It's a rainy late summer day, on the edge of cool even, and a rather crummy day to be out and about in the city, even if its the tail end of summer vacation. School starts in just a few days, which will put an end to lazy days, but they aren't quite over with yet.
Naru is being lazy today. After her run in the rain (cold, wet, why am I doing this sort of run in the rain), she is not in a rush to go back out. Instead, a text message.
TXT to Alexis: I'm slacking off and not working on the mural today. Want to come over and watch a movie or something?
Naru sets her phone down after she hits send, reaching for a freshly baked cranberry muffin, still warm even.
MEANWHILE, HUNDREDS OF MILES AWA-- Er. Somewhere else in the city, anyway.
When the text message comes through to Alex, he doesn't come along with any kind of initial reaction. But then his brain catches on to waht is actually going on.
A girl just invited him over.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Five minutes later, a text message comes up to Naru's phone. IT just reads "Sure".
Meanwhile Alex's brain is still going AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Some time later, the rumble of Alex's bike can be heard outside. And that, in turn, is followed by the doorbell. WONDER WHO IT IS.
"Aren't you soaked?" Naru asks as she opens the door, clearly assuming on the who of doorbell ringing. She smiles at him and moves away from the doorway to let him come into the apartment. "Hi. C'mon in."
The apartment itself is spacious and well appointed. It's clear that there's probably not a whole lot of financial concerns in this household, at least not based on their living space. The living room and kitchen are quite open concept, plenty of room in both, with just a faint air of impersonal, much like a hotel might have. Any personal touches are clearly tucked away in bedrooms, which can be assumed down a hallway, one closed door and a few open doors.
One can make the guess on which room is the teen girl's room. Like heck Naru's leaving her door open!
"Like rain is going to stop me and my bike," says Alex. Who... is absolutely soaked. He shakes his head underneath the canopy by the door to send some of the droplets of water in his hair flying away. Andh e does seem to have at least some sense of mind to be very careful about his movement forward when he gets through the door. "...So you actually got bored enough to let me into your cave, huh?"
"I need to be bored to let you in?" Naru asks and offers to take his soaked jacket. "Hunh, and here I figured I'd try and /share/ some of the not bored." She grins brightly at him. "Or at least share muffins. Do you like cranberry?"
"I got soaked on my run this morning, that was more then enough incentive to not really want to go out again." Naru explains with a grin. "Apparently that means who is getting drenched is just getting passed around. I can get you a towel."
Naru sets his jacket over a hook to dry (or Alex can, if he's unwilling to relinquish it), and she moves further into the apartment. "Make yourself comfortable."
"Cranberry...? I guess I don't mind it," Alex offers in answer while he's shedding himself of his jacket (he apparently prefers to handle it himself) and hanging it somewhere it won't drip onto anything that shouldn't be dripped on. He neglects to go further on before he actually gets a towel, though.
"I dunno, there's supposed to this myth about girls not letting boys into their home usually," he points out with some faint measure of teasing. "I'll find somewhere to sit after I've dried off, though, okay?"
"The muffins are cranberry muffins." Naru explains after she returns with a towel to toss lightly at him as he drips. "If we sit at the kitchen table while you're still drying, it'll be fine."
Naru laughs softly at the comment about not letting boys in. "Well. I've let Kunzite.. Kazuo.. in before. But he's a whole lot more 'older brother' sort of vibe going." Naru pauses, quirking her head and musing a bit. "Usagi.. Ami.. hunh. You're right. I really don't generally invite guys over. Apparently you're an exception."
Towel caught, Alex proceeds on the arduos process of drying himself up with the thing.. though, really, he might have to rid himself of the button-up shirt, too, and hope that the shirt he wears under THAT is dry enough to not be obnoxious.
"Kunz...?" Alex tosses an odd look Naru's way with that, but he elects to not say anything else on that particular little thing there. Instead, he smiles faintly and teases, "Weren't you worried about all the matchmaking gossip before?"
"By that point, the gossip had already declared that Kazuo and I were /clearly/ in a doomed arranged marriage of convenience or something equally dire, and I was effectively being bought and sold or something equally melodramatic, and then I started laughing at the gossip and stopped caring /what/ they claimed about him and I. Cause /seriously/." Naru snorts and shakes her head a little as she heads to the kitchen, still able to chat.
"And /that/ was just thanks to dance class together." Naru laughs softly, shaking her head. "Want something to drink? I'm going to put tea on, cause I swear I'm still cold from my run."
"...That's..." Alex's expression turns utterly exasperated. Cue sweatdrop and such. "...That kinda goes beyond just simple gossip and more to straight up fantasy, don't you think?"
Eventually, he stops toweling himself, and moves on furter into the apartment. All while starting to unbutton his shirt. This might seem alarming at first, but he *does* still wear another thinner shirt underneath that too, so. "...I guess the imagination of japanese schoolgirls is pretty active."
"Delusional fantasy." Naru confirms as she tries not to watch the shirt unbuttoning too closely. She's making /tea/. Yep. Making tea. Right. Another shirt, drier too, probably. "You could say that." She laughs and shakes her head. "Granted, I didn't help things by turning up to dance class .. well.. kinda how you felt yesterday, and that was about when they decided that we were betrotheds having some sort of spat."
Naru doesn't even think twice about climbing on the counter to fetch down the cups she wants from a second shelf. "Want some?"
Alex is clearly paying no heed to whatever might be resulting from him partially undressing. The removal of the white button-up (and hanging thereof onto a chair) does still leave him in a red t-shirt, so it's not compltely scandalous, at least.
"Um..." He lets out, sheepish. "You know it probably would have been a lot easier just asking me to grab that for you, right? I'm kinda tall afterall..." He might not be as tall as Kazuo, but damnit, he still counts as 'tall' in this situation!
"Er." Naru turns from where she's kneeling on the counter before she grabs two mugs and hops back down and then grins, sheepish right back. "Probably. Habit, I suppose. I'm short all the time, and you're not generally here to be tall for me."
Naru leans against the counter watching him as she waits on water to boil. "Are your parents tall too?"
"Ehhh. I'm the same height as my dad right now," Alex offers with a slow roll of his shoulders, leaning himself backwards against the kitchen table now. "I guess it's not that unusual for europeans to be this tall though, I guess? Northerners are pretty tall, anyway, and mom tells me our family tree comes from that way."
"I'm shorter than my Mom, and I think I'm done growing." Naru wrinkles her nose at that reality. "Not /all/ Japanese girls are short. Mako isn't, for example. I'm just reinforcing the stereotype, apparently."
A considered glance, watching him stretch and roll his shoulders before Naru turns away with just a hint of a blush to poke at the tea kettle. She is watching it when she comments quietly. "I keep kinda dodging bringing up the stupid of yesterday, cause it feels super awkward." She points out and then turns back to glance at him just as the kettle starts to whistle and she returns her attention back to it, taking it off the heat and turning off the stove.
"You're like fifteen, right? Surely you'll get a little taller still at least..." Alex says in attempted reassurance, and sets his shoulder into another roll of a shrug with that.
He just *barely* notices the red on her face when she turns around, but it doesn't fully register, as evidenced with him just sending a confused look after her and asking, "...Everything alright?" He must think she's getting sick.
"..You know, I still don't fully know what happened back there," he admits, when she brings up the previous day. "...Yuzu kept saying he was dripping with something but I never saw anything like that." A hand comes up to scratch at the back of his head. "I wonder..."
"Almost sixteen." Because when you're fifteen, eeking that extra bit out of the last few months of fifteen is /oh/ so important." Naru pours boiling water into the tea pot, watching what she's doing there.
"Hmm?" Naru turns to glance at him, the blush already fading from her cheeks as he questions if she's alright. "Yeah, fine."
"You wonder?" Naru prompts as she brings mugs and teapot over to the table and then pauses there, standing next to him. "How's your hand?" She asks, putting her own hand out in offer for the burnt one, if he'll give it to her.
"...Okay...?" Alex doesn't seem fully convinced, somehow, but since the red is more or less gone from her face he apparently decides it's not really worth pursuing that thought.
"...I dunno, it was just... weird, is all," he murmurs. "She was kinda acting weird in general, I guess... Huh?" He peeks down at her when she comes over, and allows his hand to be raised to her. "Just fine," he says. "It felt like I'd had put it on a lower-temperature stove back then, but there's no burns or anything." His brows burrow slightly downwards. "...You're really used to people like that?"
"Tokyo has a lot of weird." Naru takes his hand with that comment, letting her fingertips brush lightly over the spots that were reddened yesterday and then letting him have his hand back.
There's a deep breath and Naru nods after just a moment and a slow sigh. "Yeah. Both kinds of weird, Yuzu's sort of weird in general, and the guy's sort of weird. That's.. basically.. why I don't go to the park by myself anymore." She adds after a moment. "And I know you're tough and you totally had it, but I'm glad you're fine, and yes, I was worried about you, and felt.. feel.. kinda guilty."
"Weird, huh..." Alex lets out in a breath, but the pursing of lips that follows on his features after points that he isn't still entirely convinced by the conclusion, here.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" He asks with a more obvious tone of surprise, complete with a rapid blinking of his eyes. "No, look, look... Even if I didn't spend the last few years basically almost completely in fighting gangers and street punks of all sorts in both Europe and Japan, it's not like that was *your fault*, you know? Even if you apparently make a tempting enough target - christ that was creepy to say... - for that to happen often, it's not like you yourself made the guy do that. And not like you made me stand between you two, either."
"No, you stood between me and him, cause you're that kinda guy." Naru agrees there and she reaches to pour some tea. For both of them, even if his doesn't get drunk, before she curls herself up into one of the chairs.
One advantage of being a fairly petite fifteen year old? A kitchen chair holds a myriad of ways to sit in it comfortably, most of which appear to require some sort of advanced yoga degree or something.
"If you hadn't of been with me, however, he wouldn't have attacked you." Naru points out. "So I'm kinda dragging you into my fights unexpectedly, and that doesn't seem fair even a little. So I feel guilty, and I'm sorry about that. I'd say it won't happen again, but .." Naru leaves that lie hanging. 'tempting enough target' is exactly it.
"You're not dragging me into anything, you realize that, right?" Alex insists on further, and shakes his head. "What happened there, what I did... That was because I chose to do it." The offered tea is taken from teh table, then, and slowly lifted upwards. "And if someone like that comes along again? I'll do it again. I might be a worthless guy in most things, but I'd like to think you can at least count on me to beat down some rapist asshole. Most of them are nothing compared to the gangers I've had to butt heads with before." Self-assured in that regard, at least. Or at least self-assured in some form of duty, maybe.
Still... it might be only barely noticable, but while he's sipping at the tea, he gives a curious look at Naru over the cup. Powerless people are supposed to take in 'reasonable alternate explanations' pretty easily, but even though Alex doesn't voice it, he can be surprisingly analytical. Some doubt and and unconnected dots are still swirling within his head.
"Wait what!?" Naru holds up a hand midway through his very reasonable and gallant commentary. "Worthless? Worthless!? I disbelieve on /that/ one." She shakes her head. "Even if brains are stupid about believing it sometimes .. possibly most of the time.. you're not worthless. Not even a /little/. And I'll happily tell you that until you believe it." She points out, gesturing with the hand not holding her tea.
Interlude of positive self worth aside Naru's smile turns a touch rueful. "I spend a lot of time counting on a lot of friends to keep me out of trouble. I hate pulling /more/ people into the stupidity of babysitting me, but I am grateful for it. It's frustrating and a pain in the butt, and /I/ get to feel all pathetic and helpless, and that /sucks/. S'why I run. S'why I spar with Kyouko."
The curious look is noted, just a tiny bit of abrupt glancing down at her tea and possibly a hope for a lack of really difficult questions.
Alex lets out an exasperated sigh over Naru's outburst. "Let's not turn this into some therapy session for me, okay? Just saying how things are. Moving on." He even waves his hand dismissively there.
"I ain't gonna say that's a bad attitude to have about things," he goes on then, apparently trying to keep the conversation topic centered on her instead. "Self-improvement and all. But the thing I'm saying... You shouldn't necessarily feel bad about people *wanting* to help you, either, you know. That's not a bad thing."
Naru rolls her eyes at his dismissive gesture over his worth and her calling him on it.
Another sip of tea and Naru wrinkles up her face and nods. "I know, I know. It's not a bad thing. It's kinda overwhelming, actually. Still. How would /you/ feel if you needed to get bailed out of every fight you got into with a ganger of stupid?" She leans over, bending in half to reach a muffin before nudging the plate towards Alex in offer. "I'd be /so messed up/ without friends coming to help me, so don't get me wrong. So grateful." She breaks her muffin in half. "Stings the pride to be quite that dependant, though." She holds up half a muffin. "BUT! I've whined on /that/ note a few million times, and self improvement and all that jazz. It will get better. It has to."
"I'm not saying that's not... you know, a bad feeling," Alex admits. Because if he did, he did say so, he would be an intense hypocrite. "But people *wanting* to help you isn't really a bad thing either. That's all I'm saying. When it comes down to it, I'm sure they would want to help even when you don't need it. Because..." Sip at tea. "...That's what people do when they care."
"And I have good friends." Naru agrees with a nod and a smile. "There's a lot of caring. And helping, and affection and not just with physical fights. There's a lot of looking out for each other, in all sorts of ways. Sometimes its muffins, and possibly a couch and a movie. Or sitting in the kitchen and eating more muffins." Naru gestures a touch and smiles. "Or making Usagi do her homework. Which is about to become relevant again."
Alex's head tips to the side. His eyes turn to the muffins. And then the couch. And then the muffins again. "...You trying to say something?" He asks with the faintest hint of a teasing smile on his expression. "If I didn't know better, I might even say you *liked* me." Definitely teasing for the most part. He even takes a completely nonchalant sip from his teacup. "I still haven't met this Usagi person," he points out then, more soberly. "Which is kind of surprising with how much you talk about her. She sounds like you two would be tight."
"I heal really well." Naru points out with a quirk of a smile. "But there's a collection of selfish reasons on dragging you to the couch, one of which involves a bruise on my hip that I totally like you enough to not show you, but that apparently is exactly where I sit in a kitchen chair. I /so/ need to learn to land better."
Naru uncurls from said kitchen chair to offer him her hand, not /actually/ commenting on the teasing accusation. "Usagi and I have been best friends since we were little. However. She has a boyfriend, who you also have not met, but who Kazuo lives with, and the pair of them. The whole pack of them.. really, tend to be busy, so I don't see her as much as I once did."
Naru adds with a flash of a smile after a moment. "She knows she should meet you, though."
"...Where you sit...?" Alex repeats quietly and tips his head to the side curiously for a moment... before he quickly turns his head to look at SOMETHING VERY INTERESTING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WINDOW THERE.
Which is actually to hide the sudden explosion of red on his face. Yeah, he might be acting all tough and such, but he's still a *boy*.
"Right, right, no need to be all hurrying in that though, I'm just some guy anyway," he mumbles on further when he does turn back towards her (after the red's gone anyway), and goes making way for the couch... and takes her offered hand. Somehow *that* doesn't cause blushing. Maybe it's because it's relatively tame in comparison to whatever else was going through his head just now.
"Yeah, sure. Just some guy." Naru gives his hand a little tug as she determines empirically that hand holding is still pretty good, actually. Not just when it sort of sneaks up on you.
Naru giggles softly at the blush that she just caught the edge of, which hardly stops her from getting a hint of red in her cheeks that fades easily enough. "Either you and Usagi will overlap at some point, or you won't. I expect you will eventually, and probably a few more folks I know. I tend to go out and be social .. a lot. I meet a lot of people."
"What, isn't that an accurate enough description of me?" Alex insists with his tongue sti- wait no, he rethinks that and doesn't do it. No tonguegrabbing for Naru. When his eyes flick to the side, he manages to catch a hint of her blush too and-- this is just goin to end up in an endless loop, isn't it? He does go on to ask (again), though, "You okay?" before they reach the couch.
"...Yeah I kinda got that," he points out then. "Just on our first meeting you named like *ten* people I hadn't met yet."
"Technically correct." Naru has to admit with a soft snort as she settles on the couch, with or wihtout a tug of his hand to come join her there. "Just like I'm 'just some girl.'" She points out and then quirks her head at him as he asks (again).
"Fair warning here. I overthink things like woah and asking, you might get WAY more than you hoped for. So yeah, I'm good." Naru points out as she resettles on the couch. "Clearly you have some catching up to do." She teases him lightly.
"I think that would apply to me even more with me having only just shown up in the city," Alex points out, and he ALMOST sticks out his tongue again. He just manages to keep himself from doing it.
"...What do you mean?" He asks then, after they've settled on the couch (and he hasn't really quite realized yet that they're still holding hands). "Overthink like... what, and how?"
Naru watched that ALMOST, she was ready for it, a little tensing to make a grab.. but no and she gives a little smile as he refrains.
"In spite of the fact that I know a lot of people, I also spend a lot of time painting. Which is alone and quiet and I get to think." Naru considers how best to answer, tucking her legs up under her on the couch. "About art, and people and school and life and just /stuff/. And sometimes I forget that when people ask a question, they just want a 'yeah, fine thanks' and not a detailed examination of the stupid in my head." She quirks her head at him and then adds. "Usually, I remember before the glazed look happens. Not always."
"I... Suppose I can understand that," Alex offers, a little sheepishly. "I mean, I don't really mind listening if you want to, and all. Although..." His eyes turn downwards, to reach his hand. And hers for that matter. "...You're still trying to stake claim on that limb, huh?"
"Time share." Naru replies as she glances down to where she has a hold of his hand and then she considers it.
"Do you mind?" Naru asks simply enough. "Teasing aside, I can stop if you do." She chews her bottom lip a moment and then adds. "I kinda regreted not taking your hand in the park. I could have used it then, but I was being weird. Cause I usually am about touching people." She admits softly.
"...You are?" Alex asks, as if this comes as a surprise to him. Actually, it probably does too, considering he doesn't know Naru all THAT well yet. "So... this is like... getting more used to it? I don't mind, though... Maybe a little surprised you're doing that with me instead of. SOmeone you actually know."
"Usagi basically does not have personal space." Naru comments as she glances down to their joined hands. "So with her, neither do I. Neither might you, for that matter, immaterial of if she knows you or not. Depending on the minute, or if she's already sprawled all over someone." Naru's voice is fond in spite of that. "Given the choice between weird or motorcycle ride.. bike won." Naru smiles a little, glancing up at him. "Now? Not weird, and kinda nice." She grins then, and teases again. "So really, blame your bike."
"So not really impartial enough to work for therapy to getting used to it, huh?" Alex's mouth nudges upwards ever-so-slightly for a brief moment there. And then his eyes go squinting at his hand. "Oh, so this is just a gateway to my bike, is it? You know I'm still going to take it with me instead of leaving it here when my folks eventually drag me out of the city, right?"
"I'm not randomly hugging strangers just to get used to it." Naru points out with a waggle of her free hand. "Nope, nuh uh."
"Hey, for one, I'm banking on you /not/ getting dragged out of the city anytime soon." Naru comments and then she grins. "And for two, by the time they /might/, I'll be sixteen and could, possibly, get my own bike."
Naru looks at him with an excellent attempt at a straight face. "For now, totally. I am totally just holding your hand for your bike."
"You know you can get to ride it just by *asking* too, right?" Alex points out with a brief sound of laughter and a shake of his head. "...No one's really ridden much along with me on that thing before. Feels kind of nice to have someone appreciate it, actually." Subconsciously, his hand squeezes at hers briefly. "Never had that much chance to make actual friends before, either. But I already told you that."
"Now where's the fun in /that/?" Naru asks with a grin but she nods at the notion of asking to go on more rides.
Probably because it means going on more motorcycle rides with Alexis.
"It was such a /rush/." Naru fairly beams at the remembering. "It was nice to get out of the city a bit too. Next time, we should bring an actual picnic too. Or at least remember to bring drinks. I always have protein bars in my bag." Because of course she does.
"I don't know if it comes from hanging with Usagi forever, but I can't imagine not making friends, even if you're somewhere for like.. a week." Naru pauses and then adds. "Okay, I didn't make new friends in Austria or France, so I withdraw the week comment. But a few months? Weren't you horribly horribly lonely?"
The squeeze of her hand receives one in return, and another when she asks if he was lonely.
"If the bike had more room I'd suggest bringing more people along too, since... that actuall sounds kind of nice," Alex murmurs. He very pointedly also neglects to mention the thought that goes through his head mostly involving how that would sound suspiciously like a date to a third party.
"...A little bit, I guess," he allows himself to admit, however, with a bit of a somber tone. "It's what it is, though. I guess I got used to it. And all the moving around. Ain't any point to dwell on it."
"Well if we wanted to tell people where we were going, then people could meet us there." Naru points out with a smile. "The guys have a car, it's just more of a pain in the butt to use it in the city as often as not. Unless there's a specific need to. Harder with school being back in, but possible to take a Sunday and invite people for a picnic. Just need everyone's lives to settle into something approximating a lull again. Seems unlikely, but possible."
Naru mmms softly as his tone sombers. "It's a crappy thing to get used to, but it's true. It is what it is, and you /do/ kinda get used to it and moving. Hopefully this trip to Tokyo isn't quite as friend-light as previous ones, no matter how long you're here." She pffts softly. "Besides you /just/ got here. You haven't even gotten to school yet. You're not leaving /yet/."
"Well," lets out Alexis in a breath, and... actually allows himself to let on a brief, but genuine enough smile. "I think I made one already, right?" And with that, his hand squeezes hers, more genuinely and intentionally than prior. "...I mean, unless I'm just some guy who's good for free bike rides."
"Well you /are/ good for bike rides." Naru starts thoughtfully and then follows it up with a smile. "I'm not sure I'd agree with 'just some guy'.. but a guy for sure. And a friend, absolutely." She squeezes his hand in return. "Cute guy too." She notes with a soft laugh. "And pretty cool."
"...Pfffft I wouldn't know about *that*," Alex goes on mumbling with an akward, aaaakward laugh, turning his head to look somewhere *else* for a few secondss. "Men can't be *cute*, anyway..." OH he's still going on about that, apparently.
"Sure they can." Naru protests with a roll of her eyes and a little pfft sound of her own. "Cute is in the eye of the beholder, or something like that. Would you prefer adorable?" She asks with a smirk and a touch of a giggle as she teases him. "I could probably be convinced towards adorable if you'd prefer."
"Nnnnoooooo," Alex promptly mock-whines at Naru, over-dramatically pressing his free hand against the left side of his chest. "I can feel my manly pride withering away from this alreadyyyyy. I can't be adorableeeeeee. Or cute. Neither!"
"Oh noes!" Naru laughs as she watches Alexis wither and die before her /very eyes/ as his manly pride stuffers for being called cute. AND adorable.
"Does this call for .. I dunno.. action movies and getting called handsome?" Naru offers with a snicker and a little nudge of her shoulder against his. "No matter /how/ adorable you might be?"
"Yes," Alex answers almost immediately. "Yes to both of those! And maybe a bit of being called manly. Yeah, that thing." He at least manages to let out a quiet sound of laughter with that, so clearly he isn't taking any of this seriously either.
And then she goes and calls him adorable again. "Nnnnnnoooooooooooo..." He goes slumping downwards right away from that, like air is deflating out of him, with a motion like he's about to fall off the couch entirely.
Naru laughs brightly as he asks to be called manly and she has no qualms about pouncing on him on the couch as he deflates to be able to lean in close while she's laughing. "I could call you... adorably manly?" She offers with another giggle and a little nudge of a tickle, while she's properly taunting after all.
Alex lets out the quietest little yelp when Naru pounces him -- he wasn't expecting that, so there's not a whole lot he can do about it. "Nnnooo!" He protests on. "That's not how it works! Those two words go against each other!" Aaaand cue squirming and more laughing with the tickling. "No! Not fair!"
Really, he might have expected it. Alexis watched Naru tackle Kyouko from behind, so clearly pouncing is not out of her wheelhouse.
"Totally fair!" Naru protests as she tickles him, laughing right along with him. "They totally go together. Adorably manly." She beams at him. "You're totally ticklish." As if this is a deligthful revelation.
"They do noooooot!" Alex contineus with his protests, and for htat matter all the squirming from the tickling. "Nnnoooo! Staaahhhp!" All the tickling-induced laughter in the middle of the words might not make them sound very convincing requests, though.
There is only so long that tickling is amusing before someone is gasping or it stops being funny, and Naru does actually stop before they get to the 'not funny anymore' stage of it.
The fact that she's still sprawled over him, even if she's paused in the tickling comes with a downright impish grin from Naru. "Totally. Adorable. And totally ticklish."
It does still leave Alex with some breathy sounds of half-laughter even after Naru's stopped,. "No. Nooo. Not at all..." He insists even then, and...
His brain catches up with the fact that there's extra weight on top of him, and he lifts his head up enough to look at the girl. "...You trying to get a timeshare on the rest of me now too?" He murmurs in teasing-- though some red is starting to spread over his face already.
"Yeeees." Naru replies wiht a laugh at his attempt to insist otherwise.
There is a moment where Alexis realizes that Naru's sprawled on him, and that's about the same moment that Naru realizes some of the implications and her cheeks start to colour in time with his. "I dunno.." She mmms as she 'considers', clearly willing to just own the moment, rather than startle away. "You /are/ fairly comfortable." She points out, although she's already starting to move, to perahps something a little less /sprawling/ all over him.
"Um..." Alex's head instinctively turns to glance away for a moment, akwardly. "I... didn't really think of myself a career as a couch..." He mutters, just as akwardly. He takes in a sharp inhale through his nose and tenses up for half a second when he senses her moving, and his eyes turn back up to her, all widened out.
Naru blushes a touch and she laughs, sitting back up properly, to sit next to him on the couch rather than settled upon him. "Sorry about that." She murmurs softly, having spotted that wide eyed look, and not really being certain how to interpret it. "Still adorably ticklish though."
It takes a moment for Alex's brain to fully catch up to what is happening, again. He's even left to laid down on the couch for a good few seconds after Naru's sat up and off of him. "Uhm..." He lets out, uncertainly, and eventually starts scooting himself up to sitting again. "It... it's okay..." And his face has gone just about as red as it could possibly get, by now. "St-... still not, um... adorable..."
"Kinda still adorable. And shy too." Naru points out as she tucks her legs up, settling next to him. Almost, but not quite touching. She's blushing too, and really couldnt argue against an accusation of shy at the moment.
Brain having caught up a bit, Naru is quiet a moment before she glances sidelong to him and then comments. "You're easy to be comfortable with."
Alex swallows audibly. Some odd little piece catches in his throat. And still blushing furiously. "I am not," he claims still, though it comes pretty quietly this time around. With her settling so close, he just gets redder still.
For the briefest moment, he manages to allow a brief sidelong glance towards her, in return. "...Comfortable enough to get past the weirdness with touching, I guess," he murmurs, in quiet sheepishness.
"Apparently." Naru replies quietly, joining him in that quiet awkward and then she glances to him. "I still haven't decided if the blushing and akward means 'okay, that was unexpected, and a seriously bad idea', or if its more 'unexpected, and I don't know what I think yet.'" Her own cheeks are red, there's no monopoly on the blushing or the awkward.
Another audible swallow, and Alex's gaze shifts off over to another side again. "Um," is all he manages to let out for a good long moment, in the stretch of silent akward, only eventuall managing to come up with an answer of "I dunno." How very smooth of you, Alex.
"When.. or if.. you decide, let me know?" Naru comments with a glance to him and then leans over to retrieve the remote off the coffee table and then offer it to him. "You get to pick the movie." Cause a movie distraction seems /perfect/ at the moment. Plenty of time for everyone to stop blushing.