[i] – Crash– [/i]

Crash couldn’t pull the smile from his face at her answer, purposefully pretending he hadn’t noticed the change in her tone. He felt a wave of nervous excitement pass through him as well as a level of satisfaction of her agreeing to it, he wanted to jump in the air and click his heels together like the men did in old movies. He settled for doing so in his mind and maintaining the elated expression on his face, he knew it was a little fast considering it would only be the next day but he figured there wasn’t any harm in doing it this way. “Great...that’s settled then” He murmured, stumbling over what he actually wanted to say, needless to say the end result wasn’t great. What he wanted to say was ‘Great, looking forward to it’ but he couldn’t quite spit those words out. He was back to being an excited puppy, his thoughts returning to a normal buzz. “Anytime...” He replied to her, that warm feeling passing through him a second time as she returned the squeeze to his hand and grasped him a little tighter.

He’d been doing a good job of ignoring the pair of them until he heard Kathy squeak in alarm, it caused him to turn his head sharply to look at them in the darkness all he could see was their heads separating, it caused tension to ease into his arms as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. His mind instantly jumping to the wrong conclusion on what had just happened, he convinced himself that he was wrong and simply did what he did best, pushed it aside so he didn’t have to deal with how that made him feel instead concentrating on the more positive points of their conversation, trying his hardest not to strengthen his grip on Kathy’s hand. Crash grinned at her comment on the cafeteria food he couldn’t argue that it was particularly good, he’d personally never known a school to put so much effort into their food choices and he’d been to a lot of schools. He hadn’t tasted anything that Kathy had cooked so he couldn’t honestly say she could create something far better than what was on offer, though he had an inkling that she could...then again he [i]loved[/i] home cooked food. “Hmm I see your point, though you haven’t entirely convinced me its ‘better’ tasting than something you could make” He decided on saying instead of jumping on the cliché train to offer her a hurried compliment. His smile grew as she mentioned the drums, he hadn’t expected her to remember what instrument he played though he assumed it was a giveaway considering he owned a pair of drumsticks which she had pointed out earlier. “Indeed mainly the drums” He admitted, a rush of happiness passing through his chest.

“Hmm, that would explain the challenge” Crash murmured bashfully rubbing the back of his neck, feeling he’d been off track with that suggestion. His grin returned upon hearing her favorite sports one of which he’d never partaken in for probably obvious reasons, though he found he could easily imagine Kathy playing it and no doubt being good at it. “Tennis looks like a fun sport though forgive me for not knowing much about it” He commented truthfully, he would have happily spoke more on it but he would have made a bumbling ass of himself in the process. “Basketball however, Let me know if you ever want to shoot some hoops sometime...I promise to be careful” He offered with a grin, knowing he had a track record to compete against he then fell quiet to wait for Alex’s response. 

Now despite his notorious clumsiness, as it stood he was often less so around Kathy, she tended to pull his focus. So as surprising as it may have been, his reflexes in this instant were pretty good he lurched forward shortly after hearing her yelp in surprise twisting his body side on his free arm sprung out in an attempt to catch her by wrapping around her torso hoping her own momentum wouldn’t cause her harm. The shapeshifter had demonstrated before that despite his lean frame he had some strength in him. He felt her fingers slide from his as she tried not to pull both him and Alex down with her, in turn he released her hand so as not to strain her shoulder. If he was able to catch her he would have found his own center of balance was none existent, so despite his valiant effort he went down with her though he pulled his arm towards him hopefully along with her as he went down shoulder first flopping onto his back pulling her towards him if he had successful so she didn’t go down face first on the floor rather collided with him. Ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder he could only blink up at the stars to begin with uncertain whether he’d helped Kathy or just ended up throwing himself onto the floor as well it had all happened so fast. He lifted his head peering through the darkness with a concerned expression. “Kathy? You okay?” He asked. 

 [i] – Mercy – [/i]

Mercy noticed the subtle change in his smile, it was encouraging to see him a little more relaxed she returned his smile with just the right level of warmth to it. Nodding in acknowledgement as he mentioned his nose being ‘not bad’ she was becoming less concerned about it, not because she didn’t care but because he was so sure he’d be fine. Normal humans said it a lot and if wasn’t true but she was around Athalian’s perhaps one of his abilities was fast healing...how could she know? “Ah I see, thank you for explaining that to me” She told him gratefully, showing no signs that she found him strange if anything she seemed to be unshakably accepting of everything he was saying to her. “I can’t say I share your enthusiasm for cleaning I’m afraid” She admitted with an apologetic smile. “Aww that sounds amazing! Stuffed animals are not an easy thing to make, I’d love to see some of your work sometime...if you’re ok with that” She beamed at him clearly impressed with his abilities. “An all round fixer huh? You’re putting me to shame” She jested with him, almost bumping him with her hand catching herself yet again she rubbed her hands together in front of her. Unable to feel a little inadequate compared to the young boy beside her, she couldn’t do any of the things he’d suggested well she could cook...sort of. Home Economics was going to be interesting when she was about...poor Yutaka. “What sorts of things do you like to cook?” She asked before he launched into an apology.

Mercy barely stopped herself from wincing as Zivon repeated the word that had caused her discomfort, still feeling guilty over his apology she put on a brave front. A smile teased her lips as she nodded at Zivon. “Perhaps, but don’t worry about it” She answered him as she walked on, she couldn’t lie about it but she wasn’t all too keen on pulling attention to it. [i]I should know better than to be surprised by this stuff...I mean the beach games proved that much[/i] She thought as she pushed the door open to the ice cream place. Her smile widened at his reaction to scene before him, especially considering how much his smile had brightened it was quite warm hearted sight as he pointed at certain flavors of ice cream most of which Mercy hadn’t heard of before. She chuckled as he clapped his hands together; it hadn’t taken her long to retrieve a towel for the young boy. 

The young woman listened carefully to what Zivon was saying about all the different flavors, finding it easier to understand him now his stutter had died down. She was amazed at how much he knew about ice cream. She had no idea what most of the flavors were...she’d had her fair share of cookie dough of course. She picked up on how he reacted to the last flavor, homesick...was he? She tapped her lower lip before looking at the gentleman behind the assortment of flavors. “I’m definitely in need of some Peach Cobbler let’s have two servings of that first unless you want something else?” She decided though didn’t remove the choice from him as she was handed two bowls of the ‘homesick’ ice cream. “We’ve got time” She assured him just in case he was worried they wouldn’t have time to try more flavors if he wanted too.