this is the fourth time im doing one of these, third time for lenmeeks. but meHHH let's try fluff again bc it's been years, i cant fluff im so sure audjdjksjf tbh this is more dorkiness than fluff but knowing myself it's the same so let's gooooo
"Do you have a single suggestion that isn't a horror movie?"
They've been picking up DVDs one after another for an hour, now. Miku groans every time she's faced with another horror movie, because Len couldn't bring something that isn't a horror movie. Some of these aren't even for his age, and she questions how his parents allow him to watch them.
Actually no, they wouldn't let him. He fetched them without their concern, she's sure of it.
"Well," he starts. Pauses to think. Gives up. He hastily picks up DVDs at random and checks the genres on the back cover. "Uh, I'm sure there's something here."
"Honestly, I should tell your parents." It's teasing, but Len still shivers at the thought of them finding out what he's watching. Miku lifts an eyebrow at a DVD, its cover on shades of grayscale and crude drawings of children. "Kagome Kagome? Isn't that about an orphanage where children are experimented on?"
"Yeah! I heard that it's getting a reboot in some months so it motivated me to find the original. It's old but a classic!"
She taps the rating on the back cover at him. "Len."
"Oh, shut it. Do I look like the kind of guy who fawns over romantic crap? That's Kaito, not me."
She can't help the smile creeping up on her face. Len gravitates towards horror like Earth rotates around the sun, which is odd to anyone else because he is sunshine and mirth and kindness incarnate and freaks out over spiders on the walls and frogs in the bathroom.
If anything, this interest is what inspired him to join the drama club, doing the makeup and a bit of costume design and often taking minor roles that couldn't be filled. Not to mention his halloween costumes and contribuitions to class projects.
So Miku humors him a bit more—she asks about some movies that are unfamiliar to her just to see his perking up at a mention and rambling about positive and negative points. She learns about A Fox's Wedding's convulted plot that has almost nothing to do with the original story, Disease Princess' backstage drama causing a delay on the reboot's release, Onibi's surprisingly good quality despite its low budget, and how Dark Woods Circus has four different versions and Len owns three of them.
That is until Len finds one movie and beams. Miku blinks at the title: Mercy & Pathos. It doesn't strike any familiarity. "Ah yes, this one! It's pretty tame in comparison to most movies I know and it's very, very good. It's just horror because vampires and stuff."
"That's a curious title."
She stares a little longer at the cover: an orange and dark blue background with dark smudges for buildings in the distance, a nun in white and gold and a man dressed in dark colors, the Mercy part of the title glimmering in gold and white whilst the Pathos is colored red and black. It calls her attention at how the nun holds a teacup filled to the brim with a red liquid and the man holds a red rosary.
Len tilts his head, as if considering. Well, certainly he's seen stranger titles before.
"It's originally two stories—Sister's Mercy and Vampire's Pathos, if I'm not wrong—but the team couldn't make them work separately, so instead merged both. And in my opinion, they did a good job at it," he chuckles and stops when he feels her gaze. "Not a fan of vampire movies?"
"It's not that. Just reminding myself of how my friend is a nerd."
"I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. So you wanna?"
"Sure, if it's not those gorn stuff you're so used to."
"Oh no, don't you dare use storytelling tropes on me!" This startles a laugh out of her.