Kyouko had told Mamoru and Kunzite, on separate occasions, that she would come back up to the ECFH. She had been promised, by various parties, that Unmei was getting better, that she didn't always frequent the mural-room anyway, and basically that they missed having her around. For someone like Kyouko, that last part especially is almost enough on its own.
So, for the first time in two weeks or so, she's to be found lounging on a couch in that mural-decorated living room, wearing her comfy plaid pajama pants and a tanktop and reading some trashy manga. It's almost as if she had never been absent. Her arrival had been unceremonious, no declarations of 'here I am'. Almost as if she wants to pretend that nothing had been strange at all.
First, Naru peeked in downstairs. A lack of Kyouko. Then, the elevator trip up to ECFH, just to have a peek in there, and see who might be about before Naru wanders back downstairs. She's not been as scarce as Kyouko in ECFH, she's popped in a few times, usually with treats, but today there doesn't seem to be any tupperware containers of tasty coming along with her. Just her satchel.
Naru pushes open the door to Endy's apartment, after unlocking it, and kicks off her shoes before wandering further in. "Oh hey, there you are." She greets Kyouko, passing by the couch to steal a kiss and drop her satchel before heading towards the kitchen.
Kazuo's stride, as he enters the room, is as usual an unhurried thing. Not lazy, precisely. Conserving energy.
The little hitch in it as that couch comes into view is not actually usual, though.
Naru, on the other hand, is slightly less of a surprise; Kazuo nods toward her and gives her priority on the kitchen entrance. (There is a familiar tupperware container in place. There are two marmalade-filled spice cookies remaining in it. Two. Somehow.)
"Did you see Endy's note yet?" he asks aloud, in lieu, as usual, of any actual greeting.
Kyouko is sprawled on her back on the couch, it should be noted, with one leg up on the back of it, bare foot (with dark-red painted toenails) waggling absently in the air as she absorbs whatever kitchy romance manga she's managed to snag from the small-but-ever-rotating stock at the conbenie. She glances up as she hears the door, only to smile brightly as she sees Naru. "Hey." She greets, craning her neck up for that kiss before flopping back onto the couch-arm. "Yeah, sorry. I shoulda texted you where I was."
Then Kunzite, and she tilts her head to look over towards his entrance, as well. "Hi, nii-chan. Ummm.. something about 'Harvard'?" The way she says the word makes it clear she isn't particularly familiar with it. She watches the other two converge on the kitchen. Ah yes, back to normal.
"It's not like you were all /that/ hard to find." Naru points out to Kyouko with a smile, lifting her hand in a wave to Kunzite before she eyes the tupperware on the counter. "Seriously? Am I the only one who liked the cookies?" She hunhs softly and moves to open the fridge and check on the current state of cold beverages. Juice seems to suit her mood and it's retrieved out.
"I did!" Naru beams in delight at the question about the note. "I am proud of him for getting in, and selfishly glad he's not going."
"Those are the last survivors," Kunzite assures Naru. "And the cookies were appreciated by some of us, at the very least." Chocolate not being involved, not a downside for everyone.
"Harvard is an American university," Kazuo says toward the couch, then. "Fortunately, he's decided not to uproot the entire apartment and haul us over. Thank Nephrite, who probably would have mocked him. Keio, instead. I'll be on the same campus that he will for the first year; Nephrite probably will, too -- I'm not completely sure about Jadeite and Zoisite, but there will be enough of us close by to keep an eye on him no matter what."
"Yeah but still." Kyouko says to Naru, sticking her tongue out over the back of the couch. "If you hadn't decided to check up here you woulda been sitting downstairs all alone." Or at least, with Dog.
Kyouko ohs softly to the knowledge gained that Harvard is, in fact, a university in America. "That'd be.. um.. interesting. If he decided to go there." She pauses. "Keio? How far is that from here?" The name is vaugely familiar to her, but not enough to know exactly where it's located.
She sits up on the couch, peering towards the kitchen over the back of it, her book folded over one knee, a considering expression on her face. "I hadn't.. actually really thought about that." About how if Mamoru ends up going to a university even a short distance away, but far enough for him to not live here anymore, Kyouko's like gets a bit more complicated.
"Anyone else want a drink while I'm in here?" Naru asks, as she pours herself a glass and puts the carton back in the fridge. The appreciation of the cookies makes her smile. Kyouko will eat anything, she's not exactly a discerning palate to bake for.
"It'll sort out well enough." Naru sounds confident as she reaches to open the cookie container and put the second last one out of its misery. "It's not like you guys are incapable of fairly quick travel."
"We have a limited range," Kunzite says to Naru. "And Endy doesn't exactly appreciate it; multiple jumps in a row wouldn't be entirely conducive to study habits." That's apparently his response to wanting-a-drink, too. To Kyouko he says, "It won't be a problem. Out of six years, he'll have five in Tokyo, one in Yokohama." All of, oh, an hour to an hour and a half's commute if the transit gods are kind. "And for the one in Yokohama, I'm fairly sure at least Nephrite and I will be sharing that campus with him that year; we'll figure out a way to coordinate schedules."
... it is entirely possible that Kunzite planned this out before Mamoru ever started filling out applications.
"I'd kiss you for some tea, Naru." Kyouko calls towards the kitchen at the offer of drinks, irrespective of that fact that she'd kiss Naru anyway (and just had, shortly before). "If you don't wanna brew any for just me, I think there's some bottled tea in the fridge, that'd be okay too!" Also, hey! Kyouko likes some foods more than others. She just.. eats food whether she likes it or not, and generally doesn't complain. Some habits die hard.
"Also, I can't actually teleport." Kyouko says, then pauses. "Hey," She says after a moment, towards them both but addressing Kunzite. "Since.. um, since I can like, feel Mamoru in my head now, the way you guys always could, do you think like, I could learn to teleport eventually too?" She sounds.. not exactly enthusiastic, but not not enthusiastic about the idea, either. "I mean, just out of curiosity."
"You'd kiss me anyhow." Naru points out with a grin, but yet somehow is filling the kettle and putting it on, regardless of kiss status.
"At some point, the girls will also be going to university. At least some of them, I should think. Be interesting to see where folks scatter to by then." Naru muses, nibbling on the spice cookie as she waits for the kettle to boil, listening to Kyouko's thoughtful curiosity.
Naru had her chance. So did Kyouko. Kazuo steps into the kitchen, retrieves the container, and goes to set it by the sink while taking a bite of the very last. Being neither Nephrite nor Endy himself, he does swallow before attempting to talk, not after. "I wish I had an answer for that," he says to Kyouko. "It would tell me a great deal about how things function now. I think the answer may be yes -- that it may be our relationship to Endymion and his relationship to the land that enables it, not anything inherent to our style of magic. But I'm not Mercury; not only do I not know, I can't even begin to guess at how to find out. Except -- I'd suggest that the first positive signs might be developing new perceptions. Possibly ones you don't understand at first. You've already started feeling one; you might want to be alert for others."
He glances aside to Naru. "I'd suggest you watch for things like that, too. Your magic works differently, but it still might have connections to the land. Nothing might ever happen. But if it does, I don't think you'd want to miss it. Even if it might tempt you to sleep in now and then." Teleportation: faster than running! ... Kazuo still runs anyway.
"Yeah but it's the only thing I have to bribe you with, at the moment." Kyouko points out to Naru with a shameless grin which may or may not be ineffectual due to Naru still being in the kitchen.
She listens to Kunzite, her expression turning thoughtful. She nods after a few moments.. shrugging her shoulders. "Well.. it's not like I can't get around on my own pretty good anyway, but it would be pretty handy to be able to zap between places in an emergency. I haven't felt anything new other than being able to sense Mamoru's presence, though. Yet, anyway. I'll keep an.. um.. eye? Ear? Something out for any other changes."
Then she grins. "Wait, something that could get Naru to not get up at 5:15am every day?! It really would be a miracle!"
"If I thought I could teleport rather than having to /jump/.. I would be so eternally and utterly /in/ for that idea." Naru points out as she absently climbs on the counter to retrieve a mug for Kyouko, even with Kunzite being right there. "I'm not holding my breath, however. I'm the odd one out in so many ways, it would seem weirder if I /did/ than if I didn't."
Naru laughs softly and shakes her head. "Sorry love.. besides it's not /every/ day. Somedays I sleep in to like.. six!"
"Short and quick teleports are Zoisite's department, not mine," Kazuo says gravely to Naru. "Who knows? If you lean toward flamethrowers, maybe the two of you are close enough for him to teach you other things."
That Kunzite is not, in fact, wise is evinced by his not blanching and fleeing from what he just said.
"Well, that'd be an advantage too." Kyouko says, with a grin, as Naru points out that teleporting could take the place of jumping. She shrugs her shoulders then, to Naru's words about being the odd-one-out, and adds, "But, it's not like Shitennou have a monopoly on teleporting, either. You could develop teleportation abilities totally on your own. I still think you should try to like.." She gestures vaguely. "Draw a portal and see what happens."
"We did, love." Naru points out to Kyouko. "And nothing happened." Granted, that was one attempt, and powers /do/ evolve, but clearly at this point in Naru's life.. not so much with the portals.
She glances over to Kunzite and then laughs brightly. "Perhaps I'll have to talk to Zoi about what he can teach me. That could go terribly interesting places."
"If you experiment again," Kazuo suggests, "you might want to ask Mercury to watch. She might be able to pick up on any incipient but failed portals. Also to be able to help you with precautions when figuring out where any not-failed portals go."
Always assume 'the Dusk Zone.' ... Kazuo does not say this in the interest of not encouraging Naru too much.
Naru's last comment, however, prompts Kazuo to eat the rest of the cookie, then very quietly wash out the container and set it to dry. Then retreat to the living room. Possibly this is his version of deciding those interesting places might be Kyouko's concern, not his.
"Did we?" Kyouko looks vaugely puzzled. "I guess so. So much of that field trip is kinda a blur, we did a lot in a short period of time." She grins. "I remember the bombs though. At least we know you have the magical-toughness thing down, at least to a degree."
She flops back down onto the couch, stretching like cat before rolling over and resting her chin on the arm, peering out towards the window. "So.. with the.. current guest here slowly recuperating, and Mamoru getting into college and stuff.. what's next on the problem list? Is there anything I'm forgetting? I guess Kukai and Lacrima's.. deal, huh? Anything new going on with that?"
She looks up as Kunzite retreats over towards her, and quirks an eyebrow at him.. clearly not recognizing his reason for the rapid exodus from that particular branch of conversation. Poor innocent Kyouko.
"I probably should experiment some more, or again." Naru agrees as she finally pours hot water over a tea bag to make tea for Kyouko. Because she's a nice girlfriend like that. "But I have to admit, that the last experiments gave me enough to work on and play with for a while. I'm not in a rush, per se."
Naru smirks just a touch as Kunzite wisely leaves that particular topic of conversation alone, wandering into the living room to deliver the tea, and bring her juice.
"I'm going to guess that Hannah is resting up for her next foray into stupid at this point, as I doubt she's /done/ with that flavour of stupid." Naru comments on the topic of current crises. "I haven't asked Kukai about his dream stuff, lately. He's got more pressing issues. I also haven't looked in on Sakura to know if her magic is coming back alright after /her/ flavour of idiocy and dear gods, can she /deal with the damn cards/, which I'm going to hazard is a 'no not really'." Naru nudges Kyouko's legs enough to be able to sit on the couch under them. "Alexis is, to the best of my knowledge, still a vampire. Hana is still gathering power, and that will bite us in the arse at /some/ point. Hmmm."
"I checked in with Lacrima, or Lacrima's more normal self," Kazuo notes. "She says that Kukai seems to be managing, if under the usual effects of dark energy; she's in touch with Jiaying, who will now have a good opportunity to study her unclouded and to study the effects on Kukai." He considers for a moment. "Eclipse will probably be irritated with us over our guest, but they may have already reclaimed the part they were most concerned with; still, an eye out for retaliation is wise. Regarding Sakura -- I suspect that in the long term she has necessary qualities to deal with the damn cards, but in the short term we'll continue wanting to set all of them on fire, sometimes including her." She does send them cookies, though.
He pauses for breath and to consider. "I haven't heard anything about the tournament, the killer plants, or the calling out the Phantom Empire lately. I'm keeping an eye out for visible outbreaks of Noise -- youma that kill on physical contact and sometimes manifest in crowds. Haven't heard anything about Locke lately. Haven't heard of the twin clowns being sighted. There was an odd young woman trying to do something in dreams, lately -- to change a dream of an important moment in the dreamer's history -- but I don't know if that's a significant issue, and it's Akashimaru's and Ariel's problem anyhow."
Kyouko beams at Naru as her tea is delivered, and leans up to provide the promised payment. That done, she settles back down, rolling to sit upright with her back against the arm of the couch, and her legs over Naru's lap as her girlfriend settles down on the touch with her. She blows on her tea for a moment as she listens to both summaries of current events, nodding her head after a moment, taking a sip.
"So.. a bunch of crap. But none of it sounds like, omg huge deal right this very second." She sighs. "I think Eclipse is permenantly irritated with us- that's pretty much our mutual state of being, isn't it? I mean, they are an evil organization, and stuff." A lift of her shoulders. "Frankly the cards concern me more than anything else, only because at least half of our current problems are actually caused by them in one way or another."
"Fire would be good. A good heavy duty shreader should also do the trick." Naru comments on the subject of the cards. "I'm not picky, really, but they are a serious pain in the arse. Does Takashi still have a swack of them? Because that's vaguely worrisome in an absent sort of way."
Naru settles with her hands on Kyouko's legs as they both settle, smiling at the kiss, but her expression is somber again a moment later. "I've only met Noise once, and I wasn't yet magical. So they're awful, but I cannot say that they are common. Which is /good/. Rare is a good thing in a 'kill on contact' youma."
"Yes. Which would be less worrisome if Agera and Mizuno-san hadn't just had another argument, which means that Agera may either be distracted by working off his idiotic, self-involved rage in his lab, or deciding to work off his idiotic, self-involved rage with the cards. In case we needed anything else to worry about." Kunzite regards the ceiling for a moment.
This may explain why all the kitchens have been quietly restocked with ice cream. In case.
"Frankly, I hope he tries something so I have an excuse to stab him." Kyouko grumbles, "And maybe take out a stack of those cards in the process. Now that'd be killing two birds with one stone. Or spear, as the case may be."
She sips her tea again, and picks up her book, scootching down on the couch a bit more and wiggling her legs atop Naru. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to sit here and read my book and drink my tea and enjoy the company of two of my favorite people and pretend that all of our problems are solved, for at least the next hour or two." She looks at both of them in turn. "How's that sound?"
"They did?" Naru hunhs softly and shakes her head. "Damn. Well then. Yes, more worrisome on the card front." She mmms softly and then settles her hands on Kyouko's legs as she declares that the time for talking is past, and it is time for reading and beverages. She leans over to dig her sketchbook out of her satchel, pencils too. "Alright, /now/ I'm prepared for quiet pretendy time." She resettles on the couch, possibly not quite as prepared as she'd implied.
Kunzite's opinion is registered via his settling down on the other couch. He doesn't have a book with him. Somehow, apparently, he'll survive.