Kyouko has been enjoying a Ghost-Free Apartment for the past couple of days. This is an improvement, and means she doesn't have to keep coming upstairs to use the ECFH's shower when her own is full of rotten sewer-water. However, one would be naive to think that this means she's up here less- just that she's up here less for ulterior motives involving use of the facilities.
This evening, Momo is off at her thrift-shop job and Kyouko is home, having worked a morning shift at the conbenie. Left, therefore, with nothing to do but bum about an empty apartment, she makes her way upstairs. She does this in the way which is normal for her- henshining, then going out to her own balcony, ten floors below, and leaping up the intervening balconies like the world's largest ladder to reach the penthouse.
Her hand 'clangs' faintly as it catches the railing from the outside and she vaults cleanly over, dropping her henshin as soon as she hits the floor in a shower of glowing red sparkles, revealing a generic black t-shirt and jeans combo which is her go-to "I'm too lazy to plan an outfit" attire as she glances around before heading for the door into the apartment.
While Naru's bag and shoes are by the door, the front door, of the apartment, there's no actual sign of a Naru in said apartment.
Careful listening at various doors would reveal quiet sounds of movement and off key humming along to whatever might be in her headphones emerging from the mural apartment, however, and give an excellent clue on where Naru might be painting.
... On the other hand...
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
The presence of Alex becomes apparent the very instant Kyouko has vaulted over the railing of the balcony. For inside, in the living room where the balcony can actually be seen, the figure of the german boy sits -- now pointing an accusing, shaky finger towards the girl with his eyes widened to the size of saucers and jaw hanging slacked.
Someone's still not COMPLETELY used to the Weird, apparently.
Kyouko does momentarily tense at the scream, her eyes narrowing and darting left and right. Threat assessment: negligable. Alex is spotted and she relaxes as she comprehends the source of the 'alarm'. Sighing, she walks over to the balcony door and pulls it open, breezing inside. "Calm down, kid, you almost gave me a heart attack." She says, as she walks past where Alex sits and towards the kitchen.
Naru's belongings are noted, Kyouko's almost paranoid situational awareness resulting in flicking eyes that find bag and shoes, and thus the explanation for Alex's presence. This is not commented on though, instead merely adding to her previous statment, "For a second I thought we had aliens again, or something." She vanishes into the kitchen and re-appears a moment later with an apple being devoured one fangy bite at a time.
It's clearly just a breeze that makes Fiore's leaves rustle on the balcony and not Kyouko's comment about aliens. Totally.
Naru is oblivious to any such comments, lost in her own world of /terrible/ pop music that she hums along with badly, perched on top of a ladder as she adds nuance to a night sky overlooking the waterfall.
So far, it's not even alive!
"Almost gave 'you' a heart-attack?! What about me, with oyu just... suddenly... jumping over like some cheap comic book superhero and all sparkling and stuff..." Grumbles Alex, with a finger still pointing at the girl -- at least up until she disappears into the kitchen.
As it happens, he's still wearing the uniform of Verone Academy - though the blazer is suspiciously missing and instead his brown leather jacket is bundled nearby, and the tie has been loosened up considerably too - which might suggest he left school not even that long ago. Perhaps more shockingly, there's what appears to be *homework* spread in front of him.
".........What do you mean *again*?!"
"Hey, whoa, what'dyou mean cheap superhero?" Kyouko demands, as she flops down onto a couch near to where Alex is sitting, though not overly close. "I'll have you know that while I may be a bit on the thrifty side, at least compared to the people who live around here and toss money around like it grows outta the ground, my super-heroing is high quality."
She pauses, taking a bit of apple, then flushes faintly and adds, "Well, I'm tryin' to improve anyway. I ain't blown anything up recently."
To the last demand, she merely waves her free hand. "Don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure that's dealt with." Prophetically unwise words, Kyouko, but she remains blissfully ignorant.
Dealt with. Totally. Nothing bad came come out of a club called 'Space Botany', nope. Nothing at all.
Naru manages to lean back on the ladder to get an overview of how things are looking wihtout falling off and going ping. Clearly she too is improving.
"Uh-*huh*," is all Alex gives in response to Kyouko's protests. He doesn't seem particularly convinced, especially after taking note of the faint hint of red on her cheek that appeared momentarily.
"You do realize," he goes on to say then, and his eyes drop down to the notebook in front of him with a scowl -- which isn't actually directed at her but rather at... well, teh contents of the notebook. "How much that sounds like tempting fate?"
"Look, I don't know you that well," Kyouko says, crossing one leg over the other, her sock-clad foot bouncing in the air restlessly as she chomps at the apple, "So I can forgive you for not knowing, but tempting fate is kinda my whole deal. Then when it gets close enough I punch it in the face and take it's lunch money." She may be talking a little big for her britches, but this tends to be her default mode when around people she isn't close with.
After a moment, though, she says, "Hey, I been meanin' to have a word with you anyway, dude." She says, watching Alex over the top of her apple while he focuses on the notebook. "Since Naru-chan seems to like you and that means you're probably gonne be hangin' around."
"So is this the part where you're gonna tell me that 'fate' is an actual person wh--"
...And spontaniously, the german boy interrupts his own sentence by flipping the notebook and the various papers slipped into it up into the air in frustration.
"GAAAAA WHAT IS THE POINT OF IMAGINARY NUMBERS IF THEY'RE IMAGINARYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!"
So math, then.
"Eh?" He lets out then, suddenly completely calm even while his arms are still up in the air and sheets of paper are floating down around the both of them, eyes turning to blink at the Redhead.
"...I mean. I guess I kind of got a package deal of some sorts, didn't I?"
"Well, there is a person I've met named Fate, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually control destiny or anything like that, I think it's just her name." Kyouko says, with an absent shrug.. then blinks as Alex does a less-severe form of table-flipping with only the notebook and papers as casualties.
"Don't ask me dude, I quit school when I was eleven." She says, with a mild shrug. Book-learnin', who needs it?! Which is not to say that Kyouko does not respect and admire the people who are good at that numbers and researchin' stuff. But she knows where her strengths lie and is satisfied with pursuing them.
To the latter, she quirks a slight smile. "Yeah, maybe. And maybe I ain't the first or last person to say this, but I'll say it anyway. Don't be a dick to her. Or I'll stab you." She stares at him for a moment.. then nods. "Okay. Friend duty is dispensed with. Sorry, it's kind of an honor thing, y'understand."
And in turn, Alex stares right back at Kyouko, expression severe... though, when she nods her head, he lets out a quiet sigh and his expression turns vaguely exasperated instead.
"You know, after Mamoru nearly exploded my head when he gave me that talk, a threat of being stabbed just doesn't carry the same weight. Besides..." Reluctantly, he starts gathering the papers spread all over the place. "I kind of hear that kind of thing from punks on the street on basically a weekly basis anyway. But all that's besides the point. If I was gonna be a dick..." His eyes flick up from the leaned-over posture mid-paper-gathering. "You would be able to tell already, wouldn't you?"
"Look, there's all kinds of existential horrors that can be visited upon a person in this world," Kyouko says, dryly, "Trust me, I've experienced a few of 'em. But stabbin' will still get you just as dead just as permenantly, so don't look down upon my choice of trade, alright?" Kyouko has an inordinate fondness for stabbing.
She regards him a moment more at his further comments.. then actually bursts out in a mild laugh. "Dude.. again.. sorry, you don't really know me, but lemme give you a hint. I'm terrible at reading people. I don't really do people that well. So, no, I wouldn't be able to tell. But that's why my default reaction is suspicion and threats." She chomps at the apple again.
"I dunno, y'seem alright to me. But it had to be said. Naru's been good to me and I woulda been remiss not to. Don't take it personal."
Speaking of people who don't do people all that well. The local ghost -- that is, the not actually presently dead one -- comes in from the hall, steps as usual unnervingly quiet for someone that size and mass. He's missed the last conversation; he glances about the room for a moment, frowning at the scattered papers. "Did Naru accidentally animate someone's math homework?"
"Wasn't me!" Naru protests as she follows Kunzite into the apartment that has such luxuries as food, drinks and people. She's not in her school uniform anymore, having changed into jeans and a t-shirt that's far more forgiving to paint splatters. Such as the few that she's ended up with on her face that she probably has no idea are even there.
Blues were apparently the colours of the day, based on looking at her at least, mostly dark tones.
"I was painting, and I didn't animate /that/ either, thankyouverymuch." Naru conveniently leaves off the 'again', understood as it might be.
Quietly, Alex mutters something that sounds suspiciously like "At least I've dealt with that before". The assortment of papers on the floor and couch is eventually all gathered up and set in a stack on the table, and the math-frustrated german boy lets out another deep sigh.
"You're right, I wouldn't know," he allows. "But you seemed sharp enough." Beat. "...But then I guess it took me ages too to figure out that Nar--" His words shut down IMMEDIATELY when the door opens, and his head snaps up to look thataway. Oh. Naru's there. Maybe it's good he didn't finish that sentence.
"...I swear, if there ever is a monster that is basically math materialized, I might just give up on life right then."
Kyouko's eyes flick over towards the movement of Kunzite entering the room, quiet steps or no, though the smile that touches her face upon recognizing the tall young man ought to alleviate any concerns. Naru too, a moment later, is entering the room, and Kyouko bounces to her feet a moment later, casually chomping the apple core in half as she does and devouring one half, then the other.
"Nii-chan. Naru-chan. Hiya." She says, as she pads over to give Kunzite a one-arm-around-the-middle hug and then step back slightly to grin at Naru. "I was just threatening your boyfriend. Don't worry though, he seems used to it. Plus he said I seem sharp." She grins, showing off fangs in a way that suggest perhaps she misconstrued the comment- though in a way that pleases her just as much.
Kazuo steps aside to clear the way for Naru before Kyouko snags him -- one arm around the shoulders, returned -- and then turns to bow to Naru upon her entrance. "My apologies, then. The agonized shriek misled me. Did the painting go well in other regards?"
He turns, then, and paces on toward the kitchen, commenting over his shoulder to Alex, "Don't worry. You're not likely to have to face it in a real fight."
"Er.." Naru quirks a brow at Kyouko. "Why are you threatening my boyfriend, Kyouko?" She asks, perhaps just a touch wary and then she laughs softly at the fangy grin. "You are sharp, it's true." Naru confirms, giving Alexis a wave as she moves to follow Kunzite towards the kitchen.
"Is there coffee?" She asks, even as she's looking to the pot. "Painting is going well, I think I'm going to put the lights in next, just so I can make sure to get the cord well hidden."
"Define for me a 'real' fight, versus and imaginary fight?" Naru asks curiously.
"You know I am pretty sure if it was some fight where you win only if you cna do a complicated math problem or *something like that*, that would probably be *worse* for me," Alex points out to Kazuo with a pout.
And then: "Naruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu," he whines out, and points at the notebook before him with a pout. "This is *stupid*. Do I *really* have to bother with it?"
"Because I'm your friend and it's my sacred duty." Kyouko says haughtily to Naru, as she trails after towards the kitchen. She isn't interested in coffee, but there's more apples to be had. The bowl of apples keeps mysteriously refilling between her visits, but she hasn't yet questioned where they come from, perhaps afraid doing so will somehow cause them to stop appearing.
"I'd definitely lose that fight." She grumbles upon Alex's imagining a battle that can only be won by math. Secondary apple secured, she heads back out to the living room.
"There was coffee. There does not seem to be coffee." Kazuo sets about putting this situation to rights. Apples wlll remain a silent and vast mystery. "The lights should be interesting. Being able to view the rest of the work with them, still more so."
He does not say that a real fight is one that does not involve taking the square roots of negative numbers, thankfully. "He's not likely to go up against either Mercury or me unless we're sparring, which doesn't count, or he's possessed, in which case it won't actually be him. Therefore, not a real fight."
He pauses to glance toward the exit of the kitchen, and calls back to Alex, "Complicated math problems midfight are when we call Mercury. Or the man you saw with the Muppet shirt, but only if it's celestial mechanics."
Because Cookie Monster and astronomical calculations make sense together. Somehow.
A roll of Naru's eyes as Alex whines at her. "You dont /have/ to bother with anything. That being said, I betcha life with your parents, and convincing them to let you stay at a Japanese school even if they move will be /way/ easier if you passed a couple of classes here and there. I'm just /saying/."
There's a little snort of amusement from Naru at Kyouko's 'sacred duty' of boyfriend threatening as she absently climbs on a counter to retrieve herself a mug while Kunzite addresses the coffee situation. "I have to say, I have yet to run into complicated math problems. Food. I seem to run into a lot of /food/ in fights, which just ends up making me hungry."
"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutt......" Alex whines out still after Naru, but he does moodily bring his eyes down to the notebook still. Though even that lasts up until Kyouko grumbles her words out, and he points to her then. "See! She understands! The horror of math!"
"Look, dude, I don't have parents and I dropped out of middle school so you probably shouldn't listen to anything I have to say on the topic." Kyouko commets wryly as she resumes her seat, chomping into the second apple of the evening.
"Thankfully, despite that your teachers probably tell you, there's relatively little in the actual real world that requires you to know how to do numbers and stuff." She pauses, then adds, "Well, at least, as long as you have people like Mercury around to ask to do it for you."
"You need imaginary numbers to get to complex numbers," Kazuo comments aloud from the kitchen. "You need complex numbers for any kind of engineering, not to mention electromagnetism. So if you want to work in any kind of field that has direct impact on the world in the few decades, instead of working in some elaborate form of maintenance or transportation or bookkeeping, you're going to need imaginary numbers. There's nothing wrong with maintenance or transportation or bookkeeping, granted, no more than there's something wrong with your heartbeat. But some people prefer more overt challenges."
"I love you too, nii-chan." Kyouko calls sarcasically from the couch, "And I look forward to driving you around town in ten years."
Naru is staying mostly out of the mathematical debate and is, instead, finding herself a snack that is not apples. "Starving artist, in some drafty garret." She notes with a snort of amusement. "I'm safe from everything, save misplacing colours again. And the capricious nature of gallery owners or patrons and commissions." There's a pause. "Math might be easier."
"What do you *mean* 'complex numbers'?!" Alex blurts out with an actual hint of PANIC in his voice. His eyes flick back and forth rapidly between the notebook below and Kazuo, and...
"You mean this isn't even complicated yet by math's standards...?"
Alex leans forward, grasps the sides of his skull with both hands and just lets out a quiet, low whine of utter desperation.
Kyouko smirks at Alex's despair in a way that is positively inviting of karmic retribution. "Take my advice, kid," She says with the superior air of someone who still thinks counting out correct change from the register is some kind of major achievement in math, "Find something you're good at and stick with it. That's how you get ahead in life." Chomp.
There is a low laugh from the kitchen. It is not Naru's.
Kazuo, continuing to possibly have been replaced by a clone.
He harvests coffee, pouring Naru's mug first and then reaching down one for himself, before coming back into more convenient conversational distance. "A job necessary as blood," he agrees to Kyouko. "Besides. What I do is maintenance as much as what you do is." Other side of Kyouko's couch: claimed, and he folds himself down into it.
"'Complex number' is a complicated term for a simple concept," he says to Alex. "Take an imaginary number. Add a real number to it. That's all. What are you having trouble with?"
At least it's a generally fairly happy clone.
Naru doctors up her coffee cup and emerges a moment or two behind Kunzite with a sandwich, and a couple of cookies too, to go with her coffee. There is no fear whatsoever that Naru doesn't eat, that's for certain.
"That seems simple enough." Naru decides on the topic of complex numbers, in spite of being a year behind in school. Minor technical detail. "Don't you just break out the imaginary part as i, and move on from there? Then it's just algebra." Naru's tone implies that of course /now/ it's gotten to just being easy.
"...How is that supposed to be simple?!" ALex blurts out, and it's all he can to NOT proceed with a repeat of Tableflip Lite. His hands rapidly grind up and down along his skull and muss up his hair, before he eventually leans back and just lets himself slump limply against the couch.
"...Maybe I should just be a driver too..." He mumbles after a few seconds, and turns his head to peer at Kyouko. "...Maybe we can start up a taxi service or something."
Maybe Kyouko is feeling particularly affectionate or contemplative today, or maybe Kunzite isn't the only one replaced with a clone, but when he sits down on the end of the couch she's on, Kyouko flops out sideways and rests the back of her head on Kunzite's knee while she chews on her apple, though her eyes look up at the ceiling as she considers.
"I ain't worried." She says after a moment, her tone thoughtful, but full of confidence. "For all the engineers and scientists and math-whizzes out there makin' the miracles of the future, there's always gotta be people like me around. Like us. People who respond to the kind of threats that you can't solve with puzzles and logic. I ain't sayin' its not valuable, cause it surely is, but they need us as much as we need them, so I ain't worried about not having a place in the world."
She turns her head to look at Alex, and smirks slightly. "Sorry, kid. Drivin' ain't really what they keep me around for."
Kazuo ruffles a hand over Kyouko's hair, a brief gesture, more a tacit agreement that she has right and permission to use his lap as furniture than anything else. Probably also a tacit agreement with the rest of what she says.
He doesn't go into details on that aloud, because Naru and Kyouko are familiar enough with him not to need them, and Alexis doesn't need three panics in fifteen minutes.
"That's right," he says to Naru instead. And then to Alexis, repeated and patient, "What are you having trouble with?"
Naru has settled on the couch that Alex has taken over with his homework, and she leans into him casually to look at the problems in question as she sets her coffee down on the table.
"There is plenty to be done in the world that I dont think anyone's getting left behind. Complex numbers or not." Naru muses as she resettles to devote herself to her sandwich. "Did Momo ever make any more decisions on going back to school or not? Not that I'm going to poke her about it, but I'm just curious."
Kyouko steadily works her way through the second apple. She is efficient enough that Kunzite does not have to worry about getting apple juice on his pants despite her head still being there as she turns it slightly from Alex towards Naru. "Ehh.. I don't think so. I'm not gonna bug her about it until April, at least, I wouldn't make her start in the middle of the year."
Then she sighs. "I dunno, maybe you, or somebody anybody, outta. I love 'er but I have this thing about trying to tell her what to do with herself.. it just seems kinda hypocritical, y'know, despite the fact that I know it's probably for the best."
"There may be other options," Kazuo says, apparently unconcerned about either Momo's choices or apple juice. Then again, he spends most of his time being apparently unconcerned about several thousand other things he's worried about. "Though being able to obtain certain certifications might serve her best in the long run."
"In theory, she could get home schooled." Naru points out thoughtfully as she chews on her sandwich and considers Momo's educational future. "Although who, exactly, would direct that is in question, as I expect you wouldnt be much interested, Kyouko." There's a soft mmm, thoughtful and then Naru reaches for her coffee.
"Probably should at least know when registration is and if she needs to do any testing before hand, just so we don't miss any deadlines if she /does/ decide to go back to school in the spring."
"I know what's best for me, and what I'm good at." Kyouko says, with a mildly frustrated sigh. "But I don't feel confident in trying to tell Momo what's best for her. At the same time I don't really trust her to know yet, either. It ain't her fault, she's only.. thirteen." And mentally more like 9.
She smirks in a self-deprecating fashion at Naru. "It's less about interest and more about capability, Naru. I said I know what I'm good at, and knowin' stuff they teach at school ain't really part of it, 'specially not well enough to teach it for anybody else."
She finishes off her apple, then makes a faint 'grraah' sound of frustration and covers her face with her hands. "I never thought about any of this part when I was wishin' to have my family back." She peeks through her fingers. "Not that I'd undo it, but that doesn't make it less stressful."
"There's an orphanage several of us tutor students at," Kazuo comments. "So we're not entirely inexperienced in dealing with such things. If she decides she wants to. If she doesn't, there won't be any getting her to settle anyhow." Some people are forces of nature. Some people are forces of raw chaos. Momo spends most of her time being the latter.
"Well there's the time commitment too. Between the whole /pack/ of everyone, there's more than enough knowledge to go around. Including you, Kyouko, but jobs and school and life.." Naru gives a touch of a shrug and reaches for her coffee.
"It's an option at the very least." Naru points out. "And probably a valid one even if she /does/ want to go to normal school eventually, to get her a bit more caught up with her age peers. Cause she's missed enough formal education that she'll get frustrated." There's a vague gesture towards Alexis' math homework as if the math flip is prime example of 'why not to get frustrated at school'.
"Yeah, I know. That's partly why I didn't want to go back after missing so much." Kyouko says to Naru with a bit of a sigh, relaxing her hands back down again. "For some reason it matters a lot more to me when it's Momo's future at stake and not my own. I dunno.. I'll talk to her, if I can get her to sit down for five minutes and have a discussion about it."
She smirks fondly. "Accourse, then comes the moral question of whether I want to inflict her on some poor teacher.." An ackowledgement of Kunzite's unspoken point.
"We should definitely look into homeschooling," Kazuo says dryly. "If only to see whether it's possible for her to test out of ever dealing with a teacher. Or a school. Or classmates. Sakuras are always very good at coping with rules. By hacking through them." One of his hands is of course completely accidentally set so that it puts his arm in within convenient smacking range for Kyouko. Punching would be a little more awkward, given that she's lying down.
"Hunh. I hadn't thought about that." Naru considers, holding her coffee cup in both hands now that her plate holds only sandwich crumbs and cookies. "If she could just test out of requirements, then she could get an equivilancy.. which you could also do, Kyouko. If you wanted to."
Contrary perhaps to Kunzite's expectations, Kyouko looks rather proud of his assessment of Sakuras. Though she gives his arm a token smack just for the show of it. "Yeah, well, y'know my Father was a priest who got excommunicated from his own church for deciding he didn't like the way they did things and coming up with his own way." She says, with mild amusement in her tone. "I guess it's in the blood." Hopefully that's all she inherited from her father.
She shrugs to Naru. "I don't.. think that really matters to me, Naru-chan. I found a thing I'm good at. As long as Mamoru is willing to keep supporting me in exchange for my perpetrating violence on his behalf, at appropriate times and towards appropriate targets, then I don't really feel the need to pursue anything else. Not cause I don't think there's value in it but cause y'know.."
She trails off ,but her meaning is clear. She likes being a warrior, a fighter, and a protector. "I mean, I don't even have to work at the conbenie anymore if I didn't want to.. but I do. I enjoy it, believe it or not, and Tachibana-san, the owner, did a lot for me when I needed it so I wanna continue to support her with my efforts, too. Plus, even though he says it's okay, I don't wanna rely on Mamoru's goodwill too much. I like knowin' I can support myself, even if I don't have to."
Which is sort of a misnomer, anyway- Mamoru is, at least ostensibly, supporting her in exchange for her skills, which by most definitions falls under supporting oneself, even if that's a rather stark way of boiling the situation down.
There's a brief inclination of Kazuo's head, though since Kyouko's part on his lap, it's not really toward anything in particular. "Most of us feel better knowing we could support ourselves, even if we choose not to," he says. "Nephrite could start with nothing and build a business out of it within a year. Jadeite understands what people want to hear, and he can use that. Zoisite --" There's a brief shrug, as if to indicate that he'd prefer not to speculate on what Zoisite might do if he thought he needed money, but finds it self-evident that there are routes. "I don't have the paperwork or the apparent age to teach, but I have the skills to. It's just that right now, that's not the best use of most of our time. It is for Kyouko, certainly. And I suspect Jadeite has his hand in something -- sculpting, if nothing else, but I haven't asked. Still. We never know what we'll need to do later. So it's good for us to keep our hands in."
"Just because it's an option doesn't mean you have to take it." Naru points out calmly enough with a nod at Kyouko's reasons. "And equally, just because you dont want to now doesnt mean you never will. Goodness knows life around here changes dramatically with precious little warning often enough. For any or all of you, really."
Naru spreads her hands, mug in one, the other one empty. "I'm hardly one to talk. I have no clue what I'm doing after high school. I just have a few more years of following this yellow brick road before I have to make decisions."
"Yeah, well, not so long ago I didn't think I had a future worth worrying about." Kyouko grumbles faintly, turning to lay on her side with her head still on Kunzite's knee, but facing out towards Naru now instead of up towards the ceiling. "Despite that, I think I'm fairly consistent." She grins a little bit. "At least insofar as my goals in life." Survive. Eat. Be the toughest one around. Kyouko desires very little more than this.
"I have a couple of months left to make up my mind on whether I'll try to join the others in school next year. And what to study if I do." Kazuo glances down at Kyouko, and the brief sharp expression is nevertheless a pleased one, something in common with Kyouko's grin. "I'd rather keep an eye on things here." Watch their territory. Make sure they can eat. Concentrate on training. Not so different a set of goals from Kyouko's. "But it may not be practical."
"For a while, I was pretty confident I wasn't going to survive to have to worry about university." Naru notes conversationally as she reaches for a cookie. "Which really does make the decision making process a lot easier."
"Math? Physics? Everything, cause you don't seem to need to sleep?" Naru speculates on the topic of what Kunzite should study if, or when, he goes back to school.
"I guess." Kyouko says to Naru, choosing not to comment how ingrained such beliefs can be when they form the center of your life for a third of it. "Maybe I'm just too narrow-minded, I dunno."
She glances up at Kunzite out of the corner of her eye. "You should do what you think best, nii-chan." She says, firmly. "You never know what might happen between now and then. I advise.. flexibility." She smirks, knowing full-well that she has no grounds to be advising Kunzite, but invoking imouto perogative to be smug regardless.
That gets Kyouko's bangs tousled. Despite the risk involved in ever putting one's hand even that close to Kyouko's teeth, as Homura discovered the other day. "Physics is a possibility," he says to Naru. "It generates ideas for new tricks, or for ways to conserve energy -- I can't carry an unlimited supply, so efficiency becomes important. Kazuo studied history, though, and we don't have any specialists in that right now." Someday he will quit with the occasional third person. It hasn't happened yet. "And I can, of course, always drop out if we need a guard in residence during the days." See? Flexibility.
"History always strikes me.. much like art.. as the sort of thing that if you're interested enough to take it at university, you're probably already interested enough to just go read about it and learn about it without the benefit of exams on it." Naru comments thoughtfully. "Although I suppose that's true for /any/ subject, but science and math seems easier with a teacher."
"Besides, between everyone's schedules /and/ everything else, even if you were in school, I bet you guys could ensure someone was here all the time if needed." Naru points out as she resettles on the couch with cookie and coffee.
Kyouko does not, in fact, bite Kunzite's fingers off, although they do bear a passing resemblence to hot dogs so that trick is one best not repeated too often. Her red eyes glitter faintly as she muses, "I mean, my work schedule is fairly flexible, so I can be here during the day a lot if I need to be." She sighs. "Eh, hopefully it won't come to that. S'just, the longer we go without any major crises the more sure I am that we're due for one."
"Orange didn't count?" Kazuo asks drily down to Kyouko, but he leaves her hair alone this time. "True enough about the rest, though." Something is always coming. It's just that how long it takes to get there will vary.
He glances up and aside to Naru, examining her for a moment. "Ideally," he says, "studying history under a teacher helps in not missing important aspects that fall outside one's own biases. It's very difficult to surprise oneself in independent study. But human societies are strange, and one should be surprised regularly when studying them."
"Orange was a crisis, but at least in my estimation of crises, not a major one. You know what I mean. I can live in a world with no orange. I can't live in a world that doesn't exist because it exploded." Kyouko says dryly.
She sits up after a moment, slipping to her feet, her brief display of relaxed affection dispensed with for the time being. "I should get back downstairs, get somethin' made up for dinner before Momo gets home." It'll probably be ramen or a microwaved conbenie meal or something, but at least she makes sure the girl eats something other than candy.
"See you guys later." She smiles, including Alexis in her wave, as she turns and heads back out towards the balcony.