It's another lovely day in Tokyo, and the sunlight is streaming into the windows of Naru's apartment as sunset makes for a lovely streaked sky ouside. Naru's hair is still damp from a shower as she putters around the kitchen making herself something to eat.
Not so long previously, text messages got sent:
TXT to Alexis: Wanna come over and do homework or watch a movie or something?
And then there's Alexis himself. Heralded by the telltale (or not so telltale) sound of a motorcycle engine, followed shortly after the rumble has died down by the ring of the doorbell.
And so when she opens the door, there's Alex. With what looks like a suspiciously fresh bandage on his nose, and a messenger bag slung down by his side that he most certainly was not carrying there before.
"Hi!" Naru comes up on tip toes as she opens the door and greets him with a quick kiss. Her attention goes towards the messenger bag and she quirks her head. "Did you actually bring homework?"
A few steps have Naru going back into the apartment, with the assumption that he's going to follow her. "Hungry? I'm making real food before I get into the pastries I developed a crazy craving for on my run today."
"What?" Alex actually asks with *surprise* at the mention of homework, and then his eyes go to the bag. "Oh. Ohhh, uh. ... I just kinda carry this around," he murmurs out an explanation -- which might still seem a little odd since he's *never had that thing before*.
Either way, he's stepping inside and after Naru, and he leaves both his jacket and the bag hanging somewhere convenient. "I already ate something earlier. ... What pastries are we talking about though?"
"Un hunh." Naru is unconvinced, but lets the matter of the satchel drop as she heads back to the kitchen.
"After a .. er.. my run earlier, I picked up some mixed pastries on the way home." She explains as she goes back to making herself a couple of sandwiches, layering roast poultry onto nice fresh buns. "But I'm starving, so I wanted real food first rather than just inhaling sugar."
Alex pauses briefly, and throws a vaguely suspicious look to Naru on his way to the living room and the couch. "A what?" He asks, with an upward arch of a single brow. He doesn't stop on his movement there, though, and eventually finds himself slumping against the familiar couch.
"Do you want to know?" Naru asks, simply enough as she looks out from the kitchen at him flopping on the couch. "Do you want anything to drink?"
She puts her sandwiches on a plate and reaches into the fridge to get herself juice and anything that he might want. Naru balances her plate onto the box of pastries as she emerges out of the kitchen, with or without a drink for him as well.
"Kinda do, actually," Alex calls back from the living room. "...And water's fine." By the time Naru has gotten there, the german boy has settled down comfortably against the cushions, leaned into the backrest with his arms spread lazily along it.
"I'd rather be able to tell you about my weird, but I know you still find it unsettling." Naru points out as she settles on the couch with him, bringing drinks for them both, and her snack. Which is more like a meal.
"On our run.. er.. Haruna and I were out on a run today.. we ran into an altercation that ended up being a bigger fight." Naru explains simply enough. "Neither of us got hurt, we kept Hosshiwa from trapping a bakery cart guy in a mirrored coffin forever, and I, at least, ended up mostly covered in chocolate."
"And /starving/." She adds after a moment.
"Wether or not I find them it unsettling or not doesn't really change the fact that it's happening though, does it?" Alex points out in turn, even if he wrinkles his nose lightly after saying it.
He doesn't really seem particularly pleased about hearing her explanation here, either.
"...Back in the park," he says then, apparently switching topics entirely. "Why did you keep going for that... thing?"
"Today? Right place, right time, not actually anything coming after me." Naru points out as she leans in against him a little, picking up her sandwich.
"The tenticles?" Naru asks in confirmation. "Because by that point I knew it wasn't going to kill me, just sucka whole lot and get me good and pissed, I /hate/ having things in my head, or messing with my thoughts, but you can't just let them get away. They might go hurt someone else, someone who can't hold up against them, and that would suck."
"And somehow getting your thoughts or soul sucked out is acceptable just by comparison?" Alex's expression turns grimmer still there. "...Especially since those two were there to take care of it. Even before then..." His eyes turn away, to try and partially hide the scowl growing. "The *first* thing you did was to poke at it when it showed up. Why?"
"Not eradicated, just fed upon. Not my soul either." Naru is fairly precise in exactly how it felt. "I know the difference, and the things that actively tried to break my mind? Yeah, I'm pretty much not into getting anywhere /near/ those ever again."
She pauses a moment. "Which two? Mamoru who almost as non-combat as I am, and Jiaying with her ghosts and prayer tags? And you and me? So why.. exactly.. should I be all damsel 'eek eek' incapable?" Naru narrows her gaze a little at him as she sits up, leaning back from him a little. "Is that what this is about? You figure I'm too incapable to help in my own attacks?"
"Actually, I thought it was going to stay /in/ my sketchbook if I closed it. So no. I didn't poke at it." Naru explains shortly.
"Sure didn't seem 'non combat' to me at the time," insists Alex in turn.
"Look," he says then, and closes his eyes while two fingers grind at his forehead. "I *don't* figure that. But what I *do* figure is that shoving yourself right at things that you know are very specifically trying to eat you might not be a great idea. IT's fine if you want to be useful, but there's helping and then there's *being suicidal*."
"I /can/ slash at things, but it's not what I'm good at." Naru points out. "But when it's a choice of that or stand around? I'll slash at things."
Naru takes a slow breath in, held a moment before letting it out in a sigh. "First, it leapt at me when I was trying to keep it from getting out. Which meant I knew pretty quickly that it wasn't killing me. It's my own issues that make me react fairly strongly to things messing with my thoughts, but I'm even getting better at blocking those."
Naru pauses again, for another slow breath. "I am not suicidal, but I am fairly solidly on the side of /not/ just standing around screaming. Which yes, means that I will go after tenticles that are trying to flee, even after they've hurt me. Because that's what you /do/, when you don't want it to hurt other people. I should think /you/ would have some clue about that sort of thing."