take her up on that hot spring visit...huh. Maybe I should ask about that again sooner or later..." After that moment of talking to herself, she promptly stops doing that. Inside, she opts to lean against the wall the same as she did when was outside, with her hands coming to casually rest behind her neck as she settles in for the moment. If anyone is going to get on the other girl for delinquent-style carrying of themselves, it's sure not her. She might've reassured Petra that it's not that scary at first, but then their eyes meet. Hibiki stares back for a second, then closes them briefly before tilting her head to glance up at the elevator's ceiling lights. "I thought about asking Miku if she wanted to come...she wants to spend more time with you, for sure. But I also sort of...wanted for just the two of us to do something together." After some thinking, she shifts back on Petra. Just as the door opens, and she starts stepping out into the hallway beyond. "...Uh, sorry if that seems weird at all." Hibiki puts on a slightly apologetic and just a little bit of an awkward smile. "If I'm being totally honest, part of the suddenness was 'cause I didn't want you to...get piled on there or anything. I know how that is. I also never really got to talk to you after things...y'know, the other day." "But I don't want it to seem like I just did it just for all of that, either. I guess I'm just a little selfish, taking the chance to hang out with a friend without having to worry about anyone else, while there's time for it."
Petra Soroka	Petra blinks at Hibiki, her expression immediately softening. Her foot slides to the ground, and her face heats up with a faint pink tinge. "O-oh. Yeah. Sorry for--" She shuffles out of the elevator, looking down the hall in each direction and tapping the toes of her boot against the floor in an anxious gesture. She turns back to Hibiki and matches her awkward smile. "No, no. Yeah. It's not weird, I appreciate it. I'm sorry if I came across as, I don't know, accusatory. I do need help getting out of those conversations sometimes." Following Hibiki to their room, Petra watches her hair bob up and down with each step, silently lost in thought. Once they're inside and the door's closed, she opens her mouth again, like she was waiting to be out of the open. "I'm fine, you know. About the other day. It was just a stupid overreaction because of a stupid thing I did, and it really wasn't a big deal." Petra speaks steadily, more fluidly than usual, without stuttering. She probably ran through those words in her head in the hallway. Inside the smaller room, the stale cigarette smell stuck to Petra is unavoidably present, though it's mercifully faint.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki lets out a soft exhale herself once they're both in the room. It's what you'd expect from a karaoke booth, really, even if you've never personally been to a place for it before - a semi-circular couch arranged around a central table, with a few drinks set up ahead of time. Some sort of iced tea, from the looks of it. There are a few other furnishings, but the main draw is the karaoke setup itself, of course. The large television and stereo set guarantees that the walls are definitely soundproofed, unless you wanted a song at maximum volume to be heard all the way down at street level. There's already a list of artists (with a very, very long scroll bar) up on the display, and the remote as well as several microphones are neatly set down. The blonde sniffs at the air once, but the lingering scent of smoke isn't something she openly comments about. Rather, she throws herself down into a seat and settles in a bit, glancing back up to Petra. "It's fine. I wasn't gonna grill you super hard about that or anything; from what Miku told me, everything ended up going okay. Which I'm really glad about." One of the cups of tea is taken, and with it in hand, she leans back against the cushioning. "...I sort of get it, though. The whole..." Her free hand comes up, and does some wibbly-wobbling which she seems to think over her words, before sighing and just being blunt. "Ugh. People are complicated and relationships are hard. Like, you know how sometimes, you wonder if it's even worth it. I wish I had the magic formula to stop misunderstandings and all that other crap...including making them myself. You wanna talk about stupid overreactions..." "...Oh, yeah. Here. I'll let you have first pick of a song, if you want. Pick anything you like."
Petra Soroka	Petra thinks back to the party, her memories first calling up the feeling of Rita forgiving her, then drifting earlier in the night and lingering on Rita's devastated expression as she ran away. "...Yeah. It was, it got resolved. And I'm really really glad for that. And, um, thankful to Miku." Petra's lips twist in embarrassment. "I hope I didn't give her too bad of a first impression. She seems really... good." A weird word to use, rather than kind, or nice. Petra sits down across from Hibiki, taking another glass and holding it in both her hands while reading the display. "It's... complicated, yeah. Everything's really complicated. I don't know if it'd be better to be straightforwards and blunt, but it's nice to imagine, sometimes." As far as Petra knows, the fact that Tsubasa sings is just because she's an idol, and has nothing to do with having a symphogear. She's never heard Hibiki sing, and if asked right now, would probably struggle to imagine her singing better than "passable". Which is good, because Hibiki's suggestion makes her self-conscious enough already. "U-um. I'll. How about... um, this one?" Petra scrolls through the list and settles on a dark-looking rock ballad. With an awkward look on her face, she preemptively apologizes, "I-it's a little slow, but I don't know that I can pull out the energy for something else, first thing?" When Petra starts singing, and the tense expression fades from her face, her voice morphs into something almost unrecognizable as being her. She's not a professional singer by any means, but she sings with a steadiness that shows some level of practice controlling her voice. More strikingly, it loses the underlying whine and defensive tension that suffuses her voice normally, becoming smoother and pleasant. o/` Under your spell again I can't say no to you Crave my heart and it's bleeding in your hand I can't say no to you o/`
Hibiki Tachibana	"Ahaha...yeah. Yeah, she is." Hibiki's grin at that mention of Miku is small, but maybe the warmest that's ever been seen out of her by far. After a slightly embarrassed sound from her throat and sitting up straighter, she looks up at the display and exhales. "Straightforward and blunt...is how I like to do things, at least. Or maybe it's better to say it's the only thing I'm really good at. But just hitting things hard isn't the answer to every problem in the world, no matter how much I wish it was that simple." For once, she's not being a bit self-derisive when she's thinking about that. Though she's not looking at the other girl right this moment, she can still see the hologram that Ishirou had shown her in her mind's eye. Despite going ahead and being the one to call her here, she's still not sure what to do or how to approach it, even when it's just the two of them. Maybe that's part of why she picked karaoke, and requested her to go first. The song selection alone can tell her more about what's on Petra's mind and what she's feeling than any awkward breaching of the subject. What Hibiki wasn't expecting was to be caught flat-footed by her singing...or maybe it's more her demeanor. It doesn't have to be professional, but it says something when someone who personally knows an idol goes more than a little wide-eyed at the sight, her mouth barely falling open. She doesn't think she's heard her voice have that kind of tone at all before. "That's..." She doesn't say 'amazing' out loud, but you can see it written on her face. There's a pause before she closes her eyes, smiles, and reaches for her own microphone. o/` Shouldn't let you torture me so sweetly Now I can't let go of this dream I can't breathe but I feel o/` Hibiki joins in on the second verse, with a somewhat lower and deeper singing voice than she looks like she should have, hitting both highs and lows - someone clearly much more used to doing it than the other. Though between the two of them, she's actually the one who sounds unsteady and unfamiliar with this slower song, obviously following both Petra's lead and the lyrics on the screen. A glance and a 'couldn't help it' smile is is given her way, as if to ask if it's even okay to do so.
Petra Soroka	Petra flinches in shock when Hibiki joins in, stumbling over the line and tearing her wide-eyed gaze away from the screen to stare at the other girl, as if she forgot she was there. Her alarm fades into wonder as she absorbs Hibiki's singing. Not just that she's skilled at it, but that there's an amount of care and purpose in her voice that makes her embarrassed to have been worried. Hibiki's a friend, after all, and she can just relax and enjoy this with her. Petra picks up again on the next line, throwing herself back into the song with renewed enthusiasm. Oddly, her singing quality seems to have gotten a bit worse, rougher, but with a much more dramatic emotional range. Holding that feeling in her chest, Petra closes her eyes and belts out the climax by memory, voice rasping on the loudest notes. o/` And I'm still waiting for the rain to fall Pour real life down on me 'Cause I can't hold on To anything this good enough Am I good enough For you to love me too? o/` After the song finishes, Petra turns to Hibiki excitedly with a wide smile. "Bikki! You can sing! Really well!" She sits back down, and gulps down some iced tea. "I know you ended up singing most of that one, but you're still up for choosing next, right?"
Hibiki Tachibana	With Petra fully throwing herself into the song, Hibiki is more than happy to widen her smile and join her the entire way along. She's far from perfect herself, and her voice even cracks a bit on some parts - though when the climax hits, she lowers her own volume just a bit and lets the other girl do the heavy lifting. By the very end of it all, she's taking in and then letting out a large breath, returning Petra's grin with an ear-to-ear one of her own. "Just a little bit. My school's all about music, so I guess I'd be half-decent even if it wasn't for using a Symphogear." When she asks that, Hibiki nods her affirmation, although she spends a moment looking down at her own hands clasped around her microphone. Having risen out of her seat herself, she settles back down, sets it aside, and reaches for the remote to begin thumbing through artists and tracks. Albeit a bit slowly. "...The singing Tsubasa did back at the warehouse? In the middle of the fight? It's not really normal. It's like...the lyrics come from your heart, without thinking about it. So I kinda have a bit of a different view on all of it than most people. So even if it's obviously not the same...the way you sung, /what/ you sung...I sorta feel a little closer to you for it." Her sifting through the selection is getting even slower, bit by bit, even though her eyes are locked on the screen. After a few seconds of silence on her part pass, she does look back to Petra. She's still smiling, with a bit of the same sort of sad tinge that Miku had to hers, mixed in with some understanding. "Wondering if you're good enough to be loved, or if you deserve it. Waiting for life to come knocking everything over. It's pretty rough, isn't it?" It's not a metaphorical question, but an actual one. She's not hiding the fact she's shamelessly calling back to the lyrics they were both just going at.
Petra Soroka	Petra thinks for a few seconds in response to Hibiki explaining the Symphogear's music, and slowly comes to a realization. "...Oh. That's why they're called the Noise, huh?" She puts her glass down on the table with a clack, and leans back on the couch, crossing a leg over her knee. She doesn't seem to be reclining, with her eyes steadily examining Hibiki. It comes across more as withdrawing. "Couldn't it just be random, that I chose that song? It's not like I scrolled through the whole list." She crosses her arms in front of her chest. Then, she leans forwards and sighs, the constructed tension in her face falling away all at once. "I mean. I do like the song, though. Obviously. So maybe it does say something about me. Doesn't everyone worry about being loved, though? Me liking a song doesn't mean I need help or anything." She knows that's not the point, though.
Hibiki Tachibana	"Yeah, more or less," Hibiki nods her confirmation on the subject of the Noise automatically, realizing she had never really thought about it before - and it's nice to delay having to talk about more serious things for as long as possible, even if she's already sort of opened the floodgates. Trailing off her song search somewhere in the middle of a bunch of anime openings that are all displayed in full capital letters, she exhales and draws up both of her legs into her seat, hands resting on top of her knees as she turns her attention fully to Petra. She's at least glad to see the tension disperse. That visibly makes her shoulders ease up some. "Everyone does, and that's just...y'know, normal. I'm the same way, so it's not like I'm getting on your case for it." Regardless of any apprehension she might have, she's still keeping the talk casual instead of making it sound like she's chiding her or something. But. "But." There's some shuffling where she sits. "...Some people need more of it than others. For a ton of reasons, including not giving enough to themselves. That was me, one time. Still kind of is, honestly." Hibiki's eyes close briefly, then open again. "Though this isn't about me. And I know you're not really good with this heavier stuff and don't wanna hear it, I /really/ get that. I guess I just...want to tell you, friend to friend, no motives or other crap." "I dunno everything you've been through in your life, but you don't have to be as hard on yourself as you are. I mean it."
Petra Soroka	Petra picks her glass up again, then sets it down without drinking any. She shuffles in her seat, tucking a leg underneath herself, her hands shifting place every few seconds. Ever since breaking her stare earlier, Petra hasn't looked directly at Hibiki. "...You're right. Some people do need more. Because they've..." Petra trails off, looking uncertain. Maybe even scared, with the way her shoulders draw inwards. She looks to the side, studying the song selection. "Because they've been through more. And it's pretty obvious to everyone, I think, that I'm not one of those people." She sighs, deflating further than she already has, overdramatically flopping forwards to rest her cheek on the table. A tinge of irritation enters her voice. "Everyone knows I haven't been through shit, alright? Don't give me pity as if I have. It's like--" She softens, "I don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of you."
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki remains silent for several quiet seconds, and with Petra not looking at her, she also slowly turns to look back at the display - judging from the titles, these look all look like they're from some sort of action anime or another. She has a pretty good idea what she wanted to pick, but as much as she wishes this could 'just' be the stressless karaoke session she would've wanted it to be...this is the sort of thing she wants to be known sooner rather than later. "You really think so?" When she finally speaks back up, it's when the other girl flops over and rests down on the surface. She looks back down at her, and her expression goes from a bit awkwardly serious to...lighter. A bit less tense, with the slightest bit of a grin. "I don't feel like I'm being taken advantage of at all. I don't think I care or worry about you because you pitied me into it, and I sure didn't invite you out because of that either. Those are both things I chose to do on my own. Kindnesses that I wanted to give, not ones I felt forced to." The small curve of her lips returns to neutral afterwards. "...Petra. I don't think anyone should put their hurt up against another person's, or anything like that. It could be the most petty thing in the world, but your pain is your pain, and no one else's. It's not any less real, and it doesn't affect you any less for it. It doesn't make you any less deserving of love, either. That's what I think, for real." "Plus." Hibiki unfolds her legs and leans down, enough to lean down onto the other end of the table and prop her elbow onto it, settling her chin on her palm. "I mean, friends take advantage of each other just a little bit all the time? I'm guilty of that too, y'know."
Petra Soroka	Petulantly, with her face still squashed onto the table, Petra mutters, "You wouldn't know if I'd manipulated you. That's the whole point." Her tone lightens too, though, being brattily contrarian rather than annoyed. Still melodramatically looking away from Hibiki, Petra is silent until she jolts at the word "petty", sitting up immediately afterwards to try to conceal that reaction. She brushes the loose strands of her bangs back into place with her finger, then bites down on the knuckle with a troubled expression. Petra, conspicuously, skips over Hibiki's reassurances about not comparing amounts of pain between people, talking completely past it. "...I wouldn't mind if you took advantage of me, I guess. But that's different." Then Petra leans back, resting her chin on her palm and cupping her cheek with her fingers. She looks diagonally downwards, at the floor in front of Hibiki, and continues talking with reluctance that sounds like guilt. "...So. What is it that you're talking around? There's something you want to say, and you're not saying it. You don't want to have this conversation but you're having it anyways, so there's something going on. I knew it from the moment we got here."
Hibiki Tachibana	Bratty contrarianism and conspicious skips are things that Hibiki understands decently well, so she doesn't mind not pointing those out. If she noticed the reaction to the phrasing she used, it doesn't seem like she's drawing attention to that either. It's the last thing that does get a response out of her, however. "Well." Now it's her turn to sit back up, though still hunched over a bit as she shifts the elbow she's resting on from the table to the armrest of the couch. It's obvious she's taking a moment to plan out what she wants to say, or maybe how to word something. In the end, she decides that there's no point being dodgy in what she wants to be a heart to heart. "...Ishirou came to my place to talk, the other day. Asking for advice, because he was concerned. He told me about what he saw when he chased after you, at the party. About the way you're...twisted up inside, I guess. With there-not there pain. Your lungs...your leg." Despite naming both of those, she's also not looking at Petra currently. Somewhere off towards the wall near the door. "He thought you needed to see a doctor, but I know that's not the answer at all." Her eyes slowly close. "...Really, that part isn't even what I'm worried about. It's just the side effect of whatever's actually getting at you, isn't it? Because I figure something like that only happens because you want it to happen, on some level." Hibiki slowly takes a breath, and when her eyes open, she's focusing on Petra once more. "None of that makes me look at you any different, for the record." She sounds genuine about that. "It just sort of...put stuff into perspective. You don't need to tell me why, or anything at all, or make up excuses, or nothing like that. And I can't force you to do anything, and I wouldn't want to, either." "When I said I just wanted us to hang out together without worrying about anyone else, I did mean that. I just want to...be someone you can be able to talk to, and someone who can help unravel whatever's tearing you up inside. Literally or not. Because...well. We're friends."
Petra Soroka	Petra, still stiffly in the same defensive pose throughout Hibiki's speech, flickers her eyes up from the ground to glance at the other girl, then back down, and repeat. She shifts her fingers to curl in and cover up her mouth with her knuckles, moments too late to conceal her quivering lips. Her shoulders tremble, and her voice is reedy and unsteady. "I wish he hadn't seen that. I wish he hadn't told you. I said to him, it's not real, and if it was, it wouldn't matter. Because it's not real, right? I-I don't know how much about all that you know, but it's really not real. Especially not from me. I'm not one of them." With how vague she's being, it's as if Petra's forgotten that she's talking to Hibiki, rather than just thinking out loud. She bites her knuckles to cut off her rambling, hard enough that she flinches in pain and lets out a soft gasp. She looks at Hibiki with tears forming in the corners of her eyes, then tucks her hand beneath her chin to hide the dark red marks she made. "You're right. I don't need a doctor. And... um. You're," Petra's voice trembles, then picks up again stronger, "You're a really good friend, Bikki. More than I deserve." Her voice dwindles down to a whisper at that last word. Petra hunches over, bracing her elbows on her knees, and is silent for a few seconds. "If you, had to choose, between me and Lilian... what would you do? If she said she wanted to get rid of me."
Hibiki Tachibana	It's not easy seeing Petra like this. It's not easy to see the other girl quivering, or going train-of-thought on the fact Hibiki knows this now, or have to force herself to stop. It's not even that much better when she steadies herself out some, because it's all still a delicate situation. Hibiki knew she'd be treading on sensitive ground the moment she did this. The mention of being a good friend does, at least, get her to meet her gaze head-on and give a small smile. Before things lapse into silence, and then a very important question is asked. Hibiki doesn't respond right away. She doesn't shift the way she's sitting instantly, or have much of a reaction beyond her lips pursing a bit. But after a few more seconds added onto the existing ones of quiet between them, she sits straight up, and returns to her legs-crossed way of being. Though she starts off staring at the table, Petra gets her full attention before too long, and her answer is straightforward as can be. "If she said that, and things came to blows between the two of you...I would defend you with everything I had in me. Even if it meant I had to fight her again." That's left to sit in the air, before Hibiki shuts her eyes. "...You know. So many times before, I didn't want friends to have to make choices like that. Me or someone else. Two people they both love, but who are at odds. And so many times, some part of me still couldn't help but really, really hope that if it came down to it...they'd choose me. So...I totally get why you'd want to ask." She reclines backwards and opens them up again, though her stare is up at the ceiling now. "And I mean what I said. Still...I don't...like to imagine it as making a choice. I wouldn't be thinking of it as 'her or you'. It'd be...'I want to protect someone I really care about, no matter what'. Even from someone else I care about."
Petra Soroka	Petra doesn't look relieved at Hibiki's assurance. Instead, she looks like she's about to be sick, her back tensing up and her shoulders shaking. Head in her hands, staring at the ground, Petra's mental slider for how this conversation has been going is derailed. She'd asked that question to worsen Hibiki's opinion of her, on purpose. To somehow dim the pity that she'd evoked by saying that she didn't deserve a friend as good as Hibiki. Retreading those thoughts, Petra starts doubting how much of what she'd said was honest, and how much was intentional manipulation. She feels sick. Confused. Thrown off-balance, by Hibiki's assertion that she'd be on her side. It's probably not true, right? When it comes down to a fight, Lilian will say a few words, expertly crafted to justify herself and tear Petra down, and even Petra's allies would end up agreeing with her. They wouldn't even be wrong to, Petra imagines. She's the villain here. That's the whole point. But if Bikki does stay, and defend her? Everything Petra's said to her has been stained by the underlying intent to manipulate her into doing that. But if she succeeds, then that just means she's manipulated someone that thought she was her friend. It'll just fall apart later. That's even worse. It's unbearable. Petra shivers, stabbing pain intensifying in her thigh. "...I kind of hope you don't. Choose me." Is that honest? Petra doesn't even know how to tell. She chokes out a sob, words spilling out of her. "I-I-I-I would be the one who's wrong, right? It's not her. It's not Lilian. I don't want you to, to, feel obligated, just because I made you promise like this. I don't want that. It's my fault."
Hibiki Tachibana	"Petra...?" At that unexpected reaction, Hibiki cuts the ceiling-watching and sits up a bit to focus back on her with slightly wide eyes. Was she genuinely not expecting her to say so? If so, it doesn't seem close to breaking down from happiness, relief, or anything close to those. The opposite. For a long moment, she doesn't know how to even react to this shift in where things have gone. It's what she's asking, the assertion that she's the one in the wrong, that gets her to finally find the ability to act. That, and something she told to Ishirou during his visit. 'And when you're already suffering in that sort of way, it's easy to think you deserve that hurt. And more. You keep going down and down until...' After a moment of gripping at the hem of her jacket, she takes in a slow breath and stands up from her seat, slowly walking around the table to Petra's side. Just as slowly, so long as Petra doesn't shy away, she goes to sit back down beside her, on the cushion beside hers. Not too close. "...Hey. Listen to me, okay?" Hibiki is looking straight at her now, but not trying to force her to do the same. "It's not a promise, or an obligation. I told you why I brought you here, didn't I? Because I wanted to. And if I ever do end up protecting you like that for real, it'll be because I want to. Because I would think you're worth protecting, even if you didn't, even if you were wrong about whatever." And, so long as Petra doesn't shy away, she moves her hand closer - to try and carefully scoop up the other girl's with her own, locked fingers and all, and hold them up as if to show something. "And this is what's worth protecting, too. Being able to talk with you, sit next to you, do dumb things like karaoke, seeing you smiling and having fun. I didn't bring up this painful stuff neither of us want to talk about just to hurt you." "It's 'cause I want to see you move past whatever's eating at you so you can /always/ be like that. And I know...how much it hurts to not have anyone on your side, while still trying to push away whoever tries. So I'll say it again. None of this is because of pity, or anything else. It's what I want, myself."
Petra Soroka	Petra lifts her face in surprise when Hibiki sits down next to her, staring at her with befuddled shock. Her face is blotchy, eyes bloodshot and teary, mucus collecting at the base of her nose, an all-around complete wreck. Petra doesn't resist when Hibiki laces their fingers together and holds them up. Her arm is limp, supported entirely by Hibiki's, and her face is similarly slack with confusion still. She looks between their hands and Hibiki's earnest expression, and as the words dimly sink into Petra's mind, she shudders and takes a deep, ragged breath, and squeezes tightly down on Hibiki's hand. All at once, Petra collapses towards the other girl, as if a support has just been torn out from under her. She presses her face into Hibiki's shoulder, one hand still clenched around hers, the other grabbing at the fabric of the cough. But rather than deep, heaving sobs, the only sound that comes out of Petra is nasally whimpering. "I don't get it. I don't know why you'd say that. All of your friends hate me, and if they don't yet, they will. I-I'm still me, you know. It doesn't matter what I'm like here, in this room. Out there they're all going to hate me eventually. That's just the way it is. The way it has to be. I don't get how, how you could say that k-karaoke is more important than that." Hibiki can feel dampness soaking through her clothes where Petra presses her face into them. Petra's breaths are shallow and frantic, clearly audible at this close distance, speeding up as she keeps talking. "I don't get it. You have to promise, Bikki, you have to promise that you won't be on my side when I stop deserving it. If you're still there then, then I won't ever believe that you, that it isn't all fake." A minute passes where Petra doesn't say anything, still leaning into Hibiki. At this distance, the cigarette stench infused into her hair is noxious, colored with a faint undertone of blood. For a time, she stays there, her breath slowing. Her grip on Hibiki's hand relaxes, and she straightens back up, a fragile smile on her face. "Haha. I don't want to ruin our karaoke trip, though. It's," Petra breaks eye contact, turning to the side. "Important to me, too. So, um. Do you want to choose your song?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is surprised for the second time tonight - but this time, it actually is in the good way. When Petra falls onto her, she has a moment of being stunned before her other arm comes around, firmly wrapping around the other girl's side to hold onto her. Their still-locked hands gets a tight squeeze from her end, too. She doesn't interrupt her getting all of that out. It's not the full-on sobbing most would expect, but as far as she's concerned, it's no less important. The smell of blood and smoke doesn't bother her, or make her pull away, and her eyes shut again all the way up to when Petra finally goes silent. It's a whole half a minute into it before she replies, quietly. "...I promise. If I ever think you don't, if I really and seriously don't, then I promise. But even then...I'll still try and make everything right again." By the time they separate, Hibiki's smile is a bit shaky in its own right - but entirely genuine. And with the subject change, she gives a small chuckle. "...Yeah. I've kind of been putting that off, huh? Let's spend the rest of this just having fun like we were before. I don't know about anyone else, but the Petra 'in this room' is all I care about right now. Alright, let's go!" With their hands slipping away from each other, she leans across the table to grab her microphone and the remote, ramping up the volume by about 20 notches before hitting the track. Heavily contrasting Petra's earlier choice, loud metal guitars and a clearly Japanese singer shouting in full english /immediately/ fills the room, with Hibiki jumping to a stand to match in decibels. o/` The outstretched fist means 'don't give up!' Filled to the brim with power, you're the strongest soldier! The hoisted flag says 'extreme danger!' For those who fear not even gods... It's the most splendid violence! o/` o/` Banish the darkness! And to all the grieving voices calling out...! Hold out that arm! o/`