at the playground [open]

Matthew had not experienced free time in a while. It was an unusual occurrence; that time was usually slept away. He had brought himself to ignore the invite of his bed to go outside. The outside air was not completely life changing and would get him to sing a song, but it did perk the blond up a bit. At the beginning, his walk appeared to be taking him nowhere as he simply walked down the sidewalk and almost running into a rushed person now and again. It seemed that Matthew was not able to think of anything to do that was not strictly work; his entire life had become one big job that would knock Matthew off his feet every day and every hour. Those sorts of thoughts, however, were rather close to being suicidal. Despite how meaningless things seemed half the time, Matthew would never be able to bring himself to do it.

Seeing he could not allow himself to be in his stupor any longer, he snapped himself out of it and narrowly avoided running into a tree. Matthew rubbed at an imaginary injury on his forehead before he glanced around. Funny how everything suddenly got so green. Well, it was not quite the Emerald City, going to show how spaced out he had been. He took a few steps over to where he was walking on a path as though not to disturb the green grass that dog owners were frolicking in. His steps were slow, almost awkward, trying to hold himself to where his arms did not swing at his sides. It did not take too long for Matthew to make up his mind, deciding to sit himself on the next empty bench that came to sight. He did just that, making sure to sit on one side of the bench as though to keep the three quarters of the rest available to anyone who wanted to take a seat as well.

He spent some time staring blankly at one direction, not trying to draw attention to himself by dropping his gaze to somewhere that would end up being inappropriate. His vision suddenly became blurry. Matthew sat upright, blinking a couple times to clear his eyes. It was right then he saw something he did not take notice of a few minutes previous. Playground. An empty playground. He felt himself slip to the edge of his seat, hands gripping at his pants. There was a glance to the left and then to the right. It was rather childish, yes, but he simply could not help himself. He did not want to seen by any legal guardian of the type who just happened to be bringing their child the playground. It would look odd within itself; he could possibly be accused of being a pedophile or get his ass stuck on the slide.

But Matthew stepped slowly, surveying the area one last time. No one was paying him no mind, giving him all the reason to make a mad dash through the grass. He reached for the closest thing, hand taking hold of a metal chain that suspended a swing up from the ground, very much relative to a child. Matthew simply wanted to get it over with, sitting himself down on the seat. Well, it was a tad snug, but Matthew’s backside had fit otherwise. There was a deep intake of air before Matthew began to try to move his legs to somehow get the attraction going. Alas, he did not achieve the results he desired. Apart from the swing wobbling a tad, Matthew did not swing back and forth. He never had swung on a swing before, but he always felt that he understood the dynamics. He slumped over slightly, holding onto the chains tightly.

Tino had thought "What a lovely day to walk Hanatamago!" when he'd woken up that morning, and he wasn't mistaken after stepping out of the house and breathing in deeply. Oh, the smell of the fresh air was so nice. So he called up his dog and put her leash on her, and took her out and along the sidewalk. The sun wasn't too warm, it was pleasant, and there was a slight breeze. Perfect, in Tino's opinion. So he sped up a little, even skipping a couple of times, before stopping, so people didn't think of him as ridiculous. Not that... He... Cared about what people thought of him, or anything... He just liked... Knowing what... People... Thought about him. Ok, so he lied, Tino cared quite a bit what people thought of him when they saw him on the street.

Still, not many people were out at the moment, so he was ok. Hana seemed cheerful enough too, waddling around on those tiny legs of hers, sniffing at everything that interested her, stepping on a snail... ew. That was... Pretty gross. Tino wrinkled his nose. "Come on, pup. This way." He directed, tugging gently on the leash. Hana obeyed, following him into the park and sitting down happily at a bench. He tossed a ball causually for Hanatamago to go catch, which she was perectly happy to do.

After spending a little while playing games with her, Tino stood up again. "I need to walk. Eh, Hana?" He gave her fur a pet before clasping the leash back on and walking along. How gorgeous the trees looked at the moment! With their dark green leaves and their acorns or whatever else growing on them. Hanatamago seemed to agree as well, he noted, as she ran around and barked up them. Maybe there was a squirrel up there or something. That would explain her excitement. But Tino didn't feel like dealing with excited dogs at that moment, so he just tugged her away, using his superiority. Hanatamago was a nice dog, and was all too happy to go along with it, trotting by his side obediently.

Along his route through the park, he passed a playground. There was nothing unusual about it, he'd passed it before many times while walking his dog. But this time, something more than the bright red see-saw and the smiley faces everywhere got him looking. There was a man over there, on the small swing meant for kids. Tino was sure he'd seen the kid before (He looked so childish, it feld incorrect to call him a man). While Tino was watching, the boy did a little swing before coming to a hault. Ah... Did he not know how to swing? Tino watched, and the dissapointment and slight shame in the boy's face as he cast his gaze to the ground said it all. Well then, Tino could help. It was just a pity the playground didn't allow dogs, so Tino had to tie Hanatamago to the outside fence and tell her to stay. Hanatamago decided that it was sleeping time. Tino laughed slightly before refocussing on the boy on the swings.

Strolling over, he couched slightly to get the other's attention. "Erm... Want a push?" He offered, feeling a little stupid and shy, but held out his hands as though ready to push the kid right then and there, to show him that Tino was really willing.