🌸𝙱𝚎𝚢𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜 🌸

🌸𝙺𝚎𝚗 𝙼𝚒𝚍𝚘𝚛𝚒 - 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝙻𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍.

Wc: 5.5k

Themes: Hurt/Comfort, Strangers to friends to lovers

A frustrated sigh escapes your lips as you cut the loose threads from the glove you're trying to sew back together.

Last night, you had been training with your bey, but it seemed your glove had had enough of the years of sweat, abuse, and regular washes that it had gone through, and gave up on you. It had gotten you through many wins, and you doubt you'd find another just as comfortable since this one is now worn perfectly to your launching hand. You remembered that your school left the home ec. class open after hours, so you figured you'd give attempting to fix your glove a shot, which obviously wasn't going well. The threads were too far apart, then too loose, then they just looked so badly done, you were ready to give up and buy a new one. Before you were able to fully get up from your seat, a boy came up to you - a brown puppet on one hand, and blue on the other.

The brown one began to talk in a goofy voice; "Hi there! Would you like some help? This guy here likes to think he's pretty good at sewing." The blue one cut him off, in a drastically different voice, "Yeah, ya seem to be strugglin' a bit there."

You could only stare at the person in amazement. What a skilled ventriloquist! Not only can he speak with minimal movement from his mouth, but he can switch voices so quickly!
You dismiss your thoughts, remembering the situation at hand. You get a little flustered after examining how badly you managed to mess up your stitching this time, accepting the kind stranger's offer.

"Yeah... That'd actually be really nice."

The boy takes a seat in the chair beside you, making sure to keep some distance between you two. He takes off his puppets and places them on the table with care, reaching a hand out toward your glove, silently asking to borrow it. You hand the beaten and well-used glove over, and he carefully but efficiently undoes the miserable stitching that you did. It doesn't take long before it's all gone, and you're mesmerised by the way he so quickly threads the needle and pokes it through the fabric, making seemingly perfect lines. You see that he's not doing the usual stitch, and you study the way he continues for a bit. He gets about a third through the small hole in the glove before handing it back to you, putting his puppets back on his hands to explain how to do this new stitch. A backstitch. He explains how to do it with maximum efficiency, and tells you that this stitch is great for reinforcing the area, which is exactly what you need.

You're much slower, and the lines are obviously less straight than his, but this is far better than any previous attempts. He waits for you, pointing out when you begin to put too much space between the holes, or any other details. In the meantime, he introduces himself. Well, the puppets introduce themselves and him. You smile at how cute Keru and Besu are, and marvel at their unique personalities. You quickly learn that Ken's puppets are very important to him, and that he's obviously been doing this type of thing since he was young. His skills only further prove that, for both sewing and ventriloquism.

You only notice that you've been looking at Ken a little too long when he brings Besu's little hand up to his face to 'wipe' Ken's cheek, Besu asking if there's something stuck there. Your face heats up, realizing your mistake, and you quickly assure him that you're just heavily impressed by his ventriloquism skills. You can see slight surprise cross his face, it seems people don't often see how difficult his skill really is. Besu thanks you, while Keru boasts about how long Ken's been practicing for. He gets on to mentioning his puppet shows, and the two of you talk for a bit. It's cut short when you sheepishly ask him if he can tie the final knot for you.

You try on your glove on the way home, trying to remember all the little details of the person you just met. The spikey, fluffy-looking black hair he had, the comfortable green color scheme, even his little snaggle tooth was hard to miss. It felt like you two spoke for hours, even though it was only probably 20 or so minutes. The sun is halfway through setting, and you find yourself wanting to see him again. You're sure he went to the same school, it was simply unlucky that he and you had separate classes.