ℕ𝕠 𝕛𝕦𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕡𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕖 - H&S

Orpheus turned to lock the door, then nodded at L. “Once, a few years ago,” he explained, a small smile spreading across his features at the memory. “I… don’t think it was this one. It was a couple miles out of town… or perhaps further than that, Mr. Hermes and I had to take the train. But it was a lot of fun. I just hope this one is just as exciting.” He glanced at L, very clearly excited by the prospect of actually going out somewhere and doing something. “I hope I didn’t pull you away from anything too important…?”

Orpheus gave a small smile. He had enjoyed himself last time, but he didn’t know what Ryuk considered a good time. Perhaps he would be bored. It wasn’t as though county fairs or fall festivals were particularly intellectual. Still… there was plenty to do.
“I get that most of it is probably confidential,” Orpheus murmured, trying to catch Ryuk’s gaze. “But if you ever want to talk it over, or you want someone to talk to as you puzzle things out… I’m here. And if you don’t want that… that’s fine too, I just.. thought I might as well try to be helpful.” He shrugged. “Sometimes… when I’m stuck on something, it’s helpful to have somebody to talk about it at, even if they don’t know enough to be able to respond.” Mr. Hermes had played that role for him numerous times when he got stuck on the rhythm or melody of a song.

Orpheus watched, honestly surprised that Ryuk was even considering it. He had almost expected the detective to dismiss the idea out of hand, and was pleasantly surprised to find him considering the option.
“Let me know if you ever want me to listen, or talk about it with you. I’ll leave you my work schedule. I start tomorrow, actually.” He sounded relatively proud of himself for that fact. It hadn’t taken too much to find a job, but the fact that he had actually taken the initiative to do it? That had been a huge step for him.
“We’re almost there,” he added after a moment, pointing to the fairground up ahead. There were lights strung up around the area, and people milling about. Orpheus pulled out the money he had brought for entry, then moved towards the entrance.

“Thanks,” Orpheus returned, a smile pulling at his lips. “I got hired by a café, to be their waiter. Server? Something like that.” He couldn’t remember the proper word for it, but it didn’t really matter. A job was a job.
Did he consider Ryuk a friend? Not yet, he decided. They had only known each other a few days, after all, and they hadn’t spoken all that much besides that first day when Orpheus had invited Ryuk to stay. But maybe… maybe, he considered, they could be friends. Maybe this was the start of something.
“Oh,” Orpheus responded, glancing at the money Ryuk had pulled out. “I… it’s not that expensive, I pulled enough for both of us.” He offered an uncertain smile, hoping Ryuk wouldn’t take offense to that. “I just thought… since I have a job now… my treat, yeah?” He was blushing as he said it, hoping desperately that Ryuk wouldn’t be hurt that Orpheus wanted to pay. He didn’t know him well enough to know if he was the type that would take offense.
After a long moment, he handed the money to the person at the front, still blushing.
“Two, please,” he murmured, casting a glance at Ryuk.

The thing about Orpheus is he would have a hard time seeming normal, even if he were trying his absolute hardest. He was just trying to live life and make it through each individual day. It was harder now than it had ever been before, but… having someone around made it easier, whether Ryuk realized he was helping or not.
“Of course,” Orpheus replied, more than grateful that Ryuk hadn’t been offended by him offering to pay. Well… he hadn’t even really offered, he had just paid. Was that inappropriate? Oh well… it was done now, and Ryuk didn’t seem terribly offended. Which was a relief.
The fairground – or… well, it wasn’t exactly a fairground, but whatever it was… was huge. Orpheus spun around a few times, trying to get a glimpse of everything it had to offer.
“Do you… have a preference for what we do first?” he asked after a long moment, glancing over at Ryuk. He rubbed his hands together, realizing the air was slightly chillier than he had anticipated. “Personally,” he murmured after a moment, watching his breath billow into the sky, “I think I would prefer to find somewhere selling cider.” He looked around. What were the other options? A ferris wheel? A corn maze, pumpkin patch… petting zoo… there was plenty to do. And probably not enough time to do it all.

Orpheus stood still, uncertainty dancing over his features for a long moment as he tried to take it all in. He had, of course, been in public places since he’d lost his hearing, but he hadn’t really been anywhere that had quite so much going on. Logically, he knew there were sounds all around them, various things attempting to pull their attention, but he wasn’t aware of what those things would be. He decided to stick close to Ryuk (well, hopefully not too close, he didn’t want to freak him out) and keep most of his attention there. If someone really wanted their attention, then Ryuk would tell him. Hopefully.
“Maybe…” he considered for a long moment, then pulled out his phone and took a picture of the ground map that stood a few feet away. “I think maybe we should look over this over cider,” he explained. Maybe that would make it a little less overwhelming.
Orpheus turned, pinpointing the short line waiting outside a small building with a menu tacked up on the entrance. It seemed… yes, it was a vendor’s building, not an actual restaurant. If anyone would have cider… he pulled closer, struggling a bit to make sure he was moving and leading the way, but also always keeping Ryuk in his line of sight. He didn’t really know what to do in the case of them getting separated.

Orpheus was, quite honestly, expecting Ryuk to pay for his own cider, especially since he had paid for the tickets. He wasn’t, however, going to be offended if Ryuk didn’t pay. He had brought enough money for the both of them. And he was probably going to get paid pretty soon – he started his job the next day, after all.
They were at the front of the line now (it was moving quickly), so Orpheus quickly ordered his cider and paid, then moved out of the way so that Ryuk could order for himself. He had opened the map on his phone and started looking over the map. He didn’t want to make any decisions about their afternoon without Ryuk’s input, but he figured it would probably be best if he could at least orient himself.
It took Orpheus a long moment to realize that the person at the counter was beckoning him forward, trying to serve him his drink. He blushed, then moved up to the counter and muttered an apology as he took his drink. It was hot – even the cup in his hand was hot – but he was looking forward to it. It at least helped mitigate the chill of the autumn breeze.
Orpheus stuck his phone back in his pocket, breathing out and hoping that nobody would be upset with him for not noticing. Or for holding up the line.

Orpheus wasn’t paying much attention to Ryuk’s process of ordering. He just sort of assumed it was something that Ryuk knew how to do. It was something you watched the adults in your life do for a really long time until you were alone and you did it yourself, and maybe you fumbled a little bit trying to get the exact amount of change out, but in the end it worked out alright. Life was full of false starts and accidentally holding up lines. Orpheus just wished some people would be kinder about it. He tried to ignore the couple of people still in line that glared at them both as Orpheus led the way to an empty picnic table.
Orpheus didn’t set the cider on the table, instead choosing to hold it carefully in the hopes that it would warm him up the rest of the way. It was doing the trick so far.
“We’ve got a couple options what to do next,” Orpheus explained, setting the cider down long enough to pull out his phone and slide it across to Ryuk, the map shining up from the screen. “I think we should try to do as much as we can while we’re here, but that’s just because I think this stuff is fun, but…” he shrugged, hoping Ryuk would be alright with this. It was so hard to read him, especially without tone to give him a hint what Ryuk (and, if he were honest with himself, everyone else) meant.
“There’s a petting zoo, which we might wanna do while it’s still warm, and the pumpkin patch, which we should probably do soon but ask them to hold our pumpkin for us until later, because it’s gonna be heavy and we don’t wanna carry it around all day. And we should do the ferris wheel at sunset.” Orpheus considered for a long moment, then tilted his head. “If… you don’t want to do something, just tell me. I’m sort of ambivalent about the corn maze, but it’s sort of like a puzzle, right? So you might like it…” He took a sip of his cider, immediately recoiling. “Too hot,” he mumbled in explanation.

Orpheus gave a tiny smile, gaze catching on the way Ryuk stuck his tongue out just a little bit. Still too hot, he figured, so he elected to just keeping holding onto his cup instead. At least until it cooled off a little bit. The weather was crisp and chilly (though not quite unpleasant), so he figured it wouldn’t take very long for the cider to reach a drinkable temperature. He’d already burned his tongue on it a little bit, so he figured he could be patient.
“The corn maze sounds fun,” he agreed, looking up from the phone to see if he could spot it from where they were sitting. It wasn’t immediately obvious that it was a corn maze, but if he squinted he could tell that what seemed like a green wall was actually a field of corn. He couldn’t see the entrance to the maze, but it probably wouldn’t be that difficult to find.
“I’ve only done it a few times before,” he admitted softly, lightly blowing on his cider as though that would make it cool off. It didn’t do much, especially since the plastic lid was still on the cup. Still, his mind knew that food cooled off when you blew on it, and he hadn’t quite made the cognitive jump that told him it might not work as well with the lid on. He wasn’t actually paying that much attention to it – it was just force of habit.
“We can drink our cider while trying to get out of the maze,” he murmured after a moment, glancing around as more people started to sit at the tables around them. “If you don’t want to sit here and finish it, I mean. We can get more done if we multitask, but… it’s up to you, really.” Orpheus managed a shy smile, trying to catch Ryuk’s gaze to see what he thought. “It’s just… if you haven’t done any of it before, I figured you might want the chance to try more things. Although… I guess we could always come back if we don’t finish everything…”

Orpheus couldn’t hide the small smile that appeared as Ryuk tried his cider again, only to find that once again, it was a little too hot. He didn’t mean to laugh at his pain, it was just that… it hadn’t been more than a few seconds. Orpheus could relate. He had to keep suppressing the urge to take a sip from his own too-hot cider.
“Maybe we should get some ice cubes,” he said after a moment, glancing at his own cider. “I thought the cooler weather would help cool it, but…” he shrugged, then shook his head a little bit. He didn’t know if watered down cider would really be the best, but it had to be better than repeatedly burning their tongues. Especially since he could tell from the way Ryuk was moving his mouth slightly differently that it didn’t feel very pleasant. It was harder to tell what he was saying with his tongue out, even that little bit.
“Let’s start with the corn maze,” he decided, his smile softening just a little bit. He stood up, waiting for Ryuk to follow suit. Walking and talking was difficult, he found. He had to be walking perfectly even with the person he wanted to understand, and even then he had to sacrifice his ability to look out in front of himself if he really wanted to understand what Ryuk was saying. He would have to get used to it. For now, though, he had to balance understanding with not tripping over himself. Hopefully, Ryuk didn’t mind the balancing act he had to navigate.

Well… as much as ice cubes would be a good idea, it seems like they weren’t going to get any. It was alright. The drinks would cool off eventually, and they’d at least have something warm to drink as they went through the corn maze. Orpheus hadn’t thought to bring gloves. He didn’t know if it was cold enough to need them, but he did know he was grateful for the warmth of the cider in his hands. The breeze was chilly, but not freezing… yes, it seemed like a perfect fall day. He hoped Ryuk thought so, too.
Taking the lid off the cider was a good idea, Orpheus thought as he watched Ryuk do it. That way it might cool off just a little bit faster, even if there wasn’t really anywhere to put the lid. There had to be a trashcan somewhere, right? Orpheus opted to keep his lid on until he was sure there as somewhere to dispose of it. He didn’t want to lose the use of a hand to carrying around a lid.
“You’re right!” he exclaimed, following Ryuk’s gaze (and his point). “There’s a trash can by the entrance, too,” he noted, tilting his head towards Ryuk’s lid hand. “We can toss those. Although… it might be possible that corn stuff could get in the drink…” He didn’t know if that made sense, but he knew that sometimes the corn fell off the stalks, if they had been touched by too many excited people. “I guess that’s not likely, though,” he admitted sheepishly.

Watching Ryuk dip his tongue in hot cider for what must have been the fourth time was enough to make Orpheus start to regret that he hadn’t stopped Ryuk from heading to the corn field so he could grab ice first. But… hopefully it would be a drinkable temperature soon. He didn’t know why they were served so hot, except perhaps that people tended to carry them around and they still wanted them to be warm when they finally had a chance to drink them. But… people wouldn’t be forced to carry them around so much if they weren’t so scalding when first purchased… Orpheus shrugged, shaking the thought away. It didn’t matter, now. It would cool off sooner or later.
“I… don’t know if it will be an issue,” Orpheus admitted, speeding up to keep pace with Ryuk. He didn’t want to miss out on anything his companion had to say. He was genuinely fascinating, and Orpheus was enjoying the chance to actually spend time with him and see him outside the context of sitting in the middle of the room and staring at a screen. That seemed to be most of what Ryuk did on a day-to-day basis – getting outside was probably a good thing.
“I just remember things falling when I was last in a corn maze, but there were also teenagers throwing corn, and I was… tiny, so… it might not be a regular occurrence.” He glanced up at the entrance, a genuine smile flickering across his features.
“Ready?” he asked, tilting his head. “There may be another trashcan inside if the lid becomes an issue. Or… I can carry it for you if it proves there’s no corn stuff falling from the sky.”

Orpheus blinked. Okay, so Ryuk was either hyper analytical (which made sense, considering he was a detective), or he had never been in a corn maze. Or both.
“The last time I was here, the corn maze was sort of like a scavenger hunt,” he informed Ryuk, giving a small smile as the detective placed the lid on his head. That was one way to do it, although Orpheus had to note that he would happily have carried it for him. Evidently, he either wasn’t trusted enough for that, or Ryuk had other plans for what Orpheus should be doing that required at least one hand for. He took a few steps ahead, keeping his eyes trained on Ryuk as he did so, just to make sure he didn’t miss anything his (possible) friend was saying. Were they friends yet? Orpheus might have said yes, but he also knew Ryuk was here for work, and it wasn’t like Orpheus had many friends to compare his feelings to. Maybe this was just what people felt for their more familiar acquaintances. Either way, Orpheus hoped that they might end up as friends before Ryuk left. Maybe they could stay in touch! Orpheus thought he would like that. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and making it the rest of the way to the corn maze.
“Here,” he said, fetching a map and handing it over to Ryuk. “It should show you… oh!” The surprise in his voice was genuine as he looked at the map for the first time. It was shaped. He didn’t know they did that with corn mazes, didn’t know they carved designs into them. “It’s Orion,” he said with no small amount of amazement. “Or… at least that part is. Oh… I guess it’s labelled.” Orpheus blushed, awkwardly scratching at the back of his neck. “But… but there’s the Big Dipper, too… it’s like we have to make our way across the sky in order to get through the maze. I like that.” He lifted his gaze to meet Ryuk’s, a smile shining wide and bright across his features.
“I don’t think we’ll need to worry too much about keeping a hand on the wall. That would be… sort of hard, too, because the wall is made of corn plants. Stalks? I guess they’re called stalks.”

“We’re spaceships,” Orpheus replied like it was a novel idea. He hadn’t thought of it like that, but now that he had… he was rather enamored with it. He didn’t think spaceships could actually travel between stars, but he didn’t think he minded if the analogy wasn’t perfect. Wasn’t that what poetry was? A bunch of imperfect analogies that made you feel something anyway? He wasn’t going to question Ryuk designating them as spaceships, and if he still wanted Orpheus to keep one hand on the corn… he would. He looked up, a small smile on his face as he looked at the endless maze of corn. Or… not endless, but close enough. It would probably take a little while for them to work their way out of it, and as long as they were both enjoying themselves… he couldn’t imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.
Ryuk’s smile surprised him. He couldn’t recall if he had ever seen the detective smile before, but he looked… well, almost younger with it. Like he didn’t have to carry the weight of the world all of the time. Orpheus didn’t know Ryuk, but he wanted to help take some of that weight off of his shoulders. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live knowing that you could slip up and it might actively hurt dozens, if not hundreds, of people. Perhaps a life that did so much good was predestined to be capable of doing a lot of bad on accident. Orpheus didn’t have to worry about that – he wasn’t doing much good at all with his life. He wasn’t even able to help the people he’d been trying to help before he’d lost his hearing. He supposed he could try to play for people again, but… he was afraid.
And then Ryuk was inside the maze and Orpheus hurried after him, careful to keep one hand against the cornstalks as instructed. He didn’t want to miss anything that Ryuk had to say. It was… a little bit overwhelming, being out in public again. Knowing that there were things behind and around him he didn’t know about because he couldn’t hear them… he glanced suspiciously behind, expression clearing when he realized nobody else had entered the maze yet.