293/Cat Through a Hot Glass Window

Cat Through a Hot Glass Window
Date of Scene:	14 August 2015
Location:	Pikarigaoka - Clover Street - North
Synopsis:	Amu has an interesting discussion with Ikuto without ever leaving her bed! Ran playfights with Yoru! Icecream!
Cast of Characters:	Ikuto Tsukiyomi, Amu Hinamori

---

Amu Hinamori has posed:
One of the downsides of having very doting, very chuuni parents is that... well.

    Amu Hinamori had her first encounter with 'a mugger' a few days ago. Naturally, she managed to get herself and Tadase away from him even though he got beaten up, and call someone from school who then got him to medical attention.

    hat is, if you believe that particular rumor. Another rumor is that Amu BEAT TADASE UP herself, and then in a show of remorse called for some adult assistance. Another rumor still is that Amu and Tadase both got beat up but that Amu Hinamori is so cool that bleeding and bruises can't possibly exist on her body, which is why she was entirely unharmed.

    Her parents chose to believe the first one, which means that while praising her coolness and bravery, they have also decided that Amu was so exhausted (and also so deserving of praise and adulation) that she should take a little time off school for them to wait on her every need and let her relax and enjoy a hero's rest.

    Which is why she's currently in her bedroom, bored out of her skull. She has the window open, she's playing Fruit Ninja or something on her tablet PC, and she's got her three colourful patterned eggs in her line of sight.

    Two of them have still not hatched.

    Amu sighs, puts the computer down on her tummy, and stares at the ceiling.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    On the roof of an adjacent house is the Black Cat! Yes, THAT Black Cat, the one that tried to steal the Humpty Lock from the Guardians. He's croushed on the roof of the house, looking at the house Amu's currently in. He has his ears and tail (otherwise he would probably be on the ground) and that tail twitches curiously.

    Also there is Yoru, floating somewhere over Ikuto's right shoulder. "What are we doing here, Ikuto? Is this where that girl with the Lock lives-nya?" Ikuto nods. "Oh right! Gonna try to get it back-nya?"

    "...Maybe," Ikuto replies. He needs to determine what the best strategy is here. Which is the whole reason he's here right now. If this girl can already Character Transform with the Lock, maybe she's better off keeping it and him using her as an ally.

    He leaps nimbly over onto the roof, scooting down the singled roof until he could look into what he thinks is the window of her room. He's keeping his ears down and only peeking over the edge of the roof, to minimize his profile. But then he sees the eggs. Yes 'eggs', plural. Those ears pop forward again and he looks over with interest.

    Well, it's about time to reveal his presence, he figures. Ikuto slides down the roof and perches on the outside sill, crouched like a cat. He's counting on the suddenness of his appearance startling Amu back away from the open window so she can't close it yet.

    "...Yo."

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori squeaks! She's so surprised that her tablet goes flying up into the air, after which it goes bouncing off her outstretched hands and arms in an attempt to grab it, eventually it falls off of her hands onto the mattress, bounces, and then she just grabs it and hugs it right against her chest.

    Pant, pant, pant.

    Then she perks up again and realizes, again, that the REASON for this is because the catboy is back! IN HER WINDOW! OF HER HOUSE!

    Ran takes this moment to peek her head out of her egg, yawning. "I was dreaming about strawberry shortcake... Amucchi, what's-"

    And then Ran squeaks! She flails her tiny arms and then zips over to hide behind Amu. Then, zips back to hide behind the other two eggs. Then, in FRONT of the eggs. Then, she's carrying one of the eggs to hide them behind Amu.

    Amu, on the other hand, is less ... hyperactive. In fact she's scowling at Ikuto from behind the tablet. "...what do you want?"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Success! Ikuto slips into the room via the window while Amu is trying to calm herself from the scare. And while Ran is running around. As he stands straight near the window, his cat features disappear. Yoru will soon follow.

    But instead of answering Amu's question immediately, he make a beeline for where the eggs are, even as Ran is picking one up to hide it. She can't pick them both up! ".../Three/ eggs, hm?" he muses, half to himself. And then he makes to pick up the egg Ran didn't take off with.

    As he examines the egg (assuming he's been able to pick it up; Amu might end up snatching the egg away before he can do that), he finally answers her question, without looking at her. "To talk."

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori ... gathers the egg (it's the green one!) up into her arms, and puts the tablet down next to her. "...if you try to do anything funny, I'm calling my mom and dad."

    Ran, meanwhile, is trying to sneak slowly across the floor, under a rug, and climb up towards the window, so that she can attempt to push the window shut. We're not trapped in here with him, he's trapped in here with us! And up the staircase from adults! She's also sneaking under a box, because of course she is.

    How this will work, of course, remains to be seen, especially with Yoru around.

    She's still glaring daggers though. "Couldn't you have just met me at the mall or something? At least then I could be eating icecream."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Ikuto doesn't do anything to the egg. He just looks at it and smirks. "'Funny' like what?" he asks. Though he does do something a /little/ funny. The cat ears and tail reappear, and he brings the egg close to his face to sniff at it. Sniff sniff. What is he doing? He's not thinking about EATING it, is he?! No, that's silly, he's a cat. Cats don't eat eggs. ...Do they?

    To Ran's credit, Yoru actually doesn't see the sporty Guardian Character until she utilizes the box. Ohey! Moving box! Yoru is a cat, and of course he's going to see this. And of course he's going to try and POUNCE on it! "Gotcha-nya!" Of course, whether he actually does or not is unclear. But he's going to try and pounce on the box anyway.

    As for meeting Amu at the mall? "You aren't at the mall. You're here." He has a point, there... would her parents have let her go to the mall alone? Probably not today.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Gigigigi... alright, Amu's had enough of that. She was going to save this for a desperate measure, but heck with it, we have already hit weirdness capacity. So she... picks up the tablet she was trying so hard to keep safe and hucks it at Ikuto, then makes a diving save for the egg if he drops it. Then, scurries back into place. Nope nope nope!

    Ran is not the brightest egg in the box, let's be fair. She probably watched that guy and thought that the box somehow enabled magic sneaking powers. Or maybe she's just a slave to comedy. The box proves its fallibility nonetheless, and now she's stuck under cardboard /and/ cat chara, for the triple-word alliteration score. Flail! FLAIL in the limited space available to her! Possible attempt to LIFT the whole ensemble up?!

    "Yeah, see, that's what I mean, because if you ... went to the ... mall you wouldn't find me, and I wouldn't end up talking to you. Because I'm stuck in my room. Because of stupid things." Never mind /classroom/ rumors, Amu's seen the /facebook/ gossip. Question is, has Ikuto?

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Suddenly there's a tablet being thrown at Ikuto, and he makes a quiet surprised sound. He does indeed drop the egg, in favor of catching the piece of technology. Shows where his priorities are, doesn't it? Then again, even though Amu makes the save, he does look at her over the tablet. "Is the egg okay?" he asks. He actually seems to be concerned about it!

    Ran lifting the box should be easy, because Yoru's only on one side of the box now. After he landed on it he shifted his weight to one side to see which one /he/ should lift it from! Ran has only to push on the other side of the box to send him flipping over sideways with a "Nya!" of surprise.

    At the mention of 'stupid things', Ikuto smirks again. "So I heard. How do you think I knew where to find you?" he points out. "Shameful, beating up on the King's chair like that. 'Cool and spicy Amu Hinamori' might be a little more than Tadase's prepared for~." Ikuto's being mean again!

    However, then he seems to sober, and the smirk fades. He tilts his head and offers, "But Tadase's going to be all right. Someone's seen to him. She said his Linker Core was drained." Not that he knows what a Linker Core is. But he's not going to admit that.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
"I'm a good catch," Amu replies. She's very tacit today, it seems. Now she has two eggs! That's as... many as two.. ones? No, no, forget we made that reference, strike it from the records. She checks to make sure he didn't get any cat germs on it.

    Speaking of cat germs, Ran is still playing around. It's a lot less of a visual display of strength when you're just holding up a sheet of cardboard, but the fact that Yoru's fallen over means she can definitely shake her pom-poms in his face, and entirely forget that thing with the window she was supposed to be doing. Good going, Ran.

    Of course, the tacit Amu quickly vanishes as Ikuto brings up the worst of the rumors right away, and she groans loudly in frustration when he finishes. "I knew what happened to him, I was there, remember?" she replies. "Someone... someone... did... the thing. Whatever happened to him."

    She doesn't immediately admit that she left in what felt like shame after getting Tadase into the hands of someone safe.

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    There are no visible cat germs on the egg that Amu retrieved from Ikuto. There could be secret cooties, however. She may want to wash the egg later, to ensure that the character within is not infected by them. As hilarious as an artist cat would be-- she'd be a real cool cat~. Ahem. Anyway.

    And Yoru is transfixed, because pom-poms have little bits on them like string, so Ran may find the cat Character making no effort whatsoever to stand up. Instead he's batting large paws at the pom-poms, because cat.

    Of course Ikuto would bring up the worst rumor of the lot. The groan makes him smile. It's not a smirk, it's a smile. Because she's being honest there. He nods when she mentions she was there. "He was protecting you, right?" he inquires. "Well. He's going to be all right."

    He's still holding the tablet... and he starts to fiddle with it. Uh-oh, Amu, he's going to see private things! Actually no, he's opening notepad and scrawling something on it. So if Amu decides to make a grab for the tablet, she'll come away with a notepad file with an address scrawled on it.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
/Cooties/. The silent killer. Wait, aren't we a bit old to be worried about that kind of thing?

    You're laughing now, narrator, but one of these days Miki really will chara change with Ikuto. And it'll be fabulous. He'll be asking for Amu's help because he accidentally scored the lead in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and...

    Ran has probably completely forgotten about the window, now, because this is actually really fun! She's content to just play with Yoru and roll around and tease him with her pom-poms. Because really, who can resist playing with a kitten?

    Well, Amu made the mistake of giving him the tablet, she supposes. Sigh. She doesn't, admittedly, /snatch/ it back, because even when it comes to jerk catboys snatching things is still rude, but she does attempt to gingerly take it back after putting her eggs under a pillow.

    "Yeah. He really /shouldn't/ have been. I kept trying to do the same for him, but he just kept getting up and getting in front of me, and really we shouldn't have been getting in front of /either/ of one another but that girl just wouldn't stop and listen to reason and it was so /frustrating/ and I didn't know what I was supposed to do and it shouldn't have been like this and--"

    And then she claps her hands over her mouth. Wow, someone really needed to get that out, huh?

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Ikuto gives up the tablet willingly, and indeed, when she takes it back, there's an address scrawled on it. Touchpads are a marvel, aren't they? "That's where Tadase was taken, if you want to see him. He might still be there, since he seemed pretty weak." He's not trying to make Amu feel bad, no. He's just letting her know that Tadase might still be there.

    Ikuto is surprisingly quiet as Amu blurts out that issue. And surprisingly serious as he replies to Amu's blurted out statement, "Tadase is like that. It wouldn't matter how he felt about you, if you were in trouble, he'd want to protect you. He wants to protect /everyone/."

    Not only surprisingly serious... but he seems to have a degree of knowledge about Tadase that indicates they have a past. So, if Tadase hasn't told Amu that they have a past, Ikuto more or less just did.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
'He seemed pretty weak' just makes Amu give out a little sad wince. She seems downcast, but mouths 'thank you' after taking back the tablet.

    She listens... and strangely, she's ... strangely she's... there's a part of her that twists a little when she hears it, and she's shocked by it.

    Because a small, mean part of Amu did think that the reason he was trying so hard /was/ because it was her, because of the importance he seemingly placed on her... now she doesn't know what to feel or what to think. Inadvertedly, Ikuto may have made her feel worse rather than better.

    "...what's your deal, anyway?" she asks, when that feeling in her chest has passed. She's on edge, but not for the same reasons as before. "You try to steal my lock, you jump into my bedroom and fool around with my eggs... you were so frightening before but now you're so... I mean, I don't even know your name! I don't understand you at all."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Ikuto hadn't wanted Amu to think that Tadase expected anything of her, because then she'd feel pressured to be some mythological ideal that she thought Tadase expected of her. But that's part of Ikuto's problem, unfortunately-- he can't people very well. So he's unaware that he's made her feel worse.

    The question comes... and Ikuto smirks. His first order of business? "Ikuto. Not 'Thieving Cat'. As for the Lock?" He reaches into his shirt and pulls at a gold chain around his neck and as he does, something comes out of the shirt.

    Hung as a pendant on the chain is a key. The Humpty Lock has a four leaf clover design in crystal on the front of it. This key has the same four leaf clover design for the grip, and the key itself is golden, like the metal parts of Amu's lock.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
    Well, teenage crushes are a funny thing.

    Ran is probably just tickling Yoru by now. If the two of them haven't just dissolved into rolling around on the floor laughing by the end of this, then I don't even know. Later Ran'll be like 'that guy was so fun!' and then she'll go chase a squirrel.

    "Huh," Amu says. "You have a key that matches my lock."

    (Why did she just instantly start thinking of it as 'her' lock, anyway? She was calling it that fifteen seconds after the chain snapped onto her neck...)

    She raises one eyebrow and lowers the other. "Wait. If you wanted to use the key to unlock the lock or something, why didn't you just ask Tadase? Why did you try and steal it? Ooh, I hope you don't shoplift from the convenience store..."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Indeed, Yoru is just being tickled at this point, though he's probably going to make some effort to be an actual alley cat and not just a big softie. Maybe try to pounce Ran or something. So yes, they may indeed end up rolling around laughing.

    Now, Amu's question... actually hurts Ikuto to think about. His smirk freezes, and then his gaze goes to the floor. It's just a quick moment before he turns his head, trying to think about how to answer that.

    There are lots of reasons why. The main one being that Tadase thinks Ikuto killed his dog with violin music. And while that's not true, for now it's better that Tadase continues to think that. If he knew the truth.. he'd try to go up against Easter. He'd lose. And then he'd get seriously hurt. Or worse...

    But in the next moment Ikuto's smirk just widens. Cover the pain with a fake smile. He turns back, to look at Amu again. "I doubt he'd have let me try. Because I did something horrible to someone he cared about a long time ago," he states. "She's gone now." Close enough, he figures. Though it wasn't especially a long time ago, because well... neither of them are really that old. It just /feels/ like forever ago.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Give in, Yoru, you're not fooling anyone.

    Well, it seems as if we're taking turns saying things that inadvertedly cause the other person a lot more pain than we initially expected today, aren't we? Unlike Ikuto, however, Amu /can/ people... which means she does notice that very brief flicker beforehand. However, given that she's ... not really still very happy to have Ikuto around in her room, and she would actually rather not keep him, as such, she files it away for later consideration rather than let on that she noticed.

    Especially considering the fact that Ikuto makes it very easy to disregard it, should Amu have been so inclined, as Ikuto does a rather good job of keeping up the bad boy image. In response to his smirk, Amu just gives a stony expression. "Really now."

    In fact, the coldness of her voice makes Ran look up from what she was doing with Yoru, and... she flits nervously back over to Amu's side.

    There's a moment of silence as Amu gives Ikuto the cold gaze, rolling the concept around in her head along with the jangling, roughly shaped balls representing Runealy and Tadase's complications in her thoughts.

    "So you're more of a toy-with-the-mouse kind of cat, are you?" she asks, hmmphing. "Mean. Were you hoping I'd put my eggs right by the window so you could just grab one and go?"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Yoru notices that he is minus one playmate, and looks up. Aaaa, that's a silence that would burn ice and freeze fire. In response Yoru does the same as Ran did, but rejoining Ikuto instead.

    In response to Amu's question, Ikuto chuckles quietly. He leans against the wall next to the window, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Can't say I would have even if you had put them in the window," Ikuto replies. "But I can't say that I wouldn't, either. My mood changes with my tail." As he speaks, the tail flicks out from behind him just briefly, waving as if to say 'yoo-hoo~'.

    "Still... it's pretty impressive. Most of the people I know with Guardian Characters only have one. I've seen two... but never three." His sister has two, after all. "You must be very special. I can see why he'd trust you with the Lock." He hops up on the windowsill, and turns to the side. "Keep it safe. I'll come back for it one day."

    That was not a threat, that was a promise.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
    Amu's just been having a bad week, really. She was even gonna lecture Ikuto about that shoplifting thing! But now she just kind of wants him to leave, really.

    Most of her does, anyway. Because Amu Hinamori would not be Amu Hinamori were she not a girl who is always doing many things at once, even when she doesn't realize it, and a small semi-concious part of her is slotting together what she knows and doesn't know and what isn't being said from just these first two encounters with Ikuto and wondering what she needs to ask Tadase about, because she knows it's Tadase she will need to ask...

    Maybe I should have got that chicken coop for the eggs after all, she wonders as Ikuto shows off his tail. Well, at least he's not a fox.

    "It sounds like a lot of people know a lot more things than me," she replies. "But few people I've met are as smug about it as you..."

    "You can try to take it, but I'm kind of 'attached' to it," she finishes, as he seems to be ready to take his leave. Mumble. "Bad kitty..."

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Yoru pulls down his lower eyelid at Amu, and then zips out the window. Ikuto looks thoughtful a moment. "I didn't say anything about taking it, did I?" he points out. "I just said I'd be back for it." It's true, he didn't say anything about taking the lock. But what else could he possibly mean?

    He's figured it out. At least he thinks he has. It's possible he can't unlock the Lock himself. He needs someone with great strength of character to do so. And someone with three Guardian Characters... that must be someone immensely strong. But he has to wait. All of Amu's Characters haven't hatched. If that's true, if he needs her strength to unlock the Lock, she's going to need to be at full strength. Hence why he's leaving the Lock with her.

    The 'bad kitty' observation gets a chuckle. But his words aren't about that. "Go see Tadase if you can. He'll feel better knowing you're all right." And then he's gone, disappearing out the window.

Amu Hinamori has posed:
    "Huh. Fair point," Amu replies, moving the eggs out from the pillow and lying back onto her bed. She hopes she's managing to do well in the trading jibes game, here! It would be one of the few things she's done well recently, she thinks.

    Then she slaps herself mentally, no, no sad thoughts.

    Amu is definitely a strong person- strong enough to bounce back after this, and in a strange way, Ikuto arriving has given her the push in the right direction she needed. She was always going to get back up to speed quickly, but she needed that direction. Otherwise she might have tried going somewhere else, like after Runealy, and that might not have ended well.

    ...but first, when Ikuto leaves, she's going to look at the blue and green eggs on her lap. Ran flies over, looking concerned, as she slowly runs a finger down each of them.

    "...what do I need to do to get each of you to hatch? And what will happen when I do? What kind of person do I need to be to face this strange new world I've found myself in?"

Ikuto Tsukiyomi has posed:
    Amu's left alone with her thoughts. For a while. But a few moments later...

    Tap tap tap. Whoosh!

    It came from the window. If Amu looks at the window again, she'll see a blue blur leaping away from the window. That troublemaking cat again, no doubt! And right there on the outside windowsill...

    ...Is a store-bought, individually-packaged ice cream bar. Better bring it in, or it's gonna melt...

Amu Hinamori has posed:
Amu Hinamori ...

Amu Hinamori take ice cream bar.

Om nom nom nom nom nom nom.

(Didn't your mother ever teach you not to take ca-)
(shut up, narrator)