The promise of coffee has come to fruition, now. Or, well. Mostly to fruition. About to become fruition. Mostly this means that Naru has texted Alex again, and just as promised, he's on his way to 'pick her up' as he puts it.
And not that long after the exchange of texts, the rumble of a (relatively) small motorcycle engine can be heard along the street where Naru lives. Outside her house, a black-red Suzuki GSXR carries a relatively tall figure in a brown leather jacket with a face-concealing helmet, around the building until it eventually comes to a stop where previously indicated. If there's a window to see through, one can see the face of Alexis revealed from underneath the hemlet when the figure removes it, followed by him dismounting the bike and moving on to the door, where the doorbell is rung.
And, yes, the boy sitll has a bandage over his nose.
There is a window from the apartment up above to be able to keep an eye out for people arriving, and it really isn't so very long after the doorbell rings that Naru pushes open the door with a laugh and a grin. "You have a motorcycle!? That's so cool!"
Naru grins at him, turning her attention away from the bike and towards the boy.. man. "Hi!"
"...Hi," Alex offers back with a slow blink of his eyes made at Naru's apparent excitement, with his head tipping slightly over to one side. "As much of a motorcycle as someone my age can get, anyway. So..." He lifts a hand up and jerks a thumb over to point over his shoulder. "Want a lift?"
"I am so utterly jealous, or at least will be for the next four months." Naru grins at him and then laughs as he gives her that look for being excited. "Oh sure, you'll entirely too cool to be excited anymore. Somewhere, deep down inside that super jaded cool self of yours, you're still excited like an idiot like I'm being right now. I know it."
Naru bobs her head in agreement at the offer. "Yes please! If we happened to get lost for a while on the way to coffee, that would be totally okay too." She points out as she loops the strap for her satchel across her, so that her bag can settle at her back hands free.
"What. I'm not jaded!" Alex protests immediately with a huff and then waves his hand along to urge her to follow along whne he turns back to the bike. "I have another helmet in the saddlebag for you. I mean, I'd like to think I'm good enough with this thing I'm not going to crash, but..." As such, he does dig through the aforementioned bag to bring out the aforementioned helmet - also black - to hold out towards Naru, with the faintest hint of a smile. "That your way of saying we can just go ride around for the rest of the day instead?"
"I'd prefer if you didn't crash, but I'd also prefer if we didn't get pulled over and ticketed for me not having a helmet." Naru takes the helmet from him and grins. "I'm saying that I'm pretty sure that the funky hipster coffee shop that I wanna try isn't likely to manage to go out of business overnight, and it probably will still be there tomorrow." She settles the helmet onto her head, the faceplate open for the moment. "Did you have a motocycle in Germany too? That's where you lived before Tokyo, right? Or am I misremembering?"
"I had this same bike there," Alex admits, and he actually allows himself to grin wide enough to flash his teeth out before he settles his own helmet back on to hide his face behind it. "I can't wait to be old enough to be able to get a bigger one." He swings his leg over the bike and settles himself over the thing, body leaning forward to mold along it's shape. "You ever ride on someone else's bike before?"
"So you really know how to ride it. No wonder you're fond of it, you two have been together a while." Naru grins back at him and then watches him settle on the bike. She shakes her head first and then replies. "Nope, I've never been on anything bigger than scooter, and we weren't /supposed/ to have two of us on it, but we figured we were both little, it counted as only one. Really." She grins, impish.
"It looks fairly obvious, just settle in behind you, yes?" Naru notes as she moves up closer to him and the bike.
"Yeah, the little elevated spot back there is for the passenger," Alex explains with a backward nudge of his head. "There's no handle though, so you are gonna have to wrap your arms around me to hold on. Okay?" The ignition key is turned, and the engine roars into life. "Don't keep your body too firm while we're moving though, okay?" He goes on, voice louder to let it carry over the engine. "You're gonna have to try to keep turning your body with mine when we make the turns!"
Naru nods and hops on, mercifully light and agile as she settles into her spot. There's just a soft little mutter as she reaches forward to settle her hands at his waist, whatever it was entirely too quiet to be heard over the engine. Probably by design.
"Okay!" Naru replies loud enough to be heard as she removes one hand to settle the visor back down and then resettles holding onto him. She hasn't quite worked up to more than a gentle grip, the first turn will probably cure her of /that/ hesitation.
"You know you're not going to make me pop if you squeeze me!" Alex points out with a brief sound of laughter, and reaches back to tap his gloved hand against Naru's arm. "Come on, firm grip. You don't wanna fall off." THat being said, though, he takes hold of the bike's handlebars and draws on the ignition to set the thing into moving with a loud roar from the transmission -- and that first turn comes up pretty quick, too, when they get to the street proper.
"I dunno, I'm stronger than I look!" Naru replies right back, laughing along with him. As the bike moves, there is suddenly a whole lot of incentive to resettle how she's holding on to him.
Falling off would /suck/.
Naru leans into him, as she grips tighter and suddenly has to sort out how to move with him on corners. That first corner is a little awkward, but she works it out by the second, at least better.
Somewhere along the line, the reality of this whole situation probably hits Alex, too.
He's never had a girl ride shotgun, see. Thankfully, the helmet does a pretty good job of hiding his features, though.
"You still wanna go to the coffe shop?" He yells out over the roar of the engine and the whiz of the wind, still. "Or you wanna go see how fast we can go on a more open road?"
Helmets are /great/ for hiding the moments when the reality of it all hits and the generally touch wary Naru processes that she's leaning into him, arms wrapped around him, and its just for safety's sake. Really. Ahem.
"I totally wanna see how fast this goes on open roads." Naru has abandoned the notion of coffee shop in favour of views and wind and ride. "Want to head out of the city a bit for less traffic?" She yells back, although at least they're close enough to each other to make hearing easier.
"You're gonna have to guide me!" Alex points out quickly, but his voice sounds eager enough about the idea. "I don't know these roads here so well!" AT least for the time being he's still keeping more or less to the speed limit here. No passing between cars or anything. "I want you to get that same feelin I do when we go fast!"
"For the moment, keep going on this road." Naru advises, her voice carrying over the wind as she instructs him on where they're going. "Until it splits, and then go left." Clearly she has somewehre specific in mind, probaby somewhere scenic.
As they ride, Alexis can feel Naru relaxing. Not just with the feel of the bike and how to move, and the noise, but into the unexpected part where she has to nearly snuggle him so as not to fall off around corners.
"Okay!" Alex agrees quickly, and guides the bike on thataway-- the road might be unfamiliar, but the bike isn't, so it goes on more or less smoothly, riding thataway.
And thankfully, even if Alex might be a bit red underneath that helmet, his body at least doesn't seem to by otehrwise affected by the fact that Naru is leaned into his back there. Not that she could probably tell how his posture should usually be, since it's her first time riding on one of these things.
"IT's kind of a thrill," he calls out over the engine and wind both eventually, just so to break the otherwise akward silence of them just sitting there atop the bipedal vehicle. "Driving this thing. Wind whipping at you. The feel of speed."
"I'm glad you're driving and I'm not." Naru replies at the same high volume. "Because being able to watch the scenery go by is /amazing/." She declares, rather than any assertions of fear.
Once they're eventually clear of the worst of the city, the roads that Naru directs them upon are a good mix of straight and winding, to give plenty of opportunity to just enjoy the drive.
"Have you ever crashed?" Naru asks curiously, not that she can exactly freak out if he says 'oh yeah, all the time', but based on the ride so far, it seems unlikely.
"Nope!" He answers with an all-to-confident tone -- which is what prefaces him immediately pulling on the acceleration harder and bringing up the speed. "Hold on!" He yells out in warning for it, too, and just for one second, the front wheel actually rises up off of the road before they go zooming on down.
"EEEEEE!" Naru's exclamation at the burst of speed could have been fear filled. She does take heed this time, her arms around his waist tightening as he warns her.
There is nothign but pure delight at the feel of Alex opening up the acceleration a bit harder, the wind zipping past all the faster and that unmistakable feel of fast.
"At the top of this hill!" Naru calls even louder into the wind. "You wanna go right, to go to the lookout!"
"On it!" Alex declares, and the speed of the bike lowers only somewhat with the turn -- it's a damn sharp one at that, and it causes the bike to lean to the right perhaps a bit more than most might be comfortable with, but Alex rights it immediately after the turn shifts to straight road again. He's largely trying to keep up the speed to maintain momentum for the uphill road.
Sharp turns at high speed and there's just a moment (possibly two or three really) where Naru's flush of excitement has just an edge of anxious to go with it. It's harder when you're following and guessing on the movements, rather than being the one doing the directing.
It clearly can't have been all /that/ nerve rattling based on the absolutely delighted laugh that Alex can hear from Naru after they've righted again.
The road isn't steep, but is a steady incline, moderately off the beaten path, coming to an open area not so far ahead. Great view, a few picnic tables and benches, it's not utterly an unknown spot, but the two teens happen to be the only ones there at the moment, summer break or not.
Up the hill the bike goes, and once they've left the lookout plateu after the path, Alex finally slows the thing down and eventually to a full stop, with his feet stompin down onto the ground to keep the bike from falling on it's side. Which would be especially bad with two people on it. His hand reaches up to knock up the faceplate of his helmet, and he leans to the side just enough that he can twist and turn his upper body into allowing him to peer at NAru herself, grinning wide. "Well?"
Naru sits back a little, now that she no longer needs to basically be plastered to her back, although one of her hands is still absently at his waist. Her free hand tips up her own faceplate and his grin is met with one of her own.
"That is AWESOME." Naru declares, her voice just as full of glee as her expression is. "I thought I was going to stop breathing on that last corner, I swear if my hair was long, it would have brushed the pavement."
"That's why it's best to tie it up when you ride on a bike," Alex points out with a laugh, and his hand reaches over to tap lightly against her shoulder. "Not that your hair is long enough you'd need to, honestly. You wanna go on driving further or just stick around here?"
"And it's even shorter right now than it usually is. I got it cut when I was in France." Naru explains as he taps her shoulder and she considers the question.
A glance out to the view, overlooking a lake and trees and green and lush and rather beautiful. "I wouldn't mind a bit of a break." Naru admits and then grins to him. "You're used to riding, and I am not. I think my butt feels like its still vibrating, and the bike's not even on. Work for you? Stretch break, and then up to you on where we go next."
Alex tips his head to the side again from her explanation on the hair length, to just study her for a few seconds. "Hm." The helmet is drawn up and off of his head - and though his hair isn't exactly long, it is still left sticking up as a form of helmethair - and notes to her, "You'd probably look pretty good with long hair."
With another sound of laughter, he sweeps his foot to set down the supporting leg of the bike, and waits for Naru to get off before he slides himself off, too. "The grass is probably a lot softer after all that, huh?"
"Mine's never been all that long, longer than now, but not like Usagi long." Naru grins at him and adds. "I watched her cry when that crazy long hair got tangled and her mother had to brush it out, the idea of really long hair never appealed after that. She still loves it, her hair is still crazy long."
Naru is less agile getting off the bike than she was getting on the bike, thanks to that whole 'not used to this at all' thing. She reaches out to steady herself just a moment on Alexis' shoulder before she finds her balance. "Sprawling in the grass sounds /awesome/." There's a laugh and a gesture. "And it's a nice view, and I'm going to bet you haven't come out here before."
"...You know, I still haven't met this Usagi person you keep talking about, sO I don't really have any frame of reference," Alex points out helpfuly, all while he gives another studious look over Naru. "I mean, I don't really know the city all that much, so no, I haven't," he admits, though he's already moving on out for the grassy scaping. "I would have brought some water along or something if I'd known I was going to be picnicing."
"Usagi and I have been friends since we were little." Naru explains as she walks with him over to the grassy area. She loops her bag off and then settles on the ground, stretching out her legs. "I'll try and drag her away from her beaus to come out for ice cream and you can meet her, or bring the whole pack of whoever's about. Her boyfriend has an apartment where he and four other guys all live together, so we end up hanging out there as often as not."
Naru goes digging into her satchel as she explains. "I've got some chocolate, a couple of protein bars, but nothing to drink." She pulls out the offerings and grins. "Not exactly fabulous picnic fare, but it's something."
"A whole pack? Geez. You make it sound like I could be eaten up by these people." Alex's throat rumbles with another brief bit of laughter, and he flops down to sitting right next to her, helmet left cradled underneath an armpit.
"I'm not really one to care too much about 'fabulous' anyway," Alex states, and reaches to grab one of the offered bars. "And chocolate is chocolate anyway, you know?"
"The apartment easily ends up with nine or ten without blinking hard, once there's even just a couple friends over, and girlfriends and boyfriends and siblings, and then it's a zoo." Naru explains with a laugh. "So pack isn't so far off. I hide at home when I'm not sure I want to face the whole crew. Do you have siblings?" She asks as she passes over a bar to him and takes one for herself.
"It's even really good chocolate." Naru flips over the bar of chocolate. "Unless you're allergic to nuts, and then not quite so good chocolate."
Naru's helmet is next to her and she absently runs a hand through her currently fairly short hair to get it to settle.
"That sounds way too chaotic to be something to easily keep count of..." Alex murmurs with a faint hint of sheepishness in his figure, and his head tips slightly downwards.
"Nah," he lets out in answer to her, with a shake of his head. "Only child. Which, I guess is a good thing. Means my folks can't fully ignore me in favor of another kid even though I'm a disappointment."
"It is generally chaos, yes. You just sort of roll with it, and it all works out." Naru comments with a little laugh and then a quirk of her lips.
"I'm an only child too." Naru gives him a gentle nudge. "Hey, my mother manages to ignore me and she can't even drum up false accusations of disappointment as an excuse."
"Yeah, well..." Alex sticks his tongue out briefly towards Naru at the nudge, but quickly slips it back into his own mouth again. What with her trying to catch it the last time he did that. "My folks are kind of... well, big shot corporate people, you know? Reputations to think about and all, I guess."
"My mother owns and runs the jewelry store that we live above." Naru only half heartedly makes a grab for his tongue as he sticks it out at her, more for consistancy's sake than actually trying to catch it. "Which isn't quite the same, but still big shot business and all of that. Reputations to think of, and all of that, I get that."
Naru snorts softly, amused. "So you run around on motorcycles, and I'm an artist. My mother doesn't even /know/ I get in fights, cause I manage not to come home looking like I have. That's the real key to getting around it."
"Eeeeh?" Alex's eyes squint towards her, stayin like that in a bit of a scowling stare for a moment. "...You tryin' to tell me something?" He mutters, before letting out a quiet scoff and turning his eyes away again. "I don't really much care if they don't like it."
Naru grins at him as she breaks off another piece of protein bar. "Only that you should dodge more, cause bruises hurt." She quirks her head at him and then laughs softly. "I'm not about to pick a fight with you. You'll win and then I'll be the one whining that bruises hurt."
Naru considers that last thing he said. "I .. I dont want to care if my mother likes it or not, but I kinda do. I care WAY more about what my friends think, and what the Tsukinos think though. They all know me better, anyhow."
"'Dodging' is a thing that only works for so long, especially if you're up against several people at once, you know..." Alex points out with another quiet scoff of a sound. "It's not like those tv shows and comics where the hero can beat up everyone without a single scratch."
His posture shifts along slowly, weight turned backwards while one arm drapes along a knee brought lifting up. "It's nice to be able to make people more like family like that," he mutters. "I never had any time, with how much we moved around."
"No, it really doesn't." Naru agrees and then admits. "I just am a wimp enough to not be fond of seeing you bruised up, I suppose. Inevitable in a fight, I know, and based on my own life, I'm not stupid enough to tell you not to fight."
"Moving so much.. I can't even imagine. I've never even moved houses in Tokyo, let alone changed cities and friends and schools and everything." Naru considers a moment and then notes. "In the pack of people that hang out at Mamoru's apartment, there's a really really tiny minority who have quote-unquote normal families. We're a pack of orphans and strays and kids of single parents who don't always pay attention much, and a lot of chosen family. I hope you manage to stay here a while."
"...That common of a situation, huh?" Alex murmurs, sending a thoughtful look aside to Naru before his green gaze moves on to peer thoughtfully into the horizon, instead. "Guess I should consider myself lucky in some regards." One broad shoulder rolls, slowly. "I don't know how it will end up. They said we would be here for a longer while, but... never know with them, really."
"More common than anyone realizes, as often as not." Naru points out as she tucks her legs up to end up sitting cross legged. "Hopefully they'll at least let you manage a school year." She laughs softly, shaking her head and leaning in close as if she's going to tell him a secret.
"None of us have /any idea/ on how it will end up. Some of my closest friends, I didn't meet until this year. So if you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have no idea it would end up this way." Naru just barely leans on his shoulder a moment. "Just enjoy it while its here, and let later sort itself out."
Alex leans back towards Naru by pure instinct for the briefest moment -- brief enough he might not even realize he did as much. "Not much else I can do, can I?" he murmurs with a quiet sigh let out, ruefull. "I don't even know how I will settle in here yet, though. Much less at the school. Especially with Verone. Full of rich kids that are all probably *actual* geniuses."
"So far, you're doing well at settling in, if you ask me." Naru points out as she watches the water out in front of them. "You've got friends, and a kickass motorcycle. I mean, summer break isn't even over yet, so you've only just gotten here really."
Naru smirks just a touch. "Some of them are probably geniuses, but I've got Ami.. as much as I love her to bits.. at my school, so your school doesn't have a monopoly on geniuses. Besides, you've got Rei at your school, and she's a sweetie. Not an obnoxious rich kid, she's a shine maiden, and super cool. You've got Daisuke there too, and I caught him freaking out about grades and trying to drown his nerves in milkshakes. Sooo..."
"...So are milkshakes like the equivalent of booze for stressed out teens here then?" Alex asks with a mostly joking tone, mouth quirking slightly towards an amused smile. "You say all that, but-- I have not really met that many people here besides you. So..."
"I know you've met Yuzuki at least once, cause she was teasing the hell out of you and making you growl at her." Naru points out with a little giggle. "And you texted about girls crushing on you, so you've at least me one other person."
"Milkshakes are totally the equivilant of booze." Naru agrees and then winks at him. "Unless y'know, there's actually booze. But that's generally not much of a thing. I've only had booze once, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch." She rolls her eyes at herself. "I've got so much cool going on there. I don't even know who put me to bed in the spare room, I was that solidly asleep." She has some guesses, but that's besides the point.
"...What. I didn't say they were *crushing* on me!" Alex protests and crosses his arms together with an indignant grunt, head turning to face away from her.
"BOoze is kind of overrated anyway," he notes then, and pushes himself smoothly up from the grass and onto his feet, arms going stretching above his head in the same motion. "How about we get going on further, though?"
"You are /so/ easy to tease." Naru declares with a grin at him and a laugh at his grunt.
"Let's get going further." Naru agrees as she gets to her feet and brushes grass off her skirt.
Helmets are awesome things to hide colour creeping up on cheeks at the prospect of getting close on the bike again.