While school might not be starting again until next week, those who are almost done with grade 9 and those who are almost done with grade 12 are both in Exam Hell. (tm). Which, depending on the person, is varying degrees of Hell. It might be one of those fairly gentle layers of hell, with the confidence of solid prep time and good solid non-distractions from one's real life. It might be one of those more exciting layers of hell where one realizes that the exam is the DAY AFTER TOMORROW OMG AIEEEE!
Naru fits somewhere between those two. A fair bit of prep, but not nearly enough if you ask her, and a healthy collection of distractions. A lot of distractions really. Many of those distractions she is powerless against, dealing with threats and friends and her own stupid brain, but one of those she is taking an active approach into trying to solve.
Naru crouches in front of one of the bookcases in the apartment and there's a soft little grr of frustration. Apparently whatever book she was CERTAIN was /right here/, is not.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
It's a muffled sound, for certain, but somehow it still resounds throughout frat house.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It sounds a little clearer. Closer.
Tap. Tap. Tap. A bit further again there.
What the heck is that?
Though-- it doesn't take all that much investigation to figure out what it is. Following the sound leads one to one of the windows lining the frat house, and--
Alex.
The hood of the hoodie he's started to wear is flipped down to keep his face visible, now, but that's not the important part. Neither is the messenger bag hanging from his hip.
The important part is that he's hanging by one hand holding onto the upper windowframe, god knows how many floors above the ground. Rapping his fingers against the glass.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Forty seven floors. That is how many floors above ground and when the tap tap tap comes nearer, Naru startles and straightens.
A blink as she looks to the window and Alexis doing his impression of Spiderman rather than Dracula out there and she gives a little shudder. Not because it's Alexis, but because OMG FORTY SEVEN STORIES UP.
Naru points towards the balcony a little further down the bank of windows, where there's a patio door that she can go and open and she pads her way in that direction, hoping that Alexis works out what she means.
It would turn out that he probably did figure that much out after the gesture -- at least considering he immediately sweeps himself sidelong from the window towards the balcony afterwards. Slips of him can probably be seen through the windows leading up there, too.
And then, finally, he vaults onto the balcony patio, and steps up to the door there. And politely waits for the door to be opened for him.
Probably not because of the whole stereotype about vampires needing to be invited in.
... Probably?
"OMG, I hate it when /anyone/ crawls along the windows or on the balcony." Is the greeting that Naru provides as she opens the door and there's a fresh shudder. "All I can picture is fall and splat even when I know /damn well/ that there won't be a splat." She gestures vaguely towards the empty apartment as she leaves him to come inside or not as he chooses.
"I havne't seen anyone up and about, but I can smell coffee.. but you don't drink coffee, so never mind that." Naru offers as she pads back towards the bookcase to continue her search. "Although even if you don't want a cup, it makes it slightly more likely that /someone/ is home, somewhere."
Alex, on his part-- he doesn't say anything in response to the greeting. Or the particular mental image that Naru is painting there. His expression doesn't change in the slightest, either.
But that last part isn't exactly any surprising with him, considering his current condition.
After stepping inside, his eyes slowly sweep over the immediate interior, quiet while Naru speaks. It's only upon her last words that he says, "I see," and goes padding towards a seat in a further corner of the room.
Well isn't he just the MOST SOCIABLE VAMPIRE EVER.
And so the silence settles on the living room in ECFH.
Naru has been reduced to going through each book in turn on the bookshelf to try and find the one that she is looking for and eventually she settles on her haunches and takes a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh. "Well. Dammit." She declares, lifting both hands to rub at her face and then take another deep breath.
Naru stands, turning towards where Alex is silent in the corner. "Are you waiting for someone in specific, or just hiding here?"
He slumps down there, on the seat, after loosening the bag by his side enough that it, in turn, slumps to the floor next to him.
And there he sits, in silence, and staring off into space.
Up until Naru actually addresses him, anyway, and his eyes go flicking towards her. Another few seconds of silence, of him just... staring. At her. And then his gaze turns away again.
"I don't know," he answers only then. "I did not think that far. After before. Just like felt like. I should"
"I don't know why."
"It's a good place to sit." Naru confirms with a nod. "There's a sense of safety and comfort here. I know Endy's proud of that, and it's true. I'd expect you can probably sense the former, even if you can't entirely sense that later at the moment. Although I /am/ just guessing."
Naru bends her head forward, stretching out her neck and then back, stretching the other direction. "Can I get you anything from the kitchen? I'm getting myself a coffee before it's all burnt and gross."
There's nothing that Alex has to say about that first, apparently. He remains silent over it-- probably unsettlingly so, all things considered. Considering that before, even if he was kind of silent-- he was at least full of life with everything he did.
And now he's just... there. And that's all there is to it.
He doesn't even say anything to her offer. Well, not at first. Just before she slips into the kitchen proper...
"Do you..." He calls out. "... Have donuts here?"
"Dunno!" Naru calls back, and the sounds are of coffee first. Exam. Hell. Coffee is winning.
The rustling around speaks to her actually checking. "There's.. I have no clue what it is, but it looks baked and sweet and .. edible?" She sounds skeptical. "Not the most appealing of colours for food, but edible. I think. There's muffins too. No doughnuts though." There's a pause and then Naru adds with a dry tone to her voice. "I know, I'm really selling that first thing, but want some?"
"..."
Naru can't really see it from the kitchen, but Alex does actually send an utterly *suspicious* look to the way of the kitchen over that... uh... advertisement.
"... I'm good," he calls back after a moment. "I don't really. Need to eat right now. Anyway."
When he says 'right now'...
He remains silent until she re-emerges from within the room, however-- and when she does, his eyes turn to find her again, and he almost immediately asks, "Why did you bother to look for me?"
"I am going to lay money that it is not Makoto's baking and it sure as hell isn't mine." Naru points out as she emerges with a muffin and a coffee for herself and pads over to claim a corner of the couch.
The choice between fleeing or procrastination, the later wins for a few moments at least.
Naru tucks her legs up under her and then quirks her head at Alexis at his question. "Why wouldn't I?"
"There's no point, is there`" He responds then, blunt.
His eyes turn off to the side again, and now it once more seems like he's just staring off into space, blank.
"Hm. I guess you did tell Norie to keep tabs on me too, for that matter. Not that I really understood why with that, either..."
"No point of what?" Naru asks with a quirk of her head. "In looking for you? In worrying about you? In asking me that question?" She aims for further clarification and then takes a sip from her coffee.
"I did." Naru nods in confirmation. "Cause I'm still rather fond of you, just not in a girlfriend way, but in a friend way. And I figured you'd be fairly pissed at me.. and probably still are.. which made /me/ trying to make sure you were alright fairly counter productive."
"Any of those three, I guess," murmurs Alex, now turning his head just so that he can actually look to a window-- at least that way it seems like he's looking at *something* rather than just... empty space. In a way, anyway.
"I'm not going to do anything to you, if that's what you're worried about," he says after another breif moment of thought. "Honestly. I figured it would be better to just let you be. Not make you deal with me any more."
"I never figured you'd do anything to me." Naru points out quietly. "Like.. that thought never crossed my mind. I was more thinking that you wouldnt want to see me, and being in your face would just make everything worse. Course.. I kinda threw that out the window after Lacrima texted me."
Naru is quiet a moment. "I know you two aren't the same, because I remember when Lacrima was fairly new to things.. although I didn't know it at the time, and you're much much calmer. But.." Naru trails off and there's a vague gesture as she momentarily struggles to find words for the thoughts she has and then shakes her head.
"I was not really. ... Calm. When this started." Alex's nose scrunches up briefly with that particular statement, but his gaze doesn't turn away from the window, yet.
"I am just. Trying really hard to. Be calm, I guess. Since losing control is... bad, with me, right now."
"I don't really. Have any other choice about it."
He's silent for another moment.
"I guess you figured out. I wasn't exactly. Happy earlier. Even before I got like this. But it's. Not really right. To push that at you either."
"I'm really impressed at how well you're doing calm now." Naru points out. "Even if its all faking it.. you're faking it convincingly."
There's a moment and then Naru gives a shrug. "You have a right to be mad at me, and I don't begrudge you that. Hopefully not forever, but being pissed at me is valid. I.." She pauses and then nods. "Thank you for making an effort for calm though, even with me. I have more idea than most on what it would feel like on this side of things, and it wasn't one of my favourite days."
"It's not as if though I'm not. Pissed." The admittance might not sound like it has quite the weight in it that it should, with his ever-present, deadpan tone.
"But even if I wasn't. Like this. It would be useless to act on it, wouldn't it?"
"I just have to deal with it. Whatever else you're doing with your life is your choice and I have no bearing on it."
Naru is quiet and she glances down to her empty coffee mug, watching it for long moments after those words from Alexis. She leans over, to set it on the table at least momentarily, her muffin already gone.
"Not precisely true." Naru shakes her head a little. "We have the same friends, to a large degree, and to some extent what's going on in our lives, both of them, affect the other. Not quite as directly, but there's overlap. But in the way I think you mean, I suppose I can't entirely argue there. No more than I do on yours."
"I suppose it's kind of hard to tell with how distant I kept myself a lot of the time."
That particular admission from Alex brings out a quiet sigh -- it might just as well be something he's admitting to himself just as much as it is to Naru.
"Even in spite of how much. I wanted to help. All the time. Even though I couldn't do anything."
"Funny, that. Now that I could. In theory do something. I feel even more distant. It doesn't really help that I can lose. Myself. If I do too much with what I have now."
"And I didn't do as much as I probably could have to draw you out, because I was focussed on my own stuff." Naru gives a little shrug and then a shake of her head. "There's no finger pointing from this side of things at least."
Naru takes a deep breath. "I remember that frustration, I haven't had magic for long enough not to, and I haven't had control for long enough to be useful yet." She quirks a wry little smile. "You don't wnat to lose control and I usually don't know what the hell I'm doing and generally not reach far enough to figure out what I /can/ do."
"I suppose so," Alex murmurs quietly, to that. ... It might seem like he might have something more to say, but... apparently he settles with just. Staring out the window. All broody vampire.
"I..." He speaks out after a moment, though. "Met someone. Who offered to. Take me to patrol. Can keep watch on me too like that to make sure I don't. Do too much."
"Maybe I can. Try to do some good that way. At least."
"That sounds like a good idea." Naru nods into the quiet. "Who? If you don't mind me asking. It's none of my business, but I'm curious if I know them."
Naru glances over to her coffee cup, as if debating another, or possibly just wishing she hadn't finished that one already.
Aaaand that's when Alex's gaze finally flicks away from the window and over to Naru, even if it is given just by the corner of his eye. He considers her for a few seconds, before he says, in deadpan, "Sayaka Miki," and his eyes turn back to the window.
Another few seconds pass with him silent, and then he asks, with that same deadpan, "Were she and. Kyouko? A thing?"
Naru considers that answer a moment. It's another moment as she considers the next question.
"Yeah." Naru answers after that moment. "They were." Past tense on that. "I remember talking with Kyouko about how that ended back around Halloween."
"I see."
Alex considers this confirmation for a few seconds, and then finally nods. "I thought so. But was not. Sure. It used to be easier to read these... things. Before. When I could still... feel things like that too."
... Now he SAYS that, though he was still stupidly oblivious about Naru way back when. Maybe his particular way of reading people just happens to be selective.
"You picked up on that one alright." Naru pauses and then quirks her head. "Was Sayaka asking about Kyouko, or something? Or just a guess?"
There's a flicker of a smile at Alex admitting his obliviousness about people but she doesn't comment on how vampirism seems to have improved it.
"She figured out I probably know her. When I explained myself to her. And my relation to Shitennou." While Alex is explaining this-- well he OBVIOUSLY doesn't notice that hint of a smile on Naru. He might not even pick up on what it means anyway.
"So she talked about her a little. I think it was. More the way she was talking about her that made me think about it. But she did ask about her too."
Beat.
"I think she might. Miss her? I don't know. Like I said, it's... hard to. Relate. Right now."
Naru considers that and then nods. "Yeah. I can see that she probably still misses Kyouko, based on waht I know of their history. I'm glad she's still out and about.. I hadn't heard about her in a while so I wondered if she was alright and the like."
Another thoughtful pause and then a nod. "From what I recall of Sayaka's fighting style, if you do run into fights, you two should work fairly well together."
"None of that is my place to be saying anything about," Alex says, vis a vis the matter of Kyouko and Sayaka.
So instead, he considers the prospect of working with the latter, instead. "I could not tell yet," he concludes after a moment of thought. "She has a sword. She is like Kyouko, in some regards. Can move like her, at least. I have not seen her do much yet."
Naru nods. "I drew a sword for Sayaka in a fight where we were fighting wraiths and it wasn't going terribly well." She pauses, thinking back a moment and then nods again. "Very similar movements, and likely very similar tactics. Both melee combatants who have plenty of confidence. Generally."
Naru looks at her coffee cup, sitting empty on the table and then she pushes to her feet to pick it up. "Sure you don't want anything?" The coffee won't be /that/ much more burnt by now, right? Clearly not.
Alex turns his gaze over towards Naru again, now. He considers her-- actually, no, not her. He considers SOMETHING. He just happens to be looking at Naru while he does.
"I realize," he says after that moment. "That you have never actually seen me fight. Not even against normal people. The thing with Through doesn't really count."
And then his eyes turn to that empty coffee cup, and he wrinkles his nose.
"I don't have any particular desire for food or drink anymore," he repeats his earlier point. "But... I can *still* tell that I do not like coffee. At all. So no thank you."
"Kyouko," says a familiar voice from the hall, "dodges. Sayaka doesn't. She throws herself into a fight wthout thinking, cuts her way to the heart of it, takes blows without a blink or concern. Counts on her healing abilities to preserve her. Which is an advantage. She did the same thing before she had any magic at all."
Kazuo, it may be presumed, does want coffee.
"Nope." Naru shakes her head to Alexis. "I've never seen you fight."
Its rare to see Naru startle, but she startles at the sound of Kunzite's voice and turns in his direction. "Apparently I've also never seen Sayaka fight to her full potential either, because that was not how her tactics went in that wraith fight at all."
Naru continues her way towards the kitchen, absently climbing the counter to get a second mug for Kunzite. "There is more in here than coffee, as a note Alex. Tea, water, juice.. probably pop but I haven't checked the fridge. It feels odd not to offer."
Alex doesn't so much startle, but his eyes do immediately snap to the direction of the voice. It's not something unusual for him -- but now, when most of his emotions have been deadened, it's probably much more obvious, how he immediately starts processing a new stimuli, and analyzing it.
Though he would usually relax when the source is revealed to be Kazuo, there's no change in him at all now. ... Actually, that is the wrong thing to say, when, to begin with, he is already decidedly 'neutral', like he is doing his damn best to make the greatest Kunzite impersonation in the world.
The information he provides is thus met with a simple, "I see," before his eyes go tracking towards Naru again. "Still. I am good."
"Would that be the fight in which you drew her the sword, Naru?" Kazuo doesn't wait for an answer; he paces a few steps into the room and pauses to look Alex over. Not studying him, precisely. Checking his clothes, instead. Whether they're frayed or torn. Whether they are in fact the same ones he was wearing the last time they met.
"That's the one." Naru confirms as she pours two coffees. "Which had so much not typical and not good going on it in, I'm not surprised that it wasn't exactly a standard example of Sayaka tactics."
One coffee gets doctored up just so, the other is left as is as Naru emerges back out into the living room to pass a mug off to Kunzite. "Alexis and Sayaka are going to do some patrolling together. Which is how this whole conversation started."
"It was just a suggestion she made," Alex points out. "Who knows if she actually intends to go through with it. She. Doesn't really know me. I think she might have just felt sorry for me."
But, either way, his eyes inevitably move to meet Kazuo's. And his neutral expression breaks just enough to allow a wrinkle of a nose.
"Trying to figure out if I've been in a fight?"
That being said, the hoodie looks the same he was wearing before. Nothing's torn up. Maybe a bit of dirt stained into fabric somewhere.
The messenger bag at his side wasn't there the last time, though.
"Thank you, Naru." Kazuo inclines his head to her as he accepts the mug. And then Alexis is asking him an actual question, and the only polite thing to do is answer it.
"Yes. Also trying to figure out if we need to find you more clothing. Or have you actually stopped in at home, instead of following Lacrima's example?"
"Sayaka could probably use the company on patrols as much as you could." Naru points out to Alexis. "So she's unlikely to just be feeling sorry for you."
There's a nod of acknowledgement to Kunzite at the thanks for the coffee and she curls back up in her spot on the couch to wrap her hands around her own coffee and listen as Kunzite asks Alexis questions.
Alex hesitates for a moment over Kazuo's question. His expression doesn't really change, still, so it's more discernible from the longer few seconds of silence that ensues from it.
"I have not been home," he admits, eventually. "I don't think it would be. Smart. For me to face my parents. Like this."
"Mn." Naru knows that particular sound well enough to extract meaning from it. Alexis may or may not have heard it enough, yet. Kazuo doesn't elaborate, only taking a drink from the cup Naru gave him. "Your jacket's missing," he observes. "Which makes me wonder. Did you find anything missing, after the time you and Lacrima can't remember? Small things. Things missing from pockets. Anything at all."
Naru looks over at that enlightening 'Mn' from Kunzite and then considers Alex a few moments longer.
"Well, you've been gone long enough that there's probably a missing persons call in on you." Naru points out. "Because your parents do generally actually notice when you go missing. So even more than usual, dodge the cops."
Naru leans over to set down her coffee, glancing briefly to her phone and tapping out a reply there to a text message there.
"I know," is all Alex says to Naru's words -- seems his attention is primarily on Kazuo, for the time being.
"I still have my jacket," he begins his answer by saying, first. "I'm just. Not wearing it. Otherwise... Hm." A pause. "There was a hairspray can. And a lighter. In my bag before. I couldn't find them there after I got to her manor."
There's almost no transition. Kazuo has no expression. Kazuo has a sudden, feral smile, as if he were about to tear out something's throat with his teeth and drag the carcass into the kitchen. Kazuo has no expression again, and is saying, "So there was a fight. Not against Lacrima. She'd have noticed if her clothing were burned."
"Fight would account for missing energy too." Naru points out absently as she sips from the warm cup in her hands. She's quite carefully watching both of them, staying mostly quiet with occaisional glances to her phone. If there's any notifications, they clearly must be silent.
"I thought I might have used them for that too," Alex says, without a pause-- but he does wrinkle his nose again, after saying that much. "I just. Could not figure out what it could have been, there. We did not see any signs of. Whatever could have been there to have been fought."
"Could have been further away. Could have vanished when it died. But we have something to look for, now. Might've been cleaned up by someone who came through later, but there's at least a chance: metal, plastic, char." Kazuo inclines his head to Alex, and paces into the kitchen with the last of his coffee. Cups, apparently, count under the 'clean up your own messes' rule.
"Likely was further away." Naru nods in agreement there. "Especially as my guess is that Lacrima stepped through the dusk zone at some point in the dark period. She told me where you two started at least. It's been a while, but knowing there was probably a fight gives more to go on."
"... Then what lead to me getting filled with dark energy?" Alex wonders out loud, after a brief moment of considering the viewpoints provided by the two.
His neutral expression turns to somethign more human, just for a brief moment, with his eyes widening.
"Did I die?"
"Maybe." Kazuo paces through the living room again, but doesn't pause this time, on his way to pick up coat and put on shoes in the entry. "That's the order it happened in for me."
"I am starting to think I am the only person I know who hasn't been dead." Naru points out with a huff and a shake of her head. Becuase this, of course is just /normal/ by now.
Naru uncurls from the couch, to take her own cup into the kitchen, apparently not likely to be all that far behind Kunzite in the leaving or at least tidying her own stuff up.
"... It's not as if though I didn't consider it."
Alex's brow scrunches down into a frown.
"I just. Didn't want to?"
In contrast, he doesn't seem to be in a hurry rise up from his seat, there. Not right away, anway.
"Good," Kazuo says, leaving it completely unclear which comment of which of theirs the word is in answer to, or whether it's simply to Alex staying in his seat. And then he's out the door and gone.
"It seems to be it's a fairly traumatic thing to contemplate." Naru comments as she emerges from the kitchen, her mug rinsed and the coffee pot turned off before the coffee in it gets any more burnt.
"I'd be interested to hear how patrolling with Sayaka goes." Naru notes and then adds. "If you don't mind. Or .. just leave message here. I.. hope to see you again soon." She comments and then, before any MORE awkward, she too is out the door. No coat though.
Silence. Be it because he's contemplating the potential of him having died, or if Alex is just... not in the kind of state to begin with because of his vampiric self to humor either of the two with any further response.
Silence reigns until the both of them have left.
And only then, does he rise up from the seat. And go walk down along the hall.
Quietly, footsteps echo through the house. Leading all the way up to a very certain room.
The room that happens to have "Alex's Hangover And Injury Room" written on it's door.
By the time either of them come to look for Alex, he's nowhere to be found in the frat house, anymore.
But...
In the room that he's always used, something has been left within.
A small scrap of paper with a phone number written on it-- a prepaid number, for that matter. Seems he's not using his own phone for the time being. With a missing person report out, that might be for the best.
But more importantly...
A familiar, brown leather jacket, draped across the bed.