A Morning Shop. Food is a Must. [Private]

He had to hold himself back from giggling at her reactions. Quite frankly, she was one of the cutest and most adorable girls that he had ever come across in his years. He had come across sexy, confident chicks and women that looked like they'd chased too many parked cars--but he had never actually had the chance to court someone so innocent and cute. He didn't want to break that cuteness, either. And now that he'd asked her on a date, he felt his skin reddening. When she finally pulled herself back into her shell and looked at him, Kasai felt his heart flutter slightly. "Well I'll be damned..."

"Mhm" He chuckled softly and stepped forwards, within a closer reach of her. He didn't expect her to react to him; he merely stood there and waited for her to continue onwards. Her reply was affirmative--at this moment, Kasai appeared to have a girlfriend. Wasn't that novel? Folding his arms, he turned to the side and looked down the street. It was a beautiful day. "S-So... Where would you like to go?" He turned his head towards her and looked into her eyes with a kind smile,

"Let's find somewhere to sit down. We can at least get out of the warmth of the sun and maybe into shade. I have enough money left for a couple of drinks, I think." He slid his hands into his pocket and started walking with her at her suggestion, looking around to see if he could find a park. Every ten or so steps, he quickly peeked a glimpse at her face--she was very pretty, and the way she was walking was exceptionally cute. He chuckled to himself, wondering exactly how one got themselves into such a situation so early in the day--he hadn't expected for this to happen, so he really had no idea what to do with himself.

They meandered along the road, Kasai noticing her trying to pull herself together properly. Maybe he should distract her. "So, what was life like before you came here? To Hephaestus, I mean." Yes, get her talking! Get her to forget about the embarrassment and try to get her in a better state of mind! Brilliant idea, Kasai!

"I was constantly picked on for years and none of the teachers would fucking help me." Well, that was a nice start. Kasai was picked on too--at least a little bit. He'd had defense mechanisms though. "The moment I got pissed off enough to defend myself, they arrest me. After that my Mom ditched me and I ended up living in the jungle for a couple of years... Yes, the jungle." He looked at her just as she looked at him, confirming that she was, indeed, serious. Tapping his chin at this, he had to wonder what it was like for her in the jungle. His mind went to that figure of hers, standing underneath a waterfall, blocked off by the trees and guarded by the animals. He knew that he'd dazed off for a moment when he returned to a broken sentence.

"--send me off to this place. So far, I will admit that things are nicer and the people don't dump containers of concentrated juice over my head, so I guess it's better..." He blinked a few times, placing his hands on his hips as he continued to walk alongside her. So, basically, she'd gotten into a bad place and dived into the jungle to defend her heart, huh? He nodded to himself, looking side-to-side to make sure that nobody was around. Well, how to do this. "I guess the obligatory life-story is mine too, huh? Least I can do." He slid his hands deeper into his pockets.

"My life... certainly wasn't as interesting as yours when I was a child. I was picked on a bit at school, but I could easily hide from them and change myself to escape. I was a different person every day--it made me first choice for pretty much anything to do with theatre, I'll tell you that much. But..." His face scrunched up a bit, "There's something that I should be remembering. Something's missing from my life, but I don't know what it is or why I even know it was there. It's as if there was something in my life that disappeared, and now I don't even recall what it was in the first place. I only ever think of flowers¹ when I try to recall. It's strange. I don't like it." Smiling weakly, he turned his gaze towards the shopping centre that they were arriving at. He thought he'd noticed a rather petite girl with a high side ponytail in the crowd, but promptly lost her in the midst of everyone.

"Well, we're here. Anything you want in particular?" He smirked at her, folding his arms and nodding.

---

¹ 'hana' is Japanese for 'flower', so I simply took one of the n letters out and used that as a play for Kasai's memory.

"M-Maybe take up a flower garden? No! W-Wait.. what color is the flower?" Such a cutie. He chuckled to himself as she seemed to desperately attempt to assist him in his search for something related to flowers, but shook his head. She didn't need to help him; he'd resigned himself to knowing that he wouldn't be able to find this mysterious thing any time soon, so why bother? Instead, he wanted to worry about the 'now'. And 'now', he had himself a cute girl walking alongside him. That was certainly enough for him. Internally he smirked, before looking at her moving around like a chipmunk or something. She was bumped, clutched to him, and then peered out from beside him at the people walking around. She made excuses for wanting to not cost him any money, but he didn't really care too much. "You don't owe me so much money that I'm going to refuse to buy you a small meal, that would be rude of me." He nodded and placed his hands into his pockets, walking along with her as she finally asked why they were there.

"No reason," he replied with a smirk, "I'm simply meandering--if there's anywhere you want to go, tell me and I'll happily go along with it." He nodded to her and yawned slightly, leaning back and closing his eyes in the bright light of the sun. It was a beautiful day, and he simply wanted to enjoy it.

She was talking quickly, shaking, almost seemed to be panicking. He watched her through inquisitive eyes, trying to work out what she was like. He already seemed to want to know more about her. It was strange. Normally, he wouldn't want to get so close to someone--they ended up being horrible people and just couldn't stand them for very long--but this one was different than the rest. She was pure, innocent, kind. She was someone that he could find himself liking more and more already... and maybe even romantically. He placed his hands on his hips as they continued to walk, watching her from behind as she pulled further ahead of him. She continued to move ahead, but he was starting to lose her in the crowd. He quickened his pace, heading towards her and trying to find her.

"Ai?" He raised his voice slightly, but was still lost in the chatter of the crowd. He tried again, louder, but was still drowned out. "Ai....?" She still didn't respond. He pushed his way through the group of students, but he couldn't see her at all. Leaping up, he latched himself to a lamppost and stared out, scanning for her hair. The people continued to obscure his vision, flocking past as if to mock him. But as a group opened up, he noticed that head of gorgeous hair. But she was already panicking, and much more than he expected her to be. Pushing himself off of the lamppost, he silently landed beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked like she was ready to scream. He couldn't let that kind of scene happen, so he quickly formulated a new plan. "Don't panic. I need to get your mind off of the crowd--but please, don't panic."

Placing his hand behind her head, he raised her up and planted his mouth against her's. Any screams that she had were muffled by his mouth. Any shaking she had was pulled into his body, keeping her close and trying his best to calm her down. Her heart was fluttering against his chest, but he couldn't let her go until she completely relaxed against him, even if it took a full minute locked away in that kiss. When that moment finally happened, he pulled away from her and let out a long breath. Here came the slapping.