The calendar might say autumn, but the weather says summer. Hot and humid and hazy and a bit grey, it's really only bearable down by the water where there's a bit of a breeze to take the edge off the humidity.
There's a little food court sort of sitting area, with picnic tables and umbrellas and a view and a whole host of junk food options at one's disposal not so very far away. Naru has clearly taken advantage of a couple, based on the snacks she's got at her table, that are clearly required to help with homework. Clearly. The sketchbook that's on top of her school books is .. probably not homework.
Tadase Hotori is here, too - taking a break from hunting X-Eggs and Virtue Planning Sessions and Returning Girlfriends and other such things that continue to raise his stress level like a boiling tea kettle to walk out by the harbor. It's nice - just cool enough by the water to make it worth being outside.
And well, there's food. And food means Takoyaki. And Tadase likes Takoyaki. So he's walking back to another spot when, tray of tako in hand, he walks right by Naru and stops.
He pauses for a moment, finding the words. "Osaka-san, right? Friend of Mercury?" he says. It'd be hard not to recognize Tadase, once you've met him.
Naru looks up at the familiar voice and there's a warm smile. "Ahhh, Hotori-san. Please.. join me if you wish." She gestures at the rest of the table she's co-opted and reaches out to drag her books back to leave him ample space. "Yes. I am a friend of Mercury's. I also amubushed you in your garden after orange first vanished." She smiles a touch ruefully, apologetic perhaps for that ambush.
"How are you?" Naru asks, innocently enough as she reaches for her coffee cup, leaving her sketchbook open under her hands.
Tadase debates, nods, and sits down with Naru. "It's always nice to be able to share a table with a friend." he says, though he might be somewhat forcibly assigning Naru into that category. But let's face it, pretty much everyone is.
Tadase certainly doesn't look like he holds the amubush against her. "Well, that's the right time to bring problems to me, isn't it? Trust me, that's part of why I sit in a big well-known place so much. Harder to find me otherwise." he says with a grin.
"I am well, and how are you?" he asks before popping a fried tako ball into his mouth.
"It is." Naru agrees with a relaxed smile. A sip of coffee and she tucks herself up more comfortably on the bench, leaning a little on the table. She isn't drawing for the moment, the pencil resting along the centre of the open book. Black and white, just charcoal on the white paper, but it looks gigerish monster-esque, looming upon the page.
"You don't technically have to, you know. We've these /phones/, where by rights you can be anywhere and have people talk to you about things." Naru points out with a soft little laugh. "Although the garden is rather lovely, I wouldn't balk overmuch at spending time there either."
"I am well." Naru decides after a moment of thought, quirking her head and considering the sky as she does. "Slowly getting the hang of my new normal, which is good. I think." She turns her attention more fully upon him. "I know you were finding things pretty stressful when last we talked, that easing at all?"
Tadase laughs. "I know we have the phones, but sometimes people are just more comfortable talking in person. Plus the atmosphere of the Garden is pretty calming, and a lot of the times, people are best served talking in a calm place, especially given the sort of things that are going on in the world today."
Tadase pops another Takoball into his mouth, chewing and looking satisfied, and politely finishing the chewing before speaking. "Not that you'd know anything about that." he says with a wink.
"It's getting easier, yeah. The Archives are gonna help too, as is having..." he pauses. "...My own group back together." He means 'having my girlfriend back' but doesn't say it for any number of unknowable reasons.
"For me, at the moment, it's almost a lull. It's weird. It's always worse than the non-stop crises." Naru comments quietly, thoughtfully and there's a little mmm as she nods. "It's true. The garden is calming, and relaxed and feels secure. All valuable tools. But the phones mean that one can say 'could I meet you in the garden this afternoon?'"
Naru quirks her head at Tadase at the mention of group back together. "Amu's returned? That's good, yes?" She asks, watching his expression as she does. "I should work to put my monster and antagonist notes into something more formal. The information is all there, but it's just my own quick notes."
Tadase nods. "Sure, and there's nothing that stops them from doing so! I just like the idea that there's usually a place people can go, phone call or not. But I can't be there all the time, that'd be crazy. As pretty as it is." he says, smiling.
Tadase's face could not light up any more with happiness without being a landing beacon for aircraft. "Yeah, Amu's back." he says, trying to sound calm while his body is showing off he's obviously not - just the talk is making him excited."
"Oh, absolutely. If you'd like some help I'm sure I can arrange from one of the TSAB's scribes to sit with you and talk through your notes, but I know sometimes it works better to organize alone. Either way, the options out there. We can help with more than just chasing em' down!"
Naru can't help but smile back to him at that glow of delight when mentioning Amu, that sort of reaction is infectious and she giggles softly. "Excellent, I'm delighted to hear it. I'll have to try and meet her sometime, I don't think I ever have."
"Certainly for the initial writing down, it's much better alone. I might bravely see if anyone might be interested in helping me with organization. I am unreasonably shy about posting to Virtue as a whole. Most dont' realize I'm a part, and even fewer know that I've skills of my own these days. Nascent and irregular as they might be." Naru muses a little and then shakes her head and waves her hand. "But that's work, and you're relaxing."
Tadase's still smiling. "You really should meet her - she's such a radiant person, even when she's not Amule-" and Tadase cuts himself off, coughing. "I'll try to bring her around to meet you and Mamoru-sempai and the others. It's been too long since I saw all of them."
Tadase looks at her, then down to her drawing. "Don't worry. To some degree I'm always 'working' - I guess Volunteering might be a better term." he adds with a wink. "Not like they pay me. But I wouldn't want them to. Anything like that's better spent making everything better. You should see what the Taisha is spending on getting those Archives ready." He makes a sort of whistle. "Not sparing any expense. Had to make sure Eclipse wasn't signing the checks."
Jiaying Maki has made her way out to the docks. She seems a touch on the down side, but she is having a conversation with... something which switches back and forth between Chinese and Japanese. She's wearing an earpiece at least so she doesn't seem bonkers.
The conversation trails off and she looks to Naru, giving her a wave and heading over that way. The conversation starts up again as she walks.
Naomi Yomada walks out through the Harbor district. Its been a lengthy day for the young precure. It wasn't hard, just long. Quietly she makes a stop at a vendor and gets herself some donuts and a juice. Those things definitely make the day feel a lot nicer. Quickly she goes walking, eating her donuts as she goes.
Its about that point that she sees a familiar face. She smiles brightly as she waves. "Ha Aruuoo-ang!!" She quickly takes a sip of her juice, washing down the donut in her mouth. "Err Hi Naru-chan!" Walking over she smiles and gives a polite bow to to Tadase. While she's heard the name before, she's not actually met Tadase yet. Between Blue and Haruna that was bound to happen at some point. She gives a smile. "Sorry, Don't mean to bother anyone."
Sitting on her head, almost seeming to hold onto to her twin tails, is a Lilac plushie. At least thats what it looks like. Anyone who knows her knows that this is Lilac just pretending to be a stuffed animal. She doesn't say anything at this time. Just pretends.
"You should. Ping me if I'm not there and I'll try and wander over. I'm likely only over in the other apartment anyhow, I would really like to finish that mural and not be the piece that holds up them moving back in there." Naru comments to Tadase as she reaches for her coffee and finally for one of the fried bits of snack that she's thus far been ignoring.
"Not just have to make sure who is signing the cheques, but also who isn't accessing them." Naru nods to Tadase and then she quirks a half smile. "I suppose that's true of all of us, the never really /not/ keeping an eye out, and being aware at the very least."
The wave from Jiaying catches Naru's attention and she lifts a hand to wave in reply. With more people arriving, she nudges the pencil out of her sketchbook, closing it as she surrenders any pretense of working on drawings or homework at this point.
Naru turns her head at a doughnut mangled version of her name, apparently fluent in 'doughnut' and waves towards Naomi and Lilac as they come closer. "Hiya Naomi. You're not inturupting at all. Have you met Tadase?" She gestures towards her table companion. "Pull up a seat if you wish."
While Lilac doesn't get a verbal greeting of her own, she does get her own little smile and a quick little wink.
Kiseki suddenly floats out of Tadase's backpack, up over his shoulder, half-asleep. "Takoyaaaaki" he says, in a zombielike state, and Tadase passes one of the Tako balls to him. It's almost as big as he is, and he holds it in either hand, biting into it and taking nibbly bites. It's like a human holding an edible beach ball.
Kiseki mollified, Tadase continues. "Well, once you know what's bubbling underneath the surface, you kinda gotta keep watching the boiling pot to make sure it doesn't... boil over." he says, a questioning tone in his voice, as though he's unsure of the value of his own words there.
And other people come up. Tadase's not familiar with either of them, but he guesses if they know Naru and are arriving, that there's two options: They're perfectly normal school friends, or magical ones. And with Tokyo the way it is, his bets are on the latter.
"Hello." he says as Naru gestures towards him. "Tadase Hotori, Seiyou King's Chair." he adds with a wave.
Is it impossible for Tadase to introduce himself without that title?
Yes.
Jiaying Maki looks from Naru to Tadase at the introduction. She looks behind her, then leans side to side trying to figure out where this chair is. Eventually she asks, "King chair?" She notes the small fae type thing, pauses to look at it eating and says something in Chinese. Her hair flips up and she turns to swat her hands through.. well nothing.
The confusion aside, she says to Naru, "Hey. Anything weird lately?" then to the other two she says, "Jiaying Maki, uh.. person." Sure, that's a title right?
Naomi takes a seat with Naru and Tadase. When she spies the Chara poping out and tackling food much too big for it, it takes all she has not to bust out laughing. Its adorable afterall. As she gets comfortable, she pulls the plush off her head and puts her in her lap. The second she does that, Lilac grabs one of her donuts and quickly eats it.
"Naomi Yomada, Infinity Elementary student who tends to blow things up..." She states nervously. She goes for one of her donuts only to find only one left! She then notes sugar on Lilac's nose. "You know you could ask, Lilac!" She states. She just seen Kiseki and Naru knows full well about her. She doesn't know Jiaying but... at this point the damage is done.
Lilac responds quickly, "Shhhhh I'm trying to keep a low *burp* Profile here!"
She looks over Tadase and gives him a smile. "I've heard your name before a few times." She buckles and just drops the two names that would be Most likely to be known. "Cure Gull and Blue-Sama had spoken of you." She smiles a little.
"Hey there Kiseki." Naru greets him with a smile. "I'd wondered where you were. I think the word you were looking for is 'explode', Tadase." Naru looks up at him and then grins. "In a general sense, of course."
"Weird is pretty much the normal, Jiaying. Nothing too terribly odd these days, or at least the odd is starting to become more routine, I suppose. How about yourself?" Naru asks of Jiaying at her question and then gestures a little. "King's chair is a Seiyou thing.. I'm sure Tadase can explain it better than I can."
"Hi Lilac." Naru laughs softly and shakes her head a little. "How're you?" She looks then to Naomi and mmms softly. "Cure Gull and I met up with a fight not so long agao.. did she mention it to you, Naomi?"
Tadase smiles. "Not a literal chair - it's a title. You can think of it as sort of like a student overcouncil. Sorry, using it as part of my introduction is kinda a habit I can't seem to break. Not relevant unless you go to Seiyou, I guess." he adds, scratching the back of head. Kiseki looks up. "It's always important to make commoners aware of your title, Tadase." he says before going back to the tako. Kiseki and Tadase have no idea if they can see him, and Kiseki obviously doesn't care.
He turns to Naomi. "Do you mean science lab blow things up, or like... something else?" Tadase says, a little clueless. But that's pretty much Tadase. And the interaction between Lilaic and Naomi gives Tadase a sort-of-smile, because it's not like he doesn't know that exact problem. It's both a look of amusement as well as sympathy.
Gull gets a bit of a wince, but Blue gets a nod. "Blue-sama helps out at the Royal Garden a lot." he says, without getting into too much detail - he doesn't know Jiaying, and really doesn't even know Naomi, though now he can make some educated guesses.
"Explode's pretty accurate, Osaka-san." Tadase nods, turning back to her. Then he looks between her and Jiaying. "Too long with the strange, and the normal can become the new strange." he muses.
Jiaying Maki looks over her shoulder and murmurs in Chinese behind her, swats something away and suddenly tightens her grip on her school bag. It did just try to get away after all. Seems her haunts are tired of her being a grump. "Gull? With the chatty bird? She gave out a burger once." What, free food jogs her memory. "I go to the same school as Osaka there, it sounds like an uncomfortable chair."
Looking to Naru she shrugs, "Weird by your standards. My level of weird is convincing a drowned manga-ka to come with me and to stop drawing art in blood." Was there the echo of a whine at that comment from behind her?
Naomi Yomada laughs a little, "Your friend definitely has the royal mindset going." She giggles before continuing. "Both fits. I am an inventor and I sorta take things apart a lot. Its fun you know? And sometimes things don't go back together too often. A few months ago I blew up a hot water heater. And I sorta turned my mom blue..." She blushes a little.
The little fairy turns to look at Naru, "I'm good! Happy to be out of Naomi-chan's room. It smells in there!"
"HEY! I can't help it. when electronics blow up they usually stink! And I burn candles that smell like chocolate! What are you talking about!" Naomi argues.
"You should check the labels, I think your sister pranked you." The fairy comments.
Naomi rubs her head. "Oh no she didn't I swear." She sighs. At this point she just rubs her head again. She looks to Naru. "No. She hasn't mentioned it, I'm sorry. I only ran into her today for the first time in months. I feel horrible about that but I sorta got grounded for a while." She glances over to Jiaying and smiles, "Yep thats Cure Gull!"
Finally she just gives in. Between a talking fairy and the knowledge of Blue, She just speaks up. "I'm a Precure. Figure I might as well just say that at this point. I've not gotten to talk to Kami-Sama in a while. I let him know that I was back to work but, Not actually gotten to hang out with him."
"I'm not sure I've properly met Blue-sama properly." Naru muses thoughtfully and there's a quiet little hunh. "I should make an effort to." The why of that, Naru doesn't elaborate on.
Naru laughs softly and shakes her head. "If I need a recalibration on what's odd and what's not, I just have to ask Alex. At least until he gets entirely too accustomed to the weird, but I dont expect that to happen soon."
Naru takes another drink from her coffee and notes to Jiaying. "Blood is just so.. well.. I'm not keen on the colour when it dries, and it has to be just a pain to work with in any quantity, I should think. It'd coagulate and dry too quickly and just such a mess. I'll stick with paint."
"I'm glad you're out and about again, then Naomi." Naru smiles a touch and nods.
Tadase nods to Jiaying. "Chatty bird, yeah, that's Gull." he says, popping another bit of Tako into his mouth and not saying anything else about that. If you can't say antyhing nice, after all... "Well, talking to ghosts probably ought to trigger on my wierd meeter, but..." he gestures to Kiseki "...it kinda sounds like another day after school."
"That explains the Infinity, then." Tadase muses on Naomi's inventive streak. And a smile - then a less real smile - about siblings. After all, the person he considers a sibling is currently off being a jerk. Still... sometimes it seems like he's trying to get better. For a moment, Tadase's mind is Very Much Elsewhere, but he comes back.
"Always nice to meet another precure. Kinda guessed that from the Fairy, but I don't like to assume - not in our world. You should come have tea with Blue-sama at the Garden sometime soon! He really enjoys it."
"And you could come too, Naru. I mean, if it works out time-wise for you." Then he looks at her. "Who's Alex, should I be trying to meet him too?" It's here now that it's obvious some part of Tadase has slipped into business mode, perhaps unconsciously - he's sitting up straighter, looking more regal and less relaxed, and obviously making mental notes.
"As a representative of Virtue I have to implore you not to paint in blood. The chances of it going bad are... well I have to at least assume that sort of thing is more likely to require some sort of intervention."
Amu Hinamori comes walking in, then! She had heard there was trouble at the harbor. Yes. That was her story and she was sticking to it. Not that there was some super cute prince she wanted to meet here. Her, stalking her boyfriend? Why ever would she do such a thing!
"Hey, he is here!" Ran said.
Dang it ran, don't blow her cover! She grinned wide and trotted over and, before he could object... gave him a big hug!"Hi King!" she said happily. At least she didn't call him prince. Hum, he was sure with a lot of girls. Ehhhh. She trusted him. Worse case she supposed maybe her dream might come true. So win win. She gave him a little nuzzle before pulling back and smiling to the others, raising her hand. "Hi! I'm Hinamori Amu! Nice to meet you!"
Jiaying Maki shakes her head, "I don't know if it was really blood, not from a person? I should ask her. Jiangshi tags are done in chicken blood though." She says that like she thinks it's neat. She doesn't mention that chicken sounds really good though.
"I keep hearing about Virtue. I mean as a group. I ghink... well someone suggested I look into it"
Naomi Yomada smiles a little, "Oh! I might take you up on that! I met Nagishiko A few months back. He actually taught me a few dance steps and I've sorta been learning to do that since! Its awesome! It helps me to clear my head. I've been using the internet to learn more. When I actually stop and dance, I think clearer and I don't blow things up as often. Its really cool!"
She looks over to Naru and smiles, "I am really happy to be back. My mom was bent on making me pay for the whole her being dyed blue thing. It took a while for it to wash out of her skin." She blushes brightly.
Her attention goes back to Tadase and she gives a smile, "Virtue. I've heard of that organization. I was actually curious about joining to be honest. I know I am sorta unknown to most but I know Blue-sama would vouch for me!" She thinks a little. "Mind I am friends with both Cure Gull and her Significant Other. Though thats where the friendship ends Gull is a teammate. I've met Riventon the hard way. Personally I wouldn't mind trying to purify him but, thats for another time. Same with the crazy dark magical girl energy vampire. I've fought with her twice and it doesn't exactly go well."
She blinks a few times as she looks at Amu. "Pleasure to meet you, Hinamori-san." She gives a polite bow. She spots the charas with her and she snickers. "One of the Guardians I expect." The violet haired girl smiles a soft smile. "A pleasure to meet you. My names is Yomada Naomi. You can call me Naomi though." She smiles a little and tussles Lilac's hair, knocking her bow lose.
"Fix it!!!" The fairy grouches as she tries to reach her bow but fails at that.
"Okay Okay. I got it." She laughs.
"If it works timewise, I'd be glad to come for tea." Naru nods to Tadase. "You do know how to find me." She chuckles easily, they really did only /just/ discuss the benefit of phones. "Alex is my boyfriend. Mundane and mostly in the know, he was at the barbeque at Mamo's apartment, even if that was perhaps a little be overwhelming." She explains, and as such, probably takes herself out of the running of Amu's jealous concern. Ideally.
Naru looks up at Amu at the hug she gives Tadase and there's a grin. "Ah! The infamous Amu. A pleasure to meet you. I'm Naru Osaka."
The multiple comments about Virtue prompt Naru to open her hands and gesture to Tadase. "That's your show to comment upon. I am but a minion." She reaches for her deep fried batter bits and settles with her coffee to listen.
Tadase jumps up when he hears Ran, and the chair scoots back and grinds loudly, ruining all pretense of business-like attitude or calmness, so he's standing to catch Amu when she hugs him. "Amu!" he all but shouts, and kisses her on the forehead as she pulls back from the nuzzle. "Amu, this is Osaka-san, and this is her friend, Maki-san - and this is Yomada-san. She's with Blue-sama." he says, hoping that gets across 'is virtue, is a cure, is cool' all at once for Amu.
He shifts away, putting his chair in place and gesturing for Amu to sit down. He could probably pull one for another table, but chivalry first!
"You should come and see me sometime and I can answer your questions about Virtue, Maki-san. For obvious reasons that's a discussion better had... not out in the food court openly. But I'm usually at the Seiyou School's Royal Garden. Big greenhouse, tons of flowers, it's hard to miss."
"Na-chan is very good at using dance to do all sorts of things." Tadase notes. "Also a Guardian like me. And you should meet me in the Garden to discuss that, too. I don't want to edge into Osaka-san's lunch with that sort of thing, and not so much out here in the open." he says, inclining his head in a little bow. Then he turns with a grin to Naru. "If you want to pass me your cell phone numbers we can try to set up times, if you'd rather not just show up unannounced."
Amu Hinamori blushes when he kissed her on the forehead, though didn't say anything about it. Just internally sqweed a little. And then he pulled out the chair for her. Oh my gosh her prince was suuuuuch a gentleman. She was just the luckiest girl in the world and she mentally eeeeed a bit.
"Nice to meet you, Osaka-chan, Maki-chan, Yao-- errr, Naomi-chan. And yes, I am a member of the guardians, the joker," she said with a little smile. Now that she got another look at them, they were all so pretty. Were she not like, 100% sure the prince would never break up with her just to date another girl, she would be worried they were planning to confess to him. Well, okay, they might be. But SHE got to him first, so nyeh.
Miki of course hovered behind her, drawing in her little note pad and shaking her head. "Taking numbers in front of your girlfriend? Aren't you the smooth one, Tadase-kun?" Miki asked with a snort. Amu rolled her eyes. "Oh Miki, Tadase-kun isn't like that," she said with a snort.
"Hai!" Naomi smiles and bows her head. She goes to eat her last donut only to see it has vanishes as well. A glance down to Lilac reveals more sugar on her. "You're buying the next batch." She states to the fairy with a rather annoyed tone in her voice. She takes a sip of her juice and just smiles.
Lilac laughs at her, "Silly! My money is only good at in the Blue Sky Kingdom! Sorry! Also I'm a refugee and I help you out so you've gotta help me too. That means sharing donuts!"The little fairy smirks.
Naomi sighs and blows her hair out of her face. "Thanks. Remind me to tell Blue-sama thanks for leaving out the fine print." She rubs the back of her head. She looks to Amu and smiles a little. "I'm a Pretty Cure and you don't have to worry about me, god doesn't really want his precures to fall in love with people. It stinks, yes but I try to follow his rule. I told him though, If I fall for someone I can't help it right?"
She stands up, "I should probably get home. I'm pretty sure my Mom is making Nikujaga tonight and I so want some." She smiles, "I will make sure you have some too Lilac."
Naru can't help but laugh brightly. "Sorry Miki, Tadase already has my number, there's not much getting involved from me." She seems entirely amused at the comment, rather than offended. "Please, do feel free to call me Naru, Amu. My lunch is entirely open to whatever conversations come up during it. I assure you that this hasn't even approached the level of working meals, so to speak, that I've had. Still, it's much easier to speak openly in the garden, I can't disagree there."
"Take care, Naomi." Naru waves to the other girl as she heads off home, its getting to that time of day, indeed. Her attention resettles upon Amu again. "I can imagine that you are glad to be back in Tokyo."
Tadase looks at Miki and just laughs. The sarcasm he delivers is heavy and blatant. "Yes, Miki, I waited the whole time Amu was gone just so I could accept confessions from other girls with her physically here. Because I am both mean and have a death wish."
And then Kiseki speaks up, standing at his full height of maybe three inches, hands on his hips, puffing himself out."Don't be ridiculous, Miki. Tadase's been ignoring all of the confessions and pushing all of the girls away while waiting for Amu to come back. He's been just as loyal and true as a King should be, and just as much as Amu has!" Tadase, embarassed, uses a finger to stuff the little king's mouth with more tako. "Hush now, Kiseki. The point's been made." Kiseki glares at Tadase but quietly eats the takoyaki.
Then he waves to Naomi as she leaves. "Still, we should have tea with Blue-sama some time!" he says as she leaves. He doesn't have much input on Blue's 'no falling in love' rule - neither affirmative nor negative.
"I'm certainly glad to have her back in Tokyo." Tadase adds, cutting in. And then Kiseki's tugging on his shirt, miming to an imaginary watch. "Oh. Well. Hmm. I can't stay much longer, sadly..." he says, clearly wishing he could. Especially now that Amu's here. "I mean. I don't have to run right now, but... like soon." he comments at another insistent tug.
Amu Hinamori irks. Irks irks irks. And then irks. "Riiiiiight. Loyal," Miki says with a cough. Red spread through poor Amu's cheeks. Technically she hadn't cheated! like, at all. She might have gained half a pound from all the chocolate, but she didn't intentionally kiss any of them. They kissed her! Oh gosh...
She covered her face. "Y-yeah. I uhhh... Tadase-kun? We errrr... later! We need to talk later. Meet me at the garden later tonight, okay?" she asked with a weak smile. Before giving him another hug. "We just have some things to talk about? Stuff that... well... happened while I was in europe I wanna chat with you about. Nothing major, though! Just... stuff." She just laughed nervously. She was such an open book. Luckily her boy friend was so naive.
"And I should /actually/ perhaps do some homework as opposed to just pretending." Naru comments with a barely contained little chuckle watching the pair of them. "It was a delight to meet you, Amu. And a delight to sit and chat with you, Tadase." She nudges her sketchbook into her satchel, packing up slowly. "Please do keep me in mind for some of those less private conversations in the garden, if you would. I'd be glad to be there."
Clearly she has no desire to be in the one that Amu is proposing. Except possibly as a fly on /that/ wall.
Tadase nods. "We'll talk later today, okay? I have to take care of something." he says to Amu, and then turns to Naru. "Sure, I'll keep you in mind - as the assistant to our Archivist I might be calling on you more often, so that you can understand more about the way things are and all." he continues. Then he picks up Kiseki, setting him into his backpack, kisses Amu on the cheek, nods once more to Naru, and runs off - late for whatever it is.
Amu Hinamori sqweed a little internally as he kissed her on the cheek, but totally played it off as if it was no big thing. She then smiled to the girl. "So, I--" And then her phone rang. "Err, one second." She picked it up.
"Yes? Mom? What? Oh, I'm... What? Ami won't let dad pick her up? You need me to... what?" She then rolled her eyes. She then gave an exasperated sigh. "Of course. I'll go get her right now." She closed the phone and gave a little smile. "Sorry, my little sister needs me to come pick her up. I'll see you later, okay? Bye!" And then ran off. Always the responsible older sister.