trinities | RL with Junpei

It had occurred to Junpei that they hadn't exactly been specific with their meeting place. Iwatodai covered a lot of ground... and it was a bit late to think of it now. Throwing his fur-hooded parka over his black t-shirt and jeans, the teen checked his wallet before heading out.

... So much for the cash he'd earned with Akihiko-senpai and Edge.

This was for a good cause, he assured himself, tugging his hat in place. He had to prove that he wasn't a baby, and if it meant taking a hot girl on a date? Well, that was a good way to prove it, in his mind.

When he was ready to go, Junpei decided to start at Port Island Station. It seemed like the most logical place... and it was on the way of the monorail. That made life infinitely easier, especially when he was feeling somewhat lazy and sluggish from lack of sleep.

Junpei wandered into the main plaza and looked around, hoping to catch sight of red hair... It was a strange feeling, considering it was the same place he used to meet Chidori... The memory left him with a sharp pang, and he quickly shoved it away. Now was not the time. He had a hot date, after all.

She caught sight of him first, and waved to him before jogging over. "Good, you found me!" Smiling cheerfully, she looked him up and down unabashedly; he was taller than she'd expected, which wasn't a bad thing. "I was kind of worried, since we didn't bother to set a place."

Hearing her voice, Junpei turned to face her with a grin. She was definitely good looking, and he had to admit, he had something of a soft spot for redheads.

"Hey! Yeah, I kinda thought of that after," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

He couldn't help but feel slightly scrawny and gawky under her scrutiny, but he brushed it off. He'd just have to prove his manliness, as he said he would!

"But, I figured you might come here."

He flashed a grin, neglecting to mention it just happened to be the first place he looked.

"You ready to go?"

"'Course I am! I'm always ready!" she said happily, linking her hands behind her back. She had been getting steadily more and more bored over the past few days; she had no idea how so many people put up with going to school and coming home, going to school and coming home, almost every day for twelve years or more. It was better than the ninteenth century, at least, but only marginally, and only because of the clothes. Finally, something different to do.

"So, where are you taking me?"

... He knew he forgot something.

Junpei hadn't really thought that far ahead, as he'd been worried about finding her in the first place. Now that he had her... Well, time to think fast.

"Well, uh... I figured we'd start with lunch!" he declared, turning back in the direction of the monorail.

"There's a cafe place at Paulownia Mall, so we can look around after!"

That sounded pretty smooth, he thought. He hoped.

"Good, I'm starving!" she declared, falling into step beside him. A combination of an impressive metabolism and a love for anything that wasn't packaged space food meant she was always ready for a meal. "Do we take the train? I've never taken one before."

"Yeah, we do. It's a pretty short trip though," he said, then paused. What kind of world did she come from, having never taken a train? He hadn't thought to ask, but at least he seemed to have picked the right answer.

"Do you have a favourite kind of food?"

He probably should have asked before settling on Chagall, but with the number of girls he'd seen crowding in there, he couldn't imagine her not liking it. They had all kinds of desserts and sweets, and he was pretty sure they had a few other things as well.

"Anything that tastes good!" she proclaimed, holding up a declarative finger. "Sweets, of course, and really spicy stuff, and really sour stuff, or really salty stuff! Oh, and I eat a lot," she said with a grin, poking him in the side. "Bet I can beat you!"

"Well, Chagall's got sweets, so I've got ya covered!" he said brightly, tipping the brim of his cap.

"But if you're still hungry, we can go somewhere else after... 'Cause there's no way you can eat more than me, Dudette."

He flashed a competitive smile as he paid their fare for the monorail. He was near bottomless when it came to eating. He was sure he'd proven that when they went to Hagakure that one day, with Akihiko-senpai and the others.

She flashed one straight back. "You'd be surprised! My brother always makes fun of how much I eat, and he's got a black hole for a stomach!"

She looked around curiously as they got on the train, standing and peering out one of the windows instead of sitting down. "I guess it's a little like an early space elevator, only horizontal... and I don't think those have windows. I never got to ride one of those, either, though."

"Well, you've met your match! Junpei's not gonna lose when it comes to eating!" he announced proudly, puffing up his chest. If he ever had a talent, eating would have to be it. The only thing he couldn't stomach was Fuuka's cooking, but he was pretty sure that wasn't humanly possible.

Instead of taking a seat, he moved to stand beside Nena, looking out the window. He'd been in the city for years, since eighth grade - he didn't really see the novelty in the monorail anymore. Especially not since it tried to kill him a few months back.

"Space elevator? What's that? Like... an elevator in space...?"

"Duh!" she said, not unkindly, shifting her weight easily as the train started moving. "They go up to the solar power stations. There's three of them in total. How fast does this go?" She'd expected it to be rather more exciting than it was, from what she'd read about the bullet trains in Japan. Nena pressed her nose against the window anyway, watching the town go by outside.

Junpei blinked at her for a second, not entirely sure what to think. Solar power stations? Man, this whole other world thing was still taking some time to get used to.

"I dunno how fast it goes... Pretty fast, I guess," he admitted, watching her with curiosity. She was cute with her excitement, though he wasn't sure that there was much to be excited about.

For some reason, her unearthliness reminded him strangely of Chidori - it may have just been the way they weren't quite the norm, because their personalities weren't really alike... There was just something slightly different about both of them. Then again, she'd been on his mind a lot lately, with the threat of Nyx looming ahead... He half-wondered if he would have thought the same, were it any other, less doom-impending time.

The system voice chimed overhead as the train slowed, and Junpei's attention snapped back to reality.

"Oh, we're the next stop."

"Hm? All right," Nena replied. She half-wished she'd brought Haro along, to see if the monorail was advanced enough for him to hook up to. The robot probably could have told her more about it. Lately she'd found herself fascinated with what was to her ancient technology; it was better than nothing, as far as those things went.

She hugged her jacket around herself as they exited the train, with an exclamation of, "It's so cold here!"

His first instinct had been to put an arm around her, but he wondered if that was going a bit far on the first date. Instead, he shrugged off his heavy jacket and held it out to her with a grin. They weren't far from Paulownia anyway, so it wasn't a big deal - he didn't usually get cold anyway.

"Here," he said as he offered the coat. "It's winter here, so it is kinda cold."

He rubbed his arms quickly, then gestured to a building across the street.

"We're just going over there."

She took the coat and wrapped it around herself, grinning up at him. "That scores you manliness points, you know! I'm not used to the cold," she said with a bit of a shiver. "I'm living in Nevada right now, and it was spring at home."

Oh yeah. Manliness points. That's right. Junpei beamed at that, impressed with himself for thinking of it - even if it was something he'd normally do, this time he'd gotten points for it!

"Nevada? That's... in America, isn't it?"

If anything, the internet community had made Junpei regret his abysmal geography marks. He felt like a total moron when people told him where they were from, especially places outside of Japan.

"Yeah, it's in America in the world I'm living in now. I guess it'd be in the Union back home, but I'd never been there so I don't know if it's different. It's too boring to be worth worrying about, anyway!"

She shrugged off the jacket as they entered the building, handing it back to him. It was her first time in a Japanese cafe, and she put her hands on her hips and surveyed the room, asking, "Do we wait for someone to get us a table or just sit?"

"Boring? I dunno, I think it could be kinda cool... Then again, I've never been there..."

Taking the jacket, he threw it over his shoulder in a poor imitation of Akihiko-senpai. Well, if he looked cool with it, Junpei could try, couldn't he? After all, the girls all seemed to flock after him...

"One of the waitresses'll come and take us to a table," he explained, looking around for one of the girls. He couldn't say he didn't enjoy their maid costumes either...

"I have more interesting things to worry about," she proclaimed as one of the waitresses hurried over to hand them their menus and lead them to a table. "And it's not like I could go back to compare, anyway." She eyed the maid's uniform from the back. It was sort of cute, she supposed, but too frilly for her to ever want to wear.

She unbuttoned her light jacket and draped it over the back of her chair, revealing the pink top she had on underneath. Somehow her love for that color always won out over the fact that it clashed a bit with her hair.

Junpei had to fight hard not to eye the back of the maid uniform as well, but for an entirely different reason. Instead, he picked up his menu to look it over - only to get distracted once again by his date removing her own jacket. He peeked over the top of the menu at her pink shirt, then ducked back behind it with a grin.

... He really liked this whole proof of manliness thing.

"So, what're you gonna have? The pheromone coffee's pretty good... Uh, n-not that I've ever had it. A buddy at school told me."

"Hmm..." She pored over her menu. "I'll have the strawberry cake and the chocolate mousse and the lemon creme pie! And I guess some of the coffee, too, if it's good, but that's a weird name for a coffee. What's so good about it?" She put down her menu and looked at him with an expectant smile, wondering if he was going to order something else that she could sneak a bite off of, too.

Wow. She wasn't kidding when she said she could eat a lot... Not that he was going to say anything. He was definitely smarter than that, even though he could practically feel his wallet get lighter as she spoke.

"Well, they said it's s'pposed to make you more attractive or something," he explained with a shrug, setting the menu down.

He'd originally planned to order one thing, but he wasn't going to let himself be outdone. This was a competition, after all... He couldn't let his reputation be tarnished!

"I think I'm gonna get the coffee, and the coconut creme pie, the strawberry cake, and maybe... one of the pastries..."

"More attractive? Are you saying I need to be prettier?" she said, crossing her arms and staring across the table at him, not acknowledging that he'd said anything else.

... Not as planned.

"W-What!? N-No way! You're already totally hot! I mean, uh... p-pretty!" he stammered, backing up in his chair.

Real smooth, Iori.

He hoped he could fix things, and didn't ruin his date already... They hadn't even made it an hour, and already she thought he'd called her ugly. This was worse than their beach escapades in Yakushima.

"Y-You couldn't get any prettier! You're already awesome!"

... Which translated to 'oh god, I'm an idiot, please don't leave', in stupid boy language.

Nena didn't speak stupid boy language, but she did speak the language of compliments. Immediately her sunny smile returned and she uncrossed her arms, brushing her hair back from her face with one hand. Whoever said flattery will get you nowhere?

"I'll forgive you if I get a bite of your coconut pie~!"

"D-Definitely!" he yelped, nodding quickly to drive the point home.

He relaxed slightly when he saw her smile return, pulling his chair closer to the table once more. It looked like the storm was over, and he was safe this time. He'd have to learn to watch his mouth... But really, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been on an actual date. It wasn't like he and Chidori ever really went out in the normal sense of the word.

Playing with the menu, Junpei glanced around, trying to get one of the waitresses' attention so they could order. The sooner he shared that pie, the better he would feel.

Luckily, for all Nena got upset quickly, she calmed down just as quickly. She waved a hand, trying to get the attention of a waitress.

"You can have something of mine, too! If you have a big enough stomach, I mean."

Junpei was relieved that she seemed to be back to her former good spirits, and he grinned across the table at her. He much preferred her happy attitude than her annoyed on, he had to say.

When the waitress arrived, he opened his mouth to order, before his brain's warning bells went off. Hold up. Don't be stupid. This is a date. Girl orders first, or her first course is gonna be your balls. And not in a good way.

"You wanna order?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

She turned to the waitress and did so, after peering at the menu once more to see if there was anything to change her mind about. She hadn't exactly been on many dates like this, so probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong if he'd ordered first-- but of course, putting her first instead always gets points.

After waiting for her to finish, Junpei made his order, and added a couple extra cookies to the list, as he figured he could always eat or share them. More likely eat. He hadn't really had anything yet that day, so he could use the extra - not to mention the added energy boost of the sugar.

When the waitress left, he turned and grinned at his date, laughing nervously. One flaw Junpei did not have was shyness, at least. Sure, he made a fool of himself more often than not, but it got people's attention. He'd rather people remembered him for something, than nothing at all...

"So, have you ever been to Japan before? 'Cause you said you were from Nevada, so I'm pretty sure it'd be way different there..."

She grinned back, especially after hearing him order something extra. If there was one thing she enjoyed, it was a challenge.

"I'm not actually from there," she explained, leaning her arms on the table. "That's just where I live now. It's way warmer than it is here."

"Well it gets pretty hot here in the summer time... 'Specially since the AC keeps breaking in my dorm room..."

Of course, he didn't make the mistake of leaving his door open after the first mishap... Which somehow ended with Mitsuru-senpai thinking he'd been kidnapped and robbed, and calling Office Kurosawa in to investigate his messy room. He'd admit it wasn't the tidiest, but calling the cops over it!? That was going too far... Either way, he'd quickly learned to deal with the heat.

"So, where're you from then?" he asked, remember their first conversation. She'd insisted that it was top secret, but he was buying her food... That at least earned him that much, didn't it?

"Nowhere, really," she said with a shrug, as the waitress returned with a tray of cakes and began placing them on the table. There was less need for secrecy now then there had been before, but there were some things she wasn't quite sure how to explain, or if she should explain them. "I spent most of my time on the base in orbit."

"W-Woah, you're from space?!"

It took him a moment of gaping before he realized how loudly he'd said that, then tried to calm himself. Not that it worked well - he was about as excitable as a puppy, and his tail was definitely wagging now. That was way cooler than coming from North America.

"Dude, that's totally friggin' awesome," he exclaimed in a slightly quieter voice, pulling his strawberry cake closer.

"What's it like!? Man, I wish I could see it... D'you ever see aliens or anything up there?"

"Don't be stupid, there's no such thing as aliens," she said, grabbing the lemon creme pie and taking a bite, paying no attention to the few people who were looking over curiously at his outburst. "I guess it's pretty up there, though, and it's weird having gravity all the time down here. How do you stand it?"

"Really?"

Junpei couldn't help but be slightly disappointed at the revelation, but then again, it did mean that he wasn't going to become the victim of some strange brain stealing alien invasion. He hadn't decided if that was a good or a bad thing just yet.

He took a large bite of the strawberry cake, also ignoring the looks they were receiving. It was far more fascinating that he was sharing the table with a hot astronaut chick. If they were in his place, they'd have done the same thing.

"I dunno... I've never been anywhere without gravity, so I guess we're pretty used to it?"

"You haven't? I guess if it's 2010 here you don't have reliable space transport... wait about forty years," she assured him, reaching over to steal a bite of his cake. "And it's better not having aliens, all we'd have to do is fight them off all the time." She wasn't exactly sure about the timeline, but sometime within his lifetime, right? It wasn't like he'd care once it actually happened, anyway.

Junpei barely noticed the cake thievery, as he was too busy staring dumbly at the girl. So she wasn't an alien. She was from the future. Holy shit. Did that mean that they were going to pull off the fight against Nyx, is this person could exist? Was she proof that they couldn't lose?

But wait... She was from another world. His stomach sank at the thought, as he poked at his cake again, ignoring the fork-mark she'd left in it. Dammit... Did he even have another forty years? He'd be lucky to get another forty hours...

"I dunno, it could kinda awesome, fighting aliens," he muttered, taking another bite of cake.

"There's enough to take care of just fighting people," she declared. "Don't look so down about it, there's probably some world that has them, anyway, if you really want to fight them." She managed to misconstrue his sudden change in tone due to her own somewhat skewed worldview-- he had that Persona thing and he was a fighter, so of course he'd be disappointed he didn't get to fight something unusual!

"Nah, it's no big deal," he said, forcing a smile. "I've got enough to deal with, fighting the Shadows."

Hoping to change the subject away from aliens and the end of the world, he pushed his plate towards her to offer her another bite of the cake. It was pretty good, but he didn't mind sharing it if it saved him from thinking about his own impending doom.

"You want some?"

"Yes!" she declared, reaching forward and spearing a piece with her fork, easily distracted by the prospect of someone offering her something.

"This place is really good," she said after chewing and swallowing. "I think this is the best cake I've had in ages!"

"Yeah, it is pretty good," he agreed with a grin, taking another piece. "It's not usually my kinda place, but I heard they had some good stuff!"

He eyed one of the other desserts, namely the coconut creme pie, before scooping a piece. He wanted to at least get a taste of some of the things he'd ordered before another case of dessert thievery went down...

"What is your kind of place, then?" She deftly sniped a forkful of the coconut creme pie, more for the excitement of stealing it than anything else.

"Well, I dunno," he said thoughtfully, watching as his second dessert was scavenged from. He snagged another forkful for himself, but didn't say anything about her taking it - he'd already come to expect it, and... it was actually kind of cute, in a way.

"I like Hagakure, this really awesome beef bowl place. They make great ramen," Junpei said, resting an elbow on the table as he tried to think of his frequent food-related hangouts.

"There's a pretty decent Takoyaki stand around too, even though there's no real octopus in it... Oh, and Wild-Duck Burger."

Okay, so the last one definitely wasn't classy, but when you got a craving... Well, who could argue with Duck Fries?

"So basically you really like eating, then?" she asked, a little teasingly. It wasn't as if she was about to judge someone for having more than a few places they liked to go-- she was all about variety.

"O-Oh, I thought you meant my kinda food places," he admitted, not overly embarrassed, but focusing on his pie nonetheless. He had to play this smooth... He was manly, after all!

"Besides, it'd kinda suck to go to the same one all the time, right?"

Nice recovery. Or at least, he thought so. Didn't sound quite as bad as him running around shovelling food in his face every chance he got. Like he could afford it anyway.

"Course it would! There's nothing I hate more than having to eat the same stuff all the time. How boring can you get?" Apparently putting this into practice she pulled over a slice of her own food this time, digging in with no signs of slowing down.

"I'm no good at cooking, so I've gotta keep my options open," he said, stuffing more pie in his mouth.

It was true - the best he could manage was instant ramen, usually. He knew some of the basics; there were a lot of times before the dorm that his father was too drunk to bother being a parent, and Junpei was left to fend for himself... But he didn't know anything fancy, by any stretch. More like he could make do with what he had.

That, and he could eat just about anything.

RL with Junpei | Buy me stuff!

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Sorry, I thought I tagged this a long time ago. D :

It's okay clearly I fail even more

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