The visit is not entirely a surprise; there was a brief text to check for a good time. Also there is a Naru. Perhaps Kazuo figured that, even after the time that's passed, a visit with a Naru would be less alarming than his stopping by alone.
(Visiting the ECFH is one thing. This is *Mako's* home. It's different.)
After the initial pleasantries are done, and a package from Mamoru handed over as the formal pretext for the visit, Kazuo mentions solemnly to Makoto, "There is one other thing that you should perhaps know in advance." He pauses. "There's a Halloween party being planned." Another brief pause. "The phrase 'roomful of candy' was involved. Though I believe they intended to eat some of it over the intervening time."
It's hardly the first time nor will it be the last time, that Naru is used as a buffer for visiting. She smiles brightly as she arrives with Kazuo. "Hi Mako." She is quiet as he explains, handing over the invite and then laughs softly. "I fear that either they're going to burn off energy by jumping off buildings randomly, or we are going to have to provide insulin pen party favours."
"...room full of..."
It's about that time of year; the candle on the coffee table smells of spiced cider, and Mako set out a plate of gingersnaps next to it because it's almost impossible to visit Makoto's apartment without getting offered some kind of food and/or drink.
She takes the invitation Naru hands her mostly out of the automatic reflex people have to take things they're handed. After a moment, she covers her eyes with it. "Okay. Note to self: I absolutely do not need to bring any extra sweets to this one."
Kazuo keeps tone perfectly level, face perfectly straight, though the gleam in a gray eye might possibly be a little more than the reflection of the candleflame. "I will volunteer not to mention to Neil that you said that. If he doesn't know, he can't lament."
Suddenly, Naru's cell phone starts ringing. When she looks at it, its screen displays Kyouko as the caller.
"No sweets for this one. A good savory something to sop up sugar might be wise." Naru grins brightly as she looks up at Kazuo and then back to Makoto. "And plenty of coffee. Although I suppose adding caffeine into the mix is not really helpful. We'll /all/ be running around the block a dozen times every half hour. Or just ..." She pauses, digging into her bag as her phone starts bingling. She pulls it out and taps the screen. "Be warned love, you're on speaker at Mako's." It seems wise to warn in advance.
"Hey Naru, do we have more shampoo? Because shampoo is on sale and I- huh?" Kyouko of course starts talking immidiately and only pauses once what Naru says sinks in. "Why are you at Mako-chan's? You're not conspiring to bake things without me there, are you?" She sounds suspicious.
"There is no way he wasn't involved in this 'room full of candy decision,' so he has no one to blame but himself," is Makoto's unrepentant reply, once she's recovered enough to stop hiding behind the invitation. "And, I assume, probably also Mamoru-niisan and Jadeite. But I'm sure you don't want the extra drama and dole getting splashed around all over the place, so I won't say anything if you don't."
Naru's suggestions get a grin and a nod. "Savory, salty, definitely some protein. We'll figure it out."
She goes quiet as the phone starts ringing, waiting until she hears Kyouko's voice to pipe in again. "Hey, it wouldn't be much of a conspiracy if we admitted to anything, would it?"
Kazuo nods with solemn gravity to Makoto, which is almost certainly a sign that Neil was involved in some way that is even worse on the facepalm scale, but that Kazuo is letting Neil hang himself unassisted on that one. It's a careful balance. At least, whatever it is, it's not actually dangerous.
And then there's the phone, and Kazuo's eyebrows twitch upward at Kyouko's accusation. "We could be conspiring to reorganize the cupboards," he suggests. This is unlikely, since they are largely organized to Makoto's standards anyhow. Mostly. Except when someone stashes something somewhere unexpected.
"If they have the one in the sort of greenish bottle, then yes please. The other ones smell funny." Naru replies about shampoo first. "We've got Kunzite here too, he's not baking anything. Besides.. you dont' bake either, and you're delighted when Mako bakes things. You should be happy if there's a baking conspiracy going on." She tsks softly. "But alas, no conspiratorial baking discussion."
"That's not a conspiracy, that's far too boring to be a conspiracy, nii-chan." Kyouko sounds quite sure on that point. "Wait, you're there too? Either I'm missing out on something awesome or something incredibly not interesting to me." Then she scoffs a little at Naru. "The point of the baking conspiracy would be to bake things without me there to eat them, duh." That is probably a legit basis for a conspiracy, and she's self-aware to know it."
Amusing possibilities aside, she then asks, just to be sure, "There's no actual crisis or anything, right?"
That nod of Kazuo's does not escape Mako's notice, and there's a moment where her eyes narrow suspiciously. It's probably best for everybody, especially Neil, that the phone conversation distracts her from actually asking.
If only Kyouko knew that Neil owes her one right now! "Nope," Makoto answers cheerfully. "No actual crisis. Possibly a future crisis or six involving trips to the dentist, but that's a problem for after Halloween. Maybe get some extra floss while you're shopping."
"Extra floss," Kazuo mutters. "Clove oil. Benzocaine. Temporary cement. Wax..."
"I am hardly about to eat without you, besides, not being in active training means I don't eat /that/ much. Sheesh." Naru pffts softly. "No actual crisis, other than potentially oversugaring." She gestures a little to Kazuo and Makoto. "I'm going to go harass my girlfriend about shampoo shopping. Excuse me a moment." She steps away, to deal with the vagrancies of household shopping.
"BYE NII-CHAN AND MAKO-CHAN!" Kyouko shouts into the phone possibly loud enough to make Naru wince as she perceieves she is being taken away from the others.
"Bye Kyouko!" At least when Makoto calls back, it's not in Naru's ear.
Of course, now that neither Naru or Kyouko-on-the-phone is there to provide a convenient distraction, there's nothing to keep her from eyeballing Kazuo again. "...so on a scale of one to 'almost getting killed by aliens,' how upset am I going to be with my boyfriend?"
Kazuo says, traitor that he is to his own comrade-in-arms, "The phrase I heard from him was 'candy ball pit.' He has at least been reminded not to try putting chocolate in."
This time when Makoto covers her face, it's with both hands. "Oh my god," she says, muffled by her hands. "Does he want ants? Because this is how you get ants."
"When it comes to Neil and thinking of consequences," Kazuo answers, "we are frequently all at your mercy."
Because it's true, Mako sighs so heavily it takes a few centimeters off her height. "I'm promising you nothing on this one," she informs Kazuo, looking up to meet his eyes again. "Just so you know. But I'll try and remind him about appropriate uses of food and how hard it is to get sticky stuff out of long hair."
"No promise is requested or required," Kazuo assures her. "It ... only seemed best to give you a little private warning. And to be grateful for any efforts you chose to exert." Whether this is warning because of ants, because of cleaning candy out of Neil's hair, or because Kyouko was in the room when Neil said this and did not immediately start threatening, thus raising prospects for the cleanup of the leftovers that would probably appall Makoto even more, Kazuo ... just does not specify.
There's no warning before a flash of light in the living room results in No-Face appearing and promptly tripping on its robe/self/body thing. It makes an incredibly Mamoru-sounding urgh noise, feeling for the back of a chair to pick itself up on, dizzily. "Don't even say it, Kazuo," says No-Face Mamoru, "I won't teleport in this thing again. Mako, have you convinced Neil not to go through with the ball pit yet?"
"Forewarned, forearmed," Makoto agrees, nodding and reaching for a cookie.
She has it halfway to her mouth when the teleport bomb goes off and there's a No-Face in her living room, and only her deeply-ingrained aversion to wasting food keeps her from reflexively throwing it at him before she realizes who it is. "No! I only just heard about - why would you teleport like that in the first place, are you trying to get hit? It's not even October yet!"
Even Kazuo has both hands up, as if about to call on a power he can't ... actually reach right now. He uses one of them to echo Makoto's posture from earlier for a moment, and then paces to lend the Not Actually A Youma a hand staying upright. "I am saying nothing."
"Damn--" says Mamoru about the candy situation, and then is getting mildly told off as he's helped up by Kazuo. "--no! I teleported from my room because I figured if the costume was effective I didn't want anyone seeing me in it yet except for you guys, and there are people in the living room, and it's awkward to get the head-thing on because--"
He's literally two feet taller. No. No he's not. It's actually a good No-Face costume, because his face is not behind the mask, it's behind the costume's midsection, and there's a little flap of black see-through-from-inside cloth over it. "--it's complicated? And I didn't think you'd hit me. Besides, it's fall, that means it's Halloween. The internet says so. Bleh, I need to sit down. I guess the costume's pretty effective, huh."
"I almost beaned you with a cookie." She huffs a little before taking a bite out of said cookie. By the time she's chewed and swallowed, Makoto has settled down from the surprise. "It's a good costume. Definitely don't teleport in it any more if you can help it. Or, I mean, at least warn people?"
Kazuo looks small next to this costume. That is an accomplishment. "Do you need assistance in sitting down?" he asks, somehow not adding 'since the rig you are wearing is almost as tall as this room.' It's complicated, all right.
"No," Mamoru tells Kazuo with more dignity than ever before, and carefully sits down. After a second, he admits, "I feel medieval in here." The mask turns to face Mako when Mamoru's head does, which is godawfully creepy. "I will absolutely not unless I have to," he says fervently. "I hate the disorientation of teleporting with all my heart anyway, and getting out of teleporting but everything still being dark and muffled is, it turns out, the worst idea ever."
A beat.
"Uh, can you guys help me get it off?"
As soon as he asks, Makoto's on her feet and moving to help, dusting crumbs off her fingers on the way. As soon as she gets to where Mamoru is sitting, she realizes she has no real notion of how to help, though, and ends up hovering close by, not yet daring to touch the costume until she can see what she's supposed to be doing.
"...how's it come off?" she asks, a little apologetic. "I don't want to mess it up pulling on something that shouldn't have been pulled. It really does look cool."
Kazuo ... does not laugh. Does not.
He manages this in part by more or less mirroring Makoto from the other side, because he doesn't have any clue how to handle this either.
"Also," he adds gravely, "for the record, I am not dressing up as a ball of soot fluff for Halloween."
"... you know I'm not sure?" says Mamoru after a second's silence.
Ladies, gentlemen, and enbies, the future king of Earth.
"If I figure it out, can I have a cookie?"