It's a clear, cold day which means Jia's bundled up in a normal long coat. She's taking it easy, not wanting to push it too far after the other day. She's never pushed herself that far and ti's actually embarassing more than anything else. In that she messed up that much. She settles down on in the garden, near one of the ponds and rests her hands on her lap. She leans forward, runs her fingers through her hair and takes a few breaths to relax.
Leaning back on her seat, she rests her hands on the edge of it and glances around.
At least it's a quiet day at this hour, luckily.
Sora is resting her head on Jiaying's shoulder, kind of half-dozing. She's spent a long time on volleyball training today, and exhausted herself since she's still somewhat weak from what she did to herself. "You shouldn't overdo things, really." She tells Jiaying in a classic case of 'do as I say, not as I do.' "What if something weird came out and attacked us, right here?"
It's a nice, sunny (if cold) day in Tokyo, with cold weather banked by a warm wind. It's likely there will be a rough storm soon enough, but for today it means Kukai Souma is out in the park in a light jacket and outfit, covering today's patrol with a steady jog through King Penguin Park. Thankfully there's no monsters or youma out today, so his mind is wandering as he plods down the paths. It makes up for there being no practice at school this week, at least.
Rounding a corner in the gardens, Kukai spots two people sitting on a bench near one of the ponds. A few moments later he recognizes them and slows. Well. At the least, he'd already made things if not right, then at least OK with Sora, so... He approaches the two of them from behind, catching the last of Sora's comment. "Weirder than me, Sora?" He can't help but have a big grin on his face at what he considers a humorous quip.
Jiaying Maki looks over at Sora at the comment, wrapping an arm around Sora protectively at the mention of maybe being attacked. She glances around, then shifts so that she can curl her tail around Sora while adding, "If it comes down to it, I'm sure I can dig deeper. Or ask for help, I'm not above that."
Then there's a Kukai behind them and she jumps briefly in surprise. "Well, you're weird, but not the right kind of weird, you're mostly harmless right?" She offers him a cheeky smile and says softly, "Hey, how have you been?"
"I know." Sora pushes in a little closer, kind of nestling in like that, and then Kukai shows up to spoil the mood, and she sighs. "Weirder than you is like saying larger than infinite, it just doesn't make sense. But you're mostly harmless, so you know... that's not what I was worried about." She shrugs a little. "What brings you here?"
Kukai grins a little at Jiaying cuddling Sora in close, then nods. "If something's wrong, I'd be happy to help. I don't mind." He chuckles at Jiaying's response and then nods. "Yeah, mostly harmless. I'm ok. Hanging in there, just... being, one day at a time. It's good, though!"
He looks over at Sora and then sticks his tongue out at her. "Hello to you too. And no, I wasn't planning on being all ball-kicky and the like." He shrugs back at her. "I'm jogging and patrolling and being in the area. Not a lot. How're you two?"
Jiaying Maki gently nudges Sora at the needling to Kukai and she says softly, "Come on, he's playing nice too." Before leaning over to kiss her cheek. "He is harmless though right?" That seems to be a bit of a joke towards him, which is punctuated with a soft laugh.
Looking over her shoulder at Kukai, she says, "You too, don't antagonize even if you're being... well." She tilts her head and says, "I don't know. I know you're teasing her a bit though."
She then offers a genuine smile, "I'm doing well though."
Sora turns her head a little to catch Jiaying's lips with her own, if there's kissing to be done she wants a proper kiss, dammit. "He's playing nice, but I'm just teasing. If I wasn't, I would've told him to leave us alone, and I wasn't, now was I?" She complains softly, there's a bit of laughing along with Jia. "I'm tired. I may have overdone volleyball practice a bit today."
Kukai nods. He is trying to be nice, really. It's in his nature. He coughs a bit and then shrugs. "Well. Harmless to the good guys, anyway." He eyes the bench for a second, then decides it's probably best to leave the limited space on it to the two of them. "I'm not being antagonistic, I promise. No hard feelings." He waves a hand at them, then grins. "...Maybe just a bit. And that's good. What've you two been up to?"
He gives the two of them a few moments for smooching, and then nods at Sora. "Yeah. Considerably nicer than usual. It's a little scary." He nods, then sighs. "My coach was sick today, so there wasn't any practice. So, I'm out here jogging around while I patrol. It's good enough."
Jiaying Maki returns the kiss, not at all complaining about the display. She then tilts her head to the side after the kiss breaks, then she nods and smiles. "I uh... sorry. Habit." She actually does manage to look embarassed. She rests her head against Sora's and says softly, "So we're both overdoing it. We're a great pair."
Turning briefly to look at Kukai then, she gestures to the seat nearby, so that he's not standing over their shoulder at least. Then again, he takes a seat which kind of throws that off! She's paying attention, really. The joke gets a finger wag from her, but nothing else at least!
"If it makes you more comfortabke, I can threaten to strangle you." Sora offers with an innocent smile, you can almost see the halo that her expressions seem to project atop her head. "Yeah but if I overdo things I just get tired, if you overdo things you stop bein able to help people. It's different." And the tone of voice is slightly bitter.
It's good that Jiaying and Sora have somebody. It helps both of them, and Kukai really believes that. He doesn't even watch them smooch too much, looking over at the pond to give them a moment. He looks back at Jiaying as she talks, then shakes his head, waving a hand. "No, it's fine, really. And hey, I think so - you two have been good for one another." He sits down, grinning. "Well. I can't help being nervous around you, Sora, when you're being nice, but it is a great change." He listens to her, then awws. "Still having trouble getting things.... balanced or whatever?"
Jiaying Maki nudges Sora in the side at the strange joke and says, "Careful now or they might send someone after us and then we'll both fall asleep." She pauses and says, "I have no idea where I Was going with this joke." She notes that bitter tone and says, "I'm a screw up that had to be sent home because my magic was so sloppy and... I was doing bad things kind of." She shrugs and murmurs, "I only forced one of the three though."
The mention that he's nervous around hr when she's being nice gets a brief scowl, but she masks it for now. "Balanced?" She asks, dropping that brief stint of attitude, "I do... appreciate having balance though. Greatly."
"I'm not falling asleep." Sora answers Jiaying, and then like half a second after she closes her eyes, and leans in a little more. She's very obviously falling asleep right that moment. If she had any further response to Kukai, she's not saying it.