[prp] shop talk (xiu/andrew) fin

[phantompanther13]

Andrew was out on the town again. After getting to year 3 status, he had slowed down on the training. Prom was coming up and he was just feeling agitated by the whole thing. Even out on the town he had spotted signs, dress shops and the such, it was like he couldn't get away from it.

He sighed and decided to take a break in a cafe while he was out moseying around and pretty much ignoring his studies at the moment. He didn't feel like it, it was warm and summer was coming and he would rather be moving around outside. Besides everybody and their invisible dog was too wrapped up in preparing for the dance to do much else.

He lingered at the counter. It was rather that he came into cafes but he was hungry and just didn't know what he wanted.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

Xiu had been in the kitchen when she heard the bells attached to the cafe door tinkle to let her know that someone had entered. With Gene presently out doing a quick supply run, that meant that she was the only one who was presently working at the cafe. Hastily wiping her hands off on a towel, the baku trotted out to greet their customer.

"Welcome to Shifting Blossoms!" She chirped upon spotting the lone figure at the counter, "Is there anything I can help you wi--...?" Hm? Cutting herself off, the ghoul tilted her head to the side as she blinked up at the boil. She...knew him, didn't she? He was Danny's cousin, if she wasn't mistaken, but she was having some issues placing a name to that face. It started with an "A" though, she was pretty sur--

"--Ah! Andrew, right?" That was it! Smiling warmly, she moved out from behind the counter so that she could greet him properly, hands clasped behind her back, "It's been a while. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Xiu, Danny's friend. It's nice to see you again!"

She was ever the cheerful one. Even everything that had happened in her time at Amityville wasn't enough to change that, apparently.

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

Now that was unusual. It had been a long while since he had seen many of Danny's friends. Did they all graduate with her? He gave the ghoul a look, wondering with a small frown on his face that finally faded as he relaxed some.

"Sorry, I really don't. I mean... last time must have been brief, but you were... one of Danny's friends right?" She wasn't staring at him weird, it was the only explanation. Did that also mean she knew his diet?

"Do you have anything coffee flavored?" he looked down at the different things she had. He couldn't actually have coffee after all but he knew the flavor. It was good. He wanted something good.

Kaiyumi

Sorry I randomly crashed last night.

 

[Kaiyumi]

"No need to apologize," she laughed, giving a dismissive wave of her hand, "It's been so long, after all. I hope that you've been doing well."

Perking up at his inquiry, she turned to the refrigerated glass display and lifted her hand to point out two freshly baked goods she had just put in an hour prior. "Yes! Today we have a battuccino layer cake, and some coffee cupcakes with scream cheese frosting. The latter has a much stronger coffee flavour though, if that's what you prefer. Take your pick, and just let me know if it's for here or to go!"

Tail swaying, the ghoul moved back behind the counter in preparation to take his order. She waited until he had made his pick before opening up the glass display to retrieve his selection, making small talk all the while.

"So, anything new with Amityville lately? I haven't been able to drop by in a while, so I'm not well-acquainted with the latest events."

phantompanther13

No worries! ovo

 

[phantompanther13]

" 've been fine." he mumbled. He didn't look fine. He looked grumpy. but he perked and pulled out his wallet looking inside and then at the cakes. Comfort food would help with his bad mood. Hopefully.

"I'll take the cupcakes. For here." They looked like the might be a little sweet too, bitter and sweet, a good combo.

"Proms is coming up and it's all creeple can talk about..." he shrugged his wings and let out a small sigh. "I'm not going this year so it doesn't matter to me." he took his cupcakes and turned to go plop down at a table tail dimming a bit.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

Seeing as she had spent so much time with Shun, Xiu felt that she was pretty capable of telling when people were really as "fine" as they claimed. Then again, even if she hadn't had this experience, most people probably could tell that the fire demon wasn't at his best. The fact that Andrew's face bore a startling resemblance to her reaper-brother's grumpy expression concerned her, but she chose not to pry.

For now.

She put everything back into its place while listening to the boil speak, pausing when he mentioned prom. Oh, that was right! It was coming up again, wasn't it? The baku immediately felt a wave of excitement and nostalgia wash over her, her lips twitching into a smile. However, it quickly faded upon hearing Andrew's quiet confession.

This time she did decide to pursue the matter. Brows furrowing in worry, she cocked her head to the side as she focused her gaze on him. "Why's that?" she found herself asking, slowing in her task of wiping down the counter, "Is there any particular reason you don't want to attend this year?"

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

"Because I don't want to." he nestled into the chair, and poked at a coffee cup cake. It was cool but not cold. he could wait a minute to let them warm up to room temperature but he was impatient. The scream cheese frosting looked tempting.

His tail flicked from side to side flame flickering as he tried very hard not to think of Olivia and have the subsequent trained response of dimming his fire. It was a bad place to be. He tried very hard not to think of prom and the awkwardness of it all.

Finally he caved tot he temptation and unwrapped the cake shoving it into his mouth and ignoring the little bit of cold feeling in his mouth. It heated up nicely in his hands and mouth anyway but he had to play it quick the frosting was already beginning to melt. But that might be because he had heated his hands up in an attempt to speed the whole process up.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

His reply was short and clearly meant to shut down her line of questioning, but sometimes the little baku could be more stubborn than what was necessarily appropriate; this was particularly true when that maternal radar of hers began to ping. Well aware that she could be trespassing on delicate territory, Xiu let out a quiet hum before dropping her gaze to focus on her work, thinking through her wording carefully.

"Is dancing just not your thing?" she asked with a wry smile, purposely choosing to toss out the most typical reasons students tended to avoid the event, "Or are you just not much of a big crowd kind of person?" Those seemed like the safest questions to try getting her foot in the door.

A part of Xiu's mind was telling her "this is none of your business and you should drop it", but the other part was saying "he seems unhappy and you're going to hate yourself if you don't try doing anything about it". Both were true, though she was finding that the latter was winning by a small margin.

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

Why was she being persistent?

"I've become less of a crowd person." he mumbles a bit, not being as choosy about his words. Instead he took another grumpy bite of his cupcake, tail burning low. The cake was good, the topic was not. "Not that I ever was before. I'm more a gamer on my down time anyway." He huffed.

And the last time he tried to dance with someone was just uncomfortable. He didn't want to go into full detail with a ghoul he barely knew. He didn't even want to think about it anymore. It was dead and done with, it just hurt because prom was drudging up old memories.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

Furrowing her brows, she shot a quick glance at him before looking back down. "Nothing wrong with not being the super social type," she answered easily, fingers moving with swift, practiced ease as she measured out a piece of coloured cellophane at the counter and trimmed it, "Jack knows that I was the meekest and most skittish thing when I was a first year."

And now she went around chatting up near-strangers with ease. Like, you know, Andrew.

"If I may, why do you say that you're less of a crowd person though?" she asked, her voice soft and inquiring. She knew that she was probably being as subtle as a brick to the face, but she had already come this far.

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

Weakest and meekest, she didn't seem it now. Honestly she seems more a busy body. Andrew was not used to being mothered outside of his house. He didn't know how to deal with it. So his wings came up and sheltered himself hanging around his coffee cake.

"It's complicated." and he really did not want to talk about it.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

Xiu sighed at that. For a while, she was silent, focusing on what was in front of her rather than her quiet customer. It took her all of a minute to neatly wrap everything up in the cellophane, which she then tied closed with a delicate bow. Picking it up, she moved around the counter and approached Andrew, setting the bag of spookies down beside his plate. The ghoul bent down so that she was level with him, her hands on her knees.

"You may not believe me, but I know full well that I'm being a pest," she smiled sheepishly, but it faded a little as she continued, "Though it can be a little hard not to when I see that someone is visibly upset."

Maybe it was unfortunate that out of all the cafes in Halloween Town, he had chosen to come into this one. If he absolutely did not want to talk about anything, she certainly wasn't going to force him, though she would have liked to know that he left the place a little less unhappy than he was coming in.

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

Andrew spooked a bit looking at her, tail flaring up in agitation. And then he looked down at the spookies and then up at her again, his tail moving from it's resting spot on his leg and in between them. He stared at her, directly int he face, trying to read her reaction to just being a little closer to his fire. It wasn't anywhere near enough to burn just enough to feel the heat.

"Everyone is afraid of me. There isn't s**t you can do to fix that." Everyone was really only one ghoul. Really only one undead ghoul that he couldn't stand closer than 5 feet to. And well, everyone else just hated his mere presence. even Uru his recently acquired associate. (Because they weren't really friends) had started out with comments that heavily implied Andrew's fire would go out of control. He would not go out of control. He was thoroughly in control. And sure being scary was useful, but it never worked when he wanted it to work. It only made it incredibly difficult to make friends here.

Kaiyumi

 

[Kaiyumi]

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She ducked her head with an apologetic smile, but otherwise didn't seem to show any signs of alarm. She was vaguely aware that his tail was closer in proximity now, but was far more concerned with whatever was plaguing him to really notice. The only indication that she felt the heat at all was her absently lifting a hand to fan herself.

The look that spread across her face was one of sympathy, but also confusion. "Afraid of you?" Xiu echoed, the corners of her lips pulling downwards in a frown, "I...I'm not sure I understand why? What is it about you that scares others?"

Deciding that standing like this would be far too much for a potentially serious conversation, the baku momentarily moved away to grab the chair across from Andrew's table, setting it down where she had been standing and sitting down.

phantompanther13

 

[phantompanther13]

Did she not notice? Maybe she was used to Danny. Maybe the previous students had just been more immune to the whole fire thing. And now Andrew was feeling jealous of Danny. How lucky she was comparably.

And now she was seated. Jack damn it, he opened the can of worms and now he was stuck.

"The whole being on fire thing." he tail curled back up to its spot, politely not burning her floors. He honestly thought it should have been obvious. Maybe it wasn't.

Kaiyumi